The former whipping boy of algorithm-based search engines in Ask.com has reinvented itself – and it’s better than ever – if you’re a believer in user generated content in the form of questions and answers. Ask.com remains the fourth largest site in the US for unique searches according to May 2011 comScore data, with 63 million domestic monthly unique monthly users. That alone, make Ask.com relevant. The company, a brand of IAC, has struggled for years which may change as it completes its transition for pure Web search to a question and answer site and mobile service. “Ask’s approach to…more»

Google is taking steps towards offering offline access to its web apps, by offering Gmail offline starting today— and offline Google Calendar and Docs over the next week. Gmail offline, a Chrome Web Store app, will allow users to read, respond, organize and archive email without an Internet connection. The app is powered by HTML5, and is based on the Gmail web app for tablets, which was also made to function with or without Internet access. As for Google’s other offline apps— Google Calendar allows users to view events and RSVP to appointments without an Internet connection, while Google Docs…more»

Microsoft is taking aim at CRM leaders including Salesforce, Oracle, and SAP with a new “Cloud CRM for Less” offer that might just get the attention of some rather big businesses. The primary reason that this offer will be appealing for those businesses looking for a CRM product – and enough to draw users away from vendors like SalesForce – is because the offering fits in with existing systems which many are already very familiar with. “We chose to switch from Salesforce.com to Microsoft Dynamics CRM, not only because it is cost-effective, but it seamlessly fit in with our existing…more»

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers’ (ICANN) decision to approve the creation of generic top-level domain (TLD) names has been rife with controversy, but recent opposition from the American Association of Advertising Agencies (4As) and the adult entertainment industry has reignited the debate. The first statement came from the Free Speech Coalition (FSC), a trade association of the adult entertainment industry, advocating adult trademark holders to attempt to protect their brands from being sold on .XXX domains to third parties. The concern of the group is that the expansion of the .XXX domain extension is going to blackball…more»

WordPress founder, Matt Mullenweg, has given the “State of the Word” address, which focused on the growth that the open source web software company saw in 2011. WordPress now powers 14.7 percent of the top million websites in the world, up from last year’s 8.5 percent. Additional data shows that WordPress is powering 22 out of every 100 new active domains in the U.S. Mullenweg also included information in his speech about a WordPress survey that was recently conducted. More than 18,000 people from all over the world responded to the survey. Their responses showed that 6,800 of them were…more»

NuCaptcha Inc., the “Human-Friendly” Captcha, is urging users to “Make the Switch” with their new campaign. While the implementation of Captchas has certainly been a good thing for website users and owners looking for both security online and a way to reduce or eliminate spam, its flaws can, at times, be very apparent. In most cases, Captchas pose little to no problems, unless you’re a bot. However, there are several instances when Captchas prove to be more of a hindrance than a help, whether it is because of a design issue or a user-related one. For example, a user with…more»

The wildly popular blogging platform and CMS WordPress is the host to dozens of affiliate marketing sites and blogs, but for some marketers, there is a desire to take their business to the next level by making it membership or subscription based, which means finding the WordPress membership plugin that is right for them. While there isn’t a huge market for WordPress membership plugins, there are a few that really standout as far as their capabilities and features go. Below is a list of ten of the top WordPress membership plugins available, and they range in price from totally free…more»

Last June, the rapidly growing professional social networking site LinkedIn updated its privacy policy and made clear in that statement that social advertising was coming to LinkedIn, and that some personal information could be used in targeting these ads. “The effectiveness of these recommendations is related to the people in a trusted network that it is shared with,” wrote LinkedIn’s Eric Heath in the message, “and one of the upcoming privacy policy changes lets us share your public actions, like recommendations, following companies, etc. on the site with your business network in a commercial context such as an ad.” And…more»

jQuery is one of the wonders of the modern design world, enabling for the creation of hyper-impressive animations and interactions. Couple it with the power of WordPress and you’ve got a whopper of a duo to achieve some amazing effects. In today’s Design and Development Digest, let’s look at five WordPress plugins that add some jQuery interactivity to your site that you should know. WP Sponsor Flip Wall is a plugin using jQuery and CSS for creating boxes that flip when clicked by the user. The plugin provides administrators a way to upload and crop images, and add custom text for…more»

Job search and “matching” engine Monster.com announced the launch of SeeMore, a cloud-based semantic search and analytics platform for managing resume databases. “Our philosophy on innovation is simple – we focus on products and solutions that deliver breakthrough technology to address a real market need. SeeMore(TM) is no exception. It solves a complex problem that many employers are facing — not having strategic visibility into their internal and external talent pools because they are using a range of technologies in an increasingly fragmented recruiting environment,” said Darko Dejanovic, EVP, Global CIO and Head of Product for Monster Worldwide. The SeeMore…more»