Too many people are forgetting that although 99.99% of people on here are proper computer geeks, we make up about 0.001% of all the people that use computers and the internet.
The majority of computer users know of no reason why they should hate Microsoft, when you consider how many people still don't even know what spy/mal/parasiteware is, or the amount of people who don't know what a firewall is or have an up to date virus checker etc.
People are quite happy to use whatever tool is first there (why else would they download so many spyware toolbars?), many millions of people in this world have MSN as their homepage either because they don't know how to change it or they actually use the search functions on there.
Yes Google is very very well known, as is Microsoft and MSN. While the marketing ploy wont work with us geeks, I'll quite happily bet it'll affect large numbers of 'ordinary' computer users.
I love the slick, clean and crisp design of Google but it's amazing the amount of people who prefer a site such as MSN because it's got pretty flashing lights, lots of colour and all the rest of the shit on it.
Just because we're geeks doesn't mean that everyone else thinks like us.
Fair comment in some ways, but when you consider you can break down the statistics to show that left handed people are less likely to cause an accident, or that certain star signs are more or less likely to cause accidents, does that mean people should be given benefits because of that?
There's an interesting discussion over at webmasterworld about this.
It's certainly going to make peoples lifes as publishers a damn sight easier.
Quote from eWhisper: The API is currently in beta release, and is being tested by a handful of companies.
Google is choosing who to use as beta testers as much by what they can learn (Google does need to check on security issues, wanted features, etc), as by company spend.
The fact that the API is suppose to be released this year is no secret, and has been talked about for quite some months.
Google realized they needed to reach out to the agencies a while ago, and have taken steps to do so. The professional program was just one aspect in a larger goal.
At the end of the day, this is all for a bit of fun, a chance to do something that hasn't been done in the local area as far as we know, a chance of a bit of free advertising in the local papers and it's a chance to raise some money for the Tsunami disaster (as well as figuring out which of the three sisters pubs is the best!).
As I mentioned somewhere above:-
There wont be any 'buzzing in' as such. The idea is that the quizmaster runs the quiz from his pub and the people in the other two pubs just answer the questions as they're said.
At the end of each round there is a space of time for each pub to ask for questions to be repeated and then at the end of that, it'll be the good ol' fashioned pass the piece of paper to your neighbours table to get it scored.
Someone from each pub will then total the top 4/5 teams to see which pub has 'won'.
I'm having a serious look at webex and avacast now and it looks like it may be worth a call to see if they'll sponsor the event.
There wont be any 'buzzing in' as such. The idea is that the quizmaster runs the quiz from his pub and the people in the other two pubs just answer the questions as they're said.
At the end of each round there is a space of time for each pub to ask for questions to be repeated and then at the end of that, it'll be the good ol' fashioned pass the piece of paper to your neighbours table to get it scored.
Someone from each pub will then total the top 4/5 teams to see which pub has 'won'.
Interesting post, although I do think you're being a tad conservative on the power gamer hours. When I used to play Asherons Call properly (I had a lot of spare time) I would rack up 50 to 70 hours a week and I wasn't particularly powergaming
I know some of my friends in the game who would play 16 - 20 hours a day!
Although we have several xp boxes (mainly used by my development team (along with Windows 2k Pro ones)), there is no way this IT department is going to roll out XP across the entire authority (approximately 400 machines) until at least Mid quarter 2005, there are far far too many problems to even contemplate it.
Heck, half the staff haven't even figured out the difference between a wallpaper and screensaver yet, yet alone giving them more fancy gadgets.
Unfortunately it's the computer-illiterate people who are are the target of spammers.
They are the ones that don't know how to set up proper spam filters, they are the ones who are stupid enough to give another website their banking details despite having been told by all their friends / family / news reports and other websites never to give their password out.
While there are stupid people with access to a computer out there, spammers will always make a fortune.
It's interesting to see that advert companies are taking this stance. I'm guessing they've realised that P2P is very unlikely to ever be stamped out properly (especially with millions more people every day gaining access to the net) so why not cash in on something that is theoretically 'legal' (until the users themselves share copyrighted material).
Interestingly enough, the quote site I run has a PR of 5 and as of last month is hit by google a minimum of 5 times a day and fully indexed (several thousand pages) approximately every 10 - 14 days.
Yahoo on the other hand probably hits the main index page once a day and indexes it ~once every 1/2 months.
Google from my experience tends to be very much quicker than Yahoo in spidering new pages but very very slow in doing anything with the images, why I have no idea.
Yahoo is certainly catching on fast but I think I will always prefer the clean crisp, 'quick' design of Google over the portal look. Until Yahoo comes out with a feature google hasn't thought of I wont be changing search engine.
Back in 1998/99 Altavista was one of the webs largest search engines and also Yahoo were larger than they are now.
Then good ol' Google came along with a very refreshing clean, crisp interface, an unbelievably quick search time (compared with the page loading time of AV), and no pop ups, image adverts and most of all the search results were more relevant.
Those are the reasons that people flocked to use Google so quickly. I run several sites that run Google Ad-Words and one of the options for presenting these ads is to use images - but what the Google team realised a long time before the majority of other ad-networks did is that regular net users mentally block out image ads (I know I have done for years) but those of us that skim read will still take into the information of a text advert.
I disagree very strongly that Google isn't sustainable as the growth in profits for Ads proves (especially as thousands more people are getting access to the internet every day).
There are now plenty of clean, crisp quick search engines available - especially with the number of open source spiders available, but Google has a reputation good enough that people have no reason to swap engines. Until someone comes up with an idea that Google hasn't thought of, I see no reason why Google will be knocked off the top spot.
An IRC quote that sums it up for me.:)
{@BlindSite} unless your a labotamised ginger midget with a blonde gene, mozilla is very easy to use.
Taken from i-rox.
{|Matt|} !google queen discography
{FuCT^gone} Google search: http://www.lyrics-discography-mp3.com/discography/ queen_fsz_freddie_mercury-cds.html
{|Matt|} any way to select the next google entry with the google plug in?
{@qui}stop being a lazy twat and open a browser?:)
{|Matt|} i have:)
{|Matt|} just bieng nosey
{|Matt|} !google how to select the next entry with the mirc google addon
{FuCT^gone} Google search: http://www.scriptheaven.net/modules.php?name=News& pagenum=1
{@qui} ffs!
Slashdot Mirror
dvorak keyboard :)
Too many people are forgetting that although 99.99% of people on here are proper computer geeks, we make up about 0.001% of all the people that use computers and the internet.
The majority of computer users know of no reason why they should hate Microsoft, when you consider how many people still don't even know what spy/mal/parasiteware is, or the amount of people who don't know what a firewall is or have an up to date virus checker etc.
People are quite happy to use whatever tool is first there (why else would they download so many spyware toolbars?), many millions of people in this world have MSN as their homepage either because they don't know how to change it or they actually use the search functions on there.
Yes Google is very very well known, as is Microsoft and MSN. While the marketing ploy wont work with us geeks, I'll quite happily bet it'll affect large numbers of 'ordinary' computer users.
I love the slick, clean and crisp design of Google but it's amazing the amount of people who prefer a site such as MSN because it's got pretty flashing lights, lots of colour and all the rest of the shit on it.
Just because we're geeks doesn't mean that everyone else thinks like us.
Fair comment in some ways, but when you consider you can break down the statistics to show that left handed people are less likely to cause an accident, or that certain star signs are more or less likely to cause accidents, does that mean people should be given benefits because of that?
Don't think so!
It's certainly going to make peoples lifes as publishers a damn sight easier.
Definition of IRC
At the end of the day, this is all for a bit of fun, a chance to do something that hasn't been done in the local area as far as we know, a chance of a bit of free advertising in the local papers and it's a chance to raise some money for the Tsunami disaster (as well as figuring out which of the three sisters pubs is the best!).
As I mentioned somewhere above:-
I'm having a serious look at webex and avacast now and it looks like it may be worth a call to see if they'll sponsor the event.
There wont be any 'buzzing in' as such. The idea is that the quizmaster runs the quiz from his pub and the people in the other two pubs just answer the questions as they're said.
At the end of each round there is a space of time for each pub to ask for questions to be repeated and then at the end of that, it'll be the good ol' fashioned pass the piece of paper to your neighbours table to get it scored.
Someone from each pub will then total the top 4/5 teams to see which pub has 'won'.
Interesting post, although I do think you're being a tad conservative on the power gamer hours. When I used to play Asherons Call properly (I had a lot of spare time) I would rack up 50 to 70 hours a week and I wasn't particularly powergaming
I know some of my friends in the game who would play 16 - 20 hours a day!
I work in a local government authority myself.
Although we have several xp boxes (mainly used by my development team (along with Windows 2k Pro ones)), there is no way this IT department is going to roll out XP across the entire authority (approximately 400 machines) until at least Mid quarter 2005, there are far far too many problems to even contemplate it.
Heck, half the staff haven't even figured out the difference between a wallpaper and screensaver yet, yet alone giving them more fancy gadgets.
Unfortunately it's the computer-illiterate people who are are the target of spammers.
They are the ones that don't know how to set up proper spam filters, they are the ones who are stupid enough to give another website their banking details despite having been told by all their friends / family / news reports and other websites never to give their password out.
While there are stupid people with access to a computer out there, spammers will always make a fortune.
Possibly but then again what is the percentage of useful feedback received for anything?
Got to be a lot smaller than 1% for any project.
That man has far far too much money.
It's interesting to see that advert companies are taking this stance. I'm guessing they've realised that P2P is very unlikely to ever be stamped out properly (especially with millions more people every day gaining access to the net) so why not cash in on something that is theoretically 'legal' (until the users themselves share copyrighted material).
Regardless of how old someone is or what mental / physical state they are in. Ripping people off is not acceptable.
Interestingly enough, the quote site I run has a PR of 5 and as of last month is hit by google a minimum of 5 times a day and fully indexed (several thousand pages) approximately every 10 - 14 days.
Yahoo on the other hand probably hits the main index page once a day and indexes it ~once every 1/2 months.
Google from my experience tends to be very much quicker than Yahoo in spidering new pages but very very slow in doing anything with the images, why I have no idea.
Yahoo is certainly catching on fast but I think I will always prefer the clean crisp, 'quick' design of Google over the portal look. Until Yahoo comes out with a feature google hasn't thought of I wont be changing search engine.
Out of interest is there a single possible legitimate use for this?
Back in 1998/99 Altavista was one of the webs largest search engines and also Yahoo were larger than they are now.
Then good ol' Google came along with a very refreshing clean, crisp interface, an unbelievably quick search time (compared with the page loading time of AV), and no pop ups, image adverts and most of all the search results were more relevant.
Those are the reasons that people flocked to use Google so quickly. I run several sites that run Google Ad-Words and one of the options for presenting these ads is to use images - but what the Google team realised a long time before the majority of other ad-networks did is that regular net users mentally block out image ads (I know I have done for years) but those of us that skim read will still take into the information of a text advert.
I disagree very strongly that Google isn't sustainable as the growth in profits for Ads proves (especially as thousands more people are getting access to the internet every day).
There are now plenty of clean, crisp quick search engines available - especially with the number of open source spiders available, but Google has a reputation good enough that people have no reason to swap engines. Until someone comes up with an idea that Google hasn't thought of, I see no reason why Google will be knocked off the top spot.
An IRC quote that sums it up for me. :)
{@BlindSite} unless your a labotamised ginger midget with a blonde gene, mozilla is very easy to use.
Taken from i-rox.
Hardly new news, but hey..
Good luck to him. It's nice to see that people unfortunate to have CP are able in some way to have some form of quality of life.
{|Matt|} !google queen discography/ queen_fsz_freddie_mercury-cds.html :) :)& pagenum=1
{FuCT^gone} Google search: http://www.lyrics-discography-mp3.com/discography
{|Matt|} any way to select the next google entry with the google plug in?
{@qui}stop being a lazy twat and open a browser?
{|Matt|} i have
{|Matt|} just bieng nosey
{|Matt|} !google how to select the next entry with the mirc google addon
{FuCT^gone} Google search: http://www.scriptheaven.net/modules.php?name=News
{@qui} ffs!
clicky!