Session Blog Reviews

Posts Tagged ‘Microsoft’

Last week we brought to your attention the fact that Facebook was starting to spend some time in Washington, DC talking to folks in the intelligence community as well as the FTC . Well, now after US Senator Charles “Chuck” Schumer’s action we can understand why Facebook would like to develop some friendships in high places. The local ABC New York City affiliate ran this piece on the senator’s request . It’s interesting to see how the people who pay attention to local news are being “informed” about the online world especially when it comes to something they can get paranoid about like privacy. Schumer and most politicians want to play on the public’s fears so they can look like they are busy. What better place to make the public squirm than the idea that their private information is being spread across the Internet with no concern for wants and desires for that data. While it may not even be completely true it sure makes for good TV. As with most actions of this type it is likely that the senator’s staff brought this to his attention and told him that it was a “hot” topic and he should get some press. While he is there for the “good of the people” he is there for publicity so those people will keep him in office. In other words, I wonder just how concerned this senator truly is or is he just trying to get out in front of this and give the appearance of being on top of the “latest and greatest’ concerns of his constituency. Don’t you love how the system works? Anyway, Facebook obviously feels that if a US senator is going to call a press conference to announce his request for the FTC to examine Facebook’s privacy policies then they should have a say of their own. Here is Facebook’s response to the ABC report. “We were surprised by Senator Schumer’s comments and look forward to sitting down with him and his staff to clarify. Facebook’s highest priority is to keep and build the trust of the more than 400 million people who visit our service every month. To do so, we’ve developed the most powerful tools of any major Internet company to give people control over what information they want to share, when they want to share it and with whom. Last week, we announced several new products and features designed to enhance personalization and promote social activity across the Web. None of these changes removed or reduced people’s control over their information and several offered even greater controls. For example, we announced a new tool to give users much greater ability to restrict the information they share with applications and third party websites. We introduced new ways for websites to let Facebook offer personalization without the need for any user information to be shared with the site itself. We also announced a small pilot program with three well-known and respected partners – Microsoft, Pandora and Yelp – to provide additional personalization on their sites, based on information that is already publicly available. These partners were carefully chosen, reviewed, and are contractually required to respect users’ privacy preferences. Additionally, they are required to provide an easy and prominent method for users to opt out directly from their website and delete user data if users choose do opt out. Facebook and its partner sites have also added new and easy controls to help users manage their experiences when they visit these sites. We think these programs will make surfing the web a smoother and more engaging experience for people who use Facebook while honoring the trust we’ve been given.” Facebook wants to be the first to truly tie the social web together in a more cohesive fashion but it appears that this goal will not reached without clearing a few hurdles that are likely to be set Washington. What’s your take on Washington’s interest in Facebook?

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US Senator Wants FTC to Look Into Facebook Privacy Practices

The online space is split up into two pretty distinct groups and the sizes of these two groups are far from equal. On the one side are the people who use Google every day and for many reasons. Many times these people can get upset because their reliance on Google can cause a major hiccup ( go see what Chris Brogan has to say today about this ) For the most part, they have come to depend on Google to help run many aspects of their business and personal lives and are happier for it. I fall into that category for sure. The other side is the smaller group in size but has some major clout. They are consumer advocacy groups and their major supporters: Google competitors and those who have perceived they are being scorned by the search giant. This group held a press conference yesterday which highlighted the call by the group Consumer Watchdog for the Department of Justice to takes seriously the cries of antitrust activities by Google. Computerworld reports Consumer Watchdog, along with a mobile entrepreneur and two lawyers representing Google rivals, all called on the DOJ to initiate an antitrust investigation focusing on a number of issues, including Google’s marriage of search results to advertising and its book search service. “The time has clearly come for Justice to launch a major, broad antitrust investigation against Google, and we think all remedies should be on the table, including, we think, the possible breakup of the Internet giant,” said John Simpson, a consumer advocate with Consumer Watchdog. The 25-year-old organization focuses on a number of consumer issues, including health care, insurance and energy, but the group’s move into tech issues in recent years has largely focused on criticisms of Google. Consumer Watchdog sent a letter to the DOJ Wednesday asking that the agency investigate Google for antitrust violations. “For most Americans — indeed, for most people in the world — Google is the gateway to the Internet,” the letter said. “How it tweaks its proprietary search algorithms can ensure a business’ success or doom it to failure.” Now, will a claim like this have any real legs? Since I am not a lawyer and I don’t play one on TV AND I didn’t stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night I can confidently say that I don’t know. I can say this though. This kind of “chatter” in the marketplace keeps it in the backs of peoples’ minds and starts to cast a different light on the target which in this case is Google. Just ask Microsoft how it feels to be painted as the company that blocked competition and free trade. That label taints everything they do and it likely limits their efforts into other areas like search. How? Mainly because the ABM (Anyone But Microsoft) sentiment is powerful. Of course, the main edge that Google has over someone like a Microsoft is that people are mostly happy with their products and services. Microsoft? Well, not so much. So how does Google see these calls to action by advocacy groups and smaller rivals (in this case myTriggers.com and TradeComet.com)? With the usual Google panache by saying Adam Kovacevich, senior manager for global communications and public affairs at Google, discounted the criticisms, saying Consumer Watchdog has been “relentlessly negative” about Google. The group recently questioned the reasons why Google stopped censoring search results in China and criticized Google’s privacy Dashboard as inadequate, Kovacevich said. “We totally understand that with size and success comes scrutiny,” he added. “Although given their track record, even if we broke Google in half tomorrow, Consumer Watchdog would probably insist that we split halves into quarters.” I suspect this type of request for Google to be “taken apart” won’t go away. Whenever I see reports like this I usually dismiss them but I do wonder if there is any merit to the claims. Heck, I don’t know everything that goes on in the online world. Maybe Google is doing back alley roughing up of competitors. Honestly, I doubt it very much. I think the real “problem” is that Google created the perfect tool for the perfect time just as a complete shift in the way that everyone does everything was happening. As a result, their dominance comes almost by default because the wave they caught was unlike one ever seen in history. Timing is everything they say. Doesn’t mean they are bullet proof though. So what say you today about Google’s “unfair advantage”? Real or perceived? Worthy of Department of Justice attention or not? Do you care either way as long as your Google services work and you do what you need to do?

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Consumer Watchdog Barks “Break Up Google!”

Yahoo’s earnings are looking up already from the MicroHoo deal. Microsoft and Yahoo have managed to remind investors by “ finalizing ” the deal every quarter since its announcement. This time, however, it was the DoJ that gave them that boost when it finally approved the deal in February . Along with the beginning of reimbursement payments, it looks like the deal was enough to persuade investors and advertisers alike. Reports CNET : Revenue in the first quarter was $1.6 billion, up just 1 percent from the first quarter of last year. Excluding traffic acquisition costs, net revenue was $1.13 billion, or roughly flat with analyst expectations of $1.17 billion. Revenue from display advertising on Yahoo’s site grew 20 percent compared to the prior year. Net income was $310 million during the quarter, but that included several unexpected benefits, such as the sale of Zimbra and the beginning of reimbursement payments from Microsoft under the terms of the search deal finalized in February. Excluding those items, Yahoo’s earnings per share during the quarter were still 15 cents, ahead of estimates of 11 cents. Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz agrees—”Large advertisers came back,” she said in the conference call. She also said they finally recovered—well, stabilized—from the decline in their stocks that began when the deal was announced in July. CNET also reports on the long-term benefits of the deal vs. the short-term gains: Yahoo provided some clarity during the earnings call on how the Microsoft deal will affect its bottom line this year. The company saw a one-time benefit during the quarter of about $43 million related to transition costs, but will also see cost reimbursements from Microsoft for continuing to operate Yahoo’s back-end search organization during the transition, said Tim Morse, Yahoo’s chief financial officer. These operating cost reimbursements totaled just $35 million in the first quarter, but are expected to fall between $75 million and $85 million a quarter over the remainder of the year, he said. What do you think? Will Bingahoo save Yahoo? Join the Marketing Pilgrim Facebook Community

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Yahoo Earnings Up On Search Deal Hopes

Google’s bringing back the goats. Yes, lawn-care companies around the country are officially panicking that Google has taken what appeared to be an isolated incident–a publicity stunt–and turned it into a tradition : More than 200 goats from California Grazing have once again arrived at our Mountain View headquarters where they’ll stay for over a week chomping away on grassy goodness. The cost of bringing in the goats is comparable to hiring lawn mowers for the same job and the green benefits are clear: the goats eliminate mower emissions, reduce noise pollution, restore plant species and fertilize while grazing. We’ve herd rumors that Microsoft is already trying to hire some of the goats and is exploring using its own goats and outsourcing them to Yahoo.

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Dear Google, You’ve Goat to be Kidding Me?

Everything about the Internet is about sharing. Not necessarily sharing in the singing “Kumbaya” around the campfire sense although some social media wants this result. It’s more about simple information sharing. Knowledge transfer. Schedule updates. Not the sexy stuff but actually the basic and most critical stuff. Yesterday at Google’s Atmosphere event CEO Eric Schmidt said that these very basic needs are what pose the greatest challenge to the brains behind the Goog: the engineers. GigaOm tells us more Schmidt made two specific comments about resource allocation, saying that the hardest and most pressing engineering issues facing Google today are around sharing and mobile. He further built on the sharing concept by using the following example. Of course, this wouldn’t be an E. Schmidt production if there wasn’t a shot fired across the bow of one of Google’s major competitors. This time Microsoft was the target. I think of calendars as incredibly boring, but I’m wrong, calendars are incredibly interesting because they’re incredibly shared. So from a computer science perspective, all of a sudden we have our top engineers who want to build calendars. I’m going, what’s wrong with you guys? But in fact it’s a very interesting example. Spreadsheets are similar, the most interesting spreadsheets are highly, highly interlinked, something I didn’t know, and was not possible with the previous technology — Microsoft technology made it very difficult because they were not built in that model. As for mobile, Google is all about this and Schmidt urged the crowd, which consisted of Google Enterprise Apps users and prospects, to make sure your top talent is addressing your mobile infrastructure moving forward. If you haven’t figured this out yet, Google has decided that the mobile web and the accompanying apps and more is where the future is. As the mobile Internet becomes central for both consumer and corporate users, the core product questions are interoperability, security and safety, Schmidt said. “What’s important is to get the mobile experience right, because mobility will ultimately be the way you provision most of your services,” he added, saying that Google considers phones, tablets and netbooks mobile experiences. Based on the experience of the past I predict that most businesses are going to wait too long to pay the appropriate attention to their mobile requirements of the future. When you are driven by the cash flow and revenue generation of today, it can often create a vacuum of innovation. Look at how many companies are finally starting to figure out search after all these many years. Mobile will be the same way. Of course, the many years of industry pundits proclaiming that “This is the year mobile…..really” has created a certain “The pundit who cried mobile!” reaction. Trouble is, if Eric Schmidt can’t stop talking about Google’s concentration in the area then that means this is not a mobile fire drill. Companies will need to step up now if they want to hit the crest of this wave. As a parting shot of sorts, Schmidt also echoed a similar tune to his buddies in Cupertino when he proclaimed Lastly, to make good mobile, web and diskless computer (aka Chrome OS) apps, Schmidt had a platform recommendation as well: “From our perspective the single most important development has been the arrival of the HTML 5 standard.” Bad day to be Adobe holding the Flash card, don’t ya think?

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Sharing and Mobile Provide Greatest Challenges for Google Engineers