The Brilliant "Don't Be Evil" Bookmarklet
Kudos to Facebook (with some help from Twitter and MySpace) for having the balls to do this. It’s a bookmarklet that replaces Google’s new “People and Pages” area, the hardcoded social search area, and the search completion drop-down, with organic results.
In other words, it makes the new Google behave more like the old Google.
There has been a lot of back and forth in recent weeks over Google’s new Search+ functionality — about how “fair” it is, and whether or not it should lead to antitrust inquiries. But the bottom line is this:
Search+ makes Google worse. It replaces relevancy with Google’s own agenda to pump up Google+.
I say kudos to Facebook because while this isn’t an official app they created, they let their key product manager, Blake Ross, work on it and deploy it knowing full well that everyone would immediately tie it to Facebook. That in turn will put some heat back on Facebook, which itself is far from fully open with regard to data — and is gearing up to IPO.
But again, the key issue here is that what Google is doing with Search+ is making Google worse. This bookmarklet illustrates that in a very effective way.
John Battelle and Danny Sullivan have more on this, as do others. And be sure to watch the Focus On The User walk-through video, narrated by Ross himself.
To my kids: No, just because I don’t work at Microsoft anymore you may not use Google. Remember, every time you use Google, a puppy dies.
The Telling Story of a Once Faithful Google Apostle Saved by Vic Gundotra after Automated System Falsely Flags Account for Possessing Child Pornography | SiliconANGLE
Oh good. Maybe Senior Vice President Vic Gundotra has the time to personally look into each erroneously cancelled account and call each wronged user from now on.
Or maybe Google could muster a sliver of its incredible engineering power and discover a clue about providing customer service.
There’s a very simple business reason why Google cares if they have your real name. It means it’s possible to cross-relate your account with your buying behavior with their partners, who might be banks, retailers, supermarkets, hospitals, airlines. To connect with your use of cell phones that might be running their mobile operating system. To provide identity in a commerce-ready way. And to give them information about what you do on the Internet, without obfuscation of pseudonyms.
Simply put, a real name is worth more than a fake one.
By limiting the number of people who can join Google+, Google is hugely limiting what kind of experience those people will have. Early adopters have plenty of influence on mainstream opinion and love to boast, so if they log into a barren wasteland then you can bet they’ll be telling their friends that ‘yeah, I’m on Google+, but it’s not that great’.
Duncan Geere writing at Wired’s Epicenter blog on why you don’t need to find yourself a Google+ invite (via cnnmoneytech)
This sounds really familiar….
oh right, it’s what everyone was saying when Google Wave came out.
Google’s gay pride flap
screenshot via CNN.com
I live a few hundred feet away from The Stonewall Inn, the West Village haunt where the gay rights movement began. As you might suspect, after same-sex marriage was legalized in New York state on Friday, people were dancing and popping champagne in the streets outside the Stonewall to celebrate.
Under fire, however, is how Google chose to celebrate not only the new law, but Gay Pride month as a whole.
As our CNN.com cousins wrote a few days ago, Google’s gay pride doodle is rather, well, hidden compared with the others. Typically, Google’s beloved doodles transform its logo on the homepage and search pages.
But for Gay Pride month, all through June a little rainbow pops up next to Google’s search bar only when users search for certain “pride-related” terms, including “gay,” “lesbian,” “homosexuality,” “LGBT,” “marriage equality,” “bisexual” and “transgender.”
Critics, including Nicholas Jackson at The Atlantic, think Google’s effort is disappointing. Other commend them for making any effort at all.
I’m not going to weigh in on that, but I did sort of expect Google to make a stronger statement in light of its powerful “It Gets Better” video featuring LGBT employees including a transgender woman.
So, I put it to you: What do you think of Google’s Gay Pride Month Doodle? Is it too little, just right, or not even an issue Google should broach? -Julianne
Facebook is going to see their traffic get cut in half by Google Buzz.
Jason Calacanis, February 10th, 2010 on Google Buzz.
I occasionally reread this article to feel better about myself.
(via nerdcast)
I have no words for this. Really, Google? Really?
