experience

In recent months, there has been a whole lot of talk about where search is going, and what search is lacking. This is commonplace for months encompassing the changing of years. A big part of the discussion is personalized search. Many SEOs aren't entirely thrilled with the idea. It changes the way they have to do things. Do searchers want it though?

Google has redone the Google Docs Help Forum. It has added a few features to improve the ease with which users can obtain info, and increase the overall user experience. New features include:

Pity the poor person who's trying to sell a house in this market; with prices diving and places available on almost every street, they probably won't get a great deal.  But an updated Yahoo Real Estate aims to make sure sales at least occur, and it might become a buyer's dream.

Hulu introduced a couple of new features today to enhance the user experience. This comes only a week or so after the site launched other features to improve its search functionality. The first new feature is a recommendation section for users with accounts. To get Hulu's personalized recommendations, simply login and go to your profile page and you will find a new tab for this area.

The New York Times says that Google News, Google’s semi-automated mainstream and blog news indexing service, is experiencing slow growth: ... traffic growth is sluggish. With 11.4 million users in May, Google News ranked No. 8 among news sites, far behind Yahoo News, which was No. 1 with 35.8 million visitors, according to Nielsen Online.

Last week I was on CNBC twice. Once on “Fast Money” and once on Donny Deutsch’s “The Big Idea.” The Fast Money segment has been torn apart on the Internet but Roger Ehrenberg of the Information Arbitrage blog had the most intelligent analysis of it.

This year hasn’t been one of my favorites. It’s been “The Year of Pondering My Navel”. Or, perhaps, the “Year of Unraveling”. If you earn your living connected to the Internet, this year went by in 1.3 minutes flat.

I read a great article from RarePlay.com last week titled: "Searching For A Perfect Fit" which talks about online clothing retailers offering virtual fitting rooms to further entice visitors to remain on the site and potentially purchase a product.