What Bing.com failed to learn from Excite, Lycos, Ask Jeeves, etc.


 
What do Excite, Lycos, and Ask Jeeves have in common with the new Bing.com search engine? They all had flashy brand building commercials that tried to paint their search engines as more than just technology. They were supposed to be emotional, etherial, existential, plus any other "e" word you can think of. Remember Excite's "Have You Been Experienced" ads featuring Jimi Hendrix's song? Now what do Excite, Lyocs, and Ask Jeeves also have in common? As search engines, they're all garbage and except for Ask Jeeves, largely out of the search business (Ask Jeeves to follow shortly). How many television ads have you seen for Google? Maybe there's something to be said about concentrating your resources on building the best technology instead of hiring the best ad agency.
 
For those who don't know, Bing.com is Microsoft's newly launched search engine. I've tried it and it's not bad. It's not great, but it's far from the crappy search results that Live.com spit out. Plus they have some interesting features like the image search and video search. But Microsoft as of late seems to be all about the glitz and marketing as opposed to the real technology. With all the money at their disposal why not hire the best and the brightest engineers and have them build the best search engine possible? It makes me wonder whether all the money has made them complacent. It's always easier to throw money at an ad agency then to actually sit down and do the work.

"Coda unveils 'practical' all-electric sedan" - But who would want to buy it?

CNET News reports that Coda Automotive, a new electric auto company, is launching a "practical" sedan called The Coda. Though I applaud any alternative energy automobile, this one leaves me wanting more. First, its design is horrible. There are Hyundai's I would rather be seen in than this car. Second, it's not cheap. At $45K, it's more expensive than a BMW 3 Series and just $1K cheaper than a 5 Series! To be fair, The Coda can be up to $10K cheaper with federal and state tax credits/incentives.

Obviously, the "practical" reference in the title of the article suggests that it's making a jab at Tesla Motors. I'll give you that the $100K+ Roadster is a little bit eccentric for most people. However, the Model S is handily a much better car in all facets than The Coda. First off, it's only $5K more expensive. Second, it has room for 7 (5 adults + 2 kids) versus 5. Third, it has more range - 160 miles (expandable to 300!) versus 120 miles. Let's not forget that the Model S does 0-60 in just 5.6 seconds versus almost 11 seconds for The Coda. And lastly, it's just a much more elegantly designed car that compares with the design qualities of higher end car manufacturers like BMW, Mercedes, Lexus, etc.

Kudos to you Coda, for adding another choice to the electric car pantheon. I'm still holding out for a Model S.

My haul from the Vietnamese deli

Here's a little secret... the best time to go to the Vietnamese deli is just before it closes. Usually, you can get a ton of high quality food for super cheap. Most Vietnamese deli's cook all the day's food fresh and don't like leftovers. It's just as good as what you would have gotten a few hours earlier but about half the price. And if you're a regular, you can pretty much negotiate your own prices.
 
We got a big tray of xa xiu chow mein, combination fried rice, stir fried squid, boiled egg and pork stew, plus two desserts. Final price - $13.50. This is probably enough food for 2+ meals. If I would have bought this a few hours ago, it would have been about $25.

An evening at Santana Row

We were visiting friends yesterday in the South Bay for dinner and a movie. We ended up hanging out at Santana Row before the movie (specifically for Pink Berry). I'm actually quite amazed at how many people were there eating, drinking, shopping, etc. Guess the recession hasn't really hit Santana Row that much. I've noticed attendance at other mix-use malls like Emeryville's Bay Street has gone down compared to a few years ago.
 
I was thinking how much this place reminded me of a Vegas theme hotel, specifically the Venetian. Maybe it was the live music, the promenade, or the formulaic restaurant/bar/clubs. Actually, it was probably all the girls in skimpy dresses sloppily/drunkenly coming out of the bars.