Last night we had a great dinner with one of our partners and then it was off to a club called "Code Red" for the AskJeeves party.
By the time we got to the party it was well under way. We were wondering how Ask.com was going to say goodbye to Jeeves and it didn't take long for us to work it out. Two Star Wars Stormtroopers stood ominously on stage guarding a lifesize bust of Jeeves frozen in "carbonite". Bobba Fett stood guard too in a scene reminiscent of Han Solo's carbonite freezing by Jabba the Hutt in Star Wars Episode V.
We were a bit sad to see the end of a trade mark ... but then that's how the audience felt when Han Solo was frozen. Could Jeeves come back one day?
Meg and I couldn't resist getting one last photo of Jeeves. Coming soon ...
Tuesday, February 28, 2006
Monday, February 27, 2006
1 Day To Go
We've all made it to New York and amazingly all our "stuff" made it too. The team spent the morning setting up the booth and we're really happy with it.
350 soft Trexys have also arrived - that means we have to give out one every three minutes. Let's see how we go ... the booth opens for business tomorrow for two days. There are very few exhibitors with pure search engine technology, the majority of booths are selling complimentary pay per click products and services.
Tonight we're off to dinner with a partner and the AskJeeves party. I suspect 'Jeeves' is going to get his final send off ...
350 soft Trexys have also arrived - that means we have to give out one every three minutes. Let's see how we go ... the booth opens for business tomorrow for two days. There are very few exhibitors with pure search engine technology, the majority of booths are selling complimentary pay per click products and services.
Tonight we're off to dinner with a partner and the AskJeeves party. I suspect 'Jeeves' is going to get his final send off ...
Sunday, February 26, 2006
Saturday, February 25, 2006
Got it!
Some of the biggest bugs have the smallest causes. It turns out the "monster bug" was caused by an invisible carriage return character "\r". Got him!
3 Days To Go
We spent most of yesterday tackling a "monster" bug. The Web TrailBar is primarily meant to demonstrate how Trexy works without the user needing to install a TrailBar first. Generally it works well but on some web pages it inexplicably locks up. Strangely it works everywhere except on the Trexy cluster. Normally we don't like to sleep on a bug but this one is nasty. For me the best time to kill bugs is between 5am and 6am in the morning - it's 5:35am now and I've got this one in my sights!
Apart from that everything is coming together. Meg just sent me an email from Australia. She's going to jump on the plane soon to New York. I'm ready to go to New York too but that bug isn't coming with me ... ;-)
Apart from that everything is coming together. Meg just sent me an email from Australia. She's going to jump on the plane soon to New York. I'm ready to go to New York too but that bug isn't coming with me ... ;-)
Friday, February 24, 2006
4 Days To Go
The team has divided up all the "stuff" we need to take to New York. Rena is taking something that looks a bit like an electric guitar, Sven is carrying the "Cycle of Search Game" strapped to his back, Jennifer has lots of bits and pieces and I'm taking a 1.5 metre tall inflatable goat. I can imagine U.S. Customs pulling us aside for an explanation, "so what's all this about?!"
In more developments, the Yahoo adapter is turned back on after temporarily failing. If you want Trexy to adapt to your favourite search engine you can suggest it here. From time to time a search engine's adapter can break, if you find a broken search engine adapter email: support@trexy.com. It's good to see Yahoo back!
In more developments, the Yahoo adapter is turned back on after temporarily failing. If you want Trexy to adapt to your favourite search engine you can suggest it here. From time to time a search engine's adapter can break, if you find a broken search engine adapter email: support@trexy.com. It's good to see Yahoo back!
Thursday, February 23, 2006
5 Days To Go
The SES Conference is coming. Yesterday we sent out an invitation to the press to come and visit our booth and a number of journalists have already booked appointments to see us. Exciting!
On Wednesday night of the conference, we're holding the first "Trexy Pub Trail". Instead of holding our own launch party we're organising a mini pub crawl from the hotel to the party of a Big Search Engine. So we need to come up with a good trail from the hotel to the party. The weather will be cold so the trail won't be too long and won't involve long treks through the snow. It could even be as short as lobby bar one -> lobby bar two -> party. But it will be fun!
On Sunday night we're meeting an old friend who lives in New York to do pub reconnaissance.
If you're coming to the conference, visit booth 2510 and pick up your invitation to the "Trexy Pub Trail".
On Wednesday night of the conference, we're holding the first "Trexy Pub Trail". Instead of holding our own launch party we're organising a mini pub crawl from the hotel to the party of a Big Search Engine. So we need to come up with a good trail from the hotel to the party. The weather will be cold so the trail won't be too long and won't involve long treks through the snow. It could even be as short as lobby bar one -> lobby bar two -> party. But it will be fun!
On Sunday night we're meeting an old friend who lives in New York to do pub reconnaissance.
If you're coming to the conference, visit booth 2510 and pick up your invitation to the "Trexy Pub Trail".
Wednesday, February 22, 2006
Patently Good News
The international examination of our search trails patent is complete.
This means we are in a stronger position to compete against the big boys! After all, Google has already downloaded the TrailBar three times. ;-)
Meg and I have put so many years of effort into developing the technology behind Trexy, we want to give Trexy the best chance of commercial survival and a patent is just one of many ways we are protecting our idea.
After much deliberation and scouring the prior art the patent examiner has decided that all our patent claims are inventive, novel, and commercially useful!The whole process has taken over two and a half years and we will now proceed to register the patent in most industrialised countries. This is the result of six years of research and development effort in search engine technology.
This means we are in a stronger position to compete against the big boys! After all, Google has already downloaded the TrailBar three times. ;-)
Meg and I have put so many years of effort into developing the technology behind Trexy, we want to give Trexy the best chance of commercial survival and a patent is just one of many ways we are protecting our idea.
6 Days To Go
We're heading down to the Ivory Wharf office today. Lots of preparations are under way for the SES Conference in 6 days time.
A new version of Firefox (1.5.0.1) has just come out and I've integrated the new "Sign In" system with a new version of the TrailBar (version 1.8).
Click here to download the most recent version of the TrailBar (1.8) for Firefox (1.5.0.1).
We are releasing a new version of the TrailBar for Internet Explorer soon too with the "Sign In" option incorporated. We've had an impressive number of people sign up already! This is definitely going to be a big part of our service and it needs to be tightly integrated with the TrailBar. It's really exciting to see everything coming together.
Meanwhile my personal trail database is growing and for me the system becomes more useful every day! I hope you're experiencing the same thing?
A new version of Firefox (1.5.0.1) has just come out and I've integrated the new "Sign In" system with a new version of the TrailBar (version 1.8).
Click here to download the most recent version of the TrailBar (1.8) for Firefox (1.5.0.1).
We are releasing a new version of the TrailBar for Internet Explorer soon too with the "Sign In" option incorporated. We've had an impressive number of people sign up already! This is definitely going to be a big part of our service and it needs to be tightly integrated with the TrailBar. It's really exciting to see everything coming together.
Meanwhile my personal trail database is growing and for me the system becomes more useful every day! I hope you're experiencing the same thing?
Tuesday, February 21, 2006
7 Days To Go
There are only seven days to go before our big launch at the Search Engine Strategies (SES) Conference in New York.
Everyone is busy putting together the final touches for the booth, organising meetings with our partners (old and new), writing press releases, killing bugs, preparing the cluster and generally getting excited.
Everyone has been wishing us well - even my dentist is getting excited!
Tomorrow the Cycle of Search Game arrives back - now we just have to work out how to get it on the plane ...
Everyone is busy putting together the final touches for the booth, organising meetings with our partners (old and new), writing press releases, killing bugs, preparing the cluster and generally getting excited.
Everyone has been wishing us well - even my dentist is getting excited!
Tomorrow the Cycle of Search Game arrives back - now we just have to work out how to get it on the plane ...
Thursday, February 16, 2006
Got a Second?
One second is a looong time in a user's search experience. And we think it's too long for you to wait to see a calendar of your previous trails. So over the past three weeks we've been speed testing different calendars. We tried using 3rd party calendars but they were just too slow. So in the end we wrote our own bespoke calendar from scratch. And here it is, a sub-second calendar for viewing your search trails (there's a new sign in feature too):
Let us know what you think?
Let us know what you think?
Wednesday, February 15, 2006
Meg's Off!
Meg jumped on the plane to head back to OZ today.
She's been working flat out getting the booth ready for the Search Engine Strategies (SES) Conference in NY and our BIG launch. She's heading off to a friend's wedding in Australia first though.
The next time we see her will be in New York in late February!
She's been working flat out getting the booth ready for the Search Engine Strategies (SES) Conference in NY and our BIG launch. She's heading off to a friend's wedding in Australia first though.
The next time we see her will be in New York in late February!
Monday, February 13, 2006
Sign In Turned On
A new sign in feature has arrived. You can now blaze trails on all the computers you work on and they become part of your MyTrails collection. Here is the sign in screen:
I work on up to four different computers per week and I was suffering from trail "blackouts". "I'm sure I have a trail for this!??" Now all my trails across all the computers and all the search engines I use are remembered. Cool!
You can sign up at Trexy.com.
I work on up to four different computers per week and I was suffering from trail "blackouts". "I'm sure I have a trail for this!??" Now all my trails across all the computers and all the search engines I use are remembered. Cool!You can sign up at Trexy.com.
Wednesday, February 01, 2006
Feature Freeze Hots Up
There's nothing like an impending feature freeze to heat things up. We've been working on lots of new features in preparation for our big launch at the Search Engine Strategies Conference in New York in late February.
Here are just some of the new features that are on the way:
The calendar means you can quickly jump to all your trails on a given day, "I know I was searching for that last week," and the My Trails Summary Stats shows how your personal database of trails is growing.
Any ideas for more features? Let us know what you think? More new features coming soon ...
Here are just some of the new features that are on the way:
- MyTrails Calendar
- MyTrail Summary Stats
- Trailblazer Sign In
- Meta Trails
The calendar means you can quickly jump to all your trails on a given day, "I know I was searching for that last week," and the My Trails Summary Stats shows how your personal database of trails is growing.Any ideas for more features? Let us know what you think? More new features coming soon ...
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