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Shared by gregsmithsaysPretend you know better.
Smugly smug stuff
There is a widespread myth that search engines have taken profits away from news websites. A few months ago, Rupert Murdoch said: “Google has devised a brilliant business model that avoids paying for news gathering yet profits off the search ads sold around that content.”
The reality is that news is a lousy business. Period. Even Google doesn’t make money on it. For example, here are Google’s search results for the phrase “afghanistan war”:
Notice there aren’t any ads on the page. This is because ads for “afghanistan war” generate such low revenues per query that Google doesn’t think it’s worth hurting the user experience with a cluttered page. Google can afford to do this on news queries (along with many other categories of queries) because their real business is selling ads on queries where the user likely has purchasing intent. Big money-making categories include travel, consumer electronics and malpractice lawyers. News queries are loss leaders.
It’s an historical accident that hard news categories like international and investigative reporting were part of profitable businesses. The internet upended this model by 1) providing a new delivery method for classified ads (mainly Craigslist), 2) increasing the supply of newspapers from 1-2 per location to thousands per location, thereby driving the willingness-to-pay for news dramatically down, and 3) unbundling news categories, making cross subsidization increasingly hard.
The internet exposed hard news for what it is: a lousy standalone business. Google arguably contributed to this in many indirect ways, including by helping users find substitute news sources. But the idea that Google takes profits directly from newspapers is simply misinformed.
Zoho today announced support for Facebook Connect, which means you can now access its entire suite of applications using your Facebook account. This adds to its existing support of sign in using Google, Google Apps and Yahoo accounts.
If you don’t already have a Zoho account, then you can sign up with your Facebook ID.
If you already have a Zoho account, you can connect your Zoho apps to your Facebook account by linking them in your account preferences:
While this is good news for the 400 million-plus Facebook users out there, I’m left wondering at the continued lack of support for other popular sign-in options, such as Twitter and (more importantly) OpenID. I hope that they will be added soon.
Does Facebook Connect support make Zoho a more attractive option for you?
Related GigaOM Pro content (sub req’d):
Who Owns Your Data in the Cloud?
[Nicholas] built an active tracking system using RFID tags. The system’s tags operate in the 2.4 GHz band and are used to track either people or assets. The readers are on a mesh network and can triangulate the location of any tag for display on a map. His system is even set up to show the travel history of each tag. [Nicholas] shared every detail in his writeup including some background about available hardware options and how he made his final decisions on what devices to use for the job. His conglomeration of software that ties the whole project together is also available for download.
In only a few years Google has become the king of the Web. It went from a college research project to the most popular search engine that rakes in billions of dollars every year. They’ve expanded to mobile, OSs and, in the past few days, promising the fastest broadband Internet to thousands of homes in the States.
We use the Google search engine on a daily basis, but Google has lots of other great services out there. Recently, we talked about 5 Great and Unknown Google Products. I want to dive back into that topic and share a few more services that Google has going that you should know about.
Aardvark is a social search service that finds people who can answer all of your questions. When you submit your inquiry, Aardvark searches your circle of friends and finds someone who can answer your question. The answer is sent to your IM, or you can check it on your Aardvark profile. The service was bought on February 11th, so just a few days ago.
Google Sets is a simple service that creates sets of items from a few examples you give. Simple indeed, but extremely fun. Let’s say you want a list of popular TV shows. All you have to do is insert two or three shows you know and Google will predict the rest. Voila, you have at least 15 other TV shows listed.
Let’s say you really want to know in what videos your favorite topic is mentioned. Google Audio Indexing is a technology that scrutinizes all the audio in YouTube videos. While it is only for politics now, the service will probably get expanded in the future.
How does news change through time? See it on the Google News Timeline. Results are shown in a timeline, with articles, videos and photos.
While major newspapers are not available in News Timeline, Google got together with The NY Times and The Washington Post in order to bring us Google Living Stories. This service shows news that is designed for the online environment. Stories are covered completely with all development gathered in one place.
If you’re planning to visit a big city and don’t know where to go sightseeing, go to Google City Tours and enter your starting address. The search engine will generate the best itinerary, telling you the time you will spend and draw you a route to follow for every day of your vacation.
After Bing announced Visual Search, Google decided to strike back with Image Swirl. Images are organized in groups (swirls) based on their similarity (whether visual or semantic). For instance, if you are looking for a jaguar, Google will organize the results in swirls: the car, the cat, logo. Additionally, images are organized by their angle, colors and so on.
Sure, you can find dictionaries all over the web, but Google Dictionary provides you with a little extra. When you search for a word, it gives you a definition, a phonetic transcription, synonyms, related phrases, related languages (if the word appears in other languages as well) and web definitions. Oh, and if possible, they give you a photo.
Squared is one of the niftiest services on Google, regardless of how simple it might seem. Let’s say you’re looking for landmarks in London. Squared creates a table with names, images, descriptions, locations and telephone numbers, but it doesn’t stop here. You can add your own columns: opening times, height, when they were constructed. The possibilities are almost unlimited. In case the list does not exist, you can help them and add it.
If you love news and you like to get it online, but don’t have enough time to check all the news websites, use Fast Flip.
I immersed myself in Google alternatives a few months ago, because I wanted to see what Google has to offer. I was very surprised at what I found. Google is really more than just a search engine. They are constantly trying to make your online experiences better. Many of the services mentioned are in beta, but they are all worth checking out.
In case you know other interesting and useful services by Google, feel free to mention them in comments.
(By) Alex is a blogger from Slovenia who loves internet novelties and runs the Renton Blog.
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WHISTLER OLYMPIC PARK, CANADA - FEBRUARY 12: (FRANCE OUT) Martin Schmitt of Germany during the Ski Jumping Individual NH Qualifications on Day 1 of the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympic Games on February 12, 2010 in Whistler Olympic Park, Canada.
Shared by Jan
How To Bring Your Google Buzz Entries to Twitter http://bit.ly/9k4Inp
Remember that “If You Printed Twitter” image that made the social media rounds two weeks ago? A similarly formatted graphic that describes the state of Internet use and adoption has been published today for your infotainment.
The focus is on exactly who uses the Internet, and how often. It breaks things down by gender, age, income level, and nationality. It even serves up average broadband speeds for both landline and mobile users at the bottom. Some of this stuff surprised us a bit — For example, desktop computers are still much more common than laptops. You wouldn’t guess that in day-to-day life in the developed world — at least not when it comes to personal use.
Here are some of the other points (the image itself is farther down):
- There’s no gender bias when it comes to the Internet; 74% of men use it, and so do 74% of women.
- The older people are, the less likely they are to use the Internet. 93% of people ages 18-29 use it, but only 38% of people 65+ do. 65 is where the big drop off happens, though; 70% of people 50 – 64 are online.
- As you might expect, the higher their income level, the more likely it is that someone has broadband access.
- Education is correlated as well. 94% of college grads are online, while only 39% of people with less than a high school education are.
- Internet use is up significantly in just the past five years. In 2005, 27% of people surveyed used the Internet “several times a day.” Now it’s 38%.
- 58% have a desktop computer. 46% have a laptop.
- Ages 25 – 44 make up the majority of people who blog. Only 7% of people under 25 do — that’s an even lower percentage than people 55 – 64! Have the youngsters latched on to other new media?
- 54% of bloggers consider themselves experts on whatever it is they’re blogging about.
- Norway is the country with the highest level of Internet penetration. The United States is in fifth place.
- Japan has the fastest Internet connections on average. No surprise there.
- The average mobile Internet connection clocks in at around 700 Kbps.
Tags: broadband, demographics, social media
Source [The Luxury Spot]
*A special thank you to Mace Windex, who prefers the size of the old Duke controllers, for the tip!
Filed under: Video Games Tagged: Freakin' Funny, Gamer Garb
Tips & Tweaks for S40 Mobile Phones – Going Beyond Limits
I love my S40 Nokia – granted it’s not an android and nowhere near an iphone, but still …
According to Wikipedia – “Series 40 is … the world’s most widely used mobile device platform and found in hundreds of millions of devices.”
So here are 10 Good reasons to prefer an S40 phone:
1. Ubiquity – as outlined above, it’s the most widely used platform;
2. Speed – the S40 platform is light and fast – faster than an iphone and faster than S60’s;
3. Battery life – I’m guessing based on experience that the light OS draws less power;
4. Simple UI – easy to use, intuitive functions;
5. Free applications – you’ll find plenty of free light-weight J2ME apps;
6. Compact – size has done a 360 but I’m still a less in more fan;
7. 3G – good speed especially where HSDPA is dodgy; the combination with light OS works;
8. Low Cost – usually at the lower end of the phone market & thus great value;
9. Solid – they work, hassle free
10. Opera Mini – runs Opera Mini 4.2 (or the beta version 5)
Ok, so it’s NOT an iphone or a fancy Windows Mobile smartphone but sometimes, just sometimes it’s refreshing to find a product that lets you maximize functions within it’s apparent limitations. The limits themselves become challenges and inspiration for valuable workarounds.
MY 10 Favourite S40 workarounds:
1. Keypad
Life without a QWERTY keyboard need not be unimaginable. Pre-plan handy usernames and passwords with the numeric keyboard in mind. For example – 258456 is a good username for fast one punch entry on a phone. On your PC it’ll look like this Ajtgjm (258456) – remember to start with an upper case letter as this is how your phone will automatically type and you’ll save a keystroke by planning for it. 258456 is the shape of a cross + on your phones numeric keypad and you’ll find it much faster to input when you learn these types of usernames. Remember to not repeat numbers or letters in sequence. That adds a millisecond delay.
Example of a fast Username and Password : Ajtgjm(258456) and ptwgjmab (78945623)
[Tip – Invent a rhyme to remember the letters and picture the numbers in rows on the phone)
1.1 Keypad continued / Predictive Text
Most phones have T9 predictive texting. Practice will have you thumbing along faster than most could manage on an iphone or QWERTY smartphone.
2. Assign Key Shortcuts
Most S40 phones have programmable key functions. I’ve set various keys to open frequently used applications. My SMS editor opens in one touch as do my mobile internet, calculator and camera.
3. Voice Commands
Many S40 phones also have programmable voice prompts. When you’ve used up all your assigned keys, use Voice Commands. My voice recorder opens when I say ‘recorder’.
4. Speed Dials
Often unused, set your speed dials, you’ll appreciate the time savings later.
5. Phonebook System
Power users know the value of an organized phonebook. My tip here is list your email in web services at the beginning of your phonebook like this: aaaaFacebook then aaaEvernote or aaPosterous and aTumblr or aFlickr. Saving these as contacts, you can use the built in email application to very rapidly send off stuff you’d like to share. I’ve added my own gmail address too so I can inbox myself important reminders via aaaGmailme.
Handy email/sms in services:
Facebook, Posterous(send in voice recording –Tip create a public & private account), CCBetty, Evernote, Flickr, My Opera, Picasa, Pixelpipe, Zoho, Google Docs, Tumblr, Tweetsms, Twitpic, Ubernote, Zyb and OVI.
6. Notes
I use my built in Note organizer to store all my personal info. I’m a bit worried about security so I jumble up the info with letters and digits I easily recognize as garble but which would render it useless to anyone else. For example – My mother is 63 and dad 71 so I’d put mom + dad and my passport number into this format 208498634422971. (fictional example) I do the same with credit card numbers and any banking or other sensitive personal data. Suitably camouflaged, I believe it’s perfectly safe.
7. Calendar
My calendar is a work of art. It have over 5 000 individual entries and spans at least 24 months into the future. It’s a bit over-the-top but with a little work, you too can enjoy the benefits.
The trick is loading the data via a PC. I’ve settle on 5 calendars. I use Google Calendars, Yahoo Calendars, Outlook Calendar, OVI Calendar and my phones inbuilt calendar.
Load all the data you wish to have available and then sync them according to how you wish to make the information public and/or private.
I went a step further and got Google SMS alerts – to be sure, to be sure ! I know, compulsive !
A last tip – make a HUGE jpg image snapshot of your full year planner and save the image on your phone. You can’t edit the picture but you’ll be able to get a quick look at an entire year and be able to zoom in and around it perfectly legibly.
8. Opera Mini
S40 phones come alive with Opera Mini. I use version 4.2 but beta version 5 is out.
There are plenty tricks to getting the most out of Opera Mini but I’ll try be brief:
1. Set Opera Mini to open with a one of your keypad shortcuts;
2. Use Opera Sync;
3. OBML Saved pages offer free data at your fingertips;
4. Bookmark – hopefully no explanation needed but be sure to include google mobile products;
5. Get an Opera Brower on a PC or get the USB version and sync bookmarks;
6. Sync’ed notes can be saved as OBML saved pages & are handy for ebooks;
7. Saved pages (OBML’s) of Facebook phonebook;
8. Java Bookmarklets – see o.yeswap.com
9. RSS feeds – spend time to set them up;
10. Google Profile – configure and use for links;
9. Essential Apps
1. Google Maps
2. Ebuddy
3. Kaywa Reader
4. scanR
5. World Clock
6. Translator
7. Converter II
10. Skype
IM+ for Skype is another essential and because 3G handles the voice data efficiently, I can recommend this application which needs a paid Skype out account.
And that’s it. Along with a couple other small tweaks, like local look4me services, you’ll be doing what any iphone user can. I’m convinced my Nokia 6234 performs as efficiently as phones 10 times its price and it gives me satisfaction to know I bagged the savings without much inconvenience.
greg smith
@gregsmithsays
President Barack Obama points to the media, as he enters to speak, after a discussion with 6th grade students at Graham Road Elementary School in Falls Church, Va., Tuesday, Jan. 19, 2010 (AP Photo/Alex Brandon) hat tip Bill
I bet he cheated on his exams too. They must be giving the class lesson on ....zero.
UPDATE: Paul B sent these:
UPDATE: Where's Kevin Jennings, giving FF lessons? Check out the tough guy in the back. Might be a tea partying kid in the bunch:Apparently there is no venue too small to require multiple teleprompters. P>>I saw these pictures and first thought they were photo shopped, but it ends up they are actual pictures from Obama talking to an elementary school classroom. And they made fun of Bush’s communication skills…
UPDATE: A local noted that the other interesting thing about his choice of schools: the population that feeds Graham Rd Elementary is almost 100% foreign born, majority illegal. He preparing for the next biggie - immigration reform which will make all their parents voters.
UPDATE: Distinction or fresh from the splitting hairs dept:
"Obama did bring teleprompters along for his Jan. 19 visit to Graham Road Elementary School in Falls Church, Va. They were set up in a classroom where the president made a statement to reporters about expanding his Race to the Top program to improve schools. That happened after he chatted with the sixth-graders in a separate classroom -- with no teleprompters."
http://www.nelsonmandelabay.gov.za/FIFAWORLDCUP/Assets/images/sports/ep%20rugby%20logo.jpg
How can companies cut down on the pointless emails clogging up inboxes? Start charging people to send them
I recently attended an off-site training program for a FTSE 100 company, and one of the main points of discussion was how to cut down on unnecessary emails. My response was simple: since sending an email is free, people will send too many. If you want to improve things, start charging a fee.
Markets work by bridging consumer value and the cost of production. The problem with emails – like so many other things – is that many of the costs are not born by the decision maker. When you copy five people in to an email that you send the additional cost to you is zero. However each of those people need to read through and decide whether it's actionable. You're imposing a cost on them. This is an externality.
One of the best ways to deal with externalities is to create a market. This means we start respecting other people's inbox as their own property, and stop dumping into it without consideration. We create a system that forces people to bear more of the costs of their actions.
It's a myth that businesses should aim to cut costs. Costs play an important role because they provide hurdles that prevent us from wasting resources. In some cases when costs are hidden such inefficiencies occur. A price system would make those costs more transparent, and make it less likely that pointless emails get sent.
The objective here isn't to minimise the amount of emails being sent – no one is in a position to judge how many emails "should" be sent, since this depends on a multitude of factors. Rather, the aim is to optimise the number of emails, given existing conditions.
The technology to do this exists. Yahoo has pioneered "CentMail", where users pay a small fee for each email sent to signal that it isn't spam. A similar scheme could be implemented for corporate email, which would actually generate revenue. It might challenge the cultural notion that all resources in a company are shared resources, but such socialism corrodes economies and paralyses an organisation.
It'd be nice if we all cared enough about our colleagues to bear their inboxes in mind before we dump on them, but when pressure mounts we tend to act on our pressing needs. Rather than try to change human nature, if you're serious about a more efficient email system then start charging.
Dig deeper. Don't start writing your articles without performing an extensive research. Keep in mind that your readers expect nothing but complete data when they read your articles. Don't disappoint them by going beyond the surface. Talk to as...
10 Commandments of a Great Innovator (inspirational mini-course by Vadim Kotelnikov, Author of InsBeCo - Inspirational Business e-Coach): Have a dream; Inspire your team, Focus on customers; Be different; Question everything; Synergize, Establish the process; Take risk; Lead change; Be entrepreneurial
