« January 2006 | Main | March 2006 »

Reality kicks in for Google's stock price

Investors who believed that Google had a magic wand that allowed it to turn web visitors into highly profitable money machines today were dealt a severe blow.

At the Internet Advertising, Information and Educations Conference that was hosted by Merrill Lynch in New York, Google CFO George Reyes explained that  the company's past stellar growth was merely the result of a technical project that allowed the search engine to better serve online advertisements.

But more importantly, the company by now feels that is has done all the tweaking it can do to its advertising system. There is no way to sugar-coat this: future revenue increases for Google will be less stellar.

A full transcription of Reyes' remarks (webcast here - section is around 28:00 into the recording) on this topic:

"We went through a period of 18 months where we had a revenue force initiative, a team of very bright technical engineers that were trying to tweak and optimize the ad system in a very responsible way. That sort of paid off nicely with the fruits of that labour. What's happened since then is: we got so good at that, that really most of what is left is organic growth, which means you have to grow your traffic and you have to grow your monetization. We are, clearly our growth rates are slowing and you see that in each and every quarter and we're going to have to find other ways to monetize the business."

After reality sank in, investors dumped their Google shares, which lost about 7 per cent in the stock market today.

Didn't they learn from the dotcom bubble that no company or new economy can cheat the laws of economics?

Tags: google

February 28, 2006 at 11:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Live from Apple: iPod Hi-Fi

In addition to the new Mac Mini, Jobs also unveiled the new iPod Hi-Fi, a boombox for that allows users to plug their player right in the top. Jobs compared the device with end end appliances from Bose and Denon, but touted its $349 price as a major differentiator.

It can be powered either by batteries or through the build in power adapter.

\

Specs for the iPod Hi-Fi

Tags: apple, steve jobs, mac mini

February 28, 2006 at 06:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBack

Live from Apple - the new Intel Mac Mini

Apple chief executive Steve Jobs has just unveiled his new Mac Mini powered by an Intel processor. A single core model goes for $499 and a dual core for $799. Available as of now.

The computers now also come with Frontrow and the application has been equiped with the option to share content across computers through the "bonjour" networking protocol (formerly called Rendezvous)

Jobs shows off performance of the new Intel Core Duo Mac Mini relative to the G5 processor.

The Mac Mini looks about the same as the previous models. Execpt that there is now an infrared receiver build into the front (the little black dot you see in the upper right corner of the unit).

The Mac Mini still is: bring you own keyboard, mouse and monitor: either from Apple...

...or from some other manufacturer, Jobs joked.

Tags: apple, steve jobs, mac mini

February 28, 2006 at 06:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

The Woz disarms his "anti-Intel" claims

Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak (aka: the Woz) is fighting back against an interview that appeared in Toronoto Globe and Mail. In summary, he is denying his negative remarks about Apple's switch to Intel chips and his alleged call on Apple to split off the chipmaking division in an email that he sent to the themacintoshguy mailing list:

I was in New Zealand and am just now back home. I saw a couple of headlines that were way off base.

As for Microsoft's desire to be more like Apple (creative, not the Dark Empire), I have insights into that aspect. It's opinion but why be constantly negative, like saying that bad things from the past mean MS will always be a bad guy. I myself am not known for taking the enemy approach to anything.

As for "spinning off iPod" I heartily deny saying this. The reporter asked some such question and I laughed it off as ludicrous. Why would Apple spin off something so successful. Then the reporter suggested that it could be like a separate division. Well, organizationally, it must be so already and I acknowledged the question I was asked in that way. Then the reporter asked if it made sense to have the iPod division somewhere else and I gave a mixed response, a logical response. I likened it to HP divisions when I worked at HP. There is a nice environmental effect in separate divisions. But then I mentioned that the HP divisions were making very different product lines, whereas the strength of the iPod came from treating a music device as a 'satellite' to a computer, and the intertwining of iTunes and the iPod made this possible. I did NOT say that the iPod division should be spun off and I feel used in that regard.

As for Intel, I have consistently backed that decision. But virtually every issue ever is not black or white. In this case the only thing I've ever said slightly negative, myself, is that I'd hoped for a new low power silicon technology that would extend for future generations, a'la IBM's copper technology back a ways. I said that I had hoped for more than just a good design to keep as much of the chip inactive as possible. The reporter again pushed me to say I was negative on the transition. That's a laugh, as anyone who is close to me can tell you, but I did acknowledge that some might be against it because of our 'big enemy' stance and so much of our Macintosh history riding on being different than the masses. That statement must have been stretched into being one about my own thinking.

I'm extremely short of time, organizing things after a long trip (mostly email requests for my time) so if any of you can spread my comments around, all the better. The problem with thinking is that if you think out a 30 second explanation, it passes over the 5 second sound-byte crowd.

Tags: steve wozniak, apple

February 28, 2006 at 02:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBack

Berkeley admits 7,000 students to 800 capacity class

In an email story from hell, the university of California in Berkeley has accidentally send out an email to all 7,000 students that registered for the school's law school. But the school can only accommodate 800 to 850 students a year.

It turns out that the school's director of admissions Edward Tom goofed up when he was training a new staff member, showing how to send an email to a large group of recipients as well as other features of the schools' mass email system. One thing lead to the other, and before he knew it, he had selected the acceptance letter.

“I’ve never had a glitch with that expert in six years of training new staff members,” Tom told Computerworld. “It takes a bumbling fool like me."

Berkeley's law school hides behind trees in shame.

Tags: UC Berkeley, email

February 28, 2006 at 12:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Security put Sun Grid on hold

Sun Microsystems has finally admitted that its retail Grid is a big failure.

In fact, the service hasn't even been launched, despite a ceremony last year in which Sun president Jonathan Schwartz flipped a symbolical switch to take the grid live.

The path to the grid's failure is paved with lies.

Last year in May the company's grid chief Aisling MacRunnels claimed that: "We had to reprioritise things because some very large banking customers needed capacity. We got way better response than we anticipated."

At least Schwartz himself technically wasn't lying when he told vnunet.com:

"What we have seen is a large number of CIOs who are now benchmarking their data centres and trying to figure out if they are spending more than a buck an hour. I see a huge amount of proofs of concepts where customers are looking at what they are paying for their own grid or what they are paying outsourcers."

At the time he just conveniently left out (if he knew) that those companies came to the conclusion that a grid failed to offer them the required level of security assurances. And that the US State Department raised a red flag, forcing Sun to instate a check to keep out customers from terrorist states.

The grid now again is "imminent", Schwartz claimed last Friday.

But somehow the server maker has lost its credibility in making those promises.

Vapourware image

Tags: sun microsystems, grid, jonathan schwartz

February 28, 2006 at 12:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Google's wallet takes shape

Google Base still is far more then an eBay competitor, but it is getting closer.

The search engine has quietly added a payment option to the Google Base beta.

Google Base at the moment isn't much, but could become a lot. You have to think big to see the potential of Google Base, and you have to be willing to speculate even more.

Now that we have those disclaimers out of the way: think of Google base as an open database holding all kinds of information, from store items to recipes. Add a truckload of meta information and you've got a poster child for the web 2.0 hype.

If Google succeeds to collect enough information, the search engine becomes the proprietor of the world's largest online database, and a platform for all kinds of mesh-up applications similar to the likes of Housingmaps.com.

While it's still all about the data, adding a payment service will allow Google to generate revenues off its Google Base service.

In the process the company gets to create a viable alternative to Ebay and Paypal, both of which in the past years have become complacent and started to display monopolistic behaviour with fee hikes that were to benefit corporate profits instead of reflecting the laws of supply and demand. Either way, the consumer wins.

Tags: ebay, google, google base

February 27, 2006 at 11:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Yahoo calls for an end to DRM

Yahoo Music's chief Dave Goldberg (photo below) has called upon the music industry to let go of digital rights management technology.

The proposal will be music to the ears of consumers. Digital rights management technology after all not only prevents illegal copying of music, it also blocks consumers from listening to the  music everywhere and on any device.

iTunes music for instance won't play on your Creative media player, and Yahoo Music content doesn't play on an iPod.

The labels however fear that a lack of DRM will spark a boom in music piracy.

They fail to see however that even in today's DRM world, pirated music is easy to come by. Most consumers will still obediently pay for music because it’s the right thing to do.

I doubt though that any label will have the guts to give this a try.

Tags: digital entertainment, itunes, ipod, yahoo music, Dave Goldberg

February 24, 2006 at 09:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Computer security for geeks

Looking for a cheap way to protect laptop's hard drive in case of theft? Mac Geekery has a few simple but clever solutions.

Instruct the computer to periodically check a website for a secret codeword or file. If the file is there (or isn't), the computer will launch a self-destruct mode. It may not get you your computer back, but at least your data should be protected.

While the site's example is build for a Mac, there is nothing that should prevent this from working on a Windows machine.

Just make sure that your friends don't put the code-file on your server as a prank.

Selfdestruction

Photo: Papp-Kuster Ádám

Tags: laptop theft, security

February 24, 2006 at 09:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Google's employee pampering caught in pictures

It's no secret that Google will go to great lengths to allow its employees to focus on their work.

Time.com is now offering a photo essay on its website that shows life inside the Googleplex, as the company's campus is often called.

The best photo if you ask me is that of a life guard sitting next to a swim-in-place pool where a Google employee is swimming. The guy couldn't look more bored, and in the extreme demonstrates the gap between Silicon Valley's highly paid knowledge workers and the maintenance crews that allow them to maintain their Californian lifestyles.

Photo courtesey of Google

Tags: google, googleplex

February 24, 2006 at 08:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (5) | TrackBack