Time for Twoogle

Twitter as a Search Engine – are googles days numbered?

First there was Alta Vista and there was Yahoo! and a few more search engines no one ever talks about anymore. Google pretty much replaced the old search engines mainly because they we’re just to slow and too full of banners. Those smart little Russian fella’s figured out a way to do the same as Yahoo! and the rest but with less clutter and much more speed. Thank God for Google. Only in the States is Yahoo! still a popular search engine, in the wise, old Europe nobody even dares thinking about using that Old Skool stuff but…all good things come to an end, even Google.

The problem with Google is that it is just as much Old Skool as it’s “predecessors”, everything one searches is in some way sponsored. There is nothing organic or authentic about Google anymore (was there ever?), too many companies (and a few individuals) have bought themselves to the search engine top. Type “top ranking google” in as a search and you will get over 13 million results. The question is what use is it to anyone when you know your search is being manipulated?

For a while now I have been using Twitter as a search tool. Being a journalist this is especially handy as I need authentic and specific information on subjects and not sponsored results. Consider Twitter as a huge collection of nodes where each node in the network contains it’s own search results based on the specific interests of the individual. Besides the fact that the information that can be found with the help of a Twitter search is much more authentic (i.e. does not always bring up commercial results) and specific it is also more up to date. I have no idea how long it takes before a specific site, blog or other piece of information show up in Google but in Twittering it instantly brings up new information, constantly being discovered by others that share your interest(s).

Now that there is speculation that Google is interested in buying Twitter I sincerely hope we will have a big and powerful Twoogle, a more democratic and resourceful search engine without too much sponsored crap. In the meantime I’m also praying that if Google does acquire our beloved tweet heaven they don’t destroy it as usually happens when the big boys can no longer keep up with the smart ones (so much for American business ethics).

Should this be the end of Twitter, it was nice knowing you. Should the unexpected happen I hope Google will become Twoogle, it was time for new technology anyway. It’s time to Twoogle!

To Twitter or not to Twitter

That is not the question, but what is then?

Last night Ashton Kutcher posted a snapshot of his half naked wife’s rear end. Had anyone else taken the shot they would have been a rich (wo)man by now. Money was not the point however (was there a point at all?) and the shot was published on Ashton’s own Twitter account. Someone happened to pick up on the shot being “published” and thus the spreading of the word began. If you ask me, that’s wat Twitter is about, spreading the word and not conversing with your best mates as some had thought when the whole thing started.

No doubt Twitter incorporates two of America’s biggest virtues; it’s cheap and it’s easy. So why isn’t Twitter working out to be what it was set out to be? There are many things Twitter isn’t doing that it “should” be doing, making money and making conversation between people it’s primary use. There is however at least one thing it’s doing very, very well. The site functions as an immense organism that produces bits of information useful to practically anyone. Whereas Google and Yahoo deliver search results mostly based on more static information such as websites with established content Twitter is a more dynamic and “capitalistic” whole. Constantly refreshed and growing like mushrooms it’s content is always up to date. Not willing to debate the usefullness of the content (how usefull is a newspaper heavily “subsidized” by advertisers?) I would like to point out that in the information age something is only worth anything as long as it’s new and it need not necessarily be news. Anything can be news these days and so almost any kind of information can of use to almost anyone. There’s a market for everything.

So what is Twitter to be? Recently Sky News appointed it’s own Twitter Correspondent and it would be no surprise to anyone if CNN is next to create a Tweetdesk, or something. Certainly Twitter is part of a trend but should it’s popularity ever vanish surely the end will be signaled on Twitter first.

Turkish Airlines crash and who was first

Twitter supposedly triumphs with scoop; traditional journalists remain skeptical

AMSTERDAM – This morning a Turkish Airlines Boeing 737 with 135 people on board almost literally fell out of the sky. Luckily the aircraft landed in muddy farming land just in front of the runway. Even though the death toll amounts to nine there would have been many more casualties should the aircraft have hit the tarmac.

First news of the accident was apparently reported on Twitter, a social networking site. Shortly after the crash CNN published pictures of the airplane, split in three parts by the rough landing, taken from the Twitter site.

Even though amateur reporters were the first ones on the scene and through Twitter were able to publish the news worldwide traditional media remain skeptical of its value. Most news on Twitter was either from people reporting what they read or heard from traditional media or just plain speculation. Twitter and other media are certainly useful when it comes to funneling a scoop to a big audience but the bigger, traditional news media remain a prime source of accurate, in depth news.

Twitter has certainly proven its efficiency in bringing the news where it belongs, in time. It is very effective and quick now that more and more journalists are using it to report news as it happens in front of their curious noses (today the press conferences were reported live by journalists by mobile phone on Twitter). Its audience will have to use the tweets at their own discretion but even then it remains a very powerful medium.

Since the use of the picture, taken with a mobile phone by a passer by, of the body of Theo Van Gogh has been used in one of Holland’s biggest newspapers the traditional media have had trouble adjusting. Dutch media are generally still very skeptical and are unwilling to adapt to new forms of news reporting. Who would have thought we would see the day CNN would publish a foreign, amateur news source instead of citing one of the media behemoths? The democratization of news has finally started.

Twitter schadelijk voor Hersenen

Susan Greenfield, Oxford neurowetenschapper vreest voor jonge hersenen

Hyves, Facebook en zélfs Twitter zouden bij regelmatig gebruik bij jonge kinderen kunnen leiden tot onomkeerbaar misgroei in de hersenen. Susan Greenfield van de Universiteit van Oxford en directrice van de Royal Institution (soort borrel club voor Britse wetenschappers) is bang dat de kant en klare sociale netwerken tot vervreemding en onvermogen tot contact maken zouden leiden.

Het onderhouden van contacten via sociale netwerk sites zou kinderen op den duur ego centrisch maken. Netwerken op internet leidt er ook toe dat kinderen minder lang hun aandacht vast kunnen houden en dat ze gewend raken aan directe behoeftebevrediging.

De Barones maakte haar zorgen eerder deze maand bekend aan de Britse Eerste Kamer. Zij wil er onder andere op aandringen dat kinderen tot zeven jaar geen toegang krijgen tot computers.