Monthly Archives: September 2006

AOL lawsuit over data release and, more importantly, storage of search database of intentions

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Over at TechCrunch there’s a discussion about the lawsuit against AOL for releasing search data and also challenging their right to store the search histories of AOL users. I’m surprised this took so long because Google, Yahoo, MSN, etc have been storing all of our searches for some time and probably are using that data to adjust the search experience including refinement to advertising and organic results.

It frustrates me (or I should really say it pisses the heck out of me) that 1) Search engines think they should have rights to my search info with no obligation to tell me what they do with my info and 2) there is a lack of concern in the online community about this. John Battelle has been one of the few voices pointing out that this issue is big and getting much bigger, that these privacy issues need a lot more clarification, and that search companies are sneakily dodging many key issues with search and privacy.

Contrary to many comments I read from other onliners, the Government viewing my data is low on my list of privacy concerns because I doubt they’ll choose to or be able to effectively process the information in sinister ways. However it bothers me a LOT that my search “fingerprint” is getting used without my consent, understanding, or permission in an effort by Google, Yahoo, et al to sell me things and adjust my search and internet experiences.

If they want to do that they need to let me know the process they use to do it. If they think sharing that process violates their need for commercial secrecy then…do NOT use my stuff. I never gave you permission, and you should not assume you have my permission. In fact few people even know that Google and Yahoo and MSN store every single one of their searches – Google, Yahoo, MSN cannot reasonably claim they have implied permission for the search storage identified to individual computer level when very few people are even aware they are doing it!

Relevancy + Targeting = $123,490,000,000

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Although this article suggests “infinite” reasons for Google’s success, I’d say there are only two that have made Google worth about 123 billion dollar bills.
The article supports that there have only been two truly notable reasons: A superb PPC model of advertising combined with the most relevant= best search engine to date.

Both the engine and the ad model were largely built by the time of huge expansion.   The story is nicely chronicles in John Battelle’s “The Search”, which also notes how Google’s ad model came about somewhat serindipitously, and basically as a copy of the Goto.com model developed by Bill Gross.  This serendipitous refinement of good ideas  lies at the heart of many great innovations and challenges the idea that greatness comes from stable, consistent, well organized forces of change.

Sure Google has the best technologists, leadership, and corporate culture, but it was the PPC model that was necessary for the success and that is largely ignored in most external analyses (Google knows this all too well).

Good points that without relevancy you’ll lose the audience and the PPC revenues. *Together* these two factors lie at the heart of Google’s success and both are unstable territory, so all are in for more fun in the search sun.

The Ghost in the Machine … is a Human Being!

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Last week or so Matt was asking what new gadgets we’d see in the future. Some suggested Star Trek style devices, but I think they (and Star Trek) are wrong to suggest that we’ll continue with our current model of humans using separate function, hand-held devices. Rather we’ll soon see human integration with devices in ways analogous to the evolution from spectacle to contact lens to corneal implant. When that corneal implant can go online you can sign me up for one whether I need it or not.
Although many people cringe at the idea that we’d implant chips in ourselves and connect them to our brains they are ignoring the logical progression of biology and technology. The recent invention of a bionic arm controlled by nerve feedback is only the beginning.

Seems to me that we want to *completely* erase the physical distinction between gadgets – especially phones and computers – and ourselves. In fact I think most sci -fi treatments really miss this as an inevitability of our technologically innovative future lifestyle.

I’m Hoping to see more human/gadget interfaces so we can directly access computerized info with our non-computerized brains. This would really enhance creativity, and I’d even suggest we’ll see a lot of spin off benefits.

For example if world leaders can instantly access extensive, encyclopedic treatment of history, languages, and other topics their ability to make wise decisions will be elevated.

Well, maybe that’s too optimistic.

John Battelle’s Search Mob. Mob Rules. Rules for the Mob. Search Mobsters?

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John has launched “SearchMob”, a Digg-like story submission and review community thing where users send stories they find which are reviewed by others to attain popularily. He asked for feedback and I suggested this:

I’m somewhat confused by the voting both in terms of low numbers but also because the articles with many votes usually show only 2 or 3 names under the discussion list.

Without trying to be too provocative here I’ve wondered if the articles with high votes are simply folks who are voting for their own articles – or asking others to vote – from different machines. In this environment it’s easy to spoof interest and attain the top spot.

Based on limited data I’m now thinking that most of the people come here for John Battelle insights (ie the JB filter) and simply getting articles by other users (ie the JB Search community filter) is not stirring much interest.

Therefore instead of Searchmob, John, you need to become a Search Cult leader and hole up in a heavily armed Palo Alto Coffee Shop with your search apostles while the FBI files motions to get YOUR database of intentions.

Blog readers and blog writers redux II.1 The downfall of Cicarelli?

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This blog readers vs writers thing remains intriguing. Now, “Jonny” is the top blog search and I’m having trouble figuring out exactly why since the name refers to several pop icons. In fact that may be why it’s up top – it’s a term that overlaps several popular searches for people named Jonny. My own “cicarelli” post is getting some traction but the top referrer for me by far is a reference to my first post about this readers vs writers issue and it’s coming from people over at Technorati searching for “Assparade”.

 

From an SEO perspective it appears we may be seeing signs that writing about the top term is less likely to get a lot of traffic than writing about highly searched but secondary term that is getting much less press. Still way too early to come to this conclusion though.

 

The Technorati search list is changing more day to day than I would expect, perhaps an indication of the fleeting nature of human interest and big media focus. The tag list seems more stable and that would make sense if we assume the following about writers vs readers:

 

Blog writers are a smaller, more focused group

Blog writers tend to stick to same general topics

(?) Blog writers tend to address richer, more stable, deeper subjects and therefore these don’t change at the whim of masses and mass media.

 

 

Top Searches

  1. Jonny
  2. Cicarelli
  3. Pinky
  4. Xing
  5. Bitacle
  6. Openbc
  7. Stuff Happens a…
  8. Bin Laden
  9. Lindsay Lohan
  10. Video
  11. Asian
  12. Paginas Da Vida
  13. Ubuntu
  14. Mandingo
  15. Axis of Sketchy…

 

Top Tags

  1. Islam
  2. Bush
  3. youtube
  4. Iraq
  5. Microsoft
  6. Politica
  7. Terrorism
  8. ebay
  9. sexy
  10. War
  11. web2.0
  12. foto
  13. bin Laden
  14. web-20
  15. Poesie

China and India accounted for half the global economy in 1820!

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Venture Capitalists make good bloggers because they often have a broad view of the world. I just found this fascinating graph over at Ed Sim’s blog that compares GDP for US, India, and China from 1820 to 2001.

The amazing thing is that back in 1820 India and China together accounted for fully half of the global economy!

What we typically describe now as “the rise of China and India” in the modern economy is actually a *resurgence* of two economic superpowers from their previous dominance. With a little help from … Wal -Mart.
Share of GDP

Hugo Chavez and Noam Chomsky

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Thanks to Hugo Chavez, Noam Chomsky’s book Hegemony or Survival: America’s Quest for Global Dominance (The American Empire Project) is now number one at Amazon.

Chomsky has always bothered me … a lot …. He’s a good linguist, a foolish economist, and a terrible social scientist / political commentator. Ironically it’s only the last two topics where Chomsky gets any attention and he’s an expert in neither.

He’s the the guy who suggested back in the 70’s that the regime of Pol Pot was not a great threat to the people of Cambodia. When it became clear that Pol Pot’s communist government, the Khmer Rouge, had murdered by many accounts over a million Cambodians Chomsky’s tune changed to suggest it was American destabilization of the region that was to blame.

Although this latter argument has some merit, clear thinkers will note that Chomsky’s failure to hold ruthless Communist regimes accountable while at the same time holding America “overly accountable” for virtually all the bad in the world is a very suspect political philosophy. Here’s a good critique of Chomsky’s hypocrisy.

However, I should caveat all this by pointing out that in a world where so many people and countries are challenging GW, Dick, and the Neocons imperial vision of the USA it’s very important to have more points of view out there than our commercialized media allows. Chomsky is one of the most articulate spokesman for an intelligent radical vision of the world and I’d like to see more of him rather than the inane ranting of intellectually lobotomized right wing radio talk show hosts.

Perhaps careful consideration of many points of view will lead us to some answers. We sure need them.

Posts that contain Hugo Chavez  per day for the last 30 days.
Technorati Chart
Get your own chart!

Blog readers and blog writers redux. Cicarelli still rules

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Gee, the top blog search is still Cicarelli.

 

My earlier post with these technorati search terms seems to be getting a some attention for the term “Assparade” rather than the post I thought entitled “Cicarelli“, but I don’t have good stats yet.

 

I shall say with great pride and elitism that at Technorati this morning I was the top search result for “Assparade”, apparently simply because I put up the technorati list on my blog.

 

Today’s technorati terms are different but still indicative of the chasm of diversity between blog readers and blog writers.

 

 

Top Technorati Blog Searches September 23 (or maybe Sept 22?) – what are blog readers trying to find?

  1. Cicarelli
  2. Jonny
  3. Xing
  4. Pinky
  5. Openbc
  6. Bin Laden
  7. Bitacle
  8. Hugo Chavez
  9. Assparade
  10. Asian
  11. Axis of Sketchy…
  12. Grey’s Anatomy
  13. Richard Hammond
  14. Daniela Cicarel…
  15. Google

Top Technorati tags – what people are writing about.

  1. Bush
  2. Islam
  3. Pensieri
  4. Comedy
  5. Microsoft
  6. youtube
  7. Amore
  8. iPod
  9. sexy
  10. fashion
  11. foto
  12. Politica
  13. wordpress
  14. Politik
  15. torture

 

Although I do understand the diversity to some extent, particularly interesting is that “real” news like “Hugo Chavez” is not getting written up as much as it’s getting searched for.   I’m guessing that the blog writer demographic is still very narrowly “tech focused” but I wonder how it is politically?    Probably polarized, such that people with “strong” political views are far more likely to blog in that space.

Virtual thermometers are better than real ones. Cheaper too!

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Matt was pointing out something I’m noticing about using the computer to find information you *used to find* by going to yellow pages, a calculator, or other gadgets.

We broke our outdoor thermometer painting the house, and just a few minutes ago this forced me to look online for the temperature.   I’d assumed I’d have to settle for the temp in larger cities of Medford or Ashland which are each about 6 miles away, but even here in rural Oregon there is a weather station less than a mile away from my house reporting continuously.

Thus I no longer need a thermometer at the house to know the temp to within 0.1 degrees and by using that virtual tool I get other info I could only have with a weather station (and meteorologist!) in my yard such as precipitation, humidity and forecasts.