Writing Worth Reading
Writing Worth Reading
Facebook, Google and others have latched onto wheeze of having two classes of share, so they can sell ownership stakes while keeping voting rights for themselves. Why? Because they can. And it's part of a significant shift in power
"Asking whether Google makes us stupid, as some cultural critics recently have, is the wrong question. It assumes sharp distinctions between humans and technology that are no longer, if they ever were, tenable." Here's why
If so, you'll need to show you can solve problems like these. Enjoyable selection, with answers provided. Here's one to get you started: "Using only a four-minute hourglass and seven-minute hourglass, measure exactly nine minutes"
Sympathetic review of Page's first year as Google CEO, and his attempts to unify its unwieldy product offering. Interesting to read his views on Facebook, Google+, Motorola, social search, patent litigation and Steve Jobs
The high-stakes patent battle over how Google sorts ads. "Everyone will settle. If anyone loses this case then the entire industry is going down in the same lawsuit and the exact same lawyer will be stuck on both sides of the fence"
Fundamentals have changed. Google's model no longer to maximise market share. That's done. Now comes time for monetising captive audience by whatever means available. Google's core product is no longer search. It's Google
Writer enjoys trip in one of Google's driverless cars. "A roboticist who has debugged a Martian rover in the deserts of Chile, occupies the nominal 'driver’s seat'—just one of the entities open to ontological inquiry this morning"
"Search should appear to be like Caesar’s wife, above reproach." So has Google made a monumental error with the launch of its social search product? Poorly received so far, will it drive users away? It's certainly taking a big risk
At least not on this reading. It's not about bringing people together on one site to create a giant social network. Instead it's all about accumulating user data and building the "most targeted advertising platform in history"
It probably shouldn't but it's an interesting idea. B&N's a content retailer, like Amazon. And content, is something Google doesn't "get". Plus the Nook could integrate with the full range of Google services. Unlike the Kindle Fire
Google wants to take on Facebook but its social network has a fatal flaw. "There’s nothing to do on Google+, and every time someone figures out a possible use for it, Google turns out the lights"
"In the long history of tech rivalries, rarely has there been a battle as competitive as the raging war between the web's wonder twins." Enjoyable overview of struggle to become superpower of the social web
