Aug
31st

Google Office 2.0

Posted by admin on August 31, 2006 at 1:49 pm

How do you tap into Microsoft’s $12 billion/year Office application revenue stream? If you’re Google, give it away for free of course.

Google recently announced the beta release of Google Apps for Domains.

Google Apps for Domains is mainly targeted towards small to mid sized businesses, offering Gmail, Instant Messenger Chat, Shared Calendars, and a simple web page creator application.

What does this mean for businesses? It’s Google’s way of attempting to convince millions of Microsoft Exchange and Messenger clients to move over to Google’s free applications.

Rumor has it that Google also plans on adding Google Spreadsheet and the recently acquired Writely to the overall offerings.

From an IT standpoint, this is a substantial shift in thinking. No servers to house or maintain? No Windows Exchange problems?

From a monetary standpoint, this could be a huge savings for any small to mid sized business. While you can import/export spreadsheets and text documents with these services directly to and from Google’s online servers, Google is hoping that the next trend will be online creation of documents.

Naturally, all this comes with controversy. Nothing is truly free after all.

How will Google monetize all these free offerings? Every time you send office documents, Google will prompt you to open documents in Google’s new suite, allowing for collaboration and, presumably, making money from advertising.

And there’s the privacy controversy, as with all Google products. Before you sign up, you may want to carefully read the disclosure.

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Aug
30th

Google, Apple & Disney. Oh My!

Posted by admin on August 30, 2006 at 4:09 pm

I love synergy. The thought of multiple, independent objects or forces coming together to create something greater than their sum is truly an amazing phenomena.

On my daily run, (okay, perhaps “daily” isn’t the right word) my weary legs propel me down the road at about 7 miles per hour. Those same legs, when clipped to my recumbent bicycle send me zooming along at 25-28 miles per hour with the greatest of ease. Synergy.

When two things work together, be they simply man and bicycle or some of the largest media/technology corporations in the world, the results can be extraordinary – which is not to say good or bad, just extraordinary.

The recent election of Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google, to the board of directors of Apple Computer Inc. creates another tie between the two companies. Arthur D. Levinson, Ph.D. has served as a director on both companies’ boards for a number of years.

The potential created by the newly strengthened relationship between a technology-focused company (Apple) and a content-focused company (Google) is as big as it gets in a world where content drives the technology that serves it.

Technology pundits are forecasting an eventual end of the paid music download model, and heralding Schmidt’s new post as an iTunes reliant Apple Inc. reaching for some new shtick. Or that the whole thing might be some scheme to show PPC ads to iTunes users.

Prognostications such as those fall short of realizing what such board-room relationships really can signify. Likewise, the term “synergy” seems like an understatement when trying to consider the far reaching effects alliances like these can have.

This is bigger than internet search, and definitely bigger than iPods.

Google, with its immense market share, and unequalled ability to organize and deliver content to internet users compliments handily Apple’s reaches into the world of music, and video delivery technology. Throw into the mix Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple, and member of The Walt Disney Company’s board of directors and right before your eyes the future of online content and media delivery is being penned.

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Aug
29th

Designer's Block? Try Crop Circles

Posted by admin on August 29, 2006 at 12:41 pm

As a designer I am often looking around the web for design inspiration. I’ve always been interested in artists like Andy Goldsworthy and Christo who use natural elements or the landscape in making their art.

Designers are always borrowing their inspiration from one place or another and recently I’ve come across something I’ve never considered before.

Crop circles.

To me, many crop circles look like candidates for a unique logo design. The shapes are interesting, work well compositionally and all you need to do is move the circles around a bit, add some gradients, slap your catchy business name on it and voila… you have your own timeless web 2.0 logo.

With that said I’ve decided to do a little research and find some of my favorite crop circles and give it a shot.

Okay so it needs more TLC to be a classic but you get the point.

Some of my favorite crop circle images:

u-szeged.hu
Wired, Temporary Temples

Even Firefox has gotten in on the whole crop circle trend.

As a designer I’m always looking for assets to put in the toolbox. Feel free to pass this little gem along to your creative team and enjoy your new out-of-this-world logo.

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Aug
28th

Local Search, You're Upsetting My Wife

Posted by Keirsun on August 28, 2006 at 4:08 pm

Today is my wedding anniversary. Don’t worry, I planned ahead this year – at this moment there’s jewelry hidden in my basement, wrapped and everything.

I just hope my 3 year old hasn’t already found it and claimed it for her own.

But it’s a good thing I sometimes think ahead and I’ll tell you why. I decided to search for an anniversary gift this year using local search. It seemed like the logical search choice since I prefer to buy locally. But that’s when things started get ugly.

My problem? Not knowing exactly what I wanted to buy my lovely wife.

My search engine? Google Local (or Maps, whatever you want to call it).

My keywords? Anniversary Gifts

I like to start my searches a bit broad and then get specific when I see something that catches my eye. But in this case, I went blind.

Out of numerous pages of search results, not one listing caught my attention. Obviously, this is when I try a new search phrase. But let’s think about this for a moment.

The first 3 pages of local search results for anniversary gifts contained nothing more than florists, golf courses, Sears and a church. All 4 of these make some sense, specifically the florists. But are you telling me that not one of the um-teen thousand retail stores in my area has made an effort to list themselves under the keyword anniversary gifts???!!!

In particular, there’s more than a shiny handful of jewelry stores in the area. But not even one of these businesses, which supposedly specialize in helping wild-eyed husbands running home late on anniversary night find a gift, showed up in my search results.

So here’s my question: How long is it going to take for local businesses to catch on?

Some, such as those busy florists, have realized that people like me no longer pick up the yellow pages, or have time to window shop. But I still buy gifts, and I want to spend my money locally.

I’m begging local businesses, please start using the advertising channels that are available to every consumer with internet access. Because I don’t ever want to see the look on my wife’s face when I come home empty-handed on August 28th.

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Aug
24th

Mobileity: The Mobile Web Moves Forward

Posted by Chip on August 24, 2006 at 11:12 am

Well it has been a few months since my last update on the world of the mobile web. With this market moving as fast as it is, there have been several interesting developments in that time. So I figured it’s about time I revisit this topic to give a little credit to all those interesting and innovative ideas that are helping to move us closer to a world without wires.

Webaroo Improves:
Now if you read my last update you are well aware of what Webaroo is and that I personally, am a big fan of the concept of being able to have a searchable web even when your offline. If you are not familiar with Webaroo, feel free to read that post real quick.

Now that we are all either caught up, or don’t care to get caught up, Webaroo has released an improved version of their program recently. The improvements include support of multimedia attachments, new browsing buttons for easy navigation, and increased controls that include the ability to manage file sizes as well as the maximum amount of disk space allocated to the program including alerts when you are approaching the preset limit. You can find all the details at Webaroo’s official site.

Opera Mobile:
Opera, arguably the best browser available; and defiantly the best out-of-the-box browser, (once Firefox is tweaked properly it certainly puts up a good fight) has recently announced the release of a few different mobile versions of their browser. These include Opera Mobile for the Pocket PC, Opera Mini for cell phones and an Opera for Nintendo DS that is scheduled for release this fall. As more and more devices gain mobile abilities, Opera will ensure your mobile browsing experience is the best it can be.

The Mobile Campus:
While there are several things that campuses all over the country, and the world for that matter, are doing to provide Wi-Fi access to students, Dartmouth has to be the frontrunner in innovation.

For a 200 year old Ivy League university, Dartmouth is on the cutting edge when it comes to offering Wi-Fi services to students. In 2001 they were one of the first universities to implement a campus-wide wireless network, and now they are continuing the tradition of early adoption by upgrading their system to allow students access to video, TV programming and VoIP phone service with unlimited long distance; all of which are covered by their room and board fees.

Windows Live Wi-Fi Rumors:
It has been reported in BetaNews that Microsoft is inviting testers to help them with the creation of Windows Live Connection Center Wi-Fi.

This service is said to be two-fold. The first part is an application that will automatically locate and connect to local hotspots including an integrated database which maps out locations for users. The second is a searchable interface that allows a user to search by city, state or zip code to locate Wi-Fi locations wherever they may be. This one makes me wonder why Google hasn’t built something like this into their Maps or Earth utilities.

While I realize there are several more things happening in the world of the mobile web all the time, these are just a few that have been on my mind this morning. If you feel I have not included something of significance, feel free to add to the conversation by posting a comment.

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