Monthly Archives: February 2009

Nate Silver Predicts the Oscars

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I love FiveThirtyEight.com. I followed it very closely during the 2008 US Presidential election and I thought Nate Silver wrote well thought out and balanced posts.  I’ve watched him do a couple of interviews during that time, most memorably an interview on the Colbert Report.  On that interview he seemed very polished.  I just saw him do an interview with Keith Olberman earlier tonight about his predictions for the 2009 Oscars.  Oh my Lord, he’s a total geek!

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22425001/vp/29268973#29268973.msnbcLinks {font-size:11px; font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: #999; margin-top: 5px; background: transparent; text-align: center; width: 425px;} .msnbcLinks a {text-decoration:none !important; border-bottom: 1px dotted #999 !important; font-weight:normal !important; height: 13px;} .msnbcLinks a:link, .msnbcLinks a:visited {color: #5799db !important;} .msnbcLinks a:hover, .msnbcLinks a:active {color:#CC0000 !important;}

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Twitter & Search

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Despite my affection for Google and its plethora of products that I use frequently, this morning I read two very interesting articles on Twitter Search and the future of Google.  They have slightly different takes on why Twitter Search will be successful but they both reach the same conclusion: Twitter Search will be big.  I’m always wary of something being declared the ‘next big thing’, but this one will be an interesting watch.

The two links are here and here.  While I’ve not used Twitter search much thus far, it is now an add-on to my list of search tools. If anyone else is interested in adding Twitter Search to FireFox, it can be done from here.

Branding a Bailout/Stimulus

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It just struck me how important branding is and how well the Obama administration has used it in the brief weeks since Jan 20th.  The $700 million “bailout” negotiated by the Bush controlled white house was given a negative connotation right from the beginning simply because the media and politicians very quickly called it a bailout.  Of course, no one with self pride wants a bailout, and no one wants to give a bailout to to someone (in this instance, banks) who don’t deserve it.

On the otherhand, everyone does want to do something to “stimulate” the economy and hence a $825/$890/$(whatever it is right now) billion stimulus package seems to have much more general support than I remember the bailout package ever having.  Sure, there is much more to these two packages, including their official names, but I just thought this was interesting.

What Google Services do you use?

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Thinking about this on the drive in to work this morning, I was astounded by the number of Google Services, Tools or Software I use regularly.  [For the purpose of this post, I define regularly as “several times a month”].  In no particular order, here they are:

  • Google Search & its various avatars (Images, Mobile, Local, Package tracking, Area code, Flight Status, Movie Show timings, stock quotes, Music, etc)
  • GMail
  • Google Talk/GChat
  • Google Reader
  • You Tube
  • Google Alerts
  • Google Chrome
  • Google Toolbar
  • Google Finance
  • Goog-411
  • iGoogle
  • Google Maps & Mobile Maps
  • Google News
  • Google Reader
  • Google Docs
  • Blogger (Passive user, i.e. reader of contect)

Some others that I use less frequently or have used in the past are:

  • Google Checkout
  • Google Product Search
  • Google Earth
  • Orkut
  • Google Translate
  • Picasa
  • Knol
  • Blogger
  • Google Scholar
  • Google Desktop
  • Google Groups
  • Google Calculator & Unit Conversion, Book Search, etc.

Phew, quite a list of prodcuts, right? I dont think I’ve forgotten any, but let me know if I have.  And I dont pay for a single one…impressive!