"Flipping" through the 'Net

I get most of my news and information from the internet. I love being able to quickly click through a diversity of pages from politics to news to sports to religion to science....you get the picture. But there's just something about setting down with a newspaper, magazine, or even a book and physically flipping through the pages. I miss that.* Once in awhile I would like to have back that physical relationship with the media I'm consuming.

And, as always, the Google Overlords** have heard my plight and are there for me. Googlelabs is testdriving a new feature called "Google Fast Flip". The idea is simple...use your mouse and cursor to "flip" through the front pages of popular websites, much like you would browse through the pages of a magazine. It's an uber-quick way to peruse top headlines and stories, and it's just a lot more fun than clicking buttons and embedded links. Try it. You'll like it.

*Full disclosure: I've been known to carry magazines around in my courier bag for weeks without ever reading them. I just like the feeling of knowing I can pull one out and leaf through it whenever I feel like it.

**Just to repeat what I've said here previously. I, for one, will welcome the rule of the Overlords when it comes.

(via, as is often the case, A. Sullivan)

More from the Google Overlords

Google is continuing its march towards world domination. As Farhad Manjoo reports at Slate.com, the world's largest search engine is adding the profiles of registered users to search results. The rationale for this? According to Google, it's a chance for people to have greater control over what comes up when someone searches for their name (or, probably more often, what comes up when someone conducts a "vanity search" for their own name).

The conspiracy theory, though, is that Google actually intends to use this profile information to set up a social networking service to rival giants like Facebook and MySpace:

If the speculation proves true, Google's plan would be both deviously brilliant and also a little scary. Why would Google want a social network? To get to know you better—and, thus, to serve you more profitable ads. Google has long made gobs of money by running ads based on search keywords—if you search for "shoes," Google runs spots for Zappos and DSW, and it makes a few cents if you click on them. But last month Google announced that it would join many of its rival Web companies in adopting "behavioral targeting," a method of serving ads that relies on a much more extensive picture of your online activity. In the future, instead of showing you an ad targeted simply to your search keyword, Google might look at everything it has learned about you over an extended period of time in order to give you a message better-tailored to your interests. If you type in "shoes," Google might be able to tell if you're a nurse who lives in New York or a construction worker who lives in Miami—and would show you shoe ads customized to your character. [...]

Here's where the social network might come in. Google already knows a lot about you; through its search engine, its vast advertising network, and its many Web applications (Gmail, YouTube, etc.), the company can probably already glean enough information about a Web surfer to be able to tell the difference between a nurse and a construction worker. But a Google social network would add one more dimension to the picture—it could mine your relationships, too.

Manjoo goes on to explain that, while advertising on social networking sites isn't an extremely profitable venture, Google would have a competitive edge over the established sites...lots and lots of personal information about lots and lots of individual users, which it plans to couple with the motivation of people wanting to make sure that their name is "well Googled":

...Google controls a much larger swath of the Web than its rivals. Facebook can use what it knows about your relationships to serve you targeted ads on—well, pretty much just on Facebook. That isn't much use, because people aren't very interested in commerce when they're checking in with their friends. But Google operates the Web's most far-reaching advertising network, so whatever it learns about you while you're interacting with your friends can be used to target you later on, while you're in some more ad-friendly part of the Web—when you're reading the New York Times, or watching YouTube, or searching for a Mother's Day present. By using your "social graph" as just one factor in a much larger behavioral profile, the company could finally turn social-networking into a killer business.

[...] Google doesn't necessarily need to build a social network that you find fun—that is, it doesn't have to build an alternative to Facebook. Instead, all it really needs is to get you to tell it more about your connections. I'll bet that a promise of improved vanity search results will be enough to bring a lot of people on board. Indeed, even if you're not so vain, it makes good sense to set up a page on Google. A Google Profile is a good way to present your best side to potential employers, prospective dates, future in-laws, or your parole board—anyone you'd like to impress. Why wouldn't you sign up?

(Via Andrew Sullivan)

Hail Google

I am absolutely convinced that Google will one day take over the world:

Web search giant Google may be planning to buy microblogging site Twitter, according to TechCrunch. The tech news Web site, citing unnamed "people close to the negotiations," says that if Twitter bites, it would get cash and/or publicly valued stock from Google. Just five months ago, the increasingly popular Twitter turned down a $500 million offer from Facebook that was reportedly chock full of that company's stock.

The treasure Google seeks is Twitter's large database of information, which expands daily in real-time as so-called Tweeters fill their personal feeds with snippets of current events and observations (140 characters max at a time). Twitter also has a very effective search engine for mining this database, which would give Google plenty more Web pages to sell to advertisers, TechCrunch notes.

Let me just say that, when the day comes, I will welcome the new Google Overlords with open arms.

You know it's a big day when...

My Favorite Web Things

1. Google: Love it. Love it. Love it. I had a conversation with another teacher one day, and decided that a) Google was going to take over the world one day, and b) we would both gladly submit to its' rule.

2. iGoogle: If Google is the ice-cream sundae, then iGoogle is the cherry on top. Everytime I start up my browser I'm greated with my favorite search engine, customized weather, current news headlines, e-mail, favorite bookmarks, and a variety of customizable tickers, games, newsfeeds and other widgets. So not only can set back and let the Internet make me lazy, but now I actually don't have to take the time and energy to navigate through different pages and sites.

3. Digg: If you're not "Digging", then you should check it out. It allows you to submit websites, stories, blogs, videos, flickr photos, etc. to a social site where others can view them. By establishing networks of friends and fans, you can see what other people are reading. It's a lot of fun, and a great way to find content that doesn't always make the front pages. (By the way, if you're registered with Digg, feel free to click the "Digg" button on any of my posts to submit them.)

4. Facebook: Okay, I admit that at 30-something I'm not really the target demographic for the king of all social networking sites. But for people my age this site is a great way to re-establish contact with, and keep in touch with, old friends. BTW...I don't accept friend requests from students.

5. Google Reader: Another part of the Google Universe. Google reader allows you to subscribe to RSS feeds from frequently updated websites. What this means, in simple terms, is that when your favorite websites or blogs are updated, the new information is sent directly to your Google Reader page. This makes it possible to keep track of dozens of websites without constantly clicking through a list of bookmarks. And, if you have an iGoogle start page, your Google reader updates can be read directly from there!