Google Has the Tools to Shape Reality: Are Local Businesses a Public Demonstration of Functionality
November 9, 2021
I read about Google’s “effort to regain control of the antitrust narrative” in an essay published by Near Media. You can find that write up here. The idea is that Alphabet Google YouTube can employ “search features to sway small business sentiment.” The Cambridge Analytica example makes clear that even if framing, augmenting, and information shaping are not efficient, the methods work.
Now Google may be sufficiently concerned to employ the methods in a way that allows Near Media and even SEO wizards to sit up and take notice. An online newsletter founded by the luminary who later joined Google to explain “search” observed:
This is not the first time. When in legislative trouble before, Google has previously tried to appeal to users to make its case when laws change. In 2013, they made the case for cookies by telling searchers in the SERP, “Cookies help us deliver our services.” This was a prompt in response to European privacy laws.
SERP is one of the buzzwords much loved by search engine optimization specialists. SERP is “search engine result pages.” If an entity is not in Google or on the first page of a query result list, that entity effectively does not exist. Conversely, if information appears in such a position, that information has higher value and should be considered pretty darned reliable.
Shaping results is one of the easiest ways to provide information that frames and then paints the picture the controlling entity wishes to present. Some call this propaganda; others use terminology ripped from Orwell’s 1984.
Search Engine Land “cares.” Here’s the explanation of their emotional involvement:
While marketers are often more skeptical of the search giant’s methods and motives, it may be worth being proactive to your local SEO clients to let them know what this prompt means.
My interpretation is that the baloney shoveled by SEO experts is useless. Google has decided to exert its control in order to avoid regulation and oversight.
Will it work? Sure, it works. Just keep your eye on the lobbying efforts of the world’s largest outfit which once was associated with a truly crazy catchphrase, “Do no evil.”
If Google is sufficiently concerned, it may put pro Google, anti monopoly messages above the ads and before promotions of Google services. That would be something, wouldn’t it?
Stephen E Arnold, November 9, 2021
If True, More Google High School Science Club Management Antics on Display
November 9, 2021
I received a link to a tweet stream from Amruta Buge. You can find (hopefully) the posts at this link on the tweeter thing. The idea appears to be that a Googler has unceremoniously become a Xoogler. The brief messages suggest that the newly minted Xoogler was the subject of interesting management methods. Those of you who read my musings in the Beyond Search blog know that I use the phrase “high school science club management methods” to capture the oft en baffling ways in which bright sprouts interact with other humanoids. My hypothesis is that bright sprouts view other people as dim sprouts unable to flourish in the sun light of the superior sprouts’ intellects.
Is this the Xoogler Amruta Buge?
Here’s a rundown of the tweeter’s view of Google management and human resource methods:
- Frightening the employee
- Personal attacks
- Verbal criticism
- Financial penalties
- Failure to provide proof of performance.
Check out the original tweets for the complete list.
Let’s assume the complaints are not true. It seems clear that the Google has hired a person ill suited for the Googley environment. This raises the question, “What’s the hiring method?” (Timnit Gebru was another notable bad fit.)
If we assume the tweets reflect the reality of the GOOG, the high school science club management method of exclusion and snide behavior are remarkably effective in creating tension.
One interesting aspect of the tweet stream is the inclusion of emails for six of the high school science club’s management team. These are allegedly real live email addresses. Gold to some Google advertisers too.
Stephen E Arnold, November 9, 2021
The Final Disintermediation: Are Libraries Marked for Death?
November 9, 2021
Brewster Kahle founded the Internet Archive, but according to the Time article: “I Set Out To Build The Next Library Of Alexandria. Now I Wonder: Will There Be Libraries In 25 Years?” he is pondering if he did the right thing. Kahle wanted the Internet Archive to preserve Web sites and television as well as digitize books. Out of necessity, libraries have become more digital.
While digital information has a multiple benefits, there is an extreme downside tied to corporate control:
“But just as the Web increased people’s access to information exponentially, an opposite trend has evolved. Global media corporations—emboldened by the expansive copyright laws they helped craft and the emerging technology that reaches right into our reading devices—are exerting absolute control over digital information. These two conflicting forces—towards unfettered availability and completely walled access to information—have defined the last 25 years of the Internet. How we handle this ongoing clash will define our civic discourse in the next 25 years. If we fail to forge the right path, publishers’ business models could eliminate one of the great tools for democratizing society: our independent libraries.”
The problem is the larger book publishers, not the small prints. The larger publishers limit the number of digital copies available to public libraries. Publishers are extorting money from public and academic libraries over every small thing related to books. It hinders the freedom and dissemination of information.
The Internet Archive doubles as a lending library. It lends out digitized books one user at a time, works with independent publishers to ensure their rights are respected. This is the proper way to manage “controlled digital lending.”
This happened in 2020:
“Last year, four of the biggest commercial publishers in the world sued the Internet Archive to stop this longstanding library practice of controlled lending of scanned books. The publishers filed their lawsuit early in the pandemic, when public and school libraries were closed. In March 2020, more than one hundred shuttered libraries signed a statement of support asking that the Internet Archive do something to meet the extraordinary circumstances of the moment. We responded as any library would: making our digitized books available, without waitlists, to help teachers, parents, and students stranded without books. This emergency measure ended two weeks before the intended 14-week period.”
The publishers’ lawsuit demands that the Internet Archive delete all the digital copies of books it acquired legally. Many states have reacted against the publishers’ demand as harmful to libraries. The publishers counter that it is unconstitutional.
Kahle believes libraries will still exist in twenty-five years in the current argument between publishers and libraries is handled well. He is right, but he is also discounting that libraries are technology media centers, provide free Internet, have free community programs, are meeting centers, and do much more than check out books.
Will libraries be disintermediated? Good question.
Whitney Grace, November 9, 2021
A Dry Google Secret: Water Use in Oregon Dalles
November 9, 2021
Just a quick item. I want to keep track of this type of environmental secret and a local government’s effort to carry the water for the mom and pop online ad company. “The Dalles Sues to Keep Google’s Water Use a Secret.” The write up states:
Google is contemplating two new server farms on the site of a former aluminum smelter in The Dalles, where it already has an enormous campus of data centers on its property along the Columbia River. Google says it needs more water to cool its data centers, but neither the company nor the city will say how much more – only that The Dalles can’t meet Google’s needs without expanding its water system.
Data centers have to be cooled. Even nifty low draw devices can become toasty. It seems clear that neither Google nor the Dalles wants to reveal the water consumption. I wager that it is more than a couple of gallons a day.
Interesting.
Whatever the number, Intel may be asked about its proposed fabs’ water consumption. Arizona is downstream from some thirsty farms in Utah. Fabs are water piggies too.
Stephen E Arnold, November 9, 2021
Smart Software: A Negative Nancy Viewpoint?
November 8, 2021
Smart software, self learning machines, and artificial intelligence — great stuff. The hitch in the git along are false positives and the recent troubles at Zillow. What happened at Zillow? Here’s one possible idea from an online information service called INO.com:
Zillow halted the purchases of homes using its “Zestimate” and Ibuyer programs, which act as a purchase, renovate, flip-type of market service allowing home sellers to get an almost instant purchase offer from Zillow has raised questions in my mind related to the potential risks involved in owning large quantities of real estate assets in a shifting market.
How did these systems work? Smart software. INO asked:
Could the collapse in Zillow, Redfin, and OpenDoor reflect the underlying risks of an overly aggressive buying/flipping algorithm event?
Investors in Zillow may lack appetite to spend a few minutes reading “Calculations Suggest It’ll Be Impossible to Control a Super-Intelligent AI.” The main point is that smart software might be clever enough to prevent an annoying humanoid from changing how the system operates.
Here’s a passage I noted:
As Turing proved through some smart math, while we can know that for some specific programs, it’s logically impossible to find a way that will allow us to know that for every potential program that could ever be written. That brings us back to AI, which in a super-intelligent state could feasibly hold every possible computer program in its memory at once. Any program written to stop AI harming humans and destroying the world, for example, may reach a conclusion (and halt) or not – it’s mathematically impossible for us to be absolutely sure either way, which means it’s not containable.
The main idea is that software like Zestimate might generate results that are not desirable, the next-generation of AI-infused systems could prevent Zillow’s management from operating.
What are the consequences of smart software which have undetected initial biases or “issues”?
Exciting. Zesty, in fact.
Stephen E Arnold, November 8, 2021
Talkwalker Acquires Reviewbox: The Start of a Roll Up Play?
November 8, 2021
Keeping up with shifting customer sentiment is the realm of consumer intelligence, a field underpinned by AI that differs a bit from traditional market research. We learn from Silicon Luxembourg that one consumer intelligence firm is boosting its capabilities through a recent acquisition in, “Talkwalker Acquires Reviewbox And Expands Its Reach.” The write-up specifies:
“As a global brand today, selling a quality service or product is no longer sufficient to stay relevant. Interacting with consumers and responding to trends has become just as important. A vital piece of this process lies in timely and appropriate responses to customer feedback. By acquiring Reviewbox, Talkwalker integrates product data and reviews from sites such as Amazon, eBay and Wal-Mart, thus giving their customers an improved understanding of how their customers feel about their products. ‘Talkwalker and Reviewbox are a perfect fit,’ said Reviewbox CEO James Horey, who will join Talkwalker to continue developing reviews as a prominent channel. ‘Over the past 5 years, Reviewbox’s unified analytics platform has supplied customers with top-of-the-line industry review data, providing an essential part of the customer intelligence puzzle. Our integration into Talkwalker completes this puzzle, enabling our clients to turn insights into real-time actions.’ By uniting award-winning technology with industry-leading customer support, Talkwalker helps companies connect the dots between what customers think, say and do. This helps companies get a fuller picture of what drives their customers, better react to their input and increase revenue and retention.”
Based in Luxembourg, Talkwalker also maintains offices in New York, San Francisco, Frankfurt, Singapore, Paris, Tokyo, London, and Milan. The company was founded in 2009 and was itself bought out by Marlin Equity Partners in 2018. Since its launch in 2016, Reviewbox has snagged several global corporate clients, from label-maker Avery to appliance manufacturer Whirlpool. The firm is based in Knoxville, Tennessee.
Cynthia Murrell November 8, 2021
YouTube: Doing the We-Are-Responsible, People Thing
November 8, 2021
YouTube has been criticized for how it handles child centric related content. The video platform implemented safety features, including a filter to prevent kids from watching inappropriate content as well as a kids only app. YouTube has responded to critics once more by hitting kid content creators where it hurts: the wallet. TechCrunch explains why YouTube is changing its rules for kid videos in the article, “YouTube Warns Creators It Will Demonetize Low-Quality Kids’ Videos Next Month.”
Many “made for kids” YouTube channels are mass-produced without any oversight. They are heavily commercial, low quality, and encourage bad behavior. YouTube warned these content creators that in November 2021 their videos could be demonetized and/or banned from the platform.
The new rules are similar to the same complaints kid TV shows and movies have faced since the mid-twentieth century:
“Ahead of this move, a number of consumer advocacy groups had been pressuring YouTube and regulators alike to put an end to these types of videos, saying they blurred the lines between content and advertising. Plus, they argued, some creators weren’t disclosing that they had brand relationships behind the scenes that were fueling this sort of content production.
But without enforcement and guidelines around what’s appropriate for kids, some of YouTube’s largest creators were channels like multimillionaire Ryan Kaji of Ryan ToysReview (now Ryan’s World), which focused heavily on consumerism and toy unboxings.”
Videos that promote excessive consumerism, children’s media characters in unofficial videos in non kid-friendly situations, and bad behavior such as bullying, disrespect, dangerous pranks, lying, and unhealthy habits will be deemed low quality. Content creators will be warned by email before their videos are removed. YouTube has not disclosed how any creators will be impacted.
The good news is that better YouTube’s algorithm filters, the “better” quality videos to young viewers. Better quality videos include themes being a good person, promoting learning and curiosity, encouraging creativity, imagination, diversity, equity, and inclusion. None of that bulimia or self abuse hoo hah.
Allegedly? Yep.
Whitney Grace, November 8, 2021
Sinequa: Estimating Once and for All the Value of Search
November 8, 2021
Vendors of enterprise search systems have struggled for decades to explain the “value” of their systems and software. The task is a difficult one for several reasons:
- Search is a term which is difficult to define in a satisfactory way to each person, unit, department, job specialty, and executive in an organization. Why? Search is personal. Chemists don’t want what lawyers want; marketers don’t want what invoice clerks want.
- Search is perceived as either built in (Microsoft and Oracle provide crude tools to find items) or free (bright computer grads know about Solr).
- Search over the last 50 years has fragmented into specific tools for specialist jobs because the one-size fits all has demonstrated it does not work, produces financial meltdown (Convera, Entopia, Delphis, Hakia, etc.), creates legal hassles (Autonomy and Fast Search & Transfer), and crazy marketing hyperbole which does not deliver on time, on target, or within the budget (Dieselpoint, Endeca, Teratext, etc.)
I read “Sinequa Develops ROI Calculator for Determining the Benefits of Enterprise Search.” The write up asserts:
The new online tool has been designed to assess a company’s productivity and predict the potential productivity gains achievable with the company’s recently released Insight Apps deployed with Sinequa’s Intelligent Enterprise Search platform.
Might be worth a look, but I have learned that it is better to have a specific problem regarding information retrieval and then spell out what’s required. Then one can go looking for a system which delivers. Being sued? E-discovery. Hunting for information on your local machine? Everything. Information related to a law enforcement case? Datawalk.
Stephen E Arnold, November 8, 2021
Google Drug Discovery, Not Solving Death
November 5, 2021
In 2013, Google wanted to solve death. Just another problem for the Google wizards to address. The mission was assigned to Calico. Backers included Larry Page. Some thumbtypers will recall that Calico is not a plain woven fabric which can contain chunks of the boll’s husk. Nor is Calico a three color fur wrapper. Calico was the California Life Company. Calico suffered a blow when a couple of wizards left the Google to apply machine learning to drug design. Calico still exists, but it is not making much progress on the solving death problem.
What’s interesting is that Google is jumping into an application of machine learning to a less slippery problem: Using smart software to discover new drugs.
“Alphabet Is Launching a Company That Uses AI for Drug Discovery” reports:
A new Alphabet company will use artificial intelligence methods for drug discovery, Google’s parent company announced Thursday. It’ll build off of the work done by DeepMind, another Alphabet subsidiary that has done groundbreaking work using AI to predict the structure of proteins. The new company, called Isomorphic Laboratories, will leverage that success to build tools that can help identify new pharmaceuticals. DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis will also serve as the CEO for Isomorphic, but the two companies will stay separate and collaborate occasionally, a spokesperson said.
With the advent of computational chemistry, researchers could fire up a system like Daylight and head to lunch. Upon returning, the system could grind through some fancy math and output “candidates.” Better than paper and pencil work.
With the Covid thing, IBM in early 2020 stated that its Watson system (the Jeopardy winner, of course) would use deep generative models to identify drugs which would address the Covid thing. IBM’s public explanation appears in “Using Generative AI to Accelerate Drug Discovery.” How did that work out? I am not sure. There were candidate drugs, but I don’t recall any giant breakthrough. Maybe IBM is keeping its success secret like the value of the Web Fountain system?
Now the Google is in the drug discovery game. One of my researchers dubbed the effort, “the drug invention game.” I find it interesting that the solving death moon shot did not get off the launch pad. The idea is intriguing, but death? See “Google Vs Death”, please.
The new effort will be separate from the Google. My research suggests that the former leader of DeepMind has specific ideas about smart software. Some of those ideas are not in line with the Google approach or the methods crafted at the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. How does one deal with a management challenge?
The answer may be to cut the wizard off from the Google herd. Set up a separate company. Use the reliable me-too approach to innovation. Avoid internecine warfare between two different ideas about applied machine learning.
Will Google be able to make up for the lost momentum since 2013? I don’t know.
Stephen E Arnold, November 5, 2021
Credder: A New Fake News Finder
November 5, 2021
Fake news is a pandemic that spreads as fast as COVID-19 and wreaks as much havoc. While scientists created a cure for the virus, it is more difficult to cure misinformation. Make Use Of says there is a new tool to detect fake news: “How To Spot Fake News With This Handy Tool.”
Credder is a online platform designed by Chris Palmieri. He is a professional restaurateur and decided to build Credder after seeing potential in review sites like Yelp. Unlike Yelp and other review sites, Credder does not rate physical locations or items. The platform does not host any news articles. It crawls publications for the latest news and allows users and verified journalists to rate articles.
Credder is designed to fight clickbait and ensure information accuracy. Ratings are posted below each news brief. Verified journalists comment about their ratings and users can submit new pieces to rate.
Credder spots fake news in the following ways:
“Search for relevant articles on Credder. Besides each article, you will see the Public Rating and the User Critic Rating.
• The higher the rating, the more reliable the source.
• You can click on the article, and you’ll be taken to the parent website.
• There’s also a handy search tool that you can use to find articles or authors via keywords.
• Users can also rate individual authors and outlets. In turn, each user is assigned a rating from Credder as well. This is designed to ensure the quality of ratings across the platform.”
Credder relies on crowdsourcing and honesty to rate articles. There is not a system in place to verify journalist credentials and bias happens when users give their favorite authors and sources high scores. Credder, however, is transparent similar to the Web of Trust.
Fake news is a rash that will not go away, but it can be stopped. A little common sense and information literacy goes a long way in combatting fake news. Credder should start making PSAs for YouTube, Hulu, and cable TV.
Whitney Grace, November 5, 2021
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