Goodbye, Jeeves

Apparently, Kate Moss isn't the only supermodel who's gotten the ax in recent days. The Inter-Active Corp., owner of Ask.com aka Askjeeves.com, has just announced that Jeeves, their longtime symbol, is on his way out. The online “butler”, named for the ever-helpful valet in P.G. Wodehouse’s series of Jeeves novels, has been with the search engine ever since its inception ten years ago.

A survey revealed that the continued use of the old “Jeeves” icon was keeping users from realizing that the search engine’s scope has changed. Askjeeves was originally known for its ability to handle "natural language" queries, but now it offers more options, including local searches and news. Ask.com also owns Bloglines, a blog searching service.

No date for the start of Jeeves' permanent vacation has been set yet, but the company has announced that it will forge a new brand identity, perhaps as ask.com.

Moral Dilemma of the Day

Read this entry in the Feel Good Librarian and ask yourself, what would you do?

Blogger Work Around

I have found a work-around for Blogger's inability to classify posts into categories. This method involves using Del.icio.us to create categories, then posting one's own blog entries as bookmarks in Del.icio.us. You can see this in action in the blog I've created for the LTA 121 class I'm teaching (!) at College of Lake County this fall.

I got the idea from the Library Supporter blog. It is far from a perfect solution, however, and some really object to the idea of a blogger tagging his/her own posts on a social bookmarking site. Steven Cohen of LibraryStuff.net denounces this approach on no uncertain terms:

[Tagging your own content] is spamming the system. Sure, [people who tag their own content] may be building up their own metadata (it's very useful in that regard), but they can do that locally on their own desktops. Leave it out of the collective knowledge base that is del.icio.us.

Tagging your own content can be equated somewhat to sending out spam e-mails of your products to thousands of people. The only difference is that the user has voluntarily signed up for the tag feed and spam e-mail is sent without permission. The point is, there is no need to pimp your own blog posts. If at least one person finds it worthy, it will be tagged. Let your blog posts speak for themselves.

Objection noted. I'm not trying to get anyone outside my class to read my blog posts--but I do need them to be categorized, and this, for now, is the way I've found to do it. In my defense, I would also point out that most links within my categories are to other sites.

Dell Responds to Bad Buzz

It doesn't pay to anger powerful bloggers, as computer giant Dell found out this summer. Jeff Jarvis (who, among other things, is a former critic for People and TV Guide, and the creator of Entertainment Weekly)used his blog BuzzMachine to go public with his frustration over the malfunctions of his Dell machine, which was a lemon from the day he bought it. His problems were compounded, in his view, by the incompetence of Dell's customer service and technical support people. Jarvis's convoluted tale of computer woe struck a chord with his readers, who chimed in with their own stories of Dell stupidity. Soon, Jarvis's site became the place to go for Dell-haters of all stripes.

It's not likely that the bad buzz from BuzzMachine had as much an effect on Dell's sales as the fingertip incident of earlier this year had on Wendy's, but the computer company did sit up and take notice. As one observer noted:

When someone like Jeff [Jarvis] is going on at length like that, you do more than just listen to it," said marketing consultant Steve Rubel. "It's like a cancer that has to be stopped--and people are going to start listening, and it's going to have an effect on your reputation."

As a result of the flap, Dell has adopted a new policy. The company's marketing people now monitor the blogosphere looking for posts that criticize their products and/or services. When they find one, the Dell people contact the blog owner (if identifiable) and resolve his/her problems. In this increasingly interconnected world, I think this proactive approach will become more common.

I did do a Technorati search for Warren-Newport Public Library. The "Chewing Feed Grass" blog links our Business and Investment Reference Desk page, for no discernable reason. Cook Memorial's perennially disgruntled patron J. Martin has a blog that mentions that compares WNPL's circulation per employee statistic to the average of Lake County libraries:

FTE/CIRCULATION: The average Lake County Library circulates 13,065 pieces per employee. Highly efficient circulation Libraries such a Highland Park at 20,083, or, Warren-Newport to our North at 18,968, circulate substantially more library pieces per library employee.

Originally, I thought that keeping an eye on the world of blogs would be a time-consuming task, but it turns out that it is not. Anyone can set up a Technorati "watch list" that will tell where the terms you specify appear in the blogs Technorati keeps track of. Unfortunately, it doesn't look like automatic notification, though; it does look like you have to check back with Technorati to see if any results come up on your list).

I have set up a Technorati "watch list" so I can tell if anyone else mentions the library by name. If I get any notification, I will forward the information to the appropriate parties.