Category Archives: Uncategorized

Irony

PLAYBOY: Portals attempt to create what they call sticky content to keep a user as long as possible.

[Google co-founder, Larry] PAGE: That's the problem. Most portals show their own content above content elsewhere on the web. We feel that's a conflict of interest, analogous to taking money for search results. Their search engine doesn't necessarily provide the best results; it provides the portal's results. Google conscientiously tries to stay away from that. We want to get you out of Google and to the right place as fast as possible. It's a very different model.

But that was in 2004. Things have changed.

via Google Is Facebook Is AOL: What Happens When a Good Google Goes Bad

Me

As an experiment, I gave Google Image Search a picture of my face. This is what it turned up for "Visually Similar Pictures".

I don't look like any of those people. But, that's what a head-shot in a beige shirt with a dark background looks like, I guess.

Badthink Prevention

You may not know this (I sure didn't!) but Google will give you links to things which might not be true!

Over at Slate, Evgeny Morozov has a couple of suggestions on how to fix this.

The options aren't many. One is to train our browsers to flag information that may be suspicious or disputed. Thus, every time a claim like "vaccination leads to autism" appears in our browser, that sentence would be marked in red—perhaps, also accompanied by a pop-up window advising us to check a more authoritative source. The trick here is to come up with a database of disputed claims that itself would correspond to the latest consensus in modern science—a challenging goal that projects like “Dispute Finder” are tackling head on.

The second—and not necessarily mutually exclusive—option is to nudge search engines to take more responsibility for their index and exercise a heavier curatorial control in presenting search results for issues like "global warming" or "vaccination." Google already has a list of search queries that send most traffic to sites that trade in pseudoscience and conspiracy theories; why not treat them differently than normal queries? Thus, whenever users are presented with search results that are likely to send them to sites run by pseudoscientists or conspiracy theorists, Google may simply display a huge red banner asking users to exercise caution and check a previously generated list of authoritative resources before making up their minds.

Yes! A truth authority!

What could go wrong?

Unfortunately, Google's recent embrace of social search, whereby links shared by our friends on Google's own social network suddenly gain prominence in our search results, moves the company in the opposite direction. It's not unreasonable to think that denialists of global warming or benefits of vaccination are online friends with other denialists. As such, finding information that contradicts one's views would be even harder. This is one more reason for Google to atone for its sins and ensure that subjects dominated by pseudoscience and conspiracy theories are given a socially responsible curated treatment.

Damn you, Google.

Fight Me!

A 38-year-old Willowbrook man accused of calling 911 and asking to fight a police officer faces felony battery and resisting arrest charges, police said on Monday.

Police said John R. Pacella, of the 200 block of Stanhope Drive, was arrested after a 911 call from a man who “wanted to see an officer because he wanted to fight with them” about 4 a.m. on Jan. 19, police said.

When officers arrived at Pacella’s home, he shoved the officers, according to a police report.

Pacella was booked into DuPage County Jail, where he remains on $100,000 bail, according to jail records. He is charged with aggravated battery, resisting a police officer, and battery with intent to provoke or insult – all felonies – records indicate.

Willowbrook police say they have had prior contact with Pacella, who is registered sex offender.