Google's 'Open' definition: Simply brilliant business, but is it evil? | Betanews

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

My decade 2010 prediction: Unchecked, Google's open approach and free business model will eventually disrupt most businesses that produce information. The news business is being disrupted now. Google will disrupt software products or Internet services, too. The RIAA, Hollywood studios and stock image companies should watch their backs for a Google knife. Google's power isn't so much the open philosophy as the free business model it empowers. Bill Gates asked the right question 33 years ago: "Who can afford to do professional work for nothing?" It's the question everyone should ask as Google's free business model expands.

Is this evil? If your worldview is in line with Gates' -- that he or she who creates something should own it and profit from it -- the answer is likely "Yes." Perhaps it is not, if your worldview is that all things -- all information -- belong to everyone.

Google's 'Open' definition: Simply brilliant business, but is it evil? | Betanews

For Google, The Meaning Of Open Is When It’s Convenient For Them

Check the full post for more details.   I think it’s actually more like “when it’s convenient for them” and inconvenient for Microsoft.

Google is only open when it is convenient for them. Google will never open up the source code to its search algorithms or its advertising system, or share the core data which gives it a competitive advantage in those areas because that is where it makes all of its money.

For Google, The Meaning Of Open Is When It’s Convenient For Them

Kindle for BlackBerry

I suppose this was inevitable, especially since Jeff Bezos is a Blackberry fan (via I Love My Kindle)…

 

Kindle for BlackBerry

Time Your Attack: Oracle’s Lost Revolution | Magazine

A very timely reality check from Wired – read the full article 

Immediately after the Windows 95 launch, Ellison called one of his lieutenants, Farzad Dibachi, to his mansion in Atherton, California. For years, Dibachi — who was responsible for brainstorming new business strategies — had urged Ellison to think more broadly about his company’s potential. Now, the two discussed a vision for Oracle that would neutralize Microsoft’s main advantage: the dominance of its operating system. They imagined a simple machine that would eschew software installed on a hard drive in favor of accessing applications online. Data — videos, documents, pictures — would be stored in Oracle databases instead of on the computer itself. In place of a robust operating system, this machine would work with programs and files through browsers like Netscape Navigator. Ellison liked the idea, and he and Dibachi started working on a speech so the CEO could share it with the world. The device would be called the network computer.

An interesting comment from David Roux:

“Ellison is often time-dyslexic — right about the fundamental trend but wrong on timing, ” says David Roux, a partner at private equity firm Silver Lake and a former Oracle executive vice president. “It’s hard to look at a $299 netbook and not see the NC vision come to life.”

Time Your Attack: Oracle’s Lost Revolution | Magazine

The Customer Is Always Right: Jeff Bezos - washingtonpost.com

Fake Steve, in his day job, interviews Jeff Bezos 

LYONS: Have you been surprised by the Kindle's success?

BEZOS: Astonished. Two years ago, none of us expected what has happened so far. It is [our] No. 1 bestselling product. It's the No. 1 most-wished-for product as meas­ured by people putting it on their wish list. It's the No. 1 most-gifted item on Amazon. And I'm not just talking in electronics--that's true across all product categories. We've spent years working on our physical books business, and today, for titles that have a Kindle edition, Kindle book sales are 48 percent of the physical sales. That's up from 35 percent in May. The business is growing very quickly. This is not just a business for us. There is missionary zeal. We feel like Kindle is bigger than we are.

[…]

LYONS: So an Apple tablet would be a companion to the Kindle?

BEZOS: Absolutely. We've got Kindle for PC. And we're working on Kindle for the Mac. Our vision is that we want you to be able to read Kindle books wherever you want to read your Kindle books.

LYONS: Ultimately do you not even care about selling the physical Kindle itself?

BEZOS: No, we do care. Our goal with the Kindle device is separate from the Kindle bookstore. With the Kindle bookstore, wherever you want to read we're going to support you. And then for the Kindle device, we want that to be the world's best purpose-built reading device.

The Customer Is Always Right: Jeff Bezos - washingtonpost.com

BBC News - Trust gives green light to net TV

Meanwhile, outside the Apple galaxy; see this companion article for more details

Project Canvas is a partnership between the BBC, ITV, BT, Five, Channel 4 and TalkTalk to develop a so-called Internet Protocol Television standard.

It would see a range of set-top boxes available to access on-demand TV services such as iPlayer and ITVplayer.

BBC News - Trust gives green light to net TV

FT.com / Technology - Store set to be apple of master’s eye

A timely iTunes snapshot

There is a certain irony in Apple benefiting so much from what was essentially a missed business opportunity a decade ago. After sitting out the digital music explosion begun in 1999 by Napster and pirates everywhere, Apple decided it was better to be late at the party than not show up at all and introduced the iPod MP3 player in 2001.

Many thought the iPod was the best portable music player on the market and it sold well, helped by free jukebox software called iTunes. But the real breakthrough came two years later, when Apple introduced the iTunes Music Store, offering the first wide selection of digitised major-label songs for just 99 cents a song.

Best of all, from Apple’s perspective, was that the store kept iPod users coming back again and again. The iTunes store was a service, consumers became accustomed to using it frequently, and it kept on selling almost free intangible goods cheaply.

These were all traits which prefigured the App store.

 

FT.com / Technology - Store set to be apple of master’s eye

Who Walked, Google or Yelp? - Bits Blog - NYTimes.com

Big stakes poker

It seems apparent, based on conversations with multiple sources, that after the two sides tentatively agreed on a deal, Yelp came back to Google saying it had received a higher offer from another party. Why Yelp didn’t take that offer, which the sources said was in the vicinity of $750 million, is a bit of a mystery. The people who said Yelp walked away from the deal implied that there wasn’t a good fit with the other company. However, as Anthony Alfonso, president of Trenwith Valuation, told Claire Cain Miller, some of Yelp’s actions may have been an exercise in brinkmanship.

Who Walked, Google or Yelp? - Bits Blog - NYTimes.com

The Science of Managing Search Ads - NYTimes.com

A timely snapshot

For most people, Google and other search engines are essential tools to navigate the Web. But the workings of the text ads, the blurbs that peddle goods and services on the search results pages, are largely hidden from Web users.

For more than one million businesses, Google’s search advertising system is like a hose inundating Web sites with traffic. Managing it effectively, though, is as much art as it is science. It requires a mix of analytics and gamesmanship, a combination of skills that has become vitally important in the Internet age.

The Science of Managing Search Ads - NYTimes.com

A Proposal From Apple to Offer Online TV Subscriptions Stirs Network Interest - NYTimes.com

Somehow I suspect AT&T Wireless isn’t thrilled to see this

Apple is eliciting tentative interest from some networks in its proposal to offer a TV subscription package via the Internet.

Theoretically, customers would be able to tune in online, allowing them to cancel their cable or satellite subscriptions.

ABC and CBS are among the networks that are considering joining the Apple venture, people close to the talks said Monday night

A Proposal From Apple to Offer Online TV Subscriptions Stirs Network Interest - NYTimes.com

Newspapers and technology: Network effects | The Economist

Another timely reality check from The Economist 

The internet may kill newspapers; but it is not clear if that matters. For society, what matters is that people should have access to news, not that it should be delivered through any particular medium; and, for the consumer, the faster it travels, the better. The telegraph hastened the speed at which news was disseminated. So does the internet. Those in the news business use the new technology at every stage of newsgathering and distribution. A move to electronic distribution—through PCs, mobile phones and e-readers—has started. It seems likely only to accelerate.

The trouble is that nobody knows how to make money in the new environment. That raises questions about how much news will be gathered. But there is no sign of falling demand for news, and technology has cut the cost of collecting and distributing it, so the supply is likely to increase. The internet is shaking up the news business, as the telegraph did; in the same way, mankind will be better informed about his fellow humans than before. If paper editions die, then Bennett’s prediction that communications technology would be the death of newspapers will be belatedly proved right. But that is not the same as the death of news.

Newspapers and technology: Network effects | The Economist

Facebook Moves to Standardize and Own Customer IDs - BusinessWeek

Check the full article for more on Facebook’s identity services aspirations

To help Facebook establish ID standards that are even more universally accepted, the social network in August hired engineer David Recordon, co-founder of OpenID, a nonprofit foundation that maintains a set of open standards for Web identity. "Standards are the plumbing layer of the Internet," says Recordon, 23. "In order for them to be successful they have to be freely shared." OpenID was created in 2005 as a way to let people use a single name and password when they leave comments on multiple blogs, and it's currently offered by major Web sites, including Google (GOOG), AOL, NewsCorp.'s (NWS) MySpace, and even Facebook. Yet it's still not widely used, in part because of Facebook's easier-to-use system. "The open community has not met the challenge to provide a better alternative to Facebook Connect," says Chris Messina, an OpenID board member.

Facebook Moves to Standardize and Own Customer IDs - BusinessWeek

Ford to Enable WiFi Hotspots in Some Cars: BoomTown Rejoices | Kara Swisher | BoomTown | AllThingsD

Have you surfed in a Ford lately?  See the full post for more details

While there are a lot of in-car wireless solutions, this one seems as if it is one of the easier ones, allowing you to use any USB modem to connect to the automobile, which then provides access to anyone in it with a password (yes, you can stop that snotty BMW next to you in traffic on 101 to stop stealing your signal).

Ford’s SYNC cars are a lot like many other digitally souped up ones, with lots of data, voice-operated info and hands-free calling, but this is a welcome new innovation.

Ford to Enable WiFi Hotspots in Some Cars: BoomTown Rejoices | Kara Swisher | BoomTown | AllThingsD

Open house? Google has also been eying Trulia | Digital Media - CNET News

Google and/or Google-tracking press/blogosphere in overdrive…

According to sources close to the situation, along with its pending bid for Yelp, Google has been in on-again, off-again acquisition talks with Trulia, the real-estate search engine.

It is unclear what price Google would pay, but sources estimate that Trulia's valuation ranges between $150 million and $200 million, although there could be a big premium on that.

Rumors about Google's interest in the real-estate search market--and specifically in Trulia--have been rebounding around Silicon Valley for the last year.

Open house? Google has also been eying Trulia | Digital Media - CNET News

Driven to Distraction, Some Teenagers Unfriend Facebook - NYTimes.com

Sign of the times

The two are among the many teenagers, especially girls, who are recognizing the huge distraction Facebook presents — the hours it consumes every day, to say nothing of the toll it takes during finals and college applications, according to parents, teachers and the students themselves.

Some teenagers, like Monica and Halley, form a support group to enforce their Facebook hiatus. Others deactivate their accounts. Still others ask someone they trust to change their password and keep control of it until they feel ready to have it back.

[…]

On the other hand…

In October, Facebook reached 54.7 percent of people in the United States ages 12 to 17, up from 28.3 percent in October last year, according to the Nielsen Company, the market research firm.

Driven to Distraction, Some Teenagers Unfriend Facebook - NYTimes.com

Google To Acquire DocVerse; Office War Heats Up

Busy times in the Googleplex…

Google, which is currently on one heck of a spending spree, is closing an acquisition of San Francisco based DocVerse, a service that lets users collaborate around Microsoft Office documents, we’ve heard from a source with knowledge of the deal. The purchase price is supposed to be around $25 million.

Google To Acquire DocVerse; Office War Heats Up

Ping - Google Goggles, Searching by Image Alone - NYTimes.com

A Google Goggles snapshot

It’s not hard to imagine a slew of commercial applications for this technology. You could compare prices of a product online, learn how to operate that old water heater whose manual you have lost or find out about the environmental record of a certain brand of tuna. But Goggles and similar products could also tell the history of a building, help travelers get around in a foreign country or even help blind people navigate their surroundings.

It is also easy to think of scarier possibilities down the line. Google’s goal to recognize every image, of course, includes identifying people. Computer scientists say that it is much harder to identify faces than objects, but with the technology and computing power improving rapidly, improved facial recognition may not be far off.

Ping - Google Goggles, Searching by Image Alone - NYTimes.com

Watch out, Amazon.com? Google Editions stocking up now for 2010 consumer debut | TeleRead: Bring the E-Books Home

Sign of the times – apparently Google is poised to save everyone from evil and monopolistic Amazon.com.  Of course, other traditional publishers and retailers may have to be sacrificed along the way, but such is the price of progress…

So much for e-books in the “clouds.” It’ll still happen at Google. But a new service called Google Editions will do an Amazon.com, sort of—and sell e-book files rather than just let you read public domain books or preview commercial ones online.

The link contains info for authors and publishers interested in offering their books this service within Google Book Search. News about Google Editions has already made the press, but it’s good to see Editions cranking up to balance out Amazon.com’s Kindle-based dominance of the e-book retail scene.

Watch out, Amazon.com? Google Editions stocking up now for 2010 consumer debut | TeleRead: Bring the E-Books Home

10 Reasons Why Google Will Never Release a Netbook - IT Infrastructure from eWeek

Sure, just like Google would never be willing to risk the potential partner-oriented opportunity costs in releasing its own browser, client operating system, voice service, social software services, music service, dictionary, hypertext encyclopedia…

Rumors are starting to swirl around the Web to the effect that Google might be planning to make a netbook. The idea is simple: By offering a netbook, Google can get its software out to those who want it, while taking in some of the revenue that it would otherwise lose by partnering with third-party vendors. At first glance, it might make some sense. After all, why would Google want to leave what could be major cash on the table?

But a more thorough analysis of the market reveals that Google will never release a netbook. If Google is to be successful with Chrome OS, it will need to work well with third-party vendors. And it certainly can't step on any toes as it attempts to increase the popularity of its online operating system. The company simply can't afford to offer a netbook.

10 Reasons Why Google Will Never Release a Netbook - IT Infrastructure from eWeek

Paris Court Rules Against Google in Copyright Case - NYTimes.com

How the French saved civilization?…

The court in Paris ruled against Google after a publishing group, La Martinière, backed by publishers and authors, argued that the industry was being exploited by Google’s Book Search program, which was started in 2005.

The court ordered Google to pay over 300,000 euros, or $430,000, in damages and interest and to stop digital reproduction of the material. The company was also ordered to pay 10,000 euros a day in fines until it removed extracts of some French books from its online database.

Paris Court Rules Against Google in Copyright Case - NYTimes.com