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The Prix Ars Electronica Archive is a collection enabling search and viewing of all the submissions since 1987. The award-winning projects are documented with catalogue texts and audio-visual media. All other submissions can be searched by title/artist and displayed with year, category in list form. Please cite the credits (artwork name, artist and photographer) and only use the materials if your article is related to Ars Electronica.
GWEI - Google Will Eat Itself
Hans Bernhard,
Alessandro Ludovico
Original: PR_2005_gwei_001_o.jpg | 4758 * 3213px | 1.1 MB
We generate money by serving Google text advertisements on our website GWEI.org. With this money we automatically buy Google shares via our Swiss e-banking account. We buy Google via their own advertisements! Google eats itself—but in the end we’ll own it!
By establishing this model we deconstruct the new global advertisement mechanisms by turning them into a surreal click-based economic model. We inject a social virus (“let’s share their shares”) into their commercial body hidden under a polite and friendly graphical surface. Then we hand over the common ownership of Google to the GTTPcommunity —Google To The People.
A bit more in detail: One of Google’s main revenue generators is the “Adsense” program. It places hundreds of thousands of little Google text-ads on websites around the world. Now we set up an Adsense account like this for our GWEI.org website. Each time someone clicks on one of our Google text-ads, we receive a micropayment and Google retains the same amount of money plus a certain percentage for its services—that’s how they make their huge profit. Google pays us monthly by check. Each time we receive enough money, we buy the next Google share (NASDAQ: GOOG, currently trades between 150-250 USD). This is the “real new economy”—users get shares just for clicking!
So, how do we generate traffic and clicks? We use both a technical and a social level to reach our goal:
1. With a sophisticated and cutting-edge browserserver tool (flash/php) we generate a steady flow of clicks. We lock the software on a limited amount of pageviews (~2500) and clicks (~200) per day. There is no difference between human clicking and this level of machine generated clicks—we are no script-kiddies but bastard artists.
2. In addition, we use our GTTP-community to spread the word about the site and achieve pageviews & clicks. Low key social engineering through our neural.it & UBERMORGEN.COM networks can aggregate waves of inconspicuous clicks.
GWEI.org/gwei/ is the web-site to show-case and unveil a total monopoly of information (Google search-engine & added services), a weakness of the new global advertisement system and the renaissance of the “new economic bubble”—“reality” is that Google is currently valued more than all Swiss Banks together (sic). Let’s open their goldmine to the people, as long as we are able to do so.
Links: http://GWEI.org/gwei
By establishing this model we deconstruct the new global advertisement mechanisms by turning them into a surreal click-based economic model. We inject a social virus (“let’s share their shares”) into their commercial body hidden under a polite and friendly graphical surface. Then we hand over the common ownership of Google to the GTTPcommunity —Google To The People.
A bit more in detail: One of Google’s main revenue generators is the “Adsense” program. It places hundreds of thousands of little Google text-ads on websites around the world. Now we set up an Adsense account like this for our GWEI.org website. Each time someone clicks on one of our Google text-ads, we receive a micropayment and Google retains the same amount of money plus a certain percentage for its services—that’s how they make their huge profit. Google pays us monthly by check. Each time we receive enough money, we buy the next Google share (NASDAQ: GOOG, currently trades between 150-250 USD). This is the “real new economy”—users get shares just for clicking!
So, how do we generate traffic and clicks? We use both a technical and a social level to reach our goal:
1. With a sophisticated and cutting-edge browserserver tool (flash/php) we generate a steady flow of clicks. We lock the software on a limited amount of pageviews (~2500) and clicks (~200) per day. There is no difference between human clicking and this level of machine generated clicks—we are no script-kiddies but bastard artists.
2. In addition, we use our GTTP-community to spread the word about the site and achieve pageviews & clicks. Low key social engineering through our neural.it & UBERMORGEN.COM networks can aggregate waves of inconspicuous clicks.
GWEI.org/gwei/ is the web-site to show-case and unveil a total monopoly of information (Google search-engine & added services), a weakness of the new global advertisement system and the renaissance of the “new economic bubble”—“reality” is that Google is currently valued more than all Swiss Banks together (sic). Let’s open their goldmine to the people, as long as we are able to do so.
Links: http://GWEI.org/gwei
Paolo Cirio: coder, Flash & php application; Jason Hobbs: information architect, information structure & diagramatic analyses; Michael McGarry: designer, visualisation; Marcus Neustetter: The Trinity Session, artist & curator, transformation processes; Stephen Hobbs: The Trinity Session, artist & curator, transformation processes; lizvlx: branding, Perl
Hans Bernhard (AT), born 1973, is founder of etoy.com & UBERMORGEN.COM. He holds an MFA in visual media from the University of Applied Arts in Vienna, Prof. Peter Weibel. He was awarded the Golden Nica at the Prix Ars Electronica. Hans Bernhard is also an expert on the Runme.org board.
Alessandro Ludovico (IT) is a media critic and editor-in-chief of Neural magazine since 1993. He has written: Virtual Reality Handbook (1992), Internet Underground.Guide (1995), Suoni Futuri Digitali (Future Digital Sounds, 2000). He was one of the founding contributors of the Nettime community and of the Mag.Net organization. He writes for various international magazines and is also an expert on the runme.org board, a collaborator of the Digitalkraft exhibitions, and has curated different new media art exhibitions.
Alessandro Ludovico (IT) is a media critic and editor-in-chief of Neural magazine since 1993. He has written: Virtual Reality Handbook (1992), Internet Underground.Guide (1995), Suoni Futuri Digitali (Future Digital Sounds, 2000). He was one of the founding contributors of the Nettime community and of the Mag.Net organization. He writes for various international magazines and is also an expert on the runme.org board, a collaborator of the Digitalkraft exhibitions, and has curated different new media art exhibitions.