Mobilizing Youth

The country's new robots.txt file

This is a great post. It implies that the new administration has opened their website right up...made it totally transparent:
http://www.kottke.org/09/01/the-countrys-new-robotstxt-file

Who knows if it means anything... the structure of the web site could be totally different now or search engine optimization scheme different, but it sure does seem, on the surface, to indicate a new kind of transparency.

Google Universal Search

Google moves to provide more rounded search results. Daylife.com has been doing this kind of more contextualized search results for a bit - looks like Google steals their fire. The basic idea is to present results from various media related to your search term. For example, a search for "Iran Nuclear" will bring up video, podcasts, news stories, local related news, maps, blogs, finance, books, etc. It's like a personalized home page for any topic. This type of searching is called "verical search"

What are the implications for politics? I think that various forms of non-text media will gain increasing relevancy. Whereas currently, a searcher needs to specifically search out video/audio, it will now come by default - which means that gaining a knowledge and expert usage of these other web media forms will become de-rigeur. Video embarassments such as the "macacca" indicent will spread even more quickly. Video producers adept at creating relevant tags and content will gain increased traffic. YouTube will grow even faster.

Article reviewing Google Universal and the concept of verical search: http://searchengineland.com/070516-143312.php

Doing a bad job at New Media

Good article on doing a bad job at new media. Tech president writes about how Jim Gilmore's Republican presidential campaign bid has launched with an Internet fizzle. Without search engine optimization (SEO), his site is impossible to find and shows that he, thus far, does not get the Internet.

link: http://www.techpresident.com/node/304

date: 5.2.07