Angel Blog Reviews » consumer

iPhone as RFID Tag & Reader: Coming Soon

admin — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 13:30:00 +0000

We began our Mobile Web Meets Internet of Things series yesterday with a look at barcode scanning . We wrote that smartphones are increasingly being deployed as readers for barcodes - in particular via apps available on iPhone and Android. These applications, such as RedLaser on iPhone and ShopSavvy on Android, allow you to scan a barcode on a product or object and get more information about it. We noted however that RFID tags are more functional and flexible than barcodes. While barcodes are cheaper and getting traction in the U.S. with the QR format, the potential for RFID tags is even greater. Apple knows this and if rumors are to believed, RFID will be integrated into the iPhone 4G later this year. Sponsor RWW's Mobile Web Meets Internet of Things Series: According to a number of believable blog reports , RFID is set to be a part of the as yet unannounced iPhone 4G. Apple holds a patent for a touch screen RFID tag reader and is said to be testing an RFID-enabled iPhone currently. So RFID could be a feature of the iPhone 4G as soon as Spring 2010 . As MacRumors succinctly explained in November, mobile phone usage of RFID technology will come in the form of Near Field Communication (NFC). NFC is a new standard based on RFID and it has three use cases: the phone as an RFID tag; the phone as RFID Reader; and peer to peer communication (P2P) between two NFC-enabled phones. The first two use cases are most interesting. Using the iPhone as an RFID tag means it can be a deployed as a payment device (similar to a credit card), identity card, security device, and more. This type of functionality is already happening in Japan, where the RFID Suica chip is installed in some mobile phones. Using the phone as an RFID Reader allows the iPhone to interact with RFID-enabled objects in the real world. Check out this prototype from a Norwegian research organization called Touch, using the iPhone as a Media Player: Timo Arnall from Touch noted in a follow-up post in November that RFID and NFC peripherals are beginning to be released for the iPhone. 2010 could be a great year for RFID in the consumer market, if it is to be a feature of the next iPhone. Expect to see it in Android devices too. Will mobile phones provide the tipping point for adoption of the Internet of Things? We've seen now that mobile phones are a big driver of consumer adoption of both barcodes and RFID tags, so we wouldn't be surprised. Discuss

Read the original:
iPhone as RFID Tag & Reader: Coming Soon

Weekly Wrapup: Google Nexus One, CES Coverage, Online Finance, And More…

admin — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 17:00:00 +0000

In this edition of the Weekly Wrapup - our newsletter summarizing the top stories of the week - we report on a new "superphone" launched by Google, take a look at how the Web is transforming personal finance, give you 5 reasons why RSS Readers still rock, get a first look at the new startup of ex-Facebook CTO Adam D'Angelo, analyze the trends that emerged from this year's Consumer Electronics Show (CES), and more. And as usual we check in on our two main channels: ReadWriteEnterprise (devoted to 'enterprise 2.0' trends and products) and ReadWriteStart (our daily resource for entrepreneurs). Also read on for details of the newly released printed edition of our current premium report , about the Real-Time Web. Sponsor Now Available: Printed Edition of The Real-Time Web Report At the request of the librarian community and people that just like paper , we have made The Real-Time Web and its Future report available in print . For those of you that prefer it digitally, you can still download it . Don't forget about our Community Management Report . It too is coming in print soon, so watch out for it! Web Trends How The Web is Transforming Personal Finance Not too long ago, personal finance tools like Quicken and Microsoft Money used to be bound to the desktop. Today, free online tools like Mint , moneyStrands and Wesabe make it easy to track financial information. So you can now get a better overview of your personal finances than ever before. Editor's note : This story is part of ReadWriteWeb's Personal Finance series, a weekly, three-month-long look at how the Internet has transformed personal finance. If you are interested in sponsoring this Content Series on Personal Finance, please contact our COO Sean Ammirati . 5 Reasons Why RSS Readers Still Rock Recently we wrote about the decline of RSS Readers as a way for people to keep up with news. We noted that while many people still use RSS Readers, usage has decreased due to the emergence of real-time and social flows of information via Twitter, Facebook and other such services. The post sparked a fascinating discussion, with over 160 comments. What we learned from that discussion is that while the RSS Reader market is indeed in decline, there are still a number of compelling use cases for RSS Readers. Welcome to the Age of Robot Reporters Recently, three emergency vehicles responded to a report of an unconscious person at the world headquarters of Nike Inc. in Portland, Oregon. How did we know? An automated form-pumping robot from startup company Nozzl Media told us. Nozzl Media unveiled this week a demonstration of its first product, a widget intended for newspaper websites seeking to display real-time local information derived from Twitter messages, blog posts and automatically extracted public records. Web Apps Meet Consumer Electronics at CES The 2010 edition of the Consumer Electronics Show ( CES ) saw a big trend emerge: web applications being ported to consumer electronics , from the technology inside cars to Web-enabled TVs. Earlier this week we noted that online music service Pandora will be made available in cars , courtesy of a new Pioneer device that will begin selling in March. Other evidence of this trend can be found in Ford's announcement of a new in-car system and Samsung's latest Internet-connected TV . SEE MORE WEB TRENDS COVERAGE IN OUR TRENDS CATEGORY ReadWriteEnterprise Our channel ReadWriteEnterprise , devoted to 'enterprise 2.0' and using social software inside organizations. The Pros and Cons of the Google Nexus One As An Enterprise Phone The Nexus One is another smart phone that we will inevitably see inside the walls of the enterprise. Smart phones seem to have a way of being used for all kinds of work activities. So, what are the pros and cons of using the Nexus One in the enterprise? ReadWriteStart Our channel ReadWriteStart , sponsored by Microsoft BizSpark , is dedicated to profiling startups and entrepreneurs. 5 Web Apps To Keep Your Startup Organized In a world where emails, phone calls, texts, and Tweets constantly bombard us, it is getting harder and harder to manage the firehose of data and information being thrust our way. For young companies to succeed this environment, it is imparitive they become organized and efficient lest they fall behind and quickly become overwhelmed. Never Mind the Valley: Here's Los Angeles Best known for its movie stars, sun and surf, Los Angeles probably isn't the first place you'd think to breed technology. But when you consider the influence of investors like Jason Calacanis and Mark Suster, in addition to the fact that companies like Demand Media and Docstoc call Southern California home, it's not surprising that the community is emerging as one of the country's hottest startup hubs. SEE MORE STARTUPS COVERAGE IN OUR READWRITESTART CHANNEL Web Products Live Blog: Google's Android Press Gathering Google held a press event this week to showcase the new Nexus One , which it described as "Where Web Meets Phone." Google calls this a new category of phones - the "super phones." The Nexus One apparently "pushes the limits of what is possible on a mobile phone today." Google will sell the phone in its own web store. Check out our live blog coverage for more details. Droid's December Boom: Metrics Show Device Use Doubled in One Month The Android platform has grown exponentially since mid-2009, but December's stats show a particular factor that might help catapult the platform to greater heights of user adoption. In figures just released from mobile advertising company AdMob, the Droid singlehandedly boosted calls to their network by nearly 300 million requests. Facebook's 1st CTO Launches His Next Company Adam D'Angelo was a programming genius who knew Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg in high school, became the young company's first CTO and has just begun to unveil his new startup company, Quora . Built by D'Angelo and a team of crack young engineers, Quora is a real-time enabled Q&A site. The company calls itself "A continually improving collection of questions and answers." Skype: Coming to a Couch Near You Starting this spring, you won't need to gather the whole family around a 15-inch laptop screen to talk with cousin Joe on the other side of the country. As a matter of fact, you won't even need to get up off the sofa after the evening news, because Skype is coming to the big screen - the big TV screen, that is. Skype announced this week that they have been working with LG and Panasonic to embed Skype in Internet-connected widescreen HDTVs. SEE MORE WEB PRODUCTS COVERAGE IN OUR PRODUCTS CATEGORY That's a wrap for another week! Enjoy your weekend everyone. Discuss

More:
Weekly Wrapup: Google Nexus One, CES Coverage, Online Finance, And More...

TVs, Cars, AR – Oh My! Hot Tech Trends For Entrepreneurs At CES

cgseo — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 22:18:00 +0000

Today marks the official start to the 2010 Consumer Electronics Showcase in Las Vegas where all of the biggest electronics manufacturers show off their coolest and newest products. While CES is mainly a gadget show, entrepreneurs looking for the next big thing should pay close attention to the innovative ideas being pushed into the consumer market. The big show is just getting underway, but we are already seeing some trends emerge that could point to new opportunities for startups in 2010. Sponsor Televisions On everyone's CES prediction list this year are new TV technologies, including 3D viewing and the apparent rebirth of Web TV . Recently, various set-top boxes have brought web apps into our living rooms, including the Roku player , and BluRay players with Netflix , YouTube and Pandora integration. As we reported earlier this week, Skype has partnered with LG and Panasonic to integrate their service with new Internet-connected HDTVs. In addition, Internet media aggregator Boxee is marketing their brand new Boxee Box set-top device, and Yahoo! announced plans today to expand its presence in the living room. As more media and applications migrate onto televisions, startups will have the opportunity to find new niches and provided services on these new products. Automobiles Another trend is the implementation of new technologies into automobiles, and as we mentioned yesterday , Ford's new MyFord Touch is leading the way. By placing LCD touch screens in the dashboard and turning the car into a mobile Wi-Fi hotspot, Ford is opening doors for new platforms in the automobile. Current companies are already taking advantage of the the growing auto-tech industry. Streaming music service Pandora recently announced a partnership with Pioneer to bring Internet radio to your dashboard - albeit for a hefty $1,200 price tag. When the day comes that everyone has a connected car that can sync and share data, startups will be needed for services that organize and make use of these new forms of information. Augmented Reality And finally, while we may not see a plethora of new gadgets in this space at CES, augmented reality looks to make a huge splash in the consumer electronics market in 2010. Right now, most AR experiences are on cell phones or desktop computers, but fans of augmented reality expect to see some Head Mounted Displays (HMDs) or new transparent LCD screens in the near future. The potential for augmented reality has been flying under the radar for years, and only in recent days have improvements in technology allowed for it to begin to flourish. AR is a quickly expanding field with many opportunities for innovation, and is a field in which startups could quickly find a foothold. Discuss

Read more from the original source:
TVs, Cars, AR - Oh My! Hot Tech Trends For Entrepreneurs At CES

Does Pandora for Cars Spell Death for Deejays?

admin — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 01:20:35 +0000

The only reason streaming web music hasn't completely killed all other forms of music distribution is the fact that it's not available when you're traveling across wireless networks - say, in a car. Well hold on to your hats and start canceling your satellite radio subscriptions, Pandora is taking to the road. Sponsor According to a recent Paid Content article, Pandora announced a partnership with Pioneer at the Consumer Electronics Show. The speaker manufacturer will begin selling a device in March that detects users' Pandora settings via their iPhones. While the $1200 dollar price tag for the connection device is high, the fact that the service is free will theoretically save consumers from paying monthly radio subscription fees. However, if Pioneer manages to partner with other music providers like Microsoft with Zune Marketplace , Spotify or MOG , then web subscriptions will simply be cross-platform music accounts. While Paid Content suggests that we're looking at the end for satellite radio companies like Sirius XM, we think the greater effect of web-enabled cars might be the end of professionally curated music. Does web music spell death for disc jockeys? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below. Photo Credit: Michael Ruiz Discuss

See the original post:
Does Pandora for Cars Spell Death for Deejays?

Copia Challenges Amazon, B&N and Sony: Unveils New E-Book Platform and 6 E-Readers

cgseo — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 19:33:03 +0000

Copia , a new e-book platform, plans to take on the big players in the market by launching its own e-book store and a set of touchscreen e-readers. Copia also wants to combine numerous social networking features with its e-book platform and plans to sell its services to original equipment manufacturers (OEM). Copia's e-book store will offer over 250,000 books from over 1,500 publishers , as well as 1,400 newspapers and over 750,000 free books from Google Books. Sponsor Copia's private, limited-invitation beta will launch this month. The company plans to expand this beta in March. Copia bills itself as a hybrid solution, as the company plans to offer both consumer-facing e-book solutions as well as an open platform for OEMs. Focus on Social Networking Features On the consumer side, Copia wants to differentiate itself from its competition by giving its users a number of social networking tools. Community profiles on Copia, for example, are linked to Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. In addition, the service will offer collaboration tools that are mostly geared towards students. Users can highlight and annotate books, for example, and share these annotations with other users. Copia will also implement a rating system for book reviews. OEM's will be able to offer all of these features to their users as well. OEMs will also be able to integrate Copia's e-book store into their own devices. Copia's E-Readers: Ocean and Tidal Copia plans to offer six different e-readers with prices ranging from $199 to $299. The Tidal will offer a six-inch ePaper display and the Ocean will come in a basic six-inch version and two advanced versions with a nine-inch screens. Both of these models will come in three different variations. The most basic models will not offer any wireless connectivity besides Wi-Fi and won't offer a touchscreen. The intermediate models offer touchscreens, and the high-end versions will offer touchscreens and 3G connectivity. All models come with tilt sensors and 4GB of internal memory. These devices will go on sale on Copia's site in April. Can This Work? We still have a lot of questions about Copia. We don't know at what price the company plans to sell books and what DRM-solution Copia plans to implement. At the same time, though, the company's plan to sell both e-books and compatible e-readers looks a lot like Amazon's strategy and there can be no doubt that Amazon has been quite successful with this model. Copia, however, doesn't have any name recognition yet and the e-book market is currently dominated by big companies like Amazon, B&N and Sony. If Copia is successful in getting enough OEM partners, though, it could establish itself as another major player in the market. The company's e-reader lineup also looks like a potential winner. Discuss

Go here to see the original:
Copia Challenges Amazon, B&N and Sony: Unveils New E-Book Platform and 6 E-Readers

FTC to Investigate Cloud Computing

cgseo — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 06:07:00 +0000

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is investigating the privacy and security implications of cloud computing. That could be quite an inquiry as the debate is still open about how to actually define cloud computing in the first place. Sponsor The investigation should raise some concerns with the enterprise community. Such an investigation could cover aspects of Internet communications that have been in use for years. How would the FTC distinguish between the rights of the consumer and businesses that also use cloud computing services? What regulations would drift into the enterprise sector? Any service provider could be viewed as part of the investigation under such a broad umbrella. The obvious parties would include Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Rackspace and the other large cloud computing services. SaaS is a form of cloud computing. That could mean a company like NetSuite , Zoho or Salesforce.com would have a stake in the outcome of such an investigation. According to The Hill , the investigation surfaced in a filing with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). In the filing, The FTC recognizes the cost savings of cloud computing but has concerns about information being stored remotely: "However, the storage of data on remote computers may also raise privacy and security concerns for consumers," wrote David Vladeck, who helms the FTC's Consumer Protection Bureau. This statement is puzzling. People have been storing their data remotely since the early 1990s on services that predate the social networks. The intent of the inquiry is to protect consumers privacy. But the repercussions of such a broad investigation will also have reverberations throughout the enterprise community if the inquiry is not narrowed. According to The Hill, the FTC is holding a roundtable Jan. 28 to focus on privacy protections. It will include specific discussions about cloud computing, identity management, mobile computing and social networking. Discuss

See the article here:
FTC to Investigate Cloud Computing

What Users Are Saying About Yelp Being Eaten by Google

cgseo — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 17:25:21 +0000

Google appears likely to purchase local review site Yelp for 1/3 of a YouTube, $500 million, according to TechCrunch and confirmed by the New York Times . Is this desirable for the users that made Yelp what it is today? Yelp was founded by members of what's called the PayPal mafia, geeks made wealthy by the sale of PayPal to eBay, and funded initially by the same. It's been hounded by ugly if unprovable allegations of extortion and is both loved and hated by the businesses it reviews. It's lovable none the less for users, a great place to learn about a business before you patronize it. How do users feel about the idea of their Yelp becoming the next Google property? Check out the opinions below and share your own in our poll or comments. Sponsor Below are some of the most interesting opinions we've been hearing about this deal, first from tech geeks and then from people in local Yelp forums around the US. Do you feel good about Google acquiring Yelp? ( answers ) "No! I love Google, but they need competition. Buying Yelp moves Google one step closer to becoming yet-another-Microsoft." -Kathy E. Gill, digital media educator at the University of Washington [I] "don't care one way or another if Google buys @Yelp but not sure (like Dodgeball & Jaiku) that they will do a good job integrating." - Aaron Strout, CMO of Powered, Inc. "The combo Aardvark [another rumored Google acquisition] + Yelp would be killer in the local search space because of the consumer purchase process." -Sebastien Provencher, Praized Media "Yelp has success with interacting with its most active members locally, and I can't see Google continuing that. Would be bad move." - Drew Olanoff "Maybe if Yelp were acquired by the GOOG it would become reliable again. Yelp's been hijacked by extortionists." - Clay Newton, UX designer "No. Yelp is a community that doesn't need Google as their overlord." -Joseph Manna, InfusionSoft From Yelp Forums "I'm not sure how I would feel about a Google owned Yelp. One more step towards complete domination of the web." -Chris "Walking Toxicology Report" L., Portland, Oregon "Isn't it the dream of every small internet startup to be swallowed up by a huge mega-conglomerate? Congrats, Yelp. Now I'm wondering how Google will destroy this site once they buy it...." -W.C. San Francisco "Anyone ever look at the comments on youtube videos? That is what is gonna happen here." -Devon "Completely Appropriate™" F. San Francisco "If this happens, I'm deleting my profile." -Eric "Hypeman E." W. San Francisco "Yelp is about to get the sSHIT regulated out of it. goodbye shadiness." -Joseph "the finest hat I've ever known" F. San Francisco "Wouldn't be surprised if it happens. Google is always on top of the most useful things around. Maybe they'll finally create a good Android app " -Irena "World Traveler" C. New York Discuss

Go here to see the original:
What Users Are Saying About Yelp Being Eaten by Google

Lonely Planet Launches Augmented Reality Apps

admin — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 22:12:01 +0000

Popular travel book publisher Lonely Planet has begun selling Augmented Reality apps for 10 US cities for $5 each in the Android Marketplace. The apps were built in conjunction with Mobilizy, the company behind user generated content AR app Wikitude . In addition to offering Lonely Planet content overlayed on top of locations you view through your phone's camera view, you can also plan itineraries and get step by step directions from the app. Augmented Reality is a technology in a formative stage but support from the Lonely Planet brand is a big, if unsurprising, step. Sponsor Will consumers go for it? GoMoNews is skeptical , pointing out that AR technology is still clumsy and Lonely Planet's offering is very limited so far. National Geographic's travel blog voices no such concerns . Travel is the most logical application of consumer-focused Augmented Reality, but we expect a large number of consumer and marketing companies to explore this new paradigm of layering data on top of the viewed world. Some of the most interesting applications of Augmented Reality are outside the consumer market; AR could prove very useful for medical procedures or mechanical repair, for example. The technology remains limited, though, by the inability of most applications to process live video of what they are actually looking at, instead of merely offering up data based on what's believed to be in a given GPS position. Discuss

Go here to see the original:
Lonely Planet Launches Augmented Reality Apps

Twitter’s Top 10 Tech Trends of 2009

cgseo — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 00:10:29 +0000

The Twitterati have spoken! Throughout 2009, a few tech topics got so much attention that they managed to make Twitter's trends. Google Wave was one of the most notable of these, obviously, but what were the other subjects of such interest to Twitter-using geeks? Twitter has just released a list of the top 10 technology-related trending topics of the year; here's what tweeps have been talking about. Sponsor 1. Google Wave The most-talked-about app of the year - on Twitter and likely in many other circles, was Google Wave. As invitations rolled out in waves, each initiate was given a limited number of invites to pass on to friends and colleagues. This left the twittersphere clamoring for Wave invites and drove the keyword into Twitter's general trending topics on multiple occasions. If Wave did nothing else right, they certainly mastered the art of the viral marketing campaign. 2. Snow Leopard Apple fanboys (and girls) the world around rejoiced when the newest Mac operating system was released this year. Snow Leopard was announced at Apple's Worldwide Developer Conference in June 2008, which meant that Mac geeks had been waiting to buy their copies for more than a year by the time the OS hit shelves in August of this year. 3. Tweetdeck This Twitter app became wildly successful this year and made tech headlines for its Facebook and LinkedIn integration, its iPhone app (a strong competitor to challenge Tweetie 2), its themed interfaces, and more. 4. Windows 7 The longsuffering Windows users among us had long been suffering when Windows 7 was released this year. Better, smarter, faster and less buggy, the OS promised to be the answer to our prayers and a reason to hold our heads up in front of Mac users. Windows also had an interesting marketing campaign that kept their OS on the tips of tongues - and the top of trends - for several months running. 5. CES The Consumer Electronics Show, held each year in Las Vegas, is a gadget geek's version of the AVN Awards, also held each year in Las Vegas. Coincidence? Most definitely. 6. Palm Pre Several years ago, geeks fell in love with the Treo. Then Palm devices kind of fell off the face of the earth and out of public favor until this year, when the company released the tiny touchscreen device known as the Pre. The first iteration of the device hasn't yet become overwhelmingly popular, but the Pre definitely has its fans. 7. Google Latitude In 2005, location-based app Dodgeball was bought by Google. The Dodgeball creators went on to make Foursquare, and this year, Google replaced Dodgeball with Latitude, which very simply shows you where your friends are on Google Maps. Latitude could be the basis for more tricky applications in the future, but location tech in general can be a difficult technology to master. 8. #E3 Another yearly holy-grail-of-its-industry conference, E3, the Electronic Entertainment Expo, is held in Los Angeles. This con is where gamer geeks die and go to heaven. 9. #amazonfail Amazon suffered public criticism this year when certain gay and lesbian books were removed from sales rankings for containing adult content. The trouble was, most of the titles in question weren't "adult" in nature at all, leading media and the general public to the conclusion that Amazon execs were deeply and terribly homophobic. In the end, it turned out that a single Amazon employee in France set a Boolean flag on adult content from False to True, taking out 57,000 books in his wake. Whoopsie! 10. Macworld And finally, there was MacWorld. Steve Jobs was unable to make the event, and Apple announced that the 2009 con would be the last year the company would participate in the show. The company announced a few modest treats, including new versions of iLife and iWork, as well as a 17-inch MacBook. Apple further announced that music sold on iTunes would be DRM-free. And that's it for Twitter's top trends! Do you think the right topics got the most attention? What do you think would have been trend #11? Let us know your thoughts in the comments! Discuss

How Google Can Combat Content Farms

admin — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 15:30:00 +0000

In my recent post about the rise of content farms like Demand Media and the current incarnation of AOL, I posited that Google (and search in general) risks becoming less relevant as the Web gets drowned in lesser quality content. This is due to the scale at which these content farms are operating at - Demand Media alone pumps out 4,000 new pieces of content every day . The solution is of course for Google and other search engines to find better ways to surface quality content , whether that be from traditional news media, blogs or even Demand Media ( not all of its content is poor quality ). So how can Google evolve to identify quality content better? Sponsor Quality! Pah, Does Google Need to Bother? Perhaps we should first answer the question: why should Google be worried about the quality issue? After all, it has a virtual monopoly on the search market. The obvious and PR answer is that Google wants to provide the best search results possible for its users. But there is another big reason why Google needs to do something. So-called "quality" content providers are already well advanced in routing around Google, or at least making them less relevant. As I wrote yesterday, Reuters is onto something with its subscription business model. According to Chris Ahearn , President of Media at Thomson Reuters, the company already makes the "vast majority of its revenues" from subscription-based business models targeted to "vertical and niche markets." Reuters also provides services as well as just content. Bloomberg is another leading media company finding success with this strategy. The subscription model is making inroads, because the users themselves are flocking to it. A prime example comes from VC Paul Kedrosky , who became frustrated after doing various Google searches for "dishwasher reviews" and getting unsatisfactory results. He says that this has made him "more willing to pay for things" - in that case a Consumer Reports review of dishwashers. As Kedrosky archly noted, "the opportunity cost of continuing to try to sort through the info-crap in Google results was simply too high." What Google Can Do Google surely knows that quality (or lack thereof) in its index is a problem. As one part of the solution, Google is currently experimenting with real-time search results from social media sites like Twitter, MySpace and even Facebook. The theory is that users are more likely to get timely, relevant results by tapping into their social network. That's all well and good, but real-time search is unlikely to give you better results on the dishwasher search and other topic-focused search queries. So what else can Google do to identify and surface quality material? Some readers in Sunday's post (Tadhg, Charles Coxhead and others) argued that Google's current algorithm accounts for quality well enough, through the link economy. But many others thought that Google must improve its ranking of quality. Here were some of our readers' suggestions: Neutralize the link dilution; A.J. Kohn , who further wrote that "the introduction of SearchWiki, their measurement of short-clicks versus long-clicks, the new domain/brand SERP listing, snippet links, and use of breadcrumbs all point to a gathering movement to help determine quality without such a reliance on an ever diluted link ecosystem." Do a better job ranking authority; for more on this read Clay Shirky's post on "Algorithmic Authority." Introduce a user rating system; Tony Masinelli. Leverage sharing networks to determine where the quality is; Alex Kessinger . Special curation and algorithms on top of that; William Mougayar, whose company Eqentia does precisely that. p2p recommendation (i.e. filtering through your peers); Nick Taylor . Capture engagement data; Mark Littlewood . Give special weightings to categories of content, e.g. content farms, social media bookmarks blogs and Twitter; Aaron Savage . Use anti-spam type software to identify content that makes too much use of keywords; Barry . Track reputation against authors rather than URLs - a 'PageRank for People'; Marshall Clark . These are all great ideas. Google is almost certainly already doing some of these things already - as will other search companies. John Battelle is expecting a "major breakthrough" in search in 2010 and I hope he's right. One thing is for sure, Google will need to do more in 2010 if it's to stay ahead of the content farms and continue to surface quality content for its millions of users. Discuss

Here is the original post:
How Google Can Combat Content Farms