articles

Google has announced it will begin highlighting the search results that best answer a user's query. It represents a whole new approach for the ubiquitous search firm. In recent years, Google has focused on trying to answer a user's query quickly ... rather than providing them with the website that best answers their question. (That was partly a response to Microsoft's launching of Bing, which that firm promoted as a "decision engine" rather than a search tool.) The best example of Google's focus on speed over quality: Google Knowledge Graph, the box that appears on the right of the results page ... (view more)

To our Valued Readers, In our quest to improve upon Infopackets.com and overall visitor satisfaction to our site, we've rolled out some major changes this past week and will continue to make improvements in the weeks ahead. Some of the changes we've ... rolled out this past week include: additional content: 5 more articles per week added: payment link for donations by PayPal, card, and by mail inclusion of "How To" articles to the site removal of Vibrant Media ads (blue double-underscore links / pop up ads) removal / change of Google ads added: 'Help Support Infopackets' tab at top of page ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Bill S. writes: " Dear Dennis, [Why does it cost] $4,500 a month to maintain your website? That seems very high. I realize I run a much smaller site than yours [150 users / published once a month], but I paid $192 to register my ... [website via registrar] and have my site hosted by GoDaddy for four years. That works out to four dollars per month. I also subscribe to Windows Secrets Newsletter and frankly get much more information from that newsletter and associated site than from yours. It's contributions only by the year and I send them $25. " My response: Respectfully, I ... (view more)

February 15, 2012 Major Announcement from: Dennis Faas, CEO, Chief Editor and owner of Infopackets.com Dear Infopackets Readers, After 10 years of publishing online and having produced over 8,000 original articles, Infopackets may be forced to close ... its doors due to lack of funding. The site may shut down as early as June 1st, 2012. I do, however, have a plan to save this website and make it ten times better than it was before -- but, it requires an extraordinary amount of effort, as well as consensus from our readers. Note: The article below describes our situation in detail. Please read it ... (view more)

The New York Times is considering a fee for frequent visitors to its website. The plan would make it arguably the most high-profile newspaper to charge for online access. According to a source quoted in the Wall Street Journal, it's almost ... inevitable the Times will indeed introduce some form of online access fee. At this stage the only decision is between two methods of doing so. Limits, Premium Articles Amongst Options The first is to limit the number of articles people can read each day without charge. The second plan would be to have some articles free and the rest exclusive to online ... (view more)

Wikipedia is everyone's one-stop-shop for quick answers online. The name, an amalgamation of 'wiki' (a collaborative website) and 'encyclopedia', is the "biggest multilingual free-content encyclopedia on the Internet." Once virtually alone in its ... field, the site faces new competition from Google. The seven year-old site has over 75, 000 contributors and over 10 million articles published in over 250 languages. Allowing people from all walks of life to write, contribute to and supplement articles has allowed it to amass a truly global, if not academically sound, archive of information. There ... (view more)

Wikipedia has publicly revealed their disappointment towards the Microsoft Corporation, after learning that the computer software powerhouse approached a well-known blogger and offered to pay him to make changes to a number of technical articles ... found on the online encyclopedia's website. Although Wikipedia has the reputation of being a publicly accessible encyclopedia that can be easily modified by a number of individuals (often anonymously), the moderators of the website have attempted to block a number of public relations firms and political campaign workers from posting fictitious or ... (view more)