Birthdays, Beta Searches, and Beer...

• Samuel Johnson of dictionary fame turned 300 on the 18th. Happy belated, Samuel. Visit his birthplace and his house.
  
• Google turned 9 (or 10... the facts surrounding its birth are a bit murky.) But let's use Ask instead... it lets you customize with cool skins and its search is solid.
• First click free: Access articles from sites requiring registration or subscription via Google news. Uh, how about all clicks free by using library databases? Not that I'm picking on Google...
  
• Here's something interesting... a new people video search based on face recognition, still in beta.
  
• Zicke, zacke, zicke, zacke, hoi, hoi, hoi! Oktoberfest!