What's All the Buzz About?

Announcing an exciting paper!!!

What’s all the Buzz about? Britney Spears, J–Lo, Beyonce Knowles and other stories from the Yahoo Buzz Index by Nicole Bladow, Cari Dorey, Liz Frederickson, Pavla Grover, Yvette Knudtson, Sandeep Krishnamurthy, and Voula Lazarou
First Monday, volume 9, number 12 (December 2004),
Temp URL: http://www.firstmonday.org/next_issue/bladow/index.html
Permanent URL(valid after Dec. 10th or so): http://firstmonday.org/issues/issue9_12/bladow/index.html

Bangalore Ahoy!

Some of you know this. I will be visiting the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore, India from December 2004 to February 2005. This promises to be an exciting time for me and my family. Bangalore Ahoy! I will be sending dispatches from Bangalore on this blog. Await the first batch of- "Prof. Sandeep Krishnamurthy goes to Bangalore".

Google Kirkland party photos

are here.

Impact of Google Scholar on Scholars

Here is a bold prediction- Google Scholar will revolutionize academia and academic publishing in the following ways.

First, the citation scores for papers will be used to justify the impact of a particular paper. This will make it harder to dismiss some papers and will help the community see through the hype.

Second, the people Google threatens most in the academic environment are the providers of online databases (e.g. Econlit, PsychInfo, ABI/Inform, Expanded Academic Universe). As Google gets access to more papers, the need for online databases will recede. Deep web, anybody?

Third, Google Scholar will give greater weight to papers in online journals. This will help authors of papers in those journals to get the attention they deserve.

Fourth, Google Scholar will lead to greater use of academic knowledge. One can easily imagine a meeting in a government office somewhere where a sociology paper gets cited.

All four vectors of change are significant.

Google just changed my life. Again.

Google just introduced- Google Scholar. "Google Scholar enables you to search specifically for scholarly literature, including peer-reviewed papers, theses, books, preprints, abstracts and technical reports from all broad areas of research."

Just self-googled. Looks like they have been here.

My Son's First Book

If you give an ostrich an orange
A book by
Rishi Krishnamurthy, 4 years old
Sorry, Laura Neumeroff (author of "If you give a pig a pancake", "If you give a moose a muffin" and many more)

----------
If you give an ostrich an orange,
He’ll want some orange juice to go with it.

If you give him some orange juice,
He’ll want to be Bob the Builder for Halloween*

If he becomes Bob the Builder for Halloween,
He’ll want to go to the store to buy some trucks, marbles and rocks.

If he goes to the store to buy some trucks, marbles and rocks,
That will remind him that he does not have candy at home.

He’ll want to go to Safeway to buy candy- like gummi bears, M&Ms.
He’ll get some rock candy, too.
He’ll want to take it to school.

When he goes to Safeway, he will see an orange
And, he’ll want it.

Chances are if you give him an orange, he’ll want some orange juice to go with it ….

THE END

*-(because all the ostriches are going to be Bob the Builder)

Attention Sears Mart shoppers- Sears and KMart merging!

What an idea. We know that most mergers do not work. The only way they could work is if there are some synergies. I see none here. I can just see how disastrous this is going to be.

What we have here is two brands that have completely lost any life in them trying to resuscitate themselves. This will not work for one reason- it will not make a difference in the customer experience in either store.

From Wharton marketing professor, Stephen J. Hoch- "Here you have two retailers who are doing badly right now and who don't really see a clear way to pull themselves out of the downward spiral. It's hard to fathom how combining them is suddenly going to produce a new entity that will do better. That's tough to do, especially because the competition, including Wal-Mart and Target, isn't exactly standing still." (Source: http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/1081.cfm)

Google index doubling...

... Slashdotters weigh in.

How do you say your name?

I was in my local Safeway yesterday and the cashier looked at my name (Sandeep Krishnamurthy) and did the usual- "Ohmigod! I am not even going to try to say that one." Sigh. I went into my usual script- it is an Indian name and is spelled exactly as it is written. You know- Sandeep Krishnamurthy. Should I change my name to Sun-deep to get a better reaction?

In any case, I now have two audio files on my personal FAQ to help anyone interested- Sandeep Krishnamurthy.

Gmail, Gmail, Gmail

Yahoo has decided it wants to take on GMail. What does it do about it? Increase storage. Memo to Yahoo- see what Sandeep Krishnamurthy has to say about GMail here. It is not about the storage- it is about functionality- remember "Search. Don't sort.". The story does say- Yahoo! says it has made it easier for email users to search the Web or the content of their email boxes. It is still not a prominent enough part of the e-mail package, IMHO. Invest in search, my friends. Innovate. Run.

Google just walked in.

Google has announced its intention to open an office at Kirkland, WA(the city where yours truly- Prof. Sandeep Krishnamurthy) lives. Welcome!

For those you who do not live here, Kirkland is right next to Redmond, WA- where Microsoft is headquartered. This is the most exciting company in the city of Kirkland, WA- by far.

Excerpts from the article-

"Google will hold an event at its new software development office in downtown Kirkland this week to mark its recent arrival in the city. The company has leased and reserved future rights for enough space to eventually accommodate 200 employees or more on two floors of an office building a short walk from Peter Kirk Park. The company has a sales office in Seattle, but the opening of a development branch on the Eastside is fueling speculation about the possible impact on the local technology community. Much of the buzz centers on the potential for the high-flying search company to lure top talent from Microsoft and other tech companies in the region.
Several former Microsofties have been hired by Google in recent months, prior to the office opening, including veterans of the Internet Explorer and Windows teams."

The idea of working for Google will "definitely appeal to some people," said Greg Linden, a former Amazon.com software engineer who now runs a Seattle-based personalized news search site called Findory.com.

...

"I wouldn't think of it as a stick in anyone's eye," said Ed Lazowska, a UW computer science professor, about Google's decision to open a Seattle-area development office. "It's just an attempt to hire the best people, wherever they might be." Lazowska compared the situation to Microsoft's established branch offices in Silicon Valley. Amazon's A9 search-engine subsidiary is also based in the high-tech California hub. Companies consider such satellites important in part because some new hires want or need to avoid moving from their longtime homes.

Google's new Kirkland office isn't the only indication of the company's attraction to the Seattle-area talent pool. For the past several weeks, one of the company's now-famous puzzle-based recruiting billboards has been posted at Second Avenue and Stewart Street in downtown Seattle. Solving that math problem leads to successive puzzles on the Web that ultimately end up at a Google recruiting site. The Kirkland office is another way for Google "to catch and hold onto people," said Danny Sullivan, editor of Search Engine Watch, a Web site about the search business. "Of course there's the flip side, too. They might pick up some people there, and if they grew dissatisfied with Google, it would be easier for them to slip over to Microsoft."

One former Microsoft employee now in Google's Kirkland office is software developer Joe Beda, who worked on programs including Internet Explorer and Longhorn, the next version of Windows, while at Microsoft. Beda declined to be interviewed but described his reasons for going to Google in a Sept. 2 post on his weblog. "The thing that really attracted me was the fact that it was just a smaller company with smaller groups," Beda wrote, explaining that he had spent his whole career at Microsoft. "After working on such large projects for so long, I was really ready to try something on a smaller scale."

Gmail invitations

Many sites have tried to match those who have a demand for GMail invites with those who have a supply of them. Here are some statistics about this phenomeon from one site. In short, the number of GMail invitations shared has steadily decreased over time.

Contemporary Research in E-Marketing, Volume I released.

Contemporary Research in E-marketing, Volume I by Sandeep Krishnamurthy
Buy the book on Amazon.com

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Social Oracles As Advertising Tools In Programmable Businesses
Nick V. Flor, University Of New Mexico

Economic Issues In Advertising Via Email: A Role For A Trusted Third Party?
Arvind Tripathi, University Of Washington; Ram Gopal, University Of Connecticut; Zhiping Walter, University of Colorado, Denver

Web Personalization For E-Marketing Intelligence
Penelope MARKELLOU, Department of Computer Engineering and Informatics, University of Patras, Greece
Maria RIGOU, Department of Computer Engineering and Informatics, University of Patras, Greece
Spiros SIRMAKESSIS, Technological Educational Institution of Messolongi,
Department of Applied Informatics in Administration and Economics.

Knowledge Gathering/Knowledge Sharing: The Business/Consumer Culture Dichotomy
Rachel Mclean, Manchester Metropolitan University Business School, Uk
Nigel M. Blackie, University Of Salford, Uk

MSQ-model- An Exploratory Study of the Determinants of Mobile Service Quality
Veronica Liljander, Swedish School of Economics and Business Administration (Hanken), Helsinki, Finland
Jan Nordman, Accountant, EMEA Finance, Lexmark International, Technology SA, Geneva, Switzerland

Experiencing Quality: The Impact of Practice on Customers’ Preferences for and Perceptions of Electronic Interfaces
Kyle B. Murray, University of Western Ontario

The Impact of EBay Ratings and Item Descriptions on Auction Prices: A Comparison of Designer Watches and DVDs
Mark P. Sena, Department Of Information Systems, Xavier University
C. Edward Heath, Department Of Marketing, Northern Kentucky University
Michael A. Webb, Department Of Economics, Xavier University

Viral Experiences: Do You Trust Your Friends?
Shenja Van Der Graaf, Department Of Communication And Information Studies, Utrecht University, The Netherlands

Public Opinions Of Online Privacy: Definitions, Assessment And Implications For Industry And Public Policy
Kim Sheehan, University Of Oregon

Online Privacy: Consumer Concerns And Technological Competence
Pushkala Raman, Florida State University
Kartik Pashupati, Southern Methodist University

Using Server Log Files and Online Experiments to Enhance Internet Marketing
Charles F. Hofacker, Department of Marketing, Florida State University
Jamie Murphy, School of Business, University of Western Australia

CRM, KDD and Relationship Marketing: Requisite Trio For Sustainable E-Marketing
Nikhilesh Dholakia, University Of Rhode Island
Jounghae Bang, University Of Rhode Island
Ruby Dholakia, University of Rhode Island

An Interactive Marketing Communication Model In New Product Diffusion
Fiona Sussan, Department Of Marketing, Baruch University

A Rhetorical-Prototype Mechanism For Creating E-Marketing Materials
For International Consumers
Kirk St.Amant, James Madison University

How Innovativeness Influences Internet Shopping
Ronald E. Goldsmith, Florida State University
Barbara A. Lafferty, University Of South Florida

Google's Index Doubles, But...

... I am not sure how it will affect me as an end-user. Google's index is now over 8 billion pages. How did they do it? In the past, the index has grown by adding many different filetypes. The set of filetypes does not seem to have grown this time.

Bill Coughran writes-

Comprehensiveness is not the only important factor in evaluating a search engine, but it's invaluable for queries that only return a few results. For example, now when I search for friends who previously generated only a handful of results, I see double that number. These are not just copies of the same pages, but truly diverse results that give more information. The same is true for obscure topics, where you're now significantly more likely to find relevant and diverse information about the subjects. You may also notice that the result counts for broader queries (with thousands or millions of results) have gone up substantially. However, as with any search engine, these are estimates, and the real benefit lies with the queries that generate fewer results.

I am not sure that makes a difference for me. Most searches I run lead to more than "a handful of results". So, here's the question. Does the size of a search engine's index after a point?

Fast Company's list of...

.. what will be new in 2005.

How Gmail Changed My Behavior.

I(Prof. Sandeep Krishnamurthy) got my very own GMail account on June 15, 2004. I have since used it regularly for a variety of purposes.

It has been frustrating to see how GMail has been characterized in the media. To many observers, the only point of GMail seems to have been the increased storage space. "The E-mail Storage Wars", the pundits say. You may have noticed that Hotmail and Yahoo have responded to GMail in only one way- increased storage space (and that too, mostly for paid subscribers). I cannot tell you how deep a misunderstanding of GMail this represents. I wonder if the pundits at MSN and Yahoo noticed a tiny phrase on the front page of GMail ("Search. Don't Sort."). This is what is important and new.

Most e-mail users(I am thinking of those of you who use Outlook, Outlook Express, Hotmail or Yahoo) find old messages by sorting. When I try to search for something on Outlook, it takes FOREVER and my computer starts making funny noises. That always makes me nervous. Moreover, the Outlook results are not stunning, to say the least.

On the other hand, GMail lets you search through your INBOX to locate old e-mails. The results are displayed along with snippets(just as in the Google search results page) and are delivered seemingly instantaneously. This is something I am not used to and it took me a while after I got the account to use it. Now, I am quite addicted to to it.

More importantly, GMail has changed how I compose my e-mails in these ways.

First, I try to provide more information in the subject line since GMail's search covers subject lines. If I am e-mailing myself a file, for instance, I tend to now fully describe the nature of the file- e.g. "this is the analysis of Kamehameha I wanted for class number nine" rather than a more cryptic "class lecture 9". This allows me to search for more things. For instance, I could search for Kamehameha rather than class. The "class lecture 9" is, obviously, a bad habit I developed due to sorting of messages.

Second, I no longer put every message I get in a sub-sub-sub-folder. Bye bye- "class lectures>Spring 2004>commerce in ancient hawaii>lectures>lecture number 9". I can keep everything in one messy INBOX and find stuff by searching, not sorting.

Third, I am now able to retrieve messages based on the content of the message rather than the properties of the sender. I ask 56 students to send a 2 paragraph writeup on the future of the web, say. I can search for the phrase "future of the web" three months later when I have to grade them and find every message without having to sort for a name. The problem with sorting for a name is that people have funny ways of saying their name. Consider a name- "Anastacia Reddy". This may be organized as "Reddy, Anastacia", "Anastacia Reddy", "A. Reddy" and "Student Government President, Anastacia Reddy". It is a nightmare to find a message when you remember the person one way and the person says their name in another way. No more. Search on content- not on people's characteristics.

In closing, here is my memo to pundits. GMail is not about the storage. It is about the search. Remember- "Search. Don't sort".