Now Searchable: Your Rental Car

One of the purposes of my book is to expand the concept of what "search" means in everyday life. We've come to think that search = Google, and Google = search. But what of luggage? Of inventory? Of….Rental cars? In this disturbing NYT piece, Christopher Elliott tells the tale of…

One of the purposes of my book is to expand the concept of what “search” means in everyday life. We’ve come to think that search = Google, and Google = search. But what of luggage? Of inventory? Of….Rental cars? In this disturbing NYT piece, Christopher Elliott tells the tale of Byngsoo Son, who rented a car in San Francisco, took a 12-day road trip with his family (Grand Canyon, Vegas, etc), and got a bill for over $3,400. Why? He crossed state lines, which he didn’t realize triggered a $1-a-mile clause in his contract. How did the car company know? Payless (oh, the irony!) had a GPS unit and “telematics” installed in the car, and was tracking its movements. In other words, they could search for the car at any point in its journey, so they knew when it triggered the Make-A-Shitload-of-Money clause. Did they call the hapless Son, and let him know that he might consider buying a used BMW instead? Of course not! Ah, the power of search….

2 Comments on Now Searchable: Your Rental Car

SIGN UP FOR THE NEWSLETTER

Stay up to date on the latest from BattelleMedia.com

The Dude Abides…or…Dudester

Remember The Big Lebowski? No? Well, the main character, played perfectly by Jeff Bridges, was named "The Dude." He lived, loafed and bowled in LA, circa the late 90s. I'm not sure if the movie inspired "Dude, Check This Out!", a new web-based application I found via Boing Boing, but…

Remember The Big Lebowski? No? Well, the main character, played perfectly by Jeff Bridges, was named “The Dude.” He lived, loafed and bowled in LA, circa the late 90s. I’m not sure if the movie inspired “Dude, Check This Out!”, a new web-based application I found via Boing Boing, but it certainly seems so. While they have picked Charles Atlas as their icon, I think they’d do better with Bridges’ character. In any case, the Dude (that’s what they call themselves) is a recommendation engine of sorts. How it works:

“You can use the Dude to store cool links that you find. Once you store something, you can send it to others, both inside and outside the Dude universe….

Your collection of cool links is anonymously related to other link collections in the Dude database, and the Dude then suggests other links to you. It’s sort of like the Amazon suggestion engine for books based on “people who bought this book also bought…”, but for links instead. Cool, eh?….

Read More
2 Comments on The Dude Abides…or…Dudester

Bray on Tech Success

I have not had a chance to read through this all yet, and will post an update when I do, but Tim has created quite a piece of work over on his site: The Technology Predictor Success Matrix. Check it out….

I have not had a chance to read through this all yet, and will post an update when I do, but Tim has created quite a piece of work over on his site: The Technology Predictor Success Matrix. Check it out.

Leave a comment on Bray on Tech Success

Broadband – Your Estimates May Vary

I've been watching as the predictions for broadband go higher and higher, and now this….Jupiter claims broadband home penetration in the 35% range in 2004. And for high income households, it soars way above that, to nearly 50%. PS – My ISP went down today, till now. Sorry for the…

I’ve been watching as the predictions for broadband go higher and higher, and now this….Jupiter claims broadband home penetration in the 35% range in 2004. And for high income households, it soars way above that, to nearly 50%.

PS – My ISP went down today, till now. Sorry for the light posting day…

Leave a comment on Broadband – Your Estimates May Vary

Features, Features…To What End?

It seems every day Google, and now Yahoo as well, adds more features to its search – first it was phone numbers , then tracking packages, then patents, now it's whois, flights, UPC codes, VINs, and God knows what else. Read a few pages of Google Hacks, and you'll realize,…

It seems every day Google, and now Yahoo as well, adds more features to its search – first it was phone numbers , then tracking packages, then patents, now it’s whois, flights, UPC codes, VINs, and God knows what else. Read a few pages of Google Hacks, and you’ll realize, you never use even 2% of Google’s power, and, most likely, you never will.

This leads me to wonder, where is this all going? I mean, the fact is, most searchers simply don’t use advanced search features *at all* – not even simple operators like quotes (” black jaguar” cat) or negative inclusion (jaguar -cat). So why are these search sites loading up on features that, honestly, nearly all their users will never take advantage of? Do they think searcher’s habits are going to change? I doubt it. I’d be interested in why you these features are being added with such abandon. Just because they can? Maybe they think folks will be building applications on top of the search platform, or will they do it themselves? Are they expecting that a layer of expert searchers will develop who peddle intermediary services (ie Google Answers)? I mean, I can get as excited as the next guy about the addition of the tilde operator or the “*” function, but….it feels like there is something in aggregate I am missing. Must be the varathane on the floor in the next room, keeping me from grokking the grand plan in all this. Help me out!

11 Comments on Features, Features…To What End?

Beyond the Browser Again…

Cnet's Stephanie Olsen notes that several portals are considering following Google into the taskbar world…effectively increasing pressure on MSFT to get its Longhorn act together. This is a significant threat to the mindspace that Windows occupies: If Windows becomes a layer that is built upon by others…where is the margin…

Cnet’s Stephanie Olsen notes that several portals are considering following Google into the taskbar world…effectively increasing pressure on MSFT to get its Longhorn act together. This is a significant threat to the mindspace that Windows occupies: If Windows becomes a layer that is built upon by others…where is the margin for Gates & Co? Hence their massive efforts to get into search…

1 Comment on Beyond the Browser Again…

How Superbowl Ad Prices Prove Old Media Is Splintering

Advertising Age has a headline today that sounds familiar: "Superbowl Ad Prices Set New Record." On first blush, it'd be easy to say that the $2.25 million marketers are paying for one 30-second spot proves how robust broadcast television is as a medium. In fact, I'd argue it proves quite…

Advertising Age has a headline today that sounds familiar: “Superbowl Ad Prices Set New Record.” On first blush, it’d be easy to say that the $2.25 million marketers are paying for one 30-second spot proves how robust broadcast television is as a medium. In fact, I’d argue it proves quite the opposite. Broadcast television continues to bleed out as niche cable, the internet, and gaming take hold, creating a a significant shortage of Major Marketing Moments. Back when Laugh In or the Texaco Theater was king, average ratings hovered above 50 for hit shows. Now a show is a hit if it cracks the teens. Hence, when something like the Superbowl creates a mass marketing opportunity (a rarity today), marketers naturally bid it up. So here’s a new law: The price of a 30-second Superbowl spot is inversely correlated to overall network television revenues. I’d wager Major Marketing Moment revenues won’t make up the overall network decline year to year. I’d love to do the stats on this, but I’m supposed to be writing a book, so I’ll leave it at that.

Leave a comment on How Superbowl Ad Prices Prove Old Media Is Splintering

Why The Search Box Is Important…

Because your company's employees can use it to punk you on your 40th birthday: type "old fart" into Amazon's search box (today only, I'd wager) and you'll see this… thanks to D. Weinberger for the pointer……

Because your company’s employees can use it to punk you on your 40th birthday: type “old fart” into Amazon’s search box (today only, I’d wager) and you’ll see this… thanks to D. Weinberger for the pointer…

Leave a comment on Why The Search Box Is Important…

Exactly…

Dan Gillmor nails it when he says: The post-broadcast culture is a democratization of media, and it comes at things from the opposite stance. It says that anyone also can be a creator, not just a consumer. There's a world of difference. This evolution hit the print world in the…

Dan Gillmor nails it when he says:

The post-broadcast culture is a democratization of media, and it comes at things from the opposite stance. It says that anyone also can be a creator, not just a consumer. There’s a world of difference.

This evolution hit the print world in the mid-1980s, when desktop publishing spurred an array of new magazines, newsletters and other print publications. Then the Web arrived, spurring even more variety in what remained essentially a modern version of printed news and information.

Read More
Leave a comment on Exactly…

Sterling on Search

Thanks to Google Blogoscoped for pointing me to this Reason interview with Bruce Sterling. In it he opines on media, tech, etc., and has some words of wisdom on search in particular. Excerpts: There is a Google blindness. It’s a kind of common wisdom generator, but it’s not necessarily going…

Thanks to Google Blogoscoped for pointing me to this Reason interview with Bruce Sterling. In it he opines on media, tech, etc., and has some words of wisdom on search in particular. Excerpts:

There is a Google blindness. It’s a kind of common wisdom generator, but it’s not necessarily going to get you to the real story of what’s actually going on.

reason: As today’s children get older they’re internalizing Boolean search logic, and they actually do show some discrimination and drill down to the useful information.

Read More
Leave a comment on Sterling on Search