Google's company blog has a post explaining Googlebombing: If you do a Google search on the word [failure] or the phrase [miserable failure], the top result is currently the White House’s official biographical page for President Bush. We've received some…
Category: Issues
Bill Gates on Google & “Organizing the World’s Information”
Bill Gates gave an interview to CNET about a variety of topics including web search and Google. An interesting passage is Gates' perspective on Google's mission to "organize the world's information" and whether that should be the goal vs. his…
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Tracking Every Move You Make: Can Car Rental Companies Use Technology to Monitor Our Driving?
Anita Ramasastry's recent columns at FindLaw, Tracking Every Move You Make Can Car Rental Companies Use Technology to Monitor Our Driving? discusses the use of GPS as a monitoring technology, particularly in rental cars. From the article:GPS-Plus-Wireless Transmitters: Why the…
The Truth About Google’s so-called “simplicity”
Don Norman has a great post criticizing the oft-lauded "simplicity" of Google's interface. It's worth quoting in its entirety:The Truth About Google's so-called 'simplicity'The truth? It isn't simple.Look, I like Google. It's a great search engine. But I am sick…
More Google Hacking
"Google hacking", using the power & reach of Google's web index to access sensitive information and hack into networks, is becoming more pervasive, organized and powerful. This article features Johnny Long, whose web site seems to be the starting point…
Dan Gillmor: eBay Buying Skype: The Privacy Question Grows
Dan Gillmor brings up an interesting privacy concern with the announced purchase of Skype by eBay:It's official, and eBay will now be adding something to its portfolio: customers' presence online. The possibilities are endless. I didn't get this at first,…
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Google inserting alternate queries – paid placement?
John Battelle reports on a recent new feature within Google search results where "related queries" get inserted within your original search results. For example, when you search for "on demand," you also get search results for "Comcast on demand." (see…
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Big Brother 2.0: James McQuivey on the coming Surveillance Society
I recently came across James McQuivey's blog Big Brother 2.0, which seems to be a launch-pad for his forthcoming book: Big Brother 2.0: Why We Should Become a Surveillance Society. His thesis appears to be that the coming "surveillance society"…
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Brit License Plates Get Chipped
WiredNews reports on the growing desire by governments to use RFID tags to help identify (and track?) automobiles on the public roads: The British government is preparing to test new high-tech license plates containing microchips capable of transmitting unique vehicle…
Through the Google Goggles: Sociopolitical Bias in Search Engine Design
Alejandro Diaz, a grad student at Stanford University in Communications (with a BA in Computer Science), has written an excellent (and nearly 200-page) honors thesis entitled "Through the Google Goggles: The Sociopolitics of Search Engine Design" [pdf]. Here is the…
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