July 2008

A new article/study by Harvard Business School Professor Anita Elberse challenges the validity of the Silicon Valley mantra/theory that the Internet created a new "long tail" of demand for niche products that would ultimately undermine and overwhelm the offline trend towards "big hits."  

• Thank you to Lee Gomes of the Wall Street Journal whose excellent article: "Study Refutes Niche Theory Spawned by Web" brought the new Elberse research to my attention.
  • From Mr. Gomes article: "Prof. Elberse looked at data for online video rentals and song purchases, and discovered that the patterns by which people shop online are essentially the same as the ones from offline. Not only do hits and blockbusters remain every bit as important online, but the evidence suggests that the Web is actually causing their role to grow, not shrink."

Why this is such important new research is that much of the Silicon Valley 'pixie dust' that fuels so many of the new business models involving social networking, crowdsourcing, etc. is predicated on the "Long Tail" book/theory by Wired magazine editor Chris Anderson.

We learn from the AP that J.Edgar Google can indeed track what you are individually watching on YouTube.

• AP: "In a statement, Google said it was "disappointed the court granted Viacom's overreaching demand for viewing history. We are asking Viacom to respect users' privacy and allow us to anonymize the logs before producing them under the court's order."" [Bold added]
  • The obvious implication here in Google's own words is that the logs of people's YouTube viewing habits are not anonymous to Google -- they can track what you are watching, but no one else should be able to -- because it would be a privacy problem for another company to clandestinely surveil users -- but of course not for Google to do it -- because only Google has the "don't be evil" motto and the special Monopoly" "Get-out-of-jail-free-card" that comes with it.   
  • As a New York Times article on the same subject suggests, Google is exploiting another privacy loophole:
    • "Congress passed the law to protect the video rental records of individuals, after a newspaper disclosed the rental records of Robert H. Bork, then a Supreme Court nominee."

Just learned that the Senate Judiciary SubCommittee on Antitrust has scheduled a hearing on the Google-Yahoo agreement for Tuesday July 15th, at 10:30 am.

• "The Senate Committee on the Judiciary has scheduled a hearing before the Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy and Consumer Rights on “The Google-Yahoo Agreement and the Future of Internet Advertising” for Tuesday, July 15, 2008, at 10:30 a.m. in Room 226 of the Senate Dirksen Office Building. Chairman Kohl will preside. By order of the Chairman."

The House Judiciary Committee is expected to have a hearing that same afternoon on the Google-Yahoo deal, Internet competition and privacy.

Kudos to the Washington Examiner for their great article exposing Google's "secrecy" in filming its privacy-invading StreetView product. Google guarding its privacy to invade yours! This is another precious example of Google's double standard philosophy of one set of rules for "don't be evil' Google and another set of rules for "the evil" unwashed masses.

• From the Examiner article: "Google officials say controversy about whether the filming violates privacy is partly to blame for the secrecy. Though the Mountain View-based company says public filming is legal, it fears angered residents might harass the drivers or tamper with the expensive cameras." 
  • Google of course must respect the 'privacy' of its drivers, while its drivers trample on the privacy of everyday citizens, or in Google parlance, the "targets" for their targeting advertising.

As many readers of this blog know, one of my pet peeves are double standards. Google's elitist and sanctimonious expectation that they don't have to follow the same rules as their user "targets" -- enthrones Google as the King of Double Standards!

Let's review just a few of their whopping double standards: