-By Scott Cleland
Does Google warrant the current exceptional leap-of-faith in the integrity of its dominant ad auction model, given its near total lack of openness, transparency, independent auditability or third party oversight? There is a growing body of evidence that Google does not.
The New York Times article today by Miguel Helft, “The Human Hands behind the Google Money Machine,” is a must read for anyone following Google or concerned about the openness and transparency of public markets. It is also a little treasure trove of fresh information on Google.
Why a lack of openness sullies the integrity of Google’s ad auctions.
First, it is widely accepted that public markets operate best when open and transparent.
Google’s ad auction model has become one of the world’s most important public markets. Google is increasingly becoming the world’s primary public information broker. Google brokers:
- Information for over 700 million search users worldwide, over three to six times their nearest rivals;
- Advertisement placement for over a million advertisers several times more than their nearest competitors;
- Monetization for over a million websites several times more than their nearest competitors.
Google is also not open or transparent.
Continue reading “Why a Lack of Openness Sullies the Integrity of Google’s Ad Auctions”
In a movie role miscasting that would be akin to picking Michael Moore to portray George W. Bush, a new flick that is starting production soon will feature an unlikely actor as the president of the United States of America. Leftist activist, and virulent anti-American Danny Glover has been tapped to star as a U.S. president that will be confronted with a “global cataclysm” in the film “
Now that Barack Obama is the presumptive Democrat Party nominee he has made his first move to try to put his imprint on his party by making a show of eschewing campaign donations from federal lobbyists. As the new head of the party, Obama might expect to have sway over the way the party does business. If Obama imagined that he would have such power, however, he seems to have been mistaken.
The last order of business for the Service Employee International Union ended with the election of the next slate of SEIU leaders. Andy Stern did not expect any “democracy” to take place in this election, though. You see, no ballots were prepared for the membership to vote upon.
The Daily Herald, a Chicago area paper, waxed triumphant over the ascendancy of Barack Obama to the assumed position as the Democratic Party nominee for the presidency today. The article was filled with soaring pronouncements of the historical nature of this moment and what it means for America but, by the end of the piece, “
The New Republic has a rather interesting “book review” penned by 
Over the weekend, the London Times gave us a foolish headline for a foolish story. The trumpeting headline read, 
Our schools are faster becoming the laughing stock of the industrialized world every day. This time three boys were barred from graduation, expelled and harassed by the foolhardy overreaction of school administrators over some flags they had on their trucks in the parking lot. No, it wasn’t the Mexican flag, it wasn’t the Iranian flag or even the Venezuelan flag. It was the Confederate flag.
If we needed more proof that CNN’s legal analyst, Jeffery Toobin, is one of the most disingenuous legal minds of our day, the 
The AP gives us a story about some 
That about sums up a brand new theory of international law. It’s called the “atmospheric trust doctrine” and it is a quaint idea that the “atmosphere” is “held in trust” by the government. That’s right folks, government owns the air. Not just the space through which airplanes travel, the actual air itself. It makes one wonder how long will it be be after such an idiotic concept is cemented in law before we truly are taxed by the breath? After all, every single thing government claims it owns is regulated, taxed or assessed fees. 
And the fearmonger begins to open her bag of tricks to scare the people into casting away the Constitution, turning away from sovereignty, giving up property rights, and forgetting about freedom because of the “dire emergency” we face. After all, regardless of her claims, these rights will have to be cast aside so that her laws and rules will have the power of coercion. There is no room for anything less than the total supplication to Mary Wood and her legal stranglehold lest her efforts lack the teeth to “work.” 
What would you say about photos of naked children — most of them girls as young as 13 — holding each other or by themselves in pensive poses? Would you imagine it to be thoughtful art or would your first thought be that it seemed like uncomfortable porn? Would you think it just a beautiful expression of humanity, or would you get a vague feeling that someone is getting his jollies from these pictures and it might be the so-called artist. And would it seem like a celebration or exploitation of children?
Robert Koehler of Variety is upset at Director Mark Pellington over his new film, “
Columnist Tom Eblen of the Lexington, Kentucky Herald-Leader has proven to the world that he doesn’t know what a “right” is. He thinks it is something that you can “compromise” over. He thinks it is something that can be endlessly tinkered with. He seems not to realize that a “right” is something that is supposed to be insoluble, unchangeable, permanent. Worse, he has equated an American right to the horse raising industry as if the business decisions made by a handful of ranchers is somehow comparable to the observance and maintenance of our rights. Ridiculously he says that if we don’t compromise this one right, our 2nd Amendment right, it will be taken away. And hypocritically, after using fear to urge us to compromise, he accuses those of us interested in safeguarding the 2nd Amendment of using “fear” tactics.