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New user? Friday, April 12, 2002
Google Boxes are BAD BAD BAD
These "Google Boxes" that are showing up all over the place are dumb. Why? Because they're self-fulfilling prophecies.
When you put a Google box on your site showing the top 10 results for some word, you're artificially inflating the rankings of those 10 pages!
I don't see any way for Google to know that they're seeing their own results and discount their value. And people thought Googlebombs were a problem...
Stop Googleboxes now!
Doing some IA work
I got to put my Information Architect hat on this week. I'm leading the redesign of Tyrell's main website. This week's research and preparation culminated with a great meeting with the whole team to discuss our goals and wish list.
Louis Rosenfeld and Peter Morville's classic book, Information Architecture and the World Wide Web was (yet again) an invaluable resource for me as I reimmersed myself in this facet of internet engineering that I love so much.
The meeting was a success, and I'm really excited about the road ahead.
But the immediate road ahead is through the Calgary Flames. (Sorry to bring up hockey at a serious time like this but hey, what's more serious than a must-win game for the Oilers? ;-))
Persistent Conversation and the Design of Babble
Oilers out of the playoffs
My beloved Edmonton Oilers lost tonight. Coupled with a Phoenix win, that eliminates Edmonton from playoff contention and clinches playoff spots for Los Angeles, Phoenix, and (I'll never hear the end of this one) Vancouver. :-(
The Oilers had made the playoffs the last 5 seasons. I guess the only consolation here is that Dallas didn't make it either.
Damn.
Digital ads entangle
CNET: Digital ads entangle "Spider-Man"
Ummm... DUH! It's a MOOOOOVIE. It's FIIIICTION. It's not REEEEAL.
What next, is the NYPD going to sue because they're depicting a superhero fighting crime in NY when in reality it's the men-in-blue who do all the work?
Wednesday, April 10, 2002
Watchin the game, throwin' some darts.
I'm going to the local sports bar to (hopefully) watch the Oilers / Coyotes game tonight.
Go Oilers Go!!!
Wow, that's fucked up
OILERS 3, Coyotes 0
The pint-sized Oilers centre brought a Skyreach Centre sell-out crowd to its feet with his highlight-reel goal that clinched Edmonton's 3-0 win Wednesday over the Phoenix Coyotes."
The Oilers' coach remarked, "It brought everyone out of their seats, including the bench. You see a goal like that once every few years. It was spectacular."
I wish I could have seen it. Update: They have it on the Oilers site in RealAudio and WMP format.
Tuesday, April 9, 2002
Free copy for beta testing
I did some beta testing for a new Mac OS X application that will be announced soon. I got a nice surprise in my inbox this morning -- a free license key for the product as a thank-you for filing bug reports and making suggestions.
Thanks!! (now that's how you treat a beta-testing team!)
Paolo's Shared Outlines system
Now this looks like a usable system.
Paolo's Weblog: Shared Outlines: GUI
Jabber in Radio
I think it's only fair to mention that there is something VERY innovative happening in User-Radio-land... Jabber connectivity (note: link points to a Radio/Frontier ODB file). Jeremy Bowers and DJ Adams appear to be heading this effort, with strong cooperation on the part of UserLand.
Jabber is freaking cool(tm), and being able to use that network for prescence and event notifications, message routing, etc. is going to be wild. Especially once people build real apps on top of that plumbing. In the mean time it'll be a hell of a playroom for geeks!
