ugachaka :: Jacob was here

Google produced a little video showing off their new Android platform and what it can do.

I have to say it looks more impressive than my former Windows Mobile 5 device and smoother than the iPhone program transitions that I have seen on units that my friends own. Of course, this demo unit is probably a very high end piece of electronics, but still, it makes it look promising to hold out for this open source OS to hit mobile and make it all a little cleaner and “not evil” as is the Google way.

Considering the device is open source, the flexibility is bound to be endless, and I can’t wait to see what it will offer in order to take down the iPhone dominance since the iPhone hasn’t really opened up to third-party apps just yet.  Plus, the unit they demo plays Quake–nothing revolutionary to the smartphone market but a promising touch that maybe Google will pay some attention to making handheld gaming a more stable industry with Android.

Is it just me, or does that visual history in the Web browser remind you a lot of the iPhone/iTunes album view?

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1FJHYqE0RDg&eurl=http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/11/13/i-for-one-welcome-our-android-overlords/[/youtube]

The Wall Street Journal jumped in on the gPhone rumors and has stated that Google might take on becoming a mobile carrier by making a bid on the wireless spectrum–on their own.

The company is gearing up to make a serious run at buying wireless spectrum, a chunk of the airwaves that can be used to provide mobile phone and Internet services, in a Federal Communications Commission auction in January. Google is prepared to bid on its own without any partners, say people familiar with the matter. It is working out a plan to finance its bid, which could run $4.6 billion or higher, that would rely on its own cash and possibly some borrowed money.

Google has already been experimenting with creating their own mobile carrier service at their headquarters and could jump out big with a nice network if they are successful in this move.

With the Android initiative on the way, Google could be making a move to easily steal customers from other carriers by making it cost-effective and simply to swap service plans over to Google without even having to change your phone or software.

I would welcome a Google phone simply because they could open up a more competitive environment for the smartphone market by integrating many of their apps and services cleanly into a mobile interface.

One of the things I really want to see happen in the near future would be some kind of program platform to integrate with Gmail and all the Google applications. Right now, I have to place my info in Outlook on my desktop so I can sync with my MDA even though my email, main calendar and to do lists are all hosted through Google online.

Prism might be the first look at what a Gmail application could be, but I wish there was something that played nicer with Windows and could give me all the desktop integration I need from Google. Fingers crossed.

A Business Week article took a look at the gPhone rumors. While I am sure we would all love to see Google enter the cell phone market–and possibly make it all cheaper–all this speculation is starting to get annoying.

Apparently, employees acquired from Android may have developed an operating system that Google could use to take the smartphone market down to a price tag around $100–which would be great, by the way, Google, if you are reading this.

If this OS rumor is true, the only downside is that we would have to mind Google Ads being all over these apps when we run them on our slick new smartphones.

The only evidence in favor of this being true is 67 job openings on the Google site for “mobile-related positions” and their filing for a patent for a text message payment system–definitely wouldn’t let friends play with my phone as much if that was around.

Let’s hope the rumors come to an end with this OS on the market at least if not a real piece of hardware from Google. I love their apps, and if they could bring some sanity to smartphone pricing, I would love them forever–or at least for a week.

Point of advice though Google: don’t drop the price of your phone by $200 after only 2 months since its release. Bad blood for early adopters.

Update: As for their possible pursuit of a text messaging payment system, MarketingVOX believes GPay could become the PayPal of the mobile space.

Just as I finish up talking about the growing threat of Facebook to companies like Google, I also have to post on the hot water Google is currently facing on its own.

Google has become too big for its own good. As #1 in an industry, they are under fire in the same way Microsoft was a few years ago (and, to some extent, remains).

The problem always comes when you hit #1: the consumers begin to stop trusting you and your competitors look for ways to exploit or prosecute your large market share status. It is a very dangerous place to be.

Google is already coming under fire over acquisitions, privacy and slew of other issues. A company that could do no wrong now might be the devil in sheep’s clothing according to some. It is not a comfortable place for the company that once was the Internet’s little darling of search.

People want blood and are already looking towards the next killer app–which will kill Google. This killer might be coming sooner than people think with companies like Facebook around and threats from other Internet darlings like Wikipedia coming on the horizon.

It is painful to watch, but nothing proves the circle of life theory better than the rise and fall of consumer love with a tech company these days. Good luck, Google. I love your stuff, but you are going to need every business maneuver you got to survive the next couple of years without losing your #1 spot.

Facebook is the next big thing in social networking. Scratch that. That is what you could have said more than a year ago. Now, Facebook is becoming a force to be reckoned with in social networking and in all online space.

If you know nothing about Facebook, check out the Zolved piece that follows the hype from the .edu days to the current state of things as Facebook is now opening up to software apps or widgets that users can add to profiles.

Facebook is no longer just for the kids. Small business gurus and marketers are getting in on the buzz recommending both LinkedIn and Facebook be part of a small business arsenal. Now there is even an application that allows you to integrate both–within the confines of Facebook of course. Widgets open the door to third-party enhancements and advertising…genius move on the part of Facebook to expand and maintain their booming growth.

Industry experts see the platform as the next theater for public relations. Maybe in several years, our press releases will all pop up in jouranlists’ mini-feeds, and we will poke the interviewer of our CEO a few weeks after to see when the story is going to hit print. E-mail might soon be replaced by Facebook messages and wall posts.

Google fears Facebook–if not, they should. Facebook has a huge user base to pull from in whatever their next direction may be, and these followers will be willing to try out anything Facebook offers for at least a week until a friend calls it dumb.

While some have speculated that Google might enter the OS space, Facebook has recently acquired Parakey and is working with SixApart.

Now with the fame, Facebook gets the drama. ConnectU is hitting up Facebook claiming that the entire concept was stolen and that Mark Zuckerberg, the man behind the book of faces, failed to fulfill his duties in completing their project and being a part of their team.

Sound familiar to anyone else? Microsoft came about through a similar controversy and buzz explosion back in the day.

For starting a company with such potential, Zuckerberg is still a pretty young member of the block, but entrepreneurs are getting younger and younger these days.

The Facebook train doesn’t seem to be stopping. They haven’t been acquired by Google or Murdoch, and all signs point to them emerging as a public company soon and becoming a MAJOR player in the online space.

It is some sort of guarantee that Facebook might be a contender to unseat Google or take on Microsoft in some sort of partnership or acquisition with Google. Whatever happens, marketers and business moguls alike should keep their eye on Facebook and study up on its business model because they are likely to be th next powerhouse in 2.0 evolution. The online OS (operating system) space could be theirs if they play their cards right.

Epic 2014 is coming true.

It is a video that I saw several months ago, but the YouTube/Google deal seems to be a lot like “Googlezon”

Michael Hirschorn in The Atlantic Online analyzed this video and the updated Epic 2015. He urges some kind of evolution in print journalism–creating portals around the individual columnists and critics that make a paper what it is. This proposition is interesting because it makes me wonder if each community could be created around just one person, one voice. As Hirschorn says, journalists could become the “hub of their own social networks.” I wonder if this would segment the media more or if the charisma of one person, one journalist, could bring a community together and grow it into something much better than any news or social organization that we have today. Could there be something better? I can’t wait to find out.

This is a story that I wrote based on looking at transcripts/video from the 2005 International Symposium on Online Journalism as practice for covering this year’s like a true online journalist:

Man vs Machine

“It’s not easy to beat a machine,” Len Apcar, editor-in-chief of The New York Times on the Web, remarked at the 6th International Symposium on Online Journalism at the University of Texas at Austin on Friday, April 8, 2006.

When the Pope passed away, the Times online staff scooped Google News, which they consider one of their competitors, in getting the story on the Web. In the age of blogging and citizen journalism, the Times must consider everyone competition.

“The culture basically has to revolve around the central idea that a scoop is a scoop no matter where it goes,” Apcar said.

By prepping a package in advance, the Times conducted final edits in time to put the story online immediately upon the Pope’s death.

Online Ego

Speed is not the only impediment to publishing online. Editors face the problem of convincing reporters to post to the Web since having the scoop is the only reward for journalists. Other publications often republish the same information without crediting the Web story once the reporter puts it out there. Through feeding egos, Apcar convinces reporters they will be more widely read by publishing on the Web.

On an average day, the Times publishes about 35 or 40 Web stories. Beat reporters usually write the stories for the paper and Web unless a beat reporter is too busy. In that case, a Web staffer writes the story, and when the beat reporter writes an article on the topic, it replaces the Web story.

Online Journalists Earn Tips and Reader Interest

The first Times’ reporters to jump onboard the move online were the correspondents outside of New York.

“They understood the power of this because the people they talked to could read their stories,” Apcar said.

Foreign correspondents suddenly began receiving tips and additional information once the communities the correspondents covered could read their work.

Online journalism also allowed The Washington Post to discover what their readers were really interested about. In publishing a blog following Washington’s new baseball team, the Nationals, the executive editor of WashingtonPost.com Jim Brady found that the life of a baseball reporter interested readers more than actual news about the team. The blog is one of the most popular by the Post.

“If you really want to see where the comments are on this blog, it’s all about, you know, what it’s like to be out there traveling the country all of the time,” Brady said.

Readers really wanted to hear about the life of a journalist.

“We have recognized that there is a fascination with what goes on behind the curtain at a lot of major media organizations, which we’re trying to put a light on that and give people a sense of what it’s like,” Brady said.

Getting Citizens in on the Action

Citizen journalism is a hot topic among online journalists right now, and while both the Times and the Post have an interest in interacting with their readers, neither have made significant efforts to accommodate citizen journalists.

Comment: This is probably dated now since I bet both sites have made strides to include citizen journalism

Technorati tag: journalism, multimedia, Google.