Tuesday, April 27, 2004

Book Meme Mutation

The Grab Book Open Page 23 meme mutated into...:

1. Grab the nearest CD.
2. Put it in your CD-player (or start your mp3-player, I-tunes, etc.).
3. Skip to Song 3 (or load the 3rd song in your 3rd playlist)
4. Post the first verse in your journal along with these instructions. Don’t name the band or album title.

“Grab * nearest CD” “Put it * your CD player” “skip to” counts 212 pages in Google as of today. [Via Dominik Schwind.]

Book Meme Mutation by Philipp Lenssen

Finding More Backlinks

It has been noted in a search newsgroup recently that searching for
www.example.com -site:www.example.com
will show quite a few new backlinks in Google.

Finding More Backlinks by Philipp Lenssen

Tracking URLs

If you write a blog, you may want to know how URLs you mention spread. But since you are not always attributed, you can alter the URL before releasing it to the public.
Let’s take, for example, this innocent CNN address:

Kerry blasts ’phony controversy’ over medals cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/04/26/kerry.medals/index.html#prtn1939192

If someone would read your political blog, take the URL and repost it in his blog... then seeing his site you would never know where it came from. Or would you?

In fact, the URL above was modified by me. I added the “#prtn19391522” at the end. It’s harmless enough to not change the page*. “#prtn19391522” is also unique string; 19391522 being my “blog partner ID”, if you want.

*It won’t even change the link weight in Google’s eyes, as Google ignores page-anchors – such would not be the case with HTTP get-parameters. It only causes problems if the anchor would exist, or if you would point to an existing anchor.

Now all I have to do to see if someone else passed on the meme is to search Technorati for the full URL as above. Without anyone giving explicit credit, I might even see it spread all around blogosphere.

Tracking URLs by Philipp Lenssen

Google IPO Explained

If you want to know what IPO means in general, check The Initial Public Offerings (IPO) Resource Page. If you want to know what IPO means to Google, see A Quirky Brilliance vs. the Dreams of Venture Capitalists

Google IPO Explained by Philipp Lenssen

Turing Test For Search Engines

“A huge amount of money and time and virtuosity has been invested over the last few decades attempting to create intelligent search through the application of statistical and linguistic techniques. The results are worthwhile, but they are not intelligence.

Here’s what I believe, based on a lot of experience: any search system that could exhibit the kind of intelligence I’ve described could as a side-effect pass the Turing test, and perhaps qualify for citizenship and protection under the laws of the land.”
– Tim Bray, On Search: Intelligence, 2003/06/24

Turing Test For Search En ... by Philipp Lenssen

Format Diversity

“At last night’s dinner I sat across from an entrepreneur who runs a company that makes content for cell phones. He told the story of WAP and WML and how they had splintered and reformed so many times, that now there are thousands of variations, and it’s basically impossible to make applications that work over enough of the market to be economically viable.

This is a cautionary tale for the RSS community. When people say more formats, or varying practices don’t cost, they are either naive or acting in their own interest, not ours. In all likelihood, RSS is going down the same path. But it’s not too late to do something about it.”
– Dave Winer, A cautionary tale (Scripting.com), April 27, 2004

Format Diversity by Philipp Lenssen

>> More posts

Advertisement