DISQUS

I went through this 8-9 years ago. My partner and I are the only two people to ever be threatened with expulsion from the Apache forum. I remember in one day there were over a 100 email responses to the pair of us. He got very heated and very nasty. In fact I'd say we're still person non grata.

Fast forward 7 years to the blogsphere and I see a lot of the same things happening. Except people aren't used to dealing with the nonsense. And that's all it really is, total nonsense. However it hurts. We're human. How can it not.

What's really needed is a code of Respect. We need to remember that first and foremost we are human beings and we need to learn to respect each other. Be hard on the problem and stop being hard on each other. It's not healthy.

I'm sorry for your wife, she's a good person, and those who care will - those who don't never will, so you just have to move on.

Nothing more to say other than give her a hug from me.

Cheers,

Peter

Hi Robert,

We have a demo for local search on mobile that only requires you type in the "Find" request. Our client is able to transmit your current your GPS, Address, Zip code and area code up to the server in real time using nothing more than the browser. Checkout our mobile demo page: http://www.5o9inc.com/mobile.html for more info.

Cheers,

Peter

Hi Mathew,

Great post… the search engines want to solve the relevance problem. Ultimately there is really only one way to do that, know more about the person i.e. me. Their current approach is cookies which as you say looks over my shoulder and reports back to the mother ship. You then correctly state the fear, is that I have NO choice in the matter.

So parsing that further the problem it then becomes, how do I not only make ads more relevant AND allow my customer base to opt-in or out as they desire?

What if I allowed Google to know more about me every time I did a search and I also allowed Volvo (because I like Volvo’s) to know more about me. My name, address and phone number is all public information. I’m willing to share it with them as long as they don’t abuse my privacy. What I want in return is “relevant, pin-point targeting adverts” which tell me about Volvo’s. AND (this is critical) I want those ads to be localized to a region no more than 10 miles from where I live. Finally I want to be able to opt-in at my leisure.

So lets list the problems that the search engines currently have…

• They don’t know much about me (my interests)
• They don’t know where I live
• They have know idea how to connect local business advertisers to my interests and location
• They don’t know how offer me all of the above in real time when I log on with my mobile device while traveling (say I’m in San Francisco and a dealer there is running a special on Volvo’s)

Finally if they knew all of the above the ads would become so targeted and so relevant that I’m almost compelled to click on them – especially if there is some additional temptation i.e. discount/coupon. Also if they (Google and Volvo) knew where I was when I clicked on those ads it would reduce click fraud.

I don’t mind ads, I don’t mind sharing my personal data, what I hate is ads that are not relevant and someone abusing my privacy. After all I share my credit card info every time I buy something, when someone abuses that I show my displeasure by not going there anymore. That’s why I never click on any ads…. It’s because they are never relevant to me or where I live.

All the best,


Peter

He's way behind the curve. He took someone else's invention and improved it. Nothing wrong with that. In this industry it's all about timing anyway. He then sits back and tells the world what he's done. Along the way he picks fights with everyone. Now all of a sudden he's discovered mobile. And he immediately starts trying to direct the natural forces to his way of thinking for RSS being delivered to Mobile. Mobile is a different beast than the desktop. The whole experience is inconsistent with the desktop for a number of reasons. Wait until Dave buys a Windows Mobile device and really dives in under the hood. He'll be back to Windows 3.1 programming. Years ago my partner and I played with the Blackberry. We were the first to add support for real time data compression on the device. However our conclusion was that the Blackberry would be used mainly for email rather than web surfing. It's a great reading device - hence the focus on RSS feeds... however when it comes to surfing the web and RSS then WIndows Mobile will be the eventual winner. Lets see if Dave can move RSS forward for all Mobile devices. Only one problem, this time he's late to the party.

Mathew,

What amazes me is the loss of control we experience everyday. Exactly who obtained "my" permission to keep track of my data? Everybody talks about the future of the web is one where the user will gain back more control, and yet I see continued abuse of our privacy and we are powerless to control it. Imagine a local resturant sharing your credit card and meal preferences with others. The web needs to become a user controlled "permission based" ecosystem for trust to blossom. Hard to trust the majors out there when we know what they are doing.

Peter

Robert,

In my opinion it's not about content anymore. As you say, creating it easy. What's not so easy is recognizing the device that's connecting to view the content. The default assumption has always been the desktop. That's no longer true. Now we have mobile devices with all manner of screens sizes and resolutions connecting. There is still no capability within the web server to accurately determine what the device can support.

Peter

Robert,

You're right on the mark with Office 2007 - totally rocks. The major disruption is the new UI. Took me about 10 minutes to get used to it and now I don't ever want to go back. Ship this product and every online Office product will look like it's from the dark ages.

Now if I could only get Vista to work (it's running inside MS Virtual Machine but lacks the drivers for my Sony Viao)

Peter

Robert,

I can see (feel) a sea change occuring at Microsoft. People are not paying attention. I think the real action begins next year and then explodes in 2008. In 2007 Vista ships - in 2008 Windows Mobile hits its major release. The context of the web is "client - server" Microsoft does that better than anyone. As for Google's threat - just contain them at 50% market share - that will blunt earnings. Google currently only has one string to their bow - ad revenue, all the other stuff is just a distration. Their CapX is growing astronomically, it will consume them.

Everybody talks about the web as the platform - I agree, one detail - that platform is client server - and the next level arrives with Mobile, which finally breaks down the walled gardens controlled by the carriers.

I'm betting the MS is going to be the big winner here.

All the best,


Peter

Let this be a lesson - Iran has no idea what it's playing with.

It won't last long - RSS is still an open standard, Dave is tired and cannot go on alone. It's either lead (he did) follow (he is) or get out of the way (he's in the process of doing). Just have to patient while the process works itself out.

Peter

I’ve faced a similar battleground when years ago my partner and I tried to convince a skeptical world for the need for real time data compression for the web. Everyone said it couldn’t be done, and even if we did no one would care.

I had many run-in’s with Dave, he even banned me from emailing him. He told me I was wasting my time. He still doesn’t compress the data coming from his site.

Well we prevailed, mod_gzip has become the standard for compressing data from an Apache 1.x web server.

Now Dave is facing his own demons with RSS… I’ve got some advice for him – stop arguing in public, flex your programming muscles and do something remarkable. Let the code do the talking.

Software is so much hype. The reality is usually pretty dismal… look at the state of the browsers after all these years. Make RSS into something better. Build a Mobile spec for it… you know people are going to need it on their smartphones.

People will always bitch about something, and then they’ll usually turn around and start using it. It’s the price you pay for being on the edge.