6 ms·
50% of the text is the fascinating story of Ramanujan. Unfortunately, the other 50% is a series of shameless product placements for the author's software and bo
by tetromino_ 11y ago
50% of the text is the fascinating story of Ramanujan. Unfortunately, the other 50% is a series of shameless product placements for the author's software and boasts about the author's personal and intellectual accomplishments. The story, the boasts, and the ads are all mixed together, so reading the thing all the way to the end was seriously painful.
- Dawny33 11y agoTrue. Maybe, skimming through the article without bothering about the hyperlinks would be so much better. He went to the extent of hyperlinking the words `Madras` and `Sanskrit` to their WolframAlfa search links :/
- willvarfar 11y agoSo you mean google employees should put bing links in their blog posts rather than google links?
- BasDirks 11y agoThey should not put any links to a damn search engine in such texts. If people want to Google "Sanskrit", I'm sure they will manage.
- dsfuoi 11y agoSo according to your logic, link to this article should be removed and anyone wanting to find it should manage. I also find it delightfully ironic that you used the term to Google "Sanskrit". and not to WolframAlpha "Sanskrit". Hypocrisy is oozing out of your comment.
- BasDirks 10y agoI was not very careful in phrasing my previous comment. I was thinking of a situation where a Google employee puts links in the actual copy of an article not primarily about search engines. I find it more permissible in the case of WolframAlpha, because it calls itself a knowledge engine, and provides carefully curated content. Google is a more generic beast, and I just don't think it makes sense to litter a text with hyperlinks. If I see a link, I will presume that the author wants me to click it and read it. If it is very general "further reading", I prefer having these presented after the main material. A lot of preferences and assumptions on my part. My gripe with OP is how it integrates the product into the text. I like hyperlinks, but I prefer separation of copy and generic resources.
- linhchi 11y agohaha :D This is typical. I sign up my email and always get advertising mails in disguise of good cause and buzzwords. SW is very keen on selling his expensive baby. And I think he is a rare combination of genius and salesman. So maybe Trump can sell his presidency, who knows.