http://www.whoisgregg.com/blog Web Development, Apple Stuff, and More Thu, 11 Mar 2010 18:41:35 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en True wisdom from Marco Arment this week: We don’t deserve anything. Publishers can do whatever they want. If you don’t like it, don’t send them nasty emails or browse their sites with ad-blockers: just don’t support them. Don’t read their content, don’t link to them, and don’t talk about them. Since ... http://www.whoisgregg.com/blog/2010/03/on-excerpt-vs-full-content-rss-feeds.html From the Google Blog: Answer highlighting in search results Consider the example, [empire state height]. With today's improvements, the answer —1250 ft, or 381 m — is highlighted right in the search result: This might be cool for Wikipedia, but it totally screws every other website owner. If you have a website that deals ... http://www.whoisgregg.com/blog/2010/01/new-from-google-less-traffic.html From Google: We have decided we are no longer willing to continue censoring our results on Google.cn, and so over the next few weeks we will be discussing with the Chinese government the basis on which we could operate an unfiltered search engine within the law, if at all. We ... http://www.whoisgregg.com/blog/2010/01/finally.html Back in January I helped make a loan to Nosirova Uguljon so that she could buy a greater range of goods for her childrens' clothing business. Nosirova's business is in Kanibadam, Tajikistan. (Tajikistan is the poorest of the former Soviet republics.) Her daughter helps with the business: [caption id="attachment_471" align="aligncenter" width="450" caption="Nosirova ... http://www.whoisgregg.com/blog/2010/01/micro-lending-to-change-the-world.html Since announcing the launch of expandUrl and fixing the few bugs that cropped up in the first week or so, I have barely given the service a second thought. The API works incredibly well for my own sites which take advantage of it. Today, after receiving a report that the service ... http://www.whoisgregg.com/blog/2009/12/expandurl-passes-11000-mark-at-least.html When Shaun Inman shared his URL shortening PHP script Lessn, I was pretty excited. Right now I use kl.am, a free service from Raven SEO Tools, for all my URL shortening needs. It's awesome and 99.5% perfect. But I've really wanted to host my own for three reasons: I want bulk uploads ... http://www.whoisgregg.com/blog/2009/08/hacking-lessn-to-track-statistics.html .wp-caption {width: 80% !important;} As my 500th tweet, I'd like to share some examples of milestone tweets. Everything you see are other folks #500th tweet from the last 24 hours. The Britney Spears #500 As in "Oops, I tweeted again:" [caption id="attachment_396" align="alignnone" width="718" caption="@twools Tweet #500 - D\'oh!"][/caption] The World's Greatest Achievement #500 Because tweeting ... http://www.whoisgregg.com/blog/2009/08/the-art-of-the-milestone-tweet.html From tr.im's announcement that they will keep the service alive: Twitter has stacked the URL shortening business opportunity overwhelmingly in bit.ly’s favour The problem with that statement is there is no such thing as a URL shortening "business." URL shortening is a feature of a larger service or, at best, a loss ... http://www.whoisgregg.com/blog/2009/08/some-things-arent-businesses.html Total US mail volume is down 14% according to a recent report from the GAO [PDF]. Currently being discussed on WebmasterWorld. http://www.whoisgregg.com/blog/2009/07/usps-dramatic-decline-in-mail.html What sound does a pinball machine make? Bing, ba-bing, bing bing, ba-bing! Fruitless perhaps, but worth the effort nonetheless. ;) http://www.whoisgregg.com/blog/2009/05/bing.html