thelump.net

This Week in Lumps
#11 [31/07 - 06/08]

· Last week I asked the question ‘Just how good is Google?‘ setting myself the task of trying to complete two working days without anything owned or purchased by the giant American corporation. This involved either cutting off or changing my providers of email, RSS feeds, videos, mapping et al. Easier than it sounds? Sadly not. This week will see me sum up how the two days went, attempting to answer my own initial question, possibly raising a few others in the process, but also talk about why the competitors have a good a chance as any to rival (and even beat) them at their own game. Everything looks sexier in bullet points, so here goes:

• Sometimes the competition is better.
  As big and as popular as they may be, Google are not always the out-and-out best at what they do. Okay, so the search engine is flawless at what it can provide, but if you were searching for something more specific, say, for businesses, RSS feeds, or mp3′s, there are websites which can do your searching much much better than you’d think. For example, my three replacement search engines all had a specific area, or talent that they mastered in. ChaCha is a people powered search (or a social search as Wikipedia put it) meaning it is a search engine that pays human “guides” to answer questions for users. Hakia is a meaning based search, so rather than recognising popular words on a page, it acts similar to the human brain’s cognitive skills, bringing back searches that are much more relevant to what you asked for, and finally Fisssh, which is a filtered search, providing more accurate results displayed in a slick format. All three websites were really impressive, even making Ask look amateurish. And it’s not just the search engines, once you hunt around for alternatives, you find websites that are (or have the potential to one day be) better. One of which that fits the bill perfectly is Pageflakes; its running in close contention to be my new homepage. It’s a much sleeker, prettier version of iGoogle, with the added benefit of providing (nearly) everything that iGoogle provides. I’m sure that within a few weeks and with a few tweaks, my page will be much more user friendly, and will have much more of my attention.
• Sometimes the competition doesn’t even come close.
  Without wanting to drop names here, some of the ‘replacements’ were suffering from delusions of adequacy: they just didn’t cut the mustard. The situation I’ve put myself in draws comparisons to starting a new relationship when you’re still distracted by thoughts of the previous one: you’re so used to something always being there, and working they way it does, that when you remove it, and replace it with something else that apparently does the same job, you expect everything to be the same. It’s a level of frustration you shouldn’t be putting yourself through, and it creates a horrible atmosphere. Much like sex with this new partner, shouting “but thats not the way Google used to do it” at websites is unwanted, and must be avoided at all costs. Needless to say that Googles future is safe in a few departments, and that the aforementioned websites have been removed from by bookmarking toolbar. Which also leads me onto my next point…
• Nobody likes change.
  When I set myself this task I was sure that a few days away from ‘the norm’ wouldn’t be much of a problem, I still had to run through my daily routines as per normal, but there would be other ways of doing it which avoided using Google. However, when some replacements didn’t fill the void, coupled with old habits dying young, it was hard to get out of the rhythm of ‘just Googling something’ or ‘looking for it on Google’ which isn’t helped by the fact that…
• Google is Everywhere.
  I started last week by admitting that maybe Joe Public don’t understand just how much Google have to offer, but maybe it’s just not those people who are blinkered; have you noticed just how much of the Google logo you see in a day? Have you been aware of all the places Google has been appearing? Try logging on to MySpace, and you’ll see the search function is powered by Google, and that’s the tip of the iceberg. AdSense is huge; everywhere you look words are being plucked from paragraphs, and like a bad waiter at a restaurant, asking you if you’re interested in anything else of that ilk. “Excuse me sir, I overheard you talking about the carrot cake, maybe you’d be interested in hearing about the Carrot museum in Bradford?”
• Just how good is Google?
  Here’s the hard part; proving that this question wasn’t rhetorical, proving that this challenge wasn’t irrelevant from the start, and that it could have been answered without needing to spend two days away from the product. Okay, so it doesn’t take a scientist to work out that 99.9% of what Google associates itself with is very very good, but what I now know is that with a little bit of seeking and searching, you can find websites and tools that are better suited to your own specific requirement, ipso facto, making online life easier. If you can persuade yourself to take that small step to try something new, you might find its more than you expected.
  But after the last two days, I can’t fault Google at all. For a company that boast at being the ‘Worlds Best’, they do a mighty fine job of convincing you that it’s true.

~

· I’ve purposely excluded all talk of sport from the first 10 weeks of this blog, due to the fact I’d hate to spoil any kind of future sports article which may start up on the lump. Despite this, I am a huge football fan, and couldn’t ignore the news that MyFootballClub has hit (and passed) its milestone 50,000th registration, and takeover talks with interested clubs shall commence. As announced on the official website:

“Four football clubs have already approached us. The clubs are from Division Two and the Conference. At this stage, the clubs have asked to remain anonymous, however, whenever possible we will bring you news on progress.”

For those unaware of what’s going on, a brief update on this amazing and unique opportunity is needed. For the first time in football history, fans have the opportunity to buy and then take control of a professional football club – both on and off the pitch. The website launched earlier in the year allowing football fans to sign up for further information, and once 50,000 had been hit (which it now has), emails would be sent round to everyone who expressed the initial interest giving them chance to sign up, and submit £35 for membership. This exclusive membership allows the members to have an equal say in team selection, player transfers and the running of the club, attempting to guide their football club to success. In theory, giving a struggling club just under £2 million to regenerate its fortunes on and off the club has excited the ideas of fans all over the UK, and many clubs have been name-dropped as possible candidates. Strong rumours currently suggest that two of the clubs expressing interest are Cambridge and Oxford, both keen to bring top quality football back to their cities. Only time will tell.

It does have its drawbacks, for example: communications between the members, and the head coach will be limited, and as its the paying members who pick the 1st 11, will the coach be happy with losing this level of ‘hands on’ management? There are other drawbacks addressed on the FAQ part of the site, but these seem outweighed by all of the potential goals and dreams of those who have expressed an outright interest.

One of those includes me. My £35 has been paid, and I’m eagerly anticipating who my new adopted team will be.

~

· While some aging artists like Prince are currently finding that using the Internet and other technologies are keeping their business ideas fresh and record sales impressive, others are missing the olden-and-golden days of youth and popularity. Step up Sir Elton John, who earlier this week slammed the Internet, saying we should shut it down for five years to “see what sort of art is produced”. In an article with The Sun, he was quoted as saying:

“The Internet has stopped people from going out and being with each other, creating stuff. Instead they sit at home and make their own records, which is sometimes OK but it doesn’t bode well for long-term artistic vision…
“We’re talking about things that are going to change the world and change the way people listen to music and that’s not going to happen with people blogging on the internet. I mean, get out there — communicate.”

Following up with:

“I am the biggest technophobe of all time, I don’t have a mobile phone or an iPod or anything.”

Sir Elton found himself in hot water last year due to his comments over organised religion, accusing it of trying to “turn hatred towards gay people”. He berated the Australian PM on gay marriages soon after. With this new statement he seems to be digging himself further and further down into a hole that he wont be able to climb out of.

Reg, who hasn’t released a good album in over 30 years, and is the 319th richest Britain in the world, has spent most of the 21st Century struggling to keep up to date with modern music and times, something he only barely managed to achieve in the late 80′s and 90′s. In 2005, his shambolic live performance of T. Rex’s “Children of the Revolution” at the Live 8 gig was overshadowed by the wasted Pete Doherty. His new album, set to be a more “Hip Hop, RnB” effort, probably going to achieve as many sales as his last dismal effort, his 29th overall: The Captain & The Kid, which according to The Sun, peaked at 100,000 in the UK.

I will have to draw this to a close now, because I could berate him and ridicule him until the cows come home, he’s become that much of an easy target. Unfortunately with statements like this he is only encouraging it. Why give your opinion on something you know so little about? It pains me to write these things about a man I grew up with (music wise), everything written by John and Taupin from the 1970′s I adore to this day. Yet if he keeps airing his opinion on things he shouldn’t, its becomes harder and harder to play his songs without rolling your eyes.
Elton, give it a rest mate.

~~~

That was the week in lumps, a week in which: the Discovery Channel bought popular eco-friendly blog treehugger, Led Zeppelin enter the modern age and offer an album of specially selected tracks to download on iTunes, GTA IV is set to be delayed until next year, and Pandora joins the like of Last.fm and iLike with a Facebook App, though everyone seems to be hooked on Scrabulous. Including me.

And that’s it for this week, with just enough time for me to share with you this much more epic (and overall.. much more bizarre) challenge than my Google one: Comedian and writer Mark Malkoff takes the Starbucks Challenge: 171 stores in Manhattan, one day to purchase something in them all. Will he do it, and more importantly, just how bad will his caffeine enduced shakes become towards the 23rd hour? Classic stuff.

ttfn
x