(72nd) Open Source Search Engine vs. Search Engine Conspiracy

Microsoft has launched Bing and then we have Google, Yahoo and about dozen other relevant or not so relevant search engines. Which is actually great, when you want to find something. Now, my tiny little paranoid brain twists and turns (after seeing the Bing-marketing video, actually) around one question.

How much these search engines can manipulate the information we will find on the web? Is it as much or even more than we get out from the news companies? I'm a 'bit' skeptic with them at the moment. Since their funding is anyhow based on the money they make on getting the search results to hit the correct marketing, how independent can the search results ever be?

But furthermore, while I keep being mistrustful towards these nowadays corporate giants, I wonder if there is an alternative solution for this? Meaning that is there an open source search engine which could actually be as accurrate as the others but without anything commercial in it, just pure information? Like wikipedia, but with the information on the whole web. Could it for example use cloud computing or similar system to hold on indexing and to index itself. Thinking about SETI@Home -type of system, which could then become like WEB@Home -search engine. And that it would be completely independent on any power structures and funding and made by volunteers with open source ethics. Edit: Something found from here http://www.searchtools.com/tools/tools-opensource.html

Now, I don't have any prove about the results manipulation with Google, Microsoft or Yahoo, or any of the others, but it would certainly make sense to THEM (They talk a lot, don't they -Pulp Fiction) to manipulate the results in a transparent and unnoticeable way. The companies I talk about in here are at the moment the most powerful global organizations in the whole world and they hold the most of the information the people in the world can access.

Well in the other hand, how much this information we can find actually has anything to do with the real life then?

(59th)Chrome on Linux

I read something promising from the Lifehacker Feed today. I've been waiting for quite awhile for this brilliant lightweight browser to appear on other operating systems than on windows. It would be really nice to e.g. write this post in Chrome instead of Firefox. Which is a great browser, but lacks one thing, the simplicity, like I've mentioned previously.
The reason for this post is just the thing, that Google has some sort of Open Source-ish reputation and still the work that they do in the first place is with Windows. Is that because they'd like to dig a hole beneath the slow feet of Internet Explorer and by that get a bigger piece of cake? Or is this the fact (like it seems to me) that most of he Google application development is done above windows anyway. What is Googles open source strategy? Do they even have one?
I have my doubts and opinions, of course. As far as I can understand, Google is a company, which main purpose is to make profit by creating solutions and innovations, I suppose that is the reason for the lack of Linux -support in their product catalogue. At least I sincerely hope so, since the other possibility is that they haven't even thought about it, and if so, it's not that magic and innovative company to play with. Might be that it still isn't, since the lack of openness.

(58th) Social connectivity

Just had a sneak peak on Soocial, a hassle-free ( so they keep telling me) contact management system, which synchronises my contacts between different applications and devices. Finally, something at least distantly useful.

Anyhow, I've got something more on my mind. Or have had this for few months. What if you would have only one application to communicate with other people who have a Facebook, twitter, Gmail, MSN Live messenger,  AOL Instant Messenger, Mobile phone and an e-mail account. An application that would bind this all together and all you would have to do is maintain your contact list and send messages, which then would be transferred to your friend/relative/the-person-you-want-to-contact-with in appropriate format regarding on the recipients current online-status. And even the contact information maintaining would be at least semi-automatic, so you would not have to bother too much about that one, either.

What I mean here is the fact that it would be great to have just one application and just one list of contacts for communicating. And the application could then use all the available means of communication (even the snail-mail, huh?) when delivering the message to the recipient. I see that nowadays this sort of application could be able to develop and release in a uite a short time. I would not consider myself as a frontline developer, I'm a test professional (re-learning my C++ anyhow), but this idea is worth of trying. To be honest, I have some sort of design, requirements list and plan done for this sort of application and I have a clear vision on how it should work, on functionality level, so if you're interested on collaborating in this sort of open source solution either with development or GUI -implementation -skills, I'd be more than happy to start working on this sort of subject. So, don't hesitate to contact :D

And last, but not least, the application should be able to be easily ported on any operating system, including the mobile ones. And really intuitive and surprisingly easy to use.

twentyfifth

The world wide web has once again lifted up something really good. What I mean here is the hippie/punk/whatever -alternative DIY-attitude. The web gives you the opportunity to be your own record label, publisher and what evere you want to be. And that is definitely worth using, then. I myself find it way more interesting to create music, lyrics, literature (on the way, I hope ;) or whatever I want to and put it on the web. Not to mention the fact that nobody will ever listen or read them anyway, besides the friends of course ;).
I've ran into few problems, still. Since I am not a professional, I might be doing things in a way that prevent them to be found. Which, in the other hand, might be a blessing to the humankind. And the other is related to this. How to publish anything in the web without letting the published item to be rambled down by the zillions of other publications. And more, what makes my publication so important that anybody should see it. Once again, nothing. And that is a good thing, I hope.
Anyhow, this whole DIY-stuff (Opensource & Creative Commons) have been leading me towards a decision that I made a couple of weeks ago. Finally. I've been doing it without an official announcement for some time, still. Further on, I will record and deliver my music, lyrics or whatever I produce with open source -tools. From head to toe. Since now, the latest record was mixed down with commercial and not so official audio software.
About the publications. The final and ultimate essence of music or any art is freedom. The music I create should be free, since it is that for me, who am I to deny anybody for getting (hopefully) the same feeling of freedom to themselves. And that is the baseline for my publications. The gigs, if I some day get a band together, are a different story, and have to be dealed later on, when time comes. But the music itself should be free.


Free your mind. :D