For the past few months we've been laser focused on writing code to make our search engine faster, stronger, and more attractive. In that time, Twitter has blown up and taken the world by storm. At first I ignored it, then I laughed at it, then I made arguments for why it would fail. Now I've joined it... and I like it.

For the longest time I dismissed Twitter because I just couldn't see why I would want to spend less time coding and more time thinking about putting my thoughts into 140 characters. Now, I'm glad that I have a fun way to take mental break and take stock of how I'm spending my time. Am I having fun? Am I spending my time wisely? Do I have any interesting insights to share? These are all important questions that Twitter helps me to ask myself.

It's not all about yourself though. These days Sam, Harish and I are all working pretty independently so we don't see each other very often. Small, even trivial, twitter updates help us to feel more connected. Just in the past day, for example, I learned that Sam has taken up running (shocking because I've never seen him without his bicycle) and that Harish is learning how to make chai with ginger (exciting because he introduced me to ginger chai while we were in India).

So... twitter is cool. If you're not on twitter, you should be. And when you get on twitter you should follow us:

A lot of people have been asking us why things are so quiet at Octopart. There were rumors that Sam was trying out for American Idol and that Harish had moved to India to run a mango lassi stand. There was even a rumor that I had been tapped for Transportation Secretary by the Obama Administration. Well, all of the rumors are false (my application for Transportation Secretary was rejected). Things have been quiet at Octopart because we have been rewriting every single line of code from scratch.

Today we're releasing the new frontend code. Everything will feel familiar but hopefully a bit snappier. Unfortunately, we also had to disable some features (parametric search sliders, partlists, cross-distributor shopping cart) while we rewrite the code to handle them. In the short term we're going to focus on search so keep an eye out for more sophisticated search features soon. Our original goal was to build a great search engine and we know we're not there. Yet....

Please email us with issues and suggestions (contact@octopart.com).

Over the course of the last few months we've been working hard on rewriting much of the site. This rewrite will allow us to develop features more quickly and robustly. The first round of the rewrite has already allowed us to keep our data as fresh as possible.

We're happy to say that we're very close to releasing the rest of the rewrite, including a complete revamping of the partlist. Unfortunately, in order to keep our development schedule on pace, the initial release of the partlist will remove key features. The details of your partslists will be unavailable (including folders, names, and parts categorized in each partlist); instead, we will give you access to all of the parts across all of your partlists in one global 'saved parts' list. In addition, checkout will be unavailable, as will publishing partlists (we will continue to host existing published partlists). We will maintain a record of all this data and work on allowing access to all of these features as soon as possible.

If you have any concerns about access to your partlist data, please e-mail us and we will work with you to find a solution.

About 10 years ago, I remember a friend of mine showing me a MiniDisc player he bought in Akihabara Electric Town, the electronics hub of Tokyo. At the time, the player surpassed anything available in the United States. So on a recent trip to Tokyo, of course I checked out the area.

I emerged from the Akihabara station to an overwhelming view of futuristic looking buildings and colorful signs.

Poking around in some of the stores I found lots of consumer electronics - cell phones, digital cameras and laptop computers. It seemed like a flashier version of Circuit City.

As I exited one of the stores, I noticed a small, narrow alley off to the side and poked my head in. I expected perhaps a loading dock, or maybe a dumpster filled with cardboard boxes. Instead, tiny booths filled the alley, each one displaying thousands of electronic components.

Transfixed, I entered the alley and checked out the wares of the first booth. Capacitors covered nearly the entire surface area of the booth with the exception of a tiny hole where the proprietor stood watch over his goods.

As I zig-zagged down the alley, bouncing from one booth to the next I saw the same scene repeated over and over though with a different family of components.

I witnessed an effective way to search for parts: the open market method. For some types of searches it may not be the fastest but is certainly the most fun!