Join me now, after the hype has died down,  in looking at a small slice of Alpha. On a whim I decided to jump over to the site when I became curious about Soba noodles. I wasn’t really sure what they were made of so I typed the phrase “Soba Noodles” into the input field.

I’m not sure what I was expecting, but it wasn’t the Nutrition Facts for a cup of Soba noodles:

I was curious to know what kind of tech was behind this generated image: was it a .png, jpg, Flash? So I clicked on the image and was again surprised that a window appeared with the plaintext of the Nutritional Information making it easy to copy the data to your clipboard. (This is a feature of most results in Alpha, I discovered.)

Further down the results page, the Nutritional Information was divided into sections, my favorite was the “Highest nutrients in Soba noodles compared to other foods”. If you have a hankering for magnanese go get some Soba noodles.

I modified my input to “2 cups soba noodles” and the results were quickly updated, which is kinda cool. This illustrates that Alpha’s name is apt, it is a “computational knowledge engine”, not a search engine. In fact, although it’s subtle, you can search either Google, Yahoo or Bing using your input by clicking the “Search the Web” section on the right hand side. In my case it was necessary, because nowhere on the page did it tell me that Soba noodles are made from buckwheat flour. It will be interesting to see how the technology behind the site evolves, I’m guessing it will gain a devoted but relatively small audience. I suspect if the company ever wants to have a larger profile their challenge will be explaining to the average user what it is they do.

What makes a “good” sign is somewhat straightforward: the average person needs to parse the sign from a distance (especially in a fast-moving car), the shape and color of the sign carry important cues and so on.

So I wanted to share this sign that I often pass  on my way to work.  I’ve scaled the sign and placed it next to some other familiar signs in order to compare and contrast at thumbnail size.

See the sign up close.

This road sign is found in the town of Concord (MA) and it’s a curious one. The shape of the sign is for a road warning, however the message “Share The Road” is less of a warning than a gentle reminder. The amount of information on the sign doesn’t work in its favor. The multi-color palette is unusual as well as the non-standard typeface. Also, the details point to the designer getting a bit carried away: Why do we need  the tagline “Concord” on the sign? Was it necessary to put a dog in the back seat? What about the jogger and the biker in the foreground. Wouldn’t one or the other be enough?

Since I first thought of this post I’ve noticed in other areas that the “Share the Road” concept usually requires two signs: one for an image of a bicycle and another for the text. Is the concept too big for a single sign?