Directly from the Official Gmail Blog. Gmail takes precautionary measures to prevent sending those “nasty drunk emails” late at night.
By adding a new feature called Mail Goggles, Gmail can help determine if you are in the right state to be sending emails.
You can configure the new feature for certain days of the week and times within those days. By default it’s active on the weekends during the wee hours of the night - when most are likely to send inappropriate messages.
Although this is hardly relevant for the purposes of Axis’ blog, it demonstrates with unequivocal honesty, creativity and corporate culture that is not only condoned but promoted within Google. Google, along with innovation superstar, 3M, allows each employee to spend a certain percentage of their work week on individual projects. Both 3M and Google, take this approach to innovation because they realize each person in their own right can potentially develop a stunning new product or service that will be valuable - maybe not to everyone but possibly to a small niche.
Is it the look and feel of the website, the ease of navigation, the tools and features?
For Facebook, it is the pleasant mixture of all three with a slightly more focus on technology-driven tools that has enabled it to overtake its close competitor, MySpace.
The Beginning
Ever since its birth in February 2004, Facebook, the privately owned and operated social networking website has been enticing and accumulating followers, being a free-access website where people from all walks of life can join networks (organized by cities, workplaces, schools, or regions) to interact with others, and to some extent, rekindle old friendships and reconnect past relationships.
Beyond the Face Value
Four years have passed and Facebook has managed to remain virtually on top while undergoing a lot of progress in terms of applications. Starting from an idea (the website’s name came from the “paper facebooks” illustrating members of a campus community that some American colleges and preparatory schools give to incoming students, faculty, or staff aiming to familiarize them with the other people inside the campus) of a then Harvard sophomore student, Mark Zuckerberg, the website turned out to be a major hit as a multi-million dollar enterprise.
Bridging Gaps and Cultural Differences
The CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, describes the impact of Facebook through a story about a group of young militants from Lebanon who have reconciled their views of Western culture by way of Facebook friendships. The story spoke of the free expression of ideas which the World Wide Web allows, thus making people rise above their cultural disparities.
On Expansion and Language Translation
Facebook has reached a great number of users, as it quickly expands to other regions, internationally. In fact, the website stands unruffled to the top as a global social network. The numbers released in August 12 by comScore says it all. There are about 132 million followers of Facebook, 63% of which are outside North America. It helped that the network has been translated to 20 languages such as French, Spanish, and Mandarin. Recently, it has added 69 more languages. The international manager of Facebook, Javier Olivan views this as more than just enabling everyone to understand one another. The translations, according to him, will jumpstart astronomical growth internationally.
Growing and Thriving
To date, Facebook faces tough competition with MySpace and News Corp.’s to name a couple. They not only focus on their local markets, but are also meaning to saturate the global scene to amplify audience growth, thus making them very attractive to advertisers and prospective investors.
MySpace has spread out in 29 countries such as India and Korea. Based on a study from Pingdom, a Swedish website availability monitoring website; it is mostly frequented by users in US, Puerto Rico, Australia, Britain, and even in Asian countries such as Malaysia.
LinkedIn is another social network catering to professionals. According to Pingdom, it is popular in India, Netherlands, Denmark, Belgium, and US.
Despite all these, a staggering 153% increase in new members last June has thrown other social networks off-balance, in terms of the website’s success through a purely user adoption.
Tech-Savvy Socialization
Facebook proved to have more ease conquering the international market through its technology-driven strategy. The social network boasts of translation tools, enabling users to take their existing sites and personalize them using their native tongue. The tools proved to offer very accurate translations, setting it apart from the other social network websites. The senior analyst of comScore, Andrew Lipsman, said that it is indeed, a very scalable process, with the audience’s number multiplying really fast.
MySpace on the other hand follows a different route. Facebook’s close rival opens offices in countries where ad dollars and friends are probable. This strategy definitely slows down their expansion internationally but this approach is deemed to be a surefire way to better reflect the cultures of new countries while racking up dollars from advertisers, too. Soon, according to Jeff Berman, MySpace’s president of sales and marketing, MySpace’s non-US users will cover half or 50 percent of the its total revenue.
Hi5 language translation tool applications strategy resembles that of Facebook’s, except that this social network from San Francisco initially hired a third-party service provider, Lionsbridge, to translate the social network to languages such as Japanese. This strategy increased its popularity, making the base users amount to a hefty 56 million. According to Pingdom, the site remains immensely popular in Latin America.
More Possibilities
The Facebook executives, though focused at present on the website’s tools, have not closed their doors on the possibility of opening offices in other countries to make their website more culturally-relevant, similar to the strategy employed by MySpace. Right now however, Olivan stresses that as long as there are users, advertisers will continue to create campaigns and put ads on their sites, making Facebook remain universal.
Former executive David Katz may have already left his post as the head of sports, entertainment and studios in Yahoo.com in 2006, but he never really left what he has always cared about and loved to do: write about sports and offer something relevant to sports enthusiasts.
A Healthy Competition At age 36, Katz will wage war against the other Internet powerhouses such as ESPN, Yahoo, Fox Sports, Major League Baseball, and AOL with his website, sportsfanlive.com. Sportsfanlive.com is looking to be released within the week, boasting of Katz’s versions of customized contents, social networking, and even fantasy games. Katz felt that the other competitors have become a lot more complicated and difficult to navigate, so sportsfanlive.com is what he thought would enjoy quite a good number of followers.
Everything But Traditional What sets sportsfanlive.com apart from the rest is that it is built for the next generation and with their evolving needs in mind. Katz stressed that the other sports websites have what he calls the “traditional media DNA”, fooling around with the site here and there but keeping them basically the same and generic.
Six months of planning in his Hollywood Hills abode have made him very positive and confident that the website is up to the challenge. The site’s features are naturally-flowing, allowing a visitor to create a community which is projected to have a viral growth. SportsFanLive is aimed to become the sports enthusiast’s Facebook, rather than connect to existing social networking websites.
Similar to MyESPNand MyYahoo, the users can customize their site, mixing in together the teams they love and hate.Additionally, the users will receive news from 4500 aggregated sources which are regularly updated.
The Secret Sauce
Katz believed that aggregation will be SportsFanLive’s secret weapon. Because unlike Google, which is definitely useful in searching for general needs of visitors, it has no clear perception of the specific sports needs of sports fans.
Through the FanFeed feature, sports-minded pals can easily share articles with one another or they can opt to use FanFinder application to alert their sports buddies to sports bars where they come together to cheer on their favorite teams. FanFinder is a zip code and map -based function which is a visual update of forums on rivals.com (which happens to be a Yahoo subsidiary).
A Sports Facebook Katz also commented that SportsFanLive aimed to be everyone else’s Facebook, at least for the sports enthusiasts, that is. According to him, without a doubt, Facebook is commendable for doing a really good job at connecting people all over the globe, but like Google, Facebook is not specifically geared towards sports-related matters. The site aims to be apart from the other social networking websites by keeping sports their focal point.
Traditional fantasy games are out of the question at this point as he feels that fans may not have a lot of time to tend to season-long fantasy games.
Gaming Features SportsFanLive offers gaming features that will enable them to challenge one another by posting or accepting wagers (this is akin to an online casino sports book which is user-generated) allowing them to either earn or lose Buxbets (SportsFanLive’s version of funny money). The feature is interesting (“they can compete on any topic they want against anyone at any time”) because he designed it based on the assumption that fans like to test their wits about anything they felt they know best.
Mouse Voting Jeff Price,Sports Illustrated Group president for digital, commented that Katz may very well understand and know sports fans’ hearts, but he has misgivings on how SportsFanLive can sustain traffic and engagements. Voting depends on a sports fan’s mouse. Price also noted how interesting it is the way people can embrace the games made available to them.
An analyst for Jupiter Research, Bobby Tulsiani remarked that if Katz succeeded in his plan, he would be similar to other new web entrants who will defy the pioneers in existing categories. The recent research on Internet sports users showed that evidence is yet to be confirmed regarding sports fans who wanted to switch to other online sports space.
Full of Hope Katz’s belief on his success remained unfazed. SportsFanLive may be self-funded for the time being, but then, he is positive that individual investors will be interested though he put off dropping a name for now. Samsung though, has already signed on as an early sponsor of Katz’s project.
He is happy to note that sports fans may not see it at present, but soon, they’ll realize that SportsFanLive is something they just have to use and will be unable to live without.
It was announced that Google takes into consideration, amongst a plethora of other variables, the location of your server that hosts your website. Although this was known before it helps to have it confirmed by Searchnomics 2007.
Really, it makes perfect sense.
If you search for the same phrase on Google.com and Google.co.uk you will get different results. What this tells us is that if you are an American company selling to American consumers you should host your website on an American server - not a server in another part of the world.
Thank goodness my server is only up in Michigan. Just a short (well not really short) drive away.
EBay has admitted that it has been eyeing up the Korean auction site and Internet retailer, Gmarket.
About 40% of Gmarket is owned by Seoul-based Inter Park and the brothers Lee Ki Hyeong and Lee Sang Kyoo, who founded the online store in 1999. Gmarket went public a couple years back (in 2006), and just last June, it racked up a whopping $15.4 million on fees charged from the $927.7 million worth of goods sold over the auction site.
EBay’s pending transaction with Gmarket might seem minor, but is largely strategic as the stake would be a rich opportunity to reach the market of a region where the American-owned online store had some difficulties before.
According to eBay, it is true that the company (eBay), Interpark, and Interpark’s Chairman, Ki Hyung Lee have sat down together to discuss the probability of eBay buying up enormous shares of Gmarket. It is too soon to tell what the result of the discussions will be, but a voluntary preliminary filing has been made with the Korea Fair Trade Commission (KFTC) together with seeking KFTC’s preliminary approval. At present, no word is out about KFTC’s approval. Nor is there an assurance that a final agreement will be signed. Neither the people behind Gmarket nor eBay are set to give remarks on the issue, until such time, if opportunity permits, that a definitive agreement is reached.
What Is A Blog? A blog is used to write about anything, it’s a journal of sorts. You can include links to other sites, images, videos, news articles, news reports in video or audio format, etc. People can comment on your blog, which evokes conversation and essentially creates a community within your site. I wrote an article about a new search engine that is supposedly trying to compete with Google’s market share - cuil.com. I received 247 hits that day alone to my website - solely because of the article. Blogs start with an existing framework (software) and can be customized to look exactly like your website.
What Is A Blog’s Purpose In your blog you would write about things that are relevant to your business or hobbies. The goal is to give search engines more to index, thus serving more to searchers. Topics could be virtually anything that interests you. If you’re interested in the topic chances are someone else is too. Your opinions and advice are good when blogging - especially if you position yourself as a professional. The benefits are tremendous, and blogging is certainly the trend of today, and tomorrow!
David Meerman Scott, ex-director of marketing for Microsoft now a consultant, wrote the book The New Rule of Marketing & PR. Essentially, it says blogging, podcasting, video-podcasting and social networking are the ways to market not expensive media like billboards, print advertisements, radio spots and television commercials.
To Casual observers Google is known only as a search engine. Everyone knows exactly what you mean when you use the household phrase “Google it.” But what is the deal with Gmail? Or the even lesser known Google Docs and Calendar? Some might say these online applications are simply jabs from Google CEO Eric Schmidt towards his longtime nemesis, Microsoft. Others, including Google, claim that online applications are they wave of the future.
Google Calendar
Still in it’s beta stages, Google Calendar completely online based, free, and fully sharable. You control who your calendar is shared with, and what information others can see by adding their email to an event, or your entire calendar. Other users can then have the option to see your two calendars layered together, only your calendar, or only their calendar. Sharing an entire calendar can be useful when you’re part of a group that has shared events, like a softball team.
Some other features of Google Calendar are:
Views by day, week, or month or next four days
You can invite people to events on your calendar by adding their email addresses in the Guests section of the event.
Guests can RSVP to your invitations by email, whether or not they use Google Calendar themselves.
Reminders help you keep track of important events. You can choose to be notified by email, popup window or text messages sent right to your mobile phone.
You can set up multiple calendars for different areas of your life, like one for your softball team’s practices and games.
You can search your calendar, and events that are made public by other Google Calendar users.
Google Docs
Boasting similar sharing/networking features of Google Calendar, Google Docs consists of a word processor (which this was written with), spreadsheet, and presentation program, all online, no downloads, all free.
In it’s basic form, Google Docs are similar to Microsoft in that you can create documents from scratch, or from a template, and all the standard functions are covered including:
bulleted lists,
sorting by columns,
adding tables,
images,
comments,
formulas
So why are Google Docs any better? Because of the sharing capabilities. You choose who can access a given document by entering their email address and sending them an invitation. Anyone you’ve invited to either edit or view your document, spreadsheet or presentation can access it as soon as they sign in. Multiple people can view and make changes to a document at the same time. There is an on-screen chat window for spreadsheets, and document revisions show you exactly who changed what, and when. As for presentations, anyone who has been invited to view a presentation can follow along with the presenter.
There’s nothing to download; you can access your documents, spreadsheets and presentations from any computer with an Internet connection and a standard browser. Additional features include:
Online storage and autosave — no worries about local hard drive failures or power outages.
Save your documents and spreadsheets to your own computer in DOC, XLS, CSV, ODS, ODT, PDF, RTF and HTML formats.
Organize by dragging and dropping your documents into as many folders as you want.
You can publish your documents online, as normal-looking web pages
Publish to the entire world, just a few people or no one. You can also un-publish at any time.
Gmail
The central hub that all of this revolves around is Google’s best known side project: Gmail. A free web based email service that offers 1 gigabyte, or 500 times as much storage space as a free Microsoft Hotmail account. Gmail features a built in search engine that uses the same search technology as a standard google search, making it simple to locate emails, even by only typing in a phrase from the email such as “sailing this weekend with BillyBob.”
Other features include:
Quick load times by using a plain layout, sparse graphics, and unobtrusive text ads.
Messages are grouped together in a string. This conversation view continues to grow as new replies arrive, so you can always see your messages in context.
Built in chat, reply to emails via chat. And Gmail can archive all of your chats, making them searchable.
Gmail uses labels to help you organize with more flexibility. A conversation can have several labels, so you’re not forced to choose one particular folder for messages. You can also create filters to automatically manage incoming mail.
Is someone really trying to compete with a search engine that has successfully secured 70% of the online search market share, introduced a revolutionary means of revenue for many firms and businesses, and become a daily activity instead of simply a website? The phrase “just google it” is the new “Kleenex” or “Xerox.”
What do you think will happen? Will Cuil be able to successfully secure a fraction of the search engine market share?
Created by a team with a successful track record, many founders coming from Google, funded by $30 million - does it have a chance?
If you are familiar with Robert Scoble, author of the blog Scobleizer, you know he is one of the great opinions of the web. According to the Scobleizer:
Is Cuil going to be able to get into the game?
No way, no how.
So, why is Cuil here?
I think it’s a play for Microsoft money. Microsoft needs to get back into the search game, so will continue buying companies to try to get back into the search game. Yahoo, if run by management that’s rational, will probably start doing the same thing.
Yesterday when I first heard about the ambitious new engine I tried it out on phrases related to my website – which I have spent a great deal of time ‘optimizing.’ Much to my dismay my website was absolutely no where to be found. Naturally, this did not make me too happy - especially after my July 16th post: Axis’ Own SEO Campaign. I searched for several keywords and key phrases. Overall - I am leery about the new ‘magazine style’ layout and the fact that with many of my searches it return no results - zero!
In an interview with a technology forecaster, Paul Saffor, and ABC News, Saffo comments on Cuil:
“You don’t get $33 million to compete against Google. That’s a suicide mission. You get $33 million to create a search experience that’s different from Google.”
“While all the people involved seem competent and have great resumes, the site itself out-and-out stinks.”
If Cuil is trying to offer a search solution that truly differs from (for the greater good) Google and the other mainstay search engines, good for them - it’s going to be a long road.
It will be interesting to see if only $30 million can change the way the world searches the Internet.
Former employees of Google.com have developed and launched a rival search engine called Cuil (pronounced “Cool”). Cuil, Gaelic for knowledge and hazel, claims to do a better job of indexing online information.
The ambitious new search site, Cuil.com, maintains a minimalist appeal - similar to Google.com. While Google has stopped reporting the number of pages it uses to build its index, Cuil claims that its 120 billion is greater than that of Googles.
While many others have tried to compete with Google and failed, Cuil believes that by deviating from the traditional methodologies of Google it can overcome the giant.
