Unless I'm bumped by someone more important, I'll be interviewed next week on NPR's On Point about the geospatial web:

• The Geospatial Web: A Call to Action
• A Design Approach for the Geospatial Web
• Mapping a Revolution with Mashups

If you have suggestions for amazing, crazy, scary, funny, or ingenious ideas or examples (related to the geospatial web), please send them my way.

And, if you want to tune in, the show will be broadcast live on Tuesday, January 3rd, between 11 am and 12 pm EST. On Point lists stations and play times around the country, and there's a Listening Center for streams and podcasts.

At the 2002 IA Summit, while talking about New Roles in Information Architecture, I showed the number of Google Hits for a handful of related search terms.

Since then, it's been interesting to periodically review the annual growth rates of these user experience memes, and fun to explore the questions they raise.

For instance, why is usability continuing to outpace information architecture and user experience? And why is findability the fastest growing meme on the list?

We all know that findability precedes usability, but now a new research study out of MIT shows that findability beats finance.

An MIT professor finds that the ability to find products online is almost ten times more important then price alone when it comes to buying online.

So reads a news article entitled Findability Drives Online Buying. The MIT professor is Erik Brynjolfsson.

Unfortunately, and ironically, I can't find the research study. If you locate it, please let me know. Thanks!

I'm pleased to announce that after reviewing a colorful collection of more than 50 entries, our distinguished panel of judges has selected Eric Reiss as winner of the Laughing Lemur Contest.

We found the lemur in Eric's amazing bookshelf. Can you?

Thanks to our sponsors, Q LTD and O'Reilly Media, Eric will receive a $500 Amazon Gift Certificate, a $100 O'Reilly Gift Certificate, and autographed copies of the lemur and polar bear books. Thanks to everyone who participated!

My recent visit to Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro rates as one of my best travel experiences ever. Here are a few highlights:

• Watching the Corinthians win the Brazilian league with my friends from TerraForum.
• Swimming on the rooftop of the Hotel Unique.
• Swimming at Ipanema.
• Watching the sunset from Corcovado.
• Drinking beer and eating "shrimp balls" at a famous Rio bar with Carlos, Marcelo, David, and Laura.
• Drinking beer and talking IA with folks from aifia-pt.

Also, I can't resist retelling the story of Carlos Franco and the Lemur. A couple of weeks before my visit, Carlos took Ambient Findability to the beach. He fell asleep during one of the boring bits, and awoke later that afternoon with a terrible sunburn. Carlos realized he had been cursed by the lemur (which he now calls "the evil monkey from hell").

Speaking of the laughing lemur, I was surprised to learn how difficult it is to get the book in Brazil. It's not available in bookstores, and shipping either costs a lot or takes forever. Fortunately, Livia is organizing an international book smuggling operation. Just don't tell O'Reilly.

With just over a week left, the Laughing Lemur Contest is now in full swing with colorful entries appearing from around the world.

And, after returning from London yesterday, I'm about to wrap up my tri-continental book publicity tour with a visit to Brazil. I'm looking forward to meeting up with information architects and findability fanatics in Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo. I'm also looking forward to coming home to Ann Arbor and getting some rest. It's been an exciting but exhausting couple of months.

Strange Connections

• Michael Carpentier has published (with permission) a French translation of User Experience Design.
• Collaborative Web Tagging Workshop. Looks great. Wish I could go!