DISQUS

Judging by all the self-promos here, one is allowed to suggest their own site? :) In that case, http://www.travellerspoint.com : wiki travel guide, personal travel help, travel blogs, mapping, photo uploads, active & friendly & spam free forums, accommodation etc.

I think it really depends on what stage in the 'travel process' one is in, which site one would use the most.

Waiting till more people catch on to the fact that Google does *not* include their own sites info! They'll happily give out keyword data for all their competitors, but letting you look at their info, sorry, too close for comfort. Lawsuit waiting to happen and rightfully so!

If you are talking about the country then it's Belgium, not Belgian.

That old look had kind of become your style to me Robert. Not sure I can get used to all these colours :) I do like the Friend feed though. Guessing we'll be seeing that all over the web in no time...

Travellerspoint has had moblogging enabled for over two years. It's used, but not nearly as popular as its convenience would lead you to believe. Quite interesting since this is aimed at travellers who theoretically would be one of the better target markets.

Plaxo is one of the companies hit with this. They used to have this address book importer that allowed you to import hotmail contacts, but without word to the developers using it, the hotmail alternative was removed. In one or two of the forum posts complaining about this they made clear that it was at Microsoft's will and they expected any company running a similar system to also have had to do the same...

On one hand I think Microsoft also has a valid point in questioning how this information is being used. Plaxo for example imports all the contacts and without telling the user keeps a record on their servers, whether it's just to send a one off mailout from the user or not. I can see how legally that could put Microsoft in a bit of a pickle.... although realistically it should be Plaxo who's to blame for not linking to their privacy statement anywhere from those pages (or in fact even making it clear within their privacy statement once you finally figure out where it is...).

Robert, how many email addresses did you have in Gmail when you signed up with FB? Those are email addresses you've had with you for a while if you're anything like me. People you really know, have met or done business with etc.

On Facebook, 90% of your friends are probably not really friends or people you know, right or wrong?

I'm sure the 10% don't mind their data they gave you heading off to another database like plaxo, since you could have done that directly. It's the other 90% that are your 'friends' that is the HUGE difference between what FB is doing and what you did with Plaxo.

On the other hand, it's also the fault of anyone friending people they don't know, which is not just you but also that 90%.

I don't blame you any more than the 4500 or so folks that aren't really your friends but still friended you. A smart man like you SHOULD however realize the difference between the two systems.

Couldn't agree more with you!

The name Google Knol just blows chunks.

NOMINATE Travellerspoint.com

Robert, I reckon you should do something a little more tailored to your publicity pull factor if you want to donate 40 hours of your time. How about blogging for one full week about interesting web sites that aim to tackle world poverty, global warming etc. etc. You'll get tons of publicity for the sites and causes involved and your time donated will stretch much further than it ever would over a Thanksgiving foodbank. You could even have Patrick guestblogging a few if you wanted to get him involved :)

Interesting, especially when you consider Answer.com's public announcement about how they got penalized in Google just 2 or 3 months ago. I think MC is going to be writing an extra plugin for the search engine to add negative weighting to all those links :) Now, will Wordpress be penalized for selling links??!!

Interesting, especially when you consider Answer.com's public announcement about how they got penalized in Google just 2 or 3 months ago. I think MC is going to be writing an extra plugin for the search engine to add negative weighting to all those links :) Now, will Wordpress be penalized for selling links??!!

My bad, that comment was on another entry...

Today I was browsing my cousin's wife's profile on Facebook and I saw a post by her father on her wall (he's obviously also "hardly young"). Translated directly from Dutch, this is what he wrote:

"I am trying out Facebook because 'Scobleizer" basically says you are an idiot if you aren't on it"

Thought you might enjoy!

Robert, I had a monster comment to this article that was pretty relevant and totally legit (or wasn't it?). It seems to have disappeared??

ps. apologies for the long post; got carried away there :)

Agreed with both 4 and 5.

Yahoo does better at communication than Google does. Google doesn't even have a way to contact them and they are clearly too superior for their users when they do post some one-way communication.

Yahoo's search has also really been improving, while Google's seems to be getting more and more bogged down by spam or simply returns wikipedia and ebay results for every other search. They both have their benefits but I prefer Yahoo's for relevancy.

My next peeve with Google is that it is so clearly developed by a bunch of phd's, it's not even funny. I mean, why can't my one google account give me access to all these different features they have WITHOUT me having to sign in 3 times? I was writing up an article on how to sign up for Analytics today (for complete novices) which meant having to click a button 'sign up here' at three different stages, all to eventually lead to the analytics bit of code. There's an incredible amount of usability improvements that could be made over there!

Last but not least, Yahoo's been around a long time. They've got multiple income sources to stand on. Google is too reliant on one source of income and thus vulnerable the moment that gets attacked. I own part of a small company in Norway that is very non web 2.0, but they're shifting advertising dollars from Google to Facebook because the targetting is just a million times better (ie. they only want to show an ad to 18-30 year olds to start with, and perhaps different campaigns targetted at different cities on top of that. G can't get anywhere near that kind of targetting and they know it - it's got to have them VERY worried!!).

Joined that same group (or a similar one, think there are more) last week Robert. I can't believe this is even an issue. What year do we live in for crying out loud? People need to realize that just because women become mothers they still would like to be able to go out in public AND give their kids the most nutritious option available to them. And it's not like they've got both breasts hanging out and are walking around fully exposed. Generally it's so subtle you hardly notice.

Maybe it's just because I live in Europe, but from what I've seen this is hardly an issue here. Of course I live in Norway and you can't go out for a coffee without seeing a woman breastfeeding in the area I live in. Hey, with 10 months full paid leave you can bet mothers aren't going to sit at home all day - and rightfully so! :)

Congrats Robert! A friend of mine had a boy 3 years ago and named him Milan. That's the only other one I know, but I think it's a great name. We went with Malia (link above) which was probably also a first in Norway but I love it!!

Robert, you should change that comment regarding being at war with Iraq being based on 9/11. It's bad enough that so many Americans actually believe that Iraq had something to do with those events and there's no reason that lie should be spread any further.

You are at war with Iraq because of oil and your president and a few of those other dudes who have since all quit.

The whole world sympathized with the US on 9/11 and continues to do so, but the war in Iraq should NEVER be confused with this horrible event.

The problem with whoever is behind the webby's is that they SPAM you like mad once you've signed up one year. Well, that's actually only been like that since the 2006 webbies, but I've gotten 4 or 5 identical 'awards' promos all claiming to be fantastic and they are all judged by exactly the same bunch of people that really know nothing about the internet to start with....

Did someone take over this brand and totally ruin it?

Stop replying to comments mate and ENJOY some time away from blogging! You'll never win them all. You are probably the only blogger whose blog I really enjoy reading from your side of the world. The rest is all copying each other and saying the same thing over and over again. Plus, for us techies outside of the US, most of it is worthless gossip about a 'world' that is incredibly small and closed off (kind of paradoxal when you think of it). And of course when all the gossip is about some kids 'wining' at each other over spilled milk, you'll have a much more enjoyable time following an argument like that at home with your own kids! :)

Enjoy the new bub; kids are the best!