40 Days of Bed Head - Day 40

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This is the final entry in my 40 Days of Bed Head project. We set out to explore the wonderful world of bed head and found it to be, well, um… mostly silly.

Before we get to the final entry, here are a few highlights of some of my own favorite photos from the series.

• Vertical Peaks Bed Head
• Reverend Jim Bed Head
• Varmint Bed Head
• Swamped Bed Head
• Up-do Bed Head
• Wizard Bed Head
• Donald Trump Bed Head
• Surfing Bead Head

Coming up I’ll put all these bed head photos into a gallery so y’all can look through them all in one place. In the meantime here’s the last entry for your viewing pleasure.

Enjoy!

Bed Head Day 39

40 Days of Bed Head - Day 39

We’re in the middle of my 40 Days of Bed Head project.

We’re getting close to the end of this silliness but I still got the vertical action here.

Bed Head Day 38 | Bed Head Day 40

40 Days of Bed Head - Day 38

We’re in the middle of my 40 Days of Bed Head project.

The anti-gravity is set on low today. I think that’s a sign I should have stayed in bed longer.

Bed Head Day 37 | Bed Head Day 39

40 Days of Bed Head - Day 37

We’re in the middle of my 40 Days of Bed Head project.

We took a break for a few days while I was on vacation because I had spotty internet connections. But now I’m back home, refreshed and ready to finish out this silliness.

Of course it is always a bit challenging to get back in the saddle after being out for a bit. I’m had a bit of a challenging time getting back up and running.

But we’ll get there.

Bed Head Day 36 | Bed Head Day 38

On Vacation

Internet connections have been a little on the spotty side during our trip this weekend so I’m temporarily suspending the Bed Head project until I return home in the middle of the week.

But never fear, Gorgeous and I are spending our time in places like this:

Glenwood Springs is just the sort of place we needed to find to clear our heads and unwind. The hot spring pools are totally relaxing.

And anyplace that needs a warning sign like this one is my kinda place!

Going for a Soak

Gorgeous and I are taking a much needed break this weekend. Tomorrow is our 10th anniversary!

So we decided to make it special. We’re heading to Colorado to spend some time in the mountains. That will be a big change for us living here in Savannah. They call the area around here the Low Country because it is mostly tidal marshlands.

No mountains within almost a day’s drive of here.

Compare that to where we’re going:

View Larger Map

We’ll have mountains all around us. Not much flat there at all, really.

Web Cams & Twitter

Gorgeous picked the place we’re going because they have huge hot spring fed swimming pool that stays 90 degrees year round. We plan to spend lots of time there so you just might catch us on their web cam this weekend.

I plan to keep up with my Bed Head photos and finish out the series from on the road.

However the best way to track us will be to follow me on Twitter. I’ll be posting updates throughout the weekend from my cell phone.

When we get back next week I’ll be thoroughly soaked, refreshed, and ready to hit the ground running. There is so much to do and I’m looking forward to what all the weeks ahead have for us.

We’ll catch you on the back side.

Enjoy!

40 Days of Bed Head - Day 36

We’re in the middle of my 40 Days of Bed Head project.

Gotta do some last minute packing this morning before we catch our flight out. Hope I don’t forget anything!

Feel free to add your captions in the comments section.

Bed Head Day 35 | Bed Head Day 37

40 Days of Bed Head - Day 35

We’re in the middle of my 40 Days of Bed Head project.

I think I might be allergic to mornings. Sometimes they’re just plain scary.

Feel free to add your captions in the comments section.

Bed Head Day 34 | Bed Head Day 36

40 Days of Bed Head - Day 34

We’re in the middle of my 40 Days of Bed Head project.

Catch a wave and you’re sitting on top of the world.

Feel free to add your captions in the comments section.

Bed Head Day 33 | Bed Head Day 35

Yahoo Working on a New Kind of Search

Chris Brogan shared that Yahoo is considering a new approach to serving up search results. He describes it as The Sound of Content Ripping Free From Its Page. I’m not sure it will be as dramatic as all that for a couple reasons.

What’s at the heart of Chris’ concern is this short post over at Business Week about what they labeled Yahoo’s Linkless Search. Here’s the part Chris finds concerning

Yahoo’s goal is to build a vast universe of related information, so that we get the info we’re looking for, without having to click on links. Search engines are already moving toward this. More and more, the information pops up on the result pages. But what Raghavan is describing sounds very much like an effort to push relevant Web pages down, or even out of the equation. “We’re not giving you pages, we’re giving you information synthesized from other pages.”

I’ve emphasized the parts that I think probably give Chris pause.

Search Without Links

At first brush the concept sounds a little hair brained to me.

From a publisher perspective it sounds goofy because with this approach to search Yahoo is choosing what parts of my content their user really “needs” to see rather than showing them my site and letting them choose the relevant content in context with the entire page.

From a user stand point I generally prefer to have the option to click through to the raw data. The idea of a synopsis makes sense. But I’d still want to see a link where I can click through to the source material. However I wonder if the average internet user feels the same way.

From Yahoo’s perspective it might make sense. IF they are looking at search as a way to corral people onto their site rather than as a gateway to other sites. If Yahoo’s intent is to build cull-de-sacs where “all roads lead to Yahoo” then this is probably one way to accomplish that goal.

Solving a Non-existent Problem

Here’s the thing. It seems to me that Yahoo is attempting to solve a “problem” that doesn’t exist. Here is an example of the “problem” as Yahoo sees it:

In the current mode, when we’re looking for, say, a restaurant in Hoboken, we query, read a web page, query again for reviews, and then again for directions.

Sounds like a huge burden, right? Yahoo claims that if someone is looking to check out a restaurant then they have to do 3 separate searches to find the information they need to make an informed decision. Why not simplify that to 1 search?

The thing is you already can get all that info from one search. Let me demonstrate.

Take one of my favorite local restaurants, the New South Cafe right here in Savannah. When I enter in “New South Cafe, Savannah, GA” into Google I get links to the following info on the first page:

• Restaurant Website
• Directions
• Several Reviews
• Some Community Involvement Info about the Restaurant

And that’s with one search, not three. Looks like Google’s already accomplishing what Yahoo is “researching” and is still ushering people to the content creators’ web sites. Everybody wins.

And here’s something interesting. Search for the same thing in Yahoo, “New South Cafe, Savannah, GA” and you get similar info. I see the restaurant’s web site, directions, and reviews all on the front page.

Yahoo’s Faulty Info

The top Yahoo results point to pages of info that are still on Yahoo web sites, though. Interestingly one of the top results gives a bogus address for the restaurant. Notice the phone numbers for the two entries are the same.

But folks following their directions to that location wouldn’t find the restaurant because it isn’t there. You’d have to click through to the restaurant’s main web site anyway to find out which location is the correct one. Or I you could just go over to Google and double check your search I suppose. They seem to have the location right somehow. Of course they aren’t pushing users to another Google page.

If the current Yahoo web sites can’t contain a simple piece of info like the location of a restaurant that’s been the same for at least the 4 years I’ve been in town, how do they expect to amass relevant data on their sites for the millions of searches that internet users conduct every day?

Bottom Line

I don’t think folks should get unduly worried about Yahoo! turning the search engine world on its ear with this new approach to search. It seems more likely to me that Yahoo will be collating masses numbers of pages with dubious content value this way.

If this is really what they are counting on to break the strangle-hold Google has on the search market and fend off a hostile take over from Microsoft then they are probably in worse shape than most folks give them credit for.

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