Tamara de Lempicka Google Doodle

I don't normally comment on Google Doodles, but this woman is striking, and I love Art Deco.

Meet Tamara de Lempicka, the Polish art deco painter honoured in today's Google Doodle https://t.co/g1MLssSb5x pic.twitter.com/ZYyCE4bdsX

— World Tech News (@TechNewsTWS) May 16, 2018

Today's Google Doodle commemorates Tamara de Lempicka (1898-1980), whose glorious portraits include striking interwar fashion images such as 'Young Lady with Gloves (Girl in a Green Dress)', 1930 pic.twitter.com/cR2tjYTuzM

— Jayne Shrimpton (@JayneShrimpton) May 16, 2018

Paintings by Tamara de Lempicka (1898-1980) #HBD
“I live life in the margins of society, and the rules of normal society don't apply to those who live on the fringe.”

Portrait of Ira
Self Portrait
Portrait of Marquis D’afflitto
Young Girl in Green#tamaradelempicka #artists pic.twitter.com/WCZuDbMd7E

— Guy S. Ricketts (@GuyRicketts) May 16, 2018

Internet Apocalypse

This gives me a bad feeling.

At London's Daily Mail, "Google Blackout Sees Global Web Traffic Plunge by 40%."

Our lives are intwined with Google --- mine especially so. Good thing though I missed this black out. I wasn't affected a bit. Seems though that markets need to correct for this kind of thing, and so far they're not.

Google Class and Privacy Worries

At LAT, "Google Glass sees all -- and that raises privacy concerns."

Gustav Klimt Google Doodle

I recognized the artwork immediately. The L.A. County Museum of Art held a Klimpt exhibit back in 2006. The museum hoped to make Klimpt a permanent exhibit but it was impossible, considering how much the works got at auction. I especially like the main portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer. See: "Lauder Pays $135 Million, a Record, for a Klimt Portrait."

The doodle's discussed at the Guardian UK: "Gustav Klimt honoured with Google Doodle."

See also Deutsche Welle, "Klimt was sexy, but authentic."

IMAGE CREDIT: Wikimedia Commons.

BONUS: There's even a book on this story, The Lady in Gold: The Extraordinary Tale of Gustav Klimt's Masterpiece, Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer.

J.C. Penney's Black Hat Search Scheme on Google

I'd call it a search strategy, but J.C. Penney denies any knowledge of this Google link-bait scheme. Either way, read the whole thing, at NYT, "Search Optimization and Its Dirty Secrets":

Does the collective wisdom of the Web really say that Penney has the most essential site when it comes to dresses? And bedding? And area rugs? And dozens of other words and phrases?

The New York Times asked an expert in online search, Doug Pierce of Blue Fountain Media in New York, to study this question, as well as Penney’s astoundingly strong search-term performance in recent months. What he found suggests that the digital age’s most mundane act, the Google search, often represents layer upon layer of intrigue. And the intrigue starts in the sprawling, subterranean world of “black hat” optimization, the dark art of raising the profile of a Web site with methods that Google considers tantamount to cheating.

Despite the cowboy outlaw connotations, black-hat services are not illegal, but trafficking in them risks the wrath of Google. The company draws a pretty thick line between techniques it considers deceptive and “white hat” approaches, which are offered by hundreds of consulting firms and are legitimate ways to increase a site’s visibility. Penney’s results were derived from methods on the wrong side of that line, says Mr. Pierce. He described the optimization as the most ambitious attempt to game Google’s search results that he has ever seen.

“Actually, it’s the most ambitious attempt I’ve ever heard of,” he said. “This whole thing just blew me away. Especially for such a major brand. You’d think they would have people around them that would know better.”

And check Robert Stacy McCain's post, linking this to blog optimization: "Stupid Google Tricks."