Month: May 2004

Govt Stats: E-Commerce Strong

Thanks to Gary for pointing me to these numbers: Census bureau stats on ecommerce growth. Nice up and to the right lines, with good Q4 seasonality. Bottom line: +28% year to year….

chart1Thanks to Gary for pointing me to these numbers: Census bureau stats on ecommerce growth. Nice up and to the right lines, with good Q4 seasonality. Bottom line: +28% year to year.

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Google’s Software Principles: How Broadly Shall We Read Them?

I'm late to this game, which means I get to play Monday morning quarterback. As most of you probably know by now, Google has posted a set of principles for software applications here. The title is interesting: "Feedback requested: A proposal to help fight deceptive Internet software." The company asks…

principlesI’m late to this game, which means I get to play Monday morning quarterback. As most of you probably know by now, Google has posted a set of principles for software applications here. The title is interesting: “Feedback requested: A proposal to help fight deceptive Internet software.”

The company asks you send feedback to an email account. There is a cross post on the Google blog, but comments are not turned on. (Imagine the trolls and spamming they’d have to fight if they did enable comments, sigh, too bad…)

The Slashdot hive mind seems to generally approve of this move. Elsewhere, comment has been mainly along the lines of “well done.” Another swish for Google in the White Hat playoffs. And I agree. The principles are very clear, I concur with them on first read. Users have the right to know what software is on their computers, what role it plays in their computing ecosystem, how to get rid of it if they want to, and if and when their experience is being manipulated. All that is good and true.

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Seruku: Another Clickstream/PersonalWeb High Order Bit

You know how I get about the concept of the ephemeral to the eternal. From what I can tell, it bores the pants off most of you. But you responded to my write up of Furl, which helps you create a PersonalWeb, and A9, which creates a search history (and…

OlduvaiFootYou know how I get about the concept of the ephemeral to the eternal. From what I can tell, it bores the pants off most of you. But you responded to my write up of Furl, which helps you create a PersonalWeb, and A9, which creates a search history (and more). Given that I am supposed to be writing my book, I won’t give you a detailed report on Seruku, but thanks to Gary Price, I don’t have to, as he’s done it for you. The cool thing about this application is that it allows you to create a local archive of *every page you view on the web.* Now, the fellow behind Furl is quick to point out that Seruku has no comments, no topics, no keywords, and a proprietary format (not to mention, a price tag and no thin client). But still, Gary loves it. And I love that it makes a version of your PersonalWeb that YOU control (trust me, Furl is working on this, and…MSFT, Yahoo and Google are paying attention.) Check it out.

Oh, and by the way. Thank you for all the aid on comment spam. A post on that is forthcoming.

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Paid Inclusion

You've heard me raise this issue before, during the initial brouhaha over Yahoo's announcement of paid search, which I tagged as something of a major PR bungle, coming as it did when the world was focused on search thanks to the SES show. Yesterday Danny Sullivan came out with a…

You’ve heard me raise this issue before, during the initial brouhaha over Yahoo’s announcement of paid search, which I tagged as something of a major PR bungle, coming as it did when the world was focused on search thanks to the SES show. Yesterday Danny Sullivan came out with a fine overview of the issue in his SEW newsletter. Watch this space. It is going to get more interesting, that much can be surmised.

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The Desktop Search Wars

Markoff breaks the news officially that Google will have a PC/hard drive search. I was meeting with MSFT folks today when this broke (on my way out from NYC…). That's a story for another day. Some have asked what the business model is for local hard drive search. My answer:…

Markoff breaks the news officially that Google will have a PC/hard drive search. I was meeting with MSFT folks today when this broke (on my way out from NYC…). That’s a story for another day.

Some have asked what the business model is for local hard drive search. My answer: Good will, and lots of it.

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Forgive my spam, and…Wall St. on the the Big IPO…

The comment spam is overwhelming. I can't keep up. I'll deal with it when I get back from NYC. If anyone has a real solution, I am ready to listen. Now the spammers are changing URLs for every comment. FUCKERS. Meanwhile, the dinner tonight was quite interesting. A room full…

The comment spam is overwhelming. I can’t keep up. I’ll deal with it when I get back from NYC. If anyone has a real solution, I am ready to listen. Now the spammers are changing URLs for every comment. FUCKERS.

Meanwhile, the dinner tonight was quite interesting. A room full of folks in the banking business, buy side analysts, major investment houses, etc. I asked the room – who planned to put in a bid on the Google IPO? Wall Street answered – not a single hand went up. Hmmm.

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Shocker: Google Has an Ethics Committee

The Register breaks this "news" – groups of folks get together at Google to determine what to do when difficult issues like the Jew Watch controversy break. Well of course they do. At least the company has an ethics committee in the first place. It's true, they have not been…

The Register breaks this “news” – groups of folks get together at Google to determine what to do when difficult issues like the Jew Watch controversy break. Well of course they do. At least the company has an ethics committee in the first place. It’s true, they have not been forthcoming on this subject, but as the reality of being public company sets in, they’ve get better at it. It’s an engineering-driven culture in the process of realizing that it’s playing on a major media stage. DNA changes slowly, and not without pain.

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NYC Bound

Would love to say that I've got loads of time to hang with my NYC buddies, but I'm in for a quick dinner, then back to LA to tend to some family issues. But the quick turnaround means posting will probably be light, if that, for the next two days….

Would love to say that I’ve got loads of time to hang with my NYC buddies, but I’m in for a quick dinner, then back to LA to tend to some family issues. But the quick turnaround means posting will probably be light, if that, for the next two days. And, more likely than not, comment spam will once again wend, borg-like, through the lattices of my site. I’ll try to manage it from the road….

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What’s the Value of Brand Advertising?

As Stefanie points out, just about zero, in the new Adsense image scheme. Good point. I sympathize with this quote: "Google's making a public statement that the only value of a banner is when it's clicked upon, and it flies in the face of all the research done in the…

As Stefanie points out, just about zero, in the new Adsense image scheme. Good point. I sympathize with this quote:

“Google’s making a public statement that the only value of a banner is when it’s clicked upon, and it flies in the face of all the research done in the last five years that demonstrates the impact a banner can have on brand awareness and purchase intent,” said Dave Moore, CEO of 24/7 Real Media, a New York-based company that sells advertising for 800 sites worldwide.

“Why shouldn’t I get paid for creating the step to the ultimate purchase?” Moore said.

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Govt Panel: Protect Citizen’s Privacy

Interesting conclusions by a govt. sponsored panel created as a political bone thrown when the TIA news broke, convened to look into Pentagon and govt. practices. Excerpts from the NYT coverage: …The report, expected to be issued in about two weeks, says privacy laws lag far behind advances in information…

oia2Interesting conclusions by a govt. sponsored panel created as a political bone thrown when the TIA news broke, convened to look into Pentagon and govt. practices.

Excerpts from the NYT coverage:

…The report, expected to be issued in about two weeks, says privacy laws lag far behind advances in information and communications technology….

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