So, everybody is talking about Google and their "top of the line" search technology, are they gonna be the only search portal in future? You bet there's no definitive answer to it, but many analysts think so. They have been pretty good when it comes to the search results and they have released a bunch of great tools to make their technology one of the best technologies in the market. But is everybody else idle? Let's see how active Google rivals have recently been.

In commercial search technology, Pasadena, CA based overture has been through a very active week and a couple of great acquisitions. After buying Palo Alto, CA based altavista last week, for $140M, they announced buying FAST, the small Norwegian search company for $100M. What it means is they are gonna own alltheweb.com which many people have switched to from Google for their search needs.

Overture's stock was done 20 percent after altavista's news and now 11 percent lower than that after their acquisition of FAST. Seems the're gambling big time!

Overture is the world's leading provider of Pay-For-Performance. search on the Internet. It created the market for Pay-For-Performance search by redefining how businesses market online. The company enables advertisers to bid for placement in its search results on terms that are relevant to their businesses. The company formerly known as GOTO.com was founded in 1997 which makes it older than Google.

Yahoo! on the other hand is not idle at all. They bought inktomi last december to recover their power in the search industry. Yahoo!'s web search is powered by Google and the results are shown after their own listings.

It's now up to news portals and other web sites to decide where to go. Overture and Google both have access to both sophisticated paid listings and top of the line search technologies. In light of Overture's new acquisitions, news web sites like CNN which uses Google's search but Overture's paid listings can pick one of them for both search and paid listing purposes. Seem the fight for search dictatorship is getting hotter and hotter!

Okay, posting these links and watching the Grammys at the same time, I hope they cheer you up for a wonderful start of the week. Oh, this girl Norah Jones is sweeping the Grammy awards!!! Gotta go! Ciao! :-)

Here is a cool Pepsi commercial starring some of the world's greatest soccer players! (Thanks, Iman)

If you get an error on this page, please read it!

Ten tops to help you lose an unwanted valentine! :)

Loved this one! Definition of Any key from Compaq (HP) FAQ! :-D

Great pictures of world against war (Thanks, Joe)

Read my lips: a duet by George Bush and Tony Blair! :) [mov/this week's pick]

The new around-the-world site: Amazing journey of a can of S&W brand black beans around the world!

Hollywood stars love to eat!

How to use Internet to pick up girls!

Only in San Francisco: Grim Rides is a group of funeral car fiends...

Select your date of birth and flashback now!

This is so funny! "Fake parking tickets are being left under the wipers of SUVs across the country, raising both drivers' blood pressure and consciousness. NYPD is citing drivers for violations such as "Increasing U.S. reliance on foreign oil," "Contributing to childhood asthma," "Holing self up in two-ton metal fortress," and "Compensating for lack of manhood." The penalties range from a slap on the wrist -- "SUV must be used for carpools only" -- to the draconian "Blow yourself up (please)."

Download the ticket in PDF format (From MotherJones/Thanks Joe for sending!)

In another story, I found some great pictures of recent snow in Tehran.

Let me post this before going to lunch:

A few minutes ago, BBC reported: "An Iranian passenger plane carrying about 250 people has crashed in the south of the country, state television has reported. The cause of the crash is unclear."

Good morning, couldn't stop myself mentioning this:

"Jon Kleinberg, at Cornell University in New York, has developed computer algorithms that identify bursts of word use in documents. While other popular search techniques simply count the number of words or phrases in documents, Kleinberg's approach also takes into account the rate at which the word usage increases. Kleinberg suggests that the method could be applied to weblogs to track new social trends. For example, identifying word bursts in the hundreds of thousands of personal diaries now on the web could help advertisers quickly spot an emerging craze. "

BTW, I heard last night Overture bought Altavista! (San Jose Mercury News) Seems a lot of mportant acquisitions are taking place in the cyber world recently!

And finally, Evhead is out to lunch!

OK, Back to work now!

I paid more than 20 bucks for a full tank of gas last night. Getting gas in the usual gas station, the counter stopped at $20.01 after filling an almost empty tank.. Price of gas is hitting the historic high in some states. That nationwide average gas price is the highest since June of 2001, when the average price was $1.661 a gallon. It's the highest February price ever recorded by AAA.

Find the lowest prices in your neighborhood.

Thanks all for your contributions, here are some links for your refreshment before starting the week! Enjoy!

Create a Kiss-off Letter! (Thanks, ER)

Phonyid.net: The ONLY source on the web for legal NOVELTY IDs! (see samples)

Ahmad's launch station was playing a cool song called www.GetOverYou. Listen to it, you may like it too! Loved ICQ sounds in it! (Video also available)

Don't worry, you have friends!

Flash game: war against terror (Thanks, Angela)

Another game: Space Shuttle

Iran, historical treasure (Thanks, Angela).

First time I see my favorite basketball player shorter than another dude!

Google as Big Brother (through popdex)

Funny things to do with your own microwave oven!

Kissing the right way on Scientific American

Girls' restroom line is long, play restroom raider and help them!

That's why I love ths bay area: Baring Witness is the height of anti-war activism

Celebrities or their look-alikes? (Test yourself!)

Haha! What you are!

Do you believe? Science vs Séance.

Silicon Valley: "Google, which runs the Web's premier search site, has purchased Pyra Labs, a San Francisco company that created some of the earliest technology for writing weblogs, the increasingly popular personal and opinion journals. "

Ok! Congratulations >Evan, and good for Google getting access to a lot of great content on blogspot.com! Remember they bought Deja news a couple of years ago for their great news content. Here they are one step closer to become the single pole of content.

But, the tricky thing is it's not gonna be a very delightful news for MIT media lab's Blogdex, daypop and the newly born popdex unless they have a patent pending!

Bogus Alerts Target PayPal Users: PayPal users are under attack by an increasingly sophisticated series of e-mail worms. Since the beginning of the year, at least four e-mail messages disguised as security upgrade announcements from the financial service have hit users' inboxes. Past PayPal user attacks have featured links to sites like paypai.com and paypalsys.com -- virtual mirror images used to harvest PayPal users' personal data.

And they had spelling errors: "Paypal has just finish our latest breakthrough in customer server!!!". This is hilarious, man!!! :-)

Doh! Too busy and a lot of things to do this weekend. Anyways, quickly, just stopped at home to post the links and go join Jeff and his band for their performance at Bugarts! Thanks everybody for the contribution!

This one is really classic: Ebay shuts down Columbia auctions Just hours after the space shuttle Columbia broke apart over Texas, Web site Ebay closed down a number of on-line auctions where debris was on sale.

If you don't like Microsoft error messages, you should check out Actual Japanese Error Messages! (Thanks Joe!)

Flying Mobile Championship in Riga, Latvia!! :-)

Axis of Evil: A GDP Comparison! (from Afkar Khosoosi)

How to Increase Security in America, an interesting article by Joe Woodard, my ex-colleague.

I didn't introduce a new personal site this week, so here is one: Jolene's Trailer Park!

Yum! Some Iranian Food (Thanks, Hamid)

Hug Liat Weingart Interview & Hug by Jawad Ali (Thanks, Jahanzeb)

haha, this one I really like! Dancing Glen (Move your mouse over his picture!)

Geek Porn! (Thanks, Saberjan!)

The site lists fifty things worth preserving in the new millennium. These things are categorized as cultural, environmental, musical and ordinary.

Dress your gay dog! (A hard but fun game!)

Hello everybody, this is Ahmad reporting from Irvine, CA. Finally managed to take off from works a little earlier yesterday and come to Irvine to visit my cousin Amir and his wife Setareh! Long drive last night (5-6 hours!), it was a lot of fun today though. Watched the Pastry Girl and About Schmidth and went to Caspian for dinner. Funny thing I met Dariush today in Los Angeles. Okay, this is it for tonight. Oh, it's almost three! Happy Chinese new year!

Now, I have see everything! A collection of girls eating sandwiches!

Type in your name to create your personalized picture! (Thanks, Hooman)

Script Generator of Jerry Springer show! Hilarious!

Loved this one! Speeches from the Throne: Actual quotes from president Bush's speeches! (Thanks, Kamyar);

Make a car out of your PC

If you are a man of the road like me, you will love this road sign generator!

Collection of ugliest bridesmaids dresses!

Googlert will check Google daily for a search term of your choice choose and email you when there are new results.