Techization

Yahoo announced it will close its web hosting service called GeoCities later in 2009.  GeoCities brings back many memories for me.  Pounding the WebTV wireless keyboard into the wee hours of the morning building my two-column web pages complete with midi files and flying text.  This service began in 1994 when David Bohnett and John Rezner created ‘Beverly Hills Internet’.  The idea was you would build a website within a non-fictional city ‘network’ like Los Angeles or New York.  The idea was later scrapped though some sites still exist with that architecture.  Yahoo bought GeoCities for more than 3 billion dollars in 1999 shortly after the company wen’t public on the stock market.  During its peak in the late 90′s, Geocities was the 5th most trafficked site on the world wide web.  That is comparable to Facebook, YouTube and Wikipedia today.

GeoCities let anyone have a presence on the web free of charge and voice their opinions, much like Blogspot and WordPress do today.  Many non-profit organizations and personal individuals used GeoCities as their host because of the ease of use and cost.  Remember, this was back when everyone thought it was cool to have a ‘website’ with pictures of their dog and what they enjoy for hobbies.  GeoCities served their constituents very well for more than a decade.

R.I.P.  GeoCities —  2009 — This one is for you… ABBA – Dancing Queen

What really makes me feel old?  The trending topic on Twitter is ‘What Was GeoCities’.

Google isn’t just for doing your Boolean queries.  There are many things Google search can do that you probably never realized.  Here are some tricks for you to try with Google:

• What Time Is It…

Use the term ‘what time is it’ to query the time in major cities from around the world.  I.e. (what time is it Tokyo)

• Track Flights

You can enter the airline whom runs the flight and the flight number to see departure and arrival times for that particular flight.  It even shows whether it is on time or delayed.  I.e. (United flight 6695)

• Track Packages (UPS, FedEx etc.)

No need to go through the hoops on FedEx.com to track your new ab master.  Simply enter your tracking number into Google and it will display the tracking information for you.  I.e. (1ZGH5594S952FF9991)

• Get The Weather Forecast

Need the weather forecast for the next few days?  Google makes it easier than ever.  Just type in ‘weather’ and the city you want.  Google will spit out a four day forecast and current conditions for you.  I.e. (weather Burlington  —  This query would then display weather for Burlington, VT)

• Find Alternatives To Your Search Keywords

Use the strings ‘better than’, ‘reminds me of’, ‘similar to’ to find alternatives to search queries.  An example would be ‘Reminds me of Eminem’.  Google would show you musical acts that are similar to the rap artist Eminem.  Ever wonder who Google will tell you is better than Metallica?  Go find out!  I.e. (better than metallica)

• Convert Currency and More

Google has a powerful conversion algorithm built in that allows you to convert many different things.  Currencies, metrics and a whole lot more.  Just enter in what you need to convert.  I.e. (5 US dollars in European money)

Other Google tricks and hints from Wolf-Howl:

Check out these search queries, they can come in quite handy!

[gdp malta] Gross Domestic Product of Malta

[population malta] Population of Malta.

[capital malta] The capital of Malta.

[location malta] Rough idea of where Malta is located.

[currency malta] What is the currency of Malta.

[flag france] The flag of France. Note there was no flag shown for Malta.

[anthem france] What is the national anthem of France.

[state bird hawaii] What is the state bird of Hawaii.

[state flower hawaii] State flower of Hawaii.

[motto hawaii] what is the state motto of Hawaii.

[size hawaii]

[governor hawaii] The governor of Hawaii.

[birthplace of walt disney] Where Walt Disney was born.

Math and Number Searches

[100+37+92+641-7] Works like a calculator to perform math operations.

[1HD1BEK11BY123456]
Provides a link to VIN (Vehicle Identification Number) information.

[073333531084]Provides a link to UPC information for that product.

[212] Provides a link to information about the area code 212.

[202-456-1111]Provides a link to more information about the residence, business, or organization for that phone number.

[patent 5123128]Provides a link to more information about patent number 5123128.

[n199ud] Provides a link for more information about the FAA registration for the airplane with that registration number.

[fcc IHDT5ZG1]Provides a link to information about the product with that FCC id number.

Bottom line is that Google is an amazing platform.  In terms of search engines, Google is light years ahead of their competition.  I don’t think all of Google’s products are perfect or the best.  A perfect example is Google Maps.   While they are doing some innovative things, Microsoft Live Maps has better coverage, resolution and it’s ‘Bird’s Eye View’ puts it ahead of Google Maps in my opinion.

Can anyone catch Google?  Not likely.

SEO is more a craze than ever.  Many web developers are getting paid nice dollars if they can find a way to get their clients page into the first few searches on Google consistenly.  There have been some recent developments in the browser industry which makes your Google rank and SEO even more important today than a year ago:

• IE8 now has address bar searches similar to Google Chrome, these searches query Google for results by default

IE8 will be the default browser for Windows 7.  Searching via the address bar will continue to grow consistently, especiallywhen Windows 7 rolls out.  Google will stand to see another major bump in traffic.  Don’t you want to be on the top now more than ever?

• Google as a search engine is still a warhorse that is unlikely to be going any where, anytime soon!

With Google getting companies like Microsoft to default users to their search engine results within their browsers which will be pre-installed on machines, your Google page rank just got that much more important.

Graphs provided by Net Applications ‘Market Share’