This is a video of the presentation I gave at WordCamp Atlanta on January 9, 2009 about integrating Google Analytics with WordPress. I’ve made a few updates to the slides and code samples since I found out afterward it’s against Google’s terms of service to track visitors by name.
I’ve noticed lately that Google seems to be less useful to me for a specific type of search. Two recent events that led to the type of search I’m talking about:
President Barack Obama bowed down to the King of Saudi Arabia. Debate ensues about whether this is fealty and therefore an abomination (not Obamanation, you brilliant right wing wordsmiths you), or attempted courtesy and not a big deal. YouTube video here.
In both cases, I wanted some back story.
While Roger Ebert’s joke works without knowing any history behind Squeaky the Chicago Mouse, the reference is a little before my time and the joke would surely benefit from knowing the story behind it. So I searched Google for Squeaky, but everything that came back on the first few pages of results was blog posts and news stories referencing Ebert’s column.
In the case of Obama’s bow to the Saudi king, I wanted more information about the custom of U.S. presidents bowing or not bowing to foreign officials. What I received in return was an endless stream of blog posts and columns ranting about the incident, and not one good link to history of this custom.
I guess this could be attributed to a poor choice of key words on my part, or that no one on the entire Internet has ever written about these topics (particularly for Squeaky). But I have a difficult time believing that, because these examples are only two of many others I’ve encountered recently.
So have you noticed this degradation in Google’s signal-to-noise ratio, or am I doing it wrong? Or did I just pick bad examples that don’t really prove or disprove this point?
With the economy in the crapper, there are going to be a lot of online services folding or cutting corners to survive. This is a good time to make sure you are keeping local copies of any work that is important to you.
I try not to romanticize the past too much. You look at some of these old photos, and you realize, the past isn’t necessarily better. I’m glad to be living now, in the era of air conditioning and the Internet.
- Greg Germani, curator of the Atlanta Time Machine
