tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-520807396714463309.post2001997976717279940..comments2024-02-12T02:22:30.561-05:00Comments on The Lousy Linguist: Them Maths Is HardChrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09558846279006287148noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-520807396714463309.post-72920425337861770912009-08-16T10:21:14.550-04:002009-08-16T10:21:14.550-04:00Yep, it's a good point.Yep, it's a good point.Chrishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09558846279006287148noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-520807396714463309.post-79018384066430000262009-08-15T16:13:08.289-04:002009-08-15T16:13:08.289-04:00They do say "Yahoo and Microsoft could double...They do say "Yahoo and Microsoft could double their <b>usage</b>," not "could double their <b>share</b>," so I think the claim is not mathematically impossible, though it is both confusingly worded and rather unlikely. If Yahoo and Microsoft managed to double their usage in absolute terms by expanding the market rather than by taking users away from Google, then they could double their usage to 56% of the current market and still trail Google--they would end up with 43.75% of the expanded market, while Google would have 50.78% of it. But it's not at all clear that the writer had a scenario like that in mind; more likely, they were just looking for a way of saying that Yahoo and Microsoft currently have less than half as large a share as Google's.Q. Pheevrhttp://q-pheevr.livejournal.com/noreply@blogger.com