Today, April 30, marks the 15th anniversary of a momentous decision that meant the Internet was free and open to all. Without that choice by the CERN physics lab in Geneva could have decided that this World Wide Web thing that researcher Tim Berners-Lee was working on might have some proprietary value down the road and put it under lock, key and license. But they didn’t. Fifteen years ago today, they put it into the public domain and changed history. If they had, all of us today might be using something called Gopher. And paying for the privledge. John Murrel tells the whole story at siliconvalley.com.
Archive for April, 2008
Happy Anniversary for Everyone But the Gophers
Wednesday, April 30th, 2008Ooh! Another chance to vote for Maxthon
Monday, April 28th, 2008If you didn’t get voting for Maxthon completely out of your system with the Webware 100 Awards, surf on over to Cafe Medico, where a member is conducting one of those unscientific polls to find out what other members at the cafe use for browsing. (You must register first; it’s painless.)
The Vote Heard ‘Round the World
Sunday, April 27th, 2008When Maxthon was selected as one of the Webware 100 winners, Webware editor Rafe Needleman wrote up Maxthon in the description of all the award winners. There was one problem with the write up. It gives a false impression of the circumstances surrounding the votes Maxthon received in the browser categoryRafe writes:
“Of the ten categories, the most popular in terms of votes cast was Browsing. However it’s worth noting that one of the entries in that category, Maxthon, drove an inordinate amount of votes by putting a vote-driving popup in the software itself.”
The problem is that word “inordinate.” It suggests that Maxthon didn’t deserve all the votes it received. To set the record straight, here are the events that led up to Maxthon garnering more than 400,000 votes, about a fourth of all the votes cast in the Webware contest among all 100 winning products.
When Maxthon was chosen as a finalist for the award, Needleman wrote us, “Starting on February 25, you can encourage your users and fans to vote for your product ….” There was no qualification on how we could encourage users to vote; we could have hired the Goodyear blimp or bought advertising time on American Idol. We chose to put links to the voting site on a few of Maxthon’s pages and on a pop-up we sometimes use for such things as news and wishing users a Merry Christmas.
The hitch in the process occurred when David Lenehan, the CEO of PollDaddy, the company tallying the votes, walked into his server room to be greeted by flashing lights and screaming alarms. The Maxthon votes, coming in at a rate as high as 100 votes for ever y .01 seconds, had brought down his servers.
Lenehan, in Ireland, got in touch with Maxthon CEO Jeff Chen in Beijing through Skype chat. After hearing Chen’s explanation of how Maxthon was promoting itself for the contest, Lenehan said, “There is nothing wrong with what you did. … There is nothing wrong with your votes.
“Going by the vote count I don’t think you guys actually need any more votes,” he added.
Chen agreed to the solution Lenehan proposed: taking the contest link off the news pop-up.
“Although we want more users to know, I also don’t want to take trouble to your system,” Chen said.
After the pop-up was deactivated, votes for Maxthon continued to pour in. After the contest, Needleman wrote Chen, “ I do owe you a big thanks: 6% of the Maxthon voters also cast votes for other Webware 100 finalists, and we really do appreciate the traffic and the visibility.“
What it comes down to is that Maxthon is a damn good browser, its users reflect that fact with their enthusiastic support, and a vote is a vote is a vote. Anyone who has doubts that Maxthon deserves to be in the Top Ten of all vote getters for the Webware 100 Awards only has to download a copy at http://maxthon.com/download.htm to find out for themselves.
You Made Maxthon a Winner!
Tuesday, April 22nd, 2008If you haven’t heard, Maxthon 2 has just received a Webware 100 award in the Browser category. (If you haven’t heard, click here for the complete story.) For a program such as Maxthon, that has grown through word-of-mouth, the Webware award is highly appropriate because it too is based on the voices of the people. Computer users cast nearly 2 million votes to select the 100 winners among Internet software, services and sites.
Early on the judges at CNET could tell from the number of votes that Maxthon was a shoo-in for the browser category. Then CNET editor Rafe Needleman claimed we had a “pop-up” in Maxthon itself that was linked to the page where users could vote. As he tells it in his Webware 100 coverage, he asked that the “pop-up” be removed.
But then guess what happened. The votes for Maxthon kept pouring in. The secret of the big wave for Maxthon wasn’t a dirty trick; it was the sincere appreciation for all Maxthon can do. By the time it was all over Max had received enough votes to make the Top Ten. Not the top ten browsers, but the top ten of all the 100 products that received an award. The only other browser to make it to the Top Ten was Firefox.
Are we sounding smug? Damn right we are! Maxthon has a lot to be smug about. And so do you
The More the Merrier
Friday, April 18th, 2008The party’s just getting started. Maxthon’s own pages aren’t the only source of useful tips and information about our favorite browser. Two independent blogs have sprung up–or big banged or however blogs appear out of nothing–to try to sate our thirst for all things Maxthon.
At Maxthon Resources Moamen Kohail digs out obscure tips to make Maxthon better than you and I thought it was. Moamen’s a true fan of Maxthon, but his site has been wilting lately, probably because it buried beneath older, bigger sites. Now, though, Moamen and his site have seen a revival. In addition to his tips and plug-in picks, he’s begun an IRC for those who can’t keep their mouths shut about Maxthon. (Too few of them, if you ask me. I say shout about Max from the housetops.)
The IRC’s server is irc.freenode.net, room #Maxthon. The blog is at http://maxresources.wordpress.com/. Check them out and say thanks to Moamen and encourage him to do even more.
At Maxthon Support, a blogger named Jenny tracks not only the latest improvements in Maxthon but changes in rival browsers. She also provides some tips on everything from how to install Vista to 10 free software tools you should have.