onfocus

Amazon just added a new method to its XML API called TextStreamSearch. This method lets you send an arbitrary bit of text to Amazon, they analyze it for keywords, and then make product recommendations based on that text. This would let you send, say, an entire weblog post and get product recommendations based on that text. I think it could be useful for creating very targeted advertising based on a page's contents. (Sort of like I'm doing on my quotes page.) You could also monitor IM conversations and pop-up product recommendations based on what people are talking about. I haven't tried it yet, and it'll be interesting to see how accurate it is. [via AWS newsletter]

Update: I created a page to test the Text Stream search. You can try it yourself. (There seems to be a limit on the number of characters, but I haven't narrowed it down to exact numbers yet.)

Erik Benson pointed to Joel Spolsky's write-up of his office design. He is building an office like it's 1999, very nice! (Looks like a Monster Office project. ;) It will be interesting to see how the space adapts to use.

Weblogs Inc. No comment. (I need to get me one of those fancy links-only sidebars.)

Badge Swap looks like fun. Heather also put together a beautiful new site for her photographs: hchamp.com.

I added a couple of new features to ORblogs, a site that points to Oregon weblogs. ORphotos is a group photo space for sharing pictures taken in Oregon. If you're in Oregon, stop by and post a picture. If you're not in Oregon, stop by and see what Oregon looks like. ;) I also added a discussion forum. I thought I'd put it up and see what happens. This should provide a spot for answering some of the tech questions that come up frequently in email. And I hope that some of the participating weblog authors will help steer wherever ORblogs may be heading.

Check out Andy's new web application: upcoming.org. It lets you track events (concerts, conferences, etc.) that you're going to—and browse events that others have said they're going to. He calls it a collaborative event calendar. All of the events are organized by location and user, and you can keep a list of your friends on the system (and see what they're up to). He has everything available as XML, so you can add your own upcoming events to your site with some fetching and parsing.

The Democratic National Committee has a blog (with an appropriately bloggish title): Kicking Ass. [via TomTomorrow] They have a blogroll, comments enabled, and RSS.

Rael talks about why hacking is good, adding more depth to this article about hacking in the Miami Herald: Hack Your System: It's a Good Thing.

Moreover jumps into the business-weblog fray with a weblog search tool. Unfortunately there's no link to the search tool in that story, and no trace of it on their website. And here's a ZDNet UK article: Search tool scans blogs for business.

I'm posting this from the Sacramento airport because I paid for this access time and I want something to show for it, dammit! (Note to self: Never say, "I'll just work at the airport before my flight." You won't get much—THIS IS A SECURITY REMINDER—work done.)

Douglas Rushkoff argues that content is an excuse for social contact—not an end in itself.

Science Presenting Steam and Electricity to Industry and Commerce. More. [via MeFi] There isn't enough anthropomorphizing of abstract concepts these days. I'd like to see an engraving of Ingenuity introducing the Internet to Persistence.