Bike trails now on Google Maps

So Yahoo’s latest new thing is starting a cycling team. This year the company will officially launch the Yahoo Cycling Team. To make it a ‘successful business model’ they hired a former professional rider, Kevin Klein to run the team.

Google may not have started a cycling team but they have created something just as cool. Google have incorporated cycle routes into their ‘Google Maps’, only in the U.S for now. Thousands of miles of bike trails have been added to the maps. And there is also step-by-step directions, much like what you see for driving or public transportation. There is also a new feature that shows bike trails and bike-friendly areas on roads.
To make this new feature happen, Google partnered with Rails-to-Trails Conservancy, a nonprofit group that converts old rail lines into bike trails.
To coincide with the launch of the app, Google has a cycling contest going on that involves Twitter. To be part of it, you simply have to tweet with the hashtag #bikewithgoogle. The randomly selected winner will get a voucher for $2,500 to be used at American Cyclery.

That seems all good news for cycle enthusiasts, we will just have to be patient for England to also be part of it, we’re bike lovers as well!

A real-time sharing tool

Want to share the latest cool thing you saw on the web with you friends much easier than having to copy/paste the link in a e-mail? A new sharing service named ‘ShareThis’ is becoming really popular. It enables you to find, share and discuss the best of the web.

The service just included ‘ShareThis Stream’ which adds an real-time feed with trending topics and a social element to what is being shared by your friends and other users using the service.
This sharing tool has a lot of convenient features. You can sign-in with your Facebook, Twitter, Google and Yahoo identities and share across all your networks. Thanks to the ‘ShareThis’ button you can see how many times a particular link has been shared, which is really useful when wanting to find out its popularity and statistics. You can also encourage people to share stuff from your website by adding a downloadable widget.

Why connect to different platforms to share and spread what’s popular with your friends, when you can just try this real-time multi-sharing tool?

Twitter’s partnership with Yahoo

Facebook last year, now its Twitter’s turn to partner with Yahoo, the world’s third largest website and second largest search engine.

The integration is very clear. You will be able to access your Twitter feed through Yahoo’s homepage, Yahoo mail and Sport as well. You will also have the option to update tweets from Yahoo directly.
Yahoo, now having full access to Twitter data gives the search engine real-time updates, which will provide freshness and relevancy to the site. The real-time search integration will be available later on tonight or early tomorrow.

With this new partnership, Yahoo search puts itself in line with its competitors, Google Inc. and Microsoft Corp. Yahoo is hoping that these moves to build a platform of social networks will make it easier for people to share information and images on Facebook and Twitter without leaving their Web site. And by giving people more reasons to stick around, Yahoo will have more chances to show the Internet ads that generate most of its revenue.

Top 2009 online Hits !!

What are the main videos we watched this year ?
What was hot online in 2009?
YouTube’s most popular video of the year is Susan Boyle’s viral performance.
Google, Yahoo and Microsoft have all crowned Michael Jackson King of Search. Apple has declared “Boom Boom Pow” by the Black Eyed Peas the best-selling single of the year.
But Lady Gaga tops Last.fm’s charts as the most listened-to artist of 2009 !
We have to admit that she’s quite shocking but definitely original with her outlandish outfits and extravagant performances!
Her album, The Fame, had a total of more than 18 million plays on Last.FM.
So Last.fm’s online music winners for the year is Lady Gaga in the first place, followed by The Killers with 12 Million plays and Lilli Allen in the third position with 10 million plays. There’s also The Prodigy in the fourth position followed by Franz Ferdinand.
Anyway it’s Gaga’s year, we’re so gaga !!!

Grouply out with a more social and customizable Online Platform

Have you heard about Grouply ??
Well it’s a different kind of social networks launched in 2006. Grouply was one the pioneers of the socialization of groups and essentially lets users combine features of social networks and online groups, incorporating Google and Yahoo Groups products.
They recall that Grouply “instantly reinvigorates all your Yahoo! or Google Groups with exciting social features, customizable websites, and more … all for free”.
The latest version of Grouply, which currently hosts 1.6 million groups, has been enhanced to provide many more customization tools for Grouply groups, giving users the ability to transform the simple appearance of any Google or Yahoo Group into a modern, sleep, colorful website.
Grouply is also adding features that make it more like a social network instead of a simple group. Groups will now have social activity feeds, directories, and can also promote their groups through search-engine optimization.
Grouply is also planning to launch integration with Facebook and Twitter soon, and will allow users share their Grouply activities with their friends and followers in the two social platforms.
It seems like a lot of good perspectives !!