Still on the subject of search, OSCommerce Experts has been looking at Internal site searching, as opposed to the mega searching via the likes of Google. The legendary usability guru (an over used word, but applicable in his case) Jacob Nielsen has recently published research and recommendations on this area and it's a major cause of user dissatisfaction.
Read the blog and find out what you can do about it on your site.
Rob Sama of samaBlog has also been searching, but in book stores for the anti-Kerry book Unfit for Command. While Rob eventually tracked one down, it wasn't easy, as it seems to have been sold out in most book stores.
This all got me wondering how this happens. Regenery, the publisher of Unfit for Command, is not a small publisher anymore, and they can certainly publish enough copies of any book to meet demand. I wonder if what happens here is that bookstores intentionally order very few copies of conservative books, so few that they won't have enough to put them on display on the new arrivals tables. Publishers print based on stated demand from the bookstores, and so then when the 4 copies they'd ordered sell out, the book is gone from the store, at least until the publisher can print another run.
Can anyone shed any light on Rob's puzzlement?
Micha Ghertner's post at Catallarchy tackles the somewhat controversial subject of Political Child Abuse.
He cites 12 year old Ilana Wexler as an example of this, who
founded Kids for Kerry, skipped summer camp to work for the Kerry campaign full time, and turned her own birthday party into a Kerry fund raiser. Do these sound like the independently-chosen activities of a normal 12-year-old girl? Or are they signs of a child under the influence of her parents and teachers? Indeed, what must the intellectual and emotional condition of parents be like who would do this to their kids?
Micha discusses this whole area in a great blog, drawing surprising parallels from the world of economics.
Disease Management is the preoccupation over at Goobage. Apparently, it's the hot new sector in Health Care, relying on prevention, rather than more expensive subsequent treatment. But should the Government be meddling here anyway?
Everyone has their own appalling customer service anecdote these days and that's the subject of an insightful piece at Photon Courier. There's more to correcting poor customer service than throwing staff and/or technology at the problem, it seems.
Article comments
1 - Eric Olsen
hi Russell, looks like I missed that first post back in March, sorry.
This is a cool feature - money is good. Thanks and a belated welcome!
2 - Robert T DeMarco
This is the first time I read one your posts--excellent.
On the issue of books and their availability. Even when a book sells fast there is no guarantee book stores will reorder or that publishers will publish more copies. It could be as simple as the contract that was signed prior to the book being published or any of a long list of factors. In this case, the book received an inordinate amount of free publicity on the talk shows. It is unlikely that this could have been anticipated. Another factor could be it is seen more or less as a "fad" book. Or, the audience is limited to "mean spirited" right wing fanatics. Who knows?
You might change the word "loose" to "lose" Or Phil Winn might come in here and give you a spelling lesson.
I'll come back in later and delve into this post further when I have more time.
Bob