The Top 10 most sold MP3 Players at Amazon

The Top Ten most sold MP3 Players this week from the Bestellers List at Amazon and please note that there is only one Apple iPod in this weeks list, see more details of all the Top Ten most sold MP3 Players here in our store (ranking as of writing of this article, might change over time)

The Top Ten most sold MP3 Players at Amazon are:

• SanDisk SDMX3-2048 Sansa M250 2 GB MP3 Player (Black)

• SanDisk SDMX4-2048-A70 Sansa e250 2 GB MP3 Player with microSD Expansion Slot

• SanDisk SDMX4-8192 Sansa e280 8 GB MP3 Player (Black)

• Sandisk SDMX4-4096 Sansa e260 4 GB MP3 Player with SD Expansion Slot

• Creative Zen V Plus 4 GB Portable Media Player (Black/Blue)

• Zune 30 GB Digital Media Player (Black)

• Zune 30 GB Digital Media Player (Brown)

• Creative Zen V Plus 2 GB Portable Media Player (Black/Green)

• SanDisk SDMX7-2048 Sansa c250 2 GB MP3 Player

• Apple 30 GB iPod AAC/MP3 Video Player Black (5.5 Generation)

The Top 10 DVD’s in 2008

The DVD list is your choice for enjoyment and recreation. You will be suggested to buy these top 10 DVDs.

The Top Ten DVD’s this week from the Bestellers List at Amazon, see more details of all The Top Ten DVD’s here in our store (ranking as of writing of this article, might change over time)

The Top Ten DVD’s This Week are:

• Planet Earth - The Complete BBC Series

• Jeff Dunham: Spark of Insanity

• Family Guy - Blue Harvest

• Jeff Dunham - Arguing With Myself

• Ratatouille

• Across the Universe (Two-Disc Special Edition)

• 10 Things I Hate About You

• Battlestar Galactica - Season Three

• 3:10 to Yuma (Widescreen Edition)

• Lost - The Complete Third Season

My personal recommendation is this amazing top rated series from BBC: Planet Earth - The Complete BBC Series Description: As of its release in early 2007, Planet Earth is quite simply the greatest nature/wildlife series ever produced. Following the similarly monumental achievement of The Blue Planet: Seas of Life, this astonishing 11-part BBC series is brilliantly narrated by Sir David Attenborough and sensibly organized so that each 50-minute episode covers a specific geographical region and/or wildlife habitat (mountains, caves, deserts, shallow seas, seasonal forests, etc.) until the entire planet has been magnificently represented by the most astonishing sights and sounds you’ll ever experience from the comforts of home. The premiere episode, “From Pole to Pole,” serves as a primer for things to come, placing the entire series in proper context and giving a general overview of what to expect from each individual episode. Without being overtly political, the series maintains a consistent and subtle emphasis on the urgent need for ongoing conservation, best illustrated by the plight of polar bears whose very behavior is changing (to accommodate life-threatening changes in their fast-melting habitat) in the wake of global warming–a phenomenon that this series appropriately presents as scientific fact. With this harsh reality as subtext, the series proceeds to accentuate the positive, delivering a seemingly endless variety of natural wonders, from the spectacular mating displays of New Guinea’s various birds of paradise to a rare encounter with Siberia’s nearly-extinct Amur Leopards, of which only 30 remain in the wild.And that’s just a hint of the marvels on display.

The Top 10 Home Theater Systems

From: http://www.rated-top-ten.com

We Find this top list which will be better to enjoy home.

The Top Ten Most Sold Home Theater Systems this week at Amazon, see The Top Ten Most Sold Home Theater Systems here for more info including some reader reviews in our online store (ranking as of writing of this article, might change over time)

The Top Ten Home Theater Systems are:

• Onkyo HT-SR800 7.1 Home Theater Entertainment System (Black)

• Onkyo HT-SP908 7.1 Channel Home Theater System

• Sony DAV-HDX500/i BRAVIA Home Theater System

• Philips HTS3555 Home Theater System with iPod Connectivity (Black)

• Harman Kardon HKTS-18 5.1 Channel Speaker System

• Polk Audio RM6750 5.1 Channel Home Theater Speaker System, Black Finish

• Infinity Total Solutions TSS-450 - Home theater speaker system - charcoal

• Samsung HT-X50 5.1-Channel 5-Disc DVD Home Theater System

• Sony BRAVIA DAV-HDX265 Home Theater System

• Sony HT-SS2000 Blu-ray Disc Matching Component Home Theater System

Top 10 Google search tips and tricks

This is a great post from:http://websearch.about.com. This tips will help you a lot for better search on Internet. I think, you should follow this article for your better performance in Google.

The Top Ten Google Search Tricks You Need To Know

Google is the most popular search engine on the Web, but most people don't realize how much more powerful they can make their Google searches with just a few simple tweaks.

1. Google Phrase Search

If you want Google to return your search as a complete phrase, in the exact order and proximity that you typed it in as, then you’ll need to surround it with quotes; i.e., “three blind mice.” Otherwise, Google will just locate these words either separately OR together.
Learn more about searching with quotation marks

2. Google Negative Search

Use the "-" symbol when you want Google to find pages that have one search word on them, but you need it to exclude other words commonly associated with that search word.

Learn more about searching with basic math

3. Google Order of Search

The order in which you type your search query actually does have an effect on your search results. For example, if you are looking for a great waffle recipe, you’ll want to type in “waffle recipe” rather than “recipe waffle”. It does make a difference.

4. Google Forced Search

Google automatically excludes common words like “where”, “how”, “and”, etc. because it tends to slow down your search. However, if you’re looking for something that actually needs those words included, you can “force” Google to include them by using our old friend the addition sign, i.e., Spiderman +3, or, you could use quotation marks: “Spiderman 3”.

5. Google Site Search

This is one of my most common Google searches. You can use Google to actually search within a site for content; for example, say you want to look inside of About Web Search for everything on “free movie downloads.” Here’s how you would frame your search at Google: site:websearch.about.com “free movie downloads”

Learn more about Google Site Search

6. Google Number Range Search

This is one of those “wow, I can do that?” kind of Google searches. Here’s how it works: just add two numbers, separated by two periods, with no spaces, into the search box along with your search terms. You can use this number range search to set ranges for everything from dates (Willie Mays 1950..1960) to weights (5000..10000 kg truck). However, be sure to specify a unit of measurement or some other indicator of what your number range represents.

Okay, so here’s one that you could try:

nintendo wii $100..$300

You’re asking Google to find all the Nintendo Wii’s within the price range of $100 to $300 here. Now, you can use pretty much any kind of numerical combination; the trick is the two periods in between the two numbers.

7. Google Define

Ever come across a word on the Web that you don’t know? Instead of reaching for that bulky dictionary, just type define (you can also use definition) word (insert your own word) and Google will come back with a host of definitions. I use this one all the time not only for definitions (mostly tech-related), but I’ve also found it’s a great way to find detailed articles that can explain not only the word you’re looking for, but the context in which it most commonly occurs. For instance, the buzz phrase “Web 2.0” using the Google syntax of define web 2.0 returns with some really interesting and practical stuff.

8. Google Calculator

Anything that helps with math-related stuff gets a vote in my book. Not only can you use Google to solve simple math problems, you can also use it to convert measurements. Here are a few examples of this; you can simply type these right into the Google search box:

• Half a quart in tablespoons
• 5 miles to kilometers
• sqrt(8912)

And so on. Google can also do much more complex problems and conversions; you can find out how to build your queries so Google knows what to do with them at the official Google Calculator help page, http://www.google.com/help/calculator.html.

Find out more about Google Calculator

9. Google Phonebook

Google has a gigantic phonebook directory, as well they should – their index is one of the largest, if not THE largest, on the Web. Here’s how you can use Google’s phonebook to find a phone number or address (United States only at the time of this writing):

• first name (or first initial), last name, city (state is optional)
• first name (or first initial), last name, state
• first name (or first initial), last name, area code
• first name (or first initial), last name, zip code
• phone number, including area code
• last name, city, state
• last name, zip code Don’t want your information in the Google phonebook? You’ll want to visit this page: Google Phonebook Name Removal (http://www.google.com/help/pbremoval.html).

Find out more about Google Phonebook

10. Google Spell Checker

For some strange reason, I have never been able to spell certain words without a spell check – and since we don’t always work within a medium that offers an automatic spell check on the Web (blogs, message boards, etc.), it’s so nice to have a built-in Google spell checker. Here’s how it works: you just type in the word you’re struggling with into Google’s search box, and Google will very politely come back with this phrase: “Did you mean…(correct spelling)?” This is probably one of the most useful Google inventions ever.

Top 10 Google Adword tips and tricks

From Ezinearticle.com

We find this popular article for advertisers in Google adword for web marketing industry. This article will help you a lot to know more info. about Google adword program.

In fact, so easy is it to get lost in the world of AdWords that you can quickly forget that it is essentially a business tool, and one that costs money – lots of money if you’re not careful. So based on my experience of the last few months, here are some essential tips for getting the most of out of Google AdWords.

1. Be Creative

The toughest stage of AdWords is one of the first – writing your ad. You have 95 characters (25-word title and two 35-word lines) to not only get your message across, but also to differentiate that message from your competitors’ ads. Throw Google’s strict policies on truth and honesty into the equation, and you have a real challenge on your hands, particularly if you don’t have a resident creative genius to call on!

However, with a little planning and research it shouldn’t be too difficult to come up with an attractive ad. Decide on what your real message is and keep it simple. Do a search using the keywords you want to use and look at your competitors’ ads. Think about your target audience and the language that will attract them. And finally, and this may sound a bit wacky, try reading and then writing a few haiku, the traditional Japanese poetic form in which writers have a mere 17 syllables to express themselves – it will help you trim the fat from your writing and concentrate on the meat.

2. Be relevant

Putting your keywords into your ad text is more likely to generate clicks. Why? Because searchers can see that your ad is relevant to their search. If I search for ‘tom waits tickets’, I will only click on those results that contain this search phrase and will consider results without this phrase to be irrelevant.

3. Think about your landing page

When you’re happy with the content of your ad, think about where it will take the user. Don’t just direct them to your homepage and expect them to find their own way to what they want – take them straight there. If I click on my ‘tom waits tickets’ ad and am taken to a generic homepage on which my chosen topic isn’t immediately visible, I’ll go elsewhere.

Also, make sure the content of the landing page matches the content of the ad. Your keywords should feature in the text, and also as metatags, to improve your quality score and your overall search ranking. If the content of your landing page doesn’t match the content of your ad, users will feel misled.

You should also ensure that your landing page isn’t a ‘dead end’, i.e. a page that people will look at once and then close or leave. Don’t include external links on the page – make sure users are guided to another page on your site or channeled to your sales, booking or feedback page.

4. Work geographically

When you first set up your Google ad, the temptation is to maximise your web hits by targeting a broad geographical sector. But think again – if you only operate in a particular country or region, there’s no point in your ad appearing to users elsewhere. I set up an ad for a hotel software product which we only sell in Southeast Asia, with a tight budget of $5 per day. Allowing the ad to appear to users outside SE Asia would mean my ad budget being eaten up by people with no interest in my product.

So look at where your target customers are and restrict your ad to those territories, to ensure your money is being spent wisely.

5. Don’t insist on being no.1

AdWords allows you to pay top dollar for your ad to be top of the pile. But is this really what you want? Chances are you’ll get a lot of clicks from indiscriminate, impatient surfers who just click on the top result without reading it first. Serious searchers will read every ad above the fold (i.e. positions 1-5); really serious searchers will read every ad on the page. So spend enough to ensure you’re on the first page, but no more.

6. Test, test, test

This is where your inner strategy game geek comes in. If you’ve played sports sims like the life-consuming Championship Manager, you’ll already know the benefits of testing different team formations, tactics, training routines and so on. And so you’ll probably get the hang of AdWords pretty quickly. Testing different keywords, ad copy, landing pages, landing page copy, ad scheduling, min/max CPC and so on will give you lots of different results and allow you to optimise every ad in every campaign.

One of the first ads I set up was a recruitment ad for our company. It generated a lot of clicks but I discovered that the landing page had a bounce rate (i.e. the number of visitors who visit a page and then leave immediately) of around 85%. I was using a landing page which gave general information about the benefits of working for the company but didn’t contain any actual vacancies. So I switched the landing page to one which simply listed every current vacancy we have, and within days the bounce rate had gone down to 60%!

7. Set goals

Every campaign, be it military, sporting or advertising, must have an ultimate goal by which the campaign’s success can be measured. If you run an e-commerce site then it’s easy to measure the ROI of AdWords, but if, like mine, your site is designed to increase brand awareness and display product information, it’s not so easy. Sure, AdWords will send your traffic sky-high but how do you know you’re getting your money’s worth?

The simple answer is to use Google Analytics’ Goal Conversion function, which allows you to define a specific page you wish people to visit or an action you wish them to complete – submitting a feedback form for example, or downloading a PDF or podcast. You’ll quickly find your conversion rate will become an obsession and lead to constant tweaking, tinkering and testing, all of which will ensure you get maximum return on your AdWords investment.

8. Try CPM ads

If you’re not convinced by CPC, try CPM advertising instead. Rather than set up lots of keywords, instead you choose sites from Google’s content networks on which you wish your ad to appear. If I’m selling bicycles in Bolivia for example, I’ll scour Google for Bolivian cycling and leisure websites and flag these sites in my CPM campaign – this is more secure than blindly using the Google Content Network as it allows me to personally vet each site on which my ad will be displayed.

9. Monitor results

Checking ad performance should, and will, become a daily habit for you once you get started with AdWords. Google’s tracking tools allow you to quickly identify under- or over-performing ads and take remedial action, and using the superb free Google Analytics service allows you to monitor the effect of your AdWords campaigns on your website.

10. CTR isn’t everything!

CTR – or click-through rate – is seen by many AdWords users as the only stat that counts. But don’t get too hung up on it. Remember, the higher the click-through rate, the higher your outlay. Sure, if you’re running an e-commerce site then clicks are your bread & butter, but if your site doesn’t actually sell anything and is designed more with brand awareness in mind, then a high number of above-the-fold impressions combined with a low CTR may be sufficient for you.

I hope you find these ten tips useful in running your own AdWords campaigns – and please let me know if you have any good advice of your own!

Tim Russell is Marketing Director at TRG International, one of Vietnam's leading providers of IT business solutions and services. Originally from the UK, he has been in Vietnam since 2003. Prior to coming to Vietnam he spent over a decade in the tourism industry in both operations and marketing, before moving into IT where he helped set up a company providing reservations software for tour operators and travel agents. He lives in Ho Chi Minh City with wife Nhung and daughter Emilie.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Tim_Russell

Top 10 Google Apps.

From http://reviews.cnet.com , we find the top ten Google applications for internet users.

As Google expands its empire beyond stellar search, the goliath keeps piling onto its heap of free tools that enable you to communicate, manage multimedia, jam-pack your calendar, map trips, and even create virtual worlds. Some of these apps integrate seamlessly with each other, while others stand alone. Most of these services are rough drafts that remain in beta testing, so expect them to evolve. Here are the 10 Google apps that we find the most intriguing, whether for their sheer usefulness or for the controversy they attract. (Check out more members of the Google family here.)

CNET rating

8.4

1. Gmail beta

Gmail is a star among the Web's top e-mail tools, especially for its inventive message-organizing methods. And Gmail plays well with other members of the Google family. Case in point: its natural-language abilities can detect when someone sends you an event invitation, then whisk you to Google Maps or Google Calendar so that you won't miss the party. Read review

CNET rating

7.0

2. Google Calendar beta

Dinner at 8? How about sword-swallowing classes at 8:30 instead? Google Calendar enables you to manage appointments and discover events from assorted sources that other users have made public. Read review

3. Google Talk beta

What's better than an instant-messaging tool loaded with expressive emoticons, as well as links to news stories and streaming music sites? If such bells and whistles strike the wrong note with you, then the answer is Google Talk. You can run this no-frills chatting client either within a floating window or embedded within Gmail. Add a headset and talk to buddies for free. Read editor's take

CNET rating

7.7

4. Writely beta

Who says you need to pay through the nose for a word processor? Ever since we started using the free Writely to compose and edit basic text files, we've been hooked on its simplicity. The drawback? If you're offline, you're out of luck. Read review

5. Google Spreadsheets

Most people find crunching numbers dull. It's extraclunky when you must open a hard drive-hogging application just to sum up some quick figures. Google Labs' Spreadsheets lets you make calculations on the fly from anywhere, as long as you're online. It may not be an Excel killer, but it's a time-saver. Read editor's take

CNET rating

7.0

6. Google Maps

Cartography seemed dry until Google Maps started serving up free satellite views to the public. Since then, enthusiasts have been shaping this dynamic mapping tool to pinpoint the locations of hot dog stands, celebrity sightings, and visits from outer space. Read review

7. Google Earth 4 beta

Remember the hype that the Internet would immerse us in virtual tourism that would be more fun than actually going places in the real world? Such predictions were premature, but sit down with Google Earth, and a momentary lookup can turn into hours of flying around the globe to explore its nooks and crannies. Read editor's take

CNET rating

8.0

8. Google SketchUp

Build your dream house in 3D detail without a lick of CAD or architectural expertise. While you're at it, why not sketch a whole city, drop it into Google Earth, and send it to your friends to move forward with your world domination plans. Read review

9. Picasa Web Albums beta

At long last, one of the finest freebie apps for tweaking your digital pictures now lets you upload albums to the Web. We hope that the bare-bones Picasa Web Albums, now in a testing phase, will eventually add more features for editing, tagging, and sharing photos online. Read editor's take

CNET rating

7.0

10. Google Desktop 4 beta

This download installs a top-notch search tool to find files on your computer, and it stacks fun Gadgets on your desktop. Hey, now that you're using so many Google tools, why not just hand over your hard drive to Mountain View? Seriously, though, Desktop's search is terrific, but we nevertheless urge that you either skip it altogether or disable Advanced Features if you feel uneasy about entrusting so much personal data to one company. Read review

Top Ten Happy Foods on Yahoo health

The happy foods on Yahoo health are so effective that you will enjoy these foods for your better health. I suggest you to take these top ten items for your daily menu list.

Eating for a better mood boils down to this; control your blood sugars by eating every 4 to 5 hours throughout the day, eat a diet rich in soluble fiber, and incorporate foods rich in omega 3 fats, folic acid, B12 and Vitamin D - four nutrients that researchers have found to be mood lifting.

For meal plans, grocery lists, recipes and much more information on improving your mood, check out my new book, JOY BAUER'S FOOD CURES

The following are my Top Ten Happy Foods - bon apetit!

1. Wild salmon (rich in omega 3 fats and vitamin D)

2. Spinach - (rich in folic acid and soluble fiber)

3. Skim milk - (rich in Vitamin D and B12)

4. Ground flaxseeds (rich soluble fiber, omega 3 fats and folic acid)

5. Blackberries (rich in soluble fiber and folic acid)

6. Omega 3 fortified eggs - (rich in omega 3 fats, Vitamin D and B12)

7. Sardines ( rich in omega 3 fats and Vitamin D)

8. Soybeans - (rich in soluble fiber, folic acid and omega 3 fats)

9. Beans (rich in soluble fiber and folic acid)

10. Brussels sprouts (soluble fiber and folic acid)

Top 10 US Searches in 2007 Year-End Zeitgeist

The USA is the largest country for internet world. Most of the people use internet to communicate with others. In internet Google is the most powerful Search engine now. Here You find the stats of searches of US in last year 2007.

2007 Year-End Zeitgeist

We're bidding adieu to 2007 with a look back at the breaking news, the big events and the must-have gadgets that captivated us this year (give or take a few weeks; we compile this list by early December). To get a glimpse of what's been on our collective consciousness, we mined billions of search queries to discover what sorts of things rose to the top. We encourage you to check out our findings to see if you, too, reflect the zeitgeist — the spirit of the times.

Fast Gainers by Quarter (U.S.)

Fastest Rising (global)

1. iphone
2. badoo
3. facebook
4. dailymotion
5. webkinz
6. youtube
7. ebuddy
8. second life
9. hi5
10. club penguin

Fastest Rising (U.S.)

1. iphone
2. webkinz
3. tmz
4. transformers
5. youtube
6. club penguin
7. myspace
8. heroes
9. facebook
10. anna nicole smith

Fastest Falling (global)

1. world cup*
2. mozart
3. fifa
4. rebelde*
5. kazaa
6. xanga
7. webdetente
8. sudoku
9. shakira
10. mp3

*featured in our 2006 fastest-rising list

Methodology

In compiling the 2007 Year-End Zeitgeist, we studied the aggregation of billions of search queries people conducted on Google. We should note that no individual searcher's information was made available to us. Except where noted, all of these search terms are most popular for Google.com in the U.S.

Book Search

If you're looking for results from Google Book Search, enter the name of an author or book title into the search box, then hit the Enter key or click the Google search button. We’ll return any book content we have as part of your standard web results.

Definition (Multiple)

To view a comprehensive list of definitions for a word or phrase, type "define:" followed by a word or phrase and hit Enter or click the Google search button.

Movies (Specific Film Times)

To get showtimes for movies currently in theatres, type in the title into the Google search box and hit the Enter key or click the Google search button. If you enter your location, Google will return your local results; otherwise we'll ask you for it on the results page.

Top 10 Yahoo tech news

This article was written by Vera H-C Chan, Buzz Senior Editor. This top ten news in tech world is very helpful for you.

1. YouTube
2. Wikipedia
3. Facebook
4. iTunes
5. iPod
6. iPhone
7. Nintendo Wii
8. Xbox
9. Sony PlayStation 3
10. Guitar Hero

Queuing up is a noble tradition — the disciplined mob lining up for free bread or concert tickets. In 2007, a cell phone had people camping on the doorsteps of the local wireless store.

Turned out the lines weren't necessary after all, but the buzz had been too long in the making to let technological history pass us by.

Apple cofounder Steve Jobs introduced the iPhone at MacWorld in January. From that moment on, searches soared as people clamored for this latest gadget from the company that had brought us the iPod.

Its summer arrival had pundits hailing the iPhone as a technological leap. The elegant device did more than marry aesthetics and communication — it freed consumers from the tyranny of buttons and re-asserted their mastery over the machine.

Its interface refused to conform to engineering conventions. Instead of us fumbling with confusing controls, the touchscreen responded to our caresses. We searched for software hacks to crack its code. We anguished over its price (twice). We even sought out the music from its commercial. The power to send a text message, email a digital photo, or surf the Web literally lay at our fingertips.

The Nintendo Wii had a similarly seductive quality. It debuted in late 2006, amidst predictions of a stiff competition from the Sony PlayStation 3 and the new Xbox. We knew better. With its simplicity and relatively reasonable price, the Wii left its rivals in the Search dust. Its simple controls helped introduce mothers and grandparents to the joy of gamesmanship. Virtual reality no longer belonged solely to male teens, as the Wii ushered in the era of family-friendly social gaming.

Gadgets and games weren't the only thing to push the tech limits. Corporate stakes accelerated the growth of social networking. We still downloaded videos of cute kitties and dance moves, but in 2007, the YouTube debate and Yahoo! Candidate Mash-up experimented with the concept of the online town hall. This was also the year that presidential candidates en masse appealed to their citizenry through the Internet.

Technology wasn't so much breaking new ground, but entering into a new maturity. Our personal gadgets and webpages had at last connected and united us. In 2008, we expect only upgrades.

Top 10 news on del.icio.us

This article is found from Yahoo new trends in 2007. This post is written by Delicious product marketing manager. This top ten search news is very helpful for your blogging.

1. Design
2. HDTV
3. Games
4. Music
5. Web 2.0
6. Video
7. Ubuntu
8. Travel
9. Photography
10. Mac

Creativity and creation marked the 2007 searches on our social search and bookmarking site, del.icio.us, which serves as the "Web memory" for millions of technologists, librarians, journalists, and others who enjoy staying on the cutting edge of what's new and interesting in technology and society.

The pursuit of design took the top spot among the millions of del.icio.us users, who shared and tagged blogs and articles on how to groom a website and tinker with typography for maximum effect.

The drive to find the best visual element pushed bookmarks for photography into the top 10. And searches for tips on technique have also been on the upswing, thanks to the dominance of digital cameras in the past few years.

Del.icio.us users tend to be a pretty tech-savvy bunch (Ubuntu, anyone?), although they still indulge in the music, video, and travel inquiries that are the meat and potatoes of search. After all, researching a favorite band, sharing the latest viral video (treadmill dancing), or finding the cheapest fare will always be popular Web pursuits, no matter how sophisticated the audience.

After years of hype, the market has finally matured for HDTV. With high-definition programming more readily available and monitor prices rapidly dropping, HDTV is now the second most popular search on del.icio.us.

In other leisurely pursuits, interest in games continued to grow, particularly in massively multiplayer online games (MMOGs) such as World of Warcraft. On the opposite end of the spectrum, online mini-games such as Tower Defense enjoyed a spike, thanks to those gamers seeking quick recreational breaks.

Finally, it's not surprising that Web 2.0 and Mac remained high on the list as the del.icio.us community is in the technology forefront. And with Apple's release of the Leopard operating system this fall (not to mention any upcoming announcements made at Macworld in January), Steve Jobs is sure to add more customers to his loyal user base. In the process, Apple might remake the concept of design once again.

Top 10 Yahoo news stories

1. Saddam Hussein
2. Iran
3. Iraq
4. President George W. Bush
5. Oil and Gas Prices
6. Barack Obama
7. Hillary Rodham Clinton
8. San Diego Fires
9. Afghanistan
10. Virginia Tech

In the first days of January, cell phone footage of Saddam Hussein's final moments leaked out and tore a blistering path across the Web.

The Iraqi dictator's death by hanging happened at the very end of 2006. Yet the gruesome footage of the event so rattled the Web that searches for the deposed leader dwarfed all other news queries in 2007.

The ongoing conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan also propelled buzz throughout the year. But it was Iran that snatched the No. 2 slot in the list of top news searches. The nation's budding nuclear program, its controversial and outspoken president, and the growing talk of a military confrontation between Iran and the U.S. drove an astonishing number of searchers to the Web.

Back in the U.S., President Bush may be a lame duck but, as he reminded the Washington press corps recently, he is still relevant. The exponential growth of the bloggerati and surprise events like Karl Rove's departure helped to keep buzz on the commander in chief spiking throughout 2007.

As for the hopefuls eyeing the head chair in the Oval Office, all the presidential candidates have embraced the Web. But the two Democratic front-runners succeeded in fanning the fires of Search most intensely. In 2006, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton kicked up a whopping number of queries. They did it again in '07. Clinton is currently surging ahead in the polls, but if past buzz is any judge (and we think it is), she and Obama will remain neck and neck in their buzz tally.

Why no Republican contenders in the top 10 news searches for the year? We leave that to political analysts to answer. The GOP candidates certainly know how to spark buzz, and we've seen hefty spikes on Rudy Giuliani, Fred Thompson, and, most notably, Ron Paul over the past 365 days. But their numbers don't come close to Obama's or Clinton's. Regardless, searches for a candidate by no means translate into votes. Just ask Howard Dean about that.

In politics everything can change in a heartbeat—and likely will. When it comes to buzz, there's just one thing we can count on: The looming U.S. presidential election will ensure that one politician's name emerges among the top searches for 2008. Whose name it will be remains one of the most pressing—and spellbinding—questions of the months to come.

Top 10 facebook stories of last year

Facebook is a huge online community to get together and make friendship. It builds a close network for your friends and contacts.

To say it’s been an eventful year in the world of Facebook and the Platform would be quite an understatement. 2007 saw the birth of a new way of building and distributing software on the web that spurned on the imagination of entrepreneurs and awoke industry giants. In the future, we may look back on this year as a time of “social networking frenzy” that turns out to be more hype than substance. Or, we may look back on it as a time when the way the people use the Internet changed.

Here’s a look at the top 10 Facebook stories of 2007, as told through the eyes of a product manager in Silicon Valley:

1. Facebook launches Platform, intends to become “social operating system”

On May 25, Facebook unveiled the “Facebook Platform” at f8 in San Francisco. Dozens of apps were showcased from several launch partners. Breaking from the command-and-control approach to third party widgets employed by others at the time, the Platform allowed deeper integration points than any other API, and allowed anyone to sign up and start developing–and keep all the revenue. Hundreds of developers gathered for an all-day hack-a-thon to kick the tires on the new Platform, and by the end of the year, over 10,000 applications had been launched.

2. Facebook Platform becomes the most viral software distribution system ever

Within two weeks, music application iLike added 1.7 million users, making it one of the fastest growing applications on any platform ever. Within three weeks, an astounding 10 applications added over 1 million users each. Software developer Craig Ulliott, creator of the then-side-project Where I’ve Been application, asked, “I have 250,000 users, now what?” as his servers crash under the traffic load. 65 million applications were installed in the first month - an average of 2.5 per user. By December, that number had risen to over 700 million.

3. Facebook user base, traffic numbers soar

After the Platform launched, traffic and new users to Facebook soared: after three weeks, page views increased by a third. The post-college crowd helped Facebook’s reach double from 2006 to 2007. Facebook’s total userbase grew from about 15 million in January to 30 million in July. In December, it stood at about 58 million. Facebook added an average of 250,000 new users per day in 2007.

4. Facebook’s News Feed offers a new paradigm for sharing information (and marketing)

When the Mini Feed and News Feed launched in September 2006, users were concerned by what it meant for privacy. Since then, the News Feed has come to be accepted as one of the most important advances in social networking technology. Facebook filters an average of 30,000 story candidates into a customized stream of 60 stories for each user every day. For social networking marketers, getting into the News Feed has become just as important as getting into the first page of Google’s search results.

5. Facebook Platform creates an application economy

When Facebook announced the Platform, it announced that application developers could keep 100% of the revenues their apps generate. This, in turn, led to a frenzy of early acquisitions and investments. Just a month after the Platform launched, SideStep acquired Extended Info. Shortly thereafter, Slide bought Favorite Peeps for $60,000, the first publicly reported transaction price. Lee Lorenzen started a trend by making Altura Ventures “the first Facebook-only VC.” In July, Bay Partners launched AppFactory to invest in Facebook application developers. Over the course of the summer, several ad networks were started to sell Facebook application inventory. In September, Mark Zuckerberg announced the formation of the fbFund, a Facebook-affiliated fund specifically set up to deploy grants to innovative application creators.

6. Google organizes OpenSocial, Facebook opens Platform architecture

After failing in its bid to partner with or invest in Facebook, Google announced the OpenSocial API, an open API that would allow application developers to build apps to run on multiple social networks. However, manged by a consortium of companies, OpenSocial has failed to get off the ground due to an incomplete spec, and the first social networks supporting it are not expected to be ready until early next year. Meanwhile, in December, Facebook announced it was opening its Platform architecture for adoption by other social networks, and Bebo launched its platform by announcing it was completely adopting Facebook’s architecture from the start.

7. Microsoft invests $240 million in Facebook at $15 billion valuation

In a major strategic coup over Google, Microsoft won a minority stake and an expanded advertising relationship with Facebook in October. The price? A mere $15 billion valuation - or about 100x TTM revenues. (Facebook execs allegedly played the two off each other masterfully, driving the valuation way up.) Rumors that Facebook also took $500 million from two hedge funds proved to be false, but the company did take $60 million from Chinese billionaire Ling Ka-Shing in December.

8. Facebook backtracks on Beacon

With a splashy launch in New York, Facebook announced several new advertising products for businesses in November. One of them, Beacon, was particularly aggressive: it allowed partner sites to send information about a user’s off-Facebook activity to Facebook for sharing in that user’s News Feed. After privacy advocates spooked advertisers by complaining that the program was opt-out instead of opt-in, Facebook reversed course.

9. Facebook lures top talent

Planning to increase head count to over 700 by the end of 2008, Facebook was able to hire top talent (before its massive valuation increase) in 2007, including some top engineers from Google. Former Googler Justin Rosenstein called Facebook “the Google of yesterday, the Microsoft of long ago,” adding, “I have drunk from the Kool-aid, and it is delicious.” Benjamin Ling, a former Director of Product Management at Google, left for Facebook in October.

10. Facebook courts businesses with Pages and Social Ads

In an attempt to monetize its “social graph” more effectively, Facebook allowed businesses to create a presence inside Facebook for the first time (except for expensive sponsorships) in November with the launch of Pages. At the same time, Facebook launched Pages, a souped-up version of its old Flyers program, which together offer advertisers unprecedented levels of targeting and analytics inside a social network.

Top 10 facebook apps: extension

Facebook is a huge community to share your thought and ideas. You will perform here by taking all kinds of support from other websites.

The final installment in our look at the top 50 Facebook apps will look at 10 apps for extension. These apps extend Facebook's core functionality to improve upon existing features (for the most part). This was the hardest list to create because there is probably more overlap in this category than any of the others, which meant excluding a lot of apps. This is a completely subjective list, so not everyone will agree with our picks and I encourage you to debate them in the comments.

This post is the last in a 5-part series that has identified our picks for the top 50 Facebook apps (10 each in 5 categories). Be sure to check out Part 1: Work, Part 2: Play, Part 3: Media, and Part 4: Utility as well.

Extended Info

Extended Info is the perfect app to start off this list -- it even uses the word extended in the title! This app, which won the F8 Hackathon contest, allows you to tell the world more about yourself by adding custom profile fields such as activities, interests, favorite coffee shops, or whatever you can think of. With Extended Info your profile also supports videos, images, MP3 files, and colored text.

SuperPoke!

Who wants to poke someone when you can pinch them instead? SuperPoke! extends the built in poking application on Facebook by allowing you choose from an extensive list of additional actions. What sets SuperPoke! apart from other poking apps, is that you can choose to dole out new pokes, rather than just adding new forms of poking to your own profile. It would be great, though, if like the popular X Me app, you could define your own original poke styles.

Advanced Wall

The Advanced Wall app takes the Facebook wall to new levels by adding support for styled text, images, videos, and flash. This is all made possible through a nice wysiwyg editor. Some people might argue that this type of app causes the "MySpacification" of Facebook and should be shunned. But millions of people disagree, having already installed this app and others like it.

Top Friends

Top Friends is by far the most popular third-party application on Facebook, and with good reason: it's actually pretty useful. I have about 150 friends on Facebook, but I only regularly interact with a handful of those. Top Friends lets you create a box on your profile of your 32 favorite contacts for quick access. Rather than having to slog through your entire list of friends to find the buddy whose profile you're after, you can just click once after making him or her a Top Friend.

Live Blog

Live Blog replaces Facebook's notes app with a full blog that is displayed on your profile. It has support for YouTube vidoes and HTML, and includes commenting. Coming soon: RSS/Atom feeds, draft and preview functions, and built-in image upload.

Friend Stats

Friend Stats brings Facebook's network stats closer to home by showing you what your friends are into. It's a pretty interesting way to learn about your group of friends or coworkers and gives you a ton of statistics culled from their profiles including age, sex, political leaning, who writes the most notes, has the most wall posts, has held the most jobs, and a lot of other interesting facts. For example, among my friends, the most popular movie is "Boondock Saints" and the most popular TV show is "Family Guy."

Widgets

Like Advanced Wall, many people feel the Widgets app from Widgetbox contributes to the "MySpacification" of Facebook. And they may have a point. Widgets allows users to add any of the more than 10,000 Widgetbox widgets to their Facebook profile -- just like MySpace -- but thankfully, it doesn't let users get around the no autoplay rule Facebook imposes on Flash widgets. Many of the widgets available in this app let you add functionality from outside apps that have yet to make the jump to Facebook, and so this application will have a use for many people.

Graffiti

Graffiti is the most popular of the Facebook drawing apps. It's not the most advanced, but I think it is the easiest to get the hang of. And you can actually make some pretty impressive art with it if you A) have some modicum of talent and B) have the patience to do it (see below for an example). Graffiti places a simple drawing app on your profile that lets your friends leave you drawn obscenities (or works of art -- whatever they fancy).

van Gogh's "Starry Night" reproduced in Facebook.

Moodsic

There are a number of Facebook apps for displaying your mood (an extension of the built-in status app) and when I started I honestly didn't think I would pick this one. But Moodsic is one of the more novel of the mood apps. With Moodsic, you set you mood and the app matches how you feel with songs from popular artists. Moodsic got serious points for matching my mood of "somewhat sleepy" with "The Weight" by The Band -- a classic. Moodsic is also a monetized app -- you and your friends can purchase the music you're listening to. Some annoying bits: You can only play tracks once, and if you skip too many it disables skipping (similar to Pandora, in that respect).

I pulled into Nazareth, I was feelin' about half past dead;
I just need some place where I can lay my head.
"Hey, mister, can you tell me where a man might find a bed?"
He just grinned and shook my hand, and "No!", was all he said.
--The Band

iGift

This was a tough one to choose. Both of the two top gifting applications on Facebook, which let you send Facebook-style gift icons for free, have the same number of gifts and more or less identical interfaces and features. In the end iGift won out for two reason: it has marginally better artwork than its chief rival, and it is categorized, making it easier to find the perfect gift for any occasion (or at least any occasion where sending a thumbnail image of a hot dog is appropriate).