Beast Almost Slain

Yikes!

Category search is almost done, folks. I'm engineering in some pretty cool stuff, like "abc" and "def". I'll explain later when it works. But it will be like the system will give you choices if you enter an ambiguous term. It will also split street searches into logical segments like East/West/North/South. And maybe soon I'll throw in landmarks. You'll see!

FindItByMe.com's web hits are up 5,000 this week alone. So let the good times roll. And this is still on the old web site. So wait until the new release is done. Enough for now, this is just a quick update.

My God! It's full of stars!

We have a year to go before Jupiter turns into a star. But before that, I can promise you that maybe even this week, the new and improved FindItByMe.com will debut. It will have easy and fun category drill-down, and much more to follow. If you would like to be the first to know about it, watch the site, join my email list John (dot) Graffio (at) FindItByMe (dot) com, or just watch the blog.

Soon!

Rooster Time

Ok, I just had to let everyone know about my web site showcase that is being referenced all over the place. First of all, there is the actual case study on the GIZMOX web site and you can read it here: FindItByMe Article.

Next, here is an article published by Marissa Levy of www.sys-con.com. Thanks Marissa!!! And here is an article on weblogs.asp.net. Not to be outdone, here is an article on www.ajaxeconomy.com.

The folks at GIZMOX will be submitting my case study to IT World. So when that happens the rooster will come back out.

The next major release is still in the works, and it will be even easier to use and feature the ability to do more granular local searches. New press release when that is out. Thanks to all the people all over the world who have visited the site.

Encyclopedia Blogtannica

Remember the old days when the Encyclopedia Britannica was the authority on everything, and every family had a set of these important books? No? Ok, I'll take you back down memory lane. It used to be that during the golden age of door-to-door salesmen, the Encyclopedia Britannica was guaranteed to get a sale in almost every home he visited. Parents wanted their kids to have access to the most authoritative source of information available. This was really key when doing homework assignments and they were fun for general reading also.

Now for the new days of the Wikipedia and the World Wide Web in general. I give credit to the Wikipedia in terms of concept, if not for the drawbacks of the implementation. Anyway, the crux of the matter is that all the web sites that all the Big Searchers do such a good job of indexing is nothing more than a giant bulletin board of unverified information. The "machines" don't know a fact from an opinion. In fact, I can create a web site that appears to offer authoritative information, but could in fact be completely bogus.

So here is what we are reduced to in the World Wide Web Space: finding people who are as confused or as eccentric as we are. Yes, it all just becomes a social interaction club. I know in the hiearchy of knowledge that the World Wide Web will never equal the authoritative content of the old encyclopedia products. I know that when I do a search for something, I have to apply my "junk content" filter to everything that comes up. I know that what comes up first is the result of SEO scamming. I have to apply inverse-SEO logic go my queries so I can find something that is exactly what I want.

Is there an easy way out? No. When you listen to the news, you know you are being talked to by a producer who is crass, sensationalistic, panders to sexual urges and whose interest in the context of an event and other sides to the issue comes in dead last in its presentation. Remember when you used to think Walter Cronkite was authoritative? Now I have a ditsy little 23 year old college graduate whose vocabulary tops 1,000 words with great makeup and incredible cleavage explaining complex world issues to me in three sentences.

So it is natural to turn to the web because you free from a news broadcast that forces you to watch twenty-seven minutes of commercials to see ten minutes worth of news which you have to wait until the very end of the broadcast to see. I refuse to let these idiots waste my time. So when I go to the web, I expect to get more content. I do. But I also found that most news outlets filter the news in such a way that I know for sure politics is the main influence. So now that I know I'm being scammed here too, I end up looking at opinions in people's blogs, because a blog is a personal sharing (usually). And someone sharing a personal opinion is already not claiming to be authoritative, but as a word-of-mouth source, we give them great weight. So that is why blogs are the number one source of information on the Internet today.

Those who we consider methodical and put forward well reasoned arguments become authoritative in our minds. And in each case, we follow those blogs which provide us with the information we value or which entertain us. So I conclude the following, that the Encyclopedia Britannica has been supplanted by the Encyclopedia Blogtannica. Are we better off now than we were before? I don't know...I'll let you know when we get there.

Highway Hypnosis on your Monitor

I've received a lot of good advice on how to make my search engine simple and easy to use. In fact, in a few short days you will see for yourself. But before you see that, I want you to think about something involving searching for things.

If you use Google (and you know you do), you know the routine you follow. Here is what I do:

First, I try to phrase my request so I don't get too many sponsored links.

Second, I have one finger on the control key (IE User) so my results always appear in a new tab on the browser. I just love when I go to a site that won't let me go back to where I was. That should be a hanging offense.

Third, I look at the "Did you mean...." message which tells me the search engine doesn't believe what I asked was valid.

Fourth, I never click on "I feel lucky".

Fifth, I repeat this process many times starting at step one because I have to trick the search engine into returning meaningful results instead of what a whole bunch of SEO activists have pickled the search engine into returning.

So what is the upshot of this flowchart? The seemingly "simple" interface of Google hides the exercises you have to go through in order to get good results. This never happens on the first try. And it is not Google's fault. They all do it. Until every web site is marked up with a valid, authoritative ontology (look that up on Google), we will never escape the search trickster merry-go-round.

I think the only way around this problem is to have a search engine which cannot be scammed, slammed or flammed into returning ten pages of the same web site for any related term you type in. I've been dreaming of this since I thought up FindItByMe.com. Local search is not local search unless everything in an area is listed. And you can't rely on the businesses in that area to all self-report their correct information. Someone has to do it.

There simply is no way around this. Any commercial directory will always be 30% wrong on average, according to each informal test I've run. So now the search engine providers have done their duty: you still use their services, but you don't take the results too seriously at the same time. It's a good thing we don't pick surgeons that way.

I challenge anyone to really count the number of times they have to refine searches and filter out nonesense results. I really want to get you to where you want to go or find what you want to find in as few steps as possible. So let me know if you agree that search should be more meaningful to what you asked for. I'm really curious what you think.

Press Release: FindItByMe.com Connects Collector with Artist

It can now be reported that due to FindItByMe.com's increasing reach as a search engine, local Fallbrook, CA artist Drew Keys of Eagle Eye Fabrication has been commissioned by an anonymous collector to create a sculpture in metal entitled "The Blessed Hand of Unity". The sculpture can be described as a pair of hands, partially cupped but pointed skyward in such a way as to create a feeling of being protected and yet also unified with the Divine.

The collector, who declined to make his identity known at this time, was impressed with Drew's expertise as depicted in his listing on our web site. The project will commence in a few weeks but will formally begin with a multi-denominational ceremony. At this ceremony, representatives of all the major faiths will be invited to bless the stainless steel and other raw materials that will go into the eight foot tall sculpture. Further details will be available here in this blog and also on Eagle Eye Fabrication's listing on FindItByMe.com's listing for them, which can be reached by following this link: www.FindItbyMe.com?EagleEyeFab.

Personally I cannot think of a better recipient of this important commission. In a later post I will make available an artist's conception of what the sculpture is anticipated to look like. Please join me in excited anticipation as the progress of this beautiful sculpture proceeds. Drew has been given full creative control of this commission by the collector, including the most interesting requirement by the collector, that Drew only work on it when he feels he is deeply inspired to do so. I for one cannot wait to catch a glimpse of each stage of the project. Please join me in congratulating Drew Keys and everyone at Eagle Eye Fabrication in having received this distinctive honor.

Please stay tuned for more developments as they happen!

Sit anywhere you want...

How many of you have gone to a restaurant and heard that supposedly friendly phrase?

Or have you heard the famous, "waddya want?!" from a surly proprietor?

Or is it the icy look of indifference that greets a new customer?

I remember going into a Denny's in Maryland and waiting fifteen (15) minutes for someone to seat me (and there was a very prominent sign saying I had to wait to be seated) while workers behind the counter looked at me like I was an idiot for waiting to be seated.

There there was the time I went to a restaurant in northern San Diego County and having a flashback experience to my Maryland Denny's ordeal. I asked the kind waitress if there was a take-out menu, some bauble or brochure I could take with me since I was traveling incognito as the CEO of FindItByMe.com. She quickly and without thinking said, "No". This is in a heavily traveled tourist spot. I left cheerfully and with nothing to show for my visit.

I have some advice for small and local businesses in these slow economic times: unless your customer comes in with a tatoo across their forehead that says, "I am a serial killer", treat each customer who wanders into your store by mistake as though they are Solomon's lost gold mine.

Ok, I know. So there's only a 3% margin on what you just sold or that meal you served. Let me clue you in on a little secret: ANYONE who walks over your threshold expects a little human kindness since chances are where they just came from they got none. You are not just selling a product or a service. You are selling an experience. Yes, that is the key to everything. You are selling an experience. You are creating a state of mind for your customer. I know there are folks who come in and want to argue over a few pennies or waste your time. They are not in the majority, and you already know how to deal with them.

But when someone comes into your cute little place and your employee says with an air of indifference, "Sit anywhere you want," here is the translation of that phrase: "I don't care that you came in here. I don't care that you are alive. You could drop dead and when we have time we'll drag your body outside."

Maybe I'm on the over-sensitive side of the scale. But at the very least this is off-putting. Here is an example of how it should be, and these will be a real live examples. I always get a good response and feeling and service from Farmhouse Coffee, Eagle Eye Fabrication, The Other Office and also the folks at Wiseguy's Window Detailing in Fallbrook, CA. I'm going to start keeping of list of my favorites on the finditbyme.com site.

I will never mention anywhere I had a bad experience. I'll tell you why: first is that I have to give someone a chance over time to be consistently rude. And there could be good reasons for it, like they have a health problem and are in chronic pain. Or their life is just painful. I get it. But then there are people who are not unhappy or unhealthy who just treat customers like larger versions of the common roach. I get that too. So again, my advice is to treat each customer like a messenger to the world of how good a proprietor you are.

Does anyone disagree? To you I say: "Sit anywhere you want!"

How to Sell Cat Food

I had an interesting conversation with a local merchant not too long ago. I went there to talk about the benefits of our website www.finditbyme.com as it pertains to local search. While waiting for the meeting to start, I started exploring and found that they carried the brand of cat food my cat likes. I also found the brand of cat litter I use. Sounds exciting so far?

When I went there, I had NO expectation of finding cat food, cat litter or anything pertaining to pets because I was at a fertilizer store. So how do you buy cat food? First you have to know where cat food is sold. Next question is, can you get the size of cat food that you want? There is one other store (that I know of) that sells the brand of cat food that I want. The largest size bag is four pounds. The new discovery of cat food at the fertilizer store is available in 8 pound sizes. My cat goes through eight pounds of cat food in about five weeks. I prefer getting the larger size for obvious reasons, like it is cheaper in large quantities and I can wait twice as long to resupply.

Acquisition Cost
I know how all of you are praying that this story goes on forever, but I'll stop here to make my point: what is the acquisition cost for a new customer? Here is what is involved:

• Advertising: This involves letting my audience know I have what they need. It can be via print, radio, Internet, signage or word of mouth.
• The Sale: If I can get them into my store, how likely is it that they'll buy something?

For local businesses in a small community like Fallbrook CA, there are often unique circumstances. For Fallbrook, there is a larger community about ten miles away called Temecula. There is also other surrounding communties in close proximity to Fallbrook: Vista, San Marcos, Oceanside, Escondido to name a few. Some of these are closer to people in Fallbrook, some are further away. East of Fallbrook the main road leading to I-15 is Mission Road. There is only one traffic light in the middle of it on the way to the I-15 (plus three new ones before or at the on-ramps). So it is a relatively straight shot to the I-15 and then to Temecula where SR79 South leads to major shopping opportunities, and that is true for the next two exits at Rancho California Road and Winchester Drive. The other communities mentioned above require a minimum of ten traffic lights to reach, some substantially more. So the path of least resistance for Fallbrook shoppers is Temecula.

My friend Bob Leonard, the CEO of the Fallbrook Chamber of Commerce told me once that people don't feel like they're going out to eat unless they drive ten miles or more. I have to agree with his learned observation. That being said, what about other things that I want or need that I might "go down the hill" for? Before I learned about other places in Fallbrook that carried the cat food my cat likes, I ALWAYS thought I had to go to Temecula to get this cat food. Now I know I don't, but only by accident. The round trip to most places in Temecula is around 22 miles. Most cars don't get good mileage for the first 30 minutes of driving, so for example my car will get around 12 miles per gallon for the first hour of driving. So for me, I burn two gallons of gas for this round trip. At an average price of $2.20 per gallon for unleaded, my travel cost is $4.40. So the cat food I buy in Temecula is now $4.40 more expensive.

Oh, but I get more than one thing when I go to Temecula!

Yes, that is the solution. You visit more than one place so you spread the travel cost around all the things you spend money on in Temecula. So your average purchases per trip may reach hundreds of dollars to "make the trip worthwhile".

I have no complaint about what the merchants in Temecula are offering. I go there myself for various reasons. But consider this: if I knew as a merchant I could cut down on one Temecula purchase per week for a Fallbrook resident, it means for one bag of cat food about $20, for me that would be $160 per year. So this one fertilizer store now can keep $160 in the local economy instead of outside the local economy. I hate arithmetic, but let's do some anyway.

One shopping trip per family per week equals $200 spent outside the community. Now say 1,000 families per week in Fallbrook leave the community to shop, so that's $200,000 per week that leaves the community. Per year that's $10,400,000 leaving local coffers.

The amount above can actually be much greater. But anyway, some are probably thinking I'm on an anti-Temecula kick. Not at all. Each community has its own unique attractions. Put it another way: when it's 110 degrees in Temecula in summertime, it's usually only 75-80 degrees in Fallbrook. Do we have nice places for folks from Temecula to come and visit, enjoy the sights, see our vast avocado groves and enjoy our local restaurants? Yes we do. Do they know about them? No they don't. So the same way Fallbrook residents can get educated about what is available to them in Fallbrook, Temecula residents can get educated on what is available to them in Fallbrook.

Full Circle

So now we come full circle. One bag of cat food at a time, Fallbrook's local merchants can start to acquire and keep customers in their shops. And www.FindItByMe.com was created for this purpose. Is it possible to keep ten million per year in the local economy? Absolutely. Will it cost the local merchants a lot? Absolutely not. The web site www.FindItByMe.com has almost ten years of development behind it. As a work in progress, it will always keep to its mission of helping the local merchant at the lowest possible cost.

We intend to offer this service to every small community in America. Small town values center on honest, friendly, personal service. When you shop at a large retailer, you shop for what you believe is a commodity. However, to the super-store's management, YOU are the commodity. You are a statistic, a footnote on some corporate accountant's balance sheet. YOU get the proud distinction of being a "purchasing unit", or belonging to a unique "demographic cross-section". If you don't believe me, download any publicly traded company's year end report. Then you'll see what the big retailers really think of you.

Local merchants, you have more power than you think. If you would like to help your local community, be it from Key Largo, FL to Wasilla, AK, FindItByMe.com is ready to help you help your community. Contact John Graffio, CEO of FindItByMe.com to find out how easy it is to get started.

Wild Places Spend Money

I was out driving in the desert yesterday, north on I-395. I noticed that Adelanto is getting more traffic signals, but I was lucky and made all the way through town on green lights. I then passed through the communities of Kramer Junction (4 corners for you desert rats), Red Mountain and finally Trona. On the way I saw temporary cities of motor homes and camp trailers where families bring their kids to ride dirt bikes, quads and bicycles from what I could see. In one spot I counted fifty trailers, and since it was Sunday afternoon, many of them leaving. So there had to be many more on Saturday.

So I did some calculating. These folks take the time to drive from all over Southern California in their temporary homes and get some R&R even in these economic hard times. Which means that they are stopping along the way for food, gas, snacks, etc. Accounting for fuel, groceries, cooking fuel, and refreshments, each family group spends an estimated $500-$700. So a collection of 75 of these families would spend between $37,500-52,500. If you consider there at least fifty of these groups around southern California deserts on any one weekend, you get at total expenditure of $1,875,000-$2,625,000 during a three day period.

Ok, the numbers are huge. But this is for only one weekend. Let's say that half the weekends per year are suitable for these outings, around 26. So now the numbers are $48,750,000-$68,250,000. So between $48 million and $68 million in round numbers per year is spent on this ONE form of recreation per year, probably more.

My question is this: are the local communities on the to and from routes getting any benefit from this? My guess is that they are not, judging by the ramshackle condition of the small motels, gas stations and convenience marts that dot the major travel routes. This is really a shame, since a small fraction of this money would at least put a new coat of paint on their places and make them more inviting. The fact is that folks who shop at Costco and Walmart are not likely to patronize a place that looks like a dive because they would rightly assume that there is no selection and the prices will be high. But they should be the major beneficiaries of all this fabulous wealth that is being spent on California's excellent recreational opportunities.

We are in the process of talking to these folks (the small proprietors on the well traveled routes) to let them know what we are doing at FindItByMe.com. Since we are multi-regional, we can speak to the various recreational groups that travel great distances to enjoy their favorite pastime. And I haven't even mentioned the hunters, fishermen, amateur gold prospectors, bird watchers, nature photographers, sightseers, treasure hunters, hikers, rock climbers, bicyclists and motorcycle clubs that also head into the back country and travel the scenic routes. If you use those numbers, you can see that the potential yearly expenditure could climb to $1 billion per year just for Southern California!

Ok...how does it work? What can FindItByMe.com do to support the small proprietors and outdoor enthusiasts? Stay tuned for the publication of the FindItByMe.com roadmap. This document will detail how we intend to proceed on development of features for users, advertisers and subscribers.