Where the action is

Hi All,

Just another quick update. As mentioned before this blog is suspended for now.

Instead all of the action will be on DailyJ

ALSO
Anyone who wants to contribute to Nipponster development can check out the new Nipponster Lab on the JapanLabs social networking site!
See you there!

Improvements to the Nipponster Japan Toolbar

In keeping with our efforts to continually improve the Nipponster Japan Toolbar we have just added two new features! Take them for a spin and let us know your thoughts.

1, We have added a "JapanSoc It" button that allows you to submit a URL to JapanSoc (a digg.com-clone for Japan-related news).

2, We've added Nipponster Video Search to the search box. So now you can search the major video sites for Japan-related videos... right from your browser!

Two easy steps:

1. click on the black arrow in the search box
2. select "Nipponster video search" and click go

What you have to see to believe!

I have a fever and the only prescription is more VIDEO!





If you missed it on the front page, I would like to present to you Nipponster Video Search!

All Japan-related videos, all the time.

Take it for a spin!















Here's a screenshot of the search results page:





You can watch the videos right on the search results page!

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

Stay Tuned!

I was super excited today.
I just finished the major work I had to do on some improvements we are making to the toolbar.

I will be posting more about that soon. Good stuff it is.

We are also cooking up some fun with the search engine.
Something new and exciting.

So do as the title and please stay tuned!

Giving the "hot search archive" a makeover

The rest of this week we'll be working on giving the hot search archive a new look.

We plan to change the template to something that better matches the rest of Nipponster.

RepeKanji on the Nipponster Japan Toolbar

We just added something new to the Japan toolbar

It is pretty cool.

Videos teaching 50 kanji each, so you can study 50 kanji a week.

It's ...















For those who already have the Nipponster Japan Toolbar <--(link to post with demo), you can find these videos on your toolbar by going to "Japan Links" --> "Learning Kanji and Kana" --> "Repe Kanji"












If you haven't downloaded the Nipponster Japan Toolbar yet you can Download it now

The Nipponster Japan Toolbar (w/ Free Japanese TV!)

It is the first and (hopefully always will be) best toolbar of Japan-Enthusiasm! It is the Japan-Enthusiast's toolbar.
And we are constantly looking for ways to improve it for you, because... we want to make the web a better place for all you Japan-Enthusiasts

We love you guys,
-Tori

p.s. Leave a comment on this post and let us know how we can improve the Japan toolbar!

IMPORTANT NOTICE

On July 4-5, Nipponster may experience periodic outages due to maintenance. We apologize for the inconvenience and thank all of you for your patience.

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!

Title: Cool New Hot Search Archive (modelled after Digg) released early... or Fail, Fail Again, Fail Better!

hehe. I like that title :)

Okay. This is what all of the hubub is about.
We just released a new "Hot Search Archive" running on some very powerful CMS! -- that stands for content management system












So look for this button on the search page (or click on it here is ok too I guess, yeah?)


It is like Digg. You can rate and comment on old hot searches AND

You can suggest new hot searches!

If your suggestion gets enough votes (or if you brown-nose the administrators...lalala, didn't hear it from me),
your hot search will be added to the hot searches on the site.
TO SUBMIT:

1. Go to the archive site and register
2. After you have registered, click on "suggest a new hot search" link
3. And then follow the instructions
4. Let us know if you have trouble
   

Have fun with the new feature and as always we love your feedback (good, bad and ugly). Which reminds me...

FAIL, FAIL AGAIN, FAIL BETTER!

This is our new motto as far as new releases with Nipponster. If you've got time to burn read this previous post :)

We know that we are going to make mistakes but we don't want to fear them we will learn from them. And we hope you will point them out to us.

-Keitaro

New Link on Homepage and To Err Is Human

We were all excited about posting the "Don't Link To Us" page (at the bottom of the homepage).

If you check out that page you will see graphics that you can use (or text links) on your blog or website to promote Nipponster, if you were so inclined :)

But the really useful thing I believe is the searchbox that gives your readers Japan related results.

We have mixed feelings about making this kind of promote us page because if you want to promote us you will because you find what we are doing useful or you relate to us. So we sqwabbled about it but in the end we went ahead an put it because if someone genuinely wants to promote us we want to make it easy for them.

SO,
I posted the link to the page on the main site, and we all rejoiced. And then I checked out the link today on my computer at work... (spoiler: bad news below)

I had erred and the CSS (if you're not a web nerd that is web code that defines the design of a page) was not right, so the page looked awful with big purple borders around the pictures :(

Like this:

Uggggly!

To err they say is human, but to forgive is divine
-Tori

p.s. If you look at that page and it looks ugly like I mentioned send me an email and mention what brower (internet explorer, firefox, etc.) you are using, and the version of it. Thanks. You make us great!