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Tuesday, 11 July 2006
According to the folks behind Merriam-Webster, google is now officially a verb, after having been submitted for consideration some three months ago. It’s approved meaning is:
To use the Google search engine to obtain information about (as a person) on the World Wide Web.
Of course, “googling” something or someone has been in widespread use for well over three years now, so it’s no surprise that it’s usage as a verb has made it into the official American dictionary. Oxford and Macquarie will soon follow, no doubt.
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Friday, 7 July 2006
According to Melbourne IT, while more than 90% of internet users get to websites via search engines, more than 50% of all Australian businesses who have a website cannot easily be found in a major search engine like Google.
What does this tell us?
Perhaps it tells us that most business website owners don’t really have a clue about how people actually use the web. The fact is that the days of brochureware websites are long gone. As users become more savvy, they’re come to realise that a website without interactivity is basically useless. It’s no longer sufficient to try and dazzle your potential clients with your “web presence”, you actually need to offer something of value. Having a page which says “please call this number” just isn’t enough.
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Tuesday, 4 July 2006
It’s been over three months since the launch of Windows Live, Microsoft’s klutzy “Google killer” project. Like Google, Windows Live is offering “personalisation of your homepage”, with news, weather, mail, and (apparently) more.
Apart from the weather service, which recognises that I’m from Melbourne, Australia (not Florida), it’s not really personalisation when none of the available news sources are from Australia, is it? But then again, it’s still in beta, so I guess Microsoft weren’t planning to unleash it on users living in faraway places like Australia just yet.
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