Hands Off My Honeycomb, Mr. Open Source!
April 4, 2011
If you were looking forward to developing nifty Android tablet apps, you’ll have to wait. ZDNet reports in “Google Android 3.0 ‘Honeycomb’: Open source no more.”
Does this foreshadow the future of open source?
Our view: “Winning is Google’s way. Open source is a convenience and may not take precedence over money, control, and other key business drivers.”
Google seems to want it both ways. The fact that Android is open source is a big selling point, but they’re making an exception for Honeycomb, the Android platform designed for tablets:
“Version 3.0 of Android, which many have called a fork of the mobile OS (and now it looks like they were right), is now closed source, with access only going to OEMs and specific developers. While Google claims that they don’t want people experimenting with the OS on smartphones for which it wasn’t designed, one has to wonder if there aren’t other motivations for the move.”
Software is either open source or closed source. It doesn’t seem like there’s much of a gray area in that.
Google’s stated aim is to avoid bad user experiences, but maybe that’s unnecessary when a simple disclaimer would do? Really, we would take a few imperfect apps over this restriction. Software is open source or it is not. Both ways works at Dairy Queen, not in our software pond.
Cynthia Murrell, April 4, 2011
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Android Microsoft: Strange Mobile Extremes
April 3, 2011
The birds are singing. The sap is running. And the pundits are feeling their digital oats. Navigate to “Android Is Destroying Everyone, Especially RIM — iPhone Dead In Water.” What’s remarkable about this write up is that it, in a way, is as wild and crazy as the mid tier consulting firms’ prognostications that Microsoft’s Windows phone will dominate the mobile market. For a representative look at this assertion, point your browser at “ABI Research: Android will have 45% of the Smartphone market share by 2016.” I find the extremes fascinating not because the predictions are probably incorrect but for the motives that trigger such statements.
Here’s a snippet from the dead in water write up:
The Android gains matter because technology platform markets tend to standardize around a single dominant platform (see Windows in PCs, Facebook in social, Google in search). And the more dominant the platform becomes, the more valuable it becomes and the harder it becomes to dislodge. The network effect kicks in, and developers building products designed to work with the platform devote more and more of their energy to the platform. The reward for building and working with other platforms, meanwhile, drops, and gradually developers stop developing for them.
The thought that galloped through my mind was that Google is about search. Android is a vector for search. The only hitch in the git along is Google management. In a perfect world, Google’s management would deftly steer Android forward, avoiding the telco reefs and regulatory riptides, ducking below deck to avoid the hail of Android’s fragmenting platform, and cashing in on the applications marketplace.
Google versus Microsoft fighting in the open. What happens if there is a sniper with a clear shot at the combatants? Source: http://www.defensive-solutions.com/hand_to_hand.asp
For Microsoft and Nokia, the challenge is similar. There is the management “thing”, the software update “thing”, and the execution “thing.”
With Android a winner in one pundit’s view and Microsoft the victor in another consultant’s view, what could go wrong? Good question and one that is ignored for purposes of generating clicks and reputation enhancement via online methods.
My short list of challenges for both Google and Microsoft includes:
- Proving that both companies can succeed without coming apart at the seams. What do I mean? Neither Google nor Microsoft has its management ducks in a row. Both companies are quite similar and appear to have difficulty focusing resources and making money outside their quite different money making workhorses: ads for Google and desktop applications for Microsoft. The stress of creating another winner that generates substantial revenue is likely to break fragile management methods at both companies. Internecine warfare may be underway at both firms. The management shift at Google and the calls for the ouster of Mr. Ballmer are not to be ignored.
- Apple and RIM may be marginalized, but I am not sure that these companies are down for the count. Apple seems to be chugging along. RIM, despite its stand up comic reputation, has some enterprise adherents. A third party, not on the pundits’ radar, could swoop in and cut a deal or enter into some other agreement. In the aftermath of a third party move, Google and Microsoft might face a competitor for which neither firm has prepared. What type of firm might make such a play? Candidates range from investment banks, foreign owned entities, or even a player which now seems to be on the periphery of the mobile phone business. Surprise can be a disruptor.
Big Brother Operates Via Wireless Companies
April 3, 2011
Digital Trends proclaims “Wireless companies ‘track your every move.’ “ I knew it!
The New York Times reports that cell phone companies keep track of customers’ global coordinates. They know where you, or at least your phone, were when. The secret was revealed during a German lawsuit against Deutsche Telekom, who owns T-Mobile USA. And it isn’t just them. And what other information are they caching?
“In the United States, even less is known about what level of surveillance wireless companies are conducting on their customers because these companies are not required to divulge what information they collect. According to the Electronic Frontier Foundation, however, that information is extensive, and is only getting more so.”
Furthermore, unlike tracking by Web site cookie, it’s very hard to opt out of cell phone surveillance.
I can’t say I’m surprised by these revelations. Are you?
Cynthia Murrell, April 3, 2011
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Does Google Get an Edge by Hiring a Java Babydaddy?
April 2, 2011
Some background. Sun “invented” Java. Oracle bought Sun. Oracle entered into the American legal process to assert its rights over Java. Forget the open source stuff. This is Oracle and the alleged miscreant, Google.
The IT sporting arena has seen some hefty competition this year. The rivalry between Oracle and Google heated up over an infringement suit, but according to “Google Hires Java Founder James Gosling amid Oracle Infringement Suit” things are about to get nasty or more interesting depending upon one’s point of view.
Google has been less than happy that Oracle is suing them over a Java-related patent infringement. The search mogul decided to rub static electricity over the wounded relationship by hiring James Gosling, Java founder, and former VP of Sun Microsystems. Engadget opines:
When Oracle acquired Sun last year, Gosling, who refused to take part, wasn’t shy about expressing his views, calling Oracle’s Larry Ellison “Larry, Prince of Darkness.” On a post to his blog, which has since crashed, Gosling was vague about his new duties saying simply, “I don’t know what I’ll be working on. I expect it’ll be a bit of everything, seasoned with a large dose of grumpy curmudgeon.
Gosling may be unsure of what job awaits him at Google, but one thing is certain: Larry Ellison is not happy about the sudden change in teams. The Java babydaddy phase of the Google – Oracle dust up is underway.
Whitney Grace, April 2, 2011
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Google China: Small Bump in the Road
April 1, 2011
After my trip to Hong Kong to give a talk about “content with intent”, I have been noticing information about Google and China. I don’t have a stake in either Google or China, but I find the coverage of the US company interesting. One example is the information in “Sina Ends Google Search Engine Deal for China Online Users.” The one beat article asserts:
Sina Corp., owner of China’s third- most-visited website, dropped Google Inc.’s search engine a year after the U.S. company moved its Chinese service offshore to avoid local censorship rules. Sina stopped using Google’s search service after the expiry of a contract, Liu Qi, a spokesman at Chinese Web portal operator, said in an e-mail today. The Shanghai-based company will instead use its own proprietary technology, he said.
The key point is, in my jet lagged opinion, “use its own proprietary technology.”
I can no longer keep track of companies offering search. The reason is partly due to the demystification of search. What once was rocket science is no big deal. For those unable to code their own engine, a click on an open source package does the trick.
The optimism Google appears to be radiating about its revenue in China is interesting and somewhat at odds with what I picked up as I talked with people at the conference. I learned from one of my readers:
According to Analysys International’s statistics, Google search advertising revenue in China after a long decline, finally ushered in the fourth quarter of 2010 rose. Google China in the fourth quarter of 2010, China accounted for 23.1% of search advertising revenue share, compared to the third quarter rose 1.5 percentage points, but still 35.6% from the end of 2009, revenue market share far. [January 19, 2011]
The source provided was this link.
Google sends messages about China and the opportunities it presents to the firm. I listen, but I have to keep in mind the fact that there is some dissonance between and among messages about Google and China. No joke. Big money is at stake.
Stephen E Arnold, April 1, 2011
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Updated Google Search App for iPhone
March 30, 2011
Out with the old and in with the new according to “Google Search App for iPhone – a New Name and a New Look”. The former Google Mobile App has been replaced by the redesigned Google Search app.
Naturally the interface has changed. An Apps button is included at the bottom of the screen to quickly interact with other Google products. There is also a toolbar for filtering results to make sure you only get what you are looking for, i.e. images, news etc. They’ve also included a way to hang on to former searches so you can pick up where you left off should you temporarily walk away from the process. And that’s not nearly all. The blog post asserts:
… there are a number of improvements we’ve made to everything else you love in the app, including Google Goggles, Voice Search, Search with My Location, Gmail unread counts and more. There’s a lot in the app, so we’ve added a simple help feature to let you explore it. Access this by tapping the question mark above the Google logo.
Good updates, but it looks as though the Google app for iPhone has surpassed the app for Android. Based on the litany of comments to the post, I’m not the only one who’s noticed Google is catering to iPhone users over patrons of its own platform. Wonder when we can expect the same treatment for Android?
Sarah Rogers, March 30, 2011
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Google Android Malware Factoid
March 13, 2011
No idea if this is spot on. Fascinating example of what happens when controlled chaos blends with a Microsoft-like approach. The source is “The Walled Garden Has Won.” Here’s the factoid:
It [Malware] infected more than a quarter of a million devices before Google intervened.
I use a clumsy BlackBerry. No fear of malware. I bought one app, installed it, and it killed my phone. Now I check mail and use the phone as a phone. Life is simple in Harrod’s Creek, Kentucky.
Stephen E Arnold, March 13, 2011
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Another Internet Kill Switch Need
March 11, 2011
Could the UK Government Shut Down the Web? signals that another country wants to have a way to control access via the Internet. This article does a good job substantiating why it is a highly improbable and nearly impossible endeavor.
In Britain the person with the power to flick the “kill switch” is Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt. The Civil Contingencies Act and the 2003 Communications Act give Hunt the ability to suspend internet services by ordering internet service providers to close their operations or by shutting off internet exchanges. Here’s a point that struck me as important:
“The problem comes down to the very nature of the internet in developed countries. It is a mesh of networks. It transcends borders and has no definable beginning or end. As a result of this structure it is almost impossible to isolate all the connections.”
While Hunt has the power to shut Britain off from the rest of the world via Internet, he cannot use the power except in times of extreme emergency should the country be threatened. Even then, due to the vast network interconnections and backup network systems, a secondary network system would quickly develop should the primary networks be shut down.
We have seen postings that indicate there are work arounds for “kill switches”. These range from dial up access to more elaborate methods. And what about search? No one seems to care. The issue appears to be Facebook-type and Twitter-like services, email, and the real time flow of information through RSS.
What is clear is that governmental authorities are nervous about what can happen when people use Internet technology to organize and disseminate information. But will turning off the Internet solve the problem or just be a temporary measure. The UK does not want to take a chance it seems. A desktop computer does not lend itself to mobility, but phones and other portable devices change some of the information dynamics due to real time messaging and interaction among one or more individuals.
Leslie Radcliff and Stephen E Arnold, March 11, 2011
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Is 97 Percent of a Market a Monopoly?
March 9, 2011
Quite a question which I have not seen anyone ask. I did read the startling spider food headline “Google Controls 97 Percent Of Mobile Paid Search: Report.” I wonder if any eagle eyed regulators paid attention. Now the data come from a source that may not be familiar to some—an analyst report from a financial outfit. Most of these data are carefully screened and often support a position that the analyst wants to take with regard to a particular firm or market sector.
Notice that the rotini noodles are 98 percent the same. Is this consistency or a monopoly among the rotinis?
Google is the outfit the possible monopoly position. I suppose that someone at Google was surprised to be given such a accolade. Google has worked hard to present itself as just another friendly competition. Now an analyst firm asserts that the data from Efficient Frontier “proves” Google is the big dog in mobile paid search.
Now I am not sure what “mobile paid search” is. When I looked for a Pizza Hut last night, I had to resort to calling someone to look up the phone number. I then called the Pizza Hut, ordered the rotini my 89 year old father wanted, and drove to the aforementioned Pizza Hut. I want to note that my trust BlackBerry map did not get me to the Pizza Hut. I drove around until I spotted the building tucked next to a $5 haircut outfit.
Here’s the key passage from the write up which is probably going to be cited a number of times in the next 24 hours:
Just as Google dominates mobile search share in the US (with roughly 98 percent), the report said that 97 percent of mobile search spend (for Efficient Frontier clients) now goes to Google, while 3.2 percent spend goes to Bing/Yahoo.
Not too many qualifiers in this write up. Check out the charts. The pie chart is a keeper and will probably surface at some Congressional hearing later this year.
Stephen E Arnold, March 9, 2011
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Fabasoft Mindbreeze Goes Mobile, Again
March 4, 2011
Fabasoft has updated its information about Mindbreeze mobile search. We first reported this story in April 2010 in “Mindbreeze Goes Mobile.”
Fabasoft Mindbreeze asserts this year that smartphones are becoming more ubiquitous each year, and with ever progressing mobile bandwidth capabilities, consumers increasingly demand the ability to efficiently search on-the-go. We agree.
Fabasoft Mindbreeze elaborates on its mobile search in “Mobile Search for your Enterprise.” Says the blog entry:
“Our Mobile Client is specially-tailored for the restricted screen sizes and special haptic requirements of modern touch mobiles (like the iPhone or Android based mobiles). This empowers you to access information anytime from anywhere without any hassle.”
The company also offers a version for the iPad. We think the iPad version is the news. The mobile information is a gentle recycle in our opinion. Mobile devices continue to outsell desktop boat anchor computers, so the new device trend is documented and widely known.
Cynthia Murrell March 4, 2011
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