Google Favicon

One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish
6/06/2008 05:48:00 PM
Posted by Marissa Mayer, VP Search Products & User Experience, and Micheal Lopez, Web Designer

You may have noticed that Google has a new favicon, the small icon you see in your browser next to the URL or in your bookmarks list. Some people have wondered why we changed our favicon -- after all, we hadn't in 8.5 years(!). The reason is that we wanted to develop a set of icons that would scale better to some new platforms like the iPhone and other mobile devices. So the new favicon is one of those, but we've also developed a group of logo-based icons that all hang together as a unified set. Here's the full set:



The design process we went through was rigorous and interesting, so we thought we would share more of it here. We tried in total more than 300 permutations. It was much harder than we thought at first. We wanted something distinctive and noticeable, so we aimed toward transparency or semi-transparency, so the image would have a more distinctive noticeable shape than just a block. We wanted something that embraced the colorfulness of the logo, yet wouldn't date itself. Since we don't really have a symbol that means Google, we felt it best to work with the logo and letters within it. Our design team tried literally hundreds of approaches. You can see some of our explorations here.


By no means is the one you're seeing our favicon final; it was a first step to a more
unified set of icons. However, we really value feedback from users and want to hear your ideas that we may have missed. If you have your own notions about the Google favicon, please send them to us. We'll do our best to work them in, and maybe your idea will be the one that people see billions of times per day.

MS TouchWall

Microsoft is keeping sure that their revenues never goes down in near future, as young dudes (google) are hogging the llimelite every time and money speedingly. Bill and Steve are making thier bets on the area where huge money needs to put in Rnd and which the young guys not afford to spend money at time right now. In simple words Google tries to find out the new breakthrough in internet where as Microsoft trying to sweep new obvious markets.
If you have MS stock you can safely hold this for next 10 years :).

Third Time Lucky

Swan Fanning's "Rupture", a High end Computer gamers Social Networking web site, is acquired by Electronic Arts for $30Million. Now this is the same who created "Napster" the online music files sharing application which changed the whole music industry . On his third attempt he got money as first two attempt fails to create money for him and led to Bankruptcy.
Fanning's friend and confounder of Napster Max Levchin also founded couple of firms later on which the most successful PayPal and Slide are the ones.

Adobe’s Open Screen Project: This is we all all devs wanted!

Adobe is making Flash a viewing environment not only for Web apps on your PC, but also on mobile phone, your TV, and any other screen you can think of. Adobe Announces the Open Screen Project to make it easier to develop applications across devices—using Flash, of course. David Wadhwani, general manager of Adobe’s platform business (which includes Flash/Flex, AIR, and Cold Fusion), says:

We believe it is time for an industry-wide movement for a consistent way to develop across the Web for PCs, mobile devices, and TVs.

To help the project along, Adobe is:

1. Opening up the runtime to its Flash player for the first time so that anybody can create their own customized player. Specifically, it is going to open up the SWF and FLV/F4V specifications.

2. Removing licensing fees for Flash on mobile devices. While Flash is free on PCs, cell phone makers and other device manufacturers must pay a royalty fee.

3. Publishing the APIs for porting Flash to other devices. This currently also incurs a royalty fee. By opening it up, there is no reason why every device shouldn’t come with Flash pre-installed.

4. Publishing Adobe protocols for pushing content to devices like Flash Cast and AMF.

Read This
http://www.adobe.com/openscreenproject/

Is Keyword Search About To Hit Its Breaking Point?

Is the Web swells with more and more data, the predominant way of sifting through all of that data—keyword search—will one day break down in its ability to deliver the exact information we want at our fingertips. In fact, some argue that keyword search is already delivering diminishing returns—as the slide above by Nova Spivack implies. Spivack is the CEO and founder of semantic Web startup Radar Networks and is pushing his view that semantic search will help solve these problems. But anyone frustrated by the sense that it takes longer to find something on Google today than it did even a year ago knows there is some truth to his argument.

internet-user-chart-tiny.png“Keyword search is okay,” he says, “but if the information explosion continues we need something better.” Today, there are about 1.3 billion people on the Web, and more than 100 million active Websites. As more people pile on, the amount of information on the Web keeps growing exponentially to accommodate all those seekers, and they themselves feel compelled to put their own personal and social information onto the Web as well.

At a certain point, with billions and billions of Web pages to sift through, keyword search just won’t cut it anymore. It’s a needle-in-the-haystack problem, with the haystacks just getting bigger and bigger every second.

Spivack explains:

Keyword search engines return haystacks, but what we really are looking for are the needles . The problem with keyword search such as Google’s approach is that only highly cited pages make it into the top results. You get a huge pile of results, but the page you want—the “needle” you are looking for—may not be highly cited by other pages and so it does not appear on the first page. This is because keyword search engines don’t understand your question, they just find pages that match the words in your question.

So how do we get beyond keyword search and Google’s PageRank? There are many approaches being tried: social search, tagging, guided search, natural-language search, statistical methods, open search, semantic search, and (way out there) artificial intelligence. They all have their problems. Tags are too messy and inconsistent. Natural-language requires too much computing power, is difficult to scale, and doesn’t deal with structured data well. Semantic search is perhaps the most promising, but it essentially requires every single Webpage to be re-written.

Domain Names owned by Google

Below doc shows the Domain Names owned by Google, I think mostof them are for future but some of them might related to the Past like
* ebay-google.com
* googlewarnerbros.com

Read this doc on Scribd: 0804 google domains

Google stats about "Britny Spreas" :)

The data below shows some of the misspellings detected by Google's spelling correction system for the query [ britney spears ], and the count of how many different users spelled her name that way. Each of these variations was entered by at least two different unique users within a three month period, and was corrected to [ britney spears ] by Google's spelling correction system (data for the correctly spelled query is shown for comparison).

488941 britney spears
40134 brittany spears
36315 brittney spears
24342 britany spears
7331 britny spears
6633 briteny spears
2696 britteny spears
1807 briney spears
1635 brittny spears
1479 brintey spears
1479 britanny spears
1338 britiny spears
1211 britnet spears
1096 britiney spears
991 britaney spears
991 britnay spears
811 brithney spears
811 brtiney spears
664 birtney spears
664 brintney spears
664 briteney spears
601 bitney spears
601 brinty spears
544 brittaney spears
544 brittnay spears
364 britey spears
364 brittiny spears
329 brtney spears
269 bretney spears
269 britneys spears
244 britne spears
244 brytney spears
220 breatney spears
220 britiany spears
199 britnney spears
163 britnry spears
147 breatny spears
147 brittiney spears
147 britty spears
147 brotney spears
147 brutney spears
133 britteney spears
133 briyney spears
121 bittany spears
121 bridney spears
121 britainy spears
121 britmey spears
109 brietney spears
109 brithny spears
109 britni spears
109 brittant spears
98 bittney spears
98 brithey spears
98 brittiany spears
98 btitney spears
89 brietny spears
89 brinety spears
89 brintny spears
89 britnie spears
89 brittey spears
89 brittnet spears
89 brity spears
89 ritney spears
80 bretny spears
80 britnany spears
73 brinteny spears
73 brittainy spears
73 pritney spears
66 brintany spears
66 britnery spears
59 briitney spears
59 britinay spears
54 britneay spears
54 britner spears
54 britney's spears
54 britnye spears
54 britt spears
54 brttany spears
48 bitany spears
48 briny spears
48 brirney spears
48 britant spears
48 britnety spears
48 brittanny spears
48 brttney spears
44 birttany spears
44 brittani spears
44 brityney spears
44 brtitney spears
39 brienty spears
39 brritney spears
36 bbritney spears
36 briitany spears
36 britanney spears
36 briterny spears
36 britneey spears
36 britnei spears
36 britniy spears
32 britbey spears
32 britneu spears
29 britent spears
29 brittnany spears
29 britttany spears
29 btiney spears
26 birttney spears
26 breitney spears
26 brinity spears
26 britenay spears
26 britneyt spears
26 brittan spears
26 brittne spears
26 btittany spears
24 beitney spears
24 birteny spears
24 brightney spears
24 brintiny spears
24 britanty spears
24 britenny spears
24 britini spears
24 britnwy spears
24 brittni spears
24 brittnie spears
21 biritney spears
21 birtany spears
21 biteny spears
21 bratney spears
21 britani spears
21 britanie spears
21 briteany spears
21 brittay spears
21 brittinay spears
21 brtany spears
21 brtiany spears
19 birney spears
19 brirtney spears
19 britnaey spears
19 britnee spears
19 britony spears
19 brittanty spears
19 britttney spears
17 birtny spears
17 brieny spears
17 brintty spears
17 brithy spears
17 brittanie spears
15 brinney spears
15 briten spears
15 briterney spears
15 britheny spears
15 britneny spears
15 brittamy spears
15 brittmey spears
15 brytnei spears
15 btirney spears
15 rittney spears
14 brinet spears
14 britneyy spears
14 britten spears
12 beritney spears
12 bretiny spears
12 briatny spears
12 brieney spears
12 brinany spears
12 britaany spears
12 britan spears
12 britine spears
12 britnea spears
12 britnes spears
12 britnez spears
12 britnny spears
12 brittenay spears
12 brittneys spears
12 brittony spears
12 brteny spears
12 btitany spears
12 btittney spears
12 btriney spears
12 btritney spears
12 rittany spears
11 braitney spears
11 brettney spears
11 britamy spears
11 britery spears
11 britnary spears
11 brittent spears
11 bruttney spears
11 pritny spears
10 bitaney spears
10 brenty spears
10 bristney spears
10 britay spears
10 britinny spears
10 brittaany spears
10 brittanys spears
10 brittini spears
10 brittniy spears
10 brtieny spears
10 brutany spears
9 bitteny spears
9 brinttany spears
9 britanay spears
9 britinany spears
9 britn spears
9 britnew spears
9 britneyn spears
9 britrney spears
9 brtiny spears
9 brtittney spears
9 brtny spears
9 brytny spears
9 rbitney spears
8 birtiny spears
8 bithney spears
8 brattany spears
8 breitny spears
8 breteny spears
8 brightny spears
8 brintay spears
8 brinttey spears
8 briotney spears
8 britanys spears
8 britley spears
8 britneyb spears
8 britnrey spears
8 britnty spears
8 brittner spears
8 brottany spears
7 baritney spears
7 birntey spears
7 biteney spears
7 bitiny spears
7 breateny spears
7 brianty spears
7 brintye spears
7 britianny spears
7 britly spears
7 britnej spears
7 britneyu spears
7 britniey spears
7 britnnay spears
7 brittian spears
7 briyny spears
7 brrittany spears
7 brttiney spears
7 btiteny spears
7 btrittany spears
6 beritny spears
6 bhritney spears
6 birthney spears
6 breathney spears
6 breaty spears
6 bretany spears
6 briatany spears
6 brint spears
6 britenney spears
6 britian spears
6 britinty spears
6 brititney spears
6 britnsy spears
6 britrey spears
6 britsny spears
6 brittine spears
6 brittnry spears
6 brittsny spears
6 brtanny spears
6 brtittany spears
6 bruttany spears
6 brytany spears
6 btitny spears
6 pretny spears
6 ritany spears
5 bbritany spears
5 bbrittney spears
5 biitney spears
5 bitny spears
5 breathny spears
5 breney spears
5 brethney spears
5 brettny spears
5 bridny spears
5 brigney spears
5 briittney spears
5 brinaty spears
5 brinay spears
5 brinetty spears
5 brinitty spears
5 brinny spears
5 brintery spears
5 britary spears
5 britbney spears
5 brithany spears
5 britieny spears
5 britiey spears
5 britnt spears
5 britnys spears
5 britrny spears
5 brittenny spears
5 brittnee spears
5 brittnt spears
5 brney spears
5 broitney spears
5 brotny spears
5 bruteny spears
5 btiyney spears
5 btrittney spears
5 gritney spears
5 spritney spears
4 bittny spears
4 bnritney spears
4 brandy spears
4 brbritney spears
4 breatiny spears
4 breetney spears
4 bretiney spears
4 brfitney spears
4 briattany spears
4 brieteny spears
4 briety spears
4 briitny spears
4 briittany spears
4 brinie spears
4 brinteney spears
4 brintne spears
4 britaby spears
4 britaey spears
4 britainey spears
4 britinie spears
4 britinney spears
4 britmney spears
4 britnear spears
4 britnel spears
4 britneuy spears
4 britnewy spears
4 britnmey spears
4 brittaby spears
4 brittery spears
4 britthey spears
4 brittnaey spears
4 brittnat spears
4 brittneny spears
4 brittnye spears
4 brittteny spears
4 briutney spears
4 briyeny spears
4 brnity spears
4 brtteny spears
4 brttiany spears
4 bryney spears
4 brythney spears
4 brytne spears
4 brytni spears
4 brytnie spears
4 bvritney spears
4 dritney spears
4 priteny spears
3 beittany spears
3 bichney spears
3 biritny spears
3 birnety spears
3 birny spears
3 birteney spears
3 birthny spears
3 birtiney spears
3 birtteny spears
3 birttny spears
3 bitanny spears
3 bitheay spears
3 bithey spears
3 bitrney spears
3 breinty spears
3 brethny spears
3 bretne spears
3 bretniy spears
3 brettine spears
3 brighty spears
3 brihney spears
3 brihtney spears
3 briiney spears
3 briitnay spears
3 brineny spears
3 brinte spears
3 brintiney spears
3 brintneey spears
3 brinttney spears
3 brirany spears
3 brirtny spears
3 brisney spears
3 britainny spears
3 britaniy spears
3 britanu spears
3 britanyy spears
3 britatny spears
3 britdney spears
3 britemy spears
3 britenty spears
3 brither spears
3 brithne spears
3 brititany spears
3 brititny spears
3 britiy spears
3 britmeny spears
3 britneeey spears
3 britnehy spears
3 britnely spears
3 britnesy spears
3 britnetty spears
3 britnex spears
3 britneyxxx spears
3 britnity spears
3 britntey spears
3 britnyey spears
3 britterny spears
3 brittneey spears
3 brittnney spears
3 brittnyey spears
3 brityen spears
3 briytney spears
3 brltney spears
3 broteny spears
3 brtaney spears
3 brtiiany spears
3 brtinay spears
3 brtinney spears
3 brtitany spears
3 brtiteny spears
3 brtnet spears
3 brytiny spears
3 btney spears
3 drittney spears
3 pretney spears
3 rbritney spears
2 barittany spears
2 bbbritney spears
2 bbitney spears
2 bbritny spears
2 bbrittany spears
2 beitany spears
2 beitny spears
2 bertney spears
2 bertny spears
2 betney spears
2 betny spears
2 bhriney spears
2 biney spears
2 bintey spears
2 biretny spears
2 biritany spears
2 birittany spears
2 birittny spears
2 birnty spears
2 birtey spears
2 birtheny spears
2 birtieny spears
2 birtnay spears
2 birtnet spears
2 bitnet spears
2 bitttany spears
2 bnrittany spears
2 bntney spears
2 bpitney spears
2 brandi spears
2 brattney spears
2 breanty spears
2 breany spears
2 breittany spears
2 brently spears
2 brentney spears
2 brethany spears
2 brethine spears
2 bretnty spears
2 bretty spears
2 brianey spears
2 briatney spears
2 brickney spears
2 bridnea spears
2 brieatney spears
2 brientny spears
2 brietnet spears
2 briettny spears
2 briey spears
2 brighney spears
2 brigtney spears
2 brigtny spears
2 briiny spears
2 brindey spears
2 brindy spears
2 bringney spears
2 brininy spears
2 brinitey spears
2 brinsley spears
2 brinthey spears
2 brinthy spears
2 brintiy spears
2 brintneys spears
2 brintry spears
2 brinyey spears
2 briottany spears
2 brirrany spears
2 brirreny spears
2 brirtany spears
2 brirttany spears
2 brirttney spears
2 britain spears
2 britane spears
2 britaneny spears
2 britania spears
2 britann spears
2 britanna spears
2 britannie spears
2 britannt spears
2 britannu spears
2 britanyl spears
2 britanyt spears
2 briteeny spears
2 britenany spears
2 britenet spears
2 briteniy spears
2 britenys spears
2 britianey spears
2 britin spears
2 britinary spears
2 britmy spears
2 britnaney spears
2 britnat spears
2 britnbey spears
2 britndy spears
2 britneh spears
2 britneney spears
2 britney6 spears
2 britneye spears
2 britneyh spears
2 britneym spears
2 britneyyy spears
2 britnhey spears
2 britnjey spears
2 britnne spears
2 britnu spears
2 britoney spears
2 britrany spears
2 britreny spears
2 britry spears
2 britsany spears
2 brittanay spears
2 brittang spears
2 brittans spears
2 brittanyh spears
2 brittanyn spears
2 brittany's spears
2 brittanyt spears
2 brittanyy spears
2 brittary spears
2 brittenie spears
2 brittenty spears
2 brittinney spears
2 brittley spears
2 brittn spears
2 brittnery spears
2 brittnety spears
2 brittney's spears
2 brittneyu spears
2 brittnsey spears
2 britttaney spears
2 britttny spears
2 brittyney spears
2 brityne spears
2 briyany spears
2 brlttney spears
2 brotaney spears
2 brotany spears
2 brottney spears
2 brriney spears
2 brrittney spears
2 brrtney spears
2 brthney spears
2 brtianny spears
2 brtineys spears
2 brtittny spears
2 brttiny spears
2 brtttany spears
2 brydney spears
2 brynty spears
2 brythey spears
2 bryttney spears
2 btiany spears
2 btirtney spears
2 btitiney spears
2 btittny spears
2 btritany spears
2 buttney spears
2 grittney spears
2 prietny spears
2 pritany spears
2 prittany spears

Google Jumps Head First Into Web Services With Google App Engine

Google isn’t just talking about hosting applications in the cloud any more. Tonight at 9pm PT they’re launching Google App Engine (Update: The site is live), an ambitious new project that offers a full-stack, hosted, automatically scalable web application platform. It consists of Python application servers, BigTable database access (anticipated here and here) and GFS data store services.

At first blush this is a full on competitor to the suite of web services offered by Amazon, including S3 (storage), EC2 (virtual servers) and SimpleDB (database).

Unlike Amazon Web Services’ loosely coupled architecture, which consists of several essentially independent services that can optionally be tied together by developers, Google’s architecture is more unified but less flexible. For example, it is possible with Amazon to use their storage service S3 independently of any other services, while with Google using their BigTable service will require writing and deploying a Python script to their app servers, one that creates a web-accessible interface to BigTable.

What this all means: Google App Engine is designed for developers who want to run their entire application stack, soup to nuts, on Google resources. Amazon, by contrast, offers more of an a la carte offering with which developers can pick and choose what resources they want to use.

Google Product Manager Tom Stocky described the new service to me in an interview today. Developers simply upload their Python code to Google, launch the application, and can monitor usage and other metrics via a multi-platform desktop application.

More details from Google:

Today we’re announcing a preview release of Google App Engine, an application-hosting tool that developers can use to build scalable web apps on top of Google’s infrastructure. The goal is to make it easier for web developers to build and scale applications, instead of focusing on system administration and maintenance.

Leveraging Google App Engine, developers can:

* Write code once and deploy. Provisioning and configuring multiple machines for web serving and data storage can be expensive and time consuming. Google App Engine makes it easier to deploy web applications by dynamically providing computing resources as they are needed. Developers write the code, and Google App Engine takes care of the rest.
* Absorb spikes in traffic. When a web app surges in popularity, the sudden increase in traffic can be overwhelming for applications of all sizes, from startups to large companies that find themselves rearchitecting their databases and entire systems several times a year. With automatic replication and load balancing, Google App Engine makes it easier to scale from one user to one million by taking advantage of Bigtable and other components of Google’s scalable infrastructure.
* Easily integrate with other Google services. It’s unnecessary and inefficient for developers to write components like authentication and e-mail from scratch for each new application. Developers using Google App Engine can make use of built-in components and Google’s broader library of APIs that provide plug-and-play functionality for simple but important features.

Google App Engine: The Limitations
The service is launching in beta and has a number of limitations.
First, only the first 10,000 developers to sign up for the beta will be allowed to deploy applications.

The service is completely free during the beta period, but there are ceilings on usage. Applications cannot use more than 500 MB of total storage, 200 million megacycles/day CPU time, and 10 GB bandwidth (both ways) per day. We’re told this equates to about 5M pageviews/mo for the typical web app. After the beta period, those ceilings will be removed, but developers will need to pay for any overage. Google has not yet set pricing for the service.

One current limitation is a requirement that applications be written in Python, a popular scripting language for building modern web apps (Ruby and PHP are among others widely used). Google says that Python is just the first supported language, and that the entire infrastructure is designed to be language neutral. Google’s initial focus on Python makes sense because they use Python internally as their scripting language (and they hired Python creator Guido van Rossum in 2005).

Google's April Fool

Google April Fools

If you create a new document in Google Docs, you’ll see a number of options in the “File” pull down menu. One of those options, which as far as I can tell wasn’t there yesterday, is “New airplane.” It’s right there after “New document.”

Choosing it opens a new file with folding instructions to build a paper airplane.

Why? Dunno. This is strange even for Google. Even on April Fools.

First reader to print it out, fold it properly, video it actually flying, upload the video on YouTube or any other video sharing service and post a link in the comments below gets a 2GB iPod Shuffle in the color of your choice. And we’ll give a second one to whoever can get the most distance from their plane (this is going to be somewhat subjective, I’ll make the final decision) (this is always entertaining).
History of Google April Fools Craziness:

* Google And Virgin Team For Human Settlement On Mars
* Google Wake Up Kit
* YouTube RickRolls Users
* Gmail April Fools Not Very Funny. On the Upside, They Started A Wikipedia War
* Google Launches Future Search

Webification of Desktops.

Many web players in the market are running for taking early lead in the Desktop share as they have on web. o name few there are Adobe, Google, Mozilla, Fluid, MS. The concept of Desktop presence always fascinate the developers nad for commercial use as user would always have the app/site right on his Desktop, otherwise he has to open a browser and pull down the site to check his mails,videos. "A web browser is only good for Web browsing" and not for your important, daily, must do stuffs like mail, Social networking, Work etc. For all this you always want a desktop App that sits right in front of your eyes. AIR, Prism, Google Gears, Fluid are some of the new techs which helps user to shift his key interest websites from web to his desktop. but out of all these I only think AIR has all the possible capabilities which a desktop app would have and other solutions are more of like answers to some useful ideas and not the complete package. Lets take one by one
Adobe AIR
Adobe AIR is complete solution for desktop versions of your web sites/app as it has all the features of a desktop app from installer to native file access. An AIR app can have a jazzy look n feel as flex can be very easily used in an air app and thats too with added functionalities of Drag n Drop, File systems Access, context menus, integrated web browser(webkit), Multiple windows support, HTML controls etc.

1. It provide a complete installer to user with all the installer options from Licence agreement to Shortcut options to custom installation paths.
2. AIR applications can be built on plane HTML/JavaScript only and not necessarily with MXML/AS(Flex).
3. AIR applications ahve Drag n drop support natively. It allows developer to bundle the dragged data and pass it on the OS native drag manager to handle it OS way, it gives a consistent behavior.
4. Also allows the internal Drag n Drop powered by Flex.
5. AIR apps can have multiple windows which allows user to do things parallaley.
6. It also has a Browser integrated which is the open source webkit.
7. Allows to add custom context menus.
8. Wide variety of HTML controls.
9. Taskbar, System tray presence , tooltips, unistallation via Add/Remove Panel.
10. App would have native file system access.
11. Print Support


Mozilla Prism
Prism is based on a concept called Site Specific Browsers (SSB). An SSB is an application with an embedded browser designed to work exclusively with a single web application. It doesn’t have the menus, toolbars and accoutrements of a normal web browser. Some people have called it a "distraction free browser" because none of the typical browser chrome is used. An SSB also has a tighter integration with the OS and desktop than a typical web application running through a web browser.

1. You can have only shortcut on your Desktop. To Uninstall webapps simply delete the sortcut.
2. Its only your website running in a browser with no chrome and no extra buttons, toolbars.
3. No Native filesystem access.
4. Print support

Google Gears
Google Gears Beta is an open source browser extension that enables web applications to provide offline functionality using the following JavaScript APIs.There are three major API components to Google Gears

1.A local server that caches and serves application resources (HTML, JavaScript, images, etc).
2.A database (powered by SQLite) that stores the data offline.
3.A worker thread pool that synchronizes data in the background.

TechCrunch

TechCrunch: "Y Combinator Demo Day Roundup for Spring 2008
Mark Hendrickson
41 comments »

The fledgling startups listed below will present their ideas and initial products to investors at this spring’s Y Combinator Demo Day on March 18. Of the 19 companies in this batch, 10 have already launched and only one remains in stealth mode. Most of them have been in development for only three months."

Ten Rules For Startup Success

Loic Le Meur’s Ten Rules For Startup Success: "Loic Le Meur’s Ten Rules For Startup Success

The Financial Times has a profile of French (now Silicon Valley) entrepreneur Loic Le Meur today.
Loic is an accomplished entrepreneur - he founded uBlog (merged with Six Apart), organizes the annual Le Web conference and has now created Seesmic (note that I’m an investor in Seesmic). So even though he’s French, his advice, when given, is worth listening to.

Included in the article are his ten rules for startup success. Reprinted below.

1. Don’t wait for a revolutionary idea. It will never happen. Just focus on a simple, exciting, empty space and execute as fast as possible
2. Share your idea. The more you share, the more you get advice and the more you learn. Meet and talk to your competitors.
3. Build a community. Use blogging and social software to make sure people hear about you.
4. Listen to your community. Answer questions and build your product with their feedback.
5. Gather a great team. Select those with very different skills from you. Look for people who are better than you.
6. Be the first to recognise a problem. Everyone makes mistakes. Address the issue in public, learn about and correct it.
7. Don’t spend time on market research. Launch test versions as early as possible. Keep improving the product in the open.
8. Don’t obsess over spreadsheet business plans. They are not going to turn out as you predict, in any case.
9. Don’t plan a big marketing effort. It’s much more important and powerful that your community loves the product.
10. Don’t focus on getting rich. Focus on your users. Money is a consequence of success, not a goal.

So What are you thinking!!!!! GO and start up!!!!!!!

YouTube is now a Platform

Google has exposed his YouTube APIs for the developers for having there own Websites to let user upload their videos and in different environments. BUT all those videos would upload on Google Servers so that Google can easily index them.
This brings Google back full circle to the initial strategy for Google Video, which originally required videos to be uploaded directly to Google in order to become indexed. YouTube is gradually replacing Google Video—that is where most people upload videos anyway—but getting as much video from the rest of the Web onto its servers allows it to do many more things with it than if it simply indexed the videos elsewhere. It can search them better and throw up ads against them.

Specifically, the new APIs allow Web developers to:

* Upload videos and video responses to YouTube
* Add/Edit user and video metadata (titles, descriptions, ratings, comments, favorites, contacts, etc)
* Fetch localized standard feeds (most viewed, top rated, etc.) for 18 international locales
* Perform custom queries optimized for 18 international locales
* Customize player UI and control video playback (pause, play, stop, etc.) through software

Of course, it is not exactly free. The videos will also be available on YouTube, where Google will make money from any associated ads. It is not clear how the ad revenue will be split, or even if it will be. There is nothing in the API that allows for a Website to insert their own ads. So that is a big question mark. (More on that after I speak with a YouTube exec later in today).
http://www.techcrunch.com/

Start of Visual Search

The main difference between SearchMe and other search engines is that it returns results primarily in a visual format, via an image of the result site. The results are displayed in a way that is similar to browsing through albums in iTunes - see the following videos to get an idea of how it looks:

Its backed by Sequoia, DAG Ventures and Lehman Brothers.

10 useful AIR Applications

Here they are for you,

10 useful AIR Applications

AIR Rocks

AIR is Adobe's 4th Plaform, After Postscript, PDF and Flash

Adobe "AIR" - You need AIR to survive!

Is it the lull before the strom?

From last couple of days no big news from any big players in the IT/WEB sector (apart from Adobe AIR launch). Also no news from MS-YAHOO tussle. I think this indicates something big to happen apart from IT slowdown. Google is busy growing and its hard for a big company to remain innovative and growing at the same time. But till now Google did managed this pretty well. From Google official blog it seems Google will be launching Google health soon. Also MS launches its Virtual Earth Beta couple of weeks back but it didn't create mush news. I had gave a try to MS virtual Earth and didn't seem that standard as Google earth is. Also you need to download a browser plugin to view MS maps.

Lets waits if Yahoo investors woos their board members for MS Bid.

Its in the "AIR"

Adobe recently launches their New Technoloy called Adobe AIR. AIR stands for "Adobe Integrated Runtime". AIR is the runtime for all the platforms(windows, Mac and linux) and it let user use the RIA's as desktop Apps. Adobe Air's runtime environment allows developers with access to API (application programming interface) kits from companies to create customized versions of the Web experience -- without the browser. Developers with Flash and HTML abilities can take the information structures of a Web site and create an application that users can download to their desktop, which would then operate just like any other desktop application. This would allow -- among other actions -- users to drag and drop information from any Web site onto their desktop.

Websites such as auctioneer eBay have already developed applications that use the new technology. After a quick download, the eBay users can click the company's logo on their desktop and launch an application that will allow them to do their business directly no browser required. The software is part of a growing number of technologies that aim to make the transition between the on and offline worlds seamless.

Meet Adobe Illustrator (1987)

Microsoft Just Made Google's Year

At this point Yahoo! (YHOO) is dead man walking. Let's see - a $31 per share sword of Damocles hanging over their head, losing top employees amidst a sea of disappointment and uncertainty (see Horwitz, Brad) and no real plan except to say "Go away." Not a formula for success. Microsoft (MSFT) itself has opened itself up to a Pandora's Box of uncertainty, from both the perspective of "What are you doing spending $40 billion on Yahoo!" and "Sheesh, what is this going to mean for our culture and my job?" It seems to me that the Yahoo!, Microsoft and Google (GOOG) dynamic can best be characterized by the following metaphor: three brothers, one which is 5-years old, one which is 10 and the oldest that is 15. 5, 10, 15. Yahoo! Microsoft. Google.

Yahoo! is 5. Hippy dippy, Silicon Valley circa 1999 culture, never having made the transition to economic powerhouse like its older brothers. And this free-loving eco-chamber is now coming crashing down in the face of harsh market realities. Advertising share down. Search share down. Transition to a de-facto media company a failure. Now what? A plunging share price has made both employee retention difficult and rendered it a sitting duck for a potential buyer. And now its older brother, the big meanie Microsoft, is beating on it yet again. But this time it is an all-out scrap. The 5-year old is swinging but the long, powerful arms of the 10-year old are keeping it at bay. And this beating is causing a bunch of collateral damage - like losing friends, losing respect and losing its future. The 5-year old has and will continue to suffer badly from this encounter, no matter what happens from this point forward. His only hope for survival is by begging for protection and support from its tormentor, Microsoft.

Microsoft is 10. Graduated to middle school, feeling important, feeling like using some new tricks to impress the older kids. But still somewhat rooted to the past, in this case the heavy, software-based desktop franchise that is still the lifeblood of the company. And while Microsoft is picking on Yahoo! it is getting trounced in the most rapidly-growing markets by its older brother, Google. And it isn't pretty. MSN and Microsoft Live are just shadows of the Google search and advertising empire, and it appears that Microsoft has concluded that to make a run at its mighty brother it needs to impose a reign of terror on its younger brother. But this fight has left the 10-year old weakened as well. Looking desperate - why beat up on someone half your age? Clearly not a fair fight. Can't you go it alone with all those resources? Looking stodgy - do you really need those Yahoo! hipsters to breathe some life into that software-heavy culture? Looking financially irresponsible - just because you have $40 billion to spend is this really the best way to enhance shareholder value? All good questions. But in this case 5+10 doesn't equal 15, because this fight has taken years off both of their lives and the big brother remains above the fray, thinking about love, college and the future. What his younger brothers do is of little consequence, except insofar as their might be some good toys and friends to pick up after the fighting is over.

Google is 15. He is laughing - hard. "Boy, are my kid brothers dopes! I'm looking forward, living large, walking tall. I'm in high school but college is around the corner. I'm going to start my own company. And if my idiot brothers lose some of their friends because of the fight, they can come work with me on my company. And if my younger brother falls ill, very ill, I'll come and visit him and send my best but there is little I can do to help." Google must be thinking "Does Microsoft really want Yahoo! or are they simply trying to kill Yahoo! Either way, I win." Google will pick up top pros from both Microsoft and Yahoo!, who no longer want to deal with uncertainty and questionable business strategy, and for this Google will pay precisely nothing. Microsoft may end up spending $40 billion for something that has precious little value, as top human capital which is the real engine of growth will simply walk. Is the advertising engine and the other Yahoo! assets really worth buying the company, much less paying the control premium? And this doesn't even take into account the disruption and value destruction arising from the integration process, which is at any time and always a hairball.

And the end of the day those at Google must be shaking their heads. I think Larry, Sergey and Eric should send Steve a really expensive bouquet of flowers. He has simply made their year.

Microsoft’s Acquisition Of Yahoo: Not As Bad As Some Think

Microsoft’s Acquisition Of Yahoo: Not As Bad As Some Think: "Microsoft’s Acquisition Of Yahoo: Not As Bad As Some Think

The Microsoft is evil meme is alive and well this week as many digest Microsoft’s $44.6 billion takeover offer for Yahoo. There’s Flickr users protesting, talk of Yahoo teaming up with Google to block Microsoft’s bid, and general Microsoft is bad sentiment everywhere, even from Google itself. While Microsoft acquiring Yahoo may not provide the ultimate in happy endings to many, it’s really not as bad as some would have you believe.

Google’s response to the acquisition over the weekend was amazing in its veracity. Google and Microsoft have never been friends, but for Google to come out and attack the acquisition as it did can only mean one thing: Google is afraid, and that’s a very good thing. Internally Google believes that a combined Microsoft/ Yahoo will provide real competition to its dominant market position in search and text advertising, the very same position it has depended on to build its until recently huge share price and market cap. Google can preach about open access and open markets all it wants, but Google’s idea of open is only where users access it from one of its many web properties.

New iOS is arriving.

Xcerion is a company providing an Internet OS as a free service over the Internet.

The OS called, Xcerion XML Internet OS/3 (XIOS/3) enables a networked and collaborative experience with applications utilizing the potential of the Internet.

Applications may be developed in weeks instead of years using Xcerions new XML languages for development. The OS is created for desktop applications for both consumers and businesses.

http://www.youtube.com/Xcerion

FT.com / Comment & analysis / Letters - Don’t rule out Microsoft’s chances in Google battle

FT.com / Comment & analysis / Letters - Don’t rule out Microsoft’s chances in Google battle: "Don’t rule out Microsoft’s chances in Google battle

Published: February 5 2008 02:00 | Last updated: February 5 2008 02:00

From Dr Andrew M. Wild.

Sir, Microsoft’s bid for Yahoo shows that it is finally willing to mount a significant challenge to Google, and not before time. Google totally dominates the search engine market and has a firm grip on online advertising.

Founded by two former Stanford University students, Google has seen its employee numbers grow to more than 10,000 within 10 years.

Google has been able to recruit a torrent of talented software engineers and is famed for keeping them happy by supplementing generous salaries with a wealth of perks, from free transport to exquisite food.

It ensures that employees are given the freedom to innovate and allows 20 per cent of their time to be

devoted on projects of their choosing, with little interference from the corporate machine. The company seems to be a hotbed of new ideas and makes competitors look relatively snail-like in their development process.

Microsoft has simply not been in the game, but this is not the first time it has moved from the sidelines to the centre of battle – and ultimately won.

San Jose Mercury News - Takahashi: Google, Microsoft's next battle in cloud computing

San Jose Mercury News - Takahashi: Google, Microsoft's next battle in cloud computing: "The real battle between Microsoft and Google - now in conflict over Microsoft's $44.6 billion bid for Yahoo - ultimately isn't over search. Search is the source of Google's revenue and its growth. But it's pouring that money into things that scare Microsoft even more.

The Android cell phone operating system is one of those. It represents a threat to Microsoft's Windows Mobile operating system. But a bigger threat is Google's push toward 'cloud computing,' which could dislodge Microsoft's position on the desktop computer.

Cloud computing is computation done not in the desktop but in the Internet-connected 'cloud,' or the heavy-duty computers known as servers in a big company's data center. Also referred to as the 'cloud operating system,' it has been talked about for years and is often dismissed as a minor sideshow. But it is a very real possibility today, and Microsoft should worry about a cloud OS in the hands of Google.

A primitive version of cloud computing already exists through Xcerion, a Swedish company that has created what it calls a 'cloud OS.' After six years of stealth design, it put its beta version out in September. Xcerion has done exactly what Google has reportedly been thinking about doing to undermine the Microsoft Windows monopoly.

The Xcerion OS is based on the XML"

Apple will buy Adobe

In his weekly column, Robert X. Cringely laid out the case for Apple to acquire Adobe in 2008. Disney was crossed off the list.

"About 18 months ago an Apple employee at an internal meeting asked Steve Jobs about Apple's positioning in the enterprise market," Mr Cringely wrote. "Jobs told the employee that it wasn't really Apple's business and that he should go work at a company like IBM or HP if he wanted to pursue that line of work. Jobs said Apple was in the 'content creation' business with the consumer iLife applications as well as professional apps like Final Cut Pro."

With that starting point, Mr. Cringely analyzed Apple's business model and what they're really after. "Last year, for example, Apple bought an application called FinalTouch from Silicon Color that was essentially video color correction on steroids," Mr. Cringely noted. "They [Apple] changed the product name to Color, added a couple features, then rolled it into Final Cut Studio, Apple's top-end video application suite. Though FinalTouch sold for up to $25,000, Color is included in Final Cut Studio FOR FREE, which is a kick in the head to Apple competitors like Avid that don't have hardware sales to count on for profitability."

Recently, however, Apple has shifted its focus from mere content creation to content distribution with iTunes. Mr. Cringely's analysis led to this: "This shift from creation to distribution is vital to understanding Apple's current strategy and involves a counterintuitive feedback loop to those professional applications. Where Final Cut Pro was useful to Apple as a driver of hardware sales, it is now becoming more useful as a driver of content to be distributed through iTunes."

Based on that future for Apple, the acquisition of Adobe makes sense. Mr. Cringely pointed to Adobe's CEO, Bruce Chizen, suddenly stepping down without warning. That may be a early indicator. In addition, the acquisition of Adobe would allow the merger of Flash and QuickTime "would make any other video standards (like Windows Media) simply immaterial," Mr. Cringely concluded.

Timing is also important. The acquisition would go better in 2008 while Avid and Microsoft still present credible competition and the FTC would be unlikely to oppose the merger.

Many others have offered the same suggestion. However, Mr. Cringely [a pen name for Mark Stephens] filled in all the bits and pieces that explain why it's likely to happen.

John Battelle's Searchblog: An Experiment with PDF Ads Via Yahoo

An Experiment with PDF Ads Via YahooTf 3.SamllcoverKevin Kelly is trying out a new ad insertion program with his book "True Films". His write up is interesting and Kevin's always thoughtful about these things.Earlier editions of this book have been available on Amazon, Lulu, and as a cheap download from my site. But with this new version 3.0 I am trying something new. I am offering this 200-page full-color guide (perfect as a companion if you have Netflix) as a FREE download. It's in PDF format, but with a twist. To help offset the significant bandwidth costs of these downloads (I hope my server can take the wave), I have appended advertisements to the PDF book. Here is how the ads work:If you choose to see the ads, they will appear in a gray sidebar on the right, adjacent to the pages of the book, just outside the frame of the page.....These ads are inserted into the PDF by Adobe (using the Yahoo ad network) when you open the file. Like Google Adsense ads, they are contextual.

John Battelle's Searchblog: An Experiment with PDF Ads Via Yahoo

Blogged with Flock