Gaga Over Google Games
Plus: 3G goes slow, grid computing takes flight, and Bluetooth gets useful.1. Games Google Plays
The Buzz: Don't tell me you use Google only to search for Web sites. If so, you're missing out on a procrastinator's paradise. Think you're up for a Googlefight ? Enter two names (as in Bush and Gore, or Eminem and M&Ms), click 'Make a fight', and see which entry "wins," based on the number of search results the engine returns. Want to Googlewhack ? Just compose a two-word query that yields only one Google result (tough, believe me). Or check out Googlism , where you supply a keyword (your hometown, your name, the name of your ex) and see what "opinions" emerge, as culled from search results.
Bottom Line: The real game is staying employed after your boss realizes you're spending your days discovering Googlewhacks like "demisemiquaver svengali."
2. 3G Fizzling
The Buzz: It's a phone, it's a gaming device, it's a portal to pricey mobile services. Oh, wait, I misspoke: It's a bust. 3G--the coming high-speed standard that was supposed to turn your everyday wireless phone into Superphone--has hit the Kryptonite skids. Japanese phone giant DoCoMo recently revealed that it has signed up a paltry 320,000 3G subscribers. If 3G isn't soaring in phone-crazed Japan, it won't be taking off in the United States anytime soon.
Bottom Line: 3G in the U.S. might just stand for "going, going, gone."
3. Girding for Grids
The Buzz: The catchphrase du jour is grid computing, a bit of techie wizardry that puts the power of multiple networked computers to work on a single task. You may know about SETI@home , which borrows regular folks' computer time to analyze raw celestial data for signs of intelligent life in the universe. Butterfly.net is flying high with its grid-based, massively multiplayer games. Gateway is creating a grid from nearly 8000 PCs in its stores and offering it to groups that need processing punch. IBM, meanwhile, is throwing $5 billion in R&D at grid computing to develop "e-business on demand"--a means of selling computing power on tap, utility-company style.
Bottom Line: If memory serves, IBM launched a little thing called the PC a few years back. It's about time for an encore.
4. Bluetooth Finds a Niche
The Buzz: Bluetooth always held such promise. The short-range wireless technology would connect devices, facilitate voice and data communications, ensure world peace, and whiten your teeth. Yet despite some headsets, phones, and other ho-hum gizmos, Bluetooth has largely remained a solution in search of a problem. Now it may have found its place: the Microsoft Wireless Optical Desktop for Bluetooth, a keyboard-and-mouse combination that truly makes sense. No wires, no muss, no fuss.
Bottom Line: World peace remains elusive. In the meantime, I can always use a better wireless mouse.
Nagging Question: What Does.com Stand For?
Company? Communications? Nope. The designation.com is short for commercial, and it dates to 1984, when the Internet was still called ARPANET. Back then, Jon Postel and Joyce Reynolds spelled out seven top-level domains (.com,.net,.org,.edu,.gov,.mil and.arpa). Given their three-letter nod to commercial enterprise, it seems clear that Postel and Reynolds knew that ARPANET wouldn't remain the exclusive playground of academic and government types. But it's unlikely they could have envisioned that the term dot com would become a hallowed entry in the lexicon.
Contributing Editor Steve Fox covers buzzworthy products, ideas, and trends. Contact him at steve_fox@pcworld.com. Click here to see past Plugged In columns.