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Will Google Eat Itself?

Once upon a time Microsoft was the gorilla to beat. Once upon a time we thought Google could do it.

Perhaps not any more. Amazon has dropped Google’s search results from their A9 search aggregator in favor of Microsoft’s Live search, and while Yahoo!’s on again, off again partnership talks with Microsoft appear dead after Y!’s announcement Thursday of a partnership with eBay, Microsoft still hasn’t given up on the notion.

The Yahoo! news may dull my argument, but look how quickly the board changed, how easily these companies switched allegiances or considered partnering with Microsoft, a company known for swallowing its partners.

Google may or may not truly depend on the goodwill of its customers, but the moment its image turns from all-knowing and happy to big and evil could rearrange the chess board.

When You Need To Talk To Customer Support

It’s good to know Hard to Find 800 Numbers.com is there when you need it. Here are the top five:

<td width="85">
  HTF#
</td>

<td width="86">
  Who
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  Notes
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<td>
  800-201-7575<br /> <br /> 877-251-0696<br /> <br /> 866-348-2492<br /> 206-266-2992
</td>

<td>
  Cust. service<br /> <br /> Seller support<br /> <br /> Rebate status Local or int’l
</td>

<td>
  24/7<br /> <br /> "<br /> " ( Press 0 to bypass menu) <br /> "
</td>

<td>
  888-749-3229<br /> 800-322-9266
</td>

<td>
  Cust. service<br /> "
</td>

<td>
  6:30a-5:30p<br /> M-F (Pacific)
</td>

<td>
  888-215-5506<br /> 888-221-1161
</td>

<td>
  Cust. service<br /> "
</td>

<td>
  6a-12midnight (Central) <br /> 7 days/wk
</td>

<td>
  408-349-3300<br /> 408-349-5151
</td>

<td>
  Corporate hq <br /> Billing cust. svc.
</td>

<td>
  8a-5p M-F (Pacific) <br /> "
</td>

<td>
  800-426-9400</p> 
  
  <p>
    800-936-5700</td> 
    
    <td>
      Sales<br /> Tech support:<br /> Personal support:
    </td>
    
    <td>
      6a-6p M-F (Pacific)<br /> Option 2 <br /> 5a-9p M-F<br /> 6a-3p Sat/Sun
    </td></tr> </table> 
    
    <p>
      
    </p>

Yahoo! Rocks The Web

No, I don’t mean that they’re disrupting it, I mean they’re getting it. And in saying that, I don’t mean they’re figured it our first, but they they’re making some damn good acquisitions to get it right.

Mostly, I’m speaking of they’re purchase of Flickr last year and their acquisition of del.icio.us Friday. But in a somewhat lesser way I’m also speaking of their announcement Monday that they’ll be offering blogs as well.

Yeah, Google rocked this picture a good long while ago with their purchase of Blogger long before most people could understand what value it offered, and even Microsoft beat Yahoo! to this. But the better way to read this is as the final piece to a rather impressive array of social software.

And where perhaps only ten percent of internet users will likely ever be regular bloggers, it’s a safe assumption that nearly 100 percent of internet users will create bookmarks and almost as many will have reason to post a photo online. And with Yahoo! controlling the leading services for both, it sort of rearranges the picture.

Yahoo! Buys Del.icio.us

Nial Kennedy threw down some of the first coverage of Yahoo!’s acquisition of del.icio.us last week. Del.icio.us will most likely be integrated with existing Yahoo! Search property My Web. My Web allows Yahoo! members to tag search results for discovery through a defined social network (Y!360) or all Yahoo! users. Yahoo! will use del.icio.us bookmarks […] » about 200 words

What’s In A Web Search?

Sometimes the answer isn’t as interesting as the question. Consider this note from Yahoo Buzz:

On Sunday, the day before the nomination became official, [searches for] Alito sprang up a sudden 320%.

Did searches for Alito spike on tips White House staffers, or were White House Staffers vetting their nominee via the search engines?

Open Content Alliance

The news is that Yahoo! announced they’ve formed the Open Content Alliance. Though that certainly fits the Google versus Yahoo! story that newsmen want to report on now, it’s somewhat disingenuous to the Internet Archive, which has been beating the Open Content drum for a while. But Brewster Kahle, the founder of the Internet Archive […] » about 400 words

The High Cost Of Metasearch For Libraries

I’ve been looking seriously at metasearch/federated search products for libraries recently. After a lot of reading and a few demos I’ve got some complaints. I’m surprised how vendors, even now, devote so much time demonstrating patron features that are neither used nor appreciated by any patrons without an MLS. Recent lessons (one, two, three) should […] » about 500 words

Google Maps Rock, The Google Maps API Rocks More

We don’t need to hack Google Maps anymore. Now that Google has released a public maps API, we can make more reliable map-dependent apps (which will now have better browser compatibility, thank you). Within a few minutes of signing up for a maps API key I had put together the following of the Nevada Test Site Tour.

Yeah, click the satellite button, scroll, zoom… It’s real.

The API is all JavaScript, but I use a bit of PHP to iterate through an array of points and generate the code that puts the lines and pins on the map.

The most frustrating development with the Google Maps API is that each developer key is limited to a certain hostname and directory. It’s sensitive to things like “maisonbisson.com” instead of “maisonbisson.com” or “maisonbisson.com/post/10594” instead of “maisonbisson.com/blog/” . That’s why this is loading in an iframe.

Thanks to The Unofficial Google Weblog for the tip that the API was released yesterday. As a minor coincidence, Yahoo! also released their maps API this week. Damn.

 
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