Google chops off Indian Head - Jammu Kashmir off the map

Oops they did it again! A screenshot from Google's Analytics software says it all...

Flash Apps on Android vs iPhone OS x vs Maemo

There is a big Mobile OS battle running out their. With every mobile phone manufacturers and software providers doing all they can to bring the fastest, sexiest and coolest mobile device out for the consumers. A lot has to do with applications or apps. built around these OS platforms which makes the platform look cool and involves more people and gets them excited.

Google Android Phone - Adobe on 7th January updated about the Flash 10.1 BETA support on google android phone.
Watch Video here

It's a significant advancement that the open handset alliance can rejoice this year and pass on the benefits to the consumers and break Apple's App Store monopoly.

iPhone OSx - Presently, any application built in flash can not directly run on iPhone. And off-course the Jesus Phone has millions of fan following. However, iPhone doesn't allow and doesn't intend to allow to run any flash app to work on iPhone directly, you need to develop it with the MAC SDK provided by Apple. This meant that the app has to be available through the Apple's store and Apple gets 30% of the revenue share in each app download. Sifting through pages on adobe's site, when you land upon adobe flash's support for iPhone, you will be surprised to see that * which says: Delivery through the App Store requires participation in the iPhone Developer Program and approval of the application by Apple. meaning 30% revenue share remains.

However, with Google and HTC and other partners of the open handset alliance coming together and launching the google android based phones and adobe extending their support to them, developers can now easily build content or port existing apps to the mobile devices. Which in a way can hurt Apple's App store downloads. Eg: If I am presently hosting my app at any website then I can just promote that link through Admob and other mobile ad service providers like that and get people to download apps directly without bringing Apple in the middle. 2010 will be a significant growth year for apps on open source and growth of google android and hardware devices based on it.

Nokia Maemo - Interestingly the OPEN source Vs BOX race has more contenders, the big-weight in race, yes the world's biggest manufacturer of mobile phones, nokia, is pushing it's agenda with it's ovi app store and Maemo OS, their linux based open source launch is a solid step towards it. They have been supporting flash from long ago, however, their smart phones just didn't pickup. With Nokia N900 device running on Maemo 5, they wish to change this. Their recent announcement of BETA launch of Qt port for Maemo 5 on 19th Jan which will enhance developers to develop cross-platform applications and GUI.

Hoping for a more OPEN environment in future.

Couple of Questions for Eric Schmidt

During Gartner Symposium/ITxpo Orlando 2009, Google's CEO Eric Schmidt spoke to gartner's
Analysts and some of the TOP points that came out and my questions to Eric on the same:

1. Five years from now the internet will be dominated by Chinese-language content.
Question 1 - With the amount of sensorship in China - why do you think "Chinese content will Dominate?" Just the Volume of content or Value of content?

2. Five years is a factor of ten in Moore's Law, meaning that computers will be capable of far more by that time than they are today.

Good for us!

3. Within five years there will be broadband well above 100MB in performance - and distribution distinctions between TV, radio and the web will go away.

I hope this happens... very optimistic approach from Eric I must say...

4. "We're starting to make significant money off of Youtube", content will move towards more video.

5. "Real time information is just as valuable as all the other information, we want it included in our search results."

6. "We can index real-time info now - but how do we rank it?"

7. It's because of this fundamental shift towards user-generated information that people will listen more to other people than to traditional sources. Learning how to rank that "is the great challenge of the age." Schmidt believes Google can solve that problem.

Question 2: "Why do you want to rank that information at all?" If I am following someone and I am going to take a decision based on that individual's recommendation, then I have built my ranking algorithm in my mind...so why do I need google to tell me the rank for the same?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHxub_yQfig

Update 1 - Is Google angry with Facebook?

Facebook Applications crash on Google Chrome. Is this just a Google Chrome Beta nuance or a dirty tactic of google? Well many Facebook applications are apparently not working on Google chrome and facebook users who would wish to try and use chorome are getting annoyed. 

This has left me wondering if Google Chrome left these issues unhandled in the BETA launch deliberately? Some time back Facebook with it's popularity and a strong product as well as a high performing team attracted  many people from Google. Even though no one could do anything about it but does that mean google played dirty this time?

After the BETA launch yesterday over 100,000 users have downloaded the Google chrome and people have started testing various website compatibilty on Google Chrome. However, many websites are facing issues with Applet loading, pages being skewed, security settings not customizable etc.

Well few simple examples: 

Auto cleanup of the browsing data feature when the window is closed is not there.

Popup enable feature is not there.

Favourtites folder is not there. 

Yes may be Dynamic Bookmarks is the next level of browsing but can we customize our browser or do we have to go by Google's Verdict?

Well, Google Chrome is here to WOW the users and I am sure they are listening....

WOW Google Chrome - Why don't Google Make Operating System?

WOW Google Chrome - Wonderful | Ossum | Wooing

When Google gets down to making Internet Experience better there is nothing which compares to their expertise in making MOST user friendly applications. One of the biggest steps after capturing the majority search engine space, yesterday Google launched it's WOW browser - Google Chrome. The way their marketing team built an entire Google Chrome storybook of How the entire Google Chrome browser came into existence is Ossum. The FRESH Technological approach adopted in Google Chrome has brought out some Wonderful features.

Google's official blog reported on 1st September about the launch of the Google Chrome story book and other details about the browser and now Google Chrome is available for download.

Right now in it's BETA stage, tweaking features is mostly restricted. Very few tweaks are available to users till now. Also, auto clear-up of private data once you exit from browser is not available. There is an interesting feature of Incognito Browsing which ensures that webpages that you open and files you downloaded won't be logged in your browsing and download histories; all new cookies are deleted after you close the incognito window.

Search while you type URLs - Google brought it's search prowess to google chrome by providing you the feature of showing popular site results and other historical data from your search tracks while you type a url.

Application Shortcuts, Dynamic Tabs, Favourite web pages in quick launch, Crash Control and Safe Browsing are some additional features added and surely they will WOO the new and existing users of Microsoft Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox and Safari.

Technically one of the biggest advancements is Handling each Tab as an individual process/thread which helps you in case one of the process is non responsive. Sandboxing and Crash control really ensures smooth working of the browser application. 

One thing which I monitored was that the CPU usage and Physical memory usage was a little higher than firefox / IE while running multiple tabs in Chorme as the number of Application is ONE but the number of processes were equal to the number of tabs so more load on the processor and memory.

Let's see if the full version of Google Chrome really WOWs the audience or not....And well this also makes me Wondering, WHY Don't GOOGLE make an Operating System?

A Big Thanks to Google! - Google Adds Search Volume Data to Adwords

A long awaited but a welcome step from Google when it added the search volume data for keywords and Ad placement flexibility to the Adwords platform.

Some time back I wrote about Google's Hogwash on how auctions set prices, and my key argument was that there was no campaign data available. However, with the below mentioned new tools and features added by Google, it proved again that they are the Best and the most pioneering and innovative Search company who really listens to customer's demands and deliver on the same. Hats off to you guys!

Also, it added Keywords and placements -- together!

Now, both keywords and placements can be targeted in all AdWords campaigns. We can now use both to get better control and pricing power on the content network. (this was a big disadvantage earlier)

What can you do with keywords plus placements?

• Bid more or less for specific placements. Let contextual targeting with keywords place your ads across the content network, while you set placement bids for sites that have a special value for you.

  Selling soccer shoes? You might bid $1.00 for clicks from any content network pages that match your keywords, but $2.00 when those clicks come from a soccer fan site that's converted well for you in the past.

• Show your ad only when both keywords and placements match. You'll get the benefits of keyword targeting while also limiting the places where your ad can appear.

  For instance, set your campaign to appear only on your favorite soccer fan site, and only when the site content matches the keyword soccer shoes. You may see less traffic, but AdWords contextual matching will help make sure your placement pages are highly targeted.

Instead of creating separate campaigns for keywords and placements, you can now include both in any campaign. All ad groups now have tabs for both keywords and placements, and the two can work together to target your ads on the content network.

Keyword-Targeted Placement-Targeted Online

Here's an example: You might target the keyword roses and the placement *www.example.com*. You can let the keyword roses display your ad across the content network, and use placements to raise your bid whenever roses triggers your ad on www.example.com. Or you can choose to have your ad appear only on www.example.com, and only when its content is a match for roses.

Pick Keywords

Pick Placements Google finds pages that meet both criteria

Well, what pleases me most is the way Technology and Marketing have got married these days. It's the nupital knot which any Techno-Marketing professional would want to get into. And additionally what makes me feel elated is the way companies are learning from there customers and prospects through social media and using that feedback to come up with better product features and solutions for the customers.

A big thanks to google again!

Google's Hogwash: How auctions set ad prices

Google's recent blog entry on how Google sets the ad prices for their Ad-words program is a sheer hogwash.

Hal Varian, their chief economist, explains the entire bidding process and how the highest bid price and quality score determines the final prices of the bids that the advertisers have to pay.

I respect google's ad-words program creator and conceptualizer for bringing the Online Ads to reality and making it a Star performer for Google with over a Billion dollar in revenue. However, now it's just become a clear machine for google to hogwash advertisers by their complex statistical algorithms gimmick.

For Eg: If I have set-up a budget for lets say $10/day the cost of the adwords is low. However, if I increase my daily budget to $100 the cost of the same keyword will go high even when there is no other bidder for the same keyword. I have tested this multiple times.

Also, lets say the quality score determined by google is low. However, I might have a strategic benefit behind choosing a certain keyword for a limited time period. The automated process can not identify that and Google changes the cost of the keyword exorbitantly just as a "curbing tactic".

Also interestingly google's content network gets a very high clickthru rate than the search network. So, isin't it obvious that Google should somehow provide that information on the campaign report that who are the people clicking in the content network.

When google complains about click frauds...it makes me wonder...what if its a 2 way fraud?
Why does google has to increase the bid price even when no one else is bidding?

Also, I am just wondering why the people who were chief architects and key contributors in a lot of google's products have left google ? Here are they now and how facebook is stealing people from google.