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October 10, 2005

Who are the Clickers?

I have a question. Maybe it's just me, but I think I've almost never clicked on a Web banner ad or sidebar ad in the nearly 10 years that Web ads have been around. A short informal poll of my friends yields similar answers. Nobody I know clicks on Web ads. Never. Ever. Now maybe my sample is skewed because my friends are..well..my friends. But even so, I've even got ads running on my own damn blog and I've never looked at them or clicked on them. In fact, I don't even SEE Web ads anymore. My brain literally tunes them out. Like dirty dishes. Does yours? So who IS clicking all those ads? Google and Overture are making gigabucks, but how? This is one of those unexplained mysteries of the Twilight Zone of the Web. Where are the actual clicks coming from? Who are the Clickers? Has anyone actually witnessed someone click on a Web ad? It's kinda OO-EEEE-OO, isn't it? We're all building businesses that rely on clickstreams but we don't actually know anyone who clicks. I wonder if it's some obscure, unexpected, demographic?

Posted on October 10, 2005 at 08:31 AM in Unexplained, Web/Tech |

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Nova's Trip to Edge of Space

  • Stepsedgestratosphere
    In 1999 I flew to the edge of space with the Russian air force, with Space Adventures. I made it to an altitude of just under 100,000 feet and flew at Mach 3 in a Mig-25 piloted by one of Russia's best test-pilots. These pics were taken by Space Adventures from similar flights to mine. I didn't take digital stills -- I got the whole flight on digital video, which was featured on the Discovery Channel.

Nova & Friends, Training For Space...

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    In 1999 I was invited to Russia as a guest of the Russian Space Agency to participate in zero-gravity training on an Ilyushin-76 parabolic flight training aircraft. It was really fun!!!! Among other people on that adventure were Peter Diamandis (founder of the X-Prize and Zero-G Corporation), Bijal Trivedi (a good friend of mine, science journalist), and "Lord British" (creator of the Ultima games). Here are some pictures from that trip...

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