Category Archives: Google

OpenSocial: The Lowest Common Denominator?

Google’s OpenSocial is becoming the lowest common denominator for application integration in the social media space. That’s actually not that great for Google as it is rarely the case that the most successful applications run on the lowest common denominator … Continue reading

Posted in Digital Media, Facebook, Google, MySpace, social media, startups, Web 2.0 | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Walt Mossberg and Verizon’s Move to Open Its Network

I’m listening to Walt Mossberg speak at the Dow Jones Consumer Innovations conference. He began by pointing out that Verizon didn’t give him any credit when they announced the opening of the Verizon network. This is a huge deal, by … Continue reading

Posted in Apple, Google, Mobile | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

Google Addressing the "Facebook issue"

I’ve been slammed with two financings but this news merits taking time on a Sunday night to blog… Ever since word got out that Brad Fitzpatrick (previously chief architect at Six Apart) had joined Google people had a pretty clear idea what Brad’s … Continue reading

Posted in Facebook, Google, SaaS, startups, Web 2.0 | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Emerging Ecosystems & Platforms

I’m at David Kirkpatrick’s iMeme conference in SF. It’s likely going to be a treat. The speakers and the attendees are of great caliber. As an ex-platform guy who’s recently spent a lot of time thinking about social infrastructure, I’m … Continue reading

Posted in Digital Media, Google, Microsoft, SaaS, startups, virtual worlds, Web 2.0 | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Enterprises, Everybody Wants Your Data

As storage gets cheaper, enterprises small and large accumulate more and more information. Finding the right information at the right time is becoming harder and harder. Information comes from many sources: email, IM, the Web and intranets, employee’s desktops, enterprise … Continue reading

Posted in Google, Microsoft, startups | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Google Targets Enterprises With Postini Acquisition

Another strategic move by Google–buying Postini for $625M. Postini has been a leader in the hosted email/IM security, archiving and compliance space. In addition to having well-thought out service offerings, the company has been able to operate on a big scale … Continue reading

Posted in Google, Microsoft | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Google Gears Powers Web-to-Desktop Convergence

Google Gears will bring offline processing to AJAX applications, which promises to be a step towards closing the last big delta between traditional desktop and Web 2.0 applications. Web-to-desktop convergence is a very interesting topic and one that is bound to … Continue reading

Posted in Adobe, Google, SaaS, Web 2.0 | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

Playing Monopoly in the Advertising Space

So, let’s see: Microsoft buys aQuantive for $6B (2x price premium suggests some deal competition) Google buys DoubleClick for $3.1B (beats Microsoft) WPP buys 24/7 Media for $649M (Microsoft was also looking at it) Yahoo buys Right Media for $680M … Continue reading

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Perception and Reality: Why It Makes Sense For Google To Pay $3.1B For DoubleClick

Perception and reality sometimes have a twisted relationship. That’s particularly true in cases where being perceived as the leader makes you the leader. We tend to see these types of self-fulfilling prophecies in aggregator / market maker and other critical … Continue reading

Posted in Advertising, Google, Microsoft | Tagged , , , | 5 Comments

Mobile giants plot secret rival to Google

Courtesy of my friend Ajit Jaokar comes this speculation, reported in the Telegraph. Europe’s biggest telecoms groups are aiming to create a mobile phone search engine that could challenge Yahoo! and Google, the US giants. Vodafone, France Telecom, Telefonica, Deutsche … Continue reading

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