05 October 2010
Google Instant is search with the user in mind
I have been testing Google Instant - the new way to search on Google.
Google Instant expands results under your search as you are typing your desired keywords. It is intelligent search as it suggests what you should be searching for and it is search with the user in mind, which is typical of Google's philosophy.
See video below for more information, then read on:
Much of the commentary since the launch of this new service has centred on how it will affect online businesses and businesses that advertise online.
Very little coverage has focused on the end user experience, which is delightful based on the reasons stated above as well as the speediness of it. Any argument to the contrary would be flawed.
Regarding the business case, search engine optimisation (SEO) experts, like my team at KAYWEB, need to see what suggested searches are appearing courtesy of Google Instant, and optimise to those keywords.
In 6 test cases which I trialled for KAYWEB clients, the differences were minor, if any.
The bottom line; Google has improved search for end users with its launch of Google Instant.
Businesses, through SEO, are hardly affected.
16 September 2010
The new Twitter is all the rage
From the moment twitter co-founder Evan Williams (aka @ev) announced to the Twitter world that he was about to "send 10 things about Twitter", the internet community braced for a big announcement from the micro-blogging giant.
It was the beginning of the launch of the New Twitter.
Twitter.com, the website that houses Twitter, was about to undergo a significant redesign which would bring its features more in line with Facebook and other such networks that encourage users to spend hours and hours at the single domain.
A problem Twitter was encountering was that Twitter users were using Twitter.com as a secondary way to access Twitter, as other clients (such as Tweetdeck, Seesmic and even Facebook) gave users more variety, with a bit of Twitter on the side.
The new design will change all that, and make Twitter.com the home for any Twitter buff.
More on the New Twitter.com and a promo video can be found by clicking here.
Below are the 10 Tweets (read best from bottom to top) is how Evan Williams launched the new Twitter on Twitter.
16 September 2010
The NBN wins the election... now what?
Make no mistake.
The ALP won government due to its National Broadband Network (NBN) policy rather than the rumours of popularity in the 2 party-preferred stakes, rather than its supposedly more shrewd negotiation skills, and rather than the mooted offerings of billions to regional Australia.
Both key independents - Tony Windsor and Rob Oakeshott - mentioned the NBN as a key reason for swinging the result Julia Gillard's way instead of the technologically illiterate Tony Abbott.
Even the key sweeteners for these Independent MPs had to do with the NBN. Regional Australia will get it first, and good on them.
Now... what about the debate and its future direction?
Mark Jones presented a very good edition of his The Scoop radio program on this very topic.
Google has continued its push to turn Gmail into the ultimate one-stop-web-shop by adding Google Voice calling as a browser-driven service.
Needing some positive news following its announcement to ditch collaboration experiment Google Wave, the folk at Google announced that Google Voice is now available on browsers.
This means that without downloading any desktop application - like Skype makes you do - one can make VOIP calls.
As a marketing ploy, Google allowed free Google Voice calls to the US and Canada to several countries, including Australia.
The response: in one day, 1million calls were made! Skype now has a real competitor.
The free calls to US/Canada deal will continue for the remainder of 2010, after which the only free calls will be available for those with Gmail accounts at either end of the phone.
See CNET video below...
Those who know me would attest that I would have been following the 2010 Federal Election very closely regardless of what was topical on the policy front. I am a political tragic and a lover of the much-criticised 24 hour news cycle - and my wife is the authority to affirm that fact.
However, regardless of the result this weekend, all of us in the internet industry have to be delighted that for five weeks, our world and our concerns were shared with the masses.
Fibre, wireless, megabits, open internet, filters, etcetera became part of the vernacular of politicians who don't even know how to turn on a computer, let alone Tweet or use Facebook.
Due to the broadband debate, more Australians now know that parts of the world have connection speeds up to 100 times faster than we do here downunder.
Most also understand that this is due to fibre-optic cabling; something no commercial enterprise has decided to build in Australia due to our small population and the unlikelihood that they will ever make a buck from a $43 billion outlay.
Most Australians also now know that an internet filter designed to censor offensive content from the internet (such as child paedophilia and how to join Al Qaeda) sounds nice, but is unlikely to work and could be abused by a group of legislators sooner or later.
If it did miraculously work and wasn't abused, the geek community that rules the online world will not stand for any censorship on the 'open internet'.
Here is my summation of these two topics - National Broadband Network (NBN) and the Internet Filter - which served the internet industry brilliantly by raising internet to the very top of the policy pile, ahead of Health, the Economy, Industrial Relations, Immigration and Climate change...
NBN
The Australian Labor Party (ALP), led controversially by Prime Minister Julia Gillard, has decided it will fork up to $26 billion of taxpayer money to team up with commercial enterprise for a total $43 billion national broadband network to deliver a minimum speed of 100 megabits per second (up to 1000 megabits [or 1 gigabit] per second) to 93% of Australian households.
The Liberal and National Coalition (LIB), led by Tony Abbott, say no. It says Australia is in too great a debt to afford this. It says "we shouldn't put all our eggs in the fibre basket" and "explore wireless, etc", which are more new-fashioned technologies.
The Coalition policy only guarantees speeds of 12 megabits per second (up to 100 megabis per second).
When I asked some industry types on Twitter what they think of the NBN, nobody said they don't want it.
Those who leaned 'no' gave reasons such as they are not sure if it would be deliverable by this government on time and on budget. Or they said the cost is too great and other priorities, such as Health and Education, should be worked on first.
I personally feel while Australia is now more educated on the potential of speeds we could have using fibre, the debate has been a poor one.
Of course we should have fibre! Of course the government should spend since enterprise won't!
I wish the Coalition matched the ALP policy of delivering a NBN, but found its differentiation by providing a more efficient way to deliver it to Australian households.
This would have meant both parties are offering us progress, and the debate will not have focussed on whether we needed progress, but rather on who can deliver progress better.
While former Coalition leader Malcolm Turnbull has obviously towed the party line on this issue, I feel if he were their leader, we would have had the debate I wish we were having.
Abbott's claims that he is "no tech-head" in a community filled with internet users made him seem like a leader going backwards. See below video satirical of this from The Chaser of the ABC:
NET FILTER
Then we come to the net filter. If the ALP and Gillard loses this election, I wonder how many will blame it on this monumental stuff-up.
Some in the community clearly want net filters. Why the ALP did not alter this policy when Gillard took over from Kevin Rudd is beyond me.
Along with Mining Tax and Immigration, it would have been easy for Gillard to state the net filter will come in, but it will 'opt in' - so those not wanting it did not need to have it in their homes and workplaces. This is something I called for in a previous blog.
Instead the ALP split the internet vote by continuing to send very 'hard-to-like' filter champion Stephen Conroy to keep trying to sell the unsellable.
The Coalition, through one of its more tech-savvy members in Joe Hockey, announced they would abandon the filter.
But it was not lost on the geek community that it wasn't because the Coalition didn't want the net filter. Because they do want it. It was because they felt it couldn't be implemented.
CONCLUSION
As the title of this blog suggests, the 2010 Federal Election will be remembered as the campaign in which the internet crawled up the policy pile.
But it will also be remembered for two major parties who argued the net-related policies - NBN and NET FILTER - very poorly.
It is the election where the internet community feels:
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a vote for Labor is a vote for speed;
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a vote for Liberal is a vote for open internet; and
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a vote for Green ... well ... is a vote for pretty much anything!
13 August 2010
Murdoch targets Skype as his latest bully victim
Traditional media tycoon Rupert Murdoch and his company News Limited's attacks against every giant in the 'new media' are becoming too obviously cringing to let pass.
I've written before about the Australian-born American Murdoch taking on Google for publishing 'his news'. This time his target is VOIP giant Skype - the company that provides free voice calling to millions worldwide.
He is picking on its name, stating the use of the letters 'Sky' from 'Skype' is a breach of copyright against one of his media brands 'BSkyB'.
Skype has been around for many years - I have been using it for over 5 years - but Murdoch has chosen to wage his war when Skype is about to float on New York's NASDAQ for an estimated US$100 million.
I'm no lawyer. I am an avid user of products and services Murdoch has a hand in (especially Foxtel). But his suggestion that he owns the 'Sky' sounds comical. It sounds desperate.
Rupert should be ashamed and realise that his position as a filthy rich billionaire is safe. It is safe despite the fact that his title of 'media tycoon' is now officially revised to 'traditional media tycoon'.
Enjoy your life and leave Skype, Google and other 'new media tycoons' to be.