Google has come under fire lately for only promoting social search results from its Google+ network. This led to the start of project Focus on the User, spearheaded by a team of architects from Facebook, Twitter and MySpace. Using information already coded and indexed by Google, they built the Don’t Be Evil bookmarklet that surfaces the most relevant (aka popular) social profiles—regardless of platform—from the first ten pages of results.

Mouse over the image to see Google’s self-promotion in action.

In Google we trust… Or at least we did. But is it really such an outrageous crime that Google uses its own website to promote itself? You don’t see ABC getting upset that CBS isn’t promoting one of its new shows.

Somewhere along the way we became so comfortable with Google that we lost sight of what it is. It’s not a NGO or public service; it’s a for-profit, publically traded company—with its own agenda and vested interests—that’s out to make a buck or two.

That being said, I’m not sure that this is the best move for Google. People have made Google their search engine of choice because they trust it to return the most accurate, relevant and inclusive results on the web. With these new changes, I’ll be interested to see whether it’ll be Google+ or a rival search engine that sees a traffic increase.

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Tags: Facebook, Google, Google Plus Your World, Internet, MySpace, Search, Search Engine, SEO, Social Media, Social Search, Twitter

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Over the past weeks, the World Wide Web has become a virtual World Wide War over online censorship. The clash of copyright supporters and opponents has made headlines across the globe and is almost impossible to follow.

It started with Internet blackout on January 18^th as the online community came together to protest SOPA. The next day the FBI cracked down on popular file-sharing site Megaupload, so Anonymous retaliated by shutting down the websites of the FBI, RIAA, MPAA, DoJ and many more. Now other cyberlockers have gone into lockdown mode as a precautionary measure… and all this is far from finished!

In the heat of all these exciting events and crazy conspiracy theories, I started digging around to get a clearer understanding of the issue from the perspective of some of the industry’s thought leaders.

1. It’s a policy designed to protect the industry players who are unwilling to adapt their system to reflect real market needs.
This compelling infographic shows how Hollywood was able to stop innovation at several points in history and how it’s attempting to do so once again. Instead of embracing change, traditional media players (record labels, publishers) have focused their efforts on defending their old business models and attempting to fight piracy. At the same time, legitimate new business models such as Amazon.com and Apple’s iTunes store have become enormously successful because they embrace technological innovation – and all the while adhering to copyright law.

Harsh critics of American politics seem to dominate the debate. From a European POV, I’m amazed to see how the American Congress seems to be influenced by the power of lobbyists and their money. However, we’re also facing a similar battle in Europe as key political players support the proposed ACTA legislation.

In short: Your ability to succeed in the future will be based on your ability to adapt and your openness to the next big thing.

2. If SOPA existed in 1500, we wouldn’t have come to know Shakespeare as we do today.
There is no creativity that does not rely on the past; Shakespeare based Hamlet on earlier writings, Thomas Kyd’s the Ur-Hamlet, just as he did with many of his other plays. Beethoven and Bach also based their music on existing popular songs. Our post-romantic vision that great composers created their music out of nothing is partly to blame. Mash ups have always existed!

3. This is not a 1/0 game!
Digital piracy is something we all do; it’s frictionless and until recently, riskless. The only difference is that when I use your content it’s fair game. When you use mine, however, it’s a copyright violation. Josh Bernoff’s anecdotes of prominent media companies illegally downloading his Forrester report on file sharing are hilarious. However, he makes a good point – these days everyone violates copyright, even copyright owners. The magical thing about last week’s uprising of the Internet community was that it was made possible by the popularity of this frictionless digital activity.

To be continued very soon!

Tags: ACTA, Amazon, Anonymous, Apple, FBI, Josh Bernoff, Kim Dotcom, Kim Schmitz, Megaupload, OpMegaupload, PIPA, Piracy, SOPA

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Only a year old, Pinterest has quickly become one of the top ten social networking sites. A quick browse of some of the virtual pinboards on the site revelas many baked goods, stylish outfits and exotic vacation locales – attributable to its large female user base. For those looking for a few more skateboards and a lot less nail polish, it might be worth checking out Gentlemint, a image organization website described by the American Moustache Institute as “one of the more manly websites on the planet.”

Tags: American Moustache Institute, Gentlemint, New social networking sites, Pineterst, Social Media, Social Networking

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In the West we salivate over the billions of potential Swiffer users and Escalade drivers who reside in Shanghai. Most organizations, including ours, consider China to be their most strategic growth market. It’s not hard to understand: the growth in their GDP dwarfs the U.S. by 7.4%, they have 485 million Internet users and their e-commerce industry is set to surpass the U.S. with $315 billion by 2015.

Source: bcg.perspectives

With all of this potential, it’s important to make sure that we keep our stereotypes in check – if what you know of China is based on watching Rush Hour and Crouching Tiger you’re bound to make some big mistakes… Just as I did.

Being born into a first generation Asian family generally comes with some standard baggage:

• You have to endure countless discussion about how your parents sacrificed everything to give you a chance at a better life
• There’s an unrelenting focus on academics, math and sciences in particular
• It’s understood that the only 3 “real” professions are doctor, dentist and lawyer
• If you’re a girl then there’s a 4^th option: marry a doctor, dentist or lawyer (as an FYI both my sisters said f* you and became MDs)
• And there’s the impeding sense that your parents will move in with you, your wife and kids when they get older

Being raised like this is bound to leave you with some broad-sweeping generalizations:

1. Asian people are nerdy – good at math, bad at sports
2. Asian people are hardworking – they’re focused, study hard and get better marks than you
3. Asian people are traditional and conservative = not cool (a corollary to #1, but worth mentioning again) — they don’t dress cool, listen to the coolest music, drink or do drugs

Of course, I know all of these things are wrong, and the mere idea of stereotyping is plain offensive. Obviously there are plenty of cool Asian people – but a lot of times when you’re raised in an environment you have a confirmation bias rather than an objective view.

Case in point – when you work in one of the most challenging technical environments on the planet and hire the best engineers in the industry – the Asian people that you hire are probably going to be pretty good at the math and of course everyone here is wicked hardworking. False positive.

So I thought I was a pretty unique snowflake – not so great at the math, better than most at the sports and I rocked out to Dre and Wu-Tang back in the day… supercool.

Until I showed up in Shanghai earlier this year – and realized that no, I wasn’t so unique, and that the stereotype that I had of Asian people had a lot more to do with being first generation than it did with being Asian. In a 12hr flight I had become the most uncool Asian person around. The Shanghainese are the epitome of “cool”… they put our hipsters to shame, wear cooler clothes and trade mixtapes that come straight out of the Marcy Projects. If you’re a brand looking to cash in on explosive growth opportunities that the Far East has to offer you better do your ethnographic homework…

My longtime colleague and friend, Marvin Cao, recently packed up and left Toronto to lead Engineering and Operations in our Shanghai office. Kudos. Huge promotion, huge opportunity, exciting times…

He came to me on his last day and said, “any parting words of wisdom?”

“Marvin, [I said] I need to tell you something… Chinese people… [He stared intently] are cool…”

Good luck Marvin – I hope the Shanghainese find you cooler than I.

Tags: China, Consumer, E-Commerce, Retail, Shanghai

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In the past, learning a new instrument called for hours on end of practice, practice and more practice. Today, technology has made it possible for aspiring musicians to speed up the learning curve. A team of scientists at the University of Tokyo created the PossessedHand, a device that uses electrodes to stimulate the wearer’s wrist and fingers in the proper manner to ‘play’ an instrument. For those looking for a slightly less invasive shortcut, there’s the Ion Guitar Apprentice. This Guitar Hero lookalike turns your iPad into a full-scale guitar and features a light-up fret board to teach you how to play.

Tags: Digital Instruments, Guitars, Ion Guitar Apprentice, Learn to play guitar, Musical instruments, PossessedHand, Rekimoto Lab, University of Tokyo

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The Internet was abuzz about SOPA yesterday as sites went black in protest. According to Twitter, 2.4 million+ SOPA-related tweets were sent yesterday, which can be seen in this impressive visualization.

Psst… click for the full experience

Tags: Fred Benenson, Internet, PIPA, Protect IP, SOPA, SOPA Blackout, SOPA Visualization, Twitter

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