Google V/s The Best Companies In The World

[abhay 0]

Step 1: Compete with Microsoft. Step 2: Partner with Google. Step 3: Profit.

Google's deal with Intuit isn't anti-MS, it's pro-Internet. But for your amusement, here's a top ten list of Google partners who've scrapped with Microsoft and subsequently partnered with the world's largest search engine.

Google's partnership with Intuit, announced yesterday, closely links one of the most successful applications for small businesses -- 3.5 million SMB Quickbooks users, according to Intuit -- with the most successful advertising medium for small businesses.

Google now has a way to gain access to millions of small businesses who don't have a Web presence. Those companies that don't have a Web site can have Google automatically create one through Quickbooks.

On the call announcing the deal, both Google CEO Eric Schmidt and Intuit CEO Steve Bennett stressed that the more customers go online, the more they will access online services from both Google and Intuit.

And of course, more small businesses online means more small businesses using AdWords and, eventually, AdSense.

So repeat after me: This isn't about competing with Microsoft. Microsoft's Small Business Accounting has never really gained traction against Quickbooks anyway. Google's strategy is more pro-Internet than anti-MS. And all of Google's previous announcements -- Google Pack, Writely, Spreadsheets and Google Apps for your Domain -- all benefit from some form of integration with a Microsoft product.

Now that said, this is just the latest in a series of deals and releases this year that puts Google, bit by bit, in a position to circumvent desktop software and take people directly to the Google cloud.

All of Google's Distribution Partners are Microsoft Competitors

If Google's business partners have one thing in common besides a cozy relationship with the world's largest search engine, it's the simple fact that they've all been smacked around by Microsoft. And in Silicon Valley, hell hath no fury like a tech company scorned.

Google is free to partner with software providers because, duh, Google doesn't offer competing desktop software. MS, born of a desktop software strategy, will be forced to use their own software to send customers to Windows Live.

Below, a top 10 list of Google's business relationships vis-a-vis Microsoft.

1. Sun Microsystems -- Sun has historically faced off against Microsoft in a variety of software and services, including operating systems, software, and servers. Sun settled a lawsuit against MS in 2001, charging that MS tried to change Java so it worked differently on Windows. MS settled that lawsuit and $20M. But the two were back in the courtroom in 2004. That time Sun lost, and their stock was trading at historic lows. The company has been bouncing back steadily. Last year, Sun partnered with Google in an overhyped (by the media) deal in which Sun will distribute the Google Toolbar as an option in downloads of Java, and discuss ways to promote and enhance OpenOffice.org.

2. Novell -- Novell has scrapped more than once with the giant in Redmond, most notably after MS lost its antitrust suit and Novell jumped on the bandwagon, suing MS over their efforts to eliminate competition in the office productivity market in the 90s when Novell owned WordPerfect and Quattro Pro. The two companies have also scapped over servers. Novell and Google aren't partnered as far as I know, but of course Google's CEO Eric Schmidt left the head job at Novell in 2001 for the search company. Nobody outside MS knows MS strategy better than Schmidt.

3. Intuit -- Microsoft has never been good at marketing to the really, really small business, and that's where Intuit shines. The back office software company's Quickbooks trounces Microsoft's Small Business Accounting software. Intuit also owns the Quicken brand, which outperforms Microsoft's Money. Yesterday Intuit integrated Google services into Quickbooks. But that's not all: The company is also connected through Apple, where both Eric Schmidt and Intuit's chairman and former CEO Bill Campbell have seats.

4. Apple -- While not technically a Google partner, Apple and Google are connected through Schmidt's board seat and their mutual competition with Microsoft. Via Apple, Google gets closer to Hollywood.

5. Adobe -- This year saw Microsoft launch betas of design software that compete with Adobe's Photoshop, Illustrator, Flash and Dreamweaver. And Adobe almost took Microsoft to court over its plans to include PDF functionality in Microsoft Word. In January, Google announced its Google Pack of software, which includes Adobe Reader. A few months later, Google and Adobe partnered by distributing the Google Toolbar through downloads of Adobe's Shockwave.

6. Real Networks -- RealPlayer may be the elephant man of media software, but it's a popular elephant man, and it competes with Microsoft's Windows Media Player. RealPlayer is included in downloads of Google Pack.

7. Symantec -- "Our strategy is to out-innovate Microsoft," said Symantec CEO John Thompson. "We know more about security than they ever will." Microsoft announced Windows Live OneCare this year, and Symantec included Norton AntiVirus 2005 in Google Pack.

8. DivX -- DivX has been battling Microsoft over video compression, but Hollywood has historically associated DivX with piracy, preferring to work with Microsoft. Google partnered with DivX in January when they first announced Google Video.

9. Salesforce -- Not a Google partner per se, but the company did purchase Kieden Corp., which helps customers track sales leads generated through Google AdWords. Salesforce will eventually compete with Microsoft Dynamics CRM Live, if and when that jumble-y mouthful is released in 2007.

10. IBM -- Do you really need me to reiterate IBM's contentious history with Microsoft here? Google partnered with IBM in 2005 to provide desktop search for the IBM OmniFind corporate search system. Note Loren Baker's comment at the bottom of that last link: "What’s next? Google and Apple working together to integrate iTunes into Google’s search engine?"

Google has umpteen partnerships, but nobody wants to read a top 100 list. Did I miss something you think should be in this list? Let me know in the comments.

http://googlewatch.eweek.com/blogs/google_...9/13/13156.aspx

Edited September 14, 2006 by abhay

[abhay 0]

Topless Sunbather Caught in Google Earth

Here's a cautionary tale for those of you who like to indulge in a bit of light sunbathing in the privacy of your own, make sure you ring Google to see if they're planning a satellite pass-over before whipping off your top

No sooner had the poor Dutch woman pictured here popped up on Google Sightseeing, than Digg got hold of her assets. This immediately prompted a heated debate - sadly not on the technological threat to privacy - but rather as to whether or not she really was enjoying her leisure time as nature intended.

Sadly, we may never know. Dutch TV quickly identified the address and moved in for the kill, dispatching a team armed with grabs from Google Earth to the sun-worshipping resident's domicile. Luckily for her, she wasn't in

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/09/21/google_sunbather/

funny sh*t man

you need google earth to execute this link

Edited September 24, 2006 by abhay

[Arun 795]

lol, Google Earth is simply amazing !

[abhay 0]

Google buys YouTube in $1.65-bn deal

Google bought hot young video-sharing website YouTube on Monday in a $1.65-billion stock deal that the companies proclaimed was a natural for the evolving Internet.

The acquisition married Google's online search prowess with a video-sharing website renowned for devotees but not revenues. "With Google's technology and search leadership we will have the resources to take our services to the next level," YouTube co-founder Steven Chen said during a telephone press conference with Google executives.

"We believe this is just the beginning." YouTube soared to online popularity after its launch in February 2005. The company claims that more than 100 million videos are watched daily by visitors to the free website, which features content ranging from silly home videos to snippets of Hollywood films, television shows and concerts.

Google said that it was drawn to YouTube because it was the clear market leader and had put together a "remarkable team" in a short time.

"We think one of the keys to comprehensive search experience will be video," said Google co-founder Sergey Brin. "On the whole it is hard for me to imagine a better fit with another company. YouTube really reminds me of Google just a few short years ago."

Google's stock price rose slightly to $431.75 a share in trading that followed the announcement of the deal, which came after the close of the financial markets in New York.

"It will be interesting to see what happens next and what happens in the copyright world," outspoken billionaire investor Mark Cuban wrote in a fresh weblog entry titled "I still think Google is crazy."

"I still think Google lawyers will be a busy, busy bunch." Cuban has referred publicly to YouTube as a lawsuit magnet because users freely upload digitized videos, television shows and other copyrighted material.

The blockbuster deal was announced on the same day that Google and YouTube unveiled agreements with major studios to post copyrighted music videos online.

The agreements were seen as efforts to pre-empt accusations of rampant copyright infringement at the online video-sharing sites and enlist studios as potential beneficiaries of the trend.

The pacts will rely on advertising to generate revenues by encouraging users to click on companies' links alongside the videos. YouTube was putting new systems in place to "fingerprint" copyrighted material so it could be tracked, said YouTube co-founder Chad Hurley.

Google and YouTube engineers already have dozens of ideas for handling ads, searches and videos, according to Google chief executive Eric Schmidt. "Most people believe that this is just the beginning of a video Internet revolution," Schmidt said. "I think there is a whole new ecosystem and we are expecting to be a part of it."

"Our community has played a vital role in changing the way that people consume media, creating a new clip culture," Hurley said. YouTube will continue to operate independently with its headquarters in San Bruno, California, after the acquisition is complete, according to Google.

In Silicon Valley tradition, YouTube was launched on its meteoric rise from a garage. In its first foray seeking external funds, the company raised $3.5 million from Sequoia Capital in November 2005. In the newest deal, though, Google will pay for YouTube with shares of its own high-flying stock.

By purchasing YouTube, Google would be able to apply its proven prowess for generating revenue through online advertising. YouTube meanwhile will provide Google traction in the online video-sharing market, where Google's own video service has failed to take off.

"This is the next step in the evolution of the Internet," Schmidt said. "It is a natural next step." The deal is expected to be culminated by year-end provided it clears regulatory requirements.

Meanwhile, Google Video "will not go away now, or ever," Schmidt said.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/2133520.cms

[abhay 0]

A Better Search: Google, Yahoo And Microsoft To Use The Same Index Tool

If the Internet is a treasure chest of information, search tools are the skeleton key you need to open the lid. And the number of search tools you have at your disposal will have a direct bearing on exactly how much information you can unearth. The fact is that the commonly-used search tools such as Google, Yahoo, and Live Search are limited by the very fact that they attempt to catalogue and index so much.

But this situation may change after in their effort to better index the web sites Google, Yahoo and Microsoft decided to team up and use the same tool, called Sitemaps. The tool, initially developed by Google, is a easy way for webmasters to inform search engines about pages on their sites that are available for crawling. In its simplest form, a Sitemap is an XML file that lists URLs for a site along with additional metadata about each URL (when it was last updated, how often it usually changes, and how important it is, relative to other URLs in the site) so that search engines can more intelligently crawl the site. Sitemaps are especially important if a site uses Macromedia Flash or JavaScript menus that do not include HTML links.

Also any company that manages dynamic content and a lot of web pages can benefit from Sitemaps. For example, if a company that utilizes a content management system (CMS) to deliver custom web content – (i.e., pricing, availability and promotional offers) – to thousands of URLs places a Sitemap file on its web servers, search engine crawlers will be able discover what pages are present and which have recently changed and to crawl them accordingly. By using Sitemaps, new links can reach search engine users more rapidly by informing search engine "spiders" and helping them to crawl more pages and discover new content faster. This can also drive online traffic and make search engine marketing more effective by delivering better results to users.

The three companies have launched a site that explains the Sitemap protocol and how to generate the Sitemap XML files.

The first version of Sitemaps, Sitemaps 0.84, was introduced by Google in June 2005. Yahoo and Microsoft will use an updated version Sitemaps 0.90.

In August this year, Google has launched called Webmaster Central, for better communication with site owners and Google Sitemaps has been renamed as Google Webmaster Tools.

"Now, website owners will be able to go to one place for alerting the search engines to their web pages, something they have been requesting for some time", said Tim Mayer, director of product management at Yahoo Search.

"Windows Live Search is happy to be working with Google and Yahoo on Sitemaps to not only help webmasters, but also help consumers by delivering more relevant search results so they can find what they're looking for faster," said Ken Moss, general manager of Windows Live Search at Microsoft. "I am sure this will be the first of many industry initiatives you will see us working and collaborating on."

http://www.playfuls.com/news_05218_A_Bette...Index_Tool.html

Google starts testing mobile ads in India

India has become a huge testing ground for Google. India based mobile users are the latest target test audience for the advertising products of the number one search brand on the net.

Close on the heels of ramping up its development center, and investing in its soon-to-come-up data center, the search engine king is reaching out to the mobile user not only through Gmail Mobile but has started testing mobile ads for advertisers in India.

Google Mobile Ads are a text-based ad format, which the company began testing with AdWords advertisers in US, UK, Germany and Japan in August 2006.

These text-based ads appear along with search results delivered to mobile devices, and they contain either a link to a mobile website or a phone number which users can click on to connect..

For example, when you see two lines “ Hot Chicken Curry. Stop by today” you would see a number below. You just click on it and you are directly connected to that hot spicy restaurant where you can either place a takeaway order or just reserve a table to have lunch.

According to Google India, the mobile Ads test will bring in a new trend in advertising and advertisers can reach users with relevant information when they're on the move.

Google mobile ads will have the same basic features as PC text ads although there are some differences such as the character limit and call feature.The ads, which will be clearly marked as [Ad], will appear above and below the search results when a user searches on their mobile phone.

The application enables you to schedule your ads so users can call you only during your regular business hours and you can reach your best prospects among the rapidly growing base of mobile users in India.

Today with a growing number of PDAs and phones which have relatively larger displays, it makes perfect business sense for Google to leverage on its ingenious advertising route.

http://www.itwire.com.au/content/view/7239/945/

[abhay 0]

Google launches online operations in Gurgaon

Internet major Google launched its online sales and operations in Gurgaon on Wednesday.

The new operations will showcase Google Hyderabad in managing advertiser campaigns across the world and provide support on all aspects of Google advertising, a company release said here.

"We are experiencing tremendous success with our online operations in Hyderabad and with another operation in Gurgaon, we will continue to attract the best talent from throughout the country," Company's Director Online Sales and Operations David Fischer said.

He said the goal of the company was to find the best people globally to provide the best search experience for users, partners and advertisers around the world.

The operations at Gurgaon would be led by Thomas Arnold.

We are looking for creative people with strong analytical and English writing skills to manage and guide our advertisers on all aspects of Google AdWords, Arnold said.

Google through its advertising programme AdWords enables advertisers and businesses of all sizes to show targeted advertisements to users as they search the web. AdWords matches text-based ads to users' search queries, providing them with relevant information.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/634567.cms

[abhay 0]

Bharti Airtel and Google join hands

Bharti Airtel and Google announced a strategic partnership that is expected to set new grounds in mobile search and help redefine mobile internet in India.

As a part of the agreement, Airtel will bring Google search to the Airtel Live mobile WAP portal. Google will also incorporate advertising through its Mobile Ads product on the Airtel Live mobile portal. The Google search engine on Airtel Live mobile portal will enable the Airtel users to use the Google search engine to easily access content. Google will power searches on Airtel Live in two areas - on net (rich content on Airtel Live) and off net (internet on mobile).

Airtel Live has over 50,000 exclusive pieces of content, including information like news, stock ticker and sports scores and downloadable content like games, music, video clips and wall papers. Google will also incorporate Mobile Ads, which are text advertisements based on search terms that are displayed alongside search results on the Airtel Live mobile portal. This new business model is a first for both consumers and businesses in India.

Commenting on the alliance, Manoj Kohli, President, of Bharti Airtel said ``By offering Google services to our customers, Airtel strengthens its commitment to innovation. With this service, World Wide Web has literally converged into the handheld device enabling anytime, anywhere access to information and entertainment for Airtel customers.``

http://www.myiris.com/newsCentre/newsPopup...;secID=livenews

[tork 0]

i think google z not so dumb to work on somthing which itz not worried about...i mean they wont bother to create OS n all. wht they do z., concentrate on their core area of business and try to work towards excelling in it.......n also pioneering new technologies which does not exist till date

[abhay 0]

Uh Oh, Gmail Just Got Perfect

Google quietly added a small feature to Gmail this week called Mail Fetcher. When that feature launched, Gmail became perfect.

Mail Fetcher allows users to access non-Gmail email accounts from within the Gmail interface. If you have a Yahoo email account, and a work email account, etc., you can simply access that email from within Gmail, using POP settings. Gmail will now work in a very similar way as Outlook does on the PC desktop.

This is something I have criticized Gmail for in the past. I went on and on about this issue here when discussing the new Mac web mail product. It was the one feature that Gmail lacked that, in my opinion, kept it from being the perfect webmail application.

Every other webmail service is now inferior to Gmail. Gmail offers more storage than any other free service. They offer free POP access to Gmail from other email applications like Outlook (Yahoo and Microsoft charge for that). They offer access to other email accounts within Gmail (only Yahoo offers that). Gmail’s mobile client is killer (although not yet available for most phones). And only Gmail allows tagging of emails for categorization under multiple topics (I just wish it was a quicker feature).

I am seriously considering switching from using my desktop email client to Gmail. Since I work from multiple computers, using web mail eliminates the syncing problem. If Google implements an offline version of Gmail, in a similar way as Scrybe or via Adobe’s Apollo platform, it will become even more compelling.

Kudos to Google for finally implementing this. It’s just awesome.

http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/12/09/uh-oh...st-got-perfect/

[Vishal Gupta 4]

Thats really gr8 news

But POP3 access, I think Yahoo! doesnt provide it in .com addresses ?

[prathod 3]

But POP3 access, I think Yahoo! doesnt provide it in .com addresses ?

Correct,you dont get free pop3 access in yahoo.com addresses,but it is free for yahoo.co.in addresses and some other yahoo.co.XX addresses.

maybe we can try adding one more email id to your existing yahoo id with a regional one.

How do I get an Extra Email Address?

It's really easy! Just follow these easy steps:

While in Yahoo! Mail, click on the "Mail Options" link.

Click on "Mail Addresses".

At the bottom of the page you will see a section on Extra Email Addresses. Click on "Get Started" and follow the instructions to create an Extra Email Address.

Note: Once you have created an Extra Email Address, it will be in the list of Mail Accounts shown on this page.

Edited December 10, 2006 by prathod

[handsyraj 0]

ya i too feel google will float atop. credit goes to its fast search engine technology that adds speed to G.

[supernova 47]

ya i too feel google will float atop. credit goes to its fast search engine technology that adds speed to G.

\my dear friend one memeber has already poined you out to syop using this lik in every post.

i dont think so diverting to some other site is allowed or not ; put in any case even it is then use it in your signature

[anujit 0]

That guy is a spammer.... wheres Vishal!!!

[Puneet 0]

^^^

Don't know but the guy has been warned and his posts edited. And if he repeats the links, he will go under moderator preview.

[Vishal Gupta 4]

wheres Vishal!!!

I hv exams in this month, final sem exams

So I'm busy in study, but will be active in jan.

[abhay 0]

wheres Vishal!!!

I hv exams in this month, final sem exams

So I'm busy in study, but will be active in jan.

best of luck vishal

[MVP 3]

Gmail Disaster: Reports Of Mass Email Deletions

Just a week after I wrote “Uh Oh, Gmail Just Got Perfect” a number of users started complaining that all of their Gmail emails and contacts were auto deleted.

The first message, posted on the Google Groups forum on December 19, stated “Found my account clean..nothing in Inbox, contacts ,sent mail..How can all these information residing in different folders disappear? ..How to write to gmail help team to restore the account..is it possible?..Where to report this abuse?.Any help ..Welcome..Thanks in advance ps101″

Other Gmail users then added to the conversation, saying that their emails had been deleted as well. Most of the users reported using Firefox 2.0 and that Gmail was open in their browser when the deletions occured.

The cause of the problem isn’t clear. One user wrote that after the deletion they received the following message: “This is not a mistake. All your emails and contacts have been deleted on purpose. This was a malicious attack and not an error. Have a nice day. =)” One user pointed to a known security issue with Firefox 2.0, which was fixed in 2.0.0.1.

On December 22, four days after the initial incident was reported, a Google representative posted this message on the thread:

Thank you all for reporting this issue. We apologize for the scare and

inconvenience that it’s causing. We’re actively investigating as we

speak, and we’ll follow up individually with users in this thread as we

get to the bottom of the problem.

We appreciate your patience and understanding.

Google’s official policy is that once emails are deleted, they are gone forever. And based on the Google Groups thread, no one has been able to have their Gmail accounts restored to pre-deletion status.

http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/12/28/gmail...mail-deletions/

[MVP 3]

GMail Vulnerable To Contact List Hijacking

Using a form of cross scripting, it becomes easy to steal a GMail user’s contact list if they visit a certain type of website. The only condition is you have to be logged in to GMail at the time of the attack. GMail is setup to store your contact list in javascript files, which is the core problem. If you log into your GMail account, and click here, you’ll see your contact’s details, along with their email. I've tried the hack on IE7, Opera, and Firefox; it appears to be working on all three. To see a demonstration of the attack, login to your GMail account and go to this website. I don’t know for sure if the list is being saved or not, so browse at your own risk. According to the website they aren’t saving the data.

http://cyber-knowledge.net/blog/2007/01/01...list-hijacking/

[abhay 0]

Google plugs Gmail data leak flaw

An attacker could create a malicious Web site that would copy all the entries in a Gmail user's address book, a potential treasure trove for spammers, according to a description of the problem on the "Googling Google" blog. The only condition is that the user would have to be logged in to Gmail or another Google service.

The issue came to light after Google watcher Haochi Chen probed a feature in Google Video over the weekend. The feature, called "Pick People to Email," lets users select contacts from their Gmail address book to send them a video. However, the feature also opened up the address book to others, Chen discovered.

Chen alerted Google over the holiday weekend. Heather Adkins, an information security manager at Google, confirmed Tuesday that the company heard about the Google Video issue and fixed it within hours. The search giant later learned that the same problem also impacted other services and resolved those issues within a day, she said.

"To our knowledge, no one exploited the vulnerability and no users were impacted," Adkins said in an e-mailed statement.

The problem existed because of the way Google used objects created in a lightweight data interchange format called JavaScript Object Notation, or JSON, Adkins said. "These objects, if abused, can expose information unintentionally. The fix we employed made sure the objects could not be abused," she said.

Google regularly has had to fix flaws found in its services. Most of these are relatively new types of weaknesses in Web applications--for example, cross-site scripting bugs that could help scammers launch phishing attacks. Also, JavaScript-related vulnerabilities could help miscreants launch fully fledged attacks and hostile linking.

Just like traditional software companies, Google appeals to bug hunters to responsibly disclose vulnerabilities and to give it time to fix problems. "Responsible disclosure allows companies like Google to keep users safe by fixing vulnerabilities and resolving security concerns before they are brought to the attention of the bad guys," Adkins said.

http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1009_22-6146669.html

[abhay 0]

Google 'Bombs' Defused

A Google search for "miserable failure" no longer returns the official biography of George W. Bush. Until yesterday, pranksters and activists were able to manipulate the Google search algorithm to associate a specific site with a chosen query by creating a sufficient number of Web links pointed at the target site, a practice known as "Google bombing."

Google has improved its analysis of the link structure of the Web to defuse such bombs. Using Google-bombed keywords now generally returns links pointing to news sites discussing the Google bomb rather than the target site.

In the past, the company dismissed Google bombing, but it changed its position to prevent the perception that its search results exhibit bias. "Over time, we've seen more people assume that they are Google's opinion, or that Google has hand-coded the results for these Google-bombed queries," explained Matt Cutts, head of Google's Web spam team, in a blog post.

Victims have included Jimmy Carter, Michael Moore, Tony Blair, Rick Santorum, and John Kerry. Public figures still have reason to worry. That's because Ask, Windows Live, and Yahoo are susceptible to the same kind of manipulation.

http://www.informationweek.com/news/showAr...ion=All+Stories