Don't Back Down

Did anyone read the headline of this article and not think about Beavis and Butt-head? I might expect this from some places, but National Geographic? Who would have thought?

I've fretted about this enough, so I'm going to write the entry. You see, it really, really, really bothers me that we went to the ABC Islands, but the way in which we toured the islands makes it nigh-impossible to write about them in the correct order. Yet if they aren't in order, then they are, well, out of order, and I think that I've finally decided that that bothers me even more. So on we go.

Bonaire was really the third of the three islands we visited on the trip, but was our first destination country. As I mentioned previously, you have to actually stay somewhere for a night before they've really admitted you to the country, and we hadn't done that yet.

Read "Aruba to Bonaire" »

When I first saw the news that Froogle was offering shopping lists, I thought it was way cool. I added a book to mine. While using it, however, I see three problems.

First of all is the link to get to the list. Namely, I like the Amazon format better. No email address to expose to the world. Even if I didn't mind my email address existing on the web for all to see, I don't know that I want to give it out to everyone - even a GMail account that I rarely use. While you can enter a secondary address in your Google account, you can't use it to access your list. I tried. That's a dumb feature, since they have it in your account. And you can set up different accounts, but I've got enough accounts already, so no thanks. They could also let you use your account name instead of the email address when referencing your list. I can sign on with just my account name, without specifying my email address. But using it in the shoppinglist doesn't seem to work (at least right now).

There is also a problem that the list is only good for a single item from a single vendor. For instance, the book I picked out, I selected from Wal-Mart. That particular item (the one from Wal-Mart) is on my list. Meanwhile, all sorts of other providers could carry the book (and they do), perhaps for a cheaper price (I didn't check that). For speciality items that only come from one provider, it's not an issue. But for books, DVDs and the like, I'd much prefer to be able to enter an ISBN number or UPC code or something, and let Google show all possible options.

The final problem I have is with shipping. All of the results surely offer shipping, as that's necessary with e-commerce. But not everyone who stumbles across my list will have my address. At Amazon, my address is built into the list. People simply pick from the list and order it and it's shipped to me. They don't need to know where I live. Not that it's a huge secret or anything, as I'm not that difficult to find. But it simply isn't included in the Froogle lists. For people who know you well (and presumably where you live), it's not much of an issue. And I can even see that someone could look to see what you want then go out and buy it and give it to you as a present. But for those who would like to send a quasi-anonymous gift, as is the case with many lists used on the web, it simply doesn't work. Sorry, Google. You're close, but no cigar this time around.