People have been speculating for a while that Google would get rid of the "I'm Feeling Lucky" button on its main search interface. About 1 percent of Google searches reportedly employ the button, which takes you straight to the top search result and which helped Google establish its reputation as a laser-accurate information retriever in the late 1990s. But when Web users go directly to the page they want, Google misses a chance to display the ads that go with its search results.

Now the company seems to be at least experimenting with an even more stripped-down page than the famously minimal Google marquee. It lacks any buttons. My Google page today says "Press Enter to Search" under the search field, and that's it. Is this what everybody is seeing today? Is anybody still seeing "I'm Feeling Lucky"?

UPDATE: At least some foreign language Google versions still have the "lucky" option.
Including the Pig Latin UI. "I'mway Eelingfay Uckylay"

Posted by Jay Hancock at 3:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)
Categories: Technology & Innovation
        

In recent years the physics Nobel has more or less oscillated between recipients who did basic research that hasn't yet translated into consumer technology and and those who set the stage for applications and products. Last year's prize went for work on "broken symmetry" in subatomic physics. The 2007 prize went for the discovery that underlies how computer hard drives work. The year before that it went to people who worked on cosmic radiation -- and so forth.

This year technology grabbed back the trophy. It was shared by researchers who discovered the process that underlies today's digital cameras and who laid the ground for transmission of data through glass fibers. (What took the committee so long to annoint Charles Kao?)

At a time of faltering innovation and a terrible economy, we need more Charles Kaos, Willard Boyles and George Smiths, without whom today's economy might look even worse.

Posted by Jay Hancock at 10:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
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From Bloomberg:

Twitter Inc., the social-networking site used by everyone from Oprah Winfrey to British royalty, received a “significant” round of venture capital financing from firms including T. Rowe Price Group Inc.

Other investors include Insight Venture Partners, Institutional Venture Partners, Spark Capital and Benchmark Capital, Twitter said today on its blog. Twitter’s previous round of funding was $35 million in February, bringing its total at the time to more than $50 million. The company has yet to report any significant revenue.

Posted by Jay Hancock at 3:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
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During the dot-com bubble of 1999, I would have put a tiny, online seller of shoes into the same category with Pets.com, Babytoys.com (or whatever) and all the other soon-to-be dead online merchants. I would have been wrong.

Shoes are hard to fit and hard to buy over the Web. They seemed to be one of those "high-touch" products that you have to see in person to buy. The solution that Zappos hit upon -- free shipping for both orders and returns -- figured to wipe out profits. It didn't. Now Amazon is buying Zappos for $800 million.

Helping Zappos (and Amazon), of course, is the ability to avoid charging most customers for state sale taxes. This gives it an unfair advantage over bricks/mortar stores that fuel local economies. I wonder how competitive Zappos would be if it had to operate under the same rules as Macy's or Payless Shoe Source.

Posted by Jay Hancock at 3:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: Technology & Innovation
        

A reader writes:

In your column in the Wednesday, 22 July issue of 'The Baltimore Sun', you commented, "...Robert Noyce launched the cyber age by inventing the silicon-based integrated circuit...".

You are correct that Mr. Noyce invented the silicon-based integrated circuit (IC). However it should be noted that Mr. Jack Kilby was the first to demonstrate an operational IC on 12 September 1958. Mr. Noyce independently developed his IC about 6 months later.

Mr. Kilby and Mr. Noyce are considered co-inventors of the IC.

As an electrical engineer and former Texas Instruments employee, I could not stand by and let Mr. Noyce get an unfair amount of credit for the invention of the IC.

My reply:

Thanks for the note and sticking up for TI. Didn’t mean to slight Jack Kilby, but I was trying in an offhand way to observe the Noyce’s 50th anniversary – as you know Kilby’s anniversary was last year. Since silicon and not germanium became the standard, it seemed reasonable to mention Noyce. You didn’t – but could have – also argued against my characterization of the IC as the beginning of the cyber age. What about transistors? What about ENIAC etc. But that’s another conversation!

Posted by Jay Hancock at 10:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
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Attention: This post was not made using MS Word's "New Blog Post" feature. Has any post on any subject for any blog ever used this useless appendage that slows down Word even more? Coming next from Word: "New Tweet" ? "New Text Msg" ? The one I want: "New Great American Novel"

Posted by Jay Hancock at 8:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Technology & Innovation
        

I'm sorry. Gmail may be out of beta. Google Docs most definitely is not. That is all.

Posted by Jay Hancock at 8:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Technology & Innovation
        

Check out The Sun's new tech blog, BaltTech, authored by Gus Sentementes.

Somewhere out there, maybe here in Maryland, the next Google could be being born right now. Maybe it'll be a white-hot startup. Or maybe it'll branch out of groundbreaking work done by students and professors at one of Maryland's colleges and universities. Either way, I want to be there to Tweet it, blog it, report it, photograph it, and videotape it. (Did i just say videotape?)

Posted by Jay Hancock at 10:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Technology & Innovation