Google Makes Docs, Sites and Calendar More Accessible for the Blind

Google docs, sites and calendar have added support for screen readers, software applications that verbally read screen contents, to make Google products more accessible for the blind. These programs include JAWS and ChromeVox; Google calendar will also support VoiceOver.  
"Over the past few months, we’ve worked closely with advocacy organizations for the blind to improve our products with more accessibility enhancements," wrote T.V. Raman, Google technical lead for Google accessibility, on the Google blog.

"We worked with a variety of blind users and advocacy groups across the US and internationally, including...

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Klout Launching Topic Pages on over 10K Topics to Wider Audience

To make Klout a useful destination, Klout is allowing more people to see its over 10K topic pages that show the top 10 influencers in that topic and the content influencers on each topic are discussing, LAUNCH has learned. Klout announced its plan for topic pages in mid-August [ see our story. ]

Klout users who opted into the topic page "perk" last month can preview the pages right now. Tweeting about today's launch can help you get access faster.

"This is a big step for us in turning Klout into more of a utility around search and discover instead of pure vanity of checking your score," CEO Joe Fernandez tells LAUNCH by email. "This is a really early version of where we plan to take this but it speaks to our belief that every person who creates content has influence. Our goal is just to...

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Boom: Domo Team Overhauling App, Will Release in November

[ Domo presentation at LAUNCH conference. ] 

The most memorable pitch at the LAUNCH conference in February came from Tokyo-based Tonchidot, which showed off its Domo app for connecting people based on their location and interests. Founder Takahito Iguchi declared, "Domo, BOOM!"

But Google removed the domo app from the Android Market on March 26 -- less than three weeks after the app launched -- due to a trademark complaint regarding the application in the U.S., and the Apple App Store eventually followed suit. 

LAUNCH has learned that Tonchidot is overhauling the app with...

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Rewardli Is Ecommerce Genius: Small Businesses Earn Cash Rewards That Grow with Their Social Graph

WHAT: Small businesses get discounts at over 60 vendors based on the number of purchases they make and those of their group -- friends on Facebook or an association/program partnering with Rewardli -- up to the max a retailer is willing to give. Group members do not need to buy the same thing at the same time to get the deal, and deals are always "on." Businesses make a purchase through the vendor's regular ecommerce site and receive their discounts as cash back in their PayPal accounts once a month.

Members can be part of more than one group. Those in a private group (e.g., alumni association, frequent flyer program) can get discounts not available to everyone on Rewardli.

Hardware discounts range from 1% to 3% and some web-based services are...

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Finally: YouTube Adds Instagram-like Filters with Help from Picnik Developers

YouTube has updated its existing video editor to include 14 Instagram-like filters and one-click color correction. Users can edit existing videos without losing their video ID, view count and link integrity.

The filters include a black and white, sepia, lomo-ish, thermal, old fashioned, comic book, cinemascope and soften.

YouTube's video editor developers admired fellow Google-owned company Picnik's camera filters so much they worked with Picnik and used some of their code for the YouTube filters...

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