ResearchBuzz

It’s interesting; I have very little use for a portal page on my computer’s Web browser. But on my cell phone — that’s a different matter entirely! Google has recently made it possible to customize a home page for your cell phone and take it with you; check it out at http://www.google.com/ig/cp.

If you’ve ever used Google’s custom home page form you know how it works; there’s a page with modules on it which you can click and drag around. In the case of the mobile phone customization the regular home page is on the right with modules on it. On the left is a picture of a phone screen. Click an drag the modules you want onto the phone screen. I don’t see a way to explore more modules to add to the phone; is what’s on the screen it? (Modules there include weather, top stories, New York Times headlines, etc.)

Once you’ve got the phone screen the way you want it (it’ll expand vertically as you add more modules, which is really odd, but ignore that) you can get to it by doing one of two things. First way is to go to http://google.com/ig on your cell phone’s browser. That’ll prompt you to log into your Google account and get to your personalized page.

The second way is to give Google your cell phone number and your carrier, and Google will send you the URL of your phone! Which is actually http://google.com/ig, so it’s the same thing as typing in the URL directly except you save a few seconds.

I would really enjoy a portal page on my phone. I would enjoy it a lot more if there were more modules available than the ones I was looking at; surely that isn’t all there is to it?

Hey: follow your bliss. And if your bliss is antique fishing lures, so be it. Mr. Lurebox, at http://www.mrlurebox.com/, contains information about and pictures of hundreds — yes, hundreds — of antique fishing lures. What I know about fishing you could carve on a neuron with a number-ten nail, but this guy is so interested he gets YOU interested.

Go ahead and start with the main reference page at http://www.mrlurebox.com/navigation.htm . Here you’ll get a listing of the major lure companies, and beneath that a giant listing of more minor tackle companies.

I looked at one of the majors, Coldwater. I got a page with a table listing a dozen different lures, from the Eureka Wiggler to the Eureka King. Each lure has an extensive description (including notes about the box, date information, distinctive markings on the lure, etc.) and a picture. Clicking on the picture takes you to a slightly larger picture in its own page.

(Some of these lure designs — removing the hooks, of course — would make nice USB flash drives.)

In addition to the company manufactured lures, there’s also a page dedicated to handmade lures on this site. And, of course, Mr. Lurebox buys antique fishing lures. Interested in collecting yourself? Check out his tips for beginners.

I knew sites like YouTube and the various search engine video offerings were taking off, but I became convinced they were headed mainstream when I started getting a lot of press releases about specialty video sites. Like Petfinder’s new PetVideo.com (http://petvideo.com/ ), which features video about — you guessed it — pets.

When I first read the press release I groaned, thinking of endless “America’s Funniest Home Video” stuff where cats fall off the back of chairs, dogs skid all over slick kitchen floors, etc. (Whee.) Instead, PetVideo aims to educate pet owners.

There’s a nav for video by category on the left side of the page, with topics including cat and dog training (with several subcategories), food and nutrition, and health. (If you are looking for funny animal videos, there’s also an “Incredible Pets” category with a “funny” subcategory. Don’t miss the beagle who spins for his dinner.)

Each subcategory (13 videos for litterbox training alone!) Contains extensive descriptions of the video, its rating, and the number of times it’s been viewed. The video pages themselves (videos load very quickly!) have an area for comments and a space for you to rate the video. The user-submitted videos vary, but the ones created by PetVideo seem to be between 1 and 2 minutes long and are nicely produced.