Wednesday, February 18, 2004

Dean quits: NY Times, Telegraph, BBC, MSNBC, Dean weblog, Edwards weblog, CNN, Fox, AP.  

Jon Margolis: "The experienced national political reporters wondered why Howard Dean blew it. Up here in Vermont, no one was surprised." 

News.Com: Yahoo dumps Google search technology. 

Search Engine Watch: "Yahoo is rolling out a brand new search engine today, with its own index and ranking mechanisms, casting aside its long-standing use of Google-powered search results." 

ResourceShelf: "We knew the switch was coming. However, we didn't know it was coming so soon." 

The uncluttered interface for Yahoo search. Instant review. If they wanted to make the switch easier, as always, they should have made it work exactly like the competition, or as close as they can without invoking the ire of their attorneys. They put the tabs on the left instead of along the top. And the search results page looks different from the page you enter the query on. Doesn't reinforce the virtuality. I like that you can add and remove tabs. Google should copy this idea. Also, do they have the equivalent of the Google API? In any case, it's good to see Yahoo challenge Google. Even though I think Google is a shitty company (disclaimer) I'm pretty sure Yahoo is too, even though I have less contact with them. Two shitty Silicon Valley companies competing is a billion percent better than one dominant shitty Silicon Valley company. And you can quote me on that (as I'm sure my detractors will). Am I ready to replace the Google button in my toolbar? Not yet. But with a few tweaks, I'll be glad to do so. Other opinions? 

Phil Ringnalda compares Google and Yahoo search.  

Mark Bernstein: "Imagine what the tech side of the blogosphere would be like today if, when Atom kicked off, the Atom folks had felt strongly that the new standard should minimize disruption and avoid hurt feelings -- even the feelings of people they might not want to invite to dinner." 

Russell Beattie: "Now Yahoo just needs a web API and it'll be perfect." 

Russell Beattie: "Why would the Sun J2ME developers just simply leave out support for two basic HTTP functions? Because they're not commonly used." 

An author writes to ask if its safe to only support RSS on his weblog, and I say absolutely yes it is safe. Look at it this way. Scripting News is a top-ranked feed. And I promise it will always be available in RSS as it is today, so as long as people want to read my site, the aggregators will have to support RSS 2.0. I can offer the same kind of safety that Lotus 1-2-3 offered developers on MS-DOS or Excel on Mac OS. If you did something the way they did, you were safe, because you could be sure the platform vendor would never break them. In this case what matters is if aggregators read the format. The day aggregators can't read Scripting News is the day your RSS feed will stop working. My job is to be sure that day never comes.  

"Though Dean is not going to formally drop out of the race, he is going to stop campaigning," a Dean aide told the LA Times. 

Joshua Whalen: Paybacks are a bitch. 

Wired: "A Democratic candidate buys $2,000 of advertising on a blog and gets $80,000 in campaign donations in two weeks. Was it a fluke, or the beginning of a new campaign cash cow?" 

Jan Miner, the woman who played Madge, died. She was featured on Scripting News in 2002, and that's where the slogan "You're soaking in it" came from. When applied to software, the slogan means we're using the software we're talking about. For example if I were to write something about Channel Z, it would apply. What's Channel Z? You're soaking in it! Then if you really want to say something profound -- "It softens your hands while you do the dishes." That's the sign of goood software.  

NY Times: Kermit and Miss Piggy Join Disney. 

On this day last year I sold my house in Woodside.  

In 1998 Berkman had a conference on the Internet & Society, with an amazing cast of speakers.  

Editorial about the weather. After a promising beginning this winter has been a major disappointment. One good snow storm in December. I thought "Gee this is fun but I bet I get tired of it by the end of the winter." Bzzzt. Not. Since then we've had flurries. Every week they predict a good storm, and every week it fails to materialize. I want my money back. Let's get it together. Snow now. Snow now. Snow now. Snow now! 

Gary Secondino respectfully disagrees.