mediajunk

Google has launched a beta version of "Google Personalized". The area of personalised search results is seen as one worth chasing by the big players, and Yahoo are also going after this space. However, I have my doubts. When I search, I generally want to search all the web. I've never been convinced about the benefits of personalisation on the web, which have been touted for years now, but which have rarely borne fruit. Google's implementation of the feature -- you can increase or decrease the level of personalisation of the results using a slider bar -- is cool, though maybe a little gimmicky. -- Skeptical in Sligo.

Yes, *that* Chomsky. The reputation of the blogosphere as populated by left-leaning liberals has just been rubber-stamped with the addition of Noam's weblog.

The web has posed a dilemma for newspapers. Whether it's a good idea to be online is a question few of them now ask, but whether they should charge for content -- there's the rub. Readers pay for the print version, goes the argument, so why shouldn't they pay for the downloaded version? But the experience of reading from the screen isn't the same as that of reading from paper, goes the counter-argument. People prefer paper. The internet helps grow the brand and widen the audience -- ultimately increasing sales of the print version. Regardless, many major titles -- such as the Irish Times -- have become subscription-based. The UK's Guardian newspaper has held out the temptation to make online readers pay -- until now. At least, those who want an online version of the newspaper will have to pay. Those who simply want the text, won't. "Huh?" I hear you ask. Well, the Guardian is making exact digital replicas of its print format available for download, for a fee, as PDF files. The "regular" site will still be free, but those who want to recreate the experience of the original paper publication can download the PDFs and print them locally. In theory, you could even download the PDFs, then print and sell copies of the newspaper wherever you are. The only snags would be the quality (and one-sidedness) of the paper, the difficulty in putting the pages together -- and the small but significant fact that doing so would be illegal. You can demo the PDF version of the Guardian at http://digital.guardian.co.uk/demo/

Six Apart, the guys behind the popular blogging software Movable Type, have just created a new service in response to the growing problem of weblog comment spam, called TypeKey: "The basics about TypeKey: TypeKey is a free, open system providing a central identity that anyone can use to log in and post comments on blogs and other web sites. Why should I use TypeKey? TypeKey helps ensure that people who comment on a site have a verified identity, keeping conversations on track and helping to prevent abusive or offensive content (comment spam) from being posted. Sites that enable TypeKey have better accountability for the content that's being published. As a TypeKey user, you get your own free TypeKey Profile Page, displaying only the information you choose to share. Those who are interested in finding out more about the person behind the comments on a site can visit the identity page to see what information is publicly available. You can even publish a TypeKey Profile Page while remaining completely anonymous." I think this is a development worth watching, and might become an Orkut-like social networking tool. Who knows how it might evolve... ?

Yahoo is going all-out in its attempt to dethrone Google and become the web's most popular search engine. Adding to a flurry of recent activity and updates, Yahoo this week began beta-testing two new features that it has, eh, "borrowed" directly from its rival. The new Beta version of the Yahoo Companion Toolbar includes a feature called "WebRank", its answer to Google's highly successful (and trademarked!) PageRank. Yahoo gives users of downloading the toolbar with the WebRank feature turned on, in exchange for collecting data about those users' online behaviour (the sites they visit; how long they spend there; etc.). Those who do not wish to pass on such information can download the toolbar with WebRank turned off. This is exactly the same strategy Google has in place with its PageRank feature. Another new feature at Yahoo is its Beta News Search, a feature that (surprise, surprise) is quite similar to the popular Google News Search (which is also in Beta mode, incidentally, despite being live for around two years now). Google, meanwhile, has responded with a new Beta test of its own, one that is not found on Yahoo. The new search by location feature is called Google Local Search. Currently, the local search applies only to US queries, but Google intends to roll it out to other countries and regions over time.

Now you have a *medical* reason for saying "hey, don't touch my stuff!" According to a BBC report, "office workers are exposed to more germs from their phones and keyboards than toilet seats". Scientists' proposed solution: Cleaning with disinfecting wipes will reduce bacterial levels by 99%. My proposed solution: don't share your gadgets.

Update 21 Jan 2005: Contrary to the Brin's remarks reported below, Google has just launched a video search feature. I guess he was lying... Speaking at the recent World Economic Forum in Davos, Google co-founder Sergey Brin explained why the search engine does not intend to offer users a video search feature. Brin cited problems with standards and compatibility in the video software industry, as well as a lack of content, as reasons why he remains uninterested in developing an AltaVista-style video search. As reported in the Always-On Network (the report is split into part one and part two), Brin made several other interesting points at the press conference about the future of the company. His statements focused on what Google wouldn’t be doing:

• Google Image Search will be improved, but will continue to be text-based (i.e. the company does not plan to introduce any recognition software).
• Google will not introduce any “speech search” feature or voice recognition software, as, despite recent interest from Wall Street, it does not believe there is a demand for such a service.
• Unlike Yahoo, Google has no plans to introduce any portal features, and is not concerned about creating a capacity to “lock in” visitors.

Also of note in the conference was Brin’s response to a question about how it regards its responsibility towards Mom ‘n’ Pop businesses: Q: The discussion that Google made companies' Web sites "exist" or not exist by listing them or not listing them—do you have an opinion on that? Brin: We do. We really think about what's the right thing for us to do. One kind of complaint that you were alluding to is the situation where somebody has the top results say for donuts or croissants. Then the next month, we change algorithm a little bit, and they drop out. Things sort of fluctuate, but we don't like [Web programmers] to manipulate our rankings. Probably a lot of you have had that experience where you do a search on Google, and some of your commercial interests have really shown up on top for one search that's not relevant. In other cases, there might be 20 different croissant sites that are all hopefully in the results, and it so happens that the one that used to be number 1 is now number 11, and they, of course, get very unhappy. I point out first of all that at the same time, there are 10 other sites that all got listed and bumped up, and as a result, are getting more traffic and are happier. They are not the ones screaming for change. Furthermore, the biggest issue is that we decided it's more important for us to generate the best possible results for our users rather than preserve the stability of the businesses that evolve the search results. I hope you agree with that.

I've been anticipating the mass arrival of moblogs since January 2003. Until now, moblogging has been practiced only by the ultra-geeky, since it involves the manual combination of MMS messages and weblog software. One Irish company called Newbay offers a "foneblog" software product that integrates the two, but the phenomenon was unlikely to take off unless one of the major players began offering such a service to its customers. Enter Nokia who, according Niel McIntosh at the Guardian, will next week unveil its new "Lifeblog" app, which will enable phone users to create a "multimedia diary" on the web. It will be interesting to see whether phone users take to this technology. The history of phone/internet overlap has so far been one of much hype, but little consumer action.

In its recent efforts to out-Google Google, Yahoo has added some innovative features to its search engine. One of those is the identification of RSS feeds associated with search results. For example, if you do a Yahoo search for mediajunk, you will see the following below the listing for this site: RSS: View as XML - Add to My Yahoo! [Beta] The "Add to My Yahoo" option allows you to add the syndicated summary version of this site to your My Yahoo page (which typically contains news headlines, TV listings, etc.). All part of Yahoo's strategy to to "personalise" the search experience, we're told. Can search really be personalised? Stay tuned; that's another day's rant...

I've said it before, but they always go and do something to make me say it again: the guys at Google are great at search, but they suck at web design.

The original Google homepage was unharmed by design ineptitude because it was spartan -- to reduce the page download time. Certain deep pages added recently have looked bad, but the Google "designers" rarely tampered with the results page ... until now.

Google is experimenting with a new look that I don't like at all. Judge for yourself with the following bookmarklet, a hack created by Jesse Ruderman that makes a slight alteration the Google cookie on your machine, so that it displays the new skin:

toggle google look

Drag the above link to your bookmarks/favorites, where it will stick. Then visit google.com, and click on the bookmark.

To toggle off the new look, simply click the bookmark again.

Update:
A friend has pointed out that the Google homepage doesn't look so different. I should have mentioned that it's the results page that has changed (for the worse). Just do a search to see what I mean.

The Register reports that the “technology gender gap” has been bridged, at least in the US: “A survey of over 4,000 students found that men and women spend similar amounts of time playing computer games online, are equally likely to own a handheld game system and to send text messages on their phones. Net use is pervasive: 95 per cent of students are online, and 65 per cent connect via broadband.” While no barriers exist to prevent either sex accessing popular technologies, each has its techno-preferences. Guys are more likely to invest time and money in games consoles, while gals own more mobile phones.

Months after several US states legislated against email spam, now Utah is leading the way in outlawing spyware and adware. Spyware is a software programme that, without the user's knowledge, tracks his online behaviour, while Adware serves pop-up, pop-under or other unsolicited, unwanted forms of advertising at him while he browses the web. ZDnet reports that these and other "pests" have become the new target of legislators in three different states: "Utah apparently became the first state to pass a law regulating spyware and other advertising software, although the bill has yet to be signed by the governor. Lawmakers in Iowa and California also have introduced their own spyware control proposals in the past several weeks." Let's hope the trend spreads worldwide.

Now that Yahoo is using different search results to Google, those interested in how their websites are performing for certain search queries will have to compare results on both engines. Langreiter.com has created a great little utility to do just that -- in a single, simple interface. Booked and marked!

A study by the The Pew Internet and American Life Project has found that, after an initial rush, the number of practicing bloggers has reached a plateau. CNN cites the report as revealing that "somewhere between 2 percent and 7 percent of adult Internet users in the United States actually keep their own blogs. Of those, only about 10 percent update them daily, the majority doing so only once a week or less often." I'm not surprised. Blogging is a commitment, though not a "feverish" one, according to Lee Rainie, the Pew project's director. "For most bloggers, it's not an all-consuming, all-the-time kind of experience." Had the study considered demographics however, it may have discovered that there is a disproportionately high number of teenage bloggers, which perhaps points to higher growth in the future. Then again, who knows what the web will be like in 10 or 20 years' time? Will the weblog concept still exist, as we know it today? I lie awake at night wondering about such things. (Yes, I am joking. Sort of.)