CogBlog

If you deliver video online you are probably familiar with how dramatically it can chew through your available hosting bandwidth. Video files are quite large compared to your typical html/image files, so all it takes is a little popularity and your video watching visitors can ruin your server performance. Building an infrastructure capable of handling your peak times with a margin of safety, leaving a little room to grow, and not breaking the bank can be a challenge.

For this reason, services like Akamai were born. Akamai has created a network of servers spread around the globe that is highly capable of managing large volumes of high bandwidth content like video (or music). Companies like Apple have been using Akamai to deliver the image and video content of their site for a number of years now. Apple also uses Akamai to speed delivery of downloads from iTunes.

I've been following Akamai for some time now. It was once a high flyer of the dot-com era. Everyone believed that a global network of servers would be required to overcome the problems that great distance introduced with online performance. At one point, its share price was over $200, and then fell dramatically. In the September 11th tragedy, one of the company's co-founders was killed on a the plane flown into the World Trade Center. The company was saddled with a big, now much devalued property, and had a very large amount of debt. Things looked pretty bleak. They traded at less than $1 per share and faced delisting, but their product was still very good.

Since then the web has grown up a bit. And, demand for higher-bandwidth content has exploded. Akamai worked through many of their troubles, and are doing quite well now.

All of this is a long winded way to tell you about an interesting way that small-time publishers, or individuals can actually use the Akamai network for free. A new company called VideoEgg is launching which will host your video on Akamai. They pay the bandwidth charges, but will deliver short ads before your video plays to cover the cost. It is an interesting idea, they have a nice little website, and it may open up a high-end service like Akamai to a whole new audience.

http://www.VideoEgg.com

Here is something we've seen over and over again, though it almost never makes any sense--a company completely changes its identity for reasons that, in my view, have far more to do with the whims of the marketing team than any real need. Such is the case with Ask Jeeves.

They are in the process of abandoning Jeeves, their butler mascot. Apparently too many people associate Jeeves with the a bad search experience Ask Jeeves provided back in the late 90s. You know, there are many things I remember from the late 90s, but I don't really remember being burned by Jeeves back then. I think the only people who associate Jeeves with a bad experience 7 years ago, are people in the IAC marketing department.

Instead of dumping Jeeves, I think they should be asking themselves how Ask Jeeves is really the only 2nd tier search engine to actually prosper since then. Maybe it has more to do with them having the only memorable identity, rather than the best search experience? They've never had the best search experience, yet they succeeded because people could remember who they were!

The original Ask Jeeves identity was created by DSW right here is SLC. That agency was ultimately purchased by EURO-RSCG/Tatum Partners, but at the time they were one of the hottest tech agencies in the country. They also helped build Intel as a consumer brand.

So, out with the Jeeves, in with the non-descript tech-brand devoid of any unique personality. If there is some kind of new swoop logo that comes out of this so help me...

That's George Washington, not GWB.

Today is President's day, which is to celebrate the birthday of George Washington. His birthday is actually on Feb 22nd, but the federal law moved the celebration to the third monday of February. And, he wasn't really born on the 22nd even, it was the 11th by the Julian calendar before England reformed their calendar system.

Just another one of those days where the sentiment is probably more important than historical accuracy. Around here, people spend the day pondering the impact of Washington's life from the seat of a chair lift. The gondolas will be filled with heated debates on Washington's true feelings about slavery, and people practicing his freemason handshake.

This weekend on Matt Cutt's Google Blog he announced that he and his other Googlers on the webspam team had removed the German BMW site from the Google index. I can just hear the screams of "Nein!Nein!Nein!" coming from BMW HQ right now.

According to Cutt, the BMW site was violating the Google guidelines by creating pages exclusively for Google, not for web users. These doorway pages used a JavaScript to immediately route visitors to alternative less text-heavy pages within the BMW site.

You can see examples of the pages here:
http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/ramping-up-on-international-webspam/

Cutt finishes off his post with an interesting message:

"to the domestic car maker whose European domain had hidden text on the front: your 30 day removal was set to expire in two days, but the hidden text has been taken off the page, so I'm scheduling the domain for reinclusion now".

I guess the tone there sort of strikes me as a strange overly-casual wielding of power. Sort of the same feeling I often get after hearing George Bush speak.

But, then it also strikes me that these two issues--text doorway pages, and hidden text--are some of the oldest tricks in the book. It's been pretty clear that these are a bad idea since what, 1999? Who advised BMW to do this in the first place I wonder?

P.S. If this headline doesn't say "Don't trick me" blame Google's Translation Tool.

I normally don't pass on the deluge of cute puppy, cute kitten, cute something kind of messages I get every day.
But this is worthy:



That's so cute it almost makes me concened.
What are you trying to do to me you little mind control cats?!?

There are more photos here:
http://kcyap.com/2005/12/24/cutest-animal-ever/