Will someone please explain Google Base to me?

These are Google's words on the new service, and this is the Google Base Homepage.

Usability freak Greg Raiz wrote about the new service here, with a quick follow-up here about how he thinks this service could spawn a new Google Wallet e-payment platform.

More info by Google about it is here. Apparently you can upload RSS feeds to it too, which must have implications to people who want to broaden their audience from blogs. But I don't think I understand the true value of this yet. Info has to be specifically uploaded to Google Base and it's not automatically included in the Google search index unless it becomes highly relevant by web links. But people will have to know about Google Base and search it separately for stuff. And if this stuff is so important, why isn't it already being found in the index? Ostensibly it's because it's not relevant enough, isn't it? Is that because the information hasn't been found yet? Is this then just a way to get your own personal information and resources online and searchable with Google? Maybe it's as simple as that.

Whoopi Goldberg Original Broadway Recording (1984)

My mom brought home this record when I was about 12 years old, and I used to listen to it a lot. Like, a LOT. I've always thought it was hilarious, and when I was last in Calgary I borrowed this album from my mom to digitize it, and when I was listening to it during that process, I surprised myself by how completely I remember each of these routines. I can recite lots of it word for word, because I've heard the album so many times.

Amazon.ca | Amazon.com

This show was from before she became a huge star, but at this time, she was recognized by a lot of people as a serious comedian and actor. Robin Williams wrote the following liner notes for the album:

Once in every generation there comes an introduction so pretentious it can only be written on the inner jacket of a record album. It is my opinion that comedians talking seriously about comedy are like mimes wearing house paint. So let me cut the bovine residue and introduce the main attraction.

I don't know if it's proper to calla  woman a "mensch," but when you're dealing with anyone with a name that sounds like the Hasidic inventor of artificial flatulence in a bag, all things are possible.

Relax, open your ears and let Whoopi Goldberg do what she did to me and countless others that special night at the Comedy Store so long ago.

Ladies and Gentleman, Brothers and Sisters, Cats and Kittens, Dudes and Babes, direct to you from the Broadway Stage, the Streets of New York, the Beaches of San Diego, the Hills of Berkeley... THE WHOOP.

Robin Williams

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Now after all that, and given that if you clicked either of those Amazon links up there, you'll see that this album is currently out of print, how fair would it be not to post these tracks for you here? Not very, I don't think. So here you go. Really at her creative apex, in my opinion. And incredibly funny while also terribly topical and insightful. Listen to the whole album via this playlist, or select specific tracks below:

Whoopi Goldberg on Broadway - 1 - Fontaine
Whoopi Goldberg on Broadway - 2 - Surfer Chick
Whoopi Goldberg on Broadway - 3 - Crippled Lady
Whoopi Goldberg on Broadway - 4 - Little Girl

fallen comrade