Free Software, No Searching from Giveaway of the Day
April 9, 2011
Giveaway of the Day gives away free software every day. No search required. The company has worked around a traditonal search paradigm and crafted an interesting business model to boot.
One recent from ExtraLabs Software caught our eye. True to the site’s name, though, each deal is only good for a day. The company explains:
“Basically, every day we nominate one software title that will be a Giveaway title of that day. The software is available for download for 24 hours (or more, if agreed by software publisher) and that software is absolutely free. That means – not a trial, not a limited version – but a registered and legal version of the software is completely free for our visitors.
“We pay the software publisher for the Giveaway license, and our visitors only receive those after downloading a special verification program and agreeing to the Terms and Conditions, thus protecting software publishers’ interests and making our initiative beneficial for both clients and publishing companies.”
The site provides an app that will inform you of each day’s deal, via email, RSS Feed, Facebook, or Twitter. You can also add a ticker to your web-page or blog if so inclined.
The giveaway we noted was RSS Wizard 4.0. Today’s (3/30/11) freebie is Crystal Office. The catch is that you must install the software within a specific time window. Some of the companies making software available require an online registration process.
The interesting aspect of the site is that search is not needed. We are tempted to mention the registration data and the opportunity for a person using free software to receive marketing emails. Worth a look for some.
Cynthia Murrell April 9, 2011
Google and Its new Management Method: Reorganization
April 8, 2011
The Los Angeles Times’s article “Exclusive: Google CEO Larry Page Completes Major Reorganization of Internet Search Giant” documents a milestone in big company management tactics. The headline sums up the deliverable from a busy first week or so on the job for Larry Page, the founder with operational control of Google. Here’s the passage that may be recycled in a number of Business 101 essays in the months and years ahead:
The executives will be able to act more autonomously and won’t have to turn to Google’s powerful operating committee on every decision. “The idea is to empower people, let them take risks and give them more authority over decisions,” said one person familiar with the situation who spoke on the condition of anonymity to maintain his relationship with Google. Page has been thinking about how to reorganize the company to cut bureaucracy and politicking while speeding up innovation. He may have found his answer in the success of the company’s Android mobile software unit and its video-sharing site YouTube, each of which have thrived as largely autonomous entities.
Questions which crossed my mind include:
- How does one define “success” for YouTube and Android. These two “products” have been fountains of legal and technical activity. Examples range from the shoot out with Viacom which is still flopping around the US legal maze and the possible “we’re open source but we are really into not be so much open that fragmentation occurs” approach to Android.
- What happens to customers of certain Google products and services who cannot find anyone to answer certain questions. Example: “Why has my traffic disappeared?” or “Where did the Adsense revenues go in the last three months?” My favorite is: “Whom do I call about a technical problem with my $300,000 Google Search Appliance?”
- Autonomous decision making is a great thing; however, giant publicly traded companies have many different pressures on them. Example: “What will be done to either re-enter the China market, arguably the fastest growing economy in the world when one compares it to Detroit or Gary, Indiana?” Another example: “When will revenues of a significant nature flow from a social information service?” (I keep thinking of Orkut, its early entrance in a market, and its somewhat interesting impact in Brazil, upon attorneys, and on certain government entities. “Impact” is not direct revenue flowing to Google as I understand the Orkut service.)
Microsoft was once described to me as “10,000 sail boats moving roughly in the same direction.” Is Google emulating Microsoft’s management methods? I see some similarities. A big difference is speed. Moving org boxes in less than five days is quite impressive. Now we can watch performance indicators to see how the method works. MBA candidates, on your mark, get set….
Stephen E Arnold, April 8, 2011
Freebie
The Future of Search. Really?
April 8, 2011
Dead tree version of the 4-8-11 New York Times’s story “New Search Technology Is Enhanced with Video,” Page B 3 of the business section. Interesting write up about Autonomy’s video search, which I would describe as augmented search, but that’s neither here nor there. For me, the weird part in the otherwise good write up was this passage:
There is now a broad consensus that the future of search will link search technologies with geographical location. Although the software can muddy the distinction between what is real and what is virtual, its most practical application would be in commerce and helping people search for bargains in the real world. [Emphasis added]
I thought this function was already here and on my ancient BlackBerry 8320 to boot!
But what’s the “broad consensus”? What’s the source of the consensus? By what method has consensus been determined? Did the writer tap the search engine optimization crowd? A public relations professional with a degree in art history or medieval poetry?
Sorry. No sources, no explanation, and no foundation. Maybe the New York Times in its rush to make print subscribers jump hoops to access the online edition is too busy to provide some facts. A blog post is one thing. But in the hard copy version of the story, a big gun newspaper should provide a tiny bit of back up for this “broad consensus” baloney. No big gun. More like a rubber band gun.
Forget the writer. What happened to the business section editor? Oh, looked fine.
Sorry. I don’t buy “broad consensus”. Lots of searches are for things other than eCommerce and finding a pizza in Gaithersburg, Maryland. How about a job search for some media mavens? What about looking up that antidote to save your kid? What about locating a quotation from a Shakespeare play last read in college via a Cliff’s Notes? Broad consensus my tail feathers. Two cents says that there will be a snooty rationalization about “broad consensus”. Thank goodness I am in Harrod’s Creek and not at One Park Avenue South where I would be tempted grouse at lunch. Just my opinion from rural Kentucky.
Stephen E Arnold, April 8, 2011
Freebie
Google: On the Brightside with Public Citizen
April 8, 2011
In yet another chapter of Google’s courtroom controversies, the company now is making a case to coax all parties involved to allow massive amounts of documents to remain sealed. Concurrent with the appeal of the Rosetta Stone v. Google judgment, the non-profit group Public Citizen sought to unlock at least 800 pages of documents from the case record. PaidContent.org reports:
The battle over these sealed documents won’t affect what Rosetta Stone has access to, so it shouldn’t really affect the outcome of the case. But Google is fighting to keep sealed at least 800 pages of documents that could damage it from a PR perspective.
Said documents contain information regarding the levels of confusion experienced by users faced with trademark searches. Google was charged with allowing competitor or counterfeit outfits to use trademark keywords in their ads, and presenting these faux sites as sponsored links, effectively confusing prospective customers. Note that this is an appeal because Google rose victorious with the original judgment. Rosetta Stone, along with “thousands” of other trademark owners, are not satisfied.
Would this be an occurrence of filtering or could it a step toward objective search? While it is difficult to rectify the idea of ‘objective search’ with the simultaneous exchange of money lurking in the shadows, the possibility exists. In fact, even Public Citizen agrees with Google’s position and supports the selling of trademarked keywords in the name of the consumer; they simply are seeking full disclosure. That alone speaks volumes in Google’s defense.
Sarah Rogers, April 8, 2011
Freebie
Love or Hate: Amazon and Android Apps
April 8, 2011
Amazon wants a piece of the smartphone app market pie. We read “Today Amazon Locked Up the Android Ecosystem” from ZDNet. The write up takes a look at how the Internet retailer is attempting to annex the Android app market. The author strongly believes Amazon will eventually dominate the entire Android marketplace, driving other competitors out of business. The process began with the Kindle app, then it segued into the Amazon MP3 app. Both generated millions of sales and encouraged Amazon to start its own App Store. Here’s a snippet that caught our attention:
The recent launch of the Amazon Appstore to sell Android apps firmly entrenched the company’s business in the platform ecosystem. One could argue that it is the beginning of a process whereby Amazon takes over the ecosystem, by subtly pushing the Android Market to the side.
Cloud Drive and Cloud Player Amazon were also added Amazon not too long ago and this supposedly increases Amazon’s dominance. What will cement the entire takeover will be a reasonably priced Amazon tablet with compatible hardware/software. The author gushed his love for Amazon, prophesying the company will throw Android out of its own market. Premature prognosis on his part.
The problem is that Android is not really open source. Google is struggling to prevent Android fragmentation. One of the chief offenders may be Google TV pal Sony. Now a mere online retailer is moving into the Google App space. Google may be into open source, but it is now in a position similar to the kid on the playground who owns a basketball but is not picked to play in the pick up game. Time to take the ball and go home or just play smarter?
Whitney Grace, April 8, 2011
Freebie
Down from the Mountain and Being Tracked en Route
April 8, 2011
No need to chop off one’s arm if monitoring goes big time. Now everyone has heard of “big brother” and no, I’m not talking about the television show. Though it used to be just a theory spouted by crazed and deranged individuals who wore tin foil hats and swore they’d been probed by aliens, in 2011 with “the age of the Internet” firmly underway, the “big brother” concept has become a very real, very scary (in my opinion) piece of reality.
According to a report by The New York Times and reported on by Digital Trends, many cell phone companies can and do track your movements without ever divulging to the consumer that they are keeping an “eye” on them. This information came to light after Malte Spitz, a German politician, sued his cell phone carrier, Deutsche Telekom, for information that they had acquired about him. What came out was somewhat shocking but nothing less than any “tin head” could have told us about.
Between August of ’09 and February of 2010, Deutsche Telekom, recorded the latitudinal and longitudinal coordinates of Spitz more than 35,000 times. The snippet that caught my attention was:
We are all walking around with little tags, and our tag has a phone number associated with it, who we called and what we do with the phone,” Sarah E. Williams, a graphic information expert at Columbia University. “We don’t even know we are giving up that data.”
In the United States it is unclear exactly what level of surveillance is conducted on consumers and what information is saved because companies are not required to divulge the information they collect…though I would argue that the documents are public record and could possibly be demanded under FOIA laws since it is not optional to opt out of consumer tracking initiatives.
Cynthia Murrell, April 8, 2011
Freebie just like a tagged bovine in the feedlot
Google Profile Search
April 8, 2011
We fielded a call about searching for information within Google Profile.
Late in 2008, Google launched its first cut of a tool designed to search the public pages of Google profiles. After perusing “New Google Profile Search”, one sees that this feature has been updated. At the top of the improvements list sit a friendlier interface and the presence of associated links in the search results, from a member’s blog or flickr account for example. It seems an advanced search option for probing relevant details like locations also exists, though I am uncertain if this is part of the new package.
The original blogger notes:
“This feature is not yet enabled in the interface, but you can search Google Profiles by adding &tbs=prfl:1 to a Google Search URL.”
Normally this is the time I begin harping about the dangers of serving personal information on a silver platter, and the ensuing repercussions when a wolf shows up at the table, be it a criminal or a salesman. I will not breech this topic today since individuals are largely chomping at the bit to complete these sprawling profile pages; “to each his own,” as they say.
So, in terms of a resource, Google has successfully made it easier to filter yet another aspect of life. Just in time too, otherwise I may have had to actually talk to one of my friends.
Sarah Rogers, April 8, 2011
Freebie
Protected: Extending SharePoint 2010 Capabilities Via Rest
April 8, 2011
Google and Its New Management Method: Intrapreneurs
April 7, 2011
I hated the word “entrepreneurship” when I first heard it a long, long time ago. It is fitting for this new Google management method. First, navigate to “A New Perk At Google: Run Your Own Startup Within The Company.” Read or skim the article. Now think about this passage:
Google is desperate to keep good engineers from leaving, but big money isn’t the only carrot it’s dangling in front of them. In some cases, Google is letting them form their own independent businesses within the company — with almost no oversight for two years.
Will this work? In my bug ridden world in Harrod’s Creek, Kentucky, I don’t think so. Three reasons:
- Google wants to keep engineers. But the engineers want to do some cool stuff for themselves and make a difference or a killing. Assume the idea work and the start up booms. Sounds great. Odds probably are long. So for 100 start ups, maybe the GOOG gets one winner and bunch of okays, and 75 to 80 percent losers. Lots of lost staff time if the management method grows big fast. So there is a productivity issue.
- Many start ups are not sure what they are starting. So lots of idle time and maybe slow ramps. Hey, if someone is providing food, a bean bag, and Odwallas, what’s the big rush? Urgency may not be the emotion du jour.
- For years, Google’s secret innovation engine was R&D from the 20 percent plan. Most looks at the Google skipped over the downside of the 20 percent free time method. Now there’s the no fail start up method. The difference between now and 2006 is that cost control is getting to look like a big job even for the cash rich Google.
Worth watching. If it works, hey, go with it. If it flops, it eliminates one management angle for Facebook to try.
Stephen E Arnold, April 8, 2011
Freebie
Google and Its New Management Method: Facebook
April 7, 2011
I found “Page Ties Google Bonuses to Social Strategy” an excellent write up. Business publications may want to pay a bit more attention to publications like MaximumPC. Anyway: The article said:
Google employees the world over now have reason to hope that the nerdy engineers running Google understand the social web more than stereotypes would lead us to think. Newly minted CEO Larry page just sent out a memo to all staff to let them know that 25% of all bonuses will be based on the success or failure of Google social strategy in 2011.
Okay, get paid to stay and now get a bonus for doing the social thing. Interesting. Why? Well, Facebook is moving forward:
- 500 million plus users
- A walled garden approach to members, ads, and those who want to reach the Facebookers
- Buzz
- An open platform that is pretty much a slap at Google’s new definition of Android which uses the word “open” to mean “not so fast, muchachas.”
- Users who stick within Facebook for hours at a stretch.
I could go on, but that is not necessary. What we have is a new type of management method. Reward those who may be inherently unhappy at a social function to be social. Okay. Makes sense but as a nerd, I am going back to the office tonight. I am not going to a neighborhood function. Forget the incentive. I like working alone with my gizmos.
Stephen E Arnold, April 7, 2011
Freebie and without an incentive burden.
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