All Things Google

[retina]

Anyone living on Mars? Post the coords to your abode so we can all see it.

[xilman]

For the next couple of days I'm living in a hotel in Brno. Here to be exact.

Flying over here last week, I saw this curious structure from the aircraft window.

I've some ideas as to what it might be but would welcome other interpretations. Note the helipad and the clear signs of previous activity which are now mere tracks in the ground. The complete site is rateher bigger, so you may wish to use the zoom and panning functions.


Paul

[Uncwilly]

A small air base is one thing that comes to mind.

[ckdo]

Originally Posted by xilman

For the next couple of days I'm living in a hotel in Brno. Here to be exact.

Flying over here last week, I saw this curious structure from the aircraft window.

I've some ideas as to what it might be but would welcome other interpretations. Note the helipad and the clear signs of previous activity which are now mere tracks in the ground. The complete site is rateher bigger, so you may wish to use the zoom and panning functions.


Paul

It's a former military base, now a (private) prison.

[ewmayer]

Barry Ritholtz has an entry today on how How Google Can Better Fulfill “Don’t Be Evil”:

We all know Google is filled with very smart mathematicians, programmers, and deep thinkers. How hard is it to come up with an algo to scan and verify the scraper/splogs stealing content and hosting bogus adsense adverts? They should be proactively weeding out these bad elements — even if it costs them a few bucks in ad dollars.

My Comment: One of the reader replies is classic:

Dan Duncan Says:
November 21st, 2009 at 4:33 pm

There’s a huge conflict at the heart of what Google does.

On the one hand, it wants to be The Definitive Source of Information.

On the other…it wants to Get Paid.

Think of two overlapping circles: One circle is all about selling a product…Zapatos Shoe site, for example. On the other straight information…Wikipedia.

There’s no problem with either extreme. Things get a messy, though, when you mix the two.

A simple example would be for those foolish enough to want to play the Forex Game. In Forex, there’s A LOT of sales pitches going on (which broker to sign up with…software that will “make you millions”, etc). But there is also a learning curve. People need information before they’ll send thousands of dollars to a forex broker.

It’s on this shaded area that involves both Sales and Information…that Google is a disaster. It’s a breeding ground for bullshit “content” and dishonest sales pitches.

Unfortunately for Google, it’s on these sites where it makes so much of its money. It’s where people pay to really advertise…because people are really searching for information in order to make an “informed” decision.

It will really hurt Google’s bottom line to rid itself of these vermin.

Basically, Google just outsources it’s association with this scum to sites like Commission Junction and Clickbank…It’s at these sites where they broker the commission arrangements between the affiliate advertisers and the underlying seller.

An example would be:

Dirtbag #1 has a Special Stock Trading software (usually based on technical analysis) and looks for advertisers who “work from home.

He goes to Clickbank and offers to pay a 60% commission on all products sold.

Dirtbag #2, who’s good at making websites, goes to Clickbank and decides to sell the Stock Trading software “that will make millions”. [For some reason, Dirtbag #2 would rather sell shit on Google Adwords than make millions trading stocks.]

Dirtbag #2 then sets up a Landing Page for the software with “Killer Sales Copy that converts like craaazzzyyy!”

Dirtbag #2 then puts up his Landing Page on the Google network and pays Google for the clicks.

After a few weeks and LOTS of clicks, Google will pretend to police this shit because Google doesn’t “want to detract from the user’s experience”. But in the end, it’s all just a shell game. Google can’t get rid of these guys because Google can’t make any money from YouTube or from searches on duck-billed platypuses.

[Dougy]

Here's my uni... (: