Regardless of the search engine, the system still seems to lack the ability to return some of the simpler searches. There are several reasons that this could be the case, but as search engines continue to compete to provide users with relevant results, it shouldÂ? become less important how well a site is optimized for search engines and more important that search engines provide a user what they are looking for.

What prompted this article was a very standard search I had considered doing on the Internet the other day. I think I would represent a great portion of the population in what I was attempting to do - go to a movie. There wasn’t any specific movie that I wanted to see, and instead was looking to be inspired. I was on the phone, and the young lady on the other end of the line was on the computer, while I was choosing to use the newspaper at the time, but if I was going to do a search, it would have been: colossus showtimes (Google, MSN, Yahoo!).

First, let’s consider one aspect of the search: showtimes. The dictionary.com definition for showtimes:

1 result for: showtimes

show·time or show time (shtm) n.� � The time at which an entertainment, such as the showing of a movie, is scheduled to start. Slang. The time at which an activity is to begin.

The wordÂ? quite clearly refers to movie showtimes as a most logical choice when the word showtimes is suggested.Â?

I live in Vancouver, Canada, and in the area there are obviously several different choices for movie showtimes and theaters, and the word itself is so unclear that I cannot expect to get the desired results. However, by adding the word colossus, and again, reminding everyone that I live in Vancouver, Canada, the word should be automatically associated with Colossus Langley.

Of course giving me the Famous Players/Cineplex Odeon website itself probably doesn’t actually matter. I’m sure I could have only searched pages in Canada and increased the chances of returning the results I wanted. I could have added Langley. In fact, I have a feeling that, as an avid Internet user that isÂ? quite adept at searching, I could have gotten the exact results I wanted quite easily. The problem is the average user can’t. With a company like Google who obviously leads the way with their search technology and banks the farm on their ability to return the results that users will click on, this seems to be something they miss or are missing right now. It reminds me of a NYT article I’ve linked to a few times, where Marissa Mayer, Google’s vice president for search products and user experience, talked about the gap in their products andÂ? how it was easier to develop pioneering technology than something prosaic.

There might be certain roadblocks that prevent the major search engines from really giving a user the results the user wants, but if the results aren’t what the user wants, the user won’t go there to get them. Instead, they’ll grab the paper, flip to the Entertainment section, and read them there. Why? Because it’s always the same information in the same place and provides the information they really want. Sounds like a good model for a website or a search engine to evolve in to.

Having been familiar with the Rules Of Bar Camp, it is of course my duty to be writing this article (see the 2nd Rule). I was quite disappointed to not make it back out on Saturday, but as I mentioned to many people, I did have a wedding to go to that afternoon in Mission, and based on the timing of everything, I just couldn’t add that much stress to my weekend. Living out in the Valley is obviously a big part of this, and had I been prepared, staying the night would have probably been the best option, but hindsight is 20:20, isn’t it?

I was quite impressed with the energy that surrounded the event. People were out having fun, and at the same time, were doing so while discussing every aspect of the industry. The most impressive part of the whole event might have beenÂ? Bryght’s office. From the amazing view through the smashed out brick wall,Â? up the near-death staircase to the top of the world, the whole place just seems like it will be a great place to work. Hopefully the video will be made available, but I have nothing to report on that at this point.

BarCamp Vancouver is tonight. Should be a great event. Meet new people, learn new things, share what you learned - and heck, there will even be pizza and beer. How can anyone come up with something better?

Microsoft released some information about some of the video searching that it has been researching. Check outÂ? this post about it at TechCrunch. It’s just the start of big changes in search from Microsoft. I talked about it in a post earlier this month. There’s the 3D search, the deal with Facebook, and now video searching. The service is at beta.search.live.com. I’m not saying that Google has to watch out, but I still think people aren’t giving Microsoft and the Live initiative the credit it deserves, but they’ll discover soon enough that Microsoft is still a dominant force on the Internet.

Not that we’ve talked about media moving towards the Internet and companies tapping into their userbases to sell these types of services, or anything even remotely similar to thatÂ? (here, here, here, here, etc. - I’m sure you get the point, it’s a common theme for us).Â? Well, here’s a post with the detailsÂ? about theÂ? big, new deal for AOL.

It’s almost humourous (although people got hurt, so it isn’t really funny at all)Â? seeing Apple having to recall their laptops and batteries so soon after Dell had done the same thing. What’s interesting is that both sets of batteries seem to be from a Sony subsidiary, who will foot the bill for the recalls of both companies - almost 6 million batteries.

It was a great week so far, highlighted by the success of the nPost.com event Rob and I helped host on Tuesday. For everyone involved, it seemed to be a great event, but I did keep this little secret in the name of having music (which ended up being much too loud, didn’t it?). Hope you enjoy and are interested in Silicon Vancouver or the Silicon Valley North.

My Very Easy Map Just Shows Us Nine Planets - Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto. Millions ofÂ? childrenÂ? throughout the years have probably taken great care to remember the saying that not only helps remember the names of the planets, but also the order in which they appearÂ? moving away from the sun. Of course this is only half the story, because as we all know the shape of Pluto’s orbit caused it to switch positions with Neptune for several years in a row. Of COURSE we all knew that, right?

So, for the rest of the world, there’s probably little significance to the fact that Pluto is no longer considered a planet, or at least not a classical planet, but has rather been categorized as a dwarf planet. Potentially, the asteroid Ceres and the recently discovered 2003 UB313 will also be grouped with Pluto in this new category. Charon, Pluto’s largest moon and the other body that was considered for this classification will not be grouped into the dwarf planet category.

Probably not that significant in the world of the Internet, but what if there was a vote on Web 2.0 companies? We could all meet at another Techcrunch event and argue whether or notÂ? MySpace should be considered a classical Web 2.0 company.

Dictionary.com is one of my absolute favourite resources on the web, and seems to have recently undergone a much-needed update on the look of the site. Coming back with a softer, tighter setup, the two images I was able to get for the site even had the same
ads, making the comparison of the two layouts even more interesting. The old layout seemed too much like one of those fake urls that are basically ad-based search portals, similar to this one. I think the new layout on the page is easier to read. The secondary menu for the Thesaurus and Encyclopedia is nicer, and overall the site seems less abrasive with the new look. One of the interesting pointsÂ? on the site is that it still isn’t Ajaxed. Obviously a huge undertaking that would involve a complete re-write of the site, but definitely the direction for the siteÂ? to go in next. Some people reading this may wonder how significant it really is that the site would change it’s look. Well, as a site ranked in the top 200 by Alexa that seems to do better than both the Merriam-Webster Online dictionary and Oxford English dictionary, two larger printed dictionary companies, the site has similar importance to that of Wikipedia, although not quite as grand in scale.