The document discusses several topics related to search engines and online information, including: 1) The PageRank algorithm and its extensions over time to provide more contextually relevant search results. 2) Concerns about privacy and concentration of power as collective intelligence and user data is concentrated within large tech companies. 3) Differences in search results between engines and regions due to factors like censorship and localized information.

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5. Using the Internet: Skill Related Problems in User Online Behavior; van Deursen
& van Dijk; 2009
System and Method of Encoding and Decoding Variable-length data: June 27,
2006
http://www.worldwidewebsize.com/
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6. Here it is, the famous, to some infamous PageRank algorithm. This is its most
stripped down state. Rumor has it that the algorithm now has in excess of 27
components. We’ll look at some of these extensions in a few moments.
Important to note: The PageRank algorithm is a pre-query calculation. It is a
value that is assigned as a result of the search engine’s indexing of the entire
Web and the associated value has no relationship to the user’s information
need. There have been a number of additions and enhancements to lend
some contextual credence to the relevance ranking of the results.
When google appears in 1998, it is the underdog to search giants like Alta
Vista and Yahoo! Its simplified relevance model with the foundation of
human mediation through linking [each link was at that time the product of
direct human endeavor and so viewed as a “vote” for the page or site
relevance and information merit]
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7. 6/9/2010
SES New York 2005: Mike Gehan… explains that engines want the most relevant
results, which is hard "because end users are search nitwits!
http://www.seroundtable.com/archives/001600.html
Relational content modeling
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8. Search 2.0 is the “wisdom of crowds”
• Helping each other find information with online bookmarking and
community sites
• Technorati
• Delicious
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11. Using the Internet: Skill Related Problems in User Online Behavior; van
Deursen & van Dijk; 2009
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12. Using the Internet: Skill Related Problems in User Online Behavior; van
Deursen & van Dijk; 2009
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14. Watch out for those Facebook applications, quizzes,etc, Tweets, Linked-
in data
Improving Search using Population Information (November 2008):
Determine population information associated with the query that is
derived from a population database
Locations of users
Populations that users are associated with
Groups users are associated with (gender, shared interests, self-
& auto-assigned identity data)
Rendering Context Sensitive Ads for Multi-topic searchers (April 2008):
Resolves ambiguities by monitoring user behavior to determine specific
interest
Presentation of Local Results (July 2008): Generating 2 sets of results,
one with relevance based on location of device used for search
Detecting Novel Content (November 2008): indentify and assign novelty
score to one or more textual sequences for an individual document in a
set
Document Scoring based on Document Content Update (May 2007):
scoring based on how document updated over time, rate of change,
rate of change for anchor-link text pointing to document
Document Scoring based on Link-based Criteria (April 2007): System to
determine time-varying behavior of links pointing to a document ;
growth in # of links pointing to the document (exceeds the acceptable
threshold), freshness of links, age distribution of links
deployed as Google Scout
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15. Microsoft: Launches “decision engine” with focus on multiple meaning
(contexts) as well as term indexing and topic association and tracking
-Lead researcher Susan Dumais at the forefront of user behavior for prediction
on search relevance
-Look to recent acquisition of Powerset (semantic indexing) and FAST ESP
(semantic processing)
Calculating Valence of Expressions within Docum0ents for Searching a
Document Index (March 2009): System for natural language search and
sentiment analysis through a breakdown of the valence manipulation in
document
Efficiently Representing Word Sense Probabilities (April 2009): Word sense
probabilities stored in a semantic index and mapped to “buckets.”
Tracking Storylines Around a Query (May 2008): Employ probabilistic or
spectral techniques to discover themes within documents delivered over a
stream of time
Consolidate the plurality of info around certain subjects (track stories
that continue over time)
Collect results over time and sort (keeps track of the current themes
and alerts to new)
Track
Rank (relevance)
Present abstracts
Compares the query with the contents of each document to discover
whether query exists implicitly or explicitly in received document
Builds topic models
Document Segmentation based on Visual Gaps (July 2006): Document white
space/gaps used to identify hierarchical structure
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16. Systems and Methods for Contextual Transaction Proposals (July 2006)
Delivering Items Based on Links to Resources Associated with Results
(April 2008): Present links to resources associated by links to resources
presented in results set
Web Activity Monitoring System with Tracking by Categories and Terms
(December 2006): Collect event data from servers (traffic, search
requests, purchases, etc), categorize and analyze to detect flurries of
activities (increased interest) associated with a topic, term or category
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18. Some observers claim that Google is now running on as many as a million Linux servers.
At the very least, it is running on hundreds of thousands. When you consider that the
application Google delivers is instant access to documents and services available from,
by last count, more than 81 million independent web servers, we're starting to
understand how true it is, as Sun Microsystems co-founder John Gage famously said
back in 1984, that "the network is the computer." It took over 20 years for the rest of
the industry to realize that vision, but we're finally there. ...
First, privacy. Collective intelligence requires the storage of enormous amounts of data.
And while this data can be used to deliver innovative applications, it can also be used to
invade our privacy. The recent news disclosures about phone records being turned over
to the NSA is one example. Yahoo's recent disclosure of the identity of a Chinese
dissident to Chinese authorities is another.
The internet has enormous power to increase our freedom. It also has enormous power
to limit our freedom, to track our every move and monitor our every conversation. We
must make sure that we don't trade off freedom for convenience or security. Dave
Farber, one of the fathers of the Internet, is fond of repeating the words of Ben
Franklin: "Those who give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety
deserve neither, and will lose both."
Second, concentration of power. While it's easy to see the user empowerment and
democratization implicit in web 2.0, it's also easy to overlook the enormous power that
is being accrued by those who've successfully become the repository for our collective
intelligence. Who owns that data? Is it ours, or does it belong to the vendor?
If history is any guide, the democratization promised by Web 2.0 will eventually be
succeeded by new monopolies, just as the democratization promised by the personal
computer led to an industry dominated by only a few companies. Those companies will
have enormous power over our lives -- and may use it for good or ill. Already we're
seeing companies claiming that Google has the ability to make or break their business
by how it adjusts its search rankings. That's just a small taste of what is to come as new
power brokers rule the information pathways that will shape our future world.
http://radar.oreilly.com/2006/05/my-commencement-speech-at-sims.html
My Commencement Speech at SIMS (May 2006)
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19. Equal Representation By Search Engines: Vaughn & Zhang (2007)
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20. Note that nearly all of the top results are about the massacre
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21. Here there are no results about the massacre as part of Google’s then
agreement with the Communist regime in China to suppress information
that they did not want the population to receive.
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22. Google France has a more balanced view although still not in direct alignment
with Google US.
So, why can’t we have one search engine that serves the globe?
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23. I refer to SEO from the early days of the Web as BoBo SEO because any Bobo
can do it without thinking or even understanding what they are doing. This is
strictly tactical work whose effectiveness is now rapidly degrading. Search
optimization is now more effective when approached in a strategic manner.
Traditional link building that sees individuals planting links on random sites or
pages for the single goal of having a single link pointing to the client site is no
longer effective in a Web where the search engines are comparing link
origination and link destination to see if they are talking about the same
thing.
Stuffing keyword phrases into select locations or formatting on the page will
be effective only if the context of the content actually matches the context of
the query terms. Content is king. Customers will scroll or bookmark or email
URLs to them selves or print the darn page
(http://kftf.ischool.washington.edu/index.htm)
We’ve got to spend a little time wondering how our customers get to the site
as well as what they will do once they get there because these two behaviors
are inextricably linked.
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25. 6/9/2010
Blogs were vanity online diary - now they are a way to make a living
money changes everything
Forums were a communication device between individuals that shared an
element – now it is a people finder and advertising billboard
Facebook was a college app for students in the same class
Online Bookmarking was a way to access favorites independent of a device –
now it is a sharing/promotional device
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26. 6/9/2010
My first explore with social media came in 1999 or 2000 with ICQ and it has
grown remarkably in the last 8 years and will continue to do so
Observations on the McCann data: the biggest growth is in the more passive
areas of consumption (watch video/read blog), leaving comments has the
lowest growth adoption
Observers are many/participants are few
As more activity/engagement is required, less adoption by the masses
Now social media is a hammer and everything looks like a nail. At Ascentium,
they set up a Facebook profile for an apple. The apple has 40+ friends, all
from the client and the agency. Color me crazy but this does not seem to be
an effective use of social media.
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27. 6/9/2010
Academia has caught up with the alternative uses of social media and key
influencers funded by…someone likely the search engines or some other for
profit motive
ads here are contextual and reach the most concentrated target market
more $ from key influencers
Characteristics of key influencers
•Great market knowledge
•Want to be involved
•Meticulous about transparency
•Passionate about their readers
•What to foster discussion
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28. Pew Internet and American Life Project: A Topology of Information and
Communication Technology Users, May 2007
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29. 6/9/2010
Using Key Influencers
•Select carefully
•Do not insult their intelligence
•Be transparent about your motives
•Be responsive
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30. If you leave with a single word on using social media to enhance your
website’s visibility , it should be this….transparency. Because, the social pools
are vast and populated by smart individuals that will take you down if you are
found out. The consequences of manipulation are not worth the risk.
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