If They Google You, Do You Win?
Although polls can predict an election results, another big indicator of whom voters will support in this election is Google searches. There is strong correlation between frequency of people searching for a candidate and voting for the candidate. For instance, in the primary elections, Google search volume for a candidate in a state has predicted […]
Game theory to the rescue
http://qz.com/797996/a-combination-of-machine-learning-and-game-theory-is-being-used-to-fight-elephant-poaching-in-uganda/%60 As the discussion in class pointed out, game theory entails making strategic decisions based on the possible decisions of your opponent. As the concept goes, it is being applied to different ranges of problems. The major challenge we are facing at the moment is the degradation of our environment and the threat of endangered […]
Game Theory and the Republican Party
I’m sure many of us have been confused as to why members of the Republican party are just now revoking their support for Trump even though he has a history of racist and sexist speech. Some of us have also been confused for a long time about why Republicans supported Trump’s nomination in the first […]
The Influence of Google
Google’s influence on our modern day culture is unparalleled. It is safe to say that there is nothing that does what Google does as well as Google does it. By that, I mean searching. Someone does not say that they will “Yahoo” or “Bing” something; they say that they will Google it. It is this […]
Information Cascades in the GOP
This article discusses how information cascade plays a role in the current election, particularly with respect to the GOP. For several republican law makers, the endorsements have been switching around pretty frequently. At first, many were unsure about how legitimate Trump was in the running, so an endorsement for him was somewhat rarer. They care […]
Why Facebook uses VCG rather than Google’s GSP
https://www.wired.com/2015/09/facebook-doesnt-make-much-money-couldon-purpose/ This article explores and compares the Vickrey-Clarke-Groves mechanism that Facebook uses to Google’s Generalized Second Price, as well as reasoning behind the choices. According to Facebook Engineer, John Hegeman, the ideal type of advertisements make it such that users see whichever advertisements that is most relevant to them. This would result in more clicks […]
How the Internet Aided Ken Bone’s Rise and Fall as an Internet Meme
America’s reaction to Ken Bone – a plump, mustachioed undecided voter dressed in a red sweater who asked a question on energy policy at the 2nd presidential debate – was swift and immediate. Short clips of him addressing the presidential candidates and taking photos afterward were shared millions of times across social media, as his […]
Is Search Engine Optimization a Thing of the Past?
Article: http://searchengineland.com/seo-not-dead-just-shapeshifter-261188 Search engine optimization is the process of using different techniques to boost the amount of traffic to a website by achieving a high rank in the results page of a search engine. There have been several groups and individuals who reported that this process is “dead”. However, the author of this article argues […]
Naive Bayes Classifiers
In lecture, we learned about Bayes’ Theorem, an important result in probability theory that links the probability of an event happening given that a related event has happened to the probability of that related event happening. Bayes’ Theorem can be written formally as follows: where P(A | B) is the probability that event A happens […]
How does online advertising work?
Link to the online article: http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/129726-Google-AdWords-Ad-Rank-Impacts-PPC-Success In class, we learned that having the highest bid will always guarantee the first advertisement spot. However, in reality, things are more complicated. Google devised an added procedure to determine which ad will show using a software called AdWords. Google has used this tool to a great degree to […]
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