What is FindTheBest?

FindTheBest is an objective comparison search engine that allows people to choose a topic, compare options and decide what's best for them. It makes for faster and more informed decisions by allowing for easy comparison between all of the available options.

FindTheBest is organized into nine broad categories including: Arts and Entertainment, Business and Economy, Education, Health, Reference, Science, Society, Sports and Recreation and Technology. Each category includes dozens of Apps from Adventure Travel Vacations to Job Websites. Each App consists of a variety of related listings — from Vail and Whistler ski resorts under the Ski Resorts App to Barack Obama and Angelina Jolie under the Celebrities App — and each listing can be sorted by numerous key filters.

FindTheBest's structured search allows the user to quickly sort through factors and filters important to them, ultimately helping them make more objective and more informed decisions to important questions and answers.

The user interface blends sorting, filtering, and comparison to produce fast, data-driven pages. Here's a page with information on over 9000 libraries:

How Was it Implemented?

FindTheBest runs on a 64-bit Ubuntu server. The server boots from an EBS volume and has an XFS RAID-0 two volume EBS storage configuration, with daily snapshot backups via cron-driven calls to Erik Hammond's ec2-consistent-snapshot script. The server runs a classic LAMP stack with the addition of a lightweight email server and a full-text search engine, all monitored by a custom-tuned Nagios/Groundwork setup.

– Jeff;

We've just added a new invalidation function to the CloudFront API. You can now POST a list of one or more objects to a CloudFront distribution and the objects will be removed from all of the edge locations within minutes. The invalidation happens in an asynchronous fashion and you can have several invalidation requests pending at the same time.

You can use this new feature in many different ways. Here are some ideas:

1. Update a CSS style sheet or some JavaScript that changes very infrequently.
2. Remove a video that was not properly encoded.
3. Remove information (e.g. a news story) that is inaccurate or no longer relevant.
4. Remove information that is the subject of a DMCA takedown notice.

There are no charges for the first 1000 invalidations per month. After that, each one will cost you $0.005 (one half of one cent).

You can still use the TTL feature and you can also use versioned URLs. Both techniques are preferred when you have the ability to control or predict the proper hold time for an object. There's no additional cost for either one, and there's no need to wait for the invalidation to take effect (typically 10 to 15 minutes). Invalidation is appropriate when the hold time is unpredictable. 

TTLs and versioned URLs are great when you have tight control over the object's lifetime, with new objects replacing the old on a regular cycle or as part of a planned release. Invalidation is appropriate when objects can change with little or no notice.

The following third-party products already include support for this new feature:

• CloudBuddy Personal.
• CloudBerry Explorer.

Let me know if your product supports it, and I'll amend this blog post to include it. Leave a comment or email me at awseditor@amazon.com.

The AWS Simple Monthly Calculator now supports CloudFront Invalidations and RDS Reserved DB Instances.

– Jeff;

For the sight-impaired user, accessible display ads need to have descriptive Alt text or off-screen text added to the code. These users browse the internet with special screen reader software, which reads the content of a page aloud to them.

When Alt text is added to an advertisement, the ad will be read by the screen reader, just like the content on the page is read. This is relatively simple and can be done quite quickly (and at virtually no cost). However, the complications arise around the advertisers deciding how they want their advertisements described. And this iterative process can take time, which isn’t always available.

Note: This video starts off the way a sight-impaired user would experience the ad, so the screen is black but you can hear the ad being described. After several seconds, the display will appear.

To make ads with audio accessible for hearing-impaired users, captions need to be added so users can read what is on the audio track. Captions can be open (the captions always display) or closed (the captions can be turned on or off).

The cost for open or closed captioning varies, depending on the ad being adapted and the vendor used. National Center for Accessible Media (NCAM) is a media services agency — a subsidiary of a nonprofit organization — that is our long-time partner and can help advertisers with this adaptation:

Meanwhile, here are some recent relevant blog posts you may enjoy reading:

• Yahoo! and People with Disabilities
• Real Impact of the Americans with Disabilities Act by Kareem Dale of the White House Office of Public Engagement
• I Can Do It Myself!
• DisabilityLand

Victor Tsaran
Sr Accessibility Program Manager

What does this mean for me?
The move to OAuth will mean increased security and a better experience. Applications won’t store your username and password, and if you change your password, applications will continue to work.

With OAuth, you still individually approve each application before using it, and you can revoke access at any time. To see which applications you have authorized or to revoke access, just go to the Connections section under Settings.

One thing to note – to continue to use your favorite applications, you should make sure you are running the latest version of the app. Otherwise, you may soon find that it doesn’t work anymore.

Tell me more about OAuth
In order for Twitter applications to access your account, developers have been able to choose one of two authentication methods: Basic Authentication or OAuth. Both require your permission, but there is an important difference. With Basic Auth, you provide your username and password for the app to access Twitter, and the application has to store and send this information over the Internet each time you use the app. With OAuth, this isn’t the case. Instead, you approve an application to access Twitter, and the application doesn’t store your password.

Fortunately, developers have known about our transition to OAuth since last December, so they’ve had time to update their apps. And many apps, including Echofon, TweetDeck, Twitterrific, Seesmic, and Twitter for Android, iPhone, and BlackBerry, are already using OAuth. We appreciate the work and time that developers have invested in this update in order to keep you safe.

Sync
with Facebook allows users to keep their friends on Facebook up to date on
everything, including: sharing songs, latest photos, fun game apps, and more.

So,
when a user adds a game on MySpace, it will now be broadcast to that users'
Facebook friends in their Facebook stream.  Users who click on the stream
activity within Facebook are taken to the game's profile page on MySpace so
that logged in and non-logged in users can see the content.  At launch we
are syncing game install activity, but are working to sync more gaming related
activities with the Facebook stream.

The
opportunities to experience and share this type of entertainment content are
endless. This is particularly exciting for artists who can now use this tool as
a complement to their MySpace Music presence and share their vast library of
content, including full album catalogs, to people who've liked their Facebook
Page.

Here are a few screenshots of how the sync
functionality will look:

And here's an example of what a MySpace game activity will look like on Facebook.

Syncing
with Facebook is easy to set up:

• Click on the settings box in the
  update module on your Home
  page
• Check the box next to Facebook or
  Twitter (or both!)
• Follow the steps prompted to sync
  your accounts
• Done! Your updates will now automatically sync.

Users continue to have the option to sync to
Twitter as well. Once you've synced your Facebook account, simply update your
status on MySpace as you normally would (from your Home page, Status and Mood page, or mobile phone). When you update your
status on MySpace, it will then be shared with friends on Facebook.

This new sync functionality is part of an ongoing effort to make
it simple for people to share their updates beyond MySpace and allow fans and
friends to interact with that content across the web.

As
always, let us know what you think. 

Jen
Ruffner

Director
of Product, Stream

The assessment covered the solution's management, operational, and technical security controls and was performed under the Federal Information Security Management Act of 2002 (FISMA for those of you inside of the Capital Beltway). The FISMA framework is used for managing information security for all information systems used or operated by a U.S. federal government agency or by a contractor or other organization on behalf of a federal agency.

Net-net, Government agencies will now have access to a cloud computing solution from Appian and Amazon Web Services that has gone through the rigorous Certification and Accreditation based on the government’s FISMA (Federal Information Security Management Act of 2002).

You can listen to a pair of episodes of the BPM4U podcast learn more about Appian, Appian Anywhere, and the ATO (first episode, second episode).

If you are in the Washington DC area, check out the AWS Cloud for the Federal Government event (September 23 in Crystal City).

– Jeff;

This application features the following capabilities:

• Slice and dice by keyword for updates from both within your Yahoo! Connections, everyone, and Facebook newsfeeds.
• Provide consumption experience within the app. Unlike in Web-search where people typically get the relevant result and leave, social content is more about users’ persistent interests, where users repeatedly seek what is new in their topics of interest.
• Discover and share topics from your social circle and/or everyone.
• Display trending topics to show what is hot in the current hour, day, week, and month.

The above capabilities are also available through YQL. Check out this YQL table for topic-based updates.

We built this application as a way to showcase how users can benefit from the Firehose API to discover new information about their interests from the social space, breaking the boundary of social networks. The trending-topic algorithm attempts to condense the overwhelming amount of information, to pinpoint what is important at a given moment.

Topic-based updates app in action

Here are some screenshots to help you visualize this Yahoo! Application Platform (YAP) app in action:

View updates by keywords, inside your network, from everyone, and in your Facebook news feeds:



Enable consumption experience within the app, and let users comment, like, and repost:


Follow interesting topics, and discover new topics from your friends and everyone:


View trending topics on what’s hot at this hour, day, or week:



Zhichen Xu
Technical Yahoo

Our internal Hack Days are opportunities for all Yahoos (regardless of title or day job) to build software that can be taken from idea to working prototype in 24 hours. Summer Hack Day saw over 5 dozen hacks registered and demoed at the judging event on Day 2.

These rapid prototypes often pave the way for bigger and better things. The right hacks make their way into production. For example, the winning Search Slideshows hack from February’s Winter Hack Day has been live for several weeks now – you’ve probably seen it in the News slides. A winning hack from Spring Hack Day will be going into final testing soon.

Rules and stuff

Hackers aren’t afraid to bend, break, or ignore the rules, bearing in mind the spirit of the event and respect for fellow hackers. So the rules are few and basic:

• Build something that can be taken from idea to working prototype in one day.
• Be ready to show off your hacks to your fellow Yahoos and special judges. You only get 90 bleary-eyed seconds before the hackmeisters starts turning up the music!
• Have Fun. Really! Not having fun is against the rules.

There are judges and awards, but the real rewards are the hacking itself, presenting the results to fellow Yahoos, and getting those hacks to make a difference in our products and our company.

Patents

Quite a few hacks from Hack Day have gone on to become real patented ideas.

Yahoo! has fancy lawyers who do all the complicated paperwork for the hackers, and they attend Hack Day to scout out potential patents.

Share your stories

The enthusiasm and levels of smarts of the presenters, excitement of the audience, and executive support of the Hack Day showed me that hacker culture is alive and well at Yahoo! We encourage all our developers on YDN to share their YDN technology hack stories with us via this blog. Add a comment to this blog, and we’ll get the ball rolling.

Christine Dorffi
YDN Blog Editor

Hope you had a good summer and are settling back into your fall routine. Naveed Anwar here, Sr. Director of the PayPal Developer Network, and I’d like to remind you that the deadline for the PayPal X Developer Challenge is quickly approaching.

Submit your applications for a chance to win up to $160,000. The date to submit your application for approval is September 1st. You can complete the remaining submission details by the contest deadline of September 22nd.

The PayPal X Developer Challenge promotes and rewards innovative apps that will not only win the contest, but could also go on to become successful businesses. So build the apps you have been dreaming about and enter the challenge today!

We are looking for the most innovative use of PayPal’s products in any way you can dream up, not strictly payments. What could win you the Grand Prize of $100,000? Well, your app needs to be innovative and buzz-worthy, a viable business concept, and should “change the way we pay.” Find out more about the contest details and judging criteria here.

In addition to the $100K Grand Prize, the Yahoo! Developer Network is sponsoring a $10K X Award for the application that best integrates Yahoo! technologies — YAP, YOS, YQL, or any of Yahoo’s developer offerings — with PayPal X APIs. You can check out the details of all seven X Awards at the Awards page of the contest.

Don’t delay! Go to the challenge homepage and submit your app.

For any questions and comments, you can email the PayPal X Developer Challenge team, check out the FAQs, and follow us on Facebook and Twitter. To see detailed rules, refer to the terms and conditions.

The finalists will be invited to showcase their apps and the winners will be announced at Innovate 2010 on October 27th.

I look forward to your great submissions and to joining you at Innovate 2010!

Naveed

This guest blog post was contributed by PayPal.

Naveed Anwar
Senior Director of Developer Network, PayPal

Due to an upcoming experiment, a few sites may encounter an intermittent increase (anywhere from 5% to 25%) in crawl requests from MSNBot over the next month (specifically from August 25^th through end of September). If you see an increased crawl rate on your site and want to throttle it down, please contact bwmc@microsoft.com as soon as possible, and we will address your concerns. Thanks for your understanding as we try to improve Bing for all of us.

– Sasi Parthasarathy, Senior Program Manager, Bing Engineering