Monday 26 April 2010

A very British revolution: Let it hang!

Please don't let the Tories & Labour scare you into voting for either of them just to avoid a hung parliament.

The Tories & Labour stand to lose most from a hung parliament. They say it's bad for Britain and the economy, that nothing will get done. Is this because:

a) Their MPs are so egotistical as to be unable to work with each other?
b) Their MPs are incapable of putting country before party? or
c) Their MPs could not agree compromises regarding the issues that matter?

Please vote for the party that matches your policies, even if they cannot win, even if others tell you it's a wasted vote. Even better, join that party and donate to it to help it reach more people.

NOTE: Do join the You're It! Facebook group by the way or search on Twitter for #youreit

Thursday 22 April 2010

Why Google should fear Facebook's World Wide Like

Social media watchers now know that Facebook are extending the ability to any website owner to allow their visitors to 'like' any webpage or site beyond the boundaries of the Facebook site. Tweetstats is the first site I've seen using it. We already enjoy being able to share from any webpage or site but like makes it a whole new ball game. Google should be terrified and this is why.

As Techcrunch indicate in their post (see link above) Facebook will essentially be enabling the web to measure itself. Currently Google famously measures the entire web using machines and formulae with a relatively small amount of human intervention. Facebook will get the web to essentially index and rank itself. There can only be one winner in that fight. Crowds beat machines every time. Perhaps Google will step up and roll buzz out further to combat that Facebook expansion? I can't see another solution...Google may have user reach but Facebook has relationship depth. And the required immense traction to go for it.

If Google don't combat Facebook effectively then the end result could be a brand new search interface from Facebook that brings back results based on LikeRank as opposed to Pagerank. A sort of Yahoo (& Delicious') MyRank come good? That idea was just too early and used the wrong tool but it was the right idea.

Ultimately the reason why only Facebook can win this fight with Google is that no matter how smart the Google algorithm is, there is no substitute for the human mind, the human hive and the viral unpredictable qualities of humanity. As Frank Zappa once said:
The computer can't tell you the emotional story. It can give you the exact mathematical design, but what's missing is the eyebrows.
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