ResearchBuzz

The Vermont Community Foundation has published the latest version of the Vermont Directory of Foundations in three different ways — printed book, free PDF download, and a free searchable database, now available at http://fdovermont.foundationcenter.org/ .

The actual search form is here; you can search by a variety of factors including grantmaker name, city, field of interest, and type of support. (You can also do a simple keyword search if you like.) Several sorting options are available as well (alphabetical, total giving, and total assets.)

I searched the company name for Foundation and got 278 results. Results are presented in a table showing the name of the grantmaker, city/state, total assets, and total giving. Click on the name of the grantmaker and you’ll get a page of information in a popup window. The page for the Ben & Jerry’s Foundation included notes on the application process, who and what is supported, geographical emphasis (in their case none), examples of causes supported, and so on. There’s a separate tab for links to the latest IRS filings for the organization.

Very speedy. However if you want something to browse, you can go to http://www.vermontcf.org/download-order-vdf and either download the directory for free or order a printed copy for $10.

Jerry Yang now Yahoo CEO. Wubba?

Yes, EVERYTHING. Camera Shutter Life Expectancy Database.

Ask dissects the 3D. In a good way.

OH BOY! More battery recalls!

A Yahoo Pipe for translating RSS feeds. Verrrry nice.

Ultimate RSS Toolbox. Whee!

Wow, Arkansas has the electronic government news going ON.

Gnome Chomsky?

Paying your taxes makes your brain feel good? Also giving to your food bank.

Michigan: Online directories for Farmer Markets and Ag Tourism.

If you’ve used Google Maps to find businesses, you’ll know that it’s had reviews available for businesses for a long time — content that was pulled from other places like CitySearch and Insiderpages. Google has recently announced that you’ll now be able to see user-created reviews at the Web site as well. There’s also a nifty way to see user-created content, but one thing at a time.

First thing: head over to maps.google.com and run a search. I decided I wanted to find a Super 8 near Walla Walla, Washington, therefore “super 8″ walla walla wa Google Maps gave me 129 results (most of them NOT Super 8 motels, but whatever.) Click on the “more info” link beside a listing and you’ll get a map pointer with several tabs providing general information, reviews, Web pages, and photos (there were four photos; three were the same shot and one of them looked like an ivy covered window.) From that window you can click “Write a Review” and provide your own impressions along with a star rating.

At the bottom of the search results you’ll see a “See user-created content” link. Click that and you’ll get links to other Google Maps that incorporate points from your search results, which is kind of cool. For the Walla Walla example I found hotel maps, tourism maps, winery pointers, and a couple of “My Town” type maps. I also found that if you put in a noun or a preference of some sort and then a location you could get very interesting maps. Vegan Chicago was fun. Most of the Google Maps worked, though occasionally the map would be too large to view, formatted incorrectly, or once (in the case of a SmugMug map) couldn’t be found.

I didn’t see too many reviews generated by Google Maps users — Google needs to push that feature I bit. I did enjoy seeing how different locations fit into all kinds of different maps, though!