Commentary on MySpace / Google

Today I was a last minute standin for Andrei Broder on the "The Search Laboratories" panel at SES in San Jose. Also on the panel were Peter Norvig of Google and James Colborn of MSN.

Now in the realm of search, I am not fit to carry Dr. Broder's bag. He's truly a legendary character - to wit, after the panel a self-described "Broder groupie" approached me with a copy of one of his papers that she'd brought to get autographed. I kid you not.

The panel went great. The final question was directed at Peter and myself. The questioner asked (and I paraphrase):

"Today we read that Myspace partnered with Google. For Peter, do you have a comment? And for Bradley, was this a partnership you wanted?"

Peter replied, "I've been in here all day! No comment."

I replied, "Myspace partners with Google... Is this a partnership we wanted?"

Long pause.

"We already tried partnering with Google. Been there, done that."

Methinks I sold the line pretty well. ;-)

Plagiarized, but it’s cool

Browsing the web, I came upon my eulogy for Martin Friedmann on a free homework site: 123helpme.com. It was listed under "Eulogy for a Friend." What's amusing to me is that someone (or perhaps just some automated crawler) thought this would have any reuse or remix value. Marty was so unique (and the eulogy itself tried so hard to capture this) that I can't imagine anyone else would find value in it. (Check it out you'll see what I mean.)

Then I found this eulogy for this young man, with a few lines lifted wholesale from Marty's...


Although what we’ve lost is tremendous, what he gave us is immeasurable.

To those who knew him no explanation is necessary. To those who didn’t, no explanation is possible.


So I hereby grant unlimited use with or without attribution. Have at it. If it helps anyone in any way, by all means....

Chris Anderson’s “Long Tail” book rocks…

On a flight today, I tore through Chris Anderson's Long Tail book. Loved it.

It was a fascinating experience. In a sense, I think we (and by this I mean a very big Royal We that likely includes anyone reading this) have been practicing much of what the book preaches for a very long time. It's coded into our DNA. It's the "Right Thing." But the book does a wonderful job giving us the vocabulary and framework. Chris modestly heaves credit at the "Long Tail practitioners" but he's being way too modest. As someone who spends a fair amount of time trying to explain things to people (in my case often the media), I've come to appreciate that finding the right framework, or analogy, or even turn of phrase is a delicate art form. And Chris is a brilliant artist.

I can't think of anyone who wouldn't benefit from reading this book. And Chris has made the book so accessible, everyone should...