Google's Saga....

I was thinking what I should write for this blog about Google and the first thing I did was, I opened my laptop and my firefox browser with the homepage, google.com. It felt weird to search for google in the Google searchbar :) The first thing that comes to mind when you think about searching something online is Google!!!

Google provides the most widely used online search tool. Experian Hitwise reported that Google's market share in the US passed the 72% mark in Dec 2010. It has much higher market share's in many other countries. Google runs over one million servers in data centers around the world, and processes over one billion search requests. Though the search engine was the company's core product, it came up with multiple internet based products and services like (maps, docs, chrome, adwords, gmail etc etc....)  which has made it a world leader in the technology industry. But how was it possible for Google to have this exponential growth?

Innovation culture:
One of the main reasons behind this success is because of  the innovation culture at Google. At Google, engineers are allowed to work on the projects of their choice for 20% of their time. "The resulting '20 percent projects' will most often have nothing to do with Google's current core business.The innovation culture at Google is all about coming up with an idea, getting it out there for people to use as quick as possible, and having it evolve quickly through iterative process. The cultural response to a new idea is brainstorming. Why an idea can't be done and inner office politics is rarely an issue. Their culture is one that reduces friction between idea and implementation" as correctly identified by Eric Schnell. This is one of the main reasons for the success of Google. In fact, Google's newer services, such as Gmail, Google News, Orkut, and AdSense originated from these independent endeavors. Google stays at the top because it comes up with products that customers want. If I need a service online, the first thing I do is check if Google provides a tool I need. The same is true for millions of common people. This is the image that Google has created in the minds of everyone by its innovation culture.

Dependency:
Google makes money by advertising using Adwords and Adsense. It not only advertises on the google results page, but also allows users to place ads on their pages by using Adsense. By effectively placing ads across the Internet, it's making many billions in profit. "But there is a downside."
More and more companies are depending extensively on the products provided by Google. "A growing number of companies, especially smaller ones, are dependent for a stunning proportion of their sales - sometimes more than half - on referrals they get from Google ads. These companies could not effectively function without the promotional help they're getting from Google. That means on the one hand that Google is doing a great thing greasing the wheels of capitalism. But it also means that its responsibilities are becoming more burdensome." Advertisers are worried by the growth of Google and look at it as the next monopoly. If Google dominates the online market as now, many are worried that it would be able to control the prices of online advertising and rise it whenever it wants, wiping away profits for the advertisers. "There is already grumbling that Google's prices are rising too fast."
http://money.cnn.com/2007/10/12/magazines/fortune/fastforward_google.fortune/index.htm

So "Google may be too good for its own good." :) It needs competitors who can copy its successes.

Future:
Google is a company founded by geeks and run by geeks. "These are people who think they are creating something that's the best in the world," says Peter Norvig, a Google engineering director. "And that product is changing people's lives." It is interesting to know that most googlers are driven by "impossible perfection" and strive constantly to deliver what the customer wants.
http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/69/google.html
It is company that has been successfully competing in several different sectors. Google will have to work on some of its potential problems, like dealing with internet censorship laws in China, dealing with tough competition in social media from Facebook and also, they should continue innovating to be on the top. But, "Google understands that its two most important assets are the attention and trust of its users." It tries to constantly improve itself and it also understands the capacity of the Web to leverage expertise. I believe Google's commitment to keep delivering and its innovation culture will keep it ahead of its competitors.

Microsoft - Whats happening!!!

I am a sincere Microsoft OS user for the past 10 years. But not because I am biased. Because it was the most readily available OS for me. Apple has definitely made an excellent effort in increasing their market share in this field, but yet like many other users, I have never tried using a Mac. Maybe, because I'm lazy or just so used to the Microsoft OS or maybe since it works pretty well for me, I have never tried to use any other operating systems. Customers who are not that tech-savvy, may be a little adverse to change, but nowadays there are a lot of new developments in the industry around. (Ex: Mobile computing, Online services)

Lets see from which products Microsoft makes most of its money...

Though the graph talks about 2008 revenues, it still gives us good picture of how Microsoft makes money. Most of its revenues come from the client operating systems and Microsoft office products. Microsoft did not make money (all these years during its growth period) just by selling those products, but by selling different versions of those products. Whenever, a new operating system version was introduced, everyone had to upgrade to the new OS to get support services from Microsoft. The same rule was followed for Microsoft Office. The result was, users had to buy new software regularly and Microsoft made huge profits by selling the same products with a few improvements. Also apart from end user customers, Microsoft continued its dominance by partnering with the hardware firms who were one of its major customers. (Few new operating systems were not compatible with the old hardware, and end-users had to buy new computers.)

In Oct 2009, Microsoft Windows had approximately 91% market share for the client operating systems. Can Microsoft continue its market share? Microsoft grew exponentially till now, but I believe it has reached a position where exponential growth is not easier anymore. With tough competition from Apple, the time has come when Microsoft can compete and keep its market share only by innovating. Otherwise, though Microsoft will enjoy a higher market share in the next few years, it may steadily lose customers to Apple.

Also, we can see from the graph that Microsoft is not very strong in its online services. Though, Microsoft recently introduced many products to compete with the online giant Google, its services are still not very popular.  Also, with mobile computing becoming more and more popular, the number of client OS customers can reduce leading to the decline of Microsoft revenue.

In conclusion, Microsoft is not in an immediate danger in the next few years but it has to innovate in order to maintain its dominance.

Foursquare - Can it make money???

What is Foursquare?

"Foursquare is a location based social network that incorporates gaming elements. Users share their location with friends by “checking in” via a smartphone app or by text message. Points are awarded for checking in at various venues. Users can connect their Foursquare accounts to their Twitter and Facebook accounts, which can update when a check in is registered. By checking in a certain number of times, or in different locations, users can collect virtual badges. In addition, users who have checked in the most times at a certain venue will be crowned “Mayor” until someone surpasses their number. Various venues have embraced Foursquare, and offer special deals to users who are “mayors”.
Foursquare has applications for iPhone, Android, Blackberry, and Windows Mobile".

Why would anyone want to use foursquare?
Well for a few reasons:

• It is like a game and you can uncover as many badges as possible by checking in wherever you go. Look here for a list of more than 150 Foursquare badges.
• You can check in at your favorite establishments more than anyone else to earn Mayor titles for those particular places - and possibly "Mayor Specials" from those businesses.
• You can earn points for every check-in to see if you can outscore your "friends" and all other Foursquare users in the area.
• You can know where your friends hang out often. For example, instead of getting the online reviews for the best Sushi restaurant in your place, you can just go to the restaurant your friend visits often. If he/she is a frequent visitor of the place and checks in saying ‘Best Sushi ‘, there are more chances that you would like the food at this restaurant.  One could argue that ‘I can just ask my friend which place to go to and why should I use foursquare?’ But, you know definitely that one of your friends loves sushi, but you don’t know who. You could send a mail to all your friends, but how many of them would have time in their busy life to respond to you whenever you ask. Instead, whenever they go to their favorite restaurant, they check in to foursquare and you’ll know without ever asking them.
• If you know that a group of friends are hanging out in a bar very close to your location, you would want to go and join them.
• Or you could use foursquare as an online place where you maintain a log of all places you visit.

How does Foursquare plan to make money?
Well, if they are putting their energy and time to create and maintain such an application, they will want to make money. But where is the money???
Well, there are a lot of people who consider foursquare just as a game and a waste of time. (I felt the same too :)) But I realized that if a lot of my friends start using it, it could be useful. I, like many other people have a hunch that foursquare has the potential to change the face of online advertising. In today’s online world, advertising is a joke. Online advertising is not reaching the potential customers. Let’s see if foursquare can revolutionize this area.

- Would businesses want to pay some money to foursquare to get statistics of how the foursquare visitor patterns are?
If they know the statistics, they would know how to provide better services to their customers.  Once a steady stream of people start checking into a venue, the stats Foursquare provides could start to become a meaningful dashboard for local businesses.
http://techcrunch.com/2010/04/22/foursquare-business-friendly/

- Would businesses pay some amount, if Foursquare increases the loyalty of their customers?
For example, consider there are two cafes close to your school, both relatively good places. You visit either place every day to get a coffee in the morning. Now you start using foursquare and check in whenever you visit one of the cafés. But now, you want to be the mayor of a café, because you could get a free coffee once in a while, if you maintain your mayor title. What would you do? Since both of them are relatively good, you will stick to only one café everyday to maintain your title and to get a free coffee once in a while. So your loyalty to this café has automatically increased because of foursquare.

- Would businesses want to pay if their customers visit their place regularly to keep their mayor titles?
This idea may seem ridiculous that people would regularly visit a place only to compete in a game and to keep their titles. But on second thought, it’s not. Competition is something that is inherent in many people. By nature, we would want to compete in anything we put our leg into. How many people spend their time playing online games and competing with others? Do you know how many people play Farmville on Facebook? Well, you get continuous updates, so you will know :) But do you know how many actually buy game credits from Facebook? A lot of them.

- Would businesses want to pay some money to provide you with location specific advertisements and coupons?
For example, say I am at a restaurant for dinner with friends and I check in on to foursquare. Once foursquare knows where I am, a bar close to my location would love to advertise and so will send me a discount coupon. Well anyways, me and my friends were planning to get a drink after dinner, and now we have a discount coupon of a bar ten steps away. What would we do?
Lets look at a little different possibility. It is possible that me and my friends had no plans to go for drinks after dinner, but once we get the discount coupon, we may like the idea of going for drinks and will eventually end up in the bar. From the bar’s point of view, just by giving us a small discount, they are making us visit them and they have reached their potential customers effectively. Now, would the bar want to pay Foursquare for this service?
"From a broad strategy point of view, there's a huge potential with the ability to connect people to promotional experiences," said Bonin Bough, PepsiCo's global director of digital and social media. "We know where people are and can talk to them from a geo-located perspective -- that's a huge opportunity."
http://www.businessinsider.com/foursquare-plots-its-business-model-2010-2

- Would businesses want to pay foursquare, if its users become a medium for word of mouth campaigns?
When your foursquare account is linked to your facebook or twitter account, all your check-ins are published on to the respective sites. So whenever you visit a place, all your facebook friends will know. And it so happens that for most users, most of their friends live in the same city. So when you publish these details and say you liked a restaurant, you are automatically providing word of mouth advertising to that restaurant.

- What about the smart phone companies? If more and more people start buying smart phones so that they can use foursquare, would the smart phone companies want to help or pay foursquare?
It seems like a strange thought. But if it improves smart phones sales, who knows, maybe. It should be remembered that it took Foursquare just over a year to get to a million users.
http://techcrunch.com/2010/04/22/foursquare-one-million-users/


As said by Charlie O’ Donnell, “being able to connect web advertising, recommendations, and social media buzz to an actual person walking into your store has long been the holy grail of the advertising world.  We spent lots of money and effort online to drum up our brand, but does it actually drive food traffic?  Foursquare knows.”
http://techcrunch.com/2009/07/16/foursquare-shows-the-business-potential-of-location-based-services/

But foursquare may end up with same problems faced by twitter. Like, research firm Sysomos estimates that 5% of Twitter users generate 75% of activity. And also much will depend on whether it can maintain its cool. "The X-factor appeal of Foursquare is in its social currency," Mr. Berkowitz said.

Foursquare could be the next “thing” happening in the online world, but we’ll have to wait and see.

References:
http://www.crunchbase.com/company/foursquare
http://www.businessinsider.com/foursquare-plots-its-business-model-2010-2
http://www.businessinsider.com/foursquare-gets-its-local-ad-business-model-on-the-road-2010-4

Internet Tools and applications that are becoming necessities

I was thinking for a long time of what title would be apt to describe my thoughts about a few internet tools & applications and I suddenly realized that some of them have already become a part of our life without our realization. We use them as if they always existed. One such tool is the browser. It is probably one of the most extensively used tool which connects us to the world via internet.

There are many browsers that are available for free download. Let us explore which browser is the best among the most popular ones used. Lets compare the traditional Internet Explorer(IE8), the open source Firefox and the easy to use Chrome.





Interface and Look:
Depending on the look and ease of operation, a browser can become very popular. Chrome provides the best look/interface among these browsers. I have seen a lot of my friends and observed that if you start using Chrome, you will not want to use another browser. Firefox also provides an impressive function based look/interface, but Chrome is the best.

Features and Characteristics:
All the popular browsers (IE included :)) provide many interesting features. But Firefox because of its extensions (add-ons) is the best in this category. Firefox being an open source software, it is tested and also strengthened by numerous programmers. Also, Firefox is extensively used for macs. Chrome is available for macs but I do not know how good it is. I expect some of my friends using macs to shed some light on this issue.

Speed:
Firefox and Chrome were significantly faster than old IE versions, but after the introduction of IE8, all of them have more or less the same speed. The initial start-up time for Firefox is a little high then the others, but it has the best navigation time. But yet, I think Chrome provides the best speed. (You may think I'm a Google fan, maybe, I don't know yet :) Read upcoming posts to decide...)

Security:
Firefox and Chrome both provide good security when compared to IE8. But it has to be remembered that Firefox being an open source software will have fixes to threats very quickly. Also, IE is the most attacked browser as hackers know that most users using IE have no anti-virus or protection on their computers. Firefox is probably the best in Security.

However, in summary, if I want to take advantage of the various extensions and features available, I would use Firefox. But if I want a browser which is easy and appealing to use, I would use Chrome. 

Recent developments: All browsers are jumping on to HTML5, an emerging set of web standards that could transform how the web works, and make internet pages more like desktop applications, in a few years.

Let us now look at some other applications which are slowly gaining popularity. In a few years, these would potentially become the most regularly used applications.

RSS Readers:

RSS reader or a feed reader collects web content from multiple sites we are interested in (like news, blogs, podcasts etc) and puts all that content in a single location for easy viewing.

 For example, say I like to read 4 different newspapers & check 4 different websites on a regular basis to be up-to-date with news. Instead of checking different websites and sometimes missing a few news articles that I'm interested in, I can simply use an RSS reader and subscribe to all these websites. Whenever a new article is posted, the RSS reader pulls the data from the respective sites and puts them in one location for my easy viewing. This way I would never again miss an article posted on my favorite websites.
Free RSS readers: Google reader, My Yahoo!
I started using the Google reader a few days ago and right now I'm enjoying its features. For example, I am following all the blogs of my classmates and a few news websites using my Google reader. Its so convenient to have all my classmates blogs in one place than me visiting different web pages.


Blogs:
Well, you are reading my blog, so I expect you to know all about blogs :)

But yet, I want to put in a few words about blogs. Blog or a weblog is a website where an individual or a group of individuals maintain regular entries of commentary, description of events, or actually anything they want to write about. It could be used a self marketing tool or just as a place from where you can connect to the world or a place where you maintain online diaries. Some sites, such as Twitter, allow bloggers to share thoughts and feelings instantaneously and are much faster than emailing. Blogs are also used for business purposes where a company uses them to enhance communication and culture within the company or for marketing, branding or public relations.
So start your blog before your name is already taken by someone else :)
Ex: Blogger, Wordpress etc.


Social Bookmarking:
Social bookmarking is an application by which we can store and manage our bookmarks online instead of storing them on our computers. We can store, organize, manage and also share them with other users.

One site, becoming popular for social bookmarking is delicious.
On delicious, we can also see popular bookmarks in different categories that were added by other users. We can manage our bookmarks by means of tagging them with relevant data instead of the traditional folders in our computers. We can give multiple tags to a bookmark and use them from any computer with internet.


These applications will soon become as popular as the social networking sites like Facebook and Orkut. So lets all keep up with technology and embrace the new tech world. Please add value to this blog with your comments.