Error Forum Blog

If you’re using Google, someone might think you are evil. This article suggests that Google:

“….has quietly provided assistance to several U.S. intelligence agencies, such as the Central Intelligence Agency and Defense Intelligence Agency, as the U.S. prosecutes its war on terrorism. In addition, Google may be providing assistance to the National Security Agency.“

I have no idea if that is true or not, but it does sound plausable. Why wouldn’t those agencies tap into Googles knowledge store? Perhaps, at this very moment, several young gentlemen with crazed glints in their eyes, are searching Google maps, furiously g-mailing each other, looking up do-it-yourself sites of dubious distinction, all while making use of the damned technology of the infidel.

They’re probably also finding a lot of Wikipedia in the results.

The trouble is, they could just as equally be regular people looking up information, who just happen to conduct a few search queries that just happen to appear on the “suspicious� list.

How thin is the line?

There’s been some hype about Powerset, a supposed Google-beating search engine of unimaginable brilliance. I have no idea if that is true or not, because all we’ve really got to go by is a review by a reporter. Named Bambi.

Putting aside the unanswerable, and unlikely, can-it-beat-Google-question, analyzing the hype is somewhat more fun:

“Since Powerset indexes a fraction of a fraction of what Google currently handles, we confined our test of Powerset to searching the The New York Times and Wikipedia sites and then checked how Google stacked up when doing the same“

What a meaningless test. I’m sure a boutique version of Google, or even MSN, could easily produce stunning results over such a tiny dataset. And let’s not even get started on the infrastructure requirements needed to run a full-scale, worldwide search engine.

“We’ve got a better search engine than Google! It’s going to be huge!�

“Can we see it?�

“No. But it’s really, really good. Bambi thinks so.�

“Is Google really that bad?�

“Well, no but….�

Is Powerset the next big thing? Perhaps. Perhaps not. Whatever.

It has been a quiet day…

What is the difference between SEM conferences and Web 2.0 conferences?

One appears to be about hot air, and the other is about an advertising channel that actually works.

“The audience at WebmasterWorld is not so concerned about the newest and coolest, nor are you going to see all those people who run AOL, Yahoo or Google. Who you are going to see is a cross section of the foot soldiers of the web. All those people who buy Google AdWords? They’re here….they’re hungy…a little scary. Nobody is dialing it in at this place“.

Less bull, in other words.

On a related note, it will be interesting to see what becomes of Search Engine Strategies. They had Danny Sullivan filling in the gaps between conferences by…well…just being Danny. There appears to be a void now that we know he doesn’t appear to be closely associated with Incisive Media any longer? Also, Danny is starting up his own website in the form of Search Engine Land.

Thx Andrew Goodman