Dellanave » Google

How much would you pay to use Google?

david — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 07:26:36 +0000

I got to thinking about how much I use Google to answer questions the other day. My search activity calendar looks like this every month:

Even between Jan 1-3 when I was in Vegas I did 1-3 searches. Some months are even more heavy than this. So how much would I pay? I wouldn’t have a problem with paying up to $1500/year to use Google. Maybe even more if I had to. It is THAT valuable to me.

How much would you pay to use Google?

P.S. I think the search history is super freakin’ cool.

Update: Pam points out that the calendar is actually all web activity and not just search. Touché. That said, it doesn’t change how valuable I think Google is to me. I’d still cough up the $1500.

Most PageRank (PR) Checkers Broken

david — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 17:51:07 +0000

I wanted to check some little green pixels today and my Google toolbar is somehow broken. I was dismayed to find the first few PR checkers I tried were broken. Doing a little more testing, it seems like half the PR checkers out there are broken. The seomoz page strength tool has an accurate PR, but the first Google result for pagerank checker (which I’m not going to link) is broken. Seems to be a pattern. Did Google just change some display-layer formatting or are they playing a little fucky-fucky with the green bits industry?

Why I Went Short GOOG at $700

david — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 21:16:09 +0000

I just read an article at Vestopedia about why the author sold his Google stock at $741. His reasoning was based on an article by Stephen Dubner (of the ever-popular Freakonomics) about regression to the mean by athletes.

Thing is, I don’t agree with the reasoning that Google should go lower because their freakishly high growth rates can’t continue and they will regress towards more “average” growth rates. Companies aren’t coin flips, they don’t follow statistical rules. Google has seen exceptional growth because they continue to innovate and add real-estate that allows them to grow at an incredible rate.

So why did I go short at $700? Obviously Google had already slid $40 points, but they could have stopped there right.. I shorted GOOG at $700 because the market is fearful and uneasy. I don’t have any doubt that Google will continue to grow at an incredible rate. Online ad spend isn’t going to decrease, and Google is constantly finding new ways to deliver ads. Android doesn’t excite me yet either, and a lot of their stock price was based on the GPhone. Bottom line is that while Google will continue to grow, I don’t think it merits the current multiple EVEN at extreme growth rates. It needs to come back in line. So far I’ve been reasonably correct as the stock has found support at $630. I’d probably cover at $600. We’ll see what happens next week. Right now the market is still scared, and I’m not ready.

Google Dupe Content Still Hosed

david — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 07:26:11 +0000

At SES SJ Dave Naylor and I had a chat about how broken Google’s “dupe-content/authoritative” filtering is. Dave posted on it back then. Matt and a few other Googlers were present and noted that its a problem. Here’s another great example of it:

What do we find in supp?

Come on Google. This content is <24 hours old. Great freshness, but what the hell are you doing ranking a scraper and dropping the original content author as supp?

Look at this site, that doesn't even rank: Midwest Triple X

Hey Job Sites, Quit Scraping Resumes

david — Tue, 29 May 2007 21:01:44 +0000

I got an email from a recruiter with a GREAT OPPORTUNITY today. Since I usually get amused by how poorly they’ve done their homework, I gave her my number and she gave me a call. After trying to qualify how much experience with PHP I had, I just said “Look, you’re going to have to be pretty convincing to get me to stop what I’m doing right now.” So she says, “So why did you post your resume on Monster.com, just to see whats out there?”. Hold the phone, I’ve never even visited monster.com.

I think its pretty obvious that Monster and other job sites are scraping resumes. In fact, its a perfect crime because since they charge to see resumes you can’t even verify if you’re on there or not. If I was looking for a job, I’d post my resume. By scraping resumes you waste my time and the recruiter’s time.

Check this out:

80.132.236.240 - - [01/Sep/2006:18:09:18 -0500] "GET /robots.txt HTTP/1.1" 404 208 "-" "JobSpider_BA/1.1"

However, its asinine to actually do your own crawling for resumes. Google has done the hard work for you, just scrape Google.

Check out this badass job query, it’s even location targeted via Google’s handy .. operator:
.net+%7C+SE3+(developer+%7C+%22software+engineer%22+%7C+architect) +(intitle:resume+%7C+inurl:resume)+55000..56999+-~jobs+~minneapolis

To you recruiters (who will never read this because you don’t do your homework): seriously do your homework before you call someone. You have my resume. Type my name into Google. Find out a little bit about me. It should be instantly clear that there is only one David Dellanave. All of my work history is right in front of your face. Quite a bit about me personally is there too if you spend a little time.

Once you’ve done your homework, don’t call me unless you’re going to come hard. Don’t ask me how much PHP and MySQL experience I have. Don’t offer me a GREAT OPPORTUNITY at $35k and I’d have to move to the bay area. If you’re going to dial my number, or email me…bring it. Otherwise you’re just wasting my time, and I’m going to waste yours. If you want to take me out to lunch, we can work something out.

Google Checkout is a Collosal Piece of Shit

david — Wed, 20 Dec 2006 20:19:16 +0000

The first time I used Google Checkout I was astonished at how useless it was. In my opinion, they had taken something so simple, and made it more complicated, adding one more place I had to fill out all my billing/shipping information. I also was getting duplicate correspondence (one from Google, one from Buy.com) on everything. Awesome, another layer with no added value.

The second time I used Google Checkout I saw the light. With a few clicks, my order was on the way. No inputting order details, no effort. Maybe there was something to this after all.

The third time I used Google Checkout will be the last. On December 12th I placed an order for a backpack for a Christmas gift from eBags. Today I was wondering where it was, and logged into to my Checkout account. I see this under the order:

Order Progress

Dec 12 – eBags, Inc. received your order.

Dec 12 – Your order was sent to eBags, Inc.. A confirmation email was sent to you by Google.

A little odd that it hasn’t shipped. So I called eBags. Their response: “Sir, we have no record of that order.”

Congratulations Google, you’ve succeeded in building a layer of complexity over something that was relatively simple, you’ve added no value, and now you’ve even managed to screw it up to the point where you’re losing orders. Merchants are going to love this.

Now what do I give this kid for Christmas? Maybe Google should send me a Google backpack.

Update

A few more things I want to point out:

- Still no change in the order.
- No way to cancel the order. Literally.
- No way to contact Google. Neither about the order, nor as a bug report.
- The $20 savings ended up costing me $50 as I had to go to a store to get what I ordered.