von thecod | Feb. 17, 2005 | Blog, SEO / SEA
Gary Price of the Searchenginewatch Blog writes about the new Google Toolbar.
It offers
– Spelling Correction (obviously working well with Gmail),
– Autolink – which, as Gary rightly says, offers many commercial opportunities: Google inserts links into the webpage whereever the context allows for relevant links.
I wonder if this will not get too annoying at some point? Addresses on a webpage can even be linked to Google Maps.
He mentions other features, but I won’t go into that here. The main point is, that this is another step on arranging information neatly. At the same time, Google is taking the opportunity to once again show that they are really at the top of filtering information on the web.
There are quite a few blogs upset about it. Steven has a post on it and Rex also mentions it, referencing Dan Gillmor, who complains that Google emulates MS (and gets away with it sofar). Greg Linden is also highly scepticle about it.
I have already mentioned in a previous post, that I think we need to watch Google. Sofar everything has been very much user centric and supported users in many ways.
But now they even modify the webpages you’re reading. Question is: if this is a trend, when will we reach a stage, when you just can’t read original content any more, because someone modified the content on everything you read (without the original authors knowledge or permission?)
Another quote from Greg, which he wrote after several people commented on his first post:
To clarify my original post, I’m not so concerned about what Google Toolbar currently does with Autolink. It is what may follow that bothers me.
Rewriting pages to add links is a dangerous trend. While Google’s current implementation may be fine and dandy, it may also be the first step on a slippery slope.
I fully agree!
von thecod | Feb. 17, 2005 | Blog
A nice article that, in parts, supports my view in this post:
Are customers really sheep? The myth of corporate image….
It basically states that big advertising dollars do no longer necessarily translate in to big corporate image or brand perception…
von thecod | Feb. 17, 2005 | Blog
Peggy Noonan of OpinionJournal has a very interesting article about blogs vs MSM (mainstream media). Something that could actually be the start of a longer discussion. Some of her arguments are clearly striking!
Bloggers should enjoy this and journalists should at least read it…
(via)
PS: this column is referenced in many blogs (surprising?). Here is a good quote from Rex Hammock:
After spending some time with this column, I have to agree with the chorus of neo-Noonanites pointing to her column. This is absolutely, the finest essay ever written about blogging. If you work in publishing and don’t read this and take it to heart, you are hopelessly without a clue.
von thecod | Feb. 15, 2005 | Blog, SEO / SEA
I have no idea how the german manager-magazin.de thinks that it is really delivering a newsworthy story about fraud with the pay-per-clicks, since CNN already had this story 2.5 months ago?
I guess for some things I will always have to read international press in order to stay on top of things.
For those interested in a quick reminder: it is about companies hiring people, or using software, to have their competitors pay-per-click ads clicked on. The effect:
1) they increase the ad costs of their competitors,
2) once a certain spent-limit is used up, their competitors will not have the top spot of the list on certain keywords any longer.
von thecod | Feb. 15, 2005 | Blog
Wired opinionates about the added value western civilization can offer at a time, when Asia, Automation and Abundance will have made many typical jobs of the last 10-20 years obsolete. Left-brain jobs, requiring left-brain intelligence, but still jobs of a certain routine to it. Just like machines replaced muscle-power, these routine jobs will be (or have already been) replaced by cheaper means – either in Asia or through automation. And in a world of abundance, most of what has been created by left-brainers might turn into only intellectual „commodities“.
The conceptual, creative side will play a greater role soon. Or, as this ambitious quote says:
We’ve progressed from a society of farmers to a society of factory workers to a society of knowledge workers. And now we’re progressing yet again – to a society of creators and empathizers, pattern recognizers, and meaning makers.
von thecod | Feb. 14, 2005 | Blog
What a praise to the value of design in todays web-world. This article says why Design Matters. Working in such an agency as he describes, myself, I agree completely (of course). It’s one of the only things to differentiate in a web-world, where tools become more and more commoditized, as the professionalisation of this channel continues. And look at what bloggers first do, when they start a blog (especially at places like this one, blogspot): They change some aspects of the templated design, to differentiate – even I have managed to change background color and font, even though I know not much about coding.
Wo ich sonst so bin...