Web 2.0
When Signaling sends the Wrong Signal
Monday, June 22nd, 2009Google became the world’s most popular search engine by radically increasing the relevance of search results. It was able to do so by rewarding sites that received a lot of links from other sites. Links from popular sites were worth more than links from obscure sites. The popularity, or rank, of a site became known […]
Has the Internet Made Advertising Obsolete?
Friday, April 3rd, 2009Eric Clemons over at Tech Crunch argues so in this thought-provoking article. His points are: Consumers do not trust advertising. (References Dan Ariely of Predictably Irrational) Consumers do not want to view advertising Consumers do not need advertising The crux of his argument is that the internet has made information so widely available that advertising […]
It’s Not Always a Mask
Thursday, March 26th, 2009When Facebook came out, I was intrigued by how people presented themselves. Initially, membership was confined to university students. When crafting a profile, students knew their audience well. Pictures from last night’s party were okay. Divulging your secret love of Hanson was not. In the real world, people act differently around different groups of friends. […]
Discouraging Spam
Wednesday, November 12th, 2008I just spent the last 30 minutes deleting over 2500 blog comments “Awaiting Moderation” because my filters indicated they might be spam. All of them were. I was deleting them 25 at a time through the WordPress interface, before a Google search showed me how I could delete them all in one fell swoop using […]
Interesting Links
Tuesday, September 23rd, 2008I’m preoccupied studying for a Macro test, but here are some interesting stories/sites I have come across recently. Unigo.com: Provides uncensored student reviews of almost every college and university in America. Similar to the Princeton Review, except up-to-date, uncensored, and much more interactive. Prospective college students making a monumental decision are plagued by asymmetric information. […]
What’s So Special About Email?
Thursday, September 18th, 2008As you problem know, someone recently hacked into one of Sarah Palin’s Yahoo! email accounts and posted a number of her messages on the web. As I suspected, the “hack” was nothing more than resetting the password on Palin’s account by answering her secret question. Apparently, Governor Palin didn’t consider someone might be able to […]
SEO: A Waste of Resources?
Monday, August 25th, 2008This past weekend I attended a conference on online marketing. My brother sells cb radios online for a living and he invited me along to learn more about e-marketing. It was a lot of fun and really informative. Many of the speakers talked about search engine optimization (SEO). If you’re not already familiar with SEO, […]
The Opportunity Cost of a Trip to Yellowstone…
Monday, December 10th, 2007Is all the Wii you could have played if you stayed home. In a 2006 paper, Oliver Pergams and Patricia Zaradic come to the conclusion that the increase in electronic media is responsible for the decline in national park attendance since 1988. That national park attendance was on the decline was news to me. Growing […]
Why eBay is Doomed
Thursday, October 25th, 2007I have heard a number of complaints about eBay over the last few months: the site is being overrun by shady commercial listings, it’s more difficult to find relevant listings, and design changes are confusing. The company definitely is embracing change. In 2005, CEO Meg Whitman spearheaded the hasty and expensive acquisition of Skype. The […]
Nobel Theory, File Sharing and Social Networking
Sunday, October 21st, 2007TorrentFreak reports that researchers at Harvard are using mechanism design theory to create an improved BitTorent file-sharing client. BitTorent is a peer-to-peer file sharing protocol that breaks files into little bits, which are then shared based on reciprocity with other users. For a succinct and clear explanation, check this link out. The current BitTorent protocol […]