Slashdot Mirror
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."
http://www.google.ca/press/zeitgeist.html
They did, years ago. It was dropped, depending on whom you believe, because it served no value or because it was embarassing to show 75% Windows hits. Probably both. Slashdotted sites still report an overwhelming majority of Windows/IE hits.
There is, but it doesn't have the info either. I guess they spider their sites quite often. They've even taken the info off of their previous Year-End Zeitgeists (assuming the data was there).
However, some other country versions still have them: ca uk
Get them while you can...
I doubt, therefore I may be.
I am the owner of osViews.com and the individual that submitted this slashdot post. It appears as if the article got slashdotted.
Unfortunately, I don't have a second copy of the article otherwise I would post it here. My Slashdot summarization pretty much captured the gist of the editorial, however there is one part that should be mentioned.
In Google's Zeitgeist statistic there was a 5% figure that represented what the OS statistic as "other". I thought that this was bizarre because the Linux and Mac statistics even combined were less than the "other" which encapsulated them all.
I don't believe that the more obscure OSes make up a number that is larger than both Linux and mac combined. This is what prompted me to call Google to get some clarity.
i thought that perhaps Google was doing some subdivisions within the Linux or Mac stats.
For example, Google might have only been reporting 3% to represent the OS X installations as opposed to all Mac users and then grouped the non OS X users (Mac Pre OS X) into the aforementioned "other" category.
You mean like Apple is planning to do with Spotlight in Tiger?
p
In Korea, long hair is for old people!
Konqueror allows you a per-site UserAgent string.
My blog. Good stuff (when I remember to update it). Read it.
In Google's Zeitgeist statistic there was a 5% figure that represented what the OS statistic as "other". I thought that this was bizarre because the Linux and Mac statistics even combined were less than the "other" which encapsulated them all.
There's a large network traffic generated not by human surfers but by various bots, scanning the Web for whatever purpose. The bots often identify themselves in a strange way - a comprehensive list of their user-agents can be found here and I always thought that this is actually the majority of the mysterious "other". They are not human users of desktop OS'es, but bots running automated google searches. What do you think?
http://www.google.com/press/zeitgeist/jan04_pie.gi f i f i f i f i f i f i f
http://www.google.com/press/zeitgeist/feb04_pie.g
http://www.google.com/press/zeitgeist/mar04_pie.g
http://www.google.com/press/zeitgeist/apr04_pie.g
http://www.google.com/press/zeitgeist/may04_pie.g
http://www.google.com/press/zeitgeist/jun04_pie.g
July doesn't seem to be there
http://www.google.com/press/zeitgeist/aug04_pie.g
The stats aren't gone from the canadian site. http://www.google.ca/press/zeitgeist.html
First of all, it's OSTG. Name change happened about three weeks ago.
Anyway, Slashdot is almost completely separate from the rest of the OSTG sites. They all have the same Editor In Chief (Roblimo), but he doesn't dictate content to the writers; our primary requirement is to follow what it says on the masthead. I write for NewsForge and Linux.com and I have never met or spoken with Rob Malda. I don't even know what he looks like. If I write a story for NF and post it to the Slashdot submission bin, I have no more chance of getting it on Slashdot than when all of my content was posted on The Jem Report. Check my recent submissions list if you don't believe me.
Slashdot is not a news site, it is a blog -- a discussion site where people talk about current events in the IT industry and related topics. NewsForge is a news site, IT Manager's Journal is a news site, and Linux.com is really more of a review site -- no news, but very nice business-oriented content. It just so happens that on NF, Lc, and ITMJ we publish some of the industry's best news and reviews. If those three sites were not part of the same parent company as Slashdot, we would still regularly get our stories into the Slashdot submission bin.
The people who have editorial control over these sites are highly professional and are constantly guarding the integrity of each OSTG site. The only agenda that we have is posted on the masthead of each site... the online newspaper for Linux and open source; the enterprise Linux resource; tracking the evolution of IT; news for nerds, stuff that matters.
Little of our work is specifically anti-Microsoft. It just so happens that Microsoft is a pain in the ass, throwing its weight around to harrass smaller software companies, astroturfing (although the worst astroturfing I've seen lately comes from Linux software companies, not Microsoft or SCO), spreading heinous FUD, funding misleading studies and creating monsters like Ken Brown and Rob Enderle. Microsoft hates Linux and free software, and as they continue to fight, we will continue to write about what they're doing.
But it's easier to just pass us all off as a bunch of unprofessional hacks who enjoy manipulating innocent readers into believing our sick and twisted agenda. Because you believe everything you read and can't think critically or make decisions for yourself, right? Gosh I hope so -- otherwise it's curtains for online journalists.
-Jem