I remember my 21st birthday. Nobody had any money, but 10 of my friends took me out to dinner to a really nice resturant anyway. They managed to pay for dinner, but couldn’t afford a birthday cake, so they got some donuts from a store nearby and got the whole resturant to sing “Happy Birthday” to me.

Today Microsoft Windows turns 21 on November 20. It was born in 1985. Here are some party trivia for you, the wild bunch who care about these sort of things.

Windows 1.0 was released on 20th Nov 1985 and the hardware requirements were 256KB of RAM, DOS 2.0 and two floppy drives.

Windows 1.0 was only out for two weeks before it had to be patched to fix bugs.

Support for Windows 1.0 was weak, and even Microsoft’s own apps didn’t support it. In fact, Excel and Word didn’t work with Windows until 1987 and 1989.

The Windows operating system has 50 million lines of code (a line averages 60 characters) and grows 20% with every release. It’s put together by 7,200 people, comes in 34 languages and has to support 190,000 devices–different models of digital cameras, printers, handhelds and so on.

Party on.

I saw this last week and neglected to comment on it. It’s one of those A-list ego things that I hate because it reminds me that I’m not Rand Fishkin.

According to Kineda, “Are You an A-List Blogger?, I am not.

I am a “B”. But, in an A-List kind of world, almost isn’t good enough. Trying to cheer myself up, I said to my husband, “I know my stats. I’m close. But at least I’m a B.”

He replies, “It’s not an A.”

“The High Authority Group [B-List Bloggers]

(100-499 blogs linking in the last 6 months at Technorati)
The third group represents a decided shift in blog age while not blogging much more frequently than the last. In keeping with the theme of the maturation of the blogosphere, it seems evident that many of these bloggers were previously in category two and have grown in authority organically over time. In other words, sheer dedication pays off over time.”

For the A-List, it says:

The Very High Authority Group [A-List Bloggers]

(500 or more blogs linking in the last 6 months)
In the final group we see what might be considered the blogging elite. This group, which represents more than 4,000 blogs, exhibits a radical shift in post frequency as well as blog age. Bloggers of this type have been at it longer – a year and a half on average – and post nearly twice a day, an increase in posting volume of over 100% from the previous group. Many of the blogs in this category, in fact, are about as old as Technorati and we’ve grown up together. Some of these are full-fledge professional enterprises that post many, many times per day and behave increasingly like our friends in the mainstream media. As has been widely reported, the impact of these bloggers on our cultures and democracies is increasingly dramatic.

THIS blog has been around since 2002 and never begged for love until last week.

Kids are home from school all week, and I’m hosting a Thanksgiving gathering this year, so posting will be light. I’ve got the 20 pound turkey, and a chore-list that’s a mile long. Here’s a bit of news to share, however, just to prove that bloggers can keep this up under the most extreme of circumstances. Like the parents and in-laws coming to a holiday dinner…

Accessibility Legislation by country is a must-have for global web design. (Hat tip Rosie Sherry)

A new Googelite is born. Congratulations to We Build Pages, Jim and Mary Boykin, and big brother Boykin, on the birth of their new baby boy, Nathaniel Thomas Scott Boykin.

Randall McCarley, of 14th Colony has launched Linkers Union.

“Linker’s Union is the new site about backlink building. To get started we are giving away one free link per site!”

The Search Engine College has launched its new website interface. They’ve designed a more user friendly outer shell around the online school. The new navigation tabs make getting inside easier and faster. Nice giant login area on the homepage. For conversions, the homepage attempts to immediately determine the user task by sorting out the various user persona types who arrive. By defining them in this way, guesswork is removed and visitors can be productive on arrival.

If you would like to assist in a blog research graduate studies project, MotherPie has an online survey to take before December 6. I participated. It was painless.

“Online news use, blogging with a sub-study on female blogs with a special emphasis on mom blogs will be included in this project.”

All the posts last week on Pubcon coverage were great reading. So were the SEO’s Doing the Hugh Hefner Lifestyle pictures put up by Barry (Rustybrick) Schwartz. There were so many of Rand Fishkin that I dreamt about him one night. What’s worse? I can’t remember all the fun details, darn it.

Un-secret messages to Lisa Barone…yes! (to SES Chicago) and thank goodness (for “Ms. Dewey, not Kim. We love Kim.”)

As for the news about Danny Sullivan’s new Search Engine Land, a venture that so far lists himself, Chris Sherman and Barry Schwartz as the leading men, I have to ask. I have to. It’s my job. Well, it’s not really. I’m just terribly curious. Are there movie roles for women as well?

Apparently color matters. For the record, I’m an Autumn.

A new contest! Search Engine Roundtable & RustyBrick Contest. Please save me one!

Which reminds me…yes. I made 396 arrangements to do it, including boarding my golden retriever, Dakota, for a week at the doggie-spa down the road. Yes. I will be at Search Engine Strategies Conference, Chicago, reporting for Search Engine Roundtable and trying not to make Barry regret letting me do this. I will be looking for every usability nugget that can be found at a search engine conference. There has to be something, somewhere.

Football Life

We don’t have to look far to find sports drama at my house. At the moment, the main topic is football, and the Philadelphia Eagles (and the devastating knee injury to Donavan McNabb.) Usually it’s hockey and the Flyers, but this year, Flyers hockey is so bad that my ex-husband and son, who are traditionally diehard fans, won’t even watch the games.

My 13 year old son, Stefan, made both the Jr. Varsity and Varsity football teams at his Middle School this year. He played 7 positions, for the Offense, Defense and Kick Line. Basically, the kid can tackle anybody. Size and weight are irrelevant. Speed is being worked on. A good sign was when he sacked a Quarterback during one game. That was awesome to watch!

Our school district has two Middle Schools (a third one opens next September), and each year, the two school football Varsity football teams play each other. This year, Stefan’s Varsity team was undefeated in their division, so that game drew a big crowd from his school.

Though a 7th grader, he played with the 8th graders in that Varsity duel and helped them hold on to their undefeated status, with a 28 - 0 game. One of his friends took a bad hit to his head, however, and didn’t know where he was. Stefan was truly troubled seeing his team mate, and good friend, confused and disoriented on the sidelines. This is one of those ongoing fears that goes along with parenting an athletic kid.

All the men in my life tell me “its part of the game” and shrug it off when I start asking questions.

It must be part of some football code that you don’t tell mom’s much about the scarier side of contact sports.

Periodically this question pops up.

“Where are the women?” Be they bloggers, or web site developers, or programmers, when it comes to certain industries, suddenly the number of men to women drastically drops.

I’ve worked with computers since the late 1970’s. (Yes, they existed then!) I’ve also had many personal experiences, some horrible and some beautiful, working in jobs and industries that thrived on two things - computers and men. I have acutely strong loyalties to the men who treated me well. They, in fact, outnumber the women. However, if it were not for several outstanding women and their guidance, I would not be here now.

There’s a living pulse that throbs through every blogger. It cries for a Voice. Approval. Respect. Acknowledgement. Money (yes, for some that’s the only reason for living). Opportunity. The heart rate of this blog raced when I came across a post about popular blogs that excluded anything written by women bloggers.

How could that be? The blog author, I’m convinced, had no ill will towards women. What he did, by this omission, was to bring to us something to explore. Though he writes that he asked for favorite blog post submissions from women bloggers, none apparently responded to that request. Which begs the question. Why?

Rather than have a hissy fit, (I had a mild case of “WHAT THE HECK!” instead), I’ve set out to find the women who blog on search engines, search engine optimization, marketing, web design, web development, usability, user experience and user centered design, and blogging (because many top how-to bloggers are men.)

The list begins with suggestions and comments found at All The Female Bloggers Say Heyyyy!…Hello? Ladies?, Lip-Sticking’s “A Little Girl Talk from Home” and Cr8pc’s Kim Berg Has a Point, in addition to more of mine from my personal feeds and Suggested Sites.

Related history:

What Do All These “Popular” Bloggers Have in Common?

Popular Blog Posts (Please note that his comments are closed. He has invited Shelley Powers to write a guest post on Sexism in Blogging, in response to the uproar.)

************************************************

Where are the women bloggers in the following industries?

Search engines, search engine optimization, marketing, web design, web development, usability, user experience and user centered design, and the blogging experience (how-to, showcase genres, inspirational…)?

Please use the comments (moderated as they are for spam) to add your choice (be it yourself, or others). Feel free to explain why a particular technical industry woman blogger is your favorite.
We are many. Let’s shove the bacon up some you know what.

Lorelle VanFossen

Diane Vigil

Yvonne’s LipSticking

Charlene Li

Kathy Sierra

Rosie Sherry

Rebecca, Jane and Mystery Guest at SEOMoz.org

Lisa Barone

Donna Maurer

Debra Masteler

Donna Fontenot

Molly Holzschlag

Sophie Wegat

Holly Buchanan

Daryn Kagan

Debbie Weil

Mary Schmidt

Jackie Huba

Liana Evans

Vanessa Fox + Amanda Camp

Natasha Robinson

Internet Strategy Blog (”mostly female staff”)

Jen Dotson

Rae Hoffman (”SugarRae”)

Jill Whalen

Kari Freudenberger

Elizabeth Ablereach (Editor of Cre8tive Flow)

Linda Riley

Kalena Jordan

Scottie Claiborne

Kimber Cook

Michele Miller

Jennifer Slegg

Jennifer Laycock

Tamar Weinberg

Linux Chix

Lea de Groot

This list is continued in Women Bloggers in the Tech Industry. Thank you to all who are responding to the call for your favorite women in tech bloggers.

I often hear questions like “Where are the women in search?” After an evening of listening to my husband and Ms. Dewey, (aka actress/singer, Janina Gavankar), flirting, I decided to have a little chat with the search engine broad, er, MsDewey.

Upon loading the search engine, rather than seeing her yelling a Ricardo, I found her sharpening a knife.

I asked her, “Do you hate me now?” (Because I reported in my comments yesterday that she was stripping and acting naughty.)

This is her reply:

“It’s not easy to find someone who will love you, for you. And, I do mean you, specifically.”

The first actual search result is a site called “I hate bulls–t”.

I guess she told me, didn’t she.

I asked if she liked the review I did yesterday. She said,

“I like to bring my laptop to meetings. That way, I can keep up with myself.”

To see what she does with the “sex” word, I typed in “Sexy”. She has this to say.

“I’m sorry, but did you think this is “Girl-who-does-whatever-you-want.com? Because that is simply not the case.”

Finally, I decided to give her something to search on. I typed in “Kim Krause Berg”. She replied with,

I’m writing a book you know. I kiss, therefore, I tell.

She’s got me figured out. (The “writer” part, that is.)

So. Why this woman in search?

There’s certainly some sort of evolving thought, through trial and error, when it comes to search engine mascots and software assistants. You remember the butler, Ask Jeeves, who retired not long ago. You may recall Microsoft Bob. “Bob failed to penetrate the market and is widely considered a major failure for Microsoft.”

Microsoft Bob failed, so they gave us Clippy. A non-human object.

Bendable like MsDewey but nowhere nearly as kinky.

If you think I’m pathetic about this search engine, it’s not really that serious. I LOVE programmers and the things they can do. It makes testing (ie playing) with their applications challenging and fun. Ms Dewey is already in Wikipedia. They list several of the search words that bring up specific comments.

They don’t tell you, however, about her little performance last night for my husband, where she appeared to start to remove her clothing. He typed in “strip” and she replied, “Well, maybe just this once”, and then proceeded to start unbuttoning her black dress. There’s a bit of buffering and interference when she does, but you get the idea of what she has in mind.

We tested this a few times, just to make sure.

Other fun test searches:

Microsoft: “Dewey says never to use pirated sofware unless it’s mapping software. I figure some pirates know something about that don’t they.”

Microsoft again: “1.0.1.0.1.0…underwear on your head…and you still couldn’t create the woman of your dreams. Poor you.”

Bill Gates: “Isn’t it funny how preoccupied we get with the lives of others, but you knew that. You’re talking to a chick in a computer.”

Google: “Have you ever met one of those poor souls who spends every day searching for the next big thing on the ‘Net? Have you looked in the mirror lately?”

Political parties have canned answers. I think she’s an Independent.

On women she says, “They all look so fake to me.”

Men: “I’ve always found the quickest way to a man’s heart is through his rib cage.” (The first search result was for men’s swim suits.)

Usability: “Are you as confused as I am?”

Search Engine: (She laughs), and says, “I’ve got people to handle that.”

The number one ranked search result for that search is Google.

Related:

Cre8asiteforums inspects closer…

“for those who are interested — it’s sending a query to a URL like http://msdewey.com/Search/search.aspx?s=google&h= and getting back some IDs for the video snippets (which it looks like it downloads on the fly, which is why it takes a bit for it to reply to your queries). You could actually take the same information and wrap your own “Ms Dewey” around it.”

Microsoft unleashes Ms.Dewey

“Eric, really - turn off Kim’s monitor before she sends it through the wall . . .”

Janina’s diviantART journal

“Try typing in “gun”

“I believe they’d like it to be an enigma, but it’s quite simply an über-fun project using the MSN search engine.”