Exploit Lets Hackers Into Google Accounts, PCs Even After Changing Passwords
January 3, 2024
This essay is the work of a dumb dinobaby. No smart software required.
Google must be so pleased. The Register reports, “Google Password Resets Not Enough to Stop these Info-Stealing Malware Strains.” In October a hacker going by PRISMA bragged they had found a zero-day exploit that allowed them to log into Google users’ accounts even after the user had logged off. They could then use the exploit generate a new session token and go after data in the victim’s email and cloud storage. It was not an empty boast, and it gets worse. Malware developers have since used the hack to create “info stealers” that infiltrate victims’ local data. (Mostly Windows users.) Yes, local data. Yikes. Reporter Connor Jones writes:
“The total number of known malware families that abuse the vulnerability stands at six, including Lumma and Rhadamanthys, while Eternity Stealer is also working on an update to release in the near future. They’re called info stealers because once they’re running on some poor sap’s computer, they go to work finding sensitive information – such as remote desktop credentials, website cookies, and cryptowallets – on the local host and leaking them to remote servers run by miscreants. Eggheads at CloudSEK say they found the root of the Google account exploit to be in the undocumented Google OAuth endpoint ‘MultiLogin.’ The exploit revolves around stealing victims’ session tokens. That is to say, malware first infects a person’s PC – typically via a malicious spam or a dodgy download, etc – and then scours the machine for, among other things, web browser session cookies that can be used to log into accounts. Those session tokens are then exfiltrated to the malware’s operators to enter and hijack those accounts. It turns out that these tokens can still be used to login even if the user realizes they’ve been compromised and change their Google password.”
So what are Google users to do when changing passwords is not enough to circumvent this hack? The company insists stolen sessions can be thwarted by signing out of all Google sessions on all devices. It is, admittedly, kind of a pain but worth the effort to protect the data on one’s local drives. Perhaps the company will soon plug this leak so we can go back to checking our Gmail throughout the day without logging in every time. Google promises to keep us updated. I love promises.
Cynthia Murrell, January 3, 2024
Kagi For-Fee Search: Comments from a Thread about Search
January 2, 2024
This essay is the work of a dumb dinobaby. No smart software required.
Comparisons of search engine performance are quite difficult to design, run, and analyze. In the good old days when commercial databases reigned supreme, special librarians could select queries, refine them, and then run those queries via Dialog, LexisNexis, DataStar, or another commercial search engine. Examination of the results were tabulated and hard copy print outs on thermal paper were examined. The process required knowledge of the search syntax, expertise in query shaping, and the knowledge in the minds of the special librarians performing the analysis. Others were involved, but the work focused on determining overlap among databases, analysis of relevance (human and mathematical), and expertise gained from work in the commercial database sector, academic training, and work in a special library.
Who does that now? Answer: No one. With this prefatory statement, let’s turn our attention to “How Bad Are Search Results? Let’s Compare Google, Bing, Marginalia, Kagi, Mwmbl, and ChatGPT.” Please, read the write up. The guts of the analysis, in my opinion, appear in this table:
The point is that search sucks. Let’s move on. The most interesting outcome from this write up from my vantage point is the comments in the Hacker News post. What I want to do is highlight observations about Kagi.com, a pay-to-use Web search service. The items I have selected make clear why starting and building sustainable revenue from Web search is difficult. Furthermore, the comments I have selected make clear that without an editorial policy, specific information about the corpus, its updating, and content acquisition method — evaluation is difficult.
Long gone are the days of precision and recall, and I am not sure most of today’s users know or care. I still do, but I am a dinobaby and one of those people who created an early search-related service called The Point (Top 5% of the Internet), the Auto Channel, and a number of other long-forgotten Web sites that delivered some type of findability. Why am I roadkill on the information highway? No one knows or cares about the complexity of finding information in print or online. Sure, some graduate students do, but are you aware that the modern academic just makes up or steals other information; for instance, the former president of Stanford University.l
Okay, here are some comments about Kagi.com from Hacker News. (Please, don’t write me and complain that I am unfair. I am just doing what dinobabies with graduate degrees do — Provide footnotes)
hannasanario: I’m not able to reproduce the author’s bad results in Kagi, at all. What I’m seeing when searching the same terms is fantastic in comparison. I don’t know what went wrong there. Dinobaby comment: Search results, in the absence of editorial policies and other basic information about valid syntax means subjectivity is the guiding light. Remember that soap operas were once sponsored influencer content.
Semaphor: This whole thread made me finally create a file for documenting bad searches on Kagi. The issue for me is usually that they drop very important search terms from the query and give me unrelated results. Dinobaby comment: Yep, editorial functions in results, and these are often surprises. But when people know zero about a topic, who cares? Not most users.
Szundi: Kagi is awesome for me too. I just realize using Google somewhere else because of the sh&t results. Dinobaby comment: Ah, the Google good enough approach is evident in this comment. But it is subjective, merely an opinion. Just ask a stockholder. Google delivers, kiddo.
Mrweasel: Currently Kagi is just as dependent on Google as DuckDuckGo is on Bing. Dinobaby comment: Perhaps Kagi is not communicating where content originates, how results are generated, and why information strikes Mrweasel as “dependent on Google. Neeva was an outfit that wanted to go beyond Google and ended up, after marketing hoo hah selling itself to some entity.
Fenaro: Kagi should hire the Marginalia author. Dinobaby comment: Staffing suggestions are interesting but disconnected from reality in my opinion.
ed109685: Kagi works because there is no incentive for SEO manipulators to target it since their market share is so small. Dinobaby comment: Ouch, small.
shado: I became a huge fan of Kagi after seeing it on hacker news too. It’s amazing how good a search engine can be when it’s not full of ads. Dinobaby comment: A happy customer but no hard data or examples. Subjectivity in full blossom.
yashasolutions: Kagi is great… So I switch recently to Kagi, and so far it’s been smooth sailing and a real time saver. Dinobaby comment: Score another happy, paying customer for Kagi.
innocentoldguy: I like Kagi and rarely use anything else. Kagi’s results are decent and I can blacklist sites like Amazon.com so they never show up in my search results. Dionobaby comment: Another dinobaby who is an expert about search.
What does this selection of Kagi-related comments reveal about Web search? Here’s snapshot of my notes:
- Kagi is not marketing its features and benefits particularly well, but what search engine is? With Google sucking in more than 90 percent of the query action, big bucks are required to get the message out. This means that subscriptions may be tough to sell because marketing is expensive and people sign up, then cancel.
- There is quite a bit of misunderstanding among “expert” searchers like the denizens of Hacker News. The nuances of a Web search, money supported content, metasearch, result matching, etc. make search a great big cloud of unknowing for most users.
- The absence of reproducible results illustrates what happens when consumerization of search and retrieval becomes the benchmark. The pursuit of good enough results in loss of finding functionality and expertise.
Net net: Search sucks. Oh, wait, I used that phrase in an article for Barbara Quint 35 years ago.
PS. Mwmbl is at https://mwmbl.or in case you are not familiar with the open source, non profit search engine. You have to register, well, because…
Stephen E Arnold, January 2, 2024
Google, There Goes Two Percent of 2022 Revenues. How Will the Company Survive?
January 1, 2024
This essay is the work of a dumb dinobaby. No smart software required.
True or false: Google owes $5 billion US. I am not sure, but the headline in Metro makes the number a semi-factoid. So let’s see what could force Googzilla to transfer the equivalent of less than two percent of Google’s alleged 2022 revenues. Wow. That will be painful for the online advertising giant. Well, fire some staff; raise ad rates; and boost the cost of YouTube subscriptions. Will the GOOG survive? I think so.
An executive ponders a court order to pay the equivalent of two percent of 2022 revenues for unproven alleged improper behavior. But the court order says, “Have a nice day.” I assume the court is sincere. Thanks, MSFT Copilot Bing thing. Good enough.
“Google Settles $5,000,000,000 Claim over Searches for Intimate and Embarrassing Things” reports:
Google has agreed to settle a US lawsuit claiming it secretly tracked millions of people who thought they were browsing privately through its Incognito Mode between 2016 and 2020. The claim was seeking at least $5 billion in damages, including at least $5,000 for each user affected. Ironically, the terms of the settlement have not been disclosed, but a formal agreement will be submitted to the court by February 24.
My thought is that Google’s legal eagles will not be partying on New Year’s Eve. These fine professionals will be huddling over their laptops, scrolling for fee legal databases, and using Zoom (the Google video service is a bit of a hassle) to discuss ways to [a] delay, [b] deflect, [c] deny, and [d] dodge the obviously [a] fallacious, [b] foul, [c] false, [d] flimsy, and [e] flawed claims that Google did anything improper.
Hey, incognito means what Google says it means, just like the “unlimited” data claims from wireless providers. Let’s not get hung up on details. Just ask the US regulatory authorities.
For you and me, we need to read Google’s terms of service, check our computing device’s security settings, and continue to live in a Cloud of Unknowing. The allegations that Google mapping vehicles did Wi-Fi sniffing? Hey, these assertions are [a] fallacious, [b] foul, [c] false, [d] flimsy, and [e] flawed . Tracking users. Op cit, gentle reader.
Never has a commercial enterprise been subjected to so many [a] unwarranted, [b] unprovable, [c] unacceptable, and [d] unnecessary assertions. Here’s my take: [a] The Google is innocent; [b] the GOOG is misunderstood, [c] Googzilla is a victim. I ticked a, b, and c.
Stephen E Arnold, January 1, 2024
Quantum Supremacy in Management: A Google Incident
December 25, 2023
This essay is the work of a dumb dinobaby. No smart software required.
I spotted an interesting story about an online advertising company which has figured out how to get great PR in respected journals. But this maneuver is a 100 yard touchdown run for visibility. “Hundreds Gather at Google’s San Francisco Office to Protest $1.2 Billion Contract with Israel” reports:
More than 400 protesters gathered at Google’s San Francisco office on Thursday to demand the tech company cut ties with Israel’s government.
Some managers and techno wizards envy companies which have the knack for attracting crowds and getting free publicity. Thanks, MSFT Copilot. Close enough for horseshoes
The demonstration, according to the article, was a response to Google and its new BFF’s project for Israel. The SFGate article contains some interesting photographs. One is a pretend dead person wrapped in a shroud with the word “Genocide” in bright, cheerful Google log colors. I wanted to reproduce it, but I am not interested in having copyright trolls descend on me like a convocation of legal eagles. The “Project Nimbus” — nimbus is a type of cloud which I learned about in the fifth- or sixth-grade — “provides the country with local data centers and cloud computing services.”
The article contains words which cause OpenAI’s art generators to become uncooperative. That banned word is “genocide.” The news story adds some color to the fact of the protest on December 14, 2023:
Multiple speakers mentioned an article from The Intercept, which reported that Nimbus delivered Israel the technology for “facial detection, automated image categorization, object tracking, and even sentiment analysis.” Others referred to an NPR investigation reporting that Israel says it is using artificial intelligence to identify targets in Gaza, though the news outlet did not link the practice to Google’s technology.
Ah, ha. Cloud services plus useful technologies. (I wonder if the facial recognition system allegedly becoming available to the UK government is included in the deal?) The story added a bit of spice too:
For most of Thursday’s protest, two dozen people lay wrapped in sheets — reading “Genocide” in Google’s signature rainbow lettering — in a “die-in” performance. At the end, they stood to raise up white kites, as a speaker read Refaat Alareer’s “If I must die,” written just over a month before the Palestinian poet was killed by an Israeli airstrike.
The article included a statement from a spokesperson, possible from Google. This individual said:
“We have been very clear that the Nimbus contract is for workloads running on our commercial platform by Israeli government ministries such as finance, healthcare, transportation, and education,” she said. “Our work is not directed at highly sensitive or classified military workloads relevant to weapons or intelligence services.”
Does this sound a bit like an annoyed fifth- or sixth-grade teacher interrupted by a student who said out loud: “Clouds are hot air.” While not technically accurate, the student was sent to the principal’s office. What will happen in this situation?
Some organizations know how to capture users’ attention. Will the company be able to monetize it via a YouTube Short or a more lengthy video. Google is quite skilled at making videos which purport to show reality as Google wants it to be. The “real” reality maybe be different. Revenue is important, particularly as regulatory scrutiny remains popular in the EU and the US.
Stephen E Arnold, December 25, 2023
A Grade School Food Fight Could Escalate: Apples Could Become Apple Sauce
December 25, 2023
This essay is the work of a dumb dinobaby. No smart software required.
A squabble is blowing up into a court fight. “Beeper vs Apple Battle Intensifies: Lawmakers Demand DOJ Investigation” reports:
US senators have urged the DOJ to probe Apple’s alleged anti-competitive conduct against Beeper.
Apple killed a messaging service in the name of protecting apple pie, mom, love, truth, justice, and the American way. Ooops, sorry. That’s something from the Superman comix.
“You squashed my apple. You ruined my lunch. You ruined my life. My mommy will call your mommy, and you will be in trouble,” says the older, more mature child. The principal appears and points out that screeching is not comely. Thanks, MSFT Copilot. Close enough for horseshoes.
The article said:
The letter to the DOJ is signed by Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar, Utah Senator Mike Lee, Congressman Jerry Nadler, and Congressman Ken Buck. They have urged the law enforcement body to investigate “whether Apple’s potentially anti-competitive conduct against Beeper violates US antitrust laws.” Apple has been constantly trying to block Beeper Mini and Beeper Cloud from accessing iMessage. The two Beeper messaging apps allow Android users to interact with iPhone users through iMessage — an interoperability Apple has been opposed to for a long time now.
As if law enforcement did not have enough to think about. Now an alleged monopolist is engaged in a grade school cafeteria spat with a younger, much smaller entity. By golly, that big outfit is threatened by the jejune, immature, and smaller service.
How will this play out?
- A payday for Beeper when Apple makes the owners of Beeper an offer that would be tough to refuse. Big piles of money can alter one’s desire to fritter away one’s time in court
- The dust up spirals upwards. What if the attitude toward Apple’s approach to its competitors becomes a crusade to encourage innovation in a tough environment for small companies? Containment may be difficult.
- The jury decision against Google may kindle more enthusiasm for another probe of Apple and its posture in some tricky political situations; for example, the iPhone in China, the non-repairability issues, and Apple’s mesh of inter-connected services which may be seen as digital barriers to user choice.
In 2024, Apple may find that some government agencies are interested in the fruit growing on the company’s many trees.
Stephen E Arnold, December 25, 2023
An Important, Easily Pooh-Poohed Insight
December 24, 2023
This essay is the work of a dumb dinobaby. No smart software required.
Dinobaby here. I am on the regular highway, not the information highway. Nevertheless l want to highlight what I call an “easily poohpoohed factoid. The source of the item this morning is an interview titled “Google Cloud Exec: Enterprise AI Is Game-Changing, But Companies Need to Prepare Their Data.”
I am going to skip the PR baloney, the truisms about Google fumbling the AI ball, and rah rah about AI changing everything. Let me go straight to factoid which snagged my attention:
… at the other side of these projects, what we’re seeing is that organizations did not have their data house in order. For one, they had not appropriately connected all the disparate data sources that make up the most effective outputs in a model. Two, so many organizations had not cleansed their data, making certain that their data is as appropriate and high value as possible. And so we’ve heard this forever — garbage in, garbage out. You can have this great AI project that has all the tenets of success and everybody’s really excited. Then, it turns out that the data pipeline isn’t great and that the data isn’t streamlined — all of a sudden your predictions are not as accurate as they could or should have been.
Why are points about data significant?
First, investors, senior executives, developers, and the person standing on line with you at Starbucks dismisses data normalization as a solved problem. Sorry, getting the data boat to float is a work in progress. Few want to come to grips with the issue.
Second, fixing up data is expensive. Did you ever wonder why the Stanford president made up data, forcing his resignation? The answer is that the “cost of fixing up data is too high.” If the president of Stanford can’t do it, is the run-fo-the-mill fast talking AI guru different? Answer: Nope.
Third, knowledge of exception folders and non-conforming data is confined to a small number of people. Most will explain what is needed to make a content intake system work. However, many give up because the cloud of unknowing is unlikely to disperse.
The bottom line is that many data sets are not what senior executives, marketers, or those who use the data believe they are. The Google comment — despite Google’s sketchy track record in plain honest talk — is mostly correct.
So what?
- Outputs are often less useful than many anticipated. But if the user is uninformed or the downstream system uses whatever is pushed to it, no big deal.
- The thresholds and tweaks needed to make something semi useful are not shared, discussed, or explained. Keep the mushrooms in the dark and feed them manure. What do you get? Mushrooms.
- The graphic outputs are eye candy and distracting. Look here, not over there. Sizzle sells and selling is important.
Net net: Data are a problem. Data have been due to time and cost issues. Data will remain a problem because one can sidestep a problem few recognize and those who do recognize the pit find a short cut. What’s this mean for AI? Those smart systems will be super. What’s in your AI stocking this year?
Stephen E Arnold, December 24, 2023
Google AI and Ads: Beavers Do What Beavers Do
December 20, 2023
This essay is the work of a dumb dinobaby. No smart software required.
Consider this. Take a couple of beavers. Put them in the Cloud Room near the top of the Chrysler Building in Manhattan. Shut the door. Come back in a day. What have the beavers done? The beavers start making a dam. Beavers do what beavers do. That’s a comedian’s way of explaining that some activities are hard wired into an organization. Therefore, beavers do what beavers do.
I read the paywalled article “Google Plans Ad Sales Restructuring as Automation Booms” and the other versions of the story on the shoulder of the Information Superhighway; for example, the trust outfit’s recycling of the Information’s story. The giant quantum supremacy, protein folding, and all-round advertising company is displaying beaver-like behavior. Smart software will be used to sell advertising.
That ad DNA? Nope, the beavers do what beavers do. Here’s a snip from the write up:
The planned reorganization comes as Google is relying more on machine-learning techniques to help customers buy more ads on its search engine, YouTube and other services…
Translating: Google wants fewer people to present information to potential and actual advertisers. The idea is to reduce costs and sell more advertising. I find it interesting that the quantum supremacy hoo-hah boils down to … selling ads and eliminating unreliable, expensive, vacation-taking, and latte consuming humans.
Two real beavers are surprised to learn that a certain large and dangerous creature also has DNA. Notice that neither of the beavers asks the large reptile to join them for lunch. The large reptile may, in fact, view the beavers as something else; for instance, lunch. Thanks, MSFT Copilot. Good enough.
Are there other ad-related changes afoot at the Google? According to “Google Confirms It is Testing Ad Copy Variation in Live Ads” points out:
Google quietly started placing headlines in ad copy description text without informing advertisers
No big deal. Just another “test”, I assume. Search Engine Land (a publication founded, nurtured, and shaped into the search engine optimization information machine by Dan Sullivan, now a Googler) adds:
Changing the rules without informing advertisers can make it harder for them to do their jobs and know what needs to be prioritized. The impact is even more significant for advertisers with smaller budgets, as assessing the changes, especially with responsive search ads, becomes challenging, adding to their workload.
Google wants to reduce its workload. In pursuing that noble objective, if Search Engine Land is correct, may increase the workload of the advertisers. But never fear, the change is trivial, “a small test.”
What was that about beavers? Oh, right. Certain behaviors are hard wired into the DNA of a corporate entity, which under US law is a “person” someone once told me.
Let me share with you several observations based on my decades-long monitoring of the Google.
- Google does what Google wants and then turns over the explanation to individuals who say what is necessary to deflect actual intent, convert actions into fuzzy Google speech, and keep customer and user pushback to a minimum. (Note: The tactic does not work with 100 percent reliability as the recent loss to US state attorneys general illustrates.)
- Smart software is changing rapidly. What appears to be one application may (could) morph into more comprehensive functionality. Predicting the future of AI and Google’s actions is difficult. Google will play the odds which means what the “entity” does will favor its objective and goals.
- The quaint notion of a “small test” is the core of optimization for some methods. Who doesn’t love “quaint” as a method for de-emphasizing the significance of certain actions. The “small test” is often little more than one component of a larger construct. Dismissing the small is to ignore the larger component’s functionality; for example, data control and highly probable financial results.
Let’s flash back to the beavers in the Cloud Room. Imagine the surprise of someone who opens the door and sees gnawed off portions of chairs, towels, a chunk of unidentifiable gook piled between two tables.
Those beavers and their beavering can create an unexpected mess. The beavers, however, are proud of their work because they qualify under an incentive plan for a bonus. Beavers do what beavers do.
Stephen E Arnold, December 20, 2023
Allegations That Canadian Officials Are Listening
December 13, 2023
This essay is the work of a dumb dinobaby. No smart software required.
Widespread Use of Phone Surveillance Tools Documented in Canadian Federal Agencies
It appears a baker’s dozen of Canadian agencies are ignoring a longstanding federal directive on privacy protections. Yes, Canada. According to CBC/ Radio Canada, “Tools Capable of Extracting Personal Data from Phones Being Used by 13 Federal Departments, Documents Show.” The trend surprised even York University associate professor Evan Light, who filed the original access-to-information request. Reporter Brigitte Bureau shares:
Many people, it seems, are listening to Grandma’s conversations in a suburb of Calgary. (Nice weather in the winter.) Thanks, MSFT Copilot. I enjoyed the flurry of messages that you were busy creating my other image requests. Just one problemo. I had only one image request.
“Tools capable of extracting personal data from phones or computers are being used by 13 federal departments and agencies, according to contracts obtained under access to information legislation and shared with Radio-Canada. Radio-Canada has also learned those departments’ use of the tools did not undergo a privacy impact assessment as required by federal government directive. The tools in question can be used to recover and analyze data found on computers, tablets and mobile phones, including information that has been encrypted and password-protected. This can include text messages, contacts, photos and travel history. Certain software can also be used to access a user’s cloud-based data, reveal their internet search history, deleted content and social media activity. Radio-Canada has learned other departments have obtained some of these tools in the past, but say they no longer use them. … ‘I thought I would just find the usual suspects using these devices, like police, whether it’s the RCMP or [Canada Border Services Agency]. But it’s being used by a bunch of bizarre departments,’ [Light] said.
To make matters worse, none of the agencies had conducted the required Privacy Impact Assessments. A federal directive issued in 2002 and updated in 2010 required such PIAs to be filed with the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat and the Office of the Privacy Commissioner before any new activities involving collecting or handling personal data. Light is concerned that agencies flat out ignoring the directive means digital surveillance of citizens has become normalized. Join the club, Canada.
Cynthia Murrell, December 13, 2023
Google Smart Software Titbits: Post Gemini Edition
December 8, 2023
This essay is the work of a dumb dinobaby. No smart software required.
In the Apple-inspired roll out of Google Gemini, the excitement is palpable. Is your heart palpitating? Ah, no. Neither is mine. Nevertheless, in the aftershock of a blockbuster “me to” the knowledge shrapnel has peppered my dinobaby lair; to wit: Gemini, according to Wired, is a “new breed” of AI. The source? Google’s Demis Hassabis.
What happens when the marketing does not align with the user experience? Tell the hardware wizards to shift into high gear, of course. Then tell the marketing professionals to evolve the story. Thanks, MSFT Copilot. You know I think you enjoyed generating this image.
Navigate to “Google Confirms That Its Cofounder Sergey Brin Played a Key Role in Creating Its ChatGPT Rival.” That’s a clickable headline. The write up asserts: “Google hinted that its cofounder Sergey Brin played a key role in the tech giant’s AI push.”
Interesting. One person involved in both Google and OpenAI. And Google responding to OpenAI after one year? Management brilliance or another high school science club method? The right information at the right time is nine-tenths of any battle. Was Google not processing information? Was the information it received about OpenAI incorrect or weaponized? Now Gemini is a “new breed” of AI. The Verge reports that McDonald’s burger joints will use Google AI to “make sure your fries are fresh.”
Google has been busy in non-AI areas; for instance:
- The Register asserts that a US senator claims Google and Apple reveal push notification data to non-US nation states
- Google has ramped up its donations to universities, according to TechMeme
- Lost files you thought were in Google Drive? Never fear. Google has a software tool you can use to fix your problem. Well, that’s what Engadget says.
So an AI problem? What problem?
Stephen E Arnold, December 8, 2023
Why Google Dorks Exist and Why Most Users Do Not Know Why They Are Needed
December 4, 2023
This essay is the work of a dumb dinobaby. No smart software required.
Many people in my lectures are not familiar with the concept of “dorks”. No, not the human variety. I am referencing the concept of a “Google dork.” If you do a quick search using Yandex.com, you will get pointers to different “Google dorks.” Click on one of the links and you will find information you can use to retrieve more precise and relevant information from the Google ad-supported Web search system.
Here’s what QDORKS.com looks like:
The idea is that one plugs in search terms and uses the pull down boxes to enter specific commands to point the ad-centric system at something more closely resembling a relevant result. Other interfaces are available; for example, the “1000 Best Google Dorks List." You get a laundry list of tips,commands, and ideas for wrestling Googzilla to the ground, twisting its tail, and (hopefully) yield relevant information. Hopefully. Good work.
Most people are lousy at pinning the tail on the relevance donkey. Therefore, let someone who knows define relevance for the happy people. Thanks, MSFT Copilot. Nice animal with map pins.
Why are Google Dorks or similar guides to Google search necessary? Here are three reasons:
- Precision reduces the opportunities for displaying allegedly relevant advertising. Semantic relaxation allows the Google to suggest that it is using Oingo type methods to find mathematically determined relationships. The idea is that razzle dazzle makes ad blasting something like an ugly baby wrapped in translucent fabric on a foggy day look really great.
- When Larry Page argued with me at a search engine meeting about truncation, he displayed a preconceived notion about how search should work for those not at Google or attending a specialist conference about search. Rational? To him, yep. Logical? To his framing of the search problem, the stance makes perfect sense if one discards the notion of tense, plurals, inflections, and stupid markers like “im” as in “impractical” and “non” as in “nonsense.” Hey, Larry had the answer. Live with it.
- The goal at the Google is to make search as intellectually easy for the “user” as possible. The idea was to suggest what the user intended. Also, Google had the old idea that a person’s past behavior can predict that person’s behavior now. Well, predict in the sense that “good enough” will do the job for vast majority of search-blind users who look for the short cut or the most convenient way to get information.
Why? Control, being clever, and then selling the dream of clicks for advertisers. Over the years, Google leveraged its information framing power to a position of control. I want to point out that most people, including many Googlers, cannot perceive. When pointed out, those individuals refuse to believe that Google does [a] NOT index the full universe of digital data, [b] NOT want to fool around with users who prefer Boolean algebra, content curation to identify the best or most useful content, and [c] fiddle around with training people to become effective searchers of online information. Obfuscation, verbal legerdemain, and the “do no evil” craziness make the railroad run the way Cornelius Vanderbilt-types implemented.
I read this morning (December 4, 2023) the Google blog post called “New Ways to Find Just What You Need on Search.” The main point of the write up in my opinion is:
Search will never be a solved problem; it continues to evolve and improve alongside our world and the web.
I agree, but it would be great if the known search and retrieval functions were available to users. Instead, we have a weird Google Mom approach. From the write up:
To help you more easily keep up with searches or topics you come back to a lot, or want to learn more about, we’re introducing the ability to follow exactly what you’re interested in.
Okay, user tracking, stored queries, and alerts. How does the Google know what you want? The answer is that users log in, use Google services, and enter queries which are automatically converted to search. You will have answers to questions you really care about.
There are other search functions available in the most recent version of Google’s attempts to deal with an unsolved problem:
As with all information on Search, our systems will look to show the most helpful, relevant and reliable information possible when you follow a topic.
Yep, Google is a helicopter parent. Mom will know what’s best, select it, and present it. Don’t like it? Mom will be recalcitrant, like shaping search results to meet what the probabilistic system says, “Take your medicine, you brat.” Who said, “Mother Google is a nice mom”? Definitely not me.
And Google will make search more social. Shades of Dr. Alon Halevy and the heirs of Orkut. The Google wants to bring people together. Social signals make sense to Google. Yep, content without Google ads must be conquered. Let’s hope the Google incentive plans encourage the behavior, or those valiant programmers will be bystanders to other Googlers’ promotions and accompanying money deliveries.
Net net: Finding relevant, on point, accurate information is more difficult today than at any other point in the 50+ year work career. How does the cloud of unknowing dissipate? I have no idea. I think it has moved in on tiny Googzilla feet and sits looking over the harbor, ready to pounce on any creature that challenges the status quo.
PS. Corny Vanderbilt was an amateur compared to the Google. He did trains; Google does information.
Stephen E Arnold, December 4, 2023
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