Tuesday, May 22, 2007

Starbucks needs to hire monks!

After a recent dinner, I was introduced to the liqueur Frangelico. The origin of the Frangelico name is very interesting:

“According to Barbero, the manufacturer in Italy, the name of the liqueur is based on a legend of a hermit named Fra Angelico who "created unique recipes for liqueurs."

Now, it just so happened that another person at the table was sipping a Cappuccino, which, as we all know, is named for the color of the habit of Capuchin friars.

Which left me wondering what would have happned if Fra Angelico had been a Capuchin friar, and not a Franciscan/Dominican. Would he have invented the Frappuccino?
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World's biggest costume party!

I was an unofficial participant at Bay to Breakers this last Sunday, my first time at this annual event. San Franciscans dressed in all kinds of crazy gear presented an incredible sight at the footrace, which was started way back in 1912 as a way to life the city's spirits after the 1906 earthquake. I was in the company of Elvises and Beer Kegs, mixed with the occasional naked old guys.

I am curious to know if the event can be called the World's Biggest Costume Party. I tried to find evidence either to support or contest the claim, but have so far failed in my efforts. If this claim ever gets validated (or accepted as popular wisdom), I hope I'll be remembered as the first person to ever apply that moniker to this race :)
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Destroying the evidence

I often hear people say "The proof is in the pudding", instead of the more correct "The proof of the pudding is in the eating". A friend argues very perceptively that the correct form is not very euphonic.

Now, if the "proof" were really in the pudding, and someone ate it up, wouldn't they be destroying the evidence? Almost a crime, I think!
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Saturday, May 12, 2007

Kosmix launches Topic Overviews

Over the last couple of weeks, we have introduced significant improvements to the search experience at Kosmix. The new experience, called "Topic Overviews", presents everything you'd want to know about any query, from every point of view, in one place. This includes:

1) Web results categorized by information type (e.g., blogs, magazines, medical journals), people type (e.g., the Kosmix health search allows you to browse by women's health, men's health, kids etc) and finally by subject matter.

2) Images

3) "Related topics": For instance, if you perform a query on Colon Cancer, you'd discover connections with related diseases, drugs, medical procedures and much more.

4) Information from popular sites

5) Cool Widgets

As the product manager for the "Topic Overviews", I am also excited by the fact that Kosmix can now automatically recognize a user's intent through their query and take them to the appropirate topic overview. As an example, type complex health queries like "rooster comb injection" or "psa levels" into the search box on Kosmix; you'll notice that Kosmix automatically takes you to Kosmix health, and presents a rich experience similar to a health portal; and likewise for queries related to autos, travel etc.

Kosmix currently supports 6 verticals in which it provides a rich "topic overiew" experience: health, travel, autos, finance, video games and politics. For queries outside of these 6 verticals, we present a generic search experience.

Do check the website out and provide feedback! And keep watching out for more cool features.
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