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Google Stinks. I didn't say that -- Kevin Maney did -- in his weekly column in USA Today. "It's a disaster," Kevin writes, "that I type 'turtles' into Google and get 1.9 million results. On the first page," he continues, "Google serves up ninjaturtles.com, seaworld.com and theturtles.com (devoted to the 1960s band that sang Happy Together)." Thing is, what Kevin wants is information about the soccer team he plays on, called the Turtles because of the speed at which they run. Point is, Google has no idea who, what, when, why, where or how you are -- and so its chances of giving you that for which you are looking may be something short of goodle.
It's not that Google doesn't understand the problem. Kevin notes that Google ceo Eric Schmidt, speaking last week at a conference called PC Forum spoke of a product that would offer both unlimited access to every scrap of information anywhere, and know enough about the searcher to know exactly what to find. Says Mr. Schmidt: "Then, when I'm writing a paper, it would know what I'm writing about and say, 'Hey, you forgot this.'" Wouldn't that be something? It sure would, and as Kevin articulates it:" Eventually, search will be like a direct connection between your brain and all the world's information. It will grasp so much about you and your immediate circumstance that it will often know exactly what you need, perhaps before you do."
Kevin says the obstacles begin with all the information that is online but that search engines can't -- or don't -- make readily available. Such information may be overlooked either because it's subscription-only, a 'blog (see Technorati) or a book (see Amazon). Two other limiting factors are where you are (see Quova) and what's in your hard drive (see X1). The single-greatest challenge, however, may be that of context. When you type in "bass," Google has no idea if you mean the instrument or the fish. One possible solution is offered up by Eureskster, which creates a certain sort of context by integrating social and search networks. Another (not mentioned by Kevin) is Search Incite (the official search engine of Reveries and Cool News of the Day ), from MineTech, which creates a library of terms relevant to your life and your work, providing that all-important context. Kevin concludes by predicting that by the year 2010, "Google will seem as quaint as the special effects in an old Godzilla movie."
Waterfront Media. Bo Peabody, the fellow who created and sold the online community Tripod to Lycos in '90s, is back with a concept that seems poised to realize the elusive potential of e-books, reports Janet Whitman in The Wall Street Journal. "A book," says Bo, "is incredibly compelling in the hands of a reader on the beach, but not so compelling when it's in digital form on the computer screen." Okay, we already knew that. However, says Bo, if you add a few interactive features, such as a shopping-list generator, a meal planner and a message board, it's a whole other story.
When you do that, "the digital form of the of the book can become even more valuable to consumers than the original, old-fashioned paper version." That's exactly what Bo's new company, Waterfront Media, agoramedia.com, has done with The South Beach Diet, "a modified version of the Atkins diet that has topped the national bestseller lists for months. Shortly after Rodale published the book, Waterfront "launched southbeachdiet.com," offering "subscribers a six-week version of the diet" and featuring "a 'beach buddies service to pair carb-conscious eaters who share similar weight-loss goals."
Bo's partner, Waterfront ceo Ben Wolin, actually came up with this idea after noting the success of social networking sites such as match.com, ediets.com and classmates.com. The launched was backed by an online ad blitz, and South Beach "quickly became "a popular diet site on the web." Waterfront currently has "about eight other publishing partnerships, mostly of the self-help variety (with financial expert Jean Chatzky, fitness guru Denise Austin and new Age doctor Andrew Weil, for example). Bo says Waterfront has "about five new deals in the works" and "expects to introduce a product every two or three months ... Revenue is expected to quadruple this year to about $30 million."
Tim Manners, editor
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