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Where is Local?

Tuesday, February 12th, 2008

Specifically - is local where I am, or where I want to go?  More importantly - to what extent should the answer to that question influence site design and strategy?  First, let’s define the question.  As I’ve indicated before, where I am at a given time and where I’m from may or may not be […]

Y.M.C.A.

Tuesday, February 5th, 2008

Or maybe it should have been CMAY - Can Microsoft Acquire Yahoo? Obviously the big news this week is around the Microsoft bid to buy Yahoo. It’s hard to really read about anything else right now. So why am I writing about it? Well, I personally think it’s particularly interesting from a local perspective, both […]

The Comprehensive Myth

Tuesday, January 29th, 2008

One of the things that is truly amazing about the Internet is the wealth of information available through one simple interface. Your Internet Browser coupled with a powerful Search engine can bring you content in many different forms, from millions of different sources. This amazing power has brought along with it very challenging […]

Human Search vs. Algorithmic Search - The Debate

Wednesday, January 23rd, 2008

OK, for this weeks post I’m actually mostly going to point you all at some interesting discussions already underway regarding Human Search vs. Algorithmic Search. During a panel discussion yesterday at the Digital Life Design conference in Munich, Jason Calacanis from Mahalo faced off with Jimmy Wales from Wikia, in a a discussion around […]

Related != Relevant - Really?

Tuesday, January 15th, 2008

I almost called this people are smarter than computers part 4, but figured you guys were getting tired of that theme. Plus it forced me to be more creative. In any case, today I’m thinking about relevance. Search engines are all about relevance. For years search engines have been trying their […]

My Local Resolutions for 2008

Tuesday, January 8th, 2008

OK, so it has been done before, but just because it’s been done before doesn’t make it a bad idea. With that - I thought I would share with you some of my personal resolutions for 2008.
1. Shop Local - wherever possible support the local small businesses with my purchase $$ - the local […]

People are Smarter Than Computers (Part 3)

Monday, December 17th, 2007

And now, the conclusion (well, at least for 2007 - I’m pretty sure that at some point over the next three weeks, something will happen that will cause me to utter the words “Stupid machine” at least once, and maybe I’ll have more fodder for this column.) But for now….
It’s actually too bad […]

People are Smarter Than Computers (Part 2)

Tuesday, December 11th, 2007

And, frankly, smarter than many of us in the industry think. For years in search, it has seemed like the Holy Grail is the ability to take whatever the user types in the search box and return results based on what the user really wanted. For some reason we think that computers should be capable […]

People are Smarter Than Computers (Part 1)

Monday, December 3rd, 2007

Now, how did I come to this conclusion? Well, I was thinking today about “Hours of Operation”. It’s a simple concept, right? If you and I are having a conversation , I can simply tell you “hey, that store is open 7×24, or not open on Sundays, or only open M-W until 9 […]

There’s Something About Craig

Monday, November 26th, 2007

As I sat in my office today trying to decide what to write about in this week’s LocalPoint installment, I suddenly remembered that my wife really wanted to go see Iron & Wine at the Moore theatre here in Seattle next Monday night. (Really, I wasn’t procrastinating - really) So where did I turn? Without […]

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