Google Blogoscoped

Monday, October 17, 2005

Googling Overachieving Life Forms

From the San Franciscio Chronicle Humor Dept. yesterday:

“Google Inc. announced today yet another partnership with NASA in which the Mountain View search giant will collaborate with the much smaller government agency on the search for extraterrestrial life.

Said Sergey Brin, the aging Google founder and co-owner of Australia, “We’ve developed an algorithm that not only searches your desktop, your refrigerator and your sock drawer, but will also transcend the space-time continuum and probe the far depths of the universe in search of like-minded, overachieving life forms that can’t sit still for six minutes at a time.”

Google, running out of intelligent life forms to hire here on Earth, is hoping the new endeavor will unearth a new pool of talent for the 7 billion-square-foot campus it is building on its half of the moon.”

[Via Digg.]

Nielsen On Blog Design Mistakes

Jakob Nielsen makes very good points in his list of the top 10 weblog usability mistakes. If you’re a blogger, ask yourself honestly how much of these mistakes you’re repeating – maybe you’ll find it’s time you do something about it. In a nut-shell, the top design mistakes are:

  1. No author biography (a lack of a descriptive “About” page)
  2. No author photo
  3. Nondescript posting titles (no microcontent)
  4. Links don’t say where they go (link text such as “here” or “there”)
  5. Classic hits are buried (no chance for newcomers to find popular posts)
  6. The calendar is the only navigation (no categories)
  7. Irregular publishing frequency
  8. Mixing topics (not becoming a niche blogger and expert of a chosen field)
  9. Forgetting that you write for your future boss (flames/ rants don’t look too good once your prospective employer googles you)
  10. Having a domain name owned by a weblog service

Increase in Blogspot Spam?

I previously covered the already immense Blogspot spam problem, but now some bloggers (like Chris Pirillo, Mark Cuban, and Matt Haughey) are reporting an increase in splogs. [Via Waxy.]

Advertising Slogan Generator

“Do You Eat The Blogoscoped Last?” If you think that was catchy, the Advertising Slogan Generator might be for you. [Thanks Miel.]

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