Last July I had predicted that Google would go all in by bundling Google+ aggressively with search and that is exactly what was just announced yesterday with Search, plus Your World. The “plus Your World” part right now refers “your world on Google” as only Google+ profiles, posts and shared images are included and not content from Twitter, Facebook or others. John Batelle’s capture this well in his aptly titled “Search, Plus Your World, As Long As It’s Our World.” Also worth reading are Dann...

Last July I had predicted that Google would go all in by bundling Google+ aggressively with search and that is exactly what was just announced yesterday with Search, plus Your World. The “plus Your World” part right now refers “your world on Google” as only Google+ profiles, posts and shared images are included and not content from Twitter, Facebook or others. John Batelle’s capture this well in his aptly titled “Search, Plus Your World, As Long As It’s Our World.” Also worth reading are Dann...

When Larry Page became CEO, I set out my hopes for how Google might evolve its role in the Internet marketplace under his leadership. In particular, I was hoping that Larry would be:Supporting independent third party services instead of either trying to acquire them or competing head on with them. Figure out how to succeed by making others succeed.While the purchase of Zagat is a rounding error for Google it still shows that Google is going in the exact opposite direction. As I tweeted yester...

When Larry Page became CEO, I set out my hopes for how Google might evolve its role in the Internet marketplace under his leadership. In particular, I was hoping that Larry would be:Supporting independent third party services instead of either trying to acquire them or competing head on with them. Figure out how to succeed by making others succeed.While the purchase of Zagat is a rounding error for Google it still shows that Google is going in the exact opposite direction. As I tweeted yester...

Google buying Motorola is a strong defensive move against both Microsoft and Apple on two fronts: patents and user experience. Apple is vertically integrated and Microsoft controls Nokia (without having had to buy it). Between that and having filed or acquired a lot of patents, these two pose formidable threats to Android. Buying Motorola lets Google fight both of these threats in one go. As Larry Page’s blog post makes clear, Motorola has a huge trove of mobile IP, having invented the first ...

Google buying Motorola is a strong defensive move against both Microsoft and Apple on two fronts: patents and user experience. Apple is vertically integrated and Microsoft controls Nokia (without having had to buy it). Between that and having filed or acquired a lot of patents, these two pose formidable threats to Android. Buying Motorola lets Google fight both of these threats in one go. As Larry Page’s blog post makes clear, Motorola has a huge trove of mobile IP, having invented the first ...

Yesterday Facebook announced its long awaited search offering which they are calling graph search. It is the logical way to make the graph data that Facebook has been accumulating on its own and through its open graph accessible to users. Graph search is launching in beta with the obvious types of searches: people based on interests, places, movies, books, music, etc based on people. This is of course what Google has been fearing and why Google has been doubling down on Google+ at every turn ...

Yesterday Facebook announced its long awaited search offering which they are calling graph search. It is the logical way to make the graph data that Facebook has been accumulating on its own and through its open graph accessible to users. Graph search is launching in beta with the obvious types of searches: people based on interests, places, movies, books, music, etc based on people. This is of course what Google has been fearing and why Google has been doubling down on Google+ at every turn ...

Despite my sarcastic tweet from last night, I am actually intrigued by Google Glass (and I even believe that Google Plus will matter as Google is all in). First, as Fred pointed out yesterday, Google’s machine learning capabilities are a key enabler for making Glass useful. You need voice commands to change Glass is doing or displaying and Google’s speech recognition is exceptionally good. Second, only a technology such as Glass will make augmented reality a viable experience. Holding up a ph...

Despite my sarcastic tweet from last night, I am actually intrigued by Google Glass (and I even believe that Google Plus will matter as Google is all in). First, as Fred pointed out yesterday, Google’s machine learning capabilities are a key enabler for making Glass useful. You need voice commands to change Glass is doing or displaying and Google’s speech recognition is exceptionally good. Second, only a technology such as Glass will make augmented reality a viable experience. Holding up a ph...

There has been a flurry of posts about Google’s acquisition of Sparrow. As I was reading the posts, I felt that a couple of important points were missed (or at least didn’t jump out at me). Let’s start with the discussion of whether users have a right to be upset. No matter what view you ultimately take here it seems worth remembering that the dollars spent on the software are not the only costs that were incurred by users. First there is the cost of time. Let’s say that over the course of a ...

There has been a flurry of posts about Google’s acquisition of Sparrow. As I was reading the posts, I felt that a couple of important points were missed (or at least didn’t jump out at me). Let’s start with the discussion of whether users have a right to be upset. No matter what view you ultimately take here it seems worth remembering that the dollars spent on the software are not the only costs that were incurred by users. First there is the cost of time. Let’s say that over the course of a ...

In December 2010 I wrote a post saying that Google shouldn’t buy Groupon but that it would be a good idea for Groupon to sell at the then rumored price of $5.3 billion with a $0.7 billion earn out. As of Friday’s close, Groupon’s market cap is $6.3 billion or 5% above what the full deal consideration would have been. So should they have sold back then? It is still far from clear, especially now that important details around the deal have emerged from an article in the WSJ. The key point from ...

In December 2010 I wrote a post saying that Google shouldn’t buy Groupon but that it would be a good idea for Groupon to sell at the then rumored price of $5.3 billion with a $0.7 billion earn out. As of Friday’s close, Groupon’s market cap is $6.3 billion or 5% above what the full deal consideration would have been. So should they have sold back then? It is still far from clear, especially now that important details around the deal have emerged from an article in the WSJ. The key point from ...

Google has been showing off a lot of neat goodies at Google I/O. But the most interesting announcement as far as I can tell of the day is the availability of Chrome for Android. The existing Android browser is relatively wonky and not exactly fast. It also is surprisingly behind the iPhone browser in the adoption of some of the HTML5 javascript APIs. Chrome could really change this equation and as a by product make HTML5 apps a reality far more quickly. My best guesstimate is that we are stil...

Google has been showing off a lot of neat goodies at Google I/O. But the most interesting announcement as far as I can tell of the day is the availability of Chrome for Android. The existing Android browser is relatively wonky and not exactly fast. It also is surprisingly behind the iPhone browser in the adoption of some of the HTML5 javascript APIs. Chrome could really change this equation and as a by product make HTML5 apps a reality far more quickly. My best guesstimate is that we are stil...

This will be a bit of a wonky and short post with a longer and less technical one to follow some time soon. Google has just announced a coming update to their privacy policy which will essentially make it possible for Google to integrate all the information it has about a user across its many different services. This comes at the same time as the revelation that Larry Page apparently explicitly stated the goal of building “a single unified, ‘beautiful’ product across everything.” While one ca...

This will be a bit of a wonky and short post with a longer and less technical one to follow some time soon. Google has just announced a coming update to their privacy policy which will essentially make it possible for Google to integrate all the information it has about a user across its many different services. This comes at the same time as the revelation that Larry Page apparently explicitly stated the goal of building “a single unified, ‘beautiful’ product across everything.” While one ca...

Google’s announcement of the initial availability of Google Wallet was interesting but not because of any immediate impact. Initially, this will be the equivalent of a large field trial as it will be available only on Nexus S phones and only on Sprint. Much of the coverage has focused on using Wallet to pay merchants in the real world (e.g. in a Cab or at Macy’s), but Google Wallet has far reaching implications for apps and in-app transactions. If Google Wallet offers APIs that can be accesse...

Google’s announcement of the initial availability of Google Wallet was interesting but not because of any immediate impact. Initially, this will be the equivalent of a large field trial as it will be available only on Nexus S phones and only on Sprint. Much of the coverage has focused on using Wallet to pay merchants in the real world (e.g. in a Cab or at Macy’s), but Google Wallet has far reaching implications for apps and in-app transactions. If Google Wallet offers APIs that can be accesse...