Archive for the ‘google’ Category

How to use Twitter to prove you’re an absolute moron.

Posted by ben on July 28th, 2009

There’s been an overwhelming amount of love for Twitter this year, but Larry King might be single handedly responsible for starting my disenchantment with the most recent installment of the seemingly annual progression of the latest and greatest social media wunderkinds. To be fair, my disenchantment began a few months ago, but a tweet a few days ago (2:58PM on July 26 to be exact) from Larry King’s official Twitter account (@kingsthings) sealed the deal:

Larry, I’ve got some news for you. For at least three reasons Twitter is the absolutely, positively WRONG medium to use for finding out why a Marathon is 26.2 miles.

First off, Larry, it demonstrates what we’ve kinda been suspecting all along – namely that you’re a no-talent, hack who’s risen to your station through merely the arbitrary caprice of fortune. The standard answer to this question is pretty much conventional wisdom. I’ve taught middle school kids that could answer it.

Second, Larry, you can actually get your answer faster by using this crazy, new technology called a search engine. I’m sure this whole Internet thing is probably brand new to you and has to be pretty confusing (in fact, it’s probably pretty safe to assume that you’ve got some ghost writer Tweeting on your behalf to solicit the questions for your interview with Colin Powell that you’re unable to prepare on your own). But just in case you actually do get on the Internet someday, I created a demonstration of how this new-fangled thing called a “search engine” can help you find answers to life’s persistent questions. Just CLICK HERE to see how it works! Then, to get your answer click on the blue, underlined text at the top of the page that says “Marathon – Wikipedia the free encyclopedia”.

Third, Larry, the answer is actually more nuanced than you might think at first blush. Turns out that the distance from Marathon to Athens is shorter than 26.2 miles. Turns out that primary historical sources disagree about whehter or not the first “Marathon runner” ran before or after the battle of Marathon. Turns out that the 26.2 mile distance was the result of a series of last-minute changes made to the first modern marathon route established for the 1908 Olympics in London. Maybe you knew that the standard answer wasn’t 100% accurate (I doubt it). But even if I stretch my imagination beyond the comprehensible and give you this benefit of the doubt, the fact still remains that crowd sourcing via your celebrity Twitter account is the least effective and most time consuming way to actually get your answer. Just take a look at the overwhelming volume of responses your question generated by CLICKING HERE. You’ll notice something pretty quickly: a lot of people know some version of the standard answer, but nobody agrees on the more nuanced details. If you’re really into crowd sourcing your answer, you should just cut to the chase and go to Wikipedia where the crowd sourcing has already been done for you. Plus, Wikipedia has at least a modicum of editing that’s gone into their content.

Which brings me back to how Larry King finally brought about my disenchantment with Twitter. In short, Twitter has become filled with crap and wading through all that crap takes more time and effort than regular people should have to put into it. It takes a considerable investment of one’s time to follow Jeb’s advice about having a meaningful online converstaion and craft your Twitter network to a manageable level so that it’s actually useful and doesn’t become a ridiculous time sink. What we need first and foremost in an answer is “correctness”. I have yet to find a better way to get “correctness” than by identifying an authority that can be trusted. It’s way too easy to present the appearance of authoritativeness on the web without actually being an authority. Just look at all the self-proclaimed authorities who wound up giving Larry a technically incorrect answer to his question. Finding an authority is hard work (even off line). Crowd sourcing via Twitter doesn’t get you any closer to an authoritative answer. It just compounds the problem (especially when you use a celebrity account). I know it’s tempting to think that crowd sourcing via Twitter is the way to go when it’s been so successful for Wikipedia, but Twitter just doesn’t work like Wikipedia.

I used to think that Twitter was pretty cool and pretty useful before the proliferation of celebrity accounts from the likes of Larry, Oprah and Martha. So it looks like I am now beating Jeb to the punch in writing his next latest-social-media-fad-jumps-the-shark-blog-post. Why is it that all these social media sites go through the same cycle of explosive growth that eventually brings about their demise? I suspect it’s because no one’s figured out a really good way to make the hard work of identifying authorities become easy. Finding an answer “that works” by playing a numbers game through social media sites can work OK for a while so long as the numbers stay fairly small. However, once they reach their critical mass these social media fads just implode. Plus, playing the social media numbers games just skirts the fact that the answer is by no means guaranteed to be authoritative. In attempting to make finding an authority easy, Twitter seems to have thrown their lot in with the celebrities. Or have the celebrities high-jacked Twitter? Either way, that celebrities have made a good thing bad should be pretty self-evident. I hate to say it but it seems that counting backlinks and other artificial “signs of trust” like the search engine algorithms do is the best thing we’ve got going so far.

So, Google don’t be worried by Jeb’s post that opined whether Twitter is a Google-slayer. It isn’t and it won’t be. In fact, it’ll probably be something our kids and grandkids reference when making fun of our generation. I can already hear my daughter incredulously asking her friends, “Can you believe our parents spent their time at work reading ghost writers typing ‘In da house ATL!!!’ on some rapper’s Twitter account?”.

And if you’re wondering, yes, I probably woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning. So feel free to flame me in the comments below for being so hard on the beloved institutions like Larry King and Twitter. But be forewarned: I’ll probably be just as snarky in my responses as I am now.

Tags: epistemology, larry king, social media, twitter
Posted in google, search engine optimization, search engines, seo, social media, social networks, twitter | 14 Comments »

Can ChaCha Be Saved?

Posted by jeb on March 17th, 2009

Local internet start-up ChaCha has run into some rough waters. Tech Crunch announced today that ChaCha has laid off a third of their employees and they claim, via a laid off insider, that the company’s future looks shaky at best. You can almost see the vultures circling waiting for them to fail. But I am not one of those vultures. I like their business model.

Maybe ChaCha is doing fine and the rumors are false. But if they are in danger I have some ideas. They just need to fix some things. But the fixes may not last.

On the surface the fix is simple. Bring down the cost of each answer and bring up the overall ad revenue. But getting there is a little tricky.

If you aren’t familiar with how ChaCha works, here is a simple explanation- a user texts a question to ChaCha, “Is ChaCha going out of business”- a real question I sent while writing this blog, a ChaCha guide does some research, probably on Google or using in-house databases and sends back an answer. Along with the answer “ChaCha is not going out of business….Get Fray tickets now!”- a paraphrase of what their actual response was. Or they send an ad before the answer. In either case, or both in my case, the sender gets a little text ad with a simple call to action (i.e. a keyword to text for a special or a phone number to click on). Money comes in from the advertiser and goes out via the “human guide”. Voila!

So how do you bring down the cost of the human guides and bring up the revenue via ads?

I have a couple ideas.

The first is on the revenue side.

ChaCha needs to introduce their version of Google AdWords immediately. I have heard rumors through the industry grapevine that this in development. If so, then get it in Beta mode asap! I would love to be a guinea pig for it.

My recent experience working with ChaCha for a client was clumsy at best. All I wanted to do was to log on to my dashboard, set up some test campaigns and tweak them based on results. Instead I was drawn through a near torturous quoting process that eventually ended with my client spending a considerable amount of money in very little time with no real metrics. Not good. Then we were told they couldn’t do any more business with us due to a national non-compete. I don’t think Google has said that to any client, ever!

If I could run real geo/demo targeted campaigns for specific keywords used in question queries I think I would find many uses for ChaCha. But as it stands it’s next to impossible to safely spend money with them. There are no real time metrics. Unacceptable in this world of Web 2.0 wonders!

So how about the “human guides”?

These are the real problem for ChaCha. They need real people typing out text answers. That’s their business model. So do they change their business model? I have an idea that might be a little out of the box. How about doing a Twitter/ChaCha mash up? Say they set up different ChaCha accounts based around different question categories. Surely they have this already- dining, nightlife, taxi phone numbers, bizarre, etc. Then create local filters and have Twitter post the question using # for categories. An example would be #diningindy where is a good sushi restuarant on the north side of Indy? ChaCha would filter the question to see that it is about dining “sushi” and about Indianapolis “indy” and then repost to the Twitter account ChaChaDining. All ChaCha “human guides” following that search #diningindy would be able to respond. The original Tweet and response would need to also have a unique code somewhere in it as well so that ChaCha could easily re-sync with the original question. That might pose the most difficult part of this whole deal. It also means you could start running out of room on both sides pretty quickly.

But you can see how getting a bunch of Twitter users answering questions might make sense. They are already doing it for their followers, why not do it for ChaCha and get paid. I think paying 10-15 cents an answer could be interesting to students and some active Twitter users. If you are charging 25-50 cents for each ad then you have a business model!

I know the Twitter solution is probably a tricky one to implement but there has to be a way to bring down the human cost. I would also expect that they now have a pretty nice database of questions and answers. Couldn’t they automate many of the responses and send the more complicated ones to their Twitterati?

On a higher level you have to wonder whether Twitter poses a real threat to the ChaCha business model. In some ways Twitter is doing what ChaCha is trying to do, but better just not faster. Who do you trust more? Your friends and associates or some anonymous “human guide”? The reality is that your Twitter followers aren’t being paid to answer your tax cab phone number question at 3am in the morning whereas ChaCha human guides are. They are there for you when others are not. That is the real service.

But ChaCha faces an even bigger, looming threat. As phones become smarter, faster and more connected many of us won’t the need to get this kind of quick response from a human guide. But we need to remember, those of us that are on the geeky side of things, that most cell phone users are not currently using their phones for local search. Calls and text are about as far as they get. Unless they are on a “smart phone” they have probably never even been to a website on their phone. How long this group of users stays away from mobile search may map one to one with how long ChaCha has a real business model. That is where I run out of ideas for how to save ChaCha.

Posted in google, mobile | 5 Comments »

How Search Is Changing and more Twitter thoughts

Posted by jeb on March 11th, 2009

I think search as we know it is undergoing its biggest change since Google came on the scene with its nifty algorithms 10 years ago.

Since friends and family is the source we trust over all others including search engines, tv, radio, yellow pages etc, at least that is what I have read, we are seeing the rise of social media (i.e. your friends and family), and in particular Twitter, as a direct threat to Google in terms of driving search for business. It is certainly not an immediate threat to Google et al’s dominance in driving business but I think around the corner we will see Peer To Peer Search emerge as a real threat to the traditional algorithm driven search that currently dominates.

Cha Cha was on the right track with their human search engine but Twitter has the right model since their search engine is essentially free and personalized to each user based on who is following them. Google can’t currently compete with a good group of Twitter followers telling you what the best Thai restaurant is or what the best project management software is, etc. Google just isn’t that intelligent, or perhaps, that human. It’s just a really smart computer program that does many things well. But Google can’t actually go eat at a restaurant and give you a first hand account. But @twitterfriend has and they are happy to share their experience. So who are you going to go to for “reliable plummer”?

This means that relationships as much as content indexed in search engines (SEO) will drive your business down the road. Social Media sites facilitate relationships in the context of meaningful content. This forces transparency on companies which is difficult at times since their culture isn’t used to it. The company culture (translation executives) is used to controlling the message. But Zappos has it right- your culture is your brand now, whether you like it or not. Just accept that the Web is a harsh light and you can’t escape it’s glare. Might as well clean house.

hmmm, so what’s Google going to do about Twitter? I bet talks are going on right now for them to buy Twitter. And I also bet Twitter isn’t going to go cheap if at all. They know what they have- a super highway that everyone has set up shop on and now they just need to figure out how to charge a small toll. Google is good at that but they aren’t the only fish in that sea.

Posted in google, search engines, twitter | 2 Comments »

Twitter Is The New Google

Posted by jeb on February 11th, 2009

Graph from Compete.com showing Twitter’s growth.

Do you use Twitter? If so how do you use it? The further I get into Twitter the clearer I see it as a threat to Google. It is also encroaching on Facebook, CNN, Linkedin, Email and SMS text messaging.

Where do I go when I need to find out how to do screencasts? Used to be Google, now I send out a “Tweet” to Twitter and within seconds I have a number of responses with links to suggested services.

When I need feedback on an idea I used to send out an email to a select group of friends or associates. Now I post it on Twitter and get a flood of great ideas flowing back in.

How do I keep up with my friends and business associates? I still use Facebook for this but I have seen a marked decrease in my Facebook time as I use Twitter more and more.

When I want to send someone a message I still use email but more and more I am sending direct messages via Twitter and having a fast, real time, conversation via Twitter.

Where do I get leads for my business and start relationships? I’ve set up Linkedin, Plaxo and other business networking accounts. None them bore any fruit. But after only a few months of being active on Twitter I am connecting with companies in a meaningful and comfortable way. Twitter is not a meat market which appeals to my style of doing business.

When the plane crashed in the Hudson I didn’t hear about it from the news or CNN, I read about it on Twitter. News spreads like wildfire there.

The funny thing about Twitter is that they don’t seem to know what they have here. The platform is barely developed. Seems that more companies are setting up businesses along the Twitter highway and making money off the platform more than Twitter itself!

So watch out Google, Facebook, CNN, Linkedin and all these other companies that seemed so secure in their online positions only months ago. Twitter is chipping away and soon you will be scrambling to keep up.

Posted in google, search engines, social media, social networks, technology, twitter | 1 Comment »

Does Google Deliver Killer iPhone App?

Posted by ben on October 27th, 2008

Today Google announced the availability Google Earth as a free iPhone application. Is this the killer iPhone app Jeb has been waiting for?

It’s a pretty sexy app that even makes use of the iPhone’s built in accelerometer and you can definitely use it to increase the iPhone-envy of your friends as you can see from this screenshot.

However, after messing around with it for a few minutes you’re left wondering “Why should I keep this app on my phone?” and aren’t given much hope of an answer coming any time soon.

App Review In A Nutshell
Overall Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
Who’s it for? Google fanboys and iPhone geeks looking to impress their freinds
What’s it good for? Not sure. Let me know by commenting below.
How long before I delete it from my iPhone? 2 weeks tops.

For those of you unfamiliar with Google Earth, it’s a virtual globe application that you can download onto your computer that lets you explore an earth composed of superimposed satelite images and aerial photography. It was Google’s first free application that back in 2006 really made me stand up and take notice of them. I can still hear my roommate’s laughter when I incredulously exclaimed just after downloading Google Earth onto my PC “I can’t believe this is paid for entirely by online advertising!”

Back then it provided hours of fun as I explored sites like Mount McKinley in Alaska, the battleship graveyard near San Francisco bay and St. Peter’s in Rome. Even after the novelty wore off I found myself using it for business and not just pleasure. While doing some community organizing back in California, I used the satellite imagery to find out what way the houses were facing on streets to determine the most efficient routes to assign to my team who were going door to door. It turned out the east-west streets had a much greater density of houses – and I was able to determine it in 5 minutes at my computer rather without having to drive around the neighborhoods!

But it’s been years since I’ve used Google Earth and that’s largely because it doesn’t offer enough new features to replace Google Maps. Today I could use the satellite imagery within Google Maps to do what I did while community organizing back in California.

It was with eager anticipation that I downloaded the Google Earth App onto my iPhone, but unfortunately it does not breathe new life into Google Earth and I’ll probably keep using the Google Maps on my iPhone just like I do on my computer. It does offer a couple things Google Maps doesn’t like direct links to geotargetted articles in Wikipedia

or geotagged photos in Panoramio.

Plus the 3-D views are pretty cool – when you can get them to display the way you want (more on this later).

Like Google Maps you can do localized searches for businesses and services. In fact localized searches within Google Earth appear to be driven by the same engine that drives them in Google Maps.

Like the Google Maps App you can have Google Earth automatically center on your current location.

On my first-gen iPhone that uses cel tower triangulation, it reasonably accurate (within a block or three). I wish I could tell you how it works on a current-gen iPhone with GPS, but Jeb’s kept crashing every time we tried.

As you can see from the screenshots, the app definitely looks nice and has the potential to definitely impress your friends – just make sure to spend at least an hour or so getting used to controlling it through the iPhone’s touchscreen. You can pan, rotate, tilt and zoom in and out using taps, single finger swipes and two finger swipes. Only problem is that the Google Earth isn’t very proficient at distinguishing between a single finger and two finger swipe. I was trying to take in a 3-D view of the Santa Monica mountains near Simi Valley and after the app misinterpreted a few swipes I suddenly found myself in the middle of Compton!

So, the bottom line is that this is definitely not the killer iPhone app that Jeb and the rest of us have been waiting for. The not infrequent crashing shows that it’s still a little buggy; trying to navigate via the touchscreen is more than a little annoying; and aside from direct linking to Wikipedia and Panoramio it offers little more than Google Maps.

Posted in google, indianapolis | 1 Comment »