July 2014

Why has Google cast me into oblivion? 

What it means is that a blog I wrote in 2007 will no longer be findable when searching on Google in Europe.

Which means that to all intents and purposes the article has been removed from the public record, given that Google is the route to information and stories for most people.

So why has Google killed this example of my journalism?

Well it has responded to someone exercising his or her new “right to be forgotten”, following a ruling in May by the European Court of Justice that Google must delete “inadequate, irrelevant or no longer relevant” data from its results when a member of the public requests it.

Essentially, what this means is that someone that a writer has references in their online article could be removed because that person requested to be “removed” from Google search. Imagine if even 1/10 of the world’s population did this? Or if 1/4 of celebrities did this? How much journalism would be erased?

The Grid TO to stop publishing

“We launched The Grid about three years ago and it gained a real solid reputation as a top-quality, city magazine for the downtown Toronto core. It won all sorts of international and national design awards and writing awards,” says Bob Hepburn, the director of communications for Star Media Group.

“However, in this current advertising market, it’s been a difficult, challenging environment, not only for The Grid, but for other print and electronic media.”

This is a sad ongoing trend of great publications locally and internationally. Why is no one able to crack this new era of independent content media sustainably?

How a password changed my life

I still await very anxiously each month so I can change my password into something that I need to get done.

On a good note, this article is not what you’re thinking. It doesn’t start off like what you’re thinking. But it ends up being very inspiring and logical.