The Google+ Filter Bubble - Results Tampering.

+Google+ team please be advised, someone(thing) is tampering with Google+ Trends.

Take a look at these Search Trend results: If some company (who will remain nameless) just filed their initial public offering, wouldn't that company be listed on that trend as well? It seems odd because for the last 18hours every post was about this specific IPO.
In the past Google has emphatically denied the accusation of manually curating search results when accused by Governments etc. Employees like +Matt Cutts defends his company and I tend to take his side because his explanation comes across as honest. _ Plus I like the guy, I've met him personally, he's very down to earth and he radiates honesty_ :-)

+Google+ should reflect some sense of civic responsibility by staying pure with the results it presents us. The service starts to loose the trust of its users when results become clearly inaccurate. ( I'm not talking about results tailored to me either ) Keep this platform free of the politics and keep it open. Please.

The term 'filter bubble' here relates to a Ted Talk regarding the Google Search and Facebook skewed/tailored search results. I generally disagree with that since it over simplifies the issue and doesn't take into consideration some of the steps Google has taken to present relevant and sometimes unfiltered information on a subject. See image:

This "filter bubble" fear gives all of us pause and we begin to look at alternatives like DuckDuckGo.com for our search needs. (Though ironically that search engine also uses Google/Bing/Yahoo results) Check out the traffic spike that occured after Google's recent Search+ Your World Launch.

I care about this subject because I am a Google Apps for Business reseller i.e. I sell Google+ and all these Googley services to my customers for money. My reputation is on the line.

#rant

Google needs a consistent culture for app roll outs

Apps are one reason we buy into today's device ecosystems. They should be taken seriously by Google, this is an open letter to the Android Team at Google.

I have come to like the Google Reader App on my Android based cell phone, when it first launched on Android 2.2 it was slow and buggy, but to my delight, these issues were quickly patched. I guess I had expected it to be as baked as the Gmail app, or the Youtube app.

Then came Android 3.0, optimized for larger screens. I took a look in the Market Place, but as this is a brand new platform, there were a few tablet centric apps from Google. I know they are coming, but they should be here already dammit. The promise was that older Android apps would scale fine, and I bought that crap. Sure, mobile optimized apps would work on a larger screen, but when they would, they did so very badly.

Shipping optimized versions of apps for screen sizes twice or thrice the size of a cell phone should be mandatory. Google understands this, they deployed 3.0 the tablet-y email, Youtube, and some few other core apps from the jump like Androidify. Why did they not invest in building a full suite of tablet centric apps by the time they went live with 3. 0? For Christ's sake, there are two tablet optimized apps on the Android Market from Google none are added value for buying an android tablet.

As you can see from the snapshot in the picture Google Reader renders poorly in 3.0.

Google Reader for Android 3.0 needs to be optimized for the larger screen devices.

Since Google Reader is one of the core services that syncs right from the jump with your gmail account on Android devices, you'll have to expect as they rolled out Honeycomb on larger screens it would be part of the full suite of tablet optimized apps.

Google accounts on Android syncs with Books, Web, Calendar, Contacts, Email, Reader, Photos, Video and soon Music. Reader, Docs etc., should be part of this initial roll-out.

This is a new type of problem, a little different from the days of Microsoft shipping bundled software like Microsoft Works. This problem may be a good one to have in the new age of bridging your software platform ecosystem across interfaces of all sizes.

If Google is going to provide Android users seemless syncing of their photos, news feeds, social interactions, etc., at least ship with apps that are optimized for the screen size.

With the Android Market is slated to grace Google TV screens "very soon" I would hope that some level of attention will be given to shipping with a suite of Google TV-native apps that gives developers inspiration and users solid features to get use to.

Originally written on blogger for Android, which begs the questions where the HELL is Google Docs for Android tablets? Web? App? All the hoopla about focus on mobile and hiring frenzy and nothing to date? Bullshit.