The Google year end Zeitgeist data is out once again this year. The year-end Zeitgeist is a list of the top searches in various categories on Google. Most year’s results are things I’ve at least heard of. This year there were some interesting things on the list that were foreign to me. Hmmm, what should I do about that… I think I’ll Google them.

There were three top search terms this year that I’d never really heard of: Bebo, Radioblog and Rebelde.

• Bebo - Apparently this is a new (?) social networking site that is beginning to jump in popularity. From what I can tell it’s much more popular in the UK and Ireland which is interesting since it is the number one search term for 2006 on Google.
• RadioBlog - This is a flash (php?) player to easily stick audio files into your own website. It looks to be based at RadioBlogClub, where they catalog all the audio made available by RadioBlog users.
• Rebelde - I think this one was made popular by the Spanish-speaking googlers (probably in and ouside the US). Rebelde is a Mexican Telenovela (TV series).

Thank you 2006 Google users for pointing me to some cool tools, though I probably won’t be tuning into Rebelde any time soon.

It has finally happened. I’m now the proud owner of a shiny green iPod Nano. I’ve used iPods since the first one was released way back when (we’ve used a couple of them at work), but haven’t ever had one of my own that I could load up with my music until now. I’ve lovingly named it Lola (she was a showgirl), and after putting it (her?) through its paces for a little over a week now, I’m really happy with it. There were a few things I had to get used to though.

The first thing to go was the headphones. Apple updated their headphone design with the last iPod updates, and from my experience, they’re not that great. First of all, they don’t come with the little spongy covers on them (or at lest mine didn’t) so they’re not that comfortable… maybe it’s just my ears aren’t the right shape. The killer for me though was what they did in cold weather. It’s December in Iowa, so it’s a bit chilly outside. Out in the cold, the wires for the headphones get really stiff and isn’t very flexible which was a bit annoying when walking outside with the iPod. I quickly switched to my previous set of cheap-o ear buds and have been doing fine with those.

The other thing I needed to get used to was having iTunes manage my music. I use iTunes, and have been for quite some time, but I don’t use it as the primary player for mp3’s on my computer. It’s a bit large and bulky to open every time I just want to play a single mp3 (I’m using WinAmp instead). I do use iTunes for PodCasts and when listening to my entire music library though, so it’s not like I had to get used to a new program. What I did have to get used to though was handing over total control of the iPod to iTunes. My previous mp3 player was just a cheapy Sandisk player that showed up as a removable drive when plugged in. All I had to do was drag songs to it to add them. The iPod is a bit different since all the syncing has to be done in iTunes. It took me a little playing to get things set, but I think I’m good to go now. Since the Nano is only 4Gb, and I have more than 4Gb of music in my library, I had to figure out a way to make iTunes only put a portion of my library on it and still leave room for podcasts. What I did (and it’s been working well so far) is create a smart playlist that randomly selects approximately 3.2Gb of music for transfer, leaving me about 800Mb for Podcasts. For the PodCasts, I have it only sync the ones that I select since I like to download more of some podcasts (daily released) than others (weekly released). So far this system has worked pretty well. The only thing I think I’d change about this setup is maybe creating some sort of smart playlist for the PodCasts, but so far things are working the way I want for now.

So far everything has been working great! I need to find another charger though… and maybe one of those cool Nike + iPod running things.

There was a nice musical holiday lights video making the rounds last year. Well, they’re back again this year with another impressive light show.

• Last Year’s Holiday Light Display
• This Year’s Holiday Light Display

Apparently this is a pretty popular thing to do since I ran across a few other lovely displays.

• Another Light Display
• Wizards in Winter Light Display
• Lindsay Lights
• Christmas Lights
• Light Up Xmas

Today Google released a new version of their search too geared specifically to searching the over 7 million patents housed in the U.S. Paten Office. I have to admit, this search is a little bit addictive, and about a million times more user friendly than the one at the patent office site. I think this is interesting in a few ways. First, the novelty of finding weird obscure patents and who owns them. I’m also finding it’s interesting to limit the search by location or by submitter or company. The second aspect of this is that I think it will bring a little more spotlight to the entire patent process here in the U.S., and the recent talk of our system being broken. All this is right on the heels of Goggle’s recent patent on their search results interface, which seems a bit obvious to me. But I’ll let the supreme court figure that one out.

PikiPimp is a quick easy way to pimp your photographs. Just do a quick upload and then drag and drop the various pimp accessories (for lack of a better term) on top of your photo and then watch as zany hijinx ensue. Once you’ve created your pimped out masterpiece, you can easily embed it into your site with a quick copy and paste of some code.

“What do ya th’o't o’ muh new fro an’ da bling bling ah’m wearing? you know das right!”

As I’ve done the past couple years (though a little late this year), I’ve compiled another list of Holiday Gift Guides for that hard-to-buy-for geek on your list this year.

• Photojojo Photo Gifts Roundup
• Uncle Mark Gift Guide and Almanac
• Engadget Holiday Gift Guide
• MAKE Open Source Gift Guide
• Street Tech Holiday Gift Guide
• Federated Media Gadget Gift Guide
• CrunchGear Holidays 2006
• Giftguide - Gizmodo
• cNet Holiday Gift Guide
• Wrapables Holiday Gift Guide
• ThinkGeek Gift Center 2006
• Forever Geek’s Gift guide
• Washington Post Holiday Tech Guide
• ExtremeTech Geek Gift Guide
• Cool Hunting Holiday Gift Guide
• Digital Trends Holiday Gift Guide
• Popgadget - Geek Gift Guide for Women
• The 2007 iPod Buyers’ Guide, by iLounge
• 77 Design Gifts Under $77 (added 12/4)
• Satellite Radio Gift Guide (added 12/8)
• Gifts.com (added 12/11)
• RedHat Geek Gift Guide (added 12/14)
• PVR Gift Guide (added 12/14)
• Uncrate Kid’s & Uncrate Women’s Holiday Gift Guide (added 12/16)

Or, if you get a gift that you don’t need/want… maybe someone else at Regiftable does.

If I run across more, I’ll keep this up to date. Or if you know any others, let me know, and I’ll add ‘em to the list.