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Monthly Archives November 2007

New pattern in search results. What does this mean?

French researcher Jean Veronis reports the results of a study in which he asked students to generate search queries around designated themes and then rate the quality of the first link returned. The system submitted the searches to Google and Yahoo and students were unaware of the engine responsible for the link they evaluated. Satisfaction [...]

Posted 30 November 2007 † grabe § Research ‡ Comments (1) ° Tagged:

Media Literacy – "Killer political ads”

CNN carried several interesting spots this evening (with a full analysis later tonight) concerning “killer” political ads (ads intended to smear an opponent). One of the spots featured an ad creator who explained how ads can confuse/misrepresent the facts, use images to disrespect an opponent, etc. This would seem a great opportunity for a media [...]

Posted 28 November 2007 † grabe § General ‡ Comments (0) ° Tagged:

The disintegration of the long tail?

Alex Iskold has added an interesting post to the Read/WriteWeb blog. The comments concern the motivation of bloggers, the concept of the long tail (Chris Anderson), and whether those in the long tail will continue to be motivated to contribute. The “long tail” is the concept that while a few resources (books, blogs, songs) get [...]

Posted 28 November 2007 † grabe § General ‡ Comments (0) ° Tagged: ,

On the future of books

On the media (from New York Public Radio) offers a podcast on the future of books. Are new media replacing old (e.g., books) or are traditional media adapting? My “listen” of the presentation – it is not so much a decline in books, but in how they are sold. There are too many books and [...]

Posted 27 November 2007 † grabe § General ‡ Comments (0) ° Tagged: ,

Not so funny when it is your data??

I have struggled with the copyright issue in several past posts. In my opinion, part of the problem seems to be to get people to examine the issue of “rights”. What is it they have a right to do? Why do people who have the free choice to ignore a resource if they disagree with [...]

Posted 25 November 2007 † grabe § General ‡ Comments (0) ° Tagged:

Beware the Flock browser

It has been one of those days when I had plenty of time, but ended up getting little done. For some reason, I decided I should update my Flock browser. Bad mistake. I like(d) Flock because it allows easy access to my Flickr account and to this blog. I have had some difficulty with Flock [...]

Posted 23 November 2007 † grabe § General ‡ Comments (2) ° Tagged: ,

Waiting for the turkey

Happy Thanksiving Day to all. I am enjoying a little down time. One of my children is home today and another is coming tomorrow with her family for leftovers. Family gatherings in Grand Forks are becoming rare and we typically are on the road for holidays so this is a nice change. I was looking [...]

Posted 22 November 2007 † grabe § General ‡ Comments (0) °