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This video introduces the best ways to use search engines to find information on the Web. It uses real-world examples that illustrate ways to reduce useless results and includes: How search engines work Picking the right key words Using quotes and the minus sign Combinations of strategies

Our goal with Duolingo is to provide the absolute best language learning service out there (and also make it 100% free!). In this post I want to talk about something that we believe is fundamental towards this goal: students must be able to read and write complete sentences and be given immediate detailed feedback about their answers. When we started working on Duolingo we noticed that most language learning methods outside of the classroom didn't do this. Some never provide you with any feedback (think of books or the audio tapes from the 1980s), while other more "interactive" ones only provide you with feedback on single words or multiple choice questions. As any educator will tell you, having students read and write complete sentences by themselves, and then get detailed feedback, is significantly better for learning.

This is not mere Google bashing which has become very fashionable these days. It is not about the deteriorating search quality of Google everyone is starting to notice or why Microsoft's Bing is any better. It is really about how the cyber world is changing and shaping the needs and expectations which have evolved beyond mere key word search. Services like Scoop.it will meet those because Google won't. Pretty soon the question will be "have you scooped it?" rather than "Have you Googled it?"

"Gingko is an online word processor, that lets you work on structure & content at the same time."

"The days of internet searches being a matter of typing words into a box on a web page may be numbered. Even the expressions "search it" and "Google it" could soon go out of fashion, just as "going online" is already passe because these days we're always connected. Steven Weitz, senior director of search for Microsoft's search engine Bing wants our physical and virtual worlds to merge to a point where we will be able to stand on a street corner and the answer to "where am I?" will bring up not only the street name but historic and tourist information, places to eat as recommended by our friends and the best public transport option to get to an appointment on time."

"There are days I just hate technology. Just when I think I'm ahead of my kids, up pops another ridiculously stupid app like Yik Yak. The latest app to make news, Yik Yak allows users to comment anonymously-because you know, who needs to take responsibility for their words, right? I've read a couple of blogs about it, too-great takes from Portrait of an Adoption,  Baby Sideburns and Tween Us. And then there's the schools, at least locally, trying to get the app disabled. Good luck with that. Because here's the thing. The app developers only care about one thing-and it's not your kid."

"Since our founding, it's been a core mission of BetterCloud's to spread the word about Google Apps and evangelize for the platform. And after raising a Series A this past January, we've stepped up our hiring process, which has led candidates to ask why I'm betting my career and company on Google Apps. This was a question we encountered throughout the fundraising process and I'm sure it's frequently asked of other ISVs and Google Apps resellers. While I'm obviously biased towards Google Apps, I do wholeheartedly believe the platform will win."

"Facebook made a startling admission in its earnings announcement this month: it was seeing a "decrease in daily users, specifically among teens". In other words, teenagers are still on Facebook; they're just not using it as much as they did. It was a landmark statement, since teens are the demographic who often point the rest of us towards the next big thing."

EdGames contains downloadable games, game templates and utilities that can be used to enhance any lessons. Powerpoint, Excel and Word templates provided.

"Give Great Feedback · Voice Comments for Google Drive. Giving feedback is faster with Kaizena than a word processor, and far faster than red pen"

Short codes are mobile numbers that are significantly shorter than regular mobile numbers (usually 5 digits) which are used for SMS, MMS and Interactive Voice Services. The idea behind short codes is to make them easy to remember.Short Codes have proven to be a huge marketing success over the past few years thanks to their quality, comfortableness and ability to attract a direct response.Short codes are often associated with automated services. An automated program can handle the response and typically requires the sender to start the message with a command word or prefix

"We recently came across Pecha Kucha, a method of PowerPoint that has changed the landscape of presentations. It's pronounced pechákcha or pechákǝcha or just the slightly dorkier-sounding pecha KOO-cha. Anyway you say it, it is translated as "chitchat," designed and patented by architects Klein/Dytham in Tokyo in 2003. A Pecha Kucha presentation utilizes imagery and efficient use of spoken word to create a seamless, memorable, meaningful and concise presentation. It's a great method for teaching students how to create their best presentations for class project"

Foller.me is a Twitter service that can provide you with the most detailed information about a specific Twitter user in the least amount of time! Here's how it works. You input a Twitter name into the searchbox and hit enter. Foller.me gets access to the profile of that user via the Twitter API, scans all the public info and the latest 200 tweets! In general, you'd read those 200 messages to get to know what that specific user is all about, right? Well you don't have to! Foller.me has done that for you already, and provides you only with the most significant parts of those 200 tweets. It builds up three tag clouds: topics, #hashtags and @mentions, all based on the user's recent activity, AND excluding all stop words! Isn't that great?

a weekly podcast about English words, grammar and usage for the Information Age.

"A vook (rhymes with "book") is an enhanced digital book that blends text with audio, full-color video and links to the Internet and social media that complement the written word and add context. Vooks can be accessed through the Web or with an application download for the iPhone and iTouch, and soon the iPad."

"Comedians Harry Enfield and Ronnie Corbett elevated the play on words to a sublime level with this skit, reminiscent the famous "Fork Handles" bit. A befuddled shopper turns to his grocer for help with his Blackberry and Apple."

Just the thing to laugh at over the school break. :-)

"Translating technology has come a long way since Babblefish. A new iPhone App called Word Lens combines augmented reality, real-time translation and character-recognition software that will have you heading to that Mexican restaurant you always wanted to try but couldn't read the menu."