Credit scores have long had major impacts on people’s lives; they’ve affected consumers’ options in terms of buying cars and houses, and sometimes, even in terms of securing jobs. And in the future, if Google has anything to say about it, they may influence what ads individuals see, too.
With the assistance of Compete and around two million consumers who opted into the project, Google’s apparently been interfacing lists of FICO scores with the Google Content Network. This has led to some impressive targeting opportunities.
‘Print Is Dead’ – Not According To This Study
Last week was a rough one for the newspaper industry.
The Next Two Years Belong To Facebook, According To MySpace Founder
It appears that even the co-founder of MySpace is placing his money on Facebook to win the social networking wars–if only for the next couple of years.
Speaking to the Sydney Morning Herald, Brett Brewer co-founder of MySpace who sold the social site to News Corp, said:
PageRank, According To Lots Of Math
If you want to understand PageRank – really, really understand it – a new paper from David Austin will help you do just that. The trouble is, you’ll need to be comfortable with some fairly high-level math in order to get through the paper – it’s actually being featured by the American Mathematical Society.
Google Vs. Google, According To Hitwise
Hitwise’s Bill Tancer conducted a detailed analysis of “Google properties and how they rank amongst themselves in market share of visits,” and while the results aren’t necessarily shocking, they are interesting. Google’s main search engine is the far-and-away leader of the pack, with a 78.42% share.
The Google Algorithm, According To Fishkin
No one in the public sphere knows much about the Google algorithm, and the company undoubtedly plans to keep things that way. SEO expert Rand Fishkin made an educated guess, though, and attempted “to write out a rough outline of what the formula might look like.”
Political Fact-Checking, According To Google
Does Google have a lie detector in the works? Probably not, but a comment from CEO Eric Schmidt definitely turned a few heads. As a Reuters article stated, “he predicted that truth predictor’ software would, within five years, hold politicians to account.'”
Site Design According To Drost
Website design is as much an art as a science. Still, some there are some guiding principles that will, in just about every case, make for a better site. Herman Drost has compiled a list of 16 of these elements.
Who You Are According To Google
A Google search can be a good barometer of how pervasive some stereotypes are in the world. If a search spider could sum up a nationality, a race, a religion in a few words, what would it say? What are Americans known for? What are the Europeans like?
GM and Ford Are Junk According to S&P
Thursday, Standard & Poor’s dropped its credit ratings for General Motors and Ford to “junk” status.