Daily Archives: July 28, 2006

Smart move by Yahoo?

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Yahoo appears to be expanding their approach to search using humanized contextual information. This may trump Google’s search quality if Google remains as stubborn as it’s been with regard to human interventions.  However I’d guess Google will soon be forced to use a lot more human input as search quality may soon demand this.

One should remain very bullish on computer intelligence, but it seems for at least the next decade or so it’s not realistic to think that search results can be ranked by machine better than by humans.  Machines are much, much faster rankers than a human mind, but lack even many basic filters that allow a human to discard irrelevant or spurious information.    The hybridized search using computer algorithmic results combined with data from all relevant human sources should prevail in the near future.

Travel Complaint? Tell it to the Donner Party.

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Back in Talent at about midnight last night.

Sure it’s a long trip from the East Coast but I can’t help but … scoff…  at complaints about modern travel.  I like to say to the travel whiners “tell it to the Donner Party“.

Go tell some 1850 pioneers that a mere 100 years in the future their dangerous treks of many months to get from the midwest to Oregon or California will take a few hours as groups of hundreds of people fly six miles above the earth in huge boxes of metal.
To cities all over the American West.
Many, many times each and every day of the year.

Early American travelers would have thought you were simply crazy.

If you’d added that during the flight you’d be served cold drinks and snacks, watch moving picture shows, and listen to music they would have locked you up.

Then you’d explain to them that people will constantly complain about this type of travel.

With that comment, you’d be shot.

and then if you were with the Donner Party you’d be ….

dinner.