San Francisco’s Surprising Sidewalk

“Perhaps one of our favorite attractions in San Francisco was “the bushman”, a street performer who–quite literally–pretends he’s a bush.”

Home, Sweet Hotel: Three Ways to Make Business Travel More Enjoyable

“…working from the road can quickly become exhausting if you don’t adjust your mindset. Three things can help you accomplish that change: food, furnishings, and fun.”

Metrics: The Proof is in the Numbers

“The ability to quantify results is important yet challenging in public relations. I’ve been doing some calculating, and I’ve finally been able to come up with some solid numbers reflecting my work.”

“Come on down! You’re the next contestant on ‘The Price Is Right’”

“Want to know what it’s like to appear in the audience of “The Price is Right” and how to hopefully become a contestant? I’ll be happy to tell you:”

An open cover letter: “Decisions”

“We humans seem to have an innate fear of making decisions. Call it fear of commitment. Call it worry about making the wrong choice. Or maybe it’s just easier to not do anything. Whatever it is, the greatest problem we have in sales, politics, public relations, or marketing is—fundamentally—getting others to make favorable decisions.”

Five easy ways to get more out of Gmail!

“These five simple, relatively unknown tips could each individually make your email life better. Together, there’s no stopping them (or you).”

Effective microcontent tells your story

“Last week I attended PRSA’s teleseminar on writing effective web content. The best key idea I got out of the presentation was this: Effective microcontent can stand alone.”

A 25-second lesson in investing

“If you invested in a DJIA index in October 2007 (one year ago), you could have lost more than 40% by now–in just one year. On the other hand, if you invested in a DJIA index any time before February 1998 (just over ten and a half years ago), you’re still up.”

Twiddly-diddly-deet

“Tweet tweet. I’ve finally bitten, and I’m now on Twitter.”

How procrastination can make your life better

“Instead of putting off something more important, postpone the less important things. All those excuses we use to justify delay of productive things can also be used to delay non-productive things.”

You don’t have to outrun the bear

“PR, multimedia, technology and life are all like that: there’s so much to learn that sometimes it seems like we’ll never “outrun the bear.” But we don’t have to.”

(Creative Commons photo by flickr user jvc)

The contest is about a week old, and it’s running for about three more weeks. So far, it hasn’t gotten much attention (just over 200 followers). That may change, but if you’ve got a great idea and some spare creativity, you just might be able to win that TV.

Here are a couple of the match-ups that I’ve been playing around with:

Philips VS real life: which looks better?

Philips VS politicians, time & evil

I’d like to mention you all, but since Saturday is link day, here are just some of the websites that people have linked to their name when commenting. I think they’re all worth a look. Let me know if you find something you like.

Don’t forget: each comment you make in June enters you in the drawing for a free 2009 AP Stylebook, plus I’m giving a bonus prize to the month’s “best” comment. And if you include a link to your website, you could be featured in a future “Bonus Comment Love.”

Without further ado:

Summaries (and some conclusions) by Liliya -”Привiт! I love hot showers being warm Google coke/root beer mix Ukrainian/American lifestyle observations dreams Raffaello candies freedom and deadlines…k, I like deadlines”

Sounds to Silence by Karianne – “I am a writing, editing and design professional. I currently work for a publishing company and am hoping to soon switch to the magazine field and start up my own business. I have interest and passion for a variety of topics and fields, including music, dancing, literature and, of course, all things related to publishing.”

Thebazile Ramble by Elizabeth – “‘Life is either a daring adventure or nothing.’ -Hellen Keller. I live by this. You should too.”

Some Fashionable Favorites by Sarah – “Welcome! Here at My Favorite Things, I share some of my favorite beauty, fashion, and home products. I’m a retail veteran, so I also have shopping tips, sale alerts and other ways to help you get the most bang for your buck!”

YockubAV (on YouTube) by Jacob – “YockubAV – Style: Variety – Channel Views: 598 – Videos created by Jacob Garcia”

Blog24 by Chris - “Social Media, Design & Blogging”

(Creative Commons photo by flickr user GcD^3 pictures)

Of course I’m biased, but there’s a lesson in creativity here. Jacob took a familiar product and a familiar format, then combined them in an unfamiliar way. It works because they don’t go together. It’s a way of thinking outside the box.

How can we challenge conventions to communicate more creatively?

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Don’t forget to subscribe or come back tomorrow, because I’m posting new content every day this month.

1. Google.com

That’s right, Google is first on my list of websites for writers–it’s your virtual reference library:

• Dictionary
• Thesaurus
• AP Stylebook

Just click for examples. Don’t forget, you can win a 2009 AP Stylebook just by commenting on this blog!

2. YourDictionary.com

Why am I including another dictionary? Google’s great for a quick check. But YourDictionary.com is Webster’s New World College Dictionary, the one used in AP style. Use this to keep your writing up to code.

3. Twitter.com

You could include Twitter in the list of forces that are bastardizing our written language (see also texting and instant messaging). Instead, use it as an opportunity to practice writing succiently.

4. MenWithPens.ca

This is one of my new favorite blogs. If you’re a writer (and especially if you’re a blogger), Men with Pens is worth following.

5. WordPress.org

If you’re a writer, you should be a blogger. Blogging builds your skills and provides your porfolio. You have lots of platform choices, but WordPress is my favorite. I’ll discuss more about WordPress in the future.

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Which websites do you recommend for writers, new or experienced? Add a comment!

Like it? Tweet it! And don’t forget to subscribe or come back tomorrow, because I’m posting new content every day this month.

(Creative Commons photo by flickr user *spudballoo*)

According to my Google Chrome home page, these are my top nine:

1. Twitter. No surprise there.
2. Gmail. Or there.
3. Facebook. Although I’ve found myself spending less time there recently.
4. The admin section of blog.DavidJGarcia.com. Gotta keep the spam out and write more posts!
5. Google Reader. I subscribe to a lot of sites. This will be a source for future link posts. It’s also where I read all of your websites.
6. The admin section of HFS100.com. A side project that’s been earning me some Amazon affilate commissions.
7. Amazon.com. So I can find out how many commissions I’m earning. Oh–and to buy music.
8. Google Analytics. I admit it. I can’t help checking sometimes.
9. The BYU 100 hour board. An eclectic mix of questions and answers, updated daily. I’ve been a fan for seven or eight years.

What about you? What are your favorite sites? Where do you spend the most time?

Also, where’s your blog/website? I’d love to feature some in upcoming posts.

But a recent experience finally convinced me that–in certain cases–there’s a better alternative.

Instead of the vast array of information Google uses to index and rank pages, Topsy.com currently uses only one: tweets. This leads to some specific strengths and weaknesses. And if you understand them, you’ll know when a search can benefit from Topsy and when you’re better off sticking with Google.

Topsy is the better choice:

• When you’re looking for ideas.
• When you need a recommendation.
• When you want to crowd-source, but don’t have access to the right crowd.
• When you’re curious about current conversations.
• When you want to know what others are using.

Google is the better choice:

• When you’re looking for a specific piece of information.
• When you need an obscure tidbit.
• When you want to get something in a hurry, and you know how to find it.
• When you don’t want to sort through the bias of current conversations.
• When it’s important to find something that’s built trust online over time.

I recently did a massive overhaul of my online presence, and I wanted a new theme for my blog. So I did an experiment: I searched for “wordpress theme” on both Google and Topsy. First Google:

As you can see, Google did a great job listing collections of themes. The problem? I’ve seen all the collections. I’ve spent a lot of time pouring over them. I didn’t need a collection; I needed a recommendation. Enter Topsy:

Now I have a variety of resources: whatever people liked enough to share with their networks and described using the words “WordPress Theme”. The first result is not a collection of themes–it’s a specific theme that lots of people recommended. Other results included several articles that helped me decide what I wanted in a theme. Then, on the second page, result #11:

Forty-nine times, someone has recommended this resource. After checking it out and modifying it, it’s what I ending up using.

In this example, Topsy provided a better way to find what I was looking for. Of course, it has some potential disadvantages:

• It’s biased toward sources that cater to the Twittersphere.
• It’s limited to things people are posting on Twitter. If no one’s posted something, it won’t show up.
• Tweets by influential users count more than those by the rest of us. Good or bad–you decide.
• It may still be possible to game the system.

Topsy’s co-founder, Gary Iwatani, had the following response to these concerns. Since he was kind enough to quickly and fully respond, he gets a point in my book for good blogger relations and his responses printed in full:

“It’s biased toward sources that cater to the Twittersphere.”

Twitter is sometimes discounted as a serious source of information due to its “what are you doing?” origins.  The reality is that Twitter is a communications platform.  In addition to 30M+ users, virtually every major news organization and top blog uses Twitter including the following:

NY Times:   http://topsy.com/twitter/nytimes

MSNBC:   http://topsy.com/twitter/msnbc

WSJ  http://topsy.com/twitter/wsj

REUTERS:   http://topsy.com/twitter/reuters

ABC:  http://topsy.com/twitter/abcnews

CBS:   http://topsy.com/twitter/cbsnews

Time Magazine:   http://topsy.com/twitter/time

The Huffington Post:   http://topsy.com/twitter/huffingtonpost

“It’s limited to things people are posting on Twitter. If no one’s posted something, it won’t show up.”

This is technically accurate but the wide adoption of Twitter combined provides very good coverage of search terms and the fact that Topsy generates search results mined from real-time conversation streams is a big advantage – not a disadvantage versus traditional search.   Traditional search algorithms based on document link structures are inherently slower to respond to relevance changes (such as breaking news).  Furthermore, there tends to be an old document bias in traditional search results as important documents of the past (which have accreted significant PageRank value) are still considered relevant today since fresher contemporary link citations from the social web are ignored.   (Eg. Google first page search results for “apple” still shows a result for a battery replacement program for the iBook G4 from 2003.)

“Tweets by influential users count more than those by the rest of us. Good or bad–you decide.”

This is a good thing as it maximizes the “signal to noise” ratio in the search results and eliminates spam.   Every author, regardless of influence, is indexed and discoverable in Topsy under their own author page.  Example:  http://topsy.com/twitter/davidjgarcia

“It may still be possible to game the system.”

No system is fool proof however Topsy’s influence algorithms are very robust and much harder to game than traditional search engines.

One point I found interesting–if you use Twitter, your author page is a neat way to find out how many people are tweeting the same links as you (example).

What do you think of Topsy? Will you use it? Have you had any success using it instead of another option?

(More about Topsy at TechCrunch)

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