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Internet.MyTriState.us
Welcome to our internet blog. Here, we'll talk about various websites, online games, great websites, online video, blogs, profiles, searching, email, web browsers and web hosting.
Google, News Corp and Microsoft
News Corp, the media giant owned by Aussie Rupert Murdock, has made its intentions clear: their news content on the internet isn't going to be a free ride anymore. Murdock wants users to pay for the privilege of reading stories on sites like the New York Post, its FOX sites and its UK Papers - this would expand the model they're already using on the Wall Street Journal. We think this model has merit for some publications, but not all. For example, the Wall Street Journal is a news source that people rely on, and it has proven that it can make the pay per view model work on its site, as we're sure the NY Times could; the aforementioned news sites are some of the most popular sites on the web. As we've heard in the last few years, news company's profits have taken a hit, along with the rest of the economy, forcing them to scale back coverage or shut down completely. If you listened to statements made my Murdock, you'd think online sites like NYPost.com have no system in place to make money, but this is untrue. Currently, they are charging for banner ads and text link ads that appear on their site, and if you've been to their site, you'll see that the banners and text links are everywhere. Tiny articles are split into 2 and 3 page formats just to get extra impressions for banners. The NYPost.com has also recently given away their classified section - meaning its now free to post there. What was once a source of revenue for the website has become a gluttonous mass of ads, topping previous classified ad totals by thousands as they import ads form many sources throughout the net, perhaps using a, 'if you build it, profits will come' strategy, hoping that more content means more users. We haven't heard when News Corp plans to expand the pay per view model on its other sites, but we would be shocked if people were willing to pay to read the NYPost at anywhere near their current unique monthly user numbers - in fact, we would guess that their traffic will drop by more than half. Think about it: people read news sites like the Wall Street Journal for information; they depend on it every day. Why do people go to NYPost.com? For a laugh, for quick, entertainment. Do you really expect people to pay for this? The NYPost.com homepage has the current (and extremely boring) Tiger Woods story as the headline article on the homepage; this story is EVERYWHERE - people aren't going to pay for this. Meantime, Murdock is upset about http://news.google.com/ which features news stories from a number of news sources from throughout the web. Google News presents a headline and 1 sentence from the story - then, you click the headline, which is an active link that takes you to the story's source website and away from Google. Murdock thinks this is bad, so we think he is a crazy person. Google is the most popular website on the web and they are giving your sites free advertising! Shut up and enjoy it! We also understand that Google is not a fan of integrating pay per view content like the Wall Street Journal has on their Google News pages, and perhaps in their search results as well, which is probably the real source of Murdock's anger. We have to shake our head at Murdock's, "I'm taking my toys and going home!" attitude and, at the same time, mock his arrogance. Google is a much more powerful, better run company than News Corp. in 2010, Google will unvail its computer operating system, Chrome, which will directly challenge Microsoft's OS dominating Windows. Microsoft is one of the most powerful companies on earth. This is who Google does battle with. News Corp is just an annoying fly. Google might make some concessions, but you can let the little guys score a few points when you're already up by 50 points with 2 minutes left. The game is over, folks - Google won a long time ago. Sorry you missed it.
Chuck Norris for the online age!
If you're big on the Chuck Norris rage, here are two of our favorites, internet style:
There is no CTRL button on Chuck Norris' keyboard. Chuck Norris is always in control.
Chuck Norris does not need Twitter - he's already following you!
JeepGarage.org
JeepGarage.org is storming upon the forum scene in the, uhm, Jeep Forum category. You can't deny their numbers, though: in just a few weeks, JeepGarage.org has compiled an impressive stat line of 640 threads, 15,064 posts, and 174 active members. It all started when a half dozen or so Jeep owners who frequented a different forum found that the user experience changed and the forum management wasn't going to change it back. Out of frustration, the aforementioned Jeep owners created JeepGarage.org and other Jeep enthusiasts have been migrating there and it's getting interesting - especially the 'Members Rides' threat and the guy with the Lion-O profile...
Spam Mail of the Day
Spam mail is really hilarious, isn't it? The products and schemes, if you will, of these scams are usually ridiculous, but some are funnier than others. They're usually poorly written, or written in a voice that oozes kindness - see, over seas scammers don't seem to understand basic American rudeness! This one, the one we're calling 'The Murphy Brown Scam' because its all topical, just like an episode of Murphy Brown, is really great, so we thought we'd share it with you in a new feature, Spam Mail of the Day. Be advised, we have no intention of posting a spam mail every day!
Dear Valuable Reader,
My name is Lt.Col. William Bill Russell, I am an American soldier, I am serving in the military of the 1st Armoured Division in Iraq, as you know we are being attacked by insurgents everyday and car bombs.
We managed to move funds belonging to Saddam Hussein's family in 2003. The total amount is US$25Million in cash, mostly 100 dollar bills, this money has been kept somewhere outside Baghdad for sometime but with the speculated troop withdrawal by President Obama, we are afraid that the money will be discovered hence we want to move this money to you for safe keeping pending the completion of our assignment here.
You can go to this web link to read about events that took place then via this site: [sorry, we are not posting the link]
we are ready to compensate you with good percentage of the funds, No strings attached, just for you to help us move it out of Iraq. Iraq is a war zone, so we plan on using diplomatic means in shipping the money out as military cargo using diplomatic immunity or through Bank transfer.
If you are interested, I will send you the full details, my job is to find a good partner that we can trust and that will assist us. Can I trust you?
If you receive this letter, kindly send to me an e-mail signifying your interest, including your most confidential telephone numbers for quick communication also your contact details.
With regards,
Lt. Col. William Bill Russell
Now that is some first class BS!
Yahoo profits decline
Since the third quarter ended, you may have heard how Yahoo!'s profits are in the toilet. How did this happen? It's pretty simple: Yahoo! probably makes most of their money from pay per click searches - you know, the 'sponsored ads' on the page. Well, they've really screwed their system up. Read more...
the weirdest banner award goes to...
CanadaFreePress.com is hosting a really strange banner on their site. We've got the image grab for your inspection. Read more...
Ebay sues Craigslist - hostile take over inevitable
Ebay is sueing Craigslist - namely, the two person board of directors: Craig Newmark, founder, and Chief Executive Jim Buckmasterover. Read more...
Quote of the week: Washington Square News
The quote of the week comes from the Washington Square News:
If you live in an NYU residence hall, you get free condoms. If you attend Oklahoma Christian University, you get a free Macbook laptop.. This article is credited to SAYEED MANICK.
Pando.com's peer to peer software available
Pando.com throws its hat into the peer to peer ring. Dude, don't these keep getting shut down? We don't get it. We know the peer to peer concept is fine, but it's what the peers are trading that's the problem, right? We don't see how a site like this can stay around for very long, because the users will ultimately trade copyrighted material. But we wish Pando good luck.
Can you name more than 3 Google products? That's some list they've got going there. Sure, stuff like Google Code is a bit over most of our heads, but there's a viable interest and demand for that sort of thing on the net. But there are lots of stuff that any user could take advantage of, like Google News, which features articles from lots of different papers or Google Talk, which offers IM and call services. On the other hand, Google Patent Search seems like grasping at straws. We have to wonder how much developing (or acquiring) these technologies costs, but one things for sure - from a financial perspective, Google doesn't seem to have bitten off more than they can chew. They remain the big dog on the hill for the foreseeable future, even if Microsoft does acquire Yahoo.
Starbucks has free WiFi for card members
Most small, independently owned coffee houses have unconditionally free WiFi for their patrons and now Starbucks has it, too... Sort of. Check the article in NYU's Washington Square News.
Starbucks has had T-Mobile 'hot spots' for a long time now - you still can purchase this either by the hour or for the entire day - unless you're a T-Mobile customer, then it's free. To access the new 'free' WiFi, you have to have a "registered and active Starbucks card" - you can check out more about the Starbucks card here. We're not really dissing on Starbucks here... true, they're overpriced and play crappy music, but they do have soy milk, unlike the incredibly uncool D&D, who's coffee is actually worse than SB.
Apple drops another huge ad on New York Times.com
This Apple ad on the NY Times must cost a pretty penny - the New York Times does a ton of traffic, and this ad is HUGE, just like the last one we featured here. These must cost a pretty penny - the New York Times does a ton of traffic, and this ad is HUGE, just like the last one we featured here. The same arguments apply as you'll see
in the blog below. With falling stock prices, you have to wonder if this is an investment worth making in a culture that is pretty good at tuning out all types of advertising. On the other hand, this ad is so huge and eye catching, it's pretty hard to ignore - especially when it occupies space previously held by your favorite sections. Hello down there, movie review! Drillbit Taylor stinks, huh? But the trailer looked so promising...
Apple's Mac has huge ad on New York Times site
This banner dwarfs the headlining article - it's huge! And if you didn't see it in practice, it's animated. The PC character climbs the ladder into the leader board to stick up that 'NOT' sign. This ad must have cost a pretty penny - banners are usually sold by impression (meaning every time a page loads) and the NYTimes does a lot of traffic.
One could argue that Windows doesn't need to run these kinds of ads because of their supremacy in the market and switching from a PC to a MAC is a costly proposition - you can get a PC really cheap these days where as you're looking at a min cost for the cheapest MAC at $599 at the Apple store. Don't get us wrong, we love our Powerbook - we have one we've never rebuilt in over 5 years, but we paid for it through the nose and promised Steve Jobs our first born. We think we've got our money's worth, but it was a spicy falafel ball, if you know what we're saying.
On the other hand, Windows deserves a lot of the crap they get. They don't seem to test stuff before the release it - Windows 98 (1st edition) sent us over to Apple in the first place and it seems like Vista is a similar story, and we seem to remember Millennium not being any fun either. But, you can't argue with cheap products. (Relax, Microsoft fan boys - we're not saying OS9 was prefect, because it wasn't.)
Our bottom line is that these commercials are really getting annoying (along with that KIA commercial where the over weight white guy does a Flash Dance like routine around the show room, spots for Rambo and Cloverfield). If you can afford it and have the patience to learn something new, get a MAC - otherwise, get a PC and some damn good anti virus software (Kaspersky works pretty good).
Wikipedia's history of Windows | Wikipedia's Mac OS History
How will the Yahoo! rumors turn out?
This AP article and other reports we've heard seem to talk about a swap between News Corp and Yahoo! - one that would send MySpace to Yahoo! and 20% of Yahoo to News Corp.
Which is worse - New Corp or Microsoft? We personally think that News Corp has enough of a stranglehold on the media as it is and don't think they need a chip in Yahoo - on the other hand, a complete takeover by Microsoft would be tough on the search engine industry, particularly for those pay per click customers, who we think will see their minimum bids increase (just speculation). In any event, if this does happen, maybe the boys at Yahoo can clean up the unusable mess MySpace has become - the glaring amount of ad content has made the site extremely difficult to navigate around, and though there has been much improvement, they could probably use a few more servers.