Friday, July 31, 2009

NewsGator Daily: Google and NewsGator – What’s It All About?

The rest of the NewsGator news – see the full post 

We announced today that our best-of-breed consumer applications will synchronize with Google Reader going forward.  We announced yesterday that we’ve hit the 1 million enterprise user mark.  As part of the announcement about our relationship with Google we also announced that we’re ending support for a range of free consumer applications including NewsGator Online by the end-of-August.

2500 tweets and one hour later (my personal favorite tweet so far;  “otherniceman too drunk to understand what is happening with Newsgator and Google”) seemed like a good time to clarify a couple of things.

NewsGator Daily: Google and NewsGator – What’s It All About?

NewsGator Passes Million-Enterprise-User Milestone and Deepens Relationship With Microsoft

Hmm – so apparently Newsgator has a thriving business on SharePoint, and is switching customers for its free products to Google Reader?  See the full press release for more details

NewsGator today cited strong momentum in the growing enterprise social computing market, reporting that over one million paid business users now take advantage of its Social Sites enterprise social computing solutions. Social Sites helps a wide range of organizations harness the value of social networking, but the financial services, pharma/biotech, professional services, high-tech, and aerospace and defense industries have been the strongest adopters of the technology. 

I’ve been a happy FeedDemon user for many years, but I’ll likely switch when NewsGator drops the ability to sync unread indicators across multiple PCs.

NewsGator Company Info - Press Archive

A Google Wave reality check | Webware - CNET

Check the full article for more details

Behind the scenes, the reality is sobering for the Rasmussens and the 6,000 or so people actively using Wave. Job No. 1 for the brothers Rasmussen--who are managing the Google Wave project--is making sure Wave is stable enough to accommodate 100,000 new users that will start doing the Wave after September 30, when Google opens up the limited preview to a wider audience.

At the moment, around 25 percent of all Wave sessions end in a crash, Lars said. That's obviously not acceptable and, in an ironic twist, the highest priority bug on Google Wave at the moment involves search.

A Google Wave reality check | Webware - CNET

Sarah Palin's Twitter feed, as performed by Shatner | Technically Incorrect - CNET News

Okay, not really tech market-related, but still pretty entertaining…  Check it out.

Whatever your feelings about Sarah Palin, and I defy any sentient being not to have enjoyed some spontaneous reaction at the sight of her, you must admit she is a little different.

Which, to my mind, is the very definition of art.

So I was both moved and unsurprised to discover that her Twitter feed has been deemed to be poetry and set to music.

On NBC's "Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien," Palin's tweets have been given full artistic recognition.

On Wednesday night's show, "Star Trek" legend William Shatner, accompanied by a little percussion and double bass, gave full vocal meaning to the tweeting of the now ex-governor of Alaska.

Sarah Palin's Twitter feed, as performed by Shatner | Technically Incorrect - CNET News

Ads Follow Web Users, and Get Deeply Personal - NYTimes.com

Check the full article for a timely privacy reality check

Advertisers and marketers say this specificity is useful, taking out the guesswork involved in online-only profiling, and showing products to the people most likely to be interested. Retailers including Gap and Victoria’s Secret are using this tactic.

But consumer advocates say such unseen tracking is troubling. On the old Internet, nobody knew you were a dog. On the new targeted Internet, they now know what kind of dog you are, your favorite leash color, the last time you had fleas and the date you were neutered.

Ads Follow Web Users, and Get Deeply Personal - NYTimes.com

Collaborative Strategy Guild » Gauging the Real Value of SaaS E-mail

Some free market analysis from others in the Burton Group alumni club

I‘m pleased to announce the publication of “Gauging the Real Value of Software as a Service (SaaS) E-mail for Small and Medium Businesses,” a Collaborative Strategy Guild white paper on SaaS E-mail and productivity. You can download the paper here.

Collaborative Strategy Guild » Gauging the Real Value of SaaS E-mail

Report: eBay is building a Frankenskype | The Social - CNET News

I suspect there are some former eBay business development looking for new jobs; see the full story for more details

Here's what has happened: Skype's founders have established a company called Joltid Ltd., which still owns the rights to some of Skype's technology. Joltid has made the accusation that eBay doesn't have the right to do everything it wants with all of Skype's code as a result; eBay is suing Joltid to get that technology back (is this like the Silicon Valley equivalent of body-snatching?) But the catch is that the trial isn't scheduled until next June, which could put a big roadblock in the way of eBay's plans for a Skype IPO.

So that's why eBay is working on a total rebuild of Skype's software.

There is, however, this little issue. "The new software will be expensive and might not work," Bloomberg's article summarized. "The company said it might have to shut down Skype if the dispute with the founders isn't resolved."

Report: eBay is building a Frankenskype | The Social - CNET News

Newsgator goes all in with Google Reader | The Download Blog - Download.com

Looks like Newgator is exiting the business domains for which it’s most widely known 

Despite its popularity, one feature that Google Reader doesn't support that Newsgator does is authenticated feeds. For people who used Newsgator solely for that feature, their opprobrium on message boards and in comment threads is palpable. Interestingly, the last answer in the Newsgator transitioning FAQ points to another reason for the switch: a growing emphasis from the company on their enterprise-based business.

Newsgator recommends that all FeedDemon and NetNewsWire readers upgrade to the beta builds before August 31, since only those latest versions contain the Google Reader option. It gave no word on when the beta builds would finish development, but readers who want the current stable builds can get them for Windows and Mac.

Newsgator goes all in with Google Reader | The Download Blog - Download.com

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Microsoft | Microsoft-Yahoo search-engine deal looks likely | Seattle Times Newspaper

Interesting times

After 18 months of playing footsie, Microsoft and Yahoo may finally be ready to announce a deal as early as today that would unite parts of the two companies.

It may not be the blockbuster merger that Microsoft wanted 18 months ago, but it likely involves a partnership that would allow the two companies to creep closer to search-engine giant Google.

Reports Tuesday from Advertising Age and The Wall Street Journal both say a search advertising and technology deal could be announced as early as today.

Microsoft | Microsoft-Yahoo search-engine deal looks likely | Seattle Times Newspaper

Axceler Launches Free Tool for SharePoint Administration

See the full press release for more details

Axceler, the global leader in administration software for collaborative platforms, today announced the release of a new SharePoint utility called PinPoint. Axceler PinPoint helps SharePoint administrators gain a quick perspective on some of the most common yet unanswered administrative questions. Axceler PinPoint is a free download, so all SharePoint administrators can benefit from knowing 1) the most active SharePoint sites and documents, and 2) the largest sites and documents across their entire SharePoint farm. Such information is not readily available within SharePoint itself, and gives administrators valuable information they need to effectively manage their farm. Axceler PinPoint is available for free on the Axceler website.

Axceler Launches Free Tool for SharePoint Administration

Has Wikipedia Created a Rorschach Cheat Sheet? Analyze That - NYTimes.com

See a pattern emerging?…

Yet in the last few months, the online encyclopedia Wikipedia has been engulfed in a furious debate involving psychologists who are angry that the 10 original Rorschach plates are reproduced online, along with common responses for each. For them, the Wikipedia page is the equivalent of posting an answer sheet to next year’s SAT.

They are pitted against the overwhelming majority of Wikipedia’s users, who share the site’s “free culture” ethos, which opposes the suppression of information that it is legal to publish. (Because the Rorschach plates were created nearly 90 years ago, they have lost their copyright protection in the United States.)

Has Wikipedia Created a Rorschach Cheat Sheet? Analyze That - NYTimes.com

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Google Sells Stake in AOL, Loses $717 Million

See the full post for more details

At the end of 2005, Google made an interesting investment: $1 billion dollars for 5% of AOL. The move made sense for AOL – it provided it with a ton of new advertising, search, and revenue opportunities via a strong partnership with Google. Google, in return, got a 5-year deal to be AOL’s default search engine.

But the value of that deal has only dropped like a rock in a lake since then. AOL has continued to deteriorate, despite highlights like the acquisitions of Bebo and Socialthing. Thus, Google’s decided to cut its losses and has sold back its AOL stake for $283 million.

Google Sells Stake in AOL, Loses $717 Million

Apple blocks Google Voice app for iPhone | Apple - CNET News

Something to be said for consistency…

The long-awaited Google Voice application for the iPhone has been officially shot down by Apple.

There were a scattering of reports on Monday, and then a Google spokesperson confirmed it: "Apple did not approve the Google Voice application we submitted six weeks ago to the Apple App Store. We will continue to work to bring our services to iPhone users--for example, by taking advantage of advances in mobile browsers."

In addition, all third-party applications that use Google Voice have been pulled by Apple, according to a report in TechCrunch. The developer of one of those apps, GV Mobile, says he was told the decision came from Apple because his app "duplicates features that come with the iPhone."

Apple blocks Google Voice app for iPhone | Apple - CNET News

Monday, July 27, 2009

Report: Apple Tablet Ready by Christmas | The Industry Standard

Check the full article for more details

Apple is racing to launch a tablet-sized device in time for the Christmas shopping season, according to a report from the Financial Times (FT). Featuring a 10-inch touch screen display, Apple's tablet is also said to launch alongside "Cocktail", a project designed to increase sales of CD-length music.

Report: Apple Tablet Ready by Christmas | The Industry Standard

Sunday, July 26, 2009

Digital Nomads Ditch Cubicles for Shared Spaces, Choosing Their Co-Workers - washingtonpost.com

Interesting times; see the full article for more details and a related video

Gruber and Consalvo are digital nomads. They work -- clad in shorts, T-shirts and sandals -- wherever they find a wireless Web connection to reach their colleagues via instant messaging, Twitter, Facebook, e-mail and occasionally by voice on their iPhones or Skype. As digital nomads, experts say, they represent a natural evolution in teleworking. The Internet let millions of wired people work from home; now, with widespread WiFi, many have cut the wires and left home (or the dreary office) to work where they please -- and especially around other people, even total strangers.

For nomads, the benefits are both primitive and practical.

Digital Nomads Ditch Cubicles for Shared Spaces, Choosing Their Co-Workers - washingtonpost.com

Scientists Worry Machines May Outsmart Man - NYTimes.com

Skynet will be monitoring this group closely…

The conference was organized by the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence, and in choosing Asilomar for the discussions, the group purposefully evoked a landmark event in the history of science. In 1975, the world’s leading biologists also met at Asilomar to discuss the new ability to reshape life by swapping genetic material among organisms. Concerned about possible biohazards and ethical questions, scientists had halted certain experiments. The conference led to guidelines for recombinant DNA research, enabling experimentation to continue.

The meeting on the future of artificial intelligence was organized by Eric Horvitz, a Microsoft researcher who is now president of the association.

Dr. Horvitz said he believed computer scientists must respond to the notions of superintelligent machines and artificial intelligence systems run amok.

Scientists Worry Machines May Outsmart Man - NYTimes.com

For Mozilla and Google, Group Hugs Are Getting Tricky - NYTimes.com

A timely Mozilla.org reality check; read the full article 

Yet it was hard not to read symbolism into the move. Mozilla’s old offices were next door to Google’s sprawling headquarters. For several years, Google has been Mozilla’s biggest ally and patron. But in September, it also became Mozilla’s competitor when it unveiled its own Web browser, Chrome.

So it seemed only natural for Mozilla to move out from under Google’s shadow.

“We’ve learned how to compete with Microsoft and Apple,” says Mr. Lilly, a soft-spoken, earnest 38-year-old. “Google is a giant, of course, and competing with them means we are competing with another giant, which is a little tiring.”

For Mozilla and Google, Group Hugs Are Getting Tricky - NYTimes.com

Saturday, July 25, 2009

OSCON: The saga of MySQL - O'Reilly Radar

Via Dave Kellogg; read the full post for more on the sorry state of MySQL

Returning back to my original point now, we can see that the acquisition of MySQL AB by Sun hasn't worked out at all how everyone had hoped. Many of the fears raised by my blog post from 3 years ago have manifested in this mess. After MySQL became a Sun property, the quality of MySQL started to suffer, including releasing a version of MySQL that had serious known bugs. This had never happened before and sent a clear signal that not all was well with MySQL. And the community had a lot of frustrations with Sun as Sun slowed or stopped accepting patches. Even important companies like Google had serious patches to MySQL ignored. Clearly the process had broken down.

Today we find ourselves with at least three versions of MySQL that all have differing goals, yet promise to share code with one another. Some will be compatible with each other, some break new ground. The one thing we know for certain that nothing in this game is certain. Until Oracle makes a statement about the future of MySQL nothing will be clear.

OSCON: The saga of MySQL - O'Reilly Radar

Twitter Takes a Step Toward Commercial Accounts - Bits Blog - NYTimes.com

Still in search of a business model…

Twitter has been talking about offering special paid services for businesses for quite a while. On Thursday night, the start-up took one step closer.

Twitter unveiled Twitter 101, a series of Web pages and a downloadable slide show that explain what Twitter is and how businesses can use it, along with case studies of a few companies that use Twitter.

Twitter Takes a Step Toward Commercial Accounts - Bits Blog - NYTimes.com

Microsoft Agrees to Offer Europe a Choice on Browsers - NYTimes.com

Interesting times

Microsoft has offered to give European computer users a choice of Web browsers, an unprecedented move that the company, the world’s largest software maker, hopes will avert another antitrust conviction and big fine.

Microsoft said users of new computers running Windows 7 in Europe would get a ballot screen that would let them easily download other browsers from the Internet and turn off Microsoft’s default Internet Explorer.

Microsoft Agrees to Offer Europe a Choice on Browsers - NYTimes.com

Palm tweaks its software so Pre can use iTunes - The Boston Globe

Watch for a minor iTunes update sometime soon…

Palm’s Pre smartphone just can’t stay away from Apple’s iTunes software.

Palm Inc. says the Pre can again connect to iTunes, only a week after Apple Inc. shut it out. A software update delivered automatically to the phones reenables transfer of music, photos, and video from iTunes to Pre phones, according to a Palm blog post late Thursday.

Palm tweaks its software so Pre can use iTunes - The Boston Globe

Friday, July 24, 2009

The News About the Internet - The New York Review of Books

An extensive and timely reality check 

This image of the Internet as parasite has some foundation. Without the vital news-gathering performed by established institutions, many Web sites would sputter and die. In their sweep and scorn, however, such statements seem as outdated as they are defensive. Over the past few months alone, a remarkable amount of original, exciting, and creative (if also chaotic and maddening) material has appeared on the Internet. The practice of journalism, far from being leeched by the Web, is being reinvented there, with a variety of fascinating experiments in the gathering, presentation, and delivery of news. And unless the editors and executives at our top papers begin to take note, they will hasten their own demise.

The News About the Internet - The New York Review of Books

Google Books causes concern among librarians, authors - The Boston Globe

See the full article for more details

The next chapter in the Google Books project will come sometime after Oct. 7, when Chin holds a final hearing on the settlement. But Clancy indicated the Google Books team will not be standing still in the meantime.

“We’re going full steam ahead, no matter what happens with the settlement,’’ he said.

Indeed, the settlement is only part of Google’s plans to expand its digital book collection. The morning after the event at Boston Public Library, Clancy and Jon Orwant, who directs the Google Books operation in Cambridge, described an ongoing project that dwarfs the scope of the controversial settlement.

Google’s ultimate vision, Clancy said, is an “uber book platform’’ in which millions of digital books are available in a marketplace open to publishers, consumers, and online bookstores.

Google Books causes concern among librarians, authors - The Boston Globe

Twitter users can now tweet their prayers to Western Wall - The Boston Globe

Sign of the time

The Western Wall now has its own address on Twitter, the social networking service, allowing believers around the globe to have their prayers placed between its 2,000-year-old stones without leaving their armchairs.

The service’s founder, Alon Nil, says petitioners can tweet their prayers, and they will be printed out and taken to the wall, where they will join the thousands of handwritten notes placed by visitors who believe their requests will find a shortcut to God by being deposited there.

Twitter users can now tweet their prayers to Western Wall - The Boston Globe

Thursday, July 23, 2009

YouTube - Letterman - Kevin Spacey Tweets with Dave

A timely and humorous interview

(p.s. cool that Windows Live Writer automatically detected and embedded the active video link…)

Daring to Dream of a Resurgent AOL - NYTimes.com

Check the full article for more details. 

Mr. Armstrong plans to outline his five-point strategy on Friday for the company at an all-hands meeting under a large tent on its half-empty campus near Dulles International Airport outside Washington. Beyond talking about business lines, however, Mr. Armstrong’s primary challenge is to address what he calls AOL’s “crisis of confidence.” He wants the weary and beaten-down company to grow again.

“AOL has a choice to make,” he said. “We either lose slowly or win quickly. We are choosing to win quickly.”

[…]

This year, AOL is expected to post revenue of about $3.2 billion, down 38 percent in two years. A majority of that revenue is advertising, but AOL’s 6.2 million remaining customers for its dial-up Internet service are highly profitable and the most avid readers of its content. About 200,000 of them cancel service every month.

Daring to Dream of a Resurgent AOL - NYTimes.com

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

The Economist (EconSciTech) on Twitter

Sign of the times – The Economist has a bunch of Twitter feeds (links below are dead – didn’t survive copy/paste from an Economist email update – but follow Twitter feed naming conventions, e.g., http://twitter.com/EconUS)…

  • TheEconomist—lists our new articles as well as Economist news and event updates
  • EconUS—run by our US editor, this gives updates on all articles relating to the US
  • EconDebates—allows you to keep up with our online debates, including latest vote scores, guest speaker updates and the winner announcements
  • EconBizFin—follow the latest business, finance and economics updates
  • EconSciTech—all the latest posts on science and technology

The Economist (EconSciTech) on Twitter

Facebook Video: Now Serving 1 Billion Views A Month, Including This Amazing Zuck Impression

Hmm…

It’s been known for some time that Facebook Video was the result of one of the company’s famed Hackathons, but getting the chance to watch some of the first clips to appear on the platform is pretty darn cool. There’s also one nice piece of data tucked away in the video: Facebook saw over 1 billion video views last month. That’s still far less than that 1.2 billion YouTube sees every day, but it undoubtedly makes Facebook one of the top video sharing sites on the web (it’s also the largest photo sharing site).

Facebook Video: Now Serving 1 Billion Views A Month, Including This Amazing Zuck Impression

Evan Williams vs the Internet (Scripting News)

A Dave Winer reality check (see the full post and comments therein for more context-setting)

I read the piece on TechCrunch and thought it sounds like the transcripts of conversations from Microsoft in the mid-90s. Both were trying to compete with the Internet. Ev's problem is how is he going to keep his key engineers from defecting to the competition. How are they going to let developers use the "firehose" without using it to kill TwitterCorp. These are problems the Internet doesn't have. It doesn't employ any engineers, and when they leave one company to work for another they still work for the Internet. On the Internet no company owns all the data, so no one can control it. If you don't like the way a service works, use another. 

The tech industry keeps having this argument with the Internet. It keeps thinking "this time we gotcha" but nahh, the Internet keeps right on going. 

Moral of the story: If you find yourself in competition with the Internet, you should find a way out. Imho.

Evan Williams vs the Internet (Scripting News)

Ning Raises $15 Million More | Kara Swisher | BoomTown | AllThingsD

Strange days indeed

In a quiet fundraising effort, Ning has raised $15 million more, a round that is valuing the social networking start-up at an eye-popping $750 million valuation.

[…]

In an interview, Bianchini said the goal was to become an even bigger platform for building social networks and the money would be uses for possible acquisitions and other strategic options, attracting more talent and also to offer its social networks more tools to be discovered.

“It’s clear to me when you look the market…there needs to be a place for people to express their interests and passions,” said Bianchini, who noted Facebook and Ning do not necessarily overlap. “We want to be the social network for interests and passions online.”

Ning Raises $15 Million More | Kara Swisher | BoomTown | AllThingsD

Verizon to carry the Apple tablet?

See the full post for more context-setting

According to Scott Moritz’s sources, Apple and Verizon “won’t be as tightly integrated” as Apple and AT&T and the rumored tablet has been ready for roughly a year. The kicker here is that, Verizon would subsidize the cost of the tablet without giving potential customers sticker shock.

An always-connected iPod? In my mind, this has been Apple’s plan all along. Apple never set out to be the king of smartphones. They simply wanted an iPod that was always connected to the Internet to power the apps that have made the iPhone and iPod Touch so popular.

Verizon to carry the Apple tablet?

Amazon, University of Michigan in big book-printing deal - TechFlash: Seattle's Technology News Source

How generous of Google…

Amazon.com is pushing deeper into the academic book market. The online retail giant will do on-demand reprints of some 400,000 out-of-copyright books from the University of Michigan library, in a deal announced today. Amazon has been actively targeting academia, trying to convince universities to adopt the Kindle DX as a textbook replacement and outsource reprints of older academic titles to its print-on-demand service, BookSurge.

Interestingly, many of the 400,000 book titles the University of Michigan is making available for reprints by Amazon were digitized by Google as part of its massive book-scanning project. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos has criticized Google's book settlement with authors and publishers, saying "it doesn't seem right that you should get a prize for violating a large series of copyrights." The University of Michigan specifies that the reprint deal with Amazon covers out-of-copyright books, which may be an important distinction, given that Google faces continuing questions about "orphan" books whose rights holders cannot be found.

Amazon, University of Michigan in big book-printing deal - TechFlash: Seattle's Technology News Source

Strong Sales Drive a Robust Quarter for Apple - NYTimes.com

I’m still betting on an Apple device that will essentially be a super-sized iPod Touch, before the end of the year

Mr. Cook took the opportunity of a conference call with media and Wall Street analysts to again criticize the low-cost, pared-down computers known as netbooks, which had provided one of the few bright spots in the computer industry. He said that many netbook buyers became disappointed and that the devices were “very slow, they have software technology that is old, they don’t have a robust computing experience, they lack horsepower, they have small displays and cramped keyboards.”

Though analysts wonder whether Apple could introduce its own low-cost computer — or at least some kind of economical tablet reading device — Mr. Cook said Apple would only deliver a product “that is very innovative and that is something we are very proud of.”

Strong Sales Drive a Robust Quarter for Apple - NYTimes.com

'Social Network' script: A meaner take on Facebook | The Social - CNET News

Sure to be a controversial movie…

But the most notable difference is that, perhaps because of the infusion of dialogue, Zuckerberg is a significantly more dislikeable character than he is in the book, where he's painted as simply enigmatic and a little detached. In the screenplay, he's far more class-conscious and his lines are typically weighted with snarky arrogance. The question of whether Zuckerberg was duping the ConnectU founders by working on Facebook while ostensibly in their employ is addressed much more decisively than in the book--and it's not favorable to Zuckerberg.

At the end, he's allowed a little bit of a denouement, and who knows what will happen in script revisions. But for now, I can see why an entertainment industry source said that the producers have been hoping to cast an audience-friendly young actor. The onscreen version of Zuckerberg could easily come across as utterly obnoxious.

'Social Network' script: A meaner take on Facebook | The Social - CNET News

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

app-watch-mirror-mirror-on-the-iphone-for-free.html: Personal Finance News from Yahoo! Finance

Sign of the times

The ad-supported free app, called Mirror Free, is essentially a black empty screen framed by a picture frame. If a user peers closely into it, the reflection off the screen can create an effect like a mirror. By Inner Four co-founder John Swartz's own admission the app “doesn't do anything.” But the app has been a breakaway hit, dominating the top spot in the App Store's free app rankings for the better part of last week.

app-watch-mirror-mirror-on-the-iphone-for-free.html: Personal Finance News from Yahoo! Finance

Apple Preparing iPod Touch With Camera, Microphone: Source | Epicenter | Wired.com

Hmm…

If iPod Touches with cameras and microphones go on sale “in two to three months,” as our source expects them to (and which corresponds with our expected timeframe), they will transform the entertainment-oriented iPod Touch line into a voice communications tool wherever WiFi is available.

In addition to these voice-over-IP capabilities, which should have telephone providers quaking in their boots, the microphone (and camera) would enable the iPod Touch to understand voice commands, capture video and images, and work with a wider variety of programs in the App Store.

Apple Preparing iPod Touch With Camera, Microphone: Source | Epicenter | Wired.com

Barnes and Noble to Create an E-Book Megacenter - NYTimes.com

Another interesting Google Books twist

More than 500,000 of the books now offered electronically on BN.com can be downloaded free, through an agreement with Google to provide electronic versions of public domain books that Google has scanned from university libraries. Sony announced a similar deal in March to offer the public domain books on its Reader device.

Barnes & Noble is promoting its e-bookstore as the world’s largest, an implicit stab at Amazon.com, which offers about 330,000 for its Kindle device. Currently, Google’s public domain books cannot be read on a Kindle.

Barnes and Noble to Create an E-Book Megacenter - NYTimes.com

EU Calls Google Books Hearing, House Ponders One - Digits - WSJ

The plot thickens for Google Books

Critics of Google’s controversial pact with authors and publishers may get some more high-profile chances to air their grievances.

The European Union said Monday that it would hold a hearing on Sept. 7 to review the settlement Google struck to gain copyright licenses over millions of digital works. The settlement pertains to the operation of Google’s book search service in U.S. But the European Union could still voice its opinions on the hot topic of whether the settlement stymies competition to other parties reviewing it, which include the U.S. Justice Department and a federal court that has yet to approve the pact.

EU Calls Google Books Hearing, House Ponders One - Digits - WSJ

Monday, July 20, 2009

Ben Mezrich defends his approach to nonfiction writing - The Boston Globe

I agree with the reviews – it’s a stretch to classify this book as nonfiction – but it’s still an entertaining read and perspective on the creation of Facebook. For more real-world insights on start-ups, I recommend Founders at Work instead.

For some, Mezrich’s style is an unfortunate symptom of our culture’s ever-increasing “truthiness,’’ Stephen Colbert’s satirical word for versions of truth that disregard fact. Truthiness thrives in the new age of the Web, where the delineation between fact and fiction is unclear, says Douglas Brinkley, an author and historian at Rice University. “People rely on Wikipedia, and a lot of it is wrong. But because there it is on the Internet, they assume it’s right. Rumor gets printed as fact. We may have lost our critical facility as a nation.’’

Ben Mezrich defends his approach to nonfiction writing - The Boston Globe

Shopping for $1,000 Shoes? There’s an App for That - Bits Blog - NYTimes.com

Sign of the times

Today, some cellphone users buy virtual goods to use in mobile games or e-books to read on their phones. A new application from Pizza Hut even lets iPhone users order pizza.

But so far, people have not shown much willingness to buy physical goods — especially expensive ones — from their cellphones. This is similar to what happened when e-commerce first appeared — high-end goods were the last to be sold online.

But Net-a-Porter.com, which went live in 2000 and now has 1.8 million visitors a month, succeeded in getting people to buy $4,000 gowns and $1,000 stilettos on the Web. Now it hopes to work its magic on the iPhone.

Shopping for $1,000 Shoes? There’s an App for That - Bits Blog - NYTimes.com

Saturday, July 18, 2009

The Michael Arrington Matter - Oddly Together

A timely reality check from Joe Wilcox – read the full post 

There has been quite the ethics flap over the last 72 hours or so about TechCrunch’s handling of leaked Twitter documents.

Bottom line: Michael Arrington was wrong to distribute any of the leaked material, which was stolen by a hacker. The posting of the documentation is unconscionable. There is no journalistic excuse, or justification for it. The disclosure:

  • Likely is legally negligent
  • Violates journalistic ethics
  • Discloses Twitter trade secrets
  • Probably interferes with a criminal investigation

Michael Arrington was a lawyer before becoming a blogger mogul. He should know the law. A lawyer and stolen documents go oddly together in a bad way.

The Michael Arrington Matter - Oddly Together

O'Brien: What Is Google? - San Jose Mercury News

A timely reality check; read the full article 

The homepage aside, though, Google increasingly feels like a company running in a thousand directions at once. Over the past year, it has released a steady stream of high-profile products that seem to have little or no relation to the core identity expressed on its corporate homepage: "Google's mission is to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful."

The problem is that in expanding into so many different areas — productivity applications, mobile operating system, a Web browser — that the identity of Google itself has become muddled.

No doubt, this all follows some clear logic from inside the Googleplex. But from the outside, it's getting harder every day to articulate what Google is. Is it a Web company? A software company? Something else entirely?

O'Brien: What Is Google? - San Jose Mercury News

Amazon Erases Orwell Books From Kindle Devices - NYTimes.com

I suspect Amazon will address the policy and issue refunds, but I also suspect Orwell would have gotten a chuckle from the incident

People who bought the rescinded editions of the books reacted with indignation, while acknowledging the literary ironies involved. “Of all the books to recall,” said Charles Slater, an executive with a sheet-music retailer in Philadelphia, who bought the digital edition of “1984” for 99 cents last month. “I never imagined that Amazon actually had the right, the authority or even the ability to delete something that I had already purchased.”

Amazon Erases Orwell Books From Kindle Devices - NYTimes.com

Friday, July 17, 2009

Chris Anderson’s Free Is Now Available For Free On The Kindle

See the full post – the book is also available (and embedded in the full post) via Scribd

If you have a Kindle, head on over to Amazon to pick up Chris Anderson’s book Free: The Future of a Radical Price, for free. While the regular print edition will set you back $26.99, for whatever reason, the entire book is available for free right now in Kindle form.

Chris Anderson’s Free Is Now Available For Free On The Kindle

IBM: Revenues down, profits up in Q2 • The Register

Sometimes I get the sense that IBM is more into financial engineering than software engineering; see the full article for more details.  

In the second quarter ended on June 30, IBM reported total sales of $23.25bn, down 13.3 per cent, more or less in line with other big players in the IT sector. And its gross profits were down 8.8 per cent to $10.6bn. But through the magic of cost cutting (including surgical layoffs), of integration of its global businesses (meaning consolidating and offshoring major operations such as managing its customer support centers or supply chain, but IBM never admits that), of acquiring small, profitable software and services companies, and of exiting unprofitable commodity businesses, IBM was still able to boost net earnings by 12.2 per cent to $3.1bn

IBM: Revenues down, profits up in Q2 • The Register

Technology Review: Data Overload on Dating Sites

A timely reality check – see the full article

Consumers can find more of what they want on the Web, but that may not always be such a good thing. New research about online dating sites shows that users presented with too many choices experience "cognitive overload" and make poorer decisions as a result. The findings could have implications for other kinds of websites, although new technologies and approaches could help address the problem, researchers suggest.

Technology Review: Data Overload on Dating Sites

Twitter and TechCrunch Joust Over Stolen Documents - Bits Blog - NYTimes.com

Perhaps TechCrunch is in the “no such thing as bad press”  camp, but I can’t see how this ends well for it

“It’s important to note that we have been given the green light by Twitter to post this information — They aren’t happy about it, but they are able to live with it, they say,” TechCrunch’s Erick Schonfeld wrote.

Shortly after, Biz Stone at Twitter responded with the company’s own blog post, in which he wrote: “The publication of stolen documents is irresponsible and we absolutely did not give permission for these documents to be shared.”

Twitter and TechCrunch Joust Over Stolen Documents - Bits Blog - NYTimes.com

Thursday, July 16, 2009

Will Your Data Disappear When Your Online Storage Site Shuts Down? - PC World

Just caught this May article in the dead-tree version of PC World (quaint, I know…); see the full article for more details

Online storage sites, the toast of the Internet circa 2006, are shutting down in droves, putting the data and images of their users in jeopardy.

Online storage services that have announced closings in the past ten months include big names in tech: AOL (Xdrive and AOL Pictures), Hewlett-Packard (Upline), Sony (Image Station), and Yahoo (Briefcase). Plenty of lesser-known online storage firms also have kicked the bucket, including Digital Railroad and Streamload MediaMax, which turned into The Linkup.

Will Your Data Disappear When Your Online Storage Site Shuts Down? - PC World

Facebook crashes through another milestone -- 250M users

Impressive…

Continuing its apparent bid to rule the Internet, Facebook today reached yet another key milestone.

Just a little more than three months after welcoming its 200 millionth user, the social networking site announced that as of today, Facebook hosts 250 million people. The news comes on the same day The Nielsen Co. reported that people spend more time on Facebook than on any other Web site.

Facebook crashes through another milestone -- 250M users

Daniel Escapa's OneNote Blog : OneNote included in all Office editions!

Another important OneNote update

I thought you all would like to know that OneNote is now included in all Office editions! That means no matter what Office box you buy or what you company purchases OneNote will be on the disc!  I remember when I first started on the team OneNote 2003 was a stand alone version of and even though we were a part of Office but wasn’t in the box.  I would tell people what product I worked on and people would ask “is OneNote in standard?” or “I have pro I don’t see OneNote”.  Then when we found that we were included in the Home & Student and Enterprise editions we were overjoyed and excited to be in the box.  But now I can tell people that no matter what version of Office they buy they will have OneNote!  I feel like we have really come along a long way from a standalone app to being a core part of the Office experience.

FYI here are the Office editions:

  • Office Home and Student edition includes Word, PowerPoint, Excel and OneNote.
  • Office Home and Business edition replaces the previous Office Small Business edition. It includes all the programs from the Home and Student edition and adds Outlook.
  • Office Standard is the entry-level enterprise edition; it includes the programs from the Home and Business edition and adds Publisher
  • Office Professional continues to be the high-end package for consumers and small businesses. It includes the programs in Standard edition and adds the Access database management program.
  • Office Professional Plus is the high-end enterprise offering, adding SharePoint Workspace (formerly Groove Workspace) and InfoPath.

And, as announced at the Microsoft partner conference this week, the Office Web app version of OneNote 2010 will be (freely) available to all Windows Live users.

Daniel Escapa's OneNote Blog : OneNote included in all Office editions!

David Rasmussen's Blog : OneNote 2010 – What’s New For You

Check the full post (and track the blog in the future) for OneNote 2010 details

Yesterday was a very exciting day for everyone on the OneNote team. We have been designing, developing and testing the OneNote 2010 release for quite some time now. We’ve been using it ourselves every day for well over a year. It has already dramatically changed the way we and many other teams and individuals at Microsoft work. And with the availability of the Office 2010 Technical Preview today to selected participants, we’re excited to finally be able to share more details with you.

In this post I’ll give a 30,000 foot overview of the major investments for OneNote 2010, and then in subsequent posts we’ll go into more detail on the feature areas with screenshots and more.

David Rasmussen's Blog : OneNote 2010 – What’s New For You

Microsoft Office 2010 Engineering : Microsoft Office Backstage (Part 1 – Backstory)

Some interesting insights into the development of the new Office 2010 Backstage user experience – excerpt:

Before getting into the details of the Backstage View, I’d like to talk about the thinking that led us to the design.  And to do that, I have to start way back in the fall of 2003, before we started designing the Ribbon.

The Office User Experience Team is responsible for providing the UI platform for the rest of Office, so it was our assignment to tackle the following two problems.  First, we knew from user feedback that people had a lot of difficulty finding, using, and understanding the vast feature set in Office.  Second, we were struggling internally with the fact the menus, toolbars, and task panes were collapsing under their own weight.  Those UI concepts were designed for much simpler programs, and could no longer handle the volume of commands in the mature Office applications.

So, we spent a lot of time looking at entire the Office feature set.  We thought hard about how new features should be built and we made some predictions about the types of features we’d need to build over the next several versions.

One of the first things we identified was that there were two distinct types of features within the applications.  We called the two types IN and OUT features.

The IN features are the ones most people are more familiar with.  These are the features that act on the content of the document and show up on the page. Examples include commands like bold, margins, spelling, and styles.  These are the features that make up the heart of the application. When using these features, you need to be able to view the document content and often need to have a selection or blinking cursor somewhere in the document.

The “Out” features help people do something with the content they create.  Examples include Saving, Printing, Permissions, Versioning, Collaboration, Document Inspector, Workflows, etc. The Out feature set includes a wide ranging and surprisingly long list, but they all have a lot of similarities.  The primary characteristic is that they don’t act on a specific point in the document, and their effects don’t appear on the page.  In fact, you could easily imagine using one of these features without even opening the document to look at it (for example, setting permissions on the file or sending it as an attachment).

Unfortunately, the other thing the OUT features have in common is that they almost all suffer from low discoverability and poor usability.

Microsoft Office 2010 Engineering : Microsoft Office Backstage (Part 1 – Backstory)

Business & Technology | Apple disables iTunes sync feature on Palm Pre | Seattle Times Newspaper

Predictably…

Apple Inc. has shut down one of the most compelling features on Palm Inc.'s rival Pre smart phone, crippling the Pre's ability to act like an iPod.

Users of the recently released Pre had been able to put music on it by using Apple's free iTunes software - a unique twist for a device not made by Apple. But Apple updated iTunes on Wednesday to block this feature.

Apple spokesman Tom Neumayr said the update "disables devices falsely pretending to be iPods, including the Palm Pre."

Business & Technology | Apple disables iTunes sync feature on Palm Pre | Seattle Times Newspaper

The Debate Over Publishing Stolen Twitter Documents - Bits Blog - NYTimes.com

I suspect this is going to backfire on TechCrunch in a big way

When TechCrunch told its readers that it would publish some of the material, the blog received hundreds of comments, many from readers who thought TechCrunch should keep the material private.

But Mr. Arrington pointed out in a subsequent post that much of what his blog and many other publications publish is confidential material.

“If you disagree with that, ok,” he wrote. “But then you also have to disagree with the entire history of the news industry. ‘News is what somebody somewhere wants to suppress; all the rest is advertising,’ is something Lord Northcliffe, a newspaper magnate, supposedly said. I agree wholeheartedly.”

The Debate Over Publishing Stolen Twitter Documents - Bits Blog - NYTimes.com

Twitter Hack Raises Flags on Security of Web Tools - NYTimes.com

See the full article for more details

The attack on Twitter highlights the problem. For its internal documents, the company uses the business version of Google Apps, a service that Google offers to individuals free. Google Apps provides e-mail, word processing, spreadsheets and calendars over the Web.

The content is stored on Google’s servers, which can save time and money and enable employees to work together on documents at the same time. But it also means that the security is only as good as the password. A hacker who breaks into one person’s account can access information shared by friends, family members or colleagues, which is what happened at Twitter.

Twitter Hack Raises Flags on Security of Web Tools - NYTimes.com

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Twitter Hacker Attack Raises Cloud Computing Security Questions | Peter Kafka | MediaMemo | AllThingsD

Okay, maybe I won’t try to get seriously into Twitter just yet…

One downside of being the world’s most talked-about start-up: You become an irresistible target for hackers.

Now Twitter, which has suffered multiple security breaches in the past, has been punctured again. Someone has gotten into the personal Web services accounts of co-founder Evan Williams, his wife and at least one other Twitter employee, and used that access to make off with a pile of confidential company documents. He’s now distributing them on the Web, and TechCrunch promises to publish many of them.

Twitter Hacker Attack Raises Cloud Computing Security Questions | Peter Kafka | MediaMemo | AllThingsD

Business.view: Grounded | The Economist

A timely reality check; see the full article

Predictions of the demise of business travel at the hands of technology have been made before, but this time there is more reason to think they will prove right. The quality of video conferencing provided through, say, Cisco’s TelePresence system is orders of magnitude better—real-time, good picture quality, extremely reliable—than what was available even a few years ago. And it is increasingly cost-effective. Cisco claims that its system pays for itself within six months on average through lower business-travel costs alone.

This claim is broadly supported by Procter & Gamble, which has been using TelePresence since 2007, promoting it inside the firm with the slogan, “Connect, Converse, Accelerate”. The consumer-goods giant now has over 70 TelePresence studios around the world, and says they are in almost constant use. According to a spokeswoman for the firm, P&G employees say they like the fact that “they can make the connection they need and still be home for dinner”. As well as improving work-life balance, this virtual approach also appeals to P&G staff because of its sustainability—it has significantly lower environmental costs than flying.

Business.view: Grounded | The Economist

vowe dot net :: Imagine

Another timely Volker reality check; see this page for more details

Imagine you have Damien Katz on your payroll. Imagine you pay him to build this great open source database, that is an offspring of his Notes experience. Imagine the BBC is using it. Imagine Ubuntu is building their One service on it. Imagine there is another biggie coming out this month or next month.

Imagine, you don't use it anywhere for your own stuff. You are IBM.

vowe dot net :: Imagine

vowe dot net :: It is the apps, stupid

A timely Volker reality check; see the full post (and the comment thread therein)

There are Notes customers out there, that have expressed this concern and have implemented "no Notes development" policies while maintaining their existing infrastructure. I have even seen some less understandable policies like "Notes apps only in Java" as if those would be more easily portable down the road.

Enter Xpages. IBM once promised you could use your Notes apps in a browser, automagically. Turned out that was not so easy either. So IBM did not promise you could easily turn your Notes apps into Xpages apps. And you can't. You rebuild them as Xpages. Rip and replace.

I had “It’s the apps, stupid!” (a reference to a 1992 Clinton campaign phrase) on my office white board at Lotus for several years, when I was working in Notes product management, as the ability to support collaborative applications (in addition to email) was a longstanding Notes/Domino differentiator.

These days, the Notes/Domino application migration picture usually looks like this:

image

In more detail:

  • Enterprise messaging (email, calendaring/scheduling, tasks/to-dos, and contacts) moves from Notes/Domino to Outlook/Exchange
  • Several platform services (e.g., directory) move from Domino to Windows Server or the .NET Framework (i.e., to a consistent set of platform services used by multiple applications)
  • Notes/Domino applications focused on collaborative workspaces (e.g., document libraries and discussion forums) map directly to SharePoint workspaces
  • More elaborate Notes/Domino applications, likely involving more complex business processes and external (DBMS-managed) data, map to SharePoint apps (e.g., SharePoint + InfoPath + SQL Server or Oracle Database) or enterprise apps (e.g., SAP or Microsoft Dynamics CRM, accessible via SharePoint).

In general, from what I’ve seen lately, the app migration exercise is much simpler (and more highly automated), moving from Notes/Domino to the Microsoft platform, than it is going from traditional Notes/Domino to Java (e.g., IBM WebSphere) or the fledgling Domino XPages framework.

vowe dot net :: It is the apps, stupid

Business & Technology | Prepping for Oracle, Sun predicts weak results | Seattle Times Newspaper

Perhaps Sun’s final chapter as an independent company

Charges just ahead of acquisitions are fairly typical as companies look to get costs off their books that could affect the acquirer's earnings after a deal closes, analysts said.

Cross Research analyst Richard Williams called it a "kitchen sink" quarter. Williams said he sees no obstacles for Oracle's acquisition, which is set to close this summer.

Excluding items, Sun expects a loss of 6 cents to 16 cents per share. Sales for the computer server and software maker are expected to be between $2.58 billion and $2.68 billion, down from $3.78 billion a year ago.

Business & Technology | Prepping for Oracle, Sun predicts weak results | Seattle Times Newspaper

Democratic Group’s Proposal: Give Each Student a Kindle - Bits Blog - NYTimes.com

Interesting times

Some influential members of the Democratic party want to give electronic reading devices to every student in the country.

Amazon.com should like the name of their proposal: “A Kindle in Every Backpack: A Proposal for eTextbooks in American Schools,” by the Democratic Leadership Council, a left-leaning think tank, was published on the group’s Web site Tuesday.

Democratic Group’s Proposal: Give Each Student a Kindle - Bits Blog - NYTimes.com

Cosmetic Surgery Company Settles Case of Faked Reviews - NYTimes.com

Information literacy is your friend…

Lifestyle Lift, a cosmetic surgery company, has reached a settlement with the State of New York over its attempts to fake positive consumer reviews on the Web, the New York attorney general’s office said Tuesday.

The company had ordered employees to pretend they were satisfied customers and write glowing reviews of its face-lift procedure on Web sites, according to the attorney general’s statement. Lifestyle Lift also created its own sites of face-lift reviews to appear as an independent sources.

Cosmetic Surgery Company Settles Case of Faked Reviews - NYTimes.com

Bill Gates offers the world a physics lesson | Beyond Binary - CNET News

CNET interviews Bill Gates on the Feynman lectures and more – excerpt:

And you've been doing some stuff with Intellectual Ventures. I know every time you show up on a patent application that, folks get interested in what you're looking at, whether it's stopping hurricanes, or beer kegs, or what-have-you.
Gates: That's right. We're going to make the cows that don't fart. You name it, we've got it under control.

That's been really exciting to take this idea of gathering top scientists from a broad set of areas and think about problems that can be solved. And in the case of the foundation, you know, Nathan (Myhrvold) has used that ability to convene great scientists to look at things like how do you deliver vaccines without having to use as many refrigerators, or how do you pasteurize milk in a better way, some very interesting things. And then I also sit down with that group when they're looking at their rich world applications, including things around energy, and one of those has actually led to creating a company called TerraPower, which is focused on a new, very radically improved nuclear power plant design, which is a hard thing to get done, but extremely valuable if it comes through.

Bill Gates offers the world a physics lesson | Beyond Binary - CNET News

Google Opens Attack on Lotus Notes Installed Base - Business Center - PC World

More interesting times at the Googleplex

Google Tuesday set its sights on IBM, unveiling a tool to migrate Lotus Notes users to Google Apps and releasing a whitepaper laying out how to migrate Notes applications to Google's online infrastructure.

From what I’ve seen so far, the migration utility appears to be very basic.

Google Opens Attack on Lotus Notes Installed Base - Business Center - PC World

Project Tuva: Enhanced Video Player Home - Microsoft Research

Very cool

Microsoft Research & Bill Gates bring historic Richard Feynman physics lectures to the Web 

Project Tuva: Enhanced Video Player Home - Microsoft Research

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

A Look At Office 2010 with Chris Capossela | LarryLarsen | Channel 9

Another useful Office 2010 preview resource 

Today at the Worldwide Partner Conference, Office 2010 will be opening up the tech preview to tens of thousands of people. This iteration of Office brings great collaboration tools and a web client that you'll be able to use simply by keeping your docs up on Skydrive. That means almost half a billion people will have access to free online Office apps at launch.
Senior Vice President of the Office products, Chris Capossela, stopped by the Channel 9 studios to tell us about Office 2010, what his favorite features are, and how we'll all get a chance to try it out. Chris Bryant follows with a walk-through of Office 2010 and a look at just some of the new features. For more information, go to www.microsoft.com/Office2010/.

A Look At Office 2010 with Chris Capossela | LarryLarsen | Channel 9

Introducing Microsoft Office 2010 Technical Preview

Check this page for a collection of brief videos about new capabilities in Office 2010

Microsoft® Office 2010 gives you rich and powerful new ways to deliver your best work whether you’re at work, home, or school on a computer, Web browser, or Smartphone. Grab your audience’s attention and inspire them with your ideas using enhanced tools, customizable templates, and photo editing capabilities. Work with multiple people from different locations at the exact same time using new co-authoring capabilities. By offering more ways to access your files from virtually anywhere, Office 2010 puts you in control.

Introducing Microsoft Office 2010 Technical Preview

Google's unified tools pose a threat to Cisco [ComputerWorld]

See the full article for more details

Officials at Cisco Systems Inc. say they are closely watching Google Inc.'s aggressive foray onto their unified communications turf and plan to respond quickly by boosting the capabilities of Cisco's offerings.

In fact, analysts said Cisco's announcement late last month that it plans to offer at least some pieces of its IP voice technology as a hosted service could be viewed as a direct response to Google's recent move to start limited release of its Web-based Google Voice and Google Wave communications tools.

Google's unified tools pose a threat to Cisco

Monday, July 13, 2009

Microsoft | Microsoft cloud computing gets down to earth | Seattle Times Newspaper

A great Azure case study

As U.S. companies start exploring doing some of this computing this year, a school system on the other side of the globe has already leapt into the cloud. Ethiopia is rolling out 250,000 laptops to its schoolteachers nationwide, all running on Microsoft's cloud platform, called Azure.

The laptops will allow teachers to download curriculum, keep track of academic records and securely transfer student data throughout the education system, without having to build a support system of hardware and software to connect them.

Microsoft | Microsoft cloud computing gets down to earth | Seattle Times Newspaper

The Complete Guide To Microsoft’s Office 2010

An Office 2010 preview; see the full post for details

The web has been abuzz the past few weeks with chatter about Microsoft’s announcement today at its Worldwide Partner Conference in New Orleans about the new version of Microsoft’s Office 2010. There’s even a mini-movie about its debut. Facing potential challenges from the browser from Google’s Apps product and its new Chrome OS, Microsoft has been touting its three screens strategy, which is the ability for products to synchronize across the phone, browser, and desktop, for some time now.

With the release of Office 2010, SharePoint Server 2010 and Visio 2010, we finally see implementation Microsoft’s Chief Software Architect Ray Ozzie’s mantra. We had the opportunity to see an in-depth demo of the new suite of products from Microsoft’s Group Product Manager for Office 2010, Chris Bryant. Here’s a complete breakdown of all the functionality that has been added, including screenshots

The Complete Guide To Microsoft’s Office 2010

GeoCities to Go Dark Oct. 26 « Data Center Knowledge

Another Yahoo milestone

A few months back there was a burst of reminiscing when Yahoo said it would shutter GeoCities, the free hosting platform that boomed in the early days of the web. Lots of folks used GeoCities to build their first site or set up personal web pages. If you’re among them, the clock is ticking. Yahoo now says that GeoCities will close on Oct. 26, and users should save and/or migrate any sites they care about.

GeoCities to Go Dark Oct. 26 « Data Center Knowledge

Official Google Blog: Google accounts on Twitter

46 Twitter accounts for Google, in the current list.  Strange days indeed.

Like lots of you, we've been drawn into Twitter this year. After all, we're all about frequent updates ourselves, and there's lots happening around here that we want to share with you. Of course, we enjoy watching, and contributing to, the tweetstream (we hope you find our tweets useful, too). Because there are many programs and initiatives across the company, we've got a number of active accounts. Here's a list of the current ones. We'll update this list from time to time.

Official Google Blog: Google accounts on Twitter

Approval by a Blogger May Please a Sponsor - NYTimes.com

An expanding debate

“Consumers have a right to know when they’re being pitched a product,” said Richard Cleland, an assistant director at the Federal Trade Commission.

Yet in many ways, the hypercommercialism of the Web is changing too quickly for consumers and regulators to keep up. Product placements are landing on so-called status updates on Facebook, companies are sponsoring messages on Twitter and bloggers are defining their own parameters of what constitutes independent work versus advertising.

Approval by a Blogger May Please a Sponsor - NYTimes.com

The battle on your desktop - The Boston Globe

A timely reality check

Yet Google’s revenues have flattened over the last year. And its Chrome Web browser, which allows computer users to access the Internet, has hardly been a great success since its introduction last September. Microsoft Internet Explorer still dominates the browser market. Microsoft this year introduced the speedy, elegant Bing to compete with the Google search engine. People who have tried Windows 7, which will replace Vista in October, have been impressed by its reliability and performance. The Google operating system won’t be ready until next year, and will first appear on netbooks, stripped-down laptops mainly limited to Internet use. Google is taking a risky gamble against a reinvigorated foe.

The battle on your desktop - The Boston Globe

Sunday, July 12, 2009

Spite Is Not a Business Strategy (GigaOM)

Check the full post 

Count me among the skeptics who see Google’s Chrome OS announcement this week as, first and foremost, an effort to induce pain in its longtime rival Microsoft. And a pointless one at that.

Spite is a business strategy – a really bad one; e.g., consider Netscape…

Spite Is Not a Business Strategy

Prototype - Kicking Reality Up a Notch - NYTimes.com

Interesting times

Augmented reality will “reinvent” many industries, including health care and training, Mr. Inbar predicted. Already, researchers at the Technical University of Munich are looking at ways to display X-ray and ultrasound readings directly on a patient’s body. A research project at BMW is exploring how an augmented-reality view under the hood might help auto mechanics with diagnostic and repair work.

In the short term, the industry that may have the most to gain from augmented reality is gaming. Although video games have traditionally pulled players out of the real world and into a virtual one, augmented-reality games have the potential to “engage people in the real world in a different way,” said Daniel Sánchez-Crespo, a project leader at Novarama, a game developer based in Barcelona. “It finds a new meaning for space. Your kitchen counter is not just where you prepare dinner; it can be a virtual racetrack for a car game.”

Prototype - Kicking Reality Up a Notch - NYTimes.com

Friday, July 10, 2009

PC makers less upbeat than Google about Chrome OS (Computerworld)

Nice to see an example of a reporter actually fact-checking details instead of simply repeating text from Google blog posts

Most of the PC vendors Google listed on its blog as partners for the new Chrome operating system say they're evaluating the software but have not committed to creating devices around it, a far less upbeat message than Google had portrayed.

PC makers less upbeat than Google about Chrome OS

Google CEO: New operating system changes the game by AP: Yahoo! Tech

See the full article for more details

But he admits his excitement is a relatively recent phenomenon, having spent his first six years as Google's CEO trying to convince company co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin that developing an operating system to compete against Microsoft Corp.'s dominant Windows franchise would be a terrible idea.

Schmidt didn't think the timing was right and, worse, he didn't want Google to get into a potentially bruising battle with the world's largest software maker. His change of heart shows how far Google has come since Page and Brin started the Mountain View, Calif.-based company in a Silicon Valley garage nearly 11 years ago.

Google CEO: New operating system changes the game by AP: Yahoo! Tech

Daring Fireball: Putting What Little We Actually Know About Chrome OS Into Context

More Chrome OS perspectives 

So it’s not weird that Chrome was announced. But what is weird is how it was announced. And, despite the title of the weblog post in which the announcement was made — “Introducing the Google Chrome OS” — nothing has actually been introduced. There aren’t even any screenshots, let alone a demo or any specific technical information. With an expected ship date of “the second half of 2010”, it’s a textbook example of vaporware.

I don’t get the timing. Why announce it now, when it clearly isn’t close to ready? Why not at I/O, Google’s developer conference six weeks ago? Or why not wait until it’s ready to release to developers? I like facts, demos, and best of all, shipping products. I don’t like vague promises.

For very little additional useful information, also see the Google Chrome OS FAQ

Daring Fireball: Putting What Little We Actually Know About Chrome OS Into Context

Power.com Fights Back Against Facebook - Bits Blog - NYTimes.com

Antisocial behavior?…

Power.com is suing its frenemy, Facebook.

On Friday, Power.com, a site that lets users sign in to several social networks from one place, plans to respond to the lawsuit that Facebook filed against it with its own suit. It alleges that Facebook is prohibiting its users from accessing their Facebook content through Power.com and that it is attempting to monopolize the social networking market.

Power.com Fights Back Against Facebook - Bits Blog - NYTimes.com

Thursday, July 09, 2009

Will Google's Chrome OS look rusty by late 2010? | All about Microsoft | ZDNet.com

More Chrome OS scrutiny; see the full post 

However,  after reading the very few Chrome OS details that Google smartly dropped a couple of weeks before Microsoft is expected to announce the release to manufacturing of Windows 7, I’ve got a few doubts…. And quite a few more than the huge number of Google fanboys and girls who seem to forget for all its product debuts, Google hasn’t had any home runs other than search.

Will Google's Chrome OS look rusty by late 2010? | All about Microsoft | ZDNet.com

FT.com / Lex / Technology, media & telecoms - Google / Microsoft

See the full article 

Google and Apple display the corporate equivalent of dark glasses and celebrity insouciance, gaining reams of free publicity with their every move. Yet while Apple need only step on stage with a product ready for sale, Google gets attention for merely mentioning its intentions. Dominance of search, piles of cash and an army of engineers do make it too powerful to be ignored. But there is no clear reason why Microsoft should quake over Wednesday’s announcement that Google intends to launch a free, fully fledged operating system by next year.

FT.com / Lex / Technology, media & telecoms - Google / Microsoft

Google Targets Microsoft's Turf - WSJ.com

See the full article for more details

In an interview Wednesday, Mr. Schmidt said he isn't obsessed with competing with Microsoft, and that the company's strategy is to create new markets for online applications. "This is about opening up a whole new area," he said. "Google is not about doing the same thing that everyone else has done," he said. He also said it is natural for Google to think about competing with Microsoft but that doing so takes up "very little" of his time. Microsoft declined to comment about the new Google software.

But some people familiar with the matter have said Mr. Schmidt has tried to dent Microsoft's business throughout his tenure at Google.

Google Targets Microsoft's Turf - WSJ.com

Wednesday, July 08, 2009

The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs: Let's all take a deep breath and get some perspective

A FSJ classic – check out the full post 

So everyone is worked up about this new browser operating system from Google. Drudge apparently has gone off his meds again and calls it a "death blow" to the Borg. No spinning red light, but still, pretty over the top. I guess it's supposedly going to destroy us too -- like we're some kind of collateral damage. Man oh man. Where to begin?

The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs: Let's all take a deep breath and get some perspective

Google ChromeOS: have people given leave of their senses? | Irregular Enterprise | ZDNet.com

Check the full article for an extensive reality check; excerpt:

Do you notice the common thread? Not much by way of facts to back up the stories. Nor any rational analysis of what’s going on in the market. Pure opinion with zippo to make sense of the story other than what appears to be a Wisdom of Crowds attempt to parse Googles’ smartly worded announcement.

Google ChromeOS: have people given leave of their senses? | Irregular Enterprise | ZDNet.com

Why Hulu Succeeded As Other Video Sites Failed - Bits Blog - NYTimes.com

A timely reality check; see the full article for details

Yet Hulu, founded in March 2007, is triumphant when most other video sites have languished.

Most recently, Joost has retrenched and its chief executive, Mike Volpi, has left that spot to join Index Ventures, one of the company’s backers. Joost was notable mainly for the pedigree of its founders, Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis, who had quite a pedigree of upending traditional industries. Their free Kazaa file-sharing service continued the work of Napster in undercutting the $15 price for CDs. And Skype, the Internet phone service, continues to cause trouble for the cartel of phone companies and governments that keep international phone rates high.

In television, however, the empire struck back. Here are a few reasons why Hulu has been successful where others failed

Why Hulu Succeeded As Other Video Sites Failed - Bits Blog - NYTimes.com

Sprint sells Netbook for a buck | Wireless - CNET News

Sign of the times

If you thought a $99 Netbook was a bargain, Sprint Nextel's plan to sell Netbooks for a buck is a real steal.

Sprint has teamed up with mega-retailer Best Buy to sell the Compaq Mini 110c-1040DX Netbook for 99 cents with a two-year service contract. The offer is good at participating Best Buy stores.

Best Buy plans to sell the same Netbook for Verizon Wireless and AT&T for $199.99 with a two-year contract. Without any service contract, the Netbook costs $389.99, according to Best Buy's Web site.

Sprint sells Netbook for a buck | Wireless - CNET News

Google Plans a PC Operating System - NYTimes.com

Somehow this seems appropriate, especially relative to the Navio thread in the previous post…

Google said Tuesday night that it still had work to do to develop a full-fledged operating system. In a recent interview, Marc Andreessen, who created the first commercial Web browser and co-founded Netscape, said Chrome itself was already well along that path.

“Chrome is basically a modern operating system,” Mr. Andreessen said.

Google Plans a PC Operating System - NYTimes.com

Google Plans to Launch Operating System for PCs - WSJ.com

I’m getting a strong sense of déjà vu on this one…

Google Inc. is preparing to launch an operating system for personal computers, a direct assault on the turf of software giant Microsoft Corp., which has long dominated the market for software that runs PC applications.

The Silicon Valley Internet giant announced the new move in a blog post late Tuesday night. It said the software, which will initially target low-end portable PCs called netbooks, would be based on its Chrome Web browser and available to consumers in the second-half of 2010.

(p.s. the Navio press release linked above is from 1996; also see here and here for more Navio history)

Google Plans to Launch Operating System for PCs - WSJ.com