As I was reading this recent O'Reilly Radar article Thoughts on the State of Search, it suddenly dawned on me that my use of Google has declined in the past 3-6 months by about 20-33%.

What has replaced it? del.icio.us.

For example, I was recently searching for some SNES ROMs (obviously, only for games I already legally own). Using Google to search for ROMs leads to a lot of spammy deadends. But, combinations of http://del.icio.us/tag/ and http://del.icio.us/popular/ got me where I wanted to go. For example:

I did a similar thing when I was looking for different XSL engines for Apache (simple engines that would take some XML, apply an XSLT to it, and spit out the results). I wanted to poke at a couple. Googling for Apache XSL engines turned up a lot of "noisy" results that I didn't want to have to wade through. http://del.icio.us/tag/apache+xsl had just the stuff I was looking for.

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Does this mean you've finally caved to the greatness that is XBMC? Getting closer?

Posted by chuckie on November 13, 2006 03:06 PM
Does this mean you've finally caved to the greatness that is XBMC? Getting closer?

No. I went and got a USB Logitech Dual Action Gamepad and have been crackin' out on old SNES Final Fantasy games like you wouldn't believe (and Super Tecmo Bowl -- Jerry Rice is un-freakin-stoppable).

Posted by J$ on November 13, 2006 03:51 PM

Why is the word "obvious" in italics? I guess because you own so many?

I can't believe you've unleashed the Final Fantasy. That's some heavy-duty crack. I started in on a FF ROM a few years ago, but I managed to get out before it sucked me in. I didn't have a joypad, though...the keyboard sucks for SNES games.

I may have to try the del.icio.us thing...I have many bookmarks there, but haven't really used it much to browse/search. I have certainly received spammy results with "The Google" though...

Posted by gryhrt on November 13, 2006 08:06 PM
Why is the word "obvious" in italics? I guess because you own so many?

Because it would be illegal to download ROMs to games I don't already own.

Posted by J$ on November 14, 2006 11:16 AM

Hmm...yeah, I was going for the sarcasm thing, but obviously I missed my mark. Damn! I suppose this is why emoticons were created, as annoying as they are...

Posted by gryhrt on November 18, 2006 09:30 AM

Hey Jeremy -- I appreciate the perspective about Google; it's a wise counter balance I think. I'm a videographer/documentarian in DC where a few want to start a Google users group (...since it's now beyond a search engine and more an actual platform). Not very many tech criticisms circulate about Google, or at least from what I've read. So I like the added view (helps me learn and consider more). Best for '07 --- Jill F.

Posted by Jill Foster on January 5, 2007 12:32 AM