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Gerrit Eicker
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Gerrit Eicker
Zukunftsbilder und Monitoring Deutschland
Deutschland digital im internationalen Vergleich: Zukunftsbilder und der IKT Monitoring-Report 2011; http://eicker.at/DE2011
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Gerrit Eicker
TNS Infratest: “Zukunftsbilder der digitalen Welt. Nutzerperspektiven im internationalen Vergleich. – In der vierten Phase der ‘Zukunftsstudie Münchner Kreis’ stand der Nutzer mit seinen persönlichen Einschätzungen zu exemplarischen, IKT-unterstützten ‘Zukunftsbildern’ im Mittelpunkt. Um die Einstellungen und Vorlieben, aber auch Vorbehalte und Befürchtungen der Nutzer im Zusammenhang mit der digitalen Zukunft zu untersuchen, wurden 16 so genannte Zukunftsbilder innerhalb sieben konkret erfahrbarer, alltäglicher Lebenssituationen entwickelt. Über 7.231 Internetnutzer in Deutschland, Schweden, USA, Brasilien, China und Südkorea wurden zu diesen 16 Zukunftsbildern im Sommer 2011 befragt.”
TNS Infratest: “Im Ergebnis zeigt sich deutlich: Für viele der zukünftigen Anwendungen sind hohe Akzeptanz und Zahlungsbereitschaft vorhanden. Allerdings haben die Menschen weltweit große Befürchtungen im Hinblick auf den sicheren Umgang mit ihren persönlichen Daten. Für den Erhalt der starken Wettbewerbsposition muss die deutsche Industrie am Wachstum in den neuen Leitmärkten auch im IKT-Bereich verstärkt teilnehmen. … Visuell aufbereitet und auf sieben elementare Lebenssituationen bezogen, lässt die Auseinandersetzung der Befragten mit diesen Zukunftsbildern Aussagen über die Bedeutung individueller Erfahrungen, Einstellungen und kultureller Prägungen für die Akzeptanz und Nutzung neuer Anwendungen zu. ‘Ohne den differenzierten Blick in die Zukunft und die Bewertung möglicher Zukunftsbilder ist zielgerichtete Innovation nur schwer möglich. Damit Deutschland auch als IKT-Standort eine führende Rolle einnimmt, halte ich es für sehr wichtig, dass sich der Münchner Kreis in der Zukunftsstudie kontinuierlich um Erkenntnisse zu zukünftigen Entwicklungen, Herausforderungen und Chancen der IKT bemüht’, betonte Franz Josef Pschierer, IT-Beauftragter der Bayerischen Staatsregierung.”
Zukunftsbilder der digitalen Welt 2011 [PDF]: “[S.30] Im Mittelpunkt der vierten Zukunftsstudie des Münchner Kreis und seiner Projektpartner steht der ‘normale’ Nutzer von IKT und Medien: dessen Einstellungen, Vorlieben, aber auch seine Vorbehalte und Befürchtungen zu ausgewählten zukünftigen IKT-Anwendungen. Denn letztlich können nur die Anwender und Nutzer vor dem Hintergrund ihrer individuellen Erfahrungen neue Perspektiven für die zukünftige Technikentwicklung und Gestaltung der digitalen Zukunft eröffnen. Repräsentativ befragt wurde in sechs Ländern: Deutschland und Schweden stellvertretend für Europa, die USA und Brasilien für Amerika sowie China und Korea für Asien. … [S.29] Die Themenbereiche Kompetenz, Sicherheit und neue Geschäftsfelder in einer digitalen Gesellschaft werden in der Zukunftsstudienreihe des Münchner Kreis als kontinuierliche Analysepfade verfolgt. Die Zukunftsbilder der vorliegenden Zukunftsstudie lassen hier neue Erkenntnisse zu. … [S.28] Schutz persönlicher Daten. Die Nutzer haben weltweit – vor allem aber in Deutschland – große Befürchtungen im Hinblick auf den Umgang mit ihren persönlichen Daten. Insbesondere befürchten sie unbefugte Datenspeicherung und kriminellen Datenmissbrauch. Die bereits in den vorausgegangenen Zukunftsstudien aufgezeigte international steigende Bedeutung eines sicheren Umgangs mit persönlichen Daten wurde nun auch aus Nutzersicht bestätigt. In der Konsequenz muss sich der Anspruch auf den Schutz der Persönlichkeit und der persönlichen Daten noch stärker im gesellschaftlichen, politischen und individuellen Bewusstsein sowie in institutionellen Regelungen verankern. … [S.38] In Bezug auf den Schutz der persönlichen Daten zeigt sich überall eine große Angst vor unbefugter Datenspeicherung und kriminellem Datenmissbrauch, was sich bereits in den Einschätzungen zu den verschiedenen Zukunftsbildern widerspiegelt. Dabei erstaunt nicht, dass das Thema in Deutschland noch sehr viel problematischer gesehen wird als in China, Korea, Schweden, den USA und Brasilien. Gleichzeitig wird insbesondere bei der Datenspeicherung deutlich, dass Anwendungen wie der Online-Datenmanager zukünftig interessant sein könnten. … Aus gesellschaftlicher und individueller Sicht ist es somit offenbar noch nicht gelungen, den Anspruch auf den Schutz der Persönlichkeit und der persönlichen Daten – der als ‘informationelle Selbstbestimmung’ expliziter Bestandteil der deutschen Verfassung ist – durch geeignete Maßnahmen so umzusetzen, dass sich dies im Bewusstsein niederschlägt und in IKT-Systemen breite Anwendung findet. … [S.39] In Bezug auf das Thema ‘Vertrauen in Technologien‘ zeigte sich in allen Ländern und über alle Zukunftsbilder: Die größten Sorgen in Bezug auf Technik machen sich die Befragten hinsichtlich des Ausfalls der Technik, Zuverlässigkeit und falsche Anwendung und dadurch entstehende Haftungsfragen. Hierin liegt für Wirtschaft, Wissenschaft und Politik eine große Herausforderung. … Gleichzeitig muss sich die Gesellschaft noch stärker auf digitale Veränderungen einlassen und darf nicht abwarten, bis die Praxistauglichkeit in anderen Ländern demonstriert und sämtliche kritische Fragen abschließend beantwortet wurden.”
FS: “Die Zukunftsstudie 2011 des Münchner Kreis stellt die Menschen als Nutzer von Technologie mit ihren Bedürfnissen, Erfahrungen und Befürchtungen in den Mittelpunkt einer internationalen Befragung. Im Ergebnis zeigt sich deutlich: Für viele der zukünftigen Anwendungen sind hohe Akzeptanz und Zahlungsbereitschaft vorhanden. Allerdings haben die Menschen weltweit große Befürchtungen im Hinblick auf den sicheren Umgang mit ihren persönlichen Daten. … Zur Sicherung der industriellen Wettbewerbsposition muss die deutsche Industrie am Wachstum in den neuen Leitmärkten auch im IKT-Bereich verstärkt teilnehmen. – Für den Erfolg in diesen Wachstumsmärkten braucht es koordinierte Aktivitäten von Politik und Wirtschaft. Nötig sind spezifische Zielmarktprogramme, um detaillierte IKT-Markt- und Nutzerkenntnis zu erlangen und in erfolgsversprechende Anwendungen umzusetzen. – Produkte sollten nicht mehr zuallererst mit Blick auf den Heimatmarkt entwickelt werden.”
TNS Infratest: “Die aktuelle Studie des Langzeitprojekts Monitoring Deutschland Digital – Der IKT Standort Deutschland im internationalen Vergleich 2011 zeigt, wo der IKT-Standort Deutschland im 15-Länder-Ranking positioniert ist. Top-IKT-Experten haben die wichtigsten Handlungsfelder identifiziert, um Deutschland mit Spitzentechnologien an die Weltspitze zu bringen. … Deutschland erreicht 56 Prozent der bestmöglichen Performance und platziert sich unter 15 IKT-Nationen gemeinsam mit Schweden auf Rang sechs. – Die Position Deutschlands hat sich im Vergleich zum Vorjahr um eine Position von Rang sieben auf Platz sechs verbessert. – Deutschland positioniert sich als viertstärkste Nation mit 5,1 Prozent Weltmarktanteil nach IKT-Umsatz im TNS-Benchmark. – Wesentliche Standortnachteile sind der strukturell bedingte IKT-Fachkräftemangel, die strikten Regelungen des nicht angepassten Datenschutzgesetzes, die unzureichenden Investitionen in Bildung, keine steuerliche Begünstigung der Forschungsförderung. – Die größten Chancen bestehen beim zügigen Ausbau einer leistungsfähigen, flächendecken Netzinfrastruktur sowie der Fokussierung auf die strategischen Wachstumsfelder. – Branchenübergreifende Wachstumsfelder: Cloud Computing wächst bis 2020 um jährlich 20 Prozent – die Wachstumsraten betragen bei Embedded Systems 8,5 Prozent jährlich bis 2020 und bei IT-Sicherheit 8,9 Prozent bis 2025. – Industriekonvergenzfelder: In 15 Jahren verdreifachen sich die Umsätze mit E-Energy, steigen die Umsätze mit Elektrofahrzeugen auf das Fünfzehnfache, verdoppeln sich die Umsätze mit E-Health und verneunfachen sich die Umsätze im Bereich Smart Home.”
Monitoring-Report Deutschland 2011 [PDF]: “[S.12] Deutschland und Schweden belegen im Ranking der bedeutendsten 15 IKT-Standorte gemeinsam den sechsten Platz. … Deutschland erreicht in keinem der 23 Indikatorbereiche den ersten oder zweiten Platz. Die beste Platzierung für Deutschland ist ein dritter Platz beim Kernindikator ‘Anteil der Internet-Werbeumsätze am Werbemarkt’. … [S.13] Die USA liegen mit unverändert 69 Punkten als Zweitplatzierte knapp hinter Südkorea. Sie positionieren sich beim ‘Marktanteil der IKT-Umsätze am Weltmarkt’ und bei der ‘Internethostdichte’ als bedeutendster IKT-Standort im TNS-Benchmark. … Im Teilbereich ‘Infrastruktur’ erreicht Deutschland mit 80 Indexpunkten eine überdurchschnittliche Performance. Allerdings verschlechtert sich Deutschland um zwei Punkte. Damit belegt das Land unverändert Rang fünf und teilt sich diesen mit Norwegen. … [S.14] Die deutsche Performance im Bereich ‘Anteil der IKT-Exporte an allen Exporten’ [ausschließlich IKT-Services und Software] verschlechtert sich um zwei Punkte auf 23 Indexpunkte. Deutschland platziert sich mit 6,8 Prozent nach 6,9 Prozent im Vorjahr erneut auf Rang neun. … Bei den ‘E-Commerce-Umsätzen‘, verstanden als Umsätze mit Produkten, die online von Internetnutzern bestellt, aber nicht notwendigerweise über das Internet bezahlt werden, liegt Deutschland mit E-Commerce-Ausgaben von 222 Euro pro Internetnutzer wie im Vorjahr auf dem neunten Platz. Die durchschnittlichen Umsätze pro Internetnutzer stiegen um 11 Prozent. Großbritannien liegt wie im Vorjahr auf dem ersten Platz mit 518 Euro pro Internet-Nutzer. … [S.19] Schaffung von Vertrauen in Netz- und Informationssicherheit als Voraussetzung zur Ausschöpfung von IKT-Potenzialen – Urheberrecht: Die zunehmende Anwendung digitaler Technologien bei der Verbreitung von Inhalten in Bild, Ton und Schrift macht einen neuen Interessenausgleich zwischen Urhebern, Rechteverwertern und Nutzern notwendig. … Datenschutz: Privatsphäre und Schutz personenbezogener Daten wurden vom Bundesverfassungsgericht zu Grundrechten erklärt. Angesichts einer freiwilligen Einbindung großer Mengen privater Daten in soziale Netzwerke und eines wachsenden kommerziellen Interesses daran ist eine Aktualisierung des Datenschutzgesetzes geboten. … Netzneutralität ist der von ökonomischen und politischen Erwägungen unabhängige und somit diskriminierungsfreie Wettbewerb von Datenpaketen, um die technisch zur Verfügung stehende Bandbreite in vollem Umfang nutzen zu können. … [S.122] Nutzung von sozialen Netzwerken … Deutschland kann ebenfalls eine deutliche Verbesserung vorweisen. Von 2009 auf 2010 verbesserte sich der Indexwert bei der Nutzung von sozialen Netzwerken um 13 Indexpunkte auf 61. Dies bedeutet, dass 50,8 Prozent der Internetnutzer hierzulande aktive soziale Netzwerker sind. Das bringt Platz 13 im TNS-Benchmark der Länder. … [S.123] Die hohe Nutzung von Facebook führt zu entsprechenden Umverteilungen der Werbebudgets. Jede fünfte Online-Werbung in Deutschland wird auf Facebook geschaltet. … Social Media verändert die Art, wie Menschen kommunizieren – auch im Geschäftsleben. Gartner geht davon aus, dass bis 2014 jeder fünfte Angestellte in seiner beruflichen Kommunikation Social Networks statt E-Mails verwenden wird.”
Heise: “Die Studie von TNS Infratest sieht Deutschland bei der Mobilfunknutzung und vor allem bei den Online-Werbeumsätzen in führender Position. Im Bereich E-Commerce hat Deutschland seinen ersten Platz aus dem vorigen Jahr an Südkorea verloren. Dies liegt vor allem an der ‘schleppenden Adaptionsgeschwindigkeit’ beim E-Government, der beim E-Commerce mitgewichtet wird, erklärte Studienleiterin Sabine Graumann von TNS Infratest. … Die schlechteste Platzierung belegte Deutschland mit Rang 13 bei der Nutzung sozialer Netzwerke: 51 Prozent der deutschen Internetnutzer halten sich in ihnen auf.“
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Gerrit Eicker
Google Agent Rank
An algorithm based reputation system and digital signature: the Google Agent Rank; http://eicker.at/GoogleAgentRank
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Gerrit Eicker
SEL: “Google’s Agent Rank Patent Application – The method of ranking based upon reputation scores is described in an analogy based upon PageRank. There’s also some discussion of an alternative possibility of using a seed group of trusted agents to endorse other content. Agents whose content receives consistently strong endorsements might gain reputation under that method. In either implementation, the agent’s reputation ultimately depends on the quality of the content which they sign. … The use of digital signatures enables the reputation system to link reputations with individual agents, and adjust the relative rankings based on all of the content each agent chooses to associate himself or herself with, no matter where the content may be located. That could even include content that isn’t on the internet. … This is a very different way of providing rankings for pages, based upon the reputations of agents who may have interacted with, and digitally signed content on those pages.”
SbtS: “Are You Trusted by Google? – Are you a robot? A spammer? A sock puppet? A trusted author and content developer? A trusted agent in the eyes of Google? … In a whitepaper from last year, Reputation Systems for Open Collaboration, Bo Adler of Fujitsu Labs of America, Ian Pyey of CloudFlare, Inc., and Luca de Alfaro and Ashutosh Kulshreshtha from Google describe two different collaborative reputation systems that they worked on. One of them is a WikiTrust reputation system for Wikipedia authors and content, and the other is the Crowdsensus reputation system for Google Maps editors. – Both systems are interesting, and as the authors note, both fulfill very different needs in very different ways. … I’ve written about Google’s Agent Rank here a few times recently, and Google published a new Agent Rank continuation patent application last week which expands upon one aspect of the patent filing within its claims section. … [T]he newest version of this patent is transformed to focus upon this aspect of Agent Rank. It introduces the concept of ‘trusted agents,’ who might endorse content items created by others. … Are reputation or user rank scores influencing rankings in search results at present? Chances are that they may be in the future, if they aren’t now. – How does one become a ‘trusted agent?’”
SEOmoz: “Building The Implicit Social Graph – Google Plus is Google’s latest attempt at building an explicit social graph that they control, but Google has been building out an implicit social graph for quite some time. This graph is still relatively naive compared to the maturity of the link graph, but search engines continue to develop this graph. Since it is already directly influencing rankings, and its value will increase, it’s important to understand how this type of social graph is being built. In this post, I’ll look at some of the methods for building the social graph, as well as looking at explicit vs. implicit social graphs. … One of the limitations of building an implicit social graph is that you don’t have the data to test against to confirm the predictions and relationships that graph discovers. It still has to depend on the data made public, but is limited by relationships that are held private [aka Facebook]. Google Plus, among other things, creates a massive set of explicit social graph data, which can be used for machine learning and accuracy checking. … Even with publicly available, and privately available, explicit social data, there is still a strong incentive to build out the implicit graph. The explicit graph can be used to make improvements upon this graph. The implicit graph is one area where Google has a significant advantage over Facebook. – It’s no secret that the social graph appears to be the next evolution with increasing uses of social factors, social elements in search, and mechanisms that will lead into AgentRank/AuthorRank, which will tie directly into the implicit social graph.”
ComLUV: “Google Agent Rank and its Impact on Blogging – For many users and businesses Google is the Internet. People don’t search for things anymore, they Google them. The silly sounding brand name has permeated almost every aspect of the Internet and is growing daily. One new twist Google may be adding to the mix is something they call Agent Rank. … Agent Rank has the potential to be an incredible boon to bloggers of any topic or vertical. Trusted writers will not only bring their great material with them to a new project, they will bring a built-in trust boost in Google to whatever site they are working for. … If an author can be confident that their Agent Rank could bring about better Google rankings then they can approach projects with a new value proposition. … When or if Agent Rank will be implemented is unknown. Google recently released an addendum to their Google Profiles they call Authorship. … It is unknown if this is an early attempt to roll out Agent Rank in some form, but it is clearly related to the patent and has some value even in its current state.”
Google: “Today we’re beginning to support authorship markup – a way to connect authors with their content on the web. We’re experimenting with using this data to help people find content from great authors in our search results. – We now support markup that enables websites to publicly link within their site from content to author pages. … The markup uses existing standards such as HTML5 (rel=”author”) and XFN (rel=”me”) to enable search engines and other web services to identify works by the same author across the web. If you’re already doing structured data markup using microdata from schema.org, we’ll interpret that authorship information as well. … We know that great content comes from great authors, and we’re looking closely at ways this markup could help us highlight authors and rank search results.“
Gerrit Eicker
Facebook News Feed: Relevance?
Facebook redesigns its news feed for more relevance: resistance is futile; http://eicker.at/FacebookNewsFeedRelevance
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Gerrit Eicker
Facebook: “Starting today, it will be easier to keep up with the people in your life no matter how frequently or infrequently you’re on Facebook. … Now, News Feed will act more like your own personal newspaper. You won’t have to worry about missing important stuff. All your news will be in a single stream with the most interesting stories featured at the top. If you haven’t visited Facebook for a while, the first things you’ll see are top photos and statuses posted while you’ve been away. They’re marked with an easy-to-spot blue corner. … Ticker shows you the same stuff you were already seeing on Facebook, but it brings your conversations to life by displaying updates instantaneously.”
Guardian: “‘Lame,’ snarks Brandi Genest Weeks on the Facebook blog. ‘Quite frankly I don’t want Facebook deciding who is most important in my life. I want my news feed to just go chronologically and if I want to hide posts from someone, I will. Stop changing. You’re becoming MySpace and I left there for a reason.’ – Ouch. And 845 people ‘Liked’ Brandi’s comment. Almost 500 disgrunted Facebook users concurred with Fiona Robinson, who blasted: “NOOOO! I STILL want ‘most recent’ at the top like it used to be, so we have the OPTION of seeing what has been posted most recently instead of what Facebook deems a ‘top story’. This is total garbage. … Once the ticker is populated with my friends’ Spotify tunes, Vevo videos or Wall Street Journal stories, then I’m interested. How about you?”
RWW: “Whenever Facebook launches a major re-design, there is a user outcry. Partly that’s because Facebook is known for its clumsy and confusing design, partly it’s because people are resistant to change. This time round though, the main issue is that Facebook is trying to be something it is not: a newspaper. … Don’t get me wrong, I applaud many of the changes that Facebook has recently made and is about to make. … Lists for friends, media sharing, filtering information that you see on your homepage through the Subscribe button. All of those are features that enhance Facebook’s core purpose: to be asocial network. And just as importantly, all of those features are directly controlled by the user. Not by Facebook’s software.”
GigaOM: “The repeated use of the term ‘newspaper’ makes it obvious that Facebook wants this new feature to be about more than just seeing updates from your friend’s birthday party – and it could become especially interesting when combined with another new Facebook feature: the launch of the ‘Subscribe’ service, which allows users to follow and get updates from people or sources they are not friends with, in much the same way that Twitter does. Facebook has been promoting that feature as a way to stay connected to what celebrities and journalists are doing, and it seems likely that many of those items could wind up on the top of your ‘personal newspaper‘ thanks to the news feed changes.”
GigaOM: “The new updates show that Facebook is still in the midst of the ‘launching season’ CEO Mark Zuckerberg first discussed in June, when it announced a new video chat feature with Skype. With the company’s f8 developer conference coming up this Thursday, something tells me that Facebook still has a few more big announcements up its sleeve.”
AF: “Lest any of us mistake the redesigned news feed and official ticker launch as Facebook giving away the goods before the f8 developers conference this week, Schact said that the company has plenty of other things to announce at the annual event on Thursday. – Of course, users of Facebook will likely grumble about the changed formatting and then decide they like this layout when the next one comes through – that happens every time the site revamps its layouts.”
Gerrit Eicker
Google Plus Search Impact
Google adds public Google Plus posts to Google Social Search, impacting Google Search; http://eicker.at/GooglePlusSearchImpact
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Gerrit Eicker
Google: “Back in 2009, we launched Google Social Search, and we’ve made several improvements since then. And earlier this year we made an update which let you get more information from people you’re connected to on other publicly available sites. Today, we’re including public Google+ posts as well. So if you’re signed into your Google Account, your search results may start including posts shared publicly by people you’re connected to on Google+. … Remember, to experience this updated feature, you’ll need to be on Google+ and also make sure that you’re logged into your Google Account when you search. In addition, only public posts on Google+ are visible in search results. Private posts on Google+ aren’t. – We’re rolling out this update over the coming days. This is just the latest step in helping you find the most relevant information possible, personalized to your interests and the people you care about.”
SEL: “Google has added another source to its social search results: public posts from Google Plus. – Social search has been adding annotations to search results when content from your social connections (not to be confused with your Google+ Circles) was shared on services such as Twitter, LinkedIn and others. – Soon you may start seeing annotations that mention Google’s own social service, and these will come from people in your Google+ circles… Google Social Search continues to operate as before. Things shared socially at places like Twitter and Facebook by those you’re connected with may appear with annotations and rank better in results. – The main difference is, as Google’s post says, is that things you share on Google+ itself are now part of the mix.”
TC: “In a move that was pretty much inevitable in Google’s overall strategy of eventual Google+ integration into most if not all Google products, the search engine has announced that it will now be including publicly shared Google+ posts in its ‘social search’ results. … After getting confirmation from Google, Danny Sullivan responds, ‘It’s new. Posts you share on Google+ now appear and rank better. Previously, only posts you shared elsewhere would.‘”
Gerrit Eicker
Wired: “Google is making plans to turn its +1 button into a crowdsourcing tool that helps it re-order search results and fight web spam. – While not surprising, the move would bring Google’s search engine into the social networking era, while simultaneously creating a new avenue for blackhats to manipulate search results and potentially incurring the wrath of trust-busting authorities. – Google confirmed its plans in an e-mail to Wired.com: ‘Google will study the clicks on +1 buttons as a signal that influences the ranking and appearance of websites in search results,’ a spokesman wrote. ‘The purpose of any ranking signal is to improve overall search quality. For +1’s and other social ranking signals, as with any new ranking signal, we’ll be starting carefully and learning how those signals are related to quality.'”
Gerrit Eicker
Google News Editors’ Picks
Google leaves its algorithm–centricism: adds serendipity to Google News via Editors’ Picks; http://eicker.at/GoogleNewsEditors
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Gerrit Eicker
Google News Help: “Editors’ Picks is a feature that showcases original, innovative news content that a news publisher has on their site at any given time. This content may include long-form narrative articles, slideshows, interactive graphics, or video stories, just to name a few possibilities. – The links you see in Editors’ Picks are hand-picked by the news organization whose logo is displayed above the links. Google News does not select the articles. – If you are a News publisher and wish to submit an Editors’ Picks feed to Google News, please review our guidelines and documentation first.”
Google: “Google News is introducing a new section in the right-hand column of the U.S. edition. The section is called ‘Editors’ Picks,’ and it displays original content that publishers have selected as highlights from their publications. This is the latest addition to recent improvements we’ve made to the variety and presence of stories and multimedia on Google News. – An array of news organizations, including local, national and niche publishers, are now using Editors’ Picks to display their best, most engaging content. Because Google News relies on algorithms, Editors’ Picks will always be just that- picks provided by publishers themselves, and not by Google. … You may have first noticed Editors’ Picks as an experiment last year. Based on the data from that experiment, we have been working with nearly two dozen publishers in recent months and have seen a positive response from readers and publishers alike: readers get the news they’re interested in from the sources they trust, and publishers receive higher traffic to their websites.”
Nieman: “When Google News launched in 2002, it did so with some declarations: ‘This page was generated entirely by computer algorithms without human editors.’ And: ‘No humans were harmed or even used in the creation of this page.’ – That core approach – computerized curation, algorithmic authority, NoMo sapiens – has served Google News well in the nearly-a-decade it’s been around… Editors’ Picks, a display of original content that journalists (human ones!) have selected as editorial highlights from their publications. … That’s a big deal, and only partially because of Google News’ traditional algo-centricism. … In addition to providing users with more good content, Editors’ Picks might also pave the way for more effective partnerships with news publishers. … For publishers, Editors’ Picks is also a way to highlight brand identity within a platform that has tended to emphasize news stories over news institutions. … It takes the notion of serendipity, in other words, and applies it to news organizations themselves.”
SEL: “More than a year after the experiment began, Google News has brought Editor’s Picks to the home page of its US site – marking the first real human-curated content on what Google has proudly said was always a completely algorithmic way of presenting news. – It could also be seen as something of an olive branch toward publishers, especially given the shaky relationship that’s existed between the two.”
SEW: “This appears to be a win-win for everyone involved. News publishers now have a mechanism to let Google know what their featured stories are. – Readers will be able to see additional content in the form of these features. As a result, Google will likely see a boost in on-site time and stickiness. Clearly the number of articles you read will help you collect Google News badges. – However, bringing search back into the conversation for a moment: since these articles are hand-picked by the editors – which may include editorials and paid features – will this adversely affect relevancy?“
Gerrit Eicker
Google Plus Stream
The Google Plus Stream needs fixes: it’s like Twitter without clients or Facebook without EdgeRank; http://eicker.at/GooglePlusStream
Gerrit Eicker
Facebook EdgeRank*
Der Facebook EdgeRank: Algorithmus zur Ermittlung der Gewichtung von Facebook Statusmeldungen; http://eicker.at/FacebookEdgeRank
Gerrit Eicker
Google Updates Social Search
Google: Social Search will now be mixed throughout results, adds notes, connects social media; http://eicker.at/SocialSearch
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Gerrit Eicker
Google: “First, social search results will now be mixed throughout your results based on their relevance (in the past they only appeared at the bottom). … Second, we’ve made Social Search more comprehensive by adding notes for links people have shared on Twitter and other sites. … Third, we’ve given you more control over how you connect accounts, and made connecting accounts more convenient. … As always, you’ll only get social search results when you choose to log in to your Google Account. We’re starting to roll out the updates today on Google.com in English only and you’ll see them appear in the coming week.”
GigaOM: “Google is slowly finding its social legs and is rolling out a set of improvements to its search product that help it keep pace with rivals, who are increasingly weaving social signals into search results. … It’s not the social layer that Google is said to be working on. But it’s another sign that shows Google is figuring out how social fits into its existing properties. The pressure is on the web giant to sort out its strategy in search as rivals like Bing and upstarts Blekko, Greplin, Wajam and others bring the fight to Google.”
FC: “This is a clever, if subtle, way to inject a little extra social relevance into Google’s core business of search, and it will make Googling something seem a little more personalized than simply interacting with a blind, international giant digital tool. It also differentiates it from competitors, like the fast-growing Bing… Will this trick work to convince us Google’s good at social media? Is this the very first layer of social network technology that may become the rumored Google Me social network? We can’t tell. Maybe we’ll Google it up and see what our friends, co-workers and that girl from the coffee shop we once Twittered think.”
RWW: “This, however, is personalization taken to another level. This is personalization in the form of looking at who you know, who you’re connected to on various social networks, and ranking content according to who created it and who shared it. We were told that Google will even go a step further and look at content shared by friends of friends. … Your friends don’t have to even have a Google profile for their content to show up in your search. If you’re friends with them on Twitter and you connect your Twitter account, you can see what they share on Twitter in your search results. … A move to create another, stand-alone social network would seem like folly to some, especially with the company’s track record when it comes to social. This move, on the other hand, feels just right. Gather the information and use it as yet another signal on what is relevant to your search.”
Gerrit Eicker
Search vs. Curation
Teicher: Are search rankings an outdated system? Is there a single best answer? http://eicker.at/SearchVsCuration
Gerrit Eicker 18:00 on 3. March 2012 Permalink |
News.me: “News.me is a small team based out of betaworks in New York City. We build applications that improve the way people find and talk about the news. – We have an iPhone app, an iPad app, and a daily email that deliver the best stories shared by your friends on Twitter and Facebook.”
News.me: “News.me for iPhone delivers the must-read news from your friends on Twitter and Facebook. Reading the news has always lent itself to a social experience: from the breakfast table to the water cooler to the classroom. But on the social web we’re no longer just ‘readers’ – we are all publishers, curating and distributing links to our own audience of friends and followers. – Yet when it comes to finding news on Twitter and Facebook, we hear the same complaint over and over again: ‘there’s too much stuff!’ At News.me, we want to help people wade through the chatter to find the news that truly matters. – News.me for iPhone analyzes all the links shared by your friends to find only the most relevant news for you. News.me is smart – it does the hard work of finding the right news so that you don’t have to. Each article is then presented in a beautiful stream that displays the publisher, headline, photo, and most importantly, what your friends are saying about it.”
RWW: “News.me launched its free iPhone app this morning, which introduces Facebook integration, a saved offline reading list that syncs with the iPad app and Instapaper, and new, simple social dynamics of its own. It digests the links shared by Twitter and Facebook contacts, checks Bit.ly for their popularity, and presents a list of the top news stories in a clean, readable environment. … I hate ‘It’s-the-this-of-that’ tech news stories, but I hope this comparison is meaningful: What Instagram is to photos and Path is to personal moments, News.me is to news. It’s a one-thumbed way to connect with people over the news of the day.”
GigaOM: “News.me has an interesting history: It started as a skunkworks project inside the New York Times – an attempt on the part of a couple of NYT developers to come up with a way of filtering Twitter based on a user’s social network. The team formed a partnership with the New York-based incubator and venture firm Betaworks (creator of services such as the Bitly link-shortener and Chartbeat) and then News.me was eventually absorbed into Bitly and the New York Times wound up with shares in the company.”
TC: “A bit unusually, the part of the app that you’ll use first may actually be the least interesting. In some ways, the new app is just a redesign of what News.me was already offering through its iPad and email products – a list of news stories, pulled from your Facebook and Twitter streams, then curated based on signals from Twitter and bit.ly, and presented with the context of the initial tweet or Facebook comment. … Although the company has been focused on the iPhone recently, and even though the iPad app has been less successful than the email digest, it sounds like Levine plans to add the new features to the iPad eventually.”
AT: “The goal isn’t to just be yet another news service – the idea is that you’re more likely to care about what your friends and family are sharing (compared to a standard firehose of news coming from every direction), which is why you might want to use a service that analyzes your feeds for shared stories. ‘We’re bringing you the best of your Twitter and Facebook in a streamlined interface, along with a venue for you to converse about news with your friends,’ News.me developer Robert Haining told Ars on Thursday. … The News.me iPhone app also offers a Reading List feature, which is pretty much what you would expect. Like Safari’s Reading List or even Instapaper itself, you can mark stories from your News.me feed to read offline.“