You gotta love google :)

[ali777]

It's 5am, I'm tired and moody.... I need a fooking cigarette but I intentionally don't have any :shakehead:

I know at least two shops in 3 miles radius that are open 24 hours, but I don't have a car and walking 3 miles to buy fags (cigarettes) at 5 am is just wrong :dunno:. The alternative is to wait till 6.30am for my local shop to open, it's literally just down the road.

Anyway, I decide to try my luck and I googled "open shops", "24 hour shops", etc... google finds the two shops I know of and I'm well impressed that they know what I mean...

then I try "24 hours", the first recommended local business is some local escort services :hump:

I have to congratulate google for giving me the best possible option. What else could a sane man need at 5 am :whistle:? The only problem is, I've lost my sanity long time ago, I have no money for escorts, and I still need the fags....

Fags or hookers??? Difficult decision :dunno:

Right, I'm off for a morning walk and some fags....

 

[HughJass]

I have to admit that google maps on a mobile phone is a pretty cool thing to have. It almost made me want to get a mobile phone.

 

[ali777]

Well, technology wise they are good. Really good...

However, when it comes to business model and ethics, I'm not sure I agree with them.

Their business model is based on producing a product and putting it out on the market for free and figuring out how to monetise it later on. So, there are thousands of google products on the market and no one knows what those products are there for.

At the end of the day it's a business that needs to register profit or the shareholders won't be happy. No one is naive enough to believe they produce all those products for nothing, they are part of their business strategy and it's working.

I'm not sure I like that google everywhere idea. Just like I hate the idea of relying on MS for everything, I also hate the idea of google indexing my hard disk or my personal life.

You can't be everywhere, make money, and still be ethical. It just doesn't work that way. A very simple example, I would like to know what proportion of their income comes from p**rn.

Saying all that, I do want to get a google phone :whistle:. I don't know what's out there, but there are at least 5 android phones in the market at the moment. Maybe I should get myself a little xmas present

 

[Cassin]

Get the iPhone 3gs

 

[yvakin]

Get Nokia 3570

 

[patagonia]

I'm not sure I like that google everywhere idea. Just like I hate the idea of relying on MS for everything, I also hate the idea of google indexing my hard disk or my personal life.

You can't be everywhere, make money, and still be ethical. It just doesn't work that way.

My thoughts as well Ali.

I dont like "google" as a verb either.... :roll:

 

[ali777]

Get the iPhone 3gs

Nah.. I prefer android phones...

Just like I hate the idea of paying M$ tax when I buy a PC, I also hate the idea of paying fashion tax for Apple products. The iPhone is too expensive for the hardware it packs. It does have a very nice interface though...

PS: Why the hell am I so negative in this thread :whistle:

 

[The Gardener]

The only problem is, I've lost my sanity long time ago, I have no money for escorts, and I still need the fags.

LOL... that sentence sounds rather queer for an American ear...

 

[ali777]

The only problem is, I've lost my sanity long time ago, I have no money for escorts, and I still need the fags.

LOL... that sentence sounds rather queer for an American ear...

The word f***** has been used in English since the late 16th century to mean "old or unpleasant woman," and the modern use may well derive from this. Female terms, it should be noted, are often used with reference to homosexual or effeminate men (cf. nancy, sissy, queen).

The application of the term to old women is possibly a shortening of the term "f*****-gatherer", applied in the 19th century to people, especially older widows, who made a meagre living by gathering and selling firewood.

It is sometimes claimed that the modern slang meaning developed from the standard meaning of "f*****" as "bundle of sticks for burning," presumably with reference to burning at the stake.

f** or f*****=bundle of sticks for burning

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faggot_(wood)

This is even better:

In some UK public schools, fagging was the name given to the practice where a younger boy (a "f**") acted as an unpaid servant for an older boy.

Then there is the f***** meatballs as well...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faggot_(food)


As far as I am concerned, a f** is a burning stick or a cigarette :whistle:

PS: How come the word filter kicked in this post but not in the previous posts??

 

[Cassin]

The only problem is, I've lost my sanity long time ago, I have no money for escorts, and I still need the fags.

LOL... that sentence sounds rather queer for an American ear...

It really threw me off too...haha



For the Brits this is how it reads to us Americans...

"I have no money for escorts, and I still need the fags."

I have no money for prostitutes and I still need gay men.

 

[ali777]

I mean, I use google every five minutes and, as far as I know, I never paid them a single cent.

How on earth do they make money? Is it just the advertising?

It is mainly advertising.

If you really believe you don't pay, think again. You may not pay directly, but indirectly you pay much more than you think you do. The cost of advertising reflects on your shopping bill.

We keep hearing that UK online advertising has become bigger than the money spent on print media, or that online advertising is bigger than all the UK TV stations put together. So, we are talking huge sums of money. Even the annoying compare sites made billions (when the ad man makes more money than the insurance company, the system must be questioned... I have heard in one instance, the ad man made so much money through referrals that he bought the company he was advertising).

You have to bear in mind that most of that online advertising revenue is in the hands of Google. Online newspapers, review sites, comparison sites, etc also make money from online advertising, but Google is the king.

Besides advertising, I believe they have a few commercial products. For example google docs is a commercial product. Small users use it for free, but corporations pay for it.

Another example is hosting.... I don't think many people use google hosting, but they have a deal that let's the developers use google hosting for free until a certain bandwidth. Anyone excessing that bandwidth would have to pay. I'm sure they have other cloud computing services that they charge for.

For years they've been working on location services, the one Aussie mentioned. Getting license for all those maps and satellite images must be really expensive, but they are making an investment. The idea is that we are all going to use location services and google will make money from localised ads. It's just part of ubiquitous computing.

 

[Cassin]

PS: How come the word filter kicked in this post but not in the previous posts??

I didn't filter out every spelling possible. Just the main American usage when people argue.

 

[Cassin]