No more miserable failure
Public opinion aside, at least Bush is no longer a miserable failure on Google, after the company tweaked its search engine to neutralize "Google bombs." This type of prank, in which bloggers linked to Bush's White House profile page with the words "miserable failure" to increase the page's Google rank for that phrase, caused many users to believe Google was making a political statement. Google ignored these as harmless until the misconceptions about its role made the company reconsider. The fix is done with an algorithm, not by hand, as with all Google searches; Yahoo and Ask.com results still show Bush's bio as one of the top links. Search expert Danny Sullivan explains why this was a long time coming. [Google Blog; Search Engine Land]
Warning: This TV is junk in two years
Three U.S. Representatives are proposing a bill that would put a warning on analog TVs stating that they will need an added converter box to receive over-the-air broadcasts. Beginning February 17, 2009, broadcasters are required to switch to a digital signal. Any large TV sold since July 2005 is digital-ready, as is any medium TV from March 2006 and small TV after this March. While this measure may help save some customers, it seems like plenty of TV-watchers will still be clueless when one day soon, their old TVs go blank. [Ars Technica]
Sundry
