Mutt Media | Daily Bone 11.16.09 Google Search reunites Father & Daughter apart for 30 years

I love technology. We are able to find so much information so easily.

Example – Dr. Scott Becker was separated from his daughter, April when she was only a few months old. April’s mom left him and took their only daughter with her.

About 10 years later, Becker created a website totally dedicated to finding his daughter AprilBecker.com. Becker spent thousands of dollars and countless hours in hopes of reuniting with his long-lost daughter. Finally, just a few weeks ago, April performed a Google Search and entered the words “Scott Robert Becker looking for April” and the website popped up.

She sent her dad an email and he responded with a question that he thought she would instinctively know the answer to, “Are you a green baby?”. Having been born on St. Patrick’s day, she answered in the affirmative and after 30 years -  father and daughter were reunited.

Becker’s website has since been pulled.

Mutt Media | Daily Bone 10.14.09 Reprint of Clive Thompson on “Real-Time Web” thanks to Brian MacCormick

The following piece was sent to me by Brian MacCormick

Interesting, so take a look and consider how you are getting your information and ask yourself, “Is this the best resource?” Consider the timeliness of data collection and reporting the next time you go looking to “Google”.

Clive Thompson on How the Real-Time Web Is Leaving Google Behind
By Clive Thompson 09.21.09

When Michael Jackson died on June 25, millions of people flooded onto Google News to find the latest information about what had happened. The spike in traffic was so massive that Google suspected a malware attack and began blocking anyone searching for “Michael Jackson.”

It’s a funny story, but it illustrates how the Web is changing. People increasingly turn to the Internet for up-to-the-minute information about, well, everything—blog postings about celebrity antics, status updates from friends, and pictures and videos of political events as they unfold, like the protests over the Iranian election. Studies have shown that these types of search requests are on the rise.

Pundits call it the real-time Web. It’s upending the Internet as we’ve known it, and it’s not something that Google can easily dominate.

For more than 10 years, Google has organized the Web by figuring out who has authority. The company measures which sites have the most links pointing to them—crucial votes of confidence—and checks to see whether a site grew to prominence slowly and organically, which tends to be a marker of quality. If a site amasses a zillion links overnight, it’s almost certainly spam.

But the real-time Web behaves in the opposite fashion. It’s all about “trending topics”—zOMG a plane crash!—which by their very nature generate a massive number of links and postings within minutes. And a search engine can’t spend days deciding what is the most crucial site or posting; people want to know immediately.

So a new generation of search engines like Tweetmeme, OneRiot, Topsy, Scoopler, and Collecta are trying to redefine what makes a piece of information important.

Some of these sites offer a Digg-like indexed front page that displays hot topics, while others just include a simple search field. But most of them rely heavily on Twitter. When a burst of tweets citing a particular subject or URL emerges, it’s a “signaling event,” as Rishab Ghosh of Topsy puts it. To make sure they’re not just getting hoodwinked by spammers, these new search engines employ some clever tricks, like crawling tweeted URLs and discarding those that land on sites containing spamlike language. Most disregard Twitter users who behave like spambots—for example, ones that follow thousands of people but have very few followers themselves.

Other ploys abound. OneRiot has a toolbar that lets users flag an interesting post immediately. Collecta actively imports blog posts and tweets so they appear in search results less than a second after they go live, rather than the hours it can take regular search engines to catalog the same info. “We want to be limited only by the speed of light,” Collecta CTO Jack Moffitt jokes.

The result is something curiously different from regular searching. If you hunt for “Michael Jackson” on a traditional engine like Ask.com or Bing, the vast majority of the links remain the same day to day. Authority changes slowly on the “old” Web. But real-time search engines deliver different, updated results almost every time.

The creators of these new engines argue that their goal isn’t to answer questions— à la Google—but to organize experience into a keyhole glimpse of what the world is doing at this very moment. “It’s exactly what your friends are going to be talking about when you get to the bar tonight,” OneRiot executive Tobias Peggs says. “That’s what we’re finding.” Google settles arguments; real-time search starts them.

Edo Segal, a pioneer in real-time search, thinks the field is going to explode as updates become more automatic, with our devices autoreporting where we are, how we’re feeling, and what we’re doing and seeing. Old-school search will never vanish, but real-time news will create a society where we have an omnipresent sense of the moment. “Google organized our memory,” Segal says. “Real-time search organizes our consciousness.”

Mutt Media | The Daily Bone 9.3.09 Ikea changes it’s font typeface after 50 years. Will anyone notice?

Ikea changes font from Futura to Verdana

After 50+ years, the furniture store IKEA has changed it’s signature font from Futura to Verdana. For those of you who do not already know this (and why would you?), Verdana is a what we call web-friendly; this means that when you view it on your computer screen, it will appear as the designer intended and further, this will apply to all computer screens, using all browsers and operating systems.

With a font like futura, which was designed way before there was an internet, the words (or logo) will not look the same on the screen as it would in print. Then the designer must make a decision – what font would be a good replacement for the web?

Well, Ikea doesn’t need to worry about that any longer since Verdana is nothing if not consistant. Apparantly, this caused quite a stir on the internet. Google Ikea font change and you will see a host of articles from the Associated Press to Business Week and many assorted blogs.

Of course, I cannot present a piece of tech “news” without a little commentary.

While it seems on it’s face to be a somewhat insignificant news item, Corporate Identity is a really important component of any business. Ikea’s 50-year run with the Futura font has ensured that the logo and associated catalog, advertising and other printed media is instantly recognizable and associated with the Ikea brand.

Some of the online commentary has been in the vein of “who cares?” while others (typofile.com) proclaimed it “a bad day”. Change can be a very good thing, but when it comes to your corporate identity, you’d be surprised at how it can affect your customers and your bottom line.

Case in point – did anyone else notice the huge change in the Tropicana Orange Juice packaging? I did and I can say that it was lost on me. They have gone back since to get closer to their “roots” and it’s better now, but for awhile it was looking like the generic supermarket brand. Tropicana is a premium product and the package redesign simply did not reflect that. Consumers were in an uproar and so the decision was made to pull the plug on the new look.

Take a look and let me know which you prefer. No matter what your preference, we can all agree that the change was dramatic and the end result was not the desired one. No one wants their well-established brand to mistaken for something else.

A good lesson.

Re-designed Tropicana packaging

The preferred "oldie" version of Tropicana

Mutt Media | The Daily Bone 8.20.09 kamouya1@yahoo.com is the “anonymous” insulting, defaming blogger

kamouya1@yahoo.com is the "anonymous" insulting, defaming blogger

Yesterday Liskula Cohen won her court battle to unveil the identity of the offensive Blogger responsible for the “Skanks in NYC” blog in which Cohen was the sole subject.

I, for one, applaud this ruling as I feel strongly that people should not be allowed to hide behind a cloak of anonymity to make negative, offensive and hurtful statements – about anything. Whether you are ranting about an Obama policy, your unfair boss or the hit your stock portfolio just took, I say stand up and, if you can’t (or won’t) take on the responsibility that comes along with your rant – then sit down and shut up.

This may seem like a harsh viewpoint (and maybe it is) but I am not a believer in stirring up the pot and leaving a big old mess for others to deal with. If you feel that you have a valid viewpoint that is worth sharing and you can take the time to say it, then sign your name to it.

It is completely irresponsible and cowardly to throw out your opinions without taking on the fallout they may create. I believe we should all be able to broadcast our opinions – that is what free speech is all about but hiding behind a cloak of anonymity absolutely removes the validity of your viewpoint.

Ok. So preachy portion of today’s blog behind us, I can now comment about what little we know about kamouya1@yahoo.com. She is a woman who was, according to Cohen, nothing more than a passing acquaintence. What then, did the model do to so offend?

Cohen appeared on Good Morning America.  So she now knows the identity and claims that she forgives her but will, nevertheless, be filing a civil defamation suit.

I, for one was shocked to find out that this blogger was another woman who would resort to attacking her “friend” by claiming that she was dirty, skanky and sexually promiscuous. Disgusting!

Mutt Media will be following this story as it progresses so stay tuned to see how and if this lawsuit materializes and the eventual outcome.

Mutt Media | The Daily Bone 8.18.09 Judge rules Google must give up identity of “anonymous” blogger

Google must give up identity of blogger who posted defamatory remarks about model Liskula Cohen

Once upon a (recent) time, there was a blog site on Blogger.com (Google-owned) called “Skanks in NYC”. Isn’t that charming?

According to Timesonline.com, the blogger posted remarks such as the following:

“I would have to say the first-place award for ‘Skankiest in NYC’ would have to go to Liskula Gentile Cohen,” the blogger “Anonymous” wrote in one posting. The blog, since removed, ridiculed the former Australian Vogue covergirl as a “40-something” who “may have been hot 10 years ago”, when she was actually 36.

Justice Joan Madden rejected the blogger’s claim that the blogs “serve as a modern-day forum for conveying personal opinions, including invective and ranting”, and should not be treated as factual assertions.

The model was looking forward last night to discovering the identity of the alleged acquaintance who insulted her. “Everybody is waiting to see who this coward is,” Steven Wagner, her lawyer, said.

Andrew Pederson, a Google spokesman, said: “We sympathise with anyone who may be the victim of cyberbullying. We also take great care to respect privacy concerns and will only provide information about a user in response to a subpoena or other court order.” (author: James Bone)

This is not the first time Cohen has been in the news for something conflict-related. A couple of years back while at the Hudson Hotel, she got into an argument with a guy who took a drink off of her table. After throwing a drink at him, he hit her in the face with a bottle of vodka, causing her to get over 40 stitches and, according to her account at the time, effectively end her modeling career.

How do these scrapes with others keep ending up in the newspaper and why does trouble seem to find her? I haven’t a clue. But I do know this: there is no guarantee of anonymity on the internet!!!!

Very soon this blogger will be forced out from the shadows and his/her identity will be known. Soon after that, no doubt Cohen will file a defamation lawsuit and will hopefully prevail, sending a strong message to anyone who seeks to publicly defame another.

I applaud this ruling, how about you? Post your thoughts!

Mutt Media | The Daily Bone 8.4.09 Schmidt & Apple are no more

Google CEO Eric Schmidt steps down from Apple's Board

A FOLLOW-UP!

You may recall a recent blog I did about Apple, Google and conflicts of interest (click here for that blog entry). Back in mid-July there was already much speculation about the Google CEO (Eric Schmidt) who sat on Apple’s Board of Directors.

All along as concerns regarding Anti-Trust laws arose, both entities provided explanations and denied there was any cross-over between them; they claimed that Schmidt would recuse himself from certain segments of meetings to adhere to the guidelines but still, this became problematic as more and more, the two companies share common interests in business.

“Unfortunately, as Google enters more of Apple’s core businesses, with Android and now Chrome OS, Eric’s effectiveness as an Apple Board Member will be significantly diminished, since he will hav eto recuse himself from even larger portions of our meetings due to potential conflicts of interest.” (Steve Jobs)

You read here that Google is now rolling out a mobile phone operating system called Android that will compete with the iPhone. Google is also developing Chrome OS, an new operating system for smaller computers that will directly compete with both Apple as well as Microsoft.

Mutt Media | The Daily Bone 7.17.09 European publishers seek more online control of works

I read an article in the International Herald Tribune last the other day while waiting to board my flight home from Italy. This article was written by Eric Pfanner and it was called “European publishers seek enforcement of copyright”.

The crux of the piece was how leading European newspaper and magazine publishers were calling on the European commission to strengthen their copyright protection so as to generate an income stream from their online counterparts.

The problem from the point of view of the publisher, is that information is so – almost too – readily available and transmitable that it is impeding their ability to control dissemination of the news.

Welcome to the not-so-new world, publishers! This is what makes the internet great, in my opinion. Yes, printed media will experience a loss of revenue. There are some that attempt to make the consumer pay for the online couterpart to the written word, but in my view, this is a futile effort at best. I, for one, view these pay-per-view entities as an impediment to the spirit of the web.

Only a handful of newspapers or magazines have had success in charging readers to use their sites, as the article points out – among them The Wall Street Journal and the Financial Times.

What the European publishers want is greater control over the reproduction of their creative works.

My question is how would this function? If one did a Google search, would the results be the same and would certain articles be free while others offered at a premium.

Not on board with this one only because years of getting information easily and free have spoiled me, and trust me – you too.

Mutt Media | Daily Bone 7.13.09 Google & Apple: Share-Share. Is that fair?

So, forgive me if I bore you with some of last weeks’ news, but I’ve been on holiday and not in touch. There are some things in the news that I would’ve blogged about in Real Time but sometimes vacation trumps work, and that’s a good thing, right?

So, first off, our friends at Google, in the midst of executing their plan for world domination and data-collection, have announced they will be releasing their own Operating System called Chrome. At first blush, I am excited about this, for a couple of reasons.

Google does seem to get it right. Their services are useful and free – two features I always find pleasing.  I like anything that works and doesn’t stress me out, as I am a simple girl. Their analytics and other applications function well and play nice with my MacBook. Life is good. Yay Apple & Google.

My husband is engaged in a brutal war at the moment with his new laptop that is running Windows Vista, an operating system that doesn’t play well with others. He needs to run a certain software for his business and Vista just won’t cooperate. Updates, tech support, patches and lots of nonsensical work-arounds have kept my husband up at night and his staff has logged hours trying to trouble shoot for him to no avail. He’s had to wipe out the hard drive and reinstall programs, download updates that in the end, set his efforts back and just yesterday, his laptop shot off a really low blow: just crapped out. During one of the mind-bending downloads and installs, during step 3 of 3, the screen goes dark but for 3 lines that read, “Running Step 3 of 3. 0% complete. Do not shut down your computer.” And so he waited and waited. Still 0% complete 45 minutes later but the graphics are moving like something is happening. But nothing does.

I used to work off of a Windows PC. You don’t realize how much of a nightmare it is until you switch to a Mac. I swear ONCE YOU GO MAC YOU NEVER GO BACK. (Knock on wood) My Mac & I do not have to battle resistant, mutating viruses, updates go off without a hitch and all of my programs load like butter.  Going on 2 years together and so far, it’s a match made in compuer heaven.

So, my point? Let’s take a look behind the scenes to see why my Mac (Apple) and Google apps work so well together. The common denominator here could be that they share a CEO named Eric Schmidt and another Board Member name Arthur D. Levinson, the CEO of Genentech.

Is this a conflict? Does this fly in the face of anti-trust laws, which are in place to safeguard against possible collusion between companies (and world domination).

An article in the Global edition of the New York Times from last Friday by Brad Stone speculates that the “Chrome Operating System is likely to create more questions for regulators”. Yep, this alliance is already on the radar of the Federal Trade Commission with the investigation going on for the last several months.

Under section 8 of the Clayton Anti-Trust Act specific limits are placed on the sharing of information between companies by common board members.

In the case of Schmidt and Levinson, both claim to recuse themselves during portions of the Board Meetings when the discussions turn to tricky topics.

Where is the overlap? Well, Apple makes the IPhone and Google has the Android Software (see YouTube video for info on Android and the “G Phone” below), Apple has ITunes and then there’s YouTube, Apple has the Safari Browser and now here’s Google with Chrome.

In the end, the FTC will decide whether these relationships are problematic. It all comes down to what percentage of the overall business is affected.

I don’t care. I just love my MacBook and my Google. Can’t we all just get along? (hello Microsoft!)

Then maybe my poor husband will get some sleep.

Mutt Media | the Daily Bone 6.12.09 “Tagged” – You’re It! How was it for you?

One Phish, Two Phish, Red Phish, Blue Phish – just say no!!! Mutt Media’s cautionary TAG tale…

Have you been tagged yet? Well I have and I must say, I did not find the experience enjoyable. It actually happened to me a few times this week alone.

It began with a simple enough email from a familar name that I haven’t heard from in awhile, so I opened it. Basically, the contents of this email were that “Jane Doe” has tagged me in their personal photos and wouldn’t I love to “click here” to see them? Let me save you the trouble if you should happen to receive an email such as this.

I clicked. I was then propelled into an environment where they asked me to sign up, join etc. in order to see these precious photos. By now, my antenaae was up but I decided to play along and join. Big mistake. The program began asking for access to my address book in order to find my friends and invite them to join too, which, as I suspected – was done to my friend Jane too.

Tagged claims to have over 70 million users but I question how many of those have actually opted-in knowing what they were getting into. This week I have been doing extensive research for an article I’m writing on Social Networking and the traffic these sites attract. I’ve read the data and I do believe people have stumbled into this trap and been added to their 70+million statistics, which just serves to help legitimize this practice of phishing.

Ok…I know you are going to ask, so I’ll save you the trouble of emailing me about this. According to Wikipedia, here’s their definition of phishing. And don’t worry – it’s happened to us all!

If you click on the word “phishing” in the previous paragraph, you can get the full-monty definition, it’s origins etc., but here’s the cliff note version:

“In the field of computer security, phishing is the criminally fraudulent process of attempting to acquire sensitive information such as usernames, passwords and credit card details by masquerading as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication. Communications purporting to be from popular social web sites, auction sites, online payment processors or IT Administrators are commonly used to lure the unsuspecting public. Phishing is typically carried out by e-mail or instant messaging, and it often directs users to enter details at a fake website whose look and feel are almost identical to the legitimate one. Even when using server authentication, it may require tremendous skill to detect that the website is fake. Phishing is an example of social engineering techniques used to fool users, and exploits the poor usability of current web security technologies.Attempts to deal with the growing number of reported phishing incidents include legislation, user training, public awareness, and technical security measures.”

So there you have it…a cautionary tale on spamming, tagging, phishing etc.

A quick disclaimer…some may actually enjoy this site and what it has to offer. This post is primarily a complaint about their methodology in signing up new members and siphoning off of your address book.

Oh…and a little footnote. Go and do a Google search on the Harvard-educated founders of the company and you’ll find a few skeletons.

I’m in pretty good company on this one. Just yesterday, Time’s Sean Gregory called Tagged.com “The World’s Most Annoying Website”. I’ve provided the link, as Mr. Gregory, being the news writer, actually contacted the two founders of the company to inquire about their sign-up practices. It’s an interesting article, so check it out. Since I’m not a news journalist, I don’t have that responsibility. I’ll just say no thanks.

Mutt Media | Daily Bone 5.21.09 Meet Your Long-Lost Aunt Ida

Google's Logo on 5.20.09

We interrupt our 10 Tips series to talk for a minute about some other kind of technological miracle…fossil exhumation, identification and authentication.

I find it no less than amazing that scientists have released information about man’s oldest descendants – primates. Apparently, about 500 million years ago, primates split off into 2 branches – Lemurs and Apes. The Lemurs were not a pretty species, but Modern Man evolved from it’s cousin – the Ape.

I will spare everyone a lesson on Darwinism and commentary about evolution but I have a picture in my head of Magilla Gorilla with a Blackberry and a laptop…and I’m thinking how archaic the movie The Planet Of the Apes seems now, with absolutely no reference to cell phones or any of the technology we’ve been enjoying and developing over the last 20 years.

I smell remake!

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