InsideGoogle

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F-ing Sand Game!

I am so angry at Chris Avis! He linked to the Falling Sand Game on his Stewed Prunes blog, and it has eaten up a huge portion of my time!

January 2nd, 2006 Posted by Nathan Weinberg | Humor, General | 10 comments



links for 2006-01-03

January 2nd, 2006 Posted by Nathan Weinberg | Bookmarks, Humor | no comments

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End Of Year Stock Roundup

Seattle P.I.’s Todd Bishop has done a great chart showing, based entirely on percentage increases, how Microsoft, Google, Apple and others performed in the stock market in 2005. I was surprised at how similar a year Google and Apple had, but not as surprised that, following a strong start, Apple had a flat year until they started releasing new products in the summer. Microsoft’s stock price has barely budged in three years, but is considered a big upside stock, since it is cheap, and the chances of Vista and Office 12 doubling the share price are better that you think.

Ever noticed that there’s a category on this blog for “Stock Market”, but not on InsideMicrosoft? That’s intentional. Think about it for a second…

January 2nd, 2006 Posted by Nathan Weinberg | Stock Market, Microsoft, General | no comments

Cheap Google PCs?

The L.A. Times has an article (BugMeNot required) that makes some ambitious predictions for Google in 2006, including that Google will begin selling PCs.

The basic prediction is that Google will begin selling a super-low cost PC. The article says that they have sources that say Google has been negotiating with Wal-Mart, among other retailers, to sell a PC that would cost only “a couple of hundred dollars” and run an operating system made by Google.

Another thing we might see are “Google Cubes”, a small device which would allow you to move media, like songs and video, between your computer and TV set. Rumor is that the reason Larry Page is keynoting at CES this week is precisely so he can unveil Google’s big “It”, whatever it is.

Other predictions:

  • Microsoft will consider buying a multi-billion dollar company, in order to beat Google. Possibly: IAC.
  • Carl Icahn and Bill Gates are working on an alliance, one that would either result in a hostile takeover of the Time Warner board in order to split the company and unravel the Google/AOL deal, or see Icahn dump his Time Warner shares.
  • Lloyd Braun, failing at turning Yahoo into a virtual original content network, will leave Yahoo and return to his Hollywood roots.

I can’t wait to see if any of these have any basis in fact. And if Google actually releases hardware, whatever it is, I’ll be first in line.
(via Richard MacManus, subscribed > Findory)

January 2nd, 2006 Posted by Nathan Weinberg | Jeeves, Consumer Products, Yahoo, Microsoft, AOL, General | 9 comments

InsideMicrosoft Wins KB Cafe Blog Award

Go over to InsideMicrosoft for news of the end of Randy Morin’s KB Cafe Blog Awards. The results are there because InsideMicrosoft won, while InsideGoogle lost a tough race. I blame global warming!

January 2nd, 2006 Posted by Nathan Weinberg | Blogs, General | one comment

Perspectives: January 2

perspectivesI’ve decided to start a new series on this blog, which I’m calling Perspectives. I realize that I end a lot of posts with “we’ll see where this goes”, but we never get to see, since I’m not going to repeat the same stuff every day until a conclusion is reached. Blogs tend to be so obsessed with the “now”, that we never pay attention to what’s happened in the past, and we forget things that might be important. So, every day, unless I’m way too busy (or not around), I’ll post about whatever I was discussing a year ago, and, as time goes by, two years ago, and so on.

On January 2, 2005, we were talking about Google’s big 60 Minutes piece. Also big news that day: a flame war between Google and Microsoft employees on their personal blogs. It seems like everyone (including myself) was perceiving Google in a slightly less serious light.

We all knew Google was capable of big things, but it was still that silly young company, with lots of emphasis on wackiness at the Googleplex. We don’t talk about ping pong tables, college dorms, circus classes and the free jello as much as we used to. Its still there, but its overshadowed by billion dollar AOL deals, patent lawsuits and security holes.

Getting back to the flame war, there was a debate over whether Google was taking from the open source community without giving back. While Google does rely an enormous amount on the creations of open source, it has made a major effort to give back in the last year, with Adam Bosworth, the Google half of the argument, leading the charge with Google’s Summer of Code.

Additionally, Google has been funding the two major alternative browsers, Firefox and Opera, by paying to be the default search engine. They’ve even hired several major Firefox developers, and are actively assisting in the development of the browser, to the point where I’ve accused them of being the de facto owners of the browser. Considering that Firefox is the second largest and most significant open source project out there (after Linux), Google has definitely answered its critics.

Oh, and that Google OS? Did anyone really believe those awful screenshots?

This has been “Perspectives”, I’m Lionel Osbourne.

January 2nd, 2006 Posted by Nathan Weinberg | Perspectives, Culture, Microsoft, General | one comment