Disappearing US Government Public Information
April 9, 2011
The goose is not going to honk too much about the shuttering of US government Web sites. Most of them get few hits. I know you think that millions of mouse potatoes rush to such thrillers as the US Department of Agriculture’s numerous Web sites or thousands of fact hungry MBAs explore the treasure trove of Department of Commerce content. The reality is that usage is not setting the world on fire.
An outfit called the Sunlight Foundation reported that a bunch of US government Web sites were going dark. The list appeared in “Budget Technopocalypse Deepens: Transparency Sites Will Go Dark In A Few Months.” How do you like that word “technopocalypse”? Felicitous, right?
Anyway, the alleged goners are:
- Apps.gov – Better hurry. Bring your credit card.
- Data.gov—Some interesting but often incomplete data sets
- IT Dashboard – Some spending information. Fascinating for the non economists
- Paymentaccuracy.gov – Love the charts
- USASpending.gov – Keep in mind the $1.6 trillion deficit and you are good to go.
No further comments from the goose.
Low traffic is the norm for most governmental Web sites. One happy exception for the US government is the IRS Web site at tax time. Traffic drops off after April 15th each year.
Coincident with the removal of sunshine data, the US government will notify me of changes in the terror alert level via Facebook and Twitter. Seems a fair trade I suppose.
Stephen E Arnold, April 9, 2011
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Love or Hate: Amazon and Android Apps
April 8, 2011
Amazon wants a piece of the smartphone app market pie. We read “Today Amazon Locked Up the Android Ecosystem” from ZDNet. The write up takes a look at how the Internet retailer is attempting to annex the Android app market. The author strongly believes Amazon will eventually dominate the entire Android marketplace, driving other competitors out of business. The process began with the Kindle app, then it segued into the Amazon MP3 app. Both generated millions of sales and encouraged Amazon to start its own App Store. Here’s a snippet that caught our attention:
The recent launch of the Amazon Appstore to sell Android apps firmly entrenched the company’s business in the platform ecosystem. One could argue that it is the beginning of a process whereby Amazon takes over the ecosystem, by subtly pushing the Android Market to the side.
Cloud Drive and Cloud Player Amazon were also added Amazon not too long ago and this supposedly increases Amazon’s dominance. What will cement the entire takeover will be a reasonably priced Amazon tablet with compatible hardware/software. The author gushed his love for Amazon, prophesying the company will throw Android out of its own market. Premature prognosis on his part.
The problem is that Android is not really open source. Google is struggling to prevent Android fragmentation. One of the chief offenders may be Google TV pal Sony. Now a mere online retailer is moving into the Google App space. Google may be into open source, but it is now in a position similar to the kid on the playground who owns a basketball but is not picked to play in the pick up game. Time to take the ball and go home or just play smarter?
Whitney Grace, April 8, 2011
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Down from the Mountain and Being Tracked en Route
April 8, 2011
No need to chop off one’s arm if monitoring goes big time. Now everyone has heard of “big brother” and no, I’m not talking about the television show. Though it used to be just a theory spouted by crazed and deranged individuals who wore tin foil hats and swore they’d been probed by aliens, in 2011 with “the age of the Internet” firmly underway, the “big brother” concept has become a very real, very scary (in my opinion) piece of reality.
According to a report by The New York Times and reported on by Digital Trends, many cell phone companies can and do track your movements without ever divulging to the consumer that they are keeping an “eye” on them. This information came to light after Malte Spitz, a German politician, sued his cell phone carrier, Deutsche Telekom, for information that they had acquired about him. What came out was somewhat shocking but nothing less than any “tin head” could have told us about.
Between August of ’09 and February of 2010, Deutsche Telekom, recorded the latitudinal and longitudinal coordinates of Spitz more than 35,000 times. The snippet that caught my attention was:
We are all walking around with little tags, and our tag has a phone number associated with it, who we called and what we do with the phone,” Sarah E. Williams, a graphic information expert at Columbia University. “We don’t even know we are giving up that data.”
In the United States it is unclear exactly what level of surveillance is conducted on consumers and what information is saved because companies are not required to divulge the information they collect…though I would argue that the documents are public record and could possibly be demanded under FOIA laws since it is not optional to opt out of consumer tracking initiatives.
Cynthia Murrell, April 8, 2011
Freebie just like a tagged bovine in the feedlot
Google Profile Search
April 8, 2011
We fielded a call about searching for information within Google Profile.
Late in 2008, Google launched its first cut of a tool designed to search the public pages of Google profiles. After perusing “New Google Profile Search”, one sees that this feature has been updated. At the top of the improvements list sit a friendlier interface and the presence of associated links in the search results, from a member’s blog or flickr account for example. It seems an advanced search option for probing relevant details like locations also exists, though I am uncertain if this is part of the new package.
The original blogger notes:
“This feature is not yet enabled in the interface, but you can search Google Profiles by adding &tbs=prfl:1 to a Google Search URL.”
Normally this is the time I begin harping about the dangers of serving personal information on a silver platter, and the ensuing repercussions when a wolf shows up at the table, be it a criminal or a salesman. I will not breech this topic today since individuals are largely chomping at the bit to complete these sprawling profile pages; “to each his own,” as they say.
So, in terms of a resource, Google has successfully made it easier to filter yet another aspect of life. Just in time too, otherwise I may have had to actually talk to one of my friends.
Sarah Rogers, April 8, 2011
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Google and Its New Management Method: Intrapreneurs
April 7, 2011
I hated the word “entrepreneurship” when I first heard it a long, long time ago. It is fitting for this new Google management method. First, navigate to “A New Perk At Google: Run Your Own Startup Within The Company.” Read or skim the article. Now think about this passage:
Google is desperate to keep good engineers from leaving, but big money isn’t the only carrot it’s dangling in front of them. In some cases, Google is letting them form their own independent businesses within the company — with almost no oversight for two years.
Will this work? In my bug ridden world in Harrod’s Creek, Kentucky, I don’t think so. Three reasons:
- Google wants to keep engineers. But the engineers want to do some cool stuff for themselves and make a difference or a killing. Assume the idea work and the start up booms. Sounds great. Odds probably are long. So for 100 start ups, maybe the GOOG gets one winner and bunch of okays, and 75 to 80 percent losers. Lots of lost staff time if the management method grows big fast. So there is a productivity issue.
- Many start ups are not sure what they are starting. So lots of idle time and maybe slow ramps. Hey, if someone is providing food, a bean bag, and Odwallas, what’s the big rush? Urgency may not be the emotion du jour.
- For years, Google’s secret innovation engine was R&D from the 20 percent plan. Most looks at the Google skipped over the downside of the 20 percent free time method. Now there’s the no fail start up method. The difference between now and 2006 is that cost control is getting to look like a big job even for the cash rich Google.
Worth watching. If it works, hey, go with it. If it flops, it eliminates one management angle for Facebook to try.
Stephen E Arnold, April 8, 2011
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Baidu: Asked to Pay and Baidu Rolls Over
April 7, 2011
Call it common sense, pragmatism, or a desire to eliminate expensive legal hassles.
First, Tim Geigner at techdirt posted “Recording Industry to Baidu: Look, We Know You Beat Us in Court, but Just Do What We Want Anyway, Mmkay?” Since losing their copyright infringement case in Beijing last year, the recording industry is trying the pretty- please approach. The labels sent a letter through the Financial Times asking that Baidu comply with their copyright demands.
The court decision hinged on the fact that Baidu linked to MP3 files instead of hosting them itself. Recording execs are asking the site to filter audio files out of search results. Geigner thinks the recording industry is being a sore looser, and uses a story about the his brother and the last eclair to make his point.
More pertinently, the writer mentions certain differences between China and the U.S.:
“Never mind the cultural differences that may be coming into play here. Never mind that the nominal GDP for the United States is some thirteen times that of China. We want the Chinese to pay as much for their music as Americans, d**n it, and the way to do that is to get Baidu to voluntarily limit their own search results. . . . So, you see, if Baidu would just filter out the infringing content, relatively poor Chinese citizens would suddenly spend big bucks for music.”
Second, we learned that Baidu was a well behaved giant in “China’s Baidu to Compensate Songwriters for Music Downloads.” In my opinion, the key point in that write up was:
Baidu announced that it had made an agreement with the Music Copyright Society of China to establish a partnership to protect legal digital music, and will pay copyright holders to use their music. This will encompass any song that is downloaded from Baidu’s music search site, said company spokesman Kaiser Kuo.
It’s been said before, but the recording industry would be better served by seeking a way to profit from the new reality rather than fighting it at every turn. Baidu, regardless of motivation, avoided some of the legal hassles that have plagued other online services.
Cynthia Murrell April 7, 2011
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SEO Experts and Content Farmers Face Pandapocalypse
April 6, 2011
Stephen E Arnold, managing director of ArnoldIT.com and this writer’s nominal taskmaster, annoyed some of the SEO poobahs in Manhattan on Wednesday, March 30. Now Mr. Arnold is an old goose and has avoided becoming a Thanksgiving dinner for more than six decades. A little roasting in the Big Apple does not trouble the chief goose.
In his debrief, what was interesting was the reluctance of the Manhattan search engine optimization crowd to realize that the game of metatagging, backlink fiddling, and other SEO “secret methods” are going to continue to loose effectiveness. The shift has a number of contributing factors. These range from Google’s fear of losing online advertising traction to the younger crowd’s penchant for asking Facebook “friends” where to buy a pizza. Google for Facebook revenues. Not so hot for the Google which is in the midst of a giant wood burning stove. (Wood burning stoves frighten the feathered Mr. Arnold.)
We wanted to throw a small life preserver to the SEO experts who were so agitated at Mr. Arnold’s suggestion that SEO was in a heap of sticky tar. Search Engine Watch has published a round up of trick to fool the Google Panda. We love it when SEO articles include the word “tricks”. We prefer phrases like “money burners,” “tom foolery”, and “questionable practices.” But “Pandapocalypse” it is.
As you may know if you were one of the 25 percent of Web sites down checked by the Google Panda algorithm change, Google launched its new pet Panda to curtail content farms and improve its accuracy algorithm. Some web sites are experiencing a loss of Google rankings and traffic, but “Is the Google Pandapocalypse Near for the UK and Beyond?” offers insights to avoid the Panda’s wraith. The most sites affected by the Panda launch were content, health, and e-commerce. In response, Google suggests that companies focus on brand advertisement than relying solely on the search engine to generate traffic.
From this angle, web site proprietors should consider using a paid search, social media, newsletters, videos, and Google news/images. When applied carefully and effectively, each suggestion will bring more visitors to a page. Here’s a snippet for the SEO folks who are trying to explain why those SEO fees produced a negative drift for their increasingly curious clientele:
“One of the big ideas at SES New York was “content optimization.” Google and Bing are looking for quality content. Basically, consider Google a teacher, and your site the student. The Panda algorithm is a brand new grading system, so you must aim to make your site an A, rather than a B or C+. And as with any teacher, some students may not be graded in the same way as others for whatever reason.”
Take a look at your web site and see how it can be improved. Check the spelling and grammar, tone down the ads, minimize duplicate content and links from low quality web sites, fix broken links, and clean up your source code. Following these suggestions will help you overcome Panda and will definitely improve your web site’s quality.
A trick may work, just not consistently. Unfortunately, clients of SEO companies are asked to pay SEO invoices consistently. There is going to be dissonance going forward.
Whitney Grace, April 6, 2011
Habits of Medical Doctors Thwart Paid Listing Efforts
March 31, 2011
Health Care IT News reports “Most Doctors Ignore Paid Search to Access Health Content: comScore.” Ah, more bad news for Google and others basing their business on charging health professionals for content.
Because we patients search for general terms, we will often explore the paid results. Doctors get a lot more specific, and those definitive parameters are best addressed with the organic, not paid, results. Physicians are also less likely to spend time browsing on their topic; they get what they need and get out. Furthermore, doctors tend to trust government content for its authoritative and exhaustive content. As the article concludes,
With doctors searching in an organic way, rather than using paid search, the research shows that companies need to build brand awareness and effective SEO strategies to attract physicians to their Websites, comScore reports.
The idea of pay walls is interesting but making money online is still a difficult task for many organizations. Stephen E Arnold, owner of this blog, collected some of his writings about online in this PDF. The pricing observations remain valid—20 years after summarizing some of the challenges of online.
Cynthia Murrell March 31, 2011
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Content with Intent Delivers Search and Sales Impact
March 28, 2011
Millions of content creators on the Internet must now tighten their output or face obscurity. As a result of a recent change in Google’s quality grading, writers and bloggers are scrambling. Luckily, something can be done. Stephen E Arnold, ArnoldIT.com, will be one of the speakers at “Google Changes the Rules” on March 30, 2011, in Manhattan at iBreakfast. The “content with intent” tag line is one that Mr. Arnold has used since his work on the Threat Open Source Intelligence Gateway, funded by an interesting government entity in the fall of 2001. He has refined the system and method for a number of clients worldwide. To see an example of the technique, navigate to Google, run the query “taxodiary” or “inteltrax” and follow the links. Your product or company can achieve similar sales and marketing impact in as little as one month. Unlike SEO, the content with intent method persists. Run a query on Google.com for “ssnblog”. This demo site has not been updated since April 30, 2011 and the content continues to be easily findable. Keep in mind that the Web sites for each of these examples is one way to access the information. The method touches hundreds of findability services, including real time and social systems.
Most SEO delivers an expensive, often problematic, failure for clients with unrealistic expectations for an expensive, low traffic Web site. Source: http://www.lifepurposediscoverysystem.com/blog/uploaded_images/fear-of-failure-768216.gif
This shift ArnoldIT’s “content with intent” approach manifest is an innovation driven by a high volume of lower quality online content and increasingly heavy handed SEO tactics.
Stephen E Arnold’s “content with intent” method works in a manner similar to a series of bursts, a digital MIRV. Source: http://www.rolfkenneth.no/NWO_review_Sutton_Soviet.html
In what appears to be increasingly desperate attempts to generate traffic to a Web site, search engine optimization experts have forced Google and other search systems like Blekko.com to take action. Going forward, search vendors will, like a strict teacher, to scrutinize, “grade”, and flunk some online information.
Arnold says, “In effect, Google is like a college composition teacher. Grades of C, D, and F are not acceptable. Deliver A or B content or suffer the consequences.” “Does Google have an emotional investment in great writing?,” asks Arnold. He answers his own question this way, “No, Google cares about ad revenue and lousy content could harm Google cash flow.”
The relationship between content producers and Google sounds grim at best. Fortunately, Steve Arnold, author of Google: A Digital Gutenberg and managing director of Arnold IT, recently provided four tips for moving out of “SEO hell”, where guessing and shoddy content are likely to yield decreasing traffic from major search engines like Google and systems which federate its outputs:
Antidot Funding
March 26, 2011
We learned in ITespresso.fr’s story “Antidot Raises Funds to Help Its Development.” (If you don’t read French, you’ll need to run this through a translator like Google’s free service.)
Antidot’s Finder Suite has been, according to the article, at the forefront of semantic web technologies. Now, Antidot wants to develop search engine-specific versions of their software. The company’s appeal to investors is not unusual, but they are hardly struggling. According to the company, the firm in 2009, experienced a 34 percent increase in revenue. The article said:
“ ‘In seven years, Antidot has multiplied its turnover 30 times and created 40 jobs, taking a strong position in a highly competitive market. Antidot has been profitable for seven years and we have the means to finance our development,’ explains Fabrice Lacroix, President and founder of Antidot.”
However, the company feels that this fund-raising is important to their growth at this time. There has been management change at Polyspot and Sinequa. Kartoo, another French search vendor, has gone dark. Antidot is not as well known as Exalead, which was acquired by the French technology and services firm Dassault in 2010. What will Antidot’s engineers develop? We will monitor the innovations.
Cynthia Murrell March 26, 2011