Byte by Bite

China announces launch of Chinese domain names

by Marv Dealy

China has taken a big step in announcing they will begin issuing their own Chinese language versions of domains such as .com and .net. The People’s Daily (http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/) reported that the new system will offer Chinese versions for existing .cn, .com and .net domains.

Until now, folks in China have been able to type a web address in their own language until they get to the Internet domain, the .com or .net part. Those letters must be typed in English, so to speak, because the ICANN – the semi-governmental agency that hands out domains for the entire world to use – hasn’t seen fit to adopt technology that will allow users to type web addresses in languages such as Chinese, Arabic, Korean or any other non-Western language.

Some observers are quick to assume that China is setting up its own Internet as a way to censor content and weed out subversive content, while others say they’re already censoring, with the help of companies like AOL and Yahoo.

Problems will occur when people travel out of China, as they won’t be able to access web sites in the “Chinese Internet” because the “Rest of the World Internet” won’t recognize the newly spawned Chinese-language domains.

That also means my website – www.Throck.com – can be bought and used in China in a Chinese-language domain, all without my agreement or permission or even knowledge. Will this mean a repeat gold rush, with folks buying and “parking” domains in the new Chinese system in the hopes of selling them someday to someone else? Stay tuned.

Google Rules

Americans conducted some 5 billion online searches last December, according to Nielsen/NetRatings (http://www.nielsen-netratings.com/). 49 percent of those searches were on Google, an increase of 6 percent from the previous December. Meanwhile, searches at both Yahoo and MSN dropped and together total only 32 percent of the searches.

The competition is getting ruthless, beginning earlier this week with the firing of Jeeves, long-time search-helper for Ask.com. Amazon now gives a 1.57 percent discount on purchases if you use their A9 search engine. Yahoo is said to be thinking about some kind of awards program, as well.

In case you’ve forgotten, there are other search engines out there – for a broad search, you might want to try Dogpile (www.Dogpile.com) which returns results from Google, Yahoo Search, MSN Search and Ask.com. If you’re searching for a particular audio or video file, you might want to try Singing Fish (www.SingingFish.com). You might also want to try Mamma.com, who claims to be the Mother of all search engines and is powered by Copernic, one of my personal favorites.

Search-Related Advertising

The marquee business of Internet advertising – those little “sponsored links” that show up in the results of a search page at Google, Yahoo and elsewhere – may have hit the ceiling.

In their quarterly conference calls, the CFO’s of both Google and Yahoo told attendees that overall growth is slowing, and that the companies are looking for ways to “build new revenue opportunities.” That would be double-speak for “they ain’t sellin’ like they used to.”

Citigroup estimated that revenue from all Internet advertising will grow from $3.85 billion in 2004 to $9 billion by 2007 (http://news.com.com/2100-1024_3-6044173.html?part=rss&tag=6044173&subj=news) with search-related advertising making up nearly half that amount, up from 40 percent in 2004. Should you sell your Google stock now? I’m not a financial advisor and I don’t play one on TV, but I would start worrying quite yet.

Computer Support

Thanks to the fact that we’ve invented wonderful machines called “computers” that work about as reliably as a lawn mower much of the time, combined with an ever-shrinking desire by the equipment manufactures to support what they make, the market for third party computer technical support continues to grow.

According to Matt Healey, an analyst with IDC, the market size for consumer support measures in the billions (http://news.com.com/Need+your+PC+fixed+Get+ready+to+pay+up/2100-1041_3-6044445.html?tag=st.txt.caro) with companies such as Best Buy pushing their recently acquired group of geeks called the Geek Squad.

I’ve spent many years helping folks with their computer problems, and have seen the interior of many an Apple or Windows computer. Sometimes the problems are an interesting puzzle, other times they are just annoying as well, you know.

A computer that was brought into my shop yesterday was typical – the owner allowed as to how he probably hadn’t taken the time to download any Windows updates any time recently, and oh, by the way, “we never did get around to putting any anti-virus or spyware software on the dang thing.”

As you 14 faithful readers can imagine, the number of bad guys we found on this computer exceeded 10,000 files.

Circuit City is experimenting with an on-line support service, provided by PlumChoice (www.PlumChoice.com). I check out their web site and discover that they will give you 15 minutes of telephone support for $25 – I must be crazy because I give support for free over the telephone every day of the week, and only charge $55 for a whole hour of shop repair time.

PlumChoice, by the way, requires you to download to your computer some software of their making that allows their techies to take remote control of your computer. Now that sounds like a problem waiting to happen.

Manufacturers and retailers are quite interested in lowering the initial purchase cost of computers, and one way to do that is to reduce the “factory warranty” and support as close to zero as the public will allow. Then, the retailers get to sell you an “extended warranty” that, in the case of an appliance such as a washer, stove or TV might not be worth the money, but in the case of a computer definitely may be. Dell, for example, launched what it calls Dell On-Call last November which helps customers with problems like virus and networking issues within the first 30 days of purchase of a new computer for $49; if you want help after that it costs more. That’s right folks, a brand new Dell, out of the box, will cost you $49 to get help in the first month of ownership.

Other companies are experimenting with services that require the consumer to call a phone number where a geek will walk them through the steps necessary to repair their recalcitrant machine.

Personally, I think that if you’re having problems with your computer, it’s best to take it to a shop where people who actually enjoy fixing the darn things can do their thing. The big box approach will never replace the person