Technology
« Older Entries | Newer Entries »Confused By All The Google/Verizon Network Neutrality Talk?
[ 2 Comments ]Posted on August 10, 2010 by admin in Technology
Tuesday, August 10th, 2010Don’t be. It’s simple. What Google and Verizon are trying to do is comparable to Henry Ford and Harvey Firestone supporting free and open competition of horseless carriages while guaranteeing themselves protected monopolies to make cars.
Confused by all the talk from Google and Verizon about their plans for protecting net neutrality? Don’t be. All the jargon, press releases, and proposals thrown around by both companies are classic strategies. Confuse the public with a flurry of conflicting hints, public statements and denials while doing your best to control the actions of the agency that might regulate you. The nutshell version of what these two companies are trying to do with the internet and wireless broadband access could be likened to Henry Ford and Harvey Firestone supporting free and open competition of horseless carriages while giving themselves protected monopolies of the yet-to-be defined automobile market. It’s dirty. But would you expect anything else from either company during economic times like this? And don’t get me going on the Google “don’t be evil” thing. We joked back in 2008 that Google’s got you covered top to bottom . And the irony of the words you’re about to read being surrounded by Google ads is not lost on me. But here’s the scary truth: if Facebook’s deceiptful privacy practices and attitude have caused you to be angry or concerned, Google’s attitude should trouble you exponentially more. Most recently, Google’s Eric Schmidt was quoted in this article as saying (in reference to the massive amounts of data compiled about you) that “The only way to manage this is true transparency and no anonymity. In a world of asynchronous threats, it is too dangerous for there not to be some way to identify you. We need a verified name service for people. Governments will demand it ” (emphasis mine). This is in line with his December 2009 remark that “If you have something that you don’t want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn’t be doing it in the first place.” Which may be true. But do you want a company like Google or Verizon to be the ones making these decisions? If this cavalier attitude doesn’t trouble you, and if – like many people – you have a Gmail account and use any of Google’s many free tools, try the following, if you haven’t already. Go to your Google Dashboard and see what they’ve been tracking. If you’re a light user of Gmail who just logs in and out to check mail, you’ll see little of interest here. But if you stay logged into your Google accounts all the time, you might be a little disturbed by how much information about you is compiled in one place. And now Google not only wants to know what you HAVE done, they think they can predict what you WILL do. By the way, if they’re so good at predicting the future, this begs the question: how did they not know that Facebook would kick their ass so bad on social networking? Read the rest of this entry »
Google And The CIA Invest In “Temporal Analytics Engine”
[ Comments Off ]Posted on July 31, 2010 by admin in Technology
Saturday, July 31st, 2010Google and the CIA may sound like strange bedfellows, but not in an era in which the ad industry is building “databases of intentions” based on your surfing habits. Learn how “harmless” sites like Dictionary.com are tracking where you surf, and what you type while you’re there. And how to prevent it.
Love it or hate it (and in spite of occasionally hilarious results) the Google auto-complete feature can be uncannily accurate when guessing the rest of what you’ll type. So wouldn’t it be great if in the future, Google would know what you’re searching before you even search for it? If this sounds more like the movie Minority Report
Who Actually Uses Social Bookmarking Sites?
[ 2 Comments ]Posted on July 24, 2010 by admin in Technology
Saturday, July 24th, 2010Even though you’ve probably never used a social bookmarking site – and may not even know what they are – they have a tremendous impact on the sites you end up visiting.
There are two things that I find amusing about social bookmarking sites. One is that in spite of the fact that they can bring 10,000 new visitors to a site in a single day and leave the site with a durable increase in traffic from that day on, you rarely hear web “traffic experts” talking about the importance of them. The other thing I find amusing is that in spite of their awesome power and rabidly loyal users, no one seems to be using them! I asked exactly 10 friends if they used social bookmarking sites over the last two days, and exactly 10 of them said “no”, with seven of them saying “you mean like Facebook?”, two of them saying “yeah, I bookmark sites” (meaning in their browser) and one saying, in his typically paranoid fashion “are you kidding? I NEVER click on those things!” Which highlights another interesting fact: For many people, being on the web is like using their new home entertainment system – in spite of all the amazing buttons and features they could be messing with, they mostly just watch and change channels a lot. I’m convinced that all those little rows of bookmarking icons you see all over the web remain a mystery to the average user, and largely unused by people who actually use those sites. So for those of you who aren’t familiar with social bookmarking, we have a quick roundup of the most popular services below, and for those who are familiar with them, we have a very interesting data table that lets you sort them by Google pagerank, incoming links, or estimated dollar value as web properties. Do you use a social bookmarking site? If so, feel free to share some thoughts. Or better yet, bookmark us! Read the rest of this entry »
How SEO, Google, and Facebook Are Ruining The Web, And Ruining You
[ 2 Comments ]Posted on July 9, 2010 by admin in Technology
Friday, July 9th, 2010Has the web become a big Wordpress linkfarm driven by social networking?
I loved it the other day when Prince said “the internet’s completely over”. Like that statement, and the headline above, much of what I’m about to say will be hyperbole, opinion, and oversimplification. Which is ironic, because that’s kind of what the web has become as a result of some of what I’ll be talking about. Do you remember when there were more than three search engines? When grandma didn’t have a blog, and your mom didn’t ask you “how do I set up a Facebook?” Or when small business owners who can barely use e-mail didn’t ask their web developer questions like “we’ll be be implementing SEO and social media tools when you build my website, right?” I would argue that Google’s domination of search and the ease of installation of WordPress blogs have done nearly irreversible damage to the web. How? Back when there were a half dozen or so competing search engines – Lycos, Hotbot, Excite, MSN, Yahoo, Altavista, etc. -they would have ups and downs and shortcomings, but competition would drive their evolution. And perhaps more importantly, an interesting cycle would drive part of that evolution: a popular search engine would attract SEO experts, which would slowly erode the engine’s organic results, which would cause a migration to a new search engine, which would inspire the top dog to clean up their index, or fail. Then Google came along. They did so many things so well in the beginning that it was almost magical. And slowly their competitors faded into oblivion, so that now, according to stats like this, Google has about 70% of the market, Yahoo 15%, and Bing 9%. So why is that bad? Although a disruptive technology could always come along, for now, there’s little incentive for developers and VC’s to say “hey, let’s start a search engine“. And with Google as basically the only portal to the web for most people, their search results have become so “spammed out” and infested with WordPress-driven linkfarms in general results, and Yelp-like listings in local results, that random searches can often be utterly useless. And Google can care less about that for awhile, because where will you go? It’s sort of like if you were frustrated with your cable TV service. What are you gonna do, call the other cable company? Add to this mix an attempt to cash in on the myth of the wisdom of the crowd, and you get a real mess. Rather quickly, any site that is based on natural networks of user trust will fall apart. Think of something like Yelp. Who bothers to offer up reviews on sites like Yelp? Mostly either opinionated egoists, or angry people. Real experts are too busy doing whatever they do as experts. Which is an idea summed up nicely in this piece by Amber Naslund, which talks about “confusing ego with influence”. And when Facebook becomes the second most visited site on the web, you get an interesting new phase. Google vs Facebook. Google keeps going after Facebook, while Facebook enters the search market. I can’t wait ’til all my search results are based on “Like” buttons that were clicked in e-mail spam campaigns. How about you? Oh I don’t need to ask. Facebook’s Edgerank will keep me informed of what you’re thinking and doing if I need to know. Which is another piece of this e-pocalypse. We already know that Google is making us stupid, but once we’re stupid, is it really such a good idea to make Facebook the very first thing we do each day?
Two Heels Good
[ Comments Off ]Posted on July 7, 2010 by admin in Technology
Wednesday, July 7th, 2010Peter Treadway’s motorized shoes would probably be a lot more appealing if he pitched them as fun recreational footwear instead of as serious urban transportation.
What do you get when you cross a pair of Heelys with a Segway? Why, Treadways, of course. Yes, in America’s relentless pursuit of obesity – we’re probably the only country on Earth that considers walking to be a form of exercise – even this grueling physical activity will soon be unnecessary, thanks to Peter Treadway’s ingenious fusion of a shoe and a wheel. Or a track. Or whatever. I jest, but the design idea Treadway is working on is actually pretty cool. It’s one of many entries in the James Dyson Award design and engineering competition, so let’s wish Treadway luck. If in fact he is successful enough to create a nation of sedentary blobs that don’t even walk anymore, he should consider offering a self-lacing version as well. On a serious note though, I think Treadway may really be on to something if he stops talking about the concept as some sort of serious urban transit solution and pitches it as recreational footwear. Read the rest of this entry »