That Google/Wikipedia Post - Finally (2)
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John Battelle's Searchblog (156)
7 hours, 53 minutes
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Remember a couple months back when I promised you guys I'd post on this? Well, thanks to a deal with LookSmart, I finally got a chance to write it. It's over here. From it: But here's the rub: There's a critical difference between curation based on algorithm (Google News) and curation based on human insight (Digg or Wikipedia) - and that difference can be summed up in one word: Voice. In short, sites that allow ...
On Speech Based Interfaces to Search - and Beyond (4)
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John Battelle's Searchblog (156)
7 hours, 53 minutes
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This stuff is going to get real, soon. From Google's latest Technology Roundtable Series: [This] video, "Applications of Human Language Technology," is a discussion of our enormous progress in large-scale automated translation of languages and speech recognition. Both of these technology domains are coming of age with capabilities that will truly impact what we expect of computers on a day-to-day basis. I discuss these technologies with human language technology experts Franz Josef Och, an expert ...
Microsoft's U Rank (4)
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John Battelle's Searchblog (156)
21 hours, 20 minutes
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Microsoft has a quiet test running in its research labs that may be of interest to some of my search geek readers. It requires registration, alas, but it might be fun to check out. Called "U Rank" here's a snip from an email sent to me from Microsoft: Some of the interesting features of U Rank include: Create the perfect search results for you: Put results in just the right order and add images and ...
When Doesn't It Pay To Pay Attention To Search Quality? (5)
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John Battelle's Searchblog (156)
2 days, 15 hours
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Perhaps when the top result is the best result - and it's a paid link. Look at the image of my search results above. I just now wanted to find the NLCS playoff schedule. I like baseball. I follow the National League, (NL) for the most part. Just about every fan of baseball (and there are millions of them) knows that "NLCS" is code for "National League Championship Series. So I typed "NLCS playoff schedule" ...
One Question, More Than 100 Answers and Counting... (2)
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John Battelle's Searchblog (156)
4 days, 23 hours
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It never fails to surprise me, though it shouldn't, how a simple question can elicit amazing responses. Late last week, on the advice of folks at Linked In and as a way to help guide my work as program chair of the CM Summit, I asked this simple question: What's the smartest marketing you've ever seen online? I didn't know what to expect, I've seen these questions stream into my inbox from my Linked In ...
Google Diaspora (2)
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John Battelle's Searchblog (156)
1 week
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Good piece on Merus Capital, started by folks who used to be in Google corp dev. Merus Capital, as it happens, is itself a new Google product. Or, to be more specific, Merus Capital is the product of a new Google phenomenon. Call it the Google exodus, the Google diaspora, whatever--in almost any given week, blogs and business sections perk up with news that key figures at Google are leaving. It happened last October, the ...
Super Cool (1)
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TweetSense (10)
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John Battelle's Searchblog (156)
1 week, 1 day
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I think the business model at Twitter is going to be really, really interesting, and I think it's going to leverage search, but search as a proxy for data and pattern recognition. We get an inkling of it at Election 2008, Twitter's mashup of Tweets relating to the election, but there's a lot more to think through. First off, Twitter is using its real estate to promote its deal with Current, which is a first, ...
Time Machine (1)
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John Battelle's Searchblog (156)
1 week, 2 days
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I've wanted a time axis for the web for, well, for ever (OK, since 2003 when I got the idea). Google has given us at least one point on that axis, 2001. What a nutty time. Check out a vanity search for me back then. This is before Searchblog, natch.
On The Google Hive Mind: There Is a Center (2)
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John Battelle's Searchblog (156)
1 week, 5 days
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Yesterday Danny posted a typically thoughtful piece on Google's success, on the occasion of its ten year anniversary. Titled The Google Hive Mind, the piece addresses an age-old question about Google: does it have a master plan? Danny argues that, in essence, the company does not, and runs through a convincing number of examples that support his thesis. But as with every argument, I think there's another side. Danny writes: Rather than follow a rigid ...
The Conversation Economy, Sketches (1)
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John Battelle's Searchblog (156)
1 week, 6 days
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Thanks to Adobe, who sponsored this work, I pulled together some sketches for the book I keep talking about. It's blog posts from Searchblog, a talk I gave at Cisco, work I've done for the Amex Open Forum blog (which just won a Mixx award!), with Powerpoint and video. A nice package, in fact, and I'm proud to say it all happened thanks to a sponsor. Check it out here (download will initiate). Thanks, Adobe!
Matt Cutts Spam (1)
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John Battelle's Searchblog (156)
2 weeks
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I'll admit it, I have a Google Blog Search RSS feed for "John Battelle." Come on, don't you? Ok, anyway, what I've noticed is that at least 10-20 percent of the hits Google Blog search reports back to me are spam, usually very popular stories in which I have been mentioned that are republished automatically by long tail Adsense and affiliate scrapers. It's part of the web ecosystem, whatever. But this one story where Google's ...
Doc On GACL: Game Changer (2)
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John Battelle's Searchblog (156)
2 weeks, 2 days
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Doc outlines why Google Android Chrome Linux changes the game in mobile web. Well, then the game changes. Remember back when Marc Andreessen raised Microsoft's hackles by saying Netscape would "reduce Windows to a set of poorly debugged device drivers"? Netscape failed to do that, but Google won't. It's not just that Google is Netscape II, it's that Google has a platform here. At the bottom that platform is the OS of your choice. At ...
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Raleigh said:
Extreme insight into short to mid term google strategy.
The Bailout (4)
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John Battelle's Searchblog (156)
2 weeks, 4 days
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It's not related to the content of this site, but I am so damn mad about the financial bailout, mainly because the folks who profited the most from this mess are getting bailed out. So when I saw this post from Fred, summarizing Tom, I had to pass it along. I agree totally. Rule #1: Cut salaries now Part of the bailout bill ought to be that any organization which proffers securities for government purchase ...
Google Clears "Abortion" As An AdWord (1)
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John Battelle's Searchblog (156)
2 weeks, 5 days
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Google settled a suit in the UK around the issue of whether or not religious groups can buy the keyword "abortion." Long story short: They now can (via NYT). Expect a lot more of this kind of thing going forward. Google has the responsibility of being an arbiter of who can declare what online, and that responsibility will only increase.
Texting Is Stupid (12)
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John Battelle's Searchblog (156)
2 weeks, 6 days
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(image) After seeing the clearly obvious story about texting being a bad thing to do while driving (er, no sh*t), I just had to write that headline. Sorry. I text with the best of them. I love the concept and efficiency of short messaging. But the interface is deeply stupid. I see these commercials from carriers extolling speed texting, and think to myself - "We've already invented an incredibly efficient way to get thoughts from ...
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Dan said:
This would be cool.
The Cloud: Read This Short Passage (4)
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John Battelle's Searchblog (156)
3 weeks, 1 day
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From a Google Blog Post: Thus, computer systems will have greater opportunity to learn from the collective behavior of billions of humans. They will get smarter, gleaning relationships between objects, nuances, intentions, meanings, and other deep conceptual information. Today's Google search uses an early form of this approach, but in the future many more systems will be able to benefit from it. The context is here, but honestly. Read that. Think about it.
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annacoder said:
That's when Skynet becomes self-aware :)
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Rakesh said:
This is not entirely comforting.
Add This to Your Feed Reader (1)
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John Battelle's Searchblog (156)
3 weeks, 1 day
ago
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Sergey Brin apparently has a blog. And this post, where Sergey muses about his potential proclivity towards Parkinsons (I know a fair bit about it, as a close relative has it), might just move Google's stock. Hat tip: TC
