2012 Year in Review: Best of Technology:
When it comes to technology, Design Milk brings you everything from smartphone and tablet accessories, cameras, various ways to tell time, and so much more. And it’s clear – if it’s useful or makes our lives easier (and, sometimes just because it’s just pretty), we’re going to embrace it.
10. Ilott Vintage Cameras
Classic mid-century rangefinder cameras get a makeover in the form of a new wood veneer facade, making each camera one-of-a-kind.
9. IRIS Camera Lens by Mimi Zou
A biometrics enabled camera that is controlled by your eye, to capture exactly what you see.
8. Fresh From The Dairy: Minimalist iPhone Cases
Always with the freshest of fresh art and design, Society6 made you swoon for these four simple cases.
7. Impossible Instant Lab: Turn iPhone Images into Real Photos
It appears we all still love instant gratification, especially when it comes to photos and this little device prints your digital images from your iPhone for you.
6. ShopBot Brings CNC Machines to Your Garage (or Your Desk!)
CNC, or Computer Numerical Control machines are prevalent in the design world and ShopBot brings them to the public in the form of affordable, household versions you can use at home.
5. Gizmon iCA iPhone Case
This iPhone case gives the look of a vintage camera with two “lenses” that attach to the front and a shutter button that actually works. Complete with a detachable tripod and holes to attach a strap so you can really make it look like a camera.
4. Brydge iPad Keyboard
Turn your iPad into a laptop with this full-size keyboard. No more two-finger pecking when trying to write an email on your iPad.
3. White & White Clock by Vadim Kibardin
A three-dimensional version of a traditional digital clock that can be wall-mounted or propped up on a desk or table.
2. Kees – Design Your Own iPhone Case
Design your own plastic iPhone case with the help of 3D printing which allows you to customize it to the case of your dreams.
And the most loved piece of technology we brought you in 2012 was…
1. QLOCKTWO W Watch
Want to know the time? Well, this watch spells it out for you in plain English (or German or French).
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© 2012 Design Milk | Posted by Caroline in News + Events, Technology | Permalink | 1 comment
http://banglamdfarid-com.webs.com/www.banglamdfarid.com
29/12/2012
CMYLK: Festive Tablescapes
CMYLK: Festive Tablescapes:
There’s nothing like the holidays to inspire one’s inner Martha Stewart. But who needs to get all New England? New Year’s Eve, after all, is more glitz and glam than country baked ham. While a woodsy palette with simple white ceramics, a touch of moss, and a sprinkling of pine cones can delight the modern maven, other palettes are equally as pretty. Above, a winter wonderland that’s modern and femme, and finally, at the bottom, the gold sparkle that is always a win on December 31. We hope you’ll find inspiration in these festive table settings and corresponding Colourlovers palettes. Happy New Year!
Photo above by Joielala Photography for Sitting in a Tree Events
Photo courtesy of The Kitchn
Photo by Yasmin Khajavi Photography for Style Me Pretty
Share This: Twitter | Facebook | Discover more great design by following Design Milk on Twitter and Facebook.
© 2012 Design Milk | Posted by Marni in Home Furnishings | Permalink | No comments
http://banglamdfarid-com.webs.com/www.banglamdfarid.com
There’s nothing like the holidays to inspire one’s inner Martha Stewart. But who needs to get all New England? New Year’s Eve, after all, is more glitz and glam than country baked ham. While a woodsy palette with simple white ceramics, a touch of moss, and a sprinkling of pine cones can delight the modern maven, other palettes are equally as pretty. Above, a winter wonderland that’s modern and femme, and finally, at the bottom, the gold sparkle that is always a win on December 31. We hope you’ll find inspiration in these festive table settings and corresponding Colourlovers palettes. Happy New Year!
Photo above by Joielala Photography for Sitting in a Tree Events
Photo courtesy of The Kitchn
Photo by Yasmin Khajavi Photography for Style Me Pretty
Share This: Twitter | Facebook | Discover more great design by following Design Milk on Twitter and Facebook.
© 2012 Design Milk | Posted by Marni in Home Furnishings | Permalink | No comments
http://banglamdfarid-com.webs.com/www.banglamdfarid.com
2012 Year in Review: Best of Style + Fashion
2012 Year in Review: Best of Style + Fashion:
When it comes to style and fashion, Design Milk brings you a little bit of this and a little bit of that. From the wearable to the outrageous, to the avant-garde to the mainstream, we look back at the best of everything style-related in 2012.
10. Air Tattoo Jewelry Made from Paper by Logical Art
Hand-drawn patterns turned into leather-like paper jewelry that gives the feel of an “air-like tattoo.”
9. Bogobrush: The Biodegradable, Buy-One-Give-One Toothbrush
Bogobrush donates a toothbrush to someone who needs one every time one is purchased. It’s an easy way to give back while you keep your own grill clean.
8. Wooden Wallet by Haydanhuya
A felt-lined wooden wallet that stashes your credit cards and folded bills for safe keeping in your pocket.
7. Alexander McQueen Rainbow Dress Recreated Using 50,000 Gummi Bears Looks Good Enough to Eat
The infamous rainbow feather dress, designed by Alexander McQueen, gets recreated in the form of 50,000 Gummi Bears. Fashion that’s truly mouth-watering, right?
6. Triangle Notebook by Tan Mavitan
We couldn’t get enough of this triangular-shaped notebook and apparently you couldn’t either. It’s obsession-worthy.
5. Disappointments Diary 2013
A daily calendar for the inner pessimist in all of us.
4. Freekey Press-to-Open Key Ring
A simple metal key ring that won’t break every fingernail or jab your finger every time you go to add a new key.
3. Glovers
Gloves made for lovers = Glovers. Genius.
2. Grass Flip Flops
Sometimes there’s nothing better than walking barefoot in the grass and now you can do just that year round with these.
And the most popular Style + Fashion post of 2012 was…
1. Iris van Herpen x United Nude Fang Shoes
10 fiberglass and carbon fiber fangs that hold this wedge shoe (and you) up with complete fierceness.
Share This: Twitter | Facebook | Discover more great design by following Design Milk on Twitter and Facebook.
© 2012 Design Milk | Posted by Caroline in News + Events, Style + Fashion | Permalink | No comments
http://banglamdfarid-com.webs.com/www.banglamdfarid.com
When it comes to style and fashion, Design Milk brings you a little bit of this and a little bit of that. From the wearable to the outrageous, to the avant-garde to the mainstream, we look back at the best of everything style-related in 2012.
10. Air Tattoo Jewelry Made from Paper by Logical Art
Hand-drawn patterns turned into leather-like paper jewelry that gives the feel of an “air-like tattoo.”
9. Bogobrush: The Biodegradable, Buy-One-Give-One Toothbrush
Bogobrush donates a toothbrush to someone who needs one every time one is purchased. It’s an easy way to give back while you keep your own grill clean.
8. Wooden Wallet by Haydanhuya
A felt-lined wooden wallet that stashes your credit cards and folded bills for safe keeping in your pocket.
7. Alexander McQueen Rainbow Dress Recreated Using 50,000 Gummi Bears Looks Good Enough to Eat
The infamous rainbow feather dress, designed by Alexander McQueen, gets recreated in the form of 50,000 Gummi Bears. Fashion that’s truly mouth-watering, right?
6. Triangle Notebook by Tan Mavitan
We couldn’t get enough of this triangular-shaped notebook and apparently you couldn’t either. It’s obsession-worthy.
5. Disappointments Diary 2013
A daily calendar for the inner pessimist in all of us.
4. Freekey Press-to-Open Key Ring
A simple metal key ring that won’t break every fingernail or jab your finger every time you go to add a new key.
3. Glovers
Gloves made for lovers = Glovers. Genius.
2. Grass Flip Flops
Sometimes there’s nothing better than walking barefoot in the grass and now you can do just that year round with these.
And the most popular Style + Fashion post of 2012 was…
1. Iris van Herpen x United Nude Fang Shoes
10 fiberglass and carbon fiber fangs that hold this wedge shoe (and you) up with complete fierceness.
Share This: Twitter | Facebook | Discover more great design by following Design Milk on Twitter and Facebook.
© 2012 Design Milk | Posted by Caroline in News + Events, Style + Fashion | Permalink | No comments
http://banglamdfarid-com.webs.com/www.banglamdfarid.com
Facebook Is Now Making Its Own Weather
Facebook Is Now Making Its Own Weather:
The post Facebook Is Now Making Its Own Weather appeared first on John Battelle's Search Blog.
(image) The past month or so has seen the rise and fall of an interesting Internet tempest – the kind of story that gets widely picked up, then quickly amplified into storms of anger, then eventually dies down as the folks who care enough to dig into the facts figure out that the truth is somewhere outside the lines of the original headline-grabbing story.
The topic this time around centers on Facebook’s native ad unit called “Sponsored Stories,” and allegations that the company is gaming its “Edgerank” algorithm such that folks once accustomed to free promotion of their work on Facebook must now pay for that distribution.
Edgerank determines the posts you see in your Facebook newsfeed, and many sites noticed that sometime early this Fall, their traffic from Facebook shrank dramatically. Others claimed traffic had been declining since the Spring, but it wasn’t until this Fall that the story gained significant traction.
I’ve been watching all this play out – first via an angry post on the New York Observer site in which the author posits that Facebook is “broken on purpose” so as to harvest Sponsored Story revenue. An even angrier post on the same theme came five weeks later on a site called Dangerous Minds. From it:
Now, as I’ve noted many times over the past six months, this bargain is breaking down, because it’s getting harder and harder to monetize traffic using standard display advertising units. That’s not Facebook’s problem, per se, it’s ours. (See here for my suggestions as to how to solve it).
Nevertheless, for many sites, the spectre of losing significant traffic from Facebook means a serious blow to revenues. And from the point of view of the Dangerous Minds blogger, Facebook first cut his traffic off, then began asking him to pay to get it back (in the form of promoting his posts via Sponsored Stories).
This makes for a very good narrative: corporate greed laid bare. It got picked up by a lot of sites, including Ars Technica and even the aforementioned George Takei, who is upset that he’s lost the ability to push his posts to all 2.9 million of his Facebook fans.
Turns out, the truth is a lot more complicated. I’ve done some reporting on this issue, but not nearly as much as TechCrunch did. In a follow up to the Dangerous Minds story, TechCrunch claimed to have debunked the entire story. Titled Killing Rumors With Facts: No, Facebook Didn’t Decrease Page Feed Reach To Sell More Promoted Posts, the story argues that Facebook didn’t change its algorithms to drive up revenue, but rather to cull “spammy posts” from folks’ newsfeeds.
Facebook has always shown just a percentage of all possible posts in a given person’s newsfeed. Anyone paying attention already knew that. The company uses its Edgerank algorithm to determine what it thinks might be interesting to an individual, and sometime in the past few months, I can confirm through sources which wish to remain anonymous that Facebook made a pretty significant change to Edgerank that penalized posts that it felt were not high quality.
Of course, that begs the question: How does Facebook determine what “quality” is? The answer, in the main, is by measuring engagement – is the post shared, liked, clicked on, etc? If so, then it is seen as quality. If not, it’s demoted in value.
Is this sounding familiar to anyone yet? In short, Facebook just executed a Panda.
I held back from writing anything till this predictable cycle played out, because I had a theory, one that I believe is now confirmed: Facebook is now making its own weather, just like Google, and in the past couple months, we’ve witnessed the first widespread instance of a Facebook weather event.
For those of you who don’t know quite what I’m talking about, a bit of history. Ten or so years ago, the ecosystem around search began to notice shifts in how Google drove traffic around the web. Google would make a change to its algorithms, and all of a sudden some sites would see their traffic plummet (other sites sometimes saw the opposite occur). It seemed to those injured that the only way to get their Google traffic back was to buy Google AdWords – corporate greed laid bare. This story played out over and over, to the point where the weather events started to get names, just like hurricanes do. (The first was called Boston).
Early last year Google made a major change to its algorithms that penalized what it believed was lower quality content. Dubbed “Panda,” the changes targeted “content farms” that cranked out SEO friendly pages as AdWords bait. This had dramatic effects on many sites that specialized in “gaming” Google. It also hit sites that weren’t necessarily playing that game – updates like Panda often create collateral damage. Over time, and as it always does, Google fine-tuned Panda until the ecosystem stabilized.
I believe that Facebook is now learning how to manage its own weather. I don’t know the Dangerous Minds website well enough to know if it deserved the drop in traffic that occurred when Facebook had its Panda moment. But one thing does strike me as interesting to note: A significant drop in traffic means a particular site is losing audience that has proactively decided to click on a link inside their newsfeed. That click means the person leaves Facebook and goes to the the Dangerous Minds site. To me, that’s a pretty serious sign of engagement.
However, one might argue that such a signal is not as important to Facebook as internal ones such as “liking” or “sharing” across the Facebook network. To that end, I am sure we’ve not heard the last round of serious grumbling that Facebook is gaming its own Edgerank algorithm to benefit Facebook’s internal goals – to the detriment of the “rest of the web.” Be they publishers or folks like George Takei, who after all wants to push his Facebook fans to any number of external links where they might buy his books or sign up to meet him at the next Comic Con, the rest of the web depends on “social traffic” from Facebook. The question is, should they optimize for that traffic, or will their efforts be nullified in the next Edgerank update?
Facebook is learning how to tread the delicate line between its own best interests, and those of its users – and the Internet That Is Not Facebook. Google does this every day – but it has a long history as a distributor of traffic off its main site. Facebook, not so much. Over time, the company will have to decide what kind of a relationship it wants to have with the “rest of the web.” It will probably have to start engaging more openly with its own ecosystem, providing guidance on best practices and how to avoid being penalized. This is a practice that took Google years to hone, and many still think the company has a lot of work to do.
Regardless, Facebook is now making its own weather. Now comes the fun part: Trying to predict it.
The post Facebook Is Now Making Its Own Weather appeared first on John Battelle's Search Blog.
http://banglamdfarid-com.webs.com/www.banglamdfarid.com
The post Facebook Is Now Making Its Own Weather appeared first on John Battelle's Search Blog.
(image) The past month or so has seen the rise and fall of an interesting Internet tempest – the kind of story that gets widely picked up, then quickly amplified into storms of anger, then eventually dies down as the folks who care enough to dig into the facts figure out that the truth is somewhere outside the lines of the original headline-grabbing story.
The topic this time around centers on Facebook’s native ad unit called “Sponsored Stories,” and allegations that the company is gaming its “Edgerank” algorithm such that folks once accustomed to free promotion of their work on Facebook must now pay for that distribution.
Edgerank determines the posts you see in your Facebook newsfeed, and many sites noticed that sometime early this Fall, their traffic from Facebook shrank dramatically. Others claimed traffic had been declining since the Spring, but it wasn’t until this Fall that the story gained significant traction.
I’ve been watching all this play out – first via an angry post on the New York Observer site in which the author posits that Facebook is “broken on purpose” so as to harvest Sponsored Story revenue. An even angrier post on the same theme came five weeks later on a site called Dangerous Minds. From it:
Spring of 2012 was when bloggers, non-profits, indie bands, George Takei, community theaters, photographers, caterers, artists, mega-churches, high schools, tee-shirt vendors, campus coffee shops, art galleries, museums, charities, food trucks, and a near infinite variety of organizations; individuals from all walks of life; and businesses, both large and small, began to detect—for it was almost imperceptible at first—that the volume was getting turned down on their Facebook reach. Each post was now being seen only by a fraction of their total “fans” who would previously have seen them.The author goes on to argue that Facebook was breaking the implicit contract between himself – an independent blogger – and Facebook, the corporation.
…as a publisher of a medium readership blog, I used to get a great deal from using Facebook—but I understood it to be a two-way reciprocal arrangement because I was driving traffic back to Facebook as well, and reinforcing their brand awareness with prominent widgets on our blog.Now, if you’ve read my Thneeds post, you know I’m sympathetic to this point of view. I believe large social platforms like Facebook and Twitter “harvest” content from the Indpendent Web, and leverage the traffic and engagement that this content creates on their platforms to their own benefit via scaled advertising offerings. Most of us are fine with the deal – we promote our work on social sites, social sites drive traffic back to us. We like that traffic, either just because we like more folks reading our work, or, in the case of commercial sites like this one, because we serve ads against it.
Now, as I’ve noted many times over the past six months, this bargain is breaking down, because it’s getting harder and harder to monetize traffic using standard display advertising units. That’s not Facebook’s problem, per se, it’s ours. (See here for my suggestions as to how to solve it).
Nevertheless, for many sites, the spectre of losing significant traffic from Facebook means a serious blow to revenues. And from the point of view of the Dangerous Minds blogger, Facebook first cut his traffic off, then began asking him to pay to get it back (in the form of promoting his posts via Sponsored Stories).
This makes for a very good narrative: corporate greed laid bare. It got picked up by a lot of sites, including Ars Technica and even the aforementioned George Takei, who is upset that he’s lost the ability to push his posts to all 2.9 million of his Facebook fans.
Turns out, the truth is a lot more complicated. I’ve done some reporting on this issue, but not nearly as much as TechCrunch did. In a follow up to the Dangerous Minds story, TechCrunch claimed to have debunked the entire story. Titled Killing Rumors With Facts: No, Facebook Didn’t Decrease Page Feed Reach To Sell More Promoted Posts, the story argues that Facebook didn’t change its algorithms to drive up revenue, but rather to cull “spammy posts” from folks’ newsfeeds.
Facebook has always shown just a percentage of all possible posts in a given person’s newsfeed. Anyone paying attention already knew that. The company uses its Edgerank algorithm to determine what it thinks might be interesting to an individual, and sometime in the past few months, I can confirm through sources which wish to remain anonymous that Facebook made a pretty significant change to Edgerank that penalized posts that it felt were not high quality.
Of course, that begs the question: How does Facebook determine what “quality” is? The answer, in the main, is by measuring engagement – is the post shared, liked, clicked on, etc? If so, then it is seen as quality. If not, it’s demoted in value.
Is this sounding familiar to anyone yet? In short, Facebook just executed a Panda.
I held back from writing anything till this predictable cycle played out, because I had a theory, one that I believe is now confirmed: Facebook is now making its own weather, just like Google, and in the past couple months, we’ve witnessed the first widespread instance of a Facebook weather event.
For those of you who don’t know quite what I’m talking about, a bit of history. Ten or so years ago, the ecosystem around search began to notice shifts in how Google drove traffic around the web. Google would make a change to its algorithms, and all of a sudden some sites would see their traffic plummet (other sites sometimes saw the opposite occur). It seemed to those injured that the only way to get their Google traffic back was to buy Google AdWords – corporate greed laid bare. This story played out over and over, to the point where the weather events started to get names, just like hurricanes do. (The first was called Boston).
Early last year Google made a major change to its algorithms that penalized what it believed was lower quality content. Dubbed “Panda,” the changes targeted “content farms” that cranked out SEO friendly pages as AdWords bait. This had dramatic effects on many sites that specialized in “gaming” Google. It also hit sites that weren’t necessarily playing that game – updates like Panda often create collateral damage. Over time, and as it always does, Google fine-tuned Panda until the ecosystem stabilized.
I believe that Facebook is now learning how to manage its own weather. I don’t know the Dangerous Minds website well enough to know if it deserved the drop in traffic that occurred when Facebook had its Panda moment. But one thing does strike me as interesting to note: A significant drop in traffic means a particular site is losing audience that has proactively decided to click on a link inside their newsfeed. That click means the person leaves Facebook and goes to the the Dangerous Minds site. To me, that’s a pretty serious sign of engagement.
However, one might argue that such a signal is not as important to Facebook as internal ones such as “liking” or “sharing” across the Facebook network. To that end, I am sure we’ve not heard the last round of serious grumbling that Facebook is gaming its own Edgerank algorithm to benefit Facebook’s internal goals – to the detriment of the “rest of the web.” Be they publishers or folks like George Takei, who after all wants to push his Facebook fans to any number of external links where they might buy his books or sign up to meet him at the next Comic Con, the rest of the web depends on “social traffic” from Facebook. The question is, should they optimize for that traffic, or will their efforts be nullified in the next Edgerank update?
Facebook is learning how to tread the delicate line between its own best interests, and those of its users – and the Internet That Is Not Facebook. Google does this every day – but it has a long history as a distributor of traffic off its main site. Facebook, not so much. Over time, the company will have to decide what kind of a relationship it wants to have with the “rest of the web.” It will probably have to start engaging more openly with its own ecosystem, providing guidance on best practices and how to avoid being penalized. This is a practice that took Google years to hone, and many still think the company has a lot of work to do.
Regardless, Facebook is now making its own weather. Now comes the fun part: Trying to predict it.
The post Facebook Is Now Making Its Own Weather appeared first on John Battelle's Search Blog.
http://banglamdfarid-com.webs.com/www.banglamdfarid.com
As Long As It’s Legal, Corporations Will Act Selfishly
As Long As It’s Legal, Corporations Will Act Selfishly:
The post As Long As It’s Legal, Corporations Will Act Selfishly appeared first on John Battelle's Search Blog.
(image) There’s a hubbub in the press this week about Google employing a “Double Irish – Dutch Sandwich” tactic to funnel profits from Europe over to Bermuda, where there is no corporate income tax. Reuters reports that the company saved around $2 billion in taxes by employing the structure, which, as far as I can tell, is perfectly legal.
Of course, there’s a difference between that which is perfectly legal and that which seems, well, unseemly. Creating multiple shell companies across four nation states so as to avoid paying taxes may make shareholders happy, but it sure has pissed off a bunch of (revenue starved) countries in the EU. The article mentions the UK, France, and Italy as all investigating Google (and Facebook, among others) for potential abuse of the tax code.
To which I must say this: What else did you expect?!
Corporations will act exactly in their own best interest, period end of sentance. When it comes to saving billions of dollars, corporations won’t “do the right thing” or “step up and pay their fair share” – certainly not if there is *any* legal possibility that they can get away with avoiding doing so.
I very much doubt anything is going to change here, for any number of complicated reasons. The Irish have their own competitive reasons for ignoring US IP transfer law, the Dutch have similar reasons for allowing their corporate structures to exist. And Bermuda? Please. Google (and many other companies like it) is simply acting like a corporation – which at times feels like an excuse for a bunch of humans to act in very un-human like ways. Behold what we have created, and wonder.
The post As Long As It’s Legal, Corporations Will Act Selfishly appeared first on John Battelle's Search Blog.
http://banglamdfarid-com.webs.com/www.banglamdfarid.com
The post As Long As It’s Legal, Corporations Will Act Selfishly appeared first on John Battelle's Search Blog.
(image) There’s a hubbub in the press this week about Google employing a “Double Irish – Dutch Sandwich” tactic to funnel profits from Europe over to Bermuda, where there is no corporate income tax. Reuters reports that the company saved around $2 billion in taxes by employing the structure, which, as far as I can tell, is perfectly legal.
Of course, there’s a difference between that which is perfectly legal and that which seems, well, unseemly. Creating multiple shell companies across four nation states so as to avoid paying taxes may make shareholders happy, but it sure has pissed off a bunch of (revenue starved) countries in the EU. The article mentions the UK, France, and Italy as all investigating Google (and Facebook, among others) for potential abuse of the tax code.
To which I must say this: What else did you expect?!
Corporations will act exactly in their own best interest, period end of sentance. When it comes to saving billions of dollars, corporations won’t “do the right thing” or “step up and pay their fair share” – certainly not if there is *any* legal possibility that they can get away with avoiding doing so.
I very much doubt anything is going to change here, for any number of complicated reasons. The Irish have their own competitive reasons for ignoring US IP transfer law, the Dutch have similar reasons for allowing their corporate structures to exist. And Bermuda? Please. Google (and many other companies like it) is simply acting like a corporation – which at times feels like an excuse for a bunch of humans to act in very un-human like ways. Behold what we have created, and wonder.
The post As Long As It’s Legal, Corporations Will Act Selfishly appeared first on John Battelle's Search Blog.
http://banglamdfarid-com.webs.com/www.banglamdfarid.com
With Google’s 2012 Zeitgeist, You Won’t Learn Much. Why?
With Google’s 2012 Zeitgeist, You Won’t Learn Much. Why?:
The post With Google’s 2012 Zeitgeist, You Won’t Learn Much. Why? appeared first on John Battelle's Search Blog.
I think readers know that on balance, I’m a fan of Google. I recently switched to the Nexus 4 (more coming on that front as I settle into really using it). I believe the company has a stronger core philosophy than many of its rivals. Overall, given that it’s nearly impossible to avoid putting your data into someone’s cloud, I believe that Google is probably the best choice for any number of reasons.
But that doesn’t mean I won’t criticize the company. And every year about this time, I end up doing just that.
Because the annual Google Zeitgeist came out this week, and I’ve spent a bit of time digging into it. And once again, I’m pretty disappointed.
In the past I’ve criticized Google for failing to ask interesting questions of the massive amount of data it collects on search patterns each year. Once again, this lament applies. I honestly do not care what top ten TV Shows, Sports Stars, Songs, or even People we collectively care about, because there is *never* a surprise in those results.
But Google knows so much more….and could really tease out some insights if it cared to. Imagine if Google took its massive search query database and worked with some of the leaders in the open data movement to mine true insights? Sure, Google would have to be careful about how it released the data, but the output would be extraordinary, I’d warrant.
Instead, we find out that Gangnam Style was a big deal this year. No shit!?
But it gets worse. Not only is Zeitgeist rife with pop culture fluff, as you drill down into it by country, eager perhaps to find something interesting, it turns out Google has chosen to eliminate certain potentially sensitive categories altogether.
For the US and most other countries, for example, there is a “What is….” category, which shows the top search queries that start with “What is…” For the US, the answers are
Hmmm.
Oddly, Google did provide “What is…” was for Singapore, where people living under that “benign dictatorship” were interested in the same things as the US – ”What is SOPA”, ”What is Scientology” and, for politicians, who is “Mitt Romney.”
For the US only, you can drill down into all manners of other categories past the main page, including News, Science, Tech, Humanities, and Cities. Those are pretty interesting categories, but Google only provides them for the US, which is a shame.
Furthermore, I find it interesting that Google, with all of its translation technology, does not have a translation button on the results pages for countries where the majority of the searches are in languages other than English. This is most likely due to political sensitivities, because if you run some of the results through Google Translate (do you believe I had to do that?!), you get some stuff that I am sure does not please the regimes of countries like China, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE.
For example, here are some of the top searches for Saudi Arabia, translated (roughly I am sure) by the Google Translate service:
In fact, for Saudi Arabia, Google has ommitted the “Top News Searches” box that is on several of the other country pages (even Egypt). Instead, the topics for Saudi Arabia (besides trending searches and people) focus on sports and entertainment stars, fashion designers, TV shows, and the like. Deep, Google. Thanks.
Now, the datasets are different for each country, and it may be that Google simply didn’t have enough trending data to surface interesting political insights for these controversial countries.
Somehow, though, I don’t buy that. This set of lists feels extremely human vetted – I’m guessing an awful lot of hand wringing went into chosing what to show and what might prove problematic to Google’s best interests were it to see the light of day.
If that is the case, I urge the company to have more courage. I bet if Google open sourced its query data sets (eliminating any chance of PII getting out, of course), I bet academics, data scientists, and just plain interested folks would let loose an explosion of insight. Pop up the rainbird of data, Google, and let the ecosystem flourish. We’d all be the richer for it.
The post With Google’s 2012 Zeitgeist, You Won’t Learn Much. Why? appeared first on John Battelle's Search Blog.
http://banglamdfarid-com.webs.com/www.banglamdfarid.com
The post With Google’s 2012 Zeitgeist, You Won’t Learn Much. Why? appeared first on John Battelle's Search Blog.
I think readers know that on balance, I’m a fan of Google. I recently switched to the Nexus 4 (more coming on that front as I settle into really using it). I believe the company has a stronger core philosophy than many of its rivals. Overall, given that it’s nearly impossible to avoid putting your data into someone’s cloud, I believe that Google is probably the best choice for any number of reasons.
But that doesn’t mean I won’t criticize the company. And every year about this time, I end up doing just that.
Because the annual Google Zeitgeist came out this week, and I’ve spent a bit of time digging into it. And once again, I’m pretty disappointed.
In the past I’ve criticized Google for failing to ask interesting questions of the massive amount of data it collects on search patterns each year. Once again, this lament applies. I honestly do not care what top ten TV Shows, Sports Stars, Songs, or even People we collectively care about, because there is *never* a surprise in those results.
But Google knows so much more….and could really tease out some insights if it cared to. Imagine if Google took its massive search query database and worked with some of the leaders in the open data movement to mine true insights? Sure, Google would have to be careful about how it released the data, but the output would be extraordinary, I’d warrant.
Instead, we find out that Gangnam Style was a big deal this year. No shit!?
But it gets worse. Not only is Zeitgeist rife with pop culture fluff, as you drill down into it by country, eager perhaps to find something interesting, it turns out Google has chosen to eliminate certain potentially sensitive categories altogether.
For the US and most other countries, for example, there is a “What is….” category, which shows the top search queries that start with “What is…” For the US, the answers are
- What is SOPA
- What is Scientology
- What is KONY
- What is Yolo
- What is Instagram
- What is Pinterest
- What is Lent
- What is Obamacare
- What is iCloud
- What is Planking
Hmmm.
Oddly, Google did provide “What is…” was for Singapore, where people living under that “benign dictatorship” were interested in the same things as the US – ”What is SOPA”, ”What is Scientology” and, for politicians, who is “Mitt Romney.”
For the US only, you can drill down into all manners of other categories past the main page, including News, Science, Tech, Humanities, and Cities. Those are pretty interesting categories, but Google only provides them for the US, which is a shame.
Furthermore, I find it interesting that Google, with all of its translation technology, does not have a translation button on the results pages for countries where the majority of the searches are in languages other than English. This is most likely due to political sensitivities, because if you run some of the results through Google Translate (do you believe I had to do that?!), you get some stuff that I am sure does not please the regimes of countries like China, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE.
For example, here are some of the top searches for Saudi Arabia, translated (roughly I am sure) by the Google Translate service:
Student outcomes Arab Idol insurance Ramadan Series 2012 Mohamed Morsi explosion Riyadh Burma Free Syrian Army Shura Council tornado SandyBut again, you aren’t going to get much more insight into what Saudi folks are *really* thinking about, because Google failed to ask the interesting questions, like those it has in the “News” section of the US Zeitgeist. I’d sure be interested in “Political Gaffes,” “Election Issues,” and “News Sources,” in Saudi Arabia, China, or the UAE.
In fact, for Saudi Arabia, Google has ommitted the “Top News Searches” box that is on several of the other country pages (even Egypt). Instead, the topics for Saudi Arabia (besides trending searches and people) focus on sports and entertainment stars, fashion designers, TV shows, and the like. Deep, Google. Thanks.
Now, the datasets are different for each country, and it may be that Google simply didn’t have enough trending data to surface interesting political insights for these controversial countries.
Somehow, though, I don’t buy that. This set of lists feels extremely human vetted – I’m guessing an awful lot of hand wringing went into chosing what to show and what might prove problematic to Google’s best interests were it to see the light of day.
If that is the case, I urge the company to have more courage. I bet if Google open sourced its query data sets (eliminating any chance of PII getting out, of course), I bet academics, data scientists, and just plain interested folks would let loose an explosion of insight. Pop up the rainbird of data, Google, and let the ecosystem flourish. We’d all be the richer for it.
The post With Google’s 2012 Zeitgeist, You Won’t Learn Much. Why? appeared first on John Battelle's Search Blog.
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