Category: Google

NEW Book about YouTube

On By Rick McIn books, Google, product complaints, product endorsements, videoLeave a comment

Like, Comment, Subscribe: Inside YouTube’s Chaotic Rise to World Domination

A good book. Interesting and entertaining.

By Mark Bergen, a technology reporter at Bloomberg.

Published Sept 2022.

The biggest surprise was learning that YouTube’s algorithm actually kept most of Trump’s BIG LIE from getting promoted in early 2021. They were ready.

YouTube did a surprisingly good job of not promoting vaccine misinformation, as well.

You can find that stuff on YouTube, for sure. But it’s not being massively promoted for money.

As FREE enterprise, YouTube is FREE to post and promote whatever they want.

I’ve removed monetization from all my videos and websites.

If you eliminate ads and ad-driven algorithms, most social media problems disappear.

Google is a great search engine but I find YouTube to be quite lousy at listing either popular, quality, or related videos. Search for any topic you know well. Disappointing.

I spend a couple of hours most days on YouTube. No ads as I pay CAD$12 / month for YouTube Premium.

YouTube was super disorganized right from the start.

After Google bought the video site and made it #1, problems evolved as millions of “creators” devised hacks to make money off the site.

Despite all its growth and success, YouTube has been widely criticized.

Criticism of YouTube includes the website being used to facilitate the spread of misinformation, copyright issues, routine violations of its users’ privacy, enabling censorship, and endangering child safety and wellbeing. …

YouTube released a mobile app known as YouTube Kids in 2015, designed to provide an experience optimized for children. …

YouTube removed public display of dislike counts on videos in November 2021, claiming the reason for the removal was, based on its internal research, that users often used the dislike feature as a form of cyberbullying and brigading. …

… public access to YouTube is blocked in many countries, including China, North Korea, Iran, Syria, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan,Tajikistan, Eritrea, Sudan and South Sudan. …

related – Nilay Patel – Everyone knows what YouTube is — few know how it really works

I love YouTube

On By Rick McIn Google, product endorsements, videoLeave a comment

The first video uploaded to the site was by YouTube’s co-founder Jawed Karim, who was 25 years old at the time: “Me at the zoo” 

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

That was Apr 23, 2005.

I first embedded a YouTube video on one of my sites in January 2006.

In March 2006, I embedded a clip of Peter and Joyce Long who had been interviewed by a TV crew on a kayak outing.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

In those days, the race to become the #1 video uploading site was competitive. Vimeo launched earlier, for example.

But these guys won out in the end.

Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and Jawed Karim, the founders of YouTube

The trio were early employees of PayPal, three of the PayPal Mafia along with Elon Musk, Russel Simmons (Yelp), Reid Hoffman (LinkedIn) and more.

On October 9, 2006, Google announced that it had acquired YouTube for $1.65 billion in Google stock. It would have been Google or Yahoo. Google was willing to pay more.

FOX was also interested, but Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation had wasted $580m buying Myspace in 2005. They eventually sold MySpace for $35m.

YouTube had $19.8 billion in revenue in 2020. I send YouTube CAD $12 every month for YouTube Premium. Ad free videos. My music subscription. And a few other perks.

One of my most popular videos is from the early days. 😀 Low resolution. No editing. #bad

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

CANCEL me in 2022

On By Rick McIn blogs, ethics, Facebook, Google, government, human rights, TwitterLeave a comment

If you are irked that I call Donald Trump the fat golfer, please stop following my posts.

After a lifetime study of comparative religion, Joseph Campbell concluded that the best course was to Follow your Bliss. Make a list of those things in your life that you most enjoy; those things that enervate you, compel you; interest you in a sustained way. Do them!

Make a second list of those things that vex your existence. How can you avoid or minimize those? CANCEL them.

When in office I mostly called Trump the toddler President — rash, undisciplined, selfish, spoiled. Out of office fat golfer better sums up my opinion of him in a short, colourful way. Trump is the master of name calling. Since he does it, I feel it’s ethical to reciprocate.

The Ugly American

I believe in freedom of speech. The fat golfer can say whatever he wants on his golf course. BUT not in my home. Not on my blogs. Nor my social media feeds.

I also believe in the freedom to NOT listen to speech.

Since Rush Limbaugh — the Big Fat Idiot — popularized the notion of cancelling people in the 1980s, the word cancelled has become increasingly loaded. And increasingly meaningless.

Though I’m left leaning, I haven’t yet cancelled JK Rowling, Woody Allen, Jordan Peterson and many more. You should if they irritate you enough.

I AM quick to unsubscribe to organizations and people I believe are distributing dangerous and/or unethical content online.

Certainly the American GOP / FOX money making machine picks a new Mr. Potato Head to cancel every day. Gots to keep their mostly old, white supporters angry. (That story was fake news, by the way.)

The best coverage of this issue I’ve heard is on my favourite podcast – Reputation.

The Oldest Trick – On the Media

An ancient scapegoat for society’s woes is back in the news. On this week’s On the Media, a deeper look at the confusing landscape of modern anti-semitism. Plus, a conversation with some of the dogged reporters who spent years uncovering the truth behind the 2014 Malaysia Airlines crash in Ukraine. 1. Leo Ferguson [@LeoFergusonnyc], the Director of Strategic Projects for the Jews for Racial & Economic Justice, on the rise of modern anti-Semitism. Listen. 2. Aric Toler [@AricToler], Director of Research and Training at Bellingcat, an investigative news outlet, and Roman Dobrokhotov [@Dobrokhotov], the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of The Insider, a Russian investigative online news outlet, on what it took to uncover the truth behind the 2014 Malaysia Airlines crash in eastern Ukraine. Listen. 3. Christo Grozev [@christogrozev], the lead Russia investigator with Bellingcat, about how he uncovered the real identity of a Russian "sleeper" agent who went by the name Maria Adela. Listen.
  1. The Oldest Trick
  2. Brooke and Brian Lehrer Interview Each Other
  3. The Divided Dial: Episode 3 – The Liberal Bias Boogeyman
  4. Bark and Bite
  5. 11/22/63

Google Maps – LIVE view

On By Rick McIn Google, product endorsements, travelLeave a comment

In the tangled web of European old city cobbled streets, I used LIVE view for the first time.

A preview of the augmented reality we’ll all be using soon.

NOW … Google Maps often screws up. LIVE view often doesn’t work. But when it does, it’s a game changer for those frequently lost. Like me. 😀

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

I’ve also used Google Map LISTS for the first time. Very handy.

Invasion of Privacy by Christopher Reich

On By Rick McIn books, Google, internetLeave a comment

The first book I’ve read by this author, I downloaded because of the digital privacy theme.

Those details are fascinating. Reich does seem to understand technology.

We get to the DEF CON® Hacking Conference in Vegas.

But aside from that, the plot is stupid and lazy.

It kept me going, but I can’t recommend it.

Why we LOVE Stacey Abrams

On By Rick McIn Apple, ethics, Facebook, good news, Google, government, human rights, internet, things getting betterLeave a comment

If you’re celebrating seeing Donald Trump and the worst of his deplorable followers driven off social media, thank Stacey Abrams.

She devoted years to building the Democratic Party in Georgia. Wrote a book about voter suppression and co-produced an Amazon Prime documentary, “All In: the Fight for Democracy.”

People in the know credit Stacey Abrams for flipping the 2 Senate seats from Republican to Democrat.

NOW the Biden team has control of all 3 branches of government for 2 years.

NOW the Biden team can enthusiastically regulate BIG TECH.

NOW Twitter, Facebook and pretty much every other major platform is banning Trumpy hate speech.

Thanks Stacey.

We have to break-up BIG TECH

On By Rick McIn Facebook, Google, governmentLeave a comment

Professor Galloway recommends the American government mandates a break-up of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp. Facebook shareholders would actually make MORE money after the split. And those companies would have a better chance to compete with one another.

Galloway recommends Amazon be split from Amazon Web Services (VIDEO).

He recommends YouTube be split from Google.

MORE COMPETITION is good for the consumer. Good for the economy.

MORE COMPETITION

Elizabeth Warren, for one, is keen to push that legislation. And I agree.

YES. I know governments will do a lousy job. Politicians don’t understand Tech.

But the alternative is even worse. Bezos and Amazon — at this rate — will have too much share of the world’s wealth.

Aggregation Theory postulates that it’s nearly impossible to compete with a company that is able to aggregate a majority of consumers.

How do you launch a company to compete against Amazon, for example.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Online education SUCKS

On By Rick McIn Amazon, Apple, education, Google, internet, things getting betterLeave a comment

There’s no way online classes will be as bad in 2025 as they are today.

I expect Google, Apple, Amazon to be amongst the companies disrupting the current expensive American College system.  Taking their money. 

But it’s this organization — Outlier — that won a Time magazine BEST inventions of 2020 award.

At least they are trying to improve the experience.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.