Google OS Coming Out of Beta
Google’s Chrome Web browser is really an operating system in disguise. Google’s ambition is to build an ecosystem that uses Chrome and Google Gears in a world of HTML and javascript. The key to Google building critical mass behind this effort will be to get broad and pervasive distribution of the Chrome browser. To do this they are going to need to pre-install it on OEM machines. Google is finding out that no OEM on the planet will ship anything that is still in beta. Last time I checked Gmail is still in beta after 4 years.
Google’s Chrome Web browser (aka Google OS) is coming out of beta testing according to a TechCrunch report. Marissa Mayer, Google’s vice president of user experience, told TechCruch’s Michael Arrington that it would be coming out of beta soon but no date was given.
Google’s strategy with Chrome is puzzling in many ways. Firefox is an open source Web browser with just over 20% market share world wide. Google is a big financial contributor to the Mozilla organization that builds Firefox. Yet Google takes an approach that makes them start at a base of zero and directly compete with one of their biggest partners. More fragmentation will make it far more difficult to galvanize the developer community around a platform. Google will have a long uphill battle to fight on this one.
Netflix and Tivo Team Up
Netflix has been on a rampage of sorts doing deals to get distribution of their online service. Engadget broke the story tonight that Netflix and Tivo teamed up to offer Netflix’s on demand service. Now people can access thousands of movies both standard definition and HD movies from their Tivo.
Similar to the Xbox 360 Netflix service that recently came out, the functionalty is at no additional cost, you just need a Netflix account to use it. Engadget also got an early hand on experience. They said it is not as flashy as the Xbox 360 experience but the performance was noticably better. Netflix is certainly making a major bet on online distribution and they are moving fast to lock up key distribution channels from Blockbuster. The recent deal that Microsoft and Blockbuster made to create a Live Mesh application is going to make this a game of chess and not checkers.
Qi Lu is Microsoft’s Chosen One
Microsoft announced today that Qi Lu will join the company as the President of Online Services Group. Steve Ballmer tapped Lu to oversee all efforts in search, advertising, and online information and communcations. Qi comes to Microsoft after 10 years at Yahoo, where he most recently served as executive vice president of engineering for all Yahoo’s search and advertising development efforts. He has a dotorate in computer science from Carnegie Mellon and holds over 20 U.S. patents.
There was a lot of speculation on who Microsoft would hire for this top position. Lu is an interesting choice because he has fundmentally been an R&D guy. About coming to Microsoft, Lu says “I am genuinely excited about the opportunities ahead for Microsoft to make an enormous impact on the online industry.” Here is the email Ballmer sent to employees following the announcement. Read more
Netflix Xbox 360 Service Rocks But Needs Some Work
December 4, 2008 by Martin Bryce
Filed under Gadgets, Reviews, Tech
I finally got a chance to play around with the new Xbox Live experience and specifically the new Netflix app. Ever since Microsoft announced the Netflix partnership I was eager to see it in action. I have to say I was really impressed with this new service. But there were a few parts that seemed disconnected.
The best part of the product is just watching movies. Netflix (NFLX) has standard definition movies and a limited selection of HD movies. I went on a 30 Rock marathon watching the HD version of season 1 and 2. The video quality was very good on a 1080p Samsung LCD. The speed of using the service was also impressive. Movies loaded fast and the navigation was pretty intuitive. But there were some areas that need improvement. Read more
Windows 7 Beta in January
People in the Windows blogosphere were buzzing Tuesday because of a blog post by Keith Combs on the Microsoft Technet site. He was alluding to the Windows 7 Beta 1 DVDs being given out at an up and coming developer event.
Ina Fried, from CNET reported that Keith said, “We are targeting to have the DVDs in the materials from 1/13/2009 on.” This would be some evidence that Steven Sinofsky has whipped the Windows devlopment organization into shape and is really making the trains run on time for a change. From what I saw from Microsoft’s PDC Windows 7 looks to be a promising successor to the tragedy of Windows Vista.
Windows Live Gets Makeover and Goes Social
Microsoft is starting to roll out Windows Live wave 3 . It got a new paint job and lots of upgrades. The changes in many ways are a lot of catch up work but there is some promising work being done.
Some of the interesting work comes in the Profile page which shows all of your activities on Windows Live as well as other Web services like Twitter, Flickr, and Yelp.
Microsoft is obviously betting that all the fragmentation in social networks will make aggregation the killer social app. Bringing all your social feeds into one place coupled with 450 million Windows Live users might be a compelling value proposition and strategy. With Facebook embracing “openness” with Facebook Connect this might play right into Microsoft’s strategy.
The Windows Live Photo app has a pretty cool slide show feature that uses Silverlight to change the background color to match the dominant color in each photo, similar to the Philips Ambilight TVs. Microsoft also boosted the storage limit of its online file storage service, SkyDrive, from 5GB to 25GB.
Facebook Connect the New “Hailstorm”
Facebook is starting to stir up some noise around their Facebook Connect service. The New York Times said within a few weeks a number of prominent Web sites including Digg, Hulu, and CBS properties would weave Facebook Connect into their sites.
This is a lot like circa 2001 when Microsoft launch “Hailstorm”, a set of XML Web services that were going to give people more control over their personal information regardless of device or platfofm. “Hailstorm” later launched as a set of .Net services that were part of the Microsoft Passport service. It even launched with prominent Web sites like eBay and Expedia adopting it. Many of the people working at Facebook were probably enjoying college too much to remember. Facebook Connect is nothing more than “Hailstorm” connected to someone’s social graph.
Blockbuster and Microsoft Building Live Mesh App
Blockbuster and Microsoft are working on an application that uses the Live Mesh technology to deliver video content on any device. This is probably similar to the BBC application that Microsoft showed off at PDC, which was very impresive. The interesting thing that Live Mesh solves for developers is a way to easily deploy and manage an application accross a variety of devices.
Dallas News spoke with Keith Morrow of Blockbuster, which said “Eventually, we’ll give customers instant access to any movie on any device with an Internet connection and a screen.” Using Silverlight and Live Mesh, I think Blockbuster and Microsoft can build a compelling application.
Wii World
The Wii took the world by storm in November of 2006. It caught everyone by surprise especially Microsoft and Sony. It launched with cheesy comercials that could have been taken as a spoof. But Nintendo did something that no one had accomplished yet in gaming, go mass market. They did this through a little innovation called the Wii Remote/ Nunchuk. This little device made the Wii a must have product that made it go on to sell over 35 million units world wide.
With all the success the Wii has brought Nintendo, they still are not fully realizing the opportuntiy and taking advantege of the mometum. Supply has been one of the Wii’s biggest missed opportunities. The demand has always outpaced supply and even last year you could not find a Wii any for Christmas. Now, two years later instead of the Wii console being the #1 seller on Amazon its not its the Wii Nunchuck controller. The Wii console is sold out again on Amazon. Read more
$20 Billion Yahoo Search Deal Total Fiction
The Yahoo/Microsoft soap opera continues. The Times broke a story that Microsoft was going to buy the Yahoo search business for $20 billion. The deal also included a shake up in management. It is thought that Jonathan Miller, ex-chairman and chief executive of AOL, and Ross Levinsohn, a former president of Fox Interactive Media, have been lined up to lead the new management team.
This entire story was discredited by Kara Swisher when she said Ross Levinsohn was quoted on the record saying this is “total fiction”. This whole thing seems to be cooked up with someone with a good imagination. Paying $20 billion for one piece of a company that only has an entire market cap of $16 billion seems to be pretty odd. Even compared to the original search deal highlighted by TechCrunch, Microsoft would pay over double the price for the business and guarantee double the money, all in a down economy. I think Uncle Carl is spreading rumors trying to prop up Yahoo’s poor stock price.
