It appears that Canada is working on a treaty that that will allow customs agents to search computer and iPods at the boarders looking for copyright infringing content. I was shocked when I first heard this. I know that I am crossing a boarder, but this sounds like a violation of basic rights. They do not need to be looking at my computer. I think this is outrageous. I understand that they can look through my luggage. My data feels more private. I do not want them looking at my files. It is like looking in my head.
This is really a reason for me to not go to Canada. How do they know what infringing data is? Are they going to use a search program? Are they going to have tools for this? What is going to happen if my disk is encrypted? Are they going to erase my disk. It just is a bad idea.
I heard a story today about Rushmore Drive from On The Media. Rushmore Drive is a search engine that is focused on Black people. Not only African Americans, but Africans, Afro-Caribbeans and Black people anywhere else in the world. The idea is that Google is currently a one side fits all solution. Minority have different ideas of what should show up on search results.
I am interested in the idea that different things are important to different people. Right now Google is the king of search. I am not sure if Google gives the same search results depending on who is searching. Do people with the same ethnic background want the same search results. I am not sure the best way to figure this one out.
There are two possible outcomes if this kind of search is important. Large search engines will let people tweeks the results that come to them. Letting people actively and passively edit the results that are served up to them. Smaller search engines will pop up that try to cater to people. I think that these search engines will not stop an ethnic ideas, but other lifestyle groupings. I think that gamers will get their own search engine, photographers will get there own search engine, and movie fans will get there own search engine.
I searched for Rich Thomas on Rushmore Drive. I come up second on this search, which is better than Google where I show up 4th. My photo comes up on the search, but my blog does not come up on the blog search. It is good to know everyone can find me if they are looking for me.
Search might not be the same in the future. There is an idea that we are getting to the end of Keyword search. Tagging has already had an impact on the way searches work. Who knows what search will be about in another five or ten years. It is possible that Google is something that is no longer important in 10 year.
I just want to say that Sad Salvation is now the number 1 search result for "wonder woman" burka. If there is an artist out there who would like to draw Wonder Woman in Burka, Wonder Woman in a Niqab, or Wonder Woman in a Hijab, I would be happy to post it here in my blog.
I am intersted in the idea of what a modest Wonder Woman would look like. If there was a female super hero, the most powerful female super hero would she show off her body or would she hid it? Maybe she would not want to b a sex symbol. What would that hero dress like?
For a long time I have known that Google Image search sucks. My recent searches have done nothing to change my mind about this. I am writing a blog post about Wonder Woman. While thinking about Wonder Woman I wondered if any artist has ever drawn Wonder Woman in burka. It is an interesting question because Wonder Woman is so powerful but always dressed is so little clothing. I wonder if anyone ever made a different take on that.
I did not find wonder woman in burka. I found images of wonder woman and images of burkas, but none of both. By the fourth page of the search I had neither wonder woman or burkas. I know they search the text of the page and hope the image they are pointing to is what the searcher is looking for. It rarely works for me. Is there a better image search out there? Can there be a good image search without humans looking at the image?
I am amused that a photo I took is in the top image results for the Google Canada search of pictures of sad people. It is the photo of Antwon at the top of the page. That might be why that photo has almost 700 views. I am happy that Sad Salvation and my Sad People photo set are both in the top five for this search. For a long time Sad Salvation would be found by people searching for pictures of sad people, but there were no sad people on my blog. I am happy that I have been able to fill this web nitch. Now people can find pictures of sad people because of me.
A recently Google launchedTrends. Trends are the searches that are showing big spikes. It is different than Zeitgeist which just shows the most popular searches. They are retiring Zeitgeist for Trends and Hot Trends.
Today I checked my referral logs and I noticed that my recent post about the Stanford Impostor, Azia Kim got a lot of hits from Hot Trends. I did not expect to get 50 extra hits just because of this post.
Since there is a list of Hot Trends every day, could I boost my hits by just going to this list and writing something? How would that effect the Hot Trends. This would be more important if I was selling ads.
I have been looking the Sad Salvation referral logs. When I first started to blog I looked at them all the time. I even did posts about crazy ways people found my blog. There used to be a lot of crazy searches that pulled up Sad Salvation.
Now looking at my referral logs, 80% of the searches that find my blog are Image searches. Most of the images they find are old images, before I used flickr for my blog. It seems that some images are more popular than others. That is why I picked the flower tattoo for this post.
I know that many people do not link to my blog. Many of my readers have gone away since I turned off my RSS feed. It just wonder what it means that images are the most found thing about my blog. I have the feeling this is saying something about how people use the web is changing.
It gives me a sick thrill to see that my blog is in the top 10 for the search "i feel like there is something missing". The funny thing is that I know that person will not find that missing thing at my blog.
I often wonder if it's not just a skill that we need to teach people - data mining, or searching. I can often find stuff very quickly when my wife has been looking for a half hour because I can think of ways to quantify the search better to find information that's useful. With more and more information that is available and the amount growing, searching is rapidly becoming less useful than it was even a year or two ago. If I find that I need real information about a single thing, I'm more likely to search Wikipedia than Google now.
I do use Wikipedia a lot lately. I use it as much as I use Google. I think I am starting to use them for two different kinds of information. It I am looking for a Fact, concept, or statistic I start with Wikipedia. If I am looking for a web site, data that is specific to a web site, or questions about a product I use Google.
Often I come upon a question I know that I will not find an answer using Google. I find that I want to be able to ask a question and get an answer. Now I have to ask the question of myself, analysis what kind of website would have the answer to that questions, and figure out the right combination of keywords that will bring me to that data.
I think that this means that Google can be beat by another company. Google was much better than the search engines that came before it. That does not mean another search engine could not be better than them.
I often wonder if it's not just a skill that we need to teach people - data mining, or searching. I can often find stuff very quickly when my wife has been looking for a half hour because I can think of ways to quantify the search better to find information that's useful. With more and more information that is available and the amount growing, searching is rapidly becoming less useful than it was even a year or two ago. If I find that I need real information about a single thing, I'm more likely to search Wikipedia than Google now.
I know lots of people who think that Google is perfect. They think there is no need for any other search engine. I like Google, but it is not perfect. It looks like other people are looking for better search also.
It is hard to describe what is wrong with search engines. A user needs to know how to make a better search them self. They need a better idea of what they want so they can find it. I know that a lot of this has to do with ranking search results and putting more work into search might not work for people.
I wonder if anyone will beat Google or if Google will offer more ways to search the same data.
I know lots of people who think that Google is perfect. They think there is no need for any other search engine. I like Google, but it is not perfect. It looks like other people are looking for better search also.
It is hard to describe what is wrong with search engines. A user needs to know how to make a better search themself. They need a better idea of what they want so they can find it. I know that a lot of this has to do with ranking search results and putting more work into search might not work for people.
I wonder if anyone will beat Google or if Google will offer more ways to search the same data.
I have noticed that my total number of hits have gone down lately, but so have my totally senseless referrals. This makes me happy. I would rather that people find what they are looking for. They might be interested enough to come back again.
I look at my referral logs from time to time to see how people my find my blog. I was a little curious when I found someone found Sad Salvation with the search: my feeling about attending church without my mate. I could not think of an entry that would have tripped this search result. I looked around and I found that the search result came from this entry from an the interview meme.
One thing about writing a blog on a regular basics is that you generate a lot of text. I have been keeping this blog for several years now. I have no idea how many words I have written, but it has been a lot. I would like to think that I remember everything I have written here. After looking at my archives for a little while I realize that is impossible. I will not remember everything I ever wrote.
I find what I wrote about looking for a mate very interesting now. I think I know a little more about this and about myself now. I did not think about these things while I was in my last relationship, but I am thinking about them now.
I know that I should go back and read my old entries. I should see how much I have changed over the last couple of years. I might find something that I do not expect in those entries. After that I could go back and read my old journal that I kept before I started writing this blog. that might be interesting.
I went to a San Jose Blogger meetup hosted by Steve Slone, AKA the Pizza Cast. It was a fun time. We talked about a ton of topics in the two and half hours.
Steve said that he owns the term SJSU Tech. He meant that he is the number one search that comes up for this term. I find this to be an odd claim. Even if you are the number one result for a search, it does not mean you own the term. You have almost no ability to control those results. You might find a way to game the search engine so you come up first, but the company who owns the search engine can change the rules.
Steve is the number one result for Google, but he comes up beneth the paid results for Yahoo. I know that lots of people will say that google is the only result that matters, but I think that is short sighted. Who knows what Google will do tomorrow. They could also take money for this term in the future.
Steve does have power over the term SJSC Tech, but I am not sure he owns it. It would be possible for other people to steal that term away if they wanted to put the effort into it.
Whenever I go through my referral logs I always find strange stuff. It makes me wonder how good Google is for the average user. People find Sad Salvation looking for all kinds of stuff. I wonder how often people can find what they are really looking for. I think search engines are still primitive. I wonder if they will be able to really develop or not? I know people say that Tagging might help with those problems. I just wonder how much stuff I am looking for but cannot find.
These are ways people used to find my web site. I used to be the wrong number of the internet. My reduced number of updates have put a change to that. Now Google searchs do not pull me up as often. It has to do with how often you update your web site. If I start updating my Sad Salvation a lot again, maybe I can once again be the web site people find when they search for Fight Club Tux.
Ego Surfing - Looking up your own name in a Search Engine to see how sites mention you.
Reverse Ego Surfing - putting up a list of people, so that if one of them goes egosurfing, theoretically they may come across the bait page with your contact information.
Waxing an Ego Surf - Posting things on the Internet so your name comes up more often or higher up when Ego Surfing. (Comes from waxing a surfboard)
Googlewhack - Typing two words into Google's search bar, with the goal of obtaining a single result. seeing the words "Results 1-1 of 1" appear in the upper right-hand corner of the screen.
I would like to add things to this list.
Inverse Ego Surf - Using the Referral logs of your web site to see how people are using Search Engines to find them.
Egowhack - Searching for things other then your name to see if you can get your web site or weblog to come up on the first page.
Someone recently searched for "Ain't Nothing Going To Break My Stride" and Sad Salvation came up on the first page of the search. I am obsessed at the ways people can find my web page on search engines. I always check it out when I see it in my referral logs.
