Idea of the Day - A new idea each day. Some Don't Suck!

Our Latest Posts About: Search Engines

We Need a Universal Directory For Finding People and Businesses

Monday, July 3, 2017 1:00 AM By Joe Crescenzi

We can find virtually anything we want online, except people.

Before the Internet, we had phone books and 411 directory assistance. They were simple, but reliable ways to find just about anyone or any business in seconds. This was mainly due to the fact that phone companies automatically put every phone number into their directory, so unless you paid extra to get an unlisted number, you could be found in the phone book.

Fast forward a few decades and the phone companies no longer make phone directories and just about everything we do is online. Unfortunately, without a central phone directory. we no longer have a single, reliable way to find people and businesses.

Isn't it time somebody like Google, Apple, or Microsoft did something about this? We need a modern director... [More]

Continue...We Need a Universal Directory For Finding People and Businesses...

Big Data, Algorithms, and The Confirmation Bias

Sunday, April 30, 2017 1:00 AM By Joe Crescenzi

We all have a confirmation bias. Unfortunately Big Data, and algorithms make it worse.

We are all hard wired to have at least some confirmation bias. Mosts of the time, we don't even realize it, but it's only natural for us to seek out things that already fit our wold view. If you step on two scales, and one reads 175 pounds, and the second one reads 165, chances are most people would trust the one with the lower weight.

Our confirmation bias tends to strengthen when we are only exposed to information sources that already fit our existing point of view. So, if you have a conservative or liberal point of view, and only read conservative or liberal news sources, this will only feed your bias towards that perspective.

While it's definitely an issue when you only follow libe... [More]

Continue...Big Data, Algorithms, and The Confirmation Bias...

Nobody's #1 On Google

Saturday, April 15, 2017 1:00 AM By Joe Crescenzi

Ever since Google changed their Page Rank algorithm in 2009, web sites can no longer claim to be #1 for any given search term.

One of the most misunderstood things about search engines is the way they rank websites in search results. A website's position in search results can make or break their business, so it's always been important to get the best rank you can.

Because of this, many companies spend a lot of time and money trying to improve their rank. The problem is, no matter how they try, there is no longer a SINGLE #1 site for any particular keyword. That's because Google's now uses at least 60 different factors to determine a site's rank, and most of those factors are based on the personal information they've gathered on the person who's searching.

For example, if... [More]

Continue...Nobody's #1 On Google...

Hey Google... Stop GUESSING!

Friday, March 31, 2017 1:00 AM By Joe Crescenzi

The strange thing about search engines is that nearly 100% of what they index is nothing more than a guess, and sometimes they guess wrong.

I've always been fascinated with search engines. Most of the time, when you search for something, they give you exactly what you're looking for, but sometimes they miss the mark. That's because a lot of the search results include pages that they misclassified due to incorrect guessing about the subject matter.

For example, search engines often misclassify local content as national content and vice versa, or they confuse factual content with fiction. This often leads to bigger problems when new pages are posted based on research from incorrect information.

I think the solution to this is for search engines to create standardized ways... [More]

Continue...Hey Google... Stop GUESSING!...

Web Page Expiration Dates

Thursday, March 30, 2017 1:00 AM By Joe Crescenzi

I hate seeing outdated content in search results.

The web is full of useless, outdated content. There needs to be a way for a web site to specify an expiration date for each page, so that they can be filtered automatically from search results pages.

We know some pages are more timeless than others, but there are a ton of pages for things like Black Friday sales and special events that end up in search results, wasting time and resources.

One solution is to create a standardized way to embed an expiration date into the web page, or site maps so that the search engines can automatically eliminate them from search results.

Like, Share, Comment, Subscribe... Yada, Yada...

Friday, February 10, 2017 1:00 AM By Joe Crescenzi

Why do so many YouTubers beg you to Like, Share, Comment, and Subscribe?

You just watched this great video of a cat dressed up like a shark, riding around on a Roomba vacuum, chasing a baby duck. Now what do you do? Most people don't do anything at all. They either pick another video, go to another website, or just get back to work.

While there's nothing wrong with that, if you liked the video, what you really should do is return the favor by simply clicking Like, Share, Comment, and / or Subscribe to the channel. It only takes a fraction of a second, but it really makes a big difference to to people who posted the video.

YouTube is free, so you can watch as many videos as you like without paying a cent, but taking that one extra step by clicking one of the Like, Share,... [More]

Continue...Like, Share, Comment, Subscribe... Yada, Yada......

Search Engines Need This...

Tuesday, January 24, 2017 1:00 AM By Joe Crescenzi

Why is it so hard to find local information online?

The Internet revolutionized just about everything, but for some reason it's harder today to find local information online than it was before the Internet.

Before the Internet, if you were looking for a business, or phone number, all you did was pull out the local phone book, and within seconds you could find just about everything you were looking for.

Obviously Google, Bing, and Yahoo have listings for local businesses, but it's all blended together with all sorts of other stuff, making it hard to pinpoint what you're looking for.

Why doesn't one of the major search engines simply offer a dedicated service for finding accurate up-to-date local information?

Since a large percent of search is local, doesn't it m... [More]

Continue...Search Engines Need This......

The Web is Full of Identical Content

Sunday, October 30, 2016 1:00 AM By Joe Crescenzi

Why don't more sites focus on original content?

The amount of information published online each day is staggering. The trouble is, most of it is redundant duplicate content.

We live in a copycat world. If you do a search for a sentence from any given web site, odds are you can find the exact same sentence published word for word, on tens of thousands of other pages. Why is that? Doesn't anyone like to write original content anymore?

Even sites that don't copy content word for word, still tend to base most of their content on paraphrasing other sites. Of course, there are exceptions, but the fact is, if you really do the research, you'll find that for every site like mine that writes 100% original content, there seems to be at least a thousand others that are just re-ha... [More]

Continue...The Web is Full of Identical Content...

How Search Engines Take Advantage of Advertisers

Thursday, September 8, 2016 9:21 PM By Joe Crescenzi

I've got a BEEF with Google and Bing.

Google and Bing make billions of dollars when people click on ads in their search engines. So, if you search for "hotels in Miami", they return a Search Engine Results Page (SERP), which contains a mixture web site listings, and ads from companies who pay to be listed on that page. Fair enough, but what if somebody already knows what site they want to go to, and types the exact domain into the search box?

When somebody enters the exact domain they want into the search box, the fair thing would be for the search engine to bring the visitor directly to the website... NOT a search engine results page.

The reason the search engines don't take the visitor directly to the site they typed in is pure greed. They know that by taking the... [More]

Continue...How Search Engines Take Advantage of Advertisers...

Website Info Files. For Better Search Categorization.

Wednesday, September 16, 2015 1:00 AM By Joe Crescenzi

Sometimes search engines make big mistakes.

One of the great things about search engines like Google is how they've managed to index and categorize just about every web page in existence. It's not an easy process. Search robots need to scan every page they can find, then use the words on the page to try to determine what it's about.

For most sites, search engines are pretty accurate, but sometimes they aren't even close.

There are many reasons a search engine will incorrectly categorize a site, but the biggest problem is a lack of clear information on the site itself. For example, if you created a national review site and the search engines saw the address of one of the restaurants you reviewed, they may think that you are a local site, and that the address of the restau... [More]

Continue...Website Info Files. For Better Search Categorization....

Google Job Search

Sunday, July 12, 2015 1:00 AM By Joe Crescenzi

Isn't it funny that the largest search engine in the world doesn't have a feature to search for a job?

You can find almost anything using a search engine, except a job.

There are hundreds of job sites out there, yet Google doesn't index them, so if you are looking for a job, you've got to register and search a whole bunch of sites. Isn't that odd?

This would not only be good for Google, but it would be good for the job sites, employers, and especially the millions of people looking for jobs. So, what are they waiting for?

Taken to the next level, Google would not only index job sites, but allow individuals and employers to setup alerts that let them know when there's a match as soon it opens up.

Google Job Search wouldn't compete with job sites, it would just make i... [More]

Continue...Google Job Search...

Don't Bother With SEO. Use Real People Optimization Instead.

Sunday, March 1, 2015 1:00 AM By Joe Crescenzi

Want advice about improving your rank in search engines? Just build your site... and STOP TRYING to boost your rankings.

It's only natural. If your neighbor was a doctor, sooner or later, you're going to ask him about some of your aches and pains, so it shouldn't surprise me that so many people come to me for advice about getting more search traffic to their web sites. It happens so often, I've come to expect it whenever I'm at a party.

To me, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a dead issue. People are spending way too much time and money on SEO, and it's got to stop.

Don't get me wrong. I know there's an entire industry devoted to Search Engine Optimization. Even big companies like Amazon (Alexa) and GoDaddy jumped on the bandwagon and started to sell services... [More]

Continue...Don't Bother With SEO. Use Real People Optimization Instead....

Google Should Offer Searchable Archives

Saturday, February 21, 2015 1:00 AM By Joe Crescenzi

Unless a large company like Google dedicates resources to archiving the Web, much of today's history will be erased.

If you want to get a good understanding of what life was like 100 years ago, you could read newspapers from that era. After reading every newspaper for any given month in sequence, you can immerse yourself in the stories and opinions of the people who lived through it.

Each day more people get their news from online news sites, blogs, videos and podcasts and social media than any other form of media. The fact is, there is more information produced online today than in print.

Although printed materials are not going to vanish any time soon, if we don't make a serious effort to archive the Web, vast amounts of history will be lost.

A while back, a non... [More]

Continue...Google Should Offer Searchable Archives...

Google / Bing People Search

Wednesday, February 11, 2015 1:00 AM By Joe Crescenzi

Remember how easy it was finding somebody using the phone book? Why do search engines do such a lousy job finding people?

Have you noticed how hard it is to find people using search engines? If you search for somebody by name, you get 100,000+ random pages in no particular order.

It seems to me that search engines like Google and Bing should have a dedicated tab for finding people, just like the tabs they have for news, images, videos, maps, etc.

I'm not advocating that we place private information online, just the information people are already posting publicly. So search result pages could simply start with the public profile pages on all the major social media sites like Facebook, Linkedin, Instagram, Twitter, Tumblr, Pinterest, Flickr, etc.

Beyond that, addit... [More]

Continue...Google / Bing People Search...

Cat Video Network

Ketchonnaise - Pre-Mixed Ketchup and Mayonnaise

A Guaranteed Spam-Free, Pre-Encrypted Email Service

iPhone and iPad Keyboards Should Show Numbers Too

Sleeveless Snuggies!

Don't Bother With SEO. Use Real People Optimization Instead.

3 Ways Smoke Alarms Can Be More Pet Friendly

Emergency Contact Info Needs to Bypass Locked Phone

Autocorrect Should Translate Text Slang into English... Because Kids Actually Think It's Correct Grammar

Lookalike Finder Site

Out of Ideas? Fusion of Two or More Ideas Could Change Everything.

How Camera Makers Can Simplify On-Camera White Balance

Darth Vader is Retuning to Star Wars?

A Bedside Book Projector - Read Books on the Ceiling!

Reinvent The Wheel? YES. There's Always Room For Improvement.

Amazon Echo as an Intercom. Room to Room Communication, Even Across the World.

TV Needs More Shows Like Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood... The Seinfeld of Children's TV

Stop using default Security Questions... here's why.

A Car Periscope? Why Not?

Digital String on Your Finger... To Remind You You Left Something Behind...

Use Social Media to Listen To Your Customers, or They'll find Somebody Who Does.

Why Doesn't Apple Offer a FULL SIZED Wireless Keyboard?

How Banks Can Make Checking Accounts More Secure

4 Cell Phone Parental Control Ideas Your Kids are Guaranteed to Hate.

.Podcast Domain TLDs. A Direct Domain For Podcasters.

* Note: The ideas on "Idea of the Day" were posted without any formal research into existing inventions.

In some cases, patents may already exist for these ideas, in other cases, there may not be any existing patents and you are free to develop and explore the viability of developing and patenting the ideas.

The authors make no claim that any of the ideas are safe, practical, or suitable for any particular purpose. You are responsible for the results of trying, developing, patenting or using any of the ideas on this site.

For some people, our ideas are just an interesting read, but our goal is to encourage you to take action. If you see an idea that you like, do something with it... Take action.

- Joe

Idea Of The Day. A new Idea Each Day. Some Don't Suck.