There continues to be more and more evidence to suggest a need for change in how people find things online. According to this article at Australian IT, Bill Tancer (GM of Global Research at Hitwise) suggests that people are becoming frustrated with the search results provided by the major search engines and are looking for more specificity in their results.

This shift in the search industry was even more evident and a hot topic this past week at AltSearchEngines Day II, which was held in San Francisco, CA. We had the opportunity to listen to presentations and hear panel discussions from many of the thought leaders and CEOs of startups dedicated to improving search. It's clear to us all that there is SO much to improve upon and that users will continue to see and demand improvements in how they find stuff online.

There's no denying that Google is the leader in US Searches, but the evidence continues to show that people are expecting more and more and that's where alternative search engines and innovative niche services are going to shine.

In our research and user testing at Wize, we've learned how people shop for products offline and it's only natural that they would want to shop the same way online! When was the last time anyone went to the store and asked for a Oster blender with work top, 2 speed, 40 oz blender with pulse features?! People usually will ask for something more specific to their needs, such as the best blender for smoothies and this where the long tail shines...

What do you think of the new iPod Shuffle? I'm a fan of "The Apple Experience" and just like all of their previous releases, this one is full of all the great PR, display ads, commercials, etc., but this release also has some interesting aspects to it.

First of all the size of the iPod has shrunk even more than the previous ones and is smaller than the size of an average house key! The access controls are now located on the right ear bud headphone cord, which is probably going to be the reason for contention. Let me explain. For now at least, you have to use Apple's own headphones in order to control this device. Oh, but did you just shell out $300 for Beats by Dre? Well as Engadget has pointed out, you'd need to get another $20-$30 adapter to make that work!

I've already spoken to a few people and over and over I keep hearing:

The one cool feature that has promise is the new VoiceOver feature they've introduced. It's easy to read online reviews about it and to read Apple's own description of the technology, but this to me is just one of those things where you have to try it out yourself. The best way to test this feature and figure out if it's as good as it seems is to get out on a treadmill and determine for yourself whether it's really going to keep the Shuffle as one of the best MP3 players for working out.