A second
: Here is New York, the gallery filled with thousands of photographs about 9.11, has opened in a small storefront uptown, on 6th Avenue between 42nd and 43rd streets, to begin a new project. They put up some photos from the main gallery downtown and I’ve probably seen most of them but each time I look, the scars are fresh.
I saw a new photo today, one that chilled me completely: the image of the second jet inches away from the second tower. I saw life in that jet and in that tower, life that would end but a second later. It hurt in a new way, every time a new way.
Blogwatch: The Sequel
: I’m sad that Will Vehrs has taken a leave of absence from Blogwatching but I’m delighted and grateful to see Kathy Kinsley pick up the slack (and I’m delighted to be among the watched). Thanks.
Blogwatch: The Movie
: A propose a new rule in the world of blogdom: Every time there is a blogfest, as there was in L.A. the other night (and, I’m sure, in San Francisco, soon thereafter), somewhat has to bring a digital camera.
Antiballistic googlebomb shield
: I was about to do my civic duty and add to the googlebomb links to make sure that people searching for news on Afghan civilian casualties would find this report instead of another. discredited report — as inspired and explained by Megan McArdle.
I have to admit I was having some nagging second thoughts about this. Gogglebombing for a good cause such as this — making sure that people find both sides of the argument — is virtuous. But I fear that this technique could be put to nefarious use; imagine what various cults and crazies and companies could do with googlebombing to steer searches their way. I fear that this will rob Google of its search credibility; we won’t know what’s manipulated and what isn’t. I worry that taking part is a bit like voting in Chicago … twice; it’s ballot stuffing; it’s cheating.
But then I worry that I worry too much.
I should have faith in technology, shoudn’t I? And I should have faith in the community of bloggers… or should I?
A Slashdot user explains that Google is onto googlebombing:
In addition to other spam prevention methods, google uses complex matrix/vector filtering to ignore link circles. Basically, if (say) the same 100 different sites link to the same set of 20 other sites, and no one else links to them, Google will map them out and realize that they are all working in a concerted effort. That way if a spammer sets up 100 ostensibly independent sites and then links them all to his e-commerce sites, google will realize what he is doing and penalize his rankings for it. The only way that a spammer can ‘bomb’ google is if he gets a large array of other sites (for instance weblogs) that have significant traffic and link to other, different sites, as well as the ones that the spammer is trying to promote. The long-and-short of it is that a group of bloggers could bomb google with a large effort, but the average spammer would have to set up an incredibly complex web of interwoven pages that garner significant traffic to fool google. Even if large groups of spammers formed a cabal to promote their varied interests, it would likely be discovered by humans working at google. So, I’d put away that violin.
