Skinnydipper

Popular MyDailyHoroscope Lands on Lavasoft Ad-Aware Threat Assessment Chart

2004-08-29T16:49:00.000-07:00

The lastest malware appearing on the August 22, 2004 Threat Assessment Chart from Ad-Aware includes MyDailyHoroscope and SearchExtender. There are also updated specs on BargainBuddy, AdTomi, and SideFind. There are lists of known computer hijacking threats including rogue anti-spyware applications and remedies on the internet at spywareinfo or spywarewarrior.

MyDailyHoroscope is still widely distributed, as a check with all the major search engines revealed, although Ad-Aware and PestPatrol both identify it as malware. The dating services, casinos, and astrology zones that distribute this winner use a come-on like: "Take the mystery out of your future and get the personal astrology delivery service from MyDailyHoroscope.net"

SearchExtender appears along with HomeSearchAssistant and ShoppingWizard. The company has an uninstaller website that is suspected of re-installing this offender. Some infected users have had to use three or four methods to eliminate this scourge from diverting their browsers to unwelcome websites.

Bargain Buddy is software which, based on your Internet browsing habits, generates popup advertisements whenever you browse the web – it gets installed mostly as part of other products such as Net2Phone, some versions of the LimeWire file sharing software, some versions of the email alert program from www.mail.com, and other software titles.

AdTomi sends YahooStocks stock-tracker program that hijacks your browser to zestyfinds.com and serves select advertising. They use a combination of pop-ups and replacement ads to bring their messages to your attention.

SideFind is another adware and hijacking irritant that tracks your Google searches. It offers suggestions based on your search history and tries to point you to chosen destinations.

Newest listings in the Ad-Aware target base:
CWS.SearchExtender
IEHijacker.TopConverting
IEHijacker.RealSearcher
IEHijacker.SearchFast
MyDailyHoroscope
Softomate.MSHBar
Win32.Keylogger.eXaMiNaToR.a
Win32.trojandownloader.cabdialer
Win32.downloader.ustimerz

Updated signatures for
404Search (+2 variants)
Adintelligence.PeopleOnPage
AdTomi (+2 variants)
BargainBuddy (+1 variant)
BDE (+1 variant)
BroadcastPC (+1 variant)
ClickSpring (+3 Variants)
CoolWebSearch (+3 variants)
DyFuCa (+3 variants)
ExactSearchBar (+1 variant)
eZSearchBar (+1 variant)
IELoader (+3 variants)
IPInsight (+3 Variants)
ISTBar (+1 variant)
Lop (+4 variants)
midADdle (+2 variants)
PowerScan (+1 variant)
Rads01.quadrogram (+5 variants)
SideFind (+1 variant)
Statblaster (+2 variants)
VX2.AbetterInternet (+3 Variants)
Webdialer (+2 variant)
WinPup32 (+1 Variant)

Marriage Commitment Day: Googolism

2004-08-29T00:01:00.000-07:00

Googlism for: marriage
marriage is like bubble gum
marriage is good for you
marriage is
marriage is worse for women than men
marriage is defined by god in the bible
marriage is none of the government's
marriage is better than you think
marriage is to take second place
marriage is dying by peter j
marriage is for keeps
marriage is part of god’s plan
marriage is a sacrament
marriage is good for women's health
marriage is no fairy tale
marriage is slavery rather than
marriage is murder
marriage is wrong as well
marriage is cool again
marriage is an onion
marriage is my vocation
marriage is doing
marriage is on the
marriage is recognized
marriage is sent to an early grave by a series of little digs
marriage is a one
marriage is no panacea
marriage is none of the government
marriage is under siege in our country
marriage is like a hundred $k in the bank
marriage is worship because of spirit mingling
marriage is worth £60
marriage is a feast where
marriage is divine
marriage is a powerful legal and social institution that protects
marriage is valid has been
marriage is a new hampshire imperative why?
marriage is the closest kind of friendship
marriage is the union of
marriage is good for your health
marriage is worth $100
marriage is no proof of love
marriage is wrong?
marriage is in trouble
marriage is all about presenting little saints to god may 07
marriage is alive and well
marriage is honorable
marriage is accused of duping
marriage is healthy?
marriage is to me
marriage is the key weapon against poverty
marriage is ready to go to the mission field
marriage is dumb
marriage is troubled
marriage is for love
marriage is a divine institution established by god for man?s good
marriage is forever
marriage is still important
marriage is in trouble helpsite
marriage is serious business
marriage is presided over by clergy and is considered by its participants to be a sacred union in the eyes of their deity and their faith
marriage is risky this article is based on information from the national marriage project at rutgers
marriage is none of the government's business
marriage is to let your mate take first place
marriage is dying peter j
marriage is the best way for most men and women
marriage is murder by nancy pickard
marriage is alive and well author
marriage is part of god’s plan
marriage between a man and a woman has been an integral part of god’s plan from the beginning
marriage is deemed illegal
marriage is a bond that should be entered into for love and companionship after you know who you really are
marriage is no fairy tale adrienne ball is a senior majoring in anthropology and is the ids arts editor
marriage is worth divorce and money
marriage is slavery rather than just a happy family affair
marriage is murder intrepid duo dares to go where few have survived
marriage is a good thing
marriage is irrelevant
marriage is an onion
marriage is an amazing thing
marriage is doing fine
marriage is on the rocks
marriage is recognized from your marriage guide
marriage is prohibited
marriage is no panacea this editorial appeared in usa today on february 27
marriage is none of the government?s business
marriage is multicultural
marriage is like having an
marriage is ok?
marriage is a feast where the grace is sometimes better than the dinner
marriage is that we fall in love with a personality
marriage is a powerful legal and social institution that protects and supports intimate family relationships by providing a unique set of rights
marriage is not what you think
marriage is a new hampshire imperative in new hampshire we must
marriage is good for your health february 26
marriage is unjust
marriage is valid
marriage is not over
marriage is not for everyone
marriage is an institution ordained of god
marriage is wrong??" i have a bf and we're really close ok
marriage is all about
marriage is honorable #31
marriage is accused of duping signers pam belluck
marriage is considered valid
marriage is healthy? x
marriage is to me by tarascorpb
marriage is the key weapon against poverty both on screen and off these days
marriage is separate property
marriage is an institution of god
marriage is bullshit
marriage is coming
marriage is troubled it is a fact
marriage is still not easy
marriage is the foundation of the family unit

Presurfer Branches Out With Unusual Churches Compendium

2003-10-29T12:20:00.000-08:00

Those looking for a way to express their religious devotion have the internet to thank for a rise in the number of denominations available. There are plenty of prayer and worship sites to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the Word of God, so if you can't get to church it will try to reach you. Other beliefs, like Budhism, Taoism and Hebrew sects, use the net to present their church's aims and philosophy. Even atheists and agnostics now have an international forum to present their case.

Presurfer, a magnificent daily dose of the quirky news by Gerard Vlemmings, has been running a sister blog called Unusual Churches about forms of worship on the internet. Here is what he has found so far:

Churches of People
First Church of Elvis the Divine
First Church of Jesus Christ, Elvis
24 Hour Church of Elvis
First Church of Dan Aykroyd
Church of the SubGenius
Church of the Apathetic Agnostic
Church of Buffett, Orthodox
First Church of Tiger Woods
Church of Johnson
Church of the Beholder
Temple of George W. Bush
Church of God Anonymous
Church of Betty
Church of Tina Chopp
Church of Mary
Church of SpongeBob Squarepants
Church of Satan
First Satanglican Church of Wendall Corners
Church of NO MA'AM
Church of Ben

Churches of Food
Potato God Worship Center
Church of the Great Charismatic Pineapple
Church of the Avacado
Amsterdam Cannabis Ministry
Church of Our Lady of Malted Barley and Hops

Churches of Animals
Church of the Lambchop Almighty
Virtual Church of the Blind Chihuahua
Church of Gerbil
Church of the Swimming Elephant
First Church of Simba
Holy Church of Moo
Church of the Quivering Otter

Churches of the Future
Megachurch
Internet Church of God
Church of the Interactive Network
Holy Church of IP
Church of Now
Church of O
Church of Tetris
First Church of Pac-Man
Church of All Worlds
Church of the Almighty Dollar
Church of Stop Shopping
Church of the Universe
Church of Reality
First Electronic Church of America
First Church of Shatnerology
Church of Spock of Latter-Day Science Officers

Churches of Industry
Church of Craft
Church of Frag
Church of Virus
Church of Transport Tycoon
Church of Volkswagenism
Church of Monday Night Football
Church of the Profit$

Churches of Word
Church of Bullshitology
First Church of the Last Laugh
Church of Fear
Church of the Blinding White Light of Stupidity
Church of Zen Fatalism

Churches of Madness
Church of the Grey
Church of the Spiral Tree
Church of Mez (closed)
Abston Church of Christ
Church of the Heavenly Wood
Church of the Open Heart
Church of Magick
Church and School of Wicca
Church of Light
North Texas Church of Freethought
Church of Reason
Church of Body Modification
Eclectic Movement for Inri Cristo
Church of Gnostic Luminism
Church of the East
Church of Perfect Liberty
Church of Hed
Church of Saturday Night Live
Church of Darwin
Wiccan Church of Canada

SecurityFocus Relates Dismay at Utter Ignorance of Computing Public

2003-10-27T18:19:00.000-08:00

The Register interviews Scott Granneman, SecurityFocus, teacher of technology at Washington University and at St. Louis Community College at Florissant Valley. The article is entitled, "Joe Average User is in Trouble", and Mr. Granneman immediately gets to the point. "Security is just not a concept that "normal" folks focus on. It's not even on the radar screen. It's just not thought about at all."

The average user has not attended to securing his dataport and so will answer in the negative these basic questions:
"Do you update your anti-virus software regularly?"
"Do you run Windows Update regularly?"
"Do you have personal firewall software running on your computer?"

SecurityFocus identifies as adding to the confusion Microsoft's manufacturing missteps like an unending stream of patches flowing from Redmond, Washington including patches that themselves are buggy, requiring further patches and updates to fix these patches. SecurityFocus recommends Microsoft desperately needs to improve the underlying security of their products and improve the way that its operating systems are updated and patched.

Microsoft will probably install patches and updates automatically, by default, to solve the problem of the millions of people who never run Windows Update. Microsoft recently purchased GeCAD, a small Romanian anti-virus software company, to harness the millions of people who never install or update anti-virus software. Microsoft bundled an extremely simplistic "Internet Connection Firewall" with Windows XP, but it is turned off by default and only blocks incoming traffic. Microsoft is making changes to the way attachments open in the corporate email program Outlook, but Microsoft has no plans to improve free Outlook Express any further.

Initial U.S. National Response Plan Issued September 30th 2003

2003-10-27T15:20:00.000-08:00

Condensed version of the United States Department of Homeland Security INITIAL NATIONAL RESPONSE PLAN
September 30, 2003 - U.S. Department of Homeland Security

The purpose of a unified National Response Plan is to harmonize the operational processes, procedures, and protocols detailed in such documents as:
- the Federal Response Plan
- U.S. Government Interagency Domestic Terrorism Concept of Operations Plan
- Federal Radiological Emergency Response Plan
- Mass Migration Emergency Plan (Distant Shore)
-National Oil and Hazardous Substances Pollution Contingency Plan

The National Homeland Security Operations Center (HSOC) is the primary national-level hub for operational communications and information pertaining to domestic incident management. Located at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) headquarters, the HSOC integrates and provides overall steady state threat monitoring and situational awareness for domestic incident management on a 24/7 basis.

1. In this capacity, the HSOC serves as the Secretary's primary point of coordination for the following activities:
a. maintaining domestic incident management operational situational awareness, including threat monitoring and initial incident information assessment;
b. facilitating homeland security information-sharing and operational coordination with other emergency operations centers at the Federal, State, local, and tribal levels, as well as emergency operations centers managed by nongovernmental entities,
c. disseminating or coordinating the dissemination of homeland security threat warnings, advisory bulletins, and other information pertinent to national incident management;
d. providing general situational awareness and support to and acting upon requests for information generated by the Interagency Incident Management Group discussed in section IV.B. below; and
e. facilitating domestic incident awareness, prevention, deterrence, and response and recovery activities, as well as direction to DHS components.

2. The HSOC will coordinate its activities with the Terrorist Threat Integration Center, the Terrorist Screening Center, and other Federal government mechanisms for terrorism-related threat analysis and warning.

3. To perform these functions, the HSOC will establish and maintain real-time communications links to other Federal emergency operations centers at the national level, as well as appropriate State, regional, and nongovernmental emergency operations centers and incident management officials and relevant elements of the private sector.

4. The HSOC comprises representatives from DHS and other Federal departments and agencies as required to support steady state threat-monitoring requirements, as well as domestic incident management activities (see Annex A).

5. DHS component entity operations centers established to support day-to-day operational activities and incident management responsibilities as defined in existing plans will continue to function in accordance with those plans. DHS component operations centers will establish and maintain direct connectivity, or capability for connectivity, with the HSOC on a 24/7 basis and will keep the HSOC apprised of all operational activities conducted in support of incident management requirements.

6. Nothing in this plan impacts or impedes the ability of other Federal departments and agencies to establish their own emergency operations centers and maintain a direct flow of information to these operations centers from government or private sector representatives at the local incident site.

7. Nothing in this plan impacts or impedes the ability of the Federal Bureau of Investigation to develop and disseminate FBI intelligence bulletins and threat warnings to law enforcement.

An Interagency Incident Management Group (IIMG) facilitates national-level domestic incident management and coordination.

1. The Secretary of Homeland Security is the principal Federal official for domestic incident management. Pursuant to the Homeland Security Act of 2002, the Secretary is responsible for coordinating Federal operations within the United States to prepare for, respond to, and recover from terrorist attacks, major disasters, and other emergencies.

The Secretary shall coordinate the Federal Government's resources utilized in response to or recovery from terrorist attacks, major disasters, or other emergencies if and when any one of the following four conditions applies:

(1) a Federal department or agency acting under its own authority has requested the assistance of the Secretary;
(2) the resources of State and local authorities are overwhelmed and Federal assistance has been requested by the appropriate State and local authorities;
(3) more than one Federal department or agency has become substantially involved in responding to the incident; or
(4) the Secretary has been directed to assume responsibility for managing the domestic incident by the President.

2. To facilitate national-level domestic incident management and coordination of Federal operations and resources when any of the criteria identified above is met or in anticipation thereof, the Secretary may activate a tailorable, task-organized headquarters-level Interagency Incident Management Group (IIMG) comprising senior representatives from 4
Initial National Response Plan DHS components and other Federal departments and agencies and nongovernmental organizations, as required, that is capable of:

a. serving as the focal point for Federal headquarters-level operational coordination of a domestic incident;
b. reviewing and validating threat assessments and making recommendations to the Secretary on actions to take in response to credible threats, including changes in the National Homeland Security Advisory System alert level;
c. synthesizing information and framing issues for the Secretary or other appropriate officials;
d. recommending priorities to the Secretary for the use or allocation of Federal resources in support of domestic incident management;
e. providing general oversight of the application of Federal resources in support of domestic incident management in coordination with existing agency and interagency resource management and private sector entities;
f. providing strategic situational awareness and decision support across the full spectrum of domestic incident management domains, to include awareness, prevention, protection, response, and recovery; and
g. anticipating evolving Federal resource and operational requirements according to the specifics of the situation at hand.

The IIMG replaces the Secretary of Homeland Security's Crisis Assessment Team.

The Assistant to the President for Homeland Security is responsible for interagency policy coordination regarding domestic incidents.

1. The Assistant to the President for Homeland Security is responsible for interagency policy coordination regarding domestic incident management, as directed by the President.

Following an initial assessment by the Secretary of Homeland Security, interagency policy issues framed by the IIMG, particularly those of a time-sensitive or high-level nature, will be considered for resolution by the Deputies and/or Principals Committees of the Homeland Security Council.

The Assistant to the President for Homeland Security will coordinate policy resolution with the Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs regarding domestic incidents with international implications, including those which may have been perpetrated, in part or whole, by international terrorist organizations or other foreign powers.

2. Nothing in this plan is intended to impact or impede the ability of any Federal department or agency head to take an issue of concern directly to the President, the Assistant to the President for Homeland Security, the Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs, or any other member of the President's staff.

A Principal Federal Official (PFO) may be appointed to represent the DHS Secretary at the incident.

1. When an incident meeting the criteria set forth in section IV.B.1. occurs, or in anticipation of an incident meeting this criteria, the Secretary may designate a Federal officer to serve as the PFO to act as his representative locally and oversee and coordinate Federal activities relevant to the incident.

The roles and responsibilities of the PFO include the following:

a. representing the Secretary of Homeland Security as the senior Federal official on scene to enable the Secretary to carry out his role as the principal Federal official for domestic incident management;
b. ensuring overall coordination of Federal domestic incident management activities and resource allocation on scene, ensuring the seamless integration of Federal incident management activities in support of State, local, and tribal requirements;
c. providing strategic guidance to Federal entities and facilitating interagency conflict resolution as necessary to enable timely Federal assistance to State, local, and tribal authorities;
d. serving as a primary, although not exclusive, point for Federal interface with State, local, and tribal government officials, the media, and the private sector for incident management; e. providing real-time incident information, through the support of the Federal incident management structure on scene, as detailed in the Federal Response Plan and other Federal incident management and emergency operations plans, to the Secretary of Homeland Security through the HSOC and the IIMG, as required; and
f. coordinating the overall Federal public communications strategy at the State, local, and tribal levels and clearing Federal interagency communications to the public regarding the incident.

2. Required Federal assets and resources will be requested and deployed consistent with the procedures identified in the Federal Response Plan, U.S. Government Domestic Counterterrorism Concept of Operations Plan, and other related plans. Using the protocols detailed therein, the PFO, as designated by the Secretary, will oversee the coordination of the deployment and application of Federal assets and resources in support of the on-scene incident commander.

The PFO will do this in coordination with other Federal officials identified in existing plans, such as the Federal Coordinating Officer (FCO) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation Special Agent in Charge (SAC) on scene. The FCO, the FBI SAC, and other Federal incident management officials designated in existing plans will maintain their authorities and responsibilities as defined in the Federal Response Plan and other existing plans, statutes, and Presidential directives. Nothing in this document impacts or impedes the ability or the authorities of the FBI SAC or other designated Federal officials to carry out their duties under the law or to coordinate directly with their department or agency chain of command in the execution of these duties.

3. The PFO and supporting staff will be collocated with other Federal entities established to support incident management activities at the local level, including the Federal Joint Operations Center and the Disaster Field Office. Whenever possible, these entities will be collocated in a single facility, called the Joint Field Office (see section IV.E. below).

4. The Secretary of Homeland Security will publish a generic organizational structure and support requirements for the PFO cell in a separate document. Other Federal departments and agencies with representation on scene shall provide their full and prompt cooperation, resources, and support, as appropriate and consistent with applicable authorities, to the PFO cell in the fulfillment of the requirements identified by the Secretary.

5. The Secretary of Homeland Security will inform the Governor(s) of the affected State(s) and will announce the designation of the PFO via a message from the HSOC to other Federal, State, local and tribal emergency operations centers, as well as through an appropriate media event or press release as soon as practicable after incident notification. In certain scenarios, a PFO may be pre-designated by the Secretary of Homeland Security to facilitate domestic incident planning and coordination.

6. If the PFO cannot arrive at the incident site immediately, the Secretary may designate a Federal officer to serve as an initial PFO in an interim capacity until the PFO is in place. The initial PFO/PFO will have all the responsibilities listed above and may or may not be an employee of the Department of Homeland Security.

7. The PFO and a small staff component may deploy with the Domestic Emergency Support Team (DEST) to enhance situational awareness and facilitate their timely arrival on scene.

The PFO and supporting staff will conform to deployment timelines and other guidelines established in DEST procedures, including, but not limited to, those outlined in the Memorandum of Understanding between DHS and DOJ/FBI regarding the DEST program. Nothing in this Initial NRP alters the existing DEST concept of operations or affects the mission of the DEST to support law enforcement operations at the scene of a weapons of mass destruction (WMD) threat or event.

Federal entities will be integrated into a Joint Field Office (JFO) whenever possible.

1. To improve the efficiency and effectiveness of Federal incident management activities, the operations of various Federal entities established at the local level should be collocated in a JFO.
When feasible, the JFO should incorporate existing entities, such as the Joint Operations Center, the Disaster Field Office, and other Federal offices and teams that provide support on scene.
When feasible, the JFO will be collocated with a State, county, or local emergency operations center. State, local, and tribal governments will be encouraged to be integral participants in the JFO to facilitate coordinated resource support to the incident commander(s).

2. The PFO will ensure that adequate connectivity is maintained between the JFO and:
-the HSOC;
-tribal, local, county, State, and regional EOCs;
-nongovernmental EOCs;
-and relevant elements of the private sector.

To the extent feasible, staffing of the JFO will include:
-representatives of State, local, and tribal first responder communities,
-as well as representatives of senior State, local, and tribal government
-and emergency management officials.

3. Detailed procedures governing the interaction and specific membership composition of the JFO will be included as part of the full NRP. The Secretary of Homeland Security will publish interim operating procedures for the JFO.

Requirements

A. Federal Departments and Agencies:
1. As required by HSPD-5, and consistent with section I.D. of this plan, provide cooperation, resources, and support to the Secretary of Homeland Security in the implementation of this Initial NRP;
2. Designate representatives to staff the HSOC (see Annex A) and IIMG (see Annex B) at the request of the Secretary of Homeland Security;
3. As required by HSPD-5, make initial revisions to existing incident management and emergency response plans under their purview, including individual agency continuity-of-operations plans, to reflect the structural and procedural guidance contained in this Initial NRP within 60 days of its approval by the Homeland Security Council. (All other aspects of current Federal incident management and emergency response plans shall remain operative, pending publication of the full NRP.); and
4. Report to the HSOC, according to procedures established by the Secretary of Homeland Security:
a. the initiation of a Federal department or agency plan or action to prevent, respond to, or recover from an incident for which a department or agency has responsibility under law or directive under the criteria established in HSPD-5;
b. the submission of requests for assistance to or receipt of a request from another Federal department or agency in the context of domestic incident under the criteria established in HSPD-5; and
c. the receipt of requests for assistance from State, local, or tribal governments; nongovernmental organizations; or the private sector.

B. Secretary of Homeland Security:

1. In coordination with other affected departments and agencies, develop and publish detailed operational procedures for the HSOC, IIMG, and JFO within 60 days of the approval of the Initial NRP;
2. In coordination with other affected departments and agencies, develop and publish a detailed organizational structure, operational procedures, and support requirements for a standard DHS PFO cell within 60 days of the approval of the Initial NRP; and
3. In coordination with other affected departments and agencies, develop and submit to the Homeland Security Council a plan for development and implementation of the full NRP concurrently with the submission of the Initial NRP.

C. State Governments: State governments and emergency management agencies are requested to report to the HSOC, according to procedures established by the Secretary of Homeland Security in coordination with State governments and emergency management agencies:
1. the activation of State emergency operations centers;
2. the announcement of emergency declarations made under State or local authority; and
3. the activation of State mutual-aid agreements or compacts in response to incidents resulting in emergency declarations or requiring Federal assistance. Additionally, State governments and emergency management agencies are requested to coordinate with the HSOC regarding appropriate procedures for establishing connectivity for domestic incident management purposes.

D. Regional Structures: All existing Federal regional structures will continue to execute incident management responsibilities as detailed in current Federal incident management and emergency response plans, in coordination with the PFO, HSOC, and IIMG.

ANNEX A Homeland Security Operations Center (HSOC)

Bureau of Customs and Border Protection (BCBP)
Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (BICE)
Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)
Department of Agriculture (USDA)
Department of Defense (DOD)
Department of Energy (DOE)
Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)
Department of Homeland Security (DHS)
Department of the Interior (DOI)
Department of Veterans Affairs (DVA)
Department of Justice (DOJ)
Department of Labor (DOL)
Department of State (DOS)
Department of Transportation (DOT)
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
Emergency Preparedness and Response (EPR)
Federal Protective Service (FPS)
Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)
Information Analysis and Infrastructure Protection (IAIP)
Office of National Capital Region Coordination (ONCRC)
Office of State and Local Coordination (S&L)
Public Affairs (PA)
Science and Technology (S&T)
Transportation Security Administration (TSA)
U.S. Coast Guard (USCG)
United States Secret Service (USSS)

ANNEX B Interagency Incident Management Group (IIMG)

Border and Transportation Security (BTS)
Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services (BCIS)
Bureau of Customs and Border Protection (BCBP)
Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (BICE)
Congressional Liaison Emergency Preparedness and Response (EPR)
Department of Agriculture (USDA)
Department of Commerce (DOC)
Department of Defense (DOD)
Department of Energy (DOE)
Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)
Department of Homeland Security (DHS)
Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)
Department of the Interior (DOI)
Department of Justice (DOJ)
Department of Labor (DOL)
Department of State (DOS)
Department of Transportation (DOT)
Department of Treasury Department of Veterans Affairs (DVA)
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)
General Services Administration (GSA)
Information Analysis and Infrastructure Protection (IAIP)
International Affairs Office (IO)
Legislative Affairs (LA)
Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC)
Office of General Council (OGC)
Office of National Capital Region Coordination (ONCRC)
Office of State and Local Coordination (S&L)
Public Affairs (PA)
Special Assistant to the Secretary for the Private Sector Science and Technology (S&T)
United States Postal Service (USPS)
U.S. Coast Guard (USCG)
United States Secret Service (USSS)
White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP)

InfoSpace to Sell Payment Solutions and Focus on Search Directory and Mobile Communications

2003-10-26T23:21:00.000-08:00

Internet giant InfoSpace, Inc. uses the warden-like slogan "Names. Numbers. Now. TM" and has powerful Internet properties that include Dogpile.com (www.dogpile.com), WebCrawler.com (www.webcrawler.com), InfoSpace.com (www.infospace.com) and MetaCrawler.com (www.metacrawler.com). Their unique metasearch technology searches the most popular engines and returns only the best results from each, including Google, FAST, Yahoo!, About, Ask Jeeves, FindWhat, LookSmart, and Inktomi.

The Bellevue, Washington company announced October 20th it is tightening its strategic focus to two businesses: InfoSpace Search & Directory and InfoSpace Mobile, and will jetison their InfoSpace Payment Solutions division and the network of 83,000 reseller partners and leading financial institutions, such as Wells Fargo. InfoSpace Payment Solutions lets merchants authorize, settle and manage electronic transactions through the IP-based payment gateway, Authorize.Net. The InfoSpace, Inc. mobile division was beefed up this week with the acquisition of Moviso from Vivendi Universal Net for $25 million in cash, adding mobile content such as ringtones, video, graphics and games.

InfoSpace also is interested in promoting their Dogpile site and the mascot Arfie, everyone's favorite Net Pet, and have initiated a publicity campaign featuring slogans such as "Search Doggie-Style." Greg Notess, an independent search engine expert, verified that Dogpile's metasearch can retrieve 50% or more additional results, and Dogpile is seeking to spread the word.

"We just started a campaign on and around five college campuses," Leslie Grandy, vice president of product management told internetnews.com. "We're looking to leverage the edginess of the brand name." The five schools initially selected for Dogpile advertising and their mascots are University of Washington (Harry the Husky), University of Georgia (Uga the Bulldog, now Hairy Dawg), Arizona State (Owls until 1922, Bulldogs until 1946, now Sparky the Sun Devil), Florida State (Seminole Tribe), and Ohio State University (Brutus Buckeye).

This is a list of the top results of 200 returned from the InfoSpace business directoryafter a query about Google:
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Googles Ice Cream Shop
2255 34th Street South
Saint Petersburg, FL 33711
Details 727-327-2774
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Google
895 Dove Street
Newport Beach, CA 92660
map | driving directions
949-851-6565
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Google Inc
Palo Alto, CA 94301
650-330-0100
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Google Inc
11 Great Oaks Boulevard
San Jose, CA 95119
map | driving directions
408-363-0186
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Google Inc
1501 Salado Drive
Mountain View, CA 94043
map | driving directions
650-318-0200
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Google Inc
1501 Salado Drive
Mountain View, CA 94043
Details 650-930-3500
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Google
1200 Abernathy Rd Ne
Atlanta, GA 30328
Details 770-551-8170
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Google Inc
401 North Michigan Avenue
Chicago, IL 60611
Details 312-840-8285
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Google
20 Park Plaza
Boston, MA 02116
Details 617-948-2177
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Google
20 Park Plaza
Boston, MA 02116
Details 617-948-2670
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Google.Com
39555 Orchard Hill Place
Novi, MI 48375
Details 248-465-8626
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Google Inc
437 5th Avenue
New York, NY 10016
Details 212-624-9600
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Google Inc
7990 Science Applications
Vienna, VA 22182
Details 703-448-0326
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Google Designs - Fun, Functional Childrens Wear
P.O. Box 236
Evansville, WI 53536
608-882-6575
cindy@googledesigns.com

Sorry...Page Temporarily Unavailable: EarthLink's 1GB Bandwidth Quotas Close Sites Mid-month

2003-10-25T22:00:00.000-07:00

The Web page or file that you requested is temporarily unavailable is a message that can emerge from a search request for several reasons. It usually appears because the target website is undergoing editing, server maintenance, or request overloads. A message like this may be generated by a web search with filters on, where the target is below the filter threshold. You could get a temporarily unavailable message if your Internet Service Provider is experiencing power drains.

EarthLink has found another way to use the "Sorry - Page Temporarily Unavailable" dead-end. Here is their message:
Sorry...Page temporarily unavailable. The web page or file you requested is temporarily unavailable. It has been so popular this month that it exceeded its free monthly traffic allotment. Access to this Web site will be restored on the first of next month. Please come back then. Thank you for your visit!

Bandwidth quotas are their sweet way of managing capacity with IP address sharing. All EarthLink Members receive at least 10MB free webspace. Each member's free webspace is allocated at least 1GB of traffic per month. If the site exceeds their monthly allotment of traffic, the site becomes unavailable until the next month. A site that exceeds the maximum allowed webspace size also becomes unavailable. Unavailability includes but may not be limited to: the inability to access the site publicly or to publish to or modify the site's contents via certain Web creation tools.

Traffic is calculated with a formula multiplying the number of hits that your site receives by the size of your files.
Hits are defined as active clicking of any link on your page. Page is defined as a document, commonly an HTML file.
Often a site will get 90% of its hits to HTML pages, but 90% of bandwidth from image, movie, or music files. Any free Web site exceeding the traffic limits will be billed for excess traffic, they warn in their policies, but that's not likely if they're putting up site unavailable messages.

About.com Inc. Microstudy Subject: CalVal News Headlines

2003-10-25T17:50:00.000-07:00

About Search, hosted by Global Servers and part of About Network from About.com, Inc., uses the marketing slogan "What You Need to Know". The About Network maintains their directory of recommendations edited by real people. They are placing DoubleClick ads above the result and advise at the very end that "some of the 'On the Web' results powered by Inktomi."

This is the microstudy of one listing for CalVal News, my headline-grabbing newspaper powered by Moreover's large free database. It's a quick way to see hundreds of international headlines from a variety of sources.

On the About Network: Avalon Hill's Battlecry - Board Games - All about Avalon Hill's Battlecry.
On the Web: CalVal News Displaying results 1 to 10 of 60

1.CalVal News Headlines
CalVal News Headlines email: . . . . . . . . . . . . ------------'>' email: ' Sports Local Business/Tech International Entertainment Weather
URL: http://www.geocities.com/phemy@prodigy.net

2.CalVal Local News
Daily online newspaper features hundreds of headlines with links to the original story. Teletype style breaking news stories from local and international sources, sports coverage, and national weather reports.
URL: http://www.geocities.com/phemy@prodigy.net/page2.html

3. About Search - Find it now! Search the power of About's network of topics
URL: http://headlines.about.com/news/1999/12/27/up/0000-0804-us-y2k-pentagon.htm ...
...leading to a Verisign site with a Network Solutions "under Construction" banner.

4. SeaWiFS Poster Teaching Supplement
Download PDF Version of the SeaWiFS Poster Teaching Supplement A PDF version of the SeaWiFS Poster Teaching Supplement is available.
URL: http://daac.gsfc.nasa.gov/CAMPAIGN_DOCS/OCDST/poster_supplement.html

When searching by my screenname Phemy, I find they linked the title (CalVal Local (breaking) News) to Exquisite Corpse broken news (sorry) like this:

*(Entry)CalVal Local News(leads to URL below)
issue 7 home | broken news | criticual urgencies | cyber bag | ec chair | ficciones | gallery letters | reviews | secret agents | serials | stage and screen Nilla-Killa by Tom Bradley "Little by little, we shall see the universal horror unbend, and
URL: http://www.corpse.org/issue_7/ficciones/bradley.htm

*(Next Entry)About Search - Find it now!(leads to Url below)
Daily online newspaper features hundreds of headlines with links to the original story. Teletype-style breaking news stories from local and international sources, sports coverage, and national weather reports.
URL: http://www.geocities.com/phemy@prodigy.net/page2.html

Fifteen Seconds at MetaCrawler's Back Door

2003-10-25T02:01:00.000-07:00

Current unfiltered MetaCrawler searches October 24, 2003 and a look at the results

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*-dave schoeneman

Metasearch results for "dave schoeneman" (1 - 20 of 49)
Result #1 is probably the winner:
...HOMEWOOD Featuring Professional Appraisers SUSAN and ALLAN BAGDADE from HGTV's Appraisal Faire - - - - - DAVE SCHOENEMAN from Shane's and many others ADMISSION: $10 for 2 items to be appraised. 4 item maximum Public Is Welcome

The only other positive hit is result #3 on Meta Crawler and #2 Google: File Format: Microsoft Word 2000 - View as HTML
... 1.2 Announcements Jeanne Hughes: Dave Schoeneman has been appointed interim-Superintendent at a local school district; By-Laws allow him to technically remain ...

Oddly Casebook:Jack the Ripper is the #1 Google search result for Dave Schoeneman.
... Bob Hinton (1), Book Reviews (10). Boston (2), Brian W. Schoeneman (1). ... Daniel
Farson (2), Dartmoor Suspect (1). Daryl Cozart (1), Dave Froggatt (1). ...
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*-"nike mug"

Metasearch results for ""nike mug"" (1 - 20 of 32)
" I received a special edition Nike mug."
"...he also bid heavily for a Nike Mug,"
" My goal is to win a Nike mug..."
"The Big Sexys defeated Nike Mug..."

Without quotes, the #1 Google result of 36,200 is epinions.com
"Epinions has the best comparison shopping information on Nike Nike Thermal Mug". Above the fold are two paid ads, the ubiquitous ebay and 24hourmall.com.

With quotation marks added, "nike mug" returns 1-9 of about 11. Amazing?
The initial ad is for $0.59 Mugdeal and there are five sidebar ads, one of these being ebay.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*-remote control sex

Unfiltered Metasearch results for "remote control sex" (1 - 20 of 86)
#1 result--Weemote - Children's Remote - Children and Sex - Parental Control
#2 result http://www.sheloveshertoys.com/remote/remote.html
Filtered Metasearch results for "remote control sex" (1 - 20 of 58)
1. Weemote - Children's Remote - Children and Sex - Parental Control
2. ...to promote radio controlled modeling to those interested.
Most of the rest are sources of sex toys...I like them...but these are suppose to be the filtered responses.

444,000 Google results for this query returned in 0.17 seconds; 444,000 matches with remote + control + sex or any combination of these words in Google's indexed websites.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*-"lois ann kroll"

Metasearch results for ""lois ann kroll"" (1 - 11 of 11)
" ... Arabian Costumes, by Lois Ann Kroll (available from the International ArabianHorse Association) shows how the native costumes and tack are made. ...
Google returned nine results and all were about the same person. Good job.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*-mitocondrial dna and eve

Both MetaCrawler and Google ask: Did you mean: mitochondrial dna and eve?
Metasearch results for "mitocondrial dna and eve" (1 - 20 of 58)
1. Australia DNA Challenges Human Origin Theories [Free Republic]

There are 78 results with this spelling, the most prominent publication using it being Action Science:
...Description: Technical article describing recent DNA studies and evolution hypotheses, by Max Ingman.
Category: Science > Biology > Evolution > Human > Multiregional Theory
www.actionbioscience.org/evolution/ingman.html - 85k - Cached - Similar pages....

Properly spelled, 8,370 pages use this combination of words, with a prominent example here:
Tracing mother Eve using mitochondrial DNA
... Mother Eve in dispute with ape-man. ... the origins of present-day humans from various
molecules to be found in the cell, one of which, mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) is ...
www.biblicalcreation.org.uk/origins_archaeology/ bcs023.html - 10k - Cached - Similar pages
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*-"2004 world's fair"

Metasearch results for ""2004 world's fair"" (1 - 20 of 38)
Including ...2004 World's Fair of Money, Pittsburgh, PA, Aug 18-22 ...
Result #2: Delusions of Adequacy Columns - Media Matters
... of "Imagine That" by outlining specific plans to sabotage thrill rides at the planned (still using made up examples over here, boss) 2004 World's Fair to be ...

Google Search Results 1 - 10 of about 15.
... The 1904 World's Fair Society, established in 1986, published the monthly World's
Fair Bulletin and proposed staging a 2004 World's Fair in St. Louis....
...... The next World's Fair will be Aichi 2005 in Seto, Japan...
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*-food

Metasearch results for "food" (1 - 20 of 101)
The #1 result is the same as the sidebar banner, but it's a good offer--
The Great Taste of Schwan's Meals
Discover the taste of Schwan's with an initial $30 purchase and get a free dinner brought right to your front door. Click here to learn more about the value and quality of Schwan's.

The MeatCrawler #3 result:
Canned Food - The Easy Way to Eat Right
Looking for a new food recipe? The Canned Food Alliance recipe database contains hundreds of recipes complete with preparation time, cook time and nutritional information.

Google Results 1 - 10 of about 92,300,000. Search took 0.15 seconds.
Instead of a banner ad, Google added this:

News: Fears over GE Kiwi bread shut Japanese food stores - Stuff.co.nz - 2 hours ago
MEAT, BREAD, MILK AND EGGS 52.5 PCT OF FOOD SPENDING - Agenzia Giornalistica Italia (English Version) - 8 hours ago
Canadian-owned company recalls pet food sold in United States - Canada.com - 18 hours ago

The top five results are for the Food Network, FDA, UN Food and Ag Org, Epicurious and the USDA FNIC.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*-half life cd key

Metasearch results for "half life cd key" (1 - 20 of 86)
- "half life cd key" (86)
+ Changer, Download (7) Topic (2) Other Topics (5)
+ Crack, Multiplayer invalid (10) Invalid online (7) Other Topics (3)
+ Classic, Eye (6) Great discounts (3) Tracking down (2)
+ Books, Discounts (5) Great discounts (3) Other Topics (2)
+ Generator (7) Syndicate, Reality (2) Other Topics (5)
+ Opposing Force (5) Counter strike (2) Game, Overview (2)
+ Posted (6) Reply (2) Please help (2) Other Topics (2)
+ Ebay, Price (4)
+ Chat, Spoiler Centre (3)
+ Pop, Songs (3)
+ Review (3)
+ Ð•Ñ�Ð»Ð¸, Ð²Ñ‹ Ð¸Ñ‰Ð¸Ñ‚Ðµ (2)
+ Rank (2)
+ Category, PM Remote (2)
+ Gen, Diablo 2 (2)
+ Qwadmin Messageboard (2)
+ Vince Gill (2)
+ Heavy Metal (2)
+ Classifieds, Sell (2)
Other Topics (18)

Results from Google: 1 - 10 of about 803,000.
News banner item:
ATI/Valve statement on Half Life 2 - The Inquirer - 6 hours ago
The 803,000 relevant results satisfy the request adequately. Cheaters!
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*-cable

Metasearch results for "cable" (1 - 20 of 115)
#1 result is Dalco Electronics.
#6 most-relevant hit on cable is CNN.
#16 is Comcast Cable Company.

Next I searched the web though Google for cable. Results 1 - 10 of about 29,500,000.
Result #1= CNN
Result #2= Comcast
Result#7= Porter-Cable power tools
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*-home audio
Metasearch results for "home audio" (1 - 20 of 112)
The top result returned is for the HP Media Center at hpshopping.com.
The next most-relevant response for home and audio is "Wurlitzer Jukeboxes for Sale"
Gateway Computers is the third company on the list.

Results 1 - 10 of about 40,300,000
Top ads from Bose and Price Grabber.
Eight sidebar ads including ebay.
Top result is the Havi.org:
...Home Audio / Video Interoperability (HAVi) is a standard core specification for
networking digital AV appliances that will allow digital consumer home ...

Who Took google.org?

2003-10-24T23:25:00.000-07:00

A visit to do a whois? search at freedomainnamesearch.com is always illuminating. They reveal the name, phone number, ip address, and other background details for a domain name.

Today's scan on Google shows:
Registrar Name: Alldomains.com
Registrar Whois: whois.alldomains.com
Registrar Homepage: http://www.alldomains.com

Registrant:
Google Inc. (DOM-258879)
2400 E. Bayshore Pkwy Mountain View CA 94043 US
-----------------------------------------
Domain Name: google.com
Created on..............: 1997-Sep-15.
Expires on..............: 2011-Sep-14.
Record last updated on..: 2003-Apr-07 10:42:46.

Domain servers in listed order:
NS3.GOOGLE.COM 216.239.36.10
NS4.GOOGLE.COM 216.239.38.10
NS1.GOOGLE.COM 216.239.32.10
NS2.GOOGLE.COM 216.239.34.10
------------------------------------------
Domain Name: google.net
Created on..............: 1999-Mar-15.
Expires on..............: 2005-Mar-15.
Record last updated on..: 2003-Apr-07 10:42:46.

Domain servers in listed order:
NS4.GOOGLE.COM 216.239.38.10
NS1.GOOGLE.COM 216.239.32.10
NS2.GOOGLE.COM 216.239.34.10
NS3.GOOGLE.COM 216.239.36.10
------------------------------------------
Who took GOOGLE.ORG?

This is in an unobtainable hyperlink.
I tried checking it, but the source code has no hyperlink attached:
(FONT FACE="verdana, ARIAL" size="2")
(b)(u)Who took GOOGLE.ORG?(/u)(/b)

Xanga Personals Has No Relation To Xanga

2003-10-24T22:17:00.000-07:00

The personals are completely separate from xanga – run by a different company with its own database.
The xanga website database has absolutely no relation to the personals database, hence you have the name PHEMY for your xanga site, but this other person has had a personals profile called phemy for a year or so.

M A T T C O N N O R S

Matt--
thanks for the speedy reply to some of my questions.
I don't like the answer, though. You are telling me Xanga can have two people named Phemy?
There is one in the personals--
I went to Xanga (personals) and drew up this one entry:
Xanga Personals xanga - join - sign in
Phemy
"irreverence is next to godliness"
Active within 24 hours
1536 online now
Terms of Service
I went to Xanga main page and pulled up one Phemy, me.

Netcraft Reports Baltimore.com Into Second Year Without Rebooting

2003-10-24T19:02:00.000-07:00

Netcraft.com geeks seek to answer the eternal nerd question, "What's that site running?" Their Wednesday October 22nd story relates that, www.baltimore.com, one of Alexa's busiest 50,000 sites, has been running Windows 2000 for two years now without a reboot. This amazing act deserves in-depth marveling from several perspectives.

Top nodes on the Mountain View server for Google Inc.

1. googlestore.com (Google retail store)
2. vmware.sitesearch.google.com (no access to this secure site)
3. googlesite.google.com (redirect to front page)
4. www.googlestore.com (Google retail store)
5. google.trakken.com (April 24, 2003, Google Technology, Inc. acquired Neotonic Trakken email management system)
6. license.google.com (redirect to main page)
7. services.google.com (message:This space intentionally left blank)
8. directory.google.fr (French directory)
9. dir.google.com (English directory)
10. api.google.com (redirect to www.google.com/apis/ )
11. api-ab.google.com (same redirect)
12. support.google.com (Google site search appliance support for paid subscribers)
13. adwords.google.it (site down message in six languages)
14. www.goolge.com (redirect to Google front page)
15. www.google.ca (Canadian front page)
16. www.google.com.br (Brazilian Google main page)
17. www.google.lv (main page for Google Latvija)
18. www.google.co.il (Google Israel front page)
19. www.google.com.tw (Taiwan Google main page)
20. directory.google.com (English dir)
21. dejanews.com (redirect to groups.google.com)
22. directory.google.ca (Canadian directory)
23. console.google.com (Google Search Administration Console)
24. posting.google.com (unviewable secure site)
25. deja.com (unviewable secure site)
26. adwords.google.com (Adwords main page)
27. adwords.google.ca (Canadian Adwords main page)
28. answers.google.com (Google fee-based research)
29. answer.google.com (Google fee-based research)
30. www.toolbar.google.com (Google toolbar download instructions)
31. toolbar.google.com (Google Toolbar download instuctions)
32. wmlproxy.google.com (unauthorized to view)
33. research.google.com (redirect to Google front page)
34. labs.google.com (Google public beta tester)
35. adwordstest.google.com (redirect to Adwords main page)
36. wapsearch.google.com (unviewable secure site)
37. www.adwords.com.ve (Adwords main page)

California Senator Feinstein urges "We Must Stay the Course" --Until When?

2003-10-24T15:29:00.000-07:00

October 24, 2003
From: senator@feinstein.senate.gov

Dear Ms. Martin:

Thank you for writing to me regarding the Bush
Administration's requests for additional funding for post-war Iraq
and Afghanistan. I appreciate hearing from you.

While U.S. forces overthrew the Taliban regime in
Afghanistan and President Bush declared an end to major combat
operations in Iraq in May, conditions in parts of Iraq and
Afghanistan continue to be unstable and long-term costs related to
the conflict and reconstruction remain fluid.

After months of uncertainty regarding the true cost of our
military operations, I believe the time has come for this
Administration to provide detailed plans to Congress and the
American people regarding the myriad of issues we still face in Iraq
and Afghanistan, especially if President Bush wants Congress to
approve an additional $87 billion to fund reconstruction efforts and
military operations.

As a result I have introduced legislation requiring the White
House to submit a detailed report to Congress on the situation in
Iraq within 60 days. Specifically, the legislation calls on the
President to explain the current economic, political, and military
situation in Iraq, including a detailed plan for providing security in
Iraq, restoring basic services and establishing Iraqi self government.

We have assumed an enormous responsibility in Iraq and
Afghanistan and we must stay the course, but we need to hear from
the Administration on how it intends to stay that course and where
that course will lead us.

Please know that I will keep your comments in mind when
the Senate considers the Presidents request. Again, thank you for
writing me regarding this important issue. If you have any
additional comments or questions please contact my office at (202)
224-3841.

Sincerely yours,

Dianne Feinstein
United States Senator

I had written her a few days before specifically to question the idiotic proposal to make reconstruction aid loans.
Let's respond, ok?

DiFi---Diagnosis: Momism. Don't be a war hawk. Stop foreign intervention! Lay down our arms, pull out, apologize, give them all the oilfields and new industries and machinery present at this moment and just go. It's gonna take decades for them to rebuild--ask Japan or Britain or France.

I have always admired you and want to like you, but I can't believe the warmongering and I can't abide the silent witness. You and other Democratic representatives have to raise your collective voice or be accused of facilitating this entire bogus administration's war/terrorism/anti-civil liberty agenda.

Every second longer our troops are there, we are prolonging the pain and humiliation of destruction of their whole lives,for nothing. The troops are morally corrupted and brutalized in ways that no one can ever tell, for nothing. The citizens of Afghanistan and Iraq have been disrespected, dispersed, interfered with and radicalized against Americans, for nothing. No WMD. Nothing.
Thanks for writing me. --Mary

Xanga Sends Only a One-Line Excuse For Two Members With Same Name

2003-10-24T14:51:00.000-07:00

Today HELP-BIN wrote:
Phemy is someone's else's profile name, a Time Out New York member.

M A T T C O N N O R S
customer service supervisor

Hey Matt--
I wonder if you are telling me it is unresolvable? I was initially prompted to write because Xanga returned an error message, but now I am curious about how there can be two Phemy's at Xanga. I wonder if you could tell me how long the other person has been using that name at Xanga? Do they have a website with it? Why did it pull up on websearch from inside Xanga personals, but there were different results at Xanga's main door? Do they plan to meld the two lists or separate the personals business? Why can't the personal ad be on your page?
Thanks for your consideration. Mary--phemy@prodigy.net

Blogdex Sleeps While Instapundit Climbs to Number Seven on Technorati Pop Charts

2003-10-23T21:05:00.000-07:00

Blogdex is the MIT Weblog Diffusion Index that scans posts made by webloggers as a proxy to the things they are talking about. *Spoiled Metaphor Alert* Here is how they describe the system: "Webloggers typically contextualize their writing with hypertext links which act as markers for the subjects they are discussing. These markers are like tags placed on wild animals, allowing Blogdex to track a piece of conversation as it moves from weblog to weblog."

That wild animal reference unsettles me, so let's think of the hot hyperlink as the hot potatoe. The chef post bakes one up and sets it out for all to take. It tends to go down the line from circle to circle and is sampled and copied and investigated and parodied...tater-tots and mash with chives. It still the same potatoe and now feeds more, with each link back (if honorable, unless permission is threatening or forbidden) expanding the flavor and spice.

Blogdex crawls all weblogs in its database whenever (*?) updated and collects a subset of new posts since the last Blogdex update. The system then looks across all weblogs (**or subset only?) and generates a list of fast spreading ideas with annotations for where the link was found and when it was indexed.

The Blogdex weblog aggregator seems to be on hiatus or in development, for there is a lag in their activity compared to hyper-popular Technorati. Blogdex has a news page but it is stale, going back to August, but...a clue. The last entry ominously points to a new application being launched-- trackback. No response to my various means of contacting them ala net.

Technorati isn't letting trackback troubles slow it much as their one million blogs ping back toward the looming total of one billion globs(posts/articles/pix/audio/) linked.
Todays Technorati Top 10 October 23 2003
1. SlashDot.Org: 5905 blogs--Added 80 blogs in two days.
2. BlogShares: Fantasy Blog Share Market (mgmt. on hiatus) 5642 blogs--no change in two days.
3. Blogskins: 3992 blogs--97 new blogs in two days.
4. Technorati: 3603 blogs--1,068 in two days.
5. balmasque: 3440 blogs--40 more in two days.
6. Boing Boing Blog: 2849 blogs--32 new blogs in a couple days.
7.Instapundit.com: 2689 blogs--55 more blogs linked in two days.
8. Blogwise: 2635 blogs--(in flux)--no change.
9. The Friday Five: 2340 blogs--no change (NTS:check Friday).
10. Penny- Arcade : 2293 blogs--no change.

Number 15. The Register : 2052 blogs, 3452 links is a breakout internet technology weblog superstar with witty headlines, cogent comments, and direct links. It's often the only news you need if all you need to know is on the net.

Technorats, the million-plus Technorati who signed up already, are enjoying it immensely. I was curious about the hot blogs on Technorati, but I guess that feature is in development. There is a simple sorry message there right now, but a couple days ago these results came up for the eight hottest topics...all to variations of the same story.

1. board games Reported 2003-10-19 18:26:56 PST (Cosmos)

Carroms 0 inbound blogs, 0 inbound links Created 8 hours 35 minutes ago (Cosmos)
board games
Carrom UK 0 inbound blogs, 0 inbound links Created 9 hours 6 minutes ago (Cosmos)
board games
board game 0 inbound blogs, 0 inbound links Created 8 hours 41 minutes ago (Cosmos)
board games

2. Carom Reported 2003-10-19 18:26:56 PST (Cosmos)

Carroms 0 inbound blogs, 0 inbound links Created 8 hours 35 minutes ago (Cosmos)
Carom
Carom 0 inbound blogs, 0 inbound links Created 8 hours 59 minutes ago (Cosmos)
Carom
board game 0 inbound blogs, 0 inbound links Created 8 hours 41 minutes ago (Cosmos)
Carom

3. carrom board game Reported 2003-10-19 18:26:56 PST (Cosmos)

Carroms 0 inbound blogs, 0 inbound links Created 8 hours 35 minutes ago (Cosmos)
carrom board game
Carom 0 inbound blogs, 0 inbound links Created 8 hours 59 minutes ago (Cosmos)
carrom board game
board game 0 inbound blogs, 0 inbound links Created 8 hours 41 minutes ago (Cosmos)
carrom board game

4. carrom board Reported 2003-10-19 18:26:56 PST (Cosmos)

Carroms 0 inbound blogs, 0 inbound links Created 8 hours 35 minutes ago (Cosmos)
carrom board
Carrom 0 inbound blogs, 0 inbound links Created 8 hours 36 minutes ago (Cosmos)
# posted by carrom : 5:52 PM
Carom 0 inbound blogs, 0 inbound links Created 8 hours 59 minutes ago (Cosmos)
carrom board

5. Carrom UK Reported 2003-10-19 18:26:56 PST (Cosmos)

Carroms 0 inbound blogs, 0 inbound links Created 8 hours 35 minutes ago (Cosmos)
Carrom UK
Carom 0 inbound blogs, 0 inbound links Created 8 hours 59 minutes ago (Cosmos)
Carrom UK
board game 0 inbound blogs, 0 inbound links Created 8 hours 41 minutes ago (Cosmos)
Carrom UK

6. carroms Reported 2003-10-19 18:26:56 PST (Cosmos)

Carroms 0 inbound blogs, 0 inbound links Created 8 hours 35 minutes ago (Cosmos)
carroms
Carom 0 inbound blogs, 0 inbound links Created 8 hours 59 minutes ago (Cosmos)
carroms
board game 0 inbound blogs, 0 inbound links Created 8 hours 41 minutes ago (Cosmos)
carroms

7. carrom association uk Reported 2003-10-19 18:26:56 PST (Cosmos)

Carrom 0 inbound blogs, 0 inbound links Created 8 hours 36 minutes ago (Cosmos)
w taken place in London with a top prize of Â£1001 and the Silver carrom trophy. There were champions in several different catergories including Novice, Intermediate and Advanced, each producing its own champion. The competition was sponsored by the Carrom Association UK
Board games 0 inbound blogs, 0 inbound links Created 8 hours 37 minutes ago (Cosmos)
Carrom
Carom 0 inbound blogs, 0 inbound links Created 8 hours 59 minutes ago (Cosmos)
Carom UK

8. carrom shop Reported 2003-10-19 18:26:56 PST (Cosmos)

Board games 0 inbound blogs, 0 inbound links Created 8 hours 37 minutes ago (Cosmos)
Carrom
Carroms 0 inbound blogs, 0 inbound links Created 8 hours 35 minutes ago (Cosmos)
Carroms Association UK
Carom 0 inbound blogs, 0 inbound links Created 8 hours 59 minutes ago (Cosmos)
Carom

'Irreverence is Next to Godliness' is the Motto of the Joker Using My Identity

2003-10-23T16:42:00.000-07:00

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Member Search Results
Searched Xanga members for phemy
phemy
Scraping wretched nails upon the cold institutional slate
Site last updated 10/19/2003 11:18:09 PM

This is me--here's more from my Xanga sidebar on the page:
Real Name: Phemy
Birthday: 7/31/1963
Gender: Female
Location: California
Occupation: Other
Industry: Other
Expertise: none
Hobbies: all
Website: Click Here
Email: phemy@prodigy.net
Stats
Member since: 7/21/2002
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This is not me. How-why-WTF???
mailto:help@springstreetnetworks.com?
Subject=ErrorID a2c3acaf-b007-4dea-8a37-67b7f89fcfac

xanga - join - sign in
Phemy
"irreverence is next to godliness"
Active within 24 hours
1536 online now
Terms of Service
ME
I am a: woman
Looking for a: man
Interested In: Dating, Serious Relationship
Age: 40
Location: New York, New York
Country: United States
Area Code: 212
Occupation: Marketing
Education: Graduate
Ethnicity: Caucasian
Religion: Catholic
Star Sign: Leo
Relationship Status: Single
Have Children: No
Want Children: Maybe
MY GOODS
Height: 5' 4"
Weight: 135 lbs
Hair: Blonde
Eye Color: Blue

MY HABITS
Cigarettes Sometimes
Booze: Sometimes
Drugs: Never
Self-love: Sometimes
Self-deprecation: Sometimes

YOU
Age Between: 35-55
Within: 25 miles
Education: College
Religion: no preference
Ethnicity: no preference
Star Sign: no preference
Have Children: no preference
Want Children: no preference

YOUR GOODS
Height: 5' 5" - 6' 4"
Weight: 140 - 230 lbs
Hair: no preference
Eye Color: no preference

Cigarettes: Sometimes OK
Booze: Sometimes OK
Drugs: Sometimes OK
Self-love Always OK
Self-deprecation: Sometimes OK

Last great book I read
"The Giant's House", Elizabeth McCracken

Most humbling moment
About 12 years ago, I walked into a bar in Greenwich Village to meet up with my boyfriend and my sister and heard a popping noise and looked down and saw my garter belt and stockings lying on the floor near my feet (the clasp on the belt had broken)!

Favorite on-screen sex scene
The sensuality of the food and ice cube scenes in 9 1/2 Weeks. The thrill is found in not knowing what you are going to taste or feel next.

Celebrity I resemble most
I have been told Jodie Foster and Meryl Streep.

Best (or worst) lie I've ever told-
You haven't changed a bit!

If I could be anywhere at the moment...
I would have to say Italy because I have never been and am dying to go there.

Song or album that puts me in the mood
Something jazzy and low key or someone like Enya. Anything more intense tends to distract me too much.

The five items I can't live without:
My computer, my sense of humor, something to read in my tote bag, my writing pad, and my 7-day Unlimited Metrocard.

Fill in the blanks:
Directness is sexy; Honesty is sexier
In my bedroom, you'll find:
Purple lavander candles, a restored photograph of my great grandmother, and two alarm clocks.

WHY YOU SHOULD GET TO KNOW ME
I have been told that I am attractive (blonde), sexy, romantic, creative and sweet. I also am well-educated and have a variety of interests (primarily in the arts) and have a good, albeit slightly dry and irreverent, sense of humor. I love to entertain and to cook.

MORE ABOUT WHAT I AM LOOKING FOR
I am seeking either a single Israeli (non-religious) or European man between the ages of 35-55 for a monogomous relationship, although I would consider compelling offers from American men. Divorced men with kids are OK. I am seeking a well-educated and honest man who is not afraid to romance a woman and who desires an intimate, committed relationship.

Googlism A Great Place to Vanity Surf if You Care What Google Thinks of You

2003-10-23T00:14:00.000-07:00

Googlism is a Google hack from the Australian company Domain Active that samples the Google results on your query. This fun tool culls the content of the collective results to pull out key phrases that describe what people are saying or doing about the search subject. Their suggested searches include Tuesday, Joe, poker, kitchen, and Bill Gates. The results read like poetry, these snipets of reports and tributes and criticisms, a stream of truth and speculation mixing what's happened and what may never be. I made a poem by punctuating my results:

El Goog Lism Goog Le

google is that? google is three,
google is a user's best friend;

google is tops for work-time searches,
google is still spidering and caching my old server,
google is goood, google is urged to go public.

google is the real winner in its own;
google is the world's favorite search engine!
google is your friend,google is the most popular search,
google is faaasst--google is one of the best search.

google is gong bezerk: google is out of beta...
google is featuring the google.
google is $deity, google is so cool
google is here, google is the best.

google is dancing, google is lief,
google is watching you.
google is at it again.

google is first time our top referer,
google is microsoft ?
google is #1 search, google is a powerful weapon indeed.

google is thinking.
google is anti-, google is 'feeling lucky';
google is excluding knife advertising.

google is having a programming contest,
google is the greatest? at news.
google is 'feeling lucky' the googleplex,
google is so popular, google is decentralizing,
google is that? om malik.

google is able to process search queries at speeds superior to traditional search engines.
google is proud of their advantage.
google is three times bigger than the experts think.

google is a user's best friend by john mccormick special to gcn:
every web user should know how to exploit the features of the powerful google.
google is your family.

google is not an anomaly,
google is tops for work-time searches by abigail waraker.
google is my other memory.
google is still spidering and caching my old server 35 dayes and still counting.

google is goood- positive things about google.
google is a harsh mistress.

google is in the black by kieren mccarthy, posted;
google is urged to go public, google is urged to go public, google is urged to go public;
google is now indexing this list.

google is the real winner in its own contest-
by paul festa, special to zdnet news, may 31.
google is the world's favorite search engine
by olaf japtner.

google is more than an academic debate on copyright law;
google is not going to do anything as a result of it.
google is a dot, google is replacing bookmarks,
google is the most popular search engine.

google is unique
among search engines in that
while it almost always shows you pages
that have the exact keywords you are looking for

google is faaasst...just tried google,
google is one of the best search engines by tootough2be.
google is one of the best search engines.
i use google all the time to find everything.

google is gong bezerk;
it seems forums are flooded
with complaints about google's new search algorithms;
google is gong bezerk.

post a comment-
name:
google is still choosing to take advantage of the safe harbor provision of the digital millennium copyright act.

google is featuring the google posted may 20;
google is a target for any optimization campaign
simply because it has managed to obtain the most
attention from users on search.

google is $deity.
i finagled work into buying me a wireless.
google is the best.

google is an internet search engine, google is dancing,
expect the full update to appear within the next day or so.
google is the most popular search engine on the web according to onestat.
google is the only search engine.

google is a privately held company and does not divulge financial information.
google is oft, google is just the juice.
google is watching you.
ever wondered how many pages google is keeping track of for your domain?

submitting this form.
google is the point--google is in fact a company.
google is probably archiving all of your images.
google is a part of my brain.
google is a careless custodian of private information.

google is best, google is already mostly rest-friendly;
google is increasing its infrastructure as fast as it can.
google is a powerful.
google is indirectly supporting their anti-...google is smart.

google is the real winner in its own contest.
google is the best search engine, google is a sensitive thing.
google is the only dotcom to achieve the rare distinction of zero-percent employee turnover.

google is your friend,
i knew when i wrote this;
google is surprisingly light.
google is the greatest?
get the latest news
and information
at news.

google is now the search engine of choice
for most of the web,
and it handles over 150 million queries a day;
google is not a search company.
google is that?
google is decentralizing.

google is 'feeling lucky';
google is making money off blogger already.
google is not god.
google is the net dominator;
google is a user's best friend.

google is three.
google is sending c&d letters
about saying "to google" google is not a search.
google is goood;
google is a harsh mistress.

google is tops for work-time searches.
google is god -don't piss her off!
google is as google does.

google is evil;
google is the most important search--google is niet hip meer.
google is our friend, google is urged to go public.
google is the best tech.

google is self.
google is sued for penalizing/google is penalizing for linking to bad neighbours...
google is scary.
google is here.

google is best. google is building the memex.
google is replacing bookmarks.
google is great.

google is thinking - google is big biz,
google is a global phenomenon.
google is watching you, google is.

google is being used as a net.
hacker tool / the hacks are made...
google is happiness-- google is vergevingsgezind.
google is dancing her feet off.

google is net
hacker tool du jour.
google is now indexing this list.
google is hiring engineers in ny-google is bigger than...
google is stalking me.

google is my google is good.
google is just the juice;
google is known best for its search capabilities.
google is not your friend.

google is proud of their advantage.
google is a trademark of google technology, inc.
google is so popular google is 'feeling lucky'
the googleplex--google
is a privately google is making money off.

google is able to process search queries at speeds superior to traditional search engines.
google is my virtual garage; google is hiring,
google is the net dominator.
the world's biggest search engine is in danger of consuming the net.

google is a user's best friend by john mccormick,
special to gcn. every web user should know
how to exploit the features of the powerful google.
google is three times bigger than the experts think.

google is sending c&d--google is not a search engine.
google is a marvel of web brilliance.
google is goood positive things about google.

google is rewarding our informational sites
(quote nicely, thank you.)
google is not an anomaly--
google is arguing that its search results are in essence opinions of a website.

google is km? google is tops for work-time
searches by abigail waraker...
google is not an application service provider.
google is an 11. google is examining its system;
google is known and loved for its impressive web search tool.
google is god.

google is no bargain if google; google is changing what we can find out about one another.
google is not a search company kottke.
google is becoming increasingly embroiled
in international political disputes over copyright and censorship.
google is still choosing to take advantage of the safe harbor provision of the digital millennium copyright act.

google is in some way able to control
if a server with the new index or a server with an old index...
google is facing rifts between what's good for users
and what's good for google.

google is best. google is awesome.
google is a harsh mistress »
google is the most important search engine of all.

google is now in advertising; google is making my line of work a bit too easy in some respects.
google is sued for penalizing
added on google is penalizing
for linking to bad neighbours
added on.

google is building the memex. google is that?
google is three.
google is a user's best friend.
google is tops for work
time searches google is still spidering and
google is saving the web.

google is my other memory.
google is nice but google is watching you.
het merkenrecht is duidelijk.
google is great by john lenihan.
google is more than an academic debate.

on copyright law google is dancing;
google is an internet search engine.
google is bigger than alltheweb.
google is 'feeling lucky'--google is that?
google is decentralizing.
google is god.

don't piss her off...google is my passport.
google is the net.
google is back in china, but don't google is not the next microsoft.

google is the king of searching.
google is self--google is not god.
google is skynet; google is three;
google is not a search.

google is goood. google is your friend.
google is scary.
google is just freaking me out!

google is ruining google,
google is te machtig', google is jarig,
google is broken?
google is making money off blogger.
google is a harsh mistress.

google is volgende doelwit van microsoft.
google is handig voor hackers'.
google is sending c&d letters
about saying "to google".
google is smart. google is tops
for work-time searches google is not always the answer.

google is terrible. google is a bad unix shell.
google is fun...google is not the best search.
google is building the memex.
google is ignoring my forum.
google is search engine that could.

google is listening. google is good. google is here.
google is the most important search--google is watching and counting.
google is god, reprised.

google is the best tech, google is a calculator.
google is urged to go public.
google is known best for its search capabilities;
google is not your friend.

google is google god?
google is to create
a search tool specifically for weblogs.
google is being "gamed".

google is not affiliated
with the financial information
providers that are used.
google is able to process search
queries at speeds superior to traditional search engines.

google is a noun.
google is that? om malik
google is so popular.
google is a marvel of web brilliance.
google is god.

google is the net,
dominator the world's biggest search
engine is in danger of consuming the net.
google is back
in china, but don't try asking...
any difficult questions.
john gittings in shanghai-
saturday, september 14.

Noble Chilling Effects Clearinghouse Offers to Defend Your Online Rights

2003-10-22T22:14:00.000-07:00

Chilling Effects Clearinghouse at http://www.chillingeffects.org/ is sponsored by the Electronic Frontier Foundation and university law school clinics from places like the University of Maine, University of San Francisco, Berkeley, Stanford, and Harvard University. "Chilling Effects" refers to the deterrent effect of legal threats or posturing, largely consisting of cease and desist letters independent of litigation and usually treading on lawful conduct. The clearinghouse formed to help United States Americans understand and enforce protections that the First Amendment and intellectual property laws give to your online activities. They help you to interpret the legal jargon and direct you to adequate representation if necessary.

Their website informs, "We are gathering a searchable database of Cease and Desist notices sent to Internet users like you. We invite you to input Cease and Desist letters that you've received into our database, to document the chill. We will respond by linking the legalese in the letters to FAQs that explain the allegations in plain English." The project's core, this database of letters and response is supplemented by legal background reports, current news items, and pointers to statutes and caselaw. Most of the cease-and-desist activity of the past few weeks is from private companies asking Google to remove websites that offend them by posting crack codes or offensive material.

Their current weather report on the state of affairs tells a story of academic shut-down that came on as a surprise on September 30, 2003 to Billy Hoffman and Virgil Griffith. Jennifer Jenkins, Center for the Study of the Public Domain, reports that the two students were part of a planned conference presentation at the Interz0ne II conference in Atlanta. The men were scheduled to present their research on security flaws in the Blackboard ID card system and the insecurity of university campus physical security systems. They were stopped by a cease-and-desist letter and temporary restraining order (TRO) invoking the DMCA, along with trademark, trade secret, and computer hacking laws. According to Chilling Effects Clearinghouse, "The heavy-handed invocation of the law -- Blackboard obtained its TRO ex parte the day before the conference -- gave the students and conference organizer no opportunity to appear in court or challenge the order before the scheduled presentation had to be cancelled."

A Quick List of the Eighteen Gentlemen and Two Women Shaping Google Now

2003-10-22T20:46:00.000-07:00

Google, Inc.,

FOUNDERS
Sergey Brin, Co-Founder & President, Technology, member of the Google Inc. Board of Directors.
Born in Moscow, Russia in 1973, Sergey Brin is currently on leave from the Ph.D. program in computer science at Stanford University. He received his master's degree there and has been awarded a National Science Foundation Graduate Fellowship. His many interests include search engines, information extraction from unstructured sources, and data mining large collections of text documents and scientific data.

Larry Page, Co-Founder & President, Products, member of the Google Inc. Board of Directors, former Chief Executive Officer of Google, Inc., former software developer for Advanced Management Systems, former software developer for CogniTek.
This golden son of Michigan State University computer science professor Dr. Carl Victor Page was born Laurence Page in 1973. He matriculated to rival college University of Michigan and where he earned a bachelor of science degree in engineering, with a concentration on computer engineering. He earned a master's degree in computer science from Stanford and is currently on leave from the Ph.D program for computer science.

MANAGEMENT
Dr. Eric E. Schmidt, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer, former chairman and chief executive officer of Novell, former chief technology officer and corporate executive officer at Sun Microsystems, Inc. and the leading developer of JAVA, former member of the research staff at the Computer Science Lab at Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC), former researcher at Bell Laboratories, former programmer/developer at Zilog.

Craig Silverstein, Director of Technology, former member of the research staff at the Computer Science Lab at Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC).
Craig Silverstein has a bachelor of science degree in computer science Phi Beta Kappa with honors from Harvard College, a recipient of the Microsoft Technical Scholarship, twice awarded the Derek Bok Award for Teaching Excellence. He is currently on leave from Stanford University, where he is pursuing a Ph.D. in computer science, with a focus on information retrieval and data mining. He was the first employee hired by Google's founders and created many of the original IT components to support Google's deployment and growth.

Wayne Rosing, Vice President, Engineering, former chief technology officer and vice president of Engineering at Caere Corporation, former president of FirstPerson, Inc., founder of Sun Microsystems Laboratories, former executive at Sun Microsystems in various positions, former director of engineering for the Apple Computer Lisa and Apple II divisions, former manager at Digital Equipment Corporation, former manager at Data General.

Urs Holzle, Google Fellow, former Vice President of Engineering of Google, Inc., co-founder of Animorphic Systems, leading contributor to DARPA's National Compiler Infrastructure project, recipient of a National Science Foundation CAREER award, awarded a a Fulbright Scholarship.

David C. Drummond, Vice President, Corporate Development, Vice president, Strategy and Business Development, General Counsel at Google, Inc., former Outside Council for Google, Inc., former partner in the corporate transactions group at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich and Rosati, former executive vice president finance and chief financial officer for SmartForce.

George Reyes, Chief Financial Officer, former interim chief financial officer of ONI Systems, former vice president and treasurer at Sun Microsystems, former division controller at ROLM Corporation, former chief financial officer at Online Microcenters, former finance manager at Four Phase Systems, Inc, former finance manager at Memorex Corporation. He currently serves on the audit committees and boards of directors of Symantec Corporation and Chordiant Software.

Omid Kordestani, Senior Vice President, Worldwide Sales and Field Operations, former vice president of Business Development and Sales at Netscape, former director of OEM Sales at Netscape, former marketing executive at The 3DO Company, former marketing executive at Go Corporation, and former marketing executive at Hewlett-Packard.

Jonathan Rosenberg, Vice President, Product Management, former senior vice president of Online Products and Services for Excite@Home, former manager for Apple's eWorld product line, former director of product marketing for Knight-Ridder Information Services.

Tim Armstrong, Vice President, Advertising Sales, former vice president of Sales and Strategic Partnerships at Snowball.com, former national sales manager for IDG's first Internet magazine: I-Way, founder and director of Integrated Sales & Marketing at Starwave, Disney's ABC/ESPN Internet Ventures.

Joan Braddi, Vice President, Search Services, former director of business development and sponsorship sales for Netscape's website division Netcenter, former senior manager of Netscape's OEM sales, former for the server division of Silicon Graphics.

Cindy McCaffrey, Vice President, Corporate Marketing, former reporter and editor at daily newspapers, including The Omaha World-Herald; the Springfield (Mo.) Leader & Press; the Kansas City Business Journal; and The Contra Costa Times; and at high-tech trade publications, including Macintosh Today. Former leader of
public relations, investor relations, marketing communications, employee and customer communications at several of Silicon Valley's highest-profile domestic and international companies, including Apple Computer, E*TRADE, The 3DO Company, and SmartForce.

DIRECTORS
John Doerr, partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, serves on the board of directors at Google, Good Technology, Elance, MyCFO, Intuit, Amazon.com, Homestore.com, Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, Handspring, Freemarkets and Sun Microsystems. Formerly in engineering, marketing and management at Intel, inventor and design engineer at Monsanto.

Michael Moritz, Sequoia Capital, serves on the board of directors of Flextronics, Google, PayPal, RedEnvelope, Saba Software, Shockwave and Yahoo!. Formerly a founding director of Agile Software, Global Center -later acquired by Frontier Corp, LinkExchange -later acquired by Microsoft, eGroups -later acquired by Yahoo!, NeoMagic, Quote.Com -later acquired by Lycos, and Visigenic -later acquired by Borland. Also, he was founder of Technologic Partners and worked in a variety of positions at Time Warner.

Ram Shriram member of the board of directors at Yodlee.com and Elance.com, former vice president of business development at Amazon.com, former chief executive officer of Junglee Corp., former member of the Netscape Communications executive team.

TECHNICAL ADVISORY COUNCIL
Jakob Nielsen, Co-founder & User Advocate and principal of the Nielsen Norman Group, former Distinguished Engineer, inventor, and web usability guru at Sun Microsystems.

Rajeev Motwani, Professor of Computer Science and Director of Graduate Studies at Stanford University. Before he finished his his Ph.D. in computer science from University of California, Berkeley in 1988, he was awarded the Godel Prize, the Okawa Foundation Research Award, the Arthur Sloan Research Fellowship, the National Young Investigator Award from the National Science Foundation, the Bergmann Memorial Award from the US-Israel Binational Science Foundation, and an IBM Faculty Award. He serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Computer and System Sciences, and the SIAM Journal on Computing. He is a member of various corporate and technical advisory boards, and is a charter member of TIE (The IndUS Entrepreneurs).

Jeffrey Ullman, the S.W. Ascherman Professor of Computer Science at Stanford University, member of National Academy of Engineering, former professor at Princeton University, former member of the technical staff at Bell Laboratories in New Jersey, awarded Einstein Fellowship from the Israeli Academy of Sciences and a Guggenheim Fellowship, former member of the board of directors at Junglee Corporation.

Terry Winograd, Professor in Computer Science at Stanford University, founder of Action Technologies, regular consultant to Interval Research, serves on the national advisory board of the Association for Software Design, member of journal editorial boards, including the Journal of Human Computer Interaction, Computer-Supported Cooperative Work, Personal Technologies, and Informatica.

Clever blo.gs Readers Rate Dive Into Mark Number One

2003-10-22T00:50:00.000-07:00

The multitude of services from Jim Winstead Jr.'s blo.gs make it easier than ever to keep up with all the pages you like to visit on the web. Daily automatic emails will review the changes made on any of the 827, 264 weblogs you have added to your personal favorites. They can show you weblogs related to your favorite, blogs recommended by others who like the same stuff you do and links to other blog services. Their updates are available in almost any format and they monitor posts and pings from international bloggers. Other features include a random blog viewer and Feedster search.

Ten Most Popular Sites of Readers at blo.gs

#1- dive into mark

#2- Boing Boing Blog

#3- kottke.org

#4- Slashdot

#5- Google Weblog

#6- phil ringnalda dot com

#7- MetaFilter

#8- Scripting News

#9- Simon Willison's Weblog

#10- Jeffrey Zeldman Presents

Blogwise Ranks Top Fifty Weblogs By Visitor Popularity

2003-10-21T01:48:00.000-07:00

The developing service blogwise is undertaking an attempt at a establishing an intuitive interbational weblog directory. They have enlisted 9,524 different blogs and sort them by country and keywords.

They use a different method of measuring popularity than Technorati, who uses the number of blogs linked to a site to score popularity.

Over at blogwise, they track the number of readers who access individual blog journals by using the GeoURLwhich locates the site by geographic URL mapping. They have posted their list of the top 50 blogs by popularity. Above it was a warning to notice the counts are frozen while they upgrade the site.

The blogwise Ten Most-Popular International Blogs

1. Flombaum Dot Com- 4292 Visits
2. The Bob and Mary Show- 4079 Visits
3. Shithappens- 3951 visits
4. Crap Magazine- 3902 Visits
5 Velcrometer- 3710 Visits
6. Kids Korner- 3073 Visits
7. Insert Catchy Title Here- 2906 Visits
8. The Presurfer- 2471 Visits
9.The Audi Olympics- 2184 Visits
10. ASP-Rider (Persian )- 2154 Visits

A comparison of three of these blog popularity lists show almost none of the top blogs in blogwise make the Daypop or Technorati top ten.

1. Slashdot- #1 Technorati popularity/5824 links, #1 Daypop Citations/813, #1 Daypop Score

2. BlogShares-#2 Technorati popularity/5642 links

3. Blogskins- #3 Technorati popularity/3895 links

4. Technorati- #4 Technorati popularity/2531 links

5. balmasque-#5 Technorati popularity/3400 links

6. boingboing- #6 Technorati popularity/2381 links, #2 Daypop Citations/768, #3 Daypop Score,

7. Blogwise- #7 Technorati popularity/2635 links

8. Instapundit- #8 Technorati popularity/2634 links, #4 Daypop Citations/623, #4 Daypop Score,

9. The Friday Five- #9 Technorati popularity/2340 links

10. Penny-Arcade- #10 Technorati popularity/2293 links

Metafilter was #5 on Daypop citations and score lists, but not so on Technorati. Other popular Daypop blogs that were not on Technorati's list were: Scripting News- #3 on Daypop citations and #7 score, Dive into Mark- #6 Daypop citations, #25 Daypop score, kottke.org- #7 Daypop citations, #15 Daypop score, Fark- #8 Daypop citations and #6 Daypop score, AndrewSullivan.com- #9 Daypop citations and #10 Daypop score, The Drudge report- #10 daypop citations and #8 Daypop score, Fresh Meat- #9 Daypop score and Blogalia.com- #2 Daypop score and #50 Daypop citations(143).

Technorati Has Over a Million Blogs Indexed

2003-10-20T05:53:00.000-07:00

Searching for something good to read was never so easy now that we can peek into the diary of almost anyone. The search engines are still mapping out the blogworld and the bloggers are not generally thinking of search engine optimization of their prose...I hope they aren't. They've got better things to do, like live life and reflect on it. That leaves the host provider as the best entity to protect the blogger's rights and make sure they get a fair shot at appearing in an indexer's results by relevancy. The way they want to judge weblogs, giving authority to the blogs with the most links, is unfair log-rolling style democracy. We aren't playing King-of-the-Hill, where one guy or his gang rules. Then you'd just see thousands of links to that guy everyday and limited creative content. A bunch of sheep, that's what the blog-rolling encourages. Instead, why not have the criterion for authority be scored by quality of original content, diversity of bibliographical sources, the number of cogent posts/replies, or some other mean that does not rule so shallowly as who has the biggest list.

Ranting about blog authority aside, I thought you deserved to know the top ten most-popular blogs as rated by number of people linked to them. I'll publish Technorati's number of links, but I am not sure about where it was derived. I'll have to test the list items individually later and comment again.

1. Slashdot-5824 blogs
2. BlogShares-5642 blogs
3. Blogskins-3895 blogs
4. Technorati-2531 blogs
5. balmasque-3400 blogs
6. boingboing-2381 blogs
7. Blogwise-2635 blogs
8. Instapundit-2634 blogs
9. The Friday Five-2340 blogs
10. Penny-Arcade-2293 blogs

Executives Most Common Requests Shown Daily at Forbes Search Spy

2003-10-19T17:39:00.000-07:00

Forbes.com publishes a list of the twenty-four most-requested executive query terms on their search page and smaller sample lists from it appear on other pages. Their lists are linked to associated articles in their database and there is no other data as to frequency, methodology, or filters. Consider their order and content as pointing in the general direction but not certifiably accurate.

Also let it be noted that the two entries with quotation marks do not pull up info but return a blank search page. This is a simple typing error, but it makes the list not completely functioning, it makes them look careless or tacky, and it seems to deny the information exists. Is this list from their professional business journal traffic or a third-party commercial webmaster? Who would have guessed this order or line of inquiry:

The Twenty-Four Most-Requested Executive Search Terms on Sunday, Ocober 19, 2003

1. Vitamins
2. NFL
3. Shanghai
4. Jonathan Fahey
5. IRA
6. Guru Picks
7. WYLY
8. Wells Real Estate
9. Unions
10. Perks
11. Employment
12. O'Quinn
13. Langreth
14. "Health Insurance"
15. 401K
16. India
17. Insurance
18. "Life Insurance"
19. Green Bay
20. Benefits
21. Designe
22. Union
23. TiVo
24. Retirement

Pinging Trackbacks Broke Google But The Register Readers Show Quick Fix

2003-10-18T13:44:00.000-07:00

Trackback, a utility from Movable Type that web bloggers are using to let readers note they have read the associated post, is causing tremendous changes in your search results at Google. The reason is that this ping caused by trackback creates a whole new ostensibly blank page linked to the contents of the associated entry. This might be a useful enhancement for the individual blog author, but it creates chaos at Google's results.

The Register did a test with a search term on both AltaVista and Google, and though the AltaVista top-ten results were all credible and active links, seven out of the top-ten Google results linked to blank trackback pages.

This is only one of the problems with Google these days. They have another big work-around scheduled as they figure out what to do to shut out the Page-Rank manipulators who figured how to raise their rank in the results by having linked similar pages and from mining keywords.

The Register readers offer two simple fixes to help amend your results. The first is to add '-trackback' to the search query. The other proposed solution is to add this variable to the search at Google: '-mt-tb.cgi' and we can only hope Google is listening.

Microdoc News Maps What Google Misses in Searching Web

2003-10-18T12:54:00.000-07:00

Microdoc News did a study in May of this year to try and map what Google leaves out when it searches the Internet. They found from Google that it indexes 3,083,324,652 web pages out of an estimated 10 billion or so pages that are actually on the Internet.

After using a desktop crawler to seek out a specific term, they found Google missed 71% of the web pages with that term, 50% of the blogs with the term, 63% of the educational sites, 55% of the news and information providers, and 92% of personal pages using the search term.

According to Orrin Hatch, General Accounting Office Estimates Fifty-Percent of Seach Request Results Are Pornographic Entries

2003-10-17T17:24:00.000-07:00

Senator Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) has launched a new career as porn czar. In a speech as chairman to Senate Judiciary Committee Wednesday afternoon, he boasted, "I am currently considering legislative solutions to the many risks inherent in the use of peer-to-peer networks. Almost half of the people who use these networks are minors. Recent studies have shown that millions and millions of pornographic files are available for downloading on these networks at any given time. This is simply unacceptable. Many parents -- possibly the majority of them -- are unaware of this problem. Even more disturbing is that searches on these networks using search terms that a child would be expected to use, such as Harry Potter or Pokemon, turn up an enormous percentage -- over 50 percent in one study according to the General Accounting Office -- of pornographic materials including child pornography."

Here is how he arrived at that conclusion, according to the article at dc.internet.com:
"The March GAO report cited by Hatch conducted a Kazaa search for image files using 12 keywords known to be associated with child pornography on the Internet. Of 1,286 items identified in the search, approximately 42 percent were associated with child pornographic images. The remaining items included 34 percent that were classified as adult pornography and 24 percent as non-pornographic. In another Kazaa search, the U.S. Customs CyberSmuggling Center used three keywords to search for and download child pornography image files. The search identified 341 image files, of which approximately 44 percent were classified as child pornography and 29 percent as adult pornography."

A Wired news story about the hearings on September 9th of this year has Hatch issuing his warnings to providers of such internet gateways: "Hatch, well-known as an outspoken critic of peer-to-peer trading of copyright music, warned that if file-swapping networks do not rein in illicit porn trafficking, lawmakers "might have to do something detrimental. At one point, Hatch asked law enforcement witnesses on the panel: "Do you suggest we put out of business the networks that allow this to occur?"

Does anyone else notice how Hatch fudged the figures up to suit his needs? Also, looking for pornographic terms deliberately is not the same as conducting normal searches, so this data is skewed from the start. A more valuable study could be made by using the same number of searches with random keywords, not just pornographic keywords. Another thing the censors might want to consider about all this is that by sheltering children from the real world, they are crippled when they have to live in it.

One-Quarter of All Search Request Are For Porn According to Internet Filter Review

2003-10-17T16:56:00.000-07:00

Internet Filter Review is an sales and evaluation site for internet filters users install to not see porographic words or images. The defined obscenity each of these commercial filters target is variable and can be user-modified, so it is difficult to see how they arrived at their figures objectively. Still, the Internet Filter Review estimates that there are 4.2 million porn Web sites out there now allowing access to 72 million worldwide visitors annually (40 million Americans). "These statistics have been derived from a number of different reputable sources including Google, WordTracker, PBS, MSNBC, NRC, and Alexa research," they advise on their site.

The Internet Filter Review report claims 68 million daily search engine requests, or one-quarter of all requests, are for pornographic material. They cite as evidence to this extrapolated number that daily Gnutella child pornography requests at 116 thousand per day. I could not find any footnotes, links, or other proof of this number at Internet Filter Review.

Gnutella? Haven't they been picked on enough?Info-Anarchy from 2001 tells: "Ferrero has started to censor various Gnutella sites because Gnutella violates their rights on the Nutella trademark. (Nutella is a chocolote-hazelnut-cream produced by Ferrero.) First, gnutella.de, a German Gnutella-site, has been sued and forced by a Cologne court not to use the domain any longer (under threat of paying $250,000 for non-compliance). Ferrero argued that because Nutella & Gnutella sounded so similarly, Nutella was harmed by the website. It would be an obvious danger to the trademark if "millions of Internet-users no longer associate Nutella with our family-friendly nut-nougat cream, but with a virtual conglomerate of pirates and child pornographers". "

Orrin Hatch made a speech Wednesday that reconfirmed his intent to stop child porn and he is looking at these P2P networks for a way to shut them down. In an older story reposted today,Gnutella.com, William Brown wonders about the motives behind using the threat of P2P downloads as the ruination of youth. Many Gnutella-users do not want to even discuss the issue, since defending porn is akin to promoting it in the eyes of the filters.

Mail- Feedback

2003-10-16T19:24:00.000-07:00

"I share you sentiments 100 per cent, but the cold truth is that
information costs money. Can you work through the finances for me?"
(It will appear here over the next few days.)

"The copyright holders only allow the collections to use their
material because of limited distribution. What's in it for them?"
(I understand the rights of property-owners and the urge to profit from your work. The thought is not to trespass on their property rudely, but show them how providing free-access public-use materials will create goodwill, which is a tangible commodity, and enhance their ongoing project by making more people aware of what they have to sell or share. I am not advocating tearing down all walls, just asking proprietors to provide a lobby--some place where users can see things without paying first.)

>Newspapers are basically now an advertising device that make lots of
>money from charging willing merchants and politicians for
>advertising, way beyond the costs of production and management. It
>is common knowledge that newspapers give out subsidized or free
>copies in order to boost circulation figures and raise ad costs.

Yes, they're advertising vehicles. So are we, in that sense.
(Wait, I don't get paid for this and have no sponsors other than the passive one at the top that hosts this page. Advertisers are paying the major daily newspapers to air their latest campaign and project the image they want to the public. This means the newspaper will not print negative things about the advertiser or face losing the funds. That means the paper has been compromised and is no longer objective, but subjective to the tone of the advertiser.)

But "way beyond the costs of production and management" isn't true if you look
at the margins. If you look at the UK national market, three titles
operate at a healthy profit, three more get by, and the rest are
subsidized or run otherwise run at a loss.
(True, I should have qualified that with more adjectives. Okay, I will take back the hyperbole and say that "newspapers generally run at a profit, or soon cease to exist.")

>How much would this cost?
It's a question you have to try to answer, rather than ask, if the
proposal is to be taken seriously. I'll help if I can...(xxxxxx xxxxxxxx)
(more mail later)

Public Library of Science Debuted on Web Sunday with One-Half a Million Hits

2003-10-14T23:13:00.000-07:00

The Public Library of Science (PLoS) is a nonprofit effort based in San Francisco by like-minded scientist who want to make research available to the public for free, according to a CNET article today. The instead will pay a $1500 listing fee for PLoS to review,edit, host and serve their papers for general public access. Many science articles archived online are currently available only in abstract form to non-subscribers of the journals that publish them. Even current issues of medical and science journals are sometimes are unobtainable without an industry affiliation.

The amazing amount of web traffic that ensued on Sunday, over a half-million hits in eight hours, crashed their server. "We always expected a lot of interest, but we're surprised by this response," said Nick Twyman, director of information technology and computer operations. They are working to expand their capacity and expect to be able to handle all comers.

It's speculated the journal has generated so much attention because a report in it is about brain implants in monkeys that enable them to control a robotic arm with their thoughts.

The article drawing all this atention is entitled Learning to Control a Brain-Machine Interface for Reaching and Grasping by Primates, available only in PDF format because the full-report is 3.3 mb. A synopsis description is included:"With visual feedback, macaque monkeys learn to control a robot arm through a neural interface which records activity from multiple cortical areas."

Search Engine Results Increasingly Burdened by Hidden Commercial Content

2003-10-14T20:47:00.000-07:00

CNET has a series of articles about the proliferation of stealth ads and the reasons behind them. Back in June Evan Hansen told how the Federal Trade Commission sent a letter to the seven companies that owned the twelve leading search engines that they would have to clarify their language to make it easier to tell if a search result were commercially sponsored. Acting on a complaint from Commercial Alert, a consumer advocacy organization, the FTC established a set of guidelines that they intend to enforce. AltaVista, AOL Time Warner, Direct Hit Technologies, iWon, LookSmart, Microsoft and Terra Lycos were the targets of this action. A copy of the recent FTC letter was also sent to Overture, Yahoo, InfoSpace, About.com, Google and Disney.

The agency singled out a long list of terms that it considers inadequate, including "Recommended Sites," "Featured Listings," "Premier Listings," "Search Partners," or "Start Here."
"Other sites use much more ambiguous terms such as 'Products and Services,' 'News,' 'Resources,' 'Featured Listings,' 'Partner Search Results,' or 'Spotlight,' or no labels at all," Commercial Alert Executive Director Gary Ruskin said.

Stephanie Olsen asks in a July CNET article, "The trend has raised concerns that the public might be misled about the editorial independence of search listings, which have frequently been promoted as unbiased research tools."

She has isolated two prongs of the problem, paid placement and paid inclusion. Paid placement lets you sponsor keywords so you will rank higher in search results. These obvious ads are usually contained to a header or footer to the true results. As an example, Tire companies buy the top spot in the search results for wheels, rims, snow chains, whitewalls, check tread, repair tube, or any other such tire-themed request. Those unlucky bloggers writng about stealing hubcaps or how to check your tread with a penny, and the collectors with their wire rim galleries and old valve stem box sets won't be found beneath all the commercial appeals.

The other form of advertising is more hidden and possibly dangerous. "Paid inclusion largely pertains to "organic" search engines such as Inktomi, AltaVista and Fast Search and Transfer's AlltheWeb, which provide technology that scours the Web and uses mathematical algorithms to compile relevant results. Under financial pressure, many such sites developed programs to guarantee companies that they would "crawl" or search a Web address more often, for a price," said Dean Forbes, an attorney with the FTC's division of advertising practices. The price could be an overall listing fee or a pay-per-click arrangement based on the number of follow-through consumers.

In addition to charging sites to crawl their data, search engines have another version of this money-maker that charges a fee for expedited listing in their directory. They all boil down to the same thing, which is the guy who pays gets more attention, more hits, more authority-ranking than all the rest of us.

Ms. Olsen asks the proper questions: "One area of concern for Web site owners is that the search providers could artificially keep their indices stale to promote the for-fee program. The question some ask is what's the incentive to buy into a search index if the technology is already visiting all of its pages every week or two? But if search providers let themselves grow outdated, they face rivals at every turn. "

Some of the engines mentioned are still not complying, according to yesterday's update at CNET by Stepanie Olsen. She cites Inkotomi as an example of a web search engine that persisit in offering pay-per-click results undesignated as such. Others like AltaVista consider a link to a disclosure page enough.

"Search engines like to say it doesn't affect the rankings. But there have been cases where rankings on AltaVista and Inktomi were boosted (for marketers that pay)," said Danny Sullivan, an editor of Search Engine Watch, an online industry newsletter.

"It's much more noticeable then it was in the past," he added, even though out of the 1.5 billion Web pages being indexed, only about 3 million pay to be crawled more often. "The way that it's mixed in with ordinary content can be favorable to (marketers)," he said.

"Yahoo spokeswoman Diana Lee said that as long as the search results are relevant, the company is doing its job.
"Results are based on relevancy, irregardless of whether a site participates in paid inclusion," Lee said, though she did not define how that relevancy is determined."

"Some companies that offer paid inclusion, including AlltheWeb and AltaVista, have disclosed it by adding a tiny link labeled "about" near results pages. The link leads to a disclaimer that describes how companies can pay to have their sites visited more frequently. Yet Sullivan and others say that search providers need to separate these results or label them conspicuously."

Gary Price posted this review of yesterday's article at ResourceShelf.com:
"Stefanie Olson writes about the labeling of search results, paid inclusion, and paid placement.
Like a Business Week article from 10 days ago, Olson's article makes no mention about how the work of the search engine optimization industry influences the results you see, even with Google.
What does this mean for the researcher? 1) Knowledge of the problem 2) The ability to use several web engines in an advanced manner.
This can help you get to the most precise results possible in the shortest amount of time.

Google is the Most Popular Search Engine Yet only Indexes One-Third of Web

2003-10-14T18:58:00.000-07:00

The Google search might be the most popular search, but it is misses six million web pages in the scan for matches to your query. According to a September 15th article by Andrew Orlowski in The Register, the problem is access-" Information costs money, and this has taken the sheen off the 'Internet' as it was once sold to us. The most valuable collections limit their access, for very good economic reasons: they can't afford not to." To recoup costs and perhaps fund acquisitions, website art and information collections are often gated and require memberships or pay-per-view fees on photos/documents. Other proprietary interests are competitors and thus do not want their results to be available to Google users, so their entire databank is skipped.

Libraries are an example he uses. Google does not scan library collections if materials are held behind a gate that demands affiliation and tribute. In the example he uses for the San Francisco Library however, it appears any public library card would grant you access, and thus this gate is an illusion. Other libraries are more strict, like university libraries for students, alumni and faculty only, or medical libraries for doctors only, but in the quest for universal access to information they might all be wise reconsider their position and make an effort to allow public viewing of unique material.

Newspapers online are more often than not behind a subscriber gate and so clicking on a link to The NY Times Or LA Times does not result in the full story, but demand for payment. Huh? Newspapers are basically now an advertising device that make lots of money from charging willing merchants and politicians for advertising, way beyond the costs of production and management. It is common knowledge that newspapers give out subsidized or free copies in order to boost circulation figures and raise ad costs. So, the cost of producing a story has already been paid for numerous times over by the advertisers, yet the paper is so petty as to charge the public for each entry to view the story? How will I ever see the advertisers message if I have to pay-to-play? How can they keep one guy from going in to get the story and recirculating it freely?

Google and the other top search engines should want to be more integrated with one another to become complimentary instead of competitive. One way to do this would be to sponsor an international collective quest to index the entire net.
The main benefactor would be the Google users as the data rolls in and Google adds connections the hidden web, but the sites added would benefit also from new traffic as they join the wired wide world.

Why do we want to redo all the expensive, valuable work that was already done by the early pioneers scanning and transcribing away to get their pet projects electronically available? Who has the time to go backward? Why should every library have to scan the same book (Huck Finn, Little Women)? Can we trust each little individual library to do it and not alter or omit things? Why do sites with some books not link to other sites with different titles by their author or other versions?

My solution resolves all the questions at once. Remember the Book People in Farenheit 451--They went to the free place beyond the city and each picked one book to memorize to preserve and transmit ideas and stories the Firemen tried to expunge. In this case, our free land is one impregnable and interminable repository (LOC, IPL) (Google, are you listening? Why not build the Google Worldwide Public Library on your spacious canvas?) for as many versions/editions of each title as necessary. Each individual library would link to this one server to get the author's version(s) of a book and also see entries for edited, translated, or parody editions of this title. Then they could stop wasting their precious money and time each individually spending time copying Henry Huggins or the daily newspaper and just tap into the one universal directory of all books and media. They could better use their time copying unique local contibutions that noone else has access to and fighting the privatization of information.

Internet EKG Sorts Out Who's Searching for What

2003-10-14T01:55:00.000-07:00

Internet EKG is a demographic consultant and statistical management expert. They provide a useful list of resources in their Search Word Watch page. It is not kept up-to-date though, as several of the links are dead. Of interest here for word watchers is the scrolling marquee of 50 unattributed Top Seach Words. Here are the words I captured today:

Internet EKG Top Search Words

1) mp3
2) travel
3) sex
4) music
5) free
6) movies
7) games
8) jobs
9) real estate
10) lyrics
11) food
12) maps
13) pictures
14) hotels
15) cars
16) health
17) ebay
18) education
19) software
20) wallpaper
21) books
22) clip art
23) cracks
24) britney spears
25) pokemon
26) free sex
27) recipe
28) web sites
29) web hosting
30) playstation 2
31) sex stories
32) boats
33) playboy
34) porno
35) legal
36) icq
37) business
38) adult
39) wireless
40) sony
41) dating
42) quotes
43) used cars
44) auction
45) internet
46) greeting cards
47) clipart
48) computers
49) news
50) crack

SearchUK.com Invites You to Spy on Them

2003-10-14T01:38:00.000-07:00

If you wonder what is England's desire, view the Top 50 search requests from the past day over at SearchUK. These results seem to be in no particular order. The sidebar also holds another list of popular searches on SearchUK and they provide links to other international search spies.

A series of popular words on the Search Uk site would include:

1. Florist
2. Strip+Poker
3. Breeders
4. adult party games
5. Adult
6. AVS
7. Clinics+and+Practitioners
8. C-sharp
9. Education
10. Escorts
11. Female
12. Restaurant+Chains
13.sex shop
14. Shopping
15. Government

StockCharts.com Voyeur Sneaks a Glance at What the Other Guy is Doing

2003-10-14T01:13:00.000-07:00

Glance over stocks being currently researched by other computer users at StockCharts.com's handy SharpCharts Voyeur.

Free and simple, they flash one chart per screen that was just requested by somebody else about twenty minutes before. A series of charts from today were:

1. United Online, Inc.
2. Motorola, Inc.
3. Euro Index
4. Superior Consultant Holdings Corp.
5. Environmental Techtonics Corp.
6. Ivanhoe Energy, Inc.
7. DCGN Daily
8. Bank of America, Corp.
9. Nasdq 100 Index
10. Provident Energy Trust
11. Copper Futures-COMEX
12. Roxio, Inc.
13. Cour De Alene Mines Corp.
14. Axonyx, Inc.
15. General Motors Corp.
16. Advanced Micro Dvcs (devices), Inc.
17. Mitsubishi Tokyo Financia
18. Medimmune, Inc.
19. US Unwired, Inc.
20. Gen-Probe, Inc.

The best feature about the Voyeur at Stock Charts.com is the pause button, which enables you to temporarily disable the refresh screen, which refreshes every 30-45 seconds.

InfoTiger Voyeur Witnesses Real Search Action

2003-10-14T00:00:00.000-07:00

InfoTiger (a.k.a. metatiger.com) is a sleek search engine based in Germany with a clear and attractive layout and interesting results. Their directory features alot of gaming and technology.

They offer a voyeur with randomly selected keyword results with two options, unfiltered or content-sensitive. A sample of the latest twelve unfiltered InfoTiger search words includes:
1. nesticle
2. amtrak
3. online+dictionary
4. pictures
5. chyna
6. pontius+copilot
7. greece
8. chess
9. free+screen+savers
10. canada
11. xxx
12. free+games

Nesticle turns out to be a freeware NES emulator so you can download broken-code Nintendo games and movies to play on your pc or other system. I rather thought it might be a nest of testicles.

MoPilot Live Searches Spy on the Wireless World

2003-10-13T23:20:00.000-07:00

Mopilot is a leader in bridging the gap between mobile computing and HTML databases. " Developed in early 1999 by wap4.com, a small team led by its CTO Dieter Kneffel and CIO Sandra Leyh tailored what soon should become the world's first real search engine for wml pages. Since then, our automated html/wml-crawler constantly digs the internet for appropriate contents," they explain on the mopilot site.

The mopilot Live Search page is the voyeur for their search engine, and it provides lists of the fifteen latest search phrases designated by agent- mobile WML or HTML. Here is one set of the latest searches on mopilot today:

1. new mobile phone's
2. pinkworld
3. gay
4. pics
5. hooligan
6. tones
7. girls
8. Gay downloads
9. pictures
10. girls
11. pictures
12. girls
13. skin head
14. CHECK MAIL
15. orange

Lycos Search Engine Examines Their Most-Popular Requests in a Daily Weblog

2003-10-13T22:06:00.000-07:00

Lycos Network has about 12 million different queries everyday, averaging 2.3 words each. They make available weekly a list of the most-popular terms under the title Lycos 50, which Lycos began in 1999. During the week you can read their accompanying weblog which breaks down and analyzes trends and methodology.

The Lycos 50 most-popular searches of the week is a filtered final list compiled with the following adjustments:

-Misspellings and plurals are counted toward the single term sought. "Variations on a theme (e.g. campers, camping, campouts) may be combined into a single representative term, based on our editors' judgment."

-spam as detected by automated or mechanical entries or commercially-motivated activity. They will eliminate a flood of inquiries from one source if it is out of character.

-general categorical terms, like news, weather, music, and tattoos.

-purient content consisting of pornography, four-letter words (!) and otherwise lewd inquiries. They will stonewall searches on the names of adult film stars unless the term is driven by news events.

-queries on general computer utilities are ignored "to prevent the medium itself from skewing the list." Still, they include the specific names of file-swapping utilities because of the "political controversy" about them.

-company names are excluded because hits on them are largely based on the level of web presence. Exceptions are made as company names emerge in mergers, catastrophes, breaking news, or if the company name becomes an element of popular culture, like Xerox.

-countries are excluded because they are often added as an additional search term to speed location. They make exceptions for countries with current international news interest.

The top 20 search terms used on Lycos Networks for the past week ending October 4th:

1. Halloween
2. KaZaA
3. Costumes
4. Britney Spears
5. NFL
6. Brooke Burke
7. Soccer rape scandal
8. Clay Aiken
9. Apollo 11
10. Dragonball
11. Las Vegas
12. Christmas
13. Pamela Anderson
14. Lord of the Rings
15. Baseball
16. Mary Carey
17. NASCAR
18. Hilary Duff
19. The Bible
20. Final Fantasy

Sponsor Popular Search Phrases at ixquick Search Spotlight

2003-10-13T14:36:00.000-07:00

The search engine ixquick reveals the most commonly sought terms in their ixquick Spotlight. They use this data to offer sponsorship of select words and phrases to allow your website to rise to the top of the heap. There are three levels of sponsorship, beginning with any of the top 100 most sought words available for $500 each, and then offering one of the top 1,000 search phrases for $150, and finally one of the top 10,000 most entered search terms for $50 each.

The ixquick Spotlight of the top hundred most-requested words is alphabetically presented and dominated by generic nouns like car, baby, bank, girl, model, sex, and slots.

Their list of the current one thousand most-sought terms is again made up mostly of single word nouns, verbs, and adjectives but they must be arranged in some odd order here. It starts alphabetically and then randomness ensues.

Here is a passage of twenty of the thousand most-popular search terms from the top of the document:

1. employment
2. erotic
3. erotica
4. flower
5. free porn
6. free porno
7. free sex
8. gamble
9. gameboy
10. gamez
11. gays
12. gaysex
13. gift basket
14. gift baskets
15. giftbasket
16. giftbaskets
17. health
18. holiday
19. home security
20. indian

Here is a passage of ten more of the top thousand searches on ixquick from lower in the same document:

1. covers
2. carat
3. can
4. preteen
5. carnaval
6. stock
7. hepatitis
8. jokes
9. grand
10.greece

Ask Jeeves Search Spy IQ Tells Wrong from Right

2003-10-13T13:44:00.000-07:00

Jeeves IQ is the peek behind the screen for the most common searches on their engine. Ask Jeeves is one of the most user-friendly engines, simulating a consultation with a researcher by facilitating full sentence requests. They probably get more questions about how to do things and what is the formula.

They have several small lists of results for the past week, but the best one is the Top Misspelled Searches. Here are the five most-popular misspelled Ask Jeeves searches for the week of Ocober 3rd as they are commonly misspelled:

1. Jonny Depp
2. Blazin squad
3. Josh Harnett
4. Fabolous
5. Britany Spears

The Top Ask Jeeves searches for the week of October 3rd are:

1. Lyrics
2. Dictionary
3. Games
4. Jokes
5. Free ringtones
6. Maps
7. Horoscopes
8. Free clipart
9. Halloween costumes
10. Food

It can be ascertained from this list that Jeeves has selective hearing and does not account for all the searches for free sex and free porn that must innevitably come his way.

Webmasters Tell of their Most Disturbing Search Requests

2003-10-13T13:24:00.000-07:00

Disturbing Search Requests is a blog that specializes in the strange requests blog webmasters screen. Disturbing Search Requests is a collabrative effort aimed at projecting misleading search engine results and bizarre connections. Webmasters can post their odd results and solicit comments from others. They do have some guidelines: "You cannot post racist or homophobic comments. You cannot solicit child porn. You cannot post a searcher's IP address, DSR is for amusement, not punishment."

This is a fun search spy site that gets a lot of traffic, judging by the number of daily posts. Some of the topics posted here over the past day include:

pictures of people who have been scalped, "father pimping" child UK, intense and shameless sex, arse quotes, greasy levi boots, condoleezza rice lesbian bitch, Wrigley Field gallery nudity, definition of a freeloader re: alcohol, "mom on a porn site", and the bitch had my car towed.

AltaVista Real Searches Displays the Latest Wants in News, Audio and Video

2003-10-13T12:54:00.000-07:00

AltaVista has a spy feature called Real Searches to enable users to see five of the latest requests sought in six different categories: Audio, News, Video, Images, Directory, and Web. This is not a total spy, as the results seem to be filtered for some offensive content. The AltaVista voyeur filter seems to skew the results toward common themes in each category, as you can see by refreshing the lists.

Looking just at the web requests on AltaVista shows these consecutive responses:

1. thai recipes
2. quilting patterns
3. life insurance quotes
4. divx
5. post-traumatic stress
6. hinduism
7. human anatomy
8. rural Russia
9. hydroquinone
10. pictures of london

Another set of ten recent AltaVista requests for audio disclose:

1. south park
2. john philip sousa
3. howard stern fartman
4. james bond 007
5. the doors "the end"
6. surfin bird
7. johann sebastian bach
8. battle hymn of the republic
9. "ray charles"
10. nuns

See alltheweb Behind the Search Requests

2003-10-13T12:30:00.000-07:00

Overture Services has one of the leading search engines with their tool alltheweb. The alltheweb spy posts the last ten terms sought in two formats, unfiltered or filtered for offensive content. A set of the latest searches filtered for offensive content yields:

1. goodrich power systems
2. "cuneiform"writing
3. lpga lesbians
4. insurance underwriter exams
5. garmin unlock code
6. mokelumne hill
7. Denver realestate
8. nilufer
9. fiber gel pills
10. Texas Law

An immediate check of the unfiltered list of terms from alltheweb brought up:

1. pearl tea
2. link.all:dalewarlandsingers.org
3. petition camera courtroom
4. Mission
5. Hewlett-Packard HP NX700 (DG706A)
6. nassa
7. san diego union-tribune classified ads
8. chester county internet
9. nylon nurse uniform
10. sexy woman in lingerie

Metaspy Lets You Search the Search Engines

2003-10-13T11:56:00.000-07:00

The giant meta-searcher Metacrawler has a place where you can see what other users are looking for at Metaspy. Every 15 seconds Metaspy presents a new sample of current terms, and the sister site Meatspy Exposed allows you to see an unfiltered list of in-progress searches for mature audiences only.

This is a sample from the filtered Metaspy:

1. "diet pregnancy"
2. helena mt airport
3. andrew mcdermott artist author
4. wyandotte michigan community center
5. kay yerger
6. free babyshower games
7. african american christmas cards
8. personal naturist photos
9. yahoo photos

The Meatspy Exposed was a letdown, as instead of raw torrents of adult-oriented language, it was simply a more charmingly intellectual version of Metaspy. There were no cuss words or gross misspellings, or even bizarre queries. Here is one set of words being sought:

1. illustrator tutorials
2. jessica's cafe delafield wisconsin
3. "snoopy"+party+supplies
4. ross medical education
5. freud "invented dreams"
6. bermuda dunnes, ca
7. machining data handbook
8. google
9. threesome stories
10. art emily adams

Kanoodle Can Show Odd Search Requests

2003-10-13T11:32:00.000-07:00

The search engine Kanoodle uses a database of over 350 million keywords for finding information about anything on the web. Kanoodle Search Spy is the real-time tool to view what others seek. As they offer raw queries, they have posted a warning "The following page contains unfiltered content which may be considered obscene or offensive to some people. If you believe that you will not be offended by such content and are over the age of 21 years you must agree to the terms below by clicking the "I Agree" link."

The Kanoodle Search Spy tool posts the last 10-12 terms sent to their engine, refreshing the list every ten seconds. Here are some terms that popped up on Kanoodle today:

vitamin D, Yahoo.com, sell, horse weight gain, woman health, pulled groin muscle treatment, levitra, people search, caffeine studies, colorlinez, splenda and pregnancy, Tim Dede, door, Hedstrom gym set, bilder, trip Brazil, shopping, Winsor pilates discount, disabled development, moonalisa, Big Mac calories.

Search.com's Top Search Terms at CNET Shows Users Want Kazaa

2003-10-13T11:12:00.000-07:00

CNet has publishes a list of the top 100 search terms for the past day at their engine site Search.com. The latest data is for the week ending October 5th:

Top 20 Searches at Search.com
1. kazaa
2. kazza lite
3. games
4. soulseek
5. google
6. winmx
7. music
8. dead aim
9. mp3
10. lyrics
11. winzip
12. screensavers
13. msn
14. winmix
15. drivers
16. msn messenger
17. search engines
18. kaaza lite
19. antivirus
20. aim

As expected for a technology website, the predominant subjects sought are computer utilities, software, or activities. Kazaa is so popular it has three diffent entries in the top twenty. The general search terms "music" and "lyrics" also are popular. With no entries for sex or porn, you can be sure this is not really what people type in, but a child-friendly edited list of what folks might want to find on the internet.

Daypop Crawls Blogs and News Media for Common Themes

2003-10-13T01:18:00.000-07:00

Everyday Daypop measures nearly sixty thousand news sites and blogs to come up with the most popular subjects of the day. In explaining the relevency ratings for link analysis, they state, "trend analysis constructs a ranked list of hyperlinks based on freshness and popularity culled from weblogs within its index."

"The second method of trend analysis uses the concept of "Word Bursts". These are words that have experienced a heightened usage within the past couple days. The Word Burst page ranks the top twenty of these words in the blogging world. They act as indicators of memes that don't necessarily have an authoritative link and therefore wouldn't make it on to the Top 40 page," according to Daypop, who also produces a daily Top News Burst page.

Daypop Top Blog Bursts
1. Shirin, lech
2. rehab
3. olympian
4. lolita
5. pondered
6. walesa
7. screener
8. Lackawanna
9. rafah
10. OIC (Organization of the Islamic Conference)
11. portent
12. slush
13. inhaler
14. rendezvous
15. bulldozing
16. decorate
17. losung
18. nomenclature

Daypop Top News Bursts
1. conjoined
2. dodgers
3. subs
4. Ebadi
5. Shoemaker
6. rehab
7. separated
8. ACC
9. resignations
10. rafah
11. jockey
12. footsteps
13. disputes
14. Robertson
15. shiites
16. frets
17. Ferrari
18. insecurities
19. tunnels
20. Mindy

Wordtracker Reveals What Web Searchers Seek

2003-10-13T00:34:00.000-07:00

A truer reflection of what things people search for is scrolling at Wordtracker. This service daily publishes a list of the top 50 search terms for various search engine voyeurs and metacrawlers for the past 24 hours.

Wordtracker Top 20 for October 13
1. sex
2. google
3. porn
4. halloween costumes
5. ebay
6. jokes
7. yahoo
8. health
9. free porn
10. games
11. msn emotions
12. map
13. mapquest
14. dictionary
15. pussy
16. search engines
17. online degrees
18. kazaa lite
19. hotmail
20. yahoo.com

Wordtracker can prepare a larger report of keywords in three formats: all keywords, adult content keywords only, or keywords without adult content. They offer to send you the top 500 words searched for free every week. They then offer the 20,000 most popular searches for about $100; get 100,000 words from search requests for about $500; and get 500,000 search strings for about $2000.00.

A recent September 4th article of an interview by Scott Buresh with the founder of Wordtracker Andy Mindel can be found at Search Engine Guide. In it he reveals the sources for his data are the meta-searchers Dogpile and Metacrawler. "We examined keywords from other engines and noticed a distortion from position checkers and hard coded queries. One thing we notice is that the top keywords always fall into a certain pattern and these usually consist of google, hotmail, sex, mp3, etc."

Mindel continues, "When this pattern changes then we know something is up and often it's because the engine database is being used at another site (for example gambling or shopping sites)."

Google Zeitgeist

2003-10-12T23:30:00.000-07:00

Trends at Google, Inc. can be seen in lists, maps and charts at their colorful Google Zeitgeist page. The word zeitgeist is a cognative noun from the German words for time and spirit and reflects the general intellectual, cultural, and moral climate of the period.

Mystery must be the general spirit of this time, for (according to Wired, May 2003) Google users collectively use the Google search engine for 3,000 inquiries every second, totaling 260 million searches per day.

The most recent data at Google Zeitgeist is from the week ending October 6th, and is broken into the top ten declining inquiries and top ten gaining queries.

Top 10 Gaining Queries

1. siegfried and roy

2. rush limbaugh

3. premiership players

4. yom kippur

5. coetzee

6. elections ontario

7. paradise hotel

8. rugby world cup

9. halle berry

10. anastasia volochkova

Top 10 Declining Queries

1. robert palmer

2. berlin marathon

3. edward said

4. the bachelor

5. evanescence

6. oktoberfest

7. rosh hashanah

8. george plimpton

9. india

10. trillian

Returning to the Wired magazine article, it is Michael S. Malone's account of 24 hours spent witnessing how it all works. He explains, "To honor good manners, the program filters out obscene requests. Whether out of ignorance, faith, or belief in the safety of numbers, an estimated 52 million people around the world, 42 percent of all search engine users, entrust the site with some of their deepest, most vulnerable thoughts and desires."

Wired Magazine interjected real search phrases in the article. Reading the raw unfiltered requests to Google's search engine is more illuminating than any published list:

Krispy Kreme Donuts, Rhumba,Naturist Boy, How to Pray to the Rosary, Fishnet stocking, Poem procrastination, Pulpotomy, Marijuana for sell, Hottest young boys for free, Attracted to my professor, Horse + penetration, Timid dog, Tarot shops in New Delhi, Mario chick wit da braids, Couple voyeur, Battlefield 1942, Cuckold wife.

Yahoo Buzz Index Weighted by Omissions

2003-10-12T20:45:00.000-07:00

Search Engine trackers are the utilities that show what subjects people are looking for on the internet. They might be useful to judge the general public mood and effectiveness of advertising. They could also show trends in language, reflect changing ideas, or help predict interest in an upcoming sports event.

Yahoo Buzz Index tracks the strange words people type into their search engine and makes available a weekly list of the top twenty most queried subjects. Here is their list for this past week ending October 12th:

Halloween

Britney Spears

Sigfried and Roy

Fifty Cent

Jennifer Lopez

Chicago Cubs

Christina Aguilara

Kazaa

Linkin Park

Boston Red Socks

Beyonce Knowles

Eminem

R. Kelly

Kaaza Lite

NASCAR

Chingy

Roy Horn

Ludachris

Kill Bill

Is anything filtered out? "Company names (such as Yahoo!), utilities and formats (email, MP3), and general terms (movies, downloads, football) are filtered out by the editors of the Yahoo! Buzz Index", according to their frequently asked questions.

They proceed "The editors' goal is to list subjects that are interesting to the broadest possible audience. To this end, terms related to adults-only content are also excluded. In some cases, the editors may also exclude terms that they believe have been elevated by similarity to unrelated popular terms. For example, the movie The Rock might be excluded if the buzz was determined to be solely generated by interest in the WWF star, The Rock."

Reprising the list they give, Yahoo Buzz omits these:
A. Company Names
B. Computer Utilities
C. Computer Formats
D. General Terms
E. Adult Content
F. similar but unrelated terms

This means the Yahoo Buzz is not really what people want, but what Yahoo thinks we want to see. Use this service only if you want a revisionist list of popularity skewed toward what Yahoo wants you to like.