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OS Stats Removed From Google's Zeitgeist

Kelly McNeill writes "Google's Zeitgeist service is sometimes used by news sources as a resource to generate install-base (don't call it market share!), statistics for operating systems. osViews contacted Google to bring some clarity to questionable aspects of the OS statistic, to which Google said that Zeitgeist is only a fun search inquiry resource and should not be used to generate statistical information. A couple days after that inquiry, we found that Google has since removed the OS stats from the Zeitgeist service."

9 of 426 comments (clear)

  1. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 5, Funny

    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  2. Re:Bets are on... by DeathPenguin · · Score: 5, Funny

    Looooooooonix?

  3. MSN by prostoalex · · Score: 5, Funny

    Hopefully MSN will pick up where Google left off and provide free unbiased stats.

  4. Article text in full by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Problem in Database Connection

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    it has no other connection to the PostNuke Developers.
    Please refrain from sending messages about this site or its content
    to the PostNuke team, the end will result in an ignored e-mail.

  5. Re:Browser stats also gone by IGTeRR0r · · Score: 5, Funny

    Not that it matters...using the firefox User Agent Switcher Extension I changed mine to "Internet Explorer" just to trick people like you into thinking I was still using IE after the vulnerabilities...

  6. Sigh. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    You surely do live in the greatest country in the world.

  7. Re:ha by Tackhead · · Score: 5, Funny
    > I have a question for slashdot... can I use your polls for scientific research? Will my request result in slashdot removing their polls section? What kind of a crazy assed reaction is this? Why not just put a disclaimer up on the page that says, not scientific.

    Well, you can't for Slashdot, because the poll page is pretty clear about it, but that reminds me.

    "Can I use Google Zeitgeist for scientific research?"

    Yes ................. 82% 7122 / 82%<BR>
    No .... 18% 1560 / 18% <BR>
    Only if you give CowboyNeal 100,000 shares of GOOG . 0.1% / 1 / 0.1%

    Don't complain about lack of options. Most people are only after for pictures of the latest RIAA pop star's tits. Those are the breaks. Feel free to Google for something else if you're feeling creative. I'd strongly suggest grepping "goatse" out of the past Zeitgeist logs first. It's a good thing that Google Zeitgeist isn't wildly inaccurate. Rounding errors, User-Agent spoofers, dynamic IPs, proxies. If you're using these numbers to decide whether to invest in our IPO, you're behaving at least as rationally as anybody else is in this market.

    So if you're using Google Zeitgeist, I'd say go nuts, but only as long as every image search query returns a picture of that squirrel from Fark.

  8. Re:Huh by k98sven · · Score: 5, Funny

    The USS Enterprise was originally given the CV-6 designation to demonstrate that she was a "Carrier Vessel". However, after extensive war operations she was refitted for nighttime/round-the-clock operations. To signify this, her designation was changed to CVN-6 (Carrier Vessel, Night).

    I don't know where you get your facts from, but they're all wrong. The USS Enterprise had the designation NCC-1701. (CC being Constitution-Class)

    After Kirk blew up the original Enterprise, the USS Levant (NCC-1843) was redesignated USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-A). And AFAIK, she did not only have round-the-clock operations, the ship was fitted for full five-year missions!

  9. Now available for Konqueror by leonbrooks · · Score: 5, Funny

    Drop this into /usr/share/services/useragentstrings and you can conveniently select it from Konqueror's "Tools/Change Browser Identification" menu at once. In 51 different languages. (-:

    If you like melting webmaster brain cells, use this instead.

    My mailserver used to answer as a "Commodore 64 (with anti-spam cartridge)".

    --
    Got time? Spend some of it coding or testing