Why Yahoo! Is Better Than Google

Ten years ago, Microsoft ruled the roost. But now, thanks to the return of Steve Jobs, Apple is a powerhouse in consumer electronics, and online it’s big, bad Google that’s calling the shots. So Microsoft wants to acquire Yahoo! Does Microsoft need Yahoo more than Yahoo needs Microsoft? Yahoo thinks so, because they’re holding out for more money.

But let’s keep Google in perspective. Its search engine isn’t perfect. For example, here are the results from a search I did a few minutes ago. Click to enlarge the picture, and look at the fourth hit.

Google Search Results

Google doesn’t put the popular Pratt Hobbies Rocket Catalog on the first page, but there’s a link to wedding pictures that you can’t look at, because they’re password protected? What’s up with that?

Now here is the same search, but done on Yahoo! Look at the first site listed.

Yahoo Search Results

There. Much better, don’t you think? Top of the world, Ma!

Comment on Comments

It has come to my attention that there are those among you who are not tracking comments. This means that unless I point them out, you are missing new comments on old posts.

If you are browsing with either Firefox 2 or Internet Explorer 7, click “Comments” under “Feeds.” You should see something interesting. If you see a lot of stuff that looks likes computer code, you’re using a browser that doesn’t do RSS and you should get updated!

New Tech, Old Tech

There’s Gizmodo, and there’s Engaget. They’re easy to confuse. Can both survive? Dunno, but my friend Tom has pointed out an item on Engaget about Ultra HDTV. I knew there was a good reason to not jump straight into 1080. Go to the link and see how pitiful the resolution of my 720p projector looks, compared to 33 megapixel video.

At the other end of the hi-tech spectrum is the lowly, long-lived vacuum tube. They’re still made, of course, for guitar amps and very expensive, esoteric hi-fi pre-amps and power amps. Here’s an amazing video of a triode tube being made the old-fashioned way, by hand. I’m embarrassed to admit that at the moment I can’t name the tune of the piano music, despite the fact it’s played multiple times in a chopped up repeating loop. Sounds like Gershwin.