Latest Google Spam Technique: Invent Fake Street Addresses And Show Up In Google Listings | Techdirt

I'm getting a bit worried that the spammers are starting to get a step ahead of Google.

From Techdirt:
"Latest Google Spam Technique: Invent Fake Street Addresses And Show Up In Google Listings"
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20101228/11305412434/latest-google-spam-technique-invent-fake-street-addresses-show-up-google-listings.shtml


Here's another article on the future of search. Are algorithms played out? Can they all be gamed? From Paul Kedrosky:
"Curation is the New Search is the New Curation"
http://paul.kedrosky.com/archives/2011/01/curation_is_the.html

"There are two things that can happen now. (Okay, three. We could stop search, which won't happen.). We could get better algorithms, which is happening to some degree, with search engines like Blekko and others. Or, we could head back to curation, which is what I see happening, and watch new algos emerge on top of that next-gen curation again. Think of Twitter as a new stab at curation, but there are plenty of other examples."


Finally, some good news for Google, with a little bad news mixed in. From VentureBeat:
"Google already knows its search sucks (and is working to fix it)" by Peter Yared
http://venturebeat.com/2011/01/12/google-search/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Venturebeat+%28VentureBeat%29

The article admits that Google's search results have been deteriorating. "Search has been increasingly gamed by link and content farms year by year, and users have been frogs slowly getting boiled in water without realizing it. (Bing has similarly bad results, a testament to Microsoft’s quest to copy everything Google.)

"But here’s what these late-blooming critics miss: Yes, Google’s search results do indeed suck. But Google’s fixing it.

"The much acclaimed PageRank algorithm, which ranks search results based on the highest number of inbound links, has failed since it’s easy for marketers to overwhelm the number of organic links with a bunch of astroturfed links. Case in point: The Google.com page that describes PageRank is #4 in the Google search results for the term PageRank, below two vendors that are selling search engine marketing."

Here is the scary part:

"Facebook, which can rank content based on the number of Likes from actual people rather than the number of inbound links from various websites, can now provide more relevant hits, and in realtime since it does not have to crawl the web. A Like is registered immediately. No wonder Facebook scares Google."

The article points out that it wasn't necessarily the PageRank algorithm that set Google apart but the ability to implement it on a large scale.

So what is Google doing?

"Over the past couple of years, Google has progressively added vertical search results above its regular results. When you search for the weather, businesses, stock quotes, popular videos, music, addresses, airplane flight status, and more, the search results of what you are looking for are presented immediately. The vast majority of users are no longer clicking through pages of Google results: They are instantly getting an answer to their question."

What you need to know about the unemployment rate

Everything you needed to know about unemployment, including participation rate and its implications.

From MISH'S Global Economic Trend Analysis:
"Reader Question Regarding 'Dropping Out of the Workforce'; Implications of the Falling Participation Rate"
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2011/01/reader-question-regarding-dropping-out.html

Bear in mind as you read this that the unemployment rate you hear on the news does not include all the people that are truly out of work or people who have settled for a job other than what they would like to have.


So what will Obama do about jobs? Funny you ask. They have a plan. Also from MISH'S Global Economic Trend Analysis:
"Janet Yellen Says Fed Asset Purchases Will Create 3 Million Private Jobs By 2012"
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2011/01/janet-yellen-says-fed-asset-purchases.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed:+MishsGlobalEconomicTrendAnalysis+(Mish's+Global+Economic+Trend+Analysis)

If you believe the Fed's plan I've got a bridge to sell you. What a load of crap.

Why do we have czars in the United States anyway?

These are the United States. Why do we have so many czars? Why do we have ANY?

From American Daughter:
"The Compleat List of Czars" by Nancy Matthis
http://frontpage.americandaughter.com/?p=2385

And from the Washington Post, as published in the Concord Monitor:
"Obama and his 32 czars - President is skirting legislative branch" by Eric Cantor
http://www.concordmonitor.com/article/obama-and-his-32-czars

If are to have czars, why so many? For example, why would we have and Auto Recovery Czar AND a Car Czar? Do we really need czars with overlapping responsibilities?

Note this quote:
"The biggest problems that we're facing right now have to do with George Bush trying to bring more and more power into the executive branch and not go through Congress at all. And that's what I intend to reverse when I'm president of the United States."

That was Barack Obama, when he was a Senator in 2008. Seems like Obama didn't really believe in reversing the flow of power to the executive branch after all! Although I do agree with his quote.

MISH also has some great commentary on this. From MISH'S Global Economic Trend Analysis:
"Republican Introduce Bill to Eliminate Presidential Czars; How Many Czars are There? Obama on Czars Then vs. Now; Vanity of Barack Obama"
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2011/01/republican-introduce-bill-to-eliminate.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed:+MishsGlobalEconomicTrendAnalysis+(Mish's+Global+Economic+Trend+Analysis)

In 2009 Republicans introduced H.R.3226 - Czar Accountability and Reform (CZAR) Act of 2009. It didn't go anywhere. But Republicans have re-introduced this legislation. With Republican control of the House this bill will gain more traction and hopefully some publicity, even if goes nowhere in the Senate. Needless to say, I support these bills.

Mish also discusses Obama's narcissism in his post for some bonus content. Too much to get into here, but suffice to say I agree with Mish (as usual).

Wait, do I agree with Bernanke???

I never agree with Ben Bernanke, because I don't believe in the cartel we call the Federal Reserve. Nevertheless, he said something I agree with for a change. So, to give credit where credit is due...

From MISH'S Global Economic Trend Analysis:
"Bernanke Rejects Bailing Out State and Local Governments; A Look at Meredith Whitney's Municipal Bond Call"
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2011/01/bernanke-rejects-bailing-out-state-and.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+MishsGlobalEconomicTrendAnalysis+%28Mish%27s+Global+Economic+Trend+Analysis%29

"We have no expectation or intention to get involved in state and local finance," Mr. Bernanke said in testimony before the Senate Budget Committee. The states, he said later, "should not expect loans from the Fed."

Bailing out irresponsible states would simply encourage more such behavior. It's enough to make you wonder why irresponsible businesses (GM, anyone?) should have been bailed out.

Body Language

I don't know how accurate this is, but it sure is interesting. Body language, if you can read it, might be able to tell you a lot.

From the Daily Mail:
"Why you mustn't trust a word this woman says ... and other body language secrets that reveal what people are really thinking" by Peter Collett and Lorraine Fisher
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1344424/Why-mustnt-trust-word-woman-says--body-language-secrets-reveal-people-really-thinking.html

This doesn't usually happen in Atlanta

For those of you who can't believe that Atlanta was shut down by a little snow, check this out. Bear in mind as you watch these videos that Peachtree Street is THE MAIN DRAG in downtown Atlanta. Notice not only the ice but the complete and utterly amazing lack of traffic. I've never seen Peachtree Street so deserted.

"Peachtree St. Ice Rink in Midtown" by A.Nendel
http://vimeo.com/18654578

"Peachtree St. Ice Rink in Midtown #2" by A.Nendel
http://vimeo.com/18680897

Let me just say: This doesn't usually happen in Atlanta!!! Normally I take my "I'm from the North!" attitude and laugh at the incompetent drivers. But I don't care where you are or where you're from, that is slippery. And Atlanta has more hills than people realize.

Of course, there is another possibility. Maybe I'm just getting soft after living down south for too long. :)

Augmented reality, courtesy of Google?

Do you love your smartphone? Do you hate how hard it is to use, with its tiny screen (okay, they're getting bigger) and its lack of a real keyboard? Well help is on the way. Augmented reality anyone?

What does augmented reality mean? It means speech recognition. Real-time voice translation. And computer vision (information about what you're looking at, like the Terminator had!).

With that in mind, consider the following series of articles from Xconomy. These articles are FASCINATING:

"Inside Google’s Age of Augmented Humanity: Part 1, New Frontiers of Speech Recognition" by Wade Roush
http://www.xconomy.com/san-francisco/2011/01/03/inside-googles-age-of-augmented-humanity-part-1-new-frontiers-of-speech-recognition/

Voice recognition on a limited scale is one thing. But Google's push to make it ubiquitous is really amazing.

"Inside Google’s Age of Augmented Humanity: Part 2, Changing the Equation in Machine Translation" by Wade Roush
http://www.xconomy.com/san-francisco/2011/01/05/inside-googles-age-of-augmented-humanity-part-2-changing-the-equation-in-machine-translation/

Remember the universal translator from Star Trek? It may be coming soon to a cell phone near you.

"Inside Google’s Age of Augmented Humanity, Part 3: Computer Vision Puts a 'Bird on Your Shoulder'" by Wade Roush
http://www.xconomy.com/san-francisco/2011/01/06/inside-googles-age-of-augmented-humanity-part-3-computer-vision-puts-a-bird-on-your-shoulder/

They describe this as a "bird on your shoulder" but the word "Skynet" keeps coming to mind (!). I've said it before and I'll say it again: Treat your Android phone well. Maybe the machines will kill you last. :)

I love how Google is the place where all this is coming together. We have the resources (brilliant people, tons of data, and massive data centers) to make it all happen. I would say that I can't wait--except Voice Search on Android phones is already scary good. As is the Google Translate app I have on my phones. (Did you hear that the latest Google Translate for Android is already doing "Conversation Mode" between English and Spanish?) I don't have an iPhone but I've heard about an app called Word Lens that does instant visual translation. And apps such as Layar are already taking the first steps towards computer vision.

So what's the next step? Consider this article from Pocketnow.com:
"Android 3.0 Honeycomb Has Google-Built Augmented Reality?" by Evan Blass
http://pocketnow.com/android/android-30-gingerbread-bringing-google-built-augmented-reality