Month: November 2006

Rant: The Comcast HD DVR Is Simply, Terribly Awful

This has been boiling in me for a long, long time, and I need to get it out. Why? Well, last night the power went out at my house, not uncommon here in Marin, where the homes are old and the weather rainy. It came back on in about…

Hdtv003

This has been boiling in me for a long, long time, and I need to get it out. Why? Well, last night the power went out at my house, not uncommon here in Marin, where the homes are old and the weather rainy. It came back on in about five minutes, and nothing much changed in our world.

Until my wife and I got upstairs and snuggled up in bed, ready to watch our sacred 45 minutes or so of Tivo’d television.

Now, allow me to explain. I got Tivo back in the Series 1 days. I love Tivo. I have written about it here many times. I love its approach to user interface, I love its corporate attitude (I know it can’t keep it up given the reality of the market), and I even love its shortcomings. It’s the Macintosh of television.

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235 Comments on Rant: The Comcast HD DVR Is Simply, Terribly Awful

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The Searchblog Human Detector

Due to the spam issues I reported on earlier, we've added a "human detector" to comments. This is a test, please do let me know what you think. I hope it won't mean fewer comments…but I do hope it will mean fewer shiny trans gender fetish spams…….

Due to the spam issues I reported on earlier, we’ve added a “human detector” to comments. This is a test, please do let me know what you think. I hope it won’t mean fewer comments…but I do hope it will mean fewer shiny trans gender fetish spams….

14 Comments on The Searchblog Human Detector

Google On CIA: Untrue

"The statements related to Google are completely untrue." That's Google's response to the assertions from this story, which I posted about here. Update: Sorry folks, to clarify: This was an official Google spokesperson' statement….

“The statements related to Google are completely untrue.” That’s Google’s response to the assertions from this story, which I posted about here.

Update: Sorry folks, to clarify: This was an official Google spokesperson’ statement.

20 Comments on Google On CIA: Untrue

Reader Bryan Writes…

Reader Bryan Writes: Who's to say Panama will fail? What Google did was not rocket science. All they did was realize that CTR is an important consideration for monetization. Yahoo has learned, and is taking corrective measures. The only difference is that they inherited Overture's antiquated infrastructure. Panama is…

< ![CDATA[
Reader Bryan Writes: Who’s to say Panama will fail? What Google did was not rocket science. All they did was realize that CTR is an important consideration for monetization.

Yahoo has learned, and is taking corrective measures. The only difference is that they inherited Overture’s antiquated infrastructure. Panama is their ticket to a higher yield.]]>

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Amazon’s ClickRiver

And the monetization ideas keep coming. This from A9, which we thought was on death's door… What is Clickriver Ads? Clickriver Ads is an advertising program — currently in beta — that allows businesses to place sponsored links on Amazon.com®, next to search results and on product detail pages….

Clickriver

And the monetization ideas keep coming. This from A9, which we thought was on death’s door…



What is Clickriver Ads?

Clickriver Ads is an advertising program — currently in beta — that allows businesses to place sponsored links on Amazon.com®, next to search results and on product detail pages. Clickriver Ads presents a unique opportunity to advertise services and products that complement the selection on Amazon.com, an online marketplace with tens of millions of active customer accounts.

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1 Comment on Amazon’s ClickRiver

YouTube Was Going To Use FAST Technology, But Will It Now?

A trusted source pointed me to this tidbit, which I did not know. It's dated 2 August, 2006: FAST signs contract with YouTube, Inc Fast Search & Transfer ASA (FAST) today announced that YouTube, Inc. signed an agreement to deploy FAST for Site Search, based on the FAST Enterprise…

Fast-1A trusted source pointed me to this tidbit, which I did not know. It’s dated 2 August, 2006:

FAST signs contract with YouTube, Inc

Fast Search & Transfer ASA (FAST) today announced that YouTube, Inc. signed an agreement to deploy FAST for Site Search, based on the FAST Enterprise Search Platform (FAST ESP) to power the search for YouTube.com.

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3 Comments on YouTube Was Going To Use FAST Technology, But Will It Now?

Yahoo’s FailOver Strategy: AdSense?

Eric speculates on a Wall St. analyst's speculation. Man, I could not see this happening. Now here’s an idea I hadn’t heard before: Rob Sanderson, an analyst with American Technology Research, asserted in a research note today that there’s an easy fix for Yahoo (YHOO) if its Panama search…

Eric speculates on a Wall St. analyst’s speculation. Man, I could not see this happening.

Now here’s an idea I hadn’t heard before: Rob Sanderson, an analyst with American Technology Research, asserted in a research note today that there’s an easy fix for Yahoo (YHOO) if its Panama search platform doesn’t succeed: revert to being a Google (GOOG) affiliate, as it was before the company bought Overture. Throwing in the towel on Panama and becoming a Google affiliate could allow the company to capture at least a portion of the 66% gap in search query monetization begtween Google and Yahoo, Sanderson asserts.

He contends that, while a black eye for management, such a move could be a “financial boom” to Yahoo investors. He says EBITDA could be at least 35% higher that current forecasts at Google’s rate of monetization, especially given lower costs.

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10 Comments on Yahoo’s FailOver Strategy: AdSense?

Spock, Find My Lost Love

Matt reports on Spock, a search engine for people. From his post: From a demo we’ve seen, we think it could be a powerful addition. Spock could take this in some interesting directions. Its main challenge will be to wean users from Google as a first stop, though more…

Spock

Matt reports on Spock, a search engine for people. From his post:

From a demo we’ve seen, we think it could be a powerful addition. Spock could take this in some interesting directions. Its main challenge will be to wean users from Google as a first stop, though more on that in a sec.

When Spock launches, it will have 100 million profiles of people in its database, by far the largest open repository of profiles anywhere. Spock delivers a mixture of facts and research on a people, but also opens a profile to social input, giving it a touch of Wikipedia.

1 Comment on Spock, Find My Lost Love

No Surprise: Viacom Puts Clips Back On YouTube

Man, this is getting interesting. Now the clips are back up, Viacom and Google (er, YouTube) have negotiated a license. I wonder if Viacom got to feast on some of that escrow account? Mmmmmmmmmm, the milk of commerce!…

Dailyshowyt

Man, this is getting interesting. Now the clips are back up, Viacom and Google (er, YouTube) have negotiated a license. I wonder if Viacom got to feast on some of that escrow account? Mmmmmmmmmm, the milk of commerce!

2 Comments on No Surprise: Viacom Puts Clips Back On YouTube