Dan's New Blog

Last week I blogged about how I’m the last guy (maybe) who feels search is still the killer app. (Apparently Wired agrees.) Today I got to read about Yahoo’s new three-year plan:

• A new version of Yahoo Mail that’s faster, has an improved user interface, integrates with Facebook and Twitter, and blocks more spam
• A new layout in Yahoo Search that presents more content around entertainment and news searches
• A new Yahoo iPad app
• New ad formats

See anything about improving the ‘ol search engine in there? No, you didn’t. Just more Facebook, Twitter and iPad stuff.

[sigh]

My first post in 3 weeks. I’m not suffering from writer’s block. I’ve gone through this before.

This time I was mute because I realized that the only tech topics anyone really wants to talk about any more — and I’m talking about myself here, too — are the iPhone/iPad and Facebook/Twitter. These are not central to legal research.  They’re designed for social networking, not real work. (However I have to admit here that I borrowed a colleague’s iPad this week to install the free Fastcase app. I thought it would be lame, compared to the desktop version, but I was wrong. It made a compelling case for buying an iPad.)

Anyway, I spent much of August coming up with a new presentation, “Search is Still the Killer App”, which I’m presenting at the Phila Bar next week. It felt good to concentrate on search, but I couldn’t help wondering if I was experiencing the first stages of a terminal case of Cranky Old Fart Librarianitis. But then I read this article’s take on the new Google Instant search feature. I’ll boil it down to one pity quote:

“Google needs to stop trying to be Facebook and focus on extending and investing in what makes Google successful: The Algorithm.”

And the faster they get that, the less chance I have of my COFL getting any worse.