October 26th, 2009

Google Adds Social Search

Posted by Dave Greenfield @ 5:43 pm

Categories: Google, Search

Tags: Google Inc., Social Search, New York, Search Result, Dave Greenfield

A new experiment in Google Labs informs your search results with input from your social circle. Read the rest of this entry »

October 12th, 2009

Google Adds Shared Folders to Docs

Posted by Dave Greenfield @ 3:32 pm

Categories: Google, Social Media

Tags: Folder, Google Inc., Google Docs, Shared Folder, Dave Greenfield

Google announced today that it was adding shared folders to Google Docs. With shared folders any file placed in the folder is  shared amongst people with access rights to the folder. Read the rest of this entry »

July 8th, 2009

Google Officially Announces OS for PCs

Posted by Dave Greenfield @ 2:31 am

Categories: Android Project, Enterprise 2.0, Google, Uncategorized

Tags: Google Inc., PC, Operating System, Google Chrome, Google Chrome OS, Software Architecture, Netbooks, Nettops & MIDs, Operating Systems, Productivity, Hardware

Google officially announced yesterday night that they were developing an operating to run on x86 and ARM processors. The open source project is an extension of Chrome, hence the name Google Chrome Operating System and will initially target netbooks with product delivery set for the second half of next year; PC support for the Chrome OS will come later. As Google puts it:

Speed, simplicity and security are the key aspects of Google Chrome OS. We’re designing the OS to be fast and lightweight, to start up and get you onto the web in a few seconds. The user interface is minimal to stay out of your way, and most of the user experience takes place on the web. And as we did for the Google Chrome browser, we are going back to the basics and completely redesigning the underlying security architecture of the OS so that users don’t have to deal with viruses, malware and security updates. It should just work.

Google Chrome OS will run on both x86 as well as ARM chips and we are working with multiple OEMs to bring a number of netbooks to market next year. The software architecture is simple - Google Chrome running within a new windowing system on top of a Linux kernel. For application developers, the web is the platform. All web-based applications will automatically work and new applications can be written using your favorite web technologies. And of course, these apps will run not only on Google Chrome OS, but on any standards-based browser on Windows, Mac and Linux thereby giving developers the largest user base of any platform.

Google Chrome OS is a new project, separate from Android. Android was designed from the beginning to work across a variety of devices from phones to set-top boxes to netbooks. Google Chrome OS is being created for people who spend most of their time on the web, and is being designed to power computers ranging from small netbooks to full-size desktop systems. While there are areas where Google Chrome OS and Android overlap, we believe choice will drive innovation for the benefit of everyone, including Google.

We hear a lot from our users and their message is clear - computers need to get better. People want to get to their email instantly, without wasting time waiting for their computers to boot and browsers to start up. They want their computers to always run as fast as when they first bought them. They want their data to be accessible to them wherever they are and not have to worry about losing their computer or forgetting to back up files. Even more importantly, they don’t want to spend hours configuring their computers to work with every new piece of hardware, or have to worry about constant software updates. And any time our users have a better computing experience, Google benefits as well by having happier users who are more likely to spend time on the Internet.

February 3rd, 2009

Gmail Gets Move To and Auto-Complete

Posted by Dave Greenfield @ 11:57 am

Categories: Google, Uncategorized, Unified Communications

Tags: Google Gmail, Label, Labels, E-mail Providers, Cloud Computing, Internet, Dave Greenfield

I recently became a heavy Gmail users having lived with Outlook for years. I still use Outlook for some things, like synching with my Windows Mobile device, but for the most part I found Gmail to be leaner and  faster than Outlook.

Yet there were two pet-peeves I continued to have with Gmail. Labels are great and all, but there are times I just want to move a message out of my inbox into a folder. Call me old-fashioned, but I guess I”m not the only one. Today, Google is adding that capability to Gmail:

One of the features that makes Gmail different is its use of labels instead of folders. Sure, labels can serve pretty much the same purpose — they can help organize mail or flag messages for follow up. And unlike with folders, messages can have several labels, so if I get an email from a friend about a trip we’re taking together, I can add both a “Friends” and a “Travel” label to it.

But it’s not always obvious how to use labels, especially for people who are new to Gmail and used to using folders, and it hasn’t helped that some common tasks have been more complicated than they should be. For instance, to move an email out of your inbox and into a label you first had to apply the label using the “More actions” menu and then click “Archive.”

Starting today, the buttons and menus at the top of your inbox will look a bit different:

Instead of having to first apply the label and then archive, you can just use the “Move to” button to label and archive in a single step — just like you would with a folder. If you just want to add or remove a label, use the new “Labels” button. Auto-complete works, so for those of you with a lot of labels, you can select the one you want just by typing the first couple characters.

We’re also adding keyboard shortcuts: v for “Move to” and l (lowercase L) for “Labels.” Make sure you have keyboard shortcuts turned on to use these.

We’re making these changes for everyone over the course of today, so you may not see them right away. But between the shortcuts and auto-complete, you’ll soon be able to add and remove labels without touching your mouse.

Now if they can only get mail-merge working on Gmail we’ll be set.

September 8th, 2008

Are browsers the answer for the 3-D Web?

Posted by Dave Greenfield @ 4:37 am

Categories: Google, Second Life, Virtual Reality

Tags: 3D, Virtual World, Thin Client, Web Browser, GoWeb3D, Thin Clients, Hardware, Dave Greenfield

Just got back from a camping trip in northern Israel when I saw this release announcing GoWeb3D, a new virtual world venture that will bring virtual offices, conference rooms, classrooms, exhibit halls, and retail spaces to the Web.

GoWeb3D is the latest of a string of announcements over the summer around the merging of the virtual world space with the browser. Electric Sheep Company announced WebFlock, a thin client v-world for under $100,000. Google introduced Lively in July and then this past August, Altadyn released its next generation thin-client, 3DXplorer. GoWeb3D is using 3DXplorer as the basis of its technology.

Thin clients are game changers. As I laid out in my report on virtual worlds, today’s virtual world applications aren’t appropriate for the enterprise for several reasons. They take too long to install and consume too many resources on the client. They’re not appropriate for the casual visitor to a web site or browser. Thin clients don’t require pre-registration or complicated software downloads. As such thin clients expand the universe of potential visitors from subscribers to a specific platform to any visitor to a web site.  It’s sort of like the difference between a full fledged IM client used for daily communication and Java enabled applet that’s initiated when for customers to chat with a sales rep at a web site.

Philip Rosedale doesn’t see it that way. In an interview with TechCrunch, the SecondLife CEO dismisses the threat of browser based virtual worlds. He points out that SL has open sources its client hoping that it would be adopted as soon as possible. At the same time, he dismisses the threats of thin clients pointing out that they lack the functionality of thick clients.

But the properties that have made SecondLife so successful aren’t needed by thin-clients. They’re just a part of a broader push to develop photorealistic 3D worlds underlying the next generation Internet.  With players like Google and Microsoft pushing the development of the rendering frameworks and cataloguing buildings, web browser-based virtual worlds won’t require the rendering tools available in SecondLife.  Google’s 3D Warehouse, for example, provides enterprises with all of the building samples they’ll need for creating a 3D world. Ironically, Google’s own Lively will not be able to import buildings from 3D Warehouse; 3Dxplorer will include those buildings.

By being part of a broader eco-system, browser-based 3D clients can rely on other parties to deliver functions needed for constructing a 3D world. And for enterprises, the 102 avatar styles or realistic rippling water effect so important to gaming systems aren’t nearly as important as security, availability, accounting for regulatory compliance, and interoperability.

On this last point there’s good news. While the virtual world interoperability continues to be way off, thin-clients, such as 3Dxplorer, solve the problem to some extent by allowing visitors to login with the same identity from other company’s virtual worlds running on the same platform.

At the end of the day, 3D vendors will need to show their technology will improve the visitor’s experience to a site if they’re going to be successful beyond hobbyists or casual gamers. Certainly, the enhanced social experience becomes part of that value. Building community is important for any web site. There’s also the ability to lead someone through an online experience and show them what they may want to see. The ability to have on avatar lead another through a virtual space would be helpful on this score.

April 2nd, 2008

Google to Buy Skype?

Posted by Dave Greenfield @ 5:29 am

Categories: Asterisk, Google, Skype, Uncategorized, VoIP

Tags: Google Inc., Google Gmail, Skype Technologies S.A., Rumors, E-mail Providers, Telephony, Peer To Peer (P2P), VOIP, Telecommunications, Internet

Rumors are out again that Ebay’s albatross. aka Skype, may soon be unloaded to Google. The deal could be valued at as much as $6 billion:

“Skype is booking about $400 million in revenue now, and it’s conceivable the company could command 10-times that. *A reader suggests Skype is on track to post $600mm of revenue in 2008. If so, Google might well pay $5-$6 billion.,”writes Henry Bloget at Silicon Alley Insider.

Complaints with Skype isn’t anything new. Rumors have been rife for sometime that Ebay had to do something with the P2P VoIP system. The company went from “cool and disruptive to a wildly over-priced acquisition” when it purchased Skype, writes Mark Evans., and took a $1.4 billion writedown on the deal.

While eBay may have come to hate the P2P VoIP system, TechCrunch’s Michael Arlington points out that Google has just started to think about dominating the voice space. The company has GTalk, it’s own peer-to-peer VoIP system, a free 411 service, and GrandCentral.

Adding Skype to that mix could pull those services together. Certainly pulling together Skype and Gmail are intriguing. The move would give Gmail the broadest reach of any P2P VoIP system today. Skype has done more than a 100 billion VoIP minutes and at any one time there are 10 million simultaneous users on Skype. That’s some marketplace for Google’s products.

The integration of Gmail and Skype could also help with third-party presence integration. Google uses XMPP in Gmail for presence information so a Skype integration could finally open up the network to sharing presence information with other IM systems.

As for business, Skype for Business could end up being bundled in with Google Apps as a starter. What might be more interesting is a tighter integration between Asterisk, which Gmail works with today, and Skype. I’m thinking native Skype trunking (available through third-parties today), using the Skype client as a client on the Asterisk server, and federating presence between Asterisk servers.

February 28th, 2008

Google Sites: A Sharepoint Killer?

Posted by Dave Greenfield @ 12:48 pm

Categories: Google, Wikis

Tags: Google Inc., Google Apps, Collaboration, Microsoft SharePoint, Microsoft Corp., TechMeme, Google Sites, Groupware, Enterprise Software, Software

The Google redesigned Jotspot Wiki, dubbed Google Sites, is being looked as a Sharepoint “killer”. With Sites, Google would like to think that Google Apps is ready take on Office and the rest of Microsoft suite, but is it? 

Matthew Glotzbach, Google’s Management Director of Enterprise, called the combined products under Google Apps a “Microsoft Sharepoint killer” because it’s allowing businesses to collaborate without all that expensive Microsoft software, writes Michael Arlington.

When Jotspot was initially released, I thought it easy to use collaboration app would give small business an answer to high-priced collaboration software. Back then the only Wiki-style collaboration platforms for business was Jotspot and Socialtext.

How things have changed. Today, there are more than 50 Wikis targeting business each with their own level of complexity and capability. Given that context Google Sites is interesting, but hardly the revolutionary product that Jotspot had originally introduced.

Yes, yes Google Sites is more than just a Wiki and nor will (or should) anyone discount Google as a competitor. Still, I don’t think Google Sites can elevate Google Apps to the status of an enterprise play. Here’s why:

My own experience with Google Apps, for example, has been neutral to positive at best. Google’s done a good job capturing most of the critical functions that one would need from a Microsoft Word. Most though I dare not say all and there’s enough missing today to still be a hindrance to adoption.

So what’s missing? How about not being able to use traditional shortcut keys like Ctrol-C for copy or Ctrol-V for paste. Columns on tables can’t be resized simply by dragging columns nor can you use the fonts on your computer and not just the six fonts Google licensed from Microsoft. Those are just some of the problems out there. You can find more rants about Google Apps by reading Rich McManus’ post here.  

As for taking on Microsoft’s Sharepoint, Google Sites will have a long way to go, writes Eweek’s Clint Bouton:

…Forrester Research analyst Erica Driver told eWEEK that even with Google Sites, Google Apps is still limited compared to IBM Lotus Quickr and Microsoft SharePoint platforms.

Driver said these other suites include an abundance of functionality in key areas such as basic content services, collaboration, communication, social computing tools, portal services, office productivity tools, and what we think of as “business intelligence for the masses.”

Moreover, Apps lacks secondary functionality such as search, information rights management, business process management and informal learning, she said.

AMR Research analyst Jim Murphy agreed, and made the case that the evolution of Google Apps, particularly with Sites, is not unlike the bridge between the functionality in Microsoft Office and SharePoint.

“In Office, [Microsoft] had developed personal productivity capabilities in separate standby applications (basically word processing, spreadsheets, presentation) plus e-mail and messaging,” Murphy told eWEEK. “SharePoint ties everything together and makes Office more of a group or even enterprise productivity application by enabling collaboration.”

He also said there’s still a question of whether Google Apps can act as a true platform for companies because of certain hindrances to adopting across the enterprise. Specifically, he said that while Google is working to usher in offline support for Apps, it might be difficult to do for every function that they’re introducing.

Moreover, if Apps is to become a true platform, it has to be easier to customize or integrate to suit specific company and partner needs, such as enterprise applications like ERP and CRM, he said.

The final blow, in Murphy’s opinion? Google Sites has no workflow. “They’re going to have to find a simple way to introduce that. But it’s a challenge to keep a concept like workflow simple.”

Jotspot was a novel even revolutionary application for its time. Google Sites is not. With that said, Google Site is a small fraction of Google’s repertoire, far smaller than one suspects Sharepoint is for Microsoft. It and Google Apps aren’t in a postion to threaten Sharepoint and Microsoft Office today, but tomorrow will well be a different matter.

Techmeme has more to say on the matter.

February 3rd, 2008

What Microsoft's Yahoo Bid Means for IT

Posted by Dave Greenfield @ 12:37 pm

Categories: Enterprise 2.0, Google, Search, Uncategorized, Unified Communications

Tags: Google Inc., Yahoo! Inc., Microsoft Corp., Cisco Systems Inc., Mergers & Acquisitions, Investment, Finance, Dave Greenfield

In case you missed it, Steve Ballmer mailed Yahoo’s board of directors on Friday a love letter proposing an acquisition to the tune of $44.6 billion or $31 per share. You can read it here.

Larry Dignan thinks that Yahoo should take the deal noting that

Sure, there would be some overlap between the companies, but Microsoft would get Yahoo’s managers like Sue Decker and research teams. Microsoft touted R&D critical mass and innovation as two big selling points. In addition, the two combined Web giants could cut a lot of costs. Microsoft is estimating about $1 billion in savings from the combined entity.

And what are the implications for collaboration? Long-time UC analyst Jim Burton sees this as as a Microsoft play for a mobile UC strategy:

Microsoft has not presented a broad UC strategy for the mobile market. I am sure they are working on one and a Yahoo acquisition would be a great help in jump-starting the move from strategy to implementation. Yahoo does a great job of organizing information and services into portals. They are typically broad horizontal offerings – the type of market position Microsoft likes.

Eric Krapf wonders about the implications that this will have for Google and suggests that Google-Cisco merger may be in the wings:

More significant could be the effect such a deal could have on Google. With Microsoft striking so close to the heart of Google’s core business, presumably Google will have to respond by being even more aggressive in trying to shift the model to ‘cloud computing’

So if we enter a new era of blockbuster consolidation, how about a Google-Cisco merger of equals? It fits neither’s modus operandi when it comes to M&As, but would a Microsoft-Yahoo combination change the playing field?

The Google-Cisco deal might seem some what bizarre given Cisco’s traditional hardware focus, but having visited last week with Cisco’s Cullen Jennings it’s pretty clear that the company is serious about Web 2.0 technologies with search being one of them. More on that score later….

Nobody has mentioned the tie-in Sharepoint and enterprise search. As you’ll recall, Microsoft announced its intention to acquire enterprise search leader FAST in January. Aside from integrating search results into a common appliance, Microsoft-Yahoo deal has some interesting implications for the whole enterprise social network space Yahoo’s got great community features. Tie that in with FAST and Sharepoint and you could end up with an IT community, something along the lines of a SpiceWorks.

December 20th, 2007

Google Toolbar: A New Malware Threat

Posted by Dave Greenfield @ 4:12 am

Categories: Google

Tags: Google Toolbar, Google Inc., Toolbar, Malware, Attack, Cyberthreats, Spyware, Adware & Malware, Security, Web Browsers, Viruses And Worms

Now there’s another source of potential malware to worry about. A researcher has released code that shows how a hacker can use the Google toolbar to get users to install malicious software or expose themselves to a phishing attack by installing a new toolbar button.

The report from TrendLabs Malware blog says that the attack uses a “…specially crafted link to that refers to the button’s XML file, which when clicked displays a dialog box summarizing the details of the button to be installed.” The hacker manipulates the URL within the dialog to make it appear non-malicous by adding special redirector strings. Trust is increased, improving the likelihood that the user will click on the link. Once installed, the user must click the link to install the malicious code or launch a fake log-in process.

According to the report, Google classifies the attack as non-critical due to the steps required for its execution. Google is said to be looking at a way to fix the bug.

The attack affects Google Toolbar 4 for Internet Explorer and Firefox as well as Google Toolbar 5 for IE.

November 28th, 2007

Legalists: Google Case Precedent for Challenging Privacy

Posted by Dave Greenfield @ 1:31 pm

Categories: Google, Internet Law, Israel, Privacy, Uncategorized

Tags: Google Inc., Defamation, TechCrunch, Privacy, Israel, David Mirchin, Investment, Security, Finance, Dave Greenfield

Yesterday, Google released the name of an anonymous blogger engaged in a defamation case in Israel. The case is significant on a number of accounts not the least of which is because it may help loosen privacy restrictions in the US.

Read the rest of this entry »