Google formally announced its OpenSocial social network application platform today, and there was a bombshell announcement that they held back till the end: MySpace is in! MySpace, the most popular social network, bigger than even Facebook, is a partner in OpenSocial and will support OpenSocial applications.
Also announced as joining: SixApart, owners of Movable Type, TypePad, LiveJournal, and Vox; plus Bebo, joining previously announced partners Orkut, Oracle, Ning, XING, Tianji, Viadeo, Salesforce.com, Plaxo, hi5, imeem, Hyves, Friendster, Engage.com and LinkedIn. Many complained when word leaked out yesterday that Google’s partners, aggregated, barely register in the U.S. compared to Facebook, but the totality of this group has to have twice the market share of Facebook, with MySpace beating it all by itself.
OpenSocial just went from being an opening shot to a sure-fire game changer. With MySpace supporting it, it’s important; with everyone but Facebook supporting it, it becomes the de facto new platform. Basically, there are now two platforms, Facebook and OpenSocial, and unless OpenSocial fails due to poor infrastructure or implementation, both will be major market forces.
Facebook was offered a place in this group, but it declined, and with “big evil” Rupert Murdoch even joining the movement, they now look like the entrenched anti-user corporate entity, a big blow. OpenSocial won’t kill Facebook, it may not even convince Facebook users to leave, but it does kill Facebook’s network effect. There is no longer a pressing need to switch to Facebook because all the applications are there, the lock-in is pretty much over.
In the long run, this isn’t the Facebook killer, not even close. Facebook will thrive because Facebook users don’t want to switch; they like Facebook. However, Facebook wants to have a thriving developer community, and to get it, there’s still a good chance they’ll join Open Social, or try to compete with it. If Facebook joins, it’ll make switching around easier for users, and if it doesn’t, we’ll have a two-player war here, and those are always exciting to watch.
On one side, we’ve got Facebook and Microsoft, on the other, Google, Fox, and a lot of little guys. Of course, most of the important little guys (the developers, not the networks) already work on Facebook’s side, making them the most important players. The two sides are going to fight over developers, and Microsoft is very good at courting developers. If they can get some integration between Facebook’s Markup Language and Windows Live Spaces, the world’s most popular blogging service, perhaps via Microsoft Gadgets (which also run on Windows Vista), we’ve got a powerful closed solution on Facebook’s side.
The most important thing to remember is that we have no idea what Google supposedly gains from this. Yes, there’s a chance that Google just became the operating system of the internet, but there’s nothing in this so far about monetization. Google can’t sell the platform, and with MySpace in Orkut doesn’t look so important anymore. The programming languages are too standard for Google to sell developer tools.
We don’t know yet what Google stands to gain, except for being important and making no money at it. The only real gain: Google diminishes Facebook’s influence, and thus avoids Facebook becoming a major competitor, if this play succeeds. Things just got so interesting, nobody knows where it’s all going to end up.
There’s a new PC at Wal-Mart, a $200 pretty decent Linux computer from Everex that you can pick up today. The PC is called the gPC, running a gOS Linux-based operating system, and a lot of people are calling it the “Google PC”.
But is it?
Plenty of websites are calling it a Google PC without a single sentence to the fact that Google did not built the PC, or the software, and is not selling it in any way. For your consideration, I present John Dvorak, the bastion of credible, honest journalism, who has these sentences in his article and his podcast:
$200 “Google PC” is launched today at Wal-mart
Google is also involved in a cheap $199 computer…
I guess it’s a prelude to a kind of Google operating system.
If you’ve been waiting for Google to launch its own computer and operating system, that day is here.
At the end of his article, in ignorable italics, Andy finally mentions that it’s not an actual Google computer. Perhaps a little more help for the readers is in order?
Everex is launching its gPC “Google PC” today at Wal-Mart stores…
Move over Microsoft, here comes something meatier.
The world has been waiting for a Google PC offering, possibly a free one with search advertising offsetting the price, but for $200, this PC is more or less free and delivers some very useful tools to the masses, who may not usually download such applications.
Absolutely nothing in the article says “This PC is not from Google”. Oy.
But I can’t blame Loren, because he’s linking to a PC World article that says this:
The Everex gPC, goes on sale tomorrow at Wal-mart and is being touted by the company as a close collaboration between the PC maker, the open source community and Google that is intended to “bring Linux to the masses.”
PC World calls it a collaboration, but gives no indication that the PC is not from Google.
ZDNet is the worst, because I may not have all the details, but I know these sentences are 0% accurate:
The GOS (Google Operating System) being shipped is actually just a version of Linux licensed through Google, which includes fast access to things like Google Mail, and Google Documents (although you can also run Open Office for that).
The keys to the story, of course, are the brand names — Google and Wal-Mart. Combine Google’s branding power with Wal-Mart’s distribution and you have a very mighty force indeed.
gOS doesn’t stand for Google Operating System, it stands for Green Operating System. A major selling point of the PC, besides its price, is low energy consumption and free, open-source software. Also, there’s no Google brand name on the box, so branding isn’t a consideration.
So what the hell is going on? It’s certainly not a “Google PC”, it doesn’t say Google on the box, it doesn’t run a Google operating system, it does have links to Google, the letter G is all over the place, and Google creating web applications are all over the desktop as program icons.
Is Everex being disingenuous, hinting a Google connection where there is none? Are reporters being stupid and fact-checking nothing? Or is it something more:
Although the company claims in a FAQ that it was “created as a conceptual Google PC with a conceptual Google OS,” Paul Kim, Everex’s director of marketing, in a discussion with DesktopLinux clarified that “popular applications such as those from Google are an integral part of our product, however, gOS is an entity entirely independent from Google. Furthermore, while we make use of many applications from Google, ‘Google Apps’ is not bundled with this particular system.”
“There has been a latent demand for a consumer-friendly Linux operating system, generating countless inquires from customers seeking an alternative PC experience,” said John Lin, general manager of Everex. “The vision behind gPC was to provide mainstream users with all their favorite applications wrapped in a no-compromise, low-cost, consumer-friendly product. We’re simply giving the people what they want. Everex enlisted the collective intelligence of users throughout the world. Customers love Google products, so we added them. Hackers want administrative privileges, so we provided it. The ultimate potential of a mainstream, open-source PC is tremendous.”
So, Everex, or someone, designed this conceptual, “possible” Google OS, but it is not owned by or affiliated with Google. The screenshots of the operating system make it look so clean, so easy to use, that this could be the ideal Linux distribution for a normal, consumer household. After all, if it’s easy enough for Wal-Mart customers, anyone can run it.
Don’t be surprised if the gPC is a huge hit with families, and the gOS, thanks to Wal-Mart’s distribution, proves easier and more appealing than the more complicated Mac and Windows operating systems. The PC has a 1.5 GHz VIA low-power processor, half a gig of RAM, an 80-gigabyte hard drive, a DVD/CDRW combo drive and an ethernet port, which without Windows (and, regrettably, without a monitor), makes it a decent deal for $200.
Just, please, try to remember: It’s not a Google PC. It’s a PC with a Google focus, and it’s damn cheap.
IAC’s Media & Advertising group, the division that includes Ask.com and the rest of IAC Search & Media (plus CitySearch and Evite) had a great quarter. IAC reported earnings yesterday, and while the company as a whole didn’t do great, with profits down 4.2%, Ask’s division had revenue of $189 million, up 40%, and income of $27.6 million, up an impressive 74%. The growth is great, and though they aren’t Google-level numbers, profitablility comes first, then big growth, then billions in earnings. At the very least, the money means Ask should be sticking around for a while.
Google Turkey ran this Doodle holiday logo on Monday celebrating Turkey’s Republic Day, the 84th anniversary of the day the Turkish Constitution was amended, making Turkey a Republic and dissolving the Ottoman Empire:
Remember how Google stock brock $600 on October 8, and I said “Looks like Google might reach $700 in a year, maybe two”. Wow, was I wrong! It took GOOG just 23 days to surpass $700, a level it started yesterday at and never fell below, resulting in a market cap over $220 billion. If not for Microsoft’s huge increases lately, we’d be talking about Google’s chances at catching Microsoft and becoming the bigger tech company.
Look at what this does to my chart!
The old chart was so smooth:
Jeez, talk about your meteoric rises. Google stock’s milestones:
Google cracked $700 yesterday, 10.31.2007
It reached $600 on 10.8.2007.
$500: 11.21.2006
$400: 11.17.2005
$300: 6.27.2005
$200: 11.3.2004
IPO @ $100: 8.19.2004
Amazing.
In pre-market trading the stock was down $4-5, probably a lot of investors looking to lock in their profits.
Google is now the fifth-largest company in the U.S., beating out Proctor & Gamble, Bank of America and Citigroup in just the last few weeks. Up next: AT&T, $30 billion away, and Microsoft, $120 billion ahead.
Just so you know, in mid-2006, when Windows Vista was delayed again, Microsoft’s stock dipped low enough where it was worth less than Google is now. So it’s possible.
Ionut Alex found evidence in the source code for the newest version of Gmail that hints at features we may be receiving soon. He found code for Jabber transports, which would allow contacting people from other instant messaging networks over Google Talk/Chat’s Jabber connection, which makes sense given the fact that Gmail’s new contact manager asks for Yahoo, MSN and AIM usernames now.
Also, he found code that seems to hint they will be enabling users to choose different colors for labels, which should make quick identification of categories of email messages possible (though how they will manage emails with multiple labels is a mystery to me). Also, you might soon gain the ability to seperate emails from a conversation, a necessary addition to the Gmail conversation management we’ve waited three and a half years for.
I got a link today from a Hebrew-language blog, and I decided to search Google for my first name in Hebrew. Turns out I rank sixth for “נתן“, despite having never actually written those letters here, which just makes me happy. So, I wonder if people have checked how they rank on Google in Hebrew, and if you rank at all in that language. I’m not sure how you’d find the Hebrew equivalent of your name, but give it a shot and let me know the results.
I normally don’t post about SEO contests, but in contacting me they also helped me fix a broken feature on the site, so I’ll pass this one along. Advice Network is running an article writing contest, soliciting articles on real estate, weddings and running a business. Besides the writers getting a backlink to their sites wherever the articles are printed, more importantly the best article wins its author a brand new MacBook, along with some free services.
There’s a new, horrible, horrible video making the rounds. It’s the video equivalent of goatse, and I recommend you do not see it. Suffice to say, the video involves poo in a cup, and two girls, and is so far beyond safe for work.
What is funny is seeing people’s reactions to watching the clip for the first time. 2 Girls 1 Cup, as it is known (and is available at 2girls1cup.com), is so awful, so disgusting, so perverse, that I almost vomitted while watching it, and I had to hide behind my wife to avoid the terrible images on my screen. Some people have such amazing, disgusted reactions, that people are videotaping their friends watching it and uploading it to YouTube.
Here’s a playlist of some of the best reactions. Some are undoubtably fake and staged, and if you see any cool ones, let me know. Trust me that it’s worth it watching the reaction videos, and that you do not want to see the actual video. Enjoy the playlist:
How popular is the video, or at least the reaction video? Well, it has just been getting popular the last few weeks, and it’s way bigger than Chocolate Rain or Chris Crocker:
