The best "Misheard Lyrics" ever, without a doubt....

The best "Misheard Lyrics" ever, without a doubt....
[NOT MINE] Woodstock: Joe Cocker - With A Little Help From My Friends - Misheard Lyrics

"What's the 'Buzz'? Tell me what's a-happenin'?"*

Did you hear all the buzz about "Buzz," the new Google companion to Gmail designed to compete with Twitter and Facebook's "wall"?

Do you like the name? They probably came up with it "in house," like all their other products.

I think it sucks. I think it's lame. It's totally uncreative.

"Twitter" - that's sheer magic. It has already spawned off a new verb, "to twitter," and a new noun, "tweets," plus countless compound expressions. "Google" - that's sheer magic, and a verb, too, and it has spawned "Googlers" and "Googleplex"... Likewise, iPod... iPhone are sheer magic!

To "buzz," on the contrary, is already a verb and a "buzz" is already a noun. To "give somebody a buzz" has also been an expression in use on-and-off for some time, meaning to "give somebody a call." A "buzzer" is a doorbell in most places. Nothing new and exciting there.

Do you know what Google called their social-networking site? "Orkut," the name of one of the engineers, Orkut Büyükkökten, whose idea it was. It NEVER caught on in the English-speaking world. Compared to Facebook, MySpace, even Friendster, it wasn't ever even in the running (According to the Wikipedia article on it, "As of February 2010, Alexa traffic ranked Orkut 60th in the world"). It's only popular in some countries overseas, like Brazil. I would wager a bet that part of its lack of appeal and failure in the English-speaking world had a lot to do with the quirky name. It is just not catchy at all. It sounds weird and strange.... I myself never even had any interest in it. Just the name turns me off (no offense to Turkish names!). And I am a linguist who speaks many languages! Imagine the average American!

So Google has had its share of naming near-misses or failures. One of the reasons may have something to do with the fact that they are doing all their naming "in house." A lot of these ideas are spin-offs of the famous "20 percent time" allotted engineers to play with their own ideas, and maybe they, too, have a hand in what those ideas end up being named after they are launched in "labs" as beta products.

The problem is that tech products today need catchy, resilient names that will stand out against intense competition and be counted. Engineers may be software experts, not necessarily language experts.

Google might be well-served by having their in-house named products checked by the input and naming expertise of outside experts in the name consulting field such as the newly launched "Albert Dali" firm.

If in-house naming falls short, outsourced naming may go far!

It's something to think about, Googlers...

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* Line from the musical "Jesus Christ Superstar"
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What is "info-ential"?

Got this e-mail out of the blue today:

"Hi!

You don't know me, but you are almost the only person I've found on Internet who uses this term - info-ential.

My boss asked me to translate it into Russian (I'm from Russia), but I cannot find any definition of this term and have now idea how to translate it...

Please, if you can present me couple of your precious minutes and tell me what it means, I'd be really grateful!

(I won't tell you "thank you beforehand" not to make you feel obliged).

Ciao
Karina"

So I replied:

Karina, priviet!!!*

I'll tell you what it means if you promise to teach me some Russian!! ;-)

I have some questions for you before telling you:

Who is your boss? (Putin?!?!? ;-)

Why is he interested in MY word "info-ential"? (because it is MINE. I came up with it!)

What do he want to do with it? What does he need MY word for?!?

Am I going to get any money?!? ;-) (rubles!! *Ya hachoo dvooshkoo russkayoo and rubles!!! ;-)

I am a linguist and I love playing with words. Do you know what a "neologism" is? (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neologism - "A neologism is a word, term, or phrase that has been recently created (or "coined"), often to apply to new concepts, to synthesize pre-existing concepts, or to make older terminology sound more contemporary.").

I coined, I created the word "info-ential". It doesn't really exist except on my blog (as far as I know! Where else did you see it? hmmmmm... who's using my word without my permission?!?!? ;-). You won't find it anywhere in any dictionary or anywhere else on the internet (well, at least not yet! not until I become famous!! ;-)

I think it should be difficult to translate because what I did was to put two English morphemes (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morpheme) together:

"info- " - from information
"-ential" - from influential, essential

So it is really a play on words on both words "information" and "influential ." It is a word I coined to express the influence of information on our lives or, to put it another way, the impact of information on our lives.

Isn't that "horrorshow"?!?!? (horosho! ;-)

Vichiringa horosho! Tosofka horosho! Vodka horosho! Dvooshka russka horosho! Ya hachoo dvooshkoo russkayoo!!

So you want to teach me some Russian? ;-)

Spasibo!!

Ciao,

nando

*Russian Glossary:
-priviet = hi
-rubles = Russian $$$$
-Ya hachoo dvooshkoo russkayoo = I want a Russian girl
-"horrorshow" = horosho = good (from Anthony Burgess's "A Clockwork Orange." Burgess loved playing with words, too. "horosho" means "good" in Russian, but he turned it into "horrorshow" in Alex's "nasdat" slang to make fun of it. It also fits in perfectly with Alex's depraved mind. To him, any "horrorshow" was "good"! ;-)
-vichiringa = party (Vichiringa horosho! = party(ing) is good! ;-)
-tosofka = party (Tosofka horosho! = party(ing) is good! ;-)
-vodka = vodka (Vodka horosho! = vodka is good! ;-)
-dvooshka russka = Russian girl
-spasibo = thanks

Note: In Russian there is no verb to be in the present tense, so saying "vodka good" is the same as saying "vodka is good".

A blog "shrine" and "village LinkedIn": truly great blogging, truly great social-networking

A blog "shrine":

A few--or perhaps most--of us may blog about frivolous stuff. But L.A. Times Reporter Jill Leovy blogs about something very real and very serious.

She's trying to cover every single homicide in Los Angeles county in a blog by the L.A. Times: to date, 700 homicides and counting.

The mother of D'Angello Mizell, one of the victims "enshrined" in the blog, says,

"I just don't want him to be forgotten. I don't want anybody to think he didn't matter. Because he did."

So, for many of the victims' families, the blog has taken on the qualities of a "shrine" to their loved ones gunned down on the streets.

This is a Yahoo News article and a video about Leovy's work and her project.

"The Invisible War"

And this is the blog: The Homicide Report

This is truly great blogging, what blogging should be...

"village LinkedIn":

Sean Blagsvedt from Bangalore, India, who once worked for Microsoft in affluent Redmond, WA, has started a social-networking site --Babajob.com-- to match poor job seekers, the poorest of the poor who are anything but computer literate and who can only dream of having access to such high-tech, with the affluent new techies all around them who need their help as chauffeurs, handymen, cooks, maids, day laborers, etc.

When the idea dawned on him, he blurted out, "We need village LinkedIn!'”

Here's a New York Times article about it:

"In India, Poverty Inspires Technology Workers to Altruism"

This is truly great social-networking, what social networking should be...

These two unsung heroes are taking the "Web 2.0" to a whole new level.

Contrast this altruism and concern for others with this: "Age of Riches: After Succeeding, Young Tycoons Try, Try Again"

Perhaps someone should start a blog to list every single serviceman fallen in Iraq...

Or is there one already?

Perhaps someone should start a "village LinkedIn" for every poor country in the world...

Or is there one already?

Working for Google: Sounds like fun...

Is it fun working for Google?

Let me count the ways...

(No, I ain't workin' there --I wish!-- but I can gather a thing or two from the Google blog posts and other sources...)

10. There's the now famous "20 percent time" to work on something that tickles your fancy... ("The Google Way: Give Engineers Room")

9. There's the bottom-up management style ("Google works from the bottom up. If you have a great technical idea, you don’t have your V.P. send out a memo telling everybody to use it. Instead, you take it to your fellow engineers and convince them that it’s good." - "The Google Way: Give Engineers Room")

8. There's the “grouplet” to work on something to "make a broad change across the whole organization." ("The Google Way: Give Engineers Room")

7. There's the “Testing on the Toilet” technique ("the idea of putting up little one-page stories, called episodes, in bathroom stalls discussing new and interesting testing techniques." "The Google Way: Give Engineers Room")

6. There's the "giant scale-model cake of the entire block-long building" in New York to commemorate the first anniversary at the location. ("If you build it, they will eat it")

5. There's the "view of the mountains [from] [...] a lovely city nestled on Lake Washington, with views of the water, the Seattle skyline, and of course Mount Rainier" at the Seattle/Kirkland office. ("Spotlight on Seattle")

4. There's "the furniture tower [...] built after a long session of hacking" at the cube hotel in Savognin, Switzerland during the Zurich hackathon. ("Zurich hackathon")

3. There's the free buffet.

2. There's the free buffet.

And the number one reason it's a whole lotta fun working at Google...

1. The free buffet!!

mmmmmmmmm.....yuuuuuuuuuum!!

Four new international film industry powerhouses you may not have heard about

Kollywood

Not to be confused with "Bollywood," this is the Tamil-language film industry based in Madras, India. It's a happening place. Check it out: "Tamil Nadu film fans vote for Kollywood."

Nollywood

This article claims that the Nigerian film industry is the third largest in the world complete with "some 300 directors churning out an average of 2400 films annually" and the Africa Movie Academy Awards: "Nigerian Film Industry Mixes Digital Tech, Homegrown Scripts."

Abu-Dhabiwood

Oil and war are not the only things coming out of the Middle East these days. Movie financing capital is at the top of the list, too. According to Business Week, "Malek Akkad says he expects to close a $284 million movie fund with wealthy Emirate and other Middle East investors." Hop on the camel caravan of this movie financing bonanza: "Hollywood's Movers and Sheiks."

And last but not least,...

Hugollywood

Venezuelan strong man, Hugo Chavez, wants not only to nationalize the Venezuelan oil industry, he also wants to Hollywoodize the national film industry infusing it with a big dose of cash and national cultural and political interest. If Latin-American history and/or political commentary of the leftist kind is your thing, cash in on this big opportunity south of Miami: "Hugo Chavez funds state-run film studio."

California fires and "citizen journalism"

What'd I tell you? (Lifecasting by Twitter)

--California Fire Followers Set Twitter Ablaze

--Twittering the California wild fires

Two postings on the coverage of the California wild fires by ordinary citizens, not journalists.

For anyone who thought "micro-blogging" or, as it shall soon be probably known, "twittering," was silly or useless, the California wild fires have proven its usefulness and importance.

Has everyone forgotten what happened to Michael Richards?

Cell-phone videos transforming TV news

A cell-phone video practically destroyed his career.

For good or evil, for better or for worse, imagine what Twitter or Justin.tv could do?

As Michael Richards, a public personality in a very public setting, found out, never underestimate the power of nascent technologies...

Just don't take it too far!

Report: 2 arrested over royal blackmail

If what they wanted was money, these two [whatever-you-wanna-call-'em] would have been a lot better off selling the video to the tabloids and letting the pros handle it . It all depends on where and when and how the video was shot. I don't know about you, but I believe that even public figures--yes, even minor royals and Britney Spears--have a right to privacy.

As these two found out after they were arrested and taken to court, there is such a thing as taking citizen journalism too far...