Author: Vince Kimball

A federated search engine for frequently updated Webpages.  Although Google is great for large and small static sites that change infrequently, its method sucks for frequently updated small sites. Why?  Google doesn't know when a site has been updated.  The result:  out of date results and added expenses for needlessly crawled sites.  This was very apparent during 9-11, when… Continue reading A federated search engine for frequently updated Webpages.  Although Google is great for large and small static sites that change infrequently, its method sucks for frequently updated small sites. Why?  Google doesn't know when a site has been updated.  The result:  out of date results and added expenses for needlessly crawled sites.  This was very apparent during 9-11, when the need for up to the minute news was vital.

A better system is one where a site informs the search engine when it is ready to be crawled (even 10 times a day if it is active).  Dave already announced

Ten Mistakes in Site Planning. WebReview: Ten Mistakes in Site Planning “Measured in Internet time, the Web is a fairly old and established technology. By now, you would think we'd know how to build Web sites with the balance of aesthetics and functionality that meets our audience's needs. Somehow, that isn't always the case. Numerous… Continue reading Ten Mistakes in Site Planning

winterspeak.com: “I was at a Microsoft presentation today where they spoke about their .NET strategy and XP. Here are my reactions…” [Archipelago]

Computing Made Good, Easy. [Zimran Ahmed writes about Mark Hurst's approach to everyday computing productivity.] [Archipelago]

PHP script for notifying Weblogs.com of an update.. Weblogs.com is changing the way they read updates from blogs. Now you need to notify them, by sending an XML-RPC message, that you've updated and they need to come by and fetch the update. To that end, I've written a quick and dirty PHP script using the… Continue reading PHP script for notifying Weblogs.com of an update.

News.com (slightly old): G.SHDSL is a new form of DSL that offers symmetric 2.4 Mbs speeds.  It can also reac 18,000 ft (finally something that can reach all your people that are currently out of range of current service).  True to form, the Regional Bells have no intention of offering this service to consumers anytime… Continue reading News.com

Customer e-mail.  What's the best thing a company can do to build grass roots support for its product or service?  Answer customer e-mails.  When I was at my last company (an online research company with a focus on financial services), I must have answered 30,000 e-mails sent to us by consumers, business people, and professionals.   I answered them… Continue reading Customer e-mail.  What's the best thing a company can do to build grass roots support for its product or service?  Answer customer e-mails.  When I was at my last company (an online research company with a focus on financial services), I must have answered 30,000 e-mails sent to us by consumers, business people, and professionals.   I answered them all by hand with specific personalized responses.  It worked.   Our consumer research site grew in popularity until we reached our apex of 30 k unique visitors a day.  That initial active support by e-mail helped us build a business unit around the site that generated $500 k a quarter in profit (which was rare on the Web, particularly at that traffic level and the focus of our content). 

Many of the e-mails were off topic and not something we could make money from.  No problem, if I could provide an answer I did.  If not, I pointed to resources that could provide the answer.  Regardless, this extra effort helped build trust with the person on the other side of the SMTP connection and more often than not generated a relationship that led that person to use our services when they did need something we provided.

So, why do so many popular sites refuse to answer e-mails?  The portals are the best example of this practice.  Try to find an e-mail address on Yahoo, Excite, or Lycos where you can connect to a live employee. [John Robb's Radio Weblog

Mac OS 10.1 is noticeably faster, especially if you are running classic applications. The DVD player runs much better than the OS 9 DVD player. I can work in a foreground application like Mail or OmniOutliner while a DVD plays smoothly in the background. I'm a bit disappointed with the Microsoft Word test drive. There… Continue reading OmniOutliner

Anthraxination – A friend of mine worked for the only facility in the U.S. with FDA approval to manufacture Anthrax Vaccine. After he left, the company went through a good deal of turbulence and was eventually privatized (they were originally run by the government). This testimony to the U.S. House of Representatives shows that the… Continue reading only facility in the U.S. with FDA approval to manufacture Anthrax Vaccine

JY takes on yield management at the airlines.  “Do you know Yield Management ? I didn't. Qantas states that “Airlines adopted yield management systems, also called revenue management systems, to maximise seat sales at the optimal (not necessarily highest) price – to maximise revenue return from each flight”. Here is another piece that explains Yield… Continue reading JY