medialifemagazine.com
By George, a reason for the dollar bill
By Heidi Dawley
Apr 15, 2008 - 1:05:19 AM
Should the dollar bill be dumped? It's been a bubbling issue for years now, and just last year the U.S. government even began minting a new $1 coin depicting the U.S. presidents. The hope: That it would catch on better than the Susan B. Anthony dollar of years back.
Good luck. The dollar coin hasn’t gotten much public support, with just 13 percent favoring it over the paper dollar in a new Harris Poll. Who wants another bulky coin to fish after?
But there's another solid reason for sticking with the paper dollar: the web site Where’s George. Named after the president whose face is on the bill, wheresgeorge.com tracks the travels of dollar bills as they meander across the country – and the world.
This year, Where’s George turns 10, a venerable age in internet years, and that makes its creator, Hank Eskin, right proud. Says the 43-year-old database architect: "I survived the dotbomb and all that."
It works like this. Users, or Georgers, as they are called, enter the serial number of their bills on the site, along with where they live, where they got each bill, and its condition.
Before spending those dollar bills, they may choose to mark them in some way to alert the next owner that he or she ought to visit Wheresgeorge.com and also log in data on the bill's progress. In effect, it's a chain letter made possible by the U.S. government and the internet.
Be it noted: The site serves no practical purpose whatsoever. This may appear similar to tagging the last of an endangered species. It is not.
Georgers, fingers now crossed, visit Where's George to see whether another Georger has happened on that bill and filed an update on its whereabouts.
You never know. Maybe that one you entered last week will be a boomerang, a bill that whizzes across the country before turning up back to one's hometown.
The site now has more than 4.5 million registered users and tracks 126 million bills worth $694 million, though surely some share of those are out of circulation. There about 60,000 active users a week responsible for roughly 20 million pageviews.
Where's George also blossomed into an active offline community, with George gatherings around the country.
“I never expected it to take off,” says Eskin. He says he got the idea from a dollar bill he received one day with a handwritten, chain letter-type note on it encouraging him to write on 10 more bills for good luck.
Part of the draw for devotees is the idea of registering a bill that manages to top the famed results of the record-holder, a 1999, I series bill that was spotted 15 times. This one dollar bill traveled 4,191 miles in three years, 12 days 17 hours and 25 minutes for an average of 3.8 miles per day.
It was entered first in Dayton, Ohio, back on March 15, 2002. Over the next four months it scooted through Kentucky and Tennessee. It then turned up in Milton, Fla., before making numerous stops in Texas, where it at one point it was used to make change at a racetrack and at another was found on the floor of an upscale strip club, presumably having fallen from the G-string of a dancer.
After Texas the bill legged its way through Utah before turning up in rather tatty condition in Michigan, in March 2005, some 456 miles from its starting location.
Despite its revered status among Georgers, this bill is now most likely on the scrap heap. On average dollars stay in circulation only about 18 months.
A switch to coins would likely put a similar crimp in wheresgeorge.com's circulation, as the nation switched over and fewer and fewer bills circulated.
The site would go on without the dollar bill, says Eskin. It also tracks fives and twenties. But it just wouldn't be the same. Now 73 percent of the registered bills are dollars.
"Personally I do like the $1 and $2 coins," says Eskin. "But for the sake of the web site, I would really like the one dollar bill to continue."
***
Meanwhile, in online ratings for the week ended April 6, according to Nielsen Online, Google claimed the top spot among parent companies, followed by Microsoft, Yahoo, Time Warner and News Corp. Online. The top five brands were Google, Yahoo, MSN/Windows Live, Microsoft and AOL Media Network for the third straight week.
NexTag surpassed Experian Group Limited as the No. 1 advertiser with nearly 6 million impressions, just ahead of Experian’s 5.88 million. With almost 27 million ads served, Yahoo was again the top advertising site, well ahead of No. 2 MySpace at 3.9 million.
Sessions per person per week were down one from the previous week to 16, and domains visited per person were down two to 38. PC time per person was flat compared with the previous week, at 17 hours and 43 minutes.
|
Top 25 parent companies
Through April 6 |
|
#
|
Parent
|
Unique Audience (000)
|
Reach %
|
Time Spent per Person (hh:mm:ss)
|
|
1
|
Google
|
91,281
|
64.2
|
0:34:46
|
|
2
|
Microsoft
|
85,679
|
60.3
|
0:43:46
|
|
3
|
Yahoo!
|
77,476
|
54.5
|
1:06:36
|
|
4
|
Time Warner
|
67,306
|
47.4
|
1:20:50
|
|
5
|
News Corp. Online
|
43,421
|
30.6
|
0:46:55
|
|
6
|
eBay
|
33,454
|
23.5
|
0:58:41
|
|
7
|
InterActiveCorp
|
28,804
|
20.3
|
0:11:44
|
|
8
|
Amazon
|
26,030
|
18.3
|
0:12:19
|
|
9
|
Wikimedia Foundation
|
24,368
|
17.2
|
0:09:41
|
|
10
|
Apple Computer
|
23,870
|
16.8
|
0:33:19
|
|
11
|
Walt Disney Internet Group
|
21,932
|
15.4
|
0:21:34
|
|
12
|
Landmark Communications
|
21,811
|
15.4
|
0:10:02
|
|
13
|
New York Times Company
|
21,527
|
15.2
|
0:10:38
|
|
14
|
AT&T Inc.
|
19,060
|
13.4
|
0:20:10
|
|
15
|
RealNetworks, Inc.
|
14,361
|
10.1
|
0:21:28
|
|
16
|
Comcast Corp.
|
13,674
|
9.6
|
0:28:06
|
|
17
|
E.W. Scripps Company
|
13,305
|
9.4
|
0:06:01
|
|
18
|
Verizon Communications
|
13,081
|
9.2
|
0:17:35
|
|
19
|
Bank of America
|
12,664
|
8.9
|
0:26:41
|
|
20
|
Viacom Digital
|
12,199
|
8.6
|
0:21:54
|
|
21
|
Facebook
|
11,853
|
8.3
|
0:38:20
|
|
22
|
United Online
|
11,584
|
8.2
|
0:29:59
|
|
23
|
CBS Corporation
|
11,553
|
8.1
|
0:19:08
|
|
24
|
CNET Networks
|
11,049
|
7.8
|
0:05:51
|
|
25
|
CraigsList
|
10,935
|
7.7
|
0:42:24
|
|
Source: Nielsen Online
|
|
Top 25 brands
Through April 6 |
|
|
Parent
|
Unique Audience (000)
|
Reach %
|
Time spent per person (hh:mm:ss)
|
|
1 |
Google
|
84,588
|
59.5
|
0:26:33
|
|
2 |
Yahoo!
|
76,038
|
53.5
|
1:07:24
|
|
3 |
MSN/Windows Live
|
60,477
|
42.6
|
0:47:18
|
|
4 |
Microsoft
|
56,441
|
39.7
|
0:15:21
|
|
5 |
AOL Media Network
|
54,195
|
38.1
|
1:30:29
|
|
6 |
Fox Interactive Media
|
37,423
|
26.3
|
0:50:00
|
|
7 |
YouTube
|
34,662
|
24.4
|
0:22:56
|
|
8 |
eBay
|
27,697
|
19.5
|
1:02:58
|
|
9 |
Wikipedia
|
24,037
|
16.9
|
0:09:46
|
|
10 |
Apple
|
23,870
|
16.8
|
|
