lovehatethings - When popular culture gets you down, get your rant on and proclaim your lovehate for everything, no matter how guilty the pleasure is.
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@anthonymarco


When culture gets overinflated, yet refuses to pop, I want to be there with the needle. Enlightened cynics of the world unite! Express your love or hatred of things from the sacred to the mundane.


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Podcast 124 - What's With Buzz? Tell Me What's Happenin'!

Lovehatethings 124 - What's Wi by Anthony Marco  
(download)

Some ruminating on the Bowl that is Super, the Buzz that is Google, the Olymps that are Ick, and what's Better than Better.

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Filed under  //  2010   buzz   canada   google   olympic   sports   superbowl   vancouver  
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Posted 26 days ago

lovehate: Google Buzz... Now With Twice The Caffeine!

Is it just me or has Google really come up short in calling its latest endeavour "Buzz"?

Sounding more like something you'd mix with Vodka at a party than a segue into microblogging, Google has not only pursued an exercise in redundancy by ripping off the brand of a years' old Yahoo service, but they've reminded me of the evil sound my clock radio makes every morning.

Is it just me, or does someone wish that Google would just prefix "G" onto everything ala Apple's "I" moniker. We could call it Gstatus or Gstate. Isn't that infinitely cooler? The question by your update window could ask "What kind of Gstate are you in?" Instead, I'm expected to revisit Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice by answering "What's the Buzz, tell me what's a-happening?"

You know, I don't throw the word "stupid" around too often, mostly because it's an unimaginative insult that begs for a more creative insult. And so, in considering the best descriptor for Google Buzz, I considered the words uninspired, doltish, inane, puerile, or witless. And the reason I settled on stupid, is because I figured it appropriate to just follow your model and go with the first crass idea that came to head: stupid.

Come on Google. You're more creative than that. I love your products and your flair for the dramatic with brands like: "Gmail, Maps, Videos, News, Books, Docs, Reader... hang on a sec! Other than Wave, Buzz is about the most creative name you've come up with for one of your web services. If this evidence is an indication of what we're to see in the future, can we expect animals, cars, or countries next?

At least I can hope you won't name a service after feminine hygiene product. I mean, I don't know what Google Douche will do to freshen the web, but I imagine it may put some people off.

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Filed under  //  brand   buzz   google   microblogging   social networking   twitter  
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Posted 28 days ago

thinglets: Google Image Search Traffic Light

Just because...

     
Click here to download:
thinglets_Google_Image_Search_.zip (1169 KB)

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Filed under  //  color   google   image  
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Posted 1 month ago

Podcast 121 - Bringing a Nerf to a Gun Fight

Lovehatethings 121 - Bringing by Anthony Marco  
(download)

On the evolution of Nerf from balls to ballastics, the new face of Google search terms in China, and the second half of Film-A-Month Faves for 2010.

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Filed under  //  china   google   movies2010   nerf  
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Posted 1 month ago

lovehate: 10 Search Results No Longer Number One On Google.cn

With Google deciding to uncensor itself in China, perhaps some of the most popular search terms will no longer default to innocuous web ephemera:

Search term...

"Tiananmen Square" no longer yields a recipe for the Chinese answer to Nanaimo Bars.

"Dalai Lama" no longer results in a science journal about a cloned experiment on mini-camels.

"Free Tibet" no longer comes up as an incentive offer for an online casino.

"Capitalism" doesn't produce a top result about the ancient belief in SHOUTING IN EMAILS AND CHAT WINDOWS!!!!!

"Forced Relocation" no longer shows judo throws.

"Indentured Servitude" doesn't speak of the longevity of false teeth.

"Censorship" doesn't result in a large boat full of thermometers.

"State Secrets" doesn't point you to the number three soap opera in the country.

"Bloody Coup" no longer points you to a viral video of a pigeon being strangled.

"Overthrow" does not point to a US football playbook on how a quarterback should pass against the wind.

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Filed under  //  censorship   china   google   seo  
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Posted 1 month ago

lovehate: Social Search and the Law of Diminishing Discovery

Ask not for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for Serendipity.

While I've posted on a similar topic before, I found last week's announcements regarding Google's social search and Bing's full pipe search of Twitter and Facebook APIs cool, yet, at the same time, also a bit disconcerting.

In as much as one the greatest downfalls of early search algorithms was the assault of flotsam that was returned with every query, it is precisely an aspect of that muddled result that I fear losing. A great characteristic of the early graphic web was serendipity. 

We're talking Web 1.0 here. It was a time before the great permeation of referral engines and aggregators, when a reader had to scour through fathoms of muck and mire NOT to find something good, but often just to find something of interest. If it was good, that was an added bonus.

There were regular occurrences of finding fantastic useful and interesting stuff, that enabled you to expand your horizons and knowledge, which had nothing to do with your original search term. Such is one of the great benefits of raw research; you don't only hope to find what you're looking for, you hope to find a whole bunch of other bizarre, eclectic, and brilliant knowledge as well. Click this webpage randomizer link five times and tell me that, by the end, you haven't learned something.

When Social Network algorithms become integrated into your average Google or Bing query, your results will be throttled tighter than they ever have before. And I'll be the first to acknowledge that's probably what most people want. We love the idea of not having to wade through the morass of Web 1.0 where it sometimes took hours to find what we wanted. We lust after authority-based aggregation and recommendations that will point us in the right direction so that the content-drenched world of Web 2.0 won't swallow us whole.

There is a little part of me, however, that enjoyed the search and the discovery that went along with it. There is a piece of my brain that expanded by being forced to make connections in wondering why, when I queried one term, would I get a result that included this specific link. Don't we all have a small part of our brain that yearns for the open road, not caring where we're going or how we get there; productivity be damned! Don't we wish that upon being asked "where you goin'", we could just say "not here"?

One of the things I love doing is going to a site like StumbleUpon and doing random "stumbles". But, even then, they aren't completely random. They are a subset of the users of service, who, by themselves, are a generally pretty savvy group of web users. It is still fun nonetheless.

The search tools are necessary. There are plenty of times that I need to really find something, and swimming around in the trillions of bits and bytes of information trying to find one piece would be useless and foolhardy. It's the evolving pattern that is beginning to scare me a bit. The pattern dictates that as information multiplies, search results become more focused.

When static web pages ruled, results were more widely varied, partially due to the fact that web communities were less automatic and SEO was above the head of the average Geocities or Lycos user.

When social networks emerged and blogging ballooned, subjective content resulted an exponential explosion that threatened to muddy up you average search, but, conveniently enough, technology allowed the results to get even better. SEO, easy tagging, and a more educated internet-savvy content creator was being bred, and we found what we needed easier.

As "social search" and like-minded approaches start to filter into user habits, every search will now pass through yet another filter, distilling the purest result to the end user. This is great for answers. This is a boon to productivity. This is what everyone wants when they search for something. This is what I want when I search for something. But has serendipity died online? Does filtering a search through ever-increasingly effective algorithms which factor in popularity, and adding a filter of authority based on a list of people I have on Facebook or Twitter allow me to expand my horizons or does it effectively quash them.

If you walked into a bookstore and in the first room there was only one shelf with "Books You Will Like", would you be tempted to forage beyond the curtain at the back of store to see what's being hidden?

Maybe it's just the adventurer in me, but sometimes I like the open road, even with the occasional undercooked Stuckey's chicken and glaring billboards for adult stores and firework warehouses.

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Filed under  //  bing   facebook   google   internet   social network   social networking   social search   twitter   web  
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Posted 4 months ago

thinglets: Sesame Search Engines

via youtube.com

Here's my Sesame Street search engine analogy:

Bing = 8
Yahoo = 4
Ask = 2
Google = 9

Yeah, I know the metaphor doesn't totally hold up, but it gives a new perspective on the happy-go-lucky Ernie and the creepy pusher trying to make the sale.

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Filed under  //  bing   ernie   google   microsoft   pitch   sales   search engine   sesame street   yahoo  
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Posted 7 months ago

Podcast 98 - There's No Place Like Chrome

There's No Place Like Chrome by Anthony Marco  
(download)

 

Some belated thoughts on the Chrome OS and some final thoughts on the belated Michael Jackson, or, more accurately, his memorial awards show.

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Filed under  //  chrome   cloud computing   crass   google   jacko   memorial   michael jackson   microsoft   mj   OS   staples center   windows   windows xp  
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Posted 8 months ago

lovehate: Belated Thoughts on Google Chrome OS

When Google made a late-night announcement earlier this week that they would be releasing a lightweight Linux-based OS that booted in seconds and allowed users to live in the clouds, I was all YEAAAHHH! And then I thought about it and I was all YEAAAHH... I think.


In as much as love the big software, hardware and webware giants pushing each other around in order to push innovation and refine user needs and concerns, the Chrome OS is probably a good thing. Will this OS effectively help to redefine the OS concept or just essentially become an OS lite for cloud-dwellers? I really don't have a problem if this is the case, but somehow even this move doesn't have me stretching my mind to applaud where the OS has become.

For instance, while I have no doubt that 90% of what I do on my PC now could be accomplished by web apps, the other 10% cannot and, even though it's only 10%, they are things that need to be done. In fact, I can probably do almost 99% of my PC activities via online apps, but many of these things would be a pain in ass as the interfaces have not reached the ambitions of the backend web developers.

Aviary is a great tool for online photo manipulation, but it is just that, an online tool. If anyone is to spend serious time working with dozens or hundreds of photos on a regular basis, a desktop app would be hard to give up. While I've there are even options for online editing of audio and video files, I would imagine the process would take way more time that a regular desktop app.

And this said, Google is not (at least yet) proposing to take over everyone's PC with the Chrome OS. The first moves are in the "netbook" field which is a PC format that I consider a vast waste of money anyway. Why are people paying what only amounts to $150 less than a full out laptop for hardware that is limited at best and ridiculously restrictive and proprietary at worst? If a netbook is being purchased in addition to a laptop and a desktop, just for kicks, go for it. But please don't the netbook replace one of the above. Honestly, even though the form factor and interface abilities of my iPod Touch are incredibly narrow compared to a laptop, I would rather carry it in my pocket than a netbook under my arm or over my shoulder.

But back to the next phase of the OS. Hadn't we all expected more by now? Is every new feature OS essentially "window-dressing" on slightly modified backends? Are we only buying into interface updates?

How different is the end user functionality of Vista or Windows 7 compared to Windows 95 - after all it's been 14 years? [Alright all you tech-heads, there's obviously a TON of development going on to ensure speed, loads, and efficiencies have improved, but I'm thinking more interface issues here.] If I want to find a file, I still browse to a folder/directory. If I want to install a program, I still double click an executable. I'm still stuck with a mouse and cursor. I've been promised voice interface for generations, but it's still not perfect and far from ubiquitous. I see great "proposed" UIs at developer's conferences and on the Discovery Channel, but hardly anything that has moved the masses from the keyboard and mouse. And maybe this is all because, other than the prominence of interacting with the web, with PC apps, we're still doing the same things: games, word processing, spreadsheets, document handling, audio/video production/editing, email and porn.

So if the prominence of the web is the grand mover behind this alternate OS by Google and probably others soon to follow, I suppose I can cheer with a certain amount of buy-in. It'll be cool, I'm sure, but it won't be game-changing... unless the game is Bejeweled 2, then I'm sold. Until then, bring on voice or thought-based interfaces and scary-cool AI with a dose of thought-based networking and fully-immersive VR to boot. 

C'mon Google! You've got all the money. Bring it on home... or, dare I say, bring it on Chrome!

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Filed under  //  apple   chrome   google   GUI   internet   microsoft   netbook   next generation   nostalgia   pc   snow leopard   vista   web   web apps   windows   windows xp  
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Posted 8 months ago

Podcast 88 - Of Bing, Waves, and Killers

Of Bing, Waves, And Killers by Lovehatethings. Com  
(download)

Some early guesses on the eventual impacts of Microsoft's new search engine "Bing" and Google's new social media/networking portal, Waves. I think Bing will be very "Cuil". I think Waves could a serial "killer".
 

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Filed under  //  api   bing   browser   chat   cuil   developer   google   google i/o   internet   killers   microsoft   open source   social network   social networking   wave   web  
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Posted 9 months ago