A few months ago Google officially released Google Suggest to be a primary feature on Google’s home page. In a blog post that announced this, the product managers in charge of the feature explained the different improvements including personalized suggestions, navigational suggestions (link to official site) and sponsored suggestions (very similar to the Israeli PredictAd).
Today I discovered another hidden feature that I was not aware of – suggestion of the right spelling for a query that contains a misspelling. For example, start typing the the query “waist of t” and Google will suggest terms such as “waste of time” or “waste of space”. Pretty cool as it saves you the extra “Did you mean?” search.
By the way, when comparing this feature of Google Suggest to the other search engines, I would rank them in the following order:
Since the first Twitter clients on the iPhone came out, I have tried many of them. Eventually I picked TwitterFon and when the Pro version was released I immediately upgraded to it. I find the feature set rich, it is very easy to use and has overall good stability and performance.
But as a long time user of TweetDeck’s desktop client, when I read that an iPhone version was just released, I thought to give it a try.
Well, I must say that TweetDeck for iPhone still has a long way to go before it becomes my preferred twitter client on the iPhone. Here are a few reasons why based on a 5 minutes usages:
On the positive site, TweetDeck has some features that I wish could be added to TwitterFon like:
It is interesting to see how the battle to be the most popular twitter client is accelerating. But for now, I stick with TwitterFon Pro as my preferred Twitter client for the iPhone.
For a detailed comparison check out this great post.
In the last year I have seen several house ads running on the AdSense network, promoting different Google services such as Chrome, Picasa and Google Analytics. But today while reading TechCrunch, I saw for the first time an ad targeted to acquire new advertisers.
I wonder if that is a response to the fact Microsoft AdCenter came out of beta recently or to the Bing launch, a search engine that I highly recommend using.
BTW, does anyone know if (and how much) Google pays publishers when visitors clicks on these house ads and take action (download picasa or chrome, sign up for analytics or as advertisers)?
google-house-ad-adwords
A few days ago, my wife asked me to create a new brochure for her birth doula business. A quick search in my gmail inbox took me to VistaPrint’s website where I quickly completed the design process and ordered new brochures.
The last time we used VistaPrint was two or three years ago. My wife created business cards using their service and I remembered a fair experience. Since then, for a couple of years, VistaPrint has been sending me all sorts of promotional emails several times a week. Most people think that these folks are pretty good at spamming their customers, but I think differently. Probably because at my previous role as VP of Products at Spark Networks one of my team’s responsibilities was email marketing, and I know how complex email marketing campaigns and systems could become. And so, when I look at these types of things it is not from a regular users prespective.
In a nutshell, VistaPrints email marketing efforts are great for:
I think that what VistaPrint is doing is pretty impressive for an eMarketer, and anyone who has an email marketing component in his marketing activities should look into them and learn.
The only negetive thing I could say is that as a customer you have to pay for everything on their site (very good for their business though), including for a PDF version of the file designed. So, I just waited for the shipping to arrive and last night I scanned the brochure and uploaded it.
My wife likes the result and so do I. And so, if you live in the greater Los Angeles area, San Fernando valley or Ventura county and looking for a birth doula or a private prenatal yoga instructor, you should check her brochure (below) and website – BirthSpeak
Most of the times blogging can be thankless since people rarely leave comments or join the conversation, while at other times it can be tremendously rewarding. Here’s an example of the latter.
The comment below was left by Vivek Golikeri who lives in Trinidad on my post about my personal memory related to the Israeli Fallen Soldiers and Victims of Terrorism Remembrance Day.
You mentioned Amnon Kadmon. I was his family’s neighbor in Victoria Gardens, Diego Martin, in 1972 and 1973 when his father Gideon Kadmon was working as an agricultural advisor to the government of Trinidad and Tobago. Amnon was a baby at that time, and I in my final year of high school. I used to run around and play in the streets with Adi, his oldest brother. I remember his mother Miriam, and his siblings Adi, Noam and Tamar.
Amnon’s nanny, a black Trinidadian lady named Beulah, used to bring him out for walks in the evening. He was so cute, chubby and cuddly that I began calling him “duckling.” His mother, loved that pet name. Amnon would rest his head of curly golden hair on my shoulder and say “Uncle Veek!….I LOFF you!”
A few years ago I googled his name, wondering whatever became of the Kadmon family. Tears welled up in my eyes when I learned that my pet “baby duck” had been killed in a war. I used to say “If I ever have a son, I want him to be just like Amnon.”
If the Kadmon family ever see this post of mine, I ask them if they remember the Hindu family down the street on Jacaranda Avenue whose son, Vik, loved their baby so much. Later on, they moved to Orchid Avenue, a little away. I always walked there to play with my “baby duck.”
SHALOM, my little puppy. I hope you are at peace on the other side.
Last weekend I participated at the first ever Kinnernet USA, an un-conference, inspired by Tim O’Reilly’s foo camp, that was organized by Jeff Pulver and Yossi Vardi. The camp was at the beautiful Bolger Center at Potomoc MD and it brought together about 100 people who came from all over the US, Europe and Israel to interact, discuss, create, play (music and games) and share thoughts and ideas.
This was my 3rd Kinnernet (first two were the “original” ones in Israel). It was very enjoyable & also different than the Israeli version. Kinnernet USA had less of the wild outdoors activities Kinnernet is known for like drag racing, robotics, fireworks, water activities and others and there was more focus on workshops & discussions. Similarities included tons of food, very little sleep, very funny Eggstravaganza, extremely creative Gadgethon (winners were a computer powered sand table and Zoozbeat created by the very talented Gil Weinberg), Midnight Cooking Madness (I think it was the best ever) and fun jam sessions.
The biggest evidence to how different this Kinnernet was compared to its Israeli version could be found in the gaming section. The game room, typically the most crowded place 24×7, was well equipped with plenty of gaming consoles, large screens and massive sound systems. However, it remained empty most of the time. At the same time, plenty of folks played all night long, sessions of Werewolf games thanks to Jimmy Wales who initiated this. Not only that, Werewolf has made it to future Kinnernet’s official playlist and got Yossi’s blessing.
Overall, it was a very fun weekend as you can see in some of the photos I shot and in the videos uploaded to qik here.
And here’s the presentation I gave at the opening ceremony. Named “Kinnernet For Dummies”, it is a quick start guide for newbies done using photos from past Kinnernets.
Back in Oct 2008 Yahoo was testing a new homepage. This version of the homepage has not become live yet and probably won’t given the fact that Yahoo has now a new CEO, Carol Bratz, that has a very clear vision for the company. A vision that is also reflected in the new version of the homepage I just got (probably as part of a small percentage test Yahoo is running) – big focus on search, display advertising and a better portal to generate more page views on the Yahoo network.
Couple of observations:
(a) placed the link “View Yahoo! Sites” which expands to a directory of all the Yahoo sites at the top of the Favorites left bar
(b) moved the articles section to the top and increased its size from 5 to 10 links
Overall, I like the new design. It is lighter, cleaner and the information is organized in a more logical and accessible way compared to the existing homepage. Who knows, if this version will eventually become the live one, I might switch my homepage back to Yahoo like in the good old days.
Update: According to Sillicon Alley Insider, this new homepage is not a test but a phased rollout.
Here are some photos of the new design
Remembering my childhood friends, Amnon Kadmon (died Nov 26, 1990) & Shaul Hilevitch (died Oct 29, 1991) and my wife’s boyfriend at the time Nir Evron (died Feb 2, 1994). It has been almost 20 years and I can not stop thinking what if…
If you love music and read Hebrew you should make a habit and read Haoneg, a fantastic blog written by Guyha.
Beyond being a very talented writer and someone with great taste in music, Guy is also running a small label called Hiss Records that signs artists he and his partner, Morphlexis, love to hear.
This is how I was introduced to Nadav Azulay and his debut album that was produced by Hiss. From my first listening to Nadav I was blown away by his personal lyrics, music and signing. This young guy is an evidence that there are some great young Israeli rockers out there. It is just a little harder to discover them.
You can listening to the full album & read the lyrics on this bandcamp page.
If you want to learn more about Nadav and his music listen to this radio interview. Beyond the chit chat, Nadav and his partner, Gil Nemet, performed live many of the album songs and a few others unplugged. And if you fast forward 12:30 minutes into the mp3, you will hear a live performance where Gil plays drums and piano at the same time!
And here’s a taste of Nadav and his band in action, something I hope to see in person on my next trip to Israel.
I hope you all have a good Passover. The Huffington Post has an interesting article about Passover traditions from all around the world.
Happy Freedom Holiday.
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i send the locusts on a wind (365-169) – happy passover from the ten plagues!, originally uploaded by michele cat.
