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My 2 featured articles for the week ending July 8, 2005:

Archived blogs for the week of July 4, 2005

926 - July 8, 2005 - 4.40 PM EST

Google invests in powerline Internet technology

The Current Communications Group said yesterday it has received a large investment from Google, Goldman Sachs and the Hearst Corporation.

The company said it would use the financing to accelerate its deployment of voice, video and data services in domestic and global markets. The company declined to disclose financial terms of the investment, though the Wall Street Journal reported that it approached $100 million.

Current's service is available primarily in Cincinnati, Ohio, through a partnership with Cinergy Corp. (Research), with smaller deployments in Maryland and Hawaii.

"Clearly the powerline Internet technology is ready to be pushed into new markets and we are spending a great deal of our time trying to do that," said Scott Bruce, managing director of Current and its major backer, Liberty Associated Partners. "It's already commercial and ready for prime time."

Internet access over power lines is seen as a way to deliver broadband service to rural areas where telephone and cable lines do not reach, or where various forms of wireless access are too expensive or not yet in place.

There is even a standards body, the HomePlug Powerline Alliance, with specifications for data transfer within the home and from external sources to the home over electrical lines.

Posted on Businessblog™

925 - July 7, 2005 - 10.56 AM EST

Yahoo launches Short Message Service (SMS)

Today, Yahoo said it is rolling out Yahoo SMS (Short Message Service) Search feature and the improvement of Yahoo Search on Mobile across a number of mobile devices.

Yahoo's new services are available starting today with major wireless carriers across the United States.

Both Yahoo SMS Search and Yahoo Search on Mobile use shortcuts to help consumers find the information they need quickly while on the go. Search shortcuts are a quick way for consumers to get a direct response with specific information they want including local information, weather reports, stock quotes and more.

For example, a consumer looking for a post office could simply type in "post office" and either the city and state or zip code for where they are looking. Consumers will receive a text message with the search results directly highlighting the closest post offices.

The launch of Yahoo SMS Search gives consumers a new way to quickly use their phone to do a search for needed information. Shortcuts available at launch include local information, WiFi hotspot finder, weather, stock quotes, daily horoscopes, dictionary definitions, and zip and area code lookup.

Posted on Businessblog™

924 - July 7, 2005 - 10.21 AM EST

Yahoo integrates metasearch to HotJobs

Internet users don’t like to search hundreds of sites looking for what they need. Instead they look for convenience and would like to rapidly find what it is they are looking for.

Yahoo is working hard to deliver all that. Traditional classifieds/listings providers such as newspapers, the Yellow Pages and vertical search engines will have to confront aggregators in one form or another.

Smart consumers may start to wonder, “Why go to an individual site when I can get everything from Aggregator X?” By the same token the aggregators will have to differentiate from one another and figure out how they’re going to make money.

There are essentially two ways to do that: offer the best user experience (Oodle, for example, has lots of refinement options, personalization and alerts) and/or the most comprehensive data set.

Recruitment ad spending in print newspapers was worth US$4.6 billion in 2004 according to the NAA. The Kelsey Group estimates that 2004 online jobs-related spending was approximately US$800 million—- the largest of the main classifieds categories.

Yahoo brings a trusted consumer brand to the equation. The question now is: will CareerBuilder (newspaper-owned) and Monster follow Yahoo and begin scraping or otherwise collecting data from other sites as a defensive strategy?

Posted on Businessblog™

923 - July 7, 2005 - 8.55 AM EST

Mobile content to become $9B industry in 2006

According to a new study released yesterday by LogicaCMG, mobile content will expand to a $9 billion industry in 2006. The survey of 4,000 users in four global markets indicated the percentage of wireless phone owners who download content will triple from 20 to 60 percent in the next year.

Ringtones, games and music will continue to be the most popular content, although users are also interested in getting news, sports and video clips on their handsets.

But operators looking to cash in on the content boom should make it easier for consumers to purchase and share files, LogicaCMG warned.

Posted on Businessblog™

922 - July 6, 2005 - 7.25 PM EST

Could Answers.com revolutionize the field of search?

Answers.com is actually a mix between an online encyclopedia and an Internet search engine. But can it drastically change the search landscape?

To most users, the important thing is to find the most relevant information as quickly as possible. To some observers, Answers.com could be the answer to that need.

Could Answers.com revolutionize the field of search?, whose resources are actually used by the search engine, but it’s much more than that.

In order to get a clearer picture of what’s happening on Answers.com, imagine that you can access from the same interface Google, Wikipedia, Encarta, Britannica, MarketWatch, Computer Desktop Encyclopedia and other several hundred content providers.

Typing in a keyword in Answers.com won’t return links, or at least, only links, but also bits and pieces of articles, references to online resources and so on.

Posted on Businessblog™

921 - July 6, 2005 - 4.53 PM EST

Simple Google search leads to medical inquiry

A routine Internet search using Google has to lead to a full-scale inquiry before a medical commissioner in Australia. Last Sunday, a nurse told how she uncovered Dr. Jayant Patel's chequered history almost a year before the "Dr. Death" scandal erupted, but has never told authorities about it.

Michelle Hunter today said that a simple internet Google search performed mid-last year found that Indian-trained Dr Patel - who has been linked to up to 90 deaths at Bundaberg Base Hospital - was guilty of medical negligence in the United States.

Ms Hunter, a surgical ward nurse at the hospital, told a commission of inquiry she became concerned about Dr Patel's competence after noting "that things just weren't right".

Posted on Businessblog™

920 - July 5, 2005 - 10.49 AM EST

Google now part of 100 largest companies

Google is named as one of the world's top 100 largest companies based on stock market value.

According to the latest version of the FT Global 500 rankings, the Mountain View, California-based company has risen from 279th place to 95th as the result of the rise in its share price that has given the company a market capitalization of approximately $80.9bn.

Companies are ranked in order of their stock market value as of June 30. The previous rankings were compiled at the end of March.

Shares in Google were at $291.25 on Nasdaq as of 5.15pm BST on Monday. When the company held its IPO last August, its shares were priced at $85 per share.

Posted on Businessblog™

919 - July 5, 2005 - 9.08 AM EST

Google to release a Firefox toolbar?

According to information sent to developers of an open-source toolbar alternative, Google is expected to deliver a version of its popular toolbar for the Firefox browser. Although Google's toolbar -- which provides users with easy access to advanced functionality such as spellchecking and translation -- has been available for Internet Explorer for more than four years, this is the first version to appear for users of the Firefox browser, developed by the Mozilla Foundation.

Users of open-source alternatives have until now used the Googlebar -- an independent project which emulates most of the Google toolbar features.

However, an email to Googlebar developers sent under the name of Google engineer Fritz Schneider and dated 1 July refers to the proposed Firefox toolbar.

"I thought I'd drop you a note to give a heads up on something Google will be releasing next week: a version of our Internet Explorer toolbar for Firefox," the email reads.

Posted on Businessblog™

918 - July 4th, 2005 - 11.20 AM EST

Microsoft offers its API

Microsoft releases developer documentation in an effort to expand desktop search beyond its browser. Microsoft now offers its application programming interfaces (APIs) that allow programmers to display the results of a desktop search in their choice of programs.

The APIs, which were released earlier this week, are still in beta testing. Microsoft's MSN division released Windows Desktop Search in May, a few months after Google launched its own, called Google Desktop. Windows Desktop Search already has a few features for customizing searches, such as the ability to speed up search results by creating indexes.

Also, Google has its own API and software developer kit that lets people link Google Desktop to different applications.

Posted on Businessblog™

Copyright © Serge Thibodeau 2005. All rights reserved.

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