Paul points it out as a failed dishwasher search. Mike complains about automated content as does RWW. And we all have experienced it: The Google ecosystem is failing more – failing to get us what we think we want. Failing to not frustrate us. Failing at the more complicated queries…
Now, Google’s ecosystem is ripe for a quick buck – “content farms” that build article pages cheaply to make a quick buck off AdWords. But these articles, at least for a portion of us, don’t really provide the answers we are looking for. (thanks @thejames for the pointers.)
As Paul puts it in bemoaning his fruitless attempt to use Google for a researching a dishwasher purchase:
Read MoreYou know, I just realized I suggested that Facebook do exactly what it's doing. Read this post from back in June, deconstructing an article in Wired about the emerging Facebook v. Google battle. In it I say: I think it's a major strategic mistake to not offer [as much…
You know, I just realized I suggested that Facebook do exactly what it’s doing. Read this post from back in June, deconstructing an article in Wired about the emerging Facebook v. Google battle. In it I say:
I think it’s a major strategic mistake to not offer [as much information on Facebook as possible] to Google (and anyone else that wants to crawl it.) In fact, I’d argue that the right thing to do is to make just about everything possible available to Google to crawl, then sit back and watch while Google struggles with whether or not to “organize it and make it universally available.” A regular damned if you do, damned if you don’t scenario, that….
Read MoreThis is a big deal. Facebook is taking the final step to become more like Twitter. Thanks to RWW for pointing it out. I've been traveling and had not had a chance to read the new privacy settings, which state: …we'll be recommending that you make available to everyone a…
…we’ll be recommending that you make available to everyone a limited set of information that helps people find and connect with you, information like “About Me” and where you work or go to school…. This information is name, profile picture, gender, current city, networks, friend list, and Pages….
The blog post explaining the changes amounts to a massive act of “burying the lead”, to use a journalistic phrase. The lead is “the core of the story.” To me, the fact that your status updates and other info will now be public is a pretty big story. But Facebook leads with this:
Read MoreAOL was finally set free today, years after it should have been. Congrats to the AOL team and Tim Armstrong, and I imagine, to the Time Warner folks who managed to destroy so much value by blaming everything on the merger in the first place (sure, it was a bad…
Read my rant asking Time Warner to set it free back in March of 2004 here.
Twitter is rolling a ton of features and announcements this week, coinciding both with Le Web in Paris and its own ongoing development as a platform. A roundup: – Twitter is opening up its "firehose" of tweets to all comers "in early 2010". This is a very big deal….
Twitter is rolling a ton of features and announcements this week, coinciding both with Le Web in Paris and its own ongoing development as a platform. A roundup:
– Twitter is opening up its “firehose” of tweets to all comers “in early 2010”. This is a very big deal. Before, developers had limited access to the Twitterverse. This means the ecosystem has tons more oxygen to work with.
Read MoreGoogle's real time search integration, announced at Web 2 in October, is rolling out (good coverage from SEL). It'll be integrated as "Latest results." I'll be watching how this effects the traffic referral ecosystem across the web – that's the key. Will Twitter grow? Will Google start to obviate…
Google’s real time search integration, announced at Web 2 in October, is rolling out (good coverage from SEL). It’ll be integrated as “Latest results.” I’ll be watching how this effects the traffic referral ecosystem across the web – that’s the key. Will Twitter grow? Will Google start to obviate some refers it’s now sending to Facebook? Or will the opposite occur?
Google has launched a "Favorite Places" program to jumpstart its local search business. I like the moxy, but the ecosystem is lacking a clear dose of "Why Should I Do This," at least from the point of view of the business. Or the customer, for that matter. The program…
Google has launched a “Favorite Places” program to jumpstart its local search business. I like the moxy, but the ecosystem is lacking a clear dose of “Why Should I Do This,” at least from the point of view of the business. Or the customer, for that matter. The program has the same “Church lady dancing to rap” feeling that marks nearly all of Google’s socially-driven products.
If Google is serious about this space, they best buy Foursquare, pronto, and let the folks there take over.
AT&T today released an iPhone app that reports wireless issues. It’s called Mark the Spot. Very cool. This is a step toward the crowdsourced, conversational, map-driven go to market strategy I outlined here….this app was not done by AT&T marketing, but rather labs, I was told, though that is not…
AT&T today released an iPhone app that reports wireless issues. It’s called Mark the Spot. Very cool. This is a step toward the crowdsourced, conversational, map-driven go to market strategy I outlined here….this app was not done by AT&T marketing, but rather labs, I was told, though that is not totally confirmed.
From the Google Social Web Blog (I have to admit it's hard for me to see those four words together without busting out a silly grin): Today, we're bringing Twitter and Friend Connect even closer together. Now you can join one of over nine million Google Friend Connect sites…
From the Google Social Web Blog (I have to admit it’s hard for me to see those four words together without busting out a silly grin):
Today, we’re bringing Twitter and Friend Connect even closer together. Now you can join one of over nine million Google Friend Connect sites using your Twitter login. Once signed in, your Twitter profile will be automatically linked and you can tweet your new site membership, share discussions from the comments gadget, and invite your friends via Twitter.
Read MoreGoogle today announced a new policy in its ongoing attempt to reach detente with an increasingly querulous publishing industry. (For background, read Mashable’s piece). A key piece of the new policy has to do with changes to Google’s “First Click Free” program. From Google’s announcement: One way we overcome…
Google today announced a new policy in its ongoing attempt to reach detente with an increasingly querulous publishing industry. (For background, read Mashable’s piece).
A key piece of the new policy has to do with changes to Google’s “First Click Free” program. From Google’s announcement:
Read More