Monday, May 08, 2006

Google: Free, Wireless Internet Access, Pay Per View Video


These are two killer ideas only Google could really do.

Google is king of search. And it is that search algorithm that allowed it to roll out its hugely profitable ad regime. It has changed the structure of the business.

Now instead of standing on search, and reaching out to the ad business, let Google stand on the ad business, and reach out to the idea of free, wireless internet access. This would be a huge leap, and Google's revenue would jump by a large margin.

Somebody had to do it. It might as well be Google.

Paying for internet access is a stupid proposition. It is a waste of society's resources.

Paying to talk to someone is also another stupid idea. Once you have a city bathed in free, wireless broadband, it is only a small step from there to someone launching the little hardware and software that will turn phone calls free.

Time is money. Phone calls are not money. People should have to think if they want to spend that time on that phone call. Money should be a non issue.

Pay Per View Video

It drives me nuts that Google has not made pay per view video possible for the masses, for people like me. I am waiting to launch a career based on that one.

Google already knows how to because it has done it for the big media companies. So if it is not doing it for the masses, it is because they are acting stupid.



They do not realize how it will fundamentally alter the TV viewing landscape. I think it will end up as big a source of revenue for Google as its ubiquitous text ads, or maybe second only to ads.

There is no way the big TV stations, or cable can reach out to what I call fragmented markets, small audiences that are only a few hundred, or a few thousand strong.

Google And Me

I feel like if Google were Microsoft with Windows, I am one of those programmers who write programs that run on Windows. Google has come to mean so much for my political career.

But, dang it, make Google Video pay per view possible. Like now, like today, yesterday.

Or make an exception for me.

How To Beat Google

The market will simply have to invent its way away from Google: a better search engine.

Or some company could license the Google ads and do a better job of free, wireless broadband.

Pay per view video for the masses. Now any company could do that today. It is simple to do. But noone is doing it. Why?

In The News

'With the Right Strategy of VoIP and Wi-Fi, Google is Set to ... TMCnet
Google To Become Wireless Virtual Network Operator? TMCnet
Report: Google Threatens Wireless Market WebProNews
With the Right Strategy of VoIP and Wi-Fi, Google is Set to ... Broadband Wireless Exchange (press release)


Ebay worried about Google
Inquirer, UK
EBay CEO wary of Google HotelMarketing.com

Visitors


Busiest day so far7 February 2006

Page views22

Page views today1

Page views yesterday0
11 April04:37KORNET, Korea
13 April12:14Telefónica SA, Spain
16 April04:06Megabyte Ltd, Malta
16 April21:48Hampden-Sydney College, United States
18 April05:10CallPlus Services Ltd., New Zealand
19 April01:36Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd, India
19 April22:24Nortel Networks, Canada
19 April23:57Level 3 Communications, New York, United States
20 April10:23Bluewin AG, Switzerland
20 April23:08Telefonica del Peru, Peru
25 April13:41Chile (itc.cl)
26 April08:32Technical Univ. Czestochowa, Poland



Sergey Brin Speaks with UC Berkeley Class
Educational Technology Services, UC Berkeley 39 min 43 sec - Oct 3, 2005


Suen Inc. 3 min 28 sec - May 2, 2006


Chalk Media 40 min 16 sec - Jan 16, 2006




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Thursday, March 23, 2006

Yahoo Phone, Google Office, Google Finance


Yahoo Phone

Now you can call from the Yahoo Messenger to a traditional phone for real cheap. That is quite an improvement. And you can give your Messenger a number so people can call you, and it costs you $25 a year.

I hope Google comes swinging to offer the same for free. Until down the road the idea of having a phone number sounds ridiculous. Don't you yave a messenger ID? Like your name? Or some version of it? And with broadband wireless, you have a cellphone with the same.

Yahoo launches Internet phone calling service San Jose Mercury News
Yahoo! offers phone calls via IMCNN International

Google Phone

Google has acquired a company that makes it look like it is now going to try and offer "Office" online. Hey, I talked about that prospect a long time back. This was but inevitable. Sergei, Larry, read this blog. I got vision alright. (Google's To Do List Keeps Growing)

Google steps into Office's domain VNUNet.com

Of course word processing has to go online. So has everything else.

Help Users Create Content

Email, search and news are great and seamless at Google. But user created content has so many glitches. That is another growth area for Google.

Blogger has too many template problems too often. Next you know, your template has truncated, and your blog looks like Egyptian calligraphy.

And give many more template options.

Also Google Pages is not as easy to use as advertised. Make it easier. Much easier.

Google Video pay per view has been postponed, looks like forever. If they could make this possible, that would be an attack on traditional TV. Google Video has the potential to become a disruptive technology. But instead of empowering the individual, Google is too busy empowering the fat companies.



Offer an audio version of Google Video. Make it easy to create audio files and host them and publish them.

Audio, video, text. That's a finity.

The utter lack of anything close to seamlessness for user created content is Google's number one weakness right now.

Google Finance

Google launched it.

Google Finance doesn't reinvent on-line investing, but it's still ... Globe and Mail, Canada
Google Finance is Something Else WebCPA
Google Finance, a bit thin ZDNet
Google empire to move into the money This is Money
Why Google Finance Makes Me Sad
WebProNews, KY
Yahoo Responds to Google Finance Portal
Marketing Vox News
Mixed Reviews of Google Finance
Corante, MA
Google Launches Yahoo Finance Rival
WebProNews, KY

Google, Yahoo, Microsoft

Yahoo is not a direct Microsoft competitor, Google is. Google is also a direct Yahoo comptetitor. That is why Google's market cap is so much larger than that of Yahoo.

Visitors

13 March12:24Deloitte & Touche, Hermitage, United States
13 March13:32Verado Inc., United States
13 March13:34United States Army, United States
14 March21:47U s Communications Corp., Japan
15 March14:39NTL Internet, Luton, United Kingdom
17 March19:48QUALCOMM Incorporated, San Diego, United States
18 March15:24State University of New York, United States
19 March11:20Datastream, Malta
20 March00:18Saudi Arabia Backbone, Saudi Arabia
20 March16:44XMission, Salt Lake City, United States
22 March06:04Wanadoo France, France
22 March14:50Telepac II, Portugal



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Tuesday, February 07, 2006

Are You A Fonero?


I have been following the universal, wireless broadband vision furiously at this blog over the months. First Wimax, then xMax, but someone has come up with an idea that goes over the curve for its simplicity and practicability. And I read about that in the news earlier today, and only an hour earlier I ended up doing a technorati search on my Nepal blog, and it appeared that some Rebecca Mackinnon has been linking to my blog posts quite a lot, and from a respectable, experimental Harvard blog too. So I googled her, found her email address and emailed her to say thanks: all that helps the movement back there, I said. Then I proceeded to read a little of her, and bam, there she was, she sits on the board of this hot company.

My friend Martin Varsavsky has just made an exciting announcement: his new Wifi startup, FON, has received investment and backing from Google , Skype, Sequoia Capital, and Index Ventures. ........ (Disclosure: I am a member of FON's U.S. board of advisors) ......... Three months after Martin launched FON on his blog, the $21.7 million dollars worth of funding shows tremendous support for FON's vision: a global community of people who share WiFi connections, known as "Foneros" in a tribute to the company's Spanish origins.

Wow. This is quite circuitous, don't you think?

RConversation
RConversation: Microsoft takes down Chinese blogger
Techjournalism News :
Rebecca MacKinnon
North Korea zone
Rebecca MacKinnon - Berkman Center for Internet & Society
North Korea zone
IT Conversations: Newbies - Bloggercon III
Blogging, Journalism and Credibility
CJR Daily: Rebecca MacKinnon, Pretend Tourist No More

FON In The News

Speakeasy: No deal with FON, despite what FON says Seattle Post Intelligencer
Google, Skype Make Wi-Fi FON Red Herring
FON Raises $22 Million for Open Wi-Fi Access Sharing Converge Network Digest
FON Raises $21.7M Light Reading
Fon takes Freenet cue for WiFi hot spot plan
Globe and Mail, Canada

02/07/06 1:45 AM Update. I just saw someone on the FON Board who I have met personally when the guy was running for New York City Public Advocate. We had a brief conversation at the MeetUp.com headquarters hosted by Scott, the CEO. (Social Networking: Where The Internet Comes Down From The Clouds, MeetUp, LinkUp)

Andew RasiejAndew Rasiej is the Founder and current Chairman of MOUSE. He has also served on the New York City Board of Education’s task force on technology and has spearheaded several innovative projects that support efforts to bridge the "Digital Divide" in public education. He truly believes in the need for WiFi as a way to empower citizens to do more then connect to the internet and read email.

Rebecca MacKinnonRebecca MacKinnon was one of CNN’s youngest Bureau Chiefs (China, fluent in Chinese), named as a Global Leaders of Tomorrow by the World Economic Forum. She left CNN and became a fellow at Harvard’s Berkmen Center and founded Global Voices with Ethan Zuckerman.

Join the FON movement!

2:33 AM Update: Browsing around I bumped into this: WiFi Phone. In the works. It's all coming together: the chips are falling in place. The Skype people have funded FON, and Netgear is to carry Skype. The dots are connecting. (Internet Phones, Video Blogging, Nano)





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Monday, February 06, 2006

Kosmix: Desi Pride


Kosmix plans to take on Google in the search domain. There are two Indians at the helm. They are only starting out, but they got a track record. They are in the same league as the Google founders, only a few years behind, which is not a setback at all. All four went to Stanford together.

Google never really had a competitor, imitators in Yahoo and Microsoft yes, but this is the first true competition for them. We are all better of for it. Google only looks at how many other websites link to a website. Kosmix goes further. It makes sense of the content of a site, and categorizes them.

But Kosmix is just starting out. And it has a lot of work ahead. I wish it all the best.

If you think about it, when you do a search on Google, how often do you go beyond the first page of results, or the second or third? Most people do not go beyond the first. So showing 500 relevant and categorized results might be "stickier" than 500,000 so so results. But Kosmix got to prove itself.

"Kosmix", a novel approach to search by Cosmodex Andhra Cafe It narrows down the users search and produce accurate results for their query directly..... Kosmix analyzes the content of a website, and not only its URL referrer popularity. Results are categorized .. and the categories are answers to questions rather than general tags..... a novel approach to search, by rewarding registered users of the site with "loyalty points." The points can be redeemed for free Web traffic directed at a site of the users' choosing..... Since traffic is directed based on search terms, all traffic provided by the company is targeted.
Google got Indian competition - Kosmix Newindpress
New Kosmix Search Engine to Challenge Google DailyTech
Kosmix raises cash for a new search engine -- to compete with ...
SiliconBeat
Who is behind Kosmix?
Seattle Post Intelligencer
Gunning for Google VNUNet.com, Netherlands
Beating the Google search: a brief history Times Online, UK
Indians come up with Kosmix to challenge Google Sify, India
Start-up hopes to challenge Google San Jose Mercury News, USA
New Kosmix Search Engine to Challenge Google DailyTech, IL
Now for a healthier search Daily News & Analysis, India They missed buying Google twice. Now, Junglee co-founders Anand Rajaraman and Venky Harinarayan have founded a startup with dreams of matching the search giant..... The site claims to throw up better results on health topics. It searches the Internet to provide not only a link to sites for the related word but also divides it into various categories...... Larry Page and Sergey Brin, went to Stanford University with Rajaraman and Harinarayan...... “They are making an audaciously risky bet that they can crack the code on a vexing problem in search: finding the meaning, or at least the topic, of a web page” .... “What you can get with five minutes at this site is a hundred times what you can get at Google” Indians come up with reply to Google Indian Express, India

Visitors

5 January22:01Ameritech, United States
6 January14:39Telus Advanced Communications, Canada
6 January16:09AppliedTheory Corporation, United States

16 January12:23ONPT, Morocco
22 January05:24Univ. of Science Technology, Trondheim, Norway
23 January10:31Long Island University, Greenvale, United States
24 January10:16PCCW IMS Netvigator, Hong Kong S.A.R.
24 January22:08Sonera Corporation, Finland
30 January18:35California State University, Carson, United States
1 February16:09University of Illinois, Urbana, United States

3 February18:30V21, United Kingdom





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Monday, November 21, 2005

Email, Search, News



That is what most surfers spend time on, in that order. And Google leads Yahoo by a wide margin in search, 46 to 23 per cent. Yahoo still leads on email, but then Gmail is still in beta, and you can't get an account just like that, you have to be invited in by someone who already has one. Both compete on news, although I think Yahoo leads, but I personally prefer Google, although I also use Yahoo heavily. I could not imagine doing my political work without the help of Google News.

As for search, I have always preferred Google. Search is central to the whole idea of the internet itself, and Google is one company organized around search. That is what makes them the premier internet company.

If I were Google, I would closely integrate the top three services. So I sign into my Gmail account and stay signed in while I do other things on or near my computer, and it should feel like I have access to the main Google search page and the Google News page at the same time. And when I am on the Googe News page, it should feel like I am in my Gmail account, it should be that easy to forward stories to others: only the link gets sent, just the web address.

Such integration would spike up the use of all three. Many people would literally never log out. They would stay glued.



I think blogging is going to catch on also. So Google ought to integrate not three, but four of its properties. And within blogging itself, it needs to integrate text, audio and video. Right now they act like three separate properties. And whatever happened to MathML?

Email, search, news, and text-audio-video-MathML blogging. Integrate the four.

Wait, there is a fifth. The idea of offering all books, fiction, non-fiction, and textbooks, free, ad-based. Integrate all five. And Google would zoom off. I think the books idea is very doable. Say you approach people who write college textbooks. And you offer them the option. Boom, they are all going to end up making big bucks. College students would stop buying textbooks. And the rest of the industry would follow.

Email, search, news, blog, books. In one seamless offering.

Search engines dominating use of the Internet PC Pro, UK
Search becomes No. 2 Web activity CNET News.com, United States
Search is now number two web activity Silicon.com, UK
Search engine use is spiking, study reveals San Jose Mercury News, USA
Search Engine Use Edges up on Email Techtree.com, India
Search Overtaking Email as Most Popular Online Activity Search Engine Watch
Search Usage Spikes As A Daily Online Habit ClickZ News, NY
Search engine use, soon to be as popular as e-mail Playfuls.com, Romania
Search rivals e-mail as top application ElectricNews.net, Ireland
Search Closing On Email As Top Activity WebProNews, KY
Search engine use in US increases 23% year on year Telecom Paper (subscription), Netherlands
Search engines rev up Dallas Morning News (subscription), TX
Search Engine Use Shoots Up in Past Year, Edges Towards E-Mail as ... AScribe
Search Engine Use Edges Towards the Primary Internet Application LinuxElectrons, TX

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Wednesday, November 09, 2005

Memo To Bill Gates



A memo from Gates has been leaked where he says Microsoft is "at risk" from Google. I figured I would respond, so here is me composing a memo to that other Bill from the 1990s.

Mr. Software Architect.

Part of your problem is simply ageing. There was IBM, and then Microsoft came along, and Microsoft eclipsed IBM itself in market capitalization. You might be IBM, and Google might be Microsoft. Empires come and go. So at some level, just make peace.

I am a huge fan of your foundation though. I wish you were 10 times richer, I am so impressed with your work for health care in the poor countries. And of course you are a terribly smart, creative guy. I am easily a fan.



At some point I think a company like Microsoft should just plough in all that extra cash into becoming a venture capitalist firm, or at least growing a wing in that direction, I think. It is young scientists and the entrepreneurs who come up with the cuttinge edge ideas, or at least in most cases.

I think your problem is that you thought you woke up to the internet in 1995, and you did not. Then you thought you did it in 2000, and you did not. Now you think you are doing it in 2005, and you are not. For good or ill, Microsoft remains a Windows company. Microsft never really became a dot com.

But if Microsoft were to reinvent itself, what might it do? Here are some suggestions I offer.
  • You don't have to ditch Windows outright, but shift focus to the online world. That is the present and the future. Down the road, Windows either disappears, or becomes invisible.
  • Could you take word processing online, and could you make it ad-based? Do you even want to?
  • Could you take the lead on becoming a digital publisher? License Google's ad program if you have to, if you can't replicate it. But noone is taking publishing online. Maybe you can take the lead. All books - textbooks, fiction, non-fiction - should go online and be free, as in ad-based. Could you take the lead on that one? You are the leader in word processing offline. Could you go online?
  • You have had some interesting thoughts on speech recognition technology in the past. What is the progress there? Keep working there. Noone seems to be competing with you there. Down the line people should be able to talk to their computer in any language.
  • Put as much work into your browser as you have been putting into your Windows and Office. Because W and O are passe. The browser will go far.
  • You have done good with non-PC devices. Maybe you should work on the software for "free" cellphones that will work in a citywide soup of wireless broadband.
  • The internet and wireless broadband are not one and the same thing, just like webpages and blogs are not one and the same. Don't get too hung up on the internet. Think wireless broadband.
  • Expand your facilities in India. It's not just about cheap, smart engineers. India is going to be a huge market on its own.
  • Google itself has said there is room for more than one player in the search market. Search is the center piece of the Google magic. Get in the action. Keep working at it.
  • See if you can imitate Google. They like to offer web services that are online and ad-based. If those two parameters are too narrow for you, you are not competing with Google. Wean yourself away from the habit of asking people for money directly.
More later.

December 7: Microsoft To Invest $1.7 Billion In India (BusinessWeek)

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Monday, November 07, 2005

xMax


WiFi was wireless but not broadband, and not large area. Broadband over power lines was broadband but not wireless. WiMax was both: wireless and broadband. And today I read about xMax. It is wireless broadband without the WiMax hassles, it seems like. It looks like power to the people to the power of x. This is delightful. This is real good news. The basic thrust is towards wireless broadband. For a city in a wireless broadband soup, cellphones should become free. Cellphones that are ad-based. This is a brave, new world.




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Tuesday, September 20, 2005

Free Wireless Broadband, Reenergized Microsoft


I had been thinking municipality provided wireless broadband. But Google has trumped me on that one. It has come up with an even better idea. Google provided nationwide wireless broadband. All the user have to do is download a Google toolbar onto their laptops in return. If that were to materialize, Google would grow even more like it were a hot startup. Kudos.

Bill Gates complained during the whole anti-trust legal fiasco that instead of competing with him on products, his competitors were taking him to court. Now he does not have to say that no more. Google is competition. Big G should be happy.



I think he had the option in 1995 to take the lead when a school of thought emerged within Microsoft that company should move from being Windows-centric to being browser-centric. Gates missed that boat. It is said if you learn Newton's theory of gravity too well, that actually prevents you from coming to grips with Einstein's theory of gravity.

Microsoft now has taken a step in the right direction, but it is still hesitant. Software should be online, free and ad-based. That is the leap Google is making and Microsoft is not. That is why Microsoft is not Google.

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Wednesday, August 24, 2005

Google's To Do List Keeps Growing


This New York Times article echoes my blog entry from months back. (Google: Poised To Be The Number One Software Company In The World) That whole IBM to Microsoft to Google succession chain. I think it is inevitable. Empires rise and fall, and that is okay, as long as the tide keeps rising for the average consumer boat.

"Google has already added free e-mail, mapping, news aggregation and digital-photo management to its offerings, bringing it into competition in each case with two or more rivals."

Just look at some of the items on their laundry list:
  1. Instant messaging.
  2. Services for mobile phone users.
  3. Online payment.
  4. Internet based phone system.
  5. Browser.
  6. Software to compete with Microsoft Office.
That last one caught my attention. I hope they do not make the mistake of competing with Microsoft in that segment offline. If they do, they will be beat. They should offer an "Office" that is totally online and builds on their, well, Blogger. If they take it online, they win. Message: get away from Windows, stay away from Windows.

Google has the vision, the culture and the resources to tackle absolutely any software challenge on the horizon. They need to stick to the online space, though. They come down to the operating system level, and they are game. Why stoop down when you don't have to?

But first integrate MathML into Blogger. I should be able to do 2+2=4 using a Google online calculator and publish the entire thing at Blogger, the way I can add links and photos right now. And also more complicated stuff like sine, cosine and calculus stuff. Take the calculations and publishing part out of my equation, take them to your equation.



And, yes, their "Office" will also have to be ad supported. Don't start selling software. That would be a big mistake.

Stay within the online and ad supported parameters, and there is no stopping Google.

Every company worth its salt should be able to state its mission statement in one simple sentence. For Google it is "to organize the world's information." Everything on its agenda, real and speculated, fits into that.


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Monday, August 22, 2005

China, India And The World


I mean I was born in India. This pertains to me. People who live on a dollar a day are people in my personal circle. I know quite a few of them: some of them have nicknames for me, from my homevillage.

BusinessWeek has come up with a fabulous story cluster around the big topics of the economic resurgence of the two Asian giants. But perspective has to be maintained. Look at the per capita income. The PPP (Purchasing Power Parity) for 2004 for China is $5,600. For India it is $3,100. Fro Nepal it is $1,500. I had to throw Nepal in because, well, I grew up in Nepal.

The same figure for the US is $40,100.

My point being it will be a while before India and China jump over to the $50,000 range.

But the GDP figures, adjusted for Purchasing Power Parity, are US $11.75 trillion, China $7.262 trillion and India $3.319 trillion. At that level the differences are less stark.

The 19th century was Britain's, the 20th was America's, this one is Asia's. Cisco's Scheinman: "We came to India for the costs, we stayed for the quality, and we're now investing for the innovation."

Africa could compete. Both India and China are living testimonies to economic unions and free trade. A China that were 20 different countries would be less efficient. Africa could compete by becoming a single economic unit, a single market. Snuff out civil wars, introduces democracies, and work towards becoming a single market. The recipe is no rocket science.



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Saturday, August 13, 2005

In Defense Of Google Digitizing Books

It would be flat out wrong to get in the way of technological breakthroughs that bring the cost of books down. And make their reaches wider. It is just that a way has to be found to ensure the authors do make money in the process.

I think Google should consider becoming a publisher itself. So you publish your book on Google property. Revenue is generated through ads. You and Google split the money made. For the reader it is free books. For the author there is money.



The library concept hit the snag. Because the money part was not handled well. On the other hand, if it is okay to read a book at some library for free, why is it not okay to read that same book in digital format?

The publishing industry feels the threat, and rightly so. Because of the web, the barrier to entry to getting published is literally zero. As to whether or not you get read is another thing. As to whether or not you make money is another thing.

I think this free for consumer revenue through ads model would work also for other media, audio and video. Prices come down to zero, but volume goes up, way up. You could have consumers all over the planet.

This model preserves the copyright thing.


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