Comments on: The Position No One Wants to Talk About and Its Impact on Red Lions, the Fairness Doctrine and Net Neutrality http://thestrangedeathofliberalamerica.com/the-position-no-one-wants-to-talk-about-and-its-impact-on-red-lions-the-fairness-doctrine-and-net-neutrality.html An Independent Netzine About Ideas Tue, 15 May 2012 16:14:24 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 By: Hathor http://thestrangedeathofliberalamerica.com/the-position-no-one-wants-to-talk-about-and-its-impact-on-red-lions-the-fairness-doctrine-and-net-neutrality.html/comment-page-1#comment-11320 Hathor Sun, 04 Jan 2009 00:35:43 +0000 http://thestrangedeathofliberalamerica.com/?p=1998#comment-11320 I was spoiled a few years ago, when I was finishing college and had access to many online databases to find journal and news articles. I don't rely on Google to do the kind of product and service searches I do for work and I haven't relied on it too much on my blog; so I haven't noticed any difference. I always had problems finding some things with Google, because I am terrible when it comes to using the right search words. What I had found hard, was to find two reliable sources and ones that were free. Blogs dominate and I hardly trust blogs unless they cite the original sources(not other blogs). I think it is unfortunate that so many people have thought of blogs as a substitution for journalism. This has led to the cluttering the net with circular references. Bloggers wanting a coup to compare with the socalled destruction of Dan Rather. No matter what the ranking system, much junk is going to appear. I think that Google could control the plagiarism that exist on Blogger, because those blogs reside on the Blogger servers. So too for other blogging platforms. The problem would come from a web site which has no connection to any search engine or blogging platform. Who would police, something like Digg, Technorati or an ISP? I was spoiled a few years ago, when I was finishing college and had access to many online databases to find journal and news articles. I don’t rely on Google to do the kind of product and service searches I do for work and I haven’t relied on it too much on my blog; so I haven’t noticed any difference. I always had problems finding some things with Google, because I am terrible when it comes to using the right search words. What I had found hard, was to find two reliable sources and ones that were free. Blogs dominate and I hardly trust blogs unless they cite the original sources(not other blogs). I think it is unfortunate that so many people have thought of blogs as a substitution for journalism. This has led to the cluttering the net with circular references. Bloggers wanting a coup to compare with the socalled destruction of Dan Rather. No matter what the ranking system, much junk is going to appear.

I think that Google could control the plagiarism that exist on Blogger, because those blogs reside on the Blogger servers. So too for other blogging platforms. The problem would come from a web site which has no connection to any search engine or blogging platform. Who would police, something like Digg, Technorati or an ISP?

]]> By: liberalamerican http://thestrangedeathofliberalamerica.com/the-position-no-one-wants-to-talk-about-and-its-impact-on-red-lions-the-fairness-doctrine-and-net-neutrality.html/comment-page-1#comment-11316 liberalamerican Sat, 03 Jan 2009 19:00:05 +0000 http://thestrangedeathofliberalamerica.com/?p=1998#comment-11316 The issue of search engine rankings is based on visits and to some extent that determines in what order answers to a query might appear. However, there is a bit of a vicious circle with this--i.e. if your site appears at the top, statistically it is more likely people will go there first. So the situation perpetuates itself. More pointedly, search engines claim they have proprietary algorhythms that determine what shows up when you conduct a search. So we really do not know why certain sites are ranked above others in a search. As far as plagiarism goes, as a writer I strenuously object when someone else gets credit for my work. Search engines that allow this are breaking the law--period. By plagiarism I mean when every word of a post appears and there is no doubt it is plagiarized. and THEN they make ad revenue off of it! A newspaper, magazine, television program, book could not get away with this. Why should the net be different? If that means more control I am all for it. Right now there is NO control over search engines because they conveniently plead that they cannot release information about how they rank sites. Think for a minute if that prevailed with food--if manufacturers refused to say what was in a drink or snack food because it was proprietary data! We'd all be VERY sick. Right now the search engines are making us information-sick. As a long time reader, you know the amount of research in some of these essays and I can testify from personal experience the most frustrating development in the last year has been the increasing difficulty in doing Internet research. The "gaming" going on between sites and search engines is totally messing up the process of conducting legitimate research. The issue of search engine rankings is based on visits and to some extent that determines in what order answers to a query might appear. However, there is a bit of a vicious circle with this–i.e. if your site appears at the top, statistically it is more likely people will go there first. So the situation perpetuates itself. More pointedly, search engines claim they have proprietary algorhythms that determine what shows up when you conduct a search. So we really do not know why certain sites are ranked above others in a search.

As far as plagiarism goes, as a writer I strenuously object when someone else gets credit for my work. Search engines that allow this are breaking the law–period. By plagiarism I mean when every word of a post appears and there is no doubt it is plagiarized. and THEN they make ad revenue off of it! A newspaper, magazine, television program, book could not get away with this. Why should the net be different?

If that means more control I am all for it. Right now there is NO control over search engines because they conveniently plead that they cannot release information about how they rank sites. Think for a minute if that prevailed with food–if manufacturers refused to say what was in a drink or snack food because it was proprietary data! We’d all be VERY sick. Right now the search engines are making us information-sick.

As a long time reader, you know the amount of research in some of these essays and I can testify from personal experience the most frustrating development in the last year has been the increasing difficulty in doing Internet research. The “gaming” going on between sites and search engines is totally messing up the process of conducting legitimate research.

]]> By: Hathor http://thestrangedeathofliberalamerica.com/the-position-no-one-wants-to-talk-about-and-its-impact-on-red-lions-the-fairness-doctrine-and-net-neutrality.html/comment-page-1#comment-11314 Hathor Sat, 03 Jan 2009 11:15:33 +0000 http://thestrangedeathofliberalamerica.com/?p=1998#comment-11314 I thought that those who search on Google or other search engines controlled the contents of what came up on the search, based on the number of hits a site had and the appearances of the search words. I can't see how any search engine could police copyrights and be effective at the same time. I also think for that to happen, every domain would have to be registered with the search engines, in order to provide a marker the software could detect and compare. More control? I thought that those who search on Google or other search engines controlled the contents of what came up on the search, based on the number of hits a site had and the appearances of the search words. I can’t see how any search engine could police copyrights and be effective at the same time. I also think for that to happen, every domain would have to be registered with the search engines, in order to provide a marker the software could detect and compare. More control?

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