Jenny Levine: Google

"Glenn recaps his Google analysis (which was very well done). What I would like to see is a Google product that combined external search (what they currently do), search of the corporate LAN, and desktop search. Put one keyword in and get multiple folders of results -- Web pages and images (they can leave out groups and especially that sub-par open directory project -- I would substitute K-Logs and Wiki-Wiki)." [John Robb's Radio Weblog]

Another "me, too" post on my part. As I continue investigating portal solutions for SLS, it's become painfully clear that no one product is going to do everything I want and/or need it to do. So now I'm approaching this as a puzzle for which I have to find the right pieces, figure out how they go together, and make them into a coherent whole. All for a price a Library System can afford, without exorbitant consulting fees because dammit Jim, we're not programmers. If the Google product described above was available, I would have given it serious consideration as one piece of the puzzle. And while I don't feel the need to include Wikis at this point, I desperately want to figure out how to add K-logging to the equation.

I'm so confident of the Google Renaissance that I'm adding a new category for posts called simply Google. Please be patient while I go back and add this classification to old posts.

"Here's an aha! (A mind bomb(?), at least for me!) Dane Carlson has figured out a way to find (with Google) sites that offer RSS feeds. As I understand it these are the sites that Radio users can add to their news aggregator. I'll be experimenting with this." [Steve Pilgrim's Radio Weblog]

See what I mean about Google? And BTW, if you're a Radio newbie like me, Steve's blog is must-see reading because he's asking all of the questions I haven't had time to ask. More importantly, he's getting answers.

"New Yahoo ads and promotions point to the increasing marginalization of this once central portal. It is starting to look like Excite. The obvious evolutionary step in the Web portal saga was to take the experience to the desktop. Connect up Web Services and grow from there, slowly absorbing more and more of the users time. A virtual AOL (without the connectivity). However, that didn't happen so they are slowly fading into the background." [John Robb's Radio Weblog]

And then on the opposite side of the spectrum from Google we have Yahoo. I agree with John that Yahoo has peaked and is on its way down. They could have innovated like Google and stayed out front, but instead they just bought up other companies and services in the hopes of integrating it all into one big honking catch-all. Well, it didn't work, but then I'm not sure where they expected to end up because I never got a sense of a specific plan and direction in which they wanted to go.

Even with the "My Yahoo" service that I use at home, it could have been so much more if Yahoo had concentrated on providing a specific service focused on user control (like NewsIsFree), rather than a way to push its own partnerships and services. Yahoo could have been the center of the blogging universe, too, but they are no longer innovating. Like so many of the bigcos, they're watching behind them and reacting instead of looking forward and creating.

The Secret Lives of Numbers "The authors conducted an exhaustive empirical study, with the aid of custom software, public search engines and powerful statistical techniques, in order to determine the relative popularity of every integer between 0 and one million. The resulting information exhibits an extraordinary variety of patterns which reflect and refract our culture, our minds, and our bodies. For example, certain numbers, such as 212, 486, 911, 1040, 1492, 1776, 68040, or 90210, occur more frequently than their neighbors because they are used to denominate the phone numbers, tax forms, computer chips, famous dates, or television programs that figure prominently in our culture." [via MeFi]

The consensus seems to be that the search engine is Google. I think Google is single-handedly responsible for an Internet renaissance of its own. Its inspiring people to use search engines, manipulate data, and do research in entirely new ways. The name itself has become a verb, and it's responsible for new Internet-based sports (Googlewhacking and Google Instant Messaging anyone?). Offhand, I can't think of another site that has been used in such wildly different ways from its intended purpose to become an integral part of the collective Internet consciousness. And it will only continue. At least, I hope it will.

Note: The site listed above is a Java applet recommended for Windows and IE users with higher-end machines with lots of RAM and a broadband connection.

What will they think of next? Is there anything that can't be Googled? Go on, I dare you. Send me a Google Instant Message. [in BurningBird]

SJ Mercury: `Google effect' reduces need for many domains. Dan Gillmor. The most interesting from a domain-name point of view is this: With the rise of search tools that unerringly bring you to the page you want, the need for a highly specific domain name -- one that a casual Web user would be able to guess -- has practically disappeared. [Tomalak's Realm]

Except for the fact that a whole heck of a lot of people don't know about Google. Google should partner with libraries and help us create PR materials to give out at our Internet training classes. Google the World @ YourLibrary