Tag Archives: google

Google all set to pull the plug off the Nexus One Online Store

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Now getting a Nexus One  via the web will become a history. Google has just announced that it is all set to pull the plug on the Nexus One web store and that it will concentrate more on selling the phone via retail and carriers.

“While the global adoption of the Android platform has exceeded our expectations, the Web store has not,” Andy Rubin, vice president of engineering at Google, wrote in a blog post. People generally want to know more about the product by getting hands on experience. When selling the phone via carriers , the customers will get to know the wide variety of plans available and choose the one which suits them.

Google launched the product in early January and people could purchase it online at www.google.com/phone. There were reports about the slow sales via the web, which could be seen as the reason behind such a step.

On April 30, Vodafone became Europe’s first carrier to sell the Nexus One. Google said Friday that going forward, it will follow this model rather than Web sales. ”We’ll shift to a similar model globally,” Rubin wrote. Once the magnitude of sales through retail rise, Google will certainly put a halt to the web sales.

This was a much expected and needed step from Google. Nexus One would stand nowhere if Google stuck to the online sale model and poor sale figures reflected the fact on those revenue charts. While Android devices are on the rise, lets see what the big “G” has got in store for marketing when Big Daddy’s like iPhone rule the market!

Verizon and Google to give birth to the iPad killer

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The trail of iPad Killer has just begun with RIM’s blackpad. If you were hoping for insanely great competitors to iPad, we’ve got Google and Verizon planning to do something with the newly inaugurated Tablet market.

Lowell McAdam, Verizon’s CEO showed that the company was enthusiastic about tablet market. It has to be, with all those credit cards being swiped for AT&T data plans which come compiled with the iPads.

Verizon’s relation with Google has been strengthened especially after the Motorola’s Droid launch which flaunted Google’s Android running on it along with Verizon as its carrier. Mr. McAdam, a spokesperson for Verizon said,

What do we think the next big wave of opportunities are? We’re working on tablets together, for example. We’re looking at all the things Google has in its archives that we could put on a tablet to make it a great experience.

For carriers, the main business is in the cell phone market, but looking at the rapid growth rate, it would be a mistake to leave the netbook and tablet behind. Apple sold about a million iPads in 28 days and more to come, which surely means $$ for Apple and lot many subscribers for AT&T.

The tablet details haven’t surfaced yet, but we are sure the tablet will run the the Android OS. Google did not speak anything except that anyone can use the company’s mobile software to create phones and other devices.

It’s a must on both, Verizon and Google’s part. Verizon must add on more subscribers and has to get into the tablet carrier market because if you see, AT&T apart from the iPad is also the official carrier for Amazon’s Kindle. Google Vs. Apple is already tornado-ing the markets. Google got into the phone market with Nexus one and android, Apple got into the advertising business with iAd. Google needs a tablet of it’s own to grab its age old hold on advertising.

Rest all’s well in the world of tablets for now with iPad stores going out of stock due to excess iPad demands.

[Via WSJ]

Android 2.2 burns the rubber : Runs 450% faster than 2.1!

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Some lucky dogs over at Android Police have been spotted running the absolute newest build of Android, Froyo 2.2, on a Google Nexus One.  Aside from the appearance upgrades and overall bug fixes, 2.2 is about 4 1/2 times or 450% faster than its predecessor, 2.1 Eclair.

Although this update of the increasingly popular Android OS hasn’t been formally released or advertised, it’s future looks rather bright!  Expect some awesome new hardware to go along with the new speedy system sometime rather soon. If you forgot, Adobe is planning for a flash release on 2.2 too and looking at it’s performance right now on the speedometer, it seems Android is indeed going to rock it! Would this prove Steve Jobs 1000+ word essay wrong? Stay Tuned!

You can check out Android Police’s benchmarks here.

Know what would go great with the new Froyo 2.2? The newly announced Square App for Android.  Stay tuned for more on this!

Via [Gizmodo]

New Google is better, dont beg for the old one.

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Change is constant, and change is the only thing that makes people from around the globe, to be connected via the world wide web and keep them glued to their screens. Google , last week upgraded its view from a classical one to modern.

And, as we all know, the most common homepage is Google’s, so any change to that, will catch attention.The new rolled out model, has three columns, if you search for any option, you get a result page, which is what I think similar to Bing.

There is a middle column consisting of the results, there is a right column consisting of the ads, and the left column for the advanced search options. The newer interface allows us to get multiple results at once, without going for the advanced options in the top left options row in the classical model.  Simply put, the new Google layout is good, user friendly.

In the Google forum, there are ,variety of people complaining of the design and want the old one back in. But Google is not going to listen to them, The google spokesman Nate Tyler confirmed by stating : “We’re not offering a way to revert back to the old design.” That is expected, Google has had changes in the past, and there come a bunch of people who hate the change in the first place and then going on to be liking it. People can use the search preferences page to control number of results shown, popping-open search listings in their own windows, enabling subscribed links and other options. For people who desperately want the old design back, they can bookmark this site.

The move to a permanently three-column design sees Google following in the footsteps of Ask.com, which pioneered the look back in 2007. Bing and Yahoo followed the three pane trend in 2009, and now it has effectively been given the stamp of approval by search giant Google itself.

Yahoo! calls Google’s homepage “A Button and a Box”

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Last thing you would have ever pondered would be Yahoo! taking over the web and becoming homepage to everyone. Google’s phenomenal success scares a lot of tech companies, Yahoo! esp. as it’s business’s are continuing to be shot down one by one. Yahoo! search has shrunk rapidly and simultaneously Google has grown to take a large part of the Search cake.

Both the companies have different philosophies. Big “G” believes in simplicity and it’s homepage is a mark of it, while at Yahoo! they want the homepage to be your eternal lookout for everything, yes Twitter, Facebook, Search, News, Entertainment, Everything. Yahoo! constantly stresses that Google needs to “diversify” if it wants to retain it’s market, and that’s what Yahoo is doing with multiple partnerships with leading social networks, portals and lot more.

Here’s a piece of Yahoo’s 85 Million Dollar marketing campaign, the commercial is straight from Yahoo!’s heart. BTW i kinda like the tune they’ve used! Video down after.

People, Google isn’t copying from others. Get it?

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Few days back, Google flaunted it’s new design to it’s 286 Million daily users. Guess what most of them said? It’s a copy of Bing, or some even said it’s a copy of Yahoo!’s search engine. Bull S***.

Whenever some new product is released, critics compare it to other stuff on the market and just tag them as a copy of this and that. This seriously pisses me off.  Remember Apple Vs. Microsoft ten years back? Apple charged Microsoft of copying it’s Graphic user interface and the mouse and there was something that Bill Gates quoted over it, that if a car has a steering wheel no company claims it as it’s invention.

This is what it is all about. Moving forward. No use comparing, because we know as long it’s competition companies are going to strive even harder for innovation. You just pick up whats good in front of you and move ahead. This is a whole process or learning, improving, and getting better. I don’t get it, why do people just say it’s COPIED? Steve-o-phoebia?

Adobe boasts Android tablets with Flash and Air running “flawlessly”

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While Apple just chucked Adobe from their plan, Adobe is busy showcasing tablets with Android running Adobe’s technologies at it’s heart, Flash and Air at the Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco.

Prototypes of tablets running Google’s Tablet OS, Android which is currently in pre-release form but it’s well enough capable to render flash and air. They spotted those tablets using the Wired Flash app and watching videos on youtube, in flash format. They claimed that during all the showtime, they did not stumble across any problems and performance issues.

Many more tablets running on Google Tablet OS supposedly hit the market during the holiday season if a Adobe employee is to be believed. Flash is coming to smartphones soon, yes we know “soon”.

Tech Paparazzi : Steve Jobs and Eric Schimdt spotted together

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Gizmodo, reported pictures of two of the most prominent people from worlds largest tech arsenals, Steve Jobs and Eric Schimdt seated together at Calafia in the Town and Country shopping center in Palo Alto. The Cafe where they were spotted is owned by ex-Google chef Charlie Ayers.

Two lines overheard by the photographer,

They’re going to see it all eventually so who cares how they get it

He alsoclaimed that these talks revolved around web content. This could possibly have some relation with the recent news of Apple’s route into the Mobile Advertising Business, but then both come from companies [Steve - Apple CEO and Eric - Google CEO] who’s relations have been deteriorating abominably so what could be the core matter of the talk?

Folks at Gizmodo did a complete analysis of their body posture (wow, you seriously need that?) and it finally lands onto the fact that, Eric Schimdt is scared of Steve Jobs!

Mobile Advertising to be reincarnated with Apple’s iAd?

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If the next big thing is, it’s got to be Mobile Advertising. If analysis’s seem correct then it’s lucid that the Cell Phone markets, especially the smartphone markets in terms of browsing and downloading content have grown 10 folds in the past 3 years.

Apple too has contributed to the growth of the market immensely with the so called “revolutionary product”, the iPhone. Along with the iPhone came the App Store which has also played crucial role in promoting Application sales and the growth of the market and it now holds more than 150,000 apps. This created opportunities for advertisers to boast their products but till now there wasn’t a proposed model for it, all ideas sprinkled and few organizations using them.

Google acquired AdMob for a price of 750 Million Dollars to get into the Mobile advertising arena starting with a already powerful contender in the game. Followed by that we had the news hitting blogs, Apple had acquired Quattro Wireless for 300 Million Dollars which was also a tough challenger in the advertising market. Smells like growing fight, Google and Apple?

Steve Jobs brazenly once during a townhall meet with his companies employees, that they [Google] got into our [Apple] business of cell phones, we [Apple] did not get into their [Google] search business. Steve pointed out Google’s business strategies more or less could make Apple bankrupt if Google continued. What Now? Now it’s Apple’s turn and this time they decide to join in the advertising bandwagon and challenge the biggest contenders in the business, Google.

MediaPost wrote that Apple could be possible launching a new type of a Mobile Advertising Platform called “iAd” (signifies the i used in almost all major Apple products) and that this platform has been purely built upon the acquired platform, Quattro. The announcement of this platform will be coming up on 7th April, some four days after iPad starts shipping. Apple’s lined up all explosives, ha?

The platform will be unveiled at Madison Avenue (somewhat the heart of advertising industry), and invasion of Apple there, surely means direct shot at Google.  Apart from Mobile Advertising, i think Apple would be more interested in portable advertising which means, iPad is also included. Most companies fail to have their ideas spread and that is where they lose, but in this case Apple has already got a fair amount of means to propagate its platform with couple of millions of iPhone being used and iPod Touches, 150,000 and more apps and the iPad coming which already crossed 200,000 pre orders by now. These figures mean that Apple has got a hell lot of users there and reaching them won’t be difficult for them.

Almost all the top companies of the valley would be finding ways to get into the app store somehow or the other to advertise. Apple might be the one opening floodgates to them and prove to be another huge success.

Viacom-Youtube’s $1 Billion legal mumbo jumbo

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One of the biggest media conglomerate, Viacom’s battle with the largest video sharing website, Youtube for a $1 Billion Lawsuit went public this thursday at the Federal Court.

The whole case revolves around the arguments made by both the Giants and most exigent part constituent of the case is the DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998).

The DMCA policy gives refuge to the Content and Service Providers from the Copyright acts as long as the Providers are unaware of  fact that infringing content is being uploaded and stored and that the Provider’s revenues are not being accelerated because of such activities.

Viacom states that Youtube is defying the DMCA Policy, simply because Youtube’s founders and it’s parent conglomerate’s conduct is not in accordance with the conditions required for DMCA to provide shelter to a service provider. On the other hand, we have Google with a 100 page court file stating that Viacom’s arguments are counterfactual and that it completely agrees with the DMCA policy.

What Viacom Says

The Media giant states that Youtube is not in consonance with DMCA policy as it’s founders were aware of such infringements taking place (Strike 1), Google was also aware of this certainty before acquiring the young startup for a massive amount of $1.65 Billion (Strike 2) and conclusively when they questioned Youtube and Google employees, no one seems to remember anything of such being talked about in the company (Strike 3).

What Google Says

Only service remaining to be released by Google is surely Google Law, to fight all the lawsuits pending against the Big “G”. Currently Google is facing lawsuits all over the globe for Privacy Breaches for two of the biggest service, Google Maps and Google Buzz. This time it could turn nasty with Viacom. Google argues by saying that video shows were itself uploaded by third party companies on behalf of Viacom and then it is treating with the Video Sharing website with DMCA takedown requests.

The matter is not as lucid as it appears to us. Firstly, both the companies have arguments which overlap and thus making the matter even more difficult for the judge to provide a judgement in favor of any of the parties. Viacom takes a direct shot stating that Youtube Founders, specifically Jawed Karim had the knowledge about the infringing content being uploaded during the early days of YouTube during the dawn of the startup in 2005 and Viacom provides a part of the mail conversation between Jawed and the co-founder Steve Chen.

‘Jawed, please stop putting stolen videos on the site. We’re going to have a tough time defending the fact that we’re not liable for the copyrighted material on the site because we didn’t put it up when one of the co-founders is blatantly stealing content from other sites and trying to get everyone to see it.’ ~ Steve Chen

Viacom accuses that the founders were even sure that 80% of their web traffic in the earlier days was dependent on the pirated videos and so they also used it as a method to increase financial gains via Advertising, which actually did not happen though.

Google argues that clearly pointing out that Viacom itself was involved in uploading the infringing videos and that it had hired marketing companies to do that task on their behalf because YouTube was an effective appliance for Promotion of Viacom’s shows. Google in it’s court file also includes that there is now way for the website to find if the content uploaded was authorized or not.

This case could also decide the future of video sharing, and finally prove who is responsible for taking care of the Copyrights, the Service providers or the Content creators?

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