Author Archives: jeremy

Old Content Still Gets Readers Excited

By | November 22, 2011

Here’s evidence that online publications should try to re-use—and make accessible—old content. The most emailed story on the BBC website at the moment—Aug 5 2008—is actually a story from January 2004: which is this one: I have no idea why it is—although the subject matter is pretty compelling, I must admit. (The gadget, it turns… Read More »

The Splog Thickens

By | November 22, 2011

I was amused, and somewhat perplexed, to read on BuzzMachine yesterday about a bizarre splog—spam blog to the rest of us—which copies text and then converts it to synonyms. Jeff explains:  New splog tricks In my ego searches, I just saw a splog that copied text of mine but ran it through ridiculous almost-synonym replacements.… Read More »

Books. The New Google Juice?

By | November 22, 2011

Increasingly I find that if I enter a search on Google for something that I need explaining to me, the first result is a book. Of course, the book is in Google’s Book Search, but chances are the search is in a page that has been scanned and is available without having to buy the… Read More »

Word Processing: Still in the Dark Ages

By | November 22, 2011

I’m amazed by how word processing is still in the dark ages, considering it’s what we spend most of our day doing. Case in point is Microsoft Word 2007, which throws all sorts of weirdness—artefacts, I guess we’d call them—in text. Try scrolling through a longish document—anything over 5,000 words—and you get this kind of… Read More »