People still read books. I started on Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness not long ago. I’m about a fifth of the way through, and I’ve already added “Choice architecture” to my list of concepts to study more, and I’m looking more carefully at the choices I make.
Seeing a lot of intriguing search patents published by Yahoo over the past few months, and that’s made me sad. I don’t know if they will end up in the graveyard of unfulfilled intellectual property, or migrate to Redmond, Washington, with Microsoft taking over Yahoo’s search results.
My favorite baseball team is in first place in their division after more than a decade straight of losing seasons (Go Reds!). Part of the reason for their winning comes from a few trades that have turned out better than expected, and part comes from an improved minor league system. I can’t help thinking of that as I watch Yahoo search engineers move to Microsoft or begin startups of their own. Also wondering if the Yahoo/Bing search merger has helped to make Google stronger. Especially when observing things like Yahoo’s Chief Scientist of Search choosing to join Google instead of Bing.
Seeing too many Search Engine Optimization tools that include keyword density calculators. Please stop.
My town holds its 16th annual Children and Pets Parade tomorrow morning. If you bring your dog or cat or other pet, you can march your pet down Main Street. Children in the parade are encouraged to be on wheels, whether strollers, bikes, wagons, scooters, tricycles, carts – anything without a motor. The mix of pets and kids on wheels is more fun to watch than fireworks.
Google’s webspam chief, Matt Cutts, made a post a couple of days ago on Webspam projects in 2010?, soliciting suggestions for what his readers might like to see Google focus upon to reduce webspam. Have you, or will you join the discussion? I have a few ideas in mind, myself.
I’m continuously puzzled by my State and Local governments’ failure to use the Web more intelligently. Public notices in my newspaper about hearings and solicitations for public commentary tell people to call or email to receive documents about proposed government actions. Not sure why they don’t publish a URL leading directly to those documents online, but they never do.
Sometimes I find myself saying under my breath, “140 characters isn’t enough,” when responding to a question on Twitter. Usually, it is though, in spite of my grumblings.