Omnimaga
General Discussion => Technology and Development => Other => Topic started by: Deep Toaster on September 05, 2014, 02:33:42 am
-
I was typing a search query into Firefox's address bar (note that this is not even Chrome's Omnibar) when I started thinking about how much I really rely on Google. I'd say a good 70% of the things I type into my address bar aren't URLs at all but are meant for Google. That's really how we browse the web now, isn't it?
If Google (and other search engines I'm assuming) never existed, I wouldn't know 99% of the things I know about computers and the internet. I'd almost certainly never come across a site like Omnimaga—imagine the link chain you'd have to take to get there from a site like Facebook or Wikipedia's main page!
Of course, that's assuming I'd have heard of Facebook or Wikipedia at all, or that anyone would have, without Google. The Verge ran an interesting piece about a browsing competition without search (basically the "Wikipedia Game" across the entire Internet), and you can imagine how difficult that must be. They say that the Internet is all connected by a titular Web of links, but really it's Google gluing it all together.
A final scary thought: When Google went down for less than five minutes last year (99.999% uptime, which is absolutely incredible if you think about it (http://www.forbes.com/sites/timworstall/2013/08/19/analysing-fridays-google-outage/)), traffic on the Internet as a whole dropped by 40%.
-
You have some bad bb-code bold close tag in there :P
And yeah, there is a reason there are search engines, people use them TONS.
-
Browsing internet with no search engine would be a nightmare x.x
-
I have a book about the internet that dates back to the time before google. It has a list of interesting websites in the back. Remember that every geocities page had a "links" page? That's how the early internet worked: you'd include large lists of websites you find interesting in your website/book.
This book came out in 1992. The google experiment started 4 years later and did not get popular until much later.
-
If Google never existed? I guess that Yahoo, Ask or Bing would have been the core of Internet instead of Big G...
-
Possible. Yahoo and ask launched in 1995. This even before google development had started. Bing is a more recent one trying to be like google >.< It launched in 2009.
-
Yeah, I know, but I could have said Lycos or any search engine that could or already existed by this time.
-
I think it has a lot to do with the name and the choices of the company. I associate Ask with its annoying toolbar that comes with free software. Same goes for babylon. (Babylon is just pure evil with a forced userbase.) Google annoys you with their chrome browser from time to time, but it's actually a good browser, so just download it :P Yahoo's front page is too convoluted. Most people like the clean look of the google search front-page. I dunno, but google just never annoyed me enough to switch. That's about it.
-
Same for me on every points, but specially on Yahoo's homepage : it's too distracting from the main site's functionality : search things in things in the world of Intertubes.
(Haaaaaate babyloooon)
-
I have a book about the internet that dates back to the time before google. It has a list of interesting websites in the back. Remember that every geocities page had a "links" page? That's how the early internet worked: you'd include large lists of websites you find interesting in your website/book.
This book came out in 1992. The google experiment started 4 years later and did not get popular until much later.
Yeah, I wonder if anybody remembers back when Omnimaga still had a links section? Until April 2006 there was a page just for other calc sites. This is the 1st version: http://xlib.mtv-music-generator.com/omnimagaoldsite/links_v1.html
I think that today, most people no longer link to other sites like this because they figured out that in 2 years, all of them will have ceased to exist. Nowadays people just have an affiliates section or something.
Also, does anyone remember back when webrings were still big?
-
I learned about both of those things through TI-Freakware—not only does it still have a massive collection of calculator links (http://tifreakware.net/admin/link.php?catag=index), but it also at one point have a bug where the front page kept redirecting to its webring page :P
-
If Google didn't exist is like saying I'm the King of England
:)
-
if Google didn't exist, baidu would be here :trollface:
-
I remember when everyone used AltaVista, it was probably as big at the time as Google's search engine is now. Now it was bought by Yahoo, I think.
-
Google is shown as a virus site sometimes on the computer I use. I just use yahoo :P
-
If Google never existed? I guess that Yahoo, Ask or Bing would have been the core of Internet instead of Big G...
I guess my question was more of "what if search engines had never been invented." The Internet would be a very different place (and probably a fraction of the size).Google is shown as a virus site sometimes on the computer I use.
I'm sorry ... what O.O Google is probably one of the most popular browser home pages...
-
I have no idea :P It might be a bug with the computer
-
I remember when IE was flagged as potentially malicious on my computer and asked me to confirm before running it. That was probably expected, unlike anything Google-related, but still funny.
-
Same :P
And chrome
For some reason I thought of this (http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.tim.id.au%2Fblog%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2007%2F09%2Fsyntax-error.jpg&imgrefurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.tim.id.au%2Fblog%2F2007%2F09%2F29%2Fif-youre-happy-and-you-know-it%2F&h=819&w=1024&tbnid=HP9G-sgb4MNz3M%3A&zoom=1&docid=BFXGpge0J8jjjM&ei=iDQOVJ2fLZHkiwLGjYH4Bg&tbm=isch&client=firefox-a&ved=0CCAQMygCMAI&iact=rc&uact=3&dur=705&page=1&start=0&ndsp=15)
-
I remember when IE was flagged as potentially malicious on my computer and asked me to confirm before running it. That was probably expected, unlike anything Google-related, but still funny.
on a windows machine? O.O
-
I remember when IE was flagged as potentially malicious on my computer and asked me to confirm before running it. That was probably expected, unlike anything Google-related, but still funny.
Made a relevant thing (http://clrhome.org/b/ife/) a while back >.>
-
I remember when IE was flagged as potentially malicious on my computer and asked me to confirm before running it. That was probably expected, unlike anything Google-related, but still funny.
Made a relevant thing (http://clrhome.org/b/ife/) a while back >.>
That's a nice one, hehe :P
-
Haha I totally forgot about that page. It should be spread over the web like Reddit :P
-
That's not really wikipedia, right? :P
-
You should make that language thingy redirect to abetterbrowser.org instead of forcing chrome, though :P
-
That's not really wikipedia, right? :P
If that fake page became viral, I wouldn't be surprised if the real Wikipedia page got vandalized a few times with it as replacement. :P
-
Please, http://www.downloadmoreram.com
100% legit, get your free RAM today!
XD
(For those who don't know, no, its not a harmful site)
-
How is that supposed to work :P
-
If this was for calculators and involved hacking, this could possibly work to a certain extent :P (for example, if an online program remotely modified the calc OS to use less RAM)
-
knight OS :D
-
But... but... it's even more fun if it's actually doable from a 1st-party OS too :P
-
:P I'm sure someone can do that in the future
-
Speaking of Google, it (and Gmail and Facebook and so on) are blocked here in China D:
-
:P I'm sure someone can do that in the future
Indeed. After all, ZStart can already do some OS modding by itself. The tricky part would be to do it from a remote, online location. But then you also have Global Calcnet from KermMartian which comes to help.
Anyway back on topic, if Google had never existed, imagine how long it would have been before people find out about Facebook, Youtube, Google+ and Twitter. Some places would eventually know faster because of TV and newspaper reports, but other parts of the world where medias could care less about computers and electronics, so those areas would take much longer before they know. Facebook would be much smaller and perhaps most people would still plan stuff with friends the old way :P
I still remember back when almost nobody had a cellphone (many people still don't due to being expensive) and we tried to call friends, only to land on an occupied phone line because they were talking with another friend or using their dial-up internet connection, or simply no answer due to them always being away. I also like the convenience of texting and Facebook because it's quieter so if someone is sleeping at your house you won't wake up everyone if a friend calls you to go to the pub.Speaking of Google, it (and Gmail and Facebook and so on) are blocked here in China D:
Are you currently in China?? That's nice :D. But yeah the filters can be annoying. I thought you had a limited Google version there, though? (with many results removed)
-
:P I'm sure someone can do that in the future
Indeed. After all, ZStart can already do some OS modding by itself. The tricky part would be to do it from a remote, online location. But then you also have Global Calcnet from KermMartian which comes to help.
Anyway back on topic, if Google had never existed, imagine how long it would have been before people find out about Facebook, Youtube, Google+ and Twitter. Some places would eventually know faster because of TV and newspaper reports, but other parts of the world where medias could care less about computers and electronics, so those areas would take much longer before they know. Facebook would be much smaller and perhaps most people would still plan stuff with friends the old way :P
I still remember back when almost nobody had a cellphone (many people still don't due to being expensive) and we tried to call friends, only to land on an occupied phone line because they were talking with another friend or using their dial-up internet connection, or simply no answer due to them always being away. I also like the convenience of texting and Facebook because it's quieter so if someone is sleeping at your house you won't wake up everyone if a friend calls you to go to the pub.Speaking of Google, it (and Gmail and Facebook and so on) are blocked here in China D:
Are you currently in China?? That's nice :D. But yeah the filters can be annoying. I thought you had a limited Google version there, though? (with many results removed)
Google=>baidu
and you're in China O.O
and I thought they allowed it
-
Google being blocked entirely surprises me too, because just a few years ago it was still reachable. I guess the Chinese language site is now only for Chinese people who moved elsewhere or are doing a trip somewhere.
-
Speaking of Google, it (and Gmail and Facebook and so on) are blocked here in China D:
Are you currently in China?? That's nice :D. But yeah the filters can be annoying. I thought you had a limited Google version there, though? (with many results removed)
Yeah, supposedly it exists—it just doesn't load anymore :P
Subtly removing major Internet players from access.
-
Baidu!
baidu "sb" (it's an insult in Chinese) on a computer and supposedly you get "google"
edit: nope, but the first one mentions google.
http://www.baidu.com/s?ie=utf-8&f=8&rsv_bp=1&tn=baidu&wd=sb&rsv_enter=1&rsv_sug3=1&rsv_sug2=0&inputT=286
-
Baidu has a very bad reputation on Omnimaga and Cemetech if I remember correctly. Their web crawlers used to put so much strain on the two website servers that both sites banned Baidu from accessing Omni altogether a few years ago. It probably got fixed now, but it was so bad that it was like a DDoS attack.
-
I don't like baidu because I don't like reading large amounts of Chinese.
I prefer english when possible.
I dunno why :P
-
I don't like baidu because I don't like reading large amounts of Chinese.
I prefer english when possible.
I dunno why :P
Because, 'Murica
(I do realize English is not American and many countries have it and many people here aren't American XD, just a saying :p)
-
Nah, it just makes me a bit dizzy for some reason :P
like yahoo.
-
IIRC Google left China over disagreements on censorship.
Oh wait, now that I look at it, google.cn links to the Hong Kong version now.
-
IIRC Google left China over disagreements on censorship.
Oh wait, now that I look at it, google.cn links to the Hong Kong version now.
There are quite a few Chinese happenings that they don't want the public being able to access such as Tianenmen Square and another event that occurred around the blocking, though I don't recall what that event was. It was being publicized around the world, but blocked in China.
-
I don't like baidu because I don't like reading large amounts of Chinese.
I prefer english when possible.
I dunno why :P
Because, 'Murica
(I do realize English is not American and many countries have it and many people here aren't American XD, just a saying :p)
Americans can speak english, but cannot write it :trollface:
-
I don't like baidu because I don't like reading large amounts of Chinese.
I prefer english when possible.
I dunno why :P
Because, 'Murica
(I do realize English is not American and many countries have it and many people here aren't American XD, just a saying :p)
Americans can speak english, but cannot write it :trollface:
So treu
-
The funny thing is that way back the founders of google tried to sell their search algo to existing search machines but nobody wanted to buy it so they started their own site.
-
The funny thing is that way back the founders of google tried to sell their search algo to existing search machines but nobody wanted to buy it so they started their own site.
That's how business is done :P If you don't want it, it may grow to be your strongest competitor.
-
Google (and services) is currently blocked in China (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_China_censorship_of_Google_services).
-
Yeah, I'm here right now and it's the biggest PITA for a guy as attached to the Google stack as me :P
-
It's also a reason to move back to North America or Europe :trollface: ( I actually want to visit China one day, tho)
What sucks is that Google provides more and more services so if at one point a filter blocks Google as a whole then people dependent on it are in big trouble. >.<