The River

I’ve started to get the first video search referrals via Yahoo!/AltaVista to my personal, family blog (where I posted videos of my son soon after he was born). Kind of creepy, in a way, because although I expect text to be indexed, I hadn’t realized video of my son would be “out there” in quite the same way. Such are the internets, I suppose. Most of the more recent stuff is going up via VideoEgg or YouTube. Not sure how that’ll be indexed, or if it will be, since it lives more on other people’s servers (OPS).

Anyway, the search term that’s sending folks my way is “first bath,” and here’s the video detail page about the content in question. Kind of cool to see video search delivering appropriate traffic, without any metadata. (While the text linking to that video says “getting a bath” the word “first” surrounds it pretty closely in other videos titled “first minutes”.)

UPDATE: Fixed the link to the video detail page. I guess I sort of gave away that I was posting this at the same time as I was shopping for a flame thrower for the garden. (We bought it, too, and it is very cool.)

I’m in NYC for the next couple of days, culimnating in ClickZ’s inaugural Online Video Advertising Forum on Friday. I’m really looking forward to the show. It’s the first new standalone event we’ve launched under the ClickZ brand since being acquired by Incisive Media, and it’s looking like attendance is going to be excellent. I’ve already run into Gary Stein on the plane on the way over, and I’m looking forward to catching up with more folks while I’m on the road.

BTW, I’m moderating the “Publisher Perspectives” panel Friday afternoon.

This is pretty awesome. Jaguar is adding (as a dealer-installed option) what it calls a Rear Screen Connectivity System (RSCS). Basically, it’s an AV panel that allows rear-seat passengers to connect any digital device that has an audio/visual output. Each rear-seat passenger can connect his/her individual device, hear the audio output on a wireless headset, and see the video on an LCD screen built into the front seats’ headrests. Next time I’m a back-seat passenger in a Jaguar, I’ll be sure to bring my video iPod…

Wendy’s is reportedly abandoning the “Biggie” name for its large soft drinks. A spokesman explained: “We felt like the Biggie designation is not what most customers were used to. Most people were used to small, medium and large.” Amen.

UPDATE: Friends have mentioned that this is actually a ploy by Wendy’s to get people to buy bigger sodas. I knew that. Just wanted to take the opportunity to stick up for “small,” “medium” and “large” as perfectly adequate words to describe drink sizes.

I’ve been checking out a couple new travel search engines that add the element of time to the equation. First is FareCast, which John Battelle blogged about recently. Second is FareCompare.com, which was written up in the WSJ yesterday (free link for 7 days).

To be honest, until I have a real trip to plan, and until these sites get a little further developed, it’s hard for me to offer an opinion. But I wanted to highlight them here in case you’re interested in taking a look yourself. I’ve got 23 invitations for the FareCast beta left, so e-mail me at theriver *at* mcnigel.com if you want one.

UPDATE: Gary Price shares why FareCast was formerly called Hamlet. In keeping with the idea that a fare forecast can tell you whether to purchase now or wait for a better deal, their motto was “to buy, or not to buy….”