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Vomit Filters
One of my favorite things about the Internet is the immense amount of information it provides.
One of the most annoying things about the Internet is the immense amount of information it provides.
Hmmmmm – and Vomit Filters are born. |
A Vomit Filter is any piece of functionality that sorts through this mess for you - sorting, organizing, and displaying the information for you. There are many ways in which this is described – a news reader, an aggregator, a multi-sourced news program, a “customized” home page – the technology babble names are sort of inevitable and ubiquitous here. It is also fair to say that price comparison sites are vomit filters, and some of the most heavily used, at that.
A confession: I love Google. While there are literally thousands of vomit filters out there, Google has all three major flavors and they’re all free. Since I love Google, that's what’s going to be covered here.
News Vomit: http://www.google.com/ig
This is the “personalized” Google Homepage, and it is well worth the few minutes it takes to set it up. You can determine what the “Sections” will be, how big each one is, and how you want them positioned on the page.
Personally, my Google Homepage has “straight” news down the left hand column: Top Stories, World News, New York Times, Reuters, and BBC News. The center column features “Geek/KISS” stuff: Top Technology Articles, Business Stories, Slashdot, Wired, and Tech Dirt. The right hand column is what I'd call my “personal” stuff: Local Weather, Gmail, Quote of the Day, Word of the Day, Reuters Oddly Enough, and all of my custom setups. Recently I've been authoring some content for my mother-in-law's website that sells Native American Products. The top 10 “Native American” news results are displayed for me here and they have provided a plethora of ideas. You can set up a section to feature anything you like or are interested in.
RSS Vomit: http://www.google.com/reader
You've probably heard something about blogs lately, perhaps even being the unfortunate victim of the stupid buzzword blogosphere. (I apologize, but making blog jokes is like shooting fish in a barrel and I just can't resist). The vast majority of blogs provide their content in an RSS form – RSS stands for "really simple syndication' and it is just a technical standard for transmitting data. You may have seen those little orange RSS Feed boxes on sites, or some other way of suggesting you should “subscribe”. The basic concept here is that the news comes to you instead of you going to the news. Most of the content I have in my RSS reader are friends and things of personal interest, like the feed from Cape Dining Out, a site Michael McGrath runs featuring food.
Shopping Vomit: http://www.froogle.com
Everyone's favorite boast about the Internet is a bargain. There have always been many price comparison sites and the web is the best place to find a bargain on common items. My most recent “find” is our new Husqvarna 455 Rancher Chainsaw, which we procured for only $325 including shipping. If you know the model number or exact item name, simply enter it into Froogle and then click the “Price: low to high” button on the left. This works especially well for computer components and electronics.
I do hope you'll give some of this vomit filter stuff a whirl. It will make surfing lots more fun. Please let me know what you think once you try it out.
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What's New? |
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Client News
KISS is pleased to announce the launch of the new Puritan
Cape Cod website, a robust and feature-rich online store
to compliment its five on the ground stores on Cape Cod.
All of the fine Men’s, Women’s and Outdoor
products are available to the discerning shopper at the
new site, as well as the top shelf service for which Puritan
Cape Cod is known. If you get there soon you’ll have
a chance to enter their $250 gift certificate contest promoted
on the home page. Be sure to check
out this great store’s
new site here.
KISS News
click to enlarge
For those of you who don't know, Ross is in the woods
working on his book. Adapting to farm life has been a good
experience for a pasty geek, and attempting to cut his
own firewood on 85 acres has been more of a challenge than
he guessed. “I suppose having mostly grown up in
cities it’s easy to sort of look down your nose at
that country stuff – if you do, I'd recommend you
just try it, it is amazing.” says Ross. The book
will be an extension of this newsletter and focus on great
explanations of web site principles for entrepreneurial
business owners.
 In addition to writing, Ross is also focused on Consulting -
essentially special research projects on anything web.
If you have an interest in renting a great Internet brain
for a bit of work, please drop
him a line.
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