A must read: Burningbird: The Business of Algorithms – Blogorithms:

Algorithms are big business. Recently I’ve seen several jobs where the company wants someone who is “good with algorithms”. Microsoft is competing with Google is competing with Yahoo to hire the best algorithm wranglers (which evidently, according to the article, does not mean women). IBM is releasing it’s unstructured data architecture (UIMA), including it’s concept-based search algorithms into open source by year end. Even within weblogging the debate, and the race, is on to find the best algorithms to mine us, otherwise known as the higher income people without lives.

Suddenly, the hip and cool kids on the block can “do� algorithms.

With all this interest, though, is a lot of confusion and misunderstandings, starting with but not limited to, the very concept of algorithm – concept which is now taking on such mystical properties that those who can “do” algorithms are being vested with an almost god-like prescience. It is time, and past time, to put the brakes on the hyperbole surrounding algorithms.

Starting with the basics: what is an algorithm.

…Now that weblogging has established its credibility (i.e. can be used to make money) and there are millions of us (â€?over 14 million served dailyâ€?), the interest in creating algorithms to make use of all the rich, seductive unstructured data we generate is very strong. Understandably so.

However, unlike previous research projects such as Dr. Marr’s, current weblogging effort seems to focus on the algorithms rather than the goal. Because of this, we’re measuring every last bit about ourselves, but not coming up with anything useful. By focusing on the tools rather than the end point we’re mixing search with popularity, marketing with discovery, and then we’re throwing in a little structured data–just to make things interesting.

Sociology + marketing + data mining + statistical analysis = ?