“…if the economy improves and interest rates rise, Google will have executed a very profitable trifecta: it could repatriate its cash at a lower tax rate and buy back its bonds at a discount. And even if none of this works out, Google’s cost of borrowing $3 billion will only be about 2.3%, which in […]
Category: Google
Initial Thoughts on Google Offering Droid for @font-face Use
My initial thoughts on Google offering a hosted version of Droid: This is more an extension of their mobile play than getting into the font hosting. Here’s why: The Android handsets only display the Droid family of fonts. Google’s stated a number of times they’re serious about being successful in mobile. Google is a web […]
Users are a Side Effect or Why Google’s Web Applications are Free
“I get the feeling that all of Google’s products were invented for Google to help streamline the way it does things.” – yellowbkpk Exactly. Just as I wrote about Google’s AppEngine last year, Google’s applications – whether Gmail, Wave, Maps, or the recently announced Buzz – are about reducing costs and streamlining their business. In […]
Verizon Droid Hands-On Review
The Verizon / Motorola / Google Droid, released later this week, is a solid, tactilely satisfying handset. I suspect it’ll be Motorola’s most well-received handset since the RAZR. Verizon’s marketing is correct – the Droid is the first real peer to the iPhone. More importantly – the Droid is the first significant competitor to the […]
DroidDoes is the Anti-1984 Ad
25 years ago, Apple announced their new, friendlier, easier-to-use personal computer with the iconic 1984 ad where a heroine throws a hammer – taking down a non-descript technical figure. Tonight, I watched Verizon’s new DroidDoes.com ad. Verizon is declaring Apple’s iPhone is too friendly, too simplified, too limiting – what you need is a non-descript […]
What if Google Blocked Your Site?
“Yet, Google’s system makes no distinction between people who have malsites and people who get hacked and then fix their sites. Neither Google nor Twitter notified me at all, despite the fact that both have my email address via my respective accounts at those services, nor did they give me any fair warning to remedy […]
Calling Double-Sputnik on Google
One of my favorite past-times is to dissect competitors within a business sector. Sometimes the pairings are obvious (Barnes & Noble vs. Borders, Honda vs Toyota), other times I’m less confident (Target vs. Wal-Mart3, Facebook vs. Twitter). These pairings (or groupings) point as much at commonality across market offerings as they do project the direction […]
A Proposal for Shorter Google Maps URLs
I was adding a link to a Google map into my iCal and noticed Google is encouraging me to share the the map URLs in email and IM. But there’s a problem with the Google Maps URLs. They’re +/- 155 characters. Here’s the full URL: http://maps.google.com/maps?oe=utf-8&client=firefox-a&ie=UTF8&q=the+red+pepper,+plymouth,+mn&fb=1&split=1&gl=us&cid=1854680882426337660&li=lmd&z=14&iwloc=A This URL is neither short, nor easily memorable, nor […]
Unspoken, Unfortunate, Synonyms
From what I can tell; “SEO” is an unspoken synonym for “works better in Google” “Social Media” is an unspoken synonym for “works better in Twitter” Both of these are unfortunate for they: turn something easily understandable into something vague and amorphous – the exact opposite of good framing mask the monopoly those companies have […]
Google AppEngine: More About Google Labs than You?
There’s a long history of tech companies developing there own applications because it’s cheaper long-term than licensing, especially for core applications like: email, calendaring, text processing. I’m confident Apple employee use Mail.app, iCal, and iWork in-house and those apps are cheap or free for the rest of use. Same for Sun and StarOffice/NeoOffice. Same for […]