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My 2 featured articles for the week ending Sept. 2, 2005:

Archived blogs for the week of August 29, 2005

979 - September 1, 2005 - 3.21 PM EST

Google Talk, and more innovations

Google Talk is a free instant-messaging (IM) application that lets you make PC-to-PC calls. While Google doesn't exactly break new ground here, I'd still recommend it.

If you haven't been paying attention, Google has become much more than the search-engine company of choice. Google has been busy innovating in the last few months. Google's free downloadable Picasa software is arguably the best Windows program for organizing digital photos. Another freebie program, Google Earth, is a nifty three-dimensional model of the entire planet. Using satellite imagery, you can zoom in on any address or locale on Earth.

I've praised Google's fine Gmail Web-based e-mail service. It provides a generous 2 gigabytes of storage, along with speedy search capabilities. Last week, Google opened up Gmail to the masses; it had been previously available only by invitation. You'll need a Gmail username and password (which you can get at gmail.google.com) to exploit the new instant-messaging application, Google Talk. The programs are tightly intertwined.

Google Talk works well, though it lacks several features found in such rival programs as AOL's AIM, Microsoft's MSN Messenger and Yahoo Messenger.

As with any IM program, Google Talk lets you start a text chat by clicking on a name on your list of chat friends. With a computer speaker, microphone, headset or USB phone, you can also make or receive a call through your PC. The quality of a voice conversation I had with a far-flung colleague was quite decent, on par with that of a PC-to-PC phone rival, Skype.

When you first download Google Talk, your Gmail contacts are loaded into the program. You can invite other people to download Google Talk and take on a Gmail account at the same time. To thwart spammers who might otherwise gobble up Gmail accounts, Google requires a mobile phone number. It will then send a text message to that number containing a code, which lets you complete the Gmail signup process.

Google says it's working on a way to let you hold text chats with (or call) non-Gmail users via computer. You can't use Google Talk to call a regular phone number just yet. That's a service Skype offers for a fee.

Posted on Businessblog™

978 - August 31, 2005 - 6.12 PM EST

More on the Google / Lee/ Microsoft lawsuit

Google asked a judge in California to rule that Kai-Fu Lee's original contract with Microsoft is invalid and that Lee should be allowed to work at Google, unaffected by the conditions of his employment deal while he was employed at Microsoft.

The two competing companies are embattled in a complex legal process over the hiring of Kai-Fu Lee, a computer researcher. Google announced on July 19 that it was hiring Lee to head up a new China research center.

The same day, Microsoft sued Google over Lee's hiring in Washington state court. Google countersued in a California state court, saying that the case should be heard there.

Microsoft last month had the California matter moved to federal court in San Jose, Calif.

Posted on Businessblog™

977 - August 31, 2005 - 10.41 AM EST

Google testing the market of print advertising

Google wants to expand its large Internet advertising network into the world of print, in an attempt to rake in traditional advertising dollars from other media.

According to many executives at various firms and agencies that have bought Google ads, the company makes 99 percent of its sales from Internet ads, and it is quietly testing print advertising sales.

Google began buying ad pages in technology magazines, including PC Magazine and Maximum PC, and reselling those pages, cut into quarters or fifths, to small advertisers that already belong to its online ad network, dubbed AdWords.

"We were approached by Google two and a half months ago, telling us that they were starting this print advertising campaign," Michael Keen, president of Inksite, one of the five advertisers in PC Magazine, said Monday. "Because we had been one of their AdWords advertisers, they thought we would be a good candidate to try their new advertising" effort.

The experiment, as it is described by the companies buying the ads, is Google's latest foray into display advertising and another big step toward becoming a one-stop shop for ad sales, whether online or offline. The trial also marks the first time the company has ventured offline with any of its products, according to industry watchers.

The move is another significant step for Google toward becoming a one-stop shop for ad sales--whether online or offline. The trial also marks the first time the company has ventured offline with any of its products, according to industry watchers.

"Google's been working to add more oomph to its creative for a while. Clearly they have a desire to offer more to advertisers than just a text link," said Tim Hanlon, senior vice president of emerging contacts at ad agency Publicis Groupe.

The print ads also expand Google's efforts to become a middleman for advertisers and publishers.

"Google has shown that big media companies don't have to be part of the mix at all," Hanlon said. "People can just get the content and ads directly from an uber-intermediary. That's caught a lot of traditional ad types off guard."

Inksite, which sells printer ink and toner, paid about $1,000 for a one-quarter page ad in the Sept. 6 issue of PC Magazine, Keen said. By comparison, a text ad in search results for "printer toner" might cost as much as $2.25 per click.

Click here to read the rest of the story.

Posted on Businessblog™

976 - August 30, 2005 - 2.46 PM EST

In China, Baidu's popularity beats Google

Chinese search engine Baidu increased its market share in Beijing by 10.8 percentage points to 52 percent, as reported by a survey conducted by the China Internet Network Information Center.

Google Inc.'s share was at 33 percent, as the American Internet search engine kept its customer base steady while the overall market grew, said the survey, seen Tuesday on CNNIC's Web site.

As China's Internet population hit 103 million by June, second only to the United States, the survey findings show Google and Baidu combined to hold 80 percent of the market in Beijing and Shanghai, and 75 percent in Guangzhou. The three cities account for most of Chinese Internet use.

In January, Google held the largest market share in the three cities covered by the survey, the report said, but gave no specific figures.

Posted on Businessblog™

975 - August 30, 2005 - 10.35 AM EST

Yahoo improves search with it's Web mail service

Yahoo improved it's search technology for users of its Web mail service. Now it's users have the capability of searching the full text of all message attachments.

The new search system will enhance the existing capabilities, which are very basic and only allow users to search for content in a message's subject and sender lines and its body, a Yahoo executive said.

Starting Tuesday, the improved search function will be rolled out in phases over the coming months to users worldwide, said Drew Garcia, a senior product manager on the Yahoo Mail team.

Yahoo Mail's new search function can index the full text of about 20 common types of attachments, including Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files, as well as Adobe Systems (Profile, Products, Articles) PDF files, he said.

Another improvement is that, along with each search result, Yahoo Mail also delivers a snippet of the content in which the searched-for term appears. This is intended to give users an idea of the context in which the term is found.

Posted on Businessblog™

974 - August 29, 2005 - 3.38 PM EST

Jabber users concerned by Google Talk

In Australia, users of the Jabber IM (instant messaging) service are watching carefully as Google launches its Google Talk feature. Some users are concerned that existing Jabber members could be locked out.

Jabber Australia, which represents 1500 users, last week welcomed news that Google will use the open standard for its instant-messaging services but also expressed concern over how Google's technology will dovetail with existing Jabber servers.

"It would be a great concern if Google failed to allow messaging between the existing network of Jabber servers and their own Jabber service," says Jeremy Lunn, president of Jabber Australia.

Last week, internet search giant Google announced Google Talk, releasing a beta of the service for all users of the company's Gmail email service. The company emphasised its service ran on the open XMPP protocol that works with a range of instant messaging clients including iChat, GAIM, Trillian and PSI.

Advertisement"The openness of the Google Talk service to XMPP clients is just a start," Google said in a statement, adding it also wants to band servers together so they communicate easily in a process known as "federation".

Jabbers users are concerned about white-listing of instant-messaging providers and has sought clarification from Google about its strategy. "I'd be concerned about the use of white-listing as opposed to black-listing, as this could leave some smaller service providers locked out," Mr Lunn says.

Mr Lunn says although he believes Google's insistence on keeping open standards and allowing different messaging systems to talk to each other, he is unclear how the search company will achieve it.

Posted on Businessblog™

Copyright © Serge Thibodeau 2005. All rights reserved.

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