Yesterday, after writing my review of the Google Chrome OS Cr-48 notebook, I had a chance to catch up with Google product management director Caesar Sengupta about the machine. Below, answers to question like dealing with external monitors to whether Google really believes this can replace current computers. Yes, it does. If you use the […]
My Google Chrome Cr-48 notebook has just arrived. For my first day with it, I decided a good torture test would be to unplug my Windows 7 machine and see how the Google laptop worked in its place. Let’s go!
A couple of weeks ago I wrote that Google may have missed its “window” for Chrome OS netbooks (pun intended). That was based on my prior understanding of ChomeBooks as an affordable “second computer” aimed chiefly at consumers. This is generally how Google had positioned the devices a year ago. My thesis going in was […]
Google has announced that Chrome OS laptops are now available to consumers through a pilot program for early adopters who prove themselves to be “right” in various ways. A Chrome Web Store has also launched to allow an easier way to run web apps within the Chrome browser itself.
Google has rolled out its long awaited digital ebooks program, the next step in the company’s ambitious but controversial project to scan and make searchable the estimated 130 million books that exist in print versions. “The next logical iteration for us is to open up a bookstore,” said Scott Dougall, product management director for Google […]
The US General Services Administration announced that it was moving to Google Apps and The Cloud for email, etc. It becomes the first federal agency to do so. The GSA said it will save more than $15 million over five years. The contract is worth just under $7 million and being implemented by Google partner […]
At the recent Web 2.0 conference in San Francisco Google CEO Eric Schmidt seemed to suggest that Chrome-based netbooks wouldn’t be available for holiday shopping (or even before the end of the year). A year ago, however, Google said it was aiming for the “holiday season” with the intended release of the first Chrome-powered machines. […]
Google is introducing what it calls “Cloud Connect” for its enterprise Google Search Appliance. The new functionality “lets workers search across both on-premise and cloud-based content from a single search box, delivering more comprehensive results and improving productivity.” Accordingly the new “Cloud Connect” brings together Google Docs/Apps with web content and other internal company documents. […]
Speaking today at the IFA consumer electronics event in Berlin, Google CEO Eric Schmidt painted a vision of the future in which search is fast, personal, and all-knowing — even to the degree of providing search results when searches haven’t been conducted. “A new definition of Google would be, we’re trying very hard to get […]
Google’s having an impromptu small press “gathering” today at its offices in San Francisco. Topic? “Cool new mobile features.” Want to know more? Stay tuned, as I’ll be live blogging the event that begins at 10am. This is all we know so far: We’ll be unveiling a couple of cool new mobile features at the […]
Google has upgraded its “commerce search” offering for retailers, e-commerce sites and manufacturers. Commerce search is a product of the enterprise search team and version 1.0 launched roughly six months ago. Commerce Search 2.0 has more features and the price has been cut in half from $50,000 per year to $25,000 to drive more adoption. […]
It’s Google I/O, Google’s annual developers conference. The morning keynote gets underway at 9AM Pacific. Let’s see what surprises Google has in store for today. My liveblogging begins, below. For those at home, you can also watch along live — I/O sessions are being broadcast here on YouTube. Due to traffic, I arrived 15 minutes […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Google Looks To Improve Maps With 300 New Staffers Problems in Google Maps are well known by now. From spam to bugs to its lack of support for local businesses, we’ve […]
Taking a page from Salesforce.com, last night Google formally launched the anticipated Google Apps Marketplace at its “Campfire One” developer event. In short it allows companies and developers to gain access and sell into Google’s “2 million businesses and 25 million Google Apps users.” The marketplace launches with 50 partners including Intuit and competitor Zoho. […]
Over the past year, I’ve moved more and more of my data over to the cloud — in particular, to being stored with Google. I’m rethinking that, in the wake of Google’s statement that it was the target of a sophisticated hacking attack. Further, I’m wondering if this entire episode — GoogleHack, for want of […]
Sam Palmissano has transformed IBM over the past decade or so that he’s been in top positions in the company. IBM isn’t just a mainframe hardware company any more—it’s involved in a wide range of businesses, throughout the world, and unlike many tech companies is still growing—and some of the best SEOs in the world […]
Google Goggles, which I wrote about this morning, is actually now live at google.com/mobile/goggles. The Google Mobile Blog announced it, saying: In a nutshell, Goggles lets users search for objects using images rather than words. Simply take a picture with your phone’s camera, and if we recognize the item, Goggles returns relevant search results. Right […]
In October TheStreet reported a rumor that Google was building its own mobile phone. That was repeated again recently by TechCrunch, which said emphatically that Google was building a branded phone — despite Android founder Andy Rubin’s denials that Google was going to design its own hardware. Now we get the Times of London with […]
Something’s up with Google’s Chrome operating system. Don’t know what, but we’ll all know soon as a press conference begins at 10AM Pacific. I’m coming at your live from the Googleplex. Buckle up, and we’ll see what’s happening. You can also watch from home. Webcast info is here. There will also be related coverage developing […]
Google just reported second quarter earnings of $5.52 billion, representing “an increase of 3% compared to the second quarter of 2008.” The first quarter of 2009 was $5.51 billion, by comparison. So growth was flat quarter over quarter. According to Google CEO Eric Schmidt, Google’s business has “stabilized” and has seen growth in certain areas in […]
Watching Google and Microsoft lately has been like watching a tennis match: Each company seems to be taking turns hitting back at the other with new announcements, new products, and so forth. The latest volley isn’t strictly search-related, but it’s very notable: Microsoft announced “lightweight” versions of its Office products that will be free and […]
I’m in the Google Wave press conference, following a dizzying keynote — dizzying, at least, after a night of little sleep. As he did yesterday Google co-founder Sergey Brin joined the discussion and similarly apologized for arriving late. Danny live blogged the keynote earlier this morning. He jokingly compared Wave to Lotus Notes. In some […]
I’m at the Google I/O conference, where it is being opened by Google CEO Eric Schmidt. He’s welcoming the audience and saying it’s great to be in front of programmers and saying, “it’s time. it’s time for us to take advantage of the amazing opportunity before us … it has been 20 years trying to […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Yahoo Streamlining Mobile Experiences Discontinues “Smartphone App” Until a couple of months ago, Yahoo had a range of mobile products and experiences in the market: Go, oneSearch, oneConnect and mobile web. […]
Gmail has now been offline for the past twenty minutes or so. Just take a look at Twitter Search to see how many people are upset with the downtime. Here is a screen capture: This outage seems to be impacting both web access, pop access and imap access. Hopefully this outage won’t be as long […]
There’s a feeling in the air of change — from one era to another and, more precisely, from one type of media culture to another. The hearings on Capitol Hill yesterday on the “future of journalism” reflect this transition in which traditional media are under intense pressure and fighting for their lives in some cases. […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web.
For all the uber-geeks and electrical engineers, CNET offers an interesting story about Google’s approach to servers. From the very early days Google was thinking carefully about scale, efficiency but perhaps mostabout cost savings. Rather than buy servers, Google has built them from the beginning. Google finally revealed one of its home-made servers before an […]
Yet another privacy complaint has been filed against Google with the FTC, this time by the Electronic Privacy Information Center over Google’s cloud computing services and related privacy and data security issues. While Google is the named party, the company is basically the stand-in for “the cloud” as a whole. (If you want to read […]
Google’s SVP of Product Management Jonathan Rosenberg posted yesterday on the Google Blog, turning an internal memo into a public article. He used the occasion of the US President’s Day holiday to discuss Google’s sense of the political and social challenges of the moment as well as a vision for the future of search and […]
I was reminded by CNET that it was exactly a year ago when Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer made his bold, unsolicited bid for Yahoo. It seems like a lifetime ago, certainly for the economy it is. CNET’s Stephen Shankland speculates about what might have been if the offer had been accepted by Yahoo rather than […]
Just like the US economy, things at Yahoo may get worse before they get better; the company reports earnings today at 5 p.m. Eastern. The general expectation is they’ll be down. Yahoo may have been hit hard by the weakness in online display advertising. And new CEO Carol Bartz will be on the hot seat […]
VentureBeat reports Google has launched a reseller program for Google Apps. The program is aimed at developers, hosting companies and others to take on the responsibility of billing, support and training, in exchange for a twenty-percent discount on the services. In short, Google will charge you 20% less of the standard fee and you can […]
In some ways the “future of search” is a tired topic that has already seen hundreds (maybe thousands) of speculative articles. But it’s also a topic of critical importance for search leader Google, whose entire franchise is built upon doing it better than anyone else. Just as Microsoft didn’t anticipate the rise of search and […]
Most of the bestselling laptops on Amazon’s computer bestseller list are so-called netbooks, computers which have little memory, are highly compact and more affordable than traditional laptops. Lighter and smaller, they’re largely for mobility and internet use. Their appearance and popularity are are consistent with trends toward “cloud computing” (e.g., Google Apps) and mobile internet […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web.
Virginia Nussey of BruceClay.com has interviewed Matt Cutts of Google. The interview asks Matt several questions, including what to expect in 2009 from Google in terms of search, cloud computing and the role of an SEO. Oh, and of course, Matt talks about spam, saying international spam has a long way to go at Google […]
Microsoft has expanded and upgraded the suite of software and online services for consumers collectively known as “Windows Live” — not to be confused with Live Search. There’s a whole boatload of stuff here that spans the desktop, online and mobile. The theme of these tools is integration of all your favorite content in one […]
Advertising spending is down across the board and the financial markets are in a crisis not seen since the Depression. Layoffs are happening or appear to be impending at a number of high-profile tech companies, including HP, eBay and Yahoo. Yet Google appears to be navigating through these difficult economic waters as though it were […]
Last week Google confirmed that it had made its first Korean acquisition, a popular blogging platform called TNC, which has approximately 400,000 users, including a majority of Korea’s top bloggers (per VentureBeat). The site’s founder and CEO Chang-Won Kim said that he thought Google bought the company to boost its “minor” market share in Korea, […]