IT IS the $128 billion question at the heart of the fiercest debate on the most discussed company trading today: has Google jumped the shark by going into China?

“Jumping the shark” refers to a 1977 episode of Happy Days. It is widely accepted that the television sitcom, featuring Arthur “Fonzie” Fonzerelli, plummeted into terminal decline after an episode featured him trying to jump a shark on waterskis. A website documents similar points of no return and the phrase has entered the online vernacular.

Employees are worried that by accepting China’s oppression of free speech to enter its market, Google has irreparably damaged its image. Google, which has a stock market value of £72 billion, runs an internal betting market in which its workers gamble on future events, using phoney money, in a scheme designed to predict the future.

A Google source told Times Online that employees have been betting that the company’s acceptance of Beijing’s terms marks the point at which it “jumped its very own shark”.

www.google.com
www.jumptheshark.com
www.timesonline.co.uk/technology

And the winner is . . .

Ever felt like venting your anger at a particularly annoying website? Why not spill a cup of coffee over it? Better still, why not hurl cow dung at it?

Netdisaster.com provides fed-up web surfers with a variety of virtual outlets through which to let off steam.

The judges of Yahoo!s Finds of the Year awards liked it so much that they awarded it the prize for Best Innovative Web Site.

An educational site set up by a primary school in Leicestershire beat the Mars Exploration Rover Mission site created by Nasa, the US space agency, to win the Best Educational Site prize. Woodland Grange Primary School’s site, woodlandwideweb, was devised by teachers and pupils and includes teaching resources, news and games.

www.netdisaster.com
www.woodlandwideweb.org.uk
www.yahoo.com

Actor corpses

A computer programmer from Columbus, Ohio, has become an internet celebrity after posting pictures of himself online pretending to be dead.

Chuck Lamb started deadbodyguy.com to win roles playing corpses.

The ploy appears to have worked: in the latest update on the site he says: “I’M IN A NEW MOVIE!!!!!! It's called STIFFS!”

www.deadbodyguy.com

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