"Zen Search" Posts on ValleyZen

Retailers and publishers are perturbed at Google over a new feature “Search within Site” (SiS). Why have so many web feathers been ruffled? Google has offered this functionality for at least 7 years, but a larger audience is only just now becoming aware and in some cases upset by it. Why’s that?

Ever wanted a great example of the impact that Zen-like, intuitive, experiential user interaction design can make? Here it is…

One way of viewing the discussions about content generation at Stanford’s weekend Legal Futures Conference is a struggle between two forces. One force wishes to use technology to make traditional media more productive without disintermediation, substitution or decentralization of content delivery. The other force is attempting to remove the throttle traditional media has on information distribution, while also revolutionizing the content delivery processes, mechanisms and values. The principal factor in this…

Paglo is a search company named after the Italian explorer Francisco Paglo. There may be Italophiles in the company, I didn’t find them at today’s Lunch 2.0 event.

I did meet a brilliant engineering team with a deep appreciation of Japanese Zen aesthetics. “You’ve stumbled upon the company’s two Japanophiles,” Chris Waters, Co-Founder and CTO of Paglo, said of himself and Eric “Scanner” the online application architect.

Yahoo: decidedly Non-Zen
Today MSN announced a bid to acquire Yahoo for $44.6B. This completes Yahoo’s slow slide downhill from the top of the search Mount Olympus.

One can argue that lack of focus on Zen features, particularly Simplicity, in Yahoo’s Search Advertising business was the major force behind this slide.

1. Complexity of opening an Advertiser Account in Yahoo: It has always been difficult, time-consuming and non-intuitive to open an account in Yahoo. Before, with the old Overture interface, the difference with Google in this respect was stunning. Now, under Panama, this problem is less pronounced but it is still more difficult.
Why does it matter?

Simplicity is a key Zen tenet. However, a common misperception about Zen is that it comes naturally without training and that it is simplistic. Being simple is far from being simplistic.

Simplicity in Zen disciplines like Sumi-e comes through years of training, says Zen authority Daisetz Suzuki. Quoting Georges Duthuit, Suzuki says:

“Draw bamboos for ten years, become a bamboo, then forget all about bamboos when you are drawing. In possession of an infallible technique, the individual places himself at the mercy of inspiration.”

I think that the same holds for learning how to be a great technologist…