Slashdot Mirror
The Googlewashing Of Our Language
KIondike writes "The Register talks about how a term ("Second Superpower") coined by the anti-war culture suddenly got radically neutered and altered by a weblog that a lot of people link to. Searching for the term on Google now brings up his blog and other people talking about his blog for the first several entries. Can Google's power to give information to the people be misused and perverted? This only took 42 days." First the widespread usage of "googling" to mean web searching, and now this.
You may have handled Google.
Now, prepare to get Slashdotted.
"5... 4... 3.. 1... OFFBLAST!"
"Second Superpower" would make a great band name.
(apologies to Dave Barry)
Cyde Weys Musings - Scrutinizing the inscrutable
New forms of communication and commentary are being invented continuously. Slashdot and other news sites present high quality peer-reviewed commentary by involving large numbers of members of the web community in recommending and rating items. Text messaging on mobile phones, or texting, is now the medium of choice for communicating with thousands of demonstrators simultaneously during mass protests. Instant messaging turns out to be one of the most popular methods for staying connected in the developing world, because it requires only a bit of bandwidth, and provides an intimate sense of connection across time and space. The current enthusiasm for blogging is changing the way that people relate to publication, as it allows realtime dialogue about world events as bloggers log in daily to share their insights. Meta-blogging sites crawl across thousands of blogs, identifying popular links, noting emergent topics, and providing an instantaneous summary of the global consciousness of the second superpower.
"second superpower" my arse.
Listen.
Do you have nukes?
No?
SHUT UP
Do you have military installations world wide?
No?
SHUT UP
Do you have a network of spies and counter spies embedded in governments and multinational corporations around the world?
No?
SHUT UP
Do you have spy satellites capable of taking high accuracy pictures of, oh, just about anything?
No?
SHUT UP
Do you have ICMBs, the worlds LARGEST military air force capable of decimating any section of the earth, and nuclear subs submerged beneath all the worlds oceans?
No?
SHUT UP, FUCK OFF, AND GET A GRIP ON REALITY
Maybe nobody ever made it clear to these irritants. The United States is NOT a super power because of its "large world wide voice". The United States is a super power because IT IS POWERFUL ENOUGH TO COMPLEATLY DESTORY EVERY MAN WOMAN AND CHILD IN ANY NUMBER OF NATIONS AT ANY POINT IN TIME IT SHOULD SO CHOOSE TO DO SO
Need help treating your acne? Come here!
"the number of Internet users who look at blogs is " so small that it is not possible to draw statistically meaningful conclusions about who uses blogs.""
phew!
Considering how much they're talked about lately, I was afraid I was the only one that thought they were pointless.
How about these?
Googlingering - wasting time, usu. at work, performing Google searches on random or unimportant subjects unrelated to one's occupation.
Googlewanking - One-handed Googling, usu. when performing Google searches for pr0n or special interest advocacy.
Googlevision - a type of retinopathy caused by excessive Googlewanking.
Googlehacking - manipulating the process by which Pagerank(TM) is assigned in order to move your listing to the top of Google search results.
Googooling - using the influence of your weblog circle to increase the Pagerank(TM) of infantile web pages and opinions.
Googlesmacking - similar to Googlehacking but done with the intent of overwhelming the target server to the point of incapacitation. See also "slashdotting."
Googolplexing - successfully receiving a Google search link as the top result of a Google search.
I can see the fnords!
Googlewashing isn't a word. I know, I checked on google and there were no sites.
Dean's Rule #45. The truth hurts for a moment. A lie hurts for a long time.
I wish they'd use their influence for something more important. Like best fucking site in the world or even better: 12" cock. If it only takes 20 people to do that, I'd still have most of the morning to bask in the glow.
A Google search for "eighth superpower" returned zero hits, so I hereby declare myself the eighth superpower. First through Seventh already had hits. I didn't check 9 so there may be no single digit superpowers left! Ha!
What is my superpower? I make people puke over the network. Hey... whaddya expect, I mean, by the time you get to 8th all the cool stuff like teleportation and x-ray vision is taken. At least I got single digit though. I pity the foo who has to settle for 135th superpower.
Oh, BTW, negative superpowers are evil.
For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
Oh! The irony!
Centralization breaks the internet.
What about google opinions about their competitors?
After the MS hostilities, you could guess it
--
Someonelse patented my sig.
Then I just thought of a great idea for a new search engine. It would use google's PageRank system, but lowest ranked pages would appear at the top. Presto! The hardest-to-find pages are now the easiest to find.
I think I'll call it.... Elgoog.
-CausticPuppy "Of all the people I know, you're certainly one of them." -Somebody I don't know