Neil Pendock: January 2007
Author:
Neil Pendock
Published: 29 Jan 07
Reviewing Jean-Noël Jeanneney's book Google and the Myth of Universal Knowledge (U. Chicago Press, 2006), the Financial Times sets the stakes high: "In the postmodern world, the battleground is the intern
et. Here, search engines determine what tomorrow's generations will click on, learn and think." And perhaps even drink. And Google is the biggest digital Sherlock Holmes of them all. It's a typical
American success story of a couple of computer nerds commercializing a simple
idea for searching the internet and making billions, in spite of misspelling the
name of the large number (a googol is a one followed by 100 zeros) they chose
as company name.
The secret of Google is to assign webpages "page ranks" proportional to the number of other webpages that link to them. This simple algorithm is used by US funding agencies to rate academics - i.e. how many times they are cited by their peers versus the even simpler one used in SA of counting publications per academic, which rewards prolixity at the expense of profundity.
That said, the website www.googlefight.com uses the SA algorithm to decide on the merits of two propositions based on the number of Google returns, so it's a combination of both strategies. Type in "Cabernet Sauvignon" and "Shiraz", hit the "make a fight" button and two Keith Haringesque cartoon figures pummel it out. After a few seconds of "biff" and "phat", Cabernet Sauvignon is declared the winner with 12.4 million "hits" versus 7.23 million for Shiraz.
Likewise Meerlust beats Vergelegen by a margin of 130 000 to 125 000 hits, KWV knocks out Distell with 575 000 to 68 100 and in a battle of the bibulous billionaires, Johann Rupert triumphs over Christo Wiese by 907 000 to 39 500.
While Meerlust beating Vergelegen may or may not agree with the recent poll of the Grape webzine seeking to determine "what are South Africa's top wines and wineries", it certainly confirms that Hannes Myburgh's family winery has a higher internet profile than the showpiece cellar of the Anglo American mining conglomerate. Of course, not all the Google hits are necessarily positive, but as the PR said to the estate owner, all publicity is good publicity so long as they spell your name correctly - a prerequisite for a Google hit.
With retainers and consulting fees paid to some local wine writers the elephant in the tasting room of SA wine, googlefight has the unmistakable advantages of transparency and independence sorely lacking in some wine guides and e-mail polls of industry insiders. And the price is hard to beat.
Not that everyone is prepared to leave Google to it's own democratic devices. The subtitle of Jeannene's book is A view from Europe, and the struggle to save cultural diversity, the theme. Which is to be expected, when you see where it's coming from: Jeannene's day job is President of the Bibliothèque Nationale de France and his position is that Google will "end up cementing Anglo-American cultural hegemony across the internet, eroding European cultural heritages through the insidious linguistic uniformity of its database".
Indeed, the process has perhaps already started with American Jonathan Littell winning the Prix Goncourt, France's most prestigious literary award, for 2006. The first prize may only be €10, but to have an American writer on the podium alongside Marcel Proust (winner in 1913) and André Malraux (1933) would have given the judges something to chew on during their customary seven course lunch at Paris restaurant Drouant. So what if he called himself "Jean Petit" when he submitted the manuscript.
When it comes to matters vinous, high profile internet cuvées are definitely making waves. Take Matthew Jukes' The Wine List 2007 - arguably the most influential wine publication in terms of wine sales - choice of SA wines. Stormhoek, a wine with a witty website www.stormhoek.com, storms in with 3 out of 17 recommendations and blows Meerlust (and by transitivity, Vergelegen) out of the spittoon 281 000 to 130 000 on googlefight.
The secret of Google is to assign webpages "page ranks" proportional to the number of other webpages that link to them. This simple algorithm is used by US funding agencies to rate academics - i.e. how many times they are cited by their peers versus the even simpler one used in SA of counting publications per academic, which rewards prolixity at the expense of profundity.
That said, the website www.googlefight.com uses the SA algorithm to decide on the merits of two propositions based on the number of Google returns, so it's a combination of both strategies. Type in "Cabernet Sauvignon" and "Shiraz", hit the "make a fight" button and two Keith Haringesque cartoon figures pummel it out. After a few seconds of "biff" and "phat", Cabernet Sauvignon is declared the winner with 12.4 million "hits" versus 7.23 million for Shiraz.
Likewise Meerlust beats Vergelegen by a margin of 130 000 to 125 000 hits, KWV knocks out Distell with 575 000 to 68 100 and in a battle of the bibulous billionaires, Johann Rupert triumphs over Christo Wiese by 907 000 to 39 500.
While Meerlust beating Vergelegen may or may not agree with the recent poll of the Grape webzine seeking to determine "what are South Africa's top wines and wineries", it certainly confirms that Hannes Myburgh's family winery has a higher internet profile than the showpiece cellar of the Anglo American mining conglomerate. Of course, not all the Google hits are necessarily positive, but as the PR said to the estate owner, all publicity is good publicity so long as they spell your name correctly - a prerequisite for a Google hit.
With retainers and consulting fees paid to some local wine writers the elephant in the tasting room of SA wine, googlefight has the unmistakable advantages of transparency and independence sorely lacking in some wine guides and e-mail polls of industry insiders. And the price is hard to beat.
Not that everyone is prepared to leave Google to it's own democratic devices. The subtitle of Jeannene's book is A view from Europe, and the struggle to save cultural diversity, the theme. Which is to be expected, when you see where it's coming from: Jeannene's day job is President of the Bibliothèque Nationale de France and his position is that Google will "end up cementing Anglo-American cultural hegemony across the internet, eroding European cultural heritages through the insidious linguistic uniformity of its database".
Indeed, the process has perhaps already started with American Jonathan Littell winning the Prix Goncourt, France's most prestigious literary award, for 2006. The first prize may only be €10, but to have an American writer on the podium alongside Marcel Proust (winner in 1913) and André Malraux (1933) would have given the judges something to chew on during their customary seven course lunch at Paris restaurant Drouant. So what if he called himself "Jean Petit" when he submitted the manuscript.
When it comes to matters vinous, high profile internet cuvées are definitely making waves. Take Matthew Jukes' The Wine List 2007 - arguably the most influential wine publication in terms of wine sales - choice of SA wines. Stormhoek, a wine with a witty website www.stormhoek.com, storms in with 3 out of 17 recommendations and blows Meerlust (and by transitivity, Vergelegen) out of the spittoon 281 000 to 130 000 on googlefight.
