Thought for the Day - May 19

Subject: Thought for the Day - May 19
From: Peter T.
Date: 19 May 00 - 08:51 AM

A study just released by a research group including AltaVista and the I.B.M. Research Center in San Jose, Calif., took a look at the structure of the Web through tracing the links -- "the degrees of separation" between Web pages. They checked the links of 200 million Web pages (about 1/5 of the Web total) and what they were connected to. Out of this they sketched out a structure for the Web which has a kind of " tendrilled spaghetti with a solid core" image, and contains the following components:

There is a strongly linked core of about 28 percent of the Web, something like 56 million nodes -- portals, CNN, Microsoft, search engine links, popular sites (Mudcat!), and so on;

There are about 44 million pages that you go into and don't really come back out of -- commerce sites, and intranets -- these are one way links in, and few links out (the commerce ones presumably to try and trap you into staying there);

There are about 44 million pages that are called "newbies", which are just new sites that are not yet wired into the search engines, or just starting their connectivity;

There are about 44 million pages that are called "tendrils", that have limited connections to anything;

And about another 10 million that don't link to anything, though no one can be sure how many there are because they are not picked up by any search engine -- personal web pages, etc.

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day - May 19
From: katlaughing
Date: 19 May 00 - 09:25 AM

Ah...kinda makes ya wonder how in the hell a one-person start-up gets anywhere amongst all those millions and millions (imagine Carl Sagan's voice saying that "millions and millions"...)

Phew!

kat

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day - May 19
From: Peg
Date: 19 May 00 - 11:20 AM

speaking of Carl Sagan (this is a tendril I guess) I just heard that he was one of the people responsible for researching the effects of a nuclear missile fired at the moon--which apparently our good government was considering doing back in the day when they thought the Russkies would get their first...we did not have capability to land a man there in a sapceship but apparently our proudest achievement of the moment, the A-bomb, was something we wanted to blast into space just to show those Commies a thing or two about the good ole U S of A...

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day - May 19
From: Bert
Date: 19 May 00 - 11:41 AM

Did they check how many of US are permanently connected to Mudcat?

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day - May 19
From: catspaw49
Date: 19 May 00 - 12:02 PM

Is there no end in "site".........Okay, it a bad joke.

WHERE WILL IT END?????????

Spaw

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day - May 19
From: Bert
Date: 19 May 00 - 12:13 PM

As Max Bygraves used to sing...

When you come to the end of a lollipop
to the end, to the end of a lollipop
when you come to the end of a lollipop
Plop, goes your heart.

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day - May 19
From: GUEST,Mrr
Date: 19 May 00 - 12:53 PM

A personal aside from me - Happy Birthday to my wonderful, heartwarming twins who are now big FIVE-year-olds! Woo woo! Dinosaur movie, here we come!
Just imagine, this exact time 5 years ago I was still not being allowed into the Newborn Intensive Care Unit to see what tortures they were inflicting on my little 2- and 3-pound whelps... but the nurses had taken Polaroids for me. As another aside, nurses are the best invention since... well... humanity.

I know this has nothing to do with the current thread, but it's MY thought of the day so here I stuck it. In order to relate it to music, I'll tell you that during the weeks I was in the hospital trying not to have them yet, I would sing Le Petit Bonheur to my big belly every day in the shower. Anyone wants the lyrics, that is a sweet little ditty about finding happiness ... and having it leave you.

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day - May 19
From: catspaw49
Date: 19 May 00 - 12:59 PM

Well Mrr, its beats the crap out of Peter's consistently boring stuff. And congrats to you and a Happy Birthday to the kids. Tell them some weirdo you know sends his love.

Spaw

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day - May 19
From: GUEST,Mrr
Date: 19 May 00 - 01:35 PM

Spaw, I'd love to, wonder which of my friends they'll think it is?

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day - May 19
From: Peter T.
Date: 19 May 00 - 02:27 PM

Since virtually all the Dinosaurs are destroyed by a meteor and the remnant is mostly chewed up and spit out, and the future is with a bunch of flea-picking runt mammals, are you sure you want to take your children to see this film? Wouldn't a nice, clean gladiator movie be better?
yours, Peter T.

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day - May 19
From: GUEST,Mrr
Date: 19 May 00 - 03:00 PM

But they're OUR flea-picking runt mammals, Peter!

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day - May 19
From: JenEllen
Date: 19 May 00 - 03:02 PM

Happy Birthday to the wee ones! While you're smothering them with kisses, plant an extra smooch for me. (A flea-less spot if possible...)
~JenEllen

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day - May 19
From: BlueJay
Date: 19 May 00 - 03:22 PM

If I read Peter T's initial posting right, there must be about 200 million websites out there. I wonder if anyone knows how many "hits" there are every day, and can calculate the odds of any particular site being visited on a random day.
I ask this because my daughter's website has generated almost 1,500 hits in three months. That sounds like a lot, but to me it seems miniscule compared to the huge number of sites visited even by random links, etc. Seems like a lot of competition for hits! Do any of you know how many web sites are visited daily, or monthly? I know you can't compare my daughter's site to The New York Times, which probably gets thousands of hits per day. But do you think 500 a month for a new site is good, bad, or indifferent? BlueJay

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day - May 19
From: MMario
Date: 19 May 00 - 03:32 PM

I would say good. I know some sites that show "hits" that average less then one a day...

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day - May 19
From: Peter T.
Date: 19 May 00 - 03:40 PM

Just to be clear, the project estimates that there are now a billion Web pages (multiple pages on a site are added to the total), with at least a million being added every day. A business colleague of mine (who generates Web sites) says that anything under 500 hits a day is called a "poodle site" -- that is slang for people putting up pictures of their poodles.

yours, Peter T.

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day - May 19
From: BlueJay
Date: 19 May 00 - 04:31 PM

Peter T- That is bad news. My daughter's site is a commercial site, not a "poodle site". I've been pushing her to get listed with Alta Vista, Lycos etc. Maybe thaat would generate more hits. A BILLION websites?

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day - May 19
From: MMario
Date: 19 May 00 - 04:37 PM

What KIND of commercial site? Does she get 500 phone calls a month? 500 written inqueries? It's all relative...but if she isn't listed with the search services, how are they finding her at ALL?

Subject: RE: Thought for the Day - May 19
From: Peter T.
Date: 19 May 00 - 04:59 PM

Mario is right, it all depends. My friend builds Web sites for the banking industry, and a variety of professional media sites -- they live on the Internet increasingly. You wouldn't get 500 hits a day if you were running, for example, a roofing service in a city. 500 a week would be pretty successful (working out to 5 to 10 possible new clients off the net supplementing your regulars -- assume a 10 or 100 to 1 ratio of hits to bites). If you were ReMax real estate listing services (or whatever your premier real estate lister in your city is) you could very well get thousands a day. He is also right about the search services: she needs to get her keywords right, and so on, so she gets picked up by them. Otherwise it is just random access.

yours, Peter T.