<b>Defining successful user experience:</b> Jason Kottke (whose weblog, <a href=”http://www.kottke.org”>kottke.org</a>, in my opinion, is the benchmark for weblog design) <a href=”http://www.kottke.org/05/02/google-answers-dot-com”>has follow-up news</a> on an observation he made last week that Google has switched from <a href=”http://www.dictionary.com”>dictionary.com</a> to <a href=”http://www.answers.com”>answers.com</a> for their “definition” links. He wondered then if the decision was a business deal. Turns out, Google switched because answers.com doesn’t have pop-up ads — making for a better user experience.<br><br>Which reminds me, the most incredible web-based user-experience dictionary I’ve ever seen is <a href=”http://www.objectgraph.com/dictionary/”>the ObjectGraph dictionary</a>.

What a bargain: The NYT is reporting that GM has agreed to pay Fiat $2 billion in order not to buy them. If this is the beginning of a trend, I’d be glad to accept such compensation from any company not wanting to buy anything I own.

Brands are conversations: Business media blogger David Shaw is making some observations on media brands and his first one is this: The true media brand is always personal and human.
I was agreeing with him until I got down to reason #6 and was shocked
to see him spreading a rumor suggesting that I know what I’m talking
about on this weblog.  Of course, the truth is I have no idea what
I’m talking about. Okay. I’m glad that’s clarified.

Valentine’s Day massacre for Google? I don’t typically blog topics that are investment-related, but search-engine guru John Battelle notes that tomorrow is the final “lock up” day for about $19 billion of GOOG
stock held by insiders. A dip in the stock last week may indicate the market has
already “priced in” the anticipated flood of stock into the market. (Envious disclosure: I do not own any Google stock.)

E-cards are not a smart valentine idea: Look. I know it’s tempting. But don’t send a valentine via e-mail. I don’t care if Valentine’s Day is the biggest day of the year
for online greeting card sites. But how lame is it to send the message
to someone that, “you’re so special to me,  I forgot to get you a
real card at the drugstore?”

Update: However, I just discovered that sending a teenaged-daughter an iTunes gift certificate (iTunes link) beats anything from the Hallmark store.

grt. nw there’s a mag 4 tx using teens. 4tun8ly, it’s n nothA country.