Bits of Tid

Today, I am writing. Yep, taking the entire day off from meetings and scheduled phone calls and travel, and just writing. Oh, what a luxury!

First off, a few tidbits have piled up in my inbox. Here they are for your consideration.

IBM and Yahoo have teamed up to create the UFOCrawler. No kidding. “UFO Crawler, a new search engine specifically tuned to search for information about the paranormal and unexplained will be launched Friday by the Anomalies Network. The UFO Crawler is taking off thanks to IBM’s newest search software, IBM OmniFind Yahoo! Edition. Like many organizations, the Anomalies Network was faced with the need to improve access to its growing collection of information, while also looking for a tool to create a competitive advantage for the business through search.” Or, in other words, a fun way to promote IBM and Yahoo’s enterprise search offering.

Speaking of Yahoo, it launched a new edition of MyYahoo yesterday. From the email notification: “Some new features include:

Pre-built personalized pages

Category pages for topics and “content suggestions”

Further customization of their page with drag-and-drop modules

Feed previews and a full post reader on the page

Editable Personal Assistant with instant access to things like Yahoo! Mail, horoscopes, local traffic, etcRedesigned modules from Yahoo! and partners, with games, music, commerce, sports updates, weather, finance portfolios, TV listings, etc.

Sharing feature, enabling users to send their My Yahoo! page or favorite modules with friends and family.

And we can’t have a Yahoo upgrade without a Google response, this one is to their Local Business Center. This is important, I’ve been banging on them about how Google does not take advantage of the architecture of participation for local merchants, now it is. From the email I got: “today Google released new features to its Local Business Center (www.google.com/local/add/businessCenter), further enabling small businesses to reach potential customers looking for local goods and services online. The Local Business Center, a free service, allows business owners with a physical location to add their business information to Google Maps, and edit or delete existing listings. The new features include photo upload, custom attributes, local correction and listing statistics.”

Danny Hillis is talking more about his MetaWeb project, and the Times has the story. Danny and I are trying to find a time to sit down and really talk. We spoke of this project three years ago when I interviewed him for the book. He’s a very, very smart fellow. Markoff’s lead: ” new company founded by a longtime technologist is setting out to create a vast public database intended to be read by computers rather than people, paving the way for a more automated Internet in which machines will routinely share information.” More, including screen shots, at Radar.