Emergent Chaos

Some folks have put up a site, "Kill Bill's Browser," based on Google's offer to pay up to $1 for each Firefox/Google Toolbar install. It offers up both good and entertaining reasons to switch:

7. It will make Bill Gates soooooooooo mad.
Seriously-- super, super mad. And even more than Bill, let's think about Steve "I'm going to fucking kill Google" Ballmer for a second (actual quote). If there's anyone that's going to absolutely blow a gasket when they see this website, it will be him.

Now there's a brilliant idea. Get Bill mad. Because he's highly ineffective as a competitor. Remember when a browser company called his OS a collection of buggy device drivers? Remember when that company had 90% of the market?

Incidentally, we currently see:

Browsers	Grabber	Hits	Percent
MS Internet Explorer	No	42589	35.1 %
Firefox	No	25619	21.1 %
Unknown (mostly RSS readers)	?	19325	15.9 %
Mozilla	No	18810	15.5 %
NetNewsWire	No	5857	4.8 %
Safari	No	5390	4.4 %

We won't be advertising for this. There's a couple of reasons. First, Google isn't going to collect my social security number for $20. For that, they'll need to buy one of the big three credit agencies. Remember, its about "Organizing the world's information, and you heard it here first.

Second, if we start selling ads or otherwise accepting sponsor money, its going to be in a way that's much more focused on what interests the readers of this blog. We're in heavy negotiations with PlayMobil to offer up a custom airport screening playset with John Gilmore and Bill Scannell action figures, and metal Bill of Rights cards for the screeners to confiscate. We hope to have them available for the holidays.