John Battelle's Searchblog

https://www.wired.com/2008/10/google-ceo-call/ Speaking to a group of magazine executives at the Google headquarters, Google CEO Eric Schmidt said yesterday that the Internet is becoming a breeding ground for false information, reports Ad age. But trusted brands help weed through the disinformation: "Brands are the solution, not the problem... Brands are how you sort out the cesspool." https://battellemedia.com/archives/2008/10/cesspool_brands_eric_talks_… "Brand affinity is clearly hard wired….It is so fundamental to human existence that it’s not going away. It must have a genetic component."

An interesting read (albeit a month old), but it didn't take that long for him to turn the full feed back on - http://battellemedia.com/archives/2013/03/ive-turned-full-feeds-back-o…

"I'm going to fucking kill Google" -- Steve Ballmer[1] "I'm here to destroy [Google]" -- Steve Jobs[2] Maybe not the coziest of cartels. [1] http://battellemedia.com/archives/2005/09/ballmer_throws_a_chair_at_fi… [2] http://9to5mac.com/2012/04/05/biographer-disputes-google-ceos-take-on-…

It's a lot more nuanced than the WSJ article made it seem. Google and other web advertisers engaged in what most would consider normal activity, but that Apple had specifically disabled in Mobile Safari. Here's a good explanation from John Battelle: http://battellemedia.com/archives/2012/02/a-sad-state-of-internet-affa…

Should be complemented by a brief hystory of Steve Ballmer tantrums: http://battellemedia.com/archives/2005/09/ballmer_throws_a_chair_at_fi… http://www.gearfuse.com/ballmer-lashes-out-at-microsoft-employed-iphon…

Some positive articles about Color: http://battellemedia.com/archives/2011/03/why_color_matters_augmented_… http://blogs.forbes.com/bruceupbin/2011/03/23/color-a-twitter-for-phot… http://networkeffect.allthingsd.com/20110323/with-41m-in-hand-color-de… http://www.fastcompany.com/1742209/lala-founder-unveils-41-million-rea…

John Battelle claims that the share is really 57.8% due to a 15% fee being taken out: http://battellemedia.com/archives/2010/05/68_of_85_is_really_578

Not being sarcastic at all! If a website is too slow, it has a significant adverse effect on my likelihood of using it. And it's not just me - see Google's assertion that speed is "just about the most important concern of users" - http://battellemedia.com/archives/003076.php

By default Mosaic's background was gray, and most people didn't change it. (Using #x0000ff was reasonable for links on this gray background.) White became the default background for more sophisticated sites in 1996. The first time I saw Yahoo and Amazon they had gray (i.e. probably no) background color. http://battellemedia.com/images/1995-tm.jpg (Notice how small it is too.) We got so used to these gray web pages that for a few months I thought it was a crazy idea to make websites with white backgrounds-- that pages so bright would hurt people's eyes. Then I realized the real culprit was the default unvisited link color.

Yeah, it must be killing him: http://battellemedia.com/archives/001835.php Was it really different 5 or 10 years ago though? Microsoft hasn't been a cool company for a long time. Although I guess it was very impressive for the resume, and prior to Google, that was a choice you'd have to make.

The README brings up a cultural reference I didn't understand. It says "Many people have received jobs from the big 4 after becoming a Rockstar" I hadn't heard of "big 4" before. I thought it might refer to tech companies, like Google, Apple, Microsoft, Oracle, etc. but couldn't figure out which 4. http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-sanity-check/schmidt-calls-tech-… says "Google, Apple, Amazon, and Facebook", are the big 4 category of 'platform companies' while http://battellemedia.com/archives/2011/12/the-internet-big-five.php uses the phrase the big 5, which also includes Microsoft. Then again, the speaker in https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJZCUhxNCv8 comments about working at the "Amazon, Facebook, Google and Microsoft - sometimes called the Big 4". This suggests that the "big 4" is more a concept then an actual definition. On the other hand, further search gives another possibility. The big 4 can refer to the audit firms of Deloitte, PwC, EY and KPMG ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Four_%28audit_firms%29 ). It was "Big Eight", then "Big Six" and "Big Five", before ending up with 4. At http://www.narrowingthegaap.com/recruiting/how-to-get-hired-by-the-big… you see "How To Get Hired By the Big 4: The Hiring Process (Part 1)" which starts "The Big 4 hire only the best and the brightest. This is only a partial truth at best. I know this because I have met some really dumb people working for…