Confessions of a Newbie...Written by Karenann Barron
The discovery of autoresponder. After purchasing a family computer in big post Christmas sales we were all estatic! The teenager was thinking e-mail, games, e-mail, pre-teen, our middle child was explaining to us all how to use computer because she "was bought up around computers" and being a nine year old girl, she knows everything. The wee fellow played with boxes and Dad got on with making thing work. Meanwhile I sat back and mapped out my plans of online riches. Finally after three long weeks holidays were over. They were gone, out of my hair, my online empire could begin. I spent a few days looking, not daring to give my e-mail address just in case I caught a virus. Then one day while I was looking at a site, a little box appeared, it said that I had been chosen to apply for an exciting, new, innovative opportunity that was going to take net by storm. All I had to do was submit my e-mail address for further information. Well I freaked out, I jumped up, do I do it?, could I do it?, what happens if I don't do it?, what happens if I do? After much discussion with myself I decided to go for it, I gave out my e-mail address. Next, of course I went to my mailbox and blow me down there was a reply. Wow, they must really want me, Im thinking, I am wo man. I happily filled out appropriate boxes and replyed. I did this all day. I followed very clever path that very clever marketer led me on. By time I went to pick up children, I could see myself driving my dream car. I had never had a dream car before, but I had one that day.
| | Is Google The New Graham Norton?Written by Holmes Charnley
Inevitably - and it doesn’t really matter in which genre of media you appear - overkill can lead to a backlash. Graham Norton, for example, started out as a cheeky Irishman who happened to be homosexual. But now he just seems too gay. He acts like an E 120-addled leprechaun, perpetually tumescent, and until recently, perpetually on our screens. But of course, as I’ve said, overkill exists elsewhere and Google is no exception. With its cheeky irreverence and young vibrancy (scooters and lava lamps in their offices), is Google in danger of rapidly becoming Graham Norton of internet? Without homosexuality obviously – a gay search engine would be slightly surreal. Backlashing is not peculiar to British, but dear god, we do it well. However, this isn’t really a backlash, per se. More a sense of apprehension because I am rapidly becoming tired of Google-this, Google-that. Could it be possible that others are? The corporation is - rightly so - an admirable example of American dream. Start from bottom and work your way to top. After all, in 1998 Larry Page and Sergey Brin (Google’s co-founders) were still working on search technology whilst students. Larry's Stanford dorm room became Google's data centre while Sergey's room was office. And inevitably there’s fun to be had on way, like seeing Bill Gates look paler by day. Esquire magazine recently ran a feature on Google and there were Larry and Sergey. They still looked wet behind ears. Which of course they’re not. With Google, as reported recently now reputedly worth anywhere between $25 and $50 billion, there’s computer genius and astute business acumen going on there. These two are fully aware of dangers, perilous way in which users of internet follow trends. As they say: “The competition is only a click away.” It’s a double-edged sword of course. Google far outweighs competition if you’re going to use internet for research purposes. Silly Yahoo! Want to play games, find a date etc? Then go to their homepage. But they are of course a search directory, Google is a search engine. But is this search engine in danger of losing vision and direction by trying to become competition? You wouldn’t think so. At first. Click on link for site’s corporate information and you can read their mission statement which clearly states that “Google's mission is to make world's information universally accessible and useful.”
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