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Gastronomical Googlearchy |
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Written by Matt
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Thursday, 17 July 2008 |
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 Here is a real-world example of how winners-take-all algorithms (such as Google's PageRank) are shaping offline behavior. The new iPhone has an application called Urbanspoon whereby, by shaking the phone, the hip and hungry urbanite is directed to a nearby restaurant.
Problem is, the New York Times reports, the phone only picks restaurants that already have a wealth of positive reviews: "If Urbanspoon users haven’t visited and taken a shine to a place, you’ll be shaking your way to carpal tunnel syndrome before it pops up." Googlearchy: it's not just for Web sites any more. |
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Last Updated ( Thursday, 17 July 2008 )
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Debating the Power of Political Email |
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Written by Matt
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Wednesday, 09 July 2008 |
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The Politico's Ben Smith has a story on Hillary Clinton's e-mail list, and its ostensible power. For political scientists, data on the effectiveness of political e-mail has been mixed at best. Recent field experiments by campaign scholars have found that, compared to control groups, supporters who received candidate e-mail were not more likely to support the candidate, or to turn out on election day. But despite my initial skepticism, traffic data suggests that e-mail has indeed become a powerful force in the 2008 presidential election. Consider the chart below. |
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Written by Matt
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Tuesday, 08 July 2008 |
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John McCain on our (supposedly) fragmenting media environment:
Two comments: |
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Last Updated ( Tuesday, 08 July 2008 )
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"The Only Criterion for Membership Is a Modem" |
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Written by Matt
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Monday, 07 July 2008 |
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Several aspects of online political discourse never cease to surprise me. Foremost among these is the inability of extremely bright people to understand that they themselves are not ordinary citizens. Andrew Sullivan had a minor classic of the "bloggers-are-just-ordinary-folks" genre recently. Referring to David Brooks' New York Times op-ed piece about a group of young right-leaning writers, Sullivan commented that "Like the blogosphere itself, it's an open group. And the only criterion for membership is a modem." Um, no. Take a closer look at exactly who is on this list: |
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Last Updated ( Monday, 07 July 2008 )
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