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Complaints About the Relative Sizes of Fish

I knew this would happen – I’m getting complaints about the relative sizes of the fish in my Google/Yahoo/Microsoft cartoon. Here is an example:

From: Parker, David

Subject: cartoon for 2/2/08

Good day,

I think you have a minor error with the cartoon for 2/2/08.

If you’re picking the fish size based on search market share, then the Microsoft fish should actually be smaller than the Yahoo fish … if you’re sizing them based on Revenue, then the Microsoft fish should be much larger than all the others!

MS revenue: $51.2B

Google revenue: $16.6B

Yahoo revenue: $6.7B

Food for thought

I get a whole lot of e-mail every day reminding me that size DOES matter. In this case, I’m referring to the relative share of the online search market, where Google controls about 75% of the business. Here the fish are drawn with correct relative volumes – the Microsoft and Yahoo! fish are roughly spherical and the Google fish is flat, viewed from the side. Our readers need to think in three dimensions.

By Daryl Cagle

Daryl Cagle is the publisher of Cagle.com and owner of Cagle Cartoons, Inc, which which is a major distributor of editorial cartoons and columns to newspapers and digital publishers. See Daryl's blog at: www.darylcagle.com, see his site at: Cagle.com get permission to reprint his cartoons at: PoliticalCartoons.com.