More Than a Test Score

It’s a classic game of “King of the Mountain” and Google has been securely on top for some time. It is said Microsoft is willing to spend upwards of 100 million in advertising dollars to promote its overhauled search engine to regain some of Google’s market share. You may ask “where does one begin to spend this kind of money?”

Microsoft launched Bing spending money just like they would for any Windows OS or Xbox game console. Offering customers cash back to search on Bing, the “decision engine” commercials we have all seen, and even sealing deals with HP, Dell, and Verizon Smart Phones to be the default search engine of those devices.  However their are many that will argue that the natural buzz Bing is receiving is not because of any of these efforts but because of the viral social media campaigs it has around it.  Who hasn’t heard the Bing jingle winner?  A contest for $500 to the person who could create the best Bing jingle.  The winner Jonathan Mann has had his video featured on every major news site on the web.

Bing continues to try and create buzz with the hot web social components.  They have bingtweets.com a new site still in beta that finds trends and buzz words on the internet and provides live twitter streams for them.  Their YouTube channel has over 60k views now and almost 1k subscribers.  Bing was even first to the race and beat Google in adding tweets to its search engine.  While it only adds tweets every several minutes of users it deems important it is a feature that is still developing and will be interesting to see how it evolves.  Searching for @guykawasaki or Guy Kawasaki on Twitter shows the following type results:

Will Bing start to take market share from the giant that Google has grown to be the question still remains.  Be sure to stay up to date on all the latest buzz on Bing over at our friends TechCrunch.com.

The battle is on and Facebook has just entered the ring again. With Facebook’s search tool, having been somewhat behind the times in comparison to Twitter, is good to see that they are coming back and swinging hard at their competition.

Search Changes

The new search tool will give users the ability to do the following:

• Search through shared media and status updates from their friends and the Pages they follow
• Click through different tabs, allowing them to jump between different categories, much as you would jump between Friends List on the Facebook News Feed
• Search the Web with results now showing as a filter, rather than on their own page

Here are our lucky Chegg $500 Textbook scholarships:

For the Class of 2013, Alzen Santos and Dean Niven.  For the Upperclassmen Scholarship, Nancy Tang, a 2012 graduate.

Here is a little something on them.

“I was given the name Alzen because of my godmothers. They helped with the delivery and I was named after them. I am very interested in chemistry and mathematics. I enjoy watching movies, reading books, and creating art pieces. I am very honest, aware, and studious even though sometimes I go a bit overboard with the studying. I have an odd fascination of bugs and water. I tend to imagine myself converting water into thin ice. I enjoy the company of my friends and family especially my brother since we are polar opposites of one another and it makes our conversations more interesting.”

“Life is all about living your passion. For me it was soccer. I did not make it at the college level after try outs. I had to step back and decide where do I go now in life? My other passions are helping others, history, and the military. So I decided to do all these. I’m a freshmen at Arizona State, Major Psychology. ROTC cadet, Sun Devil Battalion, first year, and Army Reserve on delayed entry. I never stop setting goals and accomplishing them. I plan to use my degree in Psychology to help those who can not afford counseling.”

“I am an average everyday girl that is also very versatile. I love most things and I love to do many things also. I am very open to new things and ideas while also loving completely opposite things. I think I am a really hard working person and I really try to strive for the best for myself. Sometimes I may be down or I may be going through some troubles, but I always try to see the best of things and I try to improve. I love to have fun but I also know where my priorities lie. I wish to do many things in life and I want to be really successful. I want to be the best person I can be.”

Congratulation to our winners and big thanks to our sponsor, Chegg.com, who is bringing all students a great way to save on textbooks.

Look out Nintendo Wii with high tech motion sensing and the use of a 3-D depth camera to capture your movements Project Natal from Microsoft has you living the game.

Project Natal has a new game-control scheme where you use your body to control what happens in a game. You don’t even have to leave home to ride your very own skateboard. Project Natal has a function where you can scan your skateboard into the game and use it to ride.

The technology unfortunately won’t be available until 2010 but it sure is something to look forward to. Especially when there is nothing else out there like it!

Learn even more about Project Natal here.

Yet another student we had the great opportunity to help out by matching her scholarship she found on Zinch! Her name is Elena Stachew and she is a HUGE Zinch fan.

What do you like most about Zinch?
I like the profile you are able to create on Zinch. Your profile is more than just a list of test scores, grades and classes you’ve taken. It shows a bit of your personality, your tastes, and your dreams as well. I also like how Zinch is more than just a scholarship search engine; it’s a peer networking system. You can help other friends out with their scholarship searches, and you can meet others all over the country through their profiles on Zinch.

What was your reaction when you found out you won the Clarence L. Remynse Scholarship?
I was extremely excited! The day the papers were due for the scholarship, it sounded like over 75 people just in my school had applied for the scholarship. And this was just my school; when this scholarship was applicable to the entire county!  Once I was chosen as a considered applicant, I was extremely surprised. But it wasn’t over yet. The process of being selected as a finalist was agonizing; first one was chosen as a considered applicant, then as a semifinalist, and finally a finalist where you knew you had won the scholarship. When that happened, it was so happy. The amount of money I received from this scholarship helped with my first year tuition costs significantly.

What do you wish you had known when you first started your scholarship search?
I wish I had known about scholarships earlier. I never realized how long some scholarship applications take, and how perfect it seems the applications need to be. I also wish I would have known about Zinch earlier; I would have found much better scholarships that pertain to my personality and academic goals.

What are your college plans?
I am attending Case Western Reserve University next fall. I plan on majoring in materials science engineering with a concentration in polymer science engineering. I’d like to minor in Spanish, Cognitive Science and Plant/Animal Sciences as well.

What do you do on a rainy day?
I love dancing in the rain and puddle-jumping. But after getting all soaked and getting a warm shower, I like watching movies. I love comedy and science fiction movies.

How are you more than a test score?
I am whoever I want to be. Right now, I consider myself a scientist, an optimist, a thinker, an idealist, an extrovert and a mentor. Whatever I am, I will always be more than a test score.

Elena wishes she had started on Zinch earlier. You too can get your scholarship matched. So, what are you waiting for? Scholarship Matching!