If you’re a blogger, you are probably using one or the other or in my case- both: Copyscape and Creative Commons. I have decided to tackle the subjects after receiving an anonymous comment on my previous post about the two (I am inimical to anonymous comments!! You have a name, for crying out loud use it!). It was an irrelevant note, from (I assume) a blogger with a Philippine IP address who just sort of ‘ordered’ me:

“You can not use copyscape and Creative Commons at the same time. Copyscape goes against sharing which is what Creative Commons is all about. search Free Culture Movement, open source, GPL, linux, IBM, Creative Commons are all part of the movement, copyscape is not because it is against it.”

Aaah, yeah… Nevermind the syntax! Earth calling nameless person! Aside from the fact that your comment was totally unrelated to my post, you have no idea what you’re blabbering about. Your comment is an absolute farce and the arguments totally neither here nor there. But thanks to you, I now have a blog post!

Copyscape is against sharing? You seriously need to have someone translate what you have been reading because your interpretation of the concept is out of this world! You are insinuating that Copyscape is THE bad guy because it doesn’t allow COPYING, STEALING or your term to put it subtlety, sharing. Your comment rather reads that you are talking “sharing” to actually mean copying or stealing as one and the same! By saying that, you are suggesting that Creative Commons is part of the movement that tolerates stealing or copying! Do you seriously believe that?

For the benefit of the lost confused nameless person, let me share what I know on the subject. To quote Bob Edwards, “a little learning is a dangerous thing but a lot of ignorance is just as bad.” I beg your indulgence as this post could get lengthy but I sure hope you will learn something from it.

Clearly I claim to be no expert on this but reading with understanding on Copyright, Copyscape and Creative Commons can go far. This is not rocket science! Some people just don’t “get it” (pun intended!) and that’s all right. I don’t get most things. However, there is more, much more to just copying and pasting the Copyscape and Creative Commons buttons to place on our blogs.

See most bloggers find the buttons, thinks it’s cool, copies the code and then that’s that. That’s not how it works! I know why I placed these banners on my website! There’s no excuse why one doesn’t know the purpose of it on their websites.

WHAT IS COPYSCAPE?

Copyscape is a TOOL.

It is not some kind of law or rule. It is not an agenda or part of any “movement”. It is just like any other BUSINESS website promoting something, in this case it is promoting a service to find duplicates of your content to protect you against online plagiarism and theft. Plain and simple. There have been contentions about its usage, purpose and usefulness because it is only afterall dependent on Google’s API- meaning it’s just the same as typing in keywords in Google as Copyscape uses the same database, therefore you get the same results!!

On the Copyscape website you are greeted with a search bar just like Google’s that says: “Search for copies of your page on the Web.” Half of the time, you get useless results because it does find ALL duplicates regardless if it’s just snippets of your own submission to MyBloglog, BlogCatalog, Technorati and other networking sites or quotes and references you made from other sites. It couldn’t tell the difference on what’s plagiarized or not- just duplicates of anything.

Since it is dependent on Google’s algorithms, it only shows you the latest popular and most recent duplicates it could find. What happens if the ones plagiarized are your posts from a year before that is not too popular? You’re doomed. Of course I wouldn’t know what happens when you get the premium service, how reliable the results will be extending your searches to limitless as opposed to just 10 free. I have no interest in paying $0.05 per search (Premium service) to find out if other people stole any of my articles or not. There are other ways to know for FREE.
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Hi. My name is Mae (Hi, Mae!) and I’m a Search Addict! The 12-step program does not apply in this case because I don’t want to recover from it.

I’m most fascinated with Google specifically as a search engine- its seemingly limitless power over the internet and how they came to be. Google has 100 and so products available and some of their notable services include: Gmail, Google Checkout, Picasa, YouTube, Google Gears, Blogger, Search, Adsense, Adwords, Apps, Docs, Gadgets, Lively, Knol, Orkut, Reader, Alerts, Base, Analytics, Goog-411, Friend Connect, Jaiku, Feedburner, iGoogle, and Google earth. The average internet user probably avail of at least 5 Google products! I use 11! How many Yahoo! do you use? I use 3!

In such a short time, they have become a global phenomenon that anyone who has access to the internet knows what or who Google is. In time, it will equate or even surpass iconic names like Coke (Coca-cola) and Kodak- the two being the most famous brand names in the world. Even in the most remote areas, in the outskirts of Asia to the borders of South Africa- people know Coca-Cola (Koka Kona)!

This fascination often leads to frustration as I become more and more dependent to this demi-god. They continuously dominate search and come as the number one search provider in the US commanding 62% share of the pie, according to the latest 2008 Neilsen Online Report. Yahoo comes in second with only 17.5%. Huge, huge difference!

ENTER SCOUR!
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Or is it too early to pass judgment?! I decided to try out Cuil (pronounced as cool) today. After over a week since going live online, I figured it’s the perfect time to check it- now that the hype has died down. I am extremely disappointed.

In case you have not heard the buzz, Cuil is a new search engine, supposedly bigger, better and more intelligent than Google search or any other search engines combined! It sounds like a really promising venture since the brains behind the site are former Google top employees and from other high profile companies. In its first 48-hours it boasted about 50 million searches from all over the world, not bad for a start-up company; Google apparently handles about 3 times more (150 million?!) searches per day.
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Had the chance to surf for a few hours earlier and the regular site I go to over at Blogs That Follow posted an article on Google Adsense’ new Terms and Conditions. As it goes, Google is implementing a mandatory posting of a Privacy Policy on our websites scaring warning readers that we have third parties like Google Ads, sneaking dropping cookies and crumbs onto their computers without their knowledge while browsing our sites. It is required for all websites using Google Adsense- no exceptions.

I haven’t even checked my Google Adsense account in months!!

And so there it was, the updated Terms of Service (TOS) giving me until May 25th 2008 to either accept or decline the new conditions. Yay, I was just in the nick of time! If I hadn’t seen the article and opened my account on May 26th, would that have meant my Google Adsense account is toast? I wouldn’t know.

As this TOS is standard in so many websites we register at like community sites, social networking or email providers, you probably have clicked “Yes, I read and accept the above Terms and Conditions” the same way I do- without so much as read a paragraph of what it is I am agreeing at- thinking it all says the same thing and it won’t affect usage. I mean really, to open a generic yahoo or gmail account you need to click “I agree” to whatever it is stipulated otherwise you can’t create an account.

Our hands are tied. So we accept.

I accepted the TOS and installed the Privacy Policy plugin recommended at Blogs That Follow.

On a related note: Last week, I chanced upon disclosurepolicy.org. I deem it important to let my readers know what I get for blogging on this site and created my own Disclosure Policy. Well, I get basically nothing– yet! All the moneytization on this blog comes from Google Adsense and related companies posted as boxed ads and I have not cashed out a single centavo to date! I don’t mind.

Why place ads when I’m not earning? Third party ads for me creates balance on the whole make up of the blog. This blog would appear drab without it as opposed to those saying ads are messy. The ads are in a way unobtrusive, totally independent of a blog’s content. It’s just there for readers to click or not, to notice or ignore. Content, however requires more of our insights. We make more conscious efforts to choose what to post and what not to write.

It goes without saying then that, no- I don’t and will not endorse any product or company in exchange for money by way of writing and posting an article about it. When I endorse something, it will be because I believe on the product and will gladly rave about it- for FREE. On the other hand, if I dislike a product, service or company- rest assured I will rant about it and no third party can say I can’t since it’s bloody paid! Ergo, you will not read anything endorsed by me that I have not tried, heard, tasted, seen, felt or experienced first hand!

Since we were on the subject, I thought I should clear that out for transparency. There you go. I present my Disclosure and Privacy Policy and admitting to being the last to know.

Jim Killeen, Executive Producer/Director
Google Me, The Movie

We’ve all done it! Admittedly, I do. It’s among my fave pastimes in the internet: Googling my name, my family’s or somebody else’s name. It’s always interesting what one can find by Googling a familiar name. It’s even more surprising to find a name exactly the same as ours.

For Filipinos and I guess for people with Spanish lineage, it is very rare to find names that’s exactly theirs. Blame it on our parents who seemed to find pleasure in blessing us with 2 or more! I have 4 names (including my middle name, which is actually my mother’s maiden name) with Maria as the first name. My three other sisters have Maria for their first names as well and they have at least 2 more excluding our last name.

In America and most parts of the world, people have only one first name, a middle name (that is actually just any other name-not from their mother’s maiden name!) and a last name (which could be taken from the father’s or the mother’s). Most often, they would drop the middle name altogether and just use a first and last name as in James Smith, Charles Davis, or Jennifer Taylor. Much easier to Google and finding a match, isn’t it? Sure beats finding the exact person with the 4 names I have!

This guy from Los Angeles, Jim Killeen takes Googling his own name to the next level! He made it into a movie! It’s the latest buzzword now here in America, “Google Me”! Like you and me, he Googled his name and found a list of his namesakes. This lead to an idea of what if I track and meet these people? He did and thus transformed his remarkable journey from different parts of the world into a documentary-movie that premiered in YouTube last Friday entitled Google Me.

“What do a cop, a swinger, an Irish priest, an engineer, a father of eight, an Aussie and a gambler have in common?” says the YouTube description. The documentary of course, stars 7 guys named Jim Killeen.

I was really impressed with the whole concept! Considering that we all have done it: Googling, that is. Yet, this guy thinks, what’s really in a name? what could I possibly have in common with these guys who have the same name as I have? Is it just the name? By realizing the idea, he met, connected and bonded with 6 other Jim Killeen and you know they each have found a friend in each other for life. This is another one of those, if you have an idea- do something about it! Follow where your heart takes you! The result may pleasantly surprise you and impact your life forever!

The 90-minute film is still available in YouTube for FREE for a limited time. The official website sells the Google Me DVD for $29.85 including shipping throughout the United States.

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ON THE SIDE: I am back from a long, very satisfying vacation in the Philippines! I am back to reality!