YouTube: About Findability or Futility
February 21, 2020
I am a librarian. My view is that YouTube search is not too good. When I was in library school, one of my professors used the technical term “stinks” when describing some retrieval systems. Maybe that term works in this post’s context?
Let’s try it out, “YouTube search stinks.” Would my former professor agree? I don’t know.
YouTube wants to improve its search function and Make Use Of reports on how, “Searching For The Right YouTube Channel Gets Easier With These 5 Sites.” It is difficult to find specific channels or even decent recommendations on YouTube, unless you know exactly what you are looking for. You can spend time mastering YouTube search or you can use Web sites that do the work for you.
The first useful tool is actually on the YouTube Web site. The YouTube Trends page update every fifteen minutes and highlights the most popular videos of the day. It is not catered for individuals, but it does show what is trending with other viewers. More specific categories can be selected showing what is popular in selected area.
Channels Stacks is another choice if you are searching for educational videos. YouTube has always been an excellent platform for free educational content. Alexander Olssen created Channel Stacks to curate educational content by topic. There are currently four categories: technology, creative, business, and lifestyle.
With the rise of streaming TV channel surfing should be a thing of the past, but organic discovery still exists on YouTube. If you do not know what to watch, check out Neverthink which does the task thinking for you. All one needs to do is select download the Neverthink app, pick a theme, and zone out. Neverthink curates videos based on the them, they will be good quality, and can lead you to a creator’s other work.
CreatorSpot is the new YouTubers best friend:
“CreatorSpot is quite like ProductHunt for creators on YouTube, Instagram, and Twitter. The site features eight new creators every day and that gives you a window to discover a fledgling YouTuber to follow. With thousands of videos uploaded every day, it’s difficult for a new content producer to come to everyone’s attention on platforms like YouTube. The bigger names benefit from YouTube’s algorithm while the fresh creators just about try to survive. This site attempts to help them get some limelight. The platform relies on user submissions, to begin with. The creators are evaluated on quality, originality, attention, and frequency. You can use the site to not only discover new videos and content creators behind them but also recommend photographers, YouTubers, writers, influencers, and producers you know who are doing great work.”
Walnut TV literally combines YouTube and Reddit into one, which is great because Reddit’s search feature is a millions times better than YouTube. Walnut TV is exactly like Reddit with Subreddits, except everything is videos.
PocketTube is a subscription manager service that helps you organize your videos and channels. With PocketTube you can organize subscriptions into groups, personalize them with icons, and change the layout. This makes it easier to search, add, and delete videos.
YouTube may not conform to my professor’s definition of “stinks,” but the online ad giant has an opportunity to improve. YouTube may deliver futility, not findability.
Whitney Grace, February 21, 2020
Why 2020 Will Be Challenging for Google and Europe
February 21, 2020
A straightforward Reuters news story appeared on Valentine’s Day. Title? “Google Protests Eye-Catching $2.6 Billion EU Fine, Judge Disagrees.” (This is a trustworthy story because Thomson Reuters provides a link to its trust principles.)
The trustworthy story includes a few interesting factettes about the online ad giant’s defensive posture; for example:
- The deterrent multipler and another multiplier factor was excessive and unwarranted.
- Google’s behavior was not anti competitive.
- Google’s lawyer pointed to the company’s “good faith attempts” to remediate itself.
Interesting position for Google. Different legal eagles continue to sing from the decades-old Google hymnal.
One statement, however, cuts through the “gee, we’re trying” and “you are unfair to the Google.” This is the quote attributed to EU lawyer Anthony Dawes:
Google’s conduct constituted a well established form of abuse.
It does not appear that Google’s assurances that it has kicked its habit of being Googley yet. The phrase “well established form of abuse” suggests that a fine may not do the trick.
Maybe the EU should consider a tough love approach:
But what if public criticism, fines, and tough love do not work? What recourse does the EU have? DarkCyber has a hunch that the EU regulators probably use Google on a daily basis to locate information as part of their effort to bring Google into line with the EU’s expectations and rules.
Maybe, just maybe, this is the challenge:
Hence, 2020 will be a push-pull affair. Queue “The Imperial March.”
Stephen E Arnold, February 21, 2020
Google Discover: In Praise of Smart Ads
February 19, 2020
“Google’s Next Move: from Search to Discovery” is an interesting essay. The author sees a bright future for “smart targeting.”
Here’s the explanation of discovery:
The AI can collate and make sense of thousands of data points about a web user across multiple Google platforms and products – among them YouTube, Gmail, Play Store, News, Photos, Shopping, Translate, Calendar and any website that has a Google tag or Google Tag Manager. Using these signals about a user’s intent and interests, the AI can personalize content according to the emotional and rational factors that matter to the individual. One of the game changers here is the advertising on Google Discover, a feed that serves relevant content to a user, even when they’re not searching.
One of the benefits of the approach is that the “algorithm keeps learning more about you.”
DarkCyber noted this statement, presented as a glorious positive:
Google’s algorithms become more powerful as it discovers more about your brand, product, political, lifestyle, and other preferences from the way you engage with the content. As an example, the technology claims to be so advanced that that it would know not to show a video on the basics of how to play a guitar to an experienced musician, while it would know to show that video to a beginner. Another advantage of the Discover platform is that Google can roll out ads in a native format rather than traditional display banners, which is similar to the newsfeed that has been so effective for Facebook. In addition, advertisers can now reach customers earlier in the customer journey, before they start searching for and evaluating options. Brands can run Discovery campaigns across YouTube home feed, Gmail social and promotions tabs and Google Discover feed. The company claims that more than 800 million people now use Discover each month.
Sounds wonderful. The idea of advertising that flows to a prospect when that person is not looking for information.
The startling factoid in the write up is that Discover is here and beavering away in a smart way, of course. The factoid: 800 million people now use Discover each month.
Very Googley: A next move that is already here.
Stephen E Arnold, February 19, 2020
Google May Be Facing a Moon Shot Challenge
February 17, 2020
DarkCyber wants to reflect on a challenge, a difficult one.
DarkCyber read “Google Removes 500+ Malicious Chrome Extensions from the Web Store.” No, not a “the” store. The store is Google’s online store toward which every Android phone longs to visit. Some mobile devices have no choice. Other Android phones have some restraints, but “home is home.”
According to the write up:
The removed extensions operated by injecting malicious ads (malvertising) inside users’ browsing sessions. The malicious code injected by the extensions activated under certain conditions and redirected users to specific sites. In some cases, the destination would be an affiliate link on legitimate sites like Macys, Dell, or BestBuy; but in other instances, the destination link would be something malicious, such as a malware download site or a phishing page.
You should read the ZDNet story mentioned above and follow its links. However, the notion that DarkCyber has been noodling involves Google’s large online advertising business. Here are some questions we drafted after our morning call:
- If the Google Android store is disseminating software which generates clicks, how will those affected advertisers be compensated?
- What other ad centric spoofs or manipulations exist within the ad system for YouTube?
- What malware or manipulative techniques operate within the core AdWords’ system?
- What role to click bots or click farms play in manipulating Google’s online advertising data?
- What about human Googler manipulation of advertising systems; for example, as quarters draw to a close?
DarkCyber only has these and a number of other questions. The answer to these questions may call into question the reliability, accuracy, and honesty of the Google online advertising operation.
If the answers fail to reassure advertisers and others, the strength of Google might become its most serious challenge in the company’s rise from objective search system to global online ad giant.
Challenge? Maybe multiple challenges: Credibility, legal, technical, and managerial.
Stephen E Arnold, February
Google Maps: The Map Is Not the Territory?
February 15, 2020
I want to keep this write up short. Navigate to “Google Redraws the Borders on Maps Depending on Who’s Looking.” Main point: Google manipulates information for a variety of reasons. The result? Zero objectivity and zero reliability. New news? Nope. Old, old news. Why? Fun, expediency, whims of wizards, whatever. Why am I not adding some color? I am very tired of repeating what I reveal in my writings like Google Legacy, Google Version 2, Google: The Digital Gutenberg, and my several dozen Google articles for Information Today. (I think one of the team listed these on the LinkedIn Stephen E Arnold biography years ago.) When did these summaries and findings of my research begin to appear? Oh, about 17 years ago. Yep, the Google. Objective information for the clueless? Pretty much.
Stephen E Arnold, February 15, 2020
Google Android: Simple Explanations Ring True
February 14, 2020
I read “Why Google Did Android.” The author of the article is Tim Bray (OpenText, Sun Micro, Google, etc.) The answer in the write up is:
“The iPhone is really good. The way things are going, Apple’s going to have a monopoly on Internet-capable mobile devices. That means they’ll be the gatekeepers for everything, including advertising, saying who can and can’t, setting prices, taking a cut. That’s an existential threat to Google. Android doesn’t have to win, to win. It just has to get enough market so there’s a diverse and competitive mobile-advertising market.”
The person providing the answer is from Vic Gundotra, former Googler and now ex CEO of AliveCor.
The answer suggests to me that Google wanted to go from A to B in a pragmatic way. That’s what Google engineers try to do: Be pragmatic, logical.
Does this suggest that using Java was the logical way to make the journey from fear of the iPhone to Android? Maybe Oracle’s dogged pursuit of a legal resolution is more than a matter of principle? What’s the catchphrase about asking for forgiveness?
Stephen E Arnold, February 14, 2020
Managing a Science Club Is Hard: Human Re What? Personnel Who?
February 13, 2020
DarkCyber noted a story titled “Google HR Chief Eileen Naughton Steps Aside As Worker Activis…” No, that’s the title. There are other versions of the story, but the Gadgets 360 take captures how many Googlers respond when human resources is mentioned. “Human re what? Personnel who?”
The story is a revolving door tale. Get out while the getting is good. Recently some high profile and somewhat interesting people have left the online ad machine: A lawyer, two founders, some disgruntled employees, and now the head of human re what?
The article states:
In recent years, the Google workplace has been disrupted by employee opposition to top-level decisions ranging from forging contracts with the US military to tailoring a version of the search engine for China. Google in November fired four employees on the grounds they had violated data security policies, but the tech titan was accused of persecuting them for trying to unionize staff. The dismissals of the quartet — dubbed the “Thanksgiving Four” on social media — deepened staff-management tensions at a company once seen as a paradigm of Silicon Valley freedoms but now embroiled in numerous controversies. One of the workers fired was connected to a petition condemning Google for working with the US customs and border patrol agency, which has been involved in President Donald Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration. Google employees have also openly opposed the company pursuing contracts to put its technology to work for the US military.
The Googlers are a frisky group of youngish wizards. Managing a science club is difficult. A high school science club? Yep, more difficult than a college science club.
Human re what? Personnel who? There is LinkedIn for those in need of a job.
Stephen E Arnold, February 13, 2020
If at First You Fail, Try 10 Times
February 10, 2020
If at first you don’t succeed try eight, nine, 10 times. Ars Technica tells us that “Google’s Tenth Messaging Service Will ‘Unify’ Gmail, Drive, Hangouts Chat.” Writer Ron Amadeo cites an article from The Information (subscription required) when he reports Google is working on another messaging app that sounds a lot like their vision for the Google Hangouts Chat service they added to the GSuite business tools in 2018. Amadeo describes:
“According to the report, this ‘new unified communications app’ will merge functions from Gmail, Drive, Hangouts Chat, and Hangouts Meet. Slack already lets you send messages, share files, and do video chats, which covers most of these apps. Pulling in features from Gmail, though, like the last email you sent the person you’re messaging, would be unique and genuinely useful. One alarming thing about the report is that it refers to this service as a ‘mobile app’ and doesn’t mention anything about a Web or desktop app, which is how many employees primarily use Slack. “News that the app will pull in Hangouts Chat features makes us wonder what will happen to the actual Hangouts Chat service. One of the current plans in the Google messaging mess is to merge Google’s biggest consumer chat platform, Hangouts, with Hangouts Chat, its current enterprise chat platform (despite the similar names, the two apps are unrelated). If Hangouts Chat is merging into something else, does that mean the plan to migrate consumer Hangouts over isn’t happening?”
Good question. We are reminded Google has launched nine previous messaging apps, demonstrating its apparent fear of product commitment. We shall see whether this iteration sticks around long enough to even establish a healthy network of users.
Cynthia Murrell, February 10, 2020
Who Wins in a Show Down: Companies or Countries?
February 8, 2020
Do not be surprised, but Alphabet Inc., Google’s parent company, is getting bigger! Alphabet Inc. is becoming so big that is creating a monopoly in everything it touches. Matt Stoller’s blog BIG, which investigates the history of monopolies, discusses, “Google’s Dangerous Monopoly-Based Foreign Policy.”
In early December 2019, Google told its Turkish business partners that they would no longer support Android phones in Turkey. This decision comes after the Turkish competition board ruled that Google’s changes to contract were not acceptable and asked Google to change its software distribution agreements so users could select which search engine they wanted to use on their OS. Google’s response is similar to what the US ordered Google to stop working with Huawei over security concerns.
The Turkish injunction was filed by Russian competitor Yandex. Google has tried to kill Yandex before by leveraging desktop search dominance, then morphing it into mobile search dominance and Google rose to the top. Russia does not bow to US corporations, so they filed the complaint in Turkey. The European Union discovered Google did the same thing in their countries, but the EU did not have a big search engine to rival Google like Yandex. The EU also allowed Google to create their own solution, which they now acknowledge as a mistake.
Google does not like opposition:
“Google’s response wasn’t just to use the legal system to fight for its rights, but then ultimately obey the law. Instead, Google said it was willing to ‘work with’ Turkey, but as a partner and not as a corporation working within a sovereign nation. It simply said it doesn’t like Turkey’s law, and so it will stop providing Android phones for an entire country. In other words, Google has a private sanctions regime against smaller countries.
There’s something of a parallel to what Google is doing to Turkey, and it’s in China. The U.S. government ordered Google to stop delivering apps to Huawei, and the result is a catastrophe for any attempt to build phones for use outside of China.”
A clash of big companies and big countries seems to be taking place.
Whitney Grace, February 8, 2020
Detroit Sure Understands Hollow Out and May Have Google Insight
February 7, 2020
Detroit. Interesting place. DarkCyber read “Google’s Cash Cow Search Business Is Being ‘Hollowed Out’.” If there is one city whose residents and businesses understand the concept, it is probably Detroit.
DarkCyber noted this statement in the write up:
“This hollowing out of search is real,” Mark Shmulik, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein, wrote in a note to investors after the results. To maintain growth at even this lower level, Google will have to generate more revenue from its Maps service, image search and shopping search ads, he said.
Why is this an issue? The article states:
Google search is one of the most profitable businesses ever created, helping the company amass a cash hoard of more than $100 billion. It took Google from a garage in Silicon Valley to a trillion-dollar giant that dominates digital advertising, online video, maps and email.
The report points out:
Google can only stuff so many ads onto its website without lowering the quality of search results. On mobile phones, ads often fill the entire screen, forcing users to scroll down if they want to see free listings.
What’s the problem? Mobile search is booming. Yep, but peak mobile may be approaching.
Good points and from Detroit.
Stephen E Arnold, February 7, 2020
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