Apple Inc (AAPL)

[Burpzilla]

sailor92, I took that as an action item, and have the answer for you.

You asked, "I wonder if the Mac OS represented is OS 9 and earlier, with OS X users showing-up in the "Other" category."

I just got off the phone with the person at Google who works on the Zeitgeit section (Daniel Lemin).

He says, Yes, the percentage for Mac DOES include OS9, OSX, and all permutations of the Mac OS.

He said the "other" category is what they call "classified" and cannot divulge details. He assured me the 3% number for Mac is a true representation of the percentage of Mac users who access Google and in fact that number has remained unchanged for a number of months according to the archives.

He wouldn't give me the raw numbers for June 2003. Perhaps my identity as a "concerned message-board poster" wasn't as compelling as "concerned deep-pocketed advertiser." However, based on the year-end summary, there were 55 billion searches for 2002 so we can safely conclude there were 4-5 billion searches in June 2003 and that is statistically meaningful.

Since Google has Mac at 3%, which is in line with the sales numbers from the market research groups, and since Google is Google -- ubiquitous and authoritative and even tied into Safari -- it seems unavoidable but to conclude there is no "hidden matter" in the Mac universe beyond 3%.