Travisthetrout's Blog

Microsoft’s Bing: I’m stuck in 2006 with MSN Search. May 29, 2009

Decided come take a break from revision retirement to have a quick blog about Microsoft’s Bing: the rebrand of Live (previously part of windows live) and even before that MSN Search.

For those of you who don’t know I worked for the them back when it was MSN Adcenter back when it was MSN Search (2006), which is why this story caught my eye over all the rest that have beena floating by on my screen these days.

In my opinion a rebrand is no good, simply due to the fact that everyone knows it is Microsoft, they are not offering anything better than Google. It has been said that:

The name is short and designed to give people the opportunity to say things like, “Just Bing it,” as they do with Google.

So once again Microsoft are trying to be Google, whether they have learned anything since the previous rebrands remains to be seen. The only thing they have appeared to come up with to challenge Google is more targeted searches and more comparison – possibly quite good for general consumers.

At MSN we were briefed in the need to increase Microsoft share of the search engine market. The market which as everyone knew was being heavily dominated by Google and even yahoo!. (Currently Google 64% and Microsoft 8.2% and it was something similar back then). As stupid as it sounds but we were also encouraged to use Google rather the MSN Search, during our days at work as it was more efficient – so it seems that they couldn’t even convert their own employees. That said we did get into the habit of using both, and for a lot of the searches we were doing (products/site we were advertising) as they were pretty mainstream (e.g. halfords, ebay, various banks) there wasn’t much difference.

It has always been the more targeted searches that have been difficult – law for example, nightmare to search for, even when you say UK only you still get jurisdictional clashes. With Bing it remains to be seen just how targeted they can get (although the review at ars techica (link at bottom of page) gives us a pretty good idea.

In my eyes no matter how much rebranding they do, Google has such a dominant stance, Microsoft are only ever going to be taking baby steps – unless the come up with something radical – which in all their previous efforts they have failed to do so. (Of course Microsoft will maintain it’s not trying to take on the Google, which they blatantly are). And while Microsoft may have thought that they were getting one over with hitting the gap in Google’s market, create more effective comparison searches, Google of course is upping the challenge with Google Wave.

However, I still enjoy a basic fluff free search. Which honestly, the basic MSN was good for. And I’ve got to say I’ve only used Google since the 2006 change to Windows Live (which I hated), will Bing make me take a stand back on the other side?

See also:

• Classic Search Engine Rap Battle MSN v GOOGLE
• Full Hands on Review of Bing (Ars Technica)

Wikis in the law firms? Who took up the offer? April 26, 2009

So last week I was thinking about twitter and collaboration wikis in the classroom. Today I came across some old American (of course) articles and a slideshow (posted below) about the use of Wikis within law firms.

As a student I’ve not had the full experience of working in a firm so I cannot comment on the use in a law firm. However, I did spend 2 months turning a local charity into a paperless office (single-handed, I might add) and the use of a wiki, I feel would have been very beneficial to their objectives.

Why are Wikis a good thing? There is an ability for each person to contribute and organise material without feeling they need to rely on other people’s computer skills. Wikis are easy to update and everyone knows when changes have occurred. In addition the Commercial Wikis are relatively cheap, especially for the smaller firms.

However, there are some downsides as always – wikis are more likely to integrate and work alongside some existing system – due to time and costs. In addition, as I’ve stated with regards student wikis – it is important that everyone is enthusiastic about the project and gets involved. It only works when everyone collaborates and contributes content.

I see no excuse why a wiki couldn’t be used. Especially now, when I’m sure most people actually know what one is. Last year there was all this pushing towards wikis for the legal profession, I wonder how many actually embraced the idea?

See also: Go Forth and Wikify (CJO); Article from KM Space on the Rosen Wiki; Law Firm Intranet on ILTA 08.

What’s in a name? March 12, 2009

I’ve got an unusual name, both first name and surname, most people make a stab at it the first time, and it is either hit or miss. Another thing I hate is repeating my name until the person I am talking to gets it right, usually I give up and just agree with them, particularly if I am never going to see them or they are going to forget as soon as they finally get it.

Started a new class (another elective) and my tutor was like “oh you’re the one with the lovely name” and I was just like, “oh… okay, thanks” and she hastily adds “ not that the rest of you don’t have nice names, I’ve just never heard it before”. I guess rarity makes it a nice name, just a pain for talking on the phone.

Recently phoned my bf’s work and go put through to all sorted, everyone asking who I was and me repeating my name a gazillion times, before someone eventually figured out who I was and got my bf to call me back. Talk about complicated.

I was put onto this site a while back: How to say that name admittedly, it doesn’t include my name or a lot of names that I have come across, nevertheless, it is a useful tool to have. A person will appreciate and listen to you a lot more if you get their name right.

I used to work for a Chinese charity and found it almost impossible to get the hang of Chinese names. The last thing I wanted to do was to phone someone up and ask for them by name, and then get it wrong. This site would have been useful then, as it contains a lot of common Chinese names. The alternative is what I had to do is either, ask someone else at the office how to say the name, or only pronounce the part of the name that you can say clearly. Luckily my job didn’t involve much phone contact – only when arranging job interviews and various appointments – nothing where I was on the phone all day.

A small thing like getting someone’s name right can go a long way.