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Happy 7th Birthday Google!

AviN456 writes "On this day, in 1998, Google was born. Seven years later, and it has not only become the most popular search engine on the internet, but it has also become an integral part of many people's online life. From Google search to Google mail, Google Earth to Google Moon. It has even made its way into language as a common word.It is quite undeniable. Google is an amazing achievement. Happy birthday Google, and here's to many many more!"

63 of 303 comments (clear)

  1. I knew it by kevin_conaway · · Score: 5, Funny

    As soon as I saw that png on Googles website, I KNEW Slashdot would cover it. I thought to myself "Google farted, that sound you hear is a million Slashdotters sniffing."

    Seriously, thanks for gmail though. I wish I would apply the concept of labels to files on my harddisk.

    1. Re:I knew it by @madeus · · Score: 4, Informative

      Seriously, thanks for gmail though. I wish I would apply the concept of labels to files on my harddisk.

      Woah, seriously your OS doesn't have that? Time to upgrade perhaps. :-)

      It's not a feature I use (especially since having Spotlight), though I used to rely on it quite a bit when I was using Mac OS Classic. Nautilus allows you to label files though, and KDE seem to have something interesting in the works.

    2. Re:I knew it by bigdickbrian · · Score: 2, Informative

      It has been suggested that WinFS will offer this sort of feature. Of course, will you be willing to use Windows Vista for that feature, however? Well, initial versions of Vista apparently wont have WinFS (its been moved backwards), so potentailly, WinFS wont be with us until EVEN LONGER. Thank fuck.

      --
      look what I found ;-) - www.beplacid.com
    3. Re:I knew it by gowen · · Score: 5, Funny
      Google farted, that sound you hear is a million Slashdotters sniffing.
      The sound you hear is a million slashdotters explaining how it's the most fragrant smell ever, and that there's no way any of the traditional perfumiers could possibly come up with anything so great.

      "It's hard to delete mail in Gmail"
      "You don't want to delete mail" (waves hand mysteriously while speaking like Alec Guiness.)

      "I want to sort my mail into folders"
      "That's not the feature you're looking for.... Labels are much more flexible."
      "And slinkys are more flexible than towbars, but I know which one I want to use to tow my car"
      --
      Athletic Scholarships to universities make as much sense as academic scholarships to sports teams.
    4. Re:I knew it by CrazyTalk · · Score: 2, Funny

      Yes - thanks for Gmail (seriously). But I wish I could apply the concept of folders of files on my hard disk to Gmail, not the other way around.

    5. Re:I knew it by xtracto · · Score: 4, Insightful

      On a news post that does not yield too much discussion...

      do we still hate GIF's even if the patent has expired?

      It is not about hating GIF, I think most of us do not hate technology at all, I think we never hated GIF, we hated the patent and the company behind it.

      In the same way, (i think) we hate Microsoft, but we (at least I) do not hate Windows, or Office, those are just (from the technology POV) demonstrations of what we can achieve with technology, with good and bad things, or good and bad applications. Or like the Atomic bomb, we do not hate the technology, we hate the people that used to kill a hell lot of humans.

      In that way, and going ontopic, nowadays, we love google, because they are making excellent technology, their search page, their email client, their maps etc. Of course they where not the first in ANY of these technologies, and they are not the only ones, but they are making it in a right way (notice it is not the only "teh righ t way"). Although on these more recent days, I have seen that some "do a bit of evil" karma has been sliding into Google, and even if Google starts to be Evil with E as in "MS" we may start to hate it but gmail or google local will continue to be a great technology.

      Althoug you may not believe it, there is people that hate google (to some degree) as for example some of the Adsense buyers (the REAL google customers) because the not so fair google behaviour on that side (yep... has some kind of monopoly over there, but again it does not means we HATE the adsense technology).

      This is the so called "information age" and, Google is playing a big part on it. Google will stay alive for a lot of more year, and IMHO will become as influential as IBM once was to technology (in the days of the Big Blue). We only need to hope that it stays doing "just a bit of evil".

      Happy birthay!

      --
      Ubuntu is an African word meaning 'I can't configure Debian'
    6. Re:I knew it by DrHanser · · Score: 4, Informative

      WinFS is available as an add-on to Windows XP.

      --
      What is humor if not pain tempered by time?
    7. Re:I knew it by bhtooefr · · Score: 3, Informative

      I prefer PNG, for a few reasons.

      First, GIF can only handle 8-bit (256 color) pallettes. Granted, each line can have it's own pallette, but it's still fairly restrictive, compared to PNG's 24-bit color.

      Then, GIF can have one of the 256 colors set to transparent. PNG has an extra 8 bits on each pixel for transparency. So, it can be applied to various colors at various levels, rather than GIF needing it on one color, and at one level.

      Also, at a color depth that GIF and PNG share, PNG is typically smaller when it comes to filesize.

    8. Re:I knew it by whereiswaldo · · Score: 2, Informative

      File labelling was around back in the DOS days. An awesome command shell replacement called 4DOS write a descript.ion file in each directory you described files. When you copied files around, the descriptions were copied around, too.

    9. Re:I knew it by mwilli · · Score: 4, Informative

      Correction, it WILL be available as an add-on to Windows XP. It is currently still in MSDN beta testing phase.

      --
      My sig beat up your sig.
    10. Re:I knew it by MrMickS · · Score: 2, Interesting
      In the same way, (i think) we hate Microsoft, but we (at least I) do not hate Windows, or Office

      No. I hate Windows, with a passion. It has been responsible for an awful lot of pain and is a prime example of the wastefulness of the IT industry.

      --
      You may think me a tired, old, cynic. I'd have to disagree about the tired bit.
    11. Re:I knew it by DJStealth · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Here's a preview of what google looked like 7 years ago

      I know archive.org had older versions of the page, but for some reason this is the oldest one I can get today. You can try this link to an older preview, but it doesn't seem to work for me anymore.

    12. Re:I knew it by Hanoc · · Score: 2, Informative
    13. Re:I knew it by NotWorkSafe · · Score: 2, Informative

      And here it is

      --
      There is no theory of evolution. Just a list of animals Chuck Norris allows to live.
    14. Re:I knew it by fatcatman · · Score: 2, Interesting

      like the Atomic bomb, we do not hate the technology, we hate the people that used to kill a hell lot of humans.

      No, we don't. Every school child knows countless more would have died if we hadn't dropped the bomb. The question was, "Do we sacrifice x000 of their people and end this, or lose x000^y people on both sides fighting it out for the next z years?"

      I think the answer is quite obvious.

      On a lighter note: Happy Birthday, Google! They're doing a lot of things right. Let's hope this continues.

    15. Re:I knew it by The+Good+Reverend · · Score: 2, Informative

      No, we don't. Every school child knows countless more would have died if we hadn't dropped the bomb.

      Every school child only "knows" this because it was taught to them. There's plenty of disagreement on the subject.

  2. I for one... by bc90021 · · Score: 4, Funny

    ...welcome our seven year old overlords.

    By ten, I predict that we're calling it the "GoogleNet" instead of the "Internet". ;-)

    1. Re:I for one... by ZakuSage · · Score: 4, Funny

      I predict that by ten we'll be calling Google "Skynet".

    2. Re:I for one... by 16384 · · Score: 2, Funny

      No, it's Googlezon...

  3. And many more... by Silverlancer · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Here's to hoping google will be here for its next 7 years... and that it will still abide by its motto.... :)

    1. Re:And many more... by justforaday · · Score: 2, Funny

      The goog will abide.

      --
      I'll turn into a supernova and burn up everything. Well I'll turn into a black little hole and you'll turn into string.
    2. Re:And many more... by CardiganKiller · · Score: 5, Funny

      Google and Micrsoft in "The Big Lebowski". Google: "Let me explain something to you. Um, I am not "A Multinational Corporation". You're a Multinational Corporation. I'm the Goog. So that's what you call me. You know, that or, uh, His Googleness, or uh, Googler, or El Googlerino if you're not into the whole brevity thing."

  4. Happy Birthday to Lawsuit by xmuskrat · · Score: 5, Funny

    Too bad I can't sing them a birthday song without invoking a lawsuit.

    --
    activestudios web design
    1. Re:Happy Birthday to Lawsuit by BandwidthHog · · Score: 5, Funny

      I know a good voice coach if you’re really that worried.

      --

      Quantum materiae materietur marmota monax si marmota monax materiam possit materiari?
  5. I know no-one reads the department name, but.... by Roo · · Score: 2, Insightful

    "from the don't-sing-or-your-have-to-pay-royalties dept."

    Surely some mistake. Shouldn't that be "you'll"?

  6. Also known as... by toupsie · · Score: 4, Interesting

    The day Altavista died. It's amazing how fast and how hard Google crushed all the other search engines.

    --
    Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government.
    1. Re:Also known as... by MichaelSmith · · Score: 2, Informative
      The day Altavista died.

      I wouldn't shed too many tears over it. Altavista was just advertising for the Alpha.

      DEC did try to spin Altavista products off but it wasn't a serious effort, and people weren't running DEC operating systems on the internet anyway.

    2. Re:Also known as... by jurt1235 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      That sure was incredible. My move to Google was so fast after they started, that it feels like they are around for 2 years longer. People telling other people: Use google, better than XYZengine. Altavista had that buzz once too, but were not able to stay on top. Google runs the risk of being annihilated the same way too if they do not keep improving their game.

      --

      My wife's sketchblog Blob[p]: Gastrono-me
    3. Re:Also known as... by Dogtanian · · Score: 2, Informative

      The day Altavista died. It's amazing how fast and how hard Google crushed all the other search engines.

      Didn't Yahoo eclipse Altavista long before Google became dominant?

      I remember using Altavista when I first discovered the web 11 or so years ago, and it was (*very* relatively, given the penetration of the Internet back then) one of the most well-known "search engines". This seems ages ago when I think about it; people maintained simple *lists* of interesting websites for general use, and the web was small enough for this not to be an entirely risible or unworkable concept). I'm pretty sure I'd heard of Yahoo back then, even.

      By 1998, when I was seriously back online again, Yahoo was already dominant. I used Yahoo, but switched to Google after getting one too many X-10 popunder ads.

      So; perhaps it would be more accurate to say that Yahoo crushed Altavista (or perhaps that Yahoo expanded and Altavista didn't, really).... and that Google crushed Yahoo; or rather dented them out of shape quite a bit when they knocked them off their pedestal.

      But yeah... it did happen so fast. I mean, Google *started* in 1998... the web (and Yahoo) were already pretty established by that time.

      --
      "Slashdot - News and Chat Sites Deviant". (Click "homepage" link above for details).
    4. Re:Also known as... by Mac+Degger · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Not really. It's still the case that different search engines excel in different areas. For real scientific papers/issues dealing not just with electronics, teoma.com is better than google. Althoug googles scientific paper search engine is now very helpfull aswell. But for hard to find things, a metacrawler is still better than just google.

      It's a myth perpetuated by the ignorant that google has 'crushed' all other search engines. And as soon as google only gives adsense'd websites on a search, or useless marketing pages, all users will flock to the next search engine. So I'm not too sure what your point was, but it is not tue :)

      --
      -- Waht? Tehr's a preveiw buottn?
    5. Re:Also known as... by xtracto · · Score: 3, Informative

      I will recommend you Scirus for scientific papers/information. It is really helpful and has nice refining features, I will try teoma anyway.

      --
      Ubuntu is an African word meaning 'I can't configure Debian'
    6. Re:Also known as... by xtracto · · Score: 2, Informative

      I just made a search on Teoma... from what I saw, Scirus is better at constraining the search on scientific papers/information. Teoma is more like a web search engine.

      Also the Scirus.com refining proposals are better and more (in the specific query I did) than those in Teoma.

      Anyway, nice to know there exists 3 of them (google scholar... although I do not tend to use it)

      --
      Ubuntu is an African word meaning 'I can't configure Debian'
  7. I told you so!! by skiman1979 · · Score: 2, Funny

    Take a look at Google Moon and zoom in all the way. I TOLD YOU the moon is made of cheese!

    --
    Having a smoking section in a public restaurant is like having a peeing section in a public swimming pool.
  8. Google Moon Apollo 16th... by masterofsw · · Score: 2, Funny

    Pick the Apollo 16th site and zoom in, all the way...

    1. Re:Google Moon Apollo 16th... by gowen · · Score: 2, Funny

      Don't laugh. Give it a few months and it'll be part of the Kansas science curriculum.

      --
      Athletic Scholarships to universities make as much sense as academic scholarships to sports teams.
    2. Re:Google Moon Apollo 16th... by Dhalka226 · · Score: 2, Funny

      That sounds like witch talk to me, buddy.

    3. Re:Google Moon Apollo 16th... by SatanicPuppy · · Score: 2, Insightful

      The problem is, ID is not a competing theory. It's not even a scientific theory at all. Read some of their literature and it is ever so clear that all they're interested in is teaching a thinly veiled version of Creationism...I've seen some of these jokers on TV disputing the age of the earth, and claiming dinosaurs were hanging around the garden of eden.

      Now, we may not be able to sit down and evolve something in a lab, but radio-carbon dating is infinitely reproducable, and gives consistent results. And evolution may not be entirely correct, but as it stands it explains a hell of a lot, and it does it objectively and without any glaring inconsistencies. It's a damn fine theory.

      The problem, which you seem to miss, is that if we start teaching ID in schools, what we're really undermining is the whole idea of scientific knowledge. You may dismiss GCC as a fairy tale, but it is based on methodical data collection and analytical reasoning. There is plenty of room for mistakes but, lacking a second test earth to use as a control group, they're going about it in the right way. ID, the other hand, is pretty much just a "what if?" with no data, no analytic thought, and no science behind it.

      Teaching GCC in a classroom, with the collected data displayed, and the lines of reasoning followed, would be a good exercise. Even if it's not right, the methodology is what's important in science, because if you stick to the method and don't blind yourself with your own prejudgements, eventually you'll get the right answer.

      Teaching ID is just a way to tell students that what you believe is just as valid as any meticulously gathered experimental data, and since it's a hell of a lot easier to believe nonsense than it is to seek truth, I think that is an extrememly bad precident.

      --
      ad logicam Claiming a proposition is false because it was presented as the conclusion of a fallacious argument.
    4. Re:Google Moon Apollo 16th... by Shaper_pmp · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Oh, ok... if you really want a serious answer:

      "Why not just present both theories, and allow the students to make their own minds up?"

      Fine. We already have a mechanism to do this. We teach the currently-accepted[1] scientific theory in Science, and the religious theory in Religious Education. Damn straight Scientists don't want other viewpoints taught in Science, in the same way Sports teachers don't want Maths taught in their classes.

      "It would take two teachers, preferably - an evolutionist and a creationist - but it should make everyone happy, unless they want their theory to be the only one presented..."

      Fine. But don't erroneously label the resulting subject Science. Call it Philosophy, and there won't be any problem. The "religious side" picked this right by seeking to pass their (forgive me: baseless) beliefs off as science.

      Most scientists (with a few notable exceptions) are happy to let Science handle the "when/how" and Religion handle the "who/why". Only really in the US do you have this problem with religion overstepping its mandate.

      Footnotes:

      [1] Emphasis on the "currently-accepted". The second a theory comes along which matches the observed evidence better, without requiring the violation of known laws of physics (also, without providing any evidence whatsoever that those laws were violated), evolution would be dropped by the majority of scientists. At the very least, it'd be weakened and the new theory would eventually replace it.

      --
      Everything in moderation, including moderation itself
    5. Re:Google Moon Apollo 16th... by Mant · · Score: 2, Insightful

      GCC and Evolution are ATTEMPTS to explain what appears to be going on, they aren't SCIENCE!

      They are if they make predictions you can test, and are falsifiable. Its pretty easy to test evolution with say bacteria and anti-biotic.

      You don't need a whole nother planet to test these things you know, (although it helps, and thats what those simulations are for) when someone can make predictions you can test those.

      The biggest champions of these movements have turned it into a religion...

      Its certainly true that some people with certain agendas have jumped on board, that doesn't nullify the work done by the people actually doing science.

      it's an anti-Christian religion, but religion none-the-less.

      How is climate change anti-Christian? Even with evolution, apart from a few fundies in the US most Christians are happy with evolution.

      Evolution is the scientific community's best attempt to explain species, and has some big gaps that they are working on.

      I keep hearing this, but nobody seems able to actually point out what these supposed gaps are.

      Some people believe that evolution fails to explain certain complexity and indicates an intelligent design. Who cares... apparently you, because ALL science will now stop, because students are exposed to people that disagree...

      Well some people care that groups who state they have a wider agenda are trying to push religion into classrooms by getting something that isn't science taught in science classes.

  9. Re:Why announce 7th? by bhtooefr · · Score: 2, Insightful

    7 is a prime number? And prime numbers are badass, especially when you're named after a number?

  10. together we will rule the galaxy as father and son by Errandboy+of+Doom · · Score: 5, Funny

    Doesn't someone else have a birthday around this time of year?

    Here's hoping Google stays hip at 30.

  11. Re:Why announce 7th? by space_dude_27 · · Score: 4, Informative

    Maybe they have a birthday every year.

  12. Google's lego server by Understudy · · Score: 4, Interesting

    One of the early servers for Google was made from Lego blocks.
    http://www-db.stanford.edu/pub/voy/museum/pictures /display/0-4-Google.htm

  13. Something is very wrong here! by Vengie · · Score: 4, Informative

    Google's official birthday is September 7th.... (Link is to Google Cache. Otherwise, first hit for "google birthday" and check the cache.....)

    --
    When in doubt, parenthesize. At the very least it will let some poor schmuck bounce on the % key in vi. (Larry Wall)
  14. Re:Why announce 7th? by y2dt · · Score: 5, Funny

    "7's the key number here. Think about it. 7-Elevens. 7 doors. 7, man, that's the number. 7 chipmunks twirlin' on a branch, eatin' lots of sunflowers on my uncle's ranch. You know that old children's tale from the sea. It's like you're dreamin' about Gorgonzola cheese when it's clearly Brie time, baby."
    -Hitchhiker, There's Something About Mary

  15. Re:I know no-one reads the department name, but... by Arathrael · · Score: 2, Funny

    Slashdot fail english? That's unpossible!

  16. In other news by TCM · · Score: 4, Funny

    Google has been renamed to Googte!

    --
    Of course it runs NetBSD. BTC: 1NT7QvbetmANwaMzhpVL6
  17. Silly Google... by Toaste · · Score: 2, Funny

    Anybody who's seen Wallace and Gromit knows the moon is actually made of _green_ cheese!

  18. Only 38 posts... by garethwi · · Score: 4, Funny

    Only 38 posts and their site is already... oh wait.

  19. Google... really 7 years and 20 days...??? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I just saw the Google logo with the birthday and the 7. So I Googled "google birthday" the first hits that come up are a dead link to google.com help support indicating google's b-day is Sept. 7th.

    Google: Help Center Google's official birthday is September 7, 1998. If Google were a person, it would have started elementary school late last summer (around August 19), ... www.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=4866&t opic=367 - 8k - Cached - Similar pages

    Fourth hit, http://blog.outer-court.com/forum/10251.html,

    Google's birthday--with no logo?? - Google Blogoscoped Forum Today--september 7th--is google's birthday, but they have no logo to celebrate. isnt that strange? 09/07/05 [X] 12 days ago. XGen Technologies [PersonRank 1 ... blog.outer-court.com/forum/10251.html - 7k - Cached - Similar pages [ More results from blog.outer-court.com ]

    So is Google 7 or older? What are the making the decision off and why did they used to indicate they celebrated on the 7th? Any one have any ideas?

    Best, J - Heckler
  20. They won't make any money by nighty5 · · Score: 3, Funny

    Half their shit is still in beta after 7 years, surely they are broke by now!

    Come on guys, to step up to plate and actually ship a product to make some cash, some quick decisions will have to be made :)

  21. Google by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    It would have been nice to have had a slightly more objective description of Google's rise to dominating the search engine market, and now branching out into other areas of the Internet.

    Just because their mission state is 'do no evil' rather than 'a computer on every desktop' doesn't mean that they will be any less evil in their tactics than any other large corporation.

    I know several people who work at Google, and gadzooks, they believe ALL of the propaganda, and regurgitate it at every opportunity: "our chef used to be the Grateful Dead's chef, and we had a 'cook-off' to pick the replacement". Hello? The reason you have a chef and get free lunch and dinner is so that you never leave the office.

    When one of my friends in Google needed paternity leave (this is in the Dublin office btw), he was told he could get the statutory minimum of two weeks unpaid leave, and nothing else. Yet he says 'Well, you can see their point' instead of going 'those bastards, you think they would give me at least 1 week paid leave'.

    I used to work at a large multi-national tech company, and was similarly drawn in by their rhetoric and internal propaganda, so much so that I actually reccomended to some friends to buy some stock. Needless to say the stock has since dropped in value by 90%, and I learned some healthy scepticism.

    What will it take for Googlites to learn similar scepticism? And how are normal, non google-employees drawn in by the propaganda? Is it the flouride in the water?

    Marty

  22. Nine Billion Names of God by kjeldor · · Score: 5, Interesting

    by Kathy Kachelries

    After three hours, the old man in front of me had worked his way through six beers, in addition to every help desk joke Id already heard. The cupholder. The any key. The write click. These are the stories people tell, now. These are the fish that got away.

    Let me ask you something, the man said. I didnt argue. One of the first tricks I learned about being a bartender is to make them think youre interested.

    Have you ever created a web site?

    I shook my head.

    Not at all? Not even one of those geocities things?

    Nope.

    What about a blog? Or an ebay About Me page? You didnt even have an AOL site or something?

    Do I look like an AOL user to you? For the record, I dont think AOL even has access numbers in the valley anymore. Im sure I have something, somewhere, I said, realizing that I was jeopardizing my tips. Besides, I had a distant memory of a single Angelfire page back in middle school.

    You know what Google is?

    Yes, I said. I was running low on patience.

    No, I mean, do you really know? More than just the site?

    Reluctantly, I shook my head.

    You ever meet anyone who worked for them?

    Dont think so.

    You havent. Nobody works for them anymore.

    I shrugged, and took the mans empty pint. I didnt offer to refill it.

    Theyre self-contained. Its all automated, in there. Its underground.

    I nudged the basket of pretzels in his direction. Why dont you eat something? I suggested. He shook his head with so much force that I thought he might knock himself off of the stool.

    Listen. Hear me out. You know how Google works, he said, but didnt want for a response. They cache things, right? Like they send out these spiders and take pictures of everything on the web, so when youre searching, youre not even searching the internet.

    Ive heard that before, but it never made much of a difference to me. Same thing, though, I said.

    You ever wonder why Google doesnt cache its own searches?

    They program around it.

    No. Thats what you think. Thats what everyone thinks. But it started back when Google was just a thesis project, back when it was just a drop in the data sea. No one thought to stop it back then. That web site you had, the one you forgot about. Almost everyones got one of those, right? But Google doesnt forget. Googles studied that thing so many times that its studied its own caches of you. What do you figure happens, when a site gets so big that its bigger than the internet?

    Its still a part of the internet, though.

    No. Now, the internet is a part of Google.

    The man had a point. I nodded.

    Heres the thing. Google has memorized who you are. Its memorized all of us, through those little forgotten bits that we leave behind like breadcrumbs. And whats more important, its memorized its own idea of you. Google is omniscient. Its omniscient and omnipotent. When it cached its cache for the first time, back in 1994, thats when Google realized what it was.

    Gradually, it dawned on me what the man was getting at. You think its sentient.

    I know its sentient.

    How?

    He smiled, but it seemed kind of empty. Me and Google go way back. But what Im saying is, he continued, It knows us. All of us. It is us.

    For the first time, the man fell silent. He touched his finger to the bar and began tracing circles in the condensation, apparently lost in thought.

    Think about that website you created, okay? That website will last forever, do you understand? That website is echoing through cyberspace. Its one of the nine billion names of God.

  23. I like Google for one reason... by Kylere · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Anything that challenges Microsoft makes software better for everyone. IE was stagnant from the time of crushing Netscape until Firefox, even hotmail, and msn search are better as a result of google. I would never use a Microsoft product outside of work or so my wife can run Photoshop CS2, but I do appreciate the rising tide raising all boats.

  24. Playing devil's advocate by Programmer_In_Traini · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I don't really intend on bashing on Google, I use google and like google just as a much as anyone else. But that being said, Google's incredible and HUGE success is a bit scary. I can't help but compare it to Microsoft, whom we all love and cherish right ? .... right ? ... wrong.

    I can't help but notice also that Google has started spreading its wings, its not merely a search engine now, its a mail servive, a VoIP service, a map service ..well... basically a truckload of services (that we all like) but nonetheless, they're getting big.

    That's also how MS started and god knows how much I hate MS for their strategy to buy the competition, for their release-early, patch later type of software strategy, for the way they acquired (stole?) DOS, I basically hate MS for attempting to be everywhere in my house : the livingroom, the office, the basement.

    Well, I know, Google ain't MS, Google are good guys aren't they ? ... and this is where I put a question mark, in the end...Bill Gate, Eric Schmidt, Me, You, we're all human right ? By nature, humans are greedy, self conscience makes us control it but at what point will you decide that your company shouldn't grow anymore ... what business man in his right mind will say that ? they have investors to feed after all.

    So basically, I'm just afraid that we're encouraging another unkillable giant to grow and that once we realize that google just simply owns the net, we'll also realize it sorts of owns us too and that day, it will be too late because we'll be talking to MS #2.

    Ok, now I've somewhat bashed on Google on their birthday....not really intended but it seemed fitting to talk about google today.

    Now ..of course, people might (will :p) disagree with me, but if you reply, try to tell me why I'm wrong (or right) what are your opinions and such, I'd like to avoid anonymous comments like "dud3, j00 sux0rz" and more stuff like "here's why i think you're off the track..."

    --
    If you look like your passport photo, you're too ill to travel. - Will Kommen
  25. Re:Come on folks by BandwidthHog · · Score: 4, Funny

    Is anyone else getting tired of watching Slashdot chase Google's tail?

    Umm, that’s not a tail.

    --

    Quantum materiae materietur marmota monax si marmota monax materiam possit materiari?
  26. Re:The word "google" by veganboyjosh · · Score: 2, Informative

    a 1 followed by one hundred zeros is a googol. a 1 followed by a googol zeros is a googolplex.

  27. Re:The word "google" by RandoX · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Interestingly, they allegedly misspelled googol on accident. It also seems that the founders didn't know much HTML.

  28. Wha? It's not International Cake Day? by Cerdic · · Score: 5, Funny

    Damn, I was making all these cakes because I thought it was International Cake Day. Google always lets me know when to celebrate some holiday I'm not familiar with (Like Bastille Day). Now I just look like an idiot. An idiot with a bunch of cakes.

    --
    Advice for my fellow geeks: before seeking out that threesome you dream of, you might see what a TWOsome is like first.
  29. Google-Friends #1 by waldoj · · Score: 2, Informative
    Some may be interested in this -- the first-ever issue of the Google-Friends newsletter. I'd exchanged e-mails with Craig Silverstein a few days beforehand, about some code changes to the front page of their site, and I was happy to find myself on this list.

    I've had to alter the formatting slightly to get it past Slashdot's spam filter.

    From: larry@google.com
    Subject: [google-friends] revised google-friends
    Date: February 25, 1999 9:50:19 PM EST
    To: google-friends@makelist.com
    X-Mailer: QUALCOMM Windows Eudora Pro Version 4.1

    Dear Google Friends!

    Welcome to Vol. I Issue 1 of the Google Friends newsletter, news about the engine behind the search. Thank you for using Google!

    IN THIS ISSUE

    1) Introduction
    2) Google graduates
    3) Google gets great press
    4) New search operators
    5) Google gets a facelift
    6) Growing pains
    7) Want a job?

    1) Introduction

    Welcome to the first in a long line of Google Friends installments! It's taken a while, but we've been using the time to make Google even better. With new features, glowing press, and tremendous word-of-mouth, Google has been growing by leaps and bounds.

    We plan to make this newsletter a monthly, so don't worry about us flooding your mailbox. If you're worried anyway, see the end of this letter if you want to remove yourself from the mailing list.

    2) Google graduates

    Many of you have been with us while we were still at Stanford. As you've probably noticed, Google the research project has become Google.com. We want to bring higher quality and greatly improved search to the world, and a company seems to be the best vehicle for accomplishing that goal. There is a great deal that can be done to improve searching on the web, and Google.com will spend a majority of its effort developing new technologies to make your life easier.

    Google.com was founded by Larry Page and Sergey Brin, both Ph.D. students in Computer Science at Stanford University. Google received seed funding from a number of angel investors, including Andy Bechtolsheim, one of the founders of Sun. Google recently moved from its first "world headquarters" (a house with a hot tub in Menlo Park), to the new "Google-Plex," a prime office on University Ave. in downtown Palo Alto.

    3) Google gets great press

    In the February 22, 1999 issue of Newsweek, Steven Levy touts Google as "the Net's hottest new search engine, [which] draws on feedback from the Web itself to deliver more relevant answers to customer queries." In the December 1998 PC Magazine review of Google, Breck White says, "Yahoo! and newcomer Google! were the only sites in our roundup to return highly relevant hits consistently, even on searches for very general or common terms such as Internet standards."

    We've also had great mentions in recent issues of the Washington Post, the Seattle Times, TechWeb, Release 1.0, Voir, Le Monde, Konrad, Salon Magazine, and many others. Check out our always-changing press page at http://google.com/press.html for updates and links to the stories. Also, if you see us in the press, email mentions@google.com so we can add it to our press page.

    4) Google gets a facelift

    Many of you may have noticed that we've updated our website. We decided it was time to do a little Pre-Spring cleaning and give the site a face lift. Now the front page is cleaner and less cluttered, in line with our philosophy that as little as possible should get in the way of letting you search.

    You'll also notice we've changed the logo. We think we've entered the beta stages of our search engine, and thought that others should know. We can't wait until we make an official release!

    5) Growing pains

    Our capacity is going up (thanks to all you users!), and we've been expanding to meet the demand. We've been hiring more staff and putting up more servers to scale the system (we've started ordering our computers in 21-packs). We've also beg

  30. Reread my post by alexhmit01 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I'm NOT a proponent of ID, although I personally belief in the Jewish Creation story, I also understand how the lack of specifics in biblical Hebrew make the "modern" translations (especially the common Hebrew Bible -> Greek translation of Hebrew Bible -> Latin New Testament -> English translation) AWFUL. I think that one can learn an awful lot about mankind and our role in the world from Genesis, and see no conflict with Genesis's story and its moral lessons and evolution as a scientific explanation.

    I do, however, take MAJOR issue with the politicization of science. I responded to a post suggesting that the next steps was witches and evil spirits whose tag-line was "pissing of the religious right." I take SERIOUS issue with the anti-religious left that has deified "science," and not particularly useful science at that.

    I don't, however, have an issue with including ID in a school curriculum, albeit on a limited scale. I think that any high school lecture on evolution SHOULD explain the limitations and explain how others believe that there is an intelligent design involved. Traditional Jewish thought maintains that Hashem uses natural process for miracles... things like low tides splitting seas, things like that.

    The reason for the leeches/maggots post was just to point out the danger of the worship of science. For about a century those were treated as mankind's barbaric past... yet after 100 years of insulting our historical healing, we test it scientifically and find out that it is valid for certain treatments.

    I find what is lacking in these issues is any willingness to question why or question scientists. Why we've decided that people that spent 7 years in one particular institution to be granted a Ph.D are somehow immune from agendas or ideologies. Science is a tool, people use tools to accomplish goals.

    The reason I laugh... think about the impact of evolution and look at some events... notice that the proponents of "science only" don't learn the lessons of natural selection.

    Assumption: leeches and maggots were not valid forms of healing.
    Historical Experiment: some societies used them, some didn't
    Result: the societies that used them (the West) seemed to take over the planet
    Popular Conclusion: that was are barbarous past, it's remarkable that we survived
    Scientific/Evolution Conclusion: perhaps that was a factor that caused the Christian world to dominate the planet, prolonging lives and increasing child bearing

    Assumption: high child births will destroy society
    Historical Experiment: Rome collapsed within a few generations of rampant pedophilia that required the passage of marriage laws to increase population
    Recent Historical Experiment: Western birthrates have been plummeting for generations as we've "advanced," and Europe can't survive without Arab immigration, India with a higher birthrate is growing rapidly, China's enlightened "one child policy" is creating tremors in its society as marriage isn't an option for large chunks of a generation, Israel ceded Gaza to its enemies and parts of Samaria because of demographic problems, and America's social security network is showing serious stresses)
    Popular Conclusion: high birthrates are a function of stupid barbarians, enlightened societies will create gender equality and dismiss child bearing to an option
    Scientific/Evolution Conclusion: societies that aren't fruitful and multiplying enter a period of decline and collapse, political/economic growth requires political growth

    That is my issue, those that worship at the alter of science have created a idol to worship, the scientific community. They worship it as the bastion of truth the way previous generations of idolators worshipped the sun or the moon. Neither community UNDERSTOOD what they were looking at. Science is an INCREDIBLY powerful tool that can explain historical phenomenon and help us make better decisions. It Science-anity is an attempt to replace G-d with science, and worships the scientific expe

  31. Reasonable solution until feature is implemented by thc69 · · Score: 2, Informative

    4dos rules. When I found I needed more and more to use Windows, I started using Take Command as my shell, rather than Program Manager.

    Anyway, descript.ion, and the labels discussed here which I assume are in fact similar to 4dos's use of descript.ion, seem rather obsolete now. Modern filesystems let you use long filenames with spaces and other odd characters, along with CLI filename completion to make it easier to type them. If you're naming your files in 8.3 (or similar) and wishing you could label them...why not just give them long, descriptive filenames?

    For example, if I download the latest version of Opera and it's filename is ow32enen50.exe, in the download "save as" dialog, I'll change it to "Opera 8.5 ow32enen50.exe", thereby saving the original name (in case I ever need it) and giving it a useful description too. If I use a serial number to register a shareware program (like Opera used to be), I'll put that in the filename too, like "Opera 8.01 asdf-jhkl-12345-qwerty ow32enen801.exe".

    Another example would be a file containing notes. I might name it "Notes about the broken copier.txt".

    If a file is required by the system to have a specific name, I'm likely to put in a 0 byte file with a description named the same + some notes, so it is sorted alphabetically behind, so:
    "/usr/local/bin/joe"
    "/usr/local/bin/joe is a good text editor"
    or
    "c:\windows\system32\dllcache\ctfmon.exe"
    "c:\windows\system32\dllcache\ctfmon.exe is an annoying feature that wont go away no matter how much you delete it remove it from the registry turn it off in the control panel and so on so I put in a zero byte file that causes random errors when windows trys and fails to run it"

    It's not perfect, but it's good enough for somebody who says "I wish I had this feature" to use until the feature shows up.

    --
    Procrastination -- because good things come to those who wait.
  32. Very Early Google Logo's by nv5 · · Score: 2, Informative