Changing domain names is a simple thing to do. What is more complex is recovering Google page rank. Duncan’s TV Adland at Blogspot.com has a page rank of 5. At www.duncans.tv, where I set up a week ago, the page rank is at 0.
At the way home from Melbourne I bought a copy of “The Monthly“, an Australian magazine launched last year with a self-description as “an intelligent, independent voice”.
The lead essay, by Gideon Haigh, is on Google’s effect on education and general intelligence. Haigh draws on Neil Postman’s reminder that technological change is neither additive nor subtractive, but ecological. Our whole environment has been changed by the rise of Google.
Issues covered in the article:
1. How does Google PageRank work? Isn’t it important that we have some way of analysing the reliability of information sources?
2. The ‘dark web’ ignored by Google (80% of web content) includes information held by universities, libraries, associations, businesses and government agencies.
3. Google’s vulnerability to being ‘gamed’ in which GoogleRank is manipulated by web authors and spammers.
4. Gigablast and Exalead, perhaps superior search engines, are ignored by a public in love with the ‘easy-to-use’ Google.
5. Most people have little idea about how to effectively use search engines.
Gideon Haigh goes on to examine the impact of Google on education. Younger teachers know how to recognise and check for Google-enabled plagiarism. Educative tasks now must focus on higher levels of thinking as collection of information is made so easy. However students are tempted to make do with articles they can find on the internet and ignore the work which is only published in print journals and books.
The essay finishes with an examination of the Google project to digitize the world’s books. Clearly many people are unhappy about the threat to copyright holders, publishers and libraries.
The article’s in print but not online. Perhaps some time soon Google will digitize it and make it available for us to read. In the meantime you’ll have to race down to your newsagent and buy the magazine.
Google provides a regular summary of past search trends, posted at what they call ‘Google Zeitgeist’ - referring to the spirit of the times. 2005 Year-End Google Zeitgeist provides three lists for watchers of popular culture, along with some analysis of patterns of public interest in world affairs, nature, movies, celebrities and phenomena.
I must admit that I’ve paid some notice to Google trends in the choice of posts at Duncan’s TV Ad Land and the newly emerging Music Videos blog, not to mention the development of the Da Vinci Code Online blog. You have to draw the line somewhere though. I posted an article on the Britney Spears Perfume television ads but won’t be writing up the Paris Hilton Carls Jr Burger Car Wash commercial.
1. Myspace - an online community
2. Ares - the open source file sharing program
3. Baidu - Chinese search engine with mp3 feature
4. Wikipedia - the collaborative free online encyclopaedia
5. Orkut - an online community launched by Google
6. iTunes - Apple software with an online store
7. Sky News - UK site
8. World of Warcraft - online role-playing experience set in the Warcraft universe.
9. Green Day - Californian Pop Punk Band
10. Leonardo da Vinci - renaissance artist whose work has been popularised by Dan Brown’s novel, Da Vinci Code. As clever as he was, he wasn’t able to put together his web site before he died.
1. Janet Jackson - the Superbowl Wardrobe Malfunction, February 5
2. Hurricane Katrina - August 29
3. Tsunami - December 26
4. Xbox 360 - November 22
5. Brad Pitt - Mr Smith
6. Michael Jackson
7. American Idol - Fox show
8. Britney Spears - expectant mother
9. Angelina Jolie - Mrs Smith
10. Harry Potter - book launch and movie
At the way home from Melbourne I bought a copy of “
