Google Street View Arrives in Taipei

BIG BIG NEWS! Google Street View is HERE in Taipei FINALLY!

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View Larger Map

Only for Taipei central area so far. Drag the little man over the map to see the extent of the coverage. Parts of Taipei county are in there too.

Read earlier Google Street View Post featuring pics of the Street View camera car:
http://blog.islaformosa.com/2009/03/google-street-view-confirmed-for-taipei.html

Digitimes

Forumosa chat

Forumosa Recognizes blog.IslaFormosa.com

I just got an email today that really made my day. After all the effort, Forumosa has recognized my website. I'd just like to thank my followers wherever you may be. Drop me a line if you like what you read!

http://www.forumosa.org/favorites/ (I'm 3rd from the top)

I know I've been delinquent writing lately but I'll be back very soon when I feel the urge.

In the meantime, enjoy my archives of close to 400 entries. Use the SEARCH FUNCTION to find what you'd like or check out my LABELS.

Be sure to also check out Forumosa.com's innumerable posts about just about everything Taiwan.

Taiwan 2008 Zeitgeist

[translated with Google Translate; original text at bottom]

Welcome to the 2008 Taiwan Top Google keyword list!
Raorao have gone through, the event continued a year, users in the Google search keywords, what difference will it make? Continued to lead the wave of online video, "YouTube" crowned as the most popular keyword list; "104" in keeping up, the reaction of an economic downturn, the unemployment rate or frequency, we thirst job; "Gmail" free up more than 7G The space has attracted many domestic users and the use of inquiry; Interestingly, "Taiwan High Speed Rail" and "Taiwan Railway Administration" search beyond the amount of celebrity or popular Web site, occupies the fourth, fifth, showed that the downturn in online travel The public transport network information or the opportunity to increase the booking. In the rapid popularity of the keyword ranking, as a result of events set off rapid popularity keywords, such as drug formula of the "three hydrogen-amine," "Chu Li-Ning" and "Edison", "Ma Ying-jeou" and other issues before itself 5. In addition, the network's famous "Energizer small love", adding fuel to the flames as a result of the network in the world, the highest in the rapid popularity of the keyword in the second. Quick look at 2008, "the most popular keywords" and "rapid popularity of the keywords" list, the current understanding of the dynamics of this year it!

Top ranking keyword search (Fastest Rising)

1. Li Ning Chu
2. Energizer small love
3. Edison
4. Melamine
5. Ma Ying-jeou
6. Diego velázquez
7.2008 Beijing Olympic Games
8. Chrome
9. Large Hadron collision device
10. Pan when Interior Design

Rapid popularity keyword search ranking (Most Popular)

1. Youtube
2.104
3. Gmail
4. Taiwan High Speed Rail
5. TRA
6. Chunghwa Telecom
7. Mobile 01
8. Reunification of the invoice
9. Google map
10. Central Weather Bureau

Top 10 Taiwan News

1. Promontory on the 7th (Cape no.7)
2. Edison events
3. To help Stars
4. Job
5. Taiwan High Speed Rail
6. Cycling
7. Asus
8.591
9. China Trust
10. Predestined I love you

3C annual brand search

1. Asus
2. Apple
3. Hp
4. Sony
5. Acer
6. Nokia
7. Cannon
8. Dell
9. Htc
10. Epson

Person of the Year search ranking

1. Edison
2. Tanaka draw thousands
3. Ma Ying-jeou
4. ANGLE
5. Children & Teng
6. Yang Wei
7. Cecilia Cheung
8. Jay Chou
9. Xu Jiaying
10. Chu Lai Ning

Taiwan's annual tourism attractions search

1. Penghu Lodge
2. Hualien Lodge
3. South of the border
4. Alishan
5. Bora
6. Sun Moon Lake
7. Ilan Lodge
8. Wuling Farm
9. Kaohsiung
10. Hushan sword

歡迎來到2008年Google台灣熱門關鍵字排行榜！

歷經紛紛擾擾、大事不斷的一年，網友們在 Google搜尋的關鍵字又有何不同呢？線上影音持續引領風潮，「YouTube」榮登最熱門關鍵字榜首；「104」緊跟在後，反應經濟不景氣、失業率頻 升，大家求職若渴；「Gmail」免費又高達7G以上的空間，吸引許多國內網友查詢並使用；有趣的是，「台灣高鐵」與「台鐵」的搜尋量超越名人或熱門網 站，佔居第四、第五名，顯示網友在不景氣中搭乘大眾交通運輸資訊或網路訂票的機會增多。在快速竄紅的關鍵字排行方面，因新聞事件引爆的快速竄紅關鍵字，如 毒奶粉「三聚氫胺」、「黎礎寧」、「陳冠希」、「馬英九」等議題，佔居前五名。另外，在網路上聲名大噪的「勁量小愛」，因網路世界的推波助瀾，高居快速竄 紅的關鍵字第二。快看看2008年「最熱門關鍵字」、「快速竄紅的關鍵字」排行榜，了解今年時事動態吧！

熱門關鍵字搜尋排行 (Fastest Rising)

1. 黎礎寧
2. 勁量小愛
3. 陳冠希
4. 三聚氰胺
5. 馬英九
6. diego velázquez
7. 2008 北京 奧運
8. chrome
9. 大型強子對撞器
10. 磐時室內設計

快速竄紅關鍵字搜尋排行 (Most Popular)

1. youtube
2. 104
3. gmail
4. 台灣高鐵
5. 台鐵
6. 中華電信
7. mobile 01
8. 統一發票
9. google map
10. 中央氣象局

台灣十大新聞

1. 海角七號
2. 陳冠希事件
3. 星光幫
4. 求職
5. 台灣高鐵
6. 自行車
7. asus
8. 591
9. 中國信託
10. 命中注定我愛你

年度3C品牌搜尋

1. asus
2. apple
3. hp
4. sony
5. acer
6. nokia
7. cannon
8. dell
9. htc
10. epson

年度人物搜尋排行

1. 陳冠希
2. 田中千繪
3. 馬英九
4. 彎彎
5. 蕭敬騰
6. 楊宗緯
7. 張柏芝
8. 周杰倫
9. 徐佳瑩
10. 黎礎寧

年度台灣觀光景點搜尋

1. 澎湖民宿
2. 花蓮民宿
3. 國境之南
4. 阿里山
5. 寶來
6. 日月潭
7. 宜蘭民宿
8. 武陵農場
9. 高雄
10. 劍湖山

http://www.google.com/intl/en/press/zeitgeist2008/#top

Taiwan Blogger Sausage Fest at onHouse

Was it just me or was that a total sausage fest at onHouse? Oh well, I'm sure my wife can sleep soundly knowing this fact.

A big thanks to Byron, here for an Intel conference, for treating us all to his hospitality at onHouse. Byron is the interesting and active individual who hosted the blogger/techie event attended by a lot of Taiwan's foremost bloggers (myself included) on Sunday, October 19.

Of note in attendance on the Taiwan front:
Byron
http://texturadesign.com/
http://bikehugger.com/

David Reid
blog.taiwan-guide.org

Bushman
http://www.thenhbushman.com
http://www.thenhbushman.com/2008/09/27/bushmans-blogtoberfest/

Matthew from Dahon bikes
http://www.dahon.com

Darren Melrose
http://www.darrenmelrose.com/
http://www.conductorsnotebook.com/

Christopher Lee Adams from Creative Commons
http://creativecommons.org/

Going back to my original festive note, just noticed that there weren't any female bloggers. C'mon you guys! Get your ya-yas out and blog in Taiwan! I know it's Octoberfest and everything so sausages were in order but this was ridiculous!

Anyway, it was good to put a face to the bloggers and chat about tech, biking, Taiwan strangeness, expats, politics and finance.

Cheers Byron and thanks for the gracious door prizes!

What's popular back home?

Fall is here and I need to catch up with what's going on in the English speaking world, especially with the Fall TV season just beginning.

Here are a few of my choices of links to keep up with what's going on if that's your thing:

Bittorrent
http://www.mininova.org/cloud
Find out what most people are looking for in downloads on bittorrent networks. It's not a bad way to know what's hot since the greater searches are written in bolder type.

I usually use Mininova to find my favorite TV shows and use µTorrent to download since it is a small, easy-to-use client.

Music
http://www.google.com/trends/music
As part of Google trends, Google talk keeps track of what people are listening to. You can view by various musical styles.

Movies
http://www.imdb.com/Top/
What are the top box-office movies. Not a great indicator of quality though... You can also research movies by credits and see what movies are in production.
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/
A summary of what critics are saying about movies that are out.
http://www.apple.com/trailers/
See the trailers before anyone else does for upcoming Xmas and summer movies.

Radio
http://www.shoutcast.com/
Listen to radio all over the world with Winamp. Search by musical styles or even comedy and talk shows.

If you have any other ways to keep on top of what's going on back home in your country and care to share it, send the links in!

Flying over Taipei with Google Earth

Imagine flying over Taipei. For free!

Now you can with Google Earth's latest version. While you've been sleeping, that application that was initially intriguing and then lost it's appeal just became the coolest thing again.

It was leaked a few weeks back that Google had hidden a flight simulator in the new Google Earth update.

blogger

Well it's official. The simulator is now easily accessible from the menu. By adding the Sketch Up mock ups of 3D buildings to your view, you can add even more realism.

I'm starting to use it to scope out some potential hikes as well. For now, I'll scout them out in my F-16 (just so you know you have the choice of an F-16 or the considerably slower SR22).

Happy flying everyone! Tell me if you make any new and great finds! Click on the picture to see the view of 101 from above Elephant Mountain.