WebProNews

Tag: Weak

  • RealNetworks Plays The Role Of Internet Bully

    While researching this topic, something occurred to me: who uses RealPlayer anymore to begin with? And so, after a quick jaunt over to RealNetworks Twitter page, I noticed they only have about 3700 followers. By comparison, Winamp, a RealPlayer competitor from those Internet days of yore, has over 7000.

    Apparently, Winamp is still whipping the llama’s ass, if the llama in question is the oft-maligned RealPlayer.

    As you well know, these are small amounts in the grand scheme of Twitter, and it should clue you into just how popular the service is. Granted, they’ve expanded from the days of being known as the streaming video player that brought the word “buffering” to popularity, but even with the new services, they can’t escape their past, something Oh Internet expands on quite nicely.

    Now, as if to add to their sterling reputation, RealNetworks is suing a Dutch webmaster because he had the audacity to link to a free alternative to the RealPlayer, called Real Alternative. The webmaster in question runs a software downloads site, but instead of hosting these files, he simply links to places they can be downloaded.

    Naturally, RealNetworks’ complaint has to do with trademarks and copyrights, but the question is, if they are truly worried about that, why not go after the developers of the Real Alternative instead of some webmaster who doesn’t have the same resources to defend himself?

    Obviously, the answer lies in the question.

    Instead of going after companies like CNet’s Download.com, a site that apparently hosts the program in question and Google, who has more links for “Real Alternative” than the webmaster being sued, undoubtedly, RealNetworks goes after the little guy, much like a bully who picks on the weaker of the bunch.

    Apparently, going after the little guy is safer than getting your collective ass handed to you by Google’s legal team. That being said, we’re throwing down the gauntlet at WebProNews. This is us linking to a site that links to Real Alternative downloads, essentially the same thing the Dutch webmaster did. This should also give some insight into the lead image, which is defiance in the face of RealNetworks’ bullying strategy.

    RealNetworks’ problem is with the developers of Real Alternative, not the people who link to the download. Considering the fact that RealNetworks have been around since 1995, you’d think they’d have a little bit more Internet/business savvy than…

    Sorry, that last part of the article hasn’t downloaded yet because of buffering issues.

  • Is Google + a Good Ole Boys Club?

    Is Google + a Good Ole Boys Club?

    While we at WebProNews patiently await our Google + invitations, a little factoid popped up that may cause some of the single men out there to rethink their social media priorities. To quote Reddit, Google + is, apparently, the Internet’s biggest sausage fest. If you aren’t aware of the the phrase’s meaning, allow Urban Dictionary to assist. If you’re unsure about visiting UD, maybe this will help. A sausage fest, in relation to social media platforms, anyway, is not a festival celebrating sausage in all its forms. No, when describing a party or any other social setting, sausage fest simply means there are a bunch of guys and not many females around.

    Lo, and behold, it looks like Google + fits that bill. The following screenshot was made by a Reddit user who apparently found a way to scale the Google + walls. The statistics in the image speak volumes, and, it may make you rethink your desire to get into Google’s exclusive party:

    Google Plus M/F Ratio

    In case something’s amiss with the image and/or, you can’t see it, the numbers are as follows: At the time the screenshot was taken, Google + gender make up was 88 percent male and 10 percent female. The remaining two percent was for the “other” category, which, I suppose, could mean animals (pets) or, perhaps, tech toys people are fond of.

    What do you make of such a breakdown? Is Google only targeting influential men — think Zuckerberg, Mark — with its limited amount of invites or are men the quickest ones to adopt new technology? Or are the men who joined sending out invitations to their bros before their, well, women? All of these sound like reasonable explanations, and, it’s pretty obvious that, once Google + opens its doors, people, women included, will migrate to the platform.

    Just not yet.

    A quick look at the Google + stats page reveals that the top ten members, in terms of followers, are all men, except for the 10th-ranked user, Gina Trapani, the founder of Lifehacker. If you expand out to include the top 20 members, only one more woman appears, and that’s Kelly Ellis, who is employed by Google. In fact, if you include the entire top 50 list, there are only six women total on it, giving a great deal of merit to the gender breakdown screenshot.

    So. Is Google + trying to be the Spike TV of the Internet? A place for guys who like guy things that guys who are guys like because they are being guys or is this just a simple anomaly? While the anomaly is the most-likely explanation, who knows? Maybe women don’t like Google + yet.

    The lead images is courtesy of the “Hitler Rants About Facebook and Google Plus,” which provide the great still image that leads this article.