[7:33am - the images aren’t showing up large enough for you to see the detail. I’ll fix today; that’s what you get when you schedule a post and can’t test it.
8:05am – fixed]
At 8:42am ET on July 20, 2012 I get an MSNBC email news alert: "Breaking news: Colorado shooting suspect ID'd as James Holmes, 24, of Aurora, who is in police custody"
The story is here: 12 shot dead at 'Dark Knight Rises' screening in Aurora, Colorado
I'm curious, of course. What's this James Holmes look like? So I Google him:
| 8:42am Image Search for 'James Holmes' July 20, 2012 at 8:42am when I got an MSNBC alert identifying the suspect was in custody. James Holmes the actor is the the top ranking James Holmes. |  |
| 11am Notice a video screen capture of the suspect’s car is appearing. |  |
| 12:07pm |  |
| 12:28pm |  |
| 1:13pm By 1:13pm, James Holmes the actor is displaced by James Holmes the suspect as the first "James Holmes" that appears. |  |
| 1:30pm By 1:30pm, most of the pictures above the fold are of James Holmes the suspect. Other James Holmeses continue to appear, perhaps because millions of people are clicking on them (like I did) to find out who the other guys named James Holmes are; and of course before James Holmes the suspect showed up, anyone named James Holmes could be mistaken for the suspect and gain SEO value due to click activity. |  |
Started: 2012-07-20
This is a difficult topic to comment on in light of the tragic subject, but the google activity is a fascinating example of how information is packaged, if you will...crowdsourced? Somehow it reminds me of how NBC is using tape-delay in the olympics, while we can hardly help getting the news in advance, even if we're not really interested.
ReplyDeleteIt is a difficult subject indeed; I usually preface my comments on stories involving so much sadness with something to that affect, but I didn't do that here. Sometimes tragedies are so mind-numbingly senseless, no amount of context can soften it. I suspect Google was watching this closely and that some results were filtered out. Also, Google of course knows my search patterns, and it could have been taking that into account. Others likely saw different results.
ReplyDeleteThe tape delay is an interesting practice. NBC Evening News still asks you to turn away from your set if you don't want to see the results of the day, as if it's 20 years ago and there is no Internet and most people are still getting their news in a 1/2 hour chunk at the end of the day. It's nostalgic for me, but the generation behind me may be scratching their heads.
--c0