Random Thoughts

Today I feel its becoming more n more difficult for me to make sense of things…i mean ANY GOD DAMN THING!! What do you call it? Information saturation?

Was wandering on the web and came across http://www.henryfarkas.com/. The site has a great collection of interesting quotes. Here are a bunch of them. I personally can relate to quite a few of them. And I hope people close (not necessarily currently) to me also will be able to relate to a few of them. Again, these quotes are courtesy Henry Farkas.

Solitude vivifies; isolation kills.
-Joseph Roux, Meditations of a Parish Priest, 1886

Cruel words erode the self-esteem like the ocean eats away the shore.
-Jeanne Phillips, daughter of Abigail "Dear Abby" Van Buren

Courage is rarely reckless or foolish. Courage usually involves
a highly realistic estimate of the odds that must be faced.
-Margaret Truman

You may have to fight a battle more than once to win it.
-Margaret Thatcher

Think for yourself and let others enjoy the privilege
of doing so, too.
-Voltaire, author and philosopher

The truth is more important than the facts.
-Frank Lloyd Wright

If you obey all the rules, you miss all the fun.
-Katharine Hepburn

Some people see the hand of God operating in their lives.
Others see only the finger.
-Atlantic Magazine

If you are going through hell, keep going.
-Sir Winston Churchill

What worries you, masters you.
-Haddon W. Robinson

If you don't want the genie to come out don't rub the lamp.
-KitKatter

We're our own dragons as well as our own heroes,
and we have to rescue ourselves from ourselves.
-Tom Robbins

Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away.
-Philip K. Dick

To grow, you must be willing to let your present and future
be totally unlike your past. Your history is not your destiny.
-Alan Cohen, author


You can chase a butterfly all over the field and never
catch it. But if you sit quietly in the grass it will
come and sit on your shoulder.
-Anonymous

The goal of Computer Science is to build something that
will last at least until we've finished building it.
-Anonymous

Talk sense to a fool and he calls you foolish.
-Euripides

If you understand it, it is not God.
-Saint Augustine

When dealing with people, remember you are not dealing
with creatures of logic, but with creatures of emotion.
-Dale Carnegie

There are many levels of reality. Each one more dangerous
than the last, and each one more terrifying...
-Sleepy Shirley

Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups.
-Yup, Ibid

To Err is Human...
To Forgive is not our Policy.
-Motto of the MIT Assassins' Guild

Heaven is where the police are British,
the chefs, Italian,
the mechanics German,
the lovers, French,
and it is all organized by the Swiss.
Hell is where the police are German,
the chefs British,
the mechanics French,
the lovers Swiss,
and it is all organized by the Italians.
-Floating around for years


If you can't change the world, change your acronym.
-My daughter

I'm prepared for all emergencies but totally unprepared
for everyday life.
-Fortune amen!

What sane person could live in this world and not be crazy?
-Ursula K. LeGuin

As soon as your company starts using Outlook, you can see emergent,
horrible, almost biological things start to happen.
-Bill Joy

It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain
a thought without accepting it.
-Aristotle

If everyone is thinking alike then somebody isn't thinking.
-George Patton

However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results.
-Sir Winston Churchill

I'm attracted to women
Like moths to the flame.
It's been my experience
The result is the same.
-Anonymous

When you have to make a choice and don’t make it, that in itself is a choice.
-William James

What makes us discontented with our condition is the absurdly
exaggerated idea we have of the happiness of others.
-Anonymous

Vision without action is a daydream. Action without vision is a nightmare.
-Japanese Proverb

Life is never so bad at its worst that it is impossible to live;
it is never so good at its best that it is easy to live.
-Gabriel Heatter, American radio commentator (1890-1972)

How much more grievous are the consequences of anger
than the causes of it.
-Marcus Aurelius

Many an argument is won on the facts and lost on the cause.
-Barbara

Real difficulties can be overcome, it is only
the imaginary ones that are unconquerable.
-Theodore N. Vail

Is this guy also dealing with the "information saturation" issue?

2006 FIFA World Cup Germany goes live with Yahoo!

Yahoo! is the official web partner for the 2006 FIFA world cup in Germany. Online coverage of the world cup has started on Yahoo!, the host of official FIFA World cup 2006 site. And no less than in 9 langauges!

You have tickets, news and features, photo zone, teams, matches and results, video, accomodation, media, campaigns and culture, hospitality, official shop and much much more! And "exhaustive" details of a live match. You have the basic match summary, stats, cards, substitutions, team lineups, Bench and all possible data you can think of a live world cup soccer match.

Mobile coverage is available for the cell crazy soccer fans. This includes schedules, photos and live match commentary. For fans browsing the web through their cell phones, you have a mobile portal to keep yourself updated on the world cup information. SMS alerts are available for all US matches or all matches of Group E. Yahoo! beats Google hands down in attracting traffic on one of the craziest and "most sought after" event in the world.

However, the giant G has its own plans to help its "loyal" users enjoy the FIFA world cup. Registration at Joga is open to all Google account holders. Along With the results of a soccer player or team, the Google search will return World Cup scores as well. For users of Google's personalized homepage, new gadgets are available including a World Cup info module. Expect Google Desktop to have its own facility to provide the latest of the tournament.

The latest to hit the media is that Germany has kicked-off world cup without their captian Michael Ballack. And Germany leads 2:1 against Costa Rica currently :). Over one billion television viewers are expected to tune in to the opening match and a cumulative audience of nearly 30 billion will watch at least part of the 64 game schedule which culminates on July 9 in Berlin.

In German President Horst Koehler's words - "We are hoping for beautiful matches, many goals and fair play".

The fun has begun guys! Make the best of it....and Njoy FIFA 2006 World Cup!

Cheers :)

SES London 2006 Update - Search Behavior Research & Internet Ad Revenues

Vinny Lingham gives an overview on one of the interesting discussion panels at 2006 SES London. Major takeaways:

- Somewhere between 1.5% & 15% of online activity goes to Search
- Search is a “choke point” of the web
- Out of the estimated 700 million people online, 95% allocate their time/efforts to Portals and 87% to search
- Europeans use search more than Americans
- 76% of Google’s queries are outside the US, but only 42% of their revenue
- 41% of users who continue their search when they can’t find satisfactory results on the first page do one of two things – change search terms or change search engines (compared to 28% 4 years ago)

In his words, Vinny ends saying - "My key take-away is that search differs Country by Country and you have to understand the market in order to market and that’s why it’s called Marketing!".

This shows how the dynamics of search, search engines and search engine marketing are changing at a speed, which not many of us can match up to. Search engine results, usage, searches, searchers, their behavior, their preferences and almost all major and minor factors differ geographically. A "good joke" for the searchers of US may be different from that of what Europeans see and/or believe and am not sure if what I see here in India is similar to any of them!

Another interesting topic being discussed (general - not specific to the 2006 London SES conference) is the "internet ad revenue". Read these figures:
1. The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) announced that online ad revenue reached a "staggering" $3.864 billion for the first quarter of 2006. - Published: 2006-05-31
2. According to a recent Nilesen/Netratings Inc. analysis, Google's market share is now 50%. - Published: 2006-06-02

Now is that not HUGE? One of every two searches done globally goes to Google. How does one beat tht? Though Yahoo! & MSN are on their toes to grab every possible pie of this market, Google has (till date) managed to be the front runner.

However, the pace at which the major players of search engine industry are updating (changing, growing, expanding, whtever!) themselves, taking a "guess" on the future leader of the industry is a tedious call. Yahoo! has joined hands with eBay, Google cracks the Dell deal and MSN still believes in buying the competition as the #1 business strategy!

These guys (at Google, Yahoo!, MSN n god knows where else!) keep us on our toes. Though a lot demanding at times, this is one factor that keeps the SEO guys going. Keep searching guys..

cheers
Jiggs