I’ve been waiting for the new computational search engine Wolfram Alpha for months now, and I must say I’m a bit underwhelmed. Unlike Google, it’s been designed from the ground up to answer very specific questions (for example, unemployment rate in Sydney); it uses Wolfram’s computational engine Mathematica to compute data on the fly. But for every search I’ve performed so far, Google still does far better. Maybe we just have to be patient - it’s still in nappies. The thing I am most concerned about though is Wolfram’s terms of use: unlike Google, you have to cite Wolfram as the source of your result. Although I sympathise with their reasoning (Wolfram actually computes some answers, ie the answer didn’t exist before you asked it) I think this is crazy from a business perspective - it will drive users away. Google doesn’t make such demands.
Wed 18 Feb 2009
Privacy is “unrealistic” in this day and age - Google
Posted by bbarnet under tech, theory bits
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I know I’m a little over-obsessed with Google, but this is really because they are light years ahead when it comes to personalisation, search and location-based services - or combinations of these, like Google Maps and Google Earth. There’s an article in The Age today about a recent US court case concerning Google Maps. A federal judge has ruled against a US couple who accused Google of invading their privacy by publishing a Street View picture of their house in the Internet giant’s free online map service. The pictures are certainly very detailed, and taken from a private road by the house.
The reason Google won? They argued that an expectation of privacy concerning pictures of houses or yards is unrealistic in this age of aerial and satellite imagery. Is privacy becoming unrealistic?
Fri 16 Jan 2009
Social Search
Posted by bbarnet under tech
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If you could hone your Google search results based on what your friends have been reading, would you choose to do that? In a recent article on Tech Crunch, Erick Schonfield looked at the possibility of social search for Facebook, and a recent app called Sidestripe, which is an add-on widget for Google search and also a Facebook app. He thinks social search would be very valuable for both Facebook and Google.
I think he is very definitely right, but it would more likely work using a Google account holder’s Gmail contacts rather than their Facebook contacts. The reason is that Google has access to the search records for every contact in your account with a Gmail address, which could be combined with your own search history and personal preferences to personalise your results further. I think we will be seeing “social” search results in the very near future which are personalised based on what your friends have been reading and visiting frequently, which of course opens up all kinds of problems with respect to privacy. Do you own your search history, or your own reading history?
Sun 30 Nov 2008
Picture of the little guy
Posted by bbarnet under random
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This is a pic of Ollie with the cheekiest grin imaginable…
Tue 18 Nov 2008
Attention spirals
Posted by bbarnet under random, tech
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From an article on TechCrunch, a US researcher claims he knows why certain videos on YouTube become mass phenomena overnight while the vast majority of videos just get a handful of views: attention spirals. Every time a video turns into a hit, the development takes the form of a geometric pattern that partly follows physical laws utilized in measuring the aftershocks of earthquakes… hahaha.
Sun 16 Nov 2008
Web 2.0 Studies - Critical Internet Theory
Posted by bbarnet under events
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The School of Culture and Communication at the University of Melbourne is seeking applications from researchers who wish to take part in a two day methodologies workshop with Professor Geert Lovink (Director, Institute of Network Culture, Amsterdam). Participation is free but places are limited and will be restricted to participants who are engaged in research relating to the theme of Web 2.0 studies and critical Internet theory. More info can be found here. Applications close 21st of November. Swinburne media postgrads are encouraged to apply!
Sun 16 Nov 2008
Personalised media flows
Posted by bbarnet under personalisation, theory bits
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One of the most famous media scholars of our era, Raymond Williams, came up with the concept of ‘flow’ in the mid 70’s to describe the sequence of content on broadcast television (shows, trailers, advertisments, previews, movies, whatever else the station programmer throws in). Williams thought that the sequence should be understood as a composite, a distinct emotional and psychological experience, a ’single irresponsible flow of images and feelings’ (Williams 2003, p.92). ‘Flow’ has since become one of the most powerful critical concepts in film and television studies. I think the idea is still useful to us, but that we have entered an era of content personalization; there is not one, but literally millions of media flows, assembled or aggregated for each individual. Increasingly, digital content is produced on demand based on your current location; it is shaped by your social network and what they are recommending; it is predicted based on your personal Google search history or what you’ve been writing about in your webmail account. This personalized flow is substantially different from the early web, where content did not change based on the user’s purchasing history or social network; personalization was confined to choosing which links to follow or what to download.I think we need a term to describe the fact that we are all consuming different content, and that this content is increasingly being assembled and delivered to us based on our personal preferences/browsing history/social network.
Tue 4 Nov 2008
Personalisation and Google’s new browser (’Chrome’)
Posted by bbarnet under personalisation, tech
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The Age published an article today on Google’s new browser Chrome. Consumer Watchdog expressed some concerns over this new browser back in October, and sent a letter to Google’s founders.
Chrome is all about personalisation of course; from the homepage itself (which includes information such as your most frequently visited sites) to the way the browser can predict possible URLs you may wish to visit. I don’t see why this comes as such a surprise; Google’s CEO Eric Schmidt has expressed Google’s long-term plan before: personalisation. He told the Financial Times in 2007, ‘We are very early in the total information we have within Google. The algorithms will get better and we will get better at personalisation”.
One of the complaints in the Consumer Watchdog letter about Chrome
…surrounds Chrome’s navigation bar, which can be used to enter a website address or a search query. The group points out that as users type in the navigation bar, Chrome relays their keystrokes to Google even before they click “Enter” to finalise the command. “The company is literally having this unnoticed conversation with itself about you and your information,” Consumer Watchdog President Jamie Court said (Google’s Browser Labelled a Digital Trojan Horse, 04/08)
Google Chrome seems to have anticipated the hysteria that would ensue over privacy, because it offers a “privacy mode” where you can apparently search the web without data being siphoned off and sent back to Google all the time.
Mon 27 Oct 2008
Did you hear the one about internet censorship?
Posted by bbarnet under tech
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The Australian government wants to introduce mandatory Internet filtering - that’s right, internet censorship. To do this they will require Australian ISPs to install and use dynamic filters of questionable accuracy that have actually been shown to slow data speeds considerably. Of course this won’t work - as if ISPs can examine all their traffic, as if ISPs can be made responsible for the data they deliver, and even if they could, anyone with half a brain can bypass filters of this kind. That’s just a joke really, but it’s not funny. The distressing thing is that there will be a blacklist of “prohibited” sites (who will maintain this? who has the power to decide what we can and can’t read?) There’s already speculation that material like gambling sites will be added to this. I’m worried that this seems to be passing quietly - without high profile debate, without the extensive media coverage it would get in a country like America (or any country that values free speech). I’m also worried that the Australian government is attempting to silence critics of the plan.
Tue 14 Oct 2008
Google, privacy and ‘anonymizing’ data
Posted by bbarnet under tech
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According to Google’s blog, they have reluctantly agreed to ‘anonymize’ their search data after 9 months. This doesn’t mean they will lose the data of course - just that your IP address will not be attached to it after 9 months. Previously they held this information for up to 18 months, and used it to personalise everything from search results to advertising (your Google Reader history is also incorporated in this, but I haven’t worked out what that relationship is exactly).