[Sigia-l] Junk science or just lazy?

[Frank Shepard]

Ziya wrote:
"since when did word frequency counting become synonymous with
analytical insight?"

Eric responded:
"Er...pretty much since the dawn of search engines. This is also why
we include meta keywords in our code and tag clouds in our layouts."

All due respect, but I don't think that citing the use of meta
keywords offers much support for the idea that word frequency =
analytical insight. Google stopped bothering with them for a reason.
Besides, search engines don't claim to identify "analytical insight"
anyway. Keyword frequency might indicate some form of "relevance"
(c.f., AdWords and Adsense), but *this* relevance and insight are
worlds apart. Otherwise, teachers wouldn't have to grade papers
anymore.

Best,
Frank


On 8/10/07, Eric Reiss <elr at e-reiss.com> wrote:
> Ziya wrote:
> "since when did word frequency counting become synonymous with
> analytical insight?"
>
> Er...pretty much since the dawn of search engines. This is also why
> we include meta keywords in our code and tag clouds in our layouts.
>
> What Rosenfeld Media did was certainly not junk science, but it does
> leave some key questions unanswered. And that doesn't make it lazy
> either, merely incomplete.
>
> The Achilles Heel in the current report is that none of us really
> know how much (or little) the folks outside our precious community
> actually use these particular words and concepts - including "UX". If
> people don't use these words, then they won't appear in a search.
>
> What if they had the audacity to use other words to represent similar
> concepts? After all, we muck about with terms like "site map," "site
> structure," "hierarchy" and "taxonomy." Why should the "lay"
> population be any different?
>
> I'm more and more convinced we're not all speaking the same language
> yet. In fact, only yesterday, I was at a top-level meeting (read
> polished conference tables and cufflinks) where I found myself in the
> unfamiliar position of having to explain a "wiki." And these folks
> knew a lot about e-commerce; they weren't total newbies.
>
> Let's face it, even "information architecture" isn't exactly a
> mainstream term, despite the fact we've been ranting about it for
> well over a decade.
>
> Cheers,
> Eric Reiss
> FatDUX Copenhagen
> www.fatdux.com
>
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> April 10-14, 2008, Miami, Florida
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