More Google Gems: The January 2024, Week 3
January 23, 2024
This essay is the work of a dumb dinobaby. No smart software required.
Quite a big week in the Google gem store. I suppose I have to identify a couple which I found authentic knee slappers. This is tough because the GOOG was performing at a peak level of excellence.
I enjoyed selecting this week’s Google Gems. Sparkly and not cubic zirconia. Thanks, MSFT Copilot second string thing. Good enough.
In the midst of the news coverage of Google’s smart software new skill, there was a bit of a “we are heading out, pardner” excitement. Okay, what can Google’s AI do? Sit down. I don’t want to be responsible for an injury. The Googley AI can solve geometry problems. I know, I know. Geometry. Well, the Google smart software can solve difficult geometry problems. Read about the achievement at this link to the Technology Review story. (Has anyone checked out Stephen Wolfram’s software lately? No, okay, never mind.)
My number one story (which may not be spot on but it is a zinger) is “California Google Engineer Found Spattered With Blood, ‘Staring Blankly’ Next to Wife’s Severely Beaten Body, Prosecutors Say.” The Messenger write up reports:
… officers with the Santa Clara Police Department made entry into the home and found Chen “spattered with blood” and “with his wife’s body nearby,” prosecutors said. She [spokesperson] said “blunt force injuries to her head” and swelling in her right hand. And Chen’s arm was scratched up, and he had blood on his clothing.
I am definitely going to mind my Ps and Qs when around Googlers
My number two favorite is the revelation that Google’s incognito mode is not. Who knew? I think this type of word play is the core strength of the mobile phone companies which have made clear that “unlimited” does not mean “without limits.” But Google is in the game of slippery lingo.
My number three favorite is that Leo Laporte and Steve Gibson, hosts of Security Now, love Google’s putting ad auction technology in the Chrome browser. Well, sort of. The This Week in Google program offered a different point of view; namely, not so fast. You can find links to both of these programs (once supported by advertising and now supported by begging for dollars) at this link. (No, I don’t subscribe. I do what is called play at 1.5 speed and fast forward through the sponsored messages.) But the key point here is that one’s Chrome browser is going to need a beefy infrastructure to do the heavy lifting for Google’s money machine in my opinion.
Okay, here are the other gems:
- Some of Google’s smart software team seem to be heading for greener pastures. More personnel management excitement for the GOOG’s crack HR professionals. Another former Google AI wizard opined that AI could run one’s business in five years. Hmm. Maybe AI will run Google? And a Googler opined that AI is a labor replacing “tool.” There you go.
- The brilliant Googler who directed Googzilla’s epic online game initiative has been RIFFed. Did someone say, “We got him.”
- Another Google professional is finding his future elsewhere and documenting the anguish of the journey. Read that document at this link.
- Another write up about how lousy Google Web search results are. (I am suggesting you give Google Dorks a whirl.)
- Google explains that it is not really, no, really, not slowing YouTube when ad blockers are used by a “user.” Believe it not after you read this story. Oh, there is some management musical chairs underway at YouTube as well.
- Google is a good boy. Search results in Europe conform to the EU’s Digital Markets Act (DMA). Good boy. Does Googzilla want a cookie?
More next week.
Stephen E Arnold, January 23, 2024
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