We hope you all have a fantastic happy Christmas. We wish you the best for you and your families!
Google has launched a new service in Google labs in which keyword suggestions are offered to you as you type your search. According to the F.A.Q.
'Our algorithms use a wide range of information to predict the queries users are most likely to want to see. For example, Google Suggest uses data about the overall popularity of various searches to help rank the refinements it offers. An example of this type of popularity information can be found in the Google Zeitgeist. Google Suggest does not base its suggestions on your personal search history.'
Good as all this sounds I must say that I do not find the service very useful since it seems to be working mostly on a popularity basis. The number of results that is also displayed next to each of the keywords is also totally meaningless to someone who just wants results in the search engine result pages and in most cases will not search further than page two, wether the number of results are 2,987,987,000 or 45,000. A thematic categorization and 'splitting' of the results as is becoming more and more common in all the other search engines is yet to appear in Google.
The news of the sale of IBMs PC unit to Lenovo the largest Chinese PC manufacturer took me a bit by surprise. The two companies were in negotiations for 13 months before the deal yesterday but I somehow could never believe that it would work the way it did. For me this is the most imprtant business news of the year as it represents the beginning in the shape of things to come over the next 3 to 5 years.
It is pretty obvious that IBM tried to dump a rather difficult and small margin market in order to gain a foothold in the Chinese server - and software? - market. However, I doubt wether everything will go as planned.
For me this move means that many things will change in both the PC and server market but also - and most imprtant really - in the software market. My feeling is that Microsoft has more to lose out of this move than HP or Dell will lose out of Lenovo.
The list of the best postings of Seth Godin in the year 2004.
Taken from Dana VanDen Heuvel's weblog a concise list of links on web log analysis.
"Poll: What web stats service do you use?"
http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum39/905.htm
Right now it's 10 pages and 136 messages. Then there are all these related threads and probably lots more:
"Page based stats vs.log stats"
http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum39/598.htm
"Log Analysis vs. Outsourced (3rd Party)"
http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum39/1023.htm
"with hosted tracking what important info do I miss out on?"
http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum39/1115.htm
"A satisfactory stats package"
http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum39/330.htm
"How to accurately determine UNIQUE visitors a week"
http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum39/582.htm
"Log stats, or Graphic stats?"
http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum39/86.htm
"Free web-based statistics"
http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum39/504.htm
"Free Log Analyzer/Stats Program"
http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum39/369.htm
"Conversion tracking"
http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum39/771.htm
"Opinions on online tracking service"
http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum39/700.htm
"Log Analysis"
http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum39/866.htm
"Is Web Log Analysis Worthwhile?"
http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum39/496.htm
"What is the best choice today regarding log analysis software?"
http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum39/548.htm
"Reading Access Logs"
http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum39/1322.htm
"Why webserver stats are questionable"
http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum39/157.htm