French news agency Agence France Presse has sued Google, alleging the Web search leader includes AFP's photos, news headlines and stories on its news site without permission (read AFP's copyright notice here). The French news service is seeking damages of…
Month: March 2005
Wired: Search Rank Easy to Manipulate
Wired Magazine reports on how search engine optimization expert Greg Boser manipulates search engine results. He complicates Google's claim that PageRank "relies on the uniquely democratic nature of the web by using its vast link structure as an indicator of…
Blogs as Information Interfaces
There's a discussion at Jeff Jarvis' Buzzmachine about what term should be used to describe "blogs" (the assumption being, apparently, that "blogs" is too techie, or has a negative connotation, or something like that). Jeff has frequently used the term…
Harvard-Google Project Faces Copyright Woes
This Harvard Crimson article discusses concerns that the Google Print lirary project to digitize books at Harvard's libraries (among others) may infringe copyright law. The debate is whether Google's digitization efforts fall within "fair use" or are "illegal duplication" (note…
Draft of “A Model Regime of Privacy Protection”
Privacy law expert and law professor Dan Solove (I reviewed his latest book, The Digital Person, here) and Chris Hoofnagle (of EPIC) have published the first draft of "A Model Regime of Privacy Protection." From the abstract:Privacy protection in the…
Graduate Student Workshop: Values in Computer and Information System Design
The website for the Workshop Values in Computer and Information System Design has launched (my design).Graduate Student Workshop: Values in Computer Information System DesignDespite a growing body of research and scholarship dedicated both to theoretical and practical dimensions of this…
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AIM Terms of Service: Waiving your right to privacy
Privacy Digest reports that an update to AOL's Instant Messenger Terms of Service includes an explicit waiver of privacy. From the subsection "Content You Post" (emphasis added):Although you or the owner of the Content retain ownership of all right, title…
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Online Shopping Cart Company Fined For Selling User Data
TechDirt reports that an online shopping cart company has been fined by the FTC for selling user data to telemarketers and junk mailers without permission. Apparently, even if the website used to purchase something has a privacy policy and "opt…
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Eye-Tracking Study of Google Results Page
[from The Unofficial Google Weblog]Two search marketing companies and an eye-tracking firm called Eyetools have produced one of the most interesting studies of consumer response to a Google results page. By tracking eye movements, a picture emerges of the hot…
Why Google isn’t what it used to be
Matt McAlister writes a wonderful (and only partially tongue-in-cheek) post on how Google has morphed from a search company into an advertising company, and eventually into "a fast-growing capitalistic enterprise competing for world domination." Some excerpts:The AutoLink debate seems more…
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