BobaFind

41 locations added, broken zip codes fixed!

2007-03-24T20:25:00.000-07:00

As you can see by the last post before this one, I haven't done many updates to the site in QUITE some time. I have made small improvements here and there, but nothing major. Today however, I am proud to announce that all submissions as of this evening have been approved or deleted (if they were duplicates or not valid). I am also very please to announce that formerly "broken" zip codes starting with zero now work correctly! So for all of you in New Jersey (I'm sure there's lots) and elsewhere that uses zip codes starting with zero, you now are included in the fun! My sincere apologies for not being able to fix that sooner. If you have any comments or questions, feel free to send them my way!

Joel

Google enhances Mobile.Google.com with Local search

2005-06-11T15:25:00.000-07:00

Google recently enhanced Google Mobile with Local Search, adding similar functionality to local.google.com to their mobile application. What does this mean for vertical search? I can say for a fact (this moment, not the future) that community-based and individual efforts usually outweigh Google's attempts at seeking out local points of interest. The one thing Google has going for it (good or bad) is that it scrapes those community-based or individual sites and includes the information there in it's local results.

When is Google going to give some real love to all the sites that create the content it uses to provide such accurate results? In my case, Bobafind.com consists of hundreds of listings for Bubble Tea cafes, a rather obscure search. My site visitors have submitted many, and any time I come across a new location, I add it to my database. Along comes GoogleBot and BAM! all of my hard won locations are now part of Google Local! Do I get anything in return? Well, sort of. A non-rank-increasing link from Google. I guess it could be worse. Anyone got any ideas to get a few bucks out of this?

Goole pokes fun at Auto-Link with Google Gulp

2005-04-01T08:31:00.000-08:00

In their typical style, Google has published yet another April Fool's joke.

Google Gulp claims to be "a line of "smart drinks" designed to maximize your surfing efficiency by making you more intelligent, and less thirsty." You never know. Everyone thought Gmail was a joke, too.

Guns sold to terror suspects, denied to illegal immigrants.

2005-03-08T10:36:00.000-08:00

In 2004, dozens of U.S. terror suspects on F.B.I. watch lists were allowed to purchase firearms.

Gmail sending out invites to "interested" people

2005-02-18T09:44:00.000-08:00

I received a message from Gmail in my inbox today, thanking me for my interest in Gmail and inviting me to sign up. I've had a Gmail account for over 8 months now, but when Gmail was first opened to beta users, I signed up to be notified if any "openings" were available. Here's the message I received today:

Hi there,

Thanks for signing up to be updated on the latest Gmail happenings. We hope it's been worth the wait, because we're excited to finally offer you an invitation to open a free Gmail account! Just click on this link to create your new account:

LINK REMOVED

Since last April, we've been working hard to create the best email service possible. It already comes with 1,000 megabytes of free storage, powerful Google search technology to find any message you want instantly, and a new way of organizing email that saves you time and helps you make sense of all the information in your inbox.

And here are just some of the things that we've added in the last few months:

- Free POP access: Take your messages with you. Download them, read them offline, access them using Outlook, your Blackberry or any other device that supports POP

- Gmail Notifier: Get new mail notifications and see the messages and their senders without having to open a browser

- Better contacts management: Import your contacts from Yahoo! Mail, Hotmail, Outlook, and others to Gmail in just a few clicks. Add phone numbers, notes and more. Even use search to keep better track of it all.

We also wanted to thank you. For showing us your support and for being so patient. And to those who have already signed up for Gmail, thank you for giving it a try and for helping us make it better. Our users are what have made this product great. So whether you're just signing up for your account or you've been with us since the beginning, keep letting us know how we can build you the best email service around.

That's it for now. We hope you like Gmail and will share it with your friends. We've got lots of cool new stuff planned and we can't wait for you to see our work in your Gmail accounts! Stay tuned...

Thanks,
The Gmail Team

I had already forgotten that I had signed up. When I saw "The Gmail Team" in the From: line, I thought it was some new feature. Oh well.

Google Suggest [BETA]

2005-02-08T14:07:00.000-08:00

I came upon Google Suggest today. A co-worker showed me the site. I was amazed because I usually keep up on the latest Google developments. It allows you to type in a query and it suggests alternate queries and shows you the number of results for each query IN REAL TIME!

[SPOILER] Trump gives a thump and a finger point while firing candidate

2004-12-02T21:56:00.000-08:00

In episode 13 of NBC's The Apprentice 2 Donald Trump, while firing Ivana strays from his usual, two finger point, "You're fired." combo. This time, in what seemed to be a moment of pleasure, he combined his million dollar catchphrase with a triumphant slap on the table and a one finger "gun" point. Expect to hear more about this from other blogs as the evening progresses :)

Google Browser?

2004-09-21T09:42:00.000-07:00

Wow. Google wants its hand in everything. According to an aritcle in the NYPost Google may be attempting to build a Web Browser. They have recently hired top developers from Sun and Microsoft who worked on Java and IE respectively. This could be huge.

They have also hired John Baeda, lead developer of the Avalon display technology for Microsoft's Operating System codenamed Longhorn

Whois for GBrowser.com

Is it flattery, or...?

2004-09-10T08:18:00.000-07:00

While going through my server logs this morning I came across goatballsfind.com. Please don't be afreaid of the link. It's rather humorous. Someone has taken the front page of bobafind.com and replaced all the occurences of the words boba, and bubble with "goat balls". Something interesting: the AdSense unit is still delivering "Bubble Tea" ads, even though the words boba and bubble tea have been removed.

Special thanks to Kurt Dresner for this mornings humor.

SEO Leader in litigation over fumbled debt lawsuit

2004-09-09T08:39:00.000-07:00

Shawn Hogan, founder of Digital Point Solutions, a prominent voice in the SEO field is suing law firm Winn & Simms over their embarassing mistakes in going after him for credit card debt on a card that he never carried. First saw it on the Digital Point Forums here: Winn and Simms thread.

He also created a Winn and Simms blog site with news about the legal battle, though he has stopped publishing updates currently.

Owner of Fusion Bubble tea opens new location in Longview, WA

2004-09-08T14:11:00.000-07:00

Barry Isenhart, owner of Fusion Bubble Tea in Vancouver, WA opened a new Bubble Tea location in Longview earlier this summer. A friend of mine had mentioned that they enjoyed bubble tea this summer on the way to Long Beach, WA. I wish Barry all the luck in the world. His Vancouver location seems to be very busy on weeknights, around lunchtime during the day and weekends.

DDR-icize

2004-06-22T13:52:00.000-07:00

Another picture from the "Last Chance Dance Dance" Party. The dude on the left has a broken ankle and was playing 7 and 8 foot heavies. His words "If my leg wasn't messed up, I'd be getting AA's!!"

Sheesh!

Got gmail?

2004-06-20T01:38:00.000-07:00

I recently purchased a gmail account from ebay, for $4.72. My new email from here out (with 1GB, who needs anything else?) is joel.gibby@gmail.com.

Sweetness.

w00t!

2004-06-18T13:20:00.000-07:00

w00t!

The fellas pictured here were at my "end-of-the-school-year-dance-dance-revolution-party" Since school is over, the lost and found became a free for all, and these lucky punks happend to find something quite amazing.

Hidden amongst the coats, shoes, gym shorts and etc. was a working Atari 7800 console, and bag after ziploc © bag of game cartridges, 47 in total. Included in that total were three Star Wars © games, just about every classic game you can think of (Asteroids, Donky Kong, Pitfall I and II, ...) and all in good, very good and working condition.

Hope they all can agree on who takes it home :)

Joel

Posted bobafind Form to Bubble Tea Fans' Journal

2004-06-16T12:08:00.000-07:00

I posted a Bubble Tea search form that users can add to their website on Bubble Tea Fans' Journal. Hopefully it will be of use to users and in turn drive some more traffic my way .. :)

Comma Comma Comma Comma Comma to my site ... And post.

2004-06-14T12:44:00.000-07:00

(to the tune of Karma Chameleon)

I'm planning on adding a ratings feature to the Bubble tea webpage I've started (3 months ago). Hopefully it will build more of a community, since the bobafind forum idea flopped like a shoe. I think I have a total of 16 users and 12 posts. :...(

<shameless plug>
If anyone is reading this ... go register and post on the bubble tea forums and I'll send you a personal email telling you how much I appreciate your contribution. Like that would entice anyone....
</shameless plug>

We'll see..

[edit]Now that the board is going well, I revoke my previous offer. Now you'll just get an auto-reply personal message when you sign up. Have fun.[/edit]

Grind, Grind, Grind

2004-06-14T12:36:00.000-07:00

After spending the weekend working on the Avaunt Heavy Equipment website, it feels like I'm running on fumes. I seem to start new projects before I finsish the last ones, which ends up stressing me out a little bit. Usually I can't say "no" if someone assigns more work to me, though I'm getting better. I'm realizing I'm not the only one who knows how to do something right, and sometimes you need to let go ;-)