Status-Q

I’ve installed the ‘htdig’ search engine here now, and the search box on the right will use that instead of Google. The Google link worked well, but sometimes wouldn’t index Status-Q often enough, and would discard bits from time to time. I realised that I was having trouble searching for things and I’m supposed to know roughly what’s in here. I think the new one’s a big improvement.

Hywel Williams has a fascinating site about the Disused Stations on London’s Underground.

The Tipping Blog – How Little Links can Make a Big Difference: "On the Internet, nobody cares if you’re a shy introvert."

John Hiler produces some good stuff. He wrote an interesting article a couple of weeks ago about the effect of weblogs on search engines. In this latest piece he discusses weblogs in terms of Malcolm Gladwell’s book “The Tipping Point”.

Surfing hobbits. Bizarre concept.

Excellent New Scientist feature on Open Source ideas. [from John Naughton's weblog]. I hadn’t come across the Wikipedia before. It’s rather good. Topics for discussion in your coffee break:

• We all know that you should take everything you read on the web with a pinch of salt, but we’re used to reading things in reference works and assuming they’re fairly authoritative. Does presenting information in that form make us more likely to believe it?
• Is an encyclopedia which anybody can update more or less likely to be ‘authoritative’?