It's an odd thing to say about a business that spends so much of its time online and is so skilled at search, video (through YouTube) and all that stuff. But for me, Google has only half an idea of what it's sitting on and a number of sites out-do it. This one, for example. Until yesterday.
Which was when the behemoth announced - or conceded - that it was using human editors rather than an algorithm. As an experiment.
So you get this colossus, this huge company with all of its resources and the entire web at its disposal, and suddenly it's offering me the chance to get recommended news stories from a person who's pre-sifted them.
This is of course how social networking, easily the biggest thing to hit since the Internet began, works. I follow you, I find you interesting, I follow your links.
Had Google woken up then? Finally? The company that hasn't quite made it with Buzz (but there's still time) realising that it's people that make the Internet, not the technology?
Er...no. The bots will be back and there are no plans to make the move permanent, I'm afraid - this was purely an experiment.
Pity. I thought for a moment that Google had finally twigged.
