…For now.

Last week I wrote about how this great new (to me) service, Eurekster, had apparently died.

Makes me think of that Simpsons episode where Homer held Lisa's dying robot and said, "Linguo… dead?" The bot replied, "Linguo …is ……dead."

So, "Eurekster… dead?"

The reply: "Not by a <cough*cough> long shot…"

The service seems to be back up, the widget I installed is working again, and the search results seem fine. But who's to say when the next unexpected outage may occur? You never know…

We must prepare ourselves for the darkest of days, when we will no longer have access to search-wiki swickis!

Just when I discovered a neat new tool, it went away.

A couple of weeks ago, I found out that a company called Eurekster has this thing called a Swicki. A Search Wiki. It's like Google + Digg, search results you can vote on. You can make your own for free, and customize it to cater to a certain topic.

Anyway, I thought it seemed like a neat idea! But I heard the original brains behind the operation left to fry bigger fish. And then the site sent out a maintenance message, citing some downtime. And it hasn't been up since. Bummer.

Microsoft still wants to buy Yahoo. And maybe Facebook?

This is wild. I guess originally Microsoft said, "Yo Yahoo! Get over here, gimme your lunch money."

And Yahoo said, "Aaaaahhhh!" and ran home to his brother, a karate instructor, who taught him the martial arts in four hours.

The next day, Yahoo saw Microsoft at school. Microsoft said, "Yahoo! Glad to see ya, gimme your lunch money."

"HIYYAAAAHH!!" Yahoo yelled, landing a punch on Microsoft.

Microsoft didn't even flinch, the punch didn't hurt, he was fine, but people all around were remarking to each other that, "Wow, Yahoo can take care of himself!" "Yeah, Yahoo's tough!"

Microsoft had wanted a quick fix, lunch money with no resistance. He didn't know Yahoo would put up a fight.

At home that day, Microsoft regroups, and thinks things out. Maybe he'll have to… play nice.

So Microsoft lets a week go by, allowing the bulk of Yahoo's congratulations to wear off.

Then at school, Microsoft goes over during lunch and says, "Hey Yahoo? Why don't we team up? Together we could Rule the School!"

Yahoo says, in a newly practiced calm cool way, "I'll think about it."

Microsoft, silently infuriated, walks over to Facebook's table. "I never thought about this before, but right now it makes sense. If I can't get Yahoo, I'll get Facebook instead," he thinks.

The internet has sped things up tremendously. Now someone somewhere can come up with a brand new catchphrase, and have it become famous in less than 24 hours. Next day, "everyone" is using the new phrase all over the place. A week later, a different phrase is hip.

Meanwhile, in slowsville, a video game manufacturer puts one of the phrases into the game as a sort of culturally-relevant bonus.

Does it become out of date quickly? Maybe. But I think most video game makers are probably aware of how quickly certain fads shift online, and so they only choose to use ideas that seem steadfast and lasting.

I wonder just how fast things will get in 10 years?

I think it's going to be pretty cool.

So in the beginning there was the basic web functionality. Then came design improvements. And then again, better web design. And upgraded functionality!

Now a lot of web pages look amazing.

But I think there's something relatively new (to the average Joe) that will eventually become standard.

I think that in the future, most or all web pages will be able to update most or all of their content without reloading the page.

Sure, we've got that technology. Sure, those capabilities exist. But they haven't become widespread yet. And once that happens, they will be refined, and built into simple user interfaces as part of content management systems.

So then you'd do a tiny amount of work behind the scenes on your blog or site using a free, open-source CMS, and Presto! Your web page becomes truly dynamic. I can't wait.

I had signed up to test one of the stages of Google Labs recently. The option I chose was where you type something in, and Google shows a list of popular searches that contain what you've typed so far. I thought it was neat, but lost interest and opted out.

Well now that feature is permanent! Check it out.

**Update: Now that I've tried it in FireFox, it looks like it only works in IE.

(This Summer, hit band "Facebook Is Not Secure" to release its newest album, "We Are Not Secure")

I just read on Yahoo that Facebook's recent security upgrades still don't prevent evil strangers from looking up all your private stuff.

Bottom line, don't post it.

There was a link (on Yahoo) to another article or video. The text was, "Military warns soldiers not to post info on Facebook."

It all makes so much sense! But some people conclude that the pros outweigh the cons. It's weird. Of course Facebook is making gobs of money by facilitating this sharing. But any site can be hacked. I assume that since Facebook isn't a bank, it is not as secure as PayPal. Maybe it should be.

I just watched a “Little Bush” cartoon episode featuring the use of massive doses of prescription medications. It was a wild and wacky time when the kids started taking pills. Let’s see, little George became a friendly yes-man, little Condi became angry, and little Cheney became a hippy! Honestly, it’s crazy what’s on TV these days.

The older “George Bush” took something that increased his testosterone. Basically, it acted like Viagra and created a crude and unfortunate situation for him.

But some people really do need the stuff. If you’d like to buy Viagra online, you might try eDrugstore.md. I just found out that the .md extension is really representative of Moldova. But it has also been used for medical things, and for the state of Maryland.

Anyhoo, eDrugstore.md is a company that establishes itself as a provider of name brand prescription medications only. No generics! And they guarantee the lowest prices around (that is, online).

On “Little Bush,” the kids had to go see a doctor in person to get their pills. Now we don’t have to! They also noticed a huge price differential between the U.S. and Canada. But thanks to the internet and competition, prices should be at a decent level no matter where you are when you log on.

Alexa is a company that tries to accurately measure web traffic to as many sites as possible. Their method is to watch user activity on browsers with the Alexa toolbar installed. So if someone visits your site without using the toolbar, Alexa doesn't know about it. But if someone else shows up, and they are using Alexa, your site will benefit. Here's how:

All websites start out with a crazy rank in the millions. A while ago it was around 5, now its closer to 10, and probably even higher. So if your site is brand new, it might rank at 11,000,000. That's the bottom tier, but it's better than "No Rank," which will happen if Alexa isn't aware of your site yet. What we want to do is improve our Alexa rank, because sites that rank higher are considered better, and more valuable in the eyes of potential advertisers.

There has been a great deal of debate about Alexa. Most people used to not care about the ranking system. It didn't really matter. Once advertisers started using it to judge sites, things changed, and many people began to complain because they believe your Alexa rank can be gamed. It is thought by some that there are definite ways to improve your rank. And that is true. One way is to download the toolbar. Another is to run a site geared toward webmasters.

On an episode of, "Family Guy," TV executives at a board meeting were discussing a recent problem on their network. Many people had phoned in to voice their protest. One executive summed things up: "We have received 20 phone calls from offended viewers. As you all know, each phone call represents a billion people, which means 20 billion people were offended!"

The issue with Alexa is it works in a similar way. Since Alexa only knows how many toolbar users visit your site, they use that number to guess how many total visitors your site has. That's right, guess. Can you see where this could be a problem?

If you ran a site that specifically catered to webmasters, many of your visitors, maybe even the widespread majority, would probably already be running the toolbar. So Alexa says, "Your site got 20 toolbar visits, so let's do a little math, and… OK, you must have received 20 billion total visits! Congratulations, and welcome to the top tier! Enjoy your flashy high rank."

What if you don't run a site for webmasters? Doesn't this tip the playing field against you? Absolutely. The system is flawed. But Alexa has acknowledged that the ranks aren't that accurate until you reach the top: "Generally, Traffic Rankings of 100,000+ should be regarded as not reliable because the amount of data we receive is not statistically significant. Conversely, the more traffic a site receives (the closer it gets to the number 1 position), the more reliable its Traffic Ranking becomes."

So how can you improve your Alexa rank in an honest way? By installing the Alexa toolbar on the browser you most use to visit your own web site(s). The toolbar could be considered a scorekeeper for the net. On your browser, it pays careful attention to the sites you visit, and essentially gives each site a vote on your behalf. So if you spend a lot of time tweaking your own sites, it will make sure to give them votes, too. But Alexa makes it clear that to keep things fair, a site will only get one vote per IP address per day.

People have learned that this tends to add up over time. If you consistently visit your site(s) with the Alexa toolbar, you'll likely see results.

However, some have also noted that the higher your Alexa rank is already, the less noticeable a change like this will be. If your rank is still in the millions, then you should probably see some improvement. However, if you're already in the hundreds of thousands, you might not get as big a benefit (if any). But my guess is that if you're doing that well, you've probably already got the toolbar installed!

People have tried to come up with other tricks to improve their Alexa ranks, but some are considered underhanded and risky. There have been stories about companies being banned from Alexa for trying to game the system. I view installing the toolbar so it can see your web site to be upright and honorable because it's a simple, non-deceptive one-step procedure, and because Alexa encourages people to download the toolbar.

Can you believe it?! I just read on Yahoo that Verizon is going to open its network in preparation to compete with Google's open Android software platform and with the iPhone's opening to the development of 3rd-party software. This could change everything.

The Verizon Wireless network will soon be open to non-Verizon phones and programs. Perhaps this is the first step toward a world in which the web is truly worldwide.

I envision a future in which the internet is so ubiquitous that it can be accessed by virtually any device. Online access will become standard, built-in as a perfunctory feature in most gadgets, and perhaps in non-gadget items like furniture. People won't have to pay for it. It will be free, open, and omnipresent. Access points will be a thing of the past, as every inch of the world will act as such.

I'll bet computer terminals will exist as more technical alternatives to other, newer forms of surfing. Perhaps in a few years, PCs will be relegated to use by "Net Operators," people whose jobs encompass updating and changing the net from a central location. Meanwhile, most citizens will share knowledge and experiences remotely, free to move to any area without risking being cut off.

Perhaps we could even extend internet access to the moon, and Mars. And Alpha Centauri!