My first thought when I heard about Google TV yesterday was – are they for real? But then I kept watching and I saw, together with the rest of thousands of people watching the Google I/O conference that these guys were serious about it. When Eric Schmidt lined up 6-7 CEO’s from big companies on stage it became very apparent how much they are pushing this.
So we know Google is serious and it seems like a cool product and everything and you might ask why was I so surprised when I heard about it. It’s simple, the thing ain’t new and it’s not solving anything unsolvable.
For some time now I’ve been planning to buy me a NAS with a media server on it, hook it up to the TV, hook my PS3 to the TV and take a cable from the router and put it in my PS3 so I can stream movies directly from the laptop without any problems. Oh, yeah, and figure out and easy way to output my laptop screen to the TV (not that hard at all, as most laptops come with and HDMI output, these days).
What that would give is not very far from what Google wants with the G TV thingy. I already have tons of hardware lying around, do I really need a TV that is essentially a specialized computer?
But while walking home, after watching the Google I/O conference at Bucharest Hubb (than’s Petrica for setting things up), I thought to listen to an audiobook, so out comes my iPod and with it a revelation. It’s not about me! It’s not about the geeks who know what a NAS is and how to set up a media server and who have a box of wires under their bed (I do) to connect everything up. It’s about the rest of the world, consisting of people who barely know how to use their remote. TV is a 4 Billion users industry! There are a lot of people who want to do it easier.
And the Google approach makes it easy to have web + apps + video + tv all in one, like the iPod made possible to have ‘1000 songs in your pocket’ hassle free. Same goes here. Watch out Apple, Google is after your ass. But they don’t need me to tell them that. Plus Apple already made an attempt with Apple TV.
After this revelation everything seems to have more chances of success, but I’m still skeptical. In 1.5 years we’ll know if the G TV thing will fly or fall. What’s your take on it?
I don’t know what Google is up to lately, probably survival, but it’s mojo is going away, fast. At least for me it is.”Don’t be evil” – my ass. Nobody even questions that they are a gigantic corporation, a monopole is search and online advertising, but until not so long ago they were trying to put on this cool “I’m just a giant start-up” show. OK people, game over, nobody believes this anymore.
So why is Google evil? Well, let’s stat with the latest thing. They’re trying to get this incredibly hard to replicate preferential agreement with various network providers. Basically they want their content to go faster in the web. Web Neutrality begone. See here for more details. They say “Anybody can do the same”. Let’s get real Anybody = Google, Microsoft and Yahoo?
Their the new big monopoly, the new Microsoft. Remember when Google backed down on the Google-Yahoo deal? Check here for more info. The main idea was that they backed down because they were afraid no to go down the Microsoft road with this.
For me, as a developer, there are few things about Google more iconic then the famous 20% time for personal projects thing. Maybe even more famous then their cook… maybe not, but anyway. It is so exciting to
David vs Goliath (source ZDnet)
hear how every programmer can have this wacky idea and maybe one day see it become THE thing. Maybe they still give the 20% but they are now focusing at a big level only on the really promising projects, the ones that can bring some… value. This is part of their financial crisis plan (more here – article in Romanian). Wait a minute, this ain’t startupy anymore.
By the way, is Google in a hiring freeze or a firing meltdown (I want to get all the credit for the bad word play, thank you)? Nobody seems to know. Officially no, in off the record, probably.
So google is not David anymore it grew into Goliath. It’s normal for Google to do what any big company has to do to survive – walk on the bodies of their competitors but the change is a little bit too sudden. Maybe the so much talked about crisis is contributing to this, who knows.
But I must give them this – they’re aplications rock, and as long as this is so I don’t care who they act as.
LE: Google tries to answer the Net Neutrality issue on it’s blog – see here.
Posted on October 23, 2008 by Liviu in Strategies, Web
Din domeniul “Stiati ca” – stiati ca cei de la Google au o politica sa nu aiba mai mult de 28 de cuvinte pe pagina lor de home? Eu am aflat de curand, si mi s-a parut foarte interesant.
Dar stirea originala din NYT era ca datorita lansarii G1 pe pagina Google acum sunt 39!!! de cuvinte. Textul adaugat este “New! The G1 is on sale now. Learn about the phone”.
Din pacate nu este vizibil decat pe site-ul american si nu am gasit nici o poza. Cei de la NYT i-au intrebat pe cei de la Google daca isi incalca principiile si raspunsul lor a fost:
“We are currently running a homepage promotion. These promotions appear when we launch a major product or service that users might be interested in, or to support a cause that users care about, including the May Sichuan earthquake relief efforts. Because these promotions appear on our homepage for only a few days at a time, we don’t consider them in our official homepage word count.”
Oricum, mi se pare fascinant faptul ca reusesc sa tina cu dintii de niste principii de genul “regula celor 28 de cuvinte”. Chiar cred ca e unul din motivele succesului lor.
Se pare ca cei de la Google isi calca pe principii si o sa furnizeze prin sistemul de AdSense si bannere. Interesanta decizie, considerand ca au plecat la drum sustinand mare si tare ca ei sunt impotriva bannerelor (mai ales pe site-ul propriu) si al popupurilor etc etc. Au revolutionat prin AdWords si acum isi schimba perspectiva… Pareri mai documentate decat a mea au si altii.
Se pare ca pentru inceput Google o sa tina un pic de principiile lor si nu o sa puna reclame sub forma de banner pe propriul site, doar o sa le distribuie la reteaua de utilizatori de AdSense.
Oricum, sunt curios daca o sa vedem si Google Popup .
Intre timp puteti citi mai multe pe RWW sau direct de la sursa.
Si un mic sfat de la Google despre cum sa construiesti un banner.
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