Posted by Mike
Thu, 08 Mar 2007 17:30:00 GMT
Google Reader is my RSS reader of choice. It's great for speed reading through a long list of articles, and Google did a nice job of integrating shortcut keys.
Check out my shared items, also available as an RSS feed for your Google desktop, or RSS reader. (see also my lastest shared items on the right)
Aside: you can search the blogs I subscribe to via Google Co-Op. (thanks to Google Operating System for this one)
A summary of my reading habits, courtesy of greader trends...
Posted in blogs, Google | Tags greader, rss | no comments | no trackbacks
Posted by Mike
Wed, 03 May 2006 06:58:00 GMT
I am not the first one (see MyJobTips among others) to assert that the online tools available to job seekers are lacking. Herewith some thoughts on what a mashup service for seekers might look like.
A common job seeker workflow might go something like:
- wake-up, make coffee
- check e-mail, possibly reading automated messages from job boards
- cruise job boards, bookmarking jobs of interest
- pick one or two or more gems from that day's crop of new job postings and research job and company
- compose and send one or two resumes
- later, follow up on sent resumes, possibly scheduling interviews, and eventually accepting an offer
It won't be long before one of the major job boards (or Google) implements something that services such a workflow. But for now, a simple mashup might do the trick
Much of what a job seeker needs is already there. Social bookmarking sites like del.icio.us provide an easy way to post, organize, and share bookmarks. Blogs provide an easy way to author, store, and publish research and notes. Online calenders are extremely common, useful for scheduling interviews. Web-based to-do lists, useful for recording follow-ups, are also freely available, most providing electronic reminders.
A mapping service like Google Maps might also play a role. And then there are the online word processors like Writely that could be used to author resumes. Does Google Base play a role?
A first version of "the app" might just be a static javascript page that sends HTTP requests to each of the secondary services. Eventually the app should be smart enough to extract info from a job posting such as job location, posting date, relevant keywords, suggested follow-up tasks, blog post templates.
I suspect that this app would not cross the line between feature and service, i.e. the job seeker's needs are more likely to be satisfied by existing providers than by the app. Would seekers pay to use the mash up? Maybe, but as soon as they did, someone is going to give it away for free.
Posted in blogs, web, Google | Tags jobsearch | no comments | no trackbacks
Posted by Mike
Mon, 01 May 2006 19:51:00 GMT
I'm trying to get back into the habit of writing by documenting my favourite online tools. Goes without saying that they are all best viewed with Firefox.
- Gmail
-
A decent, free, web mail product without a practical usage limit. Gmail's search facility (delete nothing, no folders) has changed the way I use email -- no more archiving or offline storage.
The Inbox/All_Mail split is natural after a while. I try to keep the number of messages in my Inbox to a minimum; say one to two weeks of content in the first page. Star'd messages and tags are thus far not much use.
- del.icio.us
-
Social bookmarking provides value (see oishii below), but del.icio.us provides a bookmarklet and Firefox plugin that makes bookmarking a snap. The daily blog posting service that sends my bookmarks to this blog is spiffy.
- Netvibes.com
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Dynamic home page supporting RSS/Atom feeds, to-do lists, weather, bookmarks, and other aggregated content. I use is almost exclusively to track syndicated content that changes frequently.
The UI is well thought out. Content can be categorized on any number of tabs, and arranged within each tab via drag and drop. Content is presented within an embedded reader.
- Rojo
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My industrial strength blog/feed reader. Not much GUI candy here, Rojo is suitable for blitzing through a large number of posts because a paragraph or two of each article is presented in the Rojo interfrace. Feeds are categorized by tag.
- remember the milk
-
A recent addition to my tool box, remember the milk is a web 2.0 to-do list manager. Each list entry is categorized as personal, work, or study, can be tagged with arbitrary keywords, has a due date and associated effort. Lists can be syndicated via Atom, or iCal; reminders are sent via SMS, IM, or email. Tasks can also be added via email (no API yet).
The on-the-fly smart lists (say, all tasks tagged 'house') achieve high coolness marks.
- Yahoo Calendar
-
Through no fault of Yahoo, their calendar service caused me a bit of trouble a while back, but it is still a decent product. Recurring events are easy to add, and the display is easy on the eyes. Yahoo has not updated this service in a long while, and I'm tempted to switch to google calendar if/when I can transfer my Yahoo events.
- Digg, reddit, Oishii
-
Mental candy that I check a few times a day to keep tabs on what is percolating on the net. Once in a while I find a gem.
Posted in blogs, web, Google | Tags digg, netvibes, oishii, reddit, rememberthemilk, rojo, yahoo | no comments | no trackbacks
Posted by Mike
Mon, 03 Oct 2005 19:24:00 GMT
As Tim O'Reilly and Tim Bray say: 'there's still a huge amount of disagreement about just what Web 2.0 means'. Herewith, my summary of O'Reilly's piece What Is Web 2.0.
O'Reilly describes priciples shared by successful 'Web 1.0' successes and interesting recent applications. See the meme map that came out of a brainstorming session of a FOO Camp conference.
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The Web As Platform
Web as platform is an old idea but it's implementation has been refined. See Netscape vs. Google, DoubleClick vs. Ad Sense, Akamai vs. BitTorrent.
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Harnessing Collective Intelligence
Open Source software, open content, collaborative categorization, viral marketing, all rely on a collective intelligence. Site attributes such as extensive (permanent) hyperlinks, low barriers to participation, organized content and meta data facilitate or enhance the affect of collective intelligence. Blogs are a special case of collective intelligence (and RSS a special attribute) in that the collective intelligence only emerges from a critical mass of blogs/articles.
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Data is the Next Intel Inside
Based on the way they approached their databases, MapQuest is a Web 1.0 story and Amazon is a Web 2.0 story. MapQuest licensed map data from Tele Atlas, but did not enhance (e.g. user annotations) or control the data. Amazon licensed ISBN data from R.R. Bowker and enhanced the data with data from publishers and customers. MapQuest was soon joined in the marketplace by competing services (Yahoo, Google, MSN) and Amazon is the standard source for bibliographic data.
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End of the Software Release Cycle
In Web 2.0 software is delivered as a service not a product.
O'Reilly suggests a number of fundamental changes to the business model of software companies.
- Operations must become a core competency. Google has become experts at managing the servers that deliver their web services. And the expertise is closely guarded.
- Users must be treated as co-developers. Release early and often (daily, hourly) and/or a perpetual beta. Real time monitoring of user behaviour.
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Lightweight Programming Models
Simple, lightweight service interfaces appear to be successful with the masses (i.e. the intelligent collective). (One assumes that housingmaps.com enhances the value of Google maps?)
Three lessons identified:
- Support lightweight programming models that allow for loosely coupled systems
- Think syndication, not coordination
- Design for 'hackability' and remixability
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Software Above the Level of a Single Device
ITunes, Tivo, blackberry...
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Rich User Experiences
Google/Flickr/Basecamp are at the forefront, but Yahoo and others have made AJAX the basis for major product releases.
O'Reilly finishes with a summary of the core compentencies of a Web 2.0 company:
- Services, not packaged software, with cost-effective scalability
- Control over unique, hard-to-recreate data sources that get richer as more people use them
- Trusting users as co-developers
- Harnessing collective intelligence
- Leveraging the long tail through customer self-service
- Software above the level of a single device
- Lightweight user interfaces, development models, AND business models
Posted in web, programming, Google | no comments
Posted by mop
Wed, 09 Feb 2005 18:25:00 GMT
Try it. An excellent interface (no clutter, great use of javascript, intuitive controls) and hight quality map data (at least for Vancouver and Toronto) suggests that this will be a winner. Business model is optional for now. ;-)
Posted in Google | no comments | no trackbacks
Posted by mop
Wed, 20 Oct 2004 16:30:00 GMT
Lucene is a Java system for "high-performance, full-featured text search". The software apears to be mature, and the community has produced a fair bit of documentation. A replacement for RDBMS-based searches?
No doubt that the searching is more intuitive, and would make it easier for users to perform keyword searches. Not sure that a Google-like engine could match RDBMS for field-based searching and fancy list navigation.
- Phonetix integrates phonetic algorithms into Lucene
- Luke provides a high level interface (Java and GUI) to Lucene’s generated indexes
- limited benchmarks are available
Posted in programming, Google | no comments | no trackbacks
