Blogging’s too good for them

Paul Carr Monday June 9, 2003 The Guardian

Walking through the streets of Blogistan this week, I couldn’t help noticing a certain tension in the air. The natives were restless. The saloon bars were abuzz with nervous chatter. And it wasn’t about Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Something was most definitely up. But what? And who was this Eric Schmidt fellow that everyone was talking about? And why did I seem to be the only person in the world without his own weblog? Questions, questions.

Well it turns out that Schmidt is the CEO of Google (who knew?) and, if rumours are to be believed, he has plans to move weblogs out of the search engine’s main index and into a separate, less highly trafficked directory. What an absolute cad. Or at least he would be if the rumours weren’t just speculation – the result of an enthusiastic leap of blogic by IT news site the Register, who suggested that when Google launches its new weblog search tool, it may also decide to purge bloggers from its main database. Possibly.

No need for ordinary Blogistanis to panic just yet then – but the rumours did give internet experts an excuse to get all het up about the undue prominence of weblogs in Google search results. No matter what you search for – celebrity gossip, weapons of mass destruction, insect recipes, donkey porn – you can bet your bottom dollar that above the research papers and official news sources you’ll find a load of bloggers putting in their two pennyworth.

“Foul!” cry the blogger haters, “these two-bit amateur diarists are taking over the internet – it’s time we shoved them off into their own search engine, where they can do no more harm.” Just imagine… no more illiterate teenage wannabes clogging up the world’s most popular search engine with their idiotic “which Sex And The City character are you?” quizzes and incestuous links to their mates. No more American neo-Nazis babbling on about the Dixie Chicks and inciting racial hatred. No more tree-huggers talking about henna tattoos, home schooling and tofu. Just a list of proper sites full of proper information, written by proper journalists and proper academics. Fantastic. And if people want to hang out with Joe Blogs then fine, they can just click the appropriate tab and wallow until their brains turn to mush.

The only slight problem is that, despite what some commentators would have you believe, bloggers are not the scourge of the internet. In fact they are the internet. The whole point of the web was to allow anyone, regardless of budget or influence, to share information with the rest of the world. It certainly wasn’t supposed to be a giant electronic shopping mall or an interactive brand extension for major broadcasters and publishers.

Also, there seems to be an assumption that all weblogs are pointless, self-absorbed amateur journals that can be lumped together under a single search tab. This despite the fact that an increasing number of high-profile journalists and publishers are using weblog software as an easy and cost-effective way to deliver first-rate, original content to thousands – or even millions – of readers. Take Salam Pax, the Iraqi who has just been recruited by this newspaper on the strength of his wartime weblog.

While my favourite tabloid columnist, Tony “idiot” Parsons spent the conflict in front of his computer bashing out page after page of laddish nonsense for the Mirror’s unique readership of warmongering peaceniks, Salam was in Baghdad, using his blog to drive home the realities of war to a vast international audience. And yet, if the haters had their way Salam would be dragged off into the bloghetto while Parsons remained a free man. What kind of justice is that?

Do they really believe that it’s possible to separate the web into legitimate information sites (good) and weblogs (evil) or that by purging bloggers from Google, the internet will suddenly become more relevant and more useful? Not only is this hilariously simplistic but it’s also diverting attention from the real problem – that the web is drowning in a sea of crap, created partly by the less literate webloggers but also by biased media outlets, hate groups, pointless personal homepages, porn sites, multilevel marketers and out and out loons.

If Google really wants to improve its service then it should forget about trying to treat bloggers as one homogenous, problematic group and start developing intelligent search robots that are capable of separating the wheat from the chaff across the entire web. These robots should: a) look at the actual content of a site and decide whether the content is useful and worth reading, b) group it together with other relevant sites to give surfers a comprehensive overview of all the available information on whatever subject they’re interested in and c) ensure that these handy packages of links and information appear at the top of the search results, above all the unfiltered rubbish.

A utopian technological fantasy? Not really. In fact these robots already exist. They’re called webloggers. And without them Google’s index would be a much poorer place.

· Paul Carr is editor of The Friday Thing (www.thefridaything.co.uk). His new print publication, The London News Review, launches in August

As you’ll recall from Monday, I bought my Nortel for about $0.72 and I just sold at today’s close for about $1.07 (US Priced). Not a bad return for a four day investment. I suspect tomorrow Nortel will trend downward, given that it’s a Friday and there will be some profit takers. If that happens, I will buy in again tomorrow afternoon or Monday AM. I still believe in my original investment strategy, however, and Nortel is not a long term hold for me. Next big announcement and I’m out for sure, possibly for good.

Maybe I can rebuild my RRSP just trading this one stock. I just inflated it by 45%. 🙂

-Ian.

—— http://biz.yahoo.com/rc/021024/tech_nortel_stock_3.html Reuters Nortel shares race higher as cash concerns ease Thursday October 24, 3:05 pm ET By Franco Pingue

(Adds analyst comment, updates share price. Figures in U.S. dollars unless noted)

TORONTO, Oct 24 (Reuters) – Shares of Nortel Networks Corp. (Toronto:NT.TO – News; NYSE:NT – News) charged higher on Thursday as fears that the company’s cash reserves were drying up began to ease, while some investors rushed to cover short positions.

ADVERTISEMENT Nortel shares, which have soared 149 percent since touching a low of 65 Canadian cents on Oct. 10, were up 26 Canadian cents, or 18 percent, at C$1.67 on the Toronto Stock Exchange.

In New York, the shares were ahead 17 cents, or 19 percent, at $1.07.

Short selling occurs when investors borrow shares and sell them, hoping to buy them back at a lower price. When markets rise, short sellers must quickly buy back the shares before the price runs too high.

“Things can only keep going down forever if you think they are going bankrupt,” said John Wilson, an analyst with RBC Capital Markets.

“Now that people are realizing that Nortel is not going to go bankrupt, or that there is a very low risk of that happening, then they are willing to pay a much higher price for the stock.”

Last week Nortel, one of the world’s largest telecom equipment makers, posted a narrower third-quarter loss, in line with expectations, and said it was on track to return to profit.

Wilson, who has an “outperform” rating on Nortel shares with a $2 target price, also said that he does not expect spending in the tech industry to rebound next year.

“Next year we fully believe (capital expenditures) will be down again, spending will be down and Nortel’s revenues will be down, but as long as you don’t think they’re going bankrupt there is a price for everything.”

Benoit Chotard, an analyst with National Bank Financial, who feels Nortel’s stock was oversold recently, also does not see a spending recovery in the battered technology industry until 2004.

“The perception was too negative on Nortel,” said Benoit Chotard, an analyst with National Bank Financial. “Things are much better than what was anticipated in the context of a very tough environment.”

Chotard has a “market perform” rating on Nortel shares with a target price of C$1.50.

($1=$1.56 Canadian)

On Monday, October 21, 2002, at 07:52 AM, Ian Andrew Bell wrote:

> Nortel is probably going to experience a rally today based on news of
> a Wireless deal in China worth $280M. But they could experience a
> more sustained rally over the next two weeks as rumours fly around
> about their intended reaction to their plight.
>
> Now, I have virtually nothing to substantiate these predictions, so
> please take them with a grain of salt:
>
> 1) I think that Nortel has put their Enterprise products & services
> group, which is profitable, in play. I suspect their goal is to sell
> it for some quick cash. I would expect this to get between $5Bn and
> $7Bn and would stem the tide of impending doom for several years.
> 2) I think that they’ll use part of that money to write down and
> shutter the Optical business. Beneficiaries of this will include
> Juniper and to a lesser extent Cisco.
>
> I think that this puts the entire company very much in play for an
> acquisition by Cisco or Alcatel, except for one thing: cash in the
> bank.
>
> So, this morning I bought Juniper and Nortel, and we’ll see what
> happens.
>
> -Ian.
>
> ———–
> FoIB mailing list — Bits, Analysis, Digital Group Therapy
> https://ianbell.com:8888/foib.html

———–

Meanwhile in Canada: Nortel Takes Newbridge? August 31, 1999 6:22 AM EDT

By Bob Beaty Canada Editor

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There’s been a lot of ink spilled over network equipment stocks in Canada. And now rumors are surfacing out of the US that we may have one fewer.

Not that it will cause a huge ripple in the Force mind you, but there’s some speculation surfacing that giant Nortel Networks (quote, chart, profile) may well take a run at Newbridge Networks (quote, chart, profile).

Makes sense, as the former is about 20 times larger than the latter: Nortel could do the deal for pocket change. And even though Newbridge’s fortunes are improving, Nortel would still not have to pay anywhere near the old high of $60 per share for the company if it moves quickly.

NN currently trades at about $27, so there’s likely to be a healthy premium, but given Nortel’s size and market share, Newbridge can be taken for parts. It’s hardly a meaningful competitor.

Neither company had a stellar 1998. Nortel lost nearly C$1.50 per share and Newbridge posted a C$0.10 loss. Both took a major earnings hit last year with Nortel showing a -28% three-year performance.

-Ian.