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War on the Web

War on the Web

Molly Wood Former Executive Editor
Molly Wood was an executive editor at CNET, author of the Molly Rants blog, and host of the tech show, Always On. When she's not enraging fanboys of all stripes, she can be found offering tech opinions on CBS and elsewhere, and offering opinions on everything else to anyone who will listen.
Molly Wood
Cool Web toys to entertain you on a Friday afternoon (or a Monday morning, or Sunday at noon, or whenever). The latest fun thing on the Internet seems to be scraping data for a head-to-head battle. Witness Google Fight, where you enter terms to see which appears most often (compare you and your friend, say, or Tom Cruise vs. Brooke Shields).

That's been making the rounds, but just today I encountered AIM Fight, which, social-networking style, tracks how many people you're connected to on AIM versus your buddies. Now, at least Google Fight might have some interesting social ramifications, but AIM Fight just reminds me that there are people out there using instant messengers that aren't interoperable. Seriously, folks. Get Trillian.