adamyntium

Category: technology

  • I’ve joined Google

    A couple of months ago, I became a Googler.  Since my boss—Matt Cutts—has already so kindly introduced me on his blog, I feel this is probably a good time to say a few words about my new job 😀

    The short version:  I’m honored, humbled, a bit nervous, and yes, very happy.  As a lifelong geek who’s been excited about search and Google in particular for many years, it’s hugely fascinating to be experiencing new adventures from the “inside.”

    Okay, now for the longer version!


    What I’m doing at Google

    My main focus is on broadening communications between Google and Webmasters… learning as much as I can from both Matt and the Webmasters he chats with so amiably and then building upon this rapport.  Or, more colloquially, as it’s been joked around the office, my uber-challenging goal is to become a “MiniMatt.”  Though a colleague did note that a MiniMatt sounds like a scary cross between a convenience store and a diminutive vaccum cleaner.  Hmm.

    You’ll find me hanging out at Webmaster conferences and various geek gatherings, occasional replying to Google-related blog or forum posts, tackling some Webmaster-related e-mails, and undoubtedly popping up in other random places.

    I’ll also be a “Webmaster Advocate” inside the Googleplex.  I’ve seen firsthand that tons of folks here already eagerly read and appreciate Google- and search-related comments throughout the Web; I’ll be doing what I can to expedite concerns, bug reports, and other feedback to the right colleagues.

    I’m coming into this job with a lot of knowledge about search, Google, and communications, but I know I have a lot to learn and also much trust to earn.

    What my new job means for my blog

    I’m not sure yet.  For the time being, I’m going to generally maintain a separation between the personal and work spheres of my life.  This means that you’re likely to be disappointed if you subscribe to BLADAM expecting to read lots of juicy Googly tidbits.

    With that said, though, I do admire Robert, Jeremy, and, of course, my boss Matt and recognize that their work-related blogversations have very often educated, engaged, and entertained thousands.  So perhaps I’ll come up with a middle ground here—occasionally sharing my enthusiasm, useful Google tips, amusing Google observations, and so on—while avoiding topics likely to make my colleagues annoyed or uncomfortable.

    “So I have a question about my site…”

    Please, not here.  I’m enjoying tackling general and specific Webmaster issues every day at work… and my teammates and I are really, truly committed to opening up new channels of communication (like our Sitemaps tools and active Sitemaps GoogleGroup, for instance, plus MUCH more to come!).  But everyone needs a break from work now and then, so please respect my personal space here on the Web.  Thanks!

    With that said, I know that Matt got some outstanding feedback on Google Communications, and so I’d be nuts if I didn’t also invite you to share your Google Communication ideas below.  I’d also love to hear from you about your favorite bloggers who masterfully juggle work and non-work topics on their blogs; I could use some more role models in case I decide to go that route eventually :-D.

    *  *  *

    Anyway… to you faithful BLADAM readers who’ve stuck with me during all my bloggily dry and/or boring spells, thank you.  To you new readers, welcome!  It’s a pleasure to have you here, and—as always—I look forward to your comments.  Now I’m heading offline to go celebrate my birthday weekend! 😀

  • Thoughts on choosing a domain name

    It’s easy to get your own space on the Web (Geocities, Google Pages, Live Journal, Blogger, etc.) without cost and without fuss.  So why get your own domain name?

    • It can provide you with a nice vanity and (generally) permanent e-mail address… e.g., .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) or .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
    • Same goes for a Web address; also, you can then host your site anywhere you want!
    • It’s dang cheap!  $5-$10/year for the domain registration (+ optional Web site hosting costs, usually $2-20 depending on how much space/bandwidth/power you need)

    In the rest of this note, I’ll cover very briefly how you get a domain name, and—more comprehensively—some things you’ll want to consider before choosing a domain name.

    Actually getting, or “registering” a domain name is the easy part.  For $2-10, you can get a domain name at registrars like GoDaddy, Yahoo, and many other companies in literally a matter of minutes (though it can take a day or so for the domain to propagate, or go live across the net).  Make sure that whatever methods you use to register a domain name, you actually maintain full ownership!  Beware of registrars or Web hosts that offer seemingly fabulous deals on a domain + hosting but keep ownership of the domains for themselves!  You want the control and freedom to take your domain anywhere and put whatever (legal stuff) you want on it.

    The hard part?  That’s choosing a domain name!  Granted, with domain registrations so cheap, you could just buy domains willy-nilly and not really commit… and in fact, there are quite a few folks (domain speculators, spammers, very very very indecisive or bored folks) who buy thousands of domains a month.  But let’s hope that’s not you.  I’m going to assume that you’re the thoughtful and careful and deliberating sort of person 🙂

    So with that said…

    *  *  *

    Settle on a purpose and expected / desired audience

    If you’re wanting to put your resume somewhere, sexyhotlegs.com is probably not your best bet (though I admit it depends on your profession). If you’re interested in voicing controversial political opinions or posting scary photos of your armpits under green light (or both), you may not want to reserve yourname.net. Use common sense, particularly weighing issues of personal and professional image, privacy, and anticipated and desired audience.

    Consider spelling hassles

    You are likely going to be mentioning your domain name in person and perhaps even over the phone quite a bit. Unless you really enjoy having to say for the one billionth time “Let me spell that for you…,” consider choosing a domain (or even a domain that points to your real domain) that is reasonably easy to write without thirty seconds of spelling and verifying.

    Be afraid of lawyers

    If you’re thinking about reserving yahu.com or sleshdot.com or waltdisny.com… don’t. It’s not cute, it’s not clever, and—though admittedly a few typo-squatters and the like do unfortunately make a lot of money from sewing confusion in this arena—it’s likely not worth the headache and stress of getting nastygrams and court summons.

    Homonyms, numbers, and related issues

    Be wary of sound-alike words (bearplace or bareplace?), numbers/abbreviations-vs-words issues (is it happy2seeu or happytoseeyou…?), and so on. These ambiguous domains create confusion not only when spoken, but even pose memory-challenges for people wanting to revisit your domain. Even worse, if someone else has a similar domain in this context, you can pretty much bet that not only web surfers but also e-mail messages are going to get misdirected.

    Avoid-names-like-this

    They look spammy. Seriously, given smartautos and smart-autos, which domain looks more professional to you, and which one are you likely to remember when surfing or e-mailing?

    Length matters

    Think of length… even as it relates to your business card, online design, and so on. If your name is Logainne Schwartzandgrubenierre, I respectfully recommend you think twice before using your name as your domain.

    Yes, Virginia, there’s a world beyond the U.S.

    And some of the folks there even speak languages other than English. You may not care if your blog domain name translates as “Ugly dog urine” in Swahili, but you may want to do at least a bit of language checking. If you’re getting a domain name for a serious business, you may also want to examine international intellectual property (e.g., trademark) issues as well

    Bluntly obvious or open-endedly opportunistic?

    On one hand, you have companies like amazon, expedia, and yahoo who named their domains (probably intentionally) in a way that was deliciously flexible. On the other hand, you have sites from the moderately bounded (esurance.com, travelocity) all the way to the tightly focused (danceshoes4u, danishhistory.denmark.dk).

    Which is better? That’s a great question! You can certainly find success stories all over the spectrum.

    Personally, I’d tend towards the more general and/or non-dictionary-worded domains. Time and time again, we’ve seen that outstanding organizations have started off with one focus, only to develop into significantly different areas due to market pressures, new interests from the executives, and so on. Such topical expansion isn’t easily handled with a topically restrictive domain name.

    Others might argue that the more tightly-focused domain names will be significantly favored by the search engines and offer snappier and faster brand insight to consumers. While I can understand the latter, I personally give little credence to the former [as always, note my BLADAM disclaimer!].

    At the end of the day, the most important thing is that you make a conscious, not accidental, decision in this realm, understanding the benefits and disadvantages of general/imaginative vs. blunt/focused domain names.

    Be wary of non-friendly relationships with your .com and .net neighbors

    It may seem frustratingly limiting, but IMHO I’d avoid registering a, say, .org domain if the .com is already taken… especially if the .com is prominent. At least in America, I believe that most folks think “dot com” by default, and so you’re likely to get lots of people visiting yoursite.com and mailing .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) even though you registered the .org. At the very minimum, make sure your non-dot-com registration is done in the context of an amiable relationship with the .com holder, so that if he or she does get misdirected e-mail, they’ll be sure to forward it on to you. Or, better yet, they might even create a forwarding alias, automatically redirecting mail from .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) to .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).

    Be aware of unintentional word combos

    When the folks behind Experts Exchange registered expertsexchange.com, they probably didn’t have transgendered folks as their intended audience. However, with a brief look at their domain name, I think you’ll now understand why they’ve since rebranded themselves as experts-exchange.com. Don’t make the same (amazingly not-uncommon) mistake.

    And last but definitely not least… apply the Friends Test

    Ask your friends… “What do you think of [domain you’re considering], and don’t be afraid to be blunt!” You’ll be shocked and grateful, I’m sure, at the insights—sometimes quite obvious insights you’ve overlooked—that you’ll get from your friends. Ask them how they’d spell your domain, what the name brings to mind, whether it sounds too suspiciously like something else, and so on.

    * * *

    Do I practice what I preach? Reasonably so, I think. BLADAM is “The Blog of Adam” or “The Blatherings of Adam” and it’s pretty easy to spell (“B-L and Adam, my name”) and nicely short. Lasnik.net… well, it’s not super-easy to spell, but it’s unambiguous and it’s been a decently professional place for me to place my resume.

    I’m also proud of Ascena (and ascena.com)—what I renamed a German company I once worked for (formerly “fortISinformationssysteme”—whew!). Pleasantly evocative (“to ascend”) in multiple languages, short, pretty easy to spell, and (at least formerly) available in a ton of domains (ascena.de, ascena.com, etc.)

    * * *

    I hope my thoughts on domain naming have been helpful! I welcome your opinions and questions below 😀

  • Geeks — the perception still hasn’t quite caught up with reality

    As seen by this Australian TV commercial from Super Geek and this admittedly damn funny Fear of Girls video, we learn that…
    – Geeks are all guys, and not particularly attractive fellas, either
    – Geeks are typically sporting taped-up glasses and completely uncool fashion
    – Women AREN’T geeks (and they’re most often confusing/confused AND helpless)

    While the videos above are funny (I’d be a humorless boob to suggest otherwise), in the back of my mind I do worry about the effects of the still-pervasive stereotypes on display.  Specifically, I’m thinking about junior high and high school girls.  After being immersed in a culture that continually reiterates that attractive girls are NOT geeks, how many of them will want to study math or science or computing?  Would you want to work with guys like the ones in the videos above?

    Companies like Google are certainly making a laudable effort to recruit more women engineers, but I’m wishing that there were more positive and diverse portrayals of geeks in the mass media: (intentionally) funny geeks, sexy geeks, communicative geeks, athletic geeks.

    Living here in the Bay Area, I know various geeks that fit all of the above adjectives.  In Silicon Valley, it’s almost chic to be a geek :-D.  But I’m more concerned about girls (and, for that matter, many boys) growing up in the heartland of the U.S. or in other countries where there aren’t such role models. 

    We need more women engineers not to be politically correct, not so that we guys in the office can have more pleasant “scenery,” not so some HR or government bureaucrat can smugly check off another box on some form, but rather because we actually DO need the diversity of thinking and working styles and, quite frankly, the greatest pool of talented “knowledge workers” possible.

    And okay, I’d like some uber-geeks to be worshipped in popular culture so I could go to Britain or Germany and be as popular as a David Beckham and such 😉

    —-

    Hat tip to Alicja and John Paczkowski for the ad and parody video respectively.

  • Want me to click on your links? Let me see them!

    Let me bravely be an old fuddy duddy and remind Webmasters of something here:
    Everyone… I really believe everyone using the Web knows that blue, underlined text signifies a link.

    Unfortunately, here’s what I’m seeing a lot of nowadays:

    – Linked text that looks practically indistinguishable from non-linked text
    The dangers of this should be obvious.  If people can’t tell that they can click on a word to go somewhere they want or to learn something new or perform an action, they aren’t going to click. 

    – Linked text that is somehow decorated in a “clever way.”
    Dotted line.  Boxed.  Anything other than plain blue underlined text.  See danger #1, albeit perhaps with a little less uncertainty and a little more annoyance.

    Then there’s the opposite problem:

    – Blue (colored exactly “link” blue) text used for non-linked text or headlines.
    Why is this bad?  Well, you’re telling the pre-conditioned surfer “Click on me!” when clicking does absolutely nothing.  This confusion then undoubtedly causes many visitors to say, well, if this blue text isn’t clickable, what is? 

    *  *  *

    Am I suggesting that Webmasters must absolutely positively use only the “right” blue colored underlined text for links?  No.  I am, however, saying that the further your text links stray from this known appearance, the more likely you are to have at least some of your visitors confused.

    And no, scheming to “keep your visitors from leaving” is not a valid Web strategy, IMHO.

    P.S.—Yes, I admit I’m being at least a bit hypocritical here, since the buttons on my menu above are neither blue nor is the text underlined.  No one’s perfect… 😉

  • Browser toolbar creators are missing one of the simplest, most useful options

    Bookmarks.  Favorites.  Most of us save a list of sites we often visit or want to re-find again… either by adding them as a Bookmark in Firefox or as a Favorite in Internet Explorer or even adding the site to our online list residing on del.icio.us or Spurl, and so on.

    Also, lots of us have browser toolbars by Yahoo! or Google or other folks.  Unfortunately, there’s a huge disconnect here.

    I visit Salon.com regularly.  Same with Google News, SlickDeals, and many other sites.  In Firefox, it’s very easy to assign a shortcut to access any one of my favorite sites; for instance, I can type sd into my Firefox address bar and be immediately whisked to SlickDeals.net.  Even cooler, I can type gns lindy hop and instantly be brought to the search results page of Google News that shows me if there are any recent articles about Lindy Hop.

    The downside?  If I want to use any of these shortcuts on other computers (at a friend’s place, at work, when visiting my parents), I have to somehow copy over my Firefox preference files over via a thumbdrive or whatnot.  Or, if they don’t have Firefox, I’m screwed. 

    This is where browser toolbars come in—or, rather, where they SHOULD come in.

    In a nutshell, ALL the major toolbars should—when I’m logged in to my Passport or Google or Yahoo account or whatever—automatically let me…

    1) Bookmark and assign a shortcut keyword for any site (e.g., msbc for http://microsoft.blognewschannel.com/). 
    Thereafter, I should then be able to type that shortcut into the toolbar search box and immediately be whisked off to that site.

    2) Add a search shortcut by right-clicking on any search box of any site and choosing a shortcut keyword, just like I can do in 10 seconds on Firefox today. 
    For instance, I should be able to easily make amzs creative zen immediately search Amazon for any product with the words creative zen in them.

    *  *  *

    IMHO, this request is both relatively easy to implement and capable of significantly simplifying the online lives of lots of people.  I honestly believe that the first major company to add this feature to their toolbar is likely to have a significant competitive advantage (“Jump to your favorite pages in a jiffy and do fast handy searches… no matter what computer you’re on!”) *and* increased penetration (e.g., if have all my bookmarks via my Google account and I’m visiting my parents who don’t have the Google Toolbar installed on their computer, I may just go ahead and install it for them so I can easily access my bookmark shortcuts :D)

    It’s not like this would require a huge overhaul for the majors, either.  I know that Yahoo!, for instance, already enables people to bookmark pages from their toolbar.  And what a great complement to Yahoo’s My Web 2.0 this would be, eh?!

    *  *  *

    Do you think this feature set would indeed be massively popular?  Or is it instead just something a geek like myself could love?  Your thoughts…?

    *  *  *

    EDITED on January 25, 2006 to add:
    Whoops!  It looks like I overlooked the fact that Yahoo! in fact already does exactly what I’ve outlined above! :O

    Specifically, at least when signed in, you can type an exclamation mark immediately followed by a shortcut and VOILA!  For instance, !ebay canon sd550 brings you directly to the search results listings   page for that camera on ebay.  Additional, you can create your own custom shortcuts.  As a bonus, this works:
    – from the regular address bar (if you’ve set Yahoo! as your default search engine)
    – from the Yahoo! search box on Yahoo’s site.
    – from the Yahoo! toolbar.

    My only quibble?  An exclamation mark is an annoying character to use to indicate a shortcut search, since it requires the use of the shift key (one extra keypress… it adds up!) *and* it’s located on different places depending on your keyboard type (internationally).  I think it’d be better if folks could specify their own shortcut-indicator key.

    Still, this is quite a cool offering from Yahoo!, and thanks to the little byrdie (who wishes to remain anonymous) who let me know about this over e-mail.  Oh, and apologies for overlooking this feature initially!  Google, MSN… you have some catching up to do here ;-).

    Lastly, here are more details on the Yahoo! Open Shortcuts feature.

  • Well-reviewed movie "Waterborne" now available free on Google Video

    I haven’t had a chance to watch more than the first few minutes of this film, but Waterborne has been generally well-reviewed… and you can watch it for free either below or directly on Google’s site through January 15, 2006.

    Rather than spoil even part of the plot, I’ll instead invite you to begin watching it now without preconceptions, with a note that it’s a serious film focusing on characters rather than explosive action.

    Beyond this particular film, what fascinates and excites me about Google’s video offering—despite generally wide critical raspberries—is that it can serve as a fabulous equalizer.  The key problems with getting great independent and foreign films seen by larger audiences aren’t just associated with marketing and word of mouth, but rather distribution.  Just as Google AdWords (and, before it, GoTo.com) presented a revolutionary way for Mom’n’Pop outfits to reasonably compete with BigCos, Google Video will provide market access to low(er) budget films… in this case, literally FREE distribution.  And then when some random Joe in Manhattan gets genuinely excited about a particular quality (or just frickin’ hilarious :D) production, he can indirectly cause that film to gain enormous market awareness by simply posting about it on his LiveJournal and linking to the Google Video, causing a chain reaction (remember the numa numa video?:-) And hey, can anyone even find the original anymore?!  But I digress!)

    *  *  *

    But how will this actually make money for the film producers?

    – Pay-per-download
    For instance, while Waterborne is free to stream and watch online for a week, it’s then $4 to download.  With this film, thanks to the openness of its producers, purchasers will actually OWN their copy and have the practical and legal options of burning it to DVD, watching it on their iPod, etc.  This can be a win-win situation; whereas early adopters and those with more time than money can make sure to watch it for free, others will help fund the film by purchasing unfettered downloads.  Alas, not all content producers are so wise and thoughtful towards consumers; the bulk of groups charging for video on Google Video now are placing some DRM (Digital Rights Management) restrictions on their files, so they’ll self-destruct after 24 hours or be uncopyable to a portable video player, etc.  Hopefully they’ll eventually see the light, however.

    – Related sales
    T-shirts.  Actual DVDs in jewelboxes.  Sequels.  Toys or other similar merchandise.  Soundtracks via Napster or Magnatune or Amazon.com.

    – Long-term career growth
    Unknown artists can perhaps become bigger household names, garnering big studio money later on.

    Other ideas?  Your thoughts…?

    *  *  *

    Hat tip to Inside Google for reporting this and other interesting Google video tidbits.

  • FINALLY – Bladam 2.0! 🙂

    I finally took the plunge.  After blabbing about moving my blog over to Expression Engine software over a year ago, I’ve finally done it.

    So what does it mean to you?  Here’s the skinny on the major new stuff:

    • Comments post almost instantaneously.  And even non-members can opt to get e-mail-notified when someone posts a new comment in an entry they’ve replied to.
    • No more three-column circus.  Everything’s less cluttered and manically colored now.
    • Lots of miscellaneous goodies for “regulars” (see details)

    If you’re interested in knowing more about the impetus behind the many, many changes and what it took to achieve them, read on!  But before you do, just one humble request: PLEASE do let me know if anything is clearly not working or looking right. I’d really appreciate it!

    More info about the changes

    • I’ve de-emphasized large date headers and eschewed a side-calendar; the focus is on my writing content, not the arbitrary dates I post things.
    • Search and other navigation options have also been moved out of the main fold.  Most folks just visit my blog front page and individual entries they find via search :-).
    • I chose Expression Engine over Movable Type because I felt that customizing and managing BLADAM would be much easier for me with the former.  MT’s a great program, but I wanted to try something new.
    • EE also offers better blog-spam protection out of the box than MT, IMHO, and certainly more flexible and cool membership options.

    There are some downsides to the changed infrastructure, however.  Since every page is literally written on the fly (via php) AND I’m altering page elements based on many variables, page accesses—especially initial ones—are slower than before.  Additionally, the nifty menu thingy I’ve put up top is also not very dialup friendly (a handful of javascript files have to be loaded the first time each person visits).  And lastly, MovableType is definitely the dominant player in the blogging space… with a larger community, more plugins, and so on.

    Still, though, I’m admittedly pleased with how things have worked out so far, and I would indeed highly recommend Expression Engine to others based upon my experiences.

    *  *  *

    I still have a *TON* to do as part of the transition, but at least now I have the basics all set up 🙂

    I do appreciate your support, your feedback, and your patience, and am always delighted to hear from you.  Like the airlines say… I know you have a choice of pages on the Net to read, and I’m honored you’re reading mine :-).

    Take care, and best of the New Year to you and yours!

    (Now I’m finally off to bed.  It’s 6:21am here, and it’s high time I caught some zzzz’s!  Hopefully nothing goes too haywire in the meantime… eek!)

  • Geek troubleshooting: Having trouble reconnecting to the Internet after a power outage?

    Due to a heavy storm this weekend, the power was out in my San Francisco neighborhood for much of the day today.

    Luckily, thanks to a battery backup system, I didn’t lose any documents I was working on on my computer, but after the third outage recovery of the day, I found I was no longer able to connect to the Internet. Grrr! So of course, the first thing I thought to do was to go to support.earthlink.net and check for the status of their network. Oops… d’oh, no Internet! So I realized, of course, that I’d actually have to *call* Earthlink to get information on their network status, and I fired up Firefox to do a search for “Earthlink 800 number” and… d’oh again! Damn, it’s amazing how second nature Internet info lookups are!

    Anyway, lame admissions aside, I figured I could share with you the resolution that could ultimately save YOU a lot of time in the future!

    As it turns out, after waiting quite a bit on hold, I found out that there WAS no Earthlink network outage.

    Now of course, as any self-respecting geek, I had already tried the whole power-cycling bit (turning off the modem & router & computer, turning them back on, blah blah blah, to no avail).

    But when the Earthlink rep suggested that I try hooking up my DSL modem directly to the computer (bypassing my wireless router), that’s when I had an ah-ha moment!

    Duh, it’s the router!
    I discovered that, lo and behold, I *could* connect to the Internet directly. Whew!

    Okay, so then what?
    First, I worried about a worst case scenario: was my router fried? It wasn’t just an issue of me being able to lazily surf the Web from my couch using my laptop; my roommate depended upon my wireless connection for her work using her own laptop, so I HAD to get this working.

    I stuck a pin in the reset slot, but still no Internet juice.

    That’s when it finally dawned on me…

    Somehow my router’s config had reverted back to the factory default
    So, after more than an hour of agonizing and troubleshooting (cables all tight? Modem working? etc…), I finally solved the problem in 3 minutes by simply re-adding my Earthlink info into my router’s config screens, and — voila — blissfully connected once again!

    * * *

    Anyway, I decided to blog about this tale not to highlight the cracks in my geek cred, but rather to help others whose routers might in the future get reset due to a power spike or other related issue following a power outage.

  • My experience with the Yahoo Publishing Network on my blog

    I’m sorry I strayed. AdSense may not be the sexiest CAS (contextual advertising service) in the bunch, and occasionally she’s a bit stubborn, unpredictable, and even cheap… but she’s a lot better overall than my most recent fling.

    I had heard so many great things about the Miss Yahoo!  She was apparently far more generous, and she came bundled with some pretty snazzy accessories, including handy RSS, Y! Maps, and Y!Q stuff.

    At first, I thought she was a clever free thinker.

    I read her a story about Song airlines.

    “Vonage” she cooed back at me. How creative, I marveled… she knows that the airlines are looking to expand telephony options… and that some e-jetsetters may be able to use voice-over-IP services while flying to communicate with landlocked buddies.

    Then I read her a story about a recent theatre production I saw.

    “Vonage” she whispered back, coyly. Hmm. I was admittedly puzzled. I mean, you’re really not supposed to have phone conversations while watching musicals!

    I tried reading her a few other stories. And while she’d occasionally offer a minor new tidbit, she always managed to say something about Vonage.

    The relationship was already getting stale. I invited some friends over for a blog reading and said, initially with pride, meet my new mate, Miss Yahoo P.N. But she just stared dully ahead and muttered “Vonage.”

    My friends were brutally honest with me when they took me aside. “Um, Adam” they insisted, politely but firmly, “She’s not exactly the sharpest tool in the e-shed.”

    “She’s still young!” I protested, “She’ll learn! She’s not even out of beta school yet!”

    From around the corner, I heard again “Vonage. Vonage. Vonage.”

    It was about then that I realized that even though my old blogfriend AdSense was a bit miserly, at least she wasn’t a moron and I wasn’t embarrassed to be seen with her in public.

    “Vonage. Vonage Vonage. Vonage, Vonage. Mortgages vonage. Vonage your mortgage. Vonage Vonagevonagevonagevon…”

    “Yahoo. YAHOOOOOOOO!!!!” I yodeled in frustration, trying to get her attention. “I think we should see other people. Or rather, you should see other blogs.”

    “Vonage?”

    I opened the door… pointed to the great beyond, and Yahoo was but a distant memory.

    Then I called up AdSense. And like an annoyed and proud but still subtlely loyal cat, she returned.

    AdSense, I’m really sorry. Welcome back!

  • I just figured out the search engines’ next foray!

    I know, I know, some of you are probably sick of me idly speculating on what Google, Yahoo!, and Microsoft are going to do next, but I just had yet another vision that I wanted to share with you.

    One of the search engines is going to build or buy a leading OCR and/or photo scanning software package.

    Why?

    Well, just do the plotline in your head. Google just built a system (Google Base) which — if, perhaps rather inelegantly — lets people add additional content in bulk for that search engine to slurp up.

    Google and (separately) the Open Content Alliance are busy scanning the world’s books.

    So we have Web pages, music, images, scholarly research, books, and more being indexed… but what about all those zillions of papers folks have laying around? Like the ones I just set about scanning this evening to reduce some of the clutter around my desk.

    What have I been scanning? A list of waltz moves, an e-mail directory, a memorable schedule of a recent dance camp I attended, and a funny article I wrote for my high school newspaper.

    How much of this would the world be interested in? How much would I really WANT to share? Not all of it, to be sure.

    But from older academic papers to newspaper clippings to home photos and more… there’s a TON of information out there that’s not digitized.

    Not digitized yet, that is.

    And interestingly enough, decent scanners (albeit not slide scanners) are pretty darn cheap ($50 or less, especially used ones on ebay). But really good OCR software? At least $150, from what I’ve gathered. Students, families, home-office professionals… I bet most of them have scanners. But I doubt most of them have OCR software.

    Then again, perhaps the search engines could simply piggyback onto non-OCR scanning software and do the OCR on their supercomputers inhouse. Greater ability to iterate, do A|B testing on scan quality, etc., without depending upon users to update software.

    * * *

    Benefit to engines:

    • A huge database to improve NLP (natural language processing) algorithms… better understanding the interplay of text, graphs, photos, etc.
    • Access to a ton of new content
    • Further enticement to consumers to get onto their desktops (e.g., perhaps bundled in with Google Desktop or MSN Search or Yahoo-X1 search, etc.)

    Benefit to consumers:

    • Ability to archive documents and/or photos online with greater accuracy, and for less money (even free) for personal retrieval.
    • Easier way to share not-yet-digitized documents with colleagues, using an OCR’d (much less bandwidth intensive) format
    • Probably other stuff I’m overlooking

    * * *

    What are your thoughts on this?

    1) How feasible do you think it is that one of the search engines will buy/build such a service?
    2) Which search engine’d do this first?
    3) How useful would it actually be to general consumers? Small business folks? Others?