Entries Tagged 'Interesting Recent Finds' ↓

Someone pointed this out to me and I thought it was worth a good chuckle. Google’s suggestion script is either wishing really bad things on us or having fun:

Here’s another …

Have any good things to type in for weird suggestions? Comment below with what to type.

There’s no secret that Microsoft is trying everything they can to reach Google’s level when it comes to search, while Google is trying everything they can to reach Microsoft’s level in everything else. I don’t think either have come close to taking over the others areas of expertise.

Microsoft’s new “decision engine”, BING, is their latest attempt to attract more search users and hopefully some of the advertising that comes with it. The results, to me, seem almost just like Google’s results, just with a bit more fluff involved.

Usually when Microsoft launches these new attempts, it seems Google doesn’t do much to react…except this time. According to the New York Post, Sergey has jumped in to run a team of the top cats to improve their search engine.

Since I read this story, I’ve been paying closer attention to the Google feed and they are having a lot of “improvements” popping out faster than normal.

• Page Speed
• SEO Starter Guide in 40 Languages (trying to keep the SEO people on their side..smart)
• Message Forwarding
• Complete Overhaul of Webmaster Tools Dash
• Update to Sitemaps

Then today I was doing a search and noticed they are labeling listings in their SERP’s that are forums. They are giving the total number of “posts” and total number of “authors“. I actually kind of like this because if you’re looking for help with something like a computer issue, I usually look for forum url’s but you never know what you’ll get until you open it. Now I can find the listings that are busier with the expectation of finding a solution. Here’s a screen shot:

The one thing I haven’t tested yet is when they show a listing that might be page 10 of 200 within a thread. Does it count the number of authors for the entire thread? Or is it just page specific?

Have you tried BING yet? I have to admit it’s kind of nice. Catchy name, results are very similar to Google and while they still have some kinks to work out, I think it has some advantages over Google.

Whether BING does well or not, at least they’re keeping Google from becoming complacent with their search product.

All you need is a “smart meter” that allows Google to tap into your energy usage and they’ll tell you where you can save money based on consumption.

I have to give it to Google…they sure do have some smart people that come up with unique ideas. Go read more about PowerMeter over at their .org site.

Next on the invention table? Keyboards for your computer that read your fingerprints so online billing information is no longer needed. You go to a shopping cart and they know who you are already. The project will then turn into small electrical currents that are sent through the keys into the human body where they can read your brain and index your entire life.

Analytics is a necessary part of any online marketing campaign, right? Of course it is. And as the online marketing industry grows, so should the level of sophistication in which we analyze our data. I’m certainly guilty of relying on what I’ll refer to as “status quo” metrics, meaning; I’m only paying attention to data that I’ve always considered to be important…not much else.

I was recently enlightened by a long-time friend and business associate who I believe has a truly unique approach to mining useful data and presenting eye-opening questions that have not been asked previously. The company is called DatabaseDNA and while it’s evident that this is not a web design or marketing firm; the nuts & bolts of what they actually provide is fascinating. One of the company’s owners, Tom Kapurch, has graciously offered to take on a few “pro bono” projects just to show the world what DatabaseDNA is capable of so we took the bait. And so can you, if you’re interested.

But let’s hear it straight from the horses mouth, shall we? I asked Tom for his description of DatabaseDNA and here’s what he had to say…

A better way of determining “what is important to know.”

Webster’s defines the word intelligence as the ability to learn … or deal with new or trying situations, or reason … and the skilled use of reason (and) the ability to apply knowledge to manipulate one’s environment or to think abstractly.

You won’t find a strict definition of business intelligence in Webster’s but when you search the term on the internet you will be directed to a variety of very sophisticated product sites powered by Microsoft, IBM, Cognos and SAS, to name a few.

A review of their products and services will offer terms such as analytics, dashboards, scorecards, data mining, corporate performance management (CPM) and predictive analysis. And, as you search the resources of many companies you will learn many of their collective human resources reflect expertise with these systems. But … do they necessarily have the capability or experience to provide real intelligence or the capacity to provide the abstract knowledge hidden within the data and present these as actionable information?

To the best of our knowledge, our service provides the most unique analytical approach to business intelligence development. It relies on combined technology applications used in government intelligence traffic analysis, consumer and B2B marketing research, operations research and statistical quality control. The related SW program is designed to effectively integrate with any legacy or even desk top system.

With knowledge gained through patterns we call “information emergence” and trends that rely on a unique data measurement and metric development algorithm that goes beyond ‘static,’ conventional statistics, our process uses an experimental AND exploratory method for data mining and “on the fly” analytics. We further provide a highly visual output, whose displays lend to distributed cognitive understanding and consequent tasking in the decision-making process.

One of the most salient features of our process is its dependence on the effective identification of a ‘mid’ or ‘operational level’ of information (between a level of strategy and tactics) with an objective ‘categorization’ of data at this mid level.

This critical elements in this process to optimize decision-making at multiple, integrated management levels to:

1. Reduce dependence on management’s (often times) faulty perception of specific information’s value and relevance,
2. Provide improved specifications for information management and data collection and storage rules, and
3. Spread and reduces risk across key decision nodes at multiple levels of business management.

Our analytics process is not designed to replace legacy HW and SW systems that do an effective job of collecting, storing and distributing large volumes of data.

It is an effective tool to improve the use of these resources to gain a better understanding of “what is important to know.”

So what does that really mean? In short, it means that you can give these guys data of any type and they can tell you things about it that you never knew. I’m not really able to share the capacity in which we used DatabaseDNA, but I can tell you that we were deeply enlightened in a few areas.

And as I mentioned above, these guys are taking on a few LinkWorth-referred projects for nothing in return other than, perhaps, some linkage and honest recommendations. Contact Tom and he’ll answer any questions you might have.

I read this over at techcrunch, about the CEO of ChaCha and his home workstation.

An 8 monitor (19″) setup that is equipped with an exercise bike at the bottom. I’ve always thought a way to help people who sit all day and all night at their computers, is to make their system powered by the electricity created from pedaling a stationary bike. Some of you may think, “but wouldn’t that kill everything if you stopped?” … yes, that’s why you don’t make it kill the computer, just the monitors. If you want to see what’s going on, pedal. It might suck at the beginning, but after a while, it becomes a habit and you’re burning calories.

The CEO of ChaCha, Scott Jones’ setup is very close to my idea, so maybe he’ll read this and take it a step further to invent it. With everyone sitting behind computers these days, why not have the option to force you to exercise a bit while on the computer? Even save a little electricity.

Do yourself a favor and watch the MTV Cribs they link to over at TechCrunch.

Came across this today and thought I’d share it, just in case you haven’t seen it yet. Search engine battles. . .

Google vs. Yahoo

Yahoo vs. MSN

MSN vs. Google

A new video has surfaced from a guy named Hubert Chang, who is claiming he was the 3rd founder of Google. He says that “PageRank” was his idea he gave to Larry & Sergey.

It will be interesting to see what is dug up because you know people are already scrambling to investigate his claims. He has a NYU page, but has very little information there.

He does mention:

Google truth: The truth of Google’s birth. Google was designed in 1997 Feb by me(Hubert), Sergey, and Larry. What happened between Sergey, Larry, and me in 1997.

He then links to his youtube video that explains his involvement.

Thanks to webguild and to weberence for the story.

Earlier this week we attended the SES San Jose show. The show was awesome, as usual. We met many new faces and noticed many familiar faces.

Unfortunately we made it a quick trip this year and missed the Search Bash, but we did attend the G00G Dance for a little while, which is always worth the trip.

Here are a few interesting thoughts I have looking back:

• Quite possibly the worst food ever served at a conference I’ve attended.
• Being that the show was in “Silicon Valley”, isn’t it odd that the Hilton, where we stayed, did not have wireless internet in the hotel rooms?
• Should we hint to MCutts that we really don’t approve of what he does and maybe suggest that he looks for something else to do? A kind of ‘reciprocal link’.
• Is there really anywhere in the states that has better weather than California?
• There are so many good looking people that are in our industry these days, I’d say the “Nerd” tag is long gone!
• 2 hours delay there and 2 hours delay return with American Airlines. Can someone say “NO MORE!”
• While at the G00G Dance, someone left their “footprint” on the life sized globrite they had on display:

I’m not sure why I didn’t look at the dot com while researching my last blog about Knol, but something made me think of it today. Pretty interesting move by using the name “Knol”, since someone named “H Knol”, from the Netherlands, has owned and operated Knol dot com since November of 2002. (whois source)

After translating this page correctly (Yahoo absolutely sucked at it!), presumably ‘Knol’ him/herself, discussed the recent launch of Google’s Knol,

Google is working on “Knol”
UPDATE 24-7-2008 UPDATE 24-7-2008

On various Web sites (including nu.nl, Google Blog, Blog Hosting 040) is now officially read that Google now has its own wikipedia started with the name Knol. There are articles by professionals and put these can be appreciated by readers.

And that we move google can appreciate Clearly, the focus on, especially our domain, is again grown considerably.

It needs no explanation that we are not here to follow up, as in december.

NOTE: We sell steam cleaning equipment and don’t sell our domain !!

Friday 14 december:
On a blog from Google published an article which reported that Google was working on Knol. This is a kind of combination of Wikipedia and Encyclopedia personal paginabouwer Squidoo. Advertising revenue goes to the Internet to share with the authors.

Knol is an abbreviation for “knowledge”, speaking of “nol”
Now you will think what that has to do with Tuberous Stoomreinigings Systemen?

Well, from that Friday there is immediately a true run in areas that had the word “Knol” in itself, as also the domain knol.com.

This has resulted in tens of thousands of visitors who came to take a look at the website of Knol.com! In a short time we had received visitors from more than 130 countries from around the world.

Fortunately, the website was able to be able strongholds and the site remained in the air.
But that was not in, we were also alleman by Jan and asked if we wanted to sell the domain. Unfortunately, we have to disappoint everyone, how beautiful their offerings sometimes has been.

In short, it was a special experience …

So imagine that. You sell steam cleaning products in the Netherlands operating under your last name, then one of the world’s wealthiest companies comes along and chooses your name to run one of its future products under. Would you sell? Or would you remain as is and constantly have huge bandwidth bills due to Googler’s constantly hitting the wrong site?

I checked to see what trademarks there were listed at the USPTO.gov and the only thing that came up with Google’s registration in December of 2007. I dealt with a trademark dispute many years ago in another business and can see where the original Knol owner wouldn’t have much of a dispute, other than keeping Google out of the geographic region where Knol products are sold. But how likely is that!

There are also a couple of previous owners of knol dot com that might be kicking themselves in the rears for letting the name go. Looking on Archive.org for knol dot com, it would appear a company named Knoll and Company, Inc had ownership back in 1999 & 2000, then another company called the KnollGroup ran the domain for 2001 and most of 2002. Think they wish they had a do-over? There are also 72 Whois changes for the domain, so I’m sure there are probably more.

Just a little further insight into Google’s new Knol.

For some reason, the name reminds me of the old “Gary Gnu Show”. “No Gnews is Good Gnews!”

TechCrunch is definitely a site to keep up with since they seem to get all of the news related to new businesses, funding, mergers & acquisitions, along with anything else. They’re definitely one of the feeds I pay attention to. Where else can you find out about startups and new videos by Radiohead!

Today a headline caught my attention about executives in Silicon Valley hopped up on Provigil. I was familiar with the prescription drug name, but I was unfamiliar with what it is prescribed for. Luckily, Arrington did a great job, as always, explaining everything about it. Or did he? It’s a drug used to keep you awake. Maybe like speed, but without apparent side effects that come with most other drugs. At least this is how Arrington is selling it on his website.

I thought I would do a little digging around to see if this really had ‘no side effects’ and this is what I found:

The most commonly observed adverse events ( ≥ 5%) associated with the use of PROVIGIL more frequently than placebo-treated patients in the placebo-controlled clinical studies in primary disorders of sleep and wakefulness were headache, nausea, nervousness, rhinitis, diarrhea, back pain, anxiety, insomnia, dizziness, and dyspepsia. (Source)

While these aren’t really that bad, it does show there “ARE” side effects. Of course, I wanted to get the information directly from the Provigil site to see what they say. I was a bit shocked at what I read:

PROVIGIL may cause you to have a serious rash or a serious allergic reaction that may result in hospitalization or be life-threatening. If you develop a rash, hives, sores, swelling, or trouble swallowing or breathing, stop taking PROVIGIL and call your doctor right away or get emergency treatment.

PROVIGIL is not approved for use in children.

If you experience chest pain, depression, anxiety, hallucinations, psychosis, mania, thoughts of suicide, aggression, or other mental problems, stop taking PROVIGIL and call your doctor right away or get emergency treatment.

PROVIGIL does not replace sleep and may not stop your ES completely. Do not drive or do other dangerous activities until you know how PROVIGIL affects you. Avoid drinking alcohol while taking PROVIGIL.

PROVIGIL has the potential to be abused or lead to dependence. Please use only as directed.

Tell your doctor if you have: history of mental health problems (including psychosis), heart problems or had a heart attack, high blood pressure, liver or kidney problems, a history of drug or alcohol abuse or addiction, or are pregnant, planning to become pregnant, or breastfeeding.

Women who use hormonal birth control may have a higher chance of getting pregnant, while taking PROVIGIL, and for one month after stopping. Talk to your doctor about other birth control methods while taking PROVIGIL.

Common side effects of PROVIGIL are headache, nausea, nervousness, stuffy nose, diarrhea, back pain, anxiety, trouble sleeping, dizziness, and upset stomach. (Source)

WHAT!! There should be a large spike in Silicon Valley children in around 9 months! Seems Arrington should have put a little more research into a post about drugs. This quote from his site shows he gives the complete opposite facts about it being habit forming:

There are few side effects to Provigil compared to stimulants and it is supposedly not habit forming. That, of course, doesn’t mean it’s safe to take it just to be able to stay awake for 20 hours a day.

I doubt he meant to peddle drugs, but after I read it, I was like “Hmm, maybe I should check it out.” I’m sure I’m not the only one. The people who think Arrington walks on water will probably have a script in hand by the end of the day.