Google 411 used to build text to speech engine

speculation that google is using GOOG 411 to help build their own text to speech engine to allow word searches in videos on the web

Apple and Google competitors closing the gap

Apple Mac sales have been gaining ground. This is largely attributed to the "halo effect", ie increased interest in macs due to success of the ipod. I agree the halo effect is driving interest however macs have had a competitive advantage over windows xp. Mac OS X is more current, and looks better. Apple is likely to loose some of that competitive edge with release of Windows Vista.

Regarding Google and Yahoo, Yahoo is finally rolling out Panama, their new system for advertising that replaces the system put in place with the acquisition of Overture. It is more or less a copy of Google's Adwords system and is likely to dramatically increase their revenues.

I am still bullish on Apple and Google long term, but in the short term their competitors are likely to close the gap slightly.

Google Test Site

searchmash is a site where google tests out new features.

Google to beat TV in race for ad revenues in UK

Here is another article about online advertising revenues growing at the expense of traditional media. This is antecdotal but whenever I watch a news program and they tease you with their next story before a commercial if it interests me I usually get up and do a search on google news.

google buys youtube

Google has bought youtube. I think it was a great move and I am long on Google. The most interesting thing is that they were profitable, and kept it a secret so no one would sue them. I think they will quickly integrate adsense (and possibly video adsense) and let users share in the profits from pageviews (as they do with blogger today).

During the negotiations Microsoft was asleep at the wheel. The best thing they could do for shareholders is to get out of the internet altogether and pass on the profits from Windows and Office in the form of dividends until the company folds. Bill Gates is retiring, and the place is creatively bankrupt.

Eveyone on the street is asking who will get bought next. Some are talking about facebook. My guess is that Yahoo will pay too much for facebook, while google feigns interest to drive the price up. Meanwhile google will continue to buy companies that have momentum but are not completely mainstream like reddit or digg... (just as they did with blogger and writely).

Mergers

There has been a lot of Mergers, Acquisitions and Alliances in tech, and there have been rumors of even more largely prompted by fear of Google. Fundamentally I think there are 2 markets: Advertisers/Application Providers(namely Google, Yahoo, and MSN (which I will call GYM for now)), and sellers (ebay and amazon). Mergers within these markets would be huge. Amazon and ebay would form an e-commerce powerhouse. Yahoo and Google would create a search and internet application powerhouse. These merges would give them leverage against the other camp like ebay-Amazon could negotiate volume advertising rates on Google. However mergers across these camps are going to create an unhealthy dynamic. For instance, ebay merging with Yahoo (as has been rumored) could be bad. It would be difficult for Yahoo executives to watch the ebay side funnel money into google advertising which is critical to ebay's survival. I think this overrides the fact that Ebay (and to some extent Amazon) is a valuable community, and it competes directly with Yahoo Auctions.

Beyond that the only acquistions that make sense are GYM buying applications that have strong communities, and shunning original content for user based content. Many applications can be easily replicated but require communites to work... like myspace, flickr, delicious, digg, and youtube.

Google obviously is a powerhouse, but has been reluctant to acquire other companies and has a tendancy to create their own applications even if another community has already been established(example: orkut and myspace). They have made some acquistions like blogger, but not many. I think they can take over any field where community is not imporant (search, maps), or there are standards (like email) but need to think more about acquiring where the community is so important.

Yahoo has made some brilliant acquisitions, namely overture, flickr and delicious. I have been concerned about Yahoo and their their emphasis on making original content since they hired several old school media executives, but they appear to have changed course.

Microsoft has made few good acquisitions, and whatever they acquire they will probably destroy (think hotmail). I remain bearish on Microsoft's ability to compete on the internet. From a technical perspective they will convert it to Windows which will be a major distraction and they will loose ground. Further it will make the company impossible to spin off, as it will either have to transition back to linux or pay enormous licensing fees to MSFT. Also, they have little goodwill with other businesses or consumers. They also have a culture that is spoiled, not in the habit of competing or delivering quickly, and they have no style or originality (think Origami). Also they don't have the focus that Google and Yahoo do on advertising.

Acquisitions:

I don't think it's a good idea for anyone to buy skype. It is not a clear case of buying the community. There is a community but it is tied to another community: the public phone network. Standards destroy exclusive communities. That is why google was so easily able to compete in email with gmail, but not with myspace. I think long term skype as well as vonage and any other voip play will be hard to capitalize on.

Before I bought skype or vonage I think it would make sense for GYM to buy at least the IM part of AOL for the community, not the technology. All three have their own messaging system but IM is the leader and the stronger it is pulled into the voip market the better chance it has for becoming the de-facto standard.

Other than that AOL is a dog. It's dial up business is plummetting, and original content should come from other companies. Of course there was the big deal about it's search and google, but I don't think aol has the leverage it thinks it does.

I think News corp acquisition of myspace was brilliant. Shame on GYM for not reckognizing it's potential. Bands that are on myspace have web pages that are effectively the same except without there friends. If the internet had started out with myspace written into the protocol of http, that might be the way we use it outright.

I think GYM should all be looking hard at YouTube before News corp scoops it up. It may very well replace tv as we know it. This is an example where google has built Google video instead of buying up a company that already is building the community.

I think everyone should look at digg. However, digg need to take the obvious step and extend beyond technology before someone else does.

I suspect at some point if wikipedia can't keep up it's servers someone may adopt it and add ads to the pages. Interestingly, Google is currently providing storage and hosting.

However, possibly the most brilliant acquisition of all was Google buying dark fiber. This will give them leverage against the telcos and cable companies as they try to buy the internet infrastructure and extort them.

Google Maps blogs

Here are 2 blogs that just cover cool google maps hacks.

http://googlemapsmania.blogspot.com/
http://coolgooglemaps.blogspot.com/

these are both examples of of a blog done right. No cost, set up blog w/ blogspot, and adsense for revenue. cool google maps got a link on digg for publicity.

google maps

Here are links to several cool google map hacks

Cool use of google maps

I am a big fan of google maps, because you can drag the map, change back forth between map and satelite views, and see yellow highlights for the primary roads. Chicago crime page is slick example of using google maps. It shows you where all the crimes have taken place in the city.

Adding a Search to your Site

Sharepoint, besides providing a portal framework, includes a search service for web sites. It can crawl, index, and provide web service to service search requests. SharePoint has advantages over using using Sql Server because it can search content not in the database (like word, and excel documents) and it has built in relevancy ranking system.

A much less expensive alternative to share point is easy search. It is only $250 and it even has google suggest features.

Of course there is always google search service and Google Search Appliance.