Julian Martinez’s Blog

Google is testing a new option letting a small percentage of people
remove results they don’t like from their own personalized search
results. This will only happen if you’re logged in and using Google
Personalised Search. In other words, see a page you don’t like? You can
block that page from coming back. It only will impact the personalized
results you see, not the personalized results of others or general
results that anyone sees.

“Whenever you come across a search result you don’t want, just click to
remove it from your future searches. You can remove a single page or an
entire site, for one search term or for all your future searches.

Your
Google Account will store results you remove, so you can always add
them back later. It’s all part of Personalized Search, an ongoing
effort to improve your search experience by making it more relevant to
you.”

This feature might in the future have a
dramatic impact in th PageRank algorithm. Google will probably includes
a component so that if enough people ignore a page/site then it
devalues it’s ranking as well. Matt Cutts discusses on his blog this recent user-interface experiment on Google.

Similarly, in Habitamos when an ad is heavily flagged it is removed
automatically. There are certain quality controls mechanisms to avoid
users from trying to fool the system. The algorithms are tweaked and
improved regularly.

UPDATE
I have also noticed thanks to Max Cecchini that Yahoo offers this feature already. Yahoo also includes the option of saving the link. Very interseting!

Yesterday I saw for the first time in Habitamos two image banners.
For some strange reason image banners don’t seem to be very popular in
adsense:
- Do they produce smaller CTR (click-through-rates) than traditional text links?
- Are Internet users nowadays generally blind to banners?

Here are two screenshots of the banners I am referring to.

1) Linea Directa (Direct Line insurance)

2) Antzup (mobile phone specialist shop)

For the first time ever, a non-American institution has topped one of the leading rankings of business schools.

This week there is an article in The Economist about the worlds top MBA schools, and for the first time a Spanish school is number one.

IESE topped the EIU’s list because it scored particularly well in two
categories: opening new career opportunities, and the starting salaries
of its new graduates (their average—of $142,000—was higher than that at
any American school).

I have to admit that if I where to do an MBA in
Europe (in the future), IESE is probably my first choice… its a great
school and it would also be fun to live in Barcelona!!

UPDATE
After some research with friends, it seems more plausible to assume
that IESE students earn approximately 80.000 Euros per year and not
$142,000. I am not sure where the EIU gets their figures from.

There is also another article here about this by Yannick Laclau

Full EIU 2005 ranking click here.

Today I read that Jimmy Wales and his colleagues at the Wikimedia Foundation have launched a new project called WikiBooks.
Their aim is to create a comprehensive curriculum of textbooks that are
free and freely distributable, based on an open-source development
model.

Wikibooks is still in its early stages but I have
already found some excellent books under computer science and
languages. The project looks very promising!

Material written
for the project can be easily manipulated, read and edited, by anyone.
This can pose a major challenge to the publishing industry’s hold on
the world of textbooks. As Wales explains, Wikibooks authors whom he
calls “volunteers” are professionals from many fields, college and
graduate students and professors.

Further reading: c|net: Wikibooks takes on textbook industry

Numark Introduces iDJ,
a new iPod mixing console. It lacks pitch control, but its compact size
makes it a great plug-and-play party device. Phono/line inputs, USB
connectivity, and a “turntable spindle receptacle” are nice features.
Plus an S video output suggests the possibility of mixing sights as
well as sounds.

It seems to me that its becoming easier to DJ now. Will people still pay 50Euros in Ibiza to watch the DJs mix with iPods??

Check out NetVibes, which offers a personalised homepage, complete with RSS and Atom feeds, as well as multiple Gmail account support, weather, etc. It’s very much like Google’s personalised search and MSN’s start.com functionally because of the use of Ajax. With Google, you have to login to drag and drop content. With Start and Netvibes you don’t. All three offer preset news feeds, weather, etc.