thelump.net

This Week in Lumps
#20 [02/10 - 08/10]

· Here’s something you can tell the children and grandchildren one day: “I remember when Microsoft were cool”. They probably won’t believe you, and they’ll laugh and roll their eyes as you relive the days of Windows 95, MS-DOS and Edie Brickell. But let them laugh all they want, they won’t be able to take away your first experience of computers, which more than likely involved the aforementioned operating system. At the time, I thought it was super cool: It was 1996, the Internet was about to experience a huge growth explosion (as was I, funnily enough), and the only tasks my PC was good for was playing Final Doom and Championship Manager. But oh, it was epic.

As good as they may once have been, technology has progressed; nowadays, it means nothing if you’re not cool. Back in week 17 I talked about the definition of ‘cool’ and out of the 20 brands I mentioned, Microsoft were absent from the rollcall. Worrying times? Well, probably not when your founder is Bill Gates- currently the wealthiest man in the world, with his net worth somewhere about the $56 billion mark. It seems when you work for him, you can release products which do the job just fine, and people will still buy them on the strength of the brand. However, the days of trend setting seem to be long gone, which is apparent with news of the latest revamped item rolling off of Microsoft’s shelves: The Zune 80.

The players- which come in 4, 8 and 80GB models, are set to be released in mid-November (in the US, no Europe release dates just yet) and will be priced at $149 (£73), for the 4GB player, $199 (£97) for the 8GB player and $249 (£122) for the 80GB player. These prices are slightly cheaper than Apple’s recent releases, so it may interest the more financially aware target group. It’s also going to be popular for those who may have experienced a bad time with the Apple product; the design and navigation technology bares so many similarities they could be considered long lost siblings; anyone who picks one up in a store to test it out will be able to operate it straight away. It also has wi-fi, so users can automatically download music, photos, and video from their computer. Coupled with this hardware release, Microsoft is also launching a social networking site dubbed Zune Social to allow users to display and share music. A fine piece of Bandwagon jumping, but one which will be about as popular as a fart in a lift. So will saving you money still mean you get the best product on the market? More importantly, will this copycat product get Microsoft back in the cool charts?

Sadly, no, and no. Okay, so it’s a sound product, but sadly it’s a small e-fish in a large iPond. Unless you’ve been living inside a cave in Afghanistan for the last 6 or 7 years, you’ll be aware that when it comes to coolness and portable music devices, you’ll know it belongs safely in the wheel-scrolling fingers of the iPod owners. Even if you were to disregard the recent iPod releases; the massively popular Nano, the sexy new Touch, there’s nothing with the new Zune release which would make me consider buying one, much like last years initial release- it just didn’t appeal to me in the slightest. It wasn’t just confined to myself, either; last year Microsoft sold just over 1 million Zunes compared to 100 million iPods shifted since its launch. Hardly impressive stats you’d want to show off to the boss, is it?

But stats and prices are irrelevant: the problem is at the core. Despite Microsoft’s efforts, it hasn’t created a unique device that can honestly match the iPod for simplicity, innovation and overall coolness. Back to the billion dollar drawing board, Mr. Gates.

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· Search Engines do get a lot of attention in these pages: I’ve talked at length about the greatness of Google, the attempt to overthrow them by Ask, and even lesser known specific-search sites such as Fisssh!, Hakia and ChaCha. Now, Yahoo! wants in on the action. After refreshing their email to compete with GMail, it’s now putting on the boxing gloves to prove that it can defeat Google where Ask previously failed: the best search results, and the best search assistance. So, just like when I tested out Ask vs Google in week 5, the best way to see if it works is to battle it up against another search engine. So here is Yahoo Search vs Ask.com.

Basic Information Searching
Every blogger needs a holiday, and for a long while now I’ve been considering Tunisia as a possible holiday destination. So let’s see if I can find where the Tunisian airports are located, and what is nearby; after all, I’d rather avoid a ‘RyanAir speciality’, and end up having to travel hours to anywhere even remotely habited.
My search tonight starts with Yahoo!, and testing out what the clever new ‘Assistant’ feature recommends. This ‘Search Assist’ feature launched earlier this month, and is still being tweaked; it’s designed to automatically suggest and offer related search terms as they are typed, much like the feature currently found in Googles toolbar search. The results Yahoo supplies me with are acceptable, however the first noticeable feature is how ugly the layout is; it looks as though it’s been designed for a mobile phone from 2001, not a high powered laptop from 2007. The results returned are acceptable, especially the first, but the rest are not useable: furthermore, there are no trusted sites such as Wikipedia, and after the 4th or 5th link, the results start to become more sparse and weak. Time to move on, I think.
Ask, despite getting a complete mauling by Google a few months ago, has actually improved to the stage where I can now consider it my second search engine (which funnily enough seems to be the websites new tagline; hardly a great motto when you think about it, but at least they’re being honest). Ask also employs the assist function, and does so at a much more impressive style. The first link is exactly what I’m after, and I’m happy knowing where I can fly to should I consider it further.
Nothing separating them on terms of results, however if this was a beauty contest, Yahoo would have been booed off the podium.

Advanced Picture Searching
Last time I tested this, Radioheads ‘OK Computer’ was celebrating its 10th birthday, and I tried to find the album cover on the two search engines ‘image search’ function. So I’m going to try the same method with another great album soon to celebrate its 10th birthday; Mogwai’s ‘Young Team’.
Searching without the name of the band, Yahoo’s assistant throws the post-rock album in the 5th and last position of it’s suggestion, below 4 other young teams made up of Glaswegian neds and drunks. Could they honestly be more popular choices than the album? Nevertheless, I search on. The results aren’t impressive, the cover is in 5th, whereas photos of five-a-side teams get placed before it. If I were to add the band name into the searchbar, it then gives you a nice selection of album covers, and even a live shot of the MYT symbol.
I didn’t have high hopes for Ask on this task, remembering vividly how many bizarre pictures were before the album cover, and yet again they achieve the same shortcomings. Identical to Yahoos results, the album is found in 5th, however Ask’s saving grace is the side bar, which beside the results show some little extras you wouldn’t normally be expecting from the page you’re viewing: you can listen to some tracks, read the wiki entry, and even read a review of the album. Impressive, and also enough to edge ahead of their rivals in this round.

News Articles
For news, I went with a music edge: Indie rock group Arctic Monkeys were named the best act in the world [sic] yesterday at the Q Awards in London. so by typing in the band name into the 2 news search areas, do I get this gloriously incorrect news?
Yes, on both counts the top link were articles written by the Guardian and the bbc respectively. That was short and sweet, both get top marks.

The Lump Popularity Test
After 5 weeks in existence, search results started appearing on both Google and Ask, so 15 weeks on, you’d expect a few more pages and more links, so, using both sites main search function (ignoring the fact that Ask has a blog search, and Yahoo doesn’t) I delve in to see what I could find.
Both search engines get top points for different reasons: Yahoo gets them for having us at the very top when searching under the term “thelump”, while Ask get the points for being able to provide a specific area entitled blogs, and having us top of that list. Speed is not a problem for either website, which is reassuring to know, as Ask did have some tortoise-like moments when I last reviewed it.

The main problem with Ask last time (apart from being judged up against a juggernaught), was that its search function was simple ‘okay’, whereas everyone who uses it would prefer it to be spotless. In all honesty, it appears to be making steps in the right direction; things are much quicker, the results page is looking very snazzy indeed, and it’s getting good attention- it had spread its name over the last handful of Diggnation podcasts, getting Alex and Kevin to boast about it’s many new features which you wouldn’t find on other engines, however the glaring error here was when Kevin later told all the viewers to ‘Google’ for the iPhone hacker application. Oops. Here lies the most obvious problem: “I’ll just Google that” sounds a lot better than “I’m just about to Yahoo that” or “I’ll ask.com that when I get home”. Put simply, it’s become apart of our everyday vocabulary, and worst of all for Yahoo and Ask, is that nobody likes change. Even I found this out when I spent 48 hours away from Google. It seems for everyday users to drag themselves onto another search engine, Google is going to have to do something major to piss everyone off, and at the moment, that seems unlikely.
Overall, Yahoo didn’t match up, at least not to the high standards they must have set themselves, but at least they can take positives from being able to keep up with Ask. It’s not just the search feature; Yahoo Mail is a big pain in the rear too. What was once one of the most recognizable brands online is now a shadow of its former self, kneeling at the feet of a company it very nearly put out of business.

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· There are some really awful ways to help with Global Warming; some may suggest that this summers global Live Earth gigs may have raised awareness, but hindered as much as it did help the cause. However, there are some really clever ways to help, and these end up being the most simple and easiest to work into your everyday schedule. Helping us become greener and love our planet more is a wonderful new not-for-profit online community called Green Thing. I’ve seen a few of these types of sites pop up this year, helping to promote us to be more environmentally aware of our actions and reactions towards looking after our planet, but what stands out about Green Thing is that it makes it so… fun. How much fun can a website be? Well, like me, you’d be surprised.

Green Thing was started by Naresh Ramchandani (Guardian Journalist, and the founder of Karmarama) and Andy Hobsbawm (an FT columnist), two people with vivid backgrounds who wanted to help make an environmental difference. They created Green Thing as a community crossed with a journal, giving you a way to track your CO2 savings. Suggestions for green (or greener) living are offered on a monthly basis. For October, the ‘green thing’ to do is to walk somewhere. Luckily I’m one step ahead on this ‘thing’ as I walk pretty much everywhere, including a 3 mile trek to work and back every week day. Even if you’re still unconvinced you want to help your planet by walking so much, Green Thing offers some mp3 playlists for your iPod, so the walking everywhere and being more green suddenly becomes more… fun. A strange word to associate being green with. The site also offers you additional information for the monthly green thing, such as why this activity is green, how it will impact the earth, etc.

I’m signed up, and keeping track of my good behaviour, and also very much looking forward to seeing what I have to do in November. You can visit Green Thing on this link.

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That was the week in lumps, a week in which: Doctors praise the Wii: does the body good, BT shout: “share your wifi, please!”, Banksy strikes in Bristol again, and a Japanese teenager won the Rubik’s Cube World Championships in Budapest, taking less than 13 seconds to finish it.

So that was the 20th entry, somewhat of a milestone I suppose. Huge thanks to everyone who has visited so far, I’m very much enjoying this little project, so long may it continue to grow, flourish and entertain (and, of course, put an end to conversation killers). We’re currently sitting at about 2500 hits; not bad for a wee blog consisting of only 20 posts so far. Daily, weekly and monthly stats are all improving every time they get updated, yet I’m still convinced that more people can enjoy this, so don’t be afraid to tell a friend, or loved one about us: spread the word on Facebook or Myspace or any method of your choosing, It’s honestly the best and easiest way for people to find out about thelump.net- having it recommended by their friends.

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