Warmest Greetings,
:: Friday, September 12, 2003 ::
Going out to Nutch..."Nutch could rewrite the rules of search development -- especially with an impressive roster of Internet luminaries now lining up behind it."
Ammon Johns explores what may be something to finally excited over besides Google, Yahoo! and MSN >>> Search getting boring? Not for Nutch longer.
Says Nutch, "Nutch provides a transparent alternative to commercial web search engines. Only open source search results can be fully trusted to be without bias. (Or at least their bias is public.) All existing major search engines have proprietary ranking formulas, and will not explain why a given page ranks as it does. Additionally, some search engines determine which sites to index based on payments, rather than on the merits of the sites themselves. Nutch, on the other hand, has nothing to hide and no motive to bias its results or its crawler in any way other than to try to give each user the best results possible."
I think it will burp, just as the others did, on financial support. Who knows.
My thanks to Ron Carnell, who expressed his feelings about 911 in Cre8asiteForums with a poem he wrote called "The Shadow of Tragedy".
Here is the what's expected to be built where the twin towers once stood in NYC.
Haiku messages are much kinder than "Error 404". This was so fun Cre8asiteForums has invited Haiku writers to write error message haiku.
Samples:
The path you follow
has lost you along the way
nothing to see here
Microsoft 404
Still butterfly wings
on leaf of highest willow.
A butterfly has died.
Your file is not found
If you must file a complaint
Send it to Bill Gates
"404 not found"
You deserve a kinder note
Like this web haiku
Note to Kalena Jordan. "WHAT BABY???!!!"
:: posted by Kimberly Krause on 9/12/2003 09:17:13 AM
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:: Thursday, September 11, 2003 ::
September 11:
I couldn't listen to much of the ceremonies last year. I especially could only take a few minutes of the reading of the long list of names of people who died in the planes and towers. So many of them were heros. So many of them had just enough time to call their loved ones on cell phones to say goodbye.
For me, at last year's 1st anniversary of 9/11, I wasn't ready to spend my day remembering the shock. I wasn't ready to let the sadness creep back in because I knew it wouldn't take much of it to throw me into a grieving state. Though I lost nobody I knew, that I'm aware of, the event occurred less than 2 hours drive from my house. There's something about that closeness that makes it seem more real.
My parents evacuated the Harrisburg, PA area during the 3-Mile Island nuclear accident. I lived 2 hours away from them then and was in my early 20's. The newscasters were in near hysterics, scaring everyone in PA. One radio station in that area thought the nuclear melt-down had begun and announced that on the air, sending scores of people, including my parents and sister, out of their homes with whatever possessions they could carry. They headed to Michigan to be near relatives. My mother called me to say goodbye, and begged me to find safety. She and Dad hoped they'd find me someday.
You never forget moments like that.
This year I sat in silence with the radio on in my kitchen during the first moment of silence held in NYC. I watched my Golden Retriever puppy playing and teasing one of the cats. I listened as children of those who died in 9/11 read off the names of the dead. And again, I could only listen for a brief time and the sadness crept in. It would likely take over if I let it, so I turned off everything and decided to not listen to the radio or TV.
It occurred to me that a day like today is for the families and friends of those who gave their lives to save those who died, those who died in the towers and planes and those who survived the terrorist attacks that day. It's their day to mourn. It's their day to celebrate the memory of people they held dear. It's also a day America pays its respects and honors those who serve us, such as police officers and fire persons.
The rest of us have the job of continuing our day, with the knowledge that those in other parts of the world suffer days like our 9/11 every day. They live in terror every single day. They don't love their families and friends any less than we do here. Knowing this, I feel the best way to combat my own moments of grief is allowing and accepting that everyone must do what they need to do to find strength on days like today. Whether it's to work, stay home and curl up on the couch and let the tears come, walk the dog, or hold ceremonies as my kids are going to be doing in their schools today. It all has a purpose to someone.
Those of us who remain after tragic events have the hard part. We're still here. And a great majority of us still have tremendous love in our hearts. Enough to keep going when it seems as though unified peace is something humans will never be able to create.
Kim
Cre8pc .com - it means "Create Peace"
http://www.cre8pc.com/name.html
Cre8asiteForums welcomes your thoughts and personal expressions on 9/11.
:: posted by Kimberly Krause on 9/11/2003 10:29:19 AM
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:: Wednesday, September 10, 2003 ::
Still on the subject of the value of links and PageRank...What would you pay for a link from a PR7 or a PR8?
"Text links with the proper anchor text pointing to the proper page with the proper basics has EXTREME value. If you are providing that link, it is worth substantial revenue if done in such a way as to secure the most value.
The question of whether you are securing that revenue for a text link from your site for the traffic or the PR, as you might well guess, is absurd to my mind. What difference does it make what value is percieved by the buyer? If both parties recieve value, that is simply business. If you are concerned that you may be destroying the internet by doing something Google doesn't want you to do, just throw another one of the 85 character goofy trackers on it. You know the kind of url that NO ONE can read and you can recieve your $1 a thousand impressions or your 10 cents a click with a clear conscience."
----
"It's funny how things change. Last year there was uproar (Albeit not in every circle) about buying PR. These days it's just a matter of fact."
"So what you're saying is for driving targeted traffic to your site an on-topic link which may have a lower PR is the way to go. This works particularly well for more non competitive phrases. Whereas if you're wanting a ranking boost for a phrase such as "buy phentermine" a PR8 link (on a page with few other links) from a duck hunting site may just be the way to go. Yah."
Usability is paragraphs and breaks in long content. THE REVOLUTION USABILITY REPORT sponsored by fhios: Real user testing - Reality check . A lot of great things in this article, but hard to read.
On design:
Making a Timeless User Experience. "User experience and user-centered design aim to minimize confusion on the part of the user."
Mysterious beta thing:
Good catch (http://www.haymeadows.com/related.htm) and discussion in WMW about what appeared to be scumware, but is likely Google testing a new feature (according to GoogleGuy).
Read on:
WMW: New Google Feature
:: posted by Kimberly Krause on 9/10/2003 09:00:16 AM
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:: Tuesday, September 09, 2003 ::
:: posted by Kimberly Krause on 9/9/2003 12:07:02 PM
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Quite often Chris Ridings says what I don't have the nerve to say or do. He just did did it again, and tossed in some of the British humor I'm still getting used to since so many moderators and admins at Cre8asiteForums are from that jolly country.
I've SO wanted to do exactly what he did here in >>> An open letter to Vanessa Lintner of SeekerCenter.net
And, Chris has this to say about Cre8asiteForums in his review of Search Engine Forums
The Good
Cre8asite Forums
http://www.cre8asiteforums.com/
If SearchGuild is my first home, cre8asiteforums is my second home. Cre8asiteforums has a openness to a wide variety of viewpoints. There are some extremely good experts on cre8asiteforums and only the occassional red herring post. Cre8asiteforums is a pioneer of the use multiple resources attitude that has extended itself across the majority of the forums now.
I've been jazzed over the word "pioneer" ever since I read that last night. And grateful I have the support of expert moderators and technical people who make things work there.
Cre8asiteForums is one of the select few forums to be re-visited by SearchKing's Bob Massa of Google PageRank lawsuit fame and fury. See the thread What would you pay for a link from a PR7 or a PR8?
The "spam police" dug their grave. If it smells and looks like a bunch of tattle tailers, it's bound to lack integrity and objective scrutiny.
Here's a great find for web teams >>> Content? Or Dis-content? A Content Requirements Plan (CRP) helps Web designers take a leadership role. (Thanks Bill!)
"In spite of the quaint simile tossed around in the ‘90s, we realize now that the Internet isn’t a big, online library, although there are many libraries within it. The book/library paradigm is white-haired, wrinkled, and about a hundred years out of date. Twentieth century broadcasting and 21st century Internet publishing have accelerated the convergence of communications, design, and functionality to a nexus where, as McLuhan observed, the message and the medium are becoming indistinguishable."
I'm taking a survey on surveys. Results are interesting!
I know you think you can't afford usability testing, or user testing, or any type of paid reviews/evaluations for your website(s). But I invite you to see Site-Report.com. There are packages and other selections possible. The reviews are thorough, gone over by a team of experienced professionals who have their own businessess and partnered with Site-Report (such as myself) and for affordable prices you get answers. You get solutions. You learn why things aren't working. You're told how to make improvements for both rank and user satisfaction. Sales and traffic will show the results. Any investment you make (and Site-Report, like I said, is quite affordable), is going to pay off for you in the future. If you even THINK you can't afford to try Site-Report services, I suggest contacting James Saunders, the owner, and chat with him about options. He, and the rest of his team (myself included) truly want to help your web venture succeed.
I liked this:
"Imagine that you can enjoy every person, every material possession, every event in your life as a magical experience that continues to unfold." -- Don Miguel Ruiz, "The Four Agreements" (book)
Ok. I'll work on that.
:: posted by Kimberly Krause on 9/9/2003 12:05:48 PM
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:: Monday, September 08, 2003 ::
Things are hopping in the Usability forum at Cre8asiteForums
I pointed out a newly released article by HFI (Human Factors International) called Are We There Yet? Effects of Delay on User Perceptions of Web Sites. Cre8asiteForums moderator and resident researchaholic, Bill Slawski (aka bragadocchio) isn't convinced this study is totally accurate. He points out another article about a study UIE (User Interface Engineering) published not long ago called The Truth About Download Time and other resources. Taken together, they leave some room for further study. Obviously other factors are involved in how a website visitor judges download time. If you ask them to estimate download time, it doesn't always match actual download time. And,
"When users are complaining about the download speed of your site, what are they actually complaining about? Are you better off making the site load faster or ensuring that users complete their tasks?" by Christine Perfetti, User Interface Engineering writes in her UIE article.
This information is useful for everyday webmasters and used by Quality Assurance engineers such as Performance Testers. Before they can determine guidelines in some cases, they must know what user preferences and habits are. The bottom line is often going to work itself out later when the overall return on investment (ROI) is computed. Following a suggestion such as the "10 second rule" just may not always apply. The task itself, and how easy it is to perform, may matter more to your customer than how long it takes to see it.
Also hot are several other threads including:
Surveys - How Do You Take Them?:
"You gotta pay me or I've gotta be interested in the results."
"No popup please! I don't use anti-popup software but my brain is now adapt at automatically closing any unrequested popups without me needing to think about it."
"Do something good and I might complete your survey as a thank you. Do something really bad, and I might complete your survey as vengeance. In either case, there has to be a history."
The Value of User Testing:
"The choice of setting up a session with a third party can be considered of course, but then these are often prohibitively expensive for many small companies. They do have the benefit that the demographic of the testers can be quite tightly controlled. However, the internet opens up a global marketplace, and local usability testing will not provide emphasis on how visitors from different countries and cultures view your site."
"My concern is that while usability testing is expensive and aimed more at the larger companies, that small companies will suffer. Not only might they not have the resources or knowledge to build usability and accessibility features into a web site, but they can't afford usability testing until it's too late. Internet-based testing can help to solve this problem."
"There are ways for a small businesses to do a very inexpensive user test. All you have to do is Nielsen's el cheapo version. He reckons it will cost you about $200."
Here are few things that caught my eye thanks to folks who send me leads:
Style Without Substance: Will HTML Email Survive? - This is a good reminder to offer your website visitors a choice.
Usable Forms (for an international audience) - This is a keeper, worth printing out and keeping handy for designing forms.
And finally, Danny Sullivan writes about SEMPO. "The registered, non-profit group aims to raise the profile of search engine marketing, so that potential clients will understand what SEM is and budget money for it."
:: posted by Kimberly Krause on 9/8/2003 09:45:19 AM
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