Tag Archive for 'Google'

MicroHoo: What Everyone’s Talking About

Published
by
ron
on May 4, 2008
in Global Strategy, High Tech & Media and Social Media
. 0 Comments

Microsoft throws in the towel

Backgrounders on
BBC | Analysis: Microsoft without Yahoo
BusinessWeek | Microsoft Drops Bid for Yahoo
Financial Times | Yahoo under pressure after deal collapse
Bloomberg | Microsoft Walks Away From Yahoo After Fight on Price
CNBC | As Deal Unravels, Pressure Is on Yahoo to Perform
Reuters | Investors eye Yahoo’s alternatives to Microsoft
The Economist | Microsoft throws in the towel
The New York Times | Microsoft-Yahoo: What Everyone’s Talking About
The Wall Street Journal | Microsoft Withdraws Yahoo Offer After Attempt to Bridge Gap in Price

Sphere: Related Content

Is Google losing momentum?

Published
by
ron
on April 11, 2008
in High Tech & Media and International Business
. 0 Comments

Did Google peak last November 6th, when its share price hit an all-time high of $742? Some people on Wall Street seem to think so. They now value the firm at around 40% less. Part of the blame belongs to the general turmoil in the stockmarket. But the bigger part, investors fear, is that Google, at the ripe old age of nine, might already be over the hill.

First, the company missed Wall Street revenue forecasts in the fourth quarter for the first time. Then a pair of reports from market researcher comScore (SCOR), the latest on Mar. 26, said U.S. growth in the number of clicks on the paid ads appearing next to Google’s search results essentially flatlined for two months running compared with a year ago. Six months ago, paid clicks were growing up to 40% annually.

However over the last couple of months Google is improving their add system in two ways. First, it offers fewer ads on each results page, and often none at all. This reduces visual clutter and pleases both users and any remaining advertisers. Second, Google seems to be trying harder to weed out those advertisers who bid low in the auctions it conducts for advertising slots linked to particular keywords. in short, with less space devoted to ads, and only higher-bidding advertisers getting through, there are fewer ads to click on.

If Google is really over the hill we will find out in the upcoming months. For now stay tuned.

Sphere: Related Content

In need for inspiration?

Published
by
ron
on February 28, 2008
in Ranting and Raving
. 0 Comments

Quote Brent Lewis, Harlequin

Quote Sergey Brin, Google

Quote Sam Walton, founder Wal-Mart
Source: Fast Company

Every working day Fast Company publishes a quote from an authoritative figure. Subsequently, more on the Fast Company front, in their latest issue they have published an insightful article on Google which moves far behind the doors of the leading internet giant. The article comes with an even more insightful and very detailed slideshow on the Googleplex. What a lovely place to work!

Sphere: Related Content

Google’s first step to conquer the mobile phone business

Published
by
admin
on November 5, 2007
in High Tech & Media
. 1 Comment

Google Mobile PhoneToday Google announced the first piece of its “master plan” to enter the mobile phone market. Not with the much anticipated Gphone, but an operating system for mobile phones; Android.

Android is the first truly open and comprehensive platform for mobile devices. It includes an operating system, user-interface and applications — all of the software to run a mobile phone, but without the proprietary obstacles that have hindered mobile innovation.

Google hopes Android will power a variety of future mobile phones and boost the web on the move. Basically, it is building software to make the Internet run more easily on mobile phones.

It has been working with 30 partner companies. Including some of the world’s biggest handset makers and wireless service providers: Motorola, Samsung, LG, Qualcomm, T-Mobile, China Mobile, Telefonica, etc. Conspicuously absent are Nokia, AT&T, and Verizon, among others. (Like Apple, on whose board Google CEO Eric Schmidt sits, European mobile platform provider Symbian, Microsoft, Blackberry maker Research in Motion…)

Silicon Alley Insider has published an interesting post on four remaining questions regarding Google’s mobile ambitions. Earlier post related to Google’s latest move can be found here: Shaking up the mobile phone industry, Mobile advertising and Google OpenSocial.

Sphere: Related Content

Google OpenSocial

Published
by
admin
on November 2, 2007
in Social Media
. 0 Comments

Google OpenSocial

Google unveiled its OpenSocial platform earlier this week, saying it would give outside developers tools to write programs for any of its social network partners.

“OpenSocial is going to become the de facto standard (for developers) instantly out of the gates. It is going to have a reach of 200 million users, which is way bigger than anything else out there,” Chris DeWolfe, chief executive and co-founder of MySpace, told reporters. Source

“OpenSocial provides a common set of APIs for social applications across multiple websites. With standard JavaScript and HTML, developers can create apps that access a social network’s friends and update feeds.”

Head on over to http://code.google.com/apis/opensocial/ to find out what the buzz is all about.

>>UPDATE @ November 3rd<< Nicholas Carr gives his opinion on Google’s OpenSocial.

Google’s introduction of OpenSocial, which, as Marc Andreessen explains, provides a kind of universal two-way connector between web applications and social networks, marks an important moment in the transformation of the World Wide Web into what I term, in The Big Switch, the World Wide Computer. The internet, as Google frequently points out, is the new computing platform, and OpenSocial - whether it succeeds or not - gives us a view as to how that platform may operate. Continue reading

Sphere: Related Content

Shaking up the mobile phone industry?

Published
by
admin
on October 12, 2007
in High Tech & Media and International Business
. 1 Comment

Google Logo OriginalReflecting to Google’s activities over the past few months, it seems like they are putting infrastructure in place and gearing up resources to enter the mobile phone business (Google has long been rumored to be working on a mobile phone, or “gPhone”).

Earlier this week, Google announced that it had acquired Jaiku, a Finnish startup that lets people broadcast short updates about their locations and activities over the Web or to their friends’ cell phones (similar to Twitter), a concept called microblogging.

Furthermore, earlier this year, Google has announced its intention to bid on a large swath of spectrum in early 2008; it has acquired a mobile-phone software startup, Android, based in Palo Alto, CA; and in a handful of public statements, representatives of the company have alluded to trying to make the mobile experience better.

Basically its not the question anymore if Google will enter the mobile phone business but when and how? When will be probably somewhere beginning next year but HOW remains the biggest question mark! Many speculations are circling around but it is likely that Google is about to rewrite the rules of the (mobile) telecom industry.

In my previous post (Mobile advertising) I already wrote about the lucrative mobile advertising market which will open new opportunities. In light of this, and with respect to the ongoing rumours, Google is planning to offer a free mobile phone (gPhone) on which smart advertisement functionalities will turn your phone in a personal advisor (Will a Google phone change the game, BusinessWeek). Exciting times ahead of us!

Sphere: Related Content

Mobile advertising!

Published
by
admin
on October 8, 2007
in International Business
. 3 Comments

Mobile Advertising

At the moment, most mobile advertising takes the form of text messages. But Telecoms firms are beginning to deliver ads to handsets alongside video clips, web pages, and music and game downloads, through mobiles that are nifty enough to permit such things.

Industry experts are expecting mobile advertising to be the next big thing. Basically based on the premises that there are currently 2.5 billion mobile phones around the world already. Potentially it can reach a much bigger audience than the planet’s billion or so personal computers. The number of mobile phones in use is also growing much faster than the number of computers, especially in poorer countries. Better yet, most people carry their mobile with them everywhere-something that cannot be said of television or computers.

One thing is sure, before it will hit the jackpot, current marketing strategies and business models need to be re-evaluated. Mobile operators, either established players and greenfield start-ups started to experiment already:

Blyk, offers subscribers 217 free text messages and 43 free minutes of voice calls per month as long as they agree to receive six advertisements by text message every day.

America’s Virgin Mobile, offers subscribers the choice between receiving an ad via text message or viewing a 45-second advertisement when browsing the internet in exchange for one free minute of talk time.

Vodafone UK offers subscribers the option of downloading footage from “Big Brother”, a reality-TV show, in exchange for viewing a promotional video clip.

Mobile phones (equipped with satellite-positioning technology) could be used to alert people to the charms of stores or restaurants they are walking or driving past

A subscriber typing in “pizza” for instance, could receive ads for nearby pizza parlours along with his generic search results. Such a customer, mobile operators hope, is likely to be more grateful than annoyed by the intrusion.

Growing opportunities in mobile technology and advertising is neither neglected by Google. Inner business circles expect Google to enter the mobile phone business soon. When it does, they will likely try to rewrite the rules of the game.

Sphere: Related Content

World laboratory of the digital age

Published
by
admin
on July 5, 2007
in Global Strategy and Social Media
. 0 Comments

Google Korea

The almighty Google seems to beat competitors in search everywhere around the world. However the world’s largest and most prominent search engine is not getting its feet’s into the most wired country in the world, South-Korea.

Naver.com is the undisputed leader in search in the country with a market share of 77%. Daum.net another local player handles 11%, Yahoo 5% and Google handles only a merit 1.7% of all search queries.

Google produces search results from existing information in comparison, naver.com works slightly different. Basically it’s a combination of Wikipedia, Yahoo’s portal, Answers.com, and Google. Koreans not only demand information, they prefer a sense of community feeling and the kind of human interaction provided by Naver’s “Knowledge iN” real-time question-and-answer platform.

Upon introducing a new type of Google search engine in South-Korea, Eric E. Schmidt, the chairman of Google states “It’s obvious to me that Korea is a great laboratory of the digital age”.

Sphere: Related Content

Google: Ten Golden Rules

Published
by
admin
on February 1, 2006
in High Tech & Media, International Business and Ranting and Raving
. 0 Comments

Google Roller coaster

Came across this article: Google: ten golden rules while I was searching for a place that printed thermo graphic invitations (believe it or not). If you’re interested in working at Google this is a good read. It talks about Google’s philosophy on hiring and treatment of its employees, straight from the horse’s mouth.

Sphere: Related Content

Google kai

Published
by
admin
on October 27, 2005
in High Tech & Media
. 0 Comments

Google Kai

ohh boy! Check out what I came across while the net. Ooh well I certainly DO love Google however, my love stops just short of naming my freakin’ BABY after the company.

Meet Google Kai: http://www.google-kai.com/
… and he also has a blog: http://googlekai.blogspot.com/

He’s already saving money via AdSense banners on his home page. He’s also going to get beat up every other day once he starts school.

Sphere: Related Content