Stamp Column Archives

The Glassine Surfer Column Archive

This column originally appeared in the American Philatelic Society's monthly magazine, "The American Philatelist." Since then some of the information may be out-of-date depending on how far back you're reading.

April 2003

Early Germany Stamps is a very active group covering the German area up to 1933 in all it's permutations, and the AGYSG covers stamps of anything Arabic. Back in February there was a new issue posting about Iraqi's set of prehistoric stamps.

Early Germany Stamps
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Early_Germany_Stamps/

Arab Gulf and Yemen Stamp Group
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/arabgulfandyemenstampgroup/

There are many other groups listed as stamp collecting groups on Yahoo, 985 clubs in fact, but many are empty shells of a site, some are really dealers, and a few are about rubber stamps. Still, search the listings and see what you find.

Now, over at the Micosoft Network (MSN), there's another realm of stamp communities to investigate.  In their stamps section they list 185 groups but you'll find a sprinkling of coin people here as well. Again, seek and you just might find something you were looking for.

MSN: Stamp Communities
http://groups.msn.com/browse.msnw?catid=121

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Web Numbers

Here's some recent Web numbers to ponder from wordtracker.com. The search engine Google had over 35% of all searches conducted by all search engines last October, a market share of huge proportions. For the same period, Yahoo clocked in with a 32% share, which left everyone else on the Web wrestling over the remaining 32% of all the searches. Of them, only MSN managed a double-digit share of just over 12%.

Equally worth contemplating is that webmasters report that of all their visitors, who used a search engine to find their site, 54.7% clicked to the site from a Google search page. This time Yahoo was at 22%, and no one else showed up at the dance. This stat comes from Onestat.com.

If websites are like cable channels, and search engines are like TV remote controls, than Google.com is probably your cable company. Google now has  Microsoft-level dominance of the Internet search field because it was and is the best way to get around the Net, and no one's complaining. Yet.

The Internet Traffic Report monitors the flow of data around the world.
http://www.internettrafficreport.com

The Internet Health Report reports on reachability of systems.
http://www.internetpulse.net

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BCPS

The British Columbia Philatelic Society is now online. The oldest club in BC has info on the officers, meetings, and membership, past programs, and a photo album of previous meetings, which is a nice way to put a face to the philatelist.

Rounding out the site, is a section of "Tributes" to society members who have made notable contributions, and the first honor went to Blair Henshaw who died last year. Henshaw waged a four year campaign lobbying Canada Post to issue its 1996 AIDS awareness stamp.

British Columbia Philatelic Society
http://www.bcphilatelic.org

BCPS also hosts VanPex 2003 later this fall, and interested parties can read about it online.

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Hungarian Philately

The Society for Hungarian Philately has moved into its own house, so to speak, with its own URL, so update your bookmarks and drop in for a look-see. I'm sure they'll take housewarming presents, but I wouldn't know what to buy them. (They seem to have everything, even an English-Hungarian dictionary that I'm sure is more accurate than the one Monty Python's Flying Circus tried foisting on the public.)

On the other hand, the site is your best choice for delving into Hungarian issues on the Web.

Society for Hungarian Philately
http://www.hungarianphilately.org

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Upper or lower?

You know you spend too much time on the Web, when you find yourself stuck in traffic seriously pondering the debate of the upper-case or lower-case "I" in Internet. We don't call this publication a Magazine, and we don't all have car Radios, so why are we calling it the Internet? Some word mavens are asking that question. The Web isn't a brandname, but we treat it as if it were a proper noun. If you're stuck in traffic and have some thoughts on the matter, drop me a line.

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Glassine Surfer

The Glassine Surfer archive is online along with other stories, help, and links to stamp collecting sites. We also host the Sociable Stamp Society chats online on Sunday and Wednesday evenings at eight o’clock eastern. Just click on “chat.”

The Glassine Surfer
http://www.glassinesurfer.com

Thanks for supporting the “Glassine Surfer.” Remember to help your fellow stamp collectors and support your local clubs. See you online.