Posts Tagged: Google

Leadership — No Comments
3
Dec 09

Focus, Focus, Focus

One of Mac’s most famous pioneers, Guy Kawasaki (behind Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak) and Microsoft’s CEO, Steve Ballmer go head-to-head in this video:

The point Steve makes about Microsoft innovating on many different fronts is interesting. While Microsoft is developing MP3 players, mobile and desktop OS, gaming systems, browsers and search engines, the question becomes, are they losing focus? Are they concentrating on too many areas and diluting their efforts?

Microsoft is suffering on several areas. The software giant lost 28% market share in mobile OS this past year, Internet Explore’s grip in the browser market is slipping to Mozilla and Chrome (down from 75.47% in January to as low as 64.13%) and the Zune is continuing to choke.

The company faces even more competition from Google (beyond browsers and search engines) with their new Chrome OS. So while Ballmer says he wants to innovate on many different fronts, should they be instead re-tooling their strategy? One that brings more focus to their efforts?

This is a similar situation many entrepreneurs face as they begin their startup. There are so many things that could be done that you could lose sight of what needs to be done.

Create a list of your goals, then figure out how to get from A to B. This will help you develop your priorities. Next, keep to this list — try not to stray too far from your key priorities. After a while you should begin to make progress towards your goals. This strategy will help eliminate unimportant tasks from your daily schedule — allowing for more “me time.”

Marketing — No Comments
23
Nov 09

The Downside to Google’s Product Release Model

With every new product, Google first opens it to a small group of developers to work out the kinks. Then the product is handed off to a small group of influencers who generate buzz and the final step is a broad audience release. This model worked with such online staples as Gmail and Docs. Mainly because both web services could work cross platform — you could send and receive e-mails to and from your Gmail account to other services and Docs could work with Microsoft Office.

Google engineers asked: why should Google Wave be any different? Collaboration and single party platform. Google Wave is powered by collaboration and does not work with other platforms. The product is only as interesting as the amount of people you have to share it with. So those with only a handful of invitations you might be able to chat with a few of buddies — not with everyone you might want to Wave with.

Google failed to see the problem with their traditional product release model with Google Wave. Those top sets of influencers were not able to effectively use Google Wave because it requires others to have Wave. While it is essential to have developers work out the kinks to make a functional product, Google might have been better off of skipping the influencer step and opening it to the greater audience.

One of the most criticized features about Google Wave is, who do I Wave with? In this case, Google could have skipped over their tried and true product release model to make the product accessible for everyone. This way those early adopters can completely immerse themselves in the product — not be forced to wait until everyone else is allowed into the community.

Leadership — No Comments
11
Nov 09

Google Magic and Web Intelligence

Everyday it seems as if we’re bombarded with more information than the day previous. To bring clarity to our digital lives, we will increasingly look to web intelligence tools. Google Magic is one of those web intelligence tools that is helping bring relevance, convenience and clarity to the digital world. The new Google Reader feature brings relevant feeds and posts based on browsing history. Therefore, my Google Magic stream is going to be different than yours.

Google Magic was released a while ago, so I’ve had some time to experiment and see if it works. To my surprise, it does. Having browsed popular feeds with the Google Magic feature, I can tell you, I find much more interesting information than browsing without it.

Google is a leader in web intelligence by incorporating a tailored experience to many of their services. For instance, if I search Super Freakonomics, next time I type “Sup,” Google will suggest Super Freakonomics. So I don’t need to type the entire search query over again.

Amid a sea of information, there is an increasing need to find clarity. Web intelligence tools answer this problem with sophisticated, adaptive algorithms — bringing a personalized experience to every user. As Google is a leader in web intelligence tools, it will be interesting to see how they will incorporate this tech into their new OS.

Business Development — No Comments
2
Nov 09

Mozilla Raindrop and Web Intelligence Tools

Mozilla recently announced its new project, Raindrop. From the company that brought you Thunderbird, an open-source e-mail client, Raindrop aims to make the inbox fun again. By eliminating the democratic inbox (my work e-mail has the same value as a JetBlue coupon), Raindrop aims to bring some intelligence to e-mail. It will create a value hierarchy whereby e-mail that is more important to you will have a more prominent spot in the inbox.

Though Raindrop will not provide all of the answers to e-mail, it taps into the emerging trend in web 2.0 (or maybe web 3.0) of intelligent computing. With seemingly endless amounts of data, it can be overwhelming to face it all. As a result, we are going to increasingly rely on technology that understands our unique preferences and does the sifting for us.

Google Reader’s Magic feature is a great example of this. Essentially, Google Reader Magic scours the web for posts that are most relevant to you. As you build your user history, it can better find information that you’d be interested in. Therefore, you don’t need 250 subscriptions and waste time finding interesting nuggets. Simply build a small browsing history and let the algorithm do the work for you.

As more data and information permeates our lives, web intelligence tools will become more necessary than ever before. Those companies that can develop intelligence tools to make sense of this overwhelming amount of data will ride this rising trend.

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