Raiders of the Lost Ark rip Erin McKean makes the point in a TED talk that, unlike paper dictionaries, online dictionary searches do not provide serendipity: finding something you didn’t know you were looking for.
I take this many ways:
True, but…
How many people regularly flip a dictionary?
How exact is search?
How many people just type the word into Google (which, because internet search sucks, is quite serendipitous).
(via Daring Fireball
Boogeyman dvd I’ve been thoroughly amused by the vetting process for political (and supposedly un-political) government positions.
Recently there was the vetting for Sarah Palin The Pervert’s Guide to Cinema download , VP for McCain’s Republican ticket:
Defending his choice and the team that helped pick her, McCain said Tuesday that “the vetting process was completely thorough.” Advisers said Palin went through a rigorous process that included a three-hour interview and a survey with some 70 questions, including: Have you ever paid for sex? Have you been faithful in your marriage? Have you ever used or purchased drugs? Have you ever downloaded pornography?
Those 5 questions are good to juxtapose against the Nexis search string Monica Goodling used to research applicants to the Bush Attorney General’s office:
[First name of a candidate]! and pre/2 [last name of a candidate] w/7 bush or gore or republican! or democrat! or charg! or accus! or criticiz! or blam! or defend! or iran contra or clinton or spotted owl or florida recount or sex! or controvers! or racis! or fraud! or investigat! or bankrupt! or layoff! or downsiz! or PNTR or NAFTA or outsourc! or indict! or enron or kerry or iraq or wmd! or arrest! or intox! or fired or sex! or racis! or intox! or slur! or arrest! or fired or controvers! or abortion! or gay! or homosexual! or gun! or firearm!
I’ve found the Lumifi Search / Research Platform useful at times, but it sometimes seems like a sledgehammer. They have a widget for just search that’s pretty useful. If I’m looking for specific things with a lot of noise (like “nonprofit culture”), it tends to give some interesting results.
They also have it as an OSX Dashboard Widget.
On Slashdot today was an entry about Google Search if it was designed for Google. Basically redesigning the page for a higher pagerank.
Fun, but the interesting thing was a comment from the comments:
Should read: What if Google was a useless site…
…and had to design for Google?
Lets see… counter examples… how about searching Google for the word “shipping”. What do you know, UPS and Fedex are #1 and #2, and their front pages aren’t a mess of useless, Google-pleasing crap. Maybe because they are real businesses and aren’t pandering some direct ship junk or get rich quick scheme.
Makes sense, and is the basis for what I tell people who are concerned about SEO disproportionately to having a useful and relevant website: concentrate on having a good service and a useful website first.
Ben Sheldon is an author, thinker, facilitator, automator, mapper, artist, human and more
Email me at ben@island94.org
