Now just who is Daniel Imperato?(Is Google News Really News?)

I have fantasized for some time about writing a Wikipedia entry on some arcane topic with a mix of fact and fiction, just to see if I could get it past the volunteer editors. Does that speak ill of me? Or is it just a little healthy curiosity? Perhaps both, but compared to Daniel Imperato, I clearly lack the creativity, skill, depth, and imagination.

 
   Bin Laden Offers Truce: Imperato Responds 
   (openPR)-Abu Dhabi--January 23, 2006. 2008 
   Presidential Contender, Daniel Imperato, from 
   the United States of America, traveled to the 
   Middle East to further understand US relations 
   in the region and to create a peace plan. (1) 
   Who is Daniel Imperato? Is he really running for 

President? Why have I never heard of him?

 
   UAE Ports Deal: America Losing Out Again 
   (openPR)-West Palm Beach, FL-February 22, 2006 
   --In response to the recent port sale controversy, 
   2008 US Presidential Contender Daniel Imperato 
   reminded us that the real argument is not whether 
   the United Arab Emirates (UAE) should run our 
   ports, but rather whether any foreign company or 
   foreign government should do so. (2) 
   Who is this guy? 

Rich Wiggins first called my attention to Imperato when he used my favorite listserv (Web41ib) to ask colleagues how the typical reference librarian would handle biographical research on someone like Imperato.

News Alert Systems: Friend or Foe?

Imagine a parallel universe, if you will, where news articles, marketing blurbs, press releases, editorials, commercials for miracle wrinkle removers, and fictional accounts are mixed into a large soup pot on the Web and spewed forth via the self-inflicted Google Alerts or Yahoo! Alerts systems. The victim actually signs up to receive the tidal flow of Web flotsam and jetsam, with a few good articles from The New York Times and the BBC thrown in to soften the blow. Oh, wait a minute, that world already exists.

In fairness to both Rich and Google Alerts, the alert system can be cool, once you train it to recognize what…