jrtrana

More Google

We made CNN with our Google merger as well.  Check it out.

Google Results

Link: Google Search: justin trana.

Today in BIT301 we had a brief discussion about search engines and there was brief mention of Google page rank. After class I decided to Google myself to see what kind of results came. I was curious as to which one of my 3 blogs would come up first and how they would be displayed. Surprisingly my personal blog came up first even though my class (BIT320) blog is far more up-to-date. My BIT301 blog didn't come up at all.

The second result was a single posting from my BIT320 blog. There doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason that I can see to how Google ranked the results of my search. While I am sure they are there, I can't see the pattern. Any ideas?

More on Google

In a previous post I mention Microsoft's release of new search engine technology and how it will potentially compete with Google.  Visit this link to compare the two company's stocks against one another over the past 5 days.

In a posting from Blog O' Rama, he mentions Google's new "Scholar" service.  I think this is a very innovative and creative way for Google to differentiate themselves from other search engines.  I see great potential for Google to sign contracts with major research universities to run their engine as the primary means to obtain library resources.  I know for a fact that our very own University of Michigan is making an attempt to update the MIRLYN library catalog system.  Could Google technology be implemented?  How about the possibility of Google becoming the next IBM?  (Turning into an IT consulting group for major coroprations, universities, database systems .....?

Personal Blog

The blogosphere has me inspired.  Check out my own personal blog here.

Microsoft vs. Google

The first caption in the US Business section of the Wall Street Journal this morning is an announcement of Microsoft's first official search engine.  The service will be publicly available starting tomorrow.  There is a lot of speculation as to how this release will affect Google's business.  I personally feel that there will be strong initial customer loyalty to Google ... but this won't last.  I feel as if Google must start to offer more features through their site in order to retain their customer base.  I don't think they need to go over the deep end like Yahoo!, but adding features like finance, weather, travel, etc. may help.  I also feel like now is just about a good a time as any to release G-Mail to steal some of Microsoft's thunder.

Here is a link to there WSJ artile (must have a subsription to read).

This may be a fun link to watch in the coming days as well.  Keep an eye on Google's stock.  You may notice the sharp decline early this morning.  The stock traded faily well all day, however, the poor close may be a sign of things to come.

I think this is definately something to follow for the months and years to come.

Blooger.com

Being a BIT 301 student (and in Bud's class), his mention of using Blogger today piqued my interest.  Here is the site if you would like to check it out.  What I find interesting is the personal aspect they focus on.  We have been using the blogosphere in class as mostly a business related forum.  However, blogger encourages very personal use.  In fact, they even call it a "daily diary."  I completely understand this perspective and I see the possibilites of it catching on especially among the youth.  I have had friends that have kept "Live Journals" in their Instant Messenger profiles which let the world know their day-to-day activities.  I, frankly, find it all a little too personal and kind of weird but I know many people who would truly enjoy the ability to rant online for everyone to see.  It seems like an easy effective way for people who are away from home (eg. studying abroad) to communicate with a large community without having to send mass e-mails.

I think this personal form of blogging is a great idea, but I think a more technical business form has much more potential for use and development.

More on Sage

I have been playing around a little bit with Sage to see if I could get The Wall Street Journal and the New York Times to come up. I am not sure if I am doing things the most efficient way (it seems a little strange to me) but it works. The first step is to go to www.wsj.com and sign in (you need a subscription to The Wall Street Journal). Towards the middle, right of the main page is a small box advertising RSS feeds. Follow the link. At the bottom of the page, there are the feeds for each individual section of the paper. Click on whichever one you would like to keep in Sage. It will bring up the WSJ XML file. Copy the URL from the top of your browser. Then go into Sage and click on "Options." In Options, select "Manage Feed List." From there, "Add a New Bookmark." Give it a title (although Sage automatically changes the title) and paste the URL from before in the Location box. This seems a little round about, but works for me. Let me know if you find a more efficient way, or any problems with my method.

Google!!!

After out guest speakers came in a spoke about the oppotunites available on the internet, and especially with Google, quite an interesting thing happened in the stock markets .... Google exploded! In this article Gaga for Google, Google's first report as a public company has created a lot of excitement on The Street. I think this is just further evidence of the power of Google. I am, however, wary of the sustainability of the company. Just coming out of a BIT 301 exam, competitive advantage jumps into my brain. I don't know what it is that gives Google its comptitive advantage, but my guess is that it is mostly related to switching cots. Google is hot, if you go anywhere else you lose. As I have learned (thanks to "BIT 320 Bud"), this can't last. I don't know enough about the company to know exactly where they are gaining their advantage, I only suggest investors to be careful, things change fast!

GMail

A special thanks goes to Bud for the invitation to creat a GMail account. I have been wanting to establish an account for some time now. I have only had the account for a few hours now, but I have explored the features thoroughly. Initially I am very pleased with the service.
The first thing that I noticed is that it has a great user interface. I come from using Outlook and a Yahoo! mail account (used only for junk mail and order confirmations). Yahoo! mail drives me crazy because it seems there are 5 banner ads for every e-mail. Not so with GMail.
Secondly, GMail allows 1GB of storage. Fantastic. I have a friend starting a small business right now and GMail works great for him in the amount of storage and in the way e-mails are displayed. E-mails are shown in a converstation style which helps to recall previous messages or statements.
My only complaint is that it took me almost 5 minutes to figure out how to delete a message. It is very simple once you find it, but it took me a while to figure some of the features out.
While my umich account will always serve as my primary e-mail account, GMail will be great to archive important messages, contacts, and various messages.

Blogging as a business

In today's (Tuesday, October 12th) edition of The Wall Street Journal there is an article in the Marketplace section entitled "Folksy No More, Blogger Firm Taps Big Clients." (If you have a subscription to WSJ you can visit www.wsj.com to read the article).

The article is focused around a firm, Six Apart Ltd, which was started by 2 high school sweethearts Ben and Mena Trott. The two started the blogging site geared mainly toward teens and anyone who cared to visit. Subscriptions were free and the majority of their blog postings were gossip and break-up stories. However, with the growing demand for blogs, coporations have recently acquired their services to use in a buisness environment. Six Apart charges business between $200 and $1,300 depending on use and services required. Many of the early adopters of blogging see this as "selling out" and feel as if Six Apart has neglected the crowd that got them started. Regardless of their opinion on how to offer blogging services, Ben and Mena have found a way to tap into this growing resouce and the potential seems huge.

Six Apart