Gaming IMDB – The stupidity of crowds?

A CNET blog post by Harrison Hoffman reported on the efforts by fans to elevate the new Batman film The Dark Night to the number one position on IMDB’s list of the top 250 films of all time. Hoffman uses this and the Digg HD/DVD key incident (discussed by Clay Shirky in Here Comes Everybody) as examples of the failure of the wisdom of crowds.

I can sort-of buy the idea that the IMDB gaming incident represents a failure, though I would argue that it’s only a minor one. Having The Godfather drop to number two or even three on the list seems like evidence for a temporal mobbing weakness in the ranking implementation. More…

Norton Safe Web beta is live!

Finally, we’ve released Norton Safe Web in beta form. Ars Technica is one of the first to cover it.

Norton Safe Web is a site safety and reputation service from Symantec. There’s a browser toolbar and an associated website that provides more information and hosts an online community centered around site safety. Be sure to check out the community buzz page to see the activity.

Update: Twitter folks can also follow @nortonsafeweb for updates.

Welcome to my scratch pad.

When Fortune comes, seize her firmly at the forelock, for I tell you, she is bald at the back.

— Leonardo da Vinci