John Battelle's Searchblog

The README brings up a cultural reference I didn't understand. It says "Many people have received jobs from the big 4 after becoming a Rockstar"

I hadn't heard of "big 4" before. I thought it might refer to tech companies, like Google, Apple, Microsoft, Oracle, etc. but couldn't figure out which 4. http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-sanity-check/schmidt-calls-tech-a-4-way-race-google-apple-amazon-and-facebook/ says "Google, Apple, Amazon, and Facebook", are the big 4 category of 'platform companies' while http://battellemedia.com/archives/2011/12/the-internet-big-five.php uses the phrase the big 5, which also includes Microsoft. Then again, the speaker in https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJZCUhxNCv8 comments about working at the "Amazon, Facebook, Google and Microsoft - sometimes called the Big 4".

This suggests that the "big 4" is more a concept then an actual definition.

On the other hand, further search gives another possibility. The big 4 can refer to the audit firms of Deloitte, PwC, EY and KPMG ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Four_%28audit_firms%29 ). It was "Big Eight", then "Big Six" and "Big Five", before ending up with 4. At http://www.narrowingthegaap.com/recruiting/how-to-get-hired-by-the-big-4-the-hiring-process-part-1/ you see "How To Get Hired By the Big 4: The Hiring Process (Part 1)" which starts "The Big 4 hire only the best and the brightest. This is only a partial truth at best. I know this because I have met some really dumb people working for…

By default Mosaic's background was gray, and most people didn't change it. (Using #x0000ff was reasonable for links on this gray background.)

White became the default background for more sophisticated sites in 1996. The first time I saw Yahoo and Amazon they had gray (i.e. probably no) background color.

http://battellemedia.com/images/1995-tm.jpg

(Notice how small it is too.)

We got so used to these gray web pages that for a few months I thought it was a crazy idea to make websites with white backgrounds-- that pages so bright would hurt people's eyes. Then I realized the real culprit was the default unvisited link color.

Some positive articles about Color:

http://battellemedia.com/archives/2011/03/why_color_matters_augmented_reality_and_nuanced_social_graphs_may_finally_may_come_of_age

http://blogs.forbes.com/bruceupbin/2011/03/23/color-a-twitter-for-photo-and-video-launches-with-41-million/

http://networkeffect.allthingsd.com/20110323/with-41m-in-hand-color-deploys-new-proximity-based-social-network/?mod=ATD_rss

http://www.fastcompany.com/1742209/lala-founder-unveils-41-million-real-time-photo-sharing-app-called-color?partner=rss&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+fastcompany%2Fheadlines+%28Fast+Company+Headlines%29

https://www.wired.com/2008/10/google-ceo-call/

Speaking to a group of magazine executives at the Google headquarters, Google CEO Eric Schmidt said yesterday that the Internet is becoming a breeding ground for false information, reports Ad age. But trusted brands help weed through the disinformation:

"Brands are the solution, not the problem... Brands are how you sort out the cesspool."

https://battellemedia.com/archives/2008/10/cesspool_brands_eric_talks_like_a_marketer

"Brand affinity is clearly hard wired….It is so fundamental to human existence that it’s not going away. It must have a genetic component."

"I'm going to fucking kill Google" -- Steve Ballmer[1]

"I'm here to destroy [Google]" -- Steve Jobs[2]

Maybe not the coziest of cartels.

[1] http://battellemedia.com/archives/2005/09/ballmer_throws_a_chair_at_fing_google.php

[2] http://9to5mac.com/2012/04/05/biographer-disputes-google-ceos-take-on-jobs-anger-at-android/