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Ask.com upgrade aims at Google

Google Subnet — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 09:26:35 -0400

IDG News reports that Ask.com is going back to its old AskJeeves roots, retooling its site to--among other changes--make it better handle natural language question-based search queries. The upgrade is part of Ask.com's plan to lure away search users from Google and other, more popular search competitors. But is it too little too late?

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Google, Yahoo agree to delay ad deal

Google Subnet — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 08:52:39 -0400

Although Google CEO Eric Schmidt declared this summer that his company's ad-sharing deal with Yahoo would go full speed ahead as scheduled this month, despite an ongoing investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice, it looks like he's thought better of that course of action.

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T-Mobile to sell 500,000 G1s in Q4

Google Subnet — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 09:22:52 -0400

T-Mobile's G1, made by HTC and powered by Google's Android OS, is on pace to hit half a million sales in Q4, according to CENS.com, a Taiwanese news site. While nowhere near the explosive sales of Apple's iPhone, which topped a million sales in its first quarter of availability, the expected numbers are more than respectable. And unlike the iPhone, the G1 is just the beginning. Users can expect a series of Android-based phone offerings from various hardware makers and network providers, further upping Android's presence in the mobile marketplace.

For example, TechCrunch reports that Motorola has expanded its Android development team from 50 to 350, underscoring the vendor's commitment to the new platform. The same report also cited increased interest in Android from Nokia (which recently acquired Symbian) and Verizon, with representatives from those vendors attending a recent Android developer conference.

Due to the increased choices available for Android, many industry-watchers expect it to at least meet (and perhaps exceed) iPhone's market share. And in a post explaining that enterprise users of Google Apps can indeed receive push Gmail on the G1, Mobile Computer had this to say about Android's chances in the enterprise market:

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IT beware: Chrome, Google Apps pose security risks

Google Subnet — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 08:45:10 -0400

Another analyst has added to Richard Stallman's warnings on cloud computing, specifically honing in on Google's Chrome and Apps. Frost & Sullivan's Robert Ayoub warned in a webinar that both tools pose security risks, especially to organizations where IT has failed to put appropriate policies in place, says Collection Technology.net's Mary Wisneiwski. The idea is that since Chrome enables a faster, better Web experience, more end users will begin doing actual business on the Web, putting business data at risk.

While Chrome and Apps aren't insecure in themselves, the processes they enable are. As Ayoub says:

“The minute you put your data in the hands of your provider, you have just lost control and security of that data.”

Ayoub also offers these three steps for ensuring data remains safe, even in a Chrome/Apps scenario:

1. Recognize the risks and benefits of new devices and applications; 2. Be vigilant. This means looking for new devices that could allow for data to leave the enterprise; 3. Educate users and management about the risks of adopting unchecked applications.

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The revolution will not be televised

Garett Kopczynski — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 12:00:49 -0400

Google is again in the news in relation to co-founder Larry Page's attempts to promote Google's "Free the Airwaves" campaign. Larry Page claims that the FCC's unlicensed "white spaces" tests were rigged, and they don't accurately represent whether wireless signals will interfere with television carrier signals. The purpose of this statement is to address concerns that the FCC is not allowing people access to public domain, and that the regulatory commission is instead favoring corporations. In the battle of the giants, it is intriguing to see Google (now watched with a certain amount of skepticism as to their motive) and the familiar vilified FCC going toe to toe over this issue.

So what is Google trying to do exactly? Vinton Cerf, the 'father of the Internet' works for Google as their "Internet evangelist." Net neutrality is a major theme for Google, even if complaints are leveled against them to the contrary. The thought of Google evangelizing the Internet, or anything for that matter, must mean an underlying vision or belief system. The constant "do no evil" mantra at the heart of Google's mission statement is certainly no different from any conventional religion, but this is not at all similar to what most businesses do in order to profit.

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Google creates its own energy-independence plan

Google Subnet — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 10:21:27 -0400

Google has its fingers in lots of pies: search advertising, online video, mobile phones, cloud-computing, browsers, floating data centers--and now government policy creation. Citing a lack of government leadership, Google CEO Eric Schmidt unveiled a sweeping, $4.4 trillion dollar plan to wean the U.S. off of foreign oil and other "dirty" energy sources and become energy-independent by 2030.

The plan involves moving away from coal and instead turning to wind, solar and geothermal power. It also cuts oil use in cars by 40 percent by ramping up usage of hybrid and electric-powered vehicles. Though expensive, the Clean Energy 2030 plan will eventually result in cost savings, Schmidt says, a major Google goal, since it's becoming increasingly expensive to support the ballooning energy demands of Google's sprawling data center infrastructure. Schmidt said the plan will pay for itself with $5.5 trillion in savings, noting that: "With this plan, it's cheaper to fix global warming than it is to ignore it."

Schmidt says Google decided to unveil its plan now, in time for the U.S. presidential election, because:

"With a new Administration and Congress -- and multiple energy-related imperatives -- this is an opportune, perhaps unprecedented, moment to move from plan to action."

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Microsoft 'Windows Cloud' is an oxymoron

Google Subnet — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 09:22:15 -0400

You have to hand it to Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer. He sees Google and Amazon ramping up their Apps Engine and EC2 cloud-based computing infrastructures, and knows that's where the market is heading. He's trying to pilot his company slowly away from the old paradigm of thick clients and bloated desktop software and toward more nimble browser-based applications running in the cloud. It's just that his entire business is built on that bloated desktop software. And anything Microsoft offers for the cloud could conceivably cannibalize that core business. While Microsoft may say its offering something called "Windows Cloud," Windows is really the opposite of cloud computing. And Ballmer will have his hands full reconciling the two.

Ballmer's hints about the lack of capability of the new "Windows Cloud" OS are especially telling. Instead of retooling Microsoft's core applications to run in the cloud, Ballmer says Windows Cloud will just "augment" those core applications with some Web functionality. So, on the order of what we've seen so far with SharePoint, Exchange and CRM, most functions will still require a thick desktop client. Any Web functionality will be just a nice-to-have adjunct, separate from the core capability.

Ballmer also cautions that Microsoft won't be offering the full functionality of its flagship Office suite in the cloud. Instead, users can expect the ability to do some "light editing" from a public Internet kiosk, and that's about it. He says users need richer features than can be delivered via the cloud, adding:

"We want software more powerful than software that runs in a browser."

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Microsoft offering rewards to IE lovers using Live Search

Microsoft Subnet — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 14:42:11 -0400

If you are an IE user, Microsoft wants you to use its Live Search site so much that its willing to offer treats such as airfare miles in its SearchPerks program. If you are a Firefox or Safari user, well, Microsoft isn't interested in you. It will still like you to use Live Search, but don't expect it to reward you for it. And that is the crux of Microsoft's problem in getting users interested in helping it beat Google. Microsoft can't seem to see the world through the eyes of users/customers. It somehow thinks that what is best for Microsoft is best for the rest of us. The truth is the reverse. What is best for the customer is ultimately best for Microsoft. But we'll see how much market share it has to lose before it figures this out.

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Google's G1 phone fails in 10 ways

Google Subnet — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 09:41:12 -0400

Brennon Slattery in MacWorld offers an Apple-flavored look at the new G1, and finds that the new smartphone from HTC, T-Mobile and Google fails in at least 10 ways. While some of his points hold less water than others (T-Mobile recently rescinded its 1GB data cap), some hit the mark (no Exchange support). And it all just underscores that both the iPhone and the G1 are market changers that will fundamentally change the way people think about their cellphones.

Some key downsides to the G1, Slattery notes, include its lack of a multitouch interface (pioneered on the iPhone), skimpy storage (1GB, expandable to just 8GB) and lack of desktop synching and Exchange support. The latter is a big hit against the G1, especially since it means the phone is less likely to capitalize on its one feature that could leave the iPhone in the dust--it's Qwerty keyboard. The G1 is far better suited to typing up e-mails vs. the iPhone's clunky on-screen keyboard. While Google may have left Exchange out on purpose, the lack of Exchange support could leave business users looking elsewhere. Other hits, like the erroneous data cap mentioned above and the accelerometer quirk, which affects the G1 only in certain applications, are less notable. And some downsides mentioned, such as the lack of video recording, are non-starters, since they're absent in the iPhone as well.

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NASDAQ investigates huge plummet in Google stock price

Google Subnet — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 08:45:58 -0400

For a while there yesterday, it looked like all tech stocks--Apple, Cisco, HP, Yahoo--were rebounding nicely from Monday's unprecedented 777-point stock market drop. That is, all of them but Google. Google saw its stock gain strength, rising from the opening price of $396 to about $425 a share, until about 4pm ET, when in 5 minutes, it lost about 70% of its worth. In fact, the stock was trading at just $25.80 at one point.(Talk about getting in on the ground floor.)

The plummet was so huge and fast that the NASDAQ launched an immediate investigation, which concluded that the volatility was all due to one trader's error. According to a NASDAQ spokesman:

"A market participant sent in a large number of orders and drove the price down at approximately [3:57 p.m. ET] which caused the bid-offer to be artificially low due to their mistake."

The exchange adjusted Google's closing price to $400.52 (up from the $341.43 it hit after the "mistake"), and cancelled all trades made at or above $425.29 and at or below $400.52 that took place between 3:57 pm ET and 4:02 pm ET. So from NASDAQ's point of view, all's well that ends well. But in such rollercoaster market times, perhaps NASDAQ--an entirely electronic exchange--should be wondering how just one "market participant" could wreak such havoc. While Google seems to have escaped relatively unscathed, NASDAQ should consider putting better safeguards in place.

Ex-Microsoft exec signs up for second trip to outer space

Layer 8 — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 01:25:17 -0400

Ex-Microsoft software developer, astronaut and lets not forget, millionaire, Charles Simonyi, signed up today to take his second flight into space courtesy of private space explorations company, Space Adventures.

Simonyi, who help develop Microsoft Word and Excel, will train with the Soyuz TMA-14 crew in preparation for a spring mission to the International Space Station (ISS). Simonyi last flew into space in 2007, a trip that reportedly cost him $25 million. No prices were disclosed about this flight. Dennis Tito was the world's first privately funded spaceflight participant in 2001.

Earlier this year Google co-founder Sergei Brin put down $5 million toward a flight to the international space station in 2011 also courtesy of Space Adventures.

Space Adventures last year opened for the first time the opportunity to train as a private space explorer alongside one of its orbital spaceflight candidates, and among professional astronauts. The astronaut will be trained as a back-up to fly with famed game developer and son of former NASA astronaut, Richard Garriott, currently set to fly to the ISS this month. Computer game developer Garriott is paying at least $30 million to launch toward the space station aboard a Russian Soyuz spaceship according to Space Adventures, which brokered the flight with Russia's Federal Space Agency.

Speaking about why people want to even take part on space travel, an FAA executive this summer said such adventures were akin to scaling Mount Everest.

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What Microsoft did to prevent Google from stealing its big customer

Microsoft Subnet — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 13:18:39 -0400

Just how far will Microsoft go to prevent Google from stealing its customers? A flight in July from Seattle to Cincinnati, Ohio to Procter & Gamble's HQ by Microsoft's COO Kevin Turner, who persuaded the soap manufacturer to halt its testing of Google's personal productivity software as a potential replacement for Microsoft. Turner returned with a bigger three-year contract, reports Bloomberg. "Losing a Procter & Gamble would be something where I don't think I'd sleep well,'' Turner is cited as saying. "I want to make sure that anybody that knows anything about it would also not sleep well.'' Turner promised P&G an early peek at plans for Web-based software and gave the company the flexibility to shift between those and standard applications, reports Bloomberg.

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Get in on the ground floor with Google (almost)

Google Subnet — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 09:25:17 -0400

Disappointed that you weren't able to get in on Google when it launched its IPO in 2004? Well, now's your chance. After legislators voted down the Wall St. bailout, and the stock market responded by losing 777 points in one day, Google stock dropped $50 per share. It is now trading at $381, a full 11.6% down from Friday's close of $431. While $381 is nowhere near as attractive as Google's IPO asking price of $85, just wait. The bailout is still in legislative limbo, and the market may be heading for another freefall. Could we be trading Google at $100 or so in a couple of weeks? Considering the stock was trading as high as $750 just a year ago, even if it doesn't drop much more, this could be the time to get in on the ground floor with Google.

And Google's not alone. The tech-heavy NASDAQ fared far worse than the rest of the market, dropping a full 9.14%, compared with a 6.98% drop in the Dow Jones Industrial Average. As a result, there are huge deals to be had across the entire tech sector this morning. Consider virtual blue-chip stock Apple. It lost a full 18%, finishing at $105.26 per share, down from Friday's close of $128.24. Or what about Yahoo, which lost 10.8%, or Hewlett-Packard, which dropped 6.8%, or Intel (down 10%) or Oracle (down 9%). Even Cisco, dropped a full 8.5%.

The experts say that tech will be hit hard in the coming months as cash- and credit-strapped consumers decide to do without the latest iPod or XBox. But what they don't tell you is that both Apple and especially Google are cash-rich firms well suited to this ominous credit-starved financial era. They'll be just fine. And with money markets and T-bills imploding, the smart money may just be in newly bargain-like Google.

Yahoo/Google deal proponents get nervous

Google Subnet — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 08:41:57 -0400

With the ad sharing deal between Google and Yahoo expected to go into effect as early as this week, several pro-dealers are suddenly, at the last minute, taking the opportunity to sing its praises. We all know where Google stands, since it published a "fact" list not too long ago aimed at calming fears about the deal. Now Yahoo is doing its part, devoting an entire site to presenting its case for the deal. And not to be outdone, several California members (Google and Yahoo's home state) of the U.S. House of Representatives have sent letters to the Department of Justice warning regulators not to block the deal. Do they know something we don't?

While it's about time that Yahoo came out and added its voice to Google's, its new detailed pro-deal site is a bit dramatic. The company's "Yahoo-Google Search Agreement" site presents a detailed argument for the deal, and includes areas like "Benefits of the Agreement," "Benefits to Advertisers" and links to several other pro-deal sources. It also includes actual testimony from Yahoo, as well as a letter from Yahoo VP of Global Public Policy David Hantman to Ohio Rep. Steve Chabot, rebutting Chabot's contention that the deal would result in Google controlling 90% of the search market. It says:

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What do Chrome, GreenBorder, and API interception have in common?

tkopczynski — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 11:01:53 -0400

If you may have remembered, I once made the following comment in a previous post of mine: "Interestingly, enough this was also what GreenBorder did before they were purchased by Google." In that post I happened to be talking about a favorite program of mine called Sandboxie.

Well, with the release of Chrome... the truth has recently surfaced to as why Google snatched GreenBorder up. Naturally, I had my suspicions after Chrome first releases given the "sandboxing" that Chrome was doing. As I said in the past... I just haven't gotten around to doing a deep dive, thus I haven't really dug into the technical aspects of this new browser. But, then again... I'm also a little concerned with Google becoming the gatekeeper for everything. So, I'm going to wait a bit to see where this goes.

Anyhow, it wasn't until reading through a portion of this article on ars technica and seeing something that seemed very familiar that the little light went on. For you see, as the author points out (using fancy language), one of Chrome's security features is to intercept and rewrite API calls. **Ding** That is pretty much what GreenBorder hence why Google purchased them. :>)

Disclaimer

Well, the truth is... I actually know some of the members of the development team. I used to work with them at a little company called New Moon Systems. That being said... these guys are a really good at understanding the internals of Windows development. So, when it comes to the question in the article about whether or not Google reverse engineered Windows, I just need to smile.

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Google patent puts the squeeze on mobile carriers

Google Subnet — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 09:50:10 -0400

Surprise T-Mobile and any other carrier looking to support phones based on Google's new Android operating system. All those new customers you thought you were getting won't actually be yours alone. You'll have to share them--on a minute by minute basis--with all the other carriers out there, severely limiting the payback you expected on all your 3G network investments. You and the networks you run will quickly become commoditized, while application providers (like Google) get better service, more customers and rake in all the dough. At least that's the future envisioned by Google, as outlined in a recently posted patent application.

Google's March 2007 patent is for a system, modeled on Google's Adwords, that gets mobile operators to compete via auction for the chance to provide users with service. Users can then set their smartphones to automatically switch carriers, perhaps several times a day, to get the best rate or better bandwidth--all without being hit with onerous service fees or switching costs.

Sounds great for users and Google, but it's difficult to envision the mobile carriers playing along. Why should everyone else reap the benefits of their network investments, while the carriers are stuck competing for customers on razor-thin margins? Maybe the providers with the fastest networks and best coverage will win out for a while, but eventually, the networks will become commoditized--and all the carriers will lose.

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Is Google Microsoft's white whale?

Google Subnet — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 13:46:49 -0400

Microsoft is beginning to look a bit desperate in its hunt for search market share. Speaking at a dinner at the Churchill Club in Silicon Valley, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said the company is willing to lose "5 to 10 percent of total operating income" for 5 years to win in online search, a market where Microsoft plays a distant third at best.

Right now, Google holds the lion's share of the search market, with the latest numbers from comScore actually showing Google grabbing market share from its rivals. In August, Google had 63% of the market (up from 61.9%), compared to Yahoo's 19.6% (down .9%) and Microsoft's paltry 8.3% (down .6%).

Doesn't conventional competitive wisdom say that if you can't be No. 1 or No. 2 in a market, perhaps it's not the place to invest? And if you are going to invest, you better have a good plan in place? But while Ballmer admitted Microsoft is obsessed with growing search market share, he was unable to articulate an actual strategy. The closest he came to that was this tidbit:

"We need to do some work to fundamentally reinvent the search business model. You don't brute-force your way into a market. You only make great strides when you redefine the category for the user."

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Will Google be the death of Microsoft? Hard to imagine

Microsoft Subnet — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 12:16:45 -0400

Lots of ink these days about how Microsoft wants to eat Google for breakfast and is instead choked on the search giant. Our sister site Google Subnet has even gone so far as to wonder whether Google is Microsoft's white whale and will actually be the death of the largest software maker in the world. While anything is possible, it is hubris on Google's part to think that Microsoft will be catastrophically wounded by chasing a search business. Look at the numbers. True, Google is a strong company with a great balance sheet but it is dwarfed by Microsoft in this regard. Google ended fiscal 2007 with about $16.6 billion in revenues and $5.1 billion in net income from operations (an astounding 31% of revenue converted to profit). That is nothing to sneeze at especially when you consider the company's amazing five-year growth rate. It ended 2002 at about a half billion in revenue. Plus Google is sitting on over $14 billion in cash.

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Microsoft fighting uphill quite a bit lately

Jeff Caruso — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 10:55:14 -0400

Microsoft plans to release high-performance computing server software in November - in a market where the company has less than 5% market share. John Fontana has details. Speaking of uphill battles, Joanne Cummings points out that Microsoft's obsession with competing against Google in search is beginning to look a bit Ahab-like.

The GooglePhone Arriveth - Chill Out, Already

Craig Mathias — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 10:49:47 -0400

Let me say up front that I think LINUX in perhaps multiple forms and flavors will become, by far, the most popular platform on mobile devices over time. This has partly to do with the fact that it's essentially free, that so many programmers know how to make it work, and that the iPhone, the most influential handset (after the BlackBerry line) ever, is really about cool interface, and LINUX will have that, too. Right now, depending upon whom you believe, the Symbian OS has more than 50% market share in the handset platform market. Symbian is going open source to counter LINUX and other competition, but I don't think that's going to matter. LINUX will have, within a few years, the largest installed base and the most momentum here. Which LINUX? Maybe Android, maybe not, but let's assume Android for the moment.

And we're just getting our first look at the first Google Android implementation, the G1 from T-Mobile (note this is a truly horrible, information-free site, but at least it's official). Not a good name for a product, in my opinion - sounds like 1G and I'm sure some people will refer to it as such, whether in error or not (the T-Mobile guy I spoke with on Tuesday called it a 1G; go figure). My initial reaction: it's a bit big, but that means more screen and (at least in theory) a more usable keyboard. The design is your basic slider; many will like the physical keyboard in favor of the iPhone's touch-screen-only arrangement. It has Wi-Fi (all successful enterprise-class products will), GPS (everyone loves Google Maps, don't they?), a 3.2 Mpixel camera (all enterprises hate cameras, don't they?), and an SD slot (but no tethered data), and it's cheap - US$179. It has to be cheaper than a low-end iPhone 3G, but it's not an iPhone killer - again, nothing is or can be.

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