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Why might that be?
Well, David Sylvian used to be in a band called "Japan" which is close to China and "Asia" is where China is.
I'm surprised I didn't get "Dishwalla" as one of the results!
Napster seems to have some sort of "concept" search algorithms in use that really doesn't make sense in this context. Given that Napster knows I'm searching for an artist, it seems that there are two approaches to expanding search beyond the original term, "spelling" and "related projects".
There are band and artist names that are hard to spell or that you only vaguely remember from youth (was "Hitchin' A Ride" done by Vanity Fair or Vanity Fare?). In this case implementing something like Google's "Did you mean...?" feature would be very smart. I want this kind of help so I don't have to remember how to spell Alanis Morissette (Napster catches typos on her last name).
If I'm searching for "Tin Machine" it might be useful to offer results for frontman David Bowie as well. "Related Projects" searches could be very helpful particularly when you remember David Byrne singing some song but you don't realize that it was from a solo album not a Talking Head disc.
The problem with Napster is a search on Tin Machine produces "Tony McKinney", "More Machine Than Man", "Nick Gilder and Time Machine" and (very oddly) "The Clancy Brothers & Tommy Makem". These are guesses at possible typos but because they aren't identified as such it looks like they have a really bad search feature.
Lessons Learned:
1. Smart search is dumb if it does not take into account the user's goal in doing the search in the first place.
2. Tell the user why you are presenting results that are not expected ("No matches found for Tin Machine. Did you mean...? Artists related to Tin Machine include...").
3. Hard code results for very popular searches so you can give really relevant information.
I'm a big fan of using outliners to organize my thoughts. I use ActionOutline right now and find it very useful. I like building a list of stuff and then making "sub-stuff" by indenting. This is a standard way I organize thoughts for articles, business plans, strategy work, prioritizing tasks, etc.
When I first saw a mind map I thought they might replace outlines as my metaphor for the way my mind works. But after looking at it more I can't really see how a mind map is more useful at explaining the relationship between things than an outline. And with an outline it is easy to "promote" or "demote" ideas as you realize that they have a different priority than you originally thought. It seems that you'd have to redraw your mind map to do this.
And while discussing this with Alyson, we both decided that neither tool really captures items that meet multiple needs or are related in more complex ways. For example, "clean up office supplies" might be a task related to "declutter office", and "cut spending", and "make administrative tasks more efficient", and "make room for new printer". Mind maps and outlines both seem to fail at capturing these multi-dimensional relationships.
Widely seen as a pioneer of the Internet in Canada, Ken has tirelessly promoted the Net as a significant force in business and culture.
Ken conceived and oversaw Sony Music Canada's early online initiatives. From their first site in 1995, Ken's team built a global web presence for 25 Canadian artists, by pioneering viral and e-mail marketing, rich media, and community building long before they had become buzzwords.
In 1996 he co-founded (AIMS) where as President he helped it become Canada's largest organization for Internet decision-makers. In 1997 he co-authored the online portion of the Canadian Marketing Association's Code of Ethics.
Ken's volunteer work was recognized in 2002 when he was named a finalist for "Volunteer of the Year" at the Canadian New Media Awards.
More recently, Ken developed the curriculum and taught the 14-week CMA's Certificate in E-marketing program.
Today, he is VP, Marketing & Product Management for Tucows and a contributor to One Degree, Canada's leading web site for Internet marketing professionals.
Ken received his degree in Mathematics from the University of Waterloo and lives outside Toronto with his wife, parenting expert Alyson Schafer, and their two children.
Gary Hamel: The Future of Management
I found this very inspiring. We're working through a lot of these issues at Tucows and a few of us have now read this book. Really thought provoking and more pragmatic than I was expecting.
James Surowiecki: The Wisdom of Crowds
I can't believe how long it too me to get to this "must read" for the social media cognoscenti but it didn't disappoint.
Walter Isaacson: Einstein
Isaacson provides a comprehensive study of the great man, intertwining his personal and scientific lives effortlessly.
Chip & Dan Heath: Made to Stick
A fantastic resource for anyone who needs to clearly communicate anything. Probably my top business book of 2007. A must read.
Steven Pinker: The Stuff of Thought
Getting through the grammar lessons in the early chapters was a bit of a challenge but the sections on why we swear where absolutely worth it!
Nassim Nicholas Taleb: The Black Swan
While Taleb's ideas are VERY important I have a hard time recommending the book to the average reader as it does delve pretty heavily into statistical and probabilistic thinking at times. If you don't mind a bit of hard work in the later chapters this will reward with some great insights into how much we are ruled by randomness.
Khaled Hosseini: A Thousand Splendid Suns
The history of Kabul Afghanistan disguised as the harrowing stories of two women as they deal with oppression and injustice while finding time to love and learn.
William Gibson: Spook Country
I enjoyed this far more than I was expecting. I tried Neuromancer ages ago and couldn't get into it, but Spook Country was very much a page turner - heavy on plot, set in a futuristic "near past" (2006). Highly recommended.
J.D. Salinger: The Catcher in the Rye
Getting around to reading classics I should have read much earlier in life is a big goal for 2008. Finally meeting Holden Caufield was a great start.
You can see why the book was radical in its time - in content and style, but it seems pretty darn quaint these days. Is it still banned anywhere?
Cormac Mccarthy: All the Pretty Horses
A cowboy gothic starting and ending with a funeral. In between we get minimalist dialogue, pages of apocalyptic odes to equines and Mexican desert landscapes. Brilliant.
Cormac McCarthy: The Road
Incredibly powerful - probably one of my all-time favourite books despite the relentless bleakness.
Harper Lee: To Kill a Mockingbird
Just wonderful. I've seen the movie many times but reading the book was a revelation.
