M Go Blue

Interesting Google Search Rank

I was just checking the "Statistics and Refers" feature on Typepad, and I saw that the most referenced to posting on my blog was the one called "Firefox vs. IE."  It was most referenced to by "www.google.com/search" so, I decided to do a little Google search of my own for "Firefox vs. IE," and, what do you know, out of the 440,000 possible results, my site was number 9 and on the first page of results.  I thought this was kind of interesting.  Now, anybody who wants to research the differences between the two browsers and search for it in the manner I did has a high probability of clicking through to my site. This is pretty cool, but it got me thinking, what if I put up some statement on my blog in regards to this topic that happened to be wrong, or even worse, I knew was false, and I put it up there anyway.  In this case, the subject is pretty innocent, just comparing browsers, but it is easy to think of other topics that might not be this way.

I touched on this issue a while ago in regards to stories bubbling up to the national news based on what is said in a blog, but the same type of concern is there for simple search results, and it relates back to integrity and reliability.  What I have to say might not warrant being on the first page of any search, but, as my "Firefox vs. IE" Google search rank illustrates, it sure isn't too hard get it there.

Pretty Cool

It was wild to be checking the class blog and find a picture of me here. I thought that was pretty cool. Jonathan, if you could send me a full resolution version of this shot and others from the event, I'd really appreciate it. I'll put them on the website. Thanks! I didn't bring a camera to the party because I was bummed out all afternoon from the exit polls and really thought my guy wasn't going to have a good night.

On a note about the election relating to technology, it is just amazing to see the impact that the Internet has on reporting results. There I was with my friends in the Michigan Union the night of November 2, checking the county-by-county results from Florida and Ohio on laptops with wireless Internet access. We'd make projections of our own as to how many more votes could be gotten from county X and if the results that were yet to come from county Y could change the state-wide picture. It was at this moment when it was reaffirmed to me just how empowering the web can be. We were just a bunch of kids, but the power of the Internet allowed us access to the exact same information that the news networks were privy to. We could call the races in the same way they could by extrapolating out county-by-county data that was updated every second. Pretty cool stuff, and none of this was possible for President Bush's father's elections. In fact, none of this could have been done until the 2000 election, which is pretty incredible how far we've come so quickly.

PageRank Issues

After downloading the Google PageRank Status application for Firefox, I was dissapointed to find that my student organization's site had a page rank of only 1 :(

In the past, I have searched for my site on Google and could not even find it in the listings, but who knows, it could have been really far down the list, like on page 50 or something. The Google PageRank status confirms these findings. However, when I have searched for the very same key words in Altavista, my site is on the first page of results. So, if there was such a thing as an Altavista PageRank Status application, I might expect to get a higher ranking. The dramatic difference in page search status, I think, is quite strange, especially since I was under the impression that Google served as the backbone to basically every other search engine in existence. But, perhaps I am incorrect.

Problems with participatory journalism

I have thought about our discussions in class about how blogs and the Internet allow for a kind of participatory journalism, with news topics being discussed on blogs getting "bubbled up," so to speak, to the national news media. Many topics are discussed online, and sometimes the stories discussed make it to CNN, FoxNews, MSNBC, or network news. But, is getting news stories and statistics from people online a good idea? Could online users take advantage of the fact that the news media is paying attention to them? I think there is definetely a possibility for this to happen.

I have been consumed with the election for the past month or so, and will continue to be until November 2, so this example pertains to the political scene. Yesterday, after watching the second presidential debate, I went online to check the results of the online "flash polls." I was shocked to see that every online poll (CNN.com, FoxNews.com, MSNBC.com, etc.) all showed John Kerry as the overwhelming winner with around 80% of the vote. Eighty percent. Think about that. Regardless of who you think won or if there was a winner at all, does this number really make any sense? Is it possible that 80% of the US really believe one candidate won the debate? Absolutely not. I went back to watch the news on TV, and they are all reporting on these results. They emphasised that the flash poll results were unscientific, but they still got on the news on every channel. But, this wasn't even newsworthy. All it represented was Kerry supporters in the online community had a better coordinated effort to impact the flash polls than Bush supporters.

Anyway, my point in all this is that while this example did not involve a blog, it did involve false statistics bubbling up to the national news media that originated from the online community. If a group of online users wants to impact national news through a coordinated effort, it seems as if they can easily do it, through online polls, blogs, etc. News outlets should be careful to not become too participatory.

Firefox vs. IE

Prior to a couple weeks ago, I had never heard of the Mozilla's Firefox web browser. I never previously thought there was anything really wrong with Internet Explorer, but after searching the web on this topic, I came accross several articles advocating switching to Firefox. One of them can be found here. Apparently, IE is quite vulnerable to certain viruses, and that new ways to attack the browser's inherent vulnerabilities are being devised every day.

Upon learning this, I decided to switch my default browser to Firefox, and have been quite happy with the results these past few weeks. On the surface, the browser seems to function just the same as IE, but it is more secure. Plus, Firefox's built-in pop-up stopper is a very, very nice feature.