Google's Purse, post YouTube

So we know Google bought YouTube for $1.65b, but how did this affect the size of their market cap? Well, for the first week, the deal certainly paid for itself.

Let's look at it from the perspective of GOOG's market cap, as cited by GigaOM:

Pre-purchase, on Friday, October 6, 2006, Google shares closed at $420.50 a share. With roughly 304.36 million shares outstanding, that meant the company had a market capitalization of $127.983 billion. Post deal, Google shares closed at $427.30 a share, giving the company a market capitalization of $130.05 billion.

The difference between two Fridays: $6.80 a share, or about $2.1 billion. So they spent $1.65b and boosted their market cap by $2.1b. Pretty cool, huh?

Traditional Relationship Of Self to Society under Threat?

So we know that the search giants hold a wealth of information in their data servers. And many have consistently warned us of the threat that this may pose to each of us. We are, at once, both eagerly jumping into one new technology after another (email, Voice Over IP, online calendars, contact lists, etc), and also recognizing that as we do this, we slowly tear down the walls of privacy that we have always enjoyed.

One author, John Battelle, has sounded off on this theme before, but in his latest discussion of this security issue, he's particularly articulate.

What are the implications of "having the world's data stored in top secret high security locations owned by private companies with little if any transparency about how that data might be used. What about the social impact? Privacy, reconstruction of relationship of self to society, policy, data rights, etc.?"?

Should we be concerned that the government will ultimately put Google and Microsoft's data centers into a clamp so tight, it'll make logins and passwords pop out like your jean pant buttons after a trip to Dairy Queen?

Also, did you notice that AOL is getting sued for lots of money over to that hideous data leak we reported here a few weeks ago...? Good! Maybe no one's life will be ruined again, any time soon, because a search engine slips their personal information to the world.

Blogs, Democracy, Sloth

So a friend just proposed the following question, after I encouraged him to take up a blog w/ podcast - and share his great thoughts and share his musical talents with the world.

"Hey, this appeared on my Google homepage this morning and since it was inline with my current stream of thoughts I read it. It seems to be anti blogging purely based on the need for attention or a creativity validation requirement. That and just getting out and doing something rather than talking about it. I am of the opinion after speaking with you that this is not the primary intent of some of the most sincere and creative bloggers albeit a smaller audience. Let me know what you think.

How to Dissuade Yourself from Becoming a Blogger"

And it got me going, so here's what I'm thinking right now about this issue.

“'Step 1 – read five completely random blogs for one month'

That’s the first line of this article, but I’d have to stop the author in his tracks and suggest he read ‘The Long Tail’ – in it, the Wired Magazine editor illustrates how the entire beauty of the blog world is that you don’t have to read completely random stuff. The plethora of information in each and every niche allows every one of us to delve into exactly those topics which are of interest to us. If your idea of learning about the blogoshpere is to ignore its strength (providing access to every square inch of the long tail (the 1/x curve that has room for every little niche to the right, ad infinitum)), then of course you’re not going to appreciate it. To learn of it’s beauty, do exactly the opposite of what this blog-unfriendly author suggests – go and read 5 blogs, one time, about the topics you are most fascinated by – then peruse from there – hopping and bopping throughout scores of sources that are sometimes bad, sometimes decent, and sometimes great. Eat the meat and spit out the bones.

If you’re the type who naturally tends to substitute effort and action for talking and sloth, then you might run the risk of using blogs, chat rooms, and IM to the same end. Chances are, you also watch ESPN on repeat and read the skin mags at grocery store checkouts. To each, his/her own. Meanwhile, if you want to find a niche, for example, a community of eclectic artists interested in jazzy blues and poetry – or you want a global community of like-minded people to enjoy the fruits of your labor and creativity – well, then the blogosphere provides you just that medium – as do several other web 2.0 innovations."

VCs Jumping on the Open Strategy, Open Source Wagon

Heard about the latest "$100 million giveaway"?

This is especially meaningful if we consider the value of user-feed content. While it seems irrational for a Venture Capitalist to explain the goal of his/her very best business idea - all of these individuals are offering up millions of dollar bounties along with their very best idea...In the hopes that someone out there on this very flat world will pick up the idea, develop it for them, and both parties will benefit. As we've seen with the Web2.0 explosions of sites like YouTube, Wikipedia, Google Mashups, and Flickr, the power of a global internet user base is remarkable enough to drive entire business models forward. These VCs have decided the power of global internet users is enough to merit giving away their best ideas.

Another 'Casual' Week at Google - Writely Released, Search Innovations Continue

This is my first ever test of Writely - I actually wrote this post and published it using this new online word processor Google's latest project that is likely to seriously hurt its competitors (MSFT Word et al). Seemed a little slow in loading a new page; otherwise, looks very clean - no major delay on the typing. Is this AJAX I'm using? Oh but wow, check out the ease of publishing websites. I saw Writely as a threat to Word - but now it appears to be also a threat to Dreamweaver - and such an easy 'snap-on' to things like Blogger.

And even more crazy...Check out the links that Google has recently placed in it's golden zone of Internet real estate (Below, Left). I took the screenshot on Aug 19, 06 - although this advancement is not yet live on all computers. Look at the 'Try your search on all of our competitors' section. You can see the results from your search on all the other main engines and bloglines. Pretty sweet.

Right there at the top of its search results - the most valuable place on the page, Google has links to whom? None but every one of it's fiercest competitors - in order from most threatening to least. Know any other companies that help you find their competitors more efficiently?

I suppose Google didn't want to just roll out one more innovation to its search interface - so it looks like they've also rolled out a 'search suggestions' component. Notice (Below, Right) how it offers numerous other suggested search terms - when i typed in 'dogs', it automatically drops down the most popular terms people search for when looking for 'dog', as well as the number of results for that term in its index. Quite useful, if you ask me.

Internet Privacy and Security - Uh-oh...

Have you ever even been slightly concerned about the privacy of your personal data on the internet? If so, this might be something you want to read about…

The latest impetus for me to feel anxious about the privacy of all of our online usage was a horrific data leak from AOL last week. While it was essentially an oversight within AOL that they released over ½ million people’s search engine history and trails, these types of nightmares are likely to increase as more people become dependent on storing all of their valuable information and dirty little secrets online.

This problem has been plaguing me recently. Never before, in the history of mankind – has it even been conceivable that any kind of organization could at one time have access to all of a person’s written communications, calendar activities, personal contacts, heart-aches, successes, and all the dirty little secrets that come out when we have access to a person’s string of web searches. Frankly, it would be crazy to imagine any national monarchy, international organization, or anything else actually having access to all of this stuff – not in the whole history of mankind. But now, I believe, major Internet search engines, email services, and conglomerate services are gaining this type of knowledge.

It’s happening to everyone. It’s even happening to me right now – as I blog on this page that is served by one of these incredibly useful monsters. And why do we continue? Because it’s just so incredibly useful. That’s why!

These two links below give some insight into why we might want to reconsider these habits.. A story from the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF.org) on this issue. Also this Wall Street Journal article has some brilliant information on the emerging internet privacy debate.

Finally, here are some tips below on how to protect your internet security (tips taken from EFF.org)

• Don't put personally-identifying information in your searches, at least not in a way that can be associated with your other searches. You should take the precautions below to avoid giving away your identity to your search engine anyway, but they're especially necessary if you want to do a search to see if your personal information has appeared online or want to do a vanity search for your name.
• Don't use a search engine operated by your ISP. Most ISPs inherently know who their users are, at any given time and over the long run. If you use their default search tool, they know who you are and everything you search for. Use someone else's search tool instead.
• Don't log in to a search engine account. If you use a web-based e-mail service or other services provided by your search engine -- such as GMail or Yahoo! Mail -- see below on cookies.
• Don't accept cookies from your search engine. If you use a service like web-based e-mail that requires you to accept cookies, don't let the personally-identifying information in your e-mail get linked with your searches. For Firefox users, the free CustomizeGoogle extension will allow you to anonymize your search cookie without breaking GMail (see the "Privacy" tab in the CustomizeGoogle options). We're still looking for extensions that provide corresponding functionality for Yahoo!, MSN, and AOL users. You can also use Privoxy, although it's a bit more difficult to configure.
• Use a separate browser or browser profile for search and for other activities.
• Use an anonymizing proxy, or proxy network like Tor, to prevent search engines from learning your IP address, especially if your ISP gives you the same IP address each time you use the Internet.

Multi Touch Interaction: Useful for Maps and Surveillance?

If you've watched the Multi Touch Input video demonstration, you'll notice how intuitively the zoom feature is. You pull your fingers farther apart to zoom out and push them towards each other to zoom in.

Also intuitive is navigating a large map. You point where you want to go and pull that item closer to you.

This technology could be a major breakthrough for video surveillance. Instead of fumbling with controls to move the video camera at the correct angle, you point with your finger at the person or object in question and it immediately turns there. Then you can follow the person with your finger and make the camera move with it. You can also zoom in and out easily and quickly.

It could also be extremely useful as a replacement for current GPS systems in a car because of the dynamic nature of the map.

Most importantly, this technology would bring GPS's and other sorts of maps or videos to an older generation because of how intuitive the control is.

Visit Multi Touch Input for more information on this technology.

What do you think about these ideas? I'm very interested to hear how other people feel about this.

Multi Touch Interaction: Think About the Possibilities

Notice how the multi-touch screen registers perfectly all the points of contact.

Also notice how each finger is recognized separately. Each finger has a different colored trail following it, meaning that the multi touch screen recognizes each finger as a specific finger.

Imagine the possibilities for such a technology. Multi touch interaction could make the computer an excellent artistic palette with precision finger-reading and hand control that mimicks real paintbrushes or pencils rather than mouse control.

Let me know what you think about this kind of technology. I want to hear your opinions too.

For more multi touch interaction info, visit Multi Touch Input.com.