Google’s image search
Once upon a time, Google’s image search used to be pretty good. If you did a search for a person, on the first page of results, you would get a photograph of the person if there was one on the web.
Here’s what I think Google used to do: show an image where they know the image matches the keyword you typed (good)
Here’s what they now seem to do: Find the keyword you typed on a page and then show you *any* image that shows up on the same page even if it is completely unrelated to the keyword (bad)
Huge, huge difference. And it makes a significant difference to the results.
I tried this with multiple examples, but for safety, I’m going to use the example of an image search for my name1 and there are five pages of results. Not a single one is relevant (i.e. none of them are me). They are almost all images from pages that link to my blog and therefore have “Shripriya Mahesh” on that page in text. Why does Michael Roberts’ image show up on the list? Because I wrote an HBS case with him in 1997 and so my name is on his page. Ta-da. Er… wrong!! With other examples I used, it brought back both photographs of the person and the multiple pages of random nonsense.
Is anyone else seeing this? Does anyone know if they have indeed changed how they do things?
- I used my full name Shripriya Mahesh. If I tried just Shripriya, I got 27 pages of results, none of them relevant [↩]
eBay wins skirmish
eBay spends a significant amount of money buying Google AdWords.
Google is an aggressive company. It didn’t get to where it is by being namby-pamby.
Two years ago, rumor has it that Google recruiters showed up at eBay Live in San Jose. They tried to recruit the eBay employees who were manning the booths and doing their jobs interacting with the eBay community. To me, that crosses the line. More than offensive, it is just bad business practice - you don’t show up at your customer’s offices/events and try to recruit their employees. I’m not sure eBay said or did anything.
And now, at eBay Live 2007 in Boston, Google decides to take on one of its largest customers by throwing a party to promote Google Checkout to eBay’s large sellers. This doesn’t violate any law, but it just might piss off said customer, don’t you think?
eBay finally (!!) displayed a backbone and stopped buying AdWords. Google then backed down.
About freaking time. eBay has been way too nice believing everything that Google spouts, “in good faith”. And honestly, eBay is to blame for being so trusting - this is a cut-throat business! Google crossed the line first, so screw good faith. The gloves are off, do what you do need to do.
But it seems to me that eBay has played the chip it had. And stopping advertising spend hurts eBay too - it doesn’t spend money with Google to be charitable. It does so because it brings in customers. So, now what?
eBay won the skirmish, but my guess is that Google is in the checkout game for the long-term and will keep improving its currently-sub-par-product and keep coming after eBay anyway it can. This is going to get very, very interesting - grab a seat!
Updated on 6/19: I just saw that Will Hsu has a good post on this as well.
Updated on 6/20: After reading Alex’s post on the topic, I think asking them to leave the Gala is just silly. I mean they would have been two unnoticed guys and now instead there is a bruhaha.
Note: Three points I need to make in the interest of full disclosure
1. I was an eBay employee for five years.
2. I believe Google is a cool and innovative company in many ways.
3. This post is my own personal opinion and does not reflect eBay’s point of view. It really can’t reflect eBay views since I haven’t worked there in a year, but I am still covering my ass and being really, really clear! 
An eBay news day
Some excellent news for friends and former colleagues from eBay -
Jeff Jordan is the new CEO of OpenTable. I loved working with Jeff at eBay - he has a fabulous mix of product, business and people skills. Jeff was one of the most well-respected and approachable executives around. He was an endless-well of energy who made stuff happen!
OpenTable is very lucky to have him. Good luck in your new gig, Jeff!!
Also today, eBay confirmed that it acquired StumbleUpon. To my two former eBay colleagues who are there - the incredible UI god, George, and the excellent marketer, Dave, congratulations on being back in the fold!
I love StumbleUpon - the incredible traffic driving capabilities and the unique discovery engine. I can’t wait to see how StumbleUpon is integrated into Skype.
It is a wonderful thing when good things happen to good people!
Jeff Jarvis on the brouhaha
I’ve been reading Jeff Jarvis’ blog for years and have always found that he has the rare ability of being pithy while hitting the nail on the head.
Here’s a perfect example — he was on CBS being interviewed about the Don Imus brouhaha and more specifically the reaction in the blog world. Apparently there is some concern that people are out of control, saying mean, horrible things… and in light of the other bad publicity the blog world has been getting, should there, in fact, be some regulation of what people can say on the internet? Jeff’s answers could not be more perfect!
MyBlogLog - brilliant customer support
I’ve used MyBlogLog for a little over three months. I love the product - so well executed! In addition to the community features, I also use it to view the stats on my blog - it is very quick and easy.
I recently had cause to write in to their customer service. Immediately I got an auto response email that has to be one of the funniest I’ve seen in a long time:
Business opportunities
Please email [email] with details. Please keep in mind that we’re now a part of the Yahoo! team, so if you want to sell ads on our site, you’re SOL.Spammers
Piss off.
When was the last time you’ve seen SOL and Piss off in an email? Hilarious. Please Yahoo lawyers, don’t squash this free-spirited email with legalese - please!
Later the same day, a customer support gentleman, Steve H., wrote to me asking me for more information. When I provided it, he replied with a detailed explanation of why I was facing the problem. And then, he fixed it - by going way above and beyond what he needed to do. Wow! When was the last time someone did that for me? God, I can’t even remember.
We have become used to terrible service. So even when you get the service you deserve, you feel thankful.
However, there are very few companies who exceed expectations. Steve H. and MyBlogLog just did that and for that they have a loyal customer who will be sticking with them for a long time. I really hope that as Yahoo integrates them, they keep the wonderful aspects that MyBlogLog has going for it. Thanks again, Steve!
Feedburner email footer
I recently turned on the ability for people to get my blog posts delivered to their email, through Feedburner.
I just noticed footer at the bottom of the email that gets sent out -
Notice the last line. How… quaint!
Regular retail and what you really need now
What happens if you lose your gloves towards the end of winter? It is still cold outside - freezing in fact. So, you need to wear gloves even though spring is just a few promising weeks away.
Well, you could go over to the nearest general retail outlet and buy yourself a pair, right? Wrong. Oh so wrong. I lost my gloves (or rather just one glove which makes the other one a decorative plant warmer). My first inkling was to look on eBay - whatever it is, you can get it on eBay, baby! But in addition, I decided to check out the retail stores as well.
I trekked to Macy’s - “Gloves? Oh no, we’re out of gloves, we have our spring season in already. Try H&M or The Gap.” Same story at H&M. Same story at The Gap where I got “Try H&M, they always have it. No?? Well, then Macy’s!!”
Regular retail is messed up beyond belief. Really long product planning cycles are the key problem. Lead times are so long that what gets sold for spring (not *in* spring) is probably decided in the fall of the previous year and all orders are placed.
But the consumer is made to pay for this silly process. Spring season items arrive in late Feb when most of the country is still covered in snow. Can you really think of buying that short pink skirt when you walk into the store in three layers, a scarf, ear warmers and a winter coat? I can’t. And on the flip side, you have to buy your winter boots when it is 80 degrees outside and the last thing you can think about is trudging through snow.
To save you from this messed up world, eBay to the rescue. I got online. Did a search for the brand of glove I had. I immediately found a pair that was just a couple of shades lighter than what I had, but otherwise exact. It was listed with Buy It Now. Hit buy, paid via PayPal and was done in exactly 2 minutes and just a few clicks. Amazing. The gloves cost a third of what they would at retail and arrived in perfect condition four days later, brand new with tags still on them.
When we were doing user research for eBay Express, this point kept coming up - off-season retail. It is such a critical market. Why should retail stores dictate when you can buy gloves? What happens if you really need them like I did? They just don’t care because their economics will not let them care. But with eBay’s distributed warehousing, where each seller has a pair or five, the cost structure is very different. Even all these years later, even having worked there for so long, I am still amazed by the power of the model.
So, if you ever want to buy boots when you really need them or a bikini when you really want it, head on over to eBay.
RIAA messing up again
The RIAA could kill music. Left to themselves, they will kill music. All their purported efforts to protect music and artists is a load of junk.
The latest effort is the per-stream fee being imposed on webcasters. This will bascially kill off most, if not all music streaming on the internet.
Yup, RIAA - that should really drive up sales - not!
An excellent overivew and review of economics and potential impact can be found here.
UPDATE: It is RIAA boycott month. Show your support - buy no music from any RIAA affiliated label. Gizmodo’s leading the way. I’m signed up - no new music in March.
TED 2007
I should have been flying out to California today. The plan was to spend the weekend with friends and then head to TED on Tuesday. Very sadly I had to cancel going to TED this year.
TED (Technology, Entertainment, and Design) is a conference that is described by attendees as “brain candy”. And it is. I remember my first TED. James Watson kicked it off. Almost every speaker is enthralling. Imagine four days hearing from amazing people - physicists, environmental scientists, chemists, writers, molecular biologists, environmental scientists, space explorers, land explorers, under-water explorers, filmmakers, architects, designers, Nobel laureates, video game designers, presidents, presidential candidates, heads of NGOs, researchers in every field, Oscar-winning producers, health policy leaders, sports stars, inspirational speakers, religious evangelists (and their detractors), adventurers…
The conversations are fabulous, the people are great. I will truly miss it. Next week when tons of friends will get together in Monterey, I will be in NY! Oh, then, there are the 3-minute talks, musical performances,… ok, I gotta stop! Or I will send myself into further depression. It is the right decision and there’s always next year…
Four days of mind blowing information, fabulous people, lots of friends - I always left refreshed, believing there is hope for the world. Have a great TED 2007, folks.
Photo from: TED website, which owns and retains all copyright.
Fandango - wasting the opportunity
I love Fandango’s core service. Buying tickets is simple, elegant and most importantly it works.
But Fandango probably realized recently that it has all this wonderful data that it could use. For example, it shows me all the films I’ve ever watched. Great — that plus Netflix would be a good encapsulation of most everything I watch.
More recently though, Fandango has discovered “community”. Why shouldn’t Fandango have ratings and reviews? It’s all the rage and everyone is doing it. No reason at all. Except they have no clue how to do it.
Recently I watched Anurag Kashyap’s Black Friday. I bought the tickets on Fandango and watched the movie on February 12th. I got this email on the 13th from Fandango asking me to review the film.
Great, I thought. How prompt. Let me go review it. I click on the link and log in. This is what I get:
Hmm. Fine then, I won’t review it, but why waste my time guys? Oh, but it gets worse.
I get another email on February 15th telling me it is my “Last Chance”. I ignore it. Last chance? I wish. I get yet another email on February 17th with a different title (asking me to tell the community about myself), but with the same request to review Black Friday. Okay, I will give it one last try. Alas, I get the same message again.
Don’t you think if you send me THREE emails asking me to do something that I should be able to actually perform the action? Getting the basics right is important if you want to build community. Either fix the issue or stop emailing me. I’d have been equally fine with either option.
Fandango, please get the basics right.
Design