Bandwidth Speed Test Pages: Are they reliable?

There are a lot of bandwidth speed test pages on the web. Most of them are supported by internet providers and computer companies. But how do they work? Are the speed results reliable?

I think each one of them has its own method to accomplish the test. That can explain the differences among results. The server where each test page is hosted may influence it too. The differences among the results should be small, but it is not true.

Today I load two of these pages: Intel bandwidth test (www.intel.com/.../broadband/speedtest.htm) and RJNet speedometer (www.rjnet.com.br/velocimetro/teste100.asp). The results were very different, as shown below:

One hour after, I loaded the same pages again under the same conditions, i.e, no other softwares beyond the browser were opened in my computer. The following result was shown:


In both cases, the connection speed detected by RJNet test was more than 3 times higher than the speed detected by Intel page.
So, I decided to try a third page. This time, I loaded an international test at http://bandwidthplace.com/speedtest/. The result is shown below:


This result increased my doubts. On which test can we rely?

Top Keywords

Most of my friends don't have enough time to spend it reading this blog. So, I don’t expect that my posts will be read by them or by any other visitor. Even so, depending on the words used in my texts, this page can be reached through search results of sites like Google or Yahoo.
Thus, in the hope of attract new visitors, I looked for the top search terms used in web searches and I put them in this post.

One of the top search term used is the word "sex". If I combine it with related keywords like teen, tits, girls, nude, lesbian, breasts or voyeur, maybe a lot of perverted adolescents will find my blog. Famous girls like Pamela Anderson, Britney Spears, Angelina Jolie and Jennifer Lopez also have thousands of searches every month. So, if a boy type "Britney Spears Nude" in a search engine, there is a chance this page will be reached.

But if I want to attract women to my blog, I should write terms such as: “baby names”, “hair styles” “Horoscopes” and “George Clooney”.

Also there are those keywords that are ever in vogue: free, download, eBay, dogs, music, lyrics, anime and games. Nowadays, Oscar, Lost, Viagra, bomb and hurricane Katrina should be the top searched terms.

Maybe the strategy of writing just once each top keyword is not enough to highlight this blog in search results' pages. Therefore, many sites use the follow cheat: (select the lines bellow)
Oscar Lost Viagra bomb anime games dogs free download eBay photos music lyric Mapquest Pamela Anderson Britney Spears Angelina Jolie Jennifer Lopez Paris Hilton George Clooney teen girls nude sex lesbian sex Hairstyles, hair styles baby names Horoscopes
I’m not sure if it will work. Let’s wait a couple of days and try some searches on Google. Probably this strategy will not work, because no page links to this blog (the Google mechanism also takes into account the amount of links from other pages that point out to my page).

If you are interest in learning more about the top search terms, check these sites:
http://buzz.yahoo.com/overall/
http://searchenginewatch.com/searchday/article.php/3573491
http://www.nielsen-netratings.com/pr/pr_060118.pdf

Hello World

I have never liked personal blogs, specially those that works as an on-line diary, where people publish things like: "today I have taken my dog to vet" or "my nephew was born yesterday". I think all that is so boring. But it can be very useful if you are in love with some blogger girl. In this case, you can read her blog (and/or her Orkut page) to learn more about her preferences and habits, and use this information to try to conquer her. Maybe it is the aim of many bloggers: supply clues about themselves to someone who may be interested in them.

I’ve realized that Fotologs are better for that purpose. These illustrated blogs are playing the role of electronic personal diaries, while the traditional blogs have become more “institutional”.
Yesterday I read an interview with David Sifry, the founder of Technorati – the first blog’s search engine on the web (http://www.technorati.com). The interview was entitled: “One day, everybody will have a blog”. Sifry speaks about how blogs are helping customers’ relationship with several corporations. Besides, blogs are a new democratic channel, where everyone can publish their opinion. Blogs of professionals, like journalists, lawyers, researchers, politicians and CEOs can be very influential nowadays.

I don’t know if David Sifry is right and one day, everybody will have a blog. At least, I’m doing my part creating this Blog. But my objective is not to reveal things about myself and make my life public; I just want to use this page to improve my English writing skill.