246 lines
11 KiB
Plaintext
246 lines
11 KiB
Plaintext
From iiu-admin@taint.org Mon Dec 2 11:18:53 2002
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2 Dec 2002 00:06:13 -0000
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From: Bernard Michael Tyers <bernard.tyers@dcu.ie>
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Subject: [IIU] Postcards from Planet Google *LONG*
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Date: Mon, 02 Dec 2002 00:05:15 +0000
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I found this interesting, but not very original. Another search engine
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(can't remember which one tho') was doing this a long time ago.
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http://www.bangkokpost.com/Business/02Dec2002_biz54.html
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=====
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Postcards from Planet Google
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INTERNET: The search engine is taking snapshots of its users' minds and
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aggregating them. So what is the world thinking about?
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JENNIFER 8. LEE
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At Google's squat headquarters off Route 101, visitors sit in the lobby,
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transfixed by the words scrolling by on the wall behind the
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receptionist's desk: animacio{AAC}n japonese Harry Potter pense{AAC}es
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et poemes associao brasileira de normas te{AAC}cnicas.
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The projected display, called Live Query, shows updated samples of what
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people around the world are typing into Google's search engine. The
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terms scroll by in English, Chinese, Spanish, Swedish, Japanese, Korean,
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French, Dutch, Italian _ any of the 86 languages that Google tracks.
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The scrolling continues: people who shouldn't marry ``she smoked a
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cigar'' mr potatoheads in long island pickup lines to get women auto
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theft fraud how to.
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Stare at Live Query long enough, and you feel you are watching the
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collective consciousness of the world stream by.
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Each line represents a thought from someone, somewhere with an Internet
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connection. Google collects these queries _ 150 million a day from more
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than 100 countries _ in its databases, updating and storing the computer
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logs millisecond by millisecond.
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Google is taking snapshots of its users' minds and aggregating them.
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So what is the world thinking about?
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Sex, for one thing.
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``You can learn to say `sex' in a lot of different languages by looking
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at the logs,'' said Craig Silverstein, director of technology at Google.
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(To keep Live Query G-rated, Google filters out sex-related searches,
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though less successfully with foreign languages.)
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Despite its geographic and ethnic diversity, the world is spending much
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of its time thinking about the same things. The same topic areas bubble
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to the top: celebrities, current events, products and computer downloads.
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``It's amazing how similar people are all over the world based on what
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they are searching for,'' said Greg Rae, one of three members of
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Google's logs team, which is responsible for building, storing and
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protecting the data record.
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Google's following _ it is the most widely used search engine _ has
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given Mr Rae a worldview from his cubicle. Since October 2001, he has
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been able to reel off ``anthrax'' in several languages, including
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milzbrand in German and carbonchio in Italian. He says he can also tell
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which countries took their recent elections seriously (Brazil and
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Germany), because of the frenzy of searches. He notes that the
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globalisation of consumer culture means that the most popular brands are
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far-flung in origin: Nokia, Sony, BMW, Ferrari, Ikea and Microsoft.
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Judging from Google's data, some sports events stir interest almost
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everywhere: the Tour de France, Wimbledon, the Melbourne Cup horse race
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and the World Series were among the top 10 sports-related searches last
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year. It also becomes obvious just how familiar American movies, music
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and celebrities are to searchers across the globe. Two years ago, a
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Google engineer named Lucas Pereira noticed that searches for Britney
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Spears had declined, indicating what he thought must be a decline in her
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popularity. From that observation grew Google Zeitgeist, a listing of
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the top gaining and declining queries of each week and month.
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Glancing over Google Zeitgeist is like taking a trivia test in cultural
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literacy: Ulrika Jonsson, the Swedish-born British television host and
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girlfriend of England football coach Sven Goran Eriksson, made the list
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recently. So did Irish Travellers (a nomadic ethnic group, one of whose
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members was videotaped beating her young daughter in Indiana) and
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fentanyl (the narcotic gas used in the Moscow raid to rescue hostages
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taken by Chechen rebels in late October).
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The long-lasting volume of searches involving her name has made Britney
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Spears something of a benchmark for the logs team. It has helped them
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understand how news can cause spikes in searches, as it did when she
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broke up with Justin Timberlake.
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Google can feel the reverberations of such events, and others of a more
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serious nature, immediately.
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On Feb 28, 2001, for example, an earthquake began near Seattle at 10:54
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am local time. Within two minutes, earthquake-related searches jumped to
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250 a minute from almost none, with a concentration in the US Pacific
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Northwest. On Sept 11, searches for the World Trade Center, Pentagon and
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CNN shot up immediately after the attacks. Over the next few days,
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Nostradamus became the top search query, fuelled by a rumour that
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Nostradamus had predicted the trade center's destruction.
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But the most trivial events may also register on Google's sensitive
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cultural seismic meter.
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The logs team came to work one morning to find that ``carol brady maiden
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name'' had surged to the top of the charts.
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Curious, they mapped the searches by time of day and found that they
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were neatly grouped in five spikes, each one starting at 48 minutes
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after the hour.
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As the logs were passed through the office, employees were perplexed.
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Why would there be a surge in interest in a character from the 1970s
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sitcom The Brady Bunch? But the data could only reflect patterns, not
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explain them.
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That is a paradox of a Google log: it does not capture social phenomena
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per se, but merely the shadows they cast across the Internet.
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``The most interesting part is why,'' said Amit Patel, who has been a
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member of the logs team. ``You can't interpret it unless you know what
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else is going on in the world.''
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So what had gone on on April 22, 2001?
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That night the million-dollar question on the game show Who Wants to Be
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a Millionaire? had been, ``What was Carol Brady's maiden name?'' Seconds
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after the show's host posed the question, thousands flocked to Google to
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search for the answer (Tyler), producing four spikes as the show was
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broadcast successively in each US time zone.
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The precision of the Carol Brady data was eye-opening for some.
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``It was like trying an electron microscope for the first time,'' said
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Sergey Brin, who as a graduate student in computer science at Stanford
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helped found Google in 1998 and is now its president for technology.
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``It was like a moment-by-moment barometer.''
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Predictably, Google's query data respond to television, movies and
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radio. But the mass media also feed off the demands of their audiences.
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One of Google's strengths is its predictive power, flagging trends
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before they hit the radar of other media.
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As such it could be of tremendous value to entertainment companies or
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retailers. Google is quiet about what if any plans it has for
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commercialising its vast store of query information. ``There is
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tremendous opportunity with this data,'' Mr Silverstein said. ``The
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challenge is defining what we want to do.''
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Google currently does not allow outsiders to gain access to raw data
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because of privacy concerns. Searches are logged by time of day,
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originating IP address (information that can be used to link searches to
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a specific computer), and the sites on which the user clicked. People
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tell things to search engines that they would never talk about publicly
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_ Viagra, pregnancy scares, fraud, facelifts. What is interesting in the
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aggregate can be seem an invasion of privacy if narrowed to an individual.
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In aggregate form, Google's data can make a stunning presentation. Next
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to Mr Rae's cubicle is the GeoDisplay, a 40-inch screen that gives a
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three-dimensional geographical representation of where Google is being
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used around the globe. The searches are represented by coloured dots
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shooting into the atmosphere. The colours _ red, yellow, orange _ convey
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the impression of a globe whose major cities are on fire. The tallest
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flames are in New York, Tokyo and the San Francisco Bay area.
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Each country has a distinctive usage pattern. Spain, France and Italy
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have a midday lull in Google searches, presumably reflecting leisurely
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lunches and relaxation. In Japan, the peak usage is after midnight, when
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phone rates for dial-up modems drop.
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Google's worldwide scope means that the company can track ideas and
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phenomena as they hop from country to country.
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Take Las Ketchup, a trio of singing sisters who became a sensation in
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Spain last spring with a gibberish song and accompanying knee-knocking
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dance similar to the Macarena.
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Like a series of waves, Google searches for Las Ketchup undulated
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through Europe over the summer and fall.
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The Ketchup Song (Hey Hah) has already topped the charts in 18
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countries. In late summer, Google's logs show, Las Ketchup searches
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began a strong upward climb in the United States, Britain and the
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Netherlands.
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Haven't heard of Las Ketchup?
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If you haven't, Google predicts you soon will.
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===
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rgrds,
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Bernard
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_______________________________________________
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IIU mailing list
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IIU@iiu.taint.org
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http://iiu.taint.org/mailman/listinfo/iiu
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