Google 20% Deal

The bright Googlers get 20 percent time in which they're free to pursue projects of their choice. Some immensely popular projects from the Googleplex like Orkut, Google News, Google Suggest and even AdSense were conceptualized and developed by Google engineers during their "20% Time".

But according to Robert Cringely (remember Nerd TV), this 20% time is a terribly fatally flawed strategy and will ultimately kill the company.


Bob's arguement is that thousand of ideas are brewing in the minds of intelligent Googlers, some of them are stunning but the management may not turn all of them into live projects.

And these Google Geeks who are feeling bitter because their ideas were turned down may be cooking with up with peers:By design each worker is no more than 100 feet from a bathroom or food and drink. This creates an environment where people tend not to go home, which Microsoft discovered and leveraged decades ago.

But nobody works every minute they are AT work, which means the Google Geeks are constantly talking with each other, team building, bonding, and goofing off.

And for 20 percent of that goofing-off time I'll guarantee you that many of these people are discussing their pet projects, which have been REJECTED by the company.

The Final Days of Google

While Robert has given an interesting perspective, the problem he mentions is almost universal to every big organization - some disgruntled employees will leave when their ideas go unrecognized but a whole bunch of smarter people are waiting outside the Googleplex gates to fill the vacant seats.

---Digital Inspiration

What is your first reaction when you learn about Google acquiring some company ? If it's an advertising network like DoubleClick or more recent, Feedburner, I get worried.

It is fairly easy to guess that, going forward, Google will bring all these advertising programs under the common umbrella of Adsense / Adwords. With Feedburner on their side, Google may soon expand their Adsense for RSS Feeds program.


With every Google acquisition, the choice of blog advertising networks for bloggers reduces by one. And if Google maintains their current acquisition spree, we may see a situation where we have no choices and all the eggs will lay in one basket (called Google).

And that's something which make me slightly uncomfortable.

While Adsense is a successful program, you still need to diversify the revenue streams - depending only on one player sounds bit of a risk even when that player is Google.

What advertising choices would be left for small website publishers, other than Adsense, if Google expresses interest in other popular blog advertising networks like Adify, BlogAds or Tribalfusion ?

Feedburner Advertising Network was a good source of revenue but that option will soon disappear as it merges with Adsense.


----- Digital Inspiration

Obervations on Apollo

Adobe just announced that it’s much anticipated Apollo platform is now
available for developers. The software developers kit can be downloaded at adobe.com/go/apollo.

I honestly believe that entirely new classes of companies can be
built on this platform, which takes Flash, HTML and javascript completely
outside of the browser and interacts with the file system on a PC. Photos,
music, email and many other everyday tasks make a lot of sense in a single
environment that is both local and in the cloud simultaneously. There is going
to be a lot of creativity coming off of this platform over the near term.

This is what was reported over at Techcrunch.com. Hmmm.. that got me thinking, When did all this stuff start ? I mean which were the first softwares , using this technology developed ? Which was the first Popular software whch used this.

Guess what?? It must be the Instant messengers. Think about it.

Take the example of the Yahoo messenger, It uses a Flash script , might be using javascript ...et al..

ok

Google becoming a synonym for search

Google, the name speaks for the company, A company with unlimited potential, A pioneer of different types of Internet buisness technologies apart from its ever famous search engine. It is a phenomenon in the eyes of the internet community.

Now it is creating another phenomenon, this time in the English language!!
This phenomenon came to my attention ,one fine day, when I could’nt find a book I had obviously misplaced. I asked my brother if he had seen the book, and know what his answer was?

“I haven’t seen it, but did you google for it in the bookshelf in the bathroom?”

I was confused for a second, and then it struck me, Google=Search!!

And now , even I have started using this terminology, and know what? it makes me feel ‘cool’
Are you willing to use this terminology? Post your views in the comment section. I would like to read about your views.

Cops use YouTube?

Look at this intresting new use of You Tube.
A video clip posted on YouTube has helped Canadian police in the investigation of a nightclub murder.

The Cops from the southern Canadian city of Hamilton posted a clip from club surveillance cameras onto YouTube in an appeal for information.

The clip was subsequently viewed by more the 34,000 people. The footage showed people arriving for a Sean Price hip-hop concert last month. Ryan Milner, 22, was knifed to death in a car park after the concert.

On Tuesday a baseball cap-wearing man seen on the clip, wanted for questioning, turned himself into the authorities. George Gallow, 24, of Hamilton, has subsequently been charged with the manslaughter of Milner and the attempted murder of another unnamed man, The Canadian Press reports.

"This is the first time Hamilton police have utilised video web posting in an investigation, and to the best of its knowledge, the first time that law enforcement has ever used it as a direct investigative tool," staff sergeant Jorge Lasso told reporters at a news conference during which the arrest was announced, Reuters reports. "There is little doubt that the extra media generated by the use of YouTube contributed to the fact that this man turned himself in," he added.
Canadian police said they used YouTube rather than more conventional Crimewatch-style TV programs because of its popularity with young people, such as the concert goers they were seeking to help them as witnesses. The surveillance footage has since been pulled from the site.

So is this the beginning of a new use of You Tube?

So many Websites!

How big is the Internet? How many websites are there?
According to Netcraft.com's December 2006 Web Server Survey, there are a cool, 105,244,649 sites and the total sites for 2006 are 30.9 million in number , while it was a mere 17.5 million the previous year.
In percentage terms, the Web grew by 41.5 percent this year.




BLOGS
The Technorati State of the Blogosphere in August reported that they are now tracking over 50 Million Blogs, the Blogosphere is over 100 times bigger than it was just 3 years ago and is doubling in size every 200 days!

Amazing how the web grows.