does searching politely make a difference?

Does politeness matter when you’re creating your queries?

I tried taking a look at how “please” changed a whole bunch of searches. “Microsoft” returned the company website, of course, but “Microsoft Please” returned all sorts of links from customers or customer advocates. Same with “Google” and “Google please.” My own company returned a slightly embarrassing “please try again later” page from our company domain.

“jessamyn please” takes me to the librarian.net contact form. Neat.

a little omg and response to some gaming in libraries

Librarians play games “on the clock”. News show flips out. Locals talk to their representatives. Nebraska Library Comission produces 27 page report explaining what went on.

The Library Commission‟s actions in acquiring gaming equipment and a few representative games is proper and in accord with the agency‟s state statutory mission and its purposes in introducing new technologies, techniques and providing information and instruction in the use of these technologies. Innovation requires latitude in researching, examining and use of new and emerging technologies to evaluate their usefulness and benefits. That is the purpose and motivation behind the Commission‟s purchase of gaming equipment.

Read the whole report, it’s really worthwhile. [via]