Study Determines Sad News for People Who Look on Facebook “Likes” as Friendship
February 23, 2016
The article on Independent titled Facebook Friends Are Almost entirely Fake, Study Finds illuminates the cold, cold world of Facebook. According to the study, out of the hundreds of “friends” accumulated on Facebook, typically only about four are true blue buds. Most of them are not interested in your life or sympathetic to your problems. 2% are actively trying to stab you in the back. I may have made up the last figure, but you get the picture. The article tells us,
“The average person studied had around 150 Facebook friends. But only about 14 of them would express sympathy in the event of anything going wrong. The average person said that only about 27 per cent of their Facebook friends were genuine. Those numbers are mostly similar to how friendships work in real life, the research said. But the huge number of supposed friends on a friend list means that people can be tricked into thinking that they might have more close friends.”
This is particularly bad news considering how Facebook has opened the gates to all populations meaning that most people have family members on the site in addition to friends. Aunt Mary may have knit you a sweater for Christmas, but she really isn’t interested in your status update about running into your ex and his new girlfriend. If this article teaches us anything, it’s that you should look offline for your real relationships.
Chelsea Kerwin, February 23, 2016
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
Google Ad Change: Good for the GOOG
February 22, 2016
What’s good for the GOOG is good for the gander, okay? I read “Google Ditches Right-Side Desktop Ads: Who’s Screwed?” Let me congratulate ZDNet for its elegant phrasing. I particularly like the Miltonian touch of “Who’s screwed.” Classy.
The main point of the write up is that Google is shifting around the ads displayed when one does a free search on the Google search engine.
The purpose of a change related to advertising is to increase Google’s revenue. The write up seems to struggle with the impact of this concept. The points which catch the attention of the ZDNet folks are:
- Fewer ad slots on search results pages. Hmm. I thought that there would be the same number of ads but the cheaper ads are mostly a bad idea remedied.
- Organic results—that is, a euphemism for non paid or non SEO’d content—get less opportunity to reach a Google user who only looks at one page of results and rarely bothers to look outside the results which initially display. I am not sure that Google results have been particularly relevant for years, but maybe I am missing the point of Google’s search system. “Search” does not strike me as the vehicle for delivering relevant, on point results.
- Bidding wars will become more intense. Yep, and this makes the job of the online marketing decider that much more exciting.
How does one get relevant search results? Well, that is a good question. Hint: There are other online search systems, but these are getting more and more difficult to use from mobile devices. Give iseek.com a whirl from your mobile phone or try out qwant.com. How are these working out for you? Easier to use Google because, believe it or not, we are raising a generation of expert searchers who perceive information delivered via Google as correct. Do you want a grill for charcoal with your auto parts order?
Stephen E Arnold, February 22, 2016
SAP: Statistics Need Sizzle
February 22, 2016
The underlying data? Important, yeah, but the action is Hollywood style graphics. Taking a page from the Palantir game plan, SAP is getting with the visual sizzle program. Navigate to “SAP Buys All the Pretty Data Firm Roambi.” The article states:
The data prettifier’s angle is it that displays data using deliciously slick and dynamically updating charts, graphs and sliders that are native apps for iOS and Android. Roambi’s front ends tap into back ends including Excel, SQL Server, Cognos, Box, Salesforce and – yes – SAP.
Special effects matter in videos, Web pages, and business analytics.
What if the analyst gets the underlying data out of joint? What if the person using the graphic output does not understand what analytic choices were made to give the visual some zing?
What? Who worries about details? It is the visual snap that crackles.
Stephen E Arnold, February 22, 2016
Yahoo Moves Undermine Content Is King Assertion
February 22, 2016
I don’t Yahoo. I did read a coven of content about the slimming down of the original content at Google’s neighbor, Yahoo. A representative write up is “If It’s Wednesday, It’s Layoffs Day at Yahoo: Today, Digital Magazines Get Hit.” The main thrust of this and the other writes up I worked through is that the Xoogler is amputating the arms and legs of its original content business.
Among the casualties are subsites or Web pages about food, travel, real estate, health, and others consumerish topics.
Based on my sample, determined by my fatigue with the Yahoo thing and the speed with which different articles on this subject rendered, is biased. I was able to formulate one notion; to wit:
Yahoo seems to be proving that content, as practiced by Yahoo, is not king.
I thought that content, particularly great content, would produce revenue. Apparently not. The Yahoo cuts suggest that content is not even a baron or an earl. Perhaps content is a wounded vassals? Are those cast out of the Yahoo serfs?
Stephen E Arnold, February 22, 2016
Google to Combat Terrorist Messages with Counter Narrative AdWords
February 22, 2016
Governments are not alone in the fight against terrorism. Google Will Show ‘Counter-Narrative’ AdWords To Users Searching For Terrorist Websites from Tech Week Europe explains how Google is playing a role in containing terrorist messages. In effort to prove their commitment to anti-terrorist initiatives to UK members of parliament, Google will employ a counter narrative strategy using Google AdWords as a marketing channel for their anti-extremist messages. According to the article,
“Users searching for words and websites associated with religious extremism that is linked to terrorism will be shown the ‘counter-narrative’ via Google AdWords, the sponsored links that appear at the top of a search results page. Dr House also told MPs at the Common’s home affairs select committee that Google had removed 14 million videos from YouTube in 2014 for reasons that include terrorist content, according to the Telegraph. Google reportedly offers AdWords grants to NGOs, so that their ‘counter-narrative’ websites can appear on search results for queries such as ‘join Isis’, reported The Telegraph.”
In the article’s concluding remarks, the author raises several questions regarding censorship, freedom of speech and user control; the saying with great power comes great responsibility comes to mind. Developments related to Google’s counter narratives will be important to follow as the bigger-picture conversation unfolds.
Megan Feil, February 22, 2016
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
The Pros and Cons of Data Silos When It Comes to Data Analysis and Management
February 22, 2016
The article on Informatica Blog titled Data Silos Are the Death of Analytics. Here’s the Fix explores the often overlooked need for a thorough data management vision and strategy at any competitive business. The article is plugging for an eBook guide to data analytics, but it does go into some detail on the early stages of streamlining the data management approach, summarized by the advice to avoid data silos. The article explains,
“It’s vital to pursue a data management architecture that works across any type of data, BI tool, or storage technology. If the move to add Hadoop or NoSQL demands entirely different tools to manage the data, you’re at risk of creating another silo…When you’ve got different tools for your traditional data warehouse versus your cloud setup, and therefore different skill sets to hire for, train for, and maintain, you’re looking at a real mess.”
The suggestions for streamlined processes and analysis certainly make sense, but the article does not defend the reasonable purposes of data silos, such as power, control, and secrecy. Nor do they consider that in some cases a firm is required to create data silos to comply with a government contract. But it is a nice thought: one big collection of data, one comprehensive data strategy. Maybe.
Chelsea Kerwin, February 22, 2016
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
Text Extraction from Medical Records
February 21, 2016
If you are interested in the application of text extraction methods to medical records, you may find “Extracting Information from the Text of Electronic Medical Records to Improve Case Detection: A Systematic Review.” if you act quickly, the paper may be available at this link. (If the link goes dead, well, that’s life in 2016.) The paper contains an algorithm table which includes the coding and diagnostic elements. Instead of identifying the specific systems and methods, the write up is an academic review of “studies.” But for those interested in the topic, the write up is worth a look.
Stephen E Arnold, February 21, 2016
Alphabet Google Ideas Becomes a Jigsaw
February 21, 2016
Please, do not confuse this “jigsaw” with Salesforce.com’s Jigsaw (now Data.com), Jigsaw Puzzles (online puzzles), Jigsaw (online clothing for women), Jigsaw (the learning strategy), Jigsaw (a marketing company), Jigsaw (the font), Jigsaw (an open source thing), Jigsaw (Ireland’s youth mental health program), Jigsaw (the band of merry music makers), Jigsaw (the real estate outfit), Jigsaw (the WordPress plug in), Jigsaw (the scalable cache method), Jigsaw (a now defunct “zine”), Jigsaw (the time travel-oriented interactive story), Jigsaw (the film), and the Bow Handle Jigsaw (Bosch power tool).
Locating one of these Jigsaws may be an interesting task. Why? Alphabet Google has rebranded Ideas as Jigsaw. Guess what pops to the top of a Google results list. Check it out with the query “jigsaw”.
I read “Google’s Think Tank ‘Google Ideas’ Becomes Alphabet’s Jigsaw.” I learned there was an entity called Google Ideas. I did not know that. The write up stated:
Alphabet’s Executive Chairman, Eric Schmidt, has now confirmed the next department to see an identity change and this time it is ‘Google Ideas’, which has now become ‘Jigsaw’. Google Ideas was the company’s think tank and as Schmidt notes, was created with the original intention to try and bring to the forefront ideas on how to “help the next five billion people coming online for the first time”.
The search engine optimization for “jigsaw” is working as well as Loon balloons which may loom soon.
Puzzle? Nope. A search for revenue as the traditional desktop search upon which Google was assembled is getting a touch of arthritis.
Stephen E Arnold, February 21, 2016
Print and Digital: Both Goners
February 20, 2016
I read in McPaper this article: “Wolff: Print’s Dead — but So Is Digital.” Okay, I learned from Dr. Francis Chivers (Duquesne University professor in the 1960s) that God is dead. I learned from Francis Fukuyama (assorted universities) that history is dead. Now I learn from McPaper that print and digital are dead. A two’fer! That is what makes McPaper so darned compelling.
The article informed me:
the effort to compete with native digital news outlets like BuzzFeed means traditional news organizations, with traditional share price values, must, like the venture-capital supported natives, pay more for traffic than can ever hope to be made back from advertisers. In this model, the digital natives can yet hope to sell to deep-pocket buyers, whereas the traditionals can only go out of business.
Where does McPaper land in this business scenario?
I noted this passage and its nod to the recently acquired yellow orange newspaper, the Financial Times:
At present, the FT concludes, there is no viable economic model for a written news product. Hence, in some ever-increasing existential darkness, it’s back to the drawing board in search of one.
Question: How many trips to the drawing board do traditional newspaper publishers get to make? I thought the digital revolution kicked off 40 or 50 years ago. I wonder if the drawing board is okay, but the folks visiting it are in a digital version of Sartre’s No Exit.
Well, well, I dare say one gets used to it in time.
Stephen E Arnold, February 20, 2016
The Independent: Gets with Digital Finally
February 20, 2016
I read “Independent to Cease as Print Edition.” The write up contained several interesting statements:
- Some folks will be terminated but there “would be 25 new digital content roles.” There you go. No teaching old dogs new tricks.
- The likely new owners of the “i newspapers” are Johnston Press. What? Who?
- The London Evening Standard continues as it is.
Here’s the quote I circled:
The Independent’s editor Amol Rajan tweeted: “Impossible to over-state how proud I am of the most dedicated, clever, industrious and brave staff in the history of Fleet St.”
Excluding the folks who will be cut loose I assume.
Stephen E Arnold, February 17, 2016
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