This site came up on one of the search engine forums and it could be worth a look. Cuil (COOL) is a new search engine founded by a number of ex Google and IBM employees ("Cuil" is Gaelic for Knowledge (or Hazel?)). It's positioning is that allegedly, it indexes more and faster than Google and MSN in addition to understanding the content and context of a page. The model behind it attempts to gain knowledge of what a user is ‘really’ after from their searches and they intend to continue to refine this model continuously. On launch, it had indexed 121,617,892,992 web pages – really impressive for a start-up.

The layout of search results is however a real improvement on the big SE’s. For each search, there can be around 12 results per page in a magazine style layout but with the additional feature of being able to filter by category. These catagories are automatically produced – for example, searching on a keyphrase with a geographical area presents a number of alternative regions should your results not meet the mark. One of the strongest features though is a thumbnail image alongside each description – if Cuil starts to gain market share, there’s considerable scope for Search Engine Optimisers to make the most of this image space in order to maximise their click through rates.

From a few initial searches, it’s certainly comprehensive however it’s not yet a MSN or Google beater. I didn’t find the results truly relevant however the bar is set very high. Take a look and see what you think.

Last week, a beta version of Lively was launched - Googles take on Second Life. Lively is an avatar based virtual world along the lines of Second Life with the ability for users to create their own online rooms (to host their YouTube, blog, social network profile etc.). It's very early days and although the functionality, depth and visual appeal is basic, Google certainly has the budgets to make a success of it - should it wish to! As Google puts it: "It's integrated with the Internet. It's not an alternate destination. Our intention is to add to your existing life."

At first glance, the aim is to provide an alternative, fun environment to the more structured personalised homepages such as Netvibes or iGoogle (these sites let individuals assemble their favorite widgets, websites, blogs, email accounts, social networks, search engines, instant messengers, photos, videos, podcasts, and everything else they enjoy on the web - all in one place and not tied to a single PC or Mac). The concept is that we shouldn't need to go to information - it should be experienced, collated and managed through an environment that suits us. For example, as YouTube allow users to (and make it easy to) embed their chosen video within any external website or application as per the clip below.

However, should Lively take off or should Google sense that it 'could' take off, it will almost certainly become an additional inventory or advertising space for advertising and marketing. As with Second Life, having an additional presence on these sites will enhance brand awareness and with Lively, it's very likely to affect search engine rankings. For anyone with time on their hands or for any online marketeer, it could be worth a look (however don't expect a polished product though).

Following up from a discussion in our team (and in the wider community) about how can you make real money from a Web 2.0 focused site, there's a tool that's surprisingly not been heavily publicised but that could be an answer for the developer community. Seemingly the majority of Web 2.0 start-ups are focused on rapid growth and attracting external funding to support the business.

However a new service from Amazon attempts to focus on the bricks and mortar Web 2.0 businesses. Through Amazon DevPay, developers can start to earn revenue almost after a customer uses their application. This isn't to say that attracting venture capital can't be an excellent way - just that through DevPay, there's an almost immediate payback for developers, there's a greater chance of attracting Venture Capital (VC) and it's only a limited number of businesses that attract and truly capitalise on VC funding.

As with Google Friend Connect, it's another Limited Beta release. Amazon describes their product as "a simple-to-use billing and account management service that makes it easy for developers to get paid for applications they build on Amazon Web Services.". They claim that it, "removes the pain of having to create or manage your own order pipeline or billing system. It allows you to quickly sign up customers, automatically meter their usage of AWS services, have Amazon bill them based on pricing you set, and collect payments. Amazon DevPay provides a simple web interface for pricing your application based on any combination of up-front, recurring and usage-based fees.".

DevPay can be used by the owner of any website to collect revenue however its real benefit will be for developers of Web 2.0 applications. Developers can obviously create their own e-commerce site to charge however this service makes it so easy (in addition to providing a host of ways to charge for your service) especially as developers can use the pay as you use based fee structure. Although a few developers will be able to achieve their fortune through acquisition, it allows them to significantly undercut the existing pay per product software and applications developers out there. It also allows a true revenue model for applications distributed on social networks.

My thoughts - this could be the next 'silent killer' allowing innovative developers and Web 2.0 application builders and owners to quietly charge a minimal amount for their product on a per instance basis. A product that would typically sell for £20.00 could be sold for a few pence on a per use basis. There would be minimal barriers to the sale and at that price point, the sale is much more likely to be converted. Amazon takes care of the transaction and obviously, takes an additional small commission. If priced aggressively, the consumer could view the purchase as the deal of the century.

Even if it doesn't fuel a revolution, it's certainly a method that all Web 2.0 applications and software companies should consider. Whether it's sustainable is another question though but it'll certainly stimulate competition.

Published by Chris Haresign

I’ve just come from the launch of the fourth e-Crime Wales summit and what more relevant news caught my ear as I left the hotel room earlier this evening, than the fact that according to the BBC the Cotton Traders website exposed up to 38,000 customer credit card details to hackers.

Whilst a terrible blow for Cotton Traders (it could kill lesser businesses) and as of 10pm tonight the story made 3rd headline on the BBC news website. Hopefully this unfortunate example will encourage other business owners to think seriously about how they secure their business within the online environment. The eCrime Wales event tomorrow demonstrates how the Welsh Assembly Government is working to educate businesses in Wales to address this very risk –if a brand like Cotton Traders is exposed, perhaps it takes a couple of these high profile failures to prompt sceptics to wake up and smell the coffee.

I caution readers not throw the baby out with the bathwater. We, as consumers, will continue to take calculated risks when making our purchases especially when it’s easier/ cheaper for us. What the Cotton Traders hacking demonstrates is that this continues to be serious and real threat to us all, and business owners as well as consumers, need to understand the risks and take some pretty basic steps to keep themselves secure.

Attend the e-Crime Wales summit tomorrow, book now online or if you can’t make it watch the live webcast to see what the experts say.

After a few months of rumours, Google will be opening up Friend Connect to a few select number of partners. One of the challenges to website owners wanting to experiment with Web2.0 is the cost and time taken to incorporate social networking tools within their sites.

What Google has done (via an initial trial/select number of partners) is offer dozens of social gadgets created by Google and OpenSocial developers to their visitors. This means more visitors spending more time on a more engaging website -- with absolutely no programming required to make it happen. It's a perfect way to start to trial Web2.0 features without having to spend thousands on bespoke developments.

Google Friend Connect provides a core set of social gadgets such as member management, message board, reviews, and picture-sharing. The key gadget is the members gadget which provides the core social features for your visitors:

• sign-in with their existing Google, Yahoo, AIM, or OpenID account (note that it's not just Google or Gmail accounts)
• invite and show activity to existing friends from social networks such as Facebook, Google Talk, hi5, orkut, Plaxo, and more
• browse member profiles across social networks
• connect with new friends on your site

The developer community has been creating hundreds of applications for OpenSocial, an open standard for social applications over the past 18 months and once Friend Connect has been added to the site, the owner can offer many of these applications to their users, simply by pasting the relevant code or gadget into your site.

So what can it really be used for. There's thousands of potential applications however these were the ones that Google initially highlighted to their partners:

• An academic site - Discuss and review articles in context with colleagues and the broader community. Filter the discussion to colleagues only, or widen your view. Forge connections with new participants whose comments seem particularly insightful.
• A shopping site - Read expert reviews and tips right next to the product you're thinking of buying, and find a friend who has already purchased the same item.
• A travel site - Review a hotel and provide comments which clarify or improve it.
• A band site - Post pictures from your latest gig on the band's site, and communicate directly with your fans.
• An extreme sports site - Play a Flash game, then compare your score to friends and other site members.
• A charity site - Cultivate a community around your cause, post pictures at fund raisers, let donors connect, and involve their friends.

How do you make money from it?

The biggest challenge for social networks is not just about them becoming more open and getting more members, but about how they can make money and really assist the business (and in turn, the members). It won't be long before these Google Friend Connect sites will have the option of connecting via AdSense creating a much stronger profile of the potential visitor and through the increasd user data flowing through the Friend Connect engine. Just sign up to Googles terms and conditions and you're away :-)

I think we’ve all now seen spurious emails promising us financial reward for allowing a few million dollars to pass through our accounts from a deceased African notary or emails from banks asking me to change our passwords.

I think most would agree that the scammers who perpetrate this sort of content are gradually upping their game and the emails are becoming increasingly focused and less easy to differentiate from the real thing (not that I get many real emails offering me money from dead African leaders). Cyber criminals are constantly morphing and refining their approaches, and whilst many of us pick up on them for what they are, the sheer brute force of numbers involved will catch out a significant proportion unawares.

However what we often seem to overlook is that it is not just us as individuals who are at risk from criminals operating over the ether - what about commerce? Specifically what about our small businesses who are already struggling to make a good honest living?

e-Crime Wales is an organisation that is formed to help get Welsh business up to speed and recognise the threat against their livelihoods and put in the necessary technology and processes to protect themselves.

e-Crime Wales are having their annual Summit next week at the Celtic Manor Resort in Newport, and for anyone who involves ‘e’ in their business in anyway it is a must in my opinion. If you can’t make it to Newport, don’t worry. It’s being webcast live (register to receive details) by live webcasting specialist MultiStream.

I understand that registration has been brisk, as the event is deliberately designed to dovetail to the European Regional Information Society Conference 2008 (eris@ 2008 follows directly after the eCrime Wales summit 2008) as it isn’t Wales alone that faces the significant risk posed to economic growth by eCrime, and other countries are looking to see how Wales is leading by example.