Posts Tagged ‘google’

Want Faster Browsing? Google FTW!

Well, Google is at it again. I am now relying on yet another set of Google products..

This week was a big week for non-Windows users waiting for the Chrome browser. Earlier this week they released the beta of Chrome for Linux and Mac. I actually held out a bit on using many of the pre-release version of Chrome on Linux/Mac, mostly because I didn’t have a lot of time on my hands, but also because I didn’t realize just how much faster it really was than the browsers I’d been using. But, it wasn’t just Chrome that has sped up my browsing experience this week either.

Last week Google announced the general availability of its new public DNS service, touting it  as a speed booster(?). DNS typically isn’t something that we give a ton of thought to when chasing after faster browsing speeds, but I was pleasantly surprised by a bit snappier browsing experience. Of course, my download speeds really aren’t any faster, but the initial connection to my favorite websites (and non-favorite I suppose..) has sped up a bit. Just how much faster did this new DNS service make my little network go? Well, I really don’t have any numbers. If you haven’t tried it, it’s definitely worth a shot.

All’s not entirely well in my new Google world since Chrome is still in beta. I have to close the browser on occasion because things start acting up and some of my saved passwords are acting a bit weird, but overall the experience has been great. I still have to rely on a combination of Firefox and Safari for things that Chrome is buggy at (or can’t do like my Zimbra admin :( ), but that’s to be expected with a beta.

If you are running a Mac or Linux machine as a desktop, I’d encourage you to check out the new Chrome beta. I guess even more of my data are now belong to Google..

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Filed under How-Tos / Tips, News : Comments (0) : Dec 10th, 2009

Google Adds Push Mail to Sync for iPhone, Windows Mobile

In a blog post from the Google Enterprise Apps team, Google has announced that syncing iPhones and Windows Mobile phones with Gmail via ActiveSync now allows users to sync mail as a push account. Until now, users had to use ActiveSync (or Google Sync as Google likes to call it on the server-side) for calendars and contacts and exclude mail from syncing. Then the user had to setup their Gmail account as a separate IMAP account on the iPhone/Win Mo to get their email. It appears that push email is available to both the Enterprise and free personal account customers.

As far as I’m aware, we still have no word on whether Gmail will support some of the more advanced features of ActiveSync the way that Exchange (and now Zimbra 6.0) can. So far, Exchange competitor Zimbra can do things like initiate wipes to mobile devices, lock devices when an incorrect password is entered, and pause (and resume) syncing to the device.

Gmail has differentiated itself from the market, however, as being the only free email provider (that I’ve heard of) that offers push mail, contacts, and calendars via ActiveSync (or other similar way to your choice of device). Others (like Hotmail) aren’t even offering IMAP access to external mail clients to free customers.

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Filed under News : Comments (0) : Sep 22nd, 2009

Does Google Really Need to Worry About Bing?

At the end of July, a lot of blogs and news sites were quick to point out that Bing’s (collective with Yahoo) market share in the U.S. jumped by 1%. While it’s true, the Bing market share did a make a small jump from the time of its launch until now, it’s far too early to start noting any trends from the stats. For a bit of perspective, let’s take a look at this graph from Business Insider:

U.S. Market Share from Business Insider

As we can see, a gain of simply a percent can be seen as a plateau with a hopeful trend back upwards, but the Microsoft / Yahoo combined market share lost almost 10% over the last couple of years alone. Of course, time will tell on whether or not any real trends will come out of this, but it’s a bit early to start talking big about Bing..

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Filed under News : Comments (0) : Aug 4th, 2009

All My Data Are Belong to Google

I just got my Google Voice invitation today. It’s pretty sweet. It allows you to give out one phone number and configure it to ring multiple phones depending upon who is calling and when they are calling. It also packs voicemail and SMS into a convenient place along with a host of other features. The other thing that it does is it completes the communications circle of products that I use from Google.

After thinking about it for a few minutes, I use Google for everything. It knows my web searches, my web site’s stats, and manages my ads. I also use Gmail, Google Talk, Google Calendar, Google Reader, now Google Voice, and occasionally Google Docs. When I get lost I pull out the Google Maps app on my phone. I’m even playing around with their Android operating system and am considering buying a phone based upon it when Verizon gets a model. Wow. That’s one heck of a list when I fire them off one at a time. I’m not even using all the services available to me.

It’s no wonder Microsoft wants some of Google’s search market share. Whenever I search I come up with new Google services to sign up for. One of the biggest advantages for Google up to this point (at least for me) as been the fact that Google didn’t have an operating system. This caused them to have to integrate and build tools for other operating systems. Microsoft has the luxury of building its own OS plus its online offerings so it can integrate easily into its own products. We’ll see what happens when Chrome OS comes out, but that’s a long way out. For now I guess Google’s got all my data..

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Filed under Tech Trends : Comments (2) : Jul 20th, 2009

What the Print Industry Can Learn from the Open Source Model

The conflict between traditional print media companies and Google has been heating up for some time and Google appears to have had enough. The “Hamburg Declaration” effectively said that publishers (including several major newspapers in Europe) are tired of other news aggregation sites using their content for free. Google’s response to the declaration last week was an effective “fine, we don’t have to help you”. Reading between the lines: they want part of Google’s earnings on search. But why should Google give them any? It’s not like anyone forced them to not innovate. The market and old business model have snuck away from them, but how can they get it back?

While it’s true that these news publishers can turn off search engine indexing, can they live without it and at what cost is it to them for it to exist? As Google is quick to point out, their search engine and Google News sites send over a billion visits to newspaper sites a month. Of course, we can only imagine what kind of traffic impact that a loss of search engine referrals would have to any single newspaper site unless they tell us, but I would imagine it would be a pretty big hit. Assuming that these site owners know how to place their ads (a crucial skill for any newspaper), a loss in traffic should mean a loss in revenue.

Okay, so if they can’t do without Google and other search engines, then just what can they do?

Well, for starters, I’d encourage them to pick up a copy of “Who Moved My Cheese” to change their mindset. Seriously, read it. For those who have read the book, their cheese has officially been moved. They’re sitting at the empty cheese station all pissed off at the rest of the technology industry demanding that someone put their cheese back. Guess what? It’s gone. It’s not coming back.

Second, find alternative ways to reach readers where they are. If Google News is such a popular site even though it’s pointing to their site, it only means one thing: consumers want different packaging. I’m among the part of society that grew up alongside the Internet. I don’t go to Fox News every day to get my news. I know that there’s information overload out there and I need to learn to filter. That’s why I use search engines, an RSS reader (though not as much anymore), Twitter and the technology section of Digg to get the news I want and nothing more. I don’t go to Fox News’ home page hourly or daily (depending upon your desire for news) to get my news. I follow the types of information and people I’m interested in on Twitter to get updates as they are coming without all the noise in the way. There are millions of others out there like me and we’re not getting any younger or fewer.

So, how do publishers re-package their content? That’s the million dollar question (well, hopefully multiples of that if you can get it right!). The Wall Street Journal has taken a unique twist to the traditional subscription-based model and allow readers to read the first article they are linked to from Google, but then force the user to pay for more content. Not a bad model, really. It’s classic. Get ‘em in with a freebie (with absolutely no strings attached) and then convince them your content is good enough to buy a subscription. Of course, there may be a few oversights in their implementation, the idea is there.

Along with “Who Moved My Cheese”, they also need to read NIN’s Trent Reznor’s take on business models in the music industry. The music industry suffers from a big problems for its artists. They are no longer making as much money due to piracy. Is this a problem? Well, it’s certainly questionable, but guess what? It’s not going away. It can’t be prevented and people are in general going to not pay money for something if they don’t want to. Their cheese has moved as well. Reznor seems to have figured out where the new cheese is at (okay, I’ll stop with the cheese references).

His strategy? Give the music away. Yes, give it away. When you give it away, you can build a bigger fan base. When those fans like you enough, they will pay for other things than the music. Sell HD music video downloads. Sell limited editions of the album on CD (yes, a lot of people do still like to run down to the music store and buy CDs).

For the print industry, just replace words music and fans above with newspapers and subscribers. So, just what can you sell to consumers? I don’t know. If I knew, I wouldn’t be telling you, I’d be beating your business into the ground. If Google News is the packaging that consumers want, then give them more of what they want. Compete. As Matt Asay says of iTunes and free content: the content by itself is okay, the packaging by itself is worthless, but the combination is killer.

While Sam Zell of Tribune Co. asks “If all of the newspapers in America did not allow Google to steal their content, how profitable would Google be?”, I have to ask: If all the newspapers in American did not adjust to the way users are finding and using their content, how profitable would those newspapers be? The answer is that they’d be extinct, just like Google if there was no content for it to aggregate and index.

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Filed under Tech Trends : Comments (0) : Jul 17th, 2009

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