Google posts

The news of Google’s purchase of the 5-person Sparrow team struck me as a bit odd. Sure, they’ve done some great things in email with their native iPad app, but the concept that they were purchased “to bring polish, ‘beauty’, and ease of use to all of its Gmail experiences” isn’t jiving. Google has been in email for a long time now and they have a lot of really smart people working on it. It wouldn’t be hard to reverse-engineer anything that anyone is doing in email (it’s not rocket science, after all). Why buy a team? Some would say it’s a value-buy; $25 million is a drop in the bucket for the Mountain View…

When Bouncer was unleashed this February, it was touted as a one-unit malware detection army. However, researchers have found holes in the Android spyware detector with such an ease that one has to ask Google what the hoopla was all about. Granted, monitoring software for cell phone are becoming more menacing with every passing moment, but surely Google could have conjured up something more steely than an app detector that allows fingerprinting!   Bouncer; say what? Bouncer, an automated process for scanning apps which are suspected to have Trojans, spyware and malware like monitoring…

With the convenience of the internet and the google search engine, all your needs and searches are just a click away. However, when you “click” on your searches, what exactly is happening? On the northern theatre, search listings include larger, more relevant and engaging ad formats for any remotely commercial keyword search (crowding out less effective organic search results. While on the southern theatre their objective is to vigorously attack SEO web spam and to raise the privacy bar (no more sharing of these search queries) making it harder to rank in organic searches.So who takes…

Yahoo has had its share of follows over the last 4 years, particularly after passing on a huge opportunity with Microsoft. After ousting their last CEO, the company has been under a ton of pressure to bring a CEO who had the (real) qualifications, the gumption, and the presence to lead the company back to prominence. With their tapping of Google executive Marissa Mayer, we believe they have delivered on their promise. The 13-years veteran has tons of experience with the one thing that Yahoo needs to regain its once-lofty position as a top internet company: generating ad revenue. As the head of Adwords…

The mobile revolution is now, and marketers across all industries are being strongly encouraged to start taking advantage. Who’s doing all the encouraging? Oh, only marketing experts and some of the biggest names in the world of business. Among them is Google, who recently teamed up with global media network Mindshare to launch Mobile Garage.   What is Mobile Garage? Mobile Garage is a joint initiative geared to provide Mindshare’s worldwide client base with the advantages that come with leveraging Google’s mobile expertise. The venture will lead to the creation of global hubs…

The competition has been getting stronger. Despite continued domination by Apple in the tablet market with their single-size offering, rumors are spreading that they are considering a smaller version of the iPad to compete with the Amazon, Google, and Microsoft amongst others going after the cheaper tablet marketing. This would be a mistake. Instead of taking on the Google Nexus 7 (which started shipping last week), the Amazon Kindle Fire (with a new version expected in the 4th quarter this year), and other offerings with Android and Microsoft software, an “iPad mini” would do more to cannibalize…

Apparently the creators of Google+ don’t appreciate people referring to Google+ as a social network. Even though you create circles involving your friends and associates, there is a What’s New stream similar to Facebook’s News Feed, there are apps and games, and it affects your searches when you’re signed into Google, (much the way Bing results are changed when you are signed into Facebook) Google+ is not a social network. Hmmm. If it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck, I was told it’s a duck. But maybe Google+ is actually a turkducken. You know, that weird Thanksgiving food with…

Most would agree that the technology behind Google Project Glass is pretty impressive and people will definitely buy them, but will they make us look weird when we wear them? There was a time when Bluetooth headsets were new and people said, “You’ll get used to them,” but after years of seeing dozens of people a week wearing them I still think they look like the Borg. Project Glass takes Borgwear to another level. Weigh in here or on Facebook. Despite the technology, will they be really acceptable in a relatively-short period of time or will they always get a double-take and the occasional glare when…

Mark this delivery down as Google winning the internet. Shut up and take my money. In a presentation about Google Project Glass led by Sergey Brin, the tech giant pulled off a demonstration of epic proportions by giving some extreme sports athletes some Google Glasses and having them deliver a pair to the stage in unconventional ways while broadcasting through a Google Hangout for the world to see. First, they started in a blimp and men in wingsuits and parachutes landed on top of the building. The glasses were then delivered via bike to the edge of the building where they repelled down to another…

Did you know that there are 30 mobile platforms that came and went in the last two decades? Starting with the PenPoint OS by GO Corporation in 1991, there have been a ton that have been born and died shortly after. iOS, Android, Windows, Symbian, Blackberry, and Brew are the only ones left and it’s very possible that there will only be 3 within a couple of years. The November, 2011 study called Clash of the Ecosystems is an exhaustive 60-page report on the subject, while Developer Economics 2012 breaks down the new app economy. This infographic from Vision Mobile comes to use via Seattle Nissan and explores…