Archives for 2005
Splogs / Clogs getting Iced
Posted on August 16, 2005 ·
IceRocket owner Mark Cuban has warned Blogspot bloggers that their blogs may soon be excluded from IceRocket and other search engines due to their domain being overwhelmed by spam blogs. (via the Search Engine Journal and the Blog Herald)
He says: “Blogger is by far the worst offender. Google seems to be working hard to adjust their relevancy indexes to exclude splog from having influence on search rankings, but they don’t seem to be doing anything more than removing reported splogs (spam blogs). Kind of like going after the zombies one at a time with a shovel.”
I doubt exclusion of a major service is the right way to fight spam. In fact if this becomes a trend, i.e. IceRocket, Technorati, Bloglines, BlogPulse … etc. will boycott the Blogspot domain, wouldn’t that force Google to accelerate either by development or acquisition it’s plans to “own” the blog search space rather than see it’s bloggers flock away?
On the other hand, how important is it for Google to maintain Blogger as a free service? Any individual blogger can afford a symbolic price, say $3 /month which would still add up to significant cost to spammers who create blogs by the thousands automatically. An even better option may be to slap them with a one-time blog creation fee.
It may be less elegant .. geeky … whatever.. .but when technology fails, why not use economic means to fight spam?
Update (8/17): Frank has created a site called Splog Reporter where anyone can flag Splog/Clog. Frank, will Rel 2.0 be a bookmarklet (“this is splog”) that pre-populates the fields? 
Tags: Blogs, Blogging, Blog Spam, Spam, Technorati, IceRocket, BlogSpot, Google
Clueless …
Posted on August 16, 2005 ·
I must have a twisted mind .. reading Seth Godin’s story about a 90-year-old lady (I figured she must be around that having been a bank customer for 70 years) in the bank reminds me of an article about infants caught up in the “no-fly” confusion… hm… what do the nice old lady and the babies have in common? They are victims of mindless, clueless “due process”.
The lady in Seth’s story (read it!) has been a customer at her bank for 70 years, comes in every week, sees the same teller for 20 years, yet has her signature checked against a master signature card every single time. If the same old lady goes to a corner grocery store (that is if there’s one left in her neighborhood…) I am sure she gets a very personal treatment and perhaps could have her purchases ‘added to the tab’ to be paid once a month, like in ‘good old times’ – but that’s because the small business owner can actually THINK and make his/her own decisions, do what makes sense and keeps the customer happy… apparently all the bank teller cares about is to follow due process.
Ingrid Sanden’s 1-year-old daughter was stopped in Phoenix before boarding a flight home to Washington at Thanksgiving. Sarah Zapolsky and her husband had a similar experience last month while departing from Dulles International Airport outside Washington. An airline ticket agent told them their 11-month-old son was on the government ‘No-Fly” list. According to the article 89 children , 14 of which were under the age 2 have been stopped as “suspicious”. Now, for sanity’s sake let’s assume the TSA agents did not quite believe the infants were terrorists … they still went through the full process, getting passports faxed, background checks.. etc, before releasing the children – the followed ‘due process’.
‘Due Process’ kills what makes us Homo Sapiens: Thinking.
Tags: bureaucracy, due process, cluelessness, no-fly, tsa
Hilarious Adventure at CompUSA
Posted on August 12, 2005 ·
I don’t normally quote someone else’s post unless I have something to add, but this is just plain simply hilarious:
Jeffy descends into retail Hell and returns bearing wisdom.
(Btw., I did find my bluetooth headset on he Net. Got rid of it since..)
Hybrids in the Carpool Lane – The Race is On
Posted on August 11, 2005 ·
(updated)
Today for the first time I filled her up with $3 gas … no, really, $2.997 only…
Today is also the first day drivers of certain hybrids can apply for the sticker that allows them to use the carpool lanes on California higways even if they drive alone.
This cute (?) / ugly (?) little thingie is getting more and more of a viable option:
One caviat: the law limits the number of special stickers at 75,000.
So far 57,000 hybrid vehicles have been sold in California. The race is on…
Update (11/28) Busines Week: “The status vehicle of choice at the Googleplex is the Toyota Prius hybrid, which both co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page drive. Google even offers employees a $5,000 credit for buying an environmentally friendly hybrid car.“
Update 2 (12/03) This is interesting, less than half hybrid owners applied for the privilage of driving in the carpool lane.
Tags: Prius, Toyota Prius, Hybrids, Carpool, California, Gas Prices, Google
Unfortunate Logo Design
Posted on August 11, 2005 ·
Unless it’s a very specialized pharmacy…
Originally uploaded by sennachan.
Update: I am told this one isn’t as bad as the next one:
What’s wrong with Logo Designers? Or is it just my dirty mind? Take the test.
Technorati Tags: Logo, Design, Logo Design
Technorati Performance issues .. again
Posted on August 7, 2005 ·
Does anyone else feel this is becoming a regular message .. again?
“Sorry, we couldn’t complete your search because we’re experiencing a high volume of requests right now. Please try again in a minute or add this search to your watchlist to track conversation. “
Technorati Tags: Technorati, Blogs, Blogging
Trouble Cooking for the GYM
Posted on August 5, 2005 ·
Jeff Clavier ponders about startups’ hiring difficulties in the face of competition from the “Big 3”: Talent grabbing war at the GYM
“Did you also have this feeling that the “Big 3” (Google, Yahoo and Microsoft – let’s refer to them as the GYM) were not only deploying new features on an accelerated “tit for tat” basis, but they are also on a wide ranging talent grab ? I bet you did…”
Well, it would appear there’s one talent in even shorter supply then engineering, and this one is not even high-tech. Google is having trouble filling two Executive Chef positions. It must be a VIP position, a Google VP heads up the Selection Committee.
“It’s been a challenge to get someone who has the scale and quality (to live up to the company’s expectations),” said Susan Wojcicki, a Google vice president on the hiring committee. “
(LA Times via SFGate)
Google plans to invite the top applicants for a cook-off, preparing meals for several dozen members of a tasting committee that probably will include co- founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page.
I’ll be happy to volunteer my services on the Tasting Committee 
Update (8/5): I thought it might be appropriate to link to a Google Lunch Menu. (Baileys Irish Cream Cheesecake.. ahh). Notice where it is posted: on Google’s Job Opportunities! 🙂
Update (8/15): (G)oops, now they can’t even throw a party! 🙂
Technorati Tags: Google, Hiring, Perks, Chef, Corporate Benefits
Blog ‘reports’ lack media’s credibility (?)
Posted on August 5, 2005 ·
From the DesMoinesRegister.com:
“Clark: Blog ‘reports’ lack media’s credibility
By NANCY CLARK
REGISTER STAFF WRITER
August 4, 2005
Today I’ll be talking with Dan McCarney.
The bloggers won’t.
I’ll also be posing questions during Iowa State’s media day to Bret Meyer, Todd Blythe and Jason Scales.
The bloggers won’t.
Monday, I’ll be chatting with Kirk Ferentz.
The bloggers won’t.
I’ll also get in a word at Iowa’s media day with Drew Tate.
The bloggers won’t.
Tuesday, I’ll interview Mark Farley at Northern Iowa’s media day.
The bloggers won’t.”
________________________________________________________
The bloggers will allow readers to leave comments.
Nancy Clark won’t.
________________________________________________________
Thanks to Duncan at the Blog Herald for reporting on this piece.
Technorati Tags: News, Journalism, Media, Blogs, Blogging
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