mediajunk

Many have speculated that when Microsoft enters the search engine business (its Longhorn Search is expected to arrive in 2005), the software giant will blow rivals Google and Yahoo out of the water. I disagree. Microsoft's core skillset and knowledge-base has developed around desktop software. That's how it saw off Netscape in the "browser wars", despite its opponent's massive head-start -- a browser, after all, is just another desktop application. A search engine is a qualitatively different beast. A senior expert at Microsoft last year reportedly conceded that search is the most difficult real-world computer science problem anyone has ever faced, before announcing that Longhorn Search would take longer to develop than anticipated. Google has been tackling that computer science problem with a team of 60+ out-and-out computer scientists (its much-vaunted PhD graduates) for over five years now. Other major search engines are, if a comparative study reported widely today is to be believed, not far behind. Another advantage that Microsoft's Longhorn search will offer users, claim the analysts, is the ability to search the contents of their hard drives. I have always been a little dubious of this proposition, since Windows users can already search their hard drives using the "search" option in their start menu. Presumably the new technology will provide a more sophisticated solution ... but do users really need a more sophisticated solution? In any case, Google has clearly moved to counteract this potential advantage by developing a desktop search application of its own. Codenamed "Puffin", details of the project were indicated in the second of two recent leaks -- or PR stunts? -- from the company (see my previous entry). I believe that desktop search is a red herring. As an intensive user, I don't see much value in it. On the other hand -- and I believe the "experts" have overlooked this -- a desktop search application that becomes popular could easily be extended, as I have suggested in the past, to become a peer-to-peer search engine. Now that's something worth getting excited about.

Every time I complain about Google losing its integrity, it goes and does something admirable. This week, it posted its proposed "Software Principles," which can be summarised as follows:

• Software should not trick you into installing it.
• When an application is installed or enabled, it should inform you of its principal and significant functions.
• It should be easy for you to figure out how to disable or delete an application.
• If an application collects or transmits your personal information such as your address, you should know.
• Application providers should not allow their products to be bundled with applications that do not meet these guidelines.

Why, exactly, has Google posted these principles? To raise awareness? Possibly, but another guess is that it may, if it finds there is a large consensus out there, decide to penalise sites that peddle such software. In any case, Google is certainly raising its profile as the self-appointed police force of the web, particularly as it emerged recently (through an employee leak) that the company has an internal "ethics committee". On the subject of what such an ethics committee might talk about, the BBC have launched, eh, a discussion about their discussions. By the way, for the user who posted a comment recently asking how to shut down his Gmail account -- why not just sell or swap it? Wired magazine explains how...

Microsoft is to allow "well behaved" marketers access to the 170 million regular users of Hotmail and MSN email -- providing they pay a cash bond of up to $20,000, according to a report in The Register. "Microsoft is behind the idea because it wants to reclaim email marketing from criminal spammers ... The downside is that what users think of as spam and what marketeers think of as spam are sometimes two different things. Excluding the get-rich-quick scams and penis pills it's not too long before we get into areas of potential dispute." In fact, there are already gender differences in the interpretation of spam, with women being more receptive than men to "email marketing messages", as I posted a few months ago. As Google gets ready to launch Gmail, the prospect of increased spam/marketing messages/whatever can only be an incentive for Hotmail customers to migrate.

Some would say that the Google sell-out started a long time ago. I reserved judgment, even after the Florida update. Today, I'm straining to believe that Google's integrity -- which it has (cynically?) turned into part of its brand (the company's motto is "don't be evil") -- is finally in doubt. The introduction of banner ads -- or, as Google would like me to call them, image ads -- is a shock move in what I consider to be the wrong direction for the internet's poster boys, Sergey Brin and Larry Page. Banner ads are a throwback to old media thinking. They do not embrace the web medium. They are intrusive; and web users are sophisticated enough to ignore them. Banner ads haven't worked -- that's why so many dot-com companies that based their business plans (those that actually had them) on advertising revenues went bust a few years back. That's probably why Google is touting the "image ads" moniker. Sheesh. A banner ad by any other name... Of course, Google isn't going to display ads on its own site -- just on those of other people's, most likely hard-for-cash Mom and Pop sites, who are most likely to opt in. Don't expect Google to tell these owners that banner ads create a poor user experience, and that they significantly increase page download times. The most disappointing aspect to this move is that Google has revolutionised internet advertising by introducing its short, concise, neat, targeted and highly successful sponsored links, or AdWords. Talk about one step forward and two steps back...

With the current spate of internet-related paedophile cases, and the assumption of guilt that automatically shrouds anyone who's accused, in the media, of downloading child pornography, we should all be worried about the proliferation of malicious programmes such as browser "Hijackers". Get a hijacker on your computer and you might find that you are unwittingly being directed to -- or even downloading without your knowledge -- all sorts of "adult" and even illegal content. Wired news tells of the dangers posed by these programmes better than I can. My advice? I regularly use Spybot Search and Destroy and the excellent (albeit a little daunting for novice users) Hijack This to scan my system and remove any "scumware". You should too.

The long-awaited googleblog is now live. Once again, you heard it first on MediaJunk...

I was interviewed by Silicon Republic, for their "Friday Interview" section today. Note: you will need to register (free) to see the article. Since I am a firm believer in shameless self-promotion, here's the opening paragraph: "Michael Heraghty is what you would call a web pioneer. In the early Nineties he published an online version of The Buzz magazine before moving to Vision Consulting where he worked on major web projects. He has also worked for the Halifax Group and for Warner Music Group. In 2002 he set up Mediajunk, of which he is managing director. Based in Galway, Mediajunk is a full-service internet consultancy." Indeed!

From the BBC News website: "A band from Germany has adopted a novel approach to getting their music heard by millions. Super Smart have turned their backs on vinyl and CDs and instead have decided to just release their album as ringtones." A gimmick? Most certainly. But it may just grab the attention of ringtone-obsessed teens here in Europe...

What can I write about the Google IPO that hasn't already been written? A lot, probably, but I'm choosing not to ;) Instead, I want to share an email -- or, should I say, a gmail -- that I received from Justin Kistner of JRK Design. Justin is one of the beta-testers of Gmail, and when he mentioned that the functionality was very impressive, I asked him to clarify. Justin replied as follows: "Here's what I think is pretty hot, functionally speaking, about Gmail: - When switching between the Inbox, Sent Mail, Trash, etc. the page doesn't reload, which makes it more like using an installed application vs. a web-based application. - Built-in spell checker - Great spam filters - Any time I send an email, it automagically adds the person to my contact book, which I haven't seen in a web-based email client before. - If I send an email and the recipient replies, then I reply, then they reply, etc. Gmail displays tabs in chronological order on the top of an email so I can quickly click to see what was said earlier in the conversation. Again, it doesn't reload a page if I click on the tab to view it. I'm sure you've read about how Gmail displays emails as conversations as I did, but it turns out to be a cool feature. You can also click a button to display all of the emails at one time on the page and another button allows you to print the conversation as one continuous document. - When I'm reading an email I've received, Gmail has a text box at the bottom of the page where I can launch into a reply. It's actually really nice to not have to click a "reply" button in order to write someone back. - Keyboard shortcuts! Hit the "c" key to compose an email. Typing "n" will take you to the next email and "p" to the previous email. There are more too. Obviously they are disabled when you are in a text field. - Messages displayed in the Inbox not only show the sender and subject, but it also displays the body of the email (as much as it can fit on one line). - Last, but not least, the ads are waaaaaay less obtrusive than Yahoo! or Hotmail. In fact, many emails don't have associated ads. There are more functions than that, but those are the ones I found to be unique." Thanks Justin!