Topic: Walt Mossberg

Apple Vs. Google Maps: Reality Check Time

Google Maps new iOS app is terrific — although initiating navigation isn’t as intuitive as it might be. But I’ve found that Apple Maps is as good or nearly as good, at least in the San Francisco Bay Area. I have not had a chance to test maps apps side-by-side in other regions. Here’s what […]

Critics Rave About iPhone 5 But Many Roast Apple’s Maps

While the iPhone 5 itself is getting very positive reviews — essentially raves  — Apple Maps have received a mixed response. It has emerged as the potential Achilles Heel of the new handset (other than the generally reviled “lightening” dock connector). Waze CEO Noam Bardin was quoted last night by Business Insider saying that the […]

WSJ Says Big Google Search Changes Coming? Reality Check Time!

The Wall Street Journal is out with a story saying that Google is about to make one of the biggest changes in its history of offering web search, providing more direct answers and gaining “semantic” smarts to understand more about what words mean. I’m scratching my head, since Google already does this. Methinks Google’s PR […]

SearchCap: The Day In Search, June 1, 2011

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 +1 Analytics Coming Soon; Here’s What To Expect Although webmasters can install the new Google +1 button on their websites today, it may be a little while before the expected […]

Live Blog: Twitter CEO Dick Costolo At D9

Dick Costolo will be interviewed today by Walt Mossberg at the D Conference. Having survived another drive across the nearby Portuguese Bend landslide here in Palos Verdes, I stand ready to live blog. Let’s do this thing. Walt: Asking about the Pew study today with new stats on Twitter usage (see Pew: Twitter Usage Grows […]

The Top 10 Things Eric Schmidt Revealed At D9

Google executive chairman Eric Schmidt just finished being interviewed at the D Conference by Kara Swisher and Walt Mossberg, and there were a number of interesting revelations that came out. I thought a list of highlights was in order. The highlights below are roughly listed in the order they came up during the interview, rather being […]

Live From D: It’s Google No-Longer-The-CEO Eric Schmidt

I’m at the D Conference in here beautiful Rancho Palos Verdes, California. Google executive chairman Eric Schmidt is to be interviewed by our fearless host Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher. Let’s see what he has to say. Postscript: See The Top 10 Things Eric Schmidt Revealed At D9 if you want the less stream-of-consciousness view […]

Live From Today’s Bing/Facebook Announcement

We’re here at Microsoft’s Mountain View campus, waiting for news from Bing and Facebook. I’m liveblogging the event; Greg Sterling is sitting next to me ready to provide the color commentary, and Danny Sullivan has written an in-depth analysis of the new features that we’ll link over to as soon as the embargo lifts in […]

Steve Jobs At D8: The Search Engine Edition

Steve Jobs’ interview at the D8 conference last night was widely covered and live-blogged. He covered lots of ground, from competing with Android, to rejecting Flash, Apple TV and AT&T’s network. Below I discuss selected (mostly search-related) parts of the lengthy interview. Putting to rest a very persistent rumor, Jobs said that notwithstanding Android and […]

Nexus One: What Exactly Happened Yesterday In Mountain View?

The 1950s classic Japanese film Rashômon by Akira Kurosawa is an exploration of human perception, truth and how there can be widely differing accounts of the same event. The film’s plot revolves around the rape of a woman and murder of her husband and is told through dramatically differing accounts of four witnesses. The stories […]

The Microsoft-Yahoo Search Deal, In Simple Terms

What a day! Still trying to digest all the news about the Yahoo Microsoft search deal? So are we. While answers are still coming in, here’s what we know so far. NOTE: The deal has now been approved. See Yahoo & Microsoft Receive Go Ahead To Implement Search Deal. In a nutshell, what just happened? […]

Tough Love For Microsoft Search

Back in June, I spoke at Microsoft as part of a regular series for those involved with its webmaster tools group and anyone generally interested in search. My talk was called “Tough Love For Microsoft Search,” and I covered various reasons why I felt the company has generally failed to make headway in the space. […]

First Android Phone: “T-Mobile G1 With Google”

If the video shown during the press conference is any indication, T-Mobile’s “G1 with Google” should give the iPhone a run for its money. Much was made during the press conference of the “totally open” platform (vs. Apple), though Apple wasn’t mentioned by any of the presenters. Here’s the press release.

How Bright Is The Outlook For Chrome?

Most of the tech journalists in the San Francisco Bay Area were at Google this morning for a briefing and demo of Chrome. Danny earlier posted lots of detail on the search dimensions of Chrome. And there are quite a few posts and articles about features and first impressions.

All Things D: The Search Edition

There’s a ton of search-related news and intrigue coming out of the Dow Jones “All Things D” conference in Southern California. Let’s start with the ridiculous remark from IAC’s chief Barry Diller that “Google is irrelevant to us.” That’s only true if Diller doesn’t care about search revenue. Google is essentially the source of that […]

Search In The Year 2010: Part Two

Several weeks ago (seemingly years) Just Behave featured Part One of the summarized interviews with my personal dream team of search usability: Jakob Nielsen, the Web’s best-known usability guru Marissa Mayer, Google’s VP of user experience and interface design Michael Ferguson, one of the architects of Ask’s unique user experience Larry Cornett, the VP of […]

London Car Bombs: The Big Fat Search Failure

I was in London last night right smack in the area where a large bomb was defused this morning. Naturally, I was curious about what exactly had happened. I hit the news sites, but then I wondered what would happen for those searching generally for information using search engines. Both Google and Ask.com in particular […]

Mossberg, Ask.com “Goes Much Further” Than Google

Ask.com Takes Lead In Designing Display Of Search Results by Walter Mossberg of the Wall Street Journal reviews Ask.com’s new 3D look. Mossberg gave Ask.com great reviews, comparing Ask.com’s three-pane approach to Google’s Universal Search approach. Mossberg said Ask.com “took greater strides” than Google with their user interface. The new Ask.com user interface makes for […]

Schmidt Calls Viacom’s $1B Lawsuit “Just A Mistake”

Google’s Eric Schmidt: Viacom’s lawsuit is ‘just a mistake’ from News.com reports that when Walt Mossberg questioned Eric Schmidt about Viacom suing YouTube for $1 billion earlier this, year, Google’s CEO responded that “it was probably just a mistake.” Of course, Mr. Mossberg was not satisfied with that answer. He then probed Mr. Schmidt on […]