Techization

Google is acquiring companies like I acquire candy on Halloween.  This raises some big questions like; is Google getting too big for itself?  They seem to be on a path to become another Microsoft or Apple, yea that big!  Let’s take a look at their latest reason to salivate, Yelp!

Yelp! is a community of restaurant/food fanatics who upload user reviews of eateries and restaurants.  From Bob’s Steaks just down the road to the most classy restaurants in New York City.

• Larry Dignan at ZDNet. Dignan predicts a dark scenario if the deal goes through: “See where this is going? Google is your friendly neighborhood local business gatekeeper. Google is already the gatekeeper for the big guys. The Google is a local content Borg. Resistance is futile. So is innovation. Any threat these days gets acquired.”

Larry brings up a valid point.  Google is becoming such a dominant force could it stifle innovation in the areas they are involved in?  Any start-up with any promise that could run with the big boys gets sucked up and purchased by Google.  Does this sound familiar?  Microsoft anyone?

David Coursey of PC World even published an article inserting the idea of Apple and Microsoft teaming up to take on Google.  I’m not the only one seeing the GOOG as a threat, am I?

I will be the first to admit I love Google.  They are one of the biggest and best tech companies in the world bar none. Their innovation, products, business ideals are all fantastic.  I use many Google products including, search, e-mail, maps, docs, wave, voice etc.  You name it, I probably use it.

Do we blame Google for their dominance and great business sense to this point?  Or do we blame everyone else who can’t step up and compete with Google?  I’m not sure which way the tide would go on that question.

Google Inc. is one of those companies that makes you wish you would have listened to Uncle Jeff when he told you he knew of a sure fire hot start-up.  Ever wonder how it all came to be?   Here is a short and painless history lesson.

1995

• Larry Page and Sergey Brin meet at Stanford. (Larry, 22, a U Michigan grad, is considering the school; Sergey, 21, is assigned to show him around.) According to some accounts, they disagree about most everything during this first meeting.

1996

• Larry and Sergey, now Stanford computer science grad students, begin collaborating on a search engine called BackRub.
• BackRub operates on Stanford servers for more than a year — eventually taking up too much bandwidth to suit the university.

1997

• Larry and Sergey decide that the BackRub search engine needs a new name. After some brainstorming, they go with Google — a play on the word “googol,” a mathematical term for the number represented by the numeral 1 followed by 100 zeros. The use of the term reflects their mission to organize a seemingly infinite amount of information on the web.

1998

August

• Sun co-founder Andy Bechtolsheim writes a check for $100,000 to an entity that doesn’t exist yet: a company called Google Inc.

September

• Google sets up workspace in Susan Wojcicki’s garage at 232 Santa Margarita, Menlo Park.
• Google files for incorporation in California on September 4. Shortly thereafter, Larry and Sergey open a bank account in the newly-established company’s name and deposit Andy Bechtolsheim’s check.
• Larry and Sergey hire Craig Silverstein as their first employee; he’s a fellow computer science grad student at Stanford.

December

• “PC Magazine” reports that Google “has an uncanny knack for returning extremely relevant results” and recognizes us as the search engine of choice in the Top 100 Web Sites for 1998.

2003

September

• Google News launches with 4000 news sources.

2005

February

• We hit a milestone in Image Search: 1.1 billion images indexed.
• Google Maps goes live

Source:  Google Inc.

Google is the dominant force on the Internet, especially when it comes to search engines.   They now have nearly 60% of the market share when it comes to search engines, that is a commanding stance.  Here you will find a graphic showing their stock price from the time they went public in 2004.

It may have all of your e-mail (Gmail), your appointments (Google Calendar) and even your last known location (Google Latitude). It may know what you’re watching (YouTube) and whom you are calling. It may have transcripts of your telephone messages (Google Voice).

It may hold your photos in Picasa Web Albums, which includes face-recognition technology that can automatically identify you and your friends in new photos. And through Google Books, it may know what books you’ve read, what you annotated and how long you spent reading. (Computer World)

Literally, if you used many of the popular Google owned web tools, Google could provide one amazingly accurate and scary profile on you.  How Google uses personal information is guided by three “bedrock principles,” says Peter Fleischer, the company’s global privacy counsel. “We don’t sell it. We don’t collect it without permission. We don’t use it to serve ads without permission.” But what constitutes “personal information” has not been universally agreed upon.  So what you may see as private information, Google may not.

Does this mean you should shut off your Gmail, cancel your Orkut and flush your G1 cell phone down the toilet?  Hardly.  Google continues operations on the basis of trust, similar to another data giant like Facebook.  People know their data is being archived and stored on Googles servers but they trust the corporation will make the correct ethical decision.  However, not all are so trusting.  Google received a lot of criticism over its toolbar that integrates in your web browser.  It’s not just a convenient way to search the web, it reports your surfing habits which Google shares to third party companies and clients.  However, none of the data is linked to personally identifiable information about the user.

Bob Cringely of PBS says this about what Google is up to, “The answer is pretty simple. Google intends to take over most of the functions of existing fixed networks in our lives, notably telephone and cable television.”

I think Mr. Cringely is a little far fetched and paranoid.  Google’s entire business model flows around packets, bits and bytes being shot from A to B.  Their life blood, their very foundation of success is their computing power and server capacity.  Investments in such technology in crucial areas that provide the best chance at un-interruptible power seems quite logical.

Is Google preparing a global take over?  Not likely.  But it will be very interesting to watch them grow and progress in the next few years.

Rupert Murdoch, a powerful force in media.  He went on capitol hill this week to talk about the future of journalism.  What I learned after watching the proceedings on CNN.com, he still just doesn’t get it.  Though he is a major investor in the Internet, he really doesn’t under the transition we are in the midst of.  This new thing being quickly branded as the ‘interactive’ web vs. the old ‘read-only’ web from the 1990′s. 

Rupert Murdoch felt it was a good idea to attack Google on capitol hill by saying, “Should we be allowing Google to steal all our copyrights?  Thanks, but no thanks” said Murdoch. 

Some have suggested to ease on looking at Murdoch as a ‘media dinosaur’, I would have to disagree.  Someone else’s biography of Murdoch will not change my opinion on his business decisions and statements on important stages. 

Google is the aggregator for news, I mean Google runs the world right?  With the newspaper industry fallinginto bankruptcy literally everyday, Murdoch is looking to latch onto the pockets of a giant and slap their hands until they give up some of their grip or money.  I doubt Google will do either! 

Murdoch should know that he can easily stop Google crawlers from indexing his newspapers webpages, it is a simple line of text in his robots.txt file instructing Google not to index the page.  Sounds so simple right?  Not so fast.

If Murdoch were to stop having Google index his newspapers, suddenly the Wall Street Journal disappears but his competition is still readily indexing with Google.   Therefore, that percentage of the demographic that uses Google News (and it is quite large) will just click through to his competitors.  Readers don’t care about who they get it from, they want it now and they want content that is easy to find. 

That is why Murdoch won’t do anything until he can get the entire industry to follow.  The common ‘one goes against, he fails.  One gets everyone to go against they prevail’ kind of perspective. 

It comes down to this Rupert.  You need to deliver to the expectations of consumers.  Downward spiralling reporting and absolutely rigid non-conformity to trends in the industry and now you want to complain.  What were you doing five years ago?   Consumers will not pay for dribble, especially since you can find it through out millions of pages on the Internet.  The newspaper’s in this country need to radically restructure under new business models or force certain death in the long-run. 

And yes, that includes restructuring their content and methods of delivery!

Evaluate, re-structure or face certain death!  (cheesy accent)

Google isn’t just for doing your Boolean queries.  There are many things Google search can do that you probably never realized.  Here are some tricks for you to try with Google:

• What Time Is It…

Use the term ‘what time is it’ to query the time in major cities from around the world.  I.e. (what time is it Tokyo)

• Track Flights

You can enter the airline whom runs the flight and the flight number to see departure and arrival times for that particular flight.  It even shows whether it is on time or delayed.  I.e. (United flight 6695)

• Track Packages (UPS, FedEx etc.)

No need to go through the hoops on FedEx.com to track your new ab master.  Simply enter your tracking number into Google and it will display the tracking information for you.  I.e. (1ZGH5594S952FF9991)

• Get The Weather Forecast

Need the weather forecast for the next few days?  Google makes it easier than ever.  Just type in ‘weather’ and the city you want.  Google will spit out a four day forecast and current conditions for you.  I.e. (weather Burlington  —  This query would then display weather for Burlington, VT)

• Find Alternatives To Your Search Keywords

Use the strings ‘better than’, ‘reminds me of’, ‘similar to’ to find alternatives to search queries.  An example would be ‘Reminds me of Eminem’.  Google would show you musical acts that are similar to the rap artist Eminem.  Ever wonder who Google will tell you is better than Metallica?  Go find out!  I.e. (better than metallica)

• Convert Currency and More

Google has a powerful conversion algorithm built in that allows you to convert many different things.  Currencies, metrics and a whole lot more.  Just enter in what you need to convert.  I.e. (5 US dollars in European money)

Other Google tricks and hints from Wolf-Howl:

Check out these search queries, they can come in quite handy!

[gdp malta] Gross Domestic Product of Malta

[population malta] Population of Malta.

[capital malta] The capital of Malta.

[location malta] Rough idea of where Malta is located.

[currency malta] What is the currency of Malta.

[flag france] The flag of France. Note there was no flag shown for Malta.

[anthem france] What is the national anthem of France.

[state bird hawaii] What is the state bird of Hawaii.

[state flower hawaii] State flower of Hawaii.

[motto hawaii] what is the state motto of Hawaii.

[size hawaii]

[governor hawaii] The governor of Hawaii.

[birthplace of walt disney] Where Walt Disney was born.

Math and Number Searches

[100+37+92+641-7] Works like a calculator to perform math operations.

[1HD1BEK11BY123456]
Provides a link to VIN (Vehicle Identification Number) information.

[073333531084]Provides a link to UPC information for that product.

[212] Provides a link to information about the area code 212.

[202-456-1111]Provides a link to more information about the residence, business, or organization for that phone number.

[patent 5123128]Provides a link to more information about patent number 5123128.

[n199ud] Provides a link for more information about the FAA registration for the airplane with that registration number.

[fcc IHDT5ZG1]Provides a link to information about the product with that FCC id number.

Bottom line is that Google is an amazing platform.  In terms of search engines, Google is light years ahead of their competition.  I don’t think all of Google’s products are perfect or the best.  A perfect example is Google Maps.   While they are doing some innovative things, Microsoft Live Maps has better coverage, resolution and it’s ‘Bird’s Eye View’ puts it ahead of Google Maps in my opinion.

Can anyone catch Google?  Not likely.