Dave Caolo

Sexiest Geeks of 2008. Yours truly was not included.

The Midori Traveler’s Notebook. Beautiful.

Twitter has held the attention of the web like I haven’t seen anything do in a long time. While the premise is simple — briefly answer the question, “What are you doing?” — the benefits are numerous. Some users share the minutia of their day. Others promote projects they’re working on, while others connect with far-flung friends, seek help to puzzling questions or simply “eavesdrop” on the informal thoughts of people they admire.

You may use Twitter for any or none of these purposes. Today, I’ll talk about using Twitter as a search engine, and its advantages over Google.

Easy, Dave. You’re insane. Google is a search engine. Twitter is, well … Twitter. It’s ridiculous to make such a comparison.

While Google is the 300lb gorilla in the world of internet search, it isn’t the definitive answer to finding things on the web. Here’s an example.

Recently, I was working on a WordPress project and got stuck. So, I opened a new browser window, navigated to Google, entered the best keywords I could think of and executed the search.

Instantly, I was presented with tens of thousands of results. The first four or five were helpful, but didn’t offer the answer I was looking for. Those results suggested others, and soon fifteen minutes passed and I wasn’t much closer to finishing my project. In fact, no progress had been made that whole time.

So, I posed the question to my Twitter followers; “How do I [do this] in WordPress?” Then it happened — I was offered exactly the answer I was looking for in less than sixty seconds. In that instance, Twitter beat Google hands down. Here’s what I’ve discovered to be the advantages of Twitter over Google.

1. It doesn’t interrupt my workflow

When I execute a search on Google — and scan the results — I do so at the cost of productivity on my project. I must stop what I’m doing, open a new window and start digging. Often I find what I want in a minute or two. Sometimes I don’t. Either way, I’ve halted progress on my project. Even time spent on brief searches adds up.

When I “execute a search” via Twitter, there’s almost no interruption in my workflow. The time it takes me to bring Twitterrific to the foreground, type my question (more on that later) and hit the return key is about ten seconds. After that, I can return to my project and continue working.

2. High quality results

Meanwhile, the “Twitter Elves” (my followers) read my query and those who have the answer reply. The “weeding through” that is such a time-consuming part of using Google takes care of itself. Not EVERYONE replies, including those who don’t have answer. Only those who are absolutely confident in their answer click the reply button. I get the right answer (or darn close to it) only. Consider the myriad of irrelevant results of a Google search.

3. I can pose a question in real English

The old joke about using the Yellow Pages was, “First I’ve got to guess what they’ve decided to call this.” Will I find the number for a house painter under “Painter,” “Contractors,” “General Contractors” or what?

Setting up a Google search is the same sort of guessing game. The first step is to imagine which magical words will produce the intended results. Often it takes several attempts.

Twitter eliminates this bit of sorcery. Instead of typing, “WordPress, pages, hidden, menu bar, side bar” and crossing my fingers, I simply ask, “Does anyone know an easy way to hide certain pages from a WordPress sidebar?” That’s plain old English and it elicited exactly the result I was after.

4. Results based on knowledge, not SEO skills

One’s ability to optimize a web page for search engines has nothing to do with his or her ability to put useful content on that page. Anyone can tag, keyword and otherwise tweak a page so that a search engine will notice it readily. The content on that page may be crap, but Google sees it!

Twitter-generated results come from the knowledge and experience of the 1,000+  people who follow me. I can tap into their minds in real time, which is a benefit over the static pages that Google serves.

The folks at Mahalo get it, kind of. Human beings generate their search results, but even then I’m viewing what the author of that results page decided to include. I can’t speak to him/her directly and get an answer as quickly as he can type.

Just try it. You’ll be surprised with what happens.

Tiddly Backpack lives on a USB flash drive and mimics 37Signals’ Backpack.

For those of you who keep Post-It notes on your computer’s display, consider StickyScreen. Simply enter your note, set it as your browser’s homepage and you’re done. No more clutter.

[Via Swiss Miss]

Yesterday, Apple announced that senior VP of worldwide product marketing Phil Schiller will give the Keynote speech at January’s Macworld Expo instead of CEO Steve Jobs, and that they wouldn’t participate in future events. The inevitable question is, “Why?”.

I’ve listed my five best guesses at TUAW

• Finances
• Rumor control
• Scheduling
• Timing
• The health issue

You can read the full post here.

I posted a gift guide for the Twitter addict on your list over at TUAW. It includes in utero tweeting.

1. Spare brass band
2. Insight a riot
3. Spare nuns
4. Spare baby
5. Spare brass band again
6. Spare civilian
7. Spare young lovers
8. Avoid tanks of presumably flammable gas abandoned by frightened worker
9. Ogle hot chick
10. Spare nuns again
11. Spare baby again
12. Spare brass band again
13. Spare ducks
14. Make witty quip
15. Take one for the team
16. Hide behind steel poles to give your tardy-as-usual sidekick a few moments of guilt-ridden panic

All thanks to the slowest burning fuse in the history of the Acme Bomb Co. Awesome.

With the news that Jay Leno will host a prime time talk show after handing The Tonight Show over to Conan O’Brien, I’ve been thinking about talk shoes in general.

I’m bored with the format. Introduction, monologue, skit, parade of guests who shamelessly plug their latest project. The host usually sits behind a desk while the guest is in a chair. It’s not a bad formula — it’s worked for decades — it just feels stale to me.

Now, I’m not opposed to talk shoes, either. I like to see my favorite celebrities talking about their lives, sharing funny stories and so on. I’d just like to see the networks try something new. For instance, who says the host needs a desk? Or, that they even need to be in a studio? Why not film them grocery shopping, walking in the park, riding in a cab

Send the host to the celebrity’s house instead of bringing him/her to a studio. Bring cameras into the infamous “green room” and chat there. Anything!

Again, I like talk shows. Here’s hoping for a shakeup.

Burger King is running a new ad campaign in which they “…go all around the world and find people who are really off the grid, who don’t have televisions, who don’t have access to restaurants or what-not … and you’re going to see how they feel about a taste test between the Whopper and the Big Mac.”

So they’re going to infiltrate these remote, untouched areas of the world, populated by proud people with their own traditions and shove fucking WHOPPERS down their throats? Horrible.

The tacit implication is that these people’s Whopper-free lives have been sub-par. What a disgusting example of Americanization. Even worse is the ad itself. We laugh as the young man lifts the top bun with a puzzled look, folds it in half and puts it in his mouth. What a whack-0! Or the woman who lifts it gingerly, only to have it fall apart. What a buffoon!

Haven’t you inflicted your poison on enough of the world, King? At the end of its fiscal year 2007, Burger King reported that there are more than 11,300 outlets in 69 countries; 33% are outside the United States. Enough. People will survive if they never have a value meal.

Update: Check out Mr. D’s retort. Worth reading.