Search Engines seem to be cropping up all over the place at the moment, but there is definitely a market for those with ‘niche’ features. At first glance Green Maven looks like an Eco-Warriors Wordpress blog but it goes much deeper than that with a whole host of features for the Green-minded.

This search engine pulls results from a hoard of environmentally friendly Web sites and news stories to help you narrow it down, whether you’re looking for vegetable-tanned leather pumps or a green moving company.

Other features (like categories) include News, Videos, Directory, Widgets, Jobs board and green products. You can sign up for a weekly newsletter and also download a Green Maven Firefox search plugin. I have a feeling that this will become the homepage for a great many people.

Visit: www.greenmaven.com

[tags]green, environment, search engine[/tags]

Getting any kind of unsolicited, unwanted communication is a nause; especially when it comes in large volumes. Unfortunately slapping a ‘No Junk Mail’ sign on your door does nothing to deter the would be mailer / caller / spammer.The problem does seem to be getting worse. Doormats, answering machines and inboxes are bursting at the seams on a daily basis.

A website was launched a couple of years ago called itsmypost.com, which allows users to target the firms they don’t want to receive junk mail from, either by post or by email. The UK law is simple; if you communicate directly with these companies and tell them you do not want their mail, then they must stop.

Junk Mail

The Mailing Preference Service provides a way of limiting junk mail which is addressed to you. If you write to them, they will send you a simple application form and returning this will enable you to remove your name from most mailing lists. Write to:

Mailing Preference Service (MPS)
Freepost 22
London, W1E 7EZ
Tel: 0207 766 4410 or visit:

http://www.mpsonline.org.uk

For new mothers that are receiving high junk volumes then visit: http://mpsonline.org.uk/bmpsr/

You can email the Royal Mail at optout@royalmail.co.uk with your name and address you can request they stop posting addressed door-to-door mail to your home. Alternatively, write to your local delivery office, the address of which you can find by calling 08457 740 740.

You can also cut down on unlabelled junk mail delivered through your letterbox. The Association of Household Distribution is promoting a similar scheme. Just write to:

Royal Mail Door-to-Door
Streamline House
Sandy Lane West
Oxford, OX4 5BR

Unwanted E-mails

There are lots of technical ways that you can stop emails reaching your inbox using filters, rules and firewalls but that is a subject on it’s own. However if you want to reduce the number of sales e-mails you receive, you can reduce that number significantly by registering with the e-Mail preference service. To register, simply visit www.dma.org.uk and click on the e-MPS logo.

Unwanted Telephone Calls

You may also be subjected to unwanted sale calls by phone. Similar to the system for mailing, the telephone companies provide a Telephone Preference Service. Just contact the following freephone number and ask for a TPS registration form and explanatory leaflet:

0845 0700707
NB This number is for all telephone companies, for both landlines and mobile numbers.

http://www.tpsonline.org.uk

Unwanted Faxes

If you receive too many unwanted advertising faxes, you can cut down on those too. The Fax Preference Service, set up by the Direct Marketing Association can help. Just contact them on 0845 0700702 (charged at the National Rate). This applies to domestic telephone lines, sole traders and partnerships.
Limited companies should contact:

Fax Preference Service
5th Floor Haymarket House
1 Oxendon Street
London, SW1Y 4EE
Tel: 0171 766 4422 or visit:

http://www.mpsonline.org.uk/fps

For more information on anything mentioned in this article contact Consumer Direct.

Many people just cannot do push ups. Some can do 5 or 10, a few can do 50. There are however not many out there that can do 100 (correctly). Whilst you may not think that this figure is within your reach, a simple, graduated training programme has been devised to get you there in just 6 weeks. So, get fit and impress people at parties and school sports days.

The One Hundred Push Ups programme will steer you from zero to the magical 100 in 6 weekly stages via the web site. The weekly programmes are broken down and available to print off or you can download the complete programme as a .PDF file. The commitment is about 30 minutes per week if you were concerned that you may no have the time to complete this.

Don’t worry if you are unsure what a push up constitutes. You are informed of the exact technique and some ‘alternatives’ to help your training.

Well you have nothing to lose. You can get your achievement listed on the ‘did the hundred‘ page and could even earn yourself a nice little badge.

[tags]exercise, fitness, push ups[/tags]

Do you have a burning desire to start a social network? It may be to spread the word about a club, promote a new idea, interact and meet with people, raise awareness about a cause, inform your clients and customers or maybe just tell your friends about something. If so, it may be time to get to grips with Ning, a powerful and fully customizable social networking platform.

People have been using web applications like Facebook and MySpace for this kind of thing for what seems like ages now but Ning powers the largest number of social networks on the Internet.

Overview

Ning offers the latest social networking features, all infinitely customizable to meet your unique needs. The Ning Platform makes this possible. As a platform, you don’t have to appeal to Ning for the features you want. If you have the time and the inclination, you can build them yourself. It’s the software equivalent of Home Depot. Unlike other services that offer a “one-size-fits-all” offering, your social network on Ning runs on a programmable platform.

Features

With Ning you can:

• Fully customize the look and feel of your page, including the colour scheme and logo.
• Add special widgets for promotions and announcements.
• Create groups inside your social network.
• Schedule events, invite people and keep track of attendees.
• Administer network members and see how they have contributed.
• Start a discussion forum about any topic.
• Add photo galleries and slideshows.

and much more…

And the Cost?

Ning is free, however with most things these days it costs to get the most out of it. It currently stands at (per month): $7.95 to remove Ning promotion links, $19.95 to gain full advertising control, $4.95 to use your own domain name and $9.95 to get more storage space.

Visit: www.ning.com

[tags]Social Networking[/tags]

Finding a really catchy, cool domain name (web address) for your new website is not a simple task these days. The English language is finite and chance has it that the one you were thinking of has been taken. Unless you push the boat out and opt for a ‘mysite.dk’ or similar your search may be long and frustrating (however if you live in Denmark, that choice would probably be quite sensible). Alternatively you could be a domain name entrepreneur who buys and then subsequently re-sells valuable domain names for a profit. For both cases, there is a convenient Firefox extension available that will help you find valuable generic domain names from normal text whilst surfing the web.

Here is the idea: Just select the text you wish to check and hit the shortcut key. Domain Lookup (from Quality Nonsense) checks availability at your favourite domain registrar ASAP. It’s free forever and takes just sixty seconds to install.

Domain Lookup supports many of the worlds top registrars and you can suggest more to the software authors (a huge list already on the website). Well, enough said. Check out the website and this clip for more lots more information.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_LQTGM42El0[/youtube]

[tags]Domain Names[/tags]