Google Calls The Wall Street Journal 'Confused'

Posted by Eric Zeman, Dec 15, 2008 10:40 AM

The Wall Street Journal ran a story last night suggesting that Google (NSDQ: GOOG) has been trying to convince network operators to give its traffic preference to that of others. If true, the idea would have been a serious blow to the idea of Net neutrality. Google says the Journal got it wrong.

I read the Journal's story last night and had my reservations. In the original article, it reported, "Google Inc. has approached major cable and phone companies that carry Internet traffic with a proposal to create a fast lane for its own content, according to documents... Google has traditionally been one of the loudest advocates of equal network access for all content providers."

Google's idea, called OpenEdge, would position some of Google's servers within the Internet service providers' networks. This would have provided a "fast lane" for Google's traffic.

If this scenario played out, it would have had a dramatic affect on the Internet and its denizens. Powerful companies such as Google could get preferential treatment and leave less-powerful competitors in the dust. If true, this scenario also would have completed Google's switch to the "dark side." There's no way it could say its motto, "Don't be evil," plays any sort of role in how Google runs its business.

This morning, says the AP, Google responded via a blog post written by Richard Whitt, Google's Washington-based telecom and media counsel. He said, "Google remains strongly committed to the principle of Net neutrality, and we will continue to work with policymakers in the years ahead to keep the Internet free and open."

He calls the Journal's report a misunderstanding, and that Google isn't trying to get preferential treatment.

I think the story isn't so black and white. Whether or not the Journal misunderstood Google's intent, we need to hear directly from the players involved. That means Google CEO Eric Schmidt, and from the management of the Internet service providers with which Google is supposedly talking.

What say ye, Schmidt? What's the real story here?

Innovate Or Try Again

Posted by Thomas Claburn, Dec 15, 2008 08:06 PM

"If we don't innovate, we're going to die." That's how Robert Egger, creative director at Specialized Bicycles, put it last year in the Google-sponsored Innovate or Die Pedal-Powered Machine Contest.

"Innovate or Die" is a common trope that captures the need for creative thought in business. It's "Do or Die" for the verbose.

By this binary scenario, the Big Three automakers appear to be due for death because, by their own admission, they didn't innovate. "They failed in the innovation game," said David Gregory, host of NBC's Meet The Press, on Sunday.

But Google (NSDQ: GOOG) CEO Eric Schmidt seems to see something other than death up ahead. Call it "Innovate or Try Again."

U.S. automakers "can fix that [failure] because America is a place where innovation drives huge business outcomes," Schmidt replied to Gregory. "It drives job creation, it pays our taxes, it has created the wealthiest society on earth. We forget in the middle of this doom and gloom we have the strongest universities, the most creative people, people from all around the world come here. There's every reason to think that we can take the money that the federal government is going to provide in this stimulus anyway and solve our fundamental energy and transportation issues relatively quickly, and with American jobs and with American-oriented export industries."

Does that mean Schmidt is for or against the contemplated bailout of the auto industry? It's not immediately clear based on his statements on Meet The Press. Fixing the auto industry seems like it would involve extending loans and letting the car companies try again.

But Schmidt offered no specific endorsement or condemnation of the plan to re-fund the U.S. auto industry. What he did say is that he'd like to see funds from a federal stimulus package used simultaneously to create jobs and spur the development of new energy technologies to help reduce dependence on foreign oil.

That could involve the auto industry, which isn't entirely without innovation, as GM (NYSE: GM)'s Chevrolet Volt demonstrates. But it's not clear whether Schmidt believes U.S. automakers can be saved in their current form. It appears he's too savvy to weigh in on the matter.

If he is indeed ambivalent, I feel the same way. On the one hand, I hate to see the jobs and an industry that this country pioneered vanish. On the other, it makes no sense to reward incompetent management with more money.

I like the idea of "Innovate or Try Again." I'd like it even more if small companies could play that game, too.

Google Gives Android A Map Editor

Posted by Eric Zeman, Dec 16, 2008 10:33 AM

The new application for Android phones allows users to create and share maps directly on the handset, as well as synchronize them with their PC.

Here's another project brought to you by a Googler's 20% time. This Maps product was the brainchild of Google software engineer Brian Cornell. According to him, it took him and some others four months to bring the project to fruition. My Maps Editor is now available for download in Android Market.

The application lets users create, edit, share, and view personalized maps on their Android-powered phone, as well as synchronize with the My Maps tab on Google Maps. Cornell explains, "Create a map on your desktop computer using Google Maps and then take it with you on the go and update it on location. My Maps Editor by Google supports full editing functionality for markers, lines, and shapes on maps, plus the ability to mark your location using GPS or attach a photo directly from your phone. Your maps are automatically synchronized with your My Maps on the Web."

I don't currently have an Android-powered handset, so I haven't been able to take the software for a test run. Cornell provides several examples of how the software can be used, including planning holiday shopping routes, mapping out where to view holiday lights and decorations, as well as keeping track of travels.

What I like best is that everything automatically syncs between the handset and the desktop. That's key to making it easy and seamless to use and transfer information.

Android users, feel free to download the application from the Android Market.

Google's Gmail Labs Adds Ability To Turn E-Mails Into Docs

Posted by Eric Zeman, Dec 17, 2008 09:05 AM

Google (NSDQ: GOOG) continues to increase the functionality of its Gmail program. The latest enhancement allows Gmail users to take e-mails and automatically turn them into Google Docs.

Google has been rolling out new features for Gmail at a furious pace lately, with something new popping up almost once per week. This week's gem? Instant e-mail-to-document conversion.

Software engineer Jeremie Lenfant-Engelmann explains, "More than once, I've had a conversation over e-mail and later realized that the information contained in the messages would make a great starting point for a document. So I built an experimental feature for Gmail Labs that does just that: with one simple click, 'Create a document' converts an e-mail into a Google Docs document. No more copying and pasting the text from your e-mail -- just open the message you wish to convert, click the 'Create a document' link on the right side of the page, and voila, you have a brand new document which you can then modify and share!"

I enabled the feature this morning and tested it out. It works perfectly. The document is created in a manner similar to when you choose to save an e-mail attachment as a document. It takes perhaps three seconds, depending on the size of the e-mail and what it contains. This works with simple text e-mails as well as HTML e-mails.

Thanks, Google!

Hitting Google Where It Hurts

Posted by Thomas Claburn, Dec 17, 2008 06:41 PM

Since the beginning of the month, both Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) and Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) have been hitting Google (NSDQ: GOOG) where it hurts: in its privacy policy.

Earlier this month, Microsoft offered to retain search data for only six months, if Google and Yahoo agreed.

On Wednesday, Yahoo called Microsoft's bet and raised the stakes by agreeing without condition to anonymize user log data, page views, page clicks, ad views, and ad clicks within 90 days, except under limited circumstances.

Unable to make inroads against Google in the search advertising market, Microsoft and Yahoo are pursuing a strategy pioneered by the smaller search engines, which have long differentiated themselves from Google through their privacy practices.

Ask, for example, offers a service called AskEraser that lets the user decide whether to allow search data to be retained. "When enabled, AskEraser will completely delete your search queries and data from Ask.com servers, including: your IP address, User ID, and Session ID cookies, as well as the complete text of your search query -- all within a matter of hours, except in rare circumstances," Ask explains on its Web site.

Metasearch engine Ixquick has been deleting search data within 48 hours since 2006.

Google has had its moments as a champion of privacy, most notably when it declined to provide search data to the U.S. Department of Justice in 2005 and 2006. In March 2007, it was the first major search engine to agree to dispose of search log data after 18 months. And in September, it said it would anonymize IP addresses on its server logs after 9 months.

But it has stumbled, too, as may be inferred from a study released earlier this week: It found that Google no longer ranks among the top 20 most trusted companies for privacy. In 2007, Google was ranked "hostile to privacy" in a report by Privacy International. Google watchers have observed that privacy remains Google's Achilles' heel.

Google's attitude toward privacy has been similar to its attitude toward copyright: It's better to seek forgiveness than to ask permission. Had it not applied that philosophy to potential copyright entanglements, we might never have had access to YouTube, or Google News, or book searches, for example. So there's something to be said for forging ahead in the face of complaints.

Services like Google Maps Street View might never have come to be had Google erred on the side of privacy. But a bit more thought before products are released might convince people that Google's position on privacy is something more than posturing to protect its revenue stream. Following the launch of Street View, Google faced privacy lawsuits and numerous complaints, none of which made it seem like the company viewed privacy as a priority.

Security that's an afterthought fails; the same can be said about privacy.

Over the summer, Google did itself no favors by resisting calls from privacy groups to put a link to its privacy policy on its front page. Its reasoning was driven by engineering: It didn't want to add even a millisecond to Google.com's load time with extraneous text links. But privacy is an emotional issue more than a rational one. By the time Google accepted that and agreed to add a privacy link, the damage was done.

The heart of the problem is that Google has become convinced that personalization is the future of search. Think for a moment about what that means: Search technology has hit a wall. Algorithms aren't enough anymore.

The more Google knows about you, the more relevant its search results will be and the better it will be able to target ads to your interests. Some Google users appreciate that intimacy. Some don't care. And some find it creepy and don't want to have that kind of relationship with an online company.

If Google fails to understand that and to accommodate privacy concerns more flexibly, it risks losing its dominance to a search company willing to offers users more control over the data they own and the data they generate.

Don't count Microsoft or Yahoo out just yet. The more willing they are to cater to user privacy concerns, the more Google will look like a stalker.

How could Google capture the high ground? Well, if Amazon can manage 1-Click purchasing, Google might want to try 1-Click deletion of all data associated with a user. That would be a good start.

NYC Goes 3-D In Google Earth

Posted by Eric Zeman, Dec 18, 2008 11:20 AM

The Google (NSDQ: GOOG) Earth team has been hard at work improving the 3-D map of New York City. The new renderings of the city, complete with buildings and textures, is nothing short of amazing.

Google Earth gets just a little bit cooler every time I use it. As someone who loves NYC, it is now downright incredible. According to the GearthBlog, Google Earth has a 3-D model of the majority of the buildings and skyscrapers in Manhattan. These aren't some clunky, blocky renderings. Rather, they are realistic representations of the buildings that include actual photos pasted onto the 3-D frameworks and even show detail such as brick textures.

Google didn't accomplish this all by itself. Others have pitched in, creating many of the 3-D models seen in the Google Earth view of NYC. If you're running Google Earth 4.3 and higher, you can actually fly around the city to get a better look. You can find out how to do that here.

In the meantime, look at the two pictures below. The first is the Google Earth representation of NYC in January 2007. The second is what it looks like now.

'The War on Democracy'

'The War on Democracy' is John Pilger's first major film for the cinema - in a career that has produced more than 55 television documentaries. Set in Latin America and the US, it explores the historic and current relationship of Washington with countries such as Venezuela, Bolivia and Chile.

"The film tells a universal story," says Pilger, "analysing and revealing, through vivid testimony, the story of great power behind its venerable myths. It allows us to understand the true nature of the so-called war on terror".