Happy New Year Planet Earth! I am greeting our Planet with open arms! That's right! Open! iBlackle is now OPEN for Collaboration! Anyone can add their ecofriendly websites to be emphasized in iBlackle's search results!
Here's how it works: When you volunteer to add your site(s) to iBlackle's database, your website(s) will be given priority by iBlackle's spiders and emphasized in the search results.
So if you like to join, please go to this page and click on the "Volunteer to contribute" link. Then you will be taken to a series of pages to complete your profile as a contributor to iBlackle. If you do not have a Google account, you will be prompted to get one.
But please take note that only Green Ecofriendly websites will be allowed to be included in iBlackle's priority list.
I will be reviewing the sites often to check the integrity of the list. I will also be adding sites that I feel is worthy to be included on iBlackle's priority list, and I will personally delete non-relevant websites! Basically, the only thing I ask is for contributors to put in sites that are truly ecological, and support environmental issues or must aim to save the planet. If you feel shy to contribute and just want to add your site or suggest new ones, just send them via this contact page and I will add them to the list.
This improvement will morph iBlackle into a "General Purpose Search Engine with an Ecological Vent". It means that iBlackle will still provide relevant results when queried with general keywords (since it uses Google's General Search Engine) but whenever someone searches for terms which are environmental or ecological, iBlackle will return results that are more focused on ecological issues as influenced by the volunteer community of iBlackle. The ecological sites of the active green community will be given priority in the search results.
In essence, iBlackle will morph into a community-based, human-powered, collaborative search engine on ecological topics, while remaining as a general purpose "re-packaged" google search engine.
So go ahead. Volunteer now! Add your favorite green websites to iBlackle!
Links:
http://www.google.com/coop/cse?cx=005451225522983698504%3Azagxlwkyn5g
Wednesday, January 2, 2008
iBlackle is now Open Source for Collaboration!
Labels: collaboration, ecofriendly, green, iBlackle, iGoogle, Open Source, volunteer
Sunday, December 30, 2007
iBlackle to Fight Solastalgia
An article from Wired's January 2008 Issue by Clive Thompson mentions a new kind of depression - Solastalgia - the sadness caused by environmental change. Australia is suffering the most of it, the article writes. And it strikes me that Blackle, the original inspiration of iBlackle, hails from the land of Down Under. Even moreso that the man who coined the word solastalgia is an Australian.
As iBlackle's lone developer, I am neither Australian, nor am I Solastalgic, but I would like to make it clear that I feel the pain too. That's why I started iBlackle on a humorous vent 2 months ago.
Although iBlackle, as a parody - seems to be making fun of ecological websites, it maintains that the damage to our planet is no laughing matter.
In fact it stuck to my mind that John Doerr (the venture capitalist who inspired the developers of CO2Stats.com) literally cried at the end of his talk about the environmental crisis. Dude, he could be Solastalgic! Well, he cried out of passion, wherein I would have peed my pants out of nervousness when giving speeches.
The saddening environmental issues of our Planet is real and it is no joke. And that is why iBlackle is here: To counter the pain and misery caused by environmental damage, via the use of comedy and humor to at least quell the sadness, to educate the masses in ecological issues, and raise public awareness on environmental matters.
Do Not Be Sad: iBlackle is Here to Save the Planet and Fight Solastalgia!
Wednesday, December 19, 2007
CO2 Emissions Offset ( How to make up for farting too much )
Apparently, I farted a lot during the development of iBlackle, so I'd like to make up for the harm I did by installing the CO2 Emissions Offset on this blog & iBlackle pages. See the green widget below. Hopefully CO2Stats.com will really cancel out all the 'green pea gas' i made. And they better live up to their promise or else I might pass gas some more! It must've been the Green Pea Soup or the Lentil Soup that caused such toxic fumes in my bowels to emanate.
Lentil and Green Pea..."green" as it may seem, is not Ecofriendly. It contributes to Global Warming by causing too much fart, or CO2 emissions.
Imagine how HOT it would be if every person around the world ate Green Pea soup and Lentils simultaneously and then farted all at the same time - it would be global rotten hell!
Labels: CO2, ecofriendly, emission, fart, Global Warming, green, iBlackle
Sunday, December 16, 2007
Learn More Green Tips via iBlackle Naturally
I have been adding more and more green tips (70 of them so far) as I learn and compile them that I come across. Of course I try to shorten them as much as I can, or make them sound funny. Some are even original ones that I just thought of myself (such as the example above). But what's even funnier is that I have been finding myself practicing these tips from out of the blue, instinctively, effortlessly, and naturally.
I guess these green tips showing up just a little bit above the iBlackle search box (or below the logo) gets read via peripheral vision and somehow induces a subliminal learning effect on the mind. Whoa!
Case in point: Use iBlackle more and you'll learn to be ecofriendlier naturally!
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
iBlackle Theme for iGoogle now Live!
The long-awaited iBlackle Theme is now live! It's also an iGoogle skin to call it the other way around. The iGoogle interface has been 'monkeyed' with, using the GreaseMonkey Firefox Add-on. This release only works for Mozilla Firefox. And requires that the GreaseMonkey Add-On be installed in your Firefox browser first. Then the GreaseMonkey script should be installed next. It works seamlessly with your iGoogle custom page, but you must set 'Classic' as your theme! Don't select no crazy 'Solar System' themes just yet! I'm still working on it. For now, just enjoy the sleek iBlackle theme or skin for your iGoogle!