Search June - July 05
Pleasantly surprised to see ‘sania’ scoring over ‘aishwarya’ as the most searched word (woman?) on Google in India in June. More so this has become some sort of a trend in 2005. Both ladies featured every month on the top 10 list and Sania always ranked above Aishwarya. Equally interestingly, ‘kingfisher’ is 7th while ‘air deccan’ is 2nd. And of course, our very own ‘India times’ debutes on the top 10 list.
Some more numbers - Altho Yahoo Local Search is about 4.4 times better than Google’s according to a Hitwise report, and not too far behind in the US search pie (Google 36.5% ; Yahoo 30.5% ; oh and MSN 15.5%), worldwide it’s Google all the way (59.2% while Yahoo 28.8%).
More Google for MS
Wow! Google is really out to encroach as many MS properties as it can! Just trying out this new tool – Blogger for Word. It includes all Word formatting too?Hmmmmph! Request timed out error - Unable to contact Server!Okay..Now checking if I can edit it too. Btw, formatting doesn’t all work too well.
Necessity of Gay Marriages -The emerging better half of Media
I read somewhere scepticism about News Corp's venture into the New Economy with MySpace.com stating that Murdoch is always known for innovation unlike this time when he is just following the herd. Latest is that he is also picking up Blinx.tv.
In the same breath, there is also the beginning of hue and cry over Yahoo original content ambitions. Essentially Yahoo has been an aggregator, but off late its new products (Yahoo news, Sprts Opinion and Analysis, Health Experts Blog) have too much of an original content to irk traditional media companies. Economist apparently has a scathing take on Yahoo's lack of focus - "Yahoo has old media plans for the new-media era"
Hollywood's answer to La Dolce Vita's Paparazzo
As an extension to citizen's journalism, I discovered this dude -Mark Hunter aka
Cobrasnake- another really enterprising 20 year old who according to
Wired might be the first one in LA to make a living off his photoblog! His claim to fame is photographing the likes of Paris Hilton in their silliest moments - typically getting into a nightclub and clicking away to glory as the liquor flows freely (we fondly refer to the phenomenon as 'daaru andar, character bahar - literaly 'as soon as the booze goes in, the real character comes out). Quite harmless so far. Tho his days of sneaking in are over (he actually gets invited to high profile shows now!), he yet can't afford a car. Check out the Hot Email Action Section for his fan following..and even better his personal responses to them:-)) An Example -
Fan -
congrats for your super cool addicted site!!! i love it. im from buenos aires fucking city.. you should come sometime and rock with us, cool third wolrd beutiful people and parties!!!.Mark - buenos aires you guys have the internet out there... thats crazy arent you a bunch of addicted beautiful third world savages... becuase that what was read in this book "lord of the flies"... its about a bunch of little kids that go to buenos aires on a mission to convert all you internet using savages to christianty... man that was the best television series ever why did they ever have to cancel it... why...
Eyeing it right!
If you thought great user interfaces was about kick-ass design and multemedia antics - think again! Guys at IBM research labs are working on break-through technologies which allow you to focus on your task rather than going about that task.
Pervasive Computing as its called is all about bringing transparency to human - computer interaction. Basically the interface will become extremely non intrusive and will respond to all your senses (not sensations!) including voice and sight. Imagine saying out comands like "Check my mail" or "What's happening in the Interactive Industry in India"...
Taking Matters in Hand?
What with Accenture declaring the might of Blackberry over notebooks; the spawing of "citizen journalism" making instant photojournalists out of anyone with a camera phone; the Google acknowledgement of Rob Glaser (Real), Bob Pittman(MTV) backed Current.tv where viewers contribute to make TV into this huge video blog, and not to forget our home grown DNA I wonder if democracy (or rather a warped Ayn Rand-ish Objectivism) is going to be the rule of the next day. For the people, Of the people and BY the people.
My specious insight of the day - In a world banking on AI, people are being involved more than ever. Behavioural targetting, contexual relevance, usability labs, the penetration into our psyche is on an all time high and hopefully simultaneous with the coming of age of organized information.
All I know is that I know nothing
I have deffered, I have denied. I have coffered I have lied.
The fact still remains that you can't run from it forever. You have to make an effort. You have to persist and persevere. There are no shortcuts. There are no free lunches. The dianosaurs Were, the cockroaches Are. The expectations are greater than your last greatest achievement. You have to begin from ground up!
I welcome myself to the world wide web.
