Attack of the Killer Robots (Google’s Fast Flip)
By Jason Moriber • Sep 15th, 2009 • Category: Analysis, Insight & AnalysisGoogle’s new FastFlip news “reading” tool is a giant robot sent to crush the “real” people, the peer-to-peer peeps, using Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. to share news links. The people will prevail! Google wants their technology and algorithms to be the filter for all things findable, however no robot can replace the subtleties, even if text-based and contrite, of human interaction. Social Media is burgeoning, not receding.
FastFlip seems like an olive branch offered to news outlets who want some value for all the content Google links to. The debate over traffic and revenues will drag on until the news outlets reconnoiter the gap between their assets and the markets, become confident in knowing they have the geese that lay golden eggs (editors, writers, journalists, reporters) and then devise the method to best close the gap. Google wont do it, its not in their interest to give influence to the individual, they build robots that extract value from the individual. Twitter, Facebook, those platforms do offer influence to the individual while attaining some form of extracted value (we’ll see), because they support the human interaction, conversation, even if at times it feels like a one-way street (or echo chamber, it’s still actual people on soapboxes).
Don’t be mesmerized by the magic of the giant robot! It’s come to quiet your human nature. Your carbon-brain creates more interesting content than its silicon algorithm will ever provide.
Jason Moriber is a veteran product/project/marketing manager, underground artist/musician, and online community developer, Jason expertly builds/produces/manages clients' projects, programs, and campaigns.
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