I’m stunned that in 2008 a federal politician can still be so wrongly advised (and accept that advice) about the internet!

Here’s the article in today’s Herald Sun:

1.8m Check Out Grocery Price Site

It starts off with this:

THE new GROCERYchoice website received 1.8 million hits in its first four days, showing consumers are interested in the information it provides, federal Assistant Treasurer Chris Bowen says.

1.8m HITS does NOT mean 1.8m VISITORS! Idiots!

In fact, I checked out the grocery site and noticed on the home page alone there are 22 hits — without me visiting a single other page on the site.

So 1.8m divided by 22 equals less than 82,000 visits — assuming only looking at a single page (which has no useful info).

If an average visitor looked at 2 pages — that means no more than 41,000 visitors (I clicked on my state — Victoria — and that page had 21 hits) … and at 2 pages, I’ve still not got any useful info.

So that 40,000 figure is more likely no more than 20,000 — if that — and I’m not even allowing for use by the government and public servants!

So 1.8m eh, Mr Assistant Treasurer? The real number of visitors is more likely to be no more than 20,000 or so … a massive difference.

That’s also forgetting that unit pricing has ALWAYS been around — if you’re smart enough to be able to do some basic maths in your head. Whether it’s on the shelf or not, it’s not that hard to work out.

Is the federal Assistant Treasurer really that stupid and ignorant about the internet? Based on this “news” he has no idea what he is talking about!