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18. juli 2003
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Googleholes in the argument
I criticised Steven Johnson's Slate article about "googleholes" the other day, and I have obviously not been the only one. In his blog, he complains about being "flamed to high heaven" in Slate's fray (message boards), and offers some defense:
The general critique seems to be that I don't understand how to refine a search, which I guess I should have made clear in the piece itself.
Yes you should.
(I do, for the record. I also think Google is absolutely brilliant.) But as you can see if you follow the link, it's not a piece about how to use Google more effectively; it's a piece about ways that Google's system implicitly pushes us in certain directions, which makes it less like an authoritative reference source, and more like an op-ed page. (Nothing wrong with that, just something we should keep in mind.)
So, essentially he complains that the search results favours some pages over others. Since most users don't refine searches, at least not at first, some pages will get disproportionally more hits than others. How does that make it less "authoritatively," I ask? Would he prefer search results to be reported in alphabetical order? I guess we'd all call ourselves "aardvark's blog" if it did.
8:18:45 PM 
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Piercing the veil
If you are feeling great, you may think that mental illness or depression is never going to touch you. You may be right, of course, and then again, you may be wrong. In the western world, depression hits roughly one person out of six. One minute you're having a great life, feeling totally in control, doing your job, everything is fine, the next you are a wreck wondering what hit you. No offense to people suffering other forms of bodily diseases, but it is particularly distressing to realise your brain, your mind, indeed your own self, doesn't behave the way you're used to.
Ben Kerschberg sent me an email telling me about his blog and his book. I have just read small parts of his excerpts so far, but I have to say, based on my personal experiences (some years back) it does hit a chord. If you know what I am talking about, or even if you're not,. have a look.
4:15:06 AM
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© Copyright 2003 Jan Haugland.
Last update: 01.08.2003; 03:03:31.
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