Diary of a Mad Editor

For years, Microsoft has been trying to come up with a viable alternative to Google’s famous search engine. The company’s latest attempt is a much-hyped "decision engine" called Bing. The question I had when I first saw the commercial for Bing was, is Bing a worthy alternative to Google?

I decided to test Bing against Google by running a few searches on both and comparing the two. Since I’ve been searching for an effective weight loss supplement to complement my diet and exercise regime, I decided to key in the keyword phrase "quick trim extreme burn reviews". In Google, you get your top search results, a few sponsored ad links in the sidebar and related keyword search links at the bottom of the page. With Bing, the first thing I notice is that more space is devoted to sponsored ad links than Google. On the plus side, when you mouse over the search results, you get a summary of the contents. It’s a nice idea in theory, because you can get a brief preview to help you decide whether or not to click on a link rather then just blindly visiting pages. In my first search I was actually impressed with Bing.

I decided to try another search and typed in my own name. In Google, the results were much more relevant than Bing and Google does a fair job of eliminating redundant results. Also, when viewing Bing’s summary, I noticed two flaws: The first is that when previewing content from places online where my writing had appeared, the summary displayed content that Microsoft doesn’t have permission to display (I’m not suggesting that I’m planning legal action or that I care that much given the circumstances, just making an observation). Second, in many, many cases the summary previews irrelevant page content from ads and other text that has nothing to do with the search parameters. In this search, Bing definitely shows some chinks in its shiny armor. Google is still Google. So, in my second search, I have to be honest and say it’s Google, hands down.

The biggest deviation in the quality of the two search engines came with my third test search. Since I’ve been so concerned of late with eBooks and eBook pricing, I typed in "eBook pricing" into Google and Bing. I was looking for links to information about the eBook pricing controversy — not links to places that sold eBooks. Unfortunately, the top results in Bing were mostly commercial sites selling eBooks and eBook readers. Google, however, seemed to magically know what I was looking for. The top results in Google took me to information about the eBook debate over pricing. Bing actually became more useless the more I used it.

Overall assessment: Google still does what it’s supposed to do. Bing looks nice but ultimately isn’t as useful as Google. Although, Bing seems like a marginal improvement over Microsoft’s previous search engine effort.

Welcome to the March 8, 2010 edition of the mad editor’s round-up.

Peta Jinnath Andersen presents Inkpop: A Virtual Slush Pile | *Insert Literary Blog Name Here* posted at *Insert Literary Blog Name Here*, saying, "2010 has seen the death of the slush pile. It’s been coming a long time–savvy writers have spent the past few years tracking down agents rather than editors. Social networking has continued the trend, with writers in all stages of their careers friending industry insiders in the hope of picking a few tips. Editors, though less disadvantaged by the new closed house policies, are now dependent on agents to find fresh, new voices. Enter inkpop. The big question, of course, is would a virtual slush pile be less labor-intensive than an IRL one? It depends. The beauty of re-envisioning the slush pile is that it’s essentially a do-over – a chance for houses to evaluate why the old system wasn’t working and put new structures in place."

Etc.

Madeleine Begun Kane presents Endearing Limerick (Poetry Prompt) posted at Mad Kane’s Humor Blog, saying, "limerick and limerick prompt"

Tiffany Colter presents A Writer’s Business Team: Part 3 posted at Writing Career Coach, saying, "This article talks about how editors and marketors build your writing business."

Interviews

Tiffany Colter presents Interview with author Jennifer AlLee posted at The Writing Examiner, saying, "This article is an interview with author Jennifer AlLee."

Tiffany Colter presents Interview with author Jennifer AlLee posted at Writing Career Coach, saying, "This article is an interview with author Jennifer AlLee."

Tiffany Colter presents Interview with Sarah Hamaker posted at Writing Career Coach, saying, "This article is an interview with freelance editor Sarah Hamaker."

Tiffany Colter presents Interview with Sarah Hamaker posted at The Writing Examiner, saying, "This article is an interview with freelance editor Sarah Hamaker."

Missy Frye presents A Conversation with Matt Mikalatos posted at Incurable Disease of Writing, saying, "A short interview with Matt Mikalatos, author of Imaginary Jesus."

On-Demand Printing

Jennifer Saksa presents NCH is More Helpful than Ever posted at NCH Software Blog, saying, "This post talks about enlisting the help of an on-demand printer to help automate and manage an order process we had been manually handling in house. The new arrangement is going to both be easier for us internally and get manuals to customers faster"

Publishing News

Madeleine Begun Kane presents Fight Firewalls With Kindle posted at Mad Kane’s Humor Blog.

Tiffany Colter presents MacMillan, Amazon.com, Authors and Readers posted at The Writing Examiner, saying, "This article talks about the changing face of publishing."

Jasmine Hall presents 20 Great Talks on the Future of Information posted at Online Colleges.org.

Peta Jinnath Andersen presents Has The Internet Killed Professional Book Reviews? posted at *Insert Literary Blog Name Here*, saying, "Blogs are like critics-in-a-box: anyone with access to a computer can sign up with WordPress, Blogger, Livejournal, even Diaryland, write up their thoughts, and hey presto! instant critic. Instead of being forced to read half a dozen review pages in search of the perfect book, readers can now pick a genre (cozy mystery, pop science, YA) or demographic (stay-at-home mom, clock maker, dalek) and find reviews written with their interests in mind. But blogs are just the top book in the stack. The real threat to professional reviewing is a lot more insidious: time."

Writing

Livia Blackburne presents Livia Blackburne: Genre, writing, and cliche, oh my! posted at Livia Blackburne.

Missy Frye presents Strengthening my Verbs a Guest Post by Janet Morris Grimes posted at Incurable Disease of Writing, saying, "As a writer on a quest to discover Publishment, Janet Morris Grimes had to let go of whatever held her back, beginning with spineless verbs."

Sandy Ackers presents Perfectionism: A Great Muse-Strangler, Part 4 posted at Strangling My Muse: Struggling to Live a Creative Life in a Stressful World, saying, "Discusses how to deal with an inner perfectionist that keeps you from believing in yourself as a writer."

Tiffany Colter presents A writer’s business team: Part 1 posted at Writing Career Coach, saying, "This article talks about a writer’s business team."

Peta Jinnath Andersen presents YA Market: If Teens Aren’t Tweeting, Why Are We? « *Insert Literary Blog Name Here* posted at *Insert Literary Blog Name Here*, saying, "teenphoneAuthors should blog. Authors should get on Facebook and set up fan pages. Authors should tweet. And many YA authors do, setting up themed blogs, tweeting their favorite books, putting up book trailers and extra content. But just who is the content reaching?"

Robert Terrell presents did not hear posted at the existential poet, saying, "The Existential Poet blog contains original haiku of poet Robert Terrell. I write about many subjects – seasonal, inner states and moon haiku, with an existential attitude."

Robert Terrell presents galactic dreamers ? haiku posted at the existential poet, saying, "The Existential Poet Blog contains my original haiku poetry. I maintain a strict form, the 5-7-5 syllable structure, which suits my poetic creativity very well. I write about all sorts of subjects, with an existential (human feelings) attitude. Many of my haiku have seasonal references, and many focus on inner states of being. And, I love moon haiku!"

Robert Terrell presents friendly frenzy posted at the existential poet, saying, "The Existential Poet Blog contains my original haiku poetry. I maintain a strict form, the 5-7-5 syllable structure, which suits my poetic creativity very well. I write about all sorts of subjects, with an existential (human feelings) attitude. Many of my haiku have seasonal references, and many focus on inner states of being. And, I love moon haiku!"

Tiffany Colter presents Considering other venues for your writing posted at Writing Career Coach, saying, "This article is about the reality of writing and what writers can do about it."

Robert Terrell presents dawn smiles posted at the existential poet, saying, "The Existential Poet Blog contains my original haiku poetry. I maintain a strict form, the 5-7-5 syllable structure, which suits my poetic creativity very well. I write about all sorts of subjects, with an existential (human feelings) attitude. Many of my haiku have seasonal references, and many focus on inner states of being. And, I love moon haiku!"

Robert Terrell presents we turn posted at the existential poet, saying, "The Existential Poet blog contains original haiku of poet Robert Terrell. I write about many subjects – seasonal, inner states and moon haiku, with an existential attitude."

Tiffany Colter presents Benefits of writing for other venues posted at Writing Career Coach, saying, "This article is about how writing for other venues benefits you."

Writing Tips

Livia Blackburne presents Writing Lessons from Gossip Girl posted at Livia Blackburne.

Livia Blackburne presents Voice Finding Techniques from Cathy Yardley posted at Livia Blackburne.

Livia Blackburne presents Subtle Narration in the Graveyard Book posted at Livia Blackburne.

Livia Blackburne presents Strong and Memorable Characterization in The Graveyard Book posted at Livia Blackburne.

Cathy Stucker presents “I Want to Write a Book!” posted at Selling Books, saying, "It’s time to stop "wanting" to write a book and start writing. Get your book written with the tips in this post."

It occurred to me, looking at the calendar this morning, that the current issues of Gnome and The 13th Warrior Review are now officially three months overdue. People have been emailing me, asking, "what gives?" and I’m running out of excuses. Truthfully, aside from writing this blog occasionally, I’ve mostly been at the gym. I’m obese, hypertensive, with hypothyroid, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and two and a half years in remission from cancer. So my health has been my main priority as I’ve said on many occasions. That means I spend a lot of the time at the gym. I’m staying away from the ephedra diet pills, thank you very much. But I am rocking the weights and aerobics and, according to the scale at my oncologist appointment yesterday, I’ve lost sixteen pounds since Christmas. So, I’m on my way to slimming down if not quite on my way to publishing those two issues. I do, however, expect at least one of them to be online sometime before the end of the month. Maybe a hard push over the weekend will do the trick. Anyway, before launching anymore submissions my way, keep in mind that I spend two hours in the gym every day and only spend about two hours a week reading submissions.