If you haven’t seen how the Google minimalist homepage prototype looks like, here’s how it looks like:

Yesterday, I came across an article on Mashable that showed users how to create a minimalist Google homepage on their own webserver. Its very simple and easy to do. It only took me a few seconds to download, unzip and upload the files and get it working. All you need is a domain, a webhost and an FTP account. Download the source code created by Infinise.com and upload it to a directory on your webserver. Here’s how it looks like:

If you don’t have your own webserver or if want to try it out before setting it up on your own webserver, you can check it out on http://jaypeeonline.net/start/. Btw, if you click on the logo, it will let you choose which website to search from – Google, Wikipedia, YouTube and Twitter.

I really like the ultra-minimalist design of this Google homepage created by Infinise.com. I’ve set it up as my browser’s homepage/startup page so this is what I see/have now when I use Google Search. So what do you think of this ultra-minimalist Google homepage? Which one do you prefer, the minimalist homepage or the regular Google homepage?

via Mashable

Internet University Cast

L-R: Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, Wikipedia, deviantART, YouTube and Google.

Here’s the artist’s comment regarding her artwork:

Ha…ha ha. So my friend wrote a sort of short story called “Internet University,” where all the students and faculty are personified famous websites. It’s hilarious XD. Facebook and Twitter are roomies, Professor Google has to deal with the foul-mouthed Youtube, etc.
I decided I had to draw them all out.

And DA isn’t part of the story (yet?), but I went and designed her anyway for the hell of it. lolololol *runs*

I really love the artwork. Its very creative and funny at the same time. The artist – elontirien really did a very good job depicting the characters from the short story.

How about you guys? What do you think about elontirien’s Internet University Cast drawing? If you can add another website to the cast, which website would it be?

Click here to see the full sized image of elontirien’s artwork – Internet University Cast. Btw, if you have a deviantART account, don’t forget to show her some love by rating her artwork and leaving a comment.

Pinoy Blogosphere

• Looking for another way to earn money? McBilly shares some tips on how to make money from event festivals.
• Having a hard time choosing between Windows or Linux? PinoyTechGuy’s article points out the advantages and disadvantages of choosing one over the other.
• Yahoo! Answers is becoming popular especially among students and a reliable source of knowledge or information to others. Abe Olandres of Yugatech asks this question: Is Yahoo! Answers the new Wikipedia?
• Allen of Silkenhut made a compilation of essential plugins that most WordPress users should have. A good resource list for WordPress newbies.
• As most of you guys know, Fil-American Internet sensation Christine Gambito or more commonlly known as HappySlip, is now in the Philippines. Here’s a video of her being featured in GMA 7′s 24 Oras.
• PayPal users in the Philippines can now withdraw funds to local bank accounts. For a list of the official PayPal bank codes and other information regarding this matter, visit PinoyMoneyTalk.

Around the Web

• Ever thought of creating an ebook based on your blog? With the WPTex WordPress plugin, you can easily turn your blog into a PDF ebook using Latex.
• So you think blogging has no risks? Mani Karthik of BloggingTips published this post that talks about the risks involved in blogging.
• Does your MyBlogLog community already have the seal of approval? If not, you better verify your MyBlogLog community and claim ownership. I already verified mine.
• Frustrated that your post doesn’t make it to Digg’s frontpage? BloggingMix’s article entitled Are You Getting DIGGsperate? might just help you get over your DIGGsperation.
• Connect with your blog visitors with the Socialize Me WordPress plugin. How? It greets your visitors referred by social networking websites like StumbleUpon, Facebook, Digg, Delicious, Pownce, Twitter, Bebo, MySpace with a link to your profile.

I’m glad to announce that just this weekend, JaypeeOnline has reached a milestone which is surpassing the 200 subscriber mark. Yay! I know it may not be a big deal for other bloggers but it is for me and my blog. Anyways, I had a pleasant surprise yesterday when my FeedBurner chicklet displayed 229 readers. To all my regular readers and subscribers, thank you so much for your continued support! It means a lot to me.

If you haven’t subscribed to my feeds yet, better subscribe now so you won’t miss out on the latest posts and updates!

If you have any questions, comments or suggestions feel free to leave a comment or send me a message via the contact page. Stay safe and have a nice day!

I’m sure some of you have heard about Google’s knowledge base project called “Knol” which is currently in private, invite-only beta testing phase. Now, have you heard about Qassia? I’m not sure how it’s pronounced but someone told me that it’s like Google Knol but better! With that said, I immediately signed up and registered.

I’m sure you have a lot of questions about Qassia, what it is about, how it works, etc. I don’t want to bore you with copy-pasted info from their FAQ page so here’s my attempt on explaining what Qassia is and what it is about.

Qassia is a site that promises to give quality backlinks without asking for reciprocal backlinks. How? One of the things a Qassia user can do is add “intel”. What is intel? Intel is any bit of information or knowledge that a user wants to share with the community. Intel can contain images and can be written in any style or tone and can’t be edited by anyone else but yourself.

Qassia rewards it’s users with three different incentives: backlinks, credits and revenue.

• Backlinks are given to users whenever their intel gets displayed or referenced.
• Users receive credits for adding intel. Credits come in the form of Qassia dollars.
• When an intel is displayed, ads appear on that page and any income generated from that page goes to the user.

Before any intel gets published, it has to go through a screening process where 7 members review it and assign it a rating of A-F, A being the highest and F the lowest. If an intel gets 3 or more Fs, it gets rejected. This is to ensure that there are no junk posts in the directory. Users also get credits for helping screen intel.

By joining the Qassia community, not only will you get backlinks but also site traffic, exposure for your blog and earn revenue all at the same time. It’s like a blogger’s dream. What more can you ask for?

For a more detailed explanation please visit Qassia’s FAQ page which contains detailed information that can help you.

Screenshots:

Dashboard

Profile Page

Qassia plans to duplicate the success of search engine Naver which is the number one site in South Korea beating Google, Yahoo! and other popular search engines. Qassia is still in beta testing but it’s already open for registration to anyone who’s interested.

An inside source tells me that the number of users and signups are doubling everyday. It seems that Qassia is becoming quite a phenomenon and getting viral. What makes it different and better than Knol, Squidoo and other knowledge bases is that Qassia has the best ad revenue sharing plan in the Internet. Why? Because users get 100% of the advertising revenue generated from their page.

What are you waiting for? Sign up with Qassia Beta now and join this fast growing community!

Btw, I’d appreciate it if you can Digg this post for me. Thanks!

When composing a letter, document or a blog entry most of the time I have to look up words in the dictionary, Google or Wikipedia. Previously, I only used a Firefox extension called Dictionary Lookup Extension to look up the definition of words. However, I felt that it was kinda limited. It only looks up words in the dictionary and it only works in Firefox.

I wanted something that I can use to look up words not only in the dictionary but also in Google or any search engine or in Wikipedia. and something that I could use with other programs. It’s good that I found Clever Keys.

Clever Keys is a program that lets you select a word and look it up from Dictionary.com, Thesaurus.com, Google Search or Wikipedia. It’s compatible with almost all Windows or MAC programs, word processors and and most e-mail clients like Mozilla Thunderbird & Microsoft Outlook. It’s also compatible with computers running Windows 95/98/2000/Me/NT/XP and MAC OS, MAC OS X.

Hot Keys:
1. Ctrl + L = Quick Lookup
2. Ctrl + M = Menu Lookup
3. Ctrl + Q = Edit & Lookup

With the latest version, you can even add your own URL or other resource site. You can also configure hot keys to make it easier and faster to look up words. After install, it stays in your system tray. Another good thing about it is that it doesn’t use up much of your computer’s resources.

Download Clever Keys here.