You can also go to the preview page for any feed and see its ranking, even if it isn’t in the top 1000, if you know its siteid. For example, this blog, with 54 subscribers, is ranked 22,975.

InsideGoogle is thankfully in 843 place. If you don’t like your ranking, you can claim multiple feeds your site has and consolidate them, so total subscriber count is given credit, rather than seperate Atom, RSS 2.0, RSS 0.91 feeds and so on.

In the first ranking, Slashdot’s 103,771 subscribers makes it #1. Dilbert is 10,000 behind, followed by Engadget. The official Google blog is eighth. Gizmodo is #17 and #74, and adding the two subscriber counts together could make it number 7. There are a good number of site’s that would rank much better if they consolidated feeds.

Check out the full list at beta.bloglines.com/b/topfeeds.

A post should be about this on Bloglines’ news page tonight.

Also, Bloglines shipped some minor improvements, continuing to improve beta Bloglines. I only spotted them because I live my life in Bloglines, but one of them made my life a hell of a lot better.

They changed the behavior of the “f” hotkey, which loads up the next folder of feeds. Instead of opening the folder, it keeps the folder closed and selects it, loading all feed items from that folder, exactly like I normally do with the mouse. Using the “f” key and “j” key, you can go down through items (”j,j,j,j”), then when you reach the end, load the next folder (”j,j,j,f,j,j,f,j”).

I’m breezing through my feeds now faster than ever before. They seem to have improved the performance as well, though that could just be my imagination.

Another improvement: The title bar now shows the number of unread feed items, as well as the number of items you’ve pinned. Whether you keep Bloglines open in a seperate browser window or in a tab, you will always have a cound of the number of unread items to rely on while you’re doing something else.

Finally, they made the address bar update with a unique URL based on what you are viewing. This way, if you hit refresh or restore a browser session, everything will be right back where you were, still reading the same feed as before.

So, another month, another update for Bloglines. What a great pace for them to be keeping up. Sure, its little things, but if Bloglines gets a little bit better every month, just imagine how amazing it can be in the long run. They really are listening to the users and giving people what they want. Gotta love it.

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To recap this sordid saga: Because the US government decided to extend Daylight Saving Time this year, lots of electronic devices would have the wrong times starting the new schedule, on March 11, and on every March 11 and October 28 through the end of time. If that doesn’t sound like a problem you’d like to have download the patch:

* Pocket PC devices (Windows Mobile 2003 and Windows Mobile 5.0 Pocket PCs) CAB file – download to your device, then run on the device

* Smartphone devices (Windows Mobile 2003 and Windows Mobile 5.0 for Smartphone) CAB file – download to your device, then run on the device

* Desktop installer (Windows Mobile 2003 for Pocket PC and Windows Mobile 2003 for Smartphone, and Windows Moblie 5.0 for Pocket PC and Windows Mobile 5.0 for Smartphone) – download to your computer, then run the program while your device is connected to your computer

Previous posts:

Daylight Savings Switch To Mess Up Electronics – August 2005
Vista Keeps Up With Daylight Savings – October 2006
Daylight Savings Changed Creating Windows Mobile Helll – January 7, 2007
IntelliAdmin Creates Windows Daylight Saving Fix – January 12, 2007
Registry Fix Issued For Windows Mobile Daylight Saving Problems – January 19, 2007

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About the Author

Nathan Weinberg writes the popular InsideGoogle blog, offering the latest news and insights about Google and search engines.

Visit the InsideGoogle blog.

I was at the mall this past weekend and spotted a Dell kiosk across from the Time Warner Cable store I was visiting. Figuring you rarely get the chance to talk to anyone from Dell outside of a trade show, I stopped by and got some really important questions answered about Windows Vista compatibility. I know it would be tough for major tech companies to put staff in the hundreds of malls across the country, but it felt real nice getting to talk to a human being from the company and get an honest answer.

I’m guessing this is why Apple stores do so well.
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I’m not exactly sure what the point is, except maybe to use all the now-useless TV rooftop antennas to create a new way of connecting homes to internet service providers, without laying tons of new cable. It’s all confusing, but the main thing is that a certain gadget blog embaressed themselves by prematurely assuming this was all about a Zune phone.

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What went wrong? Obviously, people at both dMarc and Google felt dMarc’s technology was capable of reaching those revenue targets, and the fact that they didn’t was a failure on someone’s part. The fact that it took most of the last year to even launch a pilot program didn’t help, and dMarc’s founders blame Google’s single-minded focus on automating everything.

In the ad business, while automating has made Google a lot of money on cheap ads, more expensive ads are typically sold by a sales force, which pitches to companies and gets them to deliver the check. dMarc believed its sales force could have been extremely successful, but Google wanted everything automated, and they never really had a chance. I guess Google’s okay with hiring thousands of people per quarter, so long as those people don’t have to do specific sales work.

Anyway, the question facing Google in the future is whether companies will be willing to deal with Google after this. It’s silly to suggest that companies will stop selling themselves to Google, since most people like money, but I bet it will be a long time before a deal is again based 90% on revenue goals. In the future, Google will have to buy companies for perceived worth, paying upfront, since no one is going to trust them to actually turn the acquisition into a success.

Don’t be surprised if most of the deals Google makes in the future are speculative deals like the YouTube deal, where the company being bought has a lot of potential and a huge price tag. Google could have bought YouTube for $100 million plus $2 billion based on revenue goals, but the YouTube guys would have been idiots to take a deal like that. After this dMarc thing, no one is going to take a deal with a lot of revenue goals, because no one thinks Google can make them.

One last thing: Is Google developing their products like Microsoft now? All of their new-medium-type ads, from radio to print to video, all are plodding along. Is their product development process already as slow and mired in indecision as Windows Vista’s was? If that is true, it basically means Google is aging more three times faster than Microsoft did, and that doesn’t bode well for the future.

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Soon, it’s expected to add word-processing and spreadsheet services to the suite, which includes an online calendar, chat service, and Web page builder. In coming weeks, Google Apps will turn into a real business as Google begins charging corporations a subscription fee amounting to a few dollars per person per month. "We’re dying to use something like this," says Brandeau. He’s "on the cusp" of signing a contract with Google.

I still don’t see companies dumping Microsoft Office for Google’s solution, even if it eventually has email, calendaring, a word processor, spreadsheets and presentations. Google’s solution, at "a few dollars per person per month", (assuming that is anywhere from $3-7 a month) amounts to a cost of $36-84 a year per employee for a product with similar capabilities to Microsoft Office 2007 Standard, which costs $239 to upgrade (and considerably less to businesses who use volume licensing).

Considering that (a) Google’s office products require and internet connection (b) companies don’t like giving up their data, even to Google (c) companies take years to upgrade for one version of Office to the next, I can’t see a company using Google Apps when they can use Microsoft Office, which is going to be positioned as the more powerful and flexible option, for an equal or lower price. Why would you buy less features, when Google’s subscription rate isn’t actually cheaper than Microsoft’s retail price?

(via Ars)

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Now, reports are coming in that things didn’t go as well as planned.

One guy had hoped Google’s flyover would help him convince his wife to come back to him. She had moved out a few weeks ago after their marriage fell apart, and he figured she’d see his giant message of love in Google and come running back, but it was not meant to be.

Google’s plans fell apart due to no-fly zone restrictions due to air safety on low-flying planes. Google’s plane was too low for the government, which did not let it fly over Sydney, although some of the other areas were photographed. Microsoft’s plane was fine, since its photographic equipment allowed it to fly higher, but many who had planned to be seen by Google were out of luck.

Among those missing out on the photo opportunity of a lifetime was a company that had spent $10,000-plus on a sign, an environmental group which organised 200 supporters to form themselves into a slogan on Bondi Beach and a man who drove from Wollongong to Sydney with a message that he hoped would help win back his estranged wife.

Among those missing out on the photo opportunity of a lifetime was Sydney software consultant Adam Cogan.

He had spent $10,000 on a 50-metre sign featuring his company’s logo and website address and had organised 30 of his employees to come along to Queens Park in Waverley on Friday morning and help assemble the installation.

Google advised those at Queens Park to be ready around 8.45am-9.15am. Mr Cogan waited at Queens Park for the flyover until about 4.30pm before giving up.

“Google have over-promised and under-delivered,” Mr Cogan said. “They should have sorted this out before creating the expectation.”

Bonus items:

Google has sued copyright moron Leo Stoller, who trademarks words and then sues those who use them (words like “Stealth”, “Ambush” and “Annihilator”). Stoller had tried to lay claim to the word “Google”, and Google finally sued his ass to make him pay for dragging them through years of frivolous litigation.

Google is asking college students to create 3D representations of their university campuses and upload them to Google Earth and SketchUp’s 3D Warehouse, with the best ones getting a free trip to Google’s headquarters in Mountain View, California. The judges are from companies like Apple and Electronic Arts, and I’d assume the winner would have a good shot at a job at Google. Let’s just hope the college students aren’t running Windows Vista, since SketchUp still won’t run on Microsoft’s new OS.

Google has topped Brand Channel’s list of the top brand worldwide of 2006, by impact, beating out Apple. Third place belongs to Google’s YouTube, too, giving Google a cool hold on the top of the list. Their list of top brands in North America, though, puts Apple at #1, with Google dropping to third, and YouTube in second.

Somebody runs a goof video blog on YouTube called Inifinite Solutions, a pitch-perfect spoof of self-help shows, complete with public access graphics and a host that just lies to you. Their latest episode revealed how to get into the new beta of “Google TV”, which doesn’t exist. Judging by comments on several blogs and Digg, there were a lot of people logging in and out of their Gmail accounts in a desperate attempt to get an invite to a service that doesn’t exist.

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The new Google Images is identical to the old one, except all the text that used to appear on the page, save the title of the image, is hidden, and only appears when your mouse is near the image. The redesign does not make for more space on the page, or larger images, or a cooler new look, it just removes info that was always there. If you want to find out what website an image was from, or how big it is, you have to work for it, and there is no way to compare the images against each other.

There’s no real explanation why Google did this. We know Google is obsessed with white space, but this is overkill, actually removing features by painting over them white. This would be the equivelant of Gmail only showing you who sent you an email, and forcing you to mouse over to see what the email was about, or Google Video showing you a thumbnail, with no video title, description, or length information. If Google wants to convince users to stop using Google services, they can start by doing this to all of them.

It certainly seems like Google is ripping off Windows Live Images, and if they are, this is a real crappy way of doing it. Windows Live Image Search shows only thumbnails on an all-white page, but they also let you resize them to show more on the page, the page scrolls into infinity (instead of showing a mere 20, then forcing you to click Next, over and over), and you get a scratchpad which lets you compare images regardless of where they show up.

So, Google has ripped off Microsoft, but did it by removing features it already had and lacking features Microsoft has had for months. Way to show leadership in the industry.

The part that pisses me off is that Google Images (and most of the competition) handles searching for images of similar sizes in a pretty broken way. All of them let you choose between all, large, medium and small (Windows Live adds images equal to your current screen resolution, Yahoo adds “wallpaper”, and Ask adds a buddy icon size), vague ways of distinguishing between them. I have no idea what a “medium” image is, and neither does Google as far as I can tell.

When I’m looking for an interesting image that fits a specific need, Google is always giving me images that are way too small, even when searching under medium (and large is way too big and limited, often). Now, Google doesn’t even show me the image sizes, so I have to guess? Screw that!

Thankfully, there is a solution: Disable JavaScript. All modern browsers give you a way of doing that to specific sites (or a list of sites), and disabling JavaScript for images.google.com brings back the old interface. In Opera, you only need to tick a check-box in Site Preferences; In Firefox, you edit your profile; in IE, you add it to a list of Restricted Sites. My recommendation: Do it fast, and never look back. The new Google Images is a huge blunder by Google, and should not be allowed to annoy you day in and day out.

In the meantime, I’m going to be paying close attention to Ask X, and see how their image search measures up. I’m getting the feeling Google is determined to fall behind and make mistakes with their search interfaces, and I’d better keep my options open if I need to switch one day.

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The first talk is this Monday, with Adam Bosworth talking about “Physics, Speed, and Imprecision: What Works and What Doesn’t in Software, and Why”. The event is already full, but you can sign up for the wait list, and to be notified about future events.

Normally, I’d ask someone to get me in, either as a favor or media, but this coincides with way too much Windows Vista launch events mayhem. I’ll eagerly await event two, though. Google New York is a really cool place to be, and I’ve enjoyed it both times I’ve been there. I’m convinced I could go there one night a week for five years and still not cover half the offices.

I really want to take home something cool from the offices, but they didn’t have Google-branded paper or pens in the press room the first time I was there, and the Razor scooters and big rubber balls are too big to sneak out. Any suggestions?

Oh, and two other things:

• Don’t drink the coffee! Too damn hot, burned my tongue on the first sip.
• It was me that spilled beer on the carpet about two months back. Twice. Sorry ’bout that.

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I looked at the source code on a typical YouTube video page and discovered 137 rel=”nofollow” tags!

The strange thing is, YouTube doesn’t reserve the nofollow for outgoing links, they even slap it on links to other parts of YouTube. For example, the Related videos box in the sidebar, as well as the links to user’s profiles, all receive nofollows, even though those links present no search spam value.

If you do want to link from your YouTube video to your own website and keep the PageRank, fret not. Turns out, if you paste a link into the video description (the full link, including http://), YouTube will automatically turn it into a link, and won’t slap on a nofollow tag. Take advantage of this loophole, and be sure to link to your blog post when posting a video.

Google should be concerned about this, since sites that make heavy use of nofollow can skew the accuracy of search results. The technology behind Google is built on a certain philosophy, one that breaks down if one of the top ten sites on the internet does not follow. YouTube’s use of nofollow, by itself, is mostly harmless, but as a Google property, it sends a bad message on misuse of nofollow, and is an example Wikipedia can point to for its more complicated policy decision.

Eventually, nofollow, if used significantly by major sites, could break down the accuracy of Google and other search engines, forcing us to find a new method of determining search relevancy. Every legitimate link that gets a nofollow tilts the balance in the spammers favor by one more link. Big websites should only use it when absolutely necessary, and websites owned by search engines should be much smarter than this.

Oh, and Yahoo’s del.icio.us does it, too.

(via Digg)

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