Google's New Algorithm

Yesterday, Google announced via its blog, that it had made some changes to its algorithm.  For certain queries, they are going to show more results from a specific domain.  In their own words, "For queries that indicate a strong user interest in a particular domain, like [exhibitions at amnh], we’ll now show more results from the relevant site:"  It looks like it will mostly only effect the results for Big Brands but not the small ones.

The Good
Its sounds like a great idea for companies who are trying to manage their reputation online.  It will be easier for them to dominate and get more of their own, and therefore more positive, results in the top ten.

The Bad
What if I am a user who is looking for what others think about the company and not what they think of themselves?  I will have to dig a little deeper and may need to go to the second and third pages to get someone else's opinion.  Not a big deal, but still pushes down possibly important info.

There are some good things to this and some bad.  For some users it will be helpful to see more results from the Big Brand domain.  For others though, it will be less than helpful.  And I am not sure there is any good way to distinguish between the two users searching for info on a big brand.

Plagiarism's Revenge

This is just too funny. I read Ian Lurie's Conversation Marketing Blog and just came across his hilarious post about Plagiarism. Apparently someone stole his article as well as hot linked his image in the article. So just to have a little fun, Ian replaced the image with another image that reads,

"I stole this from someone.
They got mad.
Now I have this hideous thing in my blog.
If I wasn't a lazy, thieving butthole, I'd probably find this someday and remove it.
But chances are I won't. Because I'm, you know, a lazy, thieving butthole.

My brain (with a line to a small dot)."

Go Ian. Plagiarism is for lazy people and never pays.

Google vs. Facebook - The War

The social networking war is heating up.  With Google's purchase of Slide and Jambool, Facebook has gone to DEFCON 1 and ordered Lockdown across the company.  The Lockdown, noted by the neon Lockdown sign on Zuck's office door, has been declared for the next 60 days to prepare Facebook for the upcoming launch of Google Me.  Its all out war.

Both companies seem to be drawing the battle front on technology and features.  This draws the conclusion that better technology makes a better social networking experience.  But I don't think technology is the real battle front.  The keyword is social not technology.

Its Where My Friends Are
No amount of technology can overcome the one great challenge that Google faces and Facebook already owns.  Its where my friends are.  Sure, Facebook doesn't own me or my friends, but its where they all are.  I suppose if all my friends were on MySpace, I probably would be there too.  And technology alone just can't overcome this social inertia that Facebook has (ie 500,000,000 people and growing).

Newton's second law of motion:

"by which every body, as much as in it lies, endeavors to preserve in its present state"

It won't work to get a few early adopters to move and hope the rest will eventually follow.  No one wants to be on a social network all by themselves.  For me to move, you would have to get all of my friends to move.  And all of their friends.  And all of their friend's friends. And so on to the tune of 500 Million because we are all connected. And do it all at once.  Basically you need a digital Moses to lead a mass exodus to the social promised land.

But it happened with MySpace.  No, not really.  MySpace was big, but it didn't have the social inertia that Facebook does.  It never reached the critical mass that Facebook has.

If Google wants to win, they need to figure out the social aspect of it and not worry so much about the technology aspect.  Otherwise they will just end up with another Google Buzz.

Google Wave is Dead

It was announced yesterday that Google Wave will no longer be developed and will probably be shut down at the end of the year.

I would say I told you so, but I guess I didn't blog about it when it was launched and so I have nothing to prove that I thought it would fail.

So I will say this.  Amidst all the talk about it, I never knew quite what I was supposed to do with Google Wave and neither did any of my friends.  And I consider myself fairly tech savvy.  It just never really made my life easier or filled a need that I had.

So honestly, the announcement is no surprise.  Hopefully Google will keep creating useful things.  More useful than Wave.

Its about listening not following

I just read an article on ReadWriteWeb about people buying Twitter followers.  What a waste.

Most of these people who are buying the followers are probably selling something and are hoping to leverage Twitter as an advertising/marketing platform.  What they don't understand is, just because they are gaining follower, doesn't mean that any of those followers are listening (to your marketing message).


And listening not following is the key.  You can easily follow someone on Twitter, but not listen to anything they have to say, which is what is happening with the purchased Twitter followers.

Speaking to 1 person and have that 1 person listen yields a net gain of 1 person listening.

Speaking to 20,000 people and not having anyone listen yields a net gain of 0.

Its about listening, not following.