Mission Creek

Here is a fascinating exchange between a Google executive and one of the thought leaders, and founders of the internet (no, not Al Gore) Tim Berners-Lee.  Many thought leaders feel the next step of the web is to use Artificial Intelligence to search the web and categorize information through a universal medium for information exchange by putting documents with computer-processable meaning (semantics) on a single standard.  This notion would rely on standardized tagging to parse the data and direct the process (this is a very simplified summary).

I think this Google representative has a very valid read.  In essence, his argument is that the tagging is only good as the tag- which is completely subjective. The cynic would also say that the a universal standard would make it easier for search to be completed by competitors.

from cnet.com 

…

“What I get a lot is: ‘Why are you against the Semantic Web?’ I am not against the Semantic Web. But from Google’s point of view, there are a few things you need to overcome, incompetence being the first,” Norvig said. Norvig clarified that it was not Berners-Lee or his group that he was referring to as incompetent, but the general user.

“We deal with millions of Web masters who can’t configure a server, can’t write HTML. It’s hard for them to go to the next step. The second problem is competition. Some commercial providers say, ‘I’m the leader. Why should I standardize?’ The third problem is one of deception. We deal every day with people who try to rank higher in the results and then try to sell someone Viagra when that’s not what they are looking for. With less human oversight with the Semantic Web, we are worried about it being easier to be deceptive,” Norvig said.

“While you own the data that’s fine, but when somebody breaks and says, ‘If you use our enterprise system, we will have all your data in RDF. We care because we’ve got the best database.’ That is much more powerful,” Berners-Lee said. To illustrate his stance, he used the example of bookstores initially withholding information on stock levels and purchase price but then breaking them as others did.

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full story here 

from chicagobusiness.com

McDonald’s Corp. is striking back in the ongoing fast food breakfast war with a new billboard in Wrigleyville.

Designed by ad agency Leo Burnett with the input of an engineer, the billboard features a real sundial whose shadow falls on a different breakfast item each hour until noon, when the shadow of the McDonald’s arches are dead center.

full story here 

Every now and then a site comes across my screen that holds my attention not for what is it, but for what it represents. Gasbuddy.com is a site that is very relevant given today’s outrageous gasoline prices. But why I find the site interesting is it is at the crux of the “last mile” or internet convergence.

I am co-opting a telecom term here for what I think may be the most interesting area in internet marketing, the ability of the internet to convert the leverage of the online information into a use that is very local, habitual, and decidedly offline.

What I see is a site who is addressing something as low tech as filling up a tank of gas, and then attempting to leverage a community of users (in this case, that community is huge, just about anyone who has a car), to create a value proposition that the visitor can translate into literal real world savings. Now this is easy when the value proposition centers around is a commodity which can be shipped (ala Amazon, Overstock, etc). But here is a company that is creating a value proposition which is based on an additional behavioral action of the website visitor. To further complicate matter, getting gas is usually an activity that is based on location, habit, and routine. The value proposition that the site if offering has to be great enough to overcome these natural tendencies.

But I also think this is a case study for the larger question that powerhouses like Google are trying to answer, how do we translate the online experience into one which effects local offline habits. Will gas prices be a key that start more and more users to integrate the online experience into their offline world, I don’t know. Maybe that depends how high gas prices go……