ouroboros

"Karp Rocks", or "The Innovator's Dilemma", or "My Shiny New Mantra"

Thank you, Publishing 2.0.  Scott Karp's "Google AdWords: A Brief History of Online Advertising Innovation" is a post well worth the read for a look back to when Google's global supremacy was not a foregone conclusion.  In it, Karp lays out the historical context and decisions that set Skynet on their current trajectory.

At the article's conclusion, Karp says this:

"The challenge of innovation is that we are all boxed in by what we know, by our assumptions about how things work...The next Google-like innovation is right in front of us — we just need to see past our own assumptions."

"Forget what you know."

A life philosophy in four words.

Google on Mobile Advertising

From Reuters, from an on-stage interview by Ken Auletta of Google CEO Eric Schmidt:

"Speaking of the emerging market for Web-based advertising on mobile phones, Schmidt said the vast majority of Google searches on mobile phones were done on Apple Inc's year-old iPhones, which prominently feature a Web browser."

'Mobile looks like it will ultimately be the highest of ad rates,' because ads can be targeted by user location, he said."

First Android Developer Challenge Winners

50 winners have been selected for the first Google "Android Developer Challenge", and it was great to see the range of applications entered - wikipedia/map mobile mashups ("Wikitude"),  consolidated virtual presence management ("Sustain"), pervasive gaming ("City Slikkers") - it's in there.  And more.

Creativity (fueled by cash and visibility) is dangerously close to bring applied to the mobile canvas.  The folks over at Silicon Alley Insider did a nice job pulling together a list of winners names and apps, so do check it out - they even posted links to explanations of the apps where available.

And for your download pleasure, here's a nice, simply formatted .pdf of the winners - with images and explanations.  Download AndroidApps.pdf

It's worth reviewing to get a look at what's coming next...

Mobile to watch: Apple...Google...ADOBE??

Silicon Valley Insider's Hank Williams wrote a solid post that summarizes and contextualizes Adobe's latest 'Flash' move, the 'Open Screen Project'. The move is a direct play against Apple and Google to win hearts, minds and development time from mobile platform developers.

Three key takeaways:

1. No more licensing restrictions and fees for the Flash Player and the SWF file format = OEMs get to embed Flash for no $ and with no restrictions. Expect Flash EVERYWHERE.

2. Platform compatibility in a Flash: it sucked to have to redevelop Flash apps to ensure compatability on each new device, OS, and tech...now Flash apps will be split into two layers: the core functional application layer (HOW the program works and WHAT it does) and the platform-specific layer (WHERE the program works, and with WHICH technologies). So develop the core functionality, then (like a snap-on Nokia faceplate!) interchange the platform layer to fit the devices/platforms you'd like to target.

3. Consistency: The Flash Player will now be the same and operate the same, across all devices. "THE" next generation operating system? TBD. But in one master stroke, Adobe may well have created a platform level with iPhone OS, Android OS, and possibly Symbian - and portable (theoretically) across any of those platforms.

Some recognizable names are already on board with the effort, including Nokia, Motorola, Sony Ericsson, Qualcomm, Samsung, and Intel.

'Google Me Baby' - Props to Danny Sheniak

When a singer starts using 'Google Me' as a way to illustrate her celebrity rather than waxing poetic about street cred, you got something funky going on.

And a 'Google Me' Ring tone?  Who needs Android?  Ring tones are multiplatform!!

 

Google "Knols" Project: Whack-apedia?

Marshall Kirkpatrick, PDX rockstar, has a great piece at RWW on Google's new "Knols" project.  It's worth reading his full post, especially his conversation with wiki inventor (and Aboutus CTO) Cunningham.  Kilpatrick's source was Google's own blog post, also worth a read.

Knols = "Units of Knowledge".

Imagine if every page in Wikipedia was its own freestanding page - or in Google parlance, a "Unit of Knowledge".  And anyone could create any page, not subject to any editors.  Or fact-checkers.  These pages would come up in a Google search, and the Google users base would (by clicking) vote the most relevant to the top - as they do with current search results as a part of Google's overall algorithm.

How will you know whether what you read is accurate or unbiased?  well, you won't.  According to Google:

"All editorial responsibilities and control will rest with the authors. We hope that knols will include the opinions and points of view of the authors who will put their reputation on the line. Anyone will be free to write...once testing is completed, participation in knols will be completely open, and we cannot expect that all of them will be of high quality."

To ward off ill-intentioned knols, it appears, we'll have to count on the social commons:

"People will be able to submit comments, questions, edits, additional content, and so on. Anyone will be able to rate a knol or write a review of it. Knols will also include references and links to additional information."

What gets really interesting is that as Doubleclick info gets melded with Google's own library of your search results (which they have never said they would delete), aren't we going to be getting more customized (that is, better targeted to our preferences) information (and ads)? 

One result may be that depending on what your search results and browser habits say about your potential proclivity for a particular flavor of knol on the topics of "gun control","abortion", "immigration", or any presidential candidate may generate results that hew to your algorithmically pre-determined skew.

Imagine a universe where everyone can read an encyclopedia tailored to them and their viewpoints?  Where extremist views can be reinforced, walls maintained?  Google suggests cross linking to opposing viewpoints, but don't most folks want reassurance that what they already think is right?

The good news?

"At the discretion of the author, a knol may include ads. If an author chooses to include ads, Google will provide the author with substantial revenue share from the proceeds of those ads."

Phew.  That'll help me get to sleep at night.  Here's a sample page from Google's post:

Dark Fiber

Dark Fiber.  It all becomes so clear.

Google: This time, Search is Personal

Google is apparently experimenting with allowing users to vote up/down their search results, digg-style.  By rating the results you get, you determine whether you vote up a result or "bury" it. Adds a sweet human component to Google's automated relevancy algorithms...though at present the service is only for an individual user, don't be surprised if the results of your vote are ultimately used to incrementally inform all search results (on an aggregated basis) - or if the results somehow get used to better target ads to you through the Google Network.

[via TechCrunch]

WSJ reports on Google Mobile efforts

From the The WSJ:

GooMobile - Google acquires Jaiku

"Lifestreaming" is a buzzword which basically means you can share everything from the incredibly personal to the distressingly mundane with everyone who gives a crap, anytime/anywhere.

I

In that vein, Google has acquired Jaiku - a Finnish "life streaming" tool compared frequently to Pownce and Twitter. A differentiateor between Jaiku and Twitter is the ability to coordinate and "lifestream" activities across multiple properties, e.g., you update a profile, upload a pic to flickr, etc., and since each thing is date and time-stamped, it can be featured chronologically in your Jaiku feed.

According to Mashable:

"the move marks yet another development in Google’s mobile ambitions. Earlier this week, reports of the company’s entry into the mobile operating system market went mainstream, while they also recently acquired mobile social network Zingku."

 

Its as easy as DNA

I'm not sure whether to run screaming.  And this isn't an ad application.  At least not yet.  But here goes:

23andMe (tag line "Genetics is about to get personal", and led by Google founder Sergey Brin's wife, Anne Wojcicki) and Illumina, a genetics analysis company, are partnering to bring you more than you've probably ever known about your genetic makeup:

"You send in a sample of your own DNA (from your saliva in most cases–just use a Q-tip), and they will process it and spit back all kinds of information - e.g. to help find ancestral information, or for medical purposes."

You on a card.  This is an actual shot an Illumina card - carrying some poor sucker's genomes.

From Illumina's site:

"Even though your body contains trillions of copies of your genome, you've likely never read any of it. Our goal is to connect you to the 23 paired volumes of your own genetic blueprint (plus your mitochondrial DNA), bringing you personal insight into ancestry, genealogy, and inherited traits.  By connecting you to others, we can also help put your genome into the larger context of human commonality and diversity.

Toward this goal, we are building on recent advances in DNA analysis technologies to enable broad, secure, and private access to trustworthy and accurate individual genetic information. Combined with educational and scientific resources with which to interpret and understand it, your genome will soon become personal in a whole new way."

Interesting name for a company given the history of the term Illuminatae.  Best of all, the implication is that this info will be provided to you for free.

Boy this raises some interesting privacy questions. 

Reveal all to learn all.

 

Google Earth, now Google Sky. Holy Cow.

Wow.  Honestly, wow. 

Google Earth shows you our world from satellite height down to the cars parked in your driveway.

Google Sky knits together astronomical images into a navigable universe, as seen from Earth.

As a failed astrophysicist, this one blows my mind.  I like features like the 'planet slider', the 'users guide to galaxies', etc.  I just spent way too much time wandering around the universe.  Virtually.   I am drooling.  I am actually drooling.  I also love the awe inspiring banality of the naming scheme.  Google "earth".  Google "sky".  Next up, Google "Air".  You are breathing it. And they want it back.

Claudia Cristovao from W+K Tokyo found this article outlining the features.

Here's a quick video demo from Google about their new application:

download it here.

GooMobile

So Google got a few things it was looking for out of the FCC - the next batch of wireless spectrum auctioned off carries with it the condition that whoever buys it must allow users to use any device in it.  Carriers are fighting the whole idea, and probably hope it wil die during the auction process, because longer term, it has the potential to reduce mobile carriers to the equivalent of utilities, when they are currently desperately battling to be media companies.

GooMobile 2 - Who moved mobile carriers' cheese? Google.

We took our oldest son to see Ratatouille today.  And we realized as we were coming out of the film that every Pixar movie is really about discovering who you truly are.

And right now, what really freaks me out is that Google knows more about me than I do.

Google's potential involvement in the upcoming FCC spectrum auction is the most public sign yet of the coming Google-pocalypse for mobile carriers. 

According to the NYT's Miguel Helft and Stephen Labaton:

"If Google succeeds with federal regulators, it could change the way millions of Americans use their cell phones and how they connect to the Internet on their wireless devices.

In the Internet giant's view of the future, consumers would buy a wireless phone at a store, but instead of being forced to use a specific carrier, they would be free to pick any carrier they wanted. Instead of the wireless carrier choosing what software goes on their phones, users would be free to put any software they want on it.

Google believes that the cost of voice calls and data connections to the Internet may be partly subsidized by advertisements brought to users by Google's powerful online advertising machine.

That vision, according to several analysts, is the reason Google said yesterday that it would bid upward of $4.6 billion for a swath of the nation's airwaves..."

[via CNet]

Ratatouille?  SEE IT.

GooMobile

Google, in a series of really interesting acquisitions and investments, is well on its way to fundamentally redefining the mobile landscape, how you market in it, and what the mobile experience may be. 

Today's announcement in the WSJ regarding Google's mobile search rollout is a BIG one:

"Google Inc. is developing a new search service for cellphones that will help consumers find and buy ringtones, games and other mobile content...Google already offers cellphone users a version of its popular engine for searching the Web. Now the company wants to go beyond just looking up Web pages, effectively becoming a gateway for finding and paying for mobile media content."

Why?

Mobile Carriers in the US have fought hard to own their mobile experiences - remember all the hubbub they raised about number portability?  They also own the storefront on your handset called the 'deck'.   It's possible to buy "off-deck" programming, but the carriers don't do anything to make it easy.  If Google can make it easier to find and buy off-deck content, the carriers' walled gardens are little more than mobile Maginot lines, outflanked by tactics they didn't expect.

But Google's been up to more than that!  Dig a bit back, and we see that In 2007 alone, they've picked up:

GrandCentral, "a company that lets you keep one telephone number as you move from home to home or job to job".   

Neven Vision - which offers "image-driven mobile marketing services, visual mobile search, comparison shopping and m-commerce, enhanced photo messaging, secure data access and field identity verification."   Yummy.  Easy uses?  Snap a shot of a product in a store with your mobile, have it spit out cheaper alternatives and directions.

Back in 2005, Google picked up Android.  Who the heck is Android?  Well, it's founder, who invented the Danger hiptop computer experience, said "there was tremendous potential in developing smarter mobile devices that are more aware of its owner's location and preferences. "If people are smart, that information starts getting aggregated into consumer products"

One blogger notes saracastically, "Wow, just what I've always wanted: Google now will be able to pin a more-or-less permanent UID [user ID] to my Internet activity as my online usage starts to migrate more and more from my laptop onto my mobile phone."

They know who you are, anywhere.

Here's a pretty good list of the full moves, courtesy of Christa Quarles:

Why all the ruckus?  Why does Google care?

Thomas Weisel research analyst Christa Quarles, in a paper on Google's moves cited by ZDNet's Dan Farber, Larry Dignan and David Berlind, notes:

"Google's best opportunity is in the mobile market... Google's text ads are well suited to the mobile market; the market is still in flux; and Google's Web users are likely to use the company's software on the road. Yahoo is shaping up to be a major competitor, but if Quarles is right mobile market share may mirror search market share."

The ZDNet crew goes on to state:

"We believe mobile internet advertising should develop faster than PC internet ads, however, precisely because we already have a precedent and the expansion should be much more global in nature. In addition, should Google achieve similar dominance in mobile that it has achieved in PC-based online advertising (we estimate 45% of every online ad dollar will go through Google’s system in 2008), the contribution to revenues could be meaningful. Getting even 10% of the mobile advertising market in 2011 would make mobile a larger contributor (on a net revenue basis) than Google’s entire affiliate business today."

Follow the money.  Now that it's mobile, it should be even easier.  :)

A seamless world of multi-variant, individuated, algorithmically-attenuated beauty

A quick thought: DoubleClick and Google...if you map Google's search records (and yes, they know the hard dollar value of any word in our language, a mind-smacking headscratcher itself) to DoubleClick's cookie tagging and URL-string visibility....brrrrrrrrr its getting chilly.  I know what you look for.  I know where you go.  I know what you click....and I'm standing behind you.

Mapping Frenzy

Wow.  Google just launched 3d views and photo-panoramic maps.  Sounds pretty sterile until you realize there is an army of folks taking photos and uploading them so you can experience crazy delicious visual info while google mapping.  it gets really interesting when you see that they are including stuff that our Homeland Security Department isn't supposed to be allowing...

Click this link for a tour of the brooklyn battery tunnel.  As an ex-New Yorker, this one is pretty wild.

It's a Google World - we just live in it...

Google.  Google, google, google.  Google has spent this week making life more difficult for Microsoft.

1. They beat out Microsoft in the bidding frenzy for DoubleClick, locking down the ad services company for a scant $3.1 Billion dollars more than I have.

2. Google already had "Google Docs and Spreadsheets" (through their purchase of 'Writely'), which gave them web-collaborative versions of Word and Excel. What they were missing was a powerpoint clone. 
Until this week, when Google bought Tonic, a web-collaborative presentation tool.  Let's call it, for argument's sake...powerpoint.

Pundits suggest these services will be combined with Google's pre-existing small business tools.  They are creating a full service offering for small businesses, and they are doing so going right at Microsoft's bread and butter.  But this fight ain't over.

TechCrunch looks at the moves this way:

"Google and Microsoft are approaching [online business collaboration tool suites] from very different positions. Google has a clean slate but has to play catch up in customer acquisition and in building compelling functionality. And while Microsoft has a lock on customers at this point, their need to protect a huge revenue stream puts them at a distinct disadvantage. Who wins this fight could very easily be settled in the next 12 months, after Office 2007 and Vista hit the market and Google fleshes out its offering. But regardless if the result is that the cost of creating office based documents falls, the consumer wins."

It's getting hot in here.