Caught on Google Streetview

On reading the news that almost all of the UK is now covered by Google's Streetview I did the obvious and had a virtual nosey around my own home, my family's homes and various friends' homes. Then I began to wonder whether that car with the contraption on the roof which we saw on holiday last year had anything to do with Google... and it did. Zooming in on the location from memory I was able to see Mr and Mrs Clickrich driving along the A9 in Scotland. I'm pleased to say faces and numberplates were appropriately blurred. Amazing technology! Here's a compilation of the stills of us zooming... ahem, cruising by (these things don't measure speed do they?).

What is Microsoft and Google's battle for Yahoo really about?

Some may wonder why the battle for Yahoo is rolling on and on... Yahoo's shareprice has rollercoasted from sub $20 in late January to about $30 on Valentine's day and then gradually withered as Mircosoft talks collapse and then risen again with rejuvinated talks. It just runs and runs. The reasoning behind the acquisition, we're told, is related to advertising synergies. However, is that the real game here? Sure, advertising technology synergies would justify the wholesome premium over the market capitalisation, but is there more going on?

I think so. I believe that this is about positioning for the next stage of the web. Web 2.0 has seen the enabling of user-generated content and the driving of our apps to the web. The next stage is shaping up as what is being called "The Cloud". Nothing less than a battle over where our bits are processed and stored is unfolding and Yahoo, Microsoft and Google are the major protagonists. This is an order of magnitude more valuable than an advertising play. This will be a bigger phenomenon than e-commerce.

All three companies are sat on immense infrastructure investments. According to Debra Chrapaty, Corporate Vice President of Global Foundation Services at Microsoft, their Live service is adding no less than 10,000 servers per month to its datacentre infrastructure. Microsoft is building datacentres hand over fist (6 at my last count) and if the Illinois one is any measure of the rest of them, then they are a $500m capital expenditure each. That is the kind of money it takes to carve out a significant portion of "The Cloud" market... and to do it without hesitation or shouting about it. Yahoo would at the least be a shortcut to a good chunk of that sort of infrastructure, not to mention a userbase of first movers already dabbling with data storage on The Cloud with the trusted consumer brand.

I think this is one huge game of poker to see who blinks first. Microsoft doesn't want to cite this huge latent value in Yahoo, otherwise they'll hardly get themselves a bargain. Yahoo directors are trying to force Microsoft's hand and bring this objective into the open to justify their steadfastness.

Google watches from the sidelines. Happy to push up the price Microsoft pays. Safe in the knowledge that it is less in need of such a consumer trusted brand- it has one already. Happy to pick over any remnants from the fall out.

Watch this space.

Google's Worst Kept Secret

Well, the rumours about Google launching a phone have been around since at least December last year and the hype has gradually been building. However, when you look at the number of partners involved in the first tangible news on the Google Phone, you begin to be amazed at how they've kept it as quiet as they have.

Google Ten Things

A colleague highlighted Google's Ten Things to me. Fantastic ethos.

1. Focus on the user and all else will follow.
2. It's best to do one thing really, really well.
3. Fast is better than slow.
4. Democracy on the web works.
5. You don't need to be at your desk to need an answer.
6. You can make money without doing evil.
7. There's always more information out there.
8. The need for information crosses all borders.
9. You can be serious without a suit.
10. Great just isn't good enough.

Have a look at the source for more information.

We were already applying some of these in our business, but we will learn from the others.

Tags: business, Google, ten things

Full Page Search Engine Ads in London Daily

If ClickRich was starting to look like a "Search Engine Special", with this being the second post on the subject today, then don't be surprised if it happens one day in the real world of publishing. This is because I was amazed to see Microsoft taking out a full page advert in this morning's Metro newspaper in London. A colleague tells me that they had a 'wrapper' advert yesterday. Incredible. The search engine wars are hotting up!

Only recently a friend was remarking how amazing it is that Google is one of the world's largest companies, yet he'd never seen an ad or met anyone who works for them. That could change quickly.

Tags: technology, Internet, search engine, Google, Microsoft, Live, Microsoft Live, London, UK, Metro, newspaper, advertising, advert

Google Threat to Technorati?

It was only a matter of time, but Andy Boyd seems to have spotted Google dabbling with integrating blog search technology into its heavyweight main search engine.

A bit of competition for Technorati will keep things interesting.

Watch this space.

Tags: technology, Internet, blog, blogs, blogosphere, search engines, Google, Technorati

Google helps to Diagnose Patients

As a one time sufferer of the rare illness henoch schönlein purpura, I'm very familiar with the concern surrounding undiagnosed conditions. In my case it was the 80's and the efforts of a non-medically qualified, but very concerned, mother were more effective than the doctors in diagnosing an illness that aflicts just 14 people per 100,000.

So, I was very interested in how doctors are beginning to embrace the technology of the raging-consumer success that is Google. A British Medical Journal article reports on the success rate of search engines in helping unravel unusual and complex symptoms. Ironically, it is usually professionals that pioneer new technologies which subsequently filter into the high street and home. In this case it's been the reverse. Nevertheless, better late than never.

So, is this the end of doctors? Not really. Using Google, users successfully identified 58% of diseases published from a range of symptoms from The New England Journal of Medicine. It takes a qualified, intelligent human being to take that success rate beyond 80%. The computer is just doing what computers have always done well- to sift through huge amounts of knowledge (in this case pretty much the accumulated medical knowledge of the human race) and present it back in a prioritised fashion. You can't train a human to do that.

Tags: technology, medicine, medical, British Medical Journal, diagnosis, Google, henoch schönlein purpura, Internet, New England Journal of Medicine, search engine