In my dissertation I outline the quest for the "perfect search engine" – a search engine capable of indexing all available information and providing fast and relevant results. The perfect search engine will have to have “perfect reach” to deliver…
Read More Google Universal Search: Half of the Perfect Search Engine
The Guardian reports on a patent filing by Google revealing how the company could compile psychological profiles of millions of web users by covertly monitoring the way they play online games: The company thinks it can glean information about an…
Last week, Ionut Alex. Chitu at Google Operating System posted an experiment to try to define Google collaboratively. He's now posted his favorite submissions. Guess which one is mine: Google is the most used search engine in my school, according…
Following up on their recent decision to "anonymize" its server logs after 18-24 months, Google’s Global Privacy Counsel Peter Fleischer has posted an explanation about why Google captures and retains users' search queries in the first place. While a good…
Read More Google’s Unsatisfying Explanation for Retaining User Search Data
No, that's not a new slogan for the Thai tourism bureau. Instead, it's the sad reality that Google is again aiding and abetting foreign governments' desires to censor speech and limit access to knowledge. Although freedom of speech was guaranteed…
Google has finally made the complete transformation. They are no longer some kind of benevolent, altruistic company trying to help people learn and grow by providing access to knowledge online. Now, they're just one of many .com companies trying to…
With the dissertation completed (the defense still awaits), I can now turn my attention to a few other projects for the summer months. Primary among them is finishing up a book collecting various interdisciplinary research papers on Web search engines…
Unfortunately, Google's shareholders have rejected the anti-censorship proposal that aimed to ensure that the important human value of access to knowledge would be adhered to by the company who pledges to "do no evil." To say I'm not surprised is…
Read More Google Shareholders Reject Anti-Censorship Proposal
A video honoring the 5th Anniversary of the Media Ecology Association has been posted to YouTube, featuring choice clips of (roughly in order of appearance) Camile Paglila, Marshall McLuhan, Neil Postman (including his famous stint on Comedy Central's "Daily Show"),…
The rise of fast processors and cheap storage means that remembering, once incredibly difficult for humans, has become simple through technology. In a faculty research working paper called "Useful Void: The Art of Forgetting in the Age of Ubiquitous Computing…
Read More Escaping the Data Panopticon: Computers should “Forget”
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