Dabawalas and other books I read recently

Some interesting books I read in the past few months. Needless to say they were mostly, all Sci-Fi:

• The Engines of God by Jack McDevitt. Not good at all
• Iron Sunrise (Singularity) by Charles Stross. Average read
• The Collected Stories of Vernor Vinge by Vernor Vinge. Not too bad. I was expecting something better
• A World Out Of Time by Larry Niven. Starts off quite well for somthing that was written 35 years ago. Predictable ending
• Dabawalas: Lessons for Building lasting success based on values by Shrinivas Pandit. A very interesting distraction from my regular reading. An inspiring story about Mumbai, India's lunch carriers. An astonishing Six Sigma error rate from a loosely organized band of mostly rural workers!

Until next time!

What's missing in Google Search

Let's face it, most of the world relies on Google Search to find information on the web. I do. In this day and age of Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, social bookmarking sites and other "social applications", Google Search is still years behind.

Some basic features that are sorely missing from their flagship product:

1. Linking to a search result. Even Google Maps has this feature, but Search does not
2. Creating a bundle of links like Bitly from some selected search results

Why? Because it makes it easier to share research with colleagues and friends. It also helps to bookmark only interesting links when you are looking for some information and not have to wade through tons of results.

I've suggested this feature to Google a couple of times, but it seems to have fallen on deaf ears. I hope at least the Bing team is listening.

This is what I'd really love. To start with, at least:
(If you were wondering, I used Balsamiq to create the mock-up)

Entropy is the greatest enemy of life, ideas, memory and hope.