Racist Michelle Obama Images & Why Google Shouldn’t Delete Them
[ Comments Off ]Posted on November 25, 2009 by admin in Politics
Wednesday, November 25th, 2009Apply a little Hope & Change attitude to help googlebomb away the racist images of the classiest, sauciest First Lady since Jackie O.
I’ve been a little amused by the recent minor hoopla about why Google will or won’t delete the racist image of Michelle Obama that comes up at the top of search results. To me it’s a no-brainer; if you believe in free speech and an open web, you don’t want Google removing images like this no matter how offensive they are. I mean, for cryin’ out loud, we’ve had to look at enough photoshopped images of Hillary Clinton half-nude brandishing a whip, and although there is probably some permanent psychological damage as a result, we’re still alive. What we really want to do here is apply a little of that hope and change attitude. Ironically, one of the reasons the image appears at the top of results is because the idiots writing about it keep linking to it! So since Michelle Obama is probably the classiest, sauciest First Lady since Jackie O, lets all pitch in and do our part. You’ll notice I didn’t link to the racist image myself, and have offered up a few saucy shots of Michelle for you to link to. they all have “michelle obama” and “racist” in the file names. Link to this article, link to the images, pass the images around, use her name a lot in links to classy pictures of her, whatever. Let’s Googlebomb the racism out of the first lady’s image search results! Read the rest of this entry »
What’s So Great About Google Music Search?
[ Comments Off ]Posted on October 31, 2009 by admin in Music
Saturday, October 31st, 2009Nothing.
 Don’t look for Amazon or iTunes links in your results with Google’s new music search |
Nothing. Well, there are good things about it, but nothing great. Frankly, Google’s really starting to get on my nerves. They have a little bit too much of that Lord of the Rings “One Ring to rule them all” thing going on. Yes, it’s kind of cool that if you search for a band or a song, you now suddenly have the ability to play it right there in your search results. The other touted features – like the ability to search lyrics and get the same results for instance – are so inconsistent that I’m surprised the best and brightest at Google decided to include them. And the omission of iTunes and Amazon from those clickable previews is a mixed bag; yes it’s great to see less monolithic companies being promoted, but the fact is that this is probably just Google’s way of launching their own monopoly. It will be interesting to see how that plays out; so far their key partners include Lala, Rhapsody, Pandora, Imeem, and MySpace. I personally buy all my digital music at either Amazon*
Social Search: Who Gives A Twinglebook?
[ Comments Off ]Posted on October 24, 2009 by admin in Technology
Saturday, October 24th, 2009Will Social Search be an awesome new way to search the web, or a sewage-filled spam hose?
I was wondering why no-one seemed to give a twinglebook about the fact that Microsoft struck search deals with Twitter and Facebook, and that Google not only has their own deal with Twitter, but plans to launch their own “Social Search” in the near future. Then I remembered that the average person doesn’t know their Firefox from a hole in the ground (YouTube link, video is also below). Well, I have to admit that I care; depending on how both Microsoft and Google choose to integrate real-time search results from social networking sites, this could either be really interesting, or really annoying and/or paranoia-inducing. More so the annoying part; ever since SEO became a parasitic, opportunistic business instead of an integrated part of web site development, search results have become less and less useful on a steady downward curve. The beauty of Twitter Search is its real-time results; the ugly downside is that all those results are spam-infested Tweets! Who cares how fast you can search multi-level marketer’s tweets (see Will the Twitter Firehose Become a Sewage-Filled Spam Hose) ? In my opinion, the only real value of these relationships the two search giants are building with Twitter would be real-time search of everything but Twitter noise. Hopefully they’ll pursue that, but Bing’s beta version of Twitter search appears to be just, well, Twitter search. How mixing this stuff in with regular results is going to benefit anyone is beyond me. These moves also come at an odd time, when both Facebook and Twitter’s growth are flattening out. And the paranoia mentioned earlier? Google’s Social Search will require you to be logged in with a Google Profile, and will connect additional search results via your existing “friends” on various social networking services, thereby tracking all your searches and connecting them with people you know. But perhaps I fret about this sort of thing too much. After all, Googoo has a excewent pwivacy powicy. Read the rest of this entry »
What’s The Matter, Michigan?
[ Comments Off ]Posted on October 10, 2009 by admin in Lifestyle & Culture
Saturday, October 10th, 2009Michigan is a beautiful state with lots of resources, and is full of hard working people. So why don’t they just cheer up and get to work?
I live in Michigan. A state surrounded by the world’s largest fresh water lakes, with more than 11,000 inland lakes. The state is relatively rich with wildlife and natural resources, and the residents are known nationwide for their exceptional work ethic. So why is it that the state is number one in unemployment as of August, 2009? Why is it that the state’s largest city is known mostly for its urban decay? I have one guess: ATTITUDE. For some reason, the same character traits that give a Michigander a hard working, common sense attitude are easily flipped to the negative. Michigan’s sort of like a beetle. Almost indestructable and very industrious when things are right, but flip it on its back, and oh boy, forget it. I’ve had two experiences in the past year that highlighted this phenomena, and I still don’t understand it. But they’ve both re-invigorated my positivism. I’m proposing we start using the old saying “Michigan. America’s High Five To The World” as the tagline to get things rolling. One of these experiences was when the huge pharmaceutical conglomerate Pfizer closed its operations in the Ann Arbor area. It was psychological Armageddon for the locals. The economy was DOOMED. Until a short while later of course, when Google announced they were opening an office in the area. THE MESSIAH WAS ARRIVING. WE ARE SAVED! No-one paid much mind to the Read the rest of this entry »
RockMelt: A New Browser? A Planet Vaporizing Death Ray?
[ 3 Comments ]Posted on August 18, 2009 by admin in Technology
Tuesday, August 18th, 2009I know the answer, but if I told you, I’d have to kill you.
The mysterious new startup RockMelt is creating more of a subdued hum than an actual buzz with their mysterious press leakage. Is it a browser? A social networking tool? A planet-vaporizing death ray? The most informed guess so far is that it’s an all new browser built from the ground up to more effectively take advantage of social networking and the social web. The fact that Marc Andreessen (creator of Netscape Navigator) has invested in the company has fueled speculation that it’s some kind of all-around Firefox/Google Chrome/IE Killer. But why would Andreessen back a new browser, especially in light of remarks like those of Xoogler-turned-venture capitalist Salman Ullah (say that name out loud for a good laugh) in this Esquire piece a while back in which, when told that the next pitch he was going to hear was for a browser, he said “Tell them to go fuck themselves…what value do I get as an end user? Why would I install a new browser?” Well, there’s a lot of quiet speculation that it’s just an irrational expression of Andreessen’s frustration with ultimately losing the Browser Wars to the Evil Forces In Redmond. But if the anger is directed at Microsoft, Google, or Mozilla, why does the RockMelt logo so closely resemble an exploding-Earth version of the .Mac logo? Read the rest of this entry »