Giving It Horns

I know – could you believe that I’ve not posted in 10 days, but it’s been a really busy 10 days and the time has most certainly flied – for me at least.

So until I’ve caught up on all my reading, this will be an entirely Google biased post.

Building an online “community” definitely seems to be the key focus on the net recently. Although many good content filled sites have been doing it for years – and also the main reason why they are so content filled - but I’ve found that more and more sites are tuning into just how lucrative that could be in the search arena.

Even Google have been trying to create more and more of an online community. We can see that through their product offerings. Personalised search, Blogger, Google Earth, Calendar to name but a few, and now Google Reader allows you to share content with your friends / colleagues.

All brokers and keen stock holders take note. Now you can find everything in one (more) place. Enter Google Finance. To begin with, you no longer have to remember a ticker or mutual fund symbol. Just search for a company or mutual fund by name and you’ll quickly see all the relevant information.
“You’ll find interactive charts that enable you to zoom through different time periods, headlines mapped right on the charts and are based on Google News, which means you’re seeing unbiased and relevant results from more than 4,500 English-language news sources.”Â

Personally, I’ve been receiving so much “Stock Spam” recently that I can’t bear to browse the site right now but from my quick squizz it seems pretty user-friendly. Do you think there is demand in the industry for this and would you use it? Share your thoughts.

And Justice For All. Google has finally won the battle against the DoJ. A Judge recently ruled that they would not have to hand over their search queries. This is a great victory for all participants of the online community. Read the full Google DoJ ruling here.

Something light to end off with: Anyone for (Google) Mars ?

On a personal note:

Its Friday, it’s a great day here in Cape Town and today’s title is exactly how I am feeling right now. Funnily enough it’s also a little phrase that I’ve been running into more and more the last few days. Not too sure if the Metallica concert had anything to do with it. (just kidding

It was a fabulous concert. Joey and I were there to support the bands and join the masses for an awesome 12 hours of great music. Collective Soul, Metallica, Fat Boy Slim and the Audio Bully’s really stole the show for me. Despite the bad press the Jo’burg concert had, Cape Town definitely made up for it, and although I’ve heard some people complain, I thought it was brilliant. The longest we waited in any queue was 15 min and that was for a bite to eat.