Warmest Greetings,

:: Thursday, December 04, 2003 ::

I don't know which is more exciting.

Is it all the hoopla over Google or is it that the snow? Where I live, we're expecting 2 - 4" tomorrow morning and a foot of snow on Saturday! I checked the shovels and they're totally beat from last winter. And, I've learned from my research on winter and dogs (my 6 1/2 month old Golden Retriever is doing great by the way) that doggie paws can't handle the salt we often throw on decks, sidewalks, driveways, etc. around here. What's the alternative?

I've got the wood stove cranked up next to me here in my office to keep warm and the cats are lying around as usual. I think God invented cats as an example of what we should all be doing...sleeping, playing chase and clawing up the furniture.

Google in Brief:

Is it stemming or Google hemming?

First, Chris Ridings delves. My Google Filter Theory

"I've read and read some more about this new filter at Google. Then I read some more. The thing about it all is that it doesn't seem to quite gell together. So I figured I'd attempt to come up with my own theory (and it is just a theory)."

and Google is Stemming

"I would encourage everyone to look at their website traffic logs and in particular those visitors who arrive via Google searches. I was pleasantly surprised at what I saw. The new Google stemming seems to be bringing visitors who searched for a related word and ended up on a web page that did not contain the exact word but a "stemmed" version of it."

or did they abandon stemming and create a hit list instead? A Cre8asiteforums member tests the Scroogle data.

"Every item that I have been dropped for is on the hit list and none of the items I have a ranking for are on the list. That is a 100% correlation between the hit list and my results. No other theory, tool or explanation has come even close."

Life Elsewhere on Earth

For web designers interested in beefing up global usability, this is new from Digital-Web. Web Globalization On A Local Budget

"Although it would be ideal to have our sites translated into 43 languages, for most of us that don’t have a defense budget (if any budget at all) it is impossible. However there are a number of free tools available to you that, in combination with a little bit of professional translation and the utilization of an XHTML/CSS-based design, will make your site accessible to the rest of the world."

Kudos and congratulations to Robert Clough! His SearchEngineGuide newsletter has just turned 4 years old. This is a man who provides us with daily updates and doesn't bang down our doors asking for subscriptions and donations for the "good stuff." I just love guys who don't hide the good stuff.

Cool! I just saw Kalena's nod to what I expressed yesterday about a home and small business oriented search engine. Any takers? (Thanks for the feedback Kal!)

:: posted by Kim Krause Berg on 12/04/2003 12:04:27 PM

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