Following a recent announcement from WebSideStory, a company that does web analytics, which expressed that Firefox's adoption rate has slowed somewhat, there have been a rash of news articles on the topic. Basically, this company released stats that suggested that after the initial excitement behind the one-point-oh launch a few months ago people are still downloading the browser, but at a slower rate. That's hardly surprising as you wouldn't expect the huge hype to continue unabated for too long.
However, the interpretation of these findings in the press titles has been remarkable. If you look at the Google News results on the story you get everything from "Explorer douses Firefox flames" to "Mozilla gains on Microsoft" to "Firefox Flame Burning Low" to the sane "Firefox Usage Up, But Slowing". It's indeed incredible how fairly simple data can be manipulated to make a dramatic or entirely misleading statement. This might sound a little bit naive, but when something like this happens in a subject area you're relatively familiar with it just makes you wonder what's being manipulated in areas with which you're less familiar. Another sign of the Dark Age Ahead?
Comments
Gordon - March 1, 2005 1:52 AM
In related news (pun intended), the top result a few minutes ago on Google News for stories about the Oscars was titled 77th Academy Awards ceremony--a miserable showing. But wait, it was by none other than the World Socialist Web Site. A great quote right from the beginning of the article:
<blockquote>
The 77th Academy Awards ceremony was a largely dreary affair. What stood out? The wealth and privilege of those involved, their self-importance and the essentially trivial character, for the most part, of what they do.
Clint Eastwood's Million Dollar Baby, in which a female boxer's commitment to individual success produces disaster for her and puts a scowl on her manager's face, took the best picture and best director awards. This unpleasant tribute to striving for the American Dream, even if it proves impossible and destroys you, is described in the press as a return to "more personal, intimate" filmmaking.
</blockquote>
What happened to good ole unbiased socialist reporters of the past? Ah...
Paladin - March 3, 2005 4:45 PM
I'm no socialist but I happen to agree with their review of that film. Very depressing if you ask me.