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."
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.
---
Programming is like sex... Make one mistake and support it the rest of your life.
I think I speak for everyone when I say...
Please put `em back!
Who needs an operating system when you run all your services through a portal on a cross platform environment like the web?
With Google getting it's ammended statements accepted, it means that Google stock will start being traded as early as tomorrow. They already dropped the initial IPO, and I'm sure they are being very cautious about causing any investor worries.
I bet that after their stock has had a couple months to stabilize, this will be addressed.
Mythos : Logos
So, if Google Zeitgeist is not available, where can one get stats on OS and browser use?
Sadly, this removal had to happen given who Google's competitors are going to be in search space. No doubt they will continue to record the information, but it won't be public anymore.
To-do List: Receive telemarketing call during a tornado warning. Check.
I don't understand while people do this. I'm proud of the fact that I use firefox over IE. I know some pages did display different results if you were using a browser other than IE (didn't Opra get a big payout from MS for this?), but just to fool people and throw off stats doesn't seem like a good reason to me. Like most people on Slashdot, I'd like to see Firefox's market share increase to a point where IE didn't (at least try to) define standards for html,css,xhtml, etc.
...was so people can't refer to Zeitgeist's damning 1% Linux usage statistic anymore when discussing desktop Linux. If you disagree, let me know why.
I do think it would be better if it were possible to change the UID string for specific sites, and perhaps even to make it impossible to change it for all sites.
Well by doing so, the people responsible for the site will see that they have about 100% hits from Internet Explorer, so why bother changing? Better would be to bug them with an email threatening to take your business elsewhere.
I fought the corporate America, and the corporate America bought the law.
w3schools stats are not useful for seeing what average users are doing. They draw a specific audience (developers and other technically minded people). Yes, it's good they're going up, but it doesn't tell you the same thing Google's Zeitgeist did.
While you may be correct as to the reasoning that prompted them to do this, it begs the question...
.... they were sued by Louis Farakahan when they did a crowd size estimate of the Million Man March, that Farakhan said, was intentionally smaller than it really was.
How fucked up of a society do we live in that people can't provide interesting statistics out of fear of being sued?
This legal bullshit is the same reason that the US Park Service refuses to release any kind of estimates on crowd sizes for protests in Washington D.C.
Insanity.
I think that if Google's leadership were to try such a thing, they'd be more interested in positioning Google to create an entirely Web-based desktop that is platform agnostic, than a traditional OS.
During the dotcom era, there was a company out of Maryland (sorry, can't remember the name...WorldOS, maybe?) trying to do this very thing. And there was the Network of Workstations project, that was started at UC-Berkeley (1996 to 1998).
Why would Google write an OS specific to any one hardware architecture, when, as we all know, "The network is the computer"?
---anactofgod---
"Equal opportunity swindling - *that* is the true test of a sustainable democracy."
Better would be to bug them with an email threatening to take your business elsewhere.
Better yet would be to take your business elsewhere - and then send a mail saying exactly why you did.
It's also possible that the stats would go up as a result of exploits using the installed IE to continuously send requests to the site, to artificially inflate the IE appearance.
Not likely perhaps, but a thought to consider...
You never know...
What do you mean bug them with an email? I just take my business elsewhere and let them wallow in their blissful ignorance.
They don't pay me to give them business advice.
"Piter, too, is dead."
The User Agent Switcher Extention makes changing the agent as simple as a click. If you set it to IE for all sites you're just bumping up IE's user share which makes it harder to get sites to support standards as opposed to POS software.
I love how people keep saying Microsoft has already done this when the product won't be out for another 2 - 3 years.
I think it is more correct to say, "Microsoft is trying to do this with WinFS."
I still think Google would be able to get this "Out the door" before Longhorn arrives if they wanted to since they are in the data searching business.
Stop believing the hype. Longhorn is NOT a product yet.
What do you mean bug them with an email? I just take my business elsewhere and let them wallow in their blissful ignorance.
They'll just blame the loss on piracy, and demand legislation to restore their market share.
ROTFLMAO! I love how the Apple Army has all these made-up silly reasons that, while Google Zeitgeist shows a 3% share, it's REALLY 43% if you correct for some overlooked factor.
C'mon now! Just because your little niche platform doesn't fare well on Google's stat page doesn't mean it's inferior. The real problem is *your* inferiority complex, or your desire to be in a "persecuted minority." Maybe you should see a psychiatrist instead of agonizing over how you're unfairly miscounted!
Best Buy can have you arrested
Right, because as we all know, taking the word of someone outside the company that Browser X is supported is exactly what bosses do. They won't pay for new testing, but they'll approve that the website works with that browser based on unsubstantiated claims.
That "site-maintaining wonk" still has to convince his boss to do the testing whether someone says they used an "incompatible" browser or not.
Many of the zealots won't use Windows because they hate the people involved with Microsoft, and now a surprising number of people I have spoken to won't use Linux because of the type of person who already does. How does it feel to become what you hate?
Client pays me to make website. I give a list of supported browsers, client wants to see the site on THEIR browser (IE) and really doesn't give a f**K about X,Y,Z browser meaning that they won't pay me to test or debug. I build the site and test only on supported browsers. Client calls me and is pissed off because Billy Bob is out in the Boondocks and the site is screwed up on his latest copy of Netscape 4.1. Client won't pay me to fix, even though they signed off, because I was supposed to "know" this would happen. I explain we can display a "friendly" error message which is better then it looking all f*ct up. To wrap it up, I'm paid to make websites and I only support what the client will pay me to build, test, and debug. Sadly enough, it really only matters if CEO and his cousin can see the animated character in their logo waddle across the screen. If you don't have Internet Exploder 7 you just might miss out on the cutting edge ActiveX technology brings true innovation to today's web experience.
and now a surprising number of people I have spoken to won't use Linux because of the type of person who already does.
You are probably going to get modded troll for saying that but I have noticed some truth to what you said. At the CS dept of the school I work at many students associate Linux with sweaty arrogant zealots and loudmouthed dorks and thus don't use it when they can get by without using it (certain courses require it). They put Linux in the same category as D&D, Star Trek conventions and X-files slash fanfiction. It is a hard pill to swallow but like it or not many people think this way about Linux.
I would think that those Linux users who really want to see Linux on the desktop would try to clean up the image somehow and quit making Linux users look like a bunch of obnoxious ESR fanboys. Plenty of Linux users are smart, successful professionals who are a total inspiration to everyone who meets them but they don't get the spotlight. Instead thousands of idiots come out yelling "Micro$oft sucks dude!" and people just shrug and walk away. I don't have a solution to this problem. I wish I did though because it is a real problem.
Centralization breaks the internet.
At the CS dept of the school I work at many students associate Linux with sweaty arrogant zealots and loudmouthed dorks and thus don't use it when they can get by without using it
I think when one gets to the point of judging someone by what operating system they use, no matter what it is, they lose the right of acusing anyone of being more of a dork than they are. And the real pity is I'm sure they think they're somehow different than someone who judges anothers character by the brand on their shoes or pants.
Everything will be taken away from you.
I don't think that they are judging someone by the operating system they use. I think that they are judging the operating system by the people who use it.
Many, many, many times have I been counted as a "Windows user" by Google's zeitgeist, but I've never owned a Windows machine. This is even worse for Linux. At least OS X has some foothold on the corporate desktop which means OS X gets some "at work" hits on Google. Linux, not typically used as a desktop machine, doesn't even get that benefit.
So anyway, I'm not unhappy to see one of the many FUD tools taken from the hands of so many MS zealots.
--Rick "If it isn't broken, take it apart and find out why."
We may experience some slight turbulence and then...explode. -Capt. Mal Reynolds