There is an article today on Techcrunch about “hand crafted content”. With a lot of people writing to get linked, rather than writing for the love of it (or really digging and linking good pieces across the web for those who link) the author believes fast food content on the web will prevail. “My advice to readers is just this – get ready for it, because you’ll be reading McDonalds five times a day in the near future.” Of particular interest in the article to me, was the companies who are employing content writers for SEO juice. Clearly that is smart for traffic, but does it not completely dumb things down for readers? Is it a problem? Do aggregators and others have a responsibility to try and ignore fast food content?
With regard to the interesting discussion below on data and Trakus (the comments were awesome, in my opinion) Bob from Trakus responded via email, telling us a little bit about the organization.
“Anyone interested in Trakus data can simply register on the Trakus website for a complimentary T-Net account. Automated methods are also supported for development partners.
Trakus has the endorsement of Equibase, the industry’s official database for North America , and has been rigorously tested to earn this approval. The data belongs to the racetracks where it is collected, and not to Trakus. Ultimately it is the track’s discretion what data is provided to end-users. In some cases it may simply be due to limitations on resources, or will become more relevant upon aggregation with an expanded installed base.
In addition to the racetracks, the data gathered by the Trakus system is also provided to industry partners including Equibase, Standardbred of Canada, France Galop, the Turkish Jockey Club, and various others. Our focus is to get racecourses outfitted, and to make this data and the new category of applications it enables available to all interested parties.
The present embodiment of the technology is a result of more than 10 years of proprietary development efforts, and has earned the company U.S. Patent No. 6,204,813. The European Patent Office has also granted the corresponding patent for all of Europe . Our development team is responsible for the design and maintenance of the hardware, firmware, software, and remote operation.”
This part: “The data belongs to the racetracks where it is collected, and not to Trakus”, makes me wonder. I get the feeling that if I sit at a racetrack and write down how far a horse is back at the first call, I am going to met by the data police and be led away in handcuffs. But maybe that’s just me.
Horseplayers and race fans like to complain a lot. As we all know, a rant on a blog or forum usually won’t get you anywhere. Although it seems like common sense, there is a good way and a bad way to be heard on social networks. Mollie Vandor at Mashable looks at a few do’s and don’ts.
Maybe you twitterites knew about adding a “+” to your Twitter urls to get traffic info, but I didn’t. Seth Godin showed me how.
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I stand corrected on the proprietary nature of this tech and after reading the patent itself (.pdf), I wonder if there isn’t a whole lot more useful handicapping data being collected by Equibase that hasn’t been rolled out yet. Whether that data is accurate or not remains a question IMHO. Interference, packet loss, etc are a lot more of a problem today than 10 years ago (when this was accepted) with XX times as many devices fighting or straight up overpowering other, weaker signals.
Interesting stuff, regardless. Installation, upkeep, etc probably aren’t cheap either for Equibase, which makes one wonder if the data that could theoretically be collected and provided to players is *that* useful & accurate, why haven’t they rolled out new tools to start getting back a return on their investment in Trakus?