Diving into the search sewer

How's it going with Google these days?

I wouldn't know, really, because I fled for Bing more than a year ago. The fledgling Microsoft search engine has its faults and quirks, but proves more than adequate for everyday searches.

You've probably seen the Bing commercials where people in a crowd start yelling out nonsense based on other people's nonsense (video below). Those are slaps at Google Instant, which fills in search results herky-jerky as you type.

Let's do a Google search. Say you're looking for songs by the band Hot Tuna. "Hot" brings you all "Hot Mail" results on page 1. Type in "Tu" and the search page's lead link goes to "Hot Tub Time Machine." Only when you type in all of the characters does Google deliver.

You can turn off Google Instant, but no such luck with the new auto-fill feature. While you're at it, you might want to quash ad personalization, which means you see what Google guesses will prompt a buy. In any case, Google SERPS (search engine results pages) show a major bias towards brands. Big brands.

Chaos, all right. Some people are used to it; some people aren't. Still, eight out of 10 people doing a search turn to big G.

Some experts in the SEO and SEM industries are going public with their beefs. Here's the word from SEO Jill Whalen in High Rankings Advisor:

"Since (Google's) poor results are being talked about with more fervor ... it's possible that they have indeed crossed the line. Numerous mainstream publications and highly regarded bloggers have taken notice and written about the putrid (search) results. ... Even though today Google is technically just an advertising platform that happens to offer Internet search, they built their reputation on providing superior results."

Vivek Wadhwa isn't as well known as Whalen, but he's a web guru affiliated with UC-Berkely, Harvard and Duke. He went after Google a few weeks earlier in a thoughtful Tech Crunch post called "Why We Desperately Need a New (and Better) Google"

"You can’t easily do such searches in Google any more. (It's) a jungle: a tropical paradise for spammers and marketers. Almost every search takes you to websites that want you to click on links that make them money, or to sponsored sites that make Google money. There’s no way to do a meaningful chronological search."

Wadhwa correctly points out that the SERPS are big on editorial spam -- quickie superficial articles from content mills such as Associated Content and Demand Media. Seen an article about psychedelic music on a dentist's website lately? That's primo stuff, according to Google.

"This content is what ends up as the landfill in the garbage websites that you find all over the web," Wadhwa writes. "And these are the first links that show up in your Google search results."

Perhaps this is natural selection. Every No. 1 search engine in the web's history eventually turned up lame.

All that said, Google remains the go-to service for tricky searches. I turn to Google when all else fails and I go there when there's no time to spare on a search, despite the mess. (I know how to write detailed and clutter-resistant search strings, that's why.)

Bing continues to improve, but it's years away from emerging as the clearly superior service. Blekko recently popped up as an intriguing alternative for those with search/database chops. And Google does tend to get incredibly complicated problems sorted out in time. Meanwhile, we wait.

Something's gotta give.



(Unpaid Bing commercial from YouTube.)

Twitter: uncommonly good for web sites

The Feedburner RSS service has a stat for something called "uncommon uses." That always makes me stop for a sec. What an odd-sounding concept. Are we talking ... guys in raincoats?

Thought of that the other day while marveling at the utility of the Twitter widget that appears on my web site about distracted driving.

I added the widget thinking it was a good way to promote the site's Twitter presence. The box appears in the sidebar and displays the latest items I've twittered.

Since the site's news stories automatically go to Twitter (via the sort-of reliable Twitterfeed), those headlines are displayed in the widget box, along with the usual 140-character Twitter messages. So far, common uses.

Over time, though, the Twitter display became integral to the site's news flow. Yep, uncommon uses:

• Short news blasts: Something happens that's interesting but not worthy of a complete article. Instead, I twitter the news. Both my Twitter followers and site visitors see the item, instantly. That's a terrific bit of double duty and an incentive to take action when minor news pops up. Essentially, I'm using Twitter to send news to my web site and display it. Reaching the Twitter followers feels like a bonus.


• News bulletins: If the story is big enough, I twitter the headline and get to work on my own article. Both audiences get the heads-up. When my homegrown story is posted, the headline automatically appears again (ideally with different wording).


• Updates: The site has Wikipedia-style pages for all 50 states. These pages often are refreshed with local news, but that info could be inserted anywhere -- typically not at the top. So I update the page with the item, Twitter the news and the headline loops back to the sidebar widget. That link drives traffic to the standing pages and exposes them to readers seeking the news.

(The Twitter links don't all go to my site, they often point to another content provider, of course. Or perhaps there's no link at all.)

Flowing the news through Twitter and back to the site keeps things fresh and dynamic, especially since the Twitter widget appears almost on almost every web page. Search engines like that.

Update: Just after posting this, found a great idea on ProBlogger: Tweet your best comments.

Anyone else found uncommon uses for Twitter widgets or RSS dohickeys?

In dreams, answers to a writer's prayers

We owe a lot to dreams.

The sewing machine. "Satisfaction" by the Rolling Stones. The Periodic Table of Elements. Miracle drugs. Frankenstein. Countless movies, epic poems, novels and works of visual art. All ported over from dreamland.

Almost every writer tells a story or two about how an idea came to them straight from dreamland.

I first encountered the dream freebie in college, while struggling with a long magazine piece. Had my article, just no way to begin it. Two, three days of dumb ideas and blank pages. Then, the next morning, voilà! I'd written the damn thing in my sleep. Nothing remarkable, but good enough. In the cold morning light, those opening paragraphs were things of beauty.

Deirdre Barrett of Harvard Medical School explains: "We can see things much more closely when we thing about them in dreams. (This) also helps us think outside the box. Our associations are looser, more intuitive and less linear."

Another school of thought says nothing is accomplished in dreams, really, they just get the credit for our musings just before and after sleep.

Maybe so, but I should have co-bylined the Sandman at least a half dozen times.

In recent years, I've taken to writing contemporary country songs in dreams. Curious, since I hate most modern country. One song, in particular, had real promise. Borderline brilliant.

A month later, I played Dwight Yoakam's greatest hits CD and learned he'd stolen it from me, almost line for line. Fine way to treat a fan.

Anyone else have experiences with dreaming and writing?

Another jazzy release from WordPress

WordPress just released the 3.0 version of its software, but I've been in love with it for a while.

That's because the release was named after a jazz genius, Thelonious Monk, in keeping with WP tradition. (2.7 = Coltrane.)

Monk, one of the founders of bebop, always had the coolest album covers, especially the classic one for "Underground," which finds the master playing an old piano in a rural hideout. He's armed with an AK 47 rifle, dynamite resting at his feet. Plenty of French wine about for thirsty resistance fighters. And a cow. Oh yeah, the music's insanely good as well, starting with the famed first track, (yet another) "Thelonious."

Anyway, WordPress' take on "Thelonious" brings in a badly needed new default theme, "Twenty Ten." For most of us who import themes, there are custom backgrounds, multisite functionality, bulk updates for plugins, a lighter interface. Adding up to something like 1,200 fixes and enhancements.

Staying current with WordPress always carries risk because developers take their time about updating plugins and themes. Meaning that that image gallery or calendar or Twitter thing might just go ka-blewy -- like some crafty musician dynamited it.

Check out this WordPress video about 3.0 "Thelonious":

Spelling. S-P-E-L-L-I-N-G. Spelling.

What a splendid job ABC and Scripps did with the National Spelling Bee finals.

The primetime competition took time to show the kids as kids, not just as juvenile bookworms. Viewers met the contestants in fun and flashy segments, Nickelodeon-style. Even Erin Andrews got in on the act.

Spelling is cool. Who knew.

One of the final four contestants outlined his strategy: "I just spell as I go." Quite a trick, considering most humans have never heard the words in the National Spelling Bee's final rounds. I knew exactly one, gnocchi, because I cook. Alas, the kid who drew the word wasn't a hungry Italian.

At that level, knowledge of the word isn't necessary, oddly enough. These young champs operate on the rules of spelling in numerous languages, including Greek, Latin, French, Japanese, Italian, German and Spanish. All of those came into play in the final round.

The rest of us, fortunately, can write well just knowing the rules of spelling in English.

Ever notice how so many people declare themselves lousy spellers, as if that were an incurable disease? Anyone can learn to spell at any age. Doesn't even take long, maybe a couple of hours a day for two weeks. (Grammar is another story.)

I always loved to write, but for many years operated without a fundamental grasp of spelling and grammar. Like a rock musician playing by ear, I got by. Usually. Somehow I ended up an editor and a teacher, and so became a student of the language in my mid-20s. Wasn't easy; wasn't hard. Just took time.

The confidence that comes with solid spelling skills shows up in the writing. Knowledge is power, as the Schoolhouse Rock folks made clear in "Grammar Rock."

Here are a few books aimed at adults that cover the basics of spelling. They're all available on Amazon:

• "How to Spell Like a Champ" (Spelling Bee bible)


• "Handy English Encoder Decoder: All the Spelling and Phonics Rules You Could Ever Want to Know"


• "1001 Commonly Misspelled Words: What Your Spell Checker Won't Tell You"

As always, I recommend the language classic "The Elements of Style," one of the great books on any subject.

'Social Networking for Business' and IT guys

Ever invite a bunch of IT guys to liven up one of your New Year's Eve parties? Didn't think so.

Rawn Shah's book "Social Networking for Business" strives to explain the Twitter-YouTube-Facebook dynamic to tech people and systems-savvy executives, which no doubt it accomplishes. For the rest of us, the book is a dry read and a head-scratcher.

"Social Networking" takes what is by definition a random populist phenomenon and boils it down to a taxonomy. Shah, an IBM tech guy, sees social networking in the same light as, say, Cisco networking. He refers to "social tasks" that help shape these interactive media, a telling choice of words.

He creates "social experience models," interesting but conceptually simple to those with a working knowledge of social networking sites and apps.

Here's Shaw on the variations of these models:

Most social environments implement multiple experience models, combined into different parts of the environment. This enables the environments to capitalize on different tasks when individual users require a particular type of experience.

Indeed. To be fair, one of Shah's primary concerns is not so much Digg or StumbleUpon but in-house top-to-bottom interactivity systems built by, and managed by, IT departments.

He successfully argues for social networking in all of its forms as essential for business, making "Social Networking for Business: Choosing the Right Tools and Resources to Fit Your Needs" useful for those of us dealing with dubious CEOs and boardroom luddites.

Fear of blogging -- and writing

I once had a client seeking better visibility for his landscaping web site. He showed me a beautiful portfolio of his work, in photographs.

I suggested doing a blog, especially since the web site was outdated (and hideous). His English was OK but not great and he hated the idea. I have nothing to write, he said. What would I blog about?

Just use these terrific pictures and throw together some captions, I said. Every time you do a job put up the pictures. It would be a great little landscaping blog.

Long story short, my client was so nervous about writing even a few words that he wouldn't go near a blog. Fear of writing is a very real thing.

WordPress in 24 hours: Say what?

More and more casual users are coming to the WordPress.org platform, a good and bad thing.

WordPress continues to evolve in user-friendly directions, but it remains an outpost of the Web's Wild West. The more you want out of WordPress, the more problems you'll have to stare down.

Let's take WordPress plugins, as just one example.

These independently developed extensions add functionality to a WP blog. They're essential to any blog's success. But WordPress' frequent updates to its core software can make plugins obsolete overnight. Plugins tend to conflict with each other, causing untold headaches ... such as the dreaded blank home page.

Plugin developers usually don't get paid, are in no way obligated to help users and tend to disappear when things go blewy. A plugin that seems a savior one day can be a pea soup-spitting demon the next.

Wordpress' users forums come to the rescue sometimes, but as often as not, reasonable requests for troubleshooting assistance are simply ignored.

You can learn a great deal whilst fighting your way out of a WordPress nightmare -- just don't expect things to be quick or easy. That's part of the price for hooking up with this free and amazing content management system.

This bring us to the new book "WordPress: 24-Hour Trainer" by George Plumley, which I've just read (and skimmed a bit). It purports to teach readers how to "create and customize WordPress sites" in a day." Say what?

While a quick-study newbie probably could launch a WordPress blog in a day -- using Fantastico for installation and a simple theme such as Kubrick -- no one can be "trained" to use WP in a day or even a week. Once you get beyond the simple write and post, WordPress development provides an ongoing adventure, not for the faint at heart.

Those coming to the platform without some knowledge of CSS, xhtml, PHP and javascript won't be doing much customizing, that's for sure.

I've coached quite a few WordPress newbies, some of whom really shouldn't be on the platform. Others dive right in and embrace the challenge.

Not sure where you'd fit in? Right here on Blogger is a good place to park those kids-and-dogs blogs.

In any case, the "24 Hours" spent reading Plumley's book would be better spent learning by doing. If that's too daunting, WordPress may not be the right platform anyway. Someone who needs a 350-page book to explain the basics of content management systems probably isn't a good candidate for the next level of WP use, where the action is.

To be fair, the author can't be blamed for the publisher's marketing hooks, and he probably would agree with most of the above.

Plumley is good at explaining how the CMS works and succeeds in keeping the book from reading like a tech manual. No doubt it would be handy to have around as a reference for newbies. (For more advanced users, there's the "WordPress Bible," which clocks in at almost 700 pages.)

Again, the best way to learn WP is hands-on. Much of the basic stuff presented here should be tackled on your own, via trial and error -- and there are always WordPress' excellent text and video tutorials. They're free, unlike the book, which goes for $45.