Leprechaun Talk

Intense research is something I have to practice quite a bit and nothing has made research easier or faster than the Internet. So I was making great headway researching a subject I will be teaching this fall, genealogy and computer-assisted research, when all of a sudden the keyboard was flooded with little green people. The Leprechauns had decided I needed a break and had taken control of my computer.

When the Leprechauns appear I can usually count on at least two hours of conversation and a little bit of harassment. Mr. Barrister wasted no time, saying, "Well, O lover of Swiss Chocolate Sundaes, we note you are using a new search engine. How do you like Google? Do you not find Google to be a strange name to call a search engine? How fast is it in your opinion? How good is the search? Are the hits it returns usable?"

I gave Mr. Barrister, the wannabe attorney of the group, what I thought was a harsh stare. But it didn't even phase him. He always asks rapid-fire, multiple questions, and sometimes gets so carried away he even starts answering his own questions. Instead of doing that, he asked one more question - "what is a Google?"

In that the Leprechauns know things far, far in advance of my learning them, I was rather pleased to be asked some questions. Leprechauns usually are in the "telling" business. So I shared some thoughts with them.

Google the search engine (www.google.com) is probably the only high-traffic page on the Internet that has no advertising. It is incredibly clean. And it is measuring hits in the millions per day. It is so clean that you are momentarily shocked when you arrive at their site and don't have to fight your way through banners, blinkers and bonuses to do what you want to do. As for what a google is - it is a number so large you cannot fathom it. However, in that form it is spelled googol - not google. The google spelling shows the humorous side of the architects of the search engine. The dictionaries that bother to carry the word "googol" say it is the number 10 to the 100th power. In other words it would be a 1 followed by 100 zeros. That's big.

Google is the brainchild of Sergey Brin and Larry Page - a couple of graduate students at Stanford University who put three years of research into their project. What makes the whole story kind of wholesome and appealing is to read the web pages of the Brin family. Go to Sergey's site at http://WWW-DB.Stanford.EDU/~sergey/ then follow the links to his mother's page and his father's page. It's a fun thing to do and puts a face on some of the brainpower behind the modern day Internet.

As for the search engine - I am using it, but have not given it the number one spot in my bookmarks. AltaVista remains my favorite, but Google is making inroads. For one thing, Google is lightning fast and delivers good, usable pages in response to your search phrase or word. The Stanford guys use a strange formula to decide which pages to put up - they base their positioning on which page regarding your search subject has the most links to other pages. The theory being that lots of links means a better page of material than a page with few or no links. Strange as it may seem - it seems to work.

Portal Page Readership Dropping Fast

Having satisfied the Leprechauns and Mr. Barrister with my impression of Google, I told them it was their turn to fill me in on trends in the computer world. I was particularly curious about the loss of luster being reported about portal sites on the web, like Excite or Netscape/AOL or even the Microsoft page.

Ms. Prisse, whose turned-up nose matches her holier-than-thou attitude, answered my question immediately. "Indeed, it is true, much to the consternation of many Internet content executives who have put big bucks into their portal pages and are just now seeing a profit potential. But along comes Nielson Net Ratings to report that portals are losing appeal. No sooner had this been reported than Forrester Research released a study predicting that by 2002 portal sites will be the original destination for only 20 percent of net users when they start their web browser."

Mr. Meandering, who likes to listen and repeat things, joined in by making a rare original comment. "Some executives may be uncomfortable now, but I'll tell you who is really uncomfortable. It's all those big holders of stock in some of the portal pages that just went public. Believe me, the holders of Excite@Home are a bit edgy. Even Yahoo is seeing a decline in people visiting their pages."

I asked the question of where all the surfers were going in that the Internet grows at about 65,000 users per day. Ms. Prisse took that one in stride, saying, "People are going to their specialty sites like education, computers, finance and - lest we forget those dreadful, drooling men -- to sex sites. In fact, we have observed you, O lover of Banana Walnut Cake, and you recently changed your opening page from AltaVista to your hometown newspaper where the emphasis is not on a gadzillion other sites you can surf but on your own local news."

At the mention of "local news" Mr. Skillin, who thinks more highly of himself than do the other Leprechauns, broke into the conversation. "In fact, this is a trend you can share with your readers. After years of losing money and having no idea if anyone was paying attention to them, newspapers are starting to become a factor on the web. People are finally reading them online. The problem now is whether their hard-copy circulation will drop even more. Poor newspapers seem to be losing on all fronts - but at long last they are winning some web readers. I predict it will get even better for them and that the web, as I predicted once before, will ultimately be the saving factor for newspapers."

Phrases that need translating

Softbank, a Japanese company that invests lots of money in Internet sites recently paid $91 million in cash for 20 percent of Morningstar, a mutual fund rating firm. The money is to be spent on advertisements, new analysts, and improving its online services. This prompted Morningstar's president, Don Phillips, to say:

"If you want to remain a major player in the financial information business, you've got to invest aggressively in the Internet."

Translation: Softbank wants us to make Morningstar so friendly and attractive it will have a fait accompli monopoly on financial coverage on the Internet.

The Chief Executive Officer for Micron Computers, a large mail-order computer reseller, was asked by the press why Micron was giving away computers if people signed up with them for three years of Internet access, on-site service and a year's worth of Micron University usage. Replying to the question Joel Kocher said:

"Can you spell C-E-L-L P-H-O-N-E?"

Translation: Cellular phone services built huge networks by giving away the cellphones. Micron plans to become a large web-based service organization AND a reseller of computers.

Qwest Communications International Inc. and U S West are negotiating a merger. They claim the "toughest issues" have been solved. Which prompted one reporter to ask:

"What are you going to call the new company - Qwest West, WestQuest, Suestew or what?"

Translation: We'll believe you have the tough issues solved if you can tell us how to merge those two names without bruising feelings from either company.

A gamer by the name of Billy Mitchell recently attained the highest score ever recorded on Pac-Man - a perfect 3,333,360 points. The 33-year-old said:

"I had to be first. It's like Neil Armstrong walking on the moon. No matter how many people accomplish the feat afterwards, it will always be Armstrong who will be remembered for doing it first."

Translation: I already hold the record for Donkey Kong and now Pac-Man. Boy, what a career for a guy 33 years old. Right?

Yahoo recently bought GeoCities and immediately changed the Terms of Service so that all content on these sites was the property of Yahoo. After a huge negative eruption from GeoCities users, Yahoo "gave back" property rights and promised not to tinker again. They said:

"We have always made it our job to listen and respond to our users' needs, and we have no intention of violating the trust we have built with them over the past few years."

Translation: Well, we tried to steal content but don't ever believe that public opinion doesn't work. We were inundated with irate web contributors and have learned our lesson well. For the time being.