The thing about trivia is that it's never old. I mean, the facts are old, sure, but the fun of trying to remember just seems to be a part of human nature. Think of how many Trivial Pursuits are out there... even a Harry Potter edition.

That's one reason why we decided to go ahead and create User-Generated Quizzes on Moviefone. Its first weekend's metrics provide the second reason... actual numbers forthcoming, but many tens of thousands.

Rewind to the preholidays... I'm looking for a new set of pillows for the bed... the sit-up-in-bed kind... you know what I mean. I go to Google and type in "bed pillows" only to get the first 10 page matches for regular old fluffy down or Tempur-Pedic® pillows. At a glance I can tell that they're not what I'm looking for. So, what's my next step? How do I get past this impressive wall of commerce sites that are all pushing regular old bed pillows (aside from paging through tens of thousands of quickly retrieved results)?

Like a novice forensics specialist I examine the scenario. What actually happened here? What did the user enter in the field? What did the user mean by "bed pillows?" What was the user trying to achieve? What tools (features & datum) were available to help the user accomplish the task?

===== begin scene =====

I guess I should just ask myself (aka the user):
"What did you mean?"

He answers:
"What I meant was that I was looking for new bed pillows to sit up in bed with when we watch TV or read a book... maybe they're called reading pillows... I dunno. I'm just trying to find some stoopid pillows for God's sake."

The user sounds a little frustrated, so I ask another question:
"Why did you type in 'bed pillows'?"

He blurts out:
"Because that's what you're SUPPOSED to do, right?! Enter 'key words'."

please read more...
N.B. This is a half-comic research and analysis narrative, and the longest blog you've read in a while. Get your glasses, a cup of coffee, and about 10 minutes of free time.

It's the most wonderful time of the year, right? The whole world decorates, the lights are up, the candles are ready, the air is crisp and full of spirit. We've all received holiday catalogs, been spammed with wonderful offers, and are struggling to schedule our holiday calendars to be full of cheer and low of stress. It's a time to give good tidings to all and special gifts of thanks and love.

This also happens to be the time when really cool interactive greeting cards make their way onto the stage. Instead of our usual daily gruel of news and RSS we finally get a chance to sink our dentures into some figgy pudding. This was my favorite from last year:


http://www.bigspaceship.com/holidaycard2006/

Brilliant! Make your own Mystery Science Theater 2000 piece... send it to others. How funny. How creative. How easy. How.. well, jolly!

Please sir, may I have some more?
Tell us about some of the best ones you remember?

Let's all try to put some silly (Ger. selig "blessed, happy, blissful") into our holidays (O.E. haligdæg, from halig "holy" + dæg "day").