Kaizen and the Nipponster Japan Toolbar

Kaizen, Baby!
We are trying to make the Nipponster Japan Toolbar better and better all the time

Kaizen (改善) - continuous improvement

If you are out of the loop when it comes to our Japan Toolbar, and the cool tools we've been working on, check out this previous post: Free Internet Broadcast Japanese TV!

And it you haven't downloaded it yet DO IT NOW! --> Nipponster Japan Toolbar download page. We think you will thank yourself for it later ;)

The Nipponster Japan Toolbar is the first Japan Toolbar, the first Japan-enthusiasts toolbar. It is the first toolbar to bring all the gadgets a Japan-enthusiast needs together in one place: Japanese dictionaries, Kanji cards, free Japanese typing software (Japanese language support), language practice, radio language lessons, 24 hour Japanese TV, and all kinds of useful links. And don't forget Nipponster Search (the first Japan-related search engine).

So how did we improve a toolbar so chocked full of goodies?
We've added three cool new things to the Japan Toolbar:

1. More new free Japanese internet TV links
2. A web app that let's you type in Japanese without software
3. Cool gadgets from Labpixies

New free Japanese TV channels:
We've added Impress TV, Channel J, Biglobe, and NHK (English & Japanese). Here is a screenshot:



Type in Japanese without software:
A great tool to use if you do not have a Japanese OS and you don't have (or don't want to install) Japanese typing software.
It is a good idea to bookmark this link (http://ajaxime.chasen.org/index.html) on Google bookmarks, etc. (or save it somewhere like in your gmail). Here is why: Let's say you take a little trip to Australia and midway through your trip you need to email someone in Japanese. But there's a problem, none of the PCs available have Japanese typing software. Not good. But wait, now all you have to do is visit this link and you can type in Japanese without installing software! Awesome.
Here is a screenshot:



Cool gadgets from Labpixies:
There are a lot of gadget goodies but the best in my book is Labpixie TV. This is probably of more interest to foreigners in Japan, whereas the Japanese TV is interesting to people outside of Japan. Missing TV from home? LabPixie TV has programmable TV stations. Click on the first button on the right and it will take you to their website where you can choose your channel,... by country!
Screenshot:



They even have some Japanese stations on there but it is all user submitted and some of the .asp links (streaming tv links) may have been changed. They seem to get changed pretty often, that is why in our tv section we link to the homepages too.

Well, that's it for now. What's next? Video search?! (uh. oh. looks like I let the cat out of the bag...) Stay Tuned!!

And let us know what you think by giving us some feedback!
We do it for you, the Japan-enthusiasts.

-Tori

Advert policy - Why there will be no banners on Nipponster.com

D.B.E.

We were contacted via email recently by a company that offers popular advertising solutions for websites. To reap a profit from it, the service would likely require the posting of banners on this site.

Though this particular company's service seems to be becoming ubiquitous on sites with a focus similar to ours, we declined them.

We were congenial in all of our correspondence with them and although we declined we even offered to interview them on our new blog Daily J (because we think their service is ok, it's just not for us). But there was no reply...

So I am sure that declining their offer certainly won us no friends in that company but we have
to stick to our guiding principle:
"Does this make things better for Japan-enthusiasts?"

In this case we decide that the answer was "NO" for two reasons:

1. It would distract from the purpose of Nipponster. That purpose is to quickly give our users only the information they are looking for. Not the clutter they are not looking for.




2. The service is a "freemium". It's free for the basic functions but if you want to get the full service you have to pay a fee. There's nothing wrong really with freemiums, but Nipponster was started with the goal that everything we provide we provide 100% free.

In the end we are crazy dreamers, right? So regardless of any monetary benefit we would have reaped we would not and will not give up our dream and our principles.

We hope that is clear to everyone and I personally hope that will never change.

So how are we doing?

Our goal is "to make the web a better place for Japan-enthusiasts."

That statement is the standard we use to make decisions.

Ex: Like when we started the Nipponster Japan Project - Japanopedia.org. There are many sites that have directories of Japan-related websites. But those directories are put together by their respective webmasters. Instead, keeping our standard in mind, we decided to give the power to create to everyone. We don't own the Japanopedia wiki. Everyone owns it. And as everyone can contribute the encyclopedia has the potential to cover much more than any other directory. And that is good for Japan-enthusiasts.

That example is just one of a number of projects and services we have started working on to accomplish our goal.

But are we accomplishing it? How are we doing?

We want your feedback and we want to find new ways to better communicate with you about our projects and what you think of them.

-Tori

A New Blog. A New Day for Japan-enthusiasts...

Ok. Perhaps that title is a bit melodramatic. :D

What is this all about?

It's simple (but very exciting), we are starting a new blog.

It is exciting because this new blog will have a unique purpose.
A purpose that we hope will be beneficial to all Japan-enthusiasts.

The blog will showcase the people, the sites, and the projects that are making the web a better place for Japan-enthusiasts!

And here is the part we are really excited about:
It will not only feature information about them. Oh No. It will be full of behind the scenes, exclusive interviews with the people themselves!

These are the people who are bringing you unique views of Japan, amazing experiences, solid advice, great language tools and materials, and all the wonders a J-enthusiast could ever ask for!

In this blog we will also go in-depth into projects that are producing free resources for the benefit of all. We plan to interview wikipedia and wikibooks editors who are heavily involved in creating free entries and even free Japanese language textbooks!

Your window (or better yet, x-ray) into Japan on the web.

So consider this your official welcome (from your buddies James, Keitaro, and Tori) to...

A New Day For Japan-enthusiasts!
And a new interview everyday
On









(Set to launch, September 7th 2007. What a tease!)

Bringing Japan to the world!

In talking to Japan-related blogger and web site owners we meet a lot of people with similar goals/interest.

What are the similar goals?


To Bring Japan to the World!

That is really cool goal I think, because many people are fascinated by Japan.


There is a mystery and curiousity about Japan.

And Japan-related blogs and websites give them the window. A window to see Japan.

Each blog/site has unique message and they are each beautiful.

Their beauty needs to get out so that more people can see it.


That is why Nipponster is dedicating itself to developing new exciting ways to promote those blogs and websites.

Maa, I cannot tell you about specifics yet, ne.

But we will let you know more in a few days!

Stay posted,

~~Keitaro

How Japanese Search Engines Work :P

"Every Morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up.
It knows it must run faster than the fastest lion or it will be killed.
Every morning a lion wakes up.
It knows it must outrun the slowest gazelle or it will starve to death.
It doesn't matter whether you are a lion or a gazelle.
When the sun comes up, you better start running."
- African Proverb


On that note, this is "How Japanese Search Engines Work" HEHEHE :P




(It's little dodgy at end)
I think this is perfect video for Nipponster because we are Japan-enthusiast search engine. And we are learning whether we are "a lion or gazelle" to be successful we better start running (update quicker, release new thing quicker).


Thank you all for continued support,
Keitaro

"A Healthy Disregard For The Impossible!" And Thanks For Your Support

I've been feeling a little depressed lately.

When others look down on what you are doing it can really shake your confidence, especially when it is a family member. I'm suffering such an attack on my confidence. My father thinks that Nipponster is a waste of time. And I almost succumbed to his opinion (posting less, webmonkeying less, and brainstorming less with Keitaro and James) but recently we got some really great feedback that perked me up again.

We appreciate all feedback (please give us feedback!!) good, bad or ugly. Actually, especially ugly as that helps us improve.

That said, I suppose that there are few greater pleasures for a webmaster than to receive this kind of positive feedback:

"It's been a while since I've last contacted you, but since I haven't exactly had
a chance to explore the full capacities of Nipponster, it would have been without
use anyway. Recently, researching materials fora biography about Abe Kobo, I
found Nipponster very useful. Websites not even displayed when searched for at
Google or other engines, popped upfirst or second at Nipponster, with useful
information to boot. I guess my point is, a job well done, and keep up the good
work. I'll do my share by getting Nipponster acquainted with as many people as
possible.

Sincerely yours,

Naikou, aka Christian"

This kind of completely unsolicited feedback excites me and I am glad that I have helped to create something useful. And I am also flattered that he put a link to Nipponster on his blog that reads "What I deem necessary." Wow my head just grew two sizes :)

Here is another one, a review that another blogger gave us:

Just added the Nipponster - Japan
enthusiasts search engine search box to the site. It's basically google for
Japanese web sites. Under the search box is a recent searches cloud for
something random if your bored. They have a blog which has loads of interesting info about their site, links, searches ect. Also worth a donwload is their own tool bar, which has loads of cool links pre-installed such as live streaming tv and radio, blogs,
lessons an loads of other Japanese related stuff. So check out Nipponster it's perfect for Japanese freaks and geeks!

http://j-culture.blogspot.com/2007/04/nipponster.html

Again, head growing. But back to reality, the fact that there are a bunch of projects yet less than half finished and A LOT of promotion still to do ought to shrink my melon back down to size :)

Thank you guys and the others of you out their who have been so supportive! You are what keeps us going!

And now, revitalised, it is time to DREAM...

It is time for "A Healthy Disregard For The Impossible!"

If case you haven't heard, Nipponster is dedicated to better organising and enhancing ALL of the Japan-related information on the web.


That statement may sound ridiculous to some, and even more ridiculous when they hear that there are currently only three of us running Nipponster.

But I don't care if it is ridiculous. And I don't care if people think we are stupid or foolish.

Like Don Quixote (the literary character not the Japanese chain store :) we are chasing the impossible dream!

And now for a lesson from Larry Page:

“Google was started when Sergey and I were Ph.D students at Standford University in computer science,” Page began to explain, “and we did not actually know what we wanted to do. I got this crazy idea that I was going to download the entire Web onto my computer. I told my advisor that it would only take a week. After a year or so, I had some portion of it.” The students laughed.
“So optimism is important,” he went on. “You have to be little silly about the goals you are going to set. There is a phrase I learned at college called, ‘Having a healthy disregard for the impossible’” Page said. “That is a really good phrase. You should try to do things that most people would not.” - THE GOOGLE STORY by David A. Vise and Mark Malseed

And so we will trek on, doing the things most people would not...
Taking on the enormous challenge of "making the web a better place for Japan-enthusiasts"

-TOrI

We've Been Quiet. Here's Why...

We have been working a lot of different things here.

For ONe:

We've been tinkering with a new "hot search archive" program that we think will pretty cool.


Um, I know you are waiting for me to show a picture or post a link to it but...
It isn't ready yet ...
(That was hard to say)


Also we've been brainstorming and working on our wiki project. It is going to be big!
Let me give you the gist of the concept now:

Imagine a wikipedia for Japan-related sites; An encyclopedia filled with "about pages" describing all of the Japan-related sites online.

That is basically the idea behind the project. Or at least one pillar of the project.

We want the project to also be a center for people to organise projects to improve Japan-related content online.

And the URL to this new project is at....

Sorry, I can't release that URL yet.

Ah, what the heck, it's

http://jproject.wikia.com

But let me warn, there is barely anything there yet. So be patient with us, we still have a lot of work to do.

-Tori

(so much work, so little time...)

Free Internet Broadcast Japanese TV!

Extra! Extra! Nipponster Japan Toolbar just got better!

What can be better than FREE JAPANESE TV?

Free Japanese TV right on your browser!

To our loyal users:
We are dedicated to making
the Nipponster Japan Toolbar the BEST toolbar of Japanese language and entertainment resources available!

We have recently made some improvements to it.

In case you haven't downloaded it and taken it for a spin yet, it is located here.


It has Japanese internet broadcast tv stations available at the click of a button, so you can passively practice Japanese while surfing the net (or just enjoy the show).

Here is a preview of one of the free Japanese tv broadcasts!


It has Japanese internet radio stations (some with Japanese language lessons), jim breen's dictionary, and other language tools, etc. etc.

It let's you search for info about that Japanese Pop Idol (for example) that you love using Nipponster Search; from anywhere on the net!



We have been making little improvements to it here and there. We tweaked the rikai function and added Japanese text functions from Open Japan and a search Wikipedia function. All of those open up in little toolbar windows where you can type in your search etc. without having to go to the page (saving you time and hassle).

So if you haven't, TRY IT OUT!

-Tori
p.s. We are also tinkering with more features like more free Japanese TV channels, easier dictionary search functions, and later on a user chat box. All part of the mission to make the web a better place for Japan-enthusiasts!

Stone Soup and the Nipponster Japan Project

Have you ever heard the story "Stone Soup"?


The old folktale seems to have different versions but basically it goes like this:

Their was a man with nothing but a pot and a hunger for soup. He puts a stone into the pot of water and tells everyone passing by that it is the most delicious soup but all that it is missing is their ingredient. One puts in a carrot, another a potato, etc. until it becomes a great soup. None of them could have made that soup with only their own item. All benefited from a much tastier soup when it was finished.

In the same way we have nothing but a hunger to make a great soup, a great soup of resources. But like the man in the story we have nothing, all we have is a stone (our feeble abilities) and a pot of water (a new wikipedia-like wiki). But we are convinced that by bringing all of the bloggers, webmasters, and general internet users who are passionate about Japan together around a common goal we can make better resources for all.

That is the concept behind the Nipponster Japan Project. We will be announcing the start of this project in the upcoming weeks. We look forward to working on this project with all who are interested. And we would love to chat with you. So, if you just cannot wait to know more, contact us.

Mission: Enhance and Improve Japan-related content on the web!

If you have read some of our other posts or communicated with us via email you may know that we are dedicated to improving the Japan-related content available online amd making it more accessible.

We want to be the Google (and wikipedia) of Japan-related content, with a similar focus on transparency and "Don't Be Evil" (Google's motto).

We want to make the web a better place for Japan-enthusiasts

So we are anxious to spearhead various projects to accomplish that.

For example we want to form a group of contributors and improve the Japanese language textbooks on wikibooks.

We plan to organise these projects through a Wikia wiki. We just requested one to day, waiting for apporoval...

-Tori

Helping Foreigners in Japan

One of the most important goals of Nipponster.com is to help foreigners in Japan (and people interested in visiting, studying, or living in Japan in the future).

I know from personal experience that adjusting to life in Japan is very difficult at the beginning (even regardless of speaking ability). Some have lived in Japan for years and still find it difficult (If you don't understand that you probably haven't lived there long enough yet :)

We hope to make things easier for would-be and current "gaijin" and any feedback and ideas about how we can do that better are extremely appreciated (contact us)

I found this video about getting around in Japan (below). It's a little cheesy (in a cute way) at points but I think it's very good and this kind of video theme could be very useful for foreigners.

-Tori

The Revolution Will Not Be Televised!

That's right!

The revolution will not be televised.

It will not be on C-SPAN, CNN, or NBC

The revolution will not be brought to you by FoX

With special news breaks about Britney Spears' shaved head.

Because the Revolution will not be televised... :)

We want to revolutionise the way you find Japanese content on the web!

Nipponster's Mission?

To organise and enhance All of the Japan related content on the web,

making the web a better place for Japan-Ethusiasts!

Find out how:

Nipponster's Personality :)

Nipponster "Social" Search
Nipponster Toolbar
Nipponster Labs
Nipponster Hot Search Archive

And if you are a blogger or webmaster, Nipponster wants to help YOU. So Contact Us

What is different about Nipponster search?

Nipponster search engine is the Japan enthusiast's search engine. Have you ever felt that it's difficult to find specific Japan related info on general search engines like google? Nipponster makes it possible.

How are we different?...

• Focus: A Nipponster search is filtered to return results that are specifically Japan-related.
  




• Interactivity: Nipponster search is "social search" which means that users HELP decide which are the most relevant results. So the results are more relevent than JUST computer generated results (of course we have moderators making sure that sites really are relevent). Clarification: results start as computer generated results and then are adjusted by user voting.
• Vote! You help decide which sites are the most important by voting for them in the search results.
  



• Community: Search will never be the same! Now you can discuss search topics with other users! Just click on "Write your own result" on the top of the search page.
  



• Support: Need help finding something? Have a question you cannot find the answer to? Just click on "Ask the community for help" and ask a fellow Nipponster!
  

About Nipponster

We


We have to come clean and confess that we are big Google groupies. We love Google and since imitation is the biggest form of flattery (or however that saying goes) we are endeavoring to imitate its greatness and it's motto: "Don't Be Evil"

Our mission is "to organize and enhance ALL of the Japan-related content available online."
We want to make Japan-related content easily accessible and easier for you to play with.

The Nipponster Search Engine has a number of features that do just that.

In addition to the search engine we are working on a powerful tagging and rating system that will let you discuss and rate content, websites, and articles). The prototype for this is the current hot search archives.

There is also our Nipponster toolbar; bringing power tools (like Rikai, jim Breen's dictionary, flashcards, and audio lessons) together with entertainment (like TV and radio internet broadcasts) to make an easy to use language resource.

We plan to improve on these things (you can help by giving feedback) and bring you a lot more.


Keep an eye on us because we are moving along and will keep rolling out new stuff.
We do it for you, the Japan-enthusiasts of the world.
-Tori