Category: Tech

Google Makes Its Move

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Dan Farber reports on tomorrow’s release of Google Apps for Your Domain, a grouping of online applications Google hopes will allow it to compete with Microsoft’s highly entrenched Office suite.

The initial package will contain email, calendar, IM, and web site creation applications. Obviously missing are word processing and spreadsheets, which Google plans to add later this year when Writely and Google Spreadsheets will be added to the mix. Like everything else Google-related, the applications will be ad-supported.

Google is smartly couching its package, at least initially, not as a replacement for Microsoft Office, but as a way to add collaboration features.

While it seems odd that Google would push its package out the door now, without the most important applications, word processing and spreadsheets, the forthcoming upgrade to Office promises better collaboration features. Google probably figured it was better to get its product out the door now and generate a little buzz (and likely a bit of second guessing) than to wait and be drowned out by the buzz that will erupt when Office 2007 is released.

As I have said many times, corporate America is not going to embrace online applications and storage for a long time- privacy, security, fear of a bad decision, and confidentiality requirements ensure that. But the more individuals and small businesses that opt for Google’s free alternatives, the bigger Google’s toehold is- both in the office productivity space and in connection with its master plan to be the keeper of all of our data.

Bold but troubling is word via InformationWeek that “Google’s plans include prompting people who send Microsoft Office documents using Gmail to translate those files into Google’s formats for editing on Google.com, presumably in a forum where ad space is up for sale.” One of the great and valid fears of IT managers is data spread- when your data is spread all over the place, it becomes harder to protect and manage.

Which is not to say that Google’s package won’t one day be a legitimate option for individuals. An open question is whether the almighty ad dollar Google is chasing will be content to hawk its wares to personal users.

The obvious criticism of Google’s offering is its patchwork origins, as the Information Week article points out:

“The Google solution is what I’d call patchwork, or Frankenstein, software,” says Tom Rizzo, a director for Office SharePoint Server at Microsoft. “You have to put it all together yourself.”

Will Google succeed in wrestling the office productivity crown away from Microsoft? Not a chance.

But as Dan points out, there is “disruption in the air.” The unanswered question is whether mere disruption is the goal.

Or something bigger.

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I Understand the How, But What About the Why?

Om Malik talks about Dave Winer’s recent obsession with surfing the net, setting up news river feeds for his buddies and doing blog posts on Blackberries and other handheld devices. Dave even has a video that shows how he does it (sort of).

I’m now on my third Blackberry, so I know Blackberries. They are great phone/PDA combinations. And my new one doubles as a wireless broadband modem. I use it all the time to access the internet- with my laptop. Blackberries are woefully behind the curve as far as media goes, but there are new models on the horizon that will hopefully close the gap a little.

So I understand how to do a blog post on a Blackberry. Well, actually, you simply do it via email. But it’s certainly possible to do it the hard way like Dave shows in his video. I’m OK with all of that. Really.

What I don’t understand is why you would want to surf the net, read your news and write blog posts on a Blackberry?

I assume no right thinking person would if they were at home or at work, where there’s always a big, visible computer nearby. With a screen you can read, a keyboard, and a fast internet connection.

When traveling? Well maybe, but wouldn’t anyone who has a blog also have a laptop with them?

The true mobile computing value of a Blackberry is its ability to serve as a wireless broadband modem and allow you wider access without high hotel and airport day rates. But oddly that angle isn’t part of the new push.

I think people are treating this Blackberry as a web surfing and blogging tool the way mountain climbers treat a mountain. They move right past the why and just start climbing. Because they can, because it’s cool, or because they’re bored. Or maybe so they can try to convince more people to use their mobile computing products.

Perhaps it’s just that Dave has a new toy and he’s putting it through its paces. Like the way we used to make choppers out of our bikes.

People will fall all over themselves trying to rationalize it away, but everyone who is actually trying to get content, as opposed to push content, knows that other than text based headlines and the occasional weather forecast, surfing the net on a Blackberry is sort of like running a race in wooden clogs. You can do it, but it’s slow and painful.

Creating web content on a Blackberry? Surely you jest.

Until someone addresses the why, I’m going to sit here in front my computer and watch- with amusement.

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You Can Own the Podosphere!

Following the trail blazed by Kiko, Stowe Boyd has put the podosphere.com internet domain up for sale on eBay.  Domains have been available on eBay for years, but thus far eBay has not really achieved any traction as a domain auctioneer.

In the wake of the Kiko buzz, that might change, at least as it relates to techy sounding domains.  Stowe’s experiment will be interesting to watch.

At least one savvy podcaster has already bid $17.95 🙂

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Morning Reading: 8/27/06

Kiko sold for $258,100, therby validating my belief that eBay is a legitimate exit strategy for Web 2.0 companies.

Rahul Sood, the president of Voodoo PC on his email conversations with Michael Dell (good stuff in the comments as well).  (via Dwight Silverman)

Psychology Today on the Hidden Side of Happiness.

Make a paper star and throw it at somebody.

This might be the funniest site on the internet. I’m laughing so hard I can barely type.

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Morning Reading: 8/26/06

Steve Rubel likes Original Signal, an aggregator of the 15 most popular Web 2.0 blogs.  I prefer Techmeme where the coverage is broader and more inclusive.

Mashable has an interesting and comprehensive history of Facebook.  We didn’t have computers, much less the internet, when I was in college, so I know nothing about Facebook other than what I’ve read, but I like the fact that Facebook is limited to students.

Dave Winer responds to the recent river of news criticism.  I like the last part, where he talks about working with Josh Bancroft.  I hope he does.  Meanwhile Scoble gushes over Dave, compares him to Douglas Engelbart and apologizes on behalf of all of us for doubting him.  Wow, even The Commander and Jetstream never had Hero Support like that.

Christopher Carfi has a great series about getting found in the long tail.  Read the whole series, because it is good stuff.

When I hit 60 I hope I don’t start having stupid ideas like this.

I told you the real world doesn’t view the internet through tech colored glasses.

Karl Martino on influence in the blogosphere.

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Blog Theory

Earl Moore posts about the difficulty of finding time to blog amid life’s larger responsibilities- like the job, the family, the outdoors and having fun. Richard Querin adds his thoughts as well. It’s a challenge for sure. While I don’t always do it well, here’s my approach to blogging, which shares much in common with Earl and Richard.

Early in the morning, before work, I read my RSS feeds (via Bloglines), Techmeme, my personalized My Yahoo page and my personalized Netvibes page. If I see something I want to write about, I’ll either begin a draft post and save it to finish later or, if I’m in a hurry, bookmark it via Del.icio.us.

My ability to read or post from my office depends entirely on my schedule for that day. If I’m in the office, I can generally finish and publish a quick post over lunch. Because I often have lunch meetings, I try to have several posts finished and in the queue to be published, so all I have to do is take a few seconds to publish them during the day. At any time I generally have 5-6 completed or nearly completed posts sitting in my queue for this purpose (a series, like my Web 2.0 Wars, is very good for stacking your queue). Writing a bunch of posts in advance sounds like a pain, but since I do a lot of my writing late at night on weekends (after the kids go to bed), it happens naturally.

If I’m in the office all day, I try to read my RSS feeds over lunch and then again near the end of the day. One thing I regularly do throughout the day is tag things, again using Del.icio.us, that I might either respond to that night or include in the next day’s morning reading post. At night before I go to bed, I do a draft of the next day’s morning reading post so all I have to do in the morning is add any new items that I come across during my morning read.

Late Friday night, after the kids go to bed, is generally devoted to doing my weekly podcast. I keep a mental list during the week of the songs I want to play. The tech talk is generally ad libbed, based on whatever I’m writing or thinking about at the time.

It’s not a perfect system, and sometimes I get woefully behind. But the more I write, the easier it is to keep things moving along.

I really like Richard’s notebook (the non-computer kind) idea. I may give something like that a try.

How do you manage your blogging?

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Announcing Newsome.Org, the Magazine

I’vee been reading about MySpace‘s plan to launch a magazine.

I’ve missed reading Yahoo! Internet Life ever since it folded back in 2002. I long for the good old bubble days when I could curl up with a Buy.com magazine or eBay magazine. Add to the mix the fact that nobody clicked on my AdSense ads during the 30 days I had them up, and that 2 out of 3 people surveyed believe that diversity in revenue is a good thing- and what you have is a recipe for an idea.

Which leads me to my big announcement: Newsome.Org, the Magazine. No longer will I allow old media to invade our precious blogosphere. From now on, we’ll fight the battle on their turf. With a little work I’m sure Newsome.Org, the Magazine will drive Time and Newsweek to their knees.

I’ve already hired dozens of Pulitzer Prize winning writers to churn out the first edition. Subscribe today, as I’m sure most of the copies of our inaugural edition will one day end up in protective sleeves under locked glass and for auction on eBay- for big bucks. Paypal accepted.

Here’s a preview of some of the things we’ll cover in our first edition…

One Man’s Triumph: The story of how Om Malik learned that there was more to the blogosphere than just Newsome.Org and started his own blog empire.

Personality Matters: Dave Winer on how to win friends and influence people.

Sweepstakes: Win backstage passes to the next blog-star party and a burned $100 bill autographed by Mike Arrington.

Lifestyles of the Rich and Sycophantic: Exclusive interviews with all 3 people Steve Gillmor doesn’t think are assholes.

Game On: Hugh, Seth, Jeff and Cory play hide and go seek. Seth wins because the others couldn’t see him.

On Blogging: Guy Kawasaki on the challenges of going 239 days without linking to Newsome.Org.

VC Corner: Fred Wilson on the top 10 reasons VC’s should fund blogazines.

And an editorial by Robert Scoble on how podcasting is better than Microsoft.

As you can see, this is going to be huge. Click here to subscribe today!

(Cover photo by Scott Beale / Laughing Squid)

Update: Steve Newson has launched his own blogazine.

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Morning Reading: 8/25/06

 

pluto

Pluto got voted out of the planet club.  No word yet if its position in the Disney club is in question.

From the TIVO Deathwatch Department: all that flailing around looking for partnerships, any partnerships, finally paid off as Cox Communications has agreed to administer a little CPR.

Fraser Kelton on branding.

TechCrunch reviews four file sharing programs.

Mathew Ingram gives a business lesson to C|Net and any number of other bubble blowers.  As he correctly points out, the mad money that Sony threw at Grouper was more about the technology than the number of users.  Sometimes it amazes me how little business sense seems to be applied in the Web 2.0 space.  That’s reason number one why much of the real world is profoundly disinterested in Web 2.0.

New York City wants CBS to pull the upcoming season of Survivor.

A blog covering Windows Live Writer plugins. (via Kevin Briody)  I just wish there were more of them to cover.

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PBS Makes a Questionable Momentum Play

So what’s next, the U.S. Government putting ads on dollar bills? Maybe hospitals could add interactive ads to x-rays and sonograms. Consumer reports dumping its virus-writing magazine and starting a social networking site?

Jeff Chester reports that PBS has decided to run online ads this fall at PBS.org and PBSkids,org.

Why? You know why: “to benefit from the ‘explosive growth and rising demand’ of interactive advertising.” Oh, and because it is “a response to the demand of the market.” Right.

Jeff sums up this mistake nicely:

PBS should not be seeking commercial opportunities in the broadband market. Instead, it should be pioneering new forms of non-commercial content readily available throughout our ubiquitous digital system. PBS must recognize by now that online and TV (as well as mobile) is merging. The distinction about whether content is delivered via any platform no longer matters. But what does matter is that PBS, and its stations, don’t attempt to replicate what commercial media companies are doing online and with mobile networks. It will be a U.S. media universe saturated with advertising.

The reason that most people support PBS is because it offers programming that they cannot generally get elsewhere. Granted, the hundreds of channels available via cable and satellite have blurred the distinction a little. And as we all know, PBS has nosed up to, but not yet crossed, the line by adding sponsorship messages at the beginning and end of some shows. But adopting the mercenary and short sighted approach of the mainstream media (as well as all of Web 2.0) is inconsistent with the history and mission of PBS. If any of this online mistake creeps onto the television, I suspect many of PBS’s supporters will cry foul when they get the letters and phone calls about donating to the cause.

You can’t act like Fox and expect to be treated like the neighborhood co-op.

What disappoints me the most is that I would have expected the brains behind PBS to see through the advertising hype and avoid the temptation to make what is clearly a momentum play.

I wonder what Louis Rukeyser would say about this investment?

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Morning Reading: 8/24/06

What’s more pitiful, the sick puppy who gives a false confession just to get his name in the paper or the family of said sick puppy trying to make money off of it? “They’re not looking for money for themselves.” Right.

This is not going to help Dell sell laptops to those big corporations where they make all that money.

Marc Canter on Google’s strategy. He thinks they may have a master plan, contrary to appearances.

Kevin Hales on Rock Star: Supernova – “The Pixies could crap a better rock song.” Undoubtedly, but Cassidy and I met Patrice (who I read this morning just got booted) after a concert a few years ago and she was very nice to Cassidy. Cassidy has an autographed copy of one of her CDs. If Patrice had won, Cassidy might have listened to it instead of the A-Teens. Nah.

Richard Querin on photography podcasts and histograms.

Videos of the new features in Word 2007. If you want to see what’s new, but don’t want to wade through the all the geek-talk, this link’s for you.

The “one” Chip Camden (that’s his new name, courtesy of Shel Israel) on trying out for Jeopardy and an amazing web site that has all the questions and answers presented in Jeopardy board format. Here’s the first Final Jeopardy answer of the Trebek era: “The third Monday of January starting in 1986.” All three contestants got it right. Did you? Update: TDavid on game shows.

Brazil has commenced action to sue Google for allegedly refusing to hand over user information about drug dealers who use Orkut, Google’s social networking site that has been described as the MySpace of the region, to solicit, communicate and traffic illegal drugs.

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