The Google cookie

AST week, amidst discussion in an SEO forum, I raised the prospect of tailoring content based on browser cookies. Cookies may contain a person’s full search history, but potentially much beyond that. As I shall explain in the remainder of this item, it was only short time later that my predication became a reality. This development is bad news, as well as good news.

…People are described by their cookie and Google (can) builds a profile, i.e. history of all searches that an individual runs (and potentially link s/he follows). Sooner or later, for competitive advantage, the SERP we all see may differ.

Example:

Google can tell that you like a lot of pop music. Search for ‘Aqua’ and get the Danish band at number 1. If you are a scientist, you may have a page on the chemical element at number 1.

I hadn’t realised something when I made the above statement. This was bound to become a patent, courtesy of Google.

4. A method of personalizing placed content associated with a search query, comprising: receiving a search query from a user; accessing a user profile associated with the user; identifying a set of placed content that matches the search query; and ordering the set of placed content in accordance with the user profile.

This seems too fundamental to be patentable, which is probably what controversy over software patents is all about. Not in the EU though. Has anyone yet pondered the implications it has on privacy? Might this be as tactless as book scanning, which is damaging to public opinion?

Google determinded to pull Firefox out of the bag

Earlier today I came across this observation in Slashdot:

slashkitty writes “Google updated their AdSense service to pay publishers for referrals. What’s interesting is that now they pay publishers $1 US for each FireFox download with the Google Toolbar installed. Is this the bump that Firefox needs to boost downloads? Will Google be able to pay the millions for all the downloads?”

I am very glad that Google promote Firefox. I love Firefox and have admiration for Google, but I cannot help wondering if this becomes similar to kickbacks among Microsoft and hardware vendors. Free software is one thing. Being rewarded for using a piece of software means that deep pockets warrant prolification. This might also, under particular circumstances, lead to lock-in of data and habits.

Related item: Google Goes Firefox-Only?

FeedLounge: one among many (Web)
applications which tolerate invalid feeds

HEER hypocrisy is the only way one can describe the latest statement from Microsoft’s RSS team. Microsoft have broken and ignored many International standards over the years. This caused many application to malfunction even when they stuck with standards. Now, when matters do not suit them, Microsoft decide to say farewell to feeds that are not well-formed XML [rel="nofollow"]. Many projects, even the tiniest among them, have tolerated malformed RSS feeds. Yet, this appear to be too much to ask from biggest standards-breaking criminal of all.

Potentially, Windows Vista and Internet Explorer 7 will simply refuse to handle anything that does not adhere to or complies with standards. Need I even mention that Microsoft are set to ‘extend’ RSS, thus breaking RSS protocols?

Our years of experience in with HTML in Internet Explorer have taught us the long-term pain that results from being too liberal with what you accept from others. Hence, we%u2019ve adopted the following overriding principle for IE 7 and RSS platform in Windows Vista:

We will only support feeds that are well-formed XML.

have already introduced my latest Open Source project (namely Iuron, the Semantic Knowledge Engine) a few times in the past. This afternoon I will be meeting who is questionably the father of the Semantic Web to discuss this project. However, I begin to suspect that Google have picked up on similar ideas by now. From the article which can be found in the Edge (among other places):

“We are not scanning all those books to be read by people,” explained one of my hosts after my talk (at Google). “We are scanning them to be read by an AI.”

There is a certain hint in that Web site as to long-term intentions and goals at Google. Overall, I don’t know if Google have beat me to it, but I suspect it was not something too crypic or far-fetched. Anyone in the field of machine learning must have thought about it at one stage or another. I hope that my speculation is mistaken and that Google will stick with naive indexing of unreliable Web content.

Speaking of threat from the giants, Google Reader, being an AJAX-rich Web application for reading feeds, has had direct impact on Feedlounge, which is an application I help test. Ever since the launch of Google Reader, Feedlounge development has been in a rather idle and fragile state. I hope Iuron will tread strongly despite the known perils. It is a non-profit, Open Source initiative after all.

UPDATE: I have been told that knowledge representation might be a greater barrier than I had imagined. My preconceptions regarding its maturity were slightly optimistic.

Google have recently formed a pact with Sun Microsystems, best known for their work on Java and Solaris. They have just taken a re-assuring step — re-assuring to those who wish to see Microsoft monopolies fade away over the years.

Sun Microsystems are among the major maintainers, as well as the ‘funds engine’ behind OpenOffice. Finally we come to see that Google, who use OpenOffice in-house, contribute back to the Open Source community which they came from. They are now paying programmers to work on Open Office, which is some sense reminds me of begone “Google Office” rumours. They essentially use their powerful financial position to boost freedom, or so I choose to believe. It is no wonder Microsoft are scared.

Google plans to hire programmers to improve OpenOffice.org, a demonstration of its affinity for open source initiatives and one the company believes also shows sound practical sense.

It is worth emphasising that Open Office 2 was very recently released.

Related item: Google Support Open Source in Academia

FTER teaming up with NASA¹ and forming a pact with Sun Microsystem, Google now sidle nearer to IBM. This move comes to show that Google are recognised as a market leader that is here to stay and further prosper.

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – IBM and Google Inc. are collaborating to make it easier for office workers not only to search for local documents and personal e-mail but to delve deep into corporate databases, the companies said on Friday.

¹ Side note: Brin’s mother work/ed in NASA

Related item: Google Desktop Released

Bill Gates arrested in his younger days (photo in public domain)

ICROSOFT are finally starting to investigate zombie attacks, which have been launched continuously due to vulnerability in their flagship product — the ubiquitous operating system Windows. This is long overdue and a real embarrassment as the extent of zombie attacks is growingrapidly. Not only do Windows users suffer as a result of these attacks, but the entire Web does, me included. From the article:

Microsoft is investigating 13 spam operations as part of a call to action against zombies, which are compromised computers used without their owners’ permission to send spam, launch denial-of-service (DoS) attacks, and spread worms and viruses.

Ironically enough, Microsoft attempted to fix this loophole, but did so incompletely! Their patch was flawed. So, for the past 3 weeks, my site has come under attack by over 1,000 Windows zombies per day (never less than 1,000). At some point, the strain was so high that the site and Web host reached the brink of collapse. This could only be described as Denial of Service (DoS) attack, almost leading to my site being Dead on Arrival (DoA). This has been costing me money, as well as plenty of time and distress.

I explicitly promised to mention this aspect of my activities no more. Yet, the 2 articles above sparked my emotions yet again (and Halloween is a couple of days ahead, so zombies are on topic). Why should my pocket be emptied to cover for junk traffic that is spewed out from unprotected operating systems, which were claimed to be strong and and reliable? Why is it that Webmasters are no longer in control over their own Web sites? Those affected would know exactly what I mean.

A lot of my bandwidth gets drained by zombies from all around the world. Consequently, the server slows down and log files become extremely noisy. Spammer-driven zombies are intended to ruin these logs. The effort is affordable as merely any hijacked computer can be exploited to attain brute-force attacks. The only solution is operating system cleansing. While Microsoft attempt to hunt down the spammers/attackers, I think they ought to be responsible for patch up any vulnerable machine. This includes any Internet Café where the owners are simply apathetic to critical patches.

My final message to Microsoft: You got the Internet into this mess to begin with. You made your operating system so easy to penetrate/hijack and the entire world (or a subset of it) suffers. You are now responsible for putting an end to it all and you sure have enough money to put into the necessary operations. I am tempted to use strong language, but I suppose it would be inappropriate at this time and place and would achieve nothing.

I once addressed Windows users with a friendly message on the need to patch up the operating system. If the users are unwilling to do so or find it rather difficult, Microsoft ought to step up and get involved. Otherwise, the Net would soon degrade to a sordid mess involving more and more DoS attacks. Fingers would all be pointing at Redmond and the reputation of Windows, as if it ever existed, be shattered.