Session Blog Reviews

Posts Tagged ‘Microsoft’

We have been reporting over the past few months about Google’s aggressive push into the mobile space. It’s not like it’s a secret. Sometimes it’s so “in your face” that you wonder if the whole search engine thing is just keeping Google busy until they take over the mobile world that the future is shaping up to be. Google CEO Eric Schmidt is out making the rounds talking to newspaper folks and now was talking to chief information officers according to MobileBeat . Speaking at Atmosphere, Google’s conference for chief information officers, Schmidt said: What’s really important right now is to get the mobile architecture right. Mobile will ultimately be the way you provision most of your services. The way I like to put it is the answer should always be mobile first. You should always put your best team and your best app on your mobile app. There was no mention at all about Android in this report but that’s the obvious lynch pin for all of the mobile strategies that Google is putting together. The more they can create that has their distinct signature on it from a mobile perspective the more they distance themselves from their buddies in Cupertino; Apple. And what would a talk from Google’s leader be without taking a direct swipe at their enemies to the north; Microsoft. Now, there is no direct mention of Microsoft but you’ll see it’s not too veiled as to who is in the cross hairs. Schmidt got a Googler assist on this one. Schmidt also said the technology he is most excited about in this area is HTML5, the web language that is enabling more powerful web applications in your browser. This gets back to Google’s emphasis of web applications over client applications that you download or install — earlier in the afternoon Bradley Horowitz, vice president of product for Google Apps, declared that “client applications in many way are becoming extinct,” and Google also showed off Chrome OS, which takes this idea all the way with an operating system that’s all browser-based web apps and nothing downloaded to the client. Schmidt tried to make Google appear human by admitting that they make mistakes. He also said that the company is not a search company but rather an information and enterprise software company. Not a search company? I doubt even Googlers believe that one entirely. So expect more from Google on the mobile front as they continue to move toward their own clash of the titans in the mobile space. That’s going to be fun to watch.

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Google Takes “Mobile First” Attitude Toward Product Development

Globe and Mail Microsoft announces 'Kin' phones for 'Generation Upload' Seattle Post Intelligencer (blog) Deep integration with social media , said Robbie Bach, president of Microsoft's Entertainment and Devices Division. "If you talk to those people, ... Microsoft's Kin: What it is--and isn't CNET Microsoft Debuts New Social Phones TechNewsDaily Microsoft Targets Social Teens With New 'Kin' Phones Forbes (blog) BetaNews

I will file this under “I didn’t know that although I am not even close to surprised” for obvious reasons. Google gets to make a claim about its Chrome browser that others like Firefox and Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 8 and Apple’s Safari can’t. That claim is that it survived the Pwn2Own 2010. Forbes tells us a little more The Pwn2Own competition in Vancouver is a yearly demonstration of the software industry’s utter inability to keep its products safe from determined hackers. This year, researchers cracked Firefox, Internet Explorer 8, and Safari in minutes, winning $10,000 each, bragging rights and the hardware those applications were running on. But more notable is the one survivor of the competition’s browser category: Google’s Chrome. For the second year in a row, Chrome has left the Pwn2Own competition unscathed even as all of its competitors have been compromised. In a world where security and privacy are more desired but maybe less available than ever this kind of competition is interesting. We all know there are folks out there who are interested in compromising Internet systems for monetary gain and many other times just for sport. We as end users know it exists and cross our fingers hoping it doesn’t happen to us. While Google can talk about its victory here there is some skepticism among the researchers who participate in this competition as to just how secure Chrome really is. Apple hacker Charlie Miller was able to win for the third year in a row with his efforts to compromise the Safari browser. He also wonders about Google supposed invulnerability. Miller argues in an email to us that Google isn’t necessarily more secure than its competitors–just that hackers hack the applications they use themselves. “Researchers tend to just pick on their favorite browser,” he writes. This is the second year in a row that the Chrome browser was unscathed but there is plenty of speculation that this will not last. Why? As something gets a reputation of being impenetrable it gets the blood of any good researcher / hacker or whatever boiling. Also, there is $10,000 on the line each year at this competition. Which pays better than Google apparently because they have $1,337 limit on payment for security bugs. So what is Google take on this? Of course, they have a better mousetrap Google, for its part, would argue that Chrome simply has better security features, namely “sandboxing,” which drastically limits the privileges of a Web site to access your computer’s hardware. Google bought at least part of that sandboxing ability with its acquisition of software firm GreenBorders in May of 2007. Check out its comic book illustration of how sandboxing works. Now that Google has put a bullseye on Chrome we’ll see just how long this streak will last.

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Google’s Chrome Escapes Hack Contest Untouched

Ever since Google first began its threats to leave China (which they finally made good on this week ), it’s seemed like a bit of a logical leap to see what a hack attack had to do with the country’s government-mandated censorship—something Google agreed to when it entered the market in 2006 . But the hackers—and their target—were just one piece of the puzzle, according to an Atlantic interview with Google’s Chief Legal Officer, David Drummond. Although Google has survived dozens of hacking attempts, the targets of this particular attempt were all political activists (emphasis added): 
That was distasteful to us. It seemed to us that this was all part of an overall system bent on suppressing expression, whether it was by controlling internet search results or trying to surveil activists. It is all part of the same repressive program, from our point of view. We felt that we were being part of that. That was the direct connection with the hacking incident. It wasn’t in isolation. Since the Beijing Olympics, our experience in China has gotten worse. Although we have gained market share, it has become more and more difficult for us to operate there. Particularly when it comes to censorship. We have had to censor more. More and more pressure has been put on us. It has gotten appreciably worse — and not just for us, for other internet companies too. Says Drummond, “We thought when we went in that we could help to open the country and things could get better by our being there.” However, Drummond says they don’t understand why people seem to think this is an all-or-nothing proposition. Google Blogoscoped , however, has a good answer: Google shouldn’t wonder too much that people saw it as all or nothing – that’s how they themselves suggested the situation in was China when they announced why they would start to self-censor Chinese web search in 2006: “Filtering our search results clearly compromises our mission. Failing to offer Google search at all to a fifth of the world’s population, however, does so far more severely. Whether our critics agree with our decision or not, due to the severe quality problems faced by users trying to access Google.com from within China, this is precisely the choice we believe we faced.” In other words, Google said they were facing a choice between no Google search at all for Chinese users, or a filtered search . Meanwhile, China hasn’t yet reacted to Google’s decision to redirect google.cn to google.com.hk (the Hong Kong version). Still, Google’s efforts are being lauded in the US Congress (and Microsoft is getting slammed), even though their efforts may really only be half-measures , as Danny Sullivan says. But that’s good enough for some other Internet companies. The domain registrar GoDaddy has announced that they’ll no longer sell .cn domains . Says the WSJ, “The reason: New regulations from China that require domain registration companies like hers to turn over to the government a color image of ID documents, a business license and a signed physical contract for each registered domain.” The WSJ reports that China accounts for 1% of GoDaddy’s market. But still—if Google’s getting praise from Congress (um, have you seen their approval rating lately? Is that actually a good thing?), maybe now is as good a time as any to drop 1% of your market and get ahead in the US. What do you think? What will happen with Google, GoDaddy and China? Who will be the next to jump on the bandwagon out of China?

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Google: It Wasn’t Just the Hacking (And GoDaddy Hops on the Bandwagon)

We haven’t heard much from bing as of late so it makes sense that they would use SES NYC to make a few announcements about their Google slaying search engine bing. Of course, it would be a little more interesting if there were announcements of actual product enhancements rather than the following from the bing blog : Today at SES New York we shared with attendees our plans to begin testing some new Bing features as we start to move into the next wave of innovation which will be rolling out later this spring and summer. Our focus remains consistent – we want Bing to be the best place to help you make better decisions. When we launched last June, one of the ways we helped customers get to better decisions was by providing a more visual, more intuitive, and more organized experience. This spring we will continue this evolution by making some changes to our user experience and providing new experiences throughout search. I think the search industry needs to have a very strong second player to Google and I wonder if bing will have the chops to pull this off. Google’s rate of search innovation is dizzying and they don’t “pre-roll” ideas too often. Instead, they put the ideas and concepts to work in Google Labs or slap an indefinite beta on them (after the usual backend testing unless we’re talking about Buzz). The announcement is made when the product / service is at least somewhat available and the people can have at it. I don’t get that same feeling of urgency from bing and Microsoft. Maybe their time and energy is being sapped with the Yahoo integration or maybe this focus on the integration is taking away the creative minds that are needed to innovate at a more rapid pace? I don’t really know. I am just speculating here. One thing I do know that is a marked difference with how bing and Google talk about their offerings. Google tries to keep it loose and somewhat conversational in their blogs while bing’s ‘excitement’ around their future product rollouts are about as inspiring as a clinical trial. Here is an example that is talking about these future new offerings. But we are constantly looking for ways to make the experience even better. Jeff Henshaw, GPM of our user experience team put it well, “We have a vision for Bing to serve as a vital assistant to your online decision-making. In these latest designs, you’ll see a lighter, cleaner presentation of results that highlight key actions that will efficiently guide you toward your goal. Every day, Bing gets more intelligent about tasks that are important to people like you and me, so we continue to streamline and polish the Bing experience in ways that let you tap into that intelligence.” This reads like a product manual (which Microsoft knows something about) rather than something that inspires the reader to get excited about any offering. While the weather may be wet at times out in Redmond the products appear to be very dry. Oh, so what is being announced as bing enhancements for some future point in time? Moving QuickTabs functionality to the top of the page More link options to publications in support of real time search Taking real time data from foursquare and integrating it into Silverlight maps Here’s a picture so at least you can get an idea of what will be happening in one of the upcoming seasons of the year. As for today? Same stuff different day for bing. Don’t worry though. There may be more announcements of something that will be rolled out at some time in the future when Microsoft deems the time to be right to let you play with their toys.

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Bing’s Features for Someday in the Future