T.J. Walia's posterous http://walia.posterous.com Most recent posts at T.J. Walia's posterous posterous.com Thu, 07 Jul 2011 09:50:00 -0700 Facebook, Skype, and Microsoft's savvy investment | Microsoft - CNET News http://walia.posterous.com/facebook-skype-and-microsofts-savvy-investmen http://walia.posterous.com/facebook-skype-and-microsofts-savvy-investmen

Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg, left, and Skype's Tony Bates announce a deal to include Skype's video conferencing into Facebook's social network.

(Credit: James Martin/CNET)

Just after Microsoft Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer announced plans in May to buy Skype, he and Skype Chief Executive Officer Tony Bates had one more order of business.

"The day we announced, we definitely came to see Mark," Bates said, talking of Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg, at a press conference today announcing Facebook's plans to bake Skype's video conferencing technology into its social network. "It was for both of us, Steve and I, the most important strategic relationship."

As Google grows ever more powerful in techdom, and Microsoft's influence slips, the Redmond software giant is building closer and closer ties to Facebook. The Facebook-Skype deal today is more evidence that Microsoft and Facebook are in lockstep as they fight their mutual foe, Google. And it comes even while Microsoft awaits regulatory approval to conclude its Skype acquisition.

"We have a really good relationship with Microsoft, where we work with them on a lot of different stuff," Zuckerberg said at the press conference announcing the new video-conferencing feature. That stuff includes advertising, where Microsoft provides all the search advertising to Facebook. It used to provide display advertising, too, but Facebook took over that task last year.

Microsoft has been criticized for its many missteps on the Internet, ranging from leisurely upgrades of Internet Explorer to being slow to understand the importance of search. But its relationship with Facebook is something Ballmer & Co. got right. Microsoft cemented its bond with Facebook in 2007, when it bought a 1.6 percent stake in the company for $240 million. Today, if reported valuations of Facebook are to be believed--online privately held stock marketplace SharesPost currently has an implied value for the company at $82.4 billion--that 1.6 percent is worth $1.3 billion.

But the Microsoft-Facebook relationship isn't really about savvy investment, of course. It's about fighting off Google. Microsoft's Facebook deals, and you can include the new video chat feature from Skype, are all aimed squarely at the search king. And just as the Web search giant has changed the market dynamics to undermine Microsoft's power--helping establish the Web, not the PC desktop, as the heart of computing--so too is Facebook challenging Google. Its service, with 750 million users worldwide, is becoming something of an alternative Internet, a place where computer users spend huge chunks of time and never touch a Google service.

In May, Microsoft began including recommendations from Facebook friends into its Bing search engine, elevating results that receive a "like" from someone in the searcher's network. That way, when people search for a coffee shop in Los Angeles, for example, a java stop that won Facebook praise from their friends will rate higher in their search results, as long as they are logged in, than other nearby locations.

The Microsoft-Facebook deals are creating services that Google has yet to match. Google has tried to add social networking to search, creating its 1 button to shower favor on a news article, a company, or even a search result. But its network isn't the equal of Facebook. So clicking the 1 button doesn't have the same impact as clicking a Facebook "like."

The new video chat feature unveiled today offers the potential to extend Skype to an ever wider audience. Facebook users can connect their accounts with Skype. If they chose to, it opens another outlet for the video-conferencing service. Microsoft has already talked about baking Skype into a host of products, everything from its Outlook e-mail software to its Xbox video game console. The new deal could conceivably allow video chats from a Skype customer through a Facebook account on a PC to a TV set where an Xbox user, also connected by Skype, is online.

That's why Google continues to innovate too. Its Google social network, launched to a limited number of users last week, is a direct threat to Facebook, offering features unavailable from its established rival. Google Circles is a far more convenient way to sort friends and acquaintances and send updates to specific groups than Facebook's friend set-up. And Google Hangouts was first to video chat, and allows users to connect with up to nine of their contacts. The new Facebook video chat service only allows one-to-one calling.

There's little doubt the battle will continue with both sides ratcheting up the pressure with new services and features. Standing next to Bates at the press conference today, Zuckerberg made that perfectly clear.

"We're in the process of figuring out what we want to do next," Zuckerberg said.

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Tue, 05 Jul 2011 16:15:00 -0700 ‪Interaction with a Quadrotor via the Kinect‬‏# http://walia.posterous.com/interaction-with-a-quadrotor-via-the-kinect-27836 http://walia.posterous.com/interaction-with-a-quadrotor-via-the-kinect-27836

The Kinect is more than just the XBOX. This truly is amazing technology!!

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Thu, 23 Jun 2011 10:42:00 -0700 Chapter 1 - Information Bombardment by Nick Bontis http://walia.posterous.com/chapter-1-information-bombardment-by-nick-bon http://walia.posterous.com/chapter-1-information-bombardment-by-nick-bon

Chapter 1 – Seeking Balance in a Digital Storm

The day was absolutely perfect. My family and I arrived on the island of Santorini in the middle of the Aegean Sea. If you have never been to this little piece of paradise, I encourage you do so if you get the chance. Sculpted out of one of the earth’s largest-known volcanoes more than 3,500 years ago, Santorini is a small archipelago off the coast of Greece. Layers upon layers of different-color lava rock form ledges of terrain filled with cascading villas leading downward to the ocean. The glistening views from the whitewashed-stone terraces are spectacular, and the sunsets over the volcanic caldera are breathtaking. It has always been one of my most favorite places in the world.

My wife and I, as well as our three children, were making our annual summer escape to the island. But the day wasn’t to be as perfect as I thought. Despite having physically escaped Ontario, there was still a chunk of me that couldn’t leave. I hadn’t checked my e-mail in over forty-eight hours, and I was about to go crazy. All those important messages and pieces of information that I fictionalized in my head were simply sitting in my inbox unattended. But there was another problem: on this exquisite Greek island, amidst the lavish beaches and gentle breeze, I couldn’t get any reception on my BlackBerry.

How was I going to find out what I was missing without connectivity? I needed information, and I had been cut off. I was severed from the digital world!

“Daddy, come play soccer with me,” Charlie, my older son, begged, tapping on my leg.

“Hold on,” I replied. “Give me just a second. I’m trying to get some stock market quotes off my phone.”

“Let’s search for seashells, Daddy,” came another request from Dino, my younger son.

“Can my dolly swim with us?” piped in my daughter, Tia Maria.

“Nick,” my wife Stacy called from a few yards away, “what are you doing? Let’s take a walk down the beach and catch the sunset.”

“Just a second, everybody,” I said, trying to buy some time.

“I think I am getting a signal. I will be done soon.”

I missed the sunset, regarded as one of the most romantic in the world. I missed an opportunity to play soccer, collect seashells and swim in the water. I lost these precious moments with my family on one of the most beautiful islands in the world. For what? For the endless search of knowledge. Or, better yet, for the need to quench my incessant addiction to information. I was held hostage by digital chains. I was craving my data fix as if it were air, food and water, yet in the process I failed to balance the most important things in my life. Think back to the apex of the industrial era circa the mid- 1960s. Steel workers at Dofasco, one of my hometown’s largest employers, would go to the factory when the whistle blew. At day’s end, the whistle would blow again, signaling them to go home. At night the workers would spend time with their families and then enjoy some leisurely pursuits. But when does the whistle blow today? Honestly, the whistle blows only if we shut off our smartphones. Most of us have more attentive relationships with our BlackBerrys than we do with our spouses and friends.

“Good morning, my love. Do you have any e-mails or alerts for me this morning? How’s your battery, sweetheart? Are you feeling well connected?”

The first thing we do when we wake up and the last thing we do before going to bed are check our inboxes. Is it absolutely necessary that we yearn for a quick glimpse just to make sure some juicy piece of information didn’t come across that might suddenly change our lives? Digital devices have crossed all boundaries of our lives, and some of us can’t live without them. While we suffer from the dangers of a crackberry addiction, how do we achieve a healthy work-life balance?

Santorini is actually thought by some historians to be the long-lost island of Atlantis that was written about by Plato in the fourth century BC. A tremendous volcanic eruption left only an island remnant of what was once a thriving Minoan civilization. But eventually Hellenization spread back into the area, and great thinkers and philosophers like Plato, Aristotle and Socrates dreamed of a flourishing utopian society that would be the genesis of civilization. They sought knowledge and wisdom, or what the Greeks referred to as sophos, believing this was the key to progress. Yet there I was, ignoring the things that should have been important to me in exchange for the promises of a handheld device. On one end of the spectrum, I was surrounded by the genesis of civilized culture amidst the azure waters of the Aegean Sea, and on the other end I stood with my BlackBerry raised to the sky, trying to get a signal. Is this what my ancient Greek forefathers envisioned?

Bathing in Bits

The Kaiser Family Foundation recently released a study that found the average young American spends more than seven hours a day using some type of electronic device. Facebook, Twitter, instant messengers and smartphone apps are just the most recent newcomers to the attention-grabbing environment of today. Technological advances have allowed us to be connected constantly to streams of information from around the globe so that we don’t have to miss a binary beat. We are literally bathing ourselves in bits, and some of us are drowning. What drives us to do such a thing? Do we really gain that much more from interfacing with a cold, hard piece of metal than with other people? Some people would say definitely yes. Without question we have entered the knowledge era and left the industrial era and agricultural era behind. No longer do we use our brawn and physical skills to harvest the land. Instead, we use our brains. Without knowledge we are left defenseless. Ignorance carries a huge price tag in the knowledge era. If you’re left out of the loop, it is likely you’re going to be left behind.

The big problem is that most of us have no idea how to filter, organize and prioritize all the information we receive. While much information is useful, we are constantly being bombarded with a huge amount of noise. Junk mail, spam, sales pitches, gossip and propaganda saturate our attention spans. If you were to open up a new Hotmail account today, it would take on average about eight minutes before you received your first spam mail. More than likely it would be about how cheaply you can buy Viagra or about some guy in Nigeria who is in dire need of your financial support. How many of these e-mails do we need?

The bottom line is that we cannot help ourselves. We are so fearful of being left out that we sacrifice things that are important to us simply in order to stay informed. That means we have left the door open for information bombardment to occur. With more than a billion Internet users in the world, there are plenty of eager people to provide you with vast amounts of information—both useful and useless. Unless we learn to get a handle on how to discern the quality of this information and our real need for the information, the negative effects of information bombardment are bound to happen. In fact, they already have.

I didn’t really need to check my inbox on vacation. All of my colleagues knew I was away on holiday. Nothing was pressing whatsoever. Yet this need to know had somehow become more important to me than spending time with my family or even allowing myself to relax. The longer I went without an Internet connection, the more anxious I became. The more anxious I felt, the harder it was to relax and enjoy myself. I had become addicted to knowing the latest and greatest piece of information that might have come across my path. I had allowed my inbox to be more important than anything else. I was bathing in bits and drowning. Meanwhile, my family was starving for another scarce resource.

Today’s Scarcest Resource

If you take a survey and ask a thousand people what the most limited resource is today, the majority will respond by saying “time.” But time doesn’t change. Time has always been the same. You don’t have more time one day and less the next. There are always twenty-four hours in a day, sixty minutes in an hour and sixty seconds in a minute. Therefore, time cannot be more or less scarce with each passing generation or even millennium. Time is limited, but it is constantly limited to the same degree. Time isn’t the primary problem, however; how we use our time is.

In the knowledge era, our attention spans are the scarcest resource. Do I give 100 percent of my attention to my boss as he speaks at a corporate luncheon? Or do I share my attention between him and my e-mails as they come across my BlackBerry? If I share my attention between both, then I get rewarded by being more efficient and more productive. This, in turn, may lead to a promotion or greater opportunities for me. Today, incentives are in place that encourage me to share my attention among different and sometimes competing demands. The amount of time I have doesn’t change, so how can I get more out of time? Easy: split my attention by optimally allocating my priorities. This is more commonly referred to as multitasking.

I have a theory. I believe that one’s age is inversely proportionate to the number of windows that are simultaneously open on one’s desktop computer. For example, my father Harry is a successful accountant who taught himself how to use a computer in his sixties. On an average day at work I have watched him open his Outlook and read e-mails from his clients. Then he closes Outlook to open up a Google search browser to find the phone number of his favorite restaurant on The Danforth (Toronto’s Greek area). Then he closes the browser and opens a media player to listen to Paschalis Terzis (his favorite singer). The peculiar part of this whole process is that only one window is open at a time. In contrast, my first-year university students typically have ten or more windows open simultaneously as they write up their assignments in Word, crunch some numbers in Excel, surf the Web, post photos on Facebook, burn a CD, download an MP3 file, tweet their emotions and more. Over the past couple of generations, the environment has rewarded those who compartmentalize their attention spans into small chunks and multitask. Today, a whole generation of children naturally multitask because it is a sign of the times. They have grown up us digital multitaskers.

But multitasking has had its costs. My children are starving for my attention. My wife spends romantic sunsets on immaculate beaches without me holding her. And, deep down, though I refuse to hear it, a small voice within me is screaming for some exhalation and relaxation. Instead, I choose to give the bulk of my attention to a silicon chip within a plastic case connected to streams of data that I do not even truly need. Like many of you, I have been socialized into feeling that these bits of information are critical to my survival. So I give them my attention while relationships and quality of life suffer. Have you tried cuddling in bed with your BlackBerry lately?

False Promises of Technology

Back in the days of the agricultural era, multigenerational families worked together on farms to grow crops that fed the population. In the early twentieth century, thirty million people provided food for 100 million Americans. But over the ensuing decades, guess what happened? The children of these farming families learned to read, to write and to think. Seemingly overnight, there was an exodus of farm workers as young, bright men and women chose to pursue other professional careers.

Did the world then starve? No. Technology came to the rescue with new farming equipment (e.g., bulldozers, genetically modified seeding systems, and irrigation architecture designed by these newly educated men and women that could more efficiently and effectively assist with food production). By the end of the twentieth century, ten million people could now feed over 300 million Americans. Who could argue that technological advancement wasn’t a good thing?

To a point, innovation is certainly a wonderful thing. However, at some point we begin to give away too much of ourselves in the process. Today, we have satellite and cable television systems that provide us with dozens if not hundreds of channels to sample. We have satellite and Web-based radio that let us choose a specific genre of song anytime we want. Of course, with the help of Google, our ability to search for any answer with the tapping of a few keys places us in the midst of a sea of information. This all sounds good, right?

Let me pose a question to you: Do you think it is simply a coincidence that the rise in ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) over the last thirty years occurred during the same time that society experienced an explosion of information? I don’t. I remember how when I was a kid, there were less than ten channels on our RCA television set. If I wanted to change the channel, I had to get my lazy self off the couch and rotate the dial. As a result, I would endure long segments of time viewing one program without shifting my focus of attention. Today, with a universal remote control in my hand, I find I spend only a few minutes at best on a channel before moving to another. Or, better yet, my kids use the picture-in-picture functionality of a 1080p 3D LED display to watch five channels simultaneously (of the several hundred available) in rich 9.1 Dolby digital surround sound.

The infusion of information into our environments has forced us to share our attention, and it has taught us to become better multitaskers. But in addition it has taught us how to rapidly shift our attention from one item to the next. Did you know that most people can scan an e-mail’s sender and its subject line and decide whether or not to delete it within 1.2 seconds? Pretty cool skill, eh? No one taught us that in school. But while that is extremely efficient, the act enforces brief bursts of attention. It is becoming harder and harder to attain skills in focused and long-lasting periods of concentration. This is the kind of attention my wife and kids are craving.

Why do I keep clicking forward through the television channels even though I find a show that is somewhat intriguing? The answer is the same reason why I am dying to get a signal from my BlackBerry on vacation: I don’t want to miss any little juicy piece of information or entertainment. There is always something better on television than what I am currently watching! Technology has enabled us to have access to vast amounts of variety within multiple forms of communication. Yet without the ability to filter and prioritize this information, the same technology is causing our quality of life to decline.

Technology has always caused paradigms to shift, but some of technology’s promises have not always been true. Do you remember the big promise technology made when the computer replaced the typewriter? “Think of all the paper we will save. Everything will be stored and transferred electronically, so all that waste will disappear. We will all work in paperless offices!” This has hardly been the case. We currently use more than 100 million tons of paper each year in the US alone. When you check in at the airport, in most cases you still must go to a kiosk to print out your boarding pass to get through security. Despite your medical records at your doctor’s office being electronically stored, health-care payers often still require paper documents to justify proposed charges. Instead of saving paper and allowing society to become paperless, electronic technology has done the opposite. Even though we may print out a smaller percentage of the total stored information available, the entire quantity of information has risen exponentially. The end result is that we have more paper floating around than ever before.

While information bombardment and the demands of attention sharing are evident in recent technological advances, technology is also rapidly replacing—or displacing—many areas once thought to be ruled only by the human brain. Stories about machines replacing factory workers are nothing new. Likewise, machines eliminating positions that primarily organize, categorize or distribute products are quite common. But what about machines that can actually think?

In 1997 IBM designed a machine called Deep Blue that successfully competed against the world’s best human chess player. Compared to other computers, its processing power allowed it to calculate up to 200 million chess moves in a second, and it could anticipate all potential permutations up to twenty moves ahead. Garry Kasparov, the reigning world grandmaster, took on Deep Blue in a six-game match. In the end, Deep Blue successfully beat Kasparov after the champion made an early mistake in the last game. It was the first time a machine had ever accomplished this feat.

Do you think it is impossible for computers and their artificial intelligence to surpass the capacity of the brain? Let’s think about this in practical terms for a moment. The brain has approximately 100 billion nerve cells called neurons. At a base level, it is safe to assume that each neuron has a storage capacity of at least one byte of information. That means the average brain can store at least ten gigabytes even before we consider connections between neurons. If you then add the ability to store information between neurons in neural networks, experts estimate the total brain capacity may be as high as 1,000 terabytes (a terabyte is 1,000 gigabytes!). That is a huge amount of storage ability and processing power.

Certainly there is no way a computer processor and storage device could house that much information. Wrong. The Library of Congress and many other large databases are rapidly approaching this figure. Ancestry.com reports a total storage capacity of 600 terabytes after it added US census data from 1790 through 1930 to its online database. Its total figure is rapidly approaching the theorized total brain capacity to hold and process information. It’s no wonder we are beginning to feel the effects of information bombardment. I’m getting a headache just thinking about it.

As nanochips get smaller and the devices we use become more powerful and faster, it is likely that these devices will begin interacting and communicating amongst themselves. Not only will we have information from other people to digest but we will also have an entire new body of artificial intelligence to keep up with. Think about it: is your life better as a result of all the technology around you? Or has it simply provided a way with which to bombard you with more information in a shorter amount of time? If quality of life is truly better, then we should all be enjoying the pleasures and sunsets of Santorini.

Information and Your Health

Ever since the development of the Internet, a great deal of buzz has been publicized about being informed about your own health. You should know about any disorders you have, the side effects of your medications, your family history and more. An informed patient knows the right questions to ask his or her doctor before they even meet. Yet the ironic thing is that information itself is one of the biggest health risks today. Our constant thirst for information places demands on us mentally that affect us over the long term.

Did you know that thirty percent of the population in all industrialized societies suffers from some type of insomnia? Almost one in every three people! More than ninety percent of these people cannot sleep because of stresses occurring in their lives. They may have had a recent emotional loss or experienced some type of trauma. But many simply are struggling to keep up with all the information they contend with each day.

As a management professor at the DeGroote School of Business at McMaster University, I have my own share of deadlines to meet and pressures with which to contend. But through it all, I am constantly available to give my attention to my BlackBerry or computer should instant messaging, e-mail or video conferencing requests arrive. What I didn’t realize was the amount of mental energy it took to be so constantly vigilant. When it came time to go to bed at night, coming off this digital high was nearly impossible.

The chemical released in our bodies when we are so hypervigilant is called adrenaline. Adrenaline is great for situations when you must fight and defend yourself or escape a hostile situation, but to be in a constant state of adrenalization is not a good thing. In addition to causing you not to sleep, being constantly adrenalized can lead to anxiety disorders, high blood pressure and even heart disease. Information bombardment doesn’t only affect your social relationships; it can affect your physical and mental health as well.

Are you working to live or living to work? A balance between working and personal time is important in order to be healthy, but the number of people actually paying attention to this balance is shrinking every day. That doesn’t mean that constant information-seeking isn’t important in today’s knowledge era, but there needs to be a happy medium to be maximally productive.

In the US, most employees get two weeks of vacation a year, but most of us don’t even take that. In contrast, many Mediterranean countries take six weeks of vacation a year. In Greece, the entire month of August is a time for relaxing and leisure. No wonder why, when my family travels to Santorini, all the people there have smiles on their faces. The goal is to work smarter, not harder.

Vacation and leisure time have to be part of our priorities. Yes, sometimes we just have to turn the BlackBerry and the computer off. We clearly forget that all of these machines can be unplugged! That sounds pretty scary, eh? But in order to succeed in the knowledge era, we will need to find this balance in order to maximize overall productivity and quality of life. It’s time to unleash the digital chains that bits and bytes have over us and take back control of our lives.

My mother, Despina, spends almost every waking moment of her summer months tending to her lovely garden. She has a fantastic green thumb that is the envy of all of her neighbors. In fact, some budding horticulturists in the community have visited her simply to get advice on what flowers they should plant in their own gardens. My mother is always willing to part with her wisdom, which she has cultivated over several decades. In her case, the beauty of her knowledge is like the beauty of her garden: it is always more valuable when shared with others.

Knowledge or Null Edge?

Here is a fact: knowledge is power. We use it to wield authority over people, groups, communities and even nations. We need it to succeed in our personal lives and in the workplace. The boundaries of geography and physical limitations no longer apply. Knowledge goes beyond these constraints and encompasses an ever-expanding body of information that is increasing at exponential rates. But as knowledge expands, time does not. This leaves us having to decide how best to manage the information with which we are bombarded and to which fragments to lend our precious attention spans.

I see us at a crossroads of sorts, or perhaps the edge of a cliff would be a better analogy. Each of us is confronted with endless bits of data second to second—the current temperature outside, the forecast for tomorrow, the exchange rate, the stock market level and whatever else we want to know. We thrive on it and have become dependent on it. But the costs have reached a point where we are suffering in the quagmire. Is it all necessary? Must we have it all at our fingertips right now? We obviously survived without it before, yet now we eagerly yearn for it and digest it bit by byte. All the while, our families, our friends and our health pay the consequences. This is the place I call null edge.

We can choose to embrace the knowledge era and gain control over the information bombardment that attacks us from every angle, or we can fall off the edge of the cliff and drown in an ocean of data. The digital chains of information bombardment will drag us over the edge unless we begin to prioritize and discern what is most important.

There is an old adage that states that when you are young, you have plenty of time but no money; when you are middleaged you have money but little time; and only when you are elderly do you have both money and time. I don’t think this has to be true. I am often shocked when I hear colleagues complain that they have little time to do task A or B. It is the number-one complaint I hear in the workplace. Under my breath, I basically scoff at how poorly they are allocating their attention spans. One of the main objectives in my life is to maximize wealth and quality of life while minimizing energy expended. This is what we all want, isn’t it?

I have been to Santorini many times now, but my vacations are much different from before. I still check my e-mail periodically, but I don’t let information control my life. I take in the treasures that the island has to offer and think about what my Greek ancestors might have thought as they walked on the same beaches, swam in the same seas and watched the same sunsets. Could they ever have fathomed that our world would exist as it does today? Would they believe the magnitude of information each of us deals with on a daily basis? Despite all of this progress in technology, and despite bathing in bits and bytes, are we really better off?

No matter how you answer these questions, the fact remains that we all have to deal with information bombardment, and how this is done affects all of us at different levels. We now have no choice. We must do something about this yesterday. If not, we are in for dire consequences. On a personal level, our family lives and our health will be harmed. In groups and organizations, efficiency, productivity and profitability are at stake. Our nations and the global community continue to pay a high price. Information bombardment has already lead to catastrophic disasters like the failure to prevent 9/11 or to assist families quickly enough during Hurricane Katrina or the earthquake in Haiti. These are very real practical implications.

So what can we do? Plenty. But in order to understand how to tackle information bombardment, we first have to understand how we got to this point in our history. Our knowledge base hasn’t been steadily progressing through the generations. In fact, we have entered an exponential period of information explosion never before experienced. Unless we start to develop the tools with which to manage ourselves in the knowledge era, we indeed may be looking to an era of null edge. The choice is ours.

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Now this is some serious stuff. This book is written by a good friend of mine - Dr. Nick Bontis. He's a professor at Mac. Get a taste of the first chapter here and go get the book.

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Thu, 23 Jun 2011 10:20:00 -0700 The Lady with No Leaves on Her Lawn http://walia.posterous.com/the-lady-with-no-leaves-on-her-lawn http://walia.posterous.com/the-lady-with-no-leaves-on-her-lawn

Despite the fact that it’s Autumn and my yard is full of leaves, there’s a house in my neighborhood that never has any leaves on the front lawn. I walk by it every morning, and the yard and front walk are immaculate. The houses on either side are filled with leaves, but not this one.

Raking Leaves

But I know why. The little old lady who lives there is out there every morning (and I wouldn’t be surprised if she goes again later in the day) cleaning up the yard and walk with her broom, rake, and basket. The leaves never get a chance to pile up because she is vigilant and maintains her yard really well.

Rather than waiting until all of the leaves fall and spending an entire day cleaning up the mess, she maintains it on a daily basis.

It’s a lot like the various ways we  approach our Social Media branding and monitoring. The trees are the people (customers, fans, followers), and the leaves are the comments (tweets, posts, likes, questions) that they leave behind.

My neighbor lady is vigilant. She monitors the situation on a regular basis before it gets out of control. But there are those that check in weekly, monthly, or even less. Kind of easy to get overwhelmed by all that’s been left behind…and to miss things.

Are there leaves in your yard? And if not, is it because your being vigilant about monitoring your brand?

Or perhaps it’s because there aren’t any trees in the first place…


Tagged as: Autumn, Fall, monitoring, raking leaves, Social Media

Found this article to be quite interesting. Doesn't really have to apply to social networking, but to your day-to-day work too. I find I get a ton of email daily, and sometimes it piles up - but if I filter through it and clean it up as I go along it's actually managable. I've even set rules to filter emails that are sent only to me, where I'm not on the CC list. Just helps me sort out priority. Hope you find this helpful!

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Wed, 22 Jun 2011 07:50:00 -0700 Bing grabs market share from Google over past year | Microsoft - CNET News http://walia.posterous.com/bing-grabs-market-share-from-google-over-past http://walia.posterous.com/bing-grabs-market-share-from-google-over-past

Though Google remains firmly on top of the search engine market, it's shed market share to Microsoft over the past year, according to data released last week by research firm Compete.

Looking at the overall search engine market from May 2010 to May 2011, Compete found that Google has lost close to 16 percent of its share, dropping to 63.6 percent from 73.9 percent. At the same time, Microsoft grew its share by 75 percent, jumping to 17 percent from 9.7 percent.

The other three search engines tracked--Yahoo, Ask, and AOL--grew only slighty over the past year, showing that most of Bing's gain has been at the expense of Google.

(Credit: Compete)

The number of search queries on each site also showed a gain for Microsoft, according to Compete. Google's query volume fell to 9.5 million in May, compared with 10.8 million a year ago, a 12.4 percent loss. The number of queries for Microsoft rose to 2.5 million last month from 1.4 million last May, an increase of 78 percent.

Looking at the number of actual Web site visitors, Google drew 138 million people to its site in May, compared with 162 million in May 2010, a drop of almost 15 percent. In contrast, Microsoft saw its visitors climb to 93 million last month, compared with 61 million in May of last year, a jump of 53 percent.

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Mon, 06 Jun 2011 09:02:00 -0700 E3: Microsoft reveals Kinect Fun Labs http://walia.posterous.com/e3-microsoft-reveals-kinect-fun-labs http://walia.posterous.com/e3-microsoft-reveals-kinect-fun-labs

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Wed, 23 Feb 2011 21:03:00 -0800 Cost of Google - SEO article - Allan Pollett SEO http://walia.posterous.com/cost-of-google-seo-article-allan-pollett-seo http://walia.posterous.com/cost-of-google-seo-article-allan-pollett-seo

SEO Blog / Web Marketing Articles:

How much does Google cost? Is it really free?

Have you ever wondered how much it costs us to have Google? Confused by the question…you probably thought Google was free. This is a misconception. The truth is Google is not free because like every other search engine it crawls the web and indexes what it finds. Google is by far the largest and now with its release of the Caffeine update the fastest crawler. It has about 25 billion pages in its index and it crawls pages as frequently as daily to once every 2 weeks. So you are probably still wondering…where is the cost? Well when Google crawls a site it uses that site’s bandwidth. Web site hosting companies charge $2 to $5 for 1 gigabyte of file transfer or bandwidth. So if Google is using bandwidth then someone is paying for it.

Now let’s do some math…hmm…takes me back to my school days…

25 billion pages x 130k (average page size) x 5 (average times pages get indexed over a month) = (calculator time) = 16 million gigabytes per month
Cost = 16 million x $3.5 (average hosting cost for bandwidth) = $56 million per month or $672 million per year. This is just an approximate number and doesn’t include video indexing which would bring the number up a lot more.

So Google isn’t so free after all. However, on the bright side majority of sites rely on Google for their visitors so it is basically a cost associated with doing business on the web.

*Note a recent study by Charzinsk in 2010 states that the average web page size is 507k.
So based on that, the amount of bandwidth Google uses would be about $218.4 million per month or 2.6 billion dollars per year.

http://www.allanpollett.com/cost-of-google.html" target="_new">Retweet this article retweet this article

I'll be working on a video version of this article which I hope to post soon. Any questions about the web marketing, please feel free to contact me at

905-417-9470

or by email at allanp73@gmail.com

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Fri, 04 Feb 2011 08:59:00 -0800 Microsoft Hides Your Email Address via Hotmail Aliases | News & Opinion http://walia.posterous.com/microsoft-hides-your-email-address-via-hotmai http://walia.posterous.com/microsoft-hides-your-email-address-via-hotmai
February 3, 2011 07.43pm EST

Microsoft Hides Your Email Address via Hotmail Aliases

Windows Live Hotmail LogoMicrosoft said Thursday that it has enabled aliases on Hotmail accounts, allowing people to create temporary email addresses.

Users who create an alias can route emails to that alias to a separate folder, which can then be managed separately. For example, email sent to "markthereporter@hotmail.com" will be sent to a private folder that will be accessible from my main Hotmail account.

Beginning today, users can add up to five email aliases per year to each account, up to a maximum of fifteen.

So far, the alias feature is exclusive to Microsoft; Google hasn't added it to its Gmail mail system.

Microsoft positioned the alias feature as the email equivalent of a one-time credit card number that can be used on a dodgy shopping site. "Let's say you're in the market for a new car," Dharmesh Mehta wrote in a blog post. "There are a bunch of websites that will email you price quotes, sales alerts, etc. During your car search, these messages are helpful, but once you're done, they become clutter that can be difficult to stop. By using an alias on these websites instead of your main email address, you can avoid this. And when you're done, just turn the alias off, ensuring future unwanted messages that are sent to that alias don't land in your inbox."

Gmail does allow users to add a " " to their email addresses to create a sort of alias; addressing emails to "johnqpublic101 home@gmail.com" will route the email to the johnqpublic101 inbox, add indicative stars to them, or route them to the trash. But Mehta also argued that such methods are detectable, including by humans.

Hotmail also allows a user to access email stored in a non-Microsoft account, pulling the information via POP, rather than IMAP.

In December, Hotmail added sandboxing to its email accounts, which can protect the system from malicious scripts. The "Active Views" technology isolates JavaScript. Microsoft also added additional security verification technology, using cell phones and a trusted PC. All are followons to a revamped Hotmail client that Microsoft began rolling out last summer.


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Thu, 20 Jan 2011 18:43:00 -0800 Researchers turn USB cable into attack tool | InSecurity Complex - CNET News http://walia.posterous.com/researchers-turn-usb-cable-into-attack-tool-i http://walia.posterous.com/researchers-turn-usb-cable-into-attack-tool-i

George Mason researchers demonstrate how to take control of a laptop via a USB-connected smartphone at the Black Hat DC conference.

George Mason researchers demonstrate how to take control of a laptop via a USB-connected smartphone at the Black Hat DC conference.

(Credit: Angelos Stavrou)

Two researchers have figured out a way to attack laptops and smartphones through an innocent-looking USB cable.

Angelos Stavrou, an assistant professor of computer science at George Mason University, and student Zhaohui Wang wrote software that changes the functionality of the USB driver so that they could launch a surreptitious attack while someone is charging a smartphone or syncing data between a smartphone and a computer.

Basically, the exploit works by adding keyboard or mouse functionality to the connection so an attacker can then start typing commands or click the mouse in order to steal files, download additional malware, or do other things to take control of the computer, Stavrou told CNET in an interview. The exploit is enabled because the USB protocol can be used to connect any device to a computing platform without authentication, he said.

He and his partner were scheduled to demonstrate an attack at the Black Hat DC conference today.

The exploit software they wrote identifies what operating sysetm is running on the device the USB cable is connected to. On Macintosh and Windows machines, a message pops up saying the system has detected a new human interface device, but there is no easily recognizable way to halt the process, Stavrou said. The Mac pop-up can be quickly removed by an attacker with a command sent via the smartphone so the laptop owner may not even see it, while the Windows pop-up lasts only one or two seconds in the lower left corner, making that an ineffective warning too, he said.

Linux machines offer no warning, so users will have no idea that something out of the ordinary is happening, particularly since the regular keyboard and mouse continue to function normally during an attack, Stavrou said.

"The operating system should present a pop-up and ask if the user really wants to connect the device" and specify what type of device is being identified to the system, he said.

The researchers wrote the exploit for Android devices only at this point. "It can be done for iPhone, but we didn't do it yet," Stavrou said. "It can work on any computing device that uses USB," and it can work between two smartphones by connecting a USB cable between then, he said.

"Say your computer at home is compromised and you compromise your Android phone by connecting them," he said. "Then, whenever you connect the smartphone to another laptop or computing device I can take over that computer also, and then compromise other computers off that Android. It's a viral type of compromise using the USB cable."

The original compromise can happen by downloading the exploit from the Web or running an app that is compromised. The researchers have created exploit software to run on a computer, and an exploit to run on Android that is a modification of the Android operating system kernel. Scripts can then be written for the actual attack.

Antivirus software wouldn't necessarily stop this because it can't tell that the activities of the exploit are not controlled or sanctioned by the user, Stavrou said. "It's hard to separate good behavior from bad behavior when it comes from the keyboard," he said.

There's not much a person can do to protect against this at this time, according to Stavrou. The operating systems should have the capability for devices to inspect USB traffic and alert users about what exactly is happening over the connection and give them the option of refusing an action, he said.

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Thu, 06 Jan 2011 19:05:00 -0800 zenm's posterous http://walia.posterous.com/zenms-posterous http://walia.posterous.com/zenms-posterous

Hi Everyone, this is my friends son. Please read his story and help out if you can!
Thank you!

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Thu, 06 Jan 2011 17:56:00 -0800 The Joy of a Salesman http://walia.posterous.com/the-joy-of-a-salesman http://walia.posterous.com/the-joy-of-a-salesman

Ahh, this video never ceases to amuse me... just a classic. If you're in sales, you must see this!!!

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Tue, 04 Jan 2011 18:30:00 -0800 DEMO!!! http://walia.posterous.com/demo http://walia.posterous.com/demo

Hey!!! Just showing my friend how to use Posterous!!!

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Mon, 20 Dec 2010 16:05:00 -0800 Microsoft http://walia.posterous.com/microsoft http://walia.posterous.com/microsoft

Some products to think about this holiday season. I like the Dell - that thing looks amazing!!!

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Tue, 23 Nov 2010 18:17:00 -0800 How to use the FM radio on the HTC Surround - HTC Surround User Guides - Know Your Cell http://walia.posterous.com/how-to-use-the-fm-radio-on-the-htc-surround-h http://walia.posterous.com/how-to-use-the-fm-radio-on-the-htc-surround-h

How to use the FM radio on the HTC Surround


We show you how to use the FM radio on the HTC Surround

Published on Oct 25, 2010

The HTC Surround features a slide-out speaker with Dolby Mobile for punchy sound.

We show you how to use the FM radio on the HTC Surround and make the most out of that speaker.

Note: You'll have to plug in the wired earphones before you can use the radio on the HTC Surround, because this holds the FM antenna.

How to find radio stations on the HTC Surround

  1. Once you've plugged the headset in, select Music + Video from the Start screen.
  2. Flick to Zune and select Radio.
  3. Choose a radio station you want to listen to by swiping left and right to go up and down, or flick to jump to the stations with a stronger signal.
  4. Press favorites to show your favorite radio stations.
  5. Press play or pause to stop or resume playback.

How to add a favorite radio station

  1. When you've navigated to a favorite radio station, select the star icon to add it to your favorites.
  2. To remove a favorite radio station, tap the star icon again.

How to switch radio playback to speaker mode

  1. While playing a radio station, press and hold the station number.
  2. You'll now be able to choose between headset or speaker mode.
  3. Switch back by again pressing and holding the radio station number and switch back.

Was trying to figure this out - and found this really cool link. Even shows you how to use the built-in speaker for playback instead of the headphones (since they are required to be plugged in).

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Mon, 08 Nov 2010 19:25:00 -0800 Technolog - The first Windows Phone 7 apps you should grab http://walia.posterous.com/technolog-the-first-windows-phone-7-apps-you http://walia.posterous.com/technolog-the-first-windows-phone-7-apps-you

The most popular Windows Phone 7 downloads of the moment, including both apps and games.

By Wilson Rothman

Today is when the first Windows Phone 7 models go on sale — the Samsung Focus at AT&T and the HTC HD7 at T-Mobile. As we've discussed, they're powerhouse phones with gorgeous screens and Microsoft's surprisingly nice "glance and go" operating system designed in the age of Facebook. But what matters once you get the phone is what apps to download. There are currently about 1,600 apps in the Marketplace, most of them free or dirt cheap.

There's already a lot of cr'apps in there, the standard lineup of flashlights, tip calcs, stopwatches, unit converters, and of course fart emulators. And because you can read what system resources each app needs to access, you can spot some shady ones too. A "simple and fun finger drawing tool" that needs access to "owner identity" and "phone calls"? I'm sure there's a plausible explanation, but I am gonna pass!

There are also a lot of things still missing. There's no Pandora. There's no Kindle, Nook or Kobo e-book readers. (Update: Amazon stated about a week ago that it would be first to WP7, available "later this year.") There's just one instant messaging app, and it's for Windows Live Messenger. The cooking and wine categories are barren — no Epicurious or BigOven, and no wine reference databases. Kid entertainment — that is, edutainment — is totally missing. And I don't see Bank of America or any other leading American banks with apps, nor do I see Mint.com. (USAA and Geico have apps though.)

There are a ton of games, and we've reviewed many here: Windows Phone 7 games: The good, the bad and the weird

What I did was sift through most of the non-game apps, and put together a list of the ones you definitely need, plus a few premium ones that you may want to buy. (Msnbc.com is a joint venture of Microsoft and NBC Universal, but that has nothing to do with our surprise enjoyment of Windows Phone 7.)

Yelp - The most popular crowd-sourced restaurant review network is necessary, even if many of its reviewers are just a little too high-strung for this Earth.

Foursquare - Check-in and become mayor, at least until Facebook puts it out of business with its Places (which is not yet available on Windows Phone 7).

Facebook - Microsoft built a client for FB, even though the service is integrated through much of the Windows Phone 7 OS. It's nice but not as full-featured as the iPhone and Android versions. That is, again, no Places or Deals.

Twitter - The homespun app makes up a little for the fact that Twitter isn't part of the People section of Windows Phone 7. But I'd still like to see that. 

YouTube - Unlike Android and iPhone, the YouTube app doesn't come pre-installed. But other than that, there's really no difference — you'll still get your Auto-tune the News.

Shazam - The bot that wins "name that tune" more than you or I ever could is here, with a smooth, simple interface.

Breaking News - It's the fastest source of up-to-the-minute news on the Web. And I'm not just saying that because it's part of msnbc.com.

Slacker Radio - Some prefer this streaming music service over Pandora, and anyone who's buying the T-Mobile HTC HD7 gets it pre-loaded on their phones. Well worth trying.

iheartradio - A social network with 750+ U.S. radio stations, it's one of the best ways to access radio streams online, with decent customization tools.

Where - The same free point-of-interest search app that appeared on the iPhone in the early days is ready on Windows Phone 7 at launch. It's a good supplement to Bing Maps.

Public Transit - A basic app that searches Google's public transportation data, it's not much more than a customized search, but since the gorgeous Bing Maps app doesn't give bus or train info (yet?), it's useful.

Realtor.com - The realty mafia's home base, it's a good resource for house hunters, and it's geographically linked. Now if there was only a Zillow app to pair with it.

Graphic.ly - There may not be a Kindle or Nook app yet, but there's a very nice hub for those more interested in graphic novels than text-heavy prose. Membership is required, and the books cost money, but the app itself is free.

ICanHasCheezburger - This is the "official" app of kittens being ridden by baby chickens ("I is not a horsy"), and it's mercifully free.

gReadie - It's one thing to access Google Reader on a phone, and it's another thing to enjoy it. Here's an attractive way to get at your RSS feeds.

Seesmic - For someone more in need of managing their social networking feeds, this app lets you gaze into both Twitter and Facebook (though irksomely not at the same time).

TED - Get smarter by listening to smart people talk, or just look smarter by keeping the icon prominent on your phone's home screen. Either way, this free collection of TED talks will help you.

Pictures Lab - $1.99 - In these early days, there aren't many really good photo editors to choose from, but this one has enough filters, tools and multi-touch controls to keep most people happy. (See comment below for special pricing.)

History Here - $2.99 - Who needs crusty old park rangers when there are smart phone apps? This one lets you scout out nearby historical landmarks. And it comes from the A&E TV people, so you know it'll be entertaining and informative.

GoVoice - $2.99 - A third-party client for Google Voice, this one looks great with its Windows Phone 7 motif but all of the necessary functionality, from calling to visual voicemail.

Zagat To Go - $9.99 - Yes, it's $10. Which in app terms might as well be a million smackeroos. But really, if you live in a dense enough area and like Zagat, it's still cheaper than buying their books, and it's always on your person. Think of it as an antidote when the Yelpers get too crazy.

WinFart Pro - $0.99 - "The only no-nonsense fart application featuring over 20 high-quality fart sounds." I mean, if you're gonna download a fart app, might as well get the "pro" one, right? This one even has a motion trigger, for startling friends when they touch your phone. Good news is, you can try it first: The demo is fully functional, just "limited to two fart types."

Since app catalogs are constantly growing, some of the stuff that I said isn't there may turn up — if you spot Pandora or Kindle or anything like that, please let it be known in comments, and/or send me a tweet at @wjrothman.

Related must-see stories:

• Windows Phone 7 games: The good, the bad and the weird

• Windows Phone 7 video walkthrough and mini review

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Mon, 08 Nov 2010 19:23:00 -0800 # http://walia.posterous.com/32928469 http://walia.posterous.com/32928469

a simple review of the new Windows Phone 7 powered Samsung...

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Wed, 25 Aug 2010 06:26:03 -0700 10 Tools To Speed Windows 7 http://walia.posterous.com/10-tools-to-speed-windows-7 http://walia.posterous.com/10-tools-to-speed-windows-7

Time To Get Serious

Data suggests that, finally, enterprises are doing serious work to plan for migration to Windows 7 platforms after 10 years of using mostly Windows XP machines. Key benefits to Windows 7 include better performance and better security compared to XP, but there are always ways to boost the performance, functionality and security even further.

Microsoft provides many of the following tools itself, including some thrown in for free with Windows 7 versions. Others are available for download. There are some good, straightforward pieces of hardware that can also complete the puzzle of a well-honed Windows 7 desktop or laptop -- including new disk drive technology. We've taken a look at all of these in the CRN Test Center lab, and find these tools and products offer simple, straightforward avenues to either boost performance, security or functionality of your Windows 7 PCs.

Next Slide >

An interesting read to get some more juice out of your Win 7 Install...

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Wed, 11 Aug 2010 12:28:10 -0700 #! http://walia.posterous.com/25495147 http://walia.posterous.com/25495147

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Wed, 11 Aug 2010 07:43:11 -0700 New Capabilities Help Microsoft's Bing Maps Gain Respectability http://walia.posterous.com/new-capabilities-help-microsofts-bing-maps-ga http://walia.posterous.com/new-capabilities-help-microsofts-bing-maps-ga
Related: White Papers |-->Videos | Slide Shows | ChannelCasts | Comments
Microsoft (NSDQ:MSFT) continues to improve the capabilities of its Bing Maps, a part of the Bing search engine site that’s been attracting more attention lately – even applause – in its competition with Google (NSDQ:GOOG).

Microsoft has been rolling out a number of new features for Bing Maps this week, most notably the ability to help users calculate cab fares between two addresses.

Some of the new features, including the taxi fare calculator, were submitted by users as part of Microsoft’s “King of Bing Maps” competition. The winner of that competition will be announced Aug. 20 and will win a $1,000 travel gift card.

The contest appears to be helping Bing gain some ground in respectability against Google. Google does not offer a taxi fare calculator, for example.

Other entrants in the contest can be seen at the Bing community blog. Another entrant overlays a map that displays sales taxes around the country, for example, while another simply generates a random set of map coordinates and takes the user there on Bing Maps – the modern-day equivalent of throwing a dart at a map on the wall.

Outside of the contest, Microsoft this week said that Bing Maps is now tied into the OpenStreetMap (OSM) community, the online map with free geographic data that’s edited by volunteers Wikipedia-style. OSM community members contribute data to the OSM central database – everything from street names to GPS readings – to create maps.

In a posted blog, Chris Pendleton, Microsoft’s “Bing Maps evangelist,” said Microsoft Bing has linked the OSM database to its Windows Azure Content Delivery Network. Through a new application in the Bing Map App gallery, Bing users can load OSM maps as a new map style option.

While Google remains far and away the online search engine leader, it’s share of the overall search market has been slipping in recent months, according to recent numbers compiled by digital marketing intelligence firm comScore. Competitors, meanwhile, have gained some ground, including Bing, which improved its market share to 12.7 percent in June.

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Wed, 11 Aug 2010 07:06:45 -0700 Microsoft Partners Dance On Google Wave's Grave http://walia.posterous.com/microsoft-partners-dance-on-google-waves-grav http://walia.posterous.com/microsoft-partners-dance-on-google-waves-grav
Related: White Papers |-->Videos | Slide Shows | ChannelCasts | Comments
Google (NSDQ:GOOG)'s decision to kill off Google Wave is being hailed by Microsoft partners as proof that the communication and collaboration market is tougher to break into than it may seem.

Google Wave, a melange of e-mail, instant messaging and social networking, was seen as a dipping of toes into a space dominated by products like Microsoft Exchange and Sharepoint and IBM Lotus Notes. After launching it last May, Google this week halted development of Google Wave as a standalone product, due to weak adoption.

Microsoft (NSDQ:MSFT) partners believe the collaboration parallels between Google Wave and Sharepoint were overblown, but they're nonetheless feeling a frisson of schadenfreude at the demise of the product.

"Google Wave was an interesting lesson," said Ken Winell, CEO of ExpertCollab, a Microsoft solution provider in Florham Park, N.J. "I think Google had hoped that a basic platform like Google Wave would attract people at the consumer level, but they basically built a shared inbox."

Ric Opal, vice president of Peters & Associates, an Oakbrook Terrace, Ill.-based solution provider, says some of his customers are looking at Google Docs and Gmail but none has asked about Google Wave. He cites the ubiquity of Sharepoint as the big reason why. "It would have been hard for Wave to penetrate the collaboration space given the strength of SharePoint," he said.

Winell agrees: "Sharepoint offers much more than Google Wave, including workflow, security and audience management and Web parts to customize."

Google often highlights the cost advantages companies can reap by switching from Microsoft Office to Google Apps. Had Google Wave caught on, we probably would have been hearing similar claims about Sharepoint.

But Office and Sharepoint are very different animals, and Microsoft has the advantage of a user base that's accustomed to the features and functionality it offers. Companies often discover that the time involved in learning a new platform outweighs the cost advantages Google offers, notes Kevin Baylor, managing partner at Suncoast Business Technologies, a solution provider in Bradenton, Fla.

"We know companies that have moved their corporate collaboration and communication to Google and are enjoying the cost savings, but many still miss the Microsoft feature set. It's not always about the bottom line," Baylor said.

Google says it's making inroads in the enterprise, but Microsoft often points out its rival's lack of experience in this market. The demise of Google Wave is, in the opinion of some Microsoft partners, a telling example of Google underestimating the rigorous nature of the challenges companies face in the enterprise.

"Enterprise software means 36 language versions and thousands of people involved in the marketing, sales, and support of these application ecosystems," said Tim Huckaby, CEO at InterKnowlogy, a Microsoft Gold partner in Carlsbad, Calif.

"Right or wrong, throwing a product up on a Website in English only, and assuming that the viral effect will grow the business just isn’t going to cut it when you're going up against the Microsofts of the world," Huckaby added.

Andrew Brust, chief of new technology for twentysix New York, a Microsoft partner in New York City, describe Google's product success ratio as "incredibly low" given how much praise and how little scrutiny the company often gets.

"I don't blame Google for taking risks and losing. In fact, I would praise them for it. But their failures need to be covered fairly so that they can be compared accurately with other tech companies' successes," said Brust.

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1 message - Last message on Aug 9, 2010 at 5:01:39 PM by MIRMatt

When first announced in May, 2009 at the Google I/O conference in San Francisco, many technology analysts saw Wave as a potential competitor to SharePoint and its web-based sibling, SharePoint Online.  But unlike SharePoint (which is the fastest selling product in Microsoft�s history), Wave has had a hard time gaining acceptance from both personal users and the business community. 

 

It will be interesting to see what impact the loss of this offering has on Google's ability to drive their other business productivity tools into the corporate market. 

 

Further insight:  www.contentmanagement.typepad.com

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Can't win 'em all I guess...

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