With the recent fires in San Diego county Google has made a great map to help the victims of 50 years of human ever growing footprint Mother Nature’s wrath. The map is rather fantastic as it shows the actual fire and where the current shelters are (even for large animals).
Jake Mandell, while working at the music and neuroimaging lab at Beth Israel here in Boston developed a interesting 6 minute test to score how tone deaf you really are. The test seems like a throwback to a elementary school hearing test having you distinguish if two sound patterns sound the same or different. If nothing else it will help vindicate your last karaoke set as being the Mics fault and not your own. Test your Tonedeafness.
Jake also has a linkbait site called tonometric.com that has another test to see how well you perceive rhythm; which could help explain the herky jerky dance number you did during your karaoke set.
Just imagine what perfect pitch can get you:
“Like many other Web sites, a pair of online newcomers, Blingo and GoodSearch, license search technology from Google and Yahoo and earn a commission from the major search companies for any ads visitors click on when they are on Blingo.com or GoodSearch.com. (Those ads are, like the search results, generated by Google and Yahoo.) Unlike other sites, though, both Blingo and GoodSearch give away portions of their revenue - as prizes or as donations to the users’ favorite charities.”- Bob Tedeschi-Nytimes.com
From its cute use of using a Halo in it’s branding to the 46 articles of praise (Oprah Magazine, Fortune Small Business, CNN…) you feel like you are serving a higher purpose as you go about your daily searching. While fundamentally I think this is a great idea to aid Nonprofits, it’s creators Ken and JJ Ramberg are not telling the “full story” to there loyal user base.
The sites FAQ’s vs. Reality:
Good Search FAQ:
Are the search results going to be as good as the search engine I am using now?
“Absolutely. GoodSearch.com is powered by Yahoo! so you’ll get the same high- quality search results that you’re currently used to — or better!
The Full Truth:
Yes, GoodSearch.com is powered by Yahoo!, but the search results are not from Yahoo!’s organic results (natural algorithm) , but from Yahoo! Panama (formerly Overture) paid search platform. The Goodsearch.com search results page’s design looks similar to that of a Google results page, which is very misleading as this design alludes to a segmentation of Sponsored result and a organic result. For the sites FAQ to claim that these are better results seems a bit far fetched. As a gent in the SEO/SEM industry I could make a strong case why Paid Ads are great, but in this particular case GoodSearch.com is not being upfront/honest with their user base.
It’s Friday so let’s take a moment to pay tribute to the book that’s the field book towards productivity. Getting Things Done (GTD by the legions of followers) written by David Allen is a real world guide to lifehack your daily routine.
O Brother!
The first big step that you will quickly adopt and will be a mainstay of your new organized life is a Label Maker. Allen recommends the P-touch label system from Brother. No need for a computer or a printer, just nice clean sticky tape on the go. For those who have seen my handwriting this suggestion from David made files go from items only I could read to…Useful. After you have “labeled” you life you will soon find yourself protective of your label maker as people will often want to borrow your label maker leaving you unable to label as things come in. Yes, It can become a unhealthy obsession, yet in the war on procrastination and lost files the Brother P-touch($32) is required ammunition.
