Sunday, May 4, 2008
Google Sets Expiration on Cookies
Google announced today on its blog that it will expire cookies for visitors who have been more than 2 years from their last search. Instead of the permanent expiration date of 2038, they will now auto expire after 2 years of non-usage.
Google sets aside YouTube fund, may need more if Howard Stern calls
Google has set aside $200 million, or 12.5 percent of the shares issued to pay for YouTube, to cover "certain indemnification obligations" that may hit the video sharing site. The big question: Will that be enough? These obligations, also known as copyright lawsuits, mean a healthy chunk of the equity Google used to pay for YouTube will be held in escrow for a year.
The message: Google is a little more worried about lawsuits than it initially disclosed. Lawyers, rev your engines.
Despite Google's deals with CBS, Sony BMG and Warner Music Group, the big guys are the least of Google's worries. Google is going to be swarmed by a bunch of gnats looking for payouts–especially since Google has posted a "$200 million, Come and Get It" sign when it closed the YouTube deal.
Should Google be worried? You bet. After all, some of those gnats are pretty big. Howard Stern has said at least three times on his Sirius Satellite Radio show that Google's purchase of YouTube makes him more likely to send off a cease or desist letter or two. When YouTube was young and broke it wasn't worth Howard's time. The market cap of YouTube's new parent changes that. Do you pay Howard or deal with the bad press? It's not like Howard doesn't have a point. See here. All of those clips are from Howard's on-demand TV channel. Howard's sidekick Artie Lange has his whole career posted on YouTube.
Sure, you can argue it's good promotion, but what happens when every artist wants some change. Google's best option is to pay the dough. Again, it's a question of how much dough Google has to pay out. On the bright side, Google could issue shares and broaden its shareholder base.
This potential invasion of the copyright gnats isn't an issue today, but could become one quickly. As Mark Cuban notes the next year is going to be interesting. For now, Wall Street doesn't seem too concerned.
In a research note restarting coverage of Google, Credit Suisse analyst Heath Terry said:
The YouTube acquisition is certainly not without its own risks. The most significant issue facing Google following this acquisition is the potential for a deluge of litigation concerning copyrighted content on YouTube. A protracted legal battle in the courts could result in millions of dollars of legal expenses and settlement outside the courts is also a possibility. The worst case scenario can be seen in the fates of companies like Napster and MP3.com. Our analysis of the top 100 most viewed videos so far in November indicate that under 35% of these videos (by total views and number of videos) potentially contain contentious copyrighted material. This means that the majority of videos on the site are truly user-generated content. As a result, we believe the impact of Google/YouTube removing copyrighted content may be less than feared. However, it is unclear how much of YouTube’s traffic comes to site primarily for copyrighted content rather than user-generated videos.
Terry's bet: The monetization of YouTube will outrun the copyright gnats. His price target for Google: $600.
The message: Google is a little more worried about lawsuits than it initially disclosed. Lawyers, rev your engines.
Despite Google's deals with CBS, Sony BMG and Warner Music Group, the big guys are the least of Google's worries. Google is going to be swarmed by a bunch of gnats looking for payouts–especially since Google has posted a "$200 million, Come and Get It" sign when it closed the YouTube deal.
Should Google be worried? You bet. After all, some of those gnats are pretty big. Howard Stern has said at least three times on his Sirius Satellite Radio show that Google's purchase of YouTube makes him more likely to send off a cease or desist letter or two. When YouTube was young and broke it wasn't worth Howard's time. The market cap of YouTube's new parent changes that. Do you pay Howard or deal with the bad press? It's not like Howard doesn't have a point. See here. All of those clips are from Howard's on-demand TV channel. Howard's sidekick Artie Lange has his whole career posted on YouTube.
Sure, you can argue it's good promotion, but what happens when every artist wants some change. Google's best option is to pay the dough. Again, it's a question of how much dough Google has to pay out. On the bright side, Google could issue shares and broaden its shareholder base.
This potential invasion of the copyright gnats isn't an issue today, but could become one quickly. As Mark Cuban notes the next year is going to be interesting. For now, Wall Street doesn't seem too concerned.
In a research note restarting coverage of Google, Credit Suisse analyst Heath Terry said:
The YouTube acquisition is certainly not without its own risks. The most significant issue facing Google following this acquisition is the potential for a deluge of litigation concerning copyrighted content on YouTube. A protracted legal battle in the courts could result in millions of dollars of legal expenses and settlement outside the courts is also a possibility. The worst case scenario can be seen in the fates of companies like Napster and MP3.com. Our analysis of the top 100 most viewed videos so far in November indicate that under 35% of these videos (by total views and number of videos) potentially contain contentious copyrighted material. This means that the majority of videos on the site are truly user-generated content. As a result, we believe the impact of Google/YouTube removing copyrighted content may be less than feared. However, it is unclear how much of YouTube’s traffic comes to site primarily for copyrighted content rather than user-generated videos.
Terry's bet: The monetization of YouTube will outrun the copyright gnats. His price target for Google: $600.
Google Sets are Actually Pretty Cool
Peter Norvig,, Director of Search Quality for Google, stopped by the Emerging Technology Group in November. He gave a talk that rambled a little bit, but could fairly be described as “Google’s point of view on various programming language related things.”
Good talk. He said a lot of interesting things.
One of the things he talked about was Google sets. From his point of view, the important thing was was this:
Every now and then someone will stand up and say “We need to have large scale, established and standardized ontologies in order to make sense of the information on the web.”
But such a categorization is already encoded in the structure of the web, and Google is already using it.
In fact, the added benefit from such resource-intensive ontology development and characerization is not readily apparent.
Which leads us to Google sets. Google sets is a way to browse the web’s implicit ontology. What you do is simple: you enter some terms which you already think of as instances of some class. Google then returns you what it thinks are the other instances of that class.
Keep in mind that some of the instances it returns are, well, bizarre. Enter the terms “narwhale” and “rhino” and the response list includes, in addition to animals and record companies, the entry “Mailing Lists” (no doubt there’s a reason for this. I just don’t know what it is).
Playing around with google sets is inherently fun. But it’s also a great way to mine the web. For example, here’s a great use. Enter the name of the company you work for. Enter the name of one of its main competitors. Click “small set.”
Voila! There’s how the web classifies your company.
Tell me another great use for google sets.
Good talk. He said a lot of interesting things.
One of the things he talked about was Google sets. From his point of view, the important thing was was this:
Every now and then someone will stand up and say “We need to have large scale, established and standardized ontologies in order to make sense of the information on the web.”
But such a categorization is already encoded in the structure of the web, and Google is already using it.
In fact, the added benefit from such resource-intensive ontology development and characerization is not readily apparent.
Which leads us to Google sets. Google sets is a way to browse the web’s implicit ontology. What you do is simple: you enter some terms which you already think of as instances of some class. Google then returns you what it thinks are the other instances of that class.
Keep in mind that some of the instances it returns are, well, bizarre. Enter the terms “narwhale” and “rhino” and the response list includes, in addition to animals and record companies, the entry “Mailing Lists” (no doubt there’s a reason for this. I just don’t know what it is).
Playing around with google sets is inherently fun. But it’s also a great way to mine the web. For example, here’s a great use. Enter the name of the company you work for. Enter the name of one of its main competitors. Click “small set.”
Voila! There’s how the web classifies your company.
Tell me another great use for google sets.
Google sets JotSpot free as Google Sites
Just a few days after opening up GrandCentral again, Google has now released a new version of the wiki-based group collaboration service JotSpot which is fully integrated with Google Sites. If you use Google for Domains, you can add this app to your services now.
Much to the chagrin of TechCrunch editor Michael Arrington, BusinessWeek broke the embargo and published the story first.
I think the real interest here for Google is to get these collaborative tools into the commercial and educational organizations that are using Google Apps already. It’s interesting to note that there are a number of companies out there that are working on similar, wiki-style collaborative software products right now (such as Portland’s Jive). In some ways, too, as the Bits blog notes, this is a direct attack on Microsoft’s SharePoint as well.
My thoughts:
After playing with Google Sites for a little while now, I have come away quite impressed with it. I didn’t use the old JotSpot, but looking at this version, I can see how I could use this for various projects.
Some of the actual integration between the different Google apps is a bit hidden behind the “Dashboard” template, where you can add Calendars, slideshows from Picasaweb, and Google Documents.
However, that integration still leaves a lot to be desired. Why, for example, do I have to copy and paste the URL for my calendar into the Calendar widget instead of just choosing a calendar I have set up in Google Docs already? And the same it true for all the other Google Apps - you always have to copy and paste a URL, which is just cumbersome. Once it is imported into the site though, the document and the site are completely in synch, as VentureBeat points out.
So overall, I think this is a very interesting product, I just wish it would be more tightly integrated with the rest of the Google Apps suite.
Update: for a different perspective, see Dennis Howlett’s review on ZDNet, who thinks Google Sites is substandard:
After 16 months at Google developer’s hands, the outcome is ubstandard. This is such a pity. In its JotSpot incarnation, it was far from perfect but that didn’t matter because JotSpot was shedding light on a new way of collaborating. Since passing into Google’s hands, the guts have been ripped out and then re-assembled with as much Google ’stuff’ as they could cram in but rushed to completion.
Much to the chagrin of TechCrunch editor Michael Arrington, BusinessWeek broke the embargo and published the story first.
I think the real interest here for Google is to get these collaborative tools into the commercial and educational organizations that are using Google Apps already. It’s interesting to note that there are a number of companies out there that are working on similar, wiki-style collaborative software products right now (such as Portland’s Jive). In some ways, too, as the Bits blog notes, this is a direct attack on Microsoft’s SharePoint as well.
My thoughts:
After playing with Google Sites for a little while now, I have come away quite impressed with it. I didn’t use the old JotSpot, but looking at this version, I can see how I could use this for various projects.
Some of the actual integration between the different Google apps is a bit hidden behind the “Dashboard” template, where you can add Calendars, slideshows from Picasaweb, and Google Documents.
However, that integration still leaves a lot to be desired. Why, for example, do I have to copy and paste the URL for my calendar into the Calendar widget instead of just choosing a calendar I have set up in Google Docs already? And the same it true for all the other Google Apps - you always have to copy and paste a URL, which is just cumbersome. Once it is imported into the site though, the document and the site are completely in synch, as VentureBeat points out.
So overall, I think this is a very interesting product, I just wish it would be more tightly integrated with the rest of the Google Apps suite.
Update: for a different perspective, see Dennis Howlett’s review on ZDNet, who thinks Google Sites is substandard:
After 16 months at Google developer’s hands, the outcome is ubstandard. This is such a pity. In its JotSpot incarnation, it was far from perfect but that didn’t matter because JotSpot was shedding light on a new way of collaborating. Since passing into Google’s hands, the guts have been ripped out and then re-assembled with as much Google ’stuff’ as they could cram in but rushed to completion.
Google sets legal attack dogs on Dutch cybersquatter
Google UK is threatening to sue Dutch cybersquatter who has used the name Google cunningly in several domains, including Googledatingsite.nl, Googleonlineshop.com, Googlecommunity.nl and Googlestore.nl. Marcel van der Werf ran these sites from the UK.
"To my knowledge a brand is related to a product, not to the alphabet," Van der Werf complained to the Dutch news site Webwereld. He has moved Googledatingsite.nl to Russia, "where Americans won't get in the way."
Googledatingsite - initally promoted as "powered by Google" - claims more thanone million members who paid €100 each for the service. However, since the UK site was closed by the hosting provider, Van der Werf says he can't access the database, leaving thousands of members in limbo. "We do not have a backup of the database", he said.
Despite the legal threat, several of Van der Werf's Google sites are still up and running.
Google is robust in defending its trademarks. In 2005 it sued Froogles.com, charging the rival shopping search engine with trademark infringement.
The search engine has also fought to consolidate its Gmail trademark globally, but faces obstacles. In Europe Google failed to win the right to register the term "Gmail" as a wide-ranging European trademark. In Poland, Google sued a group of poets who used the gmail.pl domain. And in China Gmail.cn, run by Beijing-based ISM Technologies, the largest wholesale Internet domain registrar, refused to sell its Internet address to the U.S. giant. ®
"To my knowledge a brand is related to a product, not to the alphabet," Van der Werf complained to the Dutch news site Webwereld. He has moved Googledatingsite.nl to Russia, "where Americans won't get in the way."
Googledatingsite - initally promoted as "powered by Google" - claims more thanone million members who paid €100 each for the service. However, since the UK site was closed by the hosting provider, Van der Werf says he can't access the database, leaving thousands of members in limbo. "We do not have a backup of the database", he said.
Despite the legal threat, several of Van der Werf's Google sites are still up and running.
Google is robust in defending its trademarks. In 2005 it sued Froogles.com, charging the rival shopping search engine with trademark infringement.
The search engine has also fought to consolidate its Gmail trademark globally, but faces obstacles. In Europe Google failed to win the right to register the term "Gmail" as a wide-ranging European trademark. In Poland, Google sued a group of poets who used the gmail.pl domain. And in China Gmail.cn, run by Beijing-based ISM Technologies, the largest wholesale Internet domain registrar, refused to sell its Internet address to the U.S. giant. ®
Google sets its Sites on Microsoft
GOOGLE SITES, which launched today, is basically an online Intranet, for creating team collaborations.
Google reckons its new launch will help to "collectivize" information in the from of documents, videos, photos, calendars, task lists and attachments.
Its focus as a business tool sets it up as a major competitor to Microsoft's Sharepoint, which is the subject of a Microsoft conference in Seattle in a just a few of days and through which the shockwaves from this announcement are designed to reverberate.
Dave Girouard, vice president and general manager of Google Enterprise, described the new addition to Google Apps as, "adding an edit button to the web ".
As far as features are concerned, Google Sites allows users to plug into applications like Picassa images and enables embedding relevant (presumably work related) videos from YouTube onto a shared dashboard. Users can search Google using the Google search tool and groups can be restricted by personal invitation or by email domain. It's free, doesn't require any installation, and therefore doesn't require maintenance or any upgrades.
Microsoft's chief financial officer, Christopher Liddell, recently told the New York Times that SharePoint had become a $1 billion a year product, which, considering that Microsoft's business division brought in $4.8 billion in the last quarter, is not entirely insignificant either.
Google Sites is based on technology developed by the start-up JotSpot, co-founded by Joe Kraus, who also co-founded the now obsolete web portal, Excite. Google acquired Jotspot, which had developed a set of "wiki" tools, and had customers which included Intel, Symantec and eBay, in October 2006.
This seems to be where most of the criticism leveled at Google Sites stems from, with people like Alastair Mitchell, CEO of online collaboration and project management site Huddle.net, asking why the world needs yet another W iki.
Google Sites hasn't got him and his pals "peeing their pants yet," he said. ยต
Google reckons its new launch will help to "collectivize" information in the from of documents, videos, photos, calendars, task lists and attachments.
Its focus as a business tool sets it up as a major competitor to Microsoft's Sharepoint, which is the subject of a Microsoft conference in Seattle in a just a few of days and through which the shockwaves from this announcement are designed to reverberate.
Dave Girouard, vice president and general manager of Google Enterprise, described the new addition to Google Apps as, "adding an edit button to the web ".
As far as features are concerned, Google Sites allows users to plug into applications like Picassa images and enables embedding relevant (presumably work related) videos from YouTube onto a shared dashboard. Users can search Google using the Google search tool and groups can be restricted by personal invitation or by email domain. It's free, doesn't require any installation, and therefore doesn't require maintenance or any upgrades.
Microsoft's chief financial officer, Christopher Liddell, recently told the New York Times that SharePoint had become a $1 billion a year product, which, considering that Microsoft's business division brought in $4.8 billion in the last quarter, is not entirely insignificant either.
Google Sites is based on technology developed by the start-up JotSpot, co-founded by Joe Kraus, who also co-founded the now obsolete web portal, Excite. Google acquired Jotspot, which had developed a set of "wiki" tools, and had customers which included Intel, Symantec and eBay, in October 2006.
This seems to be where most of the criticism leveled at Google Sites stems from, with people like Alastair Mitchell, CEO of online collaboration and project management site Huddle.net, asking why the world needs yet another W iki.
Google Sites hasn't got him and his pals "peeing their pants yet," he said. ยต
Google Sets, the Search Engine for Lists
SEO by the Sea points to an interesting patent that describes how Google Sets works. Google Sets is one of the first services that were added to Google Labs and it's a cool way to find list of related terms. Google Sets is a tool that generates lists from a small number of examples by using the web as a big pool of data. You enter some items and Google Sets finds other items that tend to co-occur frequently with your examples. For example, you could enter Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Rudy Giuliani and get a list of US presidential candidates.
One particular type of information often present on the web includes lists, such as lists of restaurants, lists of automobiles, lists of names, etc. Lists may be identified in a number of different ways. For example, a list may include an ordered list or unordered list. Special tags in a HyperText Markup Language (HTML) document identify the presence of ordered and unordered lists. An ordered list commences with an
- tag; whereas an unordered list commences with an
- tag.Another type of list may include a definition list. A special tag in a HTML document identifies the presence of a definition list. A definition list commences with a
- tag. Each item in a definition list is preceded by a
- tag. Yet another type of list may include document headers. Special tags in a HTML document identifies headers using
through
tags. Other types of lists may be presented in yet other ways. For example, a list may be presented as items in a table or as items separated by commas or tabs.After identifying lists on the web, Google generates a probabilistic model from the examples provided by users and classifies the lists according to the model. The items are assigned weights based on the classified lists and the weights are added to form a list based on the total weights.
- tag. Yet another type of list may include document headers. Special tags in a HTML document identifies headers using
- tag. Each item in an ordered or unordered list is preceded by an
Google Sets
Note: Nancy uses this page for presentations on her favorite Google features. You can find more information about these features in other sections of Google Guide.
Google showcases some prototypes and products in development on the Google Labs, the web site of Google’s research group.
My favorite prototype is Google Sets. To use it:
Enter a few items from a set of things.
Google Sets will try to predict other items in the set.
I’ve used Google sets to find
potential co-authors
things to eat for breakfast
tags (keywords): google labs, new features
Google showcases some prototypes and products in development on the Google Labs, the web site of Google’s research group.
My favorite prototype is Google Sets. To use it:
Enter a few items from a set of things.
Google Sets will try to predict other items in the set.
I’ve used Google sets to find
potential co-authors
things to eat for breakfast
tags (keywords): google labs, new features
Google Sets Sights On 3D Map of the Oceans
Several readers wrote to tell us about one of the next major projects to enter the Google-verse. We already have pretty views of the Earth and the Sky, the next target is apparently a 3D map of the oceans. "The tool — for now called Google Ocean, the sources say, though that name could change — is expected to be similar to other 3D online mapping applications. People will be able to see the underwater topography, called bathymetry; search for particular spots or attractions; and navigate through the digital environment by zooming and panning. (The tool, however, is not to be confused with the 'Google Ocean' project by France-based Magic Instinct Software that uses Google Earth as a visualization tool for marine data.)"
The Google Set-Top Box (Think Android For TV)
Deep in the Googleplex there is an engineering team thinking about how to extend Google’s reach into your TV. Its work goes way beyond the Google TV ads currently being tested by EchoStar (and targeted with help from Nielsen). It even goes way beyond the development of a Google set-top box, which has been hinted at in the past. In fact, Google may very well want to do to the set-top box what it is trying to do to the mobile phone with its Android operating system—create an open-source hardware platform and attract developers to build applications on top of it. At least that is the unconfirmed rumor I’ve heard from two knowledgeable industry sources.
“That’s been a persistent rumor, yeah,” says Peter Barrett, chief technology officer for Microsoft TV (and the only source willing to be attributed by name). “You would have to ask them about whether they are doing anything like that and whether it is a good idea or not,” he adds. So I put the question to Vincent Dureau, the head of Google’s TV technology team and the former chief technology officer at OpenTV, who was hired by Google two years ago. “There are rumors about what Google does all the time,” he says. “We have been totally focused on advertising so far.” Google’s policy is not to comment on future products. But Dureau never denies the rumor outright. He couches his response with phrases like “so far” and “at this stage.” And, when pressed, he does allow that there is “a lot of potential” for turning the TV set-top box into a platform for applications, but insists, “I have no insights as to what form of applications will be deployed on those set-top boxes or not.” Perhaps. Or perhaps he just doesn’t have any insights he is willing to share with us. Fair enough.
Let’s read through the tea leaves ourselves then. So far, Google’s aspiration has been to change the way advertising is sold on TV. Through its partnership with EchoStar, it is automating the way TV ads are bought and sold, and changing the way they are measured (by studying the second-by-second logs from millions of set-top boxes in an anonymous fashion). But why stop there? The modern set-top boxes you get from your cable or satellite TV provider are basically computers. They are loaded with a few limited applications—a program guide, DVR menu, customer-service messaging, and not much else. They are closed boxes, tightly controlled by the cable and satellite TV companies. For the most part, there are not a lot of interesting applications that run on set-top boxes.
An open-source operating system like Android for the set-top box could change that. If creating applications for set-top boxes was more like creating applications for the Web, we’d be able to do a lot more things with our TVs—especially if those set-top boxes were also connected to the Web. Want instant messaging and caller ID on your TV? No problem. Want customized information widgets for the TV that scroll breaking news, weather, sports scores or stock quotes from sources you choose in your own ticker at the bottom of the screen? No problem. Want to turn that annoying ticker off? No problem. Want to control the camera angles on that basketball game? No problem. Want to add the live video stream from your friend’s cell phone who is at the game? No problem. Want to create your own video mashup of fight scenes from various movies that you can edit right on your TV and share with others on their TVs? No problem.
Oh, and what about new forms of advertising? Inserting ads into pay-per-view or triggering them when someone presses fast-forward on their DVR require applications of a different sort. You might not like that, but the TV industry would. Any new video ad unit that starts to gain traction on the Web could be ported over to regular TVs—clickable overlays, contextual video ads, unobtrusive sponsorship icons. Why not even let viewers program their own ads with a laundry list of categories and companies to choose from? They might actually watch them.
When it comes to advertising, Google is not shy about stating its ambitions. “We are confident we are going to revive the television advertising industry,” says Dureau, “by bringing new advertising to it.” Already, Google is trying to make TV ads more relevant, easier to target, and cheaper to deploy. As a result, Google thinks it can attract more ad dollars from smaller businesses that may not have been advertising on TV before.
“In many ways,” says Dureau, “we think that television is becoming like the Internet in that there is a multiplication of channels. This creates challenges for viewers, advertisers and creators.” He is already addressing the concerns of advertisers. An Android-like project for the set-top box could help address the concerns of viewers and creators by giving people more control over their TV viewing experience. And making the set-top box more useful by opening it up to a bounty of applications could mean more advertising opportunities. Those apps would be yet another way to keep viewers glued to their TV sets.
Before Google announced Android, many people thought Google was developing its own mobile phone. But the point of Android is to get other companies to build the phones and a new set of applications for them. Google wants to supply the underlying technology to make it happen, and finally bring the mobile world into the Web age. It should be obvious by now that Google is much happier when it is creating technology platforms—for mobile apps, for social apps, for advertising— than one-off consumer products. Why should it be any different when it comes to television? (And remember, Andy Rubin and others on Google’s Android team used to work at WebTV and TV software startup Moxi Digital, although Android is not officially part of Dureau’s group).
In any case, Google would not be the first to try this. Some of the hypothetical applications I describe above are already being developed for Microsoft’s IPTV set-top boxes, which runs Microsoft Mediaroom. Anyone can write an application for Mediaroom on the PC and easily make it work on an IPTV set-top box (or an Xbox or an HD-DVD drive, both of which come with Ethernet jacks). There are only about 50 or so third-party apps for Mediaroom right now, however, because making TV apps easier to build is not enough. Getting cable or satellite TV providers to put those apps on their set-top boxes is the bigger battle.
“Service providers are open to good rich apps on their network if they do emerge,” says Microsoft’s Barrett. Not surprisingly he does not think that an open-source, Android approach is the way to go. “Trying to make a level playing field,” he says, “really is not in the service provider’s interest. It is in Google’s. But if you just throw the doors open, the TV or the phone becomes unusable pretty quickly.” The same argument is why Apple is cautious about allowing third-party apps on the iPhone. You don’t want some random app crashing your cell phone or your TV. But that just means device makers or carriers need to certify that the apps are safe. The still-closed mobile world is moving in this direction despite these issues.
The prospect of opening up the TV to Web-like applications holds a lot of promise, especially if those same apps can run on the Web or mobile phones with a few tweaks. Whether people will want those apps on their TVs is another question entirely. So far, the answer has been no. But that could just be because it has been too difficult to get apps onto those set-top boxes. For this to work, Google would have to convince at least one cable or satellite TV provider to let viewers try out the resulting apps on its service. Google already has a strong relationship with EchoStar, which I hear is for sale. My understanding is that Google is in the early stages of developing its Android set-top box strategy. It may end up deciding not to pursue it. But it is the type of thorny problem that Google engineers (and ad sales executives) thrive on.
“That’s been a persistent rumor, yeah,” says Peter Barrett, chief technology officer for Microsoft TV (and the only source willing to be attributed by name). “You would have to ask them about whether they are doing anything like that and whether it is a good idea or not,” he adds. So I put the question to Vincent Dureau, the head of Google’s TV technology team and the former chief technology officer at OpenTV, who was hired by Google two years ago. “There are rumors about what Google does all the time,” he says. “We have been totally focused on advertising so far.” Google’s policy is not to comment on future products. But Dureau never denies the rumor outright. He couches his response with phrases like “so far” and “at this stage.” And, when pressed, he does allow that there is “a lot of potential” for turning the TV set-top box into a platform for applications, but insists, “I have no insights as to what form of applications will be deployed on those set-top boxes or not.” Perhaps. Or perhaps he just doesn’t have any insights he is willing to share with us. Fair enough.
Let’s read through the tea leaves ourselves then. So far, Google’s aspiration has been to change the way advertising is sold on TV. Through its partnership with EchoStar, it is automating the way TV ads are bought and sold, and changing the way they are measured (by studying the second-by-second logs from millions of set-top boxes in an anonymous fashion). But why stop there? The modern set-top boxes you get from your cable or satellite TV provider are basically computers. They are loaded with a few limited applications—a program guide, DVR menu, customer-service messaging, and not much else. They are closed boxes, tightly controlled by the cable and satellite TV companies. For the most part, there are not a lot of interesting applications that run on set-top boxes.
An open-source operating system like Android for the set-top box could change that. If creating applications for set-top boxes was more like creating applications for the Web, we’d be able to do a lot more things with our TVs—especially if those set-top boxes were also connected to the Web. Want instant messaging and caller ID on your TV? No problem. Want customized information widgets for the TV that scroll breaking news, weather, sports scores or stock quotes from sources you choose in your own ticker at the bottom of the screen? No problem. Want to turn that annoying ticker off? No problem. Want to control the camera angles on that basketball game? No problem. Want to add the live video stream from your friend’s cell phone who is at the game? No problem. Want to create your own video mashup of fight scenes from various movies that you can edit right on your TV and share with others on their TVs? No problem.
Oh, and what about new forms of advertising? Inserting ads into pay-per-view or triggering them when someone presses fast-forward on their DVR require applications of a different sort. You might not like that, but the TV industry would. Any new video ad unit that starts to gain traction on the Web could be ported over to regular TVs—clickable overlays, contextual video ads, unobtrusive sponsorship icons. Why not even let viewers program their own ads with a laundry list of categories and companies to choose from? They might actually watch them.
When it comes to advertising, Google is not shy about stating its ambitions. “We are confident we are going to revive the television advertising industry,” says Dureau, “by bringing new advertising to it.” Already, Google is trying to make TV ads more relevant, easier to target, and cheaper to deploy. As a result, Google thinks it can attract more ad dollars from smaller businesses that may not have been advertising on TV before.
“In many ways,” says Dureau, “we think that television is becoming like the Internet in that there is a multiplication of channels. This creates challenges for viewers, advertisers and creators.” He is already addressing the concerns of advertisers. An Android-like project for the set-top box could help address the concerns of viewers and creators by giving people more control over their TV viewing experience. And making the set-top box more useful by opening it up to a bounty of applications could mean more advertising opportunities. Those apps would be yet another way to keep viewers glued to their TV sets.
Before Google announced Android, many people thought Google was developing its own mobile phone. But the point of Android is to get other companies to build the phones and a new set of applications for them. Google wants to supply the underlying technology to make it happen, and finally bring the mobile world into the Web age. It should be obvious by now that Google is much happier when it is creating technology platforms—for mobile apps, for social apps, for advertising— than one-off consumer products. Why should it be any different when it comes to television? (And remember, Andy Rubin and others on Google’s Android team used to work at WebTV and TV software startup Moxi Digital, although Android is not officially part of Dureau’s group).
In any case, Google would not be the first to try this. Some of the hypothetical applications I describe above are already being developed for Microsoft’s IPTV set-top boxes, which runs Microsoft Mediaroom. Anyone can write an application for Mediaroom on the PC and easily make it work on an IPTV set-top box (or an Xbox or an HD-DVD drive, both of which come with Ethernet jacks). There are only about 50 or so third-party apps for Mediaroom right now, however, because making TV apps easier to build is not enough. Getting cable or satellite TV providers to put those apps on their set-top boxes is the bigger battle.
“Service providers are open to good rich apps on their network if they do emerge,” says Microsoft’s Barrett. Not surprisingly he does not think that an open-source, Android approach is the way to go. “Trying to make a level playing field,” he says, “really is not in the service provider’s interest. It is in Google’s. But if you just throw the doors open, the TV or the phone becomes unusable pretty quickly.” The same argument is why Apple is cautious about allowing third-party apps on the iPhone. You don’t want some random app crashing your cell phone or your TV. But that just means device makers or carriers need to certify that the apps are safe. The still-closed mobile world is moving in this direction despite these issues.
The prospect of opening up the TV to Web-like applications holds a lot of promise, especially if those same apps can run on the Web or mobile phones with a few tweaks. Whether people will want those apps on their TVs is another question entirely. So far, the answer has been no. But that could just be because it has been too difficult to get apps onto those set-top boxes. For this to work, Google would have to convince at least one cable or satellite TV provider to let viewers try out the resulting apps on its service. Google already has a strong relationship with EchoStar, which I hear is for sale. My understanding is that Google is in the early stages of developing its Android set-top box strategy. It may end up deciding not to pursue it. But it is the type of thorny problem that Google engineers (and ad sales executives) thrive on.
I test similarity with Google Adwords keyword tool.
I test similarity with Google Adwords keyword tool.Especially when testing in english, with the group of “other keywords” in Adwords.Not all keywords given by Google Sets match but a large part yes.Another percentage of keywords are in different form (singular, plural).
Google Sets
A system automatically creates a list from items in existing lists. The system receives one or more example items corresponding to the list and assigns weights to the items in the existing lists based on the one or more example items. The system then forms the list based on the items and the weights assigned to the items.
How Google Sets Works
A tool from Google that is often overlooked is Google Sets, which allows you to “automatically create sets of items from a few examples.”
Google Sets was one of the first applications in the Google Labs pages.
Those pages are “Google’s Technology Playground,” and contain a number programs that may or may not be tomorrow’s useful applications from the search engine. As Google tells us, Google labs showcases a few of our favorite ideas that aren’t quite ready for prime time. Your feedback can help us improve them. Please play with these prototypes and send your comments directly to the Googlers who developed them.
Google was granted a patent this week on the process behind Google Sets, and the patent document provides some details on how the program finds additional words based on “items from a set of things” that you enter.
I haven’t used Google Sets much in the past, but now that I have a sense of how it works, I might use it more often.
Since the program allows you to enter a number of items that might be members of a set, I decided to type in the names of 4 cities in Delaware:Newark, Dover, Wilmington and Georgetown
Google Sets was one of the first applications in the Google Labs pages.
Those pages are “Google’s Technology Playground,” and contain a number programs that may or may not be tomorrow’s useful applications from the search engine. As Google tells us, Google labs showcases a few of our favorite ideas that aren’t quite ready for prime time. Your feedback can help us improve them. Please play with these prototypes and send your comments directly to the Googlers who developed them.
Google was granted a patent this week on the process behind Google Sets, and the patent document provides some details on how the program finds additional words based on “items from a set of things” that you enter.
I haven’t used Google Sets much in the past, but now that I have a sense of how it works, I might use it more often.
Since the program allows you to enter a number of items that might be members of a set, I decided to type in the names of 4 cities in Delaware:Newark, Dover, Wilmington and Georgetown
Google Sets Its Sites on Google Apps
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. (February 28, 2008) – Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) today introduced Google Sites™, an application that makes creating a team web site as easy as editing a document. With Google Sites, people can quickly gather a variety of information in one place – including videos, calendars, presentations, attachments, and text – and easily share it for viewing or editing with a small group, their entire organization, or the world.
"Creating a team web site has always been too complicated, requiring dedicated hardware and software as well as programming skills," said Dave Girouard, vice president and general manager of enterprise, Google. "Now with Google Sites, anyone can create an entirely customized site in minutes and invite others to contribute. We are literally adding an edit button to the web."
Creating and editing a set of pages in a Google Site requires no knowledge of HTML or web design skills. People can start a new page with one click. Adding content is as easy as clicking the edit button. Sharing is as simple as sending an invitation. All content is instantly searchable, and Google Sites is accessible through any web browser.
Anyone inside an organization can begin using Google Sites by signing up for Google Apps™ communication and collaboration services through Team Edition -- without having to burden IT for support. After verifying their business or school email address, people can instantly invite others to join, or easily identify people within their organization already using Google Apps.
With Google Sites, people can create a wide variety of sites, such as:
an intranet to centralize company information;
a team site to manage a project;
a profile site including an individual's resume, areas of expertise, and goals for the quarter; and
a virtual classroom to post homework assignments, class notes and other resources.
Google Sites is secure and scalable. Users have full control over who can own, collaborate and view pages, and view version history for each site. Google Sites is built to scale to any sized organization -- from a five person start-up to a 50,000 person enterprise or university -- and requires no hardware or software to buy, install, or maintain.
Additional features include the ability to:
Embed content from other Google products, including YouTube™, Google Docs™, Google Calendar™, and Picasa™
Upload files of any type
Customize a site's look and feel
Google Sites is based on JotSpot™ technology and available in the Team, Standard, Premier, and Education Editions of Google Apps. If your business or school doesn't use Google Apps, please visit http://sites.google.com and sign up for Team Edition with your work or school email address. Existing Google Apps administrators can enable Google Sites immediately from the Google Apps control panel.
Creating and editing a set of pages in a Google Site requires no knowledge of HTML or web design skills. People can start a new page with one click. Adding content is as easy as clicking the edit button. Sharing is as simple as sending an invitation. All content is instantly searchable, and Google Sites is accessible through any web browser.
Anyone inside an organization can begin using Google Sites by signing up for Google Apps™ communication and collaboration services through Team Edition -- without having to burden IT for support. After verifying their business or school email address, people can instantly invite others to join, or easily identify people within their organization already using Google Apps.
With Google Sites, people can create a wide variety of sites, such as:
an intranet to centralize company information;
a team site to manage a project;
a profile site including an individual's resume, areas of expertise, and goals for the quarter; and
a virtual classroom to post homework assignments, class notes and other resources.
Google Sites is secure and scalable. Users have full control over who can own, collaborate and view pages, and view version history for each site. Google Sites is built to scale to any sized organization -- from a five person start-up to a 50,000 person enterprise or university -- and requires no hardware or software to buy, install, or maintain.
Additional features include the ability to:
Embed content from other Google products, including YouTube™, Google Docs™, Google Calendar™, and Picasa™
Upload files of any type
Customize a site's look and feel
Google Sites is based on JotSpot™ technology and available in the Team, Standard, Premier, and Education Editions of Google Apps. If your business or school doesn't use Google Apps, please visit http://sites.google.com and sign up for Team Edition with your work or school email address. Existing Google Apps administrators can enable Google Sites immediately from the Google Apps control panel.
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