Tag: Search Engines

Search and Sedentary Life Style

It’s only been a bit more than 15 years since the Internet entered our homes (You’ve Got Mail).

Before that we got to run errand, with multiple stops e.g. at the library, bookstores and retail stores.

Now, just Google it. Price-comparison shopping, or just ordering it online.

We find friends online, learn online and practically do more things online (when someone comes up with a new app like SimCity or DropBox – now acquired Mailbox).

Around the time the Internet got to be popular, social scientists had already alarmed us about the decline of community participation (Bowling Alone). If that study were conducted today, the title would be ” The disappearance of Bowling.”

Let’s imagine that the ARPANET project did not get out for civilian use.

We would have:

– still run around to the library, searching through Dewey card catalog

– ordered from the Sears Catalogue

– played cards with friends (some still do, but not as frequent)

– gone clubbing to be seen

– treated phone, TV and computer separately (phone is personal, TV is social and computer is professional, for HR Block tax preparers).

So far, there has been a correlation, but not definite linkage, between Search (Internet) and Sedentary Life Style.

But every sign seems to point to a more mobile (on the go) computing and convergence, which at least relieves us from a desk-bound life.

I hope among the multi-tasks we find ourselves doing, walking will be one. Even McDonald now serving Egg-White Muffin.

After all there is a down side (sitting too much for too long) to even the most blessed event in human history: Search at our fingertips, and let the “bots” do the “hunting” for information.

Voice & Video

Via camera phone, satellite uplink and YouTube upload, we got pictures and sound of the upheaval in Libya up to the minute.

The golden gun (its now-deceased owner must have watched James Bond’s Gold Finger), the Club Car and female bodyguards.

When I was growing up, we were cooped up inside the house (curfew) while news of a regime toppling beamed through state-controlled radio.

One military leader after another read prepared statements after both Diem’s brothers got assassinated in Cho Lon, Vietnam’s largest Chinese enclave.  Then, there was counter-coup and counter-counter coup (I lost count).

Back in 1963, to listen to the radio, we had to put our imagination to work.  School was out (our version of “snow day”) while Marshall law took control of the streets. Fear and trepidation were in the air. Everyone felt helpless. In short, breaking events weren’t unfolded as neatly and with instant access as they now are.

Before digital, networks had to spend time laying  the control track (on the 3/4 inch video), then the sound track and finally the B roll (video track).

Now, we got Instant access via Web apps, today’s B-roll , from the desert.

Every revolution seemed to culminate in Occupy the Broadcast Station.

Hugo Chavez and his band of brothers once tried just that, only to find out it had been moved. They were captured and jailed afterwards (partly for not having a Google map update).

Speaking of Google which purchased YouTube.

Although the later barely is profitable, it adds value to Google’s central strategy (organize the world’s information).

Where else can cable news get their video source to show, for instance, a Chinese toddler get ran over twice ( Where was the Good Samaritan in number 2 economy?).

Or an inappropriate tweet (and later denial) which derailed a Congressman career.

Voice and video in our time.

ABC News digs up its archive to show Barbara Walter’s decade-old interview with the Colonel, who was,  in her words, “vain”.

She got a career boost after joining  Walter Cronkite on his MidEast trip to interview President Sadat (now, we have woman as Editor-in-Chief at the NYT).

Back then as it is now, foreign experience makes or breaks a reporter’s career ( Dan Rather, Peter Jennings both had their early start in Vietnam).

Today, we’ve got  Independent Television News and Al Jazeera that supply voice and video feed for our 24/7 cable news cycle. This empowers a generation of digital camera-phone owners to become amateur stringers. If Chavez had to do it again, he wouldn’t need to occupy the broadcast station: just press Record and Send. Voila! Voice and Video. However shaky the shots, speed trumps (broadcast) standard. Wonder what they have to do at the FCC to cope with information explosion. And it doesn’t end there with Google satellite and  street maps. The EU has just sent up a new horde of advanced satellites into orbit. It’s a classic case of dictator’s dilemma: when one can have (information) access, all, the opposition included, can too. To deny one is to deny all. Yet, in abundance of choices,  I just miss those radio days “when I was young, I listen to the radio, waiting for my favorite song…”; this “hot” medium forced me to exercise my imagination (e.g. visualizing a live soccer match) based solely on voice and no video .  Now, everything is put on display, even what’s inside a Libyan food freezer. Gory and Gold Finger.

Tang, Sanka and Google instant

Tang was well-known way back then, as the drink of choice for astronauts.

Sanka had been in every motel room, before the green de-caffeine (equivalent of conditioner that is coupled with shampoo) bags came to existence.

And now Google Instant, promised to be faster and more magical.

Can’t data mine faster than that.

The wisdom of crowd interacts with the wisdom of machine. IQ vs AI.

We were amazed at Luke’s drink (in Star Wars). Now we know why? The speed of everything has been quickened.

I prepared lunch for myself and my daughter today.

I found myself very impatient with the process: chopping, heating, eating and cleaning.

Would it be easier to eat out of  Instant Cup O Noodles? (which made the Noodle King richer than Burger King).

Nobody knows you are a dog on the internet. But you must be the top dog. Search engine and crawlers show SEO, be it the best or not.

Only the highest page-ranked items are displayed above-the-fold. With Linkedin Social endorsement, we have invented the online equivalent of “street cred” (the age of Lordship is back, albeit in new currency)

I remember browsing through a section of the library, just to see what’s placed close by.

Now with Google instant, I won’t get to do all that. It will “ping” right away displaying only the search term.

We are back to data silos, to our own “cubicle”. Hence the danger of isolation and the need for integration.

The Web gives us vast data pool, Google instant narrows it down. A personalized version of Google trend.

Ph.D. candidates are having a field day narrow down their thesis.

( Once you can articulate the problem and find no existing research done on the topic,  you are half way to the degree.)

I am glad for competition in Search and instant Search.

It’s tough enough having to deal with spam, and unsolicited mail (data deluge).

BTW, the NYT might stop to exist in physical form. It’s experiment on-line has been successful, so much that it threatens the print side.

The tipping point came when people bought more e version than hard-cover version.

Save a tree, save a buck , but not B&N.

No longer do we browse other books while shopping for a new release.

Save gas, save space and save time. Instant gratification. Boy oh boy, what am I going to do with my existing book collection?

Another “Tower” is down (referring to Tower Records, which went busted after MP3). I don’t think Goodwill will accept all the book donation in the future,

the same way it is inundated with tube TV‘s. We are witnessing  a near complete transition to digital, one which is overtaking our lives a zero and a 1 at a time.

My plea: be patient with yourself. And if you have to prepare lunch, try not to use the microwave. Not that it’s not fast, it’s just that with our current expectation, even microwave speed seems so slow in the age of Google Instant. Use those free minutes for a Tweet that might go viral.