You didn’t imagine it: Google’s search is worse, and that’s by design, according to a document produced in discovery. Dr Jonny L. Saunders of UCLA shared one on their Mastodon earlier today. The internal Google email, from Jerry Dischler to Anil Sabharwal, dated May 3, 2019, expresses a concern over the company missing […]
Read More… from Google search is worse by design—internal memo
Dave Troy’s analysis of the Elon Musk takeover of Twitter makes for interesting reading, since Troy has actually spoken to Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey and has a bit more of the inside track than most. For starters, Troy reminds us that Dorsey trusts Musk, in order to keep Twitter away from Wall Street investors. Dorsey […]
Read More… from Twitter pushes the near future to look more bipolar than multipolar
There are a few experiments going on here now that this blog is on the new server. Massive thanks to my friend who has been working tirelessly to get us on to the new box and into the 2020s. First, there’s a post counter, though as it’s freshly installed, it doesn’t show a true count. […]
Big Tech often says that if they’re broken up, they won’t be able to compete with mainland China. Folks, you’ve already lost. Why? Because you’re playing their game. You believe that through dominance and surveillance you can beat a country with four times more people. The level playing field under which you […]
Read More… from Big Tech: you’ve already lost against mainland China
This is a pretty typical story: find fault with Big Tech, try to alert the appropriate people in the firm, get fired. Julia Carrie Wong’s excellent article for The Guardian shows a data scientist, Sophie Zhang, find blatant attempts by governments to abuse Facebook’s platform, misleading their own people, in multiple countries. Of course […]
I’m not entirely sure I need to block out the email addresses here since they’re likely to be burner Gmail accounts, but I’ll give these spammers the courtesy they don’t deserve. As shown below, they’ve been coming for over a year; there’s a chance I may have even received them in 2019. […]
Read More… from Computing in 2021: Gmail’s advertorial spammers, Facebook bots, and Twitter fatigue
One thing about not posting to NewTumbl is I’ve nowhere convenient to put quotations I’ve found. Maybe they have to go here as well. Back when I started this blog in 2006—15 years ago, since it was in January—I did make some very short posts, so it’s not out of keeping. (I realize the timestamp […]
Read More… from The US, where big business (and others) can lie with impunity
Thanks to my friend Bill Shepherd, I’ve now subscribed to The Ad Contrarian newsletter. Bob Hoffman is one of the few who gets it when it comes to how insignificant the FTC’s Facebook fine is. Five (American) billion (American) dollars sounds like a lot to you and me, but considering Facebook’s stock rose on […]
Read More… from Facebook is getting away with it again—even though it knew about Cambridge Analytica
Instruct Studio It’s easy to dismiss comedians as, well, comedians, there to tell a joke and to get a laugh out of us. But what if the comedian—such as Frankie Boyle—is one of those who sees the state of the world we’re in, and “tells it as it is”? His opinion for The Guardian makes […]
Read More… from Orange may be the new black but the difference is less than you think
Lie no. 1: ‘We want to show you ads that you’ll find relevant. That’s why we have ad preferences, a tool that lets you view, add and remove preferences we created for you based on things like your profile information, actions you take on Facebook and websites and apps you use off Facebook.’ ‘Choose an […]
Read More… from The lies and myths of Facebook, and what the tech press is too scared to investigate