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Is this insidious or what?

Amazon wants to help you search. They’ve taken Google results, combined them with their own searchable content, plus Alexa content, and they let you search through a new, somewhat annoying vertical interface for web info, images, books, movies and other info.

Some of the look of it is pretty cool – like resizing columns and adding/removing search catalogs quickly and easily.

The idea behind it is sinfully easy as well – they’ll remember your searches for you, when you searched, what you found, what you visisted.

It’s a marketer’s dream. Now Amazon can cross-sell you products you want based on information you want.

I’ll probably not be using it very much – just like I don’t use my GMail account very much. Both are novel in their approaches, and thus genuinely useful compared to past options… but that ease of use invites way more usable knowledge about me than I want to give out.

I’ve been contemplating my interaction with the internet lately. Here’s some ramblings:

Targetted Ads

Is there value to ads focused not just on where you are, but how you got there? If you provided the referer string your web site receives from visitors to Google (or some other advertising service), would the ads that appear on your site be context sensitive? Not just ads that appear because you came here to read a post on Satellite Radio — but because you came from a car customization web site to read a post on Satellite Radio. Seems to me the folks who sell custom car radios would value you more that way, than if you were just reading about car customization OR satellite radio.

Mobility

I love bloglines’ ability to shorten my trips to the web. They show me what’s new on my favorite sites so I don’t have to visit them and perhaps miss something important, because I’ve just viewed 20 other sites and don’t remember what was current on this one last time I saw it, a week ago.
But what I don’t like is that nobody does that with my email — I can’t combine my gmail, broome.us webmail, yahoo mail, isp mail, etc. into a single place online that’s accessible from anywhere (i.e., web-based) and stored encrypted so I can store it on a public server and nobody else can browse it – or throw advertisements at me based on the private information in it.
eMobius (www.emobius.com) might eventually get there, but that’s a long way off. Thunderbird (www.mozilla.com/products/thunderbird) has the spam/interface features I like, but doesn’t let you store your settings online – not that I know of, anyway. The idea here is to leave your email on its own server and just use some happy interface to filter spam on those email accounts, remember what’s been read, etc. The settings used by that interface get stored online, so you can catch up on your favorite info (rss, email, etc) from home or vacation without skipping a beat. You can download the interface to use wherever you are, or log in to a web-based version. Seems like someobody would’ve thought of that already.

LG 4015 – second thoughts

My new cell phone has some annoying behavior. The volume buttons are on the side, right where your thumb goes to have a conversation — which is good. It’s also right where your thumb goes when you pick it out of your pocket. It beeps every time the button is hit, even when the clamshell case is closed and it doesn’t actually do anything. This means your pocket constantly beeps when your car keys bump it during the walk through the office. Goofy.

No rifle for you! Come back, one year!

Had to buy a new fridge when the free one finally gave up the ghost about a month ago. That put a serious vacuum in the funds I was saving, hoping to buy the Browning A-bolt Hunter II rifle I’d been eyeing. Which is okay, really, since Ps’ Uncle Wayne just keeps saying “he doesn’t need a gun” – I can just borrow one of his when I go hunting with him in November. But it’s not the same as having your own, and getting comfortable with it at the range. I learned by shooting a 9mm handgun a few times that my aim needs some help. Maybe I can squeeze a .22 into the budget and get used to that.

Free to a good home: 2 dogs

This pains me, but my dogs and my daughter are incompatible. Both are great things by themselves, but when Sarah startled Maryn the other day, she got snapped at. Daughter stays, dogs must go. They’re wonderfully behaved, housebroken, sleep in portable metal crates, current on all their shots. If I like you, I’ll even give you the crates, the 40-pound bag of food I bought them most recently, all their toys, collars, leashes, etc. One stipulation – they have to go to the same home, and they need love. Maryn will track your hand down to get a pat on the head, if she can. I’ll miss that.

I have an hour commute to and from work, every day. My radio selections seem to alternate between NPR, WJR (AM Talk Radio) and 89X (Alternative Rock). This presents a problem – NPR goes into stories I don’t care to hear, WJR has long and frequently commercial breaks aimed at auto executives in the Detroit area, and 89X has annoying promos and commercials, on top of the 50% of their play list I don’t care for.

Furthermore, at least twice a year I drive across the country and would love to still listen to my home town team’s football games (college and pro), hockey games, and keep the regular schedule for the shows I enjoy listening to — Car Talk on NPR, for one.

So in desperation, I’ve been looking at Satellite Radio options. My Requirements:
First: portable, so I can take it from the car into the office. Or the hotel room. Or wherever.
Second: online, so I can listen from my desk at work or home without having to carry the radio stuff around, or buy extra parts I really don’t need.
Third: Lineup including: Detroit traffic and weather, NPR (Fox would be nice), Childrens’ programming (I’ve got 1 kid, and 1 on the way, after all), Detroit sports coverage, University of Michigan football, Alabama Crimson Tide football (for my wife), commercial-free music, and conservative talk radio.

That in mind, try visiting either of the two providers’ web sites to see if they offer everything I want:
www.xmradio.com / www.sirius.com

What? No complete channel listing? Are you SIRIUS? XM’s got it, but wait — neither has a site search!? Sirius has a site map, but I still can’t search for what I’m after. This is unusable. This is stupid.

But I’ll have patience. Ok:
Detroit Traffic & weather: XM Yes, Sirius Maybe. It seems Detroit traffic/weather splits a channel with Pittsburgh on Sirius. Does it change if I drive through Pittsburgh when I’m usually in Detroit? Doesn’t say. Dumb.

NPR: Sirius has it. XM doesn’t. But XM does have Fox, CNN, BBC and Bloomberg. I can get by with that. Sirius has these, too. Call it a draw, with a very slight edge to Sirius for having NPR. I like my Car Talk.

Childrens’ Programming: Sirius 1 (Radio Disney), XM 2 (also Disney Radio, in additon to XM Kids). The edge here goes to XM – If I hear one more “Wiggles” song I might vomit, and if taking that risk is my only choice on Sirius, that sucks.

Detroit Sports Coverage: I’m after Red Wings hockey, Michigan football, Lions football. That’s all. XM has big-ten coverage, but wait… The schedule only has one Michigan game this month. They play Notre Dame next week, and that’s left out?? Not good. Sirius covered last week’s Michigan game, but has no schedule for next week. Not confidence inspiring.

Alabama football: Hmm. XM has no SEC coverage? Certainly not on their web site. Sirius covered Alabama and Utah last week, but again, no future schedule. And WHY do I have to keep opening a PDF to see Sirius’ schedule!? Stupid.

Commercial-free music and conservative talk are a wash. They both appear in both offerings.

So bottom line, neither of these services really offer everything I’m after. And both of their web sites could use a good usability project. So I think for now I’ll keep my money in my pocket. I’m not into paying $10-13 per month, plus startup fees (Sirius charges $15 on top of equipment costs!), plus the equipment costs themselves ($100-200).

If anyone knows any different than I’ve seen on their web sites, let me know.