About the future of search

Chapter 1 of The Maltese Blackhat is live.

So, this story is about the future of search. Also about the future of advertising. Both in the real world and online.

I had an email asking how in the world I came up with the idea of a retro detective in some future world. And doing (supposed) blackhat stuff.

It’s a long story. I’ll try to keep it short, but you know me. Once I get on a roll it may take a while.

The germ of the idea came during a visit with a certain Mr. Bushmill. After the usual chit-chat stuff, the conversation turned to internet search. Not terribly unusual since I’m supposed to know somethings about search. The unusual came later.

So, the discussion is on search. Then the question ‘what if”‘ something happened. That was followed by ‘yeah, what would happen then?. Oh ya, then advertising would be the next victim.’

Search and internet advertising. You can see where this is going.

With the help of Mr. Bushmill, I formed a theory of the future of search and advertising. Where one giant entity controlled the whole shebang. And how that could affect the entire world.

Now, I thought, this should be discussed.

Forum? Not a chance. I’ve seen the way newbs were treated when they came up with something smelling of blasphemy. Some joker with 15,796 posts (or karma points, depending on your choice of forum) would shoot the scorn gun and any chance of useful discussions would be done for.

Blogs? Certainly not this one. After all, it takes someone on the ‘A list’ to make a meaningful statement these days. - - -note. . . I’m sure that I have been left off of the ‘A list’ by a simple oversight. Prolly just a clerical error which will be cleared up any day now. ROFL - - - <side note= I learned the other day that I have just barely missed being nominated for the ‘F list’. What an honor that would have been. Watch out Rand, I’m catching up.>

Where was I? So blogs and fora are out of the question. That leaves 1. buying an ad in the Wall Street Journal. or 2. something else.

Lacking the funds for the WSJ ad I elected to make my statement inside an innocent appearing, amateurish, sorta-fiction, story. To make more of a splash (in certain circles) I decided to make the protagonist a blackhat. And, include some well known blackhats as characters in the plot. This would guarantee some controversy and quite possibly get the world talking about what might happen . . . if?

The retro detective part is because I have long admired the characters created by some of the great crime authors of the past. I decided that I could copy some of the style from three or four of those authors and make something kinda/sorta readable. (the jury is still out on that last part)

So I did it. Mr. Bushmill (’White Label’ for short) is one convincing Irishman.

What about the future of search? What about the leader in internet ad serving? What if one giant entity controls all of search and ad serving? Where would that leave the casual webmaster? What about offline effects, if the giant entity started to dominate that venue?

If something like the above were to be starting now, what could/would we do? What should we do?

So many questions, so little time.

Read the intro and follow along. It could get interesting.

~dink