Google Blogoscoped

Monday, January 3, 2005

Google Mystery Image 1

[This idea is shamelessly stolen from J-Walk.] If you know what above image displays, search Google Images (safe search off) for the word or phrase. The image will be in the top row. What does the image show?

Feeeds Encyclopedia

[Feeeds]

You can now access past Feeeds links from A-Z.

Computer Advice

Joel Spolsky gives advice for computer science college students.

VisitorVille Intelligence

How do employees of Google Inc. use the web? What screen resolutions do they have? And which search engines do they use? Find out at the new VisitorVille Intelligence site, which not only contains information on Google Inc., but on many other companies as well. At the best-of page, you can view rankings like “most impatient employees."

Google Centuries

I used Google’s numrange operator applied on different decades (e.g. “year 1900..1925”), and extracted the most popular words from the top 100 snippets. Here is the result:

0-25: Certs, Chinese, Medicine, Overview, Publications, Rates, Reports, Students, Teaching.

25-50: Artists, Camping, Cases, Christian, Comp, Degree, Detail, Kelty, Light, Sleeping, Songs.

50-75: Average, Credits, Percent, Warranty.

75-100: Crime, Fiscal, Formula, Grant, Patents, Services.

100-125: Benefits, Comparison, Copay, Deductible, Degree, Fiscal, Math, Maximum, Months, Statistics, Visits.

125-150: Credits, Earth, Fiscal, Gallons, Hosting, Hours, Perc, Points, Quarter, Students, Tracfone.

150-175: Hosting, Jobs, Members, Minutes, Students, Tracfone.

175-200: Agreement, Bilateral, Dates, Erasmus, European, Pmba, Socrates.

200-225: Agreement, Dates, European, Hours, Pmba.

225-250: Completed, Members, Seat.

250-275: Bound, Fiscal, Members, Months.

275-300: Census, Eecs, Fridge.

300-325: -

325-350: Ccsm, Council, Pfrr, Saints.

350-375: Astronomy, Conversion, Exactly, Gregorian, Hours, Leap, Length, Lunar, Math, Minutes, Nights, Observer, Seconds, Sidereal, Solar, Tropical, Universe.

375-400: Boolean, Datetime, Else, Leap, Leapyear, Math, Python.

400-425: Boolean, Datetime, Else, False, Leap, Leapyear, Math, Python, True.

425-450: Bound, Phpopentracker, Quot, Saints, Sophos.

450-475: Bridget, Catch, Herodotus, Hours, Saints.

475-500: Jobs, Quot.

500-525: Chomsky, Conquest, Continues, Jobs, Noam.

525-550: -

550-575: Catholic, Students.

575-600: Euro, Solar, Tons.

600-625: Islam, Muhammad, Prophet.

625-650: Bahrain, Islamic, Quot.

650-675: Canberra, Quot.

675-700: Credits, Earth, Mars, Martian.

700-725: Freezer, Gross.

725-750: Bede, Death, Fiscal, Herod, King.

750-775: Balance, Birth, Born, Christ, Dionysius, Jesus, Jobs, Melbourne, Roman, Rome.

775-800: Charlemagne, Viking.

800-825: Catholic, Charlemagne, Fees, Viking.

825-850: Fiscal, Qurra, Thabit.

850-875: Alfred, Edmund, Gion.

875-900: Dailystar, England, Hours.

900-925: Birth.

925-950: Entries, Iceland, Students.

950-975: Catholic, Contract, Initial, Supply.

975-1000: Amazon, Apocalypse, Apocalyptic, Atlas, Bookideas, Danny, Danziger, Europe, Lacey, Latin, Medieval, Millennium, Robert, Snap, Turn, Women.

1000-1025: Amazon, Apocalypse, Apocalyptic, Atlas, Bookideas, Danny, Danziger, Europe, Fiscal, Lacey, Latin, Medieval, Millennium, Robert, Snap, Turn, Women.

1025-1050: Cash, Income, Prior, Proseries, Students.

1050-1075: Battle, Catholic, Census, Church, Hastings, King, Primary.

1075-1100: Ages, Catholic, Crusade, Forms, Misc, Students.

1100-1125: Bahrain, Cash, Catholic, Nepal, Professor, Roses.

1125-1150: Cash, Catholic, Fees, Fiscal.

1150-1175: Catholic, Fees, Income, Profit, Saints.

1175-1200: Average, Defazio, King, Students.

1200-1225: Associate, Catholic, Climate, Students.

1225-1250: Aquinas, Catholic, Europe, Madison.

1250-1275: Catholic, King, Late, Polo, Yang.

1275-1300: Dante, Hampshire.

1300-1325: Assistant, Catholic.

1325-1350: Chapter, Egypt, Hours, Petrarch, Plague.

1350-1375: Beginning, Catholic, Islamic, Myanmar.

1375-1400: Afghanistan, Happy, Iran, Iranian, Persian, Sigurdsson, Solar, Tehran.

1400-1425: Budget, Economic, Economist, Fiscal, Hijri, Islamic, Ministry, Ramadan, Saudi, Shire, Swiss.

1425-1450: Budget, Catholic, Council, Fiscal, Islamic, Requests.

1450-1475: Bishop, Cash, Catholic, Chapter, Equivalents.

1475-1500: Columbus, Hours, Spain.

1500-1525: Bishop, Catholic, Christmas, Hours, Latvia, Luther, Riga, Tree.

1525-1550: Augsburg, Bible, Catholic, Charles, Church, Confession, Requests.

1550-1575: Belgic, Born, Catholic, Chief, Confession, London, Reformed, Roses, Visitation.

1575-1600: Catholic, Leap, Roses, Shakespeare.

1600-1625: Catholic, Galileo, Germany, Marriage, Marvel, Roses.

1625-1650: Catholic, Christian, Civil, Colonial, England, Germany, Gurunet, King, Lecturer, London, Roses, Wars.

1650-1675: Catholic, Dutch, Plague, Roses.

1675-1700: Catholic, Chapter, Ephemeris, Leap, Maps, Roses, Sunspot.

1700-1725: Catholic, Sunspot.

1725-1750: Wesley, William.

1750-1775: Britain, Tibet.

1775-1800: America, Census, Elegy, Population.

1800-1825: America, Britannica.

1825-1850: Antique, Census, County, Genealogy, Massachusetts, Museum, Oregon, Records, Summary, Tisbury, Vital.

1850-1875: Census, County, Maps, Massachusetts, Patent, Patents, Records, Vital.

1875-1900: Census, Century, Cinema, Excel, Leap, Titles.

1900-1925: Century, Excel, Leap, Moviegoods, Titles.

1925-1950: Classic, Minerals, Movie, Moviegoods, Woman.

1950-1975: Avalanche, Awards, Eprints, Fiscal, Geophysical, Journals, Moviegoods, Ronnie, Scott, Volume.

1975-2000: Compliance, Compliant, Crisis, Hoax, Issues, Jubilee, Linux, Millennium, Mitre, Openvms, Systems, Windows.

2000-2025: Budget, Chinese, Fiscal, Imdb, Linux, Millennium, Systems, Windows, Words.

Top 10 Special Purpose Shareware Programs You Probably Don’t Need

10. My Garden Journal 4.4: “This download is a record-keeping tool for gardeners. The software features a garden journal, reminders, an image browser, a weather log, entries for plant inventory, activity suggestions, tips, a frost table, and more. All of the data you enter is stored in a built-in database.”
(A perfect birthday gift!)

9. 3D Dancing Holiday Turkey Dinner 3.11: “A 3D roasted turkey swing dances to a boogie-woogie beat. The turkey gets up off the table, drops to the floor, and swing dances as 3D animated vegetables and fruits float around a formal dining scene. The back-window view shows snow gently falling on a wooded landscape. The music is 1930s swing in MP3 format, and the sound can be muted in the full version."
(A true feature double whopper – not only do you get sound, you can turn it off too!)

8. Advantage Cooking 1.2 “The complete solution for cooking multiple meal all at once."
(Or just cook one meal a time.)

7. Stamp Tracker 2.0: “Stamp Tracker is a simple but powerful database program for stamp collectors to use for cataloging their collection of stamps. Thirty different data fields allow you to store detailed information about each stamp, including country, description, cancellation type and topic."
(Yeah, why use Excel!)

6. My Wedding Organizer: “My Wedding Organizer combines the tools you need to make organizing your wedding less stressful. This program can create and manage important information, such as invitation lists, RSVPs, gifts received, thank-you notes sent, and more. You can also design seating charts for the reception, track menu selection, and manage other details with simple hierarchical databases."
(The word “database” has such a romantic ring to it.)

5. wcd 3.1.4: “Wcd is a program to change directory fast (another Norton Change Directory clone).”
(This is a winner: everybody likes to change directories, and everybody likes to work faster.)

4. Baldies demo: “Baldies is the only multiplayer, extended-play game with a cast of characters who share not a hair among them.”
(Talk about a unique selling point.)

3. WinRescue 95 10.07.30: “WinRescue protects your computer from crashes. (...) WinRescue 95 works only with Windows95.”
(Ah, the good old days.)

2. Sponge Bob Screen Toy 1.0: “Make Sponge Bob and his friends follow or run away from one of the other or the mouse pointer on your screen."
(Your boss will love this.)

And the number one special purpose shareware program you probably don’t need is:

1. Desktop Graffiti 1.0: “Desktop Graffiti shows various characters throughout history writing messages on your computer screen. Each character has a unique background and method of writing messages.”
(I’m sure this is the best program out there when it comes to historical characters writing graffiti messages on your screen.)

Nielsen’s Advanced Hypertext

“To manage a huge, worldwide information space, users need proven features like fat links, typed links, integrated search and browsing, overview maps, big-screen designs, and physical hypertext.”
– Jakob Nielsen, Reviving Advanced Hypertext, January 3, 2005

New Keyboard Design

Finally, after a century of QWERTY, comes a keyboard with alphabetically sorted keys.

Reuters Feeeds

[Feeeds]

I added a Feeeds.com page with nothing but Reuters news. As usual, you can comment on every item.

Spam Infested German Google

German searchers have an especially hard time because of so much spam in Google search results.

Take the German search for “Malvorlagen”, drawing aids for kids to add color. The results are made up of sites like “www.malvorlagen.de.ms” or “www.malvorlagen-malvorlagen.de.vu”, which are pushed up the rankings by linkfarm strategies (dozens of similar-sounding domains are reserved). As you can see the creator of these URLs tries to make people believe the site is hosted on “de” (the German country TLD), when they are not.
What’s worse, once you enter these sites – and from their looks they are definitely aimed at kids – the small-print will read that the site is for adults only. And sometimes, that you need to install a program which will bill your telephone (a so-called dialer).

Another item which made news recently was a Google AdWords ad containing a trojan horse. A user entering “Preisvergleich” (price comparison) into Google could infect his computer simply by clicking on the ad (it would redirect to a site abusing an iframe buffer overflow). All that was needed for this to work was an Internet Explorer without the latest security patches.

German Heise news also reports other keywords which would lead to sites installing spyware. These include: “Kreissparkasse Haar”, “Autobahn staumelder”, “Hypovereinsbank”, and “Zelt kaufen” (these are request for banks, traffic jam alert system, or tent shops).

Why is the German-language Google so spam infested when compared to English results (at least that’s the impression I get)? I can think of three reasons:

German Tsunami Blog

Wolfgang Harrer is writing a Tsunami Blog for the second German TV channel ZDF.

Taggle at FindForward

Someone suggest Taggle, a tag search engine, so I added this functionality to FindForward (search type “tag”). If you know about more tag-enabled sites, let me know (this engine currently uses Del.icio.us, Flickr and Feedster).

Movie Mistakes 2004

MovieMistakes.com publishes the biggest blunders of 2004. [Via Fark at Feeeds.]

How Google Hires

Slashdot set off a discussion on how Google interviews prospective employees:

“For example, Google is hiring about 25 new people every week, and receives more than 1,000 resumes a day. But they’re determined to stick to their rigorous screening process. Google uses aptitude tests, which it has even placed in technical magazines, hoping some really big brains would tackle the hardest problems. Score well on the test, and you might get a job interview. And then another and another. One recent hire had 14 interviews before getting the job – and that was in the public relations department.”

Computer Assisted Hunting Opportunity

Maybe soon, you’ll be able to shoot live animals from your home using nothing but an internet connection; for the moment, Live-Shot only offers paper and silhouette targets. [Via Gadgetopia.]

Memespread of Youngest Videoblogger

It looks like this particular meme spread from Waxy to Metafilter to ABC: the “youngest videoblogger in the world” (11-year old Dylan) ended up on TV.

Best Reference Sites

Here are the Best Free Reference Web Sites 2004. [Via ResourceShelf.]

Google Gum

Get the flavor you’ve been searching for with Google-icious Google Gum. (Dirson says Google’s been handing out this gimmick at conferences.)

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