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To: Lizzie Tudor who wrote (13075)	9/19/2006 2:34:04 PM
From: TimF	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 19790

Its no different than Apple's iTV. Nobody says iTV isn't available because it is shipping Q1. I would. If I can't buy it now its not yet available. Now it might not be important that its not yet available. If it will be available soon and if it really gets the job done. But the price of the car isn't going to allow it to make a big impact. I googled it and I get prices rangeing from $80k to $350k. I doubt its $80k if the desposits where $100k, but even if it is, its a relatively limited higher end car. It completes against Porshe's not Hondas. Still for the rich it could be nice. Very fast and some cool technology. Just don't expect it to have a mass market impact. As technologies improve you might get electric cars (or at least plug-in hybrids) that do have a mass market impact, but this case isn't it. Apparently it has a 250 mile range (quite acceptable) and a 4 hour recharge time, (makes it kindof rough to take cross country trips). I could just barely reach New York and than I'd have to wait 4 hours. Of course I'm not the intended market anyway, and if I did have enough money to buy one I supose I could also buy a 2nd car for such trips.

To: Lizzie Tudor who wrote (13075)	9/25/2006 11:55:43 AM
From: The Duke of URL©	Respond to of 19790

BEWARE OF GEEKS BEARING GIFS: Ask Jeeves ... Is Ask.com Better Than Google? Like you, I've been watching what looks to be a very powerful campaign by Ask.com quoting a bunch of folks I know as saying that its search engine is better than Google's. I'm a big Google user and have developed a set of skills that allows me to get to information indexed by that market leading service rather quickly. However, as someone who has complained about others being too set in their ways to try new things, I didn't want to exhibit the same behavior -- yes I will eventually even try a new Mac -- and so I gave Ask.com a shot. I've been using it steadily ever since. Granted Google is still on my task bar, so I do tend to try it first, but when I don't see what I want on the first page I'll try Ask.com and, presto, generally what I want is on that first page. Now this is truth in advertising. While I'd noticed that for some things even Yahoo (Nasdaq: YHOO) and Microsoft were better than Google, Ask was consistently better, so much better in fact that I'm starting to wonder if Google is in trouble. Adding to this concern was a briefing I got a couple of weeks ago about a new service called ChaCha which uses an amazing new search ingredient called "people" to assist with the search because someone finally figured out that most of us don't think in Boolean logic -- the proper method for constructing a search query. What makes this service particularly interesting is the search "guides," actual people who assist you in finding stuff. They are paid using a multi-level (think Amway or Mary Kay) approach for compensation. Going back to the non-linear thinking we started out with, Ask and ChaCha are both hitting Google in ways that I doubt Google expected. Ask is using a combination of very good marketing and technology to fight Google, and ChaCha has a more aggressive approach in attempting to redefine the search model itself from the bottom up. Google, apparently, isn't having fun in China either, suggesting its run may be winding down either way. Rob Enderle is a TechNewsWorld columnist and the Principal Analyst for the Enderle Group, a consultancy that focuses on personal technology products and trends. technewsworld.com