Has Google Search Lost Interest in South Africa?
July 1, 2022
I read “Google.co.za Is Down and the Domain Is Pending Deletion.” The write up states:
The website address google.co.za, which many South Africans use to access the Google search engine, was unavailable on Friday – apparently because the company failed to renew the domain. Popular subdomains, including news.google.co.za and maps.google.co.za were also unavailable.
And so are the ads! That’s serious, gentle reader.
Like WebAccelerator and Orkut, the Google can lose interest in a project. Remember when Google was going to solve death. I also liked the quaint idea of relevant search which is morphing into a jazzed up way to catch up with Amazon ecommerce search.
The article points out:
The google.co.za domain was registered by MarkMonitor on Google’s behalf. According to WikiPedia, MarkMonitor is a US software company that protects corporate brands from Internet counterfeiting, fraud, piracy and cybersquatting.
Has MarkMonitor some of the characteristics of the recruiting and contractor savvy firm responsible for placing alleged cult members in one Google unit.
My thought is that if the country of South Africa has been deemed surplus, the reason may be that someone had a bad safari experience or because … Google.
Stephen E Arnold, July 1, 2022
Open Source Software: Is the Golden Age Unwinding?
July 1, 2022
I spotted a modest, probably inconsequential, article called “Tech War: China Doubles Down on Domestic Operating Systems to Cut Reliance on Windows, MacOS from the US.” Two thoughts struck me: First, is “Kylinsoft” pronounced “kill them softly”? Second, with Chinese contributions to open source creeping upwards, will the Kylinsoft thrust gut some useful open source software projects. (I suppose I could ask myself, “Gee, perhaps the clean code goes to the Kylinsoft thrust and the poisoned stuff flows into non-China approved repositories?” I am not going to ask that question. Why would a nation state take such a nefarious approach to the free and open community minded approach to code?)
The write up takes the approach that China wants to be free of non-China software. The future is digital; therefore, a free future requires free software Chinese entities can trust. Also, the article uses the word “war” several times. That’s interesting. A software war fought on free and open source software governed by crystal clear rules of the information superhighway.
What entity is nudging Kylinsoft forward? The write up answers the question this way:
Kylinsoft, a subsidiary of state-owned China Electronics Corp, last week joined forces with more than 10 Chinese entities, including the National Industrial Information Security Development Research Centre, to set up an open-source code community.
Probably no big deal, right? Killin’ ‘em softly with love. A swan song?
Stephen E Arnold, July 1, 2022
TikTok: Are the Tiks and Toks Keeping Facebook and Google Execs Awake at Night?
July 1, 2022
Eric Schmidt made a comment that Qwant keeps him up at night. Ah, those were the good old days for Google senior management. Now, the TikTok noise is louder and getting louder. And the Zuck not only has to figure out what’s shakin’ with his investigation of his trusted sidekick, he has to sound proof the office against that annoying TikTok racking up clicks and ads.
I spotted a story called “TikTok App Turns on the Money Machine, Threatens Facebook, Google.” The source is linked, but, please, don’t contact me to complain that it has gone dead. If you cannot locate the story, just forget that I have mentioned it. If you do get the link to resolve, congratulations. Next you will become a search engine optimization wizard!
The write up is interesting because it contains some factoids I had not noticed in the last couple of weeks. Here’s a selection:
Here’s a good one:
the 22-year-old earns more than $100,000 a year on the short-video platform TikTok. Brands like Coach, Netflix and Amazon Prime Video pay up to reach her 9 million followers, mostly teenage and pre-teen girls who would not dream of visiting Facebook.
And another:
TikTok raked in nearly $4 billion in revenue in 2021, mostly from advertising, and is projected to hit $12 billion this year, according to the research firm eMarketer. That would make it bigger than Twitter Inc. and Snap Inc. combined — three years after it started accepting ads on the platform.
What about this?
Its average user in the US now spends about 29 hours a month with the service, more than Facebook (16 hours) and Instagram (8 hours) put together, according to mobile researcher Data.ai.
Plus this item about TikTok’s parent company:
ByteDance?s revenue hit an estimated $58 billion last year and its growth is faster than any other major social network.
Also this:
TikTok is diversifying into music distribution, game publishing and Twitch-style subscriptions. It?s also edging into e-commerce..
Facebook and Google talk big and act even bigger. The problem is the slope of TikTok growth. Going slowly in the growth department is not for TikTok.
Where’s that growth going to come from? The skin of the Zuck and the hide of Googzilla. Then TikTok will go hunting in the Amazon.
Stephen E Arnold, July 1, 2022
Google: Trust an Issue?
July 1, 2022
I read “After 16 Years, Google Is Doing the 1 Thing No Company Should Ever Do.” The write up states:
Google is now requiring businesses who still have a G Suite Legacy Free Edition account to transition to a paid Workspace account by June 27. If you don’t, the company will do it for you. If you don’t start paying by August 1, Google will suspend your account.
The point of the article is that Google once said, “Hey, free!”
The business magazine appears to find Google’s behavior surprising, fresh, new, different, and bad. The effect is to erode the trust one has in Google. Trust! Google?
I learned in “Google Pledges to Negotiate Fairly with French News Media” (Wall Street Journal, June 22, 2022):
France’s competition authority said … that a new set of promises that Google made, including a pledge to give publishers estimates of indirect revenue it generates from including news content in its search results, has resolved a dispute that has stretched for more than two years.
Does this mean that Google was not negotiating fairly?
Okay whatever.
I wonder how many people have notice that Google has some other tricks up its sleeve.
Impressive. But TikTok continues to gobble up online advertising dollars. And Amazon is building its online ad business. (To deal with Amazon, the pesky online bookstore, Google has deployed the absolutely fantastic Prabhakar Raghavan to make free Google Web search more like a product catalog. Take that, Amazon!
Here’s one trust example possibly related to YouTube advertisers seeking the wlw audience. The estimable Murdochian newspaper published “YouTube Gains on TikTok in Short Video.” The story ran in the Wall Street Journal on June 16, 2022. Here’s one factoid which is allegedly true:
More than 1.5 billion people watch YouTube Shorts every month…. The short video service had reached a comparable scale to rival app TikTok after launching less than two years ago.
I noticed that when one searches YouTube for “wlw”, there are a number of hits to TikTok compilations on this topic of “women loving women.” Upon further inspection, Google Shorts includes these long form compilations in its short form video service. Clicking on a single TikTok source video repeats the video until the user terminates it.
So what?
Answer: Clicks, gentle reader.
If one is an advertiser, one may want to explore how much TikTok content is helping the Google grow at its impressive rate.
Trust? Inc. Magazine understands trust I think.
Stephen E Arnold, July 1, 2022
UK Court Not into MI5, MI6, and GCHQ Methods
July 1, 2022
I read “After Landmark Legal Defeat MI5 Will Have to Get Authorization to Snoop.” In my recent lecture for the Massachusetts Association of Crime Analysts, I pointed out that the political environment for certain types of information collection was volatile. Furthermore, even open sources of information come in shades of gray. This means that information available on the Web could in some situations be deemed inappropriate for use by government authorities.
The write up states:
Liberty lawyer Megan Goulding said: “This judgment is a major victory in the fight against mass surveillance. The court has agreed that it’s too easy for the security services to get their hands on our data.
Some will be happy with this ruling; others will not be thrilled. What’s clear is that the “golden age” for certain types of information access is changing. Will the US, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand fall in line?
Stephen E Arnold, July 1, 2022
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