Easter Egg in WordPress.com

On the WordPress.com post editor, there is a button that allows you to insert video. It gives instructions on how to upload your own, but also provides a special syntax for linking to YouTube, Google Video, and DailyMotion, along with some examples.

The instructions are as follows, character-for-character:

Paste your YouTube or Google Video URL above, or use the examples below.

* YouTube instructions [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AgEmZ39EtFk]
* Google instructions [googlevideo=http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docId=-8459301055248673864]
* DailyMotion instructions [dailymotion id=5zYRy1JLhuGlP3BGw]

Any developer will recognize this as a perfect place to put an Easter Egg. Here’s what the examples they give actually link to:

Google’s Lively, an In-Browser “Second Life”

Not so sure how I feel about this offering from Google.

Essentially, web developers can embed a Lively room on their website. Then, people who have Lively accounts can log in and chat with other people who are on the website. They’ll be in a room, designed by the web developer, containing various furniture and stuff.

Microsoft Going After Yahoo… AGAIN

Microsoft: Can we have you?
Yahoo: No.

Microsoft: How about now?
Yahoo: NO!

Microsoft: How about now?

to be continued…

Flash Haters Lose a Giant Arguing Point

Before now, one of the major arguing points of Flash haters (as well as more reasonable people, such as myself) has been the fact that text in Flash is not indexable by search engines.

In English, this means that Google doesn’t understand any of the words on a Flash website, unless they’re also in normal text (HTML) as well. This made it difficult for Flash sites to do well in search results, and was a good reason for lower budget organizations (ones that can’t afford to make both a Flash and non-Flash version of their site) to consider skipping Flash altogether.

No more.