Phil Bradley's weblog

YouTube Takes 2 in 3 UK Visits to Video Sharing

Link: YouTube Takes 2 in 3 UK Visits to Video Sharing. More informational goodness from Hitwise. YouTube is currently grabbing almost 2 out of every 3 visits to video sharing websites. Good news for Google though - they're getting 23% of the traffic themselves (.com and .co.uk versions combined). My preferred option, Yahoo! video is only getting a paltry 1.92%. The other interesting point is that the average visit is 17 minutes 32 seconds. Google manages 4:14 and 12:45 respectively, perhaps because the .co.uk material is more tailored to the specific market?

Wired News: Web 2.0 Winners and Losers

Link: Wired News: Web 2.0 Winners and Losers. Michael Calore over at Wired asked his readers for Web 2.0 winners and losers. Interesting short article from him with the results. Winners are:
Flickr No surprise there
Odeo Go on, podcast - you know you want to!
Writely No more MS Word
Del.icio.us The worlds most irritating domain name. Ever.
Netvibes. Hmm, maybe so, though I still prefer PageFlakes - just.

So the losers would be...

MySpace Slow, clunky, advert riddled junk apparently.
Squidoo Interesting this one, cos I've used it since it was in private beta, but it really hasn't taken off in quite the way I was expecting. Still useful though, if you use it sensibly.
Browzar Huh? Some sort of privacy type browser that I never heard of. Probably why it's a loser.
Fo.rtuito.us Another damn irritating URL. Have a social network with people you don't actually know. Spot the flaw.
Friendster The original that couldn't keep up with the concept.

Don't disagree with most of them; it was an interesting list and merely goes to show that just cos it's Web 2.0 don't make it right.

If WWII was an MMORPG

Link: If WWII was a MMORPG. A MMORPG is a "massive multiplayer online role-playing game". I don't usually put humourous items into my weblog, but this one had me crying tears of laughter right from the start. It's not exactly PC and some of the language is a little bit not safe for work, but it's quite short. It's got some weak points historically, but it's worth a glance.

ClipBlast - Video From Around the Web

Sarah alerted me to ClipBlast.com - Video From Around the Web. According to their 'About us' page they've got a fast easy interface (which they have) to get millions of high quality clips from major brands and producers. Examples of producers that I noticed are CNN, BBC, CNBC and so on. Some of the clips I saw were fairly short, although the Tony Blair farewell speech was almost an hour in duration. Sarah run a few searches and found it comparable to Google video in terms of numbers, although the actual content was different, and I found pretty much the same thing.

So... not a replacement, more an addition to your other video search tools.

Yotophoto

Link: Yotophoto | Find free photos... fast!. This is a search engine that indexes over 250,000 images from Flickr, Wikipedia, Stock.Xchng, Morguefile, Pixelperfect Digital and OpenPhoto. Their mission as they put it is "to help people locate, remix and republish open and copyleft images. We aren't just about 'free stock photos' for designers, but also about helping educators, bloggers and digital artists find photos they can use without fear of "the man"."

Search functionality is fine - the advanced box is all/any words, exclude words, image licenses (CC, GN, PD or Site Specific), dimensions, orientation, color. The results were reasonably accurate, although several of the images that I got as a result of my searches linked me to Flickr images which were not in the public domain at all (although this was the exception.) There was no 'family filter' available, so I did a few of the obvious searches and didn't turn up anything objectionable, so I reckon that they've got that pretty much covered.

If you're looking for a quick source for images that you can use on a site/blog/whatever, this looks like a good resource to use - just double check on the rights to make sure.

Google 'Ask us anything' except...

So here's the thing. I went to ad:tech yesterday - it's an online marketing conference. It was also full of some very sad desperate companies as well; it was a bit like a throwback to the 70s with some stands employing semi-clad women or people pretending to be statues, then springing to life to hand out cards. It was truly that bad.

Anyway, when I signed up I saw this thing about the 'Google University', so I put my name down for it. Turns out that it was actually about Adsense, which was not quite what I wanted, but it was an interesting presentation. There were a LOT of Google people about - I knew this because they were all wearing 'Google' badges, which was a kind of giveaway. Oddly enough though, they weren't wearing name badges, so I had no idea who any of them actually were. This was a slight concern; does the company really think that its employees are not deserving of some recognition? However, I digress. There was a Doctors Surgery there as well, which I guess was being used by Adsense people talking to customers to see how they could earn more money, I'm not sure. Also lots of signs saying 'Ask Us Anything'.

I politely waited in line until I could talk to a Google Employee (GE). The conversation went like this:
Me: Hi - the sign there says I can ask you anything - I have a general question about Google, is that OK?
GE: Sure! (Warm smile)
Me: Can you tell me when Google is going to fix the Limit Search by date?
GE: I'm sorry? (Warm, slightly puzzled smile)
Me: Yes. When searching, that function doesn't work properly.
GE: Oh. You'd need to write to Google.com and ask them. (Warm end of discussion smile).
Me: Yeah, but you're here, and you said I could ask you anything.
GE: Yes, but about Adsense. (Smile, rather less warm now.)
Me: So I can't ask you about Google Search.
GE: No. (Smile wearing rather thin now)
Me: So, your sign 'Ask Us Anything' doesn't actually mean that does it? It actually only means 'Ask Us Anything' about Adsense.
GE: It means you can ask us anything about Adsense. (The smile had become a rather strained grimace by this point.)
Me: Yes, I'm sorry, but it doesn't actually say that does it? Is there anyone here that I can talk to about how Google works?
GE: Yes, you can talk to any of us. (No smile at all now).
Me: But only about Adsense?
GE: Only about Adsense. (The smile is returning, but this time in the form of a pursing of the lips.)
Me: So... all your colleagues here - they only know about Adsense, but nothing about search?
GE: This is the Adsense team, yes. (The smile starts to return, since the GE can start to get back onto the pre-recorded chatter.)
Me: So you're telling me that firstly I can ask you anything, but then it turns out that I can only ask you anything as long as it relates to Adsense, and secondly that none of your colleagues can answer any questions about search. Seems to me your sign isn't quite that accurate is it?
GE: Would you excuse me, I need to talk to some other people. (At which point the smile comes back as he turns his back on me to talk to someone else. Who presumably did want to ask him a question that he could answer.)

Maybe I'm just being petty, I don't know. But if they're going to have signs up saying 'Ask Us Anything' they should either mean that, or be rather more accurate in the signage. Secondly, if you're going to make an appearance at a conference, wouldn't it be just a teeny bit sensible to have at least one or two people on hand who could talk about other aspects of the company? So, when you next see Google parading under an 'Ask Us Anything' sign you will at least know that it means 'Ask Us Anything and we'll ignore any questions we don't want to answer'.

MerckSource

Link: MerckSource - A world of health information at your fingertips. I don't have any pretence to have much understanding of medical matters (I'm pretty much limited to saying to Jill in a sorrowful voice 'Don't feel well') but this looks a funky site. Lots of information about conditions, health tools, a cholesterol tracker, a desktop search tool to search their site and a bunch of other stuff as well. Designed for the layperson I'm impressed with it. Worth a look.

Does Google have any steam left? - Sep. 26, 2006

Link: Does Google have any steam left?. Swiftly following on from the last posting, there's a good one here from CNN Money, basically wondering what Google is going to do next, or even if it can. Worth a read, but I'm just popping in the last paragraph because it sums the whole thing up for me..

"With so many moving parts, it's natural to wonder if Google is truly a company for the ages -- or whether it's the next fast-moving, arrogant, one-hit wonder. To believe that Google will find its second act, you have to accept the hubris and the chaos, and that the brainiacs who got lucky once will do so again."

Top 5 alternative search engines

Pandia has come out with their top 5 alternative search engines to Google. Top of the list is Ask.com , which shouldn't come as that much of a surprise, particularly given Sarah's  recent robust comments about it. 

Second on their list is Gigablast and Pandia see their strengths as the ability to focus a search and to create an RSS feed for a search.

Next up to the plate is Factbites which they like for some reason that escapes me. It's claimed that the results are presented in a more meaningful way, and the engine doesn't search just for your terms, but the whole topic area. (That would be great if it knew what the topic area was. It doesn't.)

Pandia also likes Exalead, which is a sensible choice - you all know by now that I like Exalead a lot. They like it because of the functionality and information available on the results page.

Last suggestion is Snap. Mainly because you get the results on the left hand side and the pages displayed on the right. Great, but Exalead offers this, and Snap is powered by Google, so I don't really see the value of this particular suggestion.

An interesting collection, but what really interests me here is not so much which engines they've chosen but the fact that they have. I'm beginning to sense that we're seeing a bit more of a groundswell against Google - not specifically because it's done anything *wrong* per se - this isn't a backlash, but more because it's not doing enough *right* things. There are very few things that Google is doing which are that much better than anyone else, but it's coming a close second across the board in a lot of them, which is still good enough for most people. But for how long, I wonder?

Find Related Images - Tony Blair's unnatural wife!

Link: Find Related Images combines Google sets and Google images. So just type in the name of something, word, description etc and see what images Google turns up.'Tony Blair' results in photographs of a labour rosette, map of the EU, a book cover with the title 'Unnatural wife' and a photograph of Carol Vorderman. 'Librarian' results in photographs entitled 'secretary', 'treasurer', 'historian', 'president', 'nutritionist', 'fitness trainer' and 'nurse Diane'.

Way too much fun, way too addictive. Thanks to Philipp at Google Blogoscoped for it.