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Search Notes: Trying to understand Facebook's whisper campaignFacebook's PR gaffe, the Chromebook debuts, and dreams of text-free searching.Earlier this week, it seemed clear that the top news in the world of search would be the announcements that came out of Google I/O. But yesterday came word that Facebook had launched a "whisper" campaign against Google. While juicy gossip doesn't completely trump shiny gadgets, it certainly holds its own. Does Facebook know Google runs a search engine?
It seems that the crux of Facebook's argument was that Google organizes information about people and makes it easily accessible through its search results. (I'm fairly sure Google isn't keeping this particular feature secret.) Facebook focused on Google's "Social Circle" results. In a statement, Facebook said:
The PR firm Facebook hired had previously sent emails trying to drum up reporter interest. Accusations included:
Google is a search engine. Its entire purpose is to enable users of the Internet to navigate the web's content in a structured way. Any site that doesn't want to make its content available to search engines can simply indicate as such in a robots.txt file. Or pages can be made even more private by placing them behind a login. Facebook's CTO and COO both previously worked at Google, so one assumes they have an understanding of how search engines work. In 2007, Facebook decided they were pretty interested in having Google's robots "scour" their profile pages so those pages would be easily available to Google searchers (and in turn Facebook could get more traffic). Danny Sullivan over at Search Engine Land goes through the details of exactly what Google is indexing and how, but the bottom line is that search engines index the public web. Social networks and other sites have an established way to opt out. The Chromebook arrivesAnd now, on to the gadgets! At Google I/O this week, Google announced its new Chrome laptops. Part tablet and part computer, the Chromebooks are instant-on, 3G -enabled, and they have tons of battery life. The drawback? You can't run traditional client applications on them. This is cleverly noted as a benefit in the Chromebook announcement:
Maybe so, but as of right now, Google Docs just doesn't offer the things I need to do in Excel and Powerpoint. Google music and moviesGoogle's goal of "organizing the world's information and making it universally accessible" has made its way into movies and music. You can now rent movies on YouTube (3,000 titles for now) and Google is finally launching its music product, although at the moment you can only upload your collection and stream it. Beyond text search
On the output side, Google has launched a kind of street view for the interiors of stores. One day, this will all be connected. As I'm walking down the street and see a girl wearing a cute skirt, I'll be able to point my phone at it and find a store that has the skirt hanging on a rack for sale. Ah, the future. Related:
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Yesterday, the Daily Beast told the story of how 
Comments: 2
Emma [13 May 2011 10:37 AM]
"One day, this will all be connected. As I'm walking down the street and see a girl wearing a cute skirt, I'll be able to point my phone at it and find a store that has the skirt hanging on a rack for sale".
How about "One day.... I'll be able to point my phone at her and 1)pull her up on Facebook, maybe 2)access her bank accounts, and perhaps even 3) see her underwear" Not sure I like the direction this is going... Aah, progress!
Moravecglobal [15 May 2011 10:23 AM]
Universities, like University of California Berkeley,that profess transparency but do not practice transparency produce undividuals that are not transparent. University of California Berkeley (Cal) Chancellor’s huge mistakes: recruits (using California tax $) out of state $50,000 tuition students that displace qualified Californians from public university; spends $7,000,000 + for consultants to do his & many vice chancellors jobs (prominent East Coast university accomplishing same at 0 cost); pays ex Michigan governor $300,000 for lectures; Latino enrollment drops while out of state jumps 2010; tuition to Return on Investment (ROI) drops below top 10; NCAA places basketball program on probation: absence institutional control
We are sympathetic to the frustration of UC Chancellors running their campuses with declining support from the state. Cal. has been badly damaged by Birgeneau. Good people are loosing their jobs. Cal’s leadership is either incompetent or culpable. Merely cutting out inefficiencies does not have the effect desired.
But you never want a crisis to go to waste. Increasing Cal’s budget is not enough; we believe the best course of action for UC is to honorably replace Cal. Chancellor Birgeneau