The forward slash felt round the world offers search opportunity for Yahoo and Microsoft
It was a programmer's nightmare that might hound Google Inc. for some time.
After a single forward slash caused worldwide trouble for the world's most popular search engine on Saturday, analysts started wondering aloud whether Google's rabid users might seriously consider some search alternatives.
"This is a little embarrassing. It's hard to believe that there are no fail-safe systems in place," said John Byrne, a senior analyst at Technology Business Research Inc. in Hampton, N.H.. "I think it makes everybody step back a little bit and look at the bigger picture. Maybe users and companies are looking around and saying, 'Let's find a second source.' With companies like ours, that rely everyday on the Internet to do our business, almost all of us are relying on Google for a significant part of the work we do."
For about an hour on Saturday morning, every Google search -- for absolutely anything -- received the message "this site may harm your computer." Google said it traced the mistake to simple human error.
More: http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9127156&source=NLT_PM
It was a programmer's nightmare that might hound Google Inc. for some time.
After a single forward slash caused worldwide trouble for the world's most popular search engine on Saturday, analysts started wondering aloud whether Google's rabid users might seriously consider some search alternatives.
"This is a little embarrassing. It's hard to believe that there are no fail-safe systems in place," said John Byrne, a senior analyst at Technology Business Research Inc. in Hampton, N.H.. "I think it makes everybody step back a little bit and look at the bigger picture. Maybe users and companies are looking around and saying, 'Let's find a second source.' With companies like ours, that rely everyday on the Internet to do our business, almost all of us are relying on Google for a significant part of the work we do."
For about an hour on Saturday morning, every Google search -- for absolutely anything -- received the message "this site may harm your computer." Google said it traced the mistake to simple human error.
More: http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9127156&source=NLT_PM