Jason Unger

Google's Most Commonly Asked "Can You Be" Search Question

Posted by junger - 09/24/07 at 06:09:19 pm

One of the newer features of Firefox is the ability to suggest searches to you when you begin typing in the built in search bar.

It's convenient, especially when you are asking a question that others have surely asked before.

I got a nice chuckle today when I started to type a "can you be" question and Google suggested these possible searches:

- can you be pregnant and still have a period
- can you be pregnant and still have your period
- can you be pregnant and still get your period
- can you be pregnant and have a period
- can you be pregnant and have your period
- can you be pregnant and get your period
- can you be pregnant if you get your period

And this is only after typing "can you be " (notice the space).

Obviously, this is a popular question among Google searchers.

What does it tell us? I hesitate to make any assumptions or judgments based on this, but obviously it gets asked a lot.

Find Your Perfect Input/Output Time Balance

Posted by junger - 09/20/07 at 09:09:36 pm

How much time you spend taking in information online? Reading blogs, checking your email, surfing YouTube …

How much time do you spend creating content? Writing blogs, shooting video, editing copy …

If you're like me, it goes in ebbs and flows. Sometimes your inspiration is working overtime, and you're constantly creating content with no time to check those RSS feeds.

Sometimes you're reading and absorbing information from everywhere, and not getting a single word into that WordPress blog.

There is a middle ground. You just need to find it.

I've recently stopped keeping my email open nonstop. It's been great. I'm getting more things done with less anxiousness about incoming mail.

I'm currently checking my email every 30 minutes, and I hope to have that out to once an hour by next week.

It's going to force me to cut down the number of RSS feeds I check, which is good. Taking in information is extremely important — but only when it's relevant to you. If you're not going to learn anything from it — or be easily entertained — why are you spending time with it?

Don't waste time thinking of things to do. Plan ahead so you know what you're doing, and you'll maximize your output, giving you the right amount of time for your input.

Grown Men in Plastic Bags: The Chasers Go to the Airport

Posted by junger - 09/10/07 at 10:09:53 pm

After last week's security "scare" at APEC, I've been watching episodes of the Australian comedy show The Chasers on YouTube — and it's all pretty priceless.

One of the most original pranks has to be their video on airport security … who'd have thought Terry Wrist and Al Kyder could have made it on a plane?

My CEDIA Expo Coverage at CE Pro

Posted by junger - 09/09/07 at 10:09:40 pm

If you haven't already, check out my newest articles over at CEPro.com, reporting from the showfloor of CEDIA Expo.

The first article, on the Blu-ray/HD DVD format war, led the CEA's Smartbrief on Thursday, Sept. 6.

Format War Invades CEDIA: Blu-ray, HD DVD and Hybrid Players Announced

Pioneer Launches BDP-95FD Elite Blu-ray Player, Mammoth Elite SC-09TX Receiver, 1080p KURO Displays

Niveus Shows Media Center Extender; Launches Control Server and n4 Entry-Level System

I'll have a few more up this week, once I'm back in the office and finish going through my notes.

Over the five days of the show — Wednesday to Sunday — we've covered more than 90 stories.

The Life of a Web Publisher at a Tradeshow

Posted by junger - 09/07/07 at 08:09:36 pm

This week, I've been quite the busy little bee here at CEDIA Expo. It's probably the biggest event that we at CE Pro cover, with tons of product announcements, news and clients to meet.

As you can imagine, we've been working hard. It's especially grueling for those of us publishing on the Web.

Not only do we have to go to press conferences, booth appointments and company dinners, but we have to actually find time to write, edit and post the stories from the show — as soon as possible.

With 8 press conferences over two days and more booth tours than I can count (nearly all of them back to back), squeezing in time to fill in our readers with news from the show is a premium.

I've blogged from multiple press conferences (thanks to the handy Sprint USB Modem), ran back and forth from the show floor to the press room, and lugged my heavy laptop around everywhere.

Don't get me wrong — I'm not complaining. We've had some great traffic days because we are working super hard to get as many stories posted as possible (80 at last count from Wednesday to Friday).

But with the immediate nature of the Internet, if we don't get it posted first, someone else will. If you're not at the show, you crave to know what's going on. It's our job to deliver it, no matter what else we need to get done.

Even with the success we've had here at the show, there's so much more we could do. I've had lots of people ask me if I'm videoblogging from the show. I'd love to, but even with the people we have here, we still don't have enough hands to do it all.

That's OK, though. You've got to build up slowly.

Sooner or later, all of the press at these shows will be feeling the same crunch. There won't be magazine writers taking their time with writing stories because they don't go to press for another 3 weeks. You can already feel the shift happening at CES — where there were a lot of bloggers this past year — and it will trickle down soon enough.

That's what I've been doing recently — how about you?