[Air-l] my second post

[Jillana Enteen]

Okay, today's my heavy contribution day.

Let's talk about Google:
My results have RADICALLY changed since they started advertising.

Does anyone know how the algorithm has mutated?
Does anyone else notice this?
Does anyone else have an alternative search engine?
What do we do with the randomness of numbers posited for conversation 
by a search engine that shifts without announcing or qualifying?
What "status" do we give to numbers collected by Google searches anyway?
When I did research for my diss, I searched 12 search engines. What's 
the difference? I still miss out on most of what one terms the www.

I still often use Kartoo, speaking of spacial representations, and i 
find "different" things, but not "more thorough."

jillana
On Feb 3, 2004, at 3:51 PM, Eero Tarik wrote:

> thanks to those who replied to my first post both on list and off it, 
> I enjoyed reading your responses.
>
> I suppose deep down I must be a Lord Kelvin man - for those who don't 
> remember the 1890's, he wrote...
>
> "When you can measure what you are speaking about, and express
> it in numbers, you know something about it; but when you cannot
> measure it, when you cannot express it in numbers, your
> knowledge is of a meager and unsatisfactory kind: it may be the
> beginning of knowledge, but you have scarcely, in your thoughts,
> advanced to the stage of science. "
>
> So with this in mind, I put to you the following numbers and 
> observations...
>
> a Google search reveals that the term "cyberspace" appears 2.4million 
> times in the online world.
> Identity appears 14 million times, gender 15 million times, politics 
> 26 million and race 32 million.
>
> God appears 64 million times and love gets 119 million mentions - far 
> more important to "cyberspacers" than food, which is only mentioned 86 
> million times.
>
> Interestingly, the internet produces 244 million results, but lags 
> behind good old "sex" with 269 million and business with 266 million..
>
> And at the top of my little list is the search term, "help" which 
> comes in with 301 million results.
>
> When I look at the kind of subject matter that appears to be the focus 
> of internet researchers I am dismayed that so much of the intellectual 
> effort seems to be directed at the small end of town. There appears to 
> be an over emphasis upon cyberspace and cyberism, along with identity, 
> gender, race and politics.
>
> A search of the titles of the papers presented to last years 
> conference shows that 11 contained the term cyberspace, 32 contained 
> the term identity, 12 contained gender, and 2 contained race -  none 
> contained the term "help".
>
> The online world, it seems, is screaming out for help - 301million 
> times, yet academia appears to want  to talk about minority issues.
>
> The online world wants help, sex and business - academia gives it 
> cyberspace and discussion of race, gender and politics.
>
> Am I missing something???
>
> Dont you just love numbers :-)
>
> see ya
> Eero Tarik
> Adelaide, South Australia
>
>
>
>
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Jillana Enteen
jillana at jillana.net
http://jillana.net