Month: January 2007

Whatever Happened to that Google Cargo Container Idea?

It was killed by "conservative managers" says an ex-Googler in this Chronicle article from earlier in the week. The piece tracks familiar territory of rich early employees getting the itch to go do something else. Extremely wealthy from stock options that soared in value, 100 of Google's first 300…

40Steel

It was killed by “conservative managers” says an ex-Googler in this Chronicle article from earlier in the week.

The piece tracks familiar territory of rich early employees getting the itch to go do something else.

Extremely wealthy from stock options that soared in value, 100 of Google’s first 300 workers have quietly resigned to go to law school, help poor shopkeepers get loans or simply to live the good life. Although hardly a mass exodus, the numbers are adding up, scattering what some employees considered their second families.

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Catching Up

A lot happens when you're gone for over a week. Here's what seemed important that I missed, with commentary: Apple does what everyone thought it'd do. But thanks to FCC etc., the damn thing isn't available till June. Please, spare me, is my initial take. I'll buy one when…

Iphonespecs

A lot happens when you’re gone for over a week. Here’s what seemed important that I missed, with commentary:

Apple does what everyone thought it’d do. But thanks to FCC etc., the damn thing isn’t available till June. Please, spare me, is my initial take. I’ll buy one when it’s been around at least a year. The AppleTV, though, I may buy if it can do Tivo for me…

Yahoo bought MyBlogLog. You woulda known this if you read Toby’s post here. After all, he is the guy who makes the calls over there. Yahoo also announced Go 2.0 / oneSearch, and a deal with the iPhone. Mobile is certainly heating up. Are we at my prediction 13 yet? No, but we’re gettting there.

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Well, That Was Too Short

Funny thing, vacations. You take a week off to sit on the beach, and by day six, you realize you need another week. Anyway, I'm back, but it might be a slow re-entry. Bear with me, folks. Much is afoot in this new year….

Funny thing, vacations. You take a week off to sit on the beach, and by day six, you realize you need another week.

Anyway, I’m back, but it might be a slow re-entry. Bear with me, folks. Much is afoot in this new year.

5 Comments on Well, That Was Too Short

AdWords API Debacle

VentureBeat has a nice editorial surmising the impact of Google's controversial decision from April to begin charging a licensing fee for use of its AdWords API this month: Just trying to understand the API pricing in a specific business situation is a challenge, as is clear from seeing the…

Picture 1-42VentureBeat has a nice editorial surmising the impact of Google’s controversial decision from April to begin charging a licensing fee for use of its AdWords API this month:

Just trying to understand the API pricing in a specific business situation is a challenge, as is clear from seeing the Google price sheet. The billing appears as a large, non itemized bill.

The structure of the API fees will also significantly impact several areas of the software industry. Since API cost scales with frequency of access, there are very negative implications to companies who would like to use Google data in a real time web analytics platform. Given that Google offers a free low end analytics tool, could this be a hint that Google will be targeting higher end web analytics in the future?

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Searchmob Roundup

Convergence: Saying Hello to USB/TV Search Every Word Said on YouTube Updated Beta of Ojax, an Ajax Powered Open Source Federated Search Technology Now Available A Busy Day for Mobile Search, News from Yahoo & Google, and a Review of What Others Offer TagBuildr – Try an Alternative to…

Searchmob-24Sb Find ButtonSb Submit Button

Convergence: Saying Hello to USB/TV

Search Every Word Said on YouTube

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‘Web 2.0’, Wikipedia’s Most Cited Term of 2006

From O'Reilly: Jen Pahlka of CMP, our co-producer on the Web 2.0 Conference, just sent a pointer to an Advertising Age article noting that Web 2.0 was the most cited Wikipedia article of the year, beating out such pop-culture topics as Steve Irwin, Mark Foley, and Snakes on a…

Picture 5-14From O’Reilly:

Jen Pahlka of CMP, our co-producer on the Web 2.0 Conference, just sent a pointer to an Advertising Age article noting that Web 2.0 was the most cited Wikipedia article of the year, beating out such pop-culture topics as Steve Irwin, Mark Foley, and Snakes on a Plane, as well as other tech topics like blog, Ajax, and RSS.

And I have to say, the Wikipedia article on Web 2.0 is indeed pretty darn good, so I just incremented that link count by one… (But do still read my own What is Web 2.0? 🙂

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Deriving Talent, Algorithmically

How will Google scale its massive hiring ramp-up while maintaining its famously intricate screening process for 'Googley' employees? With an algorithm of course. After months of interviewing their employees to decipher trends in personality and interests that mark Googlers, Google has 'derived' a complex hiring questionnaire. Google will begin…

How will Google scale its massive hiring ramp-up while maintaining its famously intricate screening process for ‘Googley’ employees? With an algorithm of course.

After months of interviewing their employees to decipher trends in personality and interests that mark Googlers, Google has ‘derived’ a complex hiring questionnaire. Google will begin using the surveys with all applicants this month. NYT (selections):

The questions range from the age when applicants first got excited about computers to whether they have ever tutored or ever established a nonprofit organization. The answers are fed into a series of formulas created by Google’s mathematicians that calculate a score — from zero to 100 — meant to predict how well a person will fit into its chaotic and competitive culture.

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Speech-to-Text Search on YouTube

PodZinger announces users can now search keywords within the YouTube database. Via SplashCast: Speech-to-text video and audio search engine Podzinger just announced this afternoon that users can now search inside YouTube videos with a tab on the front page of Podzinger. The functionality appears to have been added in…

Picture 1-40PodZinger announces users can now search keywords within the YouTube database. Via SplashCast:

Speech-to-text video and audio search engine Podzinger just announced this afternoon that users can now search inside YouTube videos with a tab on the front page of Podzinger. The functionality appears to have been added in late December but I haven’t seen any blog coverage of it yet…

How’s the quality? I did a search for Starbucks and Podzinger found 120 results so far – compared to 3,000+ on YouTube searching text. Those results are interesting though, including one video uploaded today of a man driving a motorcycle through Taiwan at night, past a place that reminds him of Starbucks. He says the name of the coffee chain at the 3:46 mark in the video, Podzinger shows us. That is very impressive!

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