Friday, December 12, 2008
SMS Text Messaging for G chat
"How often do you try to chat with somebody and they don't respond because they just walked away from their computer? Or maybe you're in the middle of chatting with them just as they need to leave. But you still need to tell them something -- something really important like you've moved where you're meeting...or ice cream! We need ice cream! This is why we built a way to chat with your friends even when they're away from their computers. Now you can keep the conversations going with a new Labs feature that lets you send SMS text messages right from Gmail. It combines the best parts of IM and texting: you chat from the comfort of your computer, and your friends can peck out replies on their little keyboards."
Chrome Comes Out of Beta with 10 Million Users
"As was reported yesterday, Google’s browser Chrome is coming out of beta — a mere 100 days after it was introduced. When I commented to Sundar Pichai, Product VP, that this had to be one of the fastest exits from beta for Google in recent memory he explained that “Google has a very traditional approach to our client software products,” meaning it accelerates the process of getting them to a general release."
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Recessions give space for new ideas to flourish
. . .
While the economic effects of recession can be dire, in the long term the effect on work and working habits can be positive."
. . .
So what impact will the current recession have on work over the next decade?
. . .
First, while the focus is still on shoring up finance and the economy, in time we will begin to question the prevailing norms of leadership and decision-making. The dominant “command and control” leadership style that allows a chief executive such as Richard Fuld at Lehman Brothers unilaterally to make decisions about the whole company will increasingly come under scrutiny. If the crowd is indeed wise, why do we put our faith in the decisions and knowledge of a tiny fraction of people?
. . .
Next, past recessions have often served to accelerate the development of practices and processes that had limited popularity pre-recession. Before the 1990s recession, for example, off-shoring was seen to be too complex and difficult an option. It was only with the cost imperatives of the recession that off-shoring was initially pushed and then eventually became a norm, later to be broadened and deepened into its current application. The same is true of group-ware technologies, which have had limited uptake as people said they would prefer to meet face to face. Now, however, those who last year would have jumped on a plane to attend meetings have had their travel budgets slashed. They are being forced to use video conferencing and webcasts. . . . . Others, however, will have fundamentally changed their habits and begun to build working communities that are virtual.
Finally, the 2008-2009 recession will profoundly change the way occupations are seen. Each previous recession has had some impact on perceptions. The 1990s recession slowed the rush to technology and start-ups. The current one may well have the same impact on banking, which has been a huge magnet for talent. The upside would be that our most talented youngsters might look to more than just investment banking for a career.
Recessions are a time of destruction of the old order, a time when assumptions are questioned and nascent practices and ideas are given space to flourish. That is little cheer for now but, in the longer term, an enormous stimulus for change.
King Google
Via TechCrunch, here’s a good PPT outlining the continued primacy of Google across its various products and lines of business:"
Sunday, December 07, 2008
2008 Video Search Year In Review
"The big TV networks haven’t given up on their own sites, but in 2008, some networks have started to embrace YouTube. CBS, in a very resourceful move, recently announced a partnership with YouTube to stream full length episodes of popular shows like “MacGyver.” MGM has also reached an agreement to post movies on YouTube. Between funny skateboarding accidents and full-length episodes of MacGyver, I don’t think I’ll ever leave YouTube."
2008 Video Search Year In Review
"YouTube rolls out a new ad-model. Recently, YouTube internal search results have started to look a little more like Google.com results. Google has used AdWords functionality to allow advertisers to bid on YouTube search terms that trigger ads to appear in the “sponsored video” section of the YouTube search results. For example, an advertiser selling first aid products might benefit from bidding on the “funny skateboarding accidents” phrase. Unlike Google.com, clicking on the ad keeps the user on the YouTube domain, where they see a featured video from the advertiser. This channel could be particularly effective for studios promoting movie trailers, companies bringing a new product to market, and brand advertisers like car manufacturers wanting to showcase products. 2009 will tell if sponsored video becomes the effective YouTube ad model that advertisers have been craving."
Tuesday, December 02, 2008
Google Sorts One Petabyte Of Data In 6 Hours - Analytics - InformationWeek
"According to last Friday's Official Google Blog, the Google (NSDQ: GOOG) Systems Infrastructure Team has sorted a record 1 terabyte of data on 1,000 computers in only 68 seconds, which breaks the previous mark of 209 seconds established in July by Yahoo.
Team leader Grzegorz Czajkowski wrote that the team followed the rules of a standard terabyte sort benchmark and used Google's MapReduce software framework that supports parallel computations over large (multiple petabyte) data sets on clusters of computers. Yahoo's effort had featured a 910-node cluster, and used Hadoop, an open-source MapReduce implementation.
The sort benchmark, which was created in 1998 by computer scientist Jim Gray, specifies the input data (10 billion 100-byte records in uncompressed text files), which must be completely sorted and written to disk. Not content with just rewriting the record book, the Google team then decided to up the ante in sorting massive volumes of data."
. . .
One petabyte is a thousand terabytes, or roughly 12 times the amount of archived Web data in the U.S. Library of Congress as of May 2008. One way to put that amount in perspective, according to Czajkowski, is to consider that the aggregate size of data processed by all instances of MapReduce at Google was, on average, 20 PB per day in January 2008. A paper explaining MapReduce on the Google labs site says that the upwards of one thousand MapReduce jobs are executed on Google's clusters every day. So the infrastructure team's MapReduce job that extended the benchmark factors out to 50 typical MapReduce jobs, or one-twentieth the total of all daily MapReduce jobs run on Google's clusters.
Google v Microsoft
"Do the hit counters at ComScore have a different take on this situation? The Seattle Post-Intelligencer quotes a ComScore study that shows Microsoft's search share holding steady. However, that refers to October versus September search share. If you eyeball the one-year graph in that story, you'll see essentially the same decline that Neilsen found.
Beneath these two contradictory headlines, there is actually some consistent data. Microsoft has lost about 20 percent of its market share in the past year, but in recent months has seemed to stop the bleeding. Yahoo has even managed a slight uptick in searches over the past two months. It makes you wonder whether the now-unlikely merger of these two would make any difference when both are so far behind Google."
Op-Ed Contributor - How to Publish Without Perishing - NYTimes.com
"One could imagine the book, venerable as it is, just vanishing into the ether. It melts into all the other information species searchable through Google’s most democratic of engines: the Web pages, the blogs, the organs of printed and broadcast news, the general chatter. (Thanks for everything, Gutenberg, and now goodbye.)
But I don’t see it that way. I think, on the contrary, we’ve reached a shining moment for this ancient technology. Publishers may or may not figure out how to make money again (it was never a good way to get rich), but their product has a chance for new life: as a physical object, and as an idea, and as a set of literary forms."
A Maturing Google Buckles Down and Searches for Cost Savings - Advertising Age - Digital
"NEW YORK (AdAge) -- The recession is reverberating even in the freewheeling halls of the Googleplex.
Proving that even the search giant isn't immune from the vagaries of the economy, Google is cutting its 10,000-strong contract staff, nixing some new products that won't pay back in the near term and aggressively trying to squeeze more out of existing revenue streams."
Google's Plan for Mobile Domination | Fast Company
"In January, California will join the states that have made it illegal to text while driving. Google's voice-powered service, GOOG-411, is great for hands-free access to local information. Call 800-GOOG-411 and the system prompts you to tell it where you are and what you want. You can even have it send directions via a text message."
worth the click for more details
Monday, December 01, 2008
It's not Chrome v Firefox, it's Google v Microsoft
Media News - European Journalism Centre:
"Google is considering pre-installing its Chrome browser on personal computers in the search giant's latest challenge to the dominance of Microsoft's Internet Explorer. The move would significantly ramp up the browser war that Google launched against Microsoft when it launched Chrome in September, in the battle to dominate how users access and interact with the web"
Saturday, November 29, 2008
Wal-Mart, FedEx, Lenovo Discuss Supply Chain Sustainability � Environmental Leader � Green Business, Sustainable Business, and Green Strategy News for
"Executives from Waste Management, FedEx and Lenovo discuss sustainability and the supply chain at Wal-Mart’s Sustainability Summit in Beijing, China."
Go the links for 3 8 minutes videos
T Wal-Mart buys wind energy, plans to power 360 Texas stores
Wal-Mart purchased the wind-generated energy from Duke Energy Corp., a Charlotte, N.C., electric-power company. The electricity will come from a wind farm constructed by the energy company near Ector and Winkler counties in West Texas. According to Wal-Mart press releases, the farm, called the Notrees Windpower Project, will be complete by the end of 2008. The wind farm will generate 226 million kilowatt hours, enough energy to power more than 20,000 average American homes annually."
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
WalMart and Local Economies
"Retailer stocks shelves with locally grown holiday favorites
BENTONVILLE, Ark., Nov. 25 /PRNewswire-HISPANIC PR WIRE/ -- While the economic climate continues to be a concern for local farmers, Walmart is continuing its effort to help local agriculture business by continuing partnerships with small farms and stocking shelves with locally grown items.
In-store seasonal facts:
-- Walmart sells locally grown pumpkins in 27 states - more than half the country - making Walmart the largest local pumpkin distributor in the U.S.
-- Customers in 17 states, including North Carolina and Utah, can purchase locally grown apples for their homemade holiday apple pie.
-- Walmart works with 50 small cranberry growers through Ocean Spray to bring local cranberries to customers in Washington and Massachusetts, among others.
-- Walmart offers local sweet potatoes in seven states including Mississippi, Alabama and Louisiana. Sweet potatoes are grown in southern states due to specific climate needs.
"Our partnership with Walmart has allowed us the opportunity to grow our business and expand our acreage," said Greg Nix, Apple Wedge Farms, a Walmart apple supplier. "It's great to know that a company as big as Walmart is focused on local agriculture business especially at a time when many industries are struggling."
Walmart's locally grown offerings go beyond the produce aisle. Walmart offers locally grown poinsettias - the traditional plant of choice for decorating and gift giving during the holiday season - in Garden Centers in 20 states across the country.
-- Walmart stores in North Carolina sell poinsettias from Metrolina Greenhouses, Inc., a Huntersville-based greenhouse. Metrolina invests extensively in research and development to produce plants that are grown in environmentally friendly greenhouses.
-- Florida customers will see locally grown poinsettias from Sunshine Growers. Sunshine Growers gives a portion of their poinsettia sales to local charities, churches, schools and nursing homes.
Reports: Wal-Mart To Sell iPhone Starting Dec. 28
"New reports suggest discount retail giant Wal-Mart will begin selling the iPhone Dec. 28, a move raising some eyebrows while also expanding Apple’s retail strategy, according to other experts. An AT&T memo obtained by the Boy Genius Report outlined plans to offer the iPhone first in select Wal-Mart and Sam’s Club locations, followed by nationwide availability [...]"
World Prout Assembly: Let Walmart do it!
1. At WalMart, Americans spend $36,000,000 every hour of every day.
2. This works out to $20,928 profit every minute!
3. WalMart will sell more from January 1 to St. Patrick's Day (March 17th) than Target sells all year.
4. WalMart is bigger than Home Depot Kroger Target Sears Costco K-Mart combined.
5. WalMart employs 1..6 million people and is the largest private employer. And most can't speak English.
6. WalMart is the largest company in the history of the World.
7. WalMart now sells more food than Kroger & Safeway combined, and keep in mind they did this in only 15 years.
8. During this same period, 31 Supermarket chains sought bankruptcy (including Winn-Dixie).
9. WalMart now sells more food than any other store in the world.
10. WalMart has approx 3,900 stores in the USA of which 1,906 are SuperCenters; this is 1,000 more than it had 5 years ago.
11. This year, 7.2 billion different purchasing experiences will occur at a WalMart store. (Earth's population is approximately 6.5 billion.)
12. 90% of all Americans live within 15 miles of a WalMart.
13. Let WalMart bail out Wall Street and the auto industry!!!"
International Retail Guru Michael Duke to Replace Lee Scott as Wal-Mart CEO
"Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT) has announced that H. Lee Scott Jr., 59, will be stepping down as the retail giant’s chief executive officer, effective Feb. 1. He will be succeeded by Michael “Mike” T. Duke, 58, head of the company’s overseas operations.
. . .
Duke is currently head of the Wal-Mart’s international division, which goes a long way toward explaining his ascension. International expansion will pay a very large part in Wal-Mart’s future growth, and under Duke’s stewardship the company’s global presence has grown markedly.
Duke said in June that overseas revenue could eclipse $100 billion for the first time in the fiscal year that ends Jan. 31. International sales, which account for about one quarter of the Wal-Mart’s business, totaled $90.6 billion in 2007.
International sales could jump 9.3% in the year starting FebruaryCitizen WalMart
"It was not long ago that nobody interested in making a better world would ever have a good thing to say about WalMart, the giant American retailer, and owner of Asda in the UK. Yet speaker after speaker praised WalMart at the Economist conference on corporate citizenship that Matthew has just moderated in San Francisco."
Wal-Mart Aggressively Courts Mommy Bloggers — Commercial Alert
"Eleven Moms Weigh in on P&G, Coke, Campbell Brands
Over the weekend of Nov. 15-16, Katja Presnal was a key figure in the public flogging of Motrin and its parent Johnson & Johnson on Twitter, creating a YouTube video that showed dozens of tweets castigating its babywearing ad.
By Nov. 21, she was blogging in an entirely different way. Ms. Presnal was preparing a blog post in her role as one of Wal-Mart Stores’ Eleven Moms panel of mommy bloggers behind the planned Nov. 24 unveiling of “Salon Secret,” which turns out to be Procter & Gamble Co.’s Pantene.
The idea was to have the mommy bloggers, who had attended a trip to Wal-Mart’s Bentonville, Ark., headquarters last month, be treated with an unnamed “salon brand,” to be revealed as Pantene. A sampling site for the launch notes that 70% of salon-brand users prefer the mystery brand.
Power of mommy bloggers
Ms. Presnal, who runs the Skimbaco.com online retail site and SkimbacoLifestyle blog, is a one-woman embodiment of the best and worst that mommy bloggers can offer marketers."