Now, amongst all of the goodies out there including Intent search (why has Mindset been shut down Yahoo?) and the promise of Semantic search, the closest we have got is categorised search results where the thousands of results are dropped into folders. So watch this space for something along those lines…

And very serendipitously the raison d’etre came to us via Google’s recent claim of indexing a trillion pages, we-knew-web-was-big and the 10th Anniversary page at www.google.com/search2001.html and the application of a bit of sums that suggests there are over 750 times as many pages out there. So each search potentially returns 750 times as many results - too many to handle. Hence the need intent/categories.

I suspect the search world will become very interesting over the next few years.

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“Thousands of corporate intranets are seldom-used, impossibly complex beasts. In contrast, next-generation intranets are simple, social platforms that can change the way people work (for the better!). But getting to intranet 2.0 isn’t so easy.”

Something I’ve been banging on about for an absolute age. Chris, I couldn’t agree with you more. It’s time to blow up the old and wheel in the new. If you want an intranet that works for your business, don’t tell your employees what they want and force them to read it with mind numbing intranet update messages. Let them provide the content themselves, let them consume that information when they want to, and give them the freedom to say what they want (within reason of course!)

See Chris’s ten steps to intranet heaven here

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We are now looking at (and typing on it at the moment) the Advent badged MSI wind, and a jolly fine machine it is. Now, let’s get this straight right from the start, if you are looking for a full on review, go elsewhere, this is a quirky personal opinion (it’s the only one I’ve got).

So, I like it, a lot the screen is a good size, some people complain about the 600 pixels depth, but I haven’t found it a real problem, yes you don’t get much of a preview in say Thunderbird, but I don’t have to resort to Littlebird as I do on the Eee. At this point I must admit to not having tried the Eee PC 900 series, so maybe the comparison is unfair, such is life.

The Advent/MSI Wind is really good to use, it is doing all the things I need it to, it bluetoothed to my P1i phone like a dream, connects to all my networks, does it all with minimum fuss and is light and easy to carry.

It has its faults though:

The hinges are not very firm, this means that sitting on a train (or even in a chair with it on you knees) the screen wobbles just enough to be really annoying.
The Eee PC has a great power supply akin to a mobile phone with the transformer inthe plug, the Advent/Wind has a big “kettle lead” that attaches with that weird laptop 3 pin plus into a separate transformer then into the Wind. Too big and too awkward to carry around in a small bag.
Windoews XP, a good Linux distro would be soooooo much better, I will try Ubuntu and report back.
It gets hot, especially on the thighs.

There will be more Atom based sub notebooks out soon some better some not, and this is not a “comprehensiv review”, however I have to say that for £280 at PC World (wow I never thought I would be suggesting that anyone buys something from PC World) it is a winner for me.

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http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_7496000/7496976.stm

A good piece that shows the Semantic web is soon to go mainstream. So, it’s back to the R&D labs for Pancentric.

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We’re looking for a Senior Designer.

Here’s what we’d like
5+ years experience and comfortable in an agency environment ie. things move fast, clients change their minds, briefs come think and fast. We work in a very agile manner. We sketch, comp things up, brainstorm round a boiling kettle and scribble on white boards. You must be comfortable taking these ideas and making them real by grounding them in solid design thinking and extending an idea beyond the obvious.

You should understand the web, have a deep knowledge of user-centred design and can make an online brand presence sing with personality. Above all we want great creative flair, a close attention to detail and the ability to tackle a problem from many angles.

It goes without say that you must have all the usual skills including proficiency in Photoshop and Illustrator and a sprinkling of InDesign maybe. A good grasp of HTML (this isn’t a coding role) and AJAXyness never goes wanting.

In exchange for this we’ll pay you for doing something you love, let you have access to the Wii and the 6ft. beer fridge and maybe even give you a say over what radio station we play in the studio.

If this is you and you’re looking to join a rapidly expanding agency, get in touch.

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Despite a strong showing and an easy win in the first round, the Germans, beach towels in hand, were victorious on the day and took the coveted title.

Commenting on the experience, Jimmi was heard to say

“Some people say Marbles is a game of luck. I say rubbish! It takes skill, the right attitude and years of dedication to reach world standard.”

Jimmi is, as I type, back down the gym training for next year’s event. Our local hero can bee seen in the YouTube clip below. Watch out for him 42 seconds in, clapping his hands whilst donning a fetching green and yellow wig. Don’t say it wasn’t taken seriously!

Great write up on the Guardian Sport blogs here.

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The Millbay area of Plymouth is undergoing a radical, and what looks to be a stunning, redevlopment over the next couple of years. Already underway, the redeveloped coastal quarter will incorporate a mix of new homes with commercial, retail and leisure space and cement Plymouth’s position as one of Europe’s finest waterfront cities by reclaiming a partly redundant harbourside area close to the city centre.

To supply the imagery on the site we used a local photographer who takes pictures of Plymouth and the surrounding area in his spare time. Contacted through flickr, Jason was more than happy to contribute some of his best images for use in marketing this great new development in his home town.

To get a feel for the scope of the development it’s probably best to take a loot at the ‘Explore‘ section or even watch the flythrough - produced in partnership with another agency.

The first phase of the site is primarily focussed on marketing the development at the world’s premier property conference, MIPIM in Cannes, France.

To accompany the site there is a kiosk version which has been modelled specifically for use on the marketing stand at MIPIM. This will be developed further for future use in the on-site marketing suite at Millbay.

There are huge plans for the coming months not least expanding the site as more details of the development are realised as well as some very exciting community features - more of which we can reveal at a later date.

In the mean time, check out the site.

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Jimmy and Jason each gave a brief overview of their human powered search engines.
The discussion then follows on how search engine results are irrelevant and filled with spam and weird stuff. Jason railed on Google and other big engines, saying algorithms have failed to control spam and SEO gaming, and that humans must be involved to get good results.
Jason was more circumspect, and spent most of his time arguing that large numbers of people will be willing to spend time helping Wikia Search develop good results.

As a member of these sites like Wikia Search and Mahalo, the results you achieve are significantly better because we’re incorporating human intelligence into the mix.

Wikia Search will have another social angle. Users will be able to find other contributors to work on the search engine with them, behind the scenes from the masses who just want results.

Mahalo, an evolving human-powered Web guide primarily uses paid staffers to create its topic pages. A new “Mahalo Follow” feature lets users easily recommend sites to the engine– a more cost-effective way to quickly build a library of human-approved links.

Wales v. Calacanis

Marissa Mayer Comments

Basic transcript of the session at the conference.

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