Right Up Top » Yahoo! Related

Just Wait ‘Till Next Year?

jake — Fri, 09 May 2008 01:41:12 +0000

I needed a few days to get over the Sharks’ heartbreaking 129 minute loss to the Dallas Stars on Sunday. By the end of that game, watching the players gasp for air was so painful that I almost forgot the Sharks entire season was hanging on one goal. And then it was all over. Regardless, it’s been a great season. I’ve really enjoyed being at the games, especially the incredible game 7 win over Calgary, which was by far the best sporting event I’ve ever been to:

<\/param><\/param><\/embed><\/object><\/div>";" alt="">

Meanwhile, the NHL experts blog at Yahoo! Sports has been running some very funny eulogies for teams that get knocked out of the playoffs, and the Sharks eulogy is up here. Honestly, it’s not that great; it’s not nearly mean enough. This one for the flames is totally brutal, which is what makes it hilarious. I was really hoping for some nasty digs at my favorite players (Brian Campbell in particular has been made into a hot scapegoat for this year’s annual second round breakdown), and some potshots at the city of San Jose. This comic was good, though:

Anyways, like I said, it’s been a fun season, and I’m (once again) looking forward to next year with high hopes. Maybe I’ll get a Brian Campbell jersey so when they release him in the off season I’ll have a jersey for a guy that was only on the team one year, that’s always fun. And meanwhile, I get to watch the Stars get completely thrashed by the Wings (ooh, I should submit one of those obits for the Dallas stars when after they get trounced), and the series in Pennsylvania should be really fun to watch. And I’d better enjoy it while it lasts, since the period between the end of the NHL playoffs and the start of football season usually involves listening to my friends blab on and on about fantasy baseball every night.

Listening to: Dinosaur Jr. – Let It Ride

Freestyle

jake — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 01:31:47 +0000

One of the cool features we launched in the new Yahoo! Video is the new embeddable playlist player. You can create a custom playlist (or choose one of the many playlists provided by Yahoo! editorial folks at various Yahoo! properties) and embed that playlist anywhere.

Below, I’ve embedded the Yahoo! Music: Hip-Hop playlist; which is always updating, but currently contains a bunch of videos submitted by users entering the “Pass the Mic” Pepsi Smash contest. Check these out; I hope these dudes have day jobs.

It’s on.

jake — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 21:06:09 +0000

No related posts.

Buying the Indispensable Opposition

jake — Mon, 21 Mar 2005 22:26:15 +0000

It seems my switching to Flickr for my photo hosting was timely; this weekend we bought them. I’m very pumped about this, their service is fantastic. If you haven’t played with it, check it out at flickr.com or just click on one of the photos in the left column there.

In other news, I’ve basically been gearing up for the big Japan trip. I plan on blogging as much as possible during the trip, so if you’re interested in following our travels, this is the place to be. I also plan on uploading as many pictures as possible as I take them.

I’m not going to New York, and while slightly heartbroken, I can only hope the Pillows return to tour again. As it is, I guess could still go to see them at the Chicago anime convention , but that would be truly painful: I’d hate to reduce a band that’s been playing for 15 years to the few songs they contributed to an anime soundtrack. Plus, I went to one of those conventions once; all I can say is, I don’t ever want to do that again.

Lastly, while digging through some old cassette tapes, I discovered a copy of the recording of my grandmother testifying before the House Un-american Activities Committe (HUAC) in 1954. I’d heard it before, but every few years I rediscover it, and am always blown away. Hearing a short, female, jewish, communist attorney brow-beat congressmen (in the fifties, no less) is really quite an experience. She quotes extensively from Walter Lippman’s Indespendable Opposition during the hearing; after reading that document, I found it to be as relevant today as it was then. I’ll leave you with one quote my grandmother used in the hearing:

We take, it seems to me, a naïvely self-righteous view when we argue as if the right of our opponents to speak were something that we protect because we are magnanimous, noble, and unselfish. The compelling reason why, if liberty of opinion did not exist, we should have to invent it, why it will eventually have to be restored in all civilized countries where it is now suppressed, is that we must protect the right of our opponents to speak because we must hear what they have to say. … For there is a point, the point at which things really matter, where the freedom of others is no longer a question of their right but of our own need.

Feel the Y!Q

jake — Thu, 03 Feb 2005 19:44:09 +0000

Last night we quietly launched our latest badassical thingamajig: Y!Q. Y!Q is contextual search; it allows you to do Yahoo! searches within the context of a chunk of text. That text could be a web page, a news article, a blog entry, your own words, whatever. More info on how to use the service is here.

As an example of what you can do with Y!Q, I’ve added related search buttons at the bottom of each article. These bring up popups which contain Yahoo! Search results relevant to the specific article. You can then continue searching within the context of that article. Pretty cool stuff.

Lastly, here’s the current playlist:

!!! – S/T EP
Bonnie Prince Billy and Matt Sweeney – Superwolf
Colin Meloy – Colin Meloy does Morrissey
Helium – The Dirt of Luck
James Brown – Live at the Apollo (Deluxe Edition)
LCD Soundsystem – S/T LP
M83 – Before the Dawn Heals Us
Soledad Brothers – Live at Schubas 10/30/2004
Mirah – Advisory Committee
Mission of Burma – The Horrible Truth about Burma
The Decemberists – Picaresque

Been meaning to get the new Coachwhips album too, I’m pretty excited about that one. And of course I can’t wait for the new Spoon. Cheers!

Video Search Faceoff: Yahoo! vs. Google

jake — Tue, 25 Jan 2005 19:09:24 +0000

So Google launched their video search last night; we launched ours back in December and last night we pushed it to the front pages of Yahoo! and Yahoo! Search, as well as adding the Video tab to the search results page (which we affectionately call the SRP or "serp").

Google went in a slightly different direction here; their search is based on searching closed captions and video transcripts instead of looking for actual video. The idea is interesting and has great potential, but at this point their product is pretty useless. For one, relevancy is plain awful: take a look at the query yahoo. All of the matches are for SBC Yahoo! DSL ads on the sides of the pages; there is not a single relevant result. Or take for example the search Blonde Redhead, which returns 3 results of transcripts regarding makeovers and nothing about the band. Plus, if you can actually find anything you’re looking for with Google, it's just downright frustrating not to be able to actually watch the videos. Yahoo! Video Search on the other hand, returns useful results; again, try Blonde Redhead and you’ll get a bunch of relevant results including a live in-studio performance and some music videos, which you can click on to watch. And I didn’t hand pick these queries to make us look good; these were the first two I tried.

We went through a lot of cult worship before when Yahoo! first exploded in the mid-nineties, and it all wears thin once the company grows and the bottom line becomes important. This is the first time Google has launched a sub-standard product, I think we’re starting to see the pressure kick in and Google’s magic fade.

More Examples I Tried:

The Daily Show on Google vs. Yahoo!
buffy musical on Google vs. Yahoo!
anime on Google vs. Yahoo!
warcraft on Google vs. Yahoo!

i’m famous

jake — Tue, 26 Oct 2004 19:04:11 +0000

posting from NYC… just noticed my ysearchblog.com entry went out. welcome to all newcomers! Related posts:long time no blog Y! Search Blog This is why i keep reading Pitchfork Related posts:

still twitterpated

jake — Thu, 07 Oct 2004 19:36:24 +0000

…but eking out my measly pies. Developments galore, folks. It’s been a crazy couple weeks. Peaks and valleys, floods and droughts. But that’s life.

Politics

Well both the first Presidential and only Vice-Presidential debates have come and gone. I thought Kerry edged out Bush in the first prezzie debate, but I’m pretty biased. It just seemed that Kerry was consistently talking about his plan and simultaneously exposing the failures of the Bush Administration (and he was suprisingly succinct and clear), while Bush simply attacked Kerry’s character over and over. I’d like to hear Bush attempt to talk a bit more about what his administration has done, mainly because I think it’s all horrible.

As for the Veep debates, I thought that one was a draw. Edwards was charismatic and all, but he avoided a number of key issues and didn’t rebutt a few of Cheney’s more damaging points (such as Cheney’s distortion of his senate voting and attendance records). And Cheney (while a total douchebag in the sense that I disagree with him on just about everything) at least gives you the impression that he knows what’s he’s talking about.

Music

The current playlist looks like this:

Brian Wilson – Smile
Charles Bissel – Live at Schubas
Dungen – Ta Det Lungt
Fiery Furnaces – Gallowsbird’s Park
Interpol – Antics
Pinback – Blue Screen Life
Rogue Wave – Out of the Shadow
Saturday Looks Good To Me – All Your Summer Songs
The Shins – Chutes Too Narrow
Viva Voce – The Heat Can Melt Your Brain

Went to the Muffs show on Tuesday, they were pretty good but played a little too long. What’s crazy is that there was like no one there… the first time I saw the Muffs was at the Fillmore in the mid 90s and it was packed, and Tuesday they played BotH and it was empty. How the mighty have fallen.

More good shows coming up in October:

Oct 11 – Dirtbombs
Oct 15 – Fiery Furnaces
Oct 17 – Hot Water Music
Oct 28 – Metric
Oct 29 – Britt Daniel / Nedelle

Yahoo! Stuff

All hail the arrival of My Yahoo! Search!! This product is the result of over a year’s work from tons of people on this team, myself included. Nice to have it out, finally. Let me know what you think.

We launched a new huge image index on Yahoo! Image Search. It totally rocks.

Personal Junk

This week has been… intense. I’ve done a few things I didn’t think I’d ever do; I think I was so intent on getting what I wanted that lost sight of where I was. I’m ashamed, and happy, and ashamed that I’m happy. Live and learn, I guess. And at least it’s been exciting.

Tommorrow Landis and I are throwing a debate party for anyone who wants to come and watch. Should be fun.

I’ll leave you with these verses from the Arcade Fire record that have been ringing in my ears this last week:

they say a watched pot won’t ever boil
well i closed my eyes and nothing changed
just some water getting hotter
in the flame

it’s not a lover i want no more
and it’s not heaven i’m pining for
but there’s some spirit i used to know
that’s been drowned out by the radio

USA Today: Y! vs G

jake — Fri, 20 Aug 2004 00:40:07 +0000

USA Today published an article today comparing Google and Yahoo! across a number of properties, including search, mail, toolbars, etc. In general, they were fair (and we won most of the matchups). However, I wanted to debunk some of their fallacies regarding web search. Here’s their evaluation of Yahoo! Search:

Yahoo dumped Google in February to introduce its own search technology, and it’s now a respectable second choice. It doesn’t have definitions or a calculator in its search fields, and you can’t use search to look up people’s phone numbers. You’ll have to go to other parts of Yahoo where all this is possible. But more often than not, the Web site search results are almost as good as, if not on par with, Google.

Now let’s take a look at a few Yahoo! Searches:

their sample calculator query: 5+2*2
a dictionary query: define misinformed
a phone number query: sheldon orloff, oakland ca

And look at this: do the same dictionary query on Google, and you’ll notice there is no definition! You have to search for misinform to get dictionary results; I guess Google doesn’t think inflected forms are real words.

Admittedly, on Y! Search the phone number lookup is yellow instead of white pages; on Google you get my stepfather’s home phone number and address instead of his office. Then again, try searching for my dad on google and you get his law offices; they only use white pages as a fallover from yellow pages.

I think USA Today owes us an apology.

Y! Search Blog

jake — Wed, 18 Aug 2004 21:54:37 +0000

We also just launched the Yahoo! Search blog, in case you’re interested in following the public face of what I do every day. Who knows; maybe I’ll even post one of these days.

Enjoy.