Week of August 18, 2008

Perspective

Friday, August 22, 2008

A bit of perspective for those that see Google, Apple, and Yahoo as the dominant companies in the tech/web world today courtesy PC World: In fiscal 2007, Microsoft made more money than Adobe, Apple, Google, Oracle & Yahoo, combined.

It's all about video

Thursday, August 21, 2008

When the web's leading photo sharing site dives into video you know that the future of the Internet is truly multimedia and involves text, audio, pictures, and video. Flickr recently added video to its photo offerings and has just announced the ability to include video in its slide shows. With a consumer-facing product like Flickr, the importance of video is becoming evident. For any media company today, if video isn't part of your strategy, you're going to lose ground.

Google GPS API: Just for Windows

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

A significant indication of the shortcomings of Apple's closed system was illustrated this week with the release of Google's geolocation application programming interface (API). Google releases a lot of APIs that programmers build on, the best known and used being Google Maps. Unfortunately, on closed systems like Apple's, there is little for Google to hook into and facilitate for other programmers.

The result is that Windows Mobile devices will now be able to have GPS applications built on top of the same GPS capabilities that Google uses for its Google Maps mobile application, while iPhone users will be left out.

Google releases Android SDK

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Google has gone from garnering oohs and aahs for its Android mobile operating system (at the Google I/O Conference) to lots of grumbling from developers for the lack of an updated software developer kit (SDK). Well, Google just released the Android SDK, and a lot of the grumbling appears to be dying down as developers are taking a look at the OS.

Much of the promise of the I/O conference can be found in the SDK, and while developers don't have a lot of time until the release of the first T-Mobile Android phone toward the end of the year, the SDK is a good indication that the "Gphone" has the potential to be a legitimate powerhouse.

Opensocial Reaches 350 million users

Monday, August 18, 2008

In the wake of Facebooks successful launch of open applications, Google launched its "Opensocial" platform system. Opensocial allowed applications to run across and within social networks. Basically, Google provided the framework to take the Facebook application framework and opened it up for everyone. Less than a year in and Opensocial can be considered one of Google's rare non-search successes, with integration into MySpace, Orkut, and many other social networks. The result? Current exposure to over 350 million people via its various partners.

Opensocial is just another example of how you can now reach a lot of people on the Internet without even having a "home" site.