Month: August 2006
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Are Google’s glory days behind it? – Colly Myers
Colly’s prognosis was sound. In December 2008, Google announced its intention to make “social search” a significant factor in its search results – the end of the hegemony of the algorithm. “It’s a well known aspect of man and machine systems. Complex systems with no control fall over. Every example of it you can think…
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Google vows to keep hoarding your porn queries
“With so many people searching for keywords like murder, kill, suicide, etc., are we a mentally/emotionally sick nation?” writes a concerned AOLer at AOLSearchLogs.com, a forum that accompanies a searchable database of AOL user’s queries. Another AOLer moves swiftly to quell his concerns. “As a whole, no,” responds ‘Matthew’, with the confidence of a veterinary…
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AOL’s search logs: the ultimate “Database Of Intentions”
AOL Labs prompted a weekend of hyperventilation in the ‘blogosphere’ by publishing the search queries from 650,000 users. This mini-scandal may yet prove valuable, however, as it reveals an intriguing psychological study of the boundaries of what is considered acceptable privacy. In his turgid book on Google – one so obsequious and unchallenging that Google…