Brighthand Popular with Alexa Toolbar Users

[Jason Dunn]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.brighthand.com/article/More_popular_than_Coke_or_Pepsi' target='_blank'>http://www.brighthand.com/article/M...n_Coke_or_Pepsi</a><br /><br /></div>Brighthand has published an interesting article on their traffic ranking with Alexa and direct comparisons with Pocket PC Thoughts and other PDA Web sites. My only comment on this is that this traffic ranking only pulls in results from people <a href="http://download.alexa.com/alexa7/startpage.html?p=Det_W_g_40_L1">using the Alexa toolbar</a>, so the results only apply to a specific group of users, and are meaningless in the overall picture. :wink: In fact, Alexa has largely been declared a spyware tool by most people (I know I'd never install it). Want to see why? <a href="http://pages.alexa.com/help/privacy.html?p=TBStartpage_W_t_40_B1">Check out their privacy statement</a>. Here are a few choice quotes (uppercase theirs):<br /><br />"ALEXA'S TOOLBAR SERVICE COLLECTS AND STORES INFORMATION ABOUT THE WEB PAGES YOU VIEW, THE DATA YOU ENTER IN ONLINE FORMS AND SEARCH FIELDS, AND, WITH VERSIONS 5.0 AND HIGHER, THE PRODUCTS YOU PURCHASE ONLINE WHILE USING THE TOOLBAR SERVICE. ALTHOUGH ALEXA DOES NOT ATTEMPT TO ANALYZE WEB USAGE DATA TO DETERMINE THE IDENTITY OF ANY ALEXA USER, SOME INFORMATION COLLECTED BY THE TOOLBAR SERVICE IS PERSONALLY IDENTIFIABLE. ALEXA AGGREGATES AND ANALYZES THE INFORMATION IT COLLECTS TO IMPROVE ITS SERVICE AND TO PREPARE REPORTS ABOUT AGGREGATE WEB USAGE AND SHOPPING HABITS...YOUR SEARCH RESULTS WILL BE TRANSMITTED TO AND LOGGED BY AMAZON.COM AND MAY BE CORRELATED BY AMAZON.COM WITH ANY PERSONALLY IDENTIFIABLE INFORMATION YOU MAY HAVE PREVIOUSLY PROVIDED TO AMAZON.COM."<br /><br />I'd urge everyone to steer clear of Alexa, and that includes Brighthand users. :wink: I'm very pleased with the traffic level Pocket PC Thoughts has achieved in the past two and a half years, going from a personal Blog to a multi-user news & views site, and I have each one of you to thank for that. :way to go:

[SofaTater]

I wonder how many people here are Brighthand regulars as well...

I like Brighthand's forums, but PPCThoughts blows them away on the news and info side.

[Jeff Rutledge]

I've never ran Alexa and doubt I ever will. I really don't like these "services" that collect information, especially when they're marketed as a great add-in or some other darn thing.

It makes companies stop working. They let the number's run their business instead of doing the legwork and getting dirty. That's why PPCT is tops (at least to me). The mods here are knee-deep day in and day out. They have their fingers on the pulse of their communities. That's why people come and (perhaps more importantly) why people stay.

[Programmer]

I never heard of it before reading this article.

Maybe I'll just crawl back into my cave.

-- Robert :robot:

[Jeff Rutledge]

I wonder how many people here are Brighthand regulars as well...

I like Brighthand's forums, but PPCThoughts blows them away on the news and info side.

I pop by Brighthand a couple times a week. I click "New Posts" here about 50 times a day. 8)

[jim s]

Thanks for the reminder to run SpyBot!

[bdegroodt]

Alexa=Evil :devilboy: I installed it on a throw away machine once to help drive some stats on a site I was running. It's very easy to fool Alexa as we would have Alexa "Refresh Parties" here and just do the old F5 trick on all the machines that had it installed. It's not very smart about filtering multiple requests from the same IP so you can increase your rating pretty easily.

I don't doubt Brighthand gets decent traffic, but I'd seriously contest the statistical validity of any Alexa results.

I must be late to the game here on this topic, but what's with the Brighthand versus PPCT stuff?

[T-Will]

I don't use Alexa but I do visit PPC Thoughts and Brighthand regularly. I like PPC Thoughts for news and Brighthand for the discussion boards and both are excellent!

[James Fee]

Am I reading the graph wrong? It looks like brighthand has much less than the others except for that spike... Can someone explain to me why a lower number is better than a higher one?

[JoshB]

Jason, you're missing the "Hell, no!" option in your poll. :mrgreen:

IMHO, Google is a much better page ranking tool. I would give results from Alexa about as much weight as results from Gator or Bonzi Buddy.

[Kati Compton]

Am I reading the graph wrong? It looks like brighthand has much less than the others except for that spike... Can someone explain to me why a lower number is better than a higher one?

I looked briefly, and I'm guessing that it's the "site rank" in terms of traffic that's the Y axis. I hate graphs that don't have the axes clearly labeled.

[bdegroodt]

Am I reading the graph wrong? It looks like brighthand has much less than the others except for that spike... Can someone explain to me why a lower number is better than a higher one?

I looked briefly, and I'm guessing that it's the "site rank" in terms of traffic that's the Y axis. I hate graphs that don't have the axes clearly labeled.

That's correct. It's your ranking relative to all other Alexa ranked sites. So a lower number puts you closer to the top of all sites visited with a Yahoo or some other monster at the number 1 position.

[Foo Fighter]

Interesting to note that PPCT rivals PIC!!!! :twisted: Oh yeah, these Alexa toolbar stats are a real accurate way to gauge site popularity. :roll:

PDABuzz is dead. :cry:

[Jason Dunn]

Am I reading the graph wrong? It looks like brighthand has much less than the others except for that spike... Can someone explain to me why a lower number is better than a higher one?

It's like a "Top 1 Million" list. The higher the better - the #1 ranked site is the "best", so the higher up on the chart, the lower the number, and therefore the more "popular" the site. I was completely confused by it at first too. 8O

[James Fee]

Oh makes sense now... 8O

http://traffic.alexa.com/graph?w=379&h=216&r=6m&u=brighthand.com/&u=playboy.com

[Foo Fighter]

LOL!!! So Brighthand ranked MORE popular than Playboy....oh I think not!

[Foo Fighter]

Oh, I read it backwards. That makes a hell of a lot more sense. :wink:

[Jason Dunn]

Oh, I read it backwards. That makes a hell of a lot more sense. :wink:

Nope, you got your backwards view backwards - according to that graph, Brighthand ranks HIGHER than Playboy in terms of traffic. To make this more obvious, check out the comparison between MSN.com and Pocket PC Thoughts. (http://www.alexa.com/data/details/traffic_details?&range=6m&size=medium&url=http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/#top)

THAT I believe. :lol:

[Kati Compton]

I find it interesting that the Playboy traffic is so consistent.

[Fitch]

If PPCThoughts is barely #2, certainly not 1/2 the traffic, and Brighthand covers both Palm and PPC, then I'd say PPCThoughts is doing just fine. :pimp:

[Kati Compton]

Oh, I read it backwards. That makes a hell of a lot more sense. :wink:

Nope, you got your backwards view backwards - according to that graph, Brighthand ranks HIGHER than Playboy in terms of traffic. To make this more obvious, check out the comparison between MSN.com and Pocket PC Thoughts. (http://www.alexa.com/data/details/traffic_details?&range=6m&size=medium&url=http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/#top)

No - his second post is right. In the second post, he says "oh, Playboy, which is higher on the graph, gets more traffic than Brighthand", which would be correct given how the charts work.

[bdegroodt]

Oh, I read it backwards. That makes a hell of a lot more sense. :wink:

Nope, you got your backwards view backwards - according to that graph, Brighthand ranks HIGHER than Playboy in terms of traffic. To make this more obvious, check out the comparison between MSN.com and Pocket PC Thoughts. (http://www.alexa.com/data/details/traffic_details?&range=6m&size=medium&url=http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/#top)

THAT I believe. :lol:

To be 100% clear. In this graph, it shows that Playboy out performs (As in gets more visitors) than BH.

[Kati Compton]

If PPCThoughts is barely #2, certainly not 1/2 the traffic, and Brighthand covers both Palm and PPC, then I'd say PPCThoughts is doing just fine. :pimp:

Good point!

[Jason Dunn]

Oh, I read it backwards. That makes a hell of a lot more sense. :wink:

Nope, you got your backwards view backwards - according to that graph, Brighthand ranks HIGHER than Playboy in terms of traffic. To make this more obvious, check out the comparison between MSN.com and Pocket PC Thoughts. (http://www.alexa.com/data/details/traffic_details?&range=6m&size=medium&url=http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/#top)

No - his second post is right. In the second post, he says "oh, Playboy, which is higher on the graph, gets more traffic than Brighthand", which would be correct given how the charts work.

Well, uh, yeah....that's what I meant. 8O :lol:

No matter how you slice it, those Alex graphs are badly designed if they confused so many smart people. :mrgreen:

[James Fee]

If PPCThoughts is barely #2, certainly not 1/2 the traffic, and Brighthand covers both Palm and PPC, then I'd say PPCThoughts is doing just fine. :pimp:

Good point!
And given the fact that there are still tons more Palms out there than PPC (for now 8) )...

[lurch]

Nope, you got your backwards view backwards - according to that graph, Brighthand ranks HIGHER than Playboy in terms of traffic.
You mean that Brighthand ranks higher in that they're ranked 90,000 (for example) and Playboy is ranked 20th.. so Playboy has much more traffic than Brighthand. That's what the graph says...

I compared brighthand with homestarrunner.com and enjoyed the results! :)

[lurch]

Boy I type slow.... :) And I thought 75 wpm was fast.. silly me.

[Foo Fighter]

Well, after all, Steve's site is more popular than Coke or Pepsi....or Elvis. :roll:

[SofaTater]

I find it vaguely disturbing to look at the graph comparing Playboy with "handhelds" -- if you know what I mean (nod nod wink wink)...

:twisted:

[bdegroodt]

Well, after all, Steve's site is more popular than Coke or Pepsi....or Elvis. :roll:

Who's Steve? :confused totally:

[suhit]

you're missing the "Hell, no!" option in your poll. :mrgreen:


:lol: This is the most lop-sided poll I have seen in a LONG time

[Foo Fighter]

Well, after all, Steve's site is more popular than Coke or Pepsi....or Elvis. :roll:

Who's Steve? :confused totally:

Steve Bush, owner/admin of Brighthand

[Thinkingman]

HOwdy!
This reminds me of that crap "Bonsai", so I am comparing the two.
mmmmmm, I find it hard to believe that pda's put out that much traffic in comparison to playboy..mmmmmm Of course this all started with not trusting the software, so basically nothing wrong with brighhand. :)

[Duncan]

Clearly Brighthand and Pocket PC Thoughts should merge...!

Why are you looking at me like that...?

Put the brick down Jason.....

[Foo Fighter]

Clearly Brighthand and Pocket PC Thoughts should merge...!

Yeah, that would be smashing! :drinking:

[Jason Dunn]

Clearly Brighthand and Pocket PC Thoughts should merge...!

Bright Thoughts?
Thought Bright?
Pocket Bright Thoughts?
Bright Pocket Thoughts?

Nah, it would never work. :lol:

[Thinkingmandavid]

Enough with the bull! I like bright hand but i SERIOUSLY doubt the traffic is comparable to playboy.... something is amis!
Oh, and I agree with JOshb, you left out the hell no!
We all know that the sites are getting good traffic. I like to read from both sites.

[Thinkingmandavid]

I like BRIGHT POCKET THOUGHTS! :) :wink:

[Ed Hansberry]

Nope, you got your backwards view backwards - according to that graph, Brighthand ranks HIGHER than Playboy in terms of traffic. To make this more obvious, check out the comparison between MSN.com and Pocket PC Thoughts. (http://www.alexa.com/data/details/traffic_details?&range=6m&size=medium&url=http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/#top)
Hey, put in brighthand.com and look at PPCT vs BH in Dec and January. We were very close to BH during those times. Right about when my article (http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/articles.php?action=expand,5971) came out. Coincidence? I think not! :wink: :lol:

[Hyperluminal]

Actually, I'm surprised the traffic here didn't spike more around Jan 1, with those contests... :)

By the way, I wonder what happened to BH around late April, when they plummeted then shot right back up...

[darrylb]

Interesting that PocketPC.com ranks so low! I thought this would be a home page for lots of newbies, but apparently not!

Anyone have the URL for the google comparisonator thingy?

BTW - PPCT is the best PPC site hands down. :D

[Jonathon Watkins]

Well, after all, Steve's site is more popular than Coke or Pepsi....or Elvis. :roll:

Who's Steve? :confused totally:

Guy who runs Brighthand - Steven Bush
http://www.brighthand.com/about_us.php

[Jonathon Watkins]

PDABuzz is dead. :cry:


As a door-nail. :cry: :puppydogeyes:

But home is where the Handheld is - HERE! -:way to go:

[bdegroodt]

Actually, I'm surprised the traffic here didn't spike more around Jan 1, with those contests... :)

By the way, I wonder what happened to BH around late April, when they plummeted then shot right back up...

My guess is either Easter or Professional Secretary's Day :D

[Jason Dunn]

Actually, I'm surprised the traffic here didn't spike more around Jan 1, with those contests... :)

Again, you gotta' keep in mind that when you consider that 98%+ of the people who have responded to the survey DON'T have the Alexa toolbar installed, that means their "votes" aren't being tracks, and that means the traffic comparison is worthless in the real world. That was my point... :wink:

[Hyperluminal]

Jason, first of all, I miswrote that. I meant to say that it didn't look like it spiked, on Alexa, not whether or not it actually did. :)

Anyway, you're right that the data is useless in the real world, at least in the site rank comparing PPCT to other sites. Depending on whether the 2% that have Alexa are an accurately distributed sample of PPCT readers, then the relative data (site-specific usage ups and downs) could, could be relatively accurate. For example, probably less than 1% of TV viewers have Neilsen boxes, yet Neilsen gets pretty accurate data, obviously because they distribute the boxes equally. Of course, the Alexa users that read PPCT probably aren't a good sample of the group, so you're probably right that it is useless. ;)

[Jonathon Watkins]

... so you're probably right that it is useless. ;)

Indeed, but 'Someone' is making a big deal out of it. :roll:

Getting a bit competitive is our Steve. :?

[bdegroodt]

Jason, first of all, I miswrote that. I meant to say that it didn't look like it spiked, on Alexa, not whether or not it actually did. :)

Anyway, you're right that the data is useless in the real world, at least in the site rank comparing PPCT to other sites. Depending on whether the 2% that have Alexa are an accurately distributed sample of PPCT readers, then the relative data (site-specific usage ups and downs) could, could be relatively accurate. For example, probably less than 1% of TV viewers have Neilsen boxes, yet Neilsen gets pretty accurate data, obviously because they distribute the boxes equally. Of course, the Alexa users that read PPCT probably aren't a good sample of the group, so you're probably right that it is useless. ;)

Proper distribution or not, this is no Nielsen rating system. It's incredibly easy to circumvent and inflate the Alexa rating system. It's not controlled at any level and it's hardly scientific by any definition. You're right. It's useless and only of best use to our friends at Amazon (Alexa's owner.).

[bdegroodt]

^Perhaps the finest display of dimplomacy and community building I have ever seen. :roll:

[Solarix]

Hey, I work for a computer repair shop, and nothing pisses me off more than getting a system in with Alexa, Gator, Bonzi Buddy, Weather Bug, ETC. And yet a well-known, established, PDA company is supporting this? (I see a problem, even if I am the only one)

[weezie]

This is soooo confusing! Maybe I'll just stick with Brighthand, duh, I mean Pocket PC Thoughts. :clap:

[Solarix]

Well, they now banned me from the Brighthand Forums.

Not that I really went ther anyway since that was only my 3rd post there ever.

[Paragon]

Well, they now banned me from the Brighthand Forums.

Not that I really went ther anyway since that was only my 3rd post there ever.

hmmm....dude, do you think maybe your language had somethig to do with it?!

Look, both sites are very good. Both teams put a tremendous amount of work into bringing valuable content to us.....for free! Putting up negative posts for one or the other is going to breed nothing but more negativity. Nothing good will come of it. Experience has tought me that. I try not to make the same mistake too many times. If you like it better here fine, but you don't need to blast BH to show your support for PPC Thouhgts....and I doubt Jason appreciates or needs that kind of support. :)

my 2 cents.

dave

[Cypher]

Well, after all, Steve's site is more popular than Coke or Pepsi....or Elvis. :roll:

Who's Steve? :confused totally:

Steve -- The guy who used to do Blue's Clues on Nick Jr. Replaced by Joe. :twak:

This is great example of how to use statistics to prove whatever you want to and charts which completely obfuscate any meaning, or as Sam Clemmons put it "There are lies, damn lies, and statistics."

A much more accurate metric for determining popularity of sites like this is the number of posts. Since posts take time and (sometimes only just a little) effort, you get a good sense of whether people actually care about what shows up on your site.

[JoshB]

I have a theory - I bet a large portion of their "hits" come from Journal Bar users. The "Handhelds" news option in Journal Bar pulls the last three news items from the BH front page.

Journal Bar is listed in Handango's Top Ten Pocket PC apps. While connected, it goes out and polls BH once every couple of hours by default, times 3 pages, adds up to a lot of hits on BH from Journal Bar users.

And since the majority of Journal Bar users access the web via ActiveSync passthrough, maybe they have Alexa installed on their desktop, and it's detecting the page requests from Journal Bar.

:mrgreen:

[bdegroodt]

I have a theory - I bet a large portion of their "hits" come from Journal Bar users. The "Handhelds" news option in Journal Bar pulls the last three news items from the BH front page.

Journal Bar is listed in Handango's Top Ten Pocket PC apps. While connected, it goes out and polls BH once every couple of hours by default, times 3 pages, adds up to a lot of hits on BH from Journal Bar users.

And since the majority of Journal Bar users access the web via ActiveSync passthrough, maybe they have Alexa installed on their desktop, and it's detecting the page requests from Journal Bar.

:mrgreen:

Maybe. But I don't think so. Alexa plugs into IE only. So, for instance if you use Netscape and IE, only the activity on the IE browser is tracked. It sits at the top of your nav bar like Google's search box in IE and communicates back and forth with Alexa's servers based upon your activity in IE.

[pivaska]

You are probably using Alexa without even knowing it. I installed Ad-
Aware and it picked it up right away. I have now blocked it from ever entering my pc castle. By the way Ad-aware has also cranked a lot more files that I never new were data mining my mine.

[Steven Cedrone]

Look, both sites are very good. Both teams put a tremendous amount of work into bringing valuable content to us.....for free! Putting up negative posts for one or the other is going to breed nothing but more negativity. Nothing good will come of it. Experience has tought me that. I try not to make the same mistake too many times. If you like it better here fine, but you don't need to blast BH to show your support for PPC Thouhgts. :)...and I doubt Jason appreciates or needs that kind of support.

Guys, there really isn't a need for anyone here to do "fly-by" attacks at BH...

Plus, I really don't want to have to clean up the mess if 100 pi$$ed off BrightHanders come over and wreak havoc here... :roll:

If you like it here at Thoughts, just stay here at Thoughts... :wink:

Steve

[bdegroodt]

Look, both sites are very good. Both teams put a tremendous amount of work into bringing valuable content to us.....for free! Putting up negative posts for one or the other is going to breed nothing but more negativity. Nothing good will come of it. Experience has tought me that. I try not to make the same mistake too many times. If you like it better here fine, but you don't need to blast BH to show your support for PPC Thouhgts. :)...and I doubt Jason appreciates or needs that kind of support.

Guys, there really isn't a need for anyone here to do "fly-by" attacks at BH...

Plus, I really don't want to have to clean up the mess if 100 pi$$ed off BrightHanders come over and wreak havoc here... :roll:

If you like it here at Thoughts, just stay here at Thoughts... :wink:

Steve

No kidding. The last thing either of these sites needs is some sort of Geek filled West Side Story.

[Wes Salmon]

By the way, I wonder what happened to BH around late April, when they plummeted then shot right back up...

If you look at a lot of second tier sites over a long span of time, you'll see that their lines spike a lot in general. This is due to the ridiculously flawed methodology behind Alexa in the first place.

I wouldn't be surprised if these "stats" on PDA sites are based on a sampling of less than 1000 actual users who fit the obscure profile of a) having the toolbar installed and turned on and b) being interested in PDAs enough to go to a website.

Their stats for very common things like web portals, porn, etc. are a little more accurate but once you start dealing with the sites below the top handful, the sampling is far too small and sporadic for the numbers to mean a hill of beans.

[wiljs]

8)

[Jason Dunn]

Ok Brighthand has now pissed me off.

Whoa....dude! 8O Calm down, take a breather.

Brighthand is a good site - in fact, it's a great site. They have a lot to offer, as to many other PDA sites out there - it's not a question of there being ONE site that excels at everything.

There's plenty of love to go around, so let's not trash ANY other sites in this thread, ok? Thanks. :mrgreen:

[heov]

yah... i use ppcthoughts as a news source and a great place to chat about news and maybe have a good debate or 2 ;)

I visit brighthand everyday too and chat w/ the regulars. The way their forums are setup is that there are even sub communities in each area. Plus, i can answer more questions over there.

I compare this site to PIC, w/ a little more opion, which makes it fun to read! :)

Both sites are great :)

[Jonathan1]

HEH...The only toolbar I have is google. Lets see how well Brighthand scores on a real site. :razzing:

[Foo Fighter]

^Perhaps the finest display of dimplomacy and community building I have ever seen. :roll:

ROFL! I just love sarcasm. Thanks for the laugh, I needed that. :lol:

[Janak Parekh]

No kidding. The last thing either of these sites needs is some sort of Geek filled West Side Story.
8O 8O 8O

Could you imagine the songs? :lol:

--janak

[Abba Zabba]

I ran into this article last yesturday when it first was published. I was quite surprised that they would put this up on their site. It's like they're trying to proclaim themselves the ste of the year or something :roll:

Bring on Westside Geeky :!: :wink:

[Kati Compton]

Could you imagine the songs? :lol:


&lt;sing>

"I feel geeky... Oh so geeky... I feel geeky and cheeky at CompUSA!"

&lt;/sing>

[Steven Cedrone]

When you're a geek, you're a geek all the way...
From your first PDA to your last dyin' day...



Steve

[Kati Compton]

When you're a geek, you're a geek all the way...
From your first PDA to your last dyin' day...


That is SO much better than mine. :)

Instead of fingers snapping, it would be clicking styluses in and out of PDAs, I think....

[Steven Cedrone]

I wonder how many 'Thoughts users have never seen West Side Story, and have no idea what we are talking about... :wink:

Steve

[Jason Dunn]

I wonder how many 'Thoughts users have never seen West Side Story, and have no idea what we are talking about... :wink:

Musicals make my head bleed.

Sweet Moses! Can't we keep any thread on-topic?? :roll:

[Janak Parekh]

Sweet Moses! Can't we keep any thread on-topic?? :roll:
Not if Steve's joined in the discussion... :lol:

--janak

[James Fee]

HEH...The only toolbar I have is google. Lets see how well Brighthand scores on a real site. :razzing:
If you use the PageRank feature of Google Toobar, they are tracking your moves on the internet too...

Google Toobar Privacy (http://toolbar.google.com/privacy.html)

We understand and respect that you are concerned about your privacy. That's why we want you to know that if you choose to enable the Google Toolbar's advanced features (e.g., viewing the PageRank of web pages), the URLs of the sites you visit will automatically be forwarded to Google. The purpose of our Toolbar Privacy Policy is to inform you of this process, explain the type of information Google is collecting, and explain how you can enable or disable the advanced functionality.

Google seems to do this without identifying you, but its still good to know you are letting others know where you have been.

[Ed Hansberry]

Well, they now banned me from the Brighthand Forums.
Deservedly so IMHO. Your post here on the subject has been moved to the hall of shame, though it may just get whacked outright. That was embarrassing.

[Ed Hansberry]

No kidding. The last thing either of these sites needs is some sort of Geek filled West Side Story.
What that an image you really felt the need to share with us? :bangin:

Last thing I wanted on my brain today were some (well, ok - any) Pocket PC Thoughts members dancing in some musical battle waving their stylii at each other. :pukeface:

[Ed Hansberry]

Musicals make my head bleed.
You and me both.
Sweet Moses! Can't we keep any thread on-topic?? :roll:
It seems to infect PPCT more than most sites. Could it be a bug in the board software that gets posts all mixed up in the wrong threads? :lol:

[bdegroodt]

Sweet Moses! Can't we keep any thread on-topic?? :roll:
It seems to infect PPCT more than most sites. Could it be a bug in the board software that gets posts all mixed up in the wrong threads? :lol:

Seemed like this thread needed to head a little off topic before the rumble in the tech jungle got any worse. You should be thanking me Jason. Did you read that guys post? 8O

[Janak Parekh]

Musicals make my head bleed.
Too bad. I'd have loved to see Brian and Kati star in the operatic version of West Pocket PC Story. :lol:

Seemed like this thread needed to head a little off topic before the rumble in the tech jungle got any worse. You should be thanking me Jason. Did you read that guys post? 8O
I agree. Nothing like musicals to do the trick. :lol:

If you use the PageRank feature of Google Toobar, they are tracking your moves on the internet too...
This is true, but they tell you in BIG BOLD words about the privacy issues of the PageRank feature when you install the toolbar. They're extremely up-front about it.

--janak

[James Fee]

This is true, but they tell you in BIG BOLD words about the privacy issues of the PageRank feature when you install the toolbar. They're extremely up-front about it.

--janak
Which is what I said, but many people don't read what it says. I use Google Toolbar w/ the advanced features turned off, but many don't and didn't realize that they were being tracked. I think Google is being very up front about this, but as you well know, very few people read fine print (including me from time to time).

[Kati Compton]

If you use the PageRank feature of Google Toobar, they are tracking your moves on the internet too...
This is true, but they tell you in BIG BOLD words about the privacy issues of the PageRank feature when you install the toolbar. They're extremely up-front about it.


Do they acquire personally identifiable info? Or do they just aggregate? Part of the issue is what info is actually being gathered, by who, and for what. I mean, I don't like the idea of Amazon following me everywhere I browse so that next time I visit Amazon, they can more closely "customize" the experience.

[Janak Parekh]

Do they acquire personally identifiable info? Or do they just aggregate? Part of the issue is what info is actually being gathered, by who, and for what. I mean, I don't like the idea of Amazon following me everywhere I browse so that next time I visit Amazon, they can more closely "customize" the experience.
From their Toolbar Privacy Policy (http://toolbar.google.com/privacy.html), they collect URLs. They do not explicitly guarantee the aggregation and throwing out of individual info, though.

--janak

[Kati Compton]

From their Toolbar Privacy Policy (http://toolbar.google.com/privacy.html), they collect URLs. They do not explicitly guarantee the aggregation and throwing out of individual info, though.

Ah. Then I would not like it. Of course, I used Y! Companion for a long time, and I'd bet it was doing something similar. It was just useful enough to me (at the time) that I was begrudgingly willing to put up with it.

[Jonathon Watkins]

Sweet Moses! Can't we keep any thread on-topic?? :roll:
It seems to infect PPCT more than most sites. Could it be a bug in the board software that gets posts all mixed up in the wrong threads? :lol:

Well, perhaps the people who post here have wide varied interests and are naturally chatty, friendly individuals who like to explore the tangents along life’s myriad miles of mazes and who are apt to smell the roses, extract the rose oil, spread it around a bit, admire the primroses, talk to the cows and then continue happily back in the general direction they were heading in a positive, more enlightened sort of way? :mrgreen:

I like it personally. :sunny:

Keeping ‘Totally’ on topic can be a bit…. restricting at times. Steve does do a good job of gently herding people who have strayed too far though. It’s nice to wander at times. 8)

[Kati Compton]

It seems to infect PPCT more than most sites. Could it be a bug in the board software that gets posts all mixed up in the wrong threads? :lol:

Well, perhaps the people who post here have wide varied interests and are neutrally chatty, friendly individuals....

It's my fault - I'll take the blame. I use the board more for social purposes than PPC purposes.... I like to socialize with geeks - I can't help it. And my brain just doesn't like to stay on topic either, which doesn't help... :scatter:

[Ed Hansberry]

Well, perhaps the people who post here have wide varied interests and are neutrally chatty,

Neutrally chatty? I don't think so. Not here. :wink: :lol:

[Jonathon Watkins]

:oops: That's what you get for typing too fast and not checking the spell-checker results! :mrgreen:

[Steven Cedrone]

:oops: That's what you get for typing too fast and not checking the spell-checker results! :mrgreen:

Well, you spelled "Neutrally" correctly so it wouldn't have mattered anyway... :wink:

Steve

[Kati Compton]

I think he was just trying to call us all "nutters" and UK-slang isn't in the spell-checker, so it substituted.