Category: Random, But Interesting

A Search History Privacy Tale

Worth a read. This fellow has noticed a flaw in how security is – or is not – handled in Google's approach to personal search history. Yes, I did give my permission for someone to log in to their Google account from my laptop. However, I reasonably expected Google…

Worth a read. This fellow has noticed a flaw in how security is – or is not – handled in Google’s approach to personal search history.

Yes, I did give my permission for someone to log in to their Google account from my laptop. However, I reasonably expected Google to log him out after a while even if he did not log himself out. Then I realized that this is probably not a bug, but rather an architectural limitation. Google cannot tell when a person has finished using a particular computer or if in fact if that person actively uses multiple computers. For personalized search to work well, Google needs to capture all of a user’s search activity. While doing that aggressively, Google became a tool for compromising my privacy.

As a result, my search results are not only “owned” by someone else, I don’t even have access to them.

13 Comments on A Search History Privacy Tale

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Dog Bites Man. Google Crushes It.

Just landed. Everyone knows Google crushed it again. But the stock seems to be priced already for crushing performance, because it did not pop in after hours. In fact, it dipped. Seeking Alpha has the transcript of the earnings call. It's really worth a read if you want to…

Just landed. Everyone knows Google crushed it again. But the stock seems to be priced already for crushing performance, because it did not pop in after hours. In fact, it dipped.

Seeking Alpha has the transcript of the earnings call. It’s really worth a read if you want to geek out – esp. Larry and Sergey’s comments on search and advertising, and the Q&A from the analysts.

13 Comments on Dog Bites Man. Google Crushes It.

Thank God For 20% Time

Man, I wish I smoked weed like I used to in graduate school. I'd have a 24-hour party to watch the sunset across the globe on Google Earth. No, really. I mean….wow, man….

Sunriseearth017+High-Res

Man, I wish I smoked weed like I used to in graduate school. I’d have a 24-hour party to watch the sunset across the globe on Google Earth. No, really. I mean….wow, man.

6 Comments on Thank God For 206 Time

When Microsoft (and Yahoo) Are Sucking Wind, Is It Fun to Be Google?

When Live Search launched, I was happy to see how the company positioned search as in the early stages of development (sure, they quoted my book, so that helped). But since then, it's been mostly bad news for Live Search. A reader (thanks Michelle) pointed me to this Cnet…

Live Search

When Live Search launched, I was happy to see how the company positioned search as in the early stages of development (sure, they quoted my book, so that helped). But since then, it’s been mostly bad news for Live Search. A reader (thanks Michelle) pointed me to this Cnet story. In it, the author describes what most of us already know – that Microsoft has continued to lose search market share, and further, that some analysts believe that the Live brand has confused the public.

“Microsoft’s Live branding has been tremendously confusing and has hurt the company, and it is very likely contributing to the situation they are in right now,” said David Smith, an analyst at Gartner. “They’ve created another brand and have not differentiated it.”



It’s too early to pass “final judgment” on the strategy, Smith said. But now is the time for Microsoft to clearly explain its strategy, he said.

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10 Comments on When Microsoft (and Yahoo) Are Sucking Wind, Is It Fun to Be Google?

While I Was Away…TellMe

TellMe has launched the first step in what may well be a very important new era in mobile search – Tellme by Mobile. TechCrunch covers it here. I got to play with this in early beta, and it is really impressive. A caveat – TellMe is an FM advertiser,…

Tellme

TellMe has launched the first step in what may well be a very important new era in mobile search – Tellme by Mobile. TechCrunch covers it here. I got to play with this in early beta, and it is really impressive. A caveat – TellMe is an FM advertiser, and I agreed to give them my unvarnished input as part of TellMe’s FM program (they have a feedback forum on the new product, a very good idea, here).

As I opined for three years, I’ve been waiting for a mobile app that finally uses voice to drive search on the go. This could be it. For now, it’s just the equivalent of Yellow Pages 411, but if this works the implications are clear – the underlying voice recogniction technology paired with very Tellmemobilesmart structured search could be a killer app. It’s a little odd getting used to a voice-command-based local search experience, and the system does not always work, but then again, neither does text-based search.

But here’s why I think TellMe is well positioned – this java app is carrier independent. Let me say that again – carrier independent. Now that is a breakthrough.

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Google v. Second Life? No Contest

One of the big buzzy facts of Davos life this year was Second Life. Reuters was busy interviewing folks for the Second Life audience (yeah, OK, I did it), and nearly everyone at Davos who was NOT in the internet industry was busy talking it up as important (and…

One of the big buzzy facts of Davos life this year was Second Life. Reuters was busy interviewing folks for the Second Life audience (yeah, OK, I did it), and nearly everyone at Davos who was NOT in the internet industry was busy talking it up as important (and many who were as well, but for different and deeper reasons).

Now, another buzzy fact of Davos life was Google. Eric Schmidt co-chaired the event this year (they select a few industry leaders to do so), and Larry and Sergey plyed the floors like regular folk (well, regular folk with a 767 and billions in net worth, but at least at this event, they were not the only ones).

This led someone to ask me – will Google, with Sketchup now firmly part of the empire, take a run at Second Life? And will it win?

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6 Comments on Google v. Second Life? No Contest

Prepping For Competition

Google's Adsense service is totally dominant in the marketplace. Yahoo's YPN – so far anyway – has proven feeble, and Microsoft's AdCenter has failed to move out of early stages. Game over? Hardly. Hardly at all. Both these major players are going to push hard in 2007 to win…

Goog Ads

Google’s Adsense service is totally dominant in the marketplace. Yahoo’s YPN – so far anyway – has proven feeble, and Microsoft’s AdCenter has failed to move out of early stages. Game over? Hardly. Hardly at all. Both these major players are going to push hard in 2007 to win in syndicated paid results, and then there’s Ask, AOL, and many others who have intentions in this space. Not to mention all the other folks who hope to out-Google the leader – from Tacoda to Quigo, and back again.

So, with that in mind, Google is shoring up its defenses. Laying down some new rules while it can, so to speak. What am I talking about? Well, nothing less than this:

Competitive Ads and Services

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The Blog Merchandising Problem, or, Blogs, V 2.0 (2.1? 3.0?)

Late last year, in my predictions post for 2007, I mentioned something I called, quite uninventively, "Blog 2.0." More specifically I wrote: "10. "Blog 2.0" will become a reality. By this I mean that Version 1.0 blogsites, of which I think Searchblog is a good example, will begin to…

Merchamazon

Late last year, in my predictions post for 2007, I mentioned something I called, quite uninventively, “Blog 2.0.” More specifically I wrote:

“10. “Blog 2.0″ will become a reality. By this I mean that Version 1.0 blogsites, of which I think Searchblog is a good example, will begin to look dated and fade in comparison to sites that employ better approaches to content management, navigation, intelligent widgets and web services, etc.”

Well, that entry caught they eye of Martin Nisenholtz, head of NYT Digital. I was in NYC this past couple of days visiting colleagues and attending the wonderful “Evening of Wonders,” run by FM partner author Josh Foer. Upon hearing I was coming to town, Martin asked me to stop by. He wanted me to unpack what I meant by that brief reference. Turns out, we had a fascinating conversation, and it led me to want to think out loud with all of you about a problem I think most folks who either write or read blogs have.

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41 Comments on The Blog Merchandising Problem, or, Blogs, V 2.0 (2.1? 3.0?)

Going With Grace, Findory

Greg has a lovely post about moving on from his creation, Findory….

Greg has a lovely post about moving on from his creation, Findory.

1 Comment on Going With Grace, Findory

Carbon Offsets

I've become interested in the whole carbon credit thing, and wonder if any of you are as well. My research shows a few sites which allow you to pay off your guilt for your globe-warming ways, but I wonder, are these sites for real? Do they matter to anyone…

I’ve become interested in the whole carbon credit thing, and wonder if any of you are as well. My research shows a few sites which allow you to pay off your guilt for your globe-warming ways, but I wonder, are these sites for real? Do they matter to anyone but the guilty conscience of the person who is paying them off? Is any one better than the others? Any readers out there use these services, and do you recommend them?

15 Comments on Carbon Offsets