Google Innovation Insights

Google growing with new innovations

2011-07-15T11:35:00.000-07:00

Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) shares were sky-rocketing more than 12% in after-hours trading Thursday, after reporting its first round of quarterly earnings with new CEO Larry Page at the helm.

The search giant posted adjusted earnings per share of $8.54 on revenue of $6.92 billion, beating analyst estimates of $7.86 a share on sales of $6.5 billion.

CEO Larry Page kicked off the call by saying Google has signed up over 10 million users for its “Google+” social networking service, and now has over 160 million users of its “Chrome” Web browser.

The company is seeing 550,000 activations per day of smartphones based on its “Android” operating system, hesaid.

Regarding how to make money on all of that, Page remarked, “Now people rightly ask, how will we monetize these businesses?”

“Of course, I understand the need to balance the short-term with the longer-term needs, because our revenues and growth serve as the engine that funds our innovation,” he continued. “But our emerging high usage products can generate huge new businesses for Google in the long run, just like search.”

"Well-run technology businesses with tremendous consumer usage make a lot of money over the long term. Now I think about our products in three separate categories. First, there is search and our ads products, the core driver of revenue for the Company. Next, we have products that are employing high consumer success — YouTube, Android and Chrome. We are investing in these in order to optimize their long-term success. Then we have our new products — Google+ and Commerce and Local. We are investing in them to drive innovation and adoption. Overall, we are focused on long-term, absolute profit and growth, as we have always been."

Bottomline:

Google killed the quarterly earnings. Google's core search business is rock solid for now. Google has great mid-term prospects with Android, YouTube, and Chrome - the worldwide mobile and web marketshare gains owing to these three products are nothing short of phenomenal (Google has multiple wars ahead - in Mobile with Apple, in Videos with Facebook, and Browsers with Microsoft)! Finally, hot innovations such as Google+, Commerce, Offers and Pages are on the rise, and at least one of these has the potential to hit 100M users. Google has shown that it has the staying power with Search, and able to gain marketshare with new products. New CEO Page has done very well, and appears to be turning around the Search Giant.

Google is one of the top 20 innovators of the original Innovation Index.

In April 2011, I had posted this blog: Buy Google when market sells Did you buy?

Tags: Android, apple, business innovation, Chrome, Facebook, GOOG, google, Google Commerce, Google+, innovations, Innovators, Larry Page, Microsoft, NASDAQ: GOOG, ogoing, quarterly earnings, social networking, youtube

Small Business Social Network

2011-03-22T14:22:00.000-07:00

"Experience the new OGoing!"

Create your own small business profile on OGoing, and begin making connections, promoting your business, building relationships, and creating new opportunities today!

OGoing is your new Small Business Social Network!

Get started on the all new, most innovative Small Business Social Network: http://ogoing.com

Share your SMB business news, events, services, deals, ideas and needs in real-time, live on the OGoing Small Business Community now... And it's FREE to join!

7 reasons why you must join OGoing today:

VERY easy to use, and FREE to join!
FOR your business! Find and Connect with local small businesses instantly
MARKET your business! Promote your products and services to your local markets
DO more! Find new referrals for your business, and post your business needs now
TALK more! Share real-time updates about your business deals, news and events
POWER your brand! Promote your brand on Twitter and Facebook, and cell phones
GROW your business! Expand your local contacts, brand and sales

DRIVE your small business forward with OGoing! Go BIG with OGoing!

Who should join?

Small Businesses, Entrepreneurs, Startups, Professionals, Consultants, Sellers, Buyers, Procurement

Get started on the all new, most innovative Small Business Social Network: http://ogoing.com

OGoing - Drive Your Business Forward!

If you need private OGoing to create your exclusive business community, get started here:
http://ogoing.com /enterprise

Sincere regards,

Sanjay Dalal
CEO & Founder
OGoing Inc.
Follow me:
http://ogoing.com/sanjaydalal

Google Android Unleashed Everywhere - Challenging Apple iPhone, BlackBerry, Nokia, Palm

2009-12-03T10:19:00.000-08:00

Google is on its way to hitting a home run with Google Android! It started with a single with G1, with Android stealing the second base with HTC... By 2012, Android will possibly hit the home run with the likes of Droid, and challenge the likes of Apple iPhone, BlackBerry, Nokia & Palm - all at once! Oh my...

Here is the latest on Google Android:

Google Unleashes a Diverse Army of Android Phones

The flexibility of the Google software makes these phones anything but clones of one another

"It's also hard to beat free. The search giant essentially gives away the Android system, which it is using to corner the wireless world much like its free searches captured PCs. These phones make clear what Google is after, with their tight integration into Google apps such as Gmail, maps, and Google Voice." - US News

The Motorola Milestone: will Google Androids take over in 2010?

Apple's iPhone could soon be playing catch up with Google Android phones

"The momentum is clearly with Android; the quality of the operating system has never been in doubt, but now, with first-rate phones to show it off to its very best, it has the potential to appeal to a much wider audience." - Telegraph

New features for users, developers, and partners.

Learn More »

Android 2.0 launches on its first device, Droid by Motorola. Learn more »

"Consider: By 2012, Android should become the world’s second-largest mobile operating system, according to consultant Gartner. At that point, more people will be buying Android-based phones each year than the iPhones. And users of Android devices download as many applications — about 10 — each month as iPhone owners do. Since developers always want to make apps for the largest possible pool of users, Android Market’s applications count should skyrocket." - BusinessWeek

Bottomline:

We are witnessing the beginning of the Google Android juggernaut!! Google has nothing to lose, everything to gain with Android... and the best ally Google has in Android (besides the major mobile carriers & phone makers worldwide) is Time!! Slowly but surely, Android will grow and challenge the likes of iPhone, BlackBerry, Palm and Nokia... It's only a matter of time!

Download my Creativity and Innovation eBook. 212-page collection of over 55 best practices, case studies, and insights on the current state of Creativity and Innovation in Business at Top Innovators including Apple, Google, Netflix, 3M, Frito Lay, Johnson & Johnson, Proctor & Gamble, Toyota, GE, BMW, Deloitte, Southwest, Nike, IBM, Dell and more. "Your report from the eBook and definitive guide was the primary reference that we used." Used by over 500 leading organizations including HP, Pepsi, EDS, J&J, Nokia...Learn more
Download Now

Launching India Business Network

2009-06-19T15:38:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the Launch of India Business Network : Business + Networking with Indian Professionals worldwide.

The mission of India Business Network is to provide an engaging and dynamic online place for business and social networking with Indian Professionals worldwide.

India Business Network Website:

http://indiabusinessnetwork.in

Business Networking Website:

http://indiabusinessnetwork.ning.com/

Try out the exciting social media features such as collaboration through Groups and Forums, networking through Events, communication through Blogs, Video and Notes, and even some fun through Photos, Music, RSS and more.

Create your business profile, invite your friends and business contacts, and build your own professional presence at India Business Network. Comment on each other's wall, write notes and express your opinion, and make your point across through the discussion forums.

Upload your business video, introduce your presentation, experience music, share ideas and explore new opportunities with fellow members and businesses.

Invite your friends, colleagues and business contacts to join the India Business Network.

Already about 50 executives and members from various professions and corporations have joined the India Business Network since our launch a few days back. Join the India Business Network today, and communicate with these professionals, network, and do business.

India Business Network - Your online social network for doing business with Indian Professionals worldwide. Everyone invited to Join.

Google Wave Creating New Waves of Communication & Collaboration

2009-06-05T23:10:00.000-07:00

What is Google Wave?

"A Google wave is equal parts conversation and document. People can communicate and work together with richly formatted text, photos, videos, maps, and more.

A Google wave is shared. Any participant can reply anywhere in the message, edit the content and add participants at any point in the process. Then playback lets anyone rewind the wave to see who said what and when.

A Google wave is live. With live transmission as you type, participants on a wave can have faster conversations, see edits and interact with extensions in real-time. " - About Google Wave

What are the key technologies in Google Wave?

Real-time collaboration
"Concurrency control technology lets all people on a wave edit rich media at the same time.
Watch the tech video"

Natural language tools
"Server-based models provide contextual suggestions and spelling correction.
Watch the tech video"

Extending Google Wave
"Embed waves in other sites or add live social gadgets, thanks to Google Wave APIs."

Bottomline:

Google Wave technology is promising - but the question is for whom? Would businesses use Google Wave internally for collaboration, and replace Microsoft, Lotus, Oracle or other workgroup collaboration software. Would small businesses use Wave to communicate with their clients? Would consumers use Wave for its cool features as a social networking tool? Ultimately, the success of Google Wave will depend on who embraces the Wave, and in what numbers. Google is shooting for the holy grail of workforce collaboration with this latest innovation. However, it has a long way to go...

Google Health - 60 Tips and Resources

2008-07-06T20:27:00.000-07:00

I had posted an article on Google Health when it was commercially launched in May, 2008. The folks at NursingDegree.net have put together a solid resource on Google Health in the form a guide. This resource guide links to 60+ tips nicely organized into key categories. Check it out.

Here are the top level categories from the article with couple of references:

"Your Doctor

Although Google’s integration with doctors is limited to just a few right now, the potential for greatness exists as more health providers sign on as partners. Here, we’ll take a look at some of the existing features at work.

Ask to have your records transferred: With a Google personal health record, you can create a database of information on your own health that can follow you wherever you’d like it to.
Keep your doctor more informed: Send your doctor information from other doctors and specialists you’ve seen, and they’ll have a better view of your medical history, which can cut down on mistakes and adverse drug reactions.

Information

Google’s mission is to wrangle the world’s information, and they do a great job of it here. These are just a few of the applications Google Health offers.

Research your conditions: Look up conditions and symptoms in Google Health’s encyclopedia, and you’ll see loads of information and illustrations.
Don’t delete important information: Although some health records may reveal conditions you’d rather hide, it’s important that you leave them intact so that health providers have a clear view of your medical history.

Medications

For people on multiple medications, Google Health is an especially useful tool, as it offers a handy dashboard that organizes all of the drugs you take. Here are a few more things it can do.

Import your prescriptions: By importing your prescription list from pharmacies like Walgreen’s and Longs Drugs, you’ll be able to have a handy record of everything you’re taking.
Get medication alerts: With Google Health, you can see drug interactions and notices based on what you’re taking.

Convenience & Organization

With Google Health, all of your medical information is in one easy to manage, convenient spot. These are just a few of the ways this Google tools can help make your life easier.

Create a profile for your family: Google Health offers the option to create profiles for a number of different people, so you can stay on top of your entire family’s health from one dashboard.
Cut down on lab tests: Use Google Health to show your doctor the results of lab tests, and you won’t have to take them over again.

Privacy

Google’s excellent health tool is not without its drawbacks. Many are concerned about privacy issues, and while some discussions have little foundation, there are a few things to be vigilant about.

Be aware that you’re leaving a trail: If you ever get into a dispute about pre-existing conditions with your health insurance, you could be storing all of the evidence the company needs in your Google Health account. With that said, however, Google does promise that you can permanently delete data at any time.
Create an alias: If you’re concerned about linking your identity to your health records, just create an account without any personally identifying information.

Tools

Through some of Google’s service partners, you can link your profile to get even more functionality. As we’ve discussed, it’s always important to read the fine print when signing up with these services, as they do not have the same privacy standards that Google Health promises.

Cleveland Clinic MyConsult: Using this service from Google Health partner Cleveland Clinic, you can get online consultation with Cleveland Clinic physicians, who can offer second opinions, pre-adoption, and nutrition consultations.
iHealth: With iHealth, you can improve the communication between you and your doctor by importing your data from Google Health to their service that records your medical information. This is especially helpful for users whose patients have not yet partnered with Google Health.

Future Offerings

These are just a few of the features you can hope for and expect to see in the future from Google Health.

Schedule appointments: In the future, Google plans to make online scheduling part of their online integration with doctors and other health care providers.
Community: Although there’s been no word from Google, some speculate that you could be connected with others who have similar conditions through Google Health, and it doesn’t sound like a stretch of the imagination.

Guides

For further reading, check out these guides that offer a look at what to do with Google Health.

The Inside Dope on the New Google Health Service: In this guide, PC World walks you through the process of using Google Health.
This won’t hurt a bit: Google Health launches: This article has lots of great ideas for using Google Health."

Google Health - How Are You Doing Today?

2008-05-19T14:34:00.000-07:00

In terms of new products, (we made) Google Health is publicly available. It offers users a safe and secure way to collect, store, and manage their medical records and health information online. How many of us have touched, or even seen, our medical records? In this day and age of information, isn't it crazy that you don't have a copy of your medical records under your control? You could use those records to develop a better understanding of your health and ultimately get better care. It's your data about your own health; why shouldn't you own and control it?

Back in February, I wrote about how Google Health will harness the power of the Internet to put users in control of their own medical records. Data will stay with you -- if you change doctors, want a second opinion, if you're traveling -- and not stay siloed or stuck in files or databases that you can't get to. To break down these information silos, we launched Google Health today with several partners and third party services already integrated. These partners are as committed as we are to solving this urgent need. Our flagship partners include everyday brand names such as Walgreens, Quest Diagnostics and Longs Drugs, to name just a few.

In addition to helping you get better control of your medical information, we've also put strong privacy policies in place to keep your information safe and private. There's a lot left to do in health -- literally thousands of partnerships to forge and petabytes of data to move around -- but we're looking forward to hearing feedback from early Google Health adopters about our first step.
- Marissa Mayer, VP Search Products & User Experience

Bottomline:

Are you ready to post your personal health data online, and let Google manage it? Do you want control over your own health data? What if your boss or your adversary at work or your competitor gets hold of your personal health data, and misuses it? What value do you see in keeping your own health data online? Would it lead to better health? Would you sleep better at night? Would you feel better?

Many questions. Not many answers yet.

One relevant need for Google Health is in the emergency care, where the doctors can immediately find your health data, and provide you relevant and timely care.

If Google can guarantee that there will be no misuse of a person's personal information, and that the private information is absolutely safe, perhaps users will begin using Google Health. Google must emphasize the "health" benefits of using Google Health - for instance, how would it improve a person's health or create for a healthier outlook.

Google Inc. is one of the Top 20 Innovators of The Innovation Index.

Google Rises To Dizzying Heights

2008-04-21T20:26:00.000-07:00

Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) announced the quarterly earnings on April 17, 2008 after market close. Google blew away the earnings, topped the analyst estimates, and importantly, shook off the investor worries about Google's revenue and earnings growth. There were many doubts going into Google's earnings announcement - whether Google can sustain the market share, whether AdWords is producing enough clicks, whether Google can continue the torrid growth. Google erased these doubts in one swift announcement, and investors who were on the sidelines rejoined Google's party.

Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) is one of the Top 20 Innovators of The Innovation Index. Innovation Index Group has a BUY recommendation for Google with Q4, 2008 price target between $675 to $745.

Google shares are up 21.40% in one day at $545.90 on April 18, 2008. Google shares are still down 22% for the year after today's run up.

What were the earnings specifics?

"Google reported revenues of $5.19 billion for the quarter ended March 31, 2008, an increase of 42% compared to the first quarter of 2007 and an increase of 7% compared to the fourth quarter of 2007.

GAAP operating income for the first quarter of 2008 was $1.55 billion, or 30% of revenues. This compares to GAAP operating income of $1.44 billion, or 30% of revenues, in the fourth quarter of 2007.

GAAP net income for the first quarter of 2008 was $1.31 billion as compared to $1.21 billion in the fourth quarter of 2007.

Non-GAAP EPS in the first quarter of 2008 was $4.84, compared to $4.43 in the fourth quarter of 2007."

Which Google properties showed strength?

Google Sites Revenues - Google-owned sites generated revenues of $3.40 billion, or 66% of total revenues, in the first quarter of 2008. This represents a 49% increase over first quarter 2007 revenues of $2.28 billion and a 9% increase over fourth quarter 2007 revenues of $3.12 billion.

Google Network Revenues - Google’s partner sites generated revenues, through AdSense programs, of $1.69 billion, or 33% of total revenues, in the first quarter of 2008.

International Revenues - Revenues from outside of the United States totaled $2.65 billion, representing 51% of total revenues in the first quarter of 2008, compared to 47% in the first quarter of 2007 and 48% in the fourth quarter of 2007.

Paid Clicks – Aggregate paid clicks, which include clicks related to ads served on Google sites and the sites of our AdSense partners, increased approximately 20% over the first quarter of 2007 and approximately 4% over the fourth quarter of 2007.

Google performed rather well globally, and the all important Paid Clicks continued the upward growth with a 4% increase from the last quarter of 2007. This was perhaps the measure that most investors were worried about. Ultimately, a growth in search market share should translate into an equitable growth in Paid Clicks. The Paid Clicks growth does represent a 56% drop from previous quarter's growth of 9% (Google Paid Clicks had grown 9% in last quarter of 2007 from the third quarter of 2007). Is the Google Paid Clicks growth slowing? Would Google Paid Clicks go back to greater than 5% growth quarter over quarter once Google begins growing Search market share and make the Paid Clicks engine even more efficient?

Bottomline:

Google delivered. Google also consummated the DoubleClick acquisition in March 2008. The Top 20 Innovators of the The Innovation Index have been delivering on their earnings - IBM, eBay, Intel, Research In Motion, Nike, Best Buy have all met or beat their quarterly earnings. Whereas the market was upbeat after their earnings announcements, the market is exuberant today. The major U.S. indices are up about 2% today. Google has quenched the investor sentiments today, and if the overall U.S. economy improves in the 2nd half of 2008, watch out! Can Google be a $1,000 stock in 2009? If Google continues this growth trajectory, why not? Only time will tell.

About Innovation Index Group:

Innovation Index Group, Inc. is a new investment management company focused on systematically identifying, tracking and investing in the most innovative publicly traded companies in North America – collectively called the Innovation Index. We have developed the Innovation Index Fund, LLC as our first vehicle to invest in the Innovation Index. Over the past six years, the Innovation Index has generated a gross average annual return of 40%.

Innovation Index Group, Inc. and Innovation Index Fund LLC are registered California Corporations, and member of the Irvine Chamber of Commerce in Orange County. Further, Innovation Index Fund LLC is a private placement investment partnership organized under the California state regulations.

The Innovation Index Reports:

Invest in The Innovation Index - Innovation Index Fund tracks The Innovation Index
The Innovation Index closes 2007 at 66% - 2007 Annual Report on the Innovation Index
Top 50 Innovative Companies in the world - 2007 Report on Top 50 Innovative Companies
Annual Report - Chapter One - Total Innovation Activity - 2006 Annual Report One
Annual Report - Chapter Two - The Top Innovator - 2006 Annual Report Two
Annual Report - Chapter Three - The Innovation Insights - 2006 Annual Report Insights
Innovation and Stock Performance Correlation - The Innovation Index and Stock Performance

About The Innovation Index

The Innovation Index introduced in December 2006 is a weighted stock price index of the top 20 Innovators in North America.

The Innovation Index returned 66% in 2007, and returned 174% over the previous five years (2002-2006). This assumes equal investment in each stock of The Innovation Index as of December 31, 2001. An average of $100 invested in The Innovation Index on December 31, 2001 returned $454 as of December 31, 2007. By comparison, $100 invested in S & P 500 returned 28% or $129, $100 invested in NASDAQ returned 34% or $136, and $100 invested in the Dow Jones Index returned 30% or $131 through December 31, 2007. The Innovation Index beats the S & P 500, NASDAQ and Dow Jones Index by more than seven times over the past six years.*

Alphabetical list of the Top 20 Innovators of The Innovation Index for 2008 and their stock ticker symbols:

3M Company - (NYSE: MMM)
Amazon.com, Inc. - (NASDAQ: AMZN)
America Movil - (NYSE: AMX)
Apple Inc. - (NASDAQ: AAPL)
AT&T Inc. - (NYSE: T)
Best Buy Co., Inc. - (NYSE: BBY)
Cisco Systems, Inc. - (NASDAQ: CSCO)
Costco Wholesale Corporation - (NASDAQ: COST)
eBay Inc. - (NASDAQ: EBAY)
General Electric Co. - (NYSE: GE)
Google Inc. - (NASDAQ: GOOG)
Hewlett-Packard Co. - (NYSE: HPQ)
Intel Corporation - (NYSE: INTC)
International Business Machines Corp. - (NYSE: IBM)
Merck & Co., Inc. - (NYSE: MRK)
McDonald's Corporation (NYSE: MCD)
Microsoft Corporation - (NASDAQ: MSFT)
NIKE, Inc. - (NYSE: NKE)
Research In Motion Limited - (NASDAQ: RIMM)
The Proctor & Gamble Company - (NYSE: PG)

The Innovation Index will analyze the positions and standings of the Top 20 Innovators at the end of each year. For 2008, there will be no further changes in The Innovation Index.

Disclaimer: The Innovation Index Group, Inc. invests in the stocks comprising The Innovation Index.
*Past Performance Does Not Guarantee Future Results

References:
Google Press Release
Creativity And Innovation Driving Business

Google Launches Google App Engine - Preview Release

2008-04-13T12:06:00.000-07:00

Run your web applications on Google's infrastructure.

Google App Engine enables you to build web applications on the same scalable systems that power Google applications.

No assembly required.

Google App Engine provides a fully-integrated application environment.

It's easy to scale.

Google App Engine makes it easy to build scalable applications that grow from one user to millions of users without infrastructure headaches.

It's free to get started.

Every Google App Engine application can use up to 500MB of persistent storage and enough bandwidth and CPU for 5 million monthly page views.

Bottomline:

Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) is one of the Top 20 Innovators of The Innovation Index. By releasing the Google App Engine, Google now competes directly with Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN), another Top 20 Innovator of The Innovation Index. Amazon Web Services provides "open APIs for developers that are robust, reliable, scalable, inexpensive, and easy-to-integrate." Amazon provides Infrastructure, Payments and Billing, Workforce, Web Search and Fulfillment services as part of the Web Services suite.

According to Google Press Release:

Leveraging Google App Engine, developers can:

Write code once and deploy. Provisioning and configuring multiple machines for web serving and data storage can be expensive and time consuming. Google App Engine makes it easier to deploy web applications by dynamically providing computing resources as they are needed. Developers write the code, and Google App Engine takes care of the rest.
Absorb spikes in traffic. When a web app surges in popularity, the sudden increase in traffic can be overwhelming for applications of all sizes, from startups to large companies that find themselves re-architecting their databases and entire systems several times a year. With automatic replication and load balancing, Google App Engine makes it easier to scale from one user to one million by taking advantage of Bigtable and other components of Google's scalable infrastructure.
Easily integrate with other Google services. It's unnecessary and inefficient for developers to write components like authentication and e-mail from scratch for each new application. Developers using Google App Engine can make use of built-in components and Google's broader library of APIs that provide plug-and-play functionality for simple but important features.

Besides the robustness and ubiquity of the Google infrastructure, Google specifically provides tested Python run-time, datastore, user authentication and accounts, URL fetch and eMail applications. Google will eventually provide key Google Apps to integrate into the Google App Engine.

Although Google has a lot of catching up to do with the proven Amazon web services, Google App Engine potentially stalls Amazon's ascent, provides Google a leg up on Yahoo and Microsoft in the web application services market, and ultimately positions Google as the Web's operating system.

Creativity And Innovation in Business eBook

2008-02-27T21:40:00.000-08:00

Creativity And Innovation in Business eBook is a 212-page collection of my handpicked 56 Creativity and Innovation best practices, case studies, articles, interviews, and insights on the current state of innovation in business as published on my award-winning Creativity And Innovation Driving Business Blog. The eBook provides real-world examples on how the Top Innovators including Apple, Google, GE, Proctor and Gamble, Yahoo, Toyota, Netflix, BMW, Deloitte, Timex, Frito Lays, Johnson & Johnson, Tata, BMW and more innovate and grow their business successfully time and again, especially during trying times. Use this eBook as a guide to find and create game-changing innovations, unblock creativity, and make innovation successful at your business.

Your contribution of only $9.99 towards buying the eBook will help support the no-nonsense mission of this blog: to provide collective experiences, best practices and insights on Creativity and Innovation driving Business, ask questions and obtain answers on generating, managing & growing Creativity and Innovation through proven processes, and report case studies, ideas & stories on Top Innovators of The Innovation Index creating Disruptive Innovations and growing Market Leadership."

Download the Creativity And Innovation in Business eBook Now

Table of Contents of Creativity And Innovation in Business eBook

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Chapter 1 - The Top 50 Innovative Companies In The World
Chapter 2 - The Innovation Index - Top 20 Innovators
Chapter 3 - Measuring Business Innovation Success - Key Benchmarks
Chapter 4 - Failures And Stumbles Driving Innovation - Five Takeaways
Chapter 5 - Blocking Creativity And Innovation - Nine Processes
Chapter 6 - Six Ways To Find Innovation - "See with new eyes"
Chapter 7 - Five Principles For Successful Business Innovation
Chapter 8 - Is Innovation Cyclical? - Four Common Blunders
Chapter 9 - Can Leadership Create Innovation? - Ten Leadership Ideas
Chapter 10 - Top Ten Creative Leadership Traits - Be The Leader and Innovator
Chapter 11 - Creating Team Innovation - Seven Characteristics
Chapter 12 - Creating Team Innovation - Effective Teams Examples
Chapter 13 - Creating Team Innovation - Ten Principles To Unleash Innovation
Chapter 14 - The Future Of Management, Creativity And Innovation - Upend Business Models
Chapter 15 - How Much Creativity Is Enough?
Chapter 16 - Co-Creation Driving Innovation At Top Innovators
Chapter 17 - Marketing Innovation Creating Market Leadership
Chapter 18 - Consumer Innovation Best Practices - Six Steps To Lead Innovation
Chapter 19 - The Innovation Gap - Disruptive Innovation versus Sustaining Innovation
Chapter 20 - Are Children More Creative Than Adults?
Chapter 21 - Questions Lead To Creativity, Answers Lead To Innovation
Chapter 22 - Expanding Your Business Innovation Capacity
Chapter 23 - Innovation Insights And Wisdom From Greatest Innovators
Chapter 24 - Turn Complaints Into Solutions, Innovations And Success
Chapter 25 - Why Some Ideas Survive And Others Die
Chapter 26 - Ten Answers For Driving Innovation And Growth At World Class Innovators
Chapter 27 - Strategic Innovation At Deloitte - The "Apple" Of Services Innovation
Chapter 28 - Toyota's Innovation Factory
Chapter 29 - Ipod - Apple's Best Innovation
Chapter 30 - Apple Iphone Rising - Top Ten Innovations
Chapter 31 - Google Versus Yahoo - A Tale Of Two Cities
Chapter 32 - Youtube - $1.65 Billion Innovation And Counting
Chapter 33 - Blockbuster Versus Netflix - Winner Takes All?
Chapter 34 - GE And P&G - Innovations Driving Growth & Six Growth Principles
Chapter 35 - Can Dell Turnaround Dell? Seven Thoughts For Turnaround
Chapter 36 - Innovations Brewing At Starbucks ? Five Takeaways
Chapter 37 - Southwest Airlines Flying High With Ten Innovations
Chapter 38 - Innovations At Microsoft - Four Business Pillars
Chapter 39 - Direct Marketing And Direct Mail Innovation At USPS
Chapter 40 - Disruptor Zune Versus Innovator Ipod
Chapter 41 - 100% Electric Ultra Fast Innovation - Tesla
Chapter 42 - Nike Versus Adidas - The Innovation Game Is On
Chapter 43 - People Innovation - We Think Culture Of Innovation
Chapter 44 - Intel - Exponential Innovations
Chapter 45 - Five Innovations In Software Industry - Intuit Case Study
Chapter 46 - Google Versus Microsoft - The Enterprise Battle Heats Up!
Chapter 47 - Launch Of Tata Nano - A Watershed Moment in Indian Autos
Chapter 48 - How Can GM Turnaround The Business? Is Innovation The Answer
Chapter 49 - Doubleclick A Smart Buy For Google
Chapter 50 - Microsoft Walk-Off Home Run With Aquantive
Chapter 51 - IBM's $5 Billion Cognos Acquisition
Chapter 52 - Top Acquisitions By The Top Innovators
Chapter 53 - Will Yahoo merge with Microsoft?
Chapter 54 - Innovation And Stock Performance Correlation
Chapter 55 - The Innovation Index Annual Report
Chapter 56 - $1 Billion Or The Future

Download the Creativity And Innovation in Business eBook Now

I am forever grateful to Creativity and Innovation Leaders, Innovators and Bloggers for helping me drive the readership on my blog, and I am looking forward to my blog readers and fellow blog writers downloading and referring this relevant resource on Creativity And Innovation in Business.

Good Luck Innovating!

Sincere regards,
Sanjay Dalal

Download the Creativity And Innovation in Business eBook Now

References:
http://creativityandinnovation.blogspot.com/2008/02/creativity-and-innovation-in-business.html

Google One Year Performance Beats Microsoft and Yahoo - The Innovation Index

2008-02-16T09:40:00.000-08:00

Google 1 year Stock Performance compared to NASDAQ, Yahoo, Microsoft and News Corp

Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) is one of the Top 20 Innovators of The Innovation Index. Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) is also part of The Innovation Index. Yahoo (NASDAQ: YHOO) belonged in The Innovation Index in 2007. Google one year stock performance beats NASDAQ, Microsoft, Yahoo and News Corp combined. Although all these innovators are in the negative in 2008 - except for Yahoo owing to the pending acquisition offer from Microsoft. How will 2008 shape out for these innovators? The Innovation Index predicts double-digit gains for each of these innovators' stock performance in 2008. This will be due to strong summer and Fall earnings seasons, and investors returning after the hiatus. This means Google could well exceed the high point of $747 set in 2007. The Innovation Index is long on Google and Microsoft.

The Innovation Index Reports:

Invest in The Innovation Index - Innovation Index Fund tracks The Innovation Index
The Innovation Index closes 2007 at 66% - 2007 Annual Report on the Innovation Index
Top 50 Innovative Companies in the world - 2007 Report on Top 50 Innovative Companies
Annual Report - Chapter One - Total Innovation Activity - 2006 Annual Report One
Annual Report - Chapter Two - The Top Innovator - 2006 Annual Report Two
Annual Report - Chapter Three - The Innovation Insights - 2006 Annual Report Insights
Innovation and Stock Performance Correlation - The Innovation Index and Stock Performance

References:

Creativity And Innovation Driving Business

About The Innovation Index

The Innovation Index introduced in December 2006 is a weighted stock price index of the top 20 Innovators in North America.

The Innovation Index returned 66% in 2007, and returned 174% over the previous five years (2002-2006). This assumes equal investment in each stock of The Innovation Index as of December 31, 2001. An average of $100 invested in The Innovation Index on December 31, 2001 returned $454 as of December 31, 2007. By comparison, $100 invested in S & P 500 returned 28% or $129, $100 invested in NASDAQ returned 34% or $136, and $100 invested in the Dow Jones Index returned 30% or $131 through December 31, 2007. The Innovation Index beats the S & P 500, NASDAQ and Dow Jones Index by more than seven times over the past six years.

Alphabetical list of the Top 20 Innovators of The Innovation Index for 2008 and their stock ticker symbols:

3M Company - (NYSE: MMM)
Amazon.com, Inc. - (NASDAQ: AMZN)
America Movil - (NYSE: AMX)
Apple Inc. - (NASDAQ: AAPL)
AT&T Inc. - (NYSE: T)
Best Buy Co., Inc. - (NYSE: BBY)
Cisco Systems, Inc. - (NASDAQ: CSCO)
Costco Wholesale Corporation - (NASDAQ: COST)
eBay Inc. - (NASDAQ: EBAY)
General Electric Co. - (NYSE: GE)
Google Inc. - (NASDAQ: GOOG)
Hewlett-Packard Co. - (NYSE: HPQ)
Intel Corporation - (NYSE: INTC)
International Business Machines Corp. - (NYSE: IBM)
Merck & Co., Inc. - (NYSE: MRK)
McDonald's Corporation (NYSE: MCD)
Microsoft Corporation - (NASDAQ: MSFT)
NIKE, Inc. - (NYSE: NKE)
Research In Motion Limited - (NASDAQ: RIMM)
The Proctor & Gamble Company - (NYSE: PG)

The Innovation Index will analyze the positions and standings of the Top 20 Innovators at the end of each year. For 2008, there will be no further changes in The Innovation Index.

Disclaimer: The Innovation Index Group, Inc. invests in the stocks comprising The Innovation Index.

Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) innovates with Google Apps Team Edition

2008-02-09T10:55:00.000-08:00

Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) is one of the Top 20 Innovators of The Innovation Index. Google today announced new edition of the growing Google Apps family - Google Apps Team Edition. According to Google, this is the "the simplest and fastest way for groups of employees and students to collaborate within an organization".

“More than half a million businesses have already chosen Google Apps to collaborate and share information across the organization,” said Dave Girouard, vice president and general manager of enterprise, Google in the press release. “With Team Edition, groups of individuals at school or work can just as easily get the benefits of Google Apps by simply signing up online.”

Google Apps Team Edition allows teams to:

Work on the same document, spreadsheet or presentation (instead of emailing changes in multiple copies of the same attachment)

Publish documents and calendars for the team to view and update

Access information from any computer, even mobile phones

Key applications included within Google Apps Team Edition are:

Google Docs™ to create and share documents, spreadsheets and presentations

Google Calendar™ to arrange meetings, set schedules, and publish event information

Google Talk™ for instant messaging and free PC-to-PC voice calls

Start Page where users can access their Google Apps services and customized content

Bottomline:

Google Apps Team Edition can become a useful alternative to Microsoft Office for small businesses, students, schools, small teams, non-profits and as such individuals looking to create and share basic documents, spreadsheets and presentations. It does not carry the price tag of Microsoft Office, and provides basic collaboration leveraging Docs, Calendar and Talk. Microsoft Office Live services do compete with Google Apps, however require some of the desktop applications. When you combine Google Apps Team Edition with Google Gmail, a team has most of the communication tools to get started. This suite can be quite efficient and reasonable for the businesses to begin their collaboration, and get a jump start. For the longer term, Google Apps may require standalone enhanced desktop editions of Docs and Calendar, so that more users can use Apps without a need for Internet connectivity. Perhaps, the standalone apps are already on Google Apps roadmap and will get launched in 2008. How much new business will Google Apps Team Edition create for Google? Not much in 2008. However, it will create many loyal users and would-be customers of Google Apps Premier Edition.

Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT) is also a Top 20 Innovator of The Innovation Index.

Invest in the Innovation Index Fund

We launched the new Innovation Index Fund in December, 2007 that invests in Google and the Innovation Index and returned 66% in 2007, and 174% in the previous five years. If you want to learn more about the Innovation Index Fund, fill out your contact information at the bottom of this form: http://www.innovationindexgroup.com/invest.html

The Innovation Index Reports:

Invest in The Innovation Index - Invest in the brand new Innovation Index Fund
Introducing The Innovation Index Fund - Invest into The Innovation Index
Top 50 Innovative Companies in the world - 2007 Report on Top 50 Companies
Annual Report - Chapter One - Total Innovation Activity - 2006 Annual Report One
Annual Report - Chapter Two - The Top Innovator - 2006 Annual Report Two
Annual Report - Chapter Three - The Innovation Insights - 2006 Annual Report Insights
Innovation and Stock Performance Correlation - The Innovation Index and Stock Performance

About The Innovation Index

The Innovation Index introduced in December 2006 is a weighted stock price index of the top 20 Innovators in North America.

The Innovation Index returned 66% in 2007, and returned 174% over the previous five years (2002-2006). This assumes equal investment in each stock of The Innovation Index as of December 31, 2001. An average of $100 invested in The Innovation Index on December 31, 2001 returned $454 as of December 31, 2007. By comparison, $100 invested in S & P 500 returned 28% or $129, $100 invested in NASDAQ returned 34% or $136, and $100 invested in the Dow Jones Index returned 30% or $131 through December 31, 2007. The Innovation Index beats the S & P 500, NASDAQ and Dow Jones Index by more than seven times over the past six years.

Alphabetical list of the Top 20 Innovators of The Innovation Index for 2008 and their stock ticker symbols:

3M Company - (NYSE: MMM)
Amazon.com, Inc. - (NASDAQ: AMZN)
America Movil - (NYSE: AMX)
Apple Inc. - (NASDAQ: AAPL)
AT&T Inc. - (NYSE: T)
Best Buy Co., Inc. - (NYSE: BBY)
Cisco Systems, Inc. - (NASDAQ: CSCO)
Costco Wholesale Corporation - (NASDAQ: COST)
eBay Inc. - (NASDAQ: EBAY)
General Electric Co. - (NYSE: GE)
Google Inc. - (NASDAQ: GOOG)
Hewlett-Packard Co. - (NYSE: HPQ)
Intel Corporation - (NYSE: INTC)
International Business Machines Corp. - (NYSE: IBM)
Merck & Co., Inc. - (NYSE: MRK)
McDonald's Corporation (NYSE: MCD)
Microsoft Corporation - (NASDAQ: MSFT)
NIKE, Inc. - (NYSE: NKE)
Research In Motion Limited - (NASDAQ: RIMM)
The Proctor & Gamble Company - (NYSE: PG)

The Innovation Index will analyze the positions and standings of the Top 20 Innovators at the end of each year. For 2008, there will be no further changes in The Innovation Index.

Disclaimer: The Innovation Index Group, Inc. invests in the stocks comprising The Innovation Index.

References:

Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) innovates with Google Apps Team Edition

Google Maps - Street View - Unlike anything else out there

2007-05-29T22:43:00.000-07:00

Google announced an exciting, innovative new addition to Google Maps: Street View! You are looking at the intersection of Warm Springs Blvd. and Mission Blvd. in Fremont, California! WOW!! Just check out the high-resolution, details, and ultimately, factual informational content that Google is presenting...very soon, I can possibly see my house as my neighbor sees it. For now though, I can check out the new restaurant I'm planning to eat at, or a new place to see, or anything else that Google maps and provides a street view of. No more of I'm going to be on the "right side of the street where you would see the big red building housing the whatever". You know what, just Google Map-it, find the street view, and you would know where I'm standing. Oh and for the web-site developers and content makers, Google also provides Mapplets to integrate into their applications.

Google Maps was dug in a huge way at DIGG:

Google Maps new feature- Street View!!

Here's the official announcement from Google:

"This morning at the Where 2.0 conference in San Jose, John Hanke, Director of Google Earth & Maps, announced new innovations for Google Maps that offer a whole new perspective on search: Street View and Mapplets. Available on Google Maps at maps.google.com, Street View and Mapplets further Google's commitment to provide users with the most innovative maps available online and developers with new tools for creating and sharing geographic content.

"Street View is a new feature of Google Maps that enables users to view and navigate within 360 degree street level imagery of various cities in the US. Street View provides users with a rich, immersive browsing experience directly in Google Maps, enabling greater understanding of a specific location or area. Street View imagery will initially be available for maps of the San Francisco Bay Area, New York, Las Vegas, Denver and Miami, and will soon expand to other metropolitan areas. By clicking on the "Street View" button in Google Maps, users can navigate street level, panoramic imagery. With Street View users can virtually walk the streets of a city, check out a restaurant before arriving, and even zoom in on bus stops and street signs to make travel plans.
"Google also announced the launch of Mapplets, a powerful new tool for developers and consumers alike. Mapplets enables third party developers to create mini applications that can be displayed on Google Maps, much like Google Gadgets are displayed on iGoogle. These Mapplets contain a variety of information, from housing listings to crime data, and tools like distance measurement. Users can select from a wide range of Google and third party Mapplets to display on the Map, essentially creating their own "mashup of mashups" directly on the Google Maps site, while still enjoying the built-in functionality of Google Maps, such as local search and driving directions. A number of our partners, including WeatherBug, Booking.com and Platial have already created Mapplets. This feature is available at http://maps.google.com/preview.."

Bottomline:

Cool!! Way Cool!! Will add more after playing around with the Street View of Google Maps!

Google Search provides International Languages Translation on-the-fly

2007-05-26T23:20:00.000-07:00

Google announced an innovative new Translation feature - Google Translate - that automatically provides the results of a search query in your own language from any other language (that Google supports). To put it in simpler terms, say you are an American visiting Germany, and are looking to find the "annual beer festival". Normally, you would google "annual beer festival" in Germany, and you would come away disappointed since most of the results will be in German. Not any more!! Google's new Google Translate service takes your "annual beer festival" query in English, finds the German equivalent term, "jährliches Bierfestival", finds the German results for this, and provides you the English results side-by-side.

Here is a snapshot of Google Translate in action for the above query:

Google Translate provides you the ability to correct the translated term that is machine generated by Google, and also to install Translation Browser buttons.

Google Translate also provides the capability to simply translate text from any language to any other language that Google supports, or even a web page. Just click on "Text and Web" link.

For example, I tried the term: "Cinco de mayo" and tried the translation from Spanish to English. Google gave me the result: "Five of May"

Bottomline:

Google Translate has the potential to become the mobile "wikipedia" of language translation. The killer application is on a mobile device such as a cell phone when you are visiting a foreign country, and need directions to a hotel or restaurant, or order food from a menu that you do not understand, or even do some talking in local dialect. Instead of asking a local resident who may not understand your language, now you can ask Google Translate for help Although Google humbly claims that Google Translate only offers machine translation and that "while machine translation is not perfect", Google Translate can offer enough information that can be deciphered and made useful. An application could be say for a Chinese or Korean speaker to browse through all the content on English and read it in their local language. Further, Google Translate could be a great way to learn about a foreign language and the commonly used terms. Google should pre-populate such commonly used terms so that a user can simply click on these to get instant answers. In short, Google Translate has many applications, and will continue to find adoption in international markets, and also frequent travelers. Google Translate will mean existing Google users will use Google even more to find answers to their questions on what's happening in a foreign country in their own language, and new Google users who will benefit from leveraging the service to catch up on what's happening in the English speaking world. Google Translate is good innovation that has the potential to one day become second nature.

Google blog post announcing Google Translate:

Search without boundaries

5/23/2007 05:06:00 PM
Posted by Franz Och, Research Scientist; Maureen Heymans, Software Engineer; and Jeff Chin, International Product Manager

One of our goals at Google is to provide access to all the world's information. A big obstacle for that is the language barrier. If the ideal result page to a query is written in a language that you don't understand, then up until now it would be very hard to get access to this information. Today, we launched a new feature on Google Translate that takes a big step towards addressing this problem.

Now, you can search for something in your own language (for example, English) and search the web in another language (for example, French). If you're looking for wine tasting events in Bordeaux while on vacation in France, just type "wine tasting events in Bordeaux" into the search box on the "Search results" tab on Google Translate. You'll then get French search results and a (machine) translation of these search results into English. Similarly, an Arabic speaker could look for restaurants in New York, by searching for "مطعم نيويورك"; or a Chinese speaker could look for documents on machine learning on the English web by looking for
"机器学习".

While machine translation is not perfect, it's usually good enough for you to obtain the gist of information in a language you might otherwise be unable to access. We think this feature will be particularly useful for our international users since although the majority of Internet users out there are non English speakers, a majority of the content on the internet is still in English.

Note that this feature is currently in beta, and we're very interested in getting your feedback.
References:

Official Google Blog: Search without boundaries

Google widens lead in U.S. Search by 100 million searches

2007-05-25T15:54:00.000-07:00

comScore released its monthly qSearch analysis of activity across competitive search engines. "In April 2007, Google Sites captured 49.7 percent of the U.S. search market, gaining 1.4 share points from the previous month. Yahoo! Sites maintained its second place ranking with 26.8 percent of U.S. searches - although losing 0.7 share points from previous month, followed by Microsoft Sites at 10.3 percent also losing 0.6 share points, Ask Network (5.1 percent) losing 0.1 share points and Time Warner Network (5.0 percent) staying even.

"Americans conducted 7.3 billion searches online in April, virtually unchanged versus March and up 11 percent versus April 2006.

Google Sites led the pack with 3.6 billion search queries performed versus 3.5 billion in March, followed by Yahoo Sites (2.0 billion) versus 1.96 billion in March, Microsoft Sites (757 million) versus 800 million in March, Ask Network (376 million), and Time Warner Network (364 million)."

In other words, Google Sites increased the lead by 100 million searches in one month over all other sites.

What's also interesting is that the number of searches conducted was unchanged from March to April 2007 in the U.S. Thus, in a stagnant market, Google still won at the cost of its competitors. This is remarkable. At this pace, Google will have a real majority (over 50 percent) in May 2007, and it could be more than double Yahoo's search share by June 2007.

If Google maintains current pace, Google Search in the U.S. will grow 4.26% in one quarter, assuming the overall search market remains unchanged.

Google Search machine is unstoppable at this juncture.

Google Trends: Everything Out in the Open, Move Over Zeitgeist

2007-05-23T16:55:00.000-07:00

Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) has finally released to the public what's hot (and what's not) every day, yesterday, and even a year ago (or any date for that matter). Google calls this ultra cool feature: Hot Trends. Google succinctly says this is a feature of Google Trends. I think this is not just a feature; it is a way to really track down what the world of people are searching for at any given time, on any given day, on Google, and keep abreast of the latest developments, news, blogs, on the web and more.

Here's the official word from Google on this:

New Feature on Google Trends Shows List of Current Top-Rising Searches
On Monday night (May 22, 2007), Google launched Hot Trends, a new feature on the Google Trends report. Hot Trends enables users to see a list of the current top 100 fastest-rising Google search queries in the U.S. Users can also select specific dates to see what the top-rising searches were at a given point in time.

For years, Google has produced a manually compiled list of popular searches called the Google Zeitgeist. Hot Trends takes this list to a new level, providing an up-to-date snapshot of what's on our collective mind – from current events to daily crossword puzzle clues to the latest celebrity gossip. For each Hot Trends result, the associated Google News, blog searches and Google web search results appear, giving users greater context for each result...
In addition to Hot Trends, there are a few other new changes to Google Trends to make it more informative and user-friendly. Now, in addition to viewing the top countries and cities that searched for a term, users can view the top "sub regions" (e.g. states within the U.S.) across more than 70 countries. Users can now compare the leading presidential candidates around the country, for instance, or find out what region in France is crazy about cognac. Hot Trends is Google’s newest tool for users who want to keep their finger on the pulse of what the world is searching for.

I gave Google Hot Trends a spin today, and I came away pleasantly surprised by the information and trends presented. I was almost Wowed. The almost part for later.

The home page of Google Trends shows "Today's Hot Trends" within USA. If you are using Google from your own country, it would show the Hot Trends within your country. I like the simplicity of the Hot Trends page. Besides showing you today's Hot Trends, the page also provides you a Search Trends query. This is where it gets really interesting. As the Google Press release touts, you can not only put in a single word or multiple words query on one particular hot trend and see how "trendy" it is, or better yet, compare two trends. For instance, Google gives examples of comparing several U.S. candidates for presidency: rudy giuliani, john mccain, mitt romney. One note of caution or caveat: Google Trends search only provides you data on how many people are searching for that particular word on Google. So, for instance, say the American Idol winner was on the cover of a thousand news reviews and periodicals. That may not get picked up by the Hot Trends or Trends search, unless of course, the people are also at the same time searching for American Idol winner on Google. Is there a correlationship between the hottest news and Hot Trends? I'm sure there is. But Hot Trends is not a substitute for Hot News though. Back to my test drive:

I clicked on today's Hot Trends: "wcco", and this is what I was shown by Google Trends. On the left Nav, I see all of today's Hot Trends. In the middle, I can see that "wcco" is On Fire. It also shows Related searches to "wcco". In this instance, it also provides the location of the Hot Trend since it is associated with the city in the U.S. A graph is shown that shows how and when "wcco" became a Hot Trend and when was the pick volume. As can be seen, the volume drops off after reaching a peak - this is typical of Hot News as well. Finally, Google Trends also provides the latest News article on "wcco", Blog posts and links on the Web. What would be nice is to also see a running display of how many news articles, blog posts and web posts are on "wcco" at this time. There is also a link in the middle that says: "Discuss with others". I clicked on this link, and found the following:

The link leads you to Google Groups on Google Trends - Hot Trends. This is the part which was "so-so". Since there was nothing hot about the Hot Trends Groups. Not many people actively discussing the Hot Trends search on "wcco" or for that matter anything else. Even Google's own Groups assessment shows this Group to be "low activity" and it has only 12 members so far. I guess so far, the Google users are not that hot on discussing the Hot Trends. With time, this could change though. This was the part where I was almost Wowed. Moving on, I tried a Comparison on Hot Trends between MySpace and YouTube:

This was the coolest feature yet of Hot Trends since it shows you how many people online are searching for MySpace and YouTube, the trendline comparison, what big news drove people to volumes of search, Regions of the world where they are the most popular, Cities where they are most searched on, and finally Languages as well. The data presented needs to be taken in context though: for instance, Google Trends shows that MySpace is "most popular" in Guam, even ahead of United States. Wait a moment. How can that be? Well, well. This means there are definitely hordes of people searching for "MySpace" in Guam, more than the people in the U.S. This could also mean that in the U.S., "MySpace" is already well-known, and people have already put this on their favorites, or go direct to it. On the other hand, YouTube is "most popular" in Peru. Heck, U.S. does not even show up in the top ten list. Again, this means, YouTube is already a known entity in the U.S.; on the other hand, all over the world, YouTube is still sought after and searched on.

There are interesting comparative notes on MySpace and YouTube. Google Trends allows you to arrange the results by either of the two terms. Hence the two results are shown above side by side.

Bottomline:

Google Trends and Hot Trends are definitely Hot! It not only gives you a pulse on the latest happenings online as seen by Google Search, but also gives you comparisons on two or more trends over the time frame of your choice: today, yesterday, or any given day. Now if only Google can tell us what will be Hot tomorrow!! Move over Zeitgeist.

Google is one of the top 20 Innovators of The Innovation Index.

Google's New Search - Step in the right direction - Still some ways to go

2007-05-16T16:23:00.000-07:00

Google today announced it's new search technology aka Universal Search:

Google Begins Move to Universal Search

Google Introduces New Search Features and Unveils New Homepage Design

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. (May 16, 2007) – Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) today announced its critical first steps toward a universal search model that will offer users a more integrated and comprehensive way to search for and view information online. The company also introduced an updated homepage design and several new navigation features that make it faster and easier for users to find the information they are looking for.

"Our focus has always been making our users' search experience as simple and straightforward as possible," said Marissa Mayer, vice president of search products and user experience at Google. "The ultimate goal of universal search is to break down the silos of information that exist on the web and provide the very best answer every time a user enters a query. While we still have a long way to go, today's announcements are a big step in that direction."

Google's vision for universal search is to ultimately search across all its content sources, compare and rank all the information in real time, and deliver a single, integrated set of search results that offers users precisely what they are looking for. Beginning today, the company will incorporate information from a variety of previously separate sources – including videos, images, news, maps, books, and websites – into a single set of results. At first, universal search results may be subtle. Over time users will recognize additional types of content integrated into their search results as the company advances toward delivering a truly comprehensive search experience.

For example, a user searching for information on the Star Wars character Darth Vader is likely interested in all the information related to the character and the actor – not just web pages that mention the movie. Google will now deliver a single set of blended search results that include a humorous parody of the movie, images of the Darth Vader character, news reports on the latest Lucas film, as well as websites focused on the actor James Earl Jones – all ranked in order of relevance to the query. Users no longer have to visit several different Google search properties to find such a wide array of information on the topic.

The Power of Google Technology
Google is also in the process of deploying a new technical infrastructure that will enable the search engine to handle the computationally intensive tasks required to produce universal search results. The company is also releasing the first stage of an upgraded ranking mechanism that automatically and objectively compares different types of information. As always, Google™ search results are ranked automatically by algorithms to deliver the best results to users anywhere in the world.

"Google has continued to concentrate on improving the quality of search," said Udi Manber, vice president of engineering at Google. "The level and speed of search innovation at Google has increased. Most of this innovation addresses basic ranking algorithms and is often not obvious to users. Users just see more accurate results, more often, in more languages, which is our primary goal."

New Navigation Features
New dynamically generated navigation links have been added above the search results to suggest additional information that is relevant to a user's query. For example, a search for "python" will now generate links to Google Blog Search™, Google Book Search™, Google Groups™, and Google Code™, to let the user know there is additional information on his or her query in each of those areas. As a result, users can find a wider array of information on their topic, including data types they might not have initially considered.

Google's homepage and a number of applications have also been updated with a new navigation bar to provide easier access to popular Google products. Now, instead of having links above the Google.com homepage search box, users will see a navigation bar on the top left side of the page with various Google search properties and popular products including Gmail™, Google Calendar™, Google Docs & Spreadsheets™, and Picasa Web Albums™. .....

I tried out Google Search today on various queries regarding "baseball" to understand the differences and whether it yields better, "integrated and comprehensive" results.

Here were some results for various queries starting with "baseball":

In this particular query for "baseball", Google Search is confusing, since the user is inundated with two sets of navigation links: the always present static links at the top, and the dynamically generated links below the search. As an end user, which link should I click on if I want more information? Images link in the top static bar? or Images link shown under the dynamic bar? News link in the top static bar? or News link in the dynamic bar? I think Google needs to fix this or represent the dynamic bar links in a different manner so as to indicate that there is interesting information available. For now, whether you click on the Images link in the static bar or in the dynamic bar, the results are the same. Also, the overall query results for "baseball" did not show anything more interesting than what was shown before in the query results (old Search).

The query for "baseball bat" produced better results. It not only showed me the text search results for baseball bat, but also showed me image results for baseball bat which made the results "interesting". In the case of "baseball bat" query, the dynamic links were different: only three links were shown - Web, Images and Products. Again, the Images dynamic link yields the same results as the Images static link. Hence, it is a bit confusing. Another confusing static link at the top was "Gmail" - clicking on Gmail yielded nothing except asking me to sign-up for Gmail. I am thinking that if you are logged in to Gmail, it may perhaps show something different. Either way, the static link for "Gmail" at the top did not provide anything meaningful. The Products dynamic link for "baseball bat" was definitely a plus, since clicking on the Products link yielded the following result:

Now, I was able to find baseball bats available for sale. This made sense. I think Google needs to visually present this better - perhaps embed a couple of Products snapshot on the main page.

I tried one more search: "baseball cap" since I wanted to buy a new baseball cap for my favorite baseball team. However, the results were disappointing: in this instance, the dynamic links shown were only for the Web and Images. And clicking on Images link produced the same results as would have appeared were you to click on the Static Images link. I was hoping to have found the Products dynamic link to find the baseball cap of my favorite team. However, this was not to be. Having said that, the usual Web search does provide links to product sites.

Bottomline:

Google's new search technology is an early effort towards making searching for information better. Google has the right vision of integrating the search across various dimensions of Web, Images, Video, Products, etc. and providing comprehensive results. However, implementing this algorithm for new search, producing the results in parallel, and showing the results in a visually appealing and contextually easy-to-understand manner is going to be key as Google moves forward. Google may also be faced with the problem of what a majority of the user population may be seeking: a simpler answer to their search query. The more sophisticated users may appreciate the comprehensive answer that Google will provide. How would Google know whether the user is a layman user or a sophisticated user? One thing is certain though: Google has the ability to mine the world's information and present it in a contextual setting that is relevant to the user. Google just needs to make sure that in creating a new search, it does not make it confusing for the end user, as this would be huge step backward.

Google to create new R&D Center in South India

2007-05-15T15:37:00.000-07:00

"By Pradip Bhatacharya
TMCnet Contributing Editor

Google has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the government of Andhra Pradesh to buy land in Hyderabad, India to build a Google facility to support the growing business and team expansion across operations. The R&D center will occupy 20 acres and have the capacity to house 4,000 people. Google now employs 1,000 people at its leased premises in Hyderabad.

"India is an exciting market. Google products and services have received a very encouraging response and our offices have grown, thanks to the exceptional talent pool,” said Roy Gilbert, director- Online Sales and Operations, Google India, in a statement. “We have a long term commitment to the market and would like to make a difference by helping economic growth, bringing equality of access and using technology to help people in their daily lives. The MoU marks a step forward in further establishing our commitment to India.”

According to the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, such investments would help accelerate the country's economic growth besides providing gainful employment.

Pradip Bhattacharya is a contributing writer for TMCnet."

Bottomline:

Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) is poised to expand its base in India with this new R & D center that can house up to 4,000 engineers. Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh in South India wins the nod from Google, partly because Google has already a 1,000 person engineering and services operation for the online sales running quite smoothly; however, when you have the chief minister of Andhra and his team wooing you to do more with all the incentives, it would have been very hard for Google to say no. Timing is everything. Don't be surprised if by the end of 2010, Google has a four thousand people strong R & D center in South India with plans to make it a ten thousand employee organization across all of India based on the kind of growth Google is seeing and its position as one of the top innovators of the world.

References:

http://news.tmcnet.com/news/2007/05/14/2611657.htm

ROI on Online Marketing - A whole new experience for Google Analytics

2007-05-14T13:13:00.000-07:00

A whole new experience for Google Analytics
5/08/2007 12:21:00 PM Posted by Jeff Veen, UI Design Manager

"A year and a half ago, we released Google Analytics as a free service to help people measure the success of their Web sites. In that time, the response has been fantastic - hundreds of thousands of sites across the Web have access to this powerful analysis previously only available to the enterprise.

Now, we're taking the next step: making that analysis even more accessible and easy to use. Today we're announcing a complete redesign of Google Analytics.

We started over a year ago with dozens of interviews with power users, those new to analytics, and everyone in between. They told us they needed their data organized in a more intuitive way. They wanted to be able to see traffic trends in context with more explanation of what the numbers mean. And they needed tools to help them communicate what they'd found with others. This research fed months of development and design iteration to create a totally new user experience.

We've been working on this since I blogged about the Measure Map acquisition. Since then, we've collaborated with the combined team from Google and Urchin Software to bring user-centered design to their strong development skills. I couldn't be more pleased with the results.

You can find out more at the Google Analytics Blog and be sure to check out this demo for more details."

Bottomline:

Google has one-upped the free Google Analytics to new heights. I have been using Google Analytics to track daily visitors, unique visitors, top content, top entrances, top exits, geographical profiling, marketing analytics, and more for my Creativity And Innovation Driving Business Blog for the past several months. And the results have helped me better target and time content for new and returning readers. I am still learning the art of converting new and returning visitors into loyal readers (in my case) or loyal customers for most of the product sites. The powerful tools that Google Analytics offers can help any online business reap more rewards for their online initiatives, not only for the success of the business websites, but also the superior results for all online marketing ads, campaigns and programs. If you do not want to invest into enterprise marketing solution for online marketing, but rather want to start off by leveraging free tools that provide solid visibility into web marketing, Google Analytics could be your answer.

Official Google Blog: A whole new experience for Google Analytics

Google International - Google Desktop 5 in 29 languages

2007-05-14T12:01:00.000-07:00

Google Desktop 5 in 29 languages
4/26/2007 07:24:00 PM Posted by Kevin Tom, Google Desktop team

"We are happy to be releasing the Google Desktop 5 application in 29 languages, including our first release in Hindi. It's now easier than ever for people around the world to find content on their computer as well as on the web. We've redesigned the look and feel of the sidebar and many of our most popular gadgets. There are also previews for search results and warnings for suspicious websites, whether you're clicking on links from documents, IMs, websites, and more.

No matter which country you're in, we hope that these changes make it easier to quickly and safely find the right information.

To learn more about what's new with Desktop 5, read this post on the Google Desktop Blog. And check out the recently-released version for Mac, too."

Bottomline:
Google is ontrack to get Google Desktop embedded everywhere, all over the world. In particular, every desktop, every language, every user. Importantly, Google provides world users familiarity in their own language, with the ease of use of Google Search - whether searching for information, media or documents on your own computer (much faster than the included Find utility) or searching online. And Google also touts the latest Google Desktop 5 as safer than previous versions - especially with the introduction of previews and warnings. Google Desktop 5 is worth a spin, and in all likelihood, you will stick with it once you try it.

Official Google Blog: Google Desktop 5 in 29 languages

MyGoogle aka iGoogle - You've got gadget mail

2007-05-14T11:56:00.000-07:00

"You've got gadget mail
4/30/2007 08:59:00 PM Posted by by Sophia Brueckner, Software Engineer, iGoogle

"For a while now, we Googlers have used a bit of shorthand to refer to the Personalized Homepage -- a name that connotes interactivity, the Internet, and personalization all at once.

Please meet iGoogle, the new name for the Google Personalized Homepage.

Developers around the world have been working hard to make more and more of the world's content available for iGoogle. Can you get, oh, some of the world's most beautiful pictures, updated daily? Check. Thousands and thousands of gadgets to choose from? Check. A personal note and picture from your sweetie? Now you can make your own, because starting today, without having any programming or web design experience at all, anyone can create Google Gadgets for iGoogle and send them to friends. Simple gadget templates include a photo gadget, a "GoogleGram" greeting card-style gadget, a YouTube video channel gadget, and a free-form gadget.

To make yours, choose the gadget template you'd like to use, enter your info, and enter your friends' email addresses. You can always make changes to your gadget, and you can even set some kinds of gadgets to update automatically so your friends will see a new message daily.

Today we're also making the themes that have been so popular on iGoogle in the U.S. available on every edition of iGoogle around the world, and we're making iGoogle available in 22 new locales. Visit iGoogle and click "Select theme" to pick a theme for your own page."

Bottomline:

If you have been waiting to personalize your Google experience, look no further. iGoogle is MyGoogle for Search, News, Videos, Blogs and more. Don't have time or energy to create your own gadget - no problem. Just use one of the available themes, and you would be off and running. iGoogle is not My Yahoo, yet! However, with time, and with more themes and gadgets, the possibilities are endless. iGoogle is poised to become MyGoogle and rival My Yahoo in the near future.

Official Google Blog: You've got gadget mail

Events, Schedules, Reminders, Action - Google Calendar on the go

2007-05-14T11:55:00.000-07:00

Calendar on the go
5/03/2007 05:40:00 AM Posted by Aarati Parmar Martino, Software Engineer, Google Calendar team

"Many people schedule their day on the fly, and are often away from their computers when they need to run to their next event. With Google Calendar, you don't have to be online to be alerted about upcoming events—all you need is a mobile phone. Now you can set up mobile SMS (text message) reminders that will be sent to your mobile phone.

In fact, now you can schedule reminders for events on your personal calendar or any other calendar to which you're subscribed. Whether it's your favorite baseball team's schedule, a family calendar, or any other calendar to which you have access, you can set up mobile reminders.

This feature is available in all the 18 languages we support."

Bottomline:

Finally, a calendar and reminder service from Google. And importantly, one where you can receive your reminders through SMS on your mobile phone. Of course, we live in such a fast paced world filled with daily meetings, hectic schedules, and overlapping events that we probably need a reminder for a reminder! Phew. In any case, Google Calender will be a welcome relief for Google fans to "see the big picture", "share events and calendars", and "stay on schedule." Never be late for that next meeting!

Official Google Blog: Calendar on the go

Google Finance gets better - Key updates from Google Finance

2007-05-14T11:54:00.000-07:00

Some updates from Google Finance
5/07/2007 11:04:00 AM Posted by Kuldeep Gharat, Software Engineer

"Earnings season is one of the busiest times in the world of finance. There's barely enough time to join an earnings call if you are combing through all the latest news and quarterly statements. Today, we're adding content on these events content so you never have to miss an earnings call again. You can view earnings calls, analyst meetings, and any other material event on your company and portfolio pages. Further, you can download these events directly to your Google Calendar.

And in response to many of your requests, we've also added a few smaller features to Google Finance, including:
Historical prices: View and download historical end-of-day prices for any U.S. or Canadian company
Portfolios: You can now download the latest portfolio performance and transaction details from your portfolio
News feeds: Stay on top of the news using your feed client such as Google Reader, Bloglines, or as part of your iGoogle

Last week, you may have read that there are now ticker symbols on news results for public companies on Google News. Click on the symbol and you'll go to the corresponding page on Google Finance.

We hope that you find these features useful. As always, please let us know what else we can to to help you manage your finances using Google Finance."

Bottomline:

I have been a user of Google Finance since I launched The Innovation Index at Creativity And Innovation Driving Business Blog. Some of the features I really like is how Google charts the key news along with the stock price - this shows some correlation between key news about a company and its relative price in stock movement. Further, I liked the fact that all the news about a company are grouped together, the main page for a stock also shows the Discussion and Blog posts, and the relevant company factoids.

The new additions of Company Events content and Historical Prices, and updates on Portfolios and News Feeds definitely strengthen the Google Finance offering. The integration with newly announced Google Calendar is on the money. In summary, Google Finance is fast becoming a key portal for Finance users, and can one day serve up Financial news, stock quotes, portfolios, events and more for a large segment of the individual investor market.

Official Google Blog: Some updates from Google Finance

Google versus Yahoo - A tale of two cities

2007-04-29T23:27:00.000-07:00

Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) and Yahoo Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) are two of the 20 innovators of The Innovation Index.

“Google's sites had 528 million visitors worldwide in March 2007, a 13 percent gain from the same month a year ago, according to ComScore Inc.. Microsoft had 527 million, while Yahoo had 476.3 million, the researcher said.

The popularity of searching the Web and new sites such as YouTube helped Google grow faster than both its biggest rivals. Products such as the Gmail e-mail service, an online calendar and an online payments system are drawing users even though they aren't nearly as popular as Google's search engine.”

Google already is the most-popular Internet search engine, drawing 48 percent of U.S. queries in March 2007, according to ComScore. Sunnyvale, California-based Yahoo was the most-visited U.S. Web site in February and also had the most repeat visits of any Web site.

In March 2007 I wrote a report on Can Yahoo Catch Google? after Yahoo had recently launched Project Panama, Yahoo's answer to Google AdWords and the making of a better search mechanism.

In the last two weeks both Yahoo and Google announced their earnings for the latest quarter. Project Panama had not yet impacted Yahoo's topline revenue; however, Yahoo officials are hopeful that Panama will have some impact in 2007. The question from the investors and analysts looms is how much impact Project Panama will have when the dust settles.

When one examines the growing gap between Yahoo and Google in terms of quarterly revenue, quarter over quarter revenue growth, quarterly net income, quarterly net profit margin, yearly innovations and stock performance gains, the picture becomes increasingly clear. Google is unstoppable at this juncture! And as of recent quarter's earnings announcement, Google has achieved another historical milestone vis-a-vis Yahoo, a first in its storied existence -- The Quarterly Revenue Gap between Google and Yahoo doubled -- Or to put in simpler terms: Google's quarterly revenues are now more than double Yahoo's quarterly revenue. 2007 will mark the first year when Google's revenue and profits will more than double Yahoo's. It's not just revenues. Google has widened the gap in Quarter over Quarter Revenue Growth, Net Income, Net Profit Margin and Stock Performance. Only the volume of Innovations or Gross Innovations is an area where Google and Yahoo seem to have some parity. Which brings me to the central point: Are sheer number of Innovations (total innovations) a leading indicator on how well a company is growing, or poised to grow? Alternatively, one has to really examine under the hood and look at not only the actual number and type of new products introduced, new collaborations and acquisitions, but also current market leadership and execution to understand how well the company is growing.

Complete Story on Creativity and Innovation Driving Business

Google acquires Marratech Software

2007-04-23T16:22:00.000-07:00

On the same evening of the record quarterly earnings announcement, preceding a week which included the huge acquisition of DoubleClick (was DoubleClick a Smart Buy?), Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) coyly announced the acquisition of Marratech's Video conferencing software on the Official Google Blog under the title: Collaborating with Marratech. No press release. No analyst call. No interviews. Just a simple announcement through a blog post by Google's VP of Engineering Douglas Merrill:

"As a company, we thrive on casual interactions and spontaneous collaboration. So we're excited about acquiring Marratech's video conferencing software, which will enable from-the-desktop participation for Googlers in videoconference meetings wherever there's an Internet connection.

We look forward to learning from the extraordinary ingenuity of Marratech's engineers as they focus on desktop conferencing research and development in Sweden, where they will continue to be located."

Why would Google do this? Why buy a company's video conferencing software when you are not going to go all out and talk about it? After all, Google is a key marketing innovator providing an advertising and search platform to tens of thousands of businessess worldwide. Why even put an update on the official blog afterwards that says: "To clarify some confusion, we acquired Marratech's software, not the company itself."

Page 2 of the story

Is DoubleClick a Smart Buy for Google?

2007-04-14T18:20:00.000-07:00

Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) purchased DoubleClick for $3.1 billion in cash from San Francisco-based private equity firm Hellman & Friedman along with JMI Equity and management.

According to Google Press Release:

"The combination of Google and DoubleClick will offer superior tools for targeting, serving and analyzing online ads of all types, significantly benefiting customers and consumers:

-For users, the combined company will deliver an improved experience on the web, by increasing the relevancy and the quality of the ads they see.
-For online publishers, the combination provides access to new advertisers, which creates a powerful opportunity to monetize their inventory more efficiently.
-For agencies and advertisers, Google and DoubleClick will provide an easy and efficient way to manage both search and display ads in one place. They will be able to optimize their ad spending across different online media using a common set of metrics."

According to Marketwatch story, "DoubleClick had been the subject of speculation about a possible acquisition. In late March, the Wall Street Journal reported that DoubleClick's owners were entertaining offers in the range of $2 billion from a handful of companies, including Microsoft."

The rest of the story can be found here...

Google innovates with LG Electronics

2007-04-01T13:07:00.000-07:00

Innovation:
Product Integration through Strategic Partnership: LG Handsets to integrate Google Search, Google Maps for mobile, Blogger Mobile and Gmail for mobile

Summary:
LG Electronics, South Korea's global leader and technology innovator in consumer electronics, home appliances and mobile communications, and Google announced a global collaboration to pre-install Google's services on millions of LG mobile phones. Mobile users around the world will now be able to easily search for information, find locations, update blogs and manage email while on the move.

Select LG handsets, pre-installed with Google™ products and services will be shipped globally including North America, Europe and Asia starting in the second quarter of 2007. These handsets will create a more dynamic user experience, including one click access to Google search through an icon in the application menu. More features of LG-Google handsets include:

Google Maps™ for mobile, an application that enables users to view maps and satellite imagery, find local businesses, and get driving directions
Gmail™ for mobile, a Java-based application that brings more speed, convenience and functionality to the mobile Gmail experience
Blogger™ Mobile, an application to upload/download images and text to blog from mobile devices (www.blogger.com), keeps avid bloggers upwardly mobile.

Through this new partnership, LG and Google will jointly market LG-Google handsets, then further extending their collaboration to develop digitalized home in the future. LG plans to launch mobile handsets pre-installed with Google and products and service for the next few years with at least ten new handsets in 2007.

Insight:
Product innovation driven through strategic partnership and product integration. Market innovation driven through distribution and product integration.

Opinion:
Google has found a solid global partner in LG to befit its mobile strategy and expand its mobile market share. By embedding Google Search and key applications such as Maps, Gmail and Blogger into LG mobile phones, Google and LG are going to provide mobile phone users easier ways to access the applications they use most often and care about. Mobile phone users want simplicity and ease of use when it comes to searching, e-mailing, locating and blogging - Google applications provide one click access to these apps, and ease of use. This partnership and product integration is a win-win-win for LG, Google and mobile users.

References:
Top Ten Innovations from the Top 20 Innovators
LG Electronics and Google Team Up to Enhance the Mobile Experience*

Google planning to serve Ads within games through Adscape Media acquistion

2007-03-18T13:05:00.000-07:00

Let the passion continue! We're acquiring Adscape
Posted by Bernie Stolar, Dean of Games

Asteroids, Space Invaders, Centipede and Tetris—remember when you could only play these games at an arcade? I would line up behind at least 6 people for my chance at Asteroids.

Time warp—now it's 2007. Games can be played anywhere and at anytime. In this mobile world, games have evolved to become a part of our lives. Unlike television, gamers can make games their own - customizing their experience in new ways—and we are helping them do that big time.

But of course developing these sophisticated games can be very expensive. Back in the 80s the cost of producing a single game was about $100K. Today it can cost $25M to produce a game. The good news is there are some very passionate gamers out there that have come up with some interesting new ways to introduce non-intrusive and targeted advertising in order to make gaming accessible and affordable for all.

Our charge at Adscape has always been to honor the game that was developed and find new ways to enable that game to continue so others can enjoy it. That's why we are so stoked to join Google—because these guys get it, and are committed to helping us continue our mission.

Frequently asked questions

Background

Q. What is Adscape Media?
A. Adscape Media is a small in-game advertising company based in San Francisco California. Adscape Media offers dynamic delivery of advertising with plot and storyline integration - making its solutions a truly interactive marketing platform. Adscape Media supports sophisticated demographic and geographic targeting and also provides a robust reporting interface for marketers.

Q. Why did Google acquire Adscape Media?
A. In-game advertising is an area where we believe Google could add a lot of value to users, advertisers and publishers. Adscape Media's technology and talented team are a great addition to Google's current advertising solutions for advertisers and publishers.

Q. Will Google assume full operational control of Adscape, or will Adscape remain autonomous?
A. We are excited to have the Adscape team join the Google team. We will work together on moving this project forward.

Q. Why did Adscape Media decide to sell to Google?
A. We found that there was a great fit with their technology, team and culture.

Q. Has Google previously incorporated in-game advertising into its ads services?
A. No.

Bottomline

The purist gamers do not want to have any Ads placed in their games. These gamers spend extra money to buy the best games and the latest gaming platforms. However, the world of gaming has evolved considerably. Now, games can be played anywhere - on a computer, TV, mobile, online, arcade, kiosks, and through gaming consoles. The market of gamers who would like to experience good games for free or for a very low price is growing - these gamers would not mind if there are Ads placed strategically in their games in as much as they do not interfere with the flow of the game. Google is placing bets that these gamers would create the next big wave, and that many marketers will place their ads in the games these gamers play; on the other hand, many developers create more games for these gamers. Adscape media acquisition would not add immediate topline benefit to Google's revenue; however, within a few years, the Adscape acquisition could become a bigger play as the Advertisements in gaming industry takes off.

Google acquires Trendalyzer: A world in motion

2007-03-18T12:45:00.000-07:00

Official Google Blog: A world in motion

Posted by Marissa Mayer, VP Search Products & User Experience

Mark Twain said, "Facts are stubborn, but statistics are more pliable." We're pretty sure Twain's definition of pliable is different from ours. Building flexibility into search, email, and other Google products is critically important as we seek to organize the world's information, and it's only natural that we should continue to look for ways to make the use of such statistics more "pliable" as well.

In this regard, we are excited to announce that we have acquired Gapminder's Trendalyzer software, and we welcome the Trendalyzer team to Google.

Trendalyzer generates moving graphics and other novel effects in the display of facts, figures, and statistics in presentations. In its nimble hands, Trendalyzer views development data—such as regional income distribution or trends in global health—as literally a world of opportunity. Like Google, Gapminder strives to make information more useful, and Trendalyzer will improve any function or application in which data might be better visualized. Gathering data and creating useful statistics is an arduous job that often goes unrecognized. We hope to provide the resources necessary to bring such work to its deserved wider audience by improving and expanding Trendalyzer and making it freely available to any and all users capable of thinking outside the X and Y axes. That's our definition of "pliable." Please stay tuned, and we'll tell you more as soon as we can.

Bottomline:

Gapminder's Trendalyzer will provide richer context to the information that Google already mines and presents. The success of this acquisition though would be measured by the ability of an everybody user to use this advance capability, and visualize the information beyond the usual two dimensions. Perhaps Google should also make additional efforts in the direction (or dimension) towards helping the layman users think "outside the X and Y axes".

The Apple Google Juggernaut - $66 Billion - Overtaking Microsoft?

2007-03-09T14:07:00.000-08:00

If Apple and Google merge, the combined company will amass estimated revenue of $66.1 billion in 2009, thereby eclipsing Microsoft, whose estimated annual revenue in 2009 will be $62.4 billion. It will be a merger unlike any other in the history of mergers, and will create a powerhouse that might just topple the mighty Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) from the throne. Google CEO Eric Schmidt loves Apple to say the least, and signaled that Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) is working more closely with Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) at the Morgan Stanley Technology Conference this week. Schmidt joined the board of directors of Apple last year.

Apple, Google and Microsoft are three of the top 20 Innovators of The Innovation Index.

When Schmidt was asked by an investor on whether Google might be developing “Google phone” to compete with Apple's highly anticipated iPhone, Schmidt responded:"I don't want to comment on rumors, I will tell you that Google and Apple are doing more and more things together through the normal course of communications ... We have similar goals and similar competitors."Google and Apple are already working closely together; when Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple, announced the iPhone in January, it came packaged with Google Maps. (Apple Rising)

Rest of the story at:
The Apple Google Juggernaut - $66 billion - overtaking Microsoft?

Google Innovations Roundup for 02-25-07

2007-02-25T08:59:00.000-08:00

Google Innovation of the week

Google versus Microsoft - Enterprise Battle heats up!

Google Innovation News

YouTube, Facebook Spark Copycats, Bubble Fear in Silicon Valley
Bloomberg
``Open source has been absolutely critical in driving innovation,'' says Roelof Botha, general partner at Sequoia Capital in Menlo Park, who backed YouTube ...

FedEx couples Google Earth with active package tracking
ZDNet
Carter, speaking at the Wharton Technology Conference in Philadelphia, outlined a project called Smart Package in a talk about innovation, monetization and ...

Goodbye Microsoft Office, Hello Google Apps Premier?
Portable Planet, UK
Google Apps Premier Edition was announced today by the company at a cost of $50 per user account per year. Can this package take on the behemoth that is ...

Google Innovation Blogs

FedEx couples Google Earth with active package tracking
location, humidity levels and delivery status with Web 2.0 tools such as Google Earth. Carter spoke at the Wharton Technology Conference to talk about innovation, monetization and network access and connectivity.
Digg / Tech Industry News / digg - http://digg.com/tech_news

Mash it up with Yahoo Pipes
by Martin Brady
A new innovation is offered by Yahoo. I'm impressed with the product from what I've seen. It's very Web 2.0. I get a lot of cynical looks from ... Yahoo have managed to steal some of Google's thunder imo. Take a look at Yahoo Pipes. ...
Google Web Pages The Adventure - http://googlepagestheadventure.blogspot.com/index.html

Gift Economy or Honeymoon?
by Tim O'Reilly
In my debates with publishers over Google Book Search, ... who missed the boat: they hope through coercion to get what they missed out on through lack of innovation. ... Right now, even Google hasn't figured out how to monetize YouTube. ...
O'Reilly Radar - http://radar.oreilly.com/

Could Google solve Philip’s problem?
by Dennis Howlett
It would represent the start of acquiring knowledge that adds value to client engagements. Value that is largely hidden today. Technorati Tags: Google, innovation, Google Apps, SAP. Innovation. Share This.
AccMan - http://www.accmanpro.com

The Innovation Index up 6% in 2007 - Weekly Report 02-21-07
by Sanjay Dalal
Pipes only furthers the excitement (although Yahoo! search share slipped last month to Google). Research In Motion's latest Blackberry innovation is helping the recent surge in stock performance. RIMM is now up 11% for the year. ...
Creativity And Innovation Driving Business - http://creativityandinnovation.blogspot.com/index.html

Why Microsoft will not fall into the Innovators Dilemma
by Don Dodge
Even Microsoft Works is far better, and more complete, than Google Apps. ... And right now Google has the perception of being the innovator, even though there is ... Xbox came out of no where and is now the percieved innovation leader. ...
Don Dodge on The Next Big Thing - http://dondodge.typepad.com/the_next_big_thing/

Blogger Vs Wordpress
by Ujj
The Google Reader's link blog is, in my opinion , by far the most innovative app in the blogging domain till date. ... Usage stat graphs and per post stats are a wonderful innovation and once a user is used to it, its difficult to live ...
EAT IT - http://ujjwalgrover.blogspot.com/index.html

The Story of Sergey Brin - How the Moscow-Born entrepreneur ...
21 hours ago by sofa-m Sergey, 33, shares the space with his Google cofounder, fellow Stanford Ph. ... Since then, Google has grown from just another Silicon Valley startup into ... to entertain visitors and survey the carnival of innovation going on below. ...
sofa-m - http://sofa-m.livejournal.com/

Dr. Eric Schmidt - What Drives Innovation'
24 Feb 2007 Eric Schmidt, CEO at Google and on Apple’s board of Directors, gave a lecture on internet’s impact on industry and society at the Innovation 2006 conference at Stanford. Topics include: Innovation at Google, future of internet, ...
Google video - http://youtube-downloads.net/get/google-video/

Mozilla Firefox 2.0.0.2 - Final
23 Feb 2007 ... this latest Firefox release sets a new standard for web browser innovation. ... Smarter Search: Google Search is built right into the toolbar, and there are ... search box when using the Google, Yahoo! or Answers.com search engines. ...
tomelis - http://tomelis.mylivepage.com

Google versus Microsoft - Enterprise Battle heats up!

2007-02-22T07:38:00.000-08:00

Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) today introduced new innovation with the Business version of Google Apps - Google Apps Premier Edition in direct competition to Microsoft's Enterprise applications.

Google is one of the top 20 Innovators of The Innovation Index.

Google Apps Premier Edition is available for a yearly subscription of $50 per user account per year.

Google Apps Premier Edition communication and collaboration suite includes the following Top Ten Features:

1. Google Gmail webmail services including Gmail for Blackberry
2. Google Calendar shared calendaring services
3. Google Talk instant messaging and voice-over-ip
4. Start Page branded and customized to company domain (e.g. companyname.googleapp.com)
5. Google Docs & Spreadsheets
6. 24 x 7 Phone support for critical issues - extended business hours support
7. 10 GB storage per user
8. New set of administration and business integration capabilities - Application-level control and APIs for business process adaptation, policies, data migration, user provisioning, single sign-on, and mail gateways
9. 99.9% uptime - SLAs (service level agreements) for monitoring and credits
10. French, Italian, German, Spanish, Chinese, Japanese and Korean language versions (possibly more)

Importantly, Google Apps Premier Edition builds on the success of 100,000 small businesses and universities using the free Google Apps Standard Edition and Google Apps Education Edition introduced in 2006.

Proctor & Gamble (NYSE: PG) and General Electric (NYSE: GE) are also two of the top 20 Innovators of The Innovation Index. Both P&G and GE applauded the new Google Apps Premier Edition.

P&G statement:

"Procter & Gamble Global Business Services (GBS) has enrolled as a charter enterprise customer of Google Apps, a successful consumer product suite now available to enterprises. P&G will work closely with Google in shaping enterprise characteristics and requirements for these popular tools," said Laurie Heltsley, director Procter & Gamble Global Business Services.

GE statement:

"So much of business now relies on people being able to communicate and collaborate effectively," said Gregory Simpson, CTO for General Electric Company. "GE is interested in evaluating Google Apps for the easy access it provides to a suite of web applications, and the way these applications can help people work together. Given its consumer experience, Google has a natural advantage in understanding how people interact together over the web."

Google also has the backing and adoption of smaller yet critical businesses such as San Francisco Bay Pediatrics.

San Francisco Bay Pediatrics:

"When it comes to our email systems, our doctors don’t have the time or the budgets to deal with managing technology or defending against spam," said Andrew Johnson, chief information officer, San Francisco Bay Pediatrics. "With Google Apps Premier Edition we don’t have to worry about downloading the latest spam filters or navigating unwieldy servers. This is where we let Google do what it does best, so we can do what we do best – help our patients."

Finally, Google made a very important announcement which was embedded towards the later paragraphs of the Press Release:

"other early adopters of Google Apps Premier Edition include Salesforce.com and Prudential Preferred Properties in the U.S., as well as Essilor and Mediametrie in France. "

Google is touting Salesforce.com as an early adopter.

Could this be the beginning of an early indicator that Google will go on to buy Salesforce.com?

Does Microsoft Live or Microsoft Business Services division have an answer for Google? Can Google find many distribution and enterprise partners such as Avaya and Postini to support, integrate and service Google Apps Premier Edition in the enterprise? For now, Google is knocking at the enterprise doors, and if Google is able to obtain early adopters such as GE and couple of other larger Fortune 500 corporations, Google will generate the kind of momentum where major enterprise customers will be compelled to take a look at Google Apps Premier Edition and evaluate at the price point of $50 per user account per year.

New Revenue Opportunity

With the introduction of Google Apps Premier Edition, Google has the opportunity to create new market share, and grab market share from Microsoft Office and Email applications. Google Apps Standard and Education Edition has 100,000 business customers today; at an average of 10 users per customer, this translates to 1 million end users potentially using Google Apps today. Google Apps was introduced in 2006. Thus, in about 1 year, Google Apps has an end user population of 1 million potential users. If Google Apps Premier Edition can attract 100,000 new businesses in one year, or 1 million end users, this will translate into new revenue opportunity of $50 million per year. However, knowing Google, and with the tremendous marketing muscle it exerts at Google.com, the goal is possibly much higher: 10 million end users or $500 million in annual revenue. Where will these customers come from? From new market growth and a sizable number from Microsoft. If Google goes on to buy Salesforce.com and introduces Google Apps integrated with Salesforce.com CRM applications, the vision of $500 million in annual revenue is within reach. In five years or less, Google has the potential to create a $1 billion business for Google Apps Premier Edition. Disruptive innovation in motion.

Google versus Microsoft - the enterprise battle heats up!

Google Innovations Roundup for 02-21-07

2007-02-21T16:57:00.000-08:00

Google Innovation News

Google's Cerf Sees Internet Growing By Telephone
Forbes
Vinton Cerf , one of the pioneers of the Internet and currently a Google vice president , is placing his bets on mobile phones to fuel online growth in the coming years.Cerf , who spoke to reporters ...

Google Wizards Conjure Google News Links for Web Sites
InformationWeek by Thomas Claburn
Users of this latest search tool can customize the appearance of the news bar widget and indicate what searches it should perform on Google News content. Web site owners can now ...

Sustaining Corporate Growth Requires 'Big I' and 'little i' Innovation
Knowledge@Wharton (subscription), PA
For instance, by the time of its initial public offering in 2004, Google was already a formidable rival of Microsoft, Amazon and Yahoo. ...

Google Offers Free Wireless Email Service
Google ( News - Alert ) is on a mission to provide free software and applications.Its new found mission may find faithful supporters in end users , but will certainly cause some anxious moments ...

Ballmer Casts a Pall on Vista Sales Expectations
IT Jungle, NY
Google has emerged as a key competitor for talent, Ballmer said, adding that "we compete very, very well versus Google." On the innovation front, ...

Lincoln City: the center of the kiting universe
Newport News Times, OR
Truth be told, lots of things on the ground can be seen from space, as anyone who uses Google Earth can tell you. Capable of showing even individual houses ...

Rhodri Marsden: Cyberclinic
Independent, UK
....of innovation - but maybe detractors would prefer Google's web-based solution, where the features are, by necessity, stripped back to the bare bones. ...

The mash-up future of the web
BBC News, UK
Sites like Flickr and Google Maps don't load or reload pages, they use the browser to provide interaction with online data sources. ...

Jyve: The Live Ask Engine
TMCnet
A few hot buttons in tech these days are user generated content , Web 2.0 and of course , Google ( News - Alert ).But what happens if you are to combine Google with live user generated content ...

Google Innovation Blogs

FOWA Notes: How and Why We Built Google Docs and Spreadsheets ...
by Stuart Colville
Give us more integration with more Google and non-google services. “.. but we’re not whining.. We love this product!” Lessons learned (pt 1) Get UI help and get it early UI innovation can make a stellar success or failure ...
Muffin Research Labs - http://muffinresearch.co.uk

Something's Gotta Give in Online Video
Google’s recent struggles with CBS in getting video content online (WSJ, ... From Napster to Google’s YouTube, copying protected content has never been easier. ... Yes, they can sue and stifle innovation in online media distribution ...
Blog Business Summit - http://blogbusinesssummit.com/

Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything
by dimanomarketing
Eric Schmidt, CEO Google Wikinomics heralds the biggest change in ... a clear and exciting preview of how peer innovation will change everything. ... He leads New Paradigm’s work in the areas of innovation and intellectual property. ...
Dimano Marketing - http://dimanomarketing.wordpress.com

Google Is Developing Artificial Intelligence (AI)
Co-founder Larry Page announced that Google is in the development stages of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and he claims the realization may not be far off. Sci-Fi movies immediately come to mind and initial… Read More at TrendHunter.com.
TREND HUNTER Magazine - Trend Spotting,... - http://www.trendhunter.com/

Storytellers who make up the skills gap
by Danuta Kean
“Innovation is a hugebuzz word these days, but before you have innovation ... a management consultant before publishing three novels: “If I say Google, ... Matt White, who heads the innovation capability team at innovation specialist ? ...
Danuta Kean - Freelance Journalist - http://www.danutakean.com/blog

Google Co-op Podcast Search Debuts
by news
Google’s technological innovations have earned the company numerous industry awards and citations, including two Webby Awards; two WIRED magazine Readers Raves Awards; Best Internet Innovation and Technical Excellence Award from PC ...
Web Hosting Finds News - http://www.webhostingfinds.com/news

Google Innovations Roundup for 02-18-07

2007-02-18T18:12:00.000-08:00

Google Innovation News

Science needs entrepreneurs, Google founder says Reuters - 18 Feb 2007
SAN FRANCISCO ( Reuters ) - Scientists need more entrepreneurial drive and could benefit by doing more to promote solutions to big human problems , Google Inc . co - founder Larry Page told a ...

Individuals still drive web innovationCanton Repository (subscription)
Many companies would dearly love to launch another Google or eBay, but that cannot happen in the usual office culture. A reason for this is the Web, ...

The American WayWall Street Journal (subscription)
I recently asked Sergey Brin and Larry Page, through their search engine Google, what they could discover about American chief executives and innovation. ...

New York gets Googled iT News, Australia
The Big Apple has become an epicenter of tech talent and innovation -- and Google's second home. Step out of New York's 14th Street subway stop, ...

Google Innovation Blogs

Innovation at Google Powered by NYC
by Frank M
Google has created a talent base in NYC to create innovations in a different environment that its California offices. ... ... "Unlike Silicon Valley, where Stanford-bred entrepreneurs hatch new ideas in search of buyers or IPOs, ...
Innovation Acceleration - http://innovationacceleration.blogspot.com/index.html

Interesting articles: compensated free trade, Stiglitz on ...
by rybinski
Google Traffic will track your car, if you are speeding it will send the data to police ... compensated-free-trade, e-economy, Economist, globalization, innovation-prize-fund, medical-prize-fund, mind-maps, protectionism, Stiglitz.
Rybinski.eu - http://www.rybinski.eu

Update: Search for KML in Google Earth
by Sebastian Pache
Search is at the heart of everything we do here at Google. That's why I'm excited to announce a new innovation in search available today in Google Earth. Users can now search through all of the world's Keyhole Markup Language (KML) ...
Sebastian Pache Blog for Spatial Technology - http://sebastianpache.blogspot.com/index.html

Google, you rock!
We've studied Google in my Management of Innovation class and there's no question about their ability to get the creative juices flowing. Apparently, employees have some discretionary time that they can use to work on their own little ...
A Frog in BC - http://afroginbc.blogspot.com/index.html

Apples And Oranges, The NAR And The Zillow, Whose Business Model ...
by clifford750
I came upon a book about innovation and business models. Open Innovation, speaks of the critical need for a business model (way to make money), to go with any innovation:. Google was loosing $50000/month before it experimented with ...WebHomeUSABlog - http://www.webhomeusablog.com/

Google Innovations Roundup for 02-16-07

2007-02-16T16:37:00.000-08:00

Google Innovation News

Google said ready to buy Adscape Reuters.uk - 2 hours ago
LOS ANGELES ( Reuters ) - Google Inc . ( GOOG.O : Quote , Profile , Research ) has agreed to acquire in - game advertising company Adscape Media Inc . for $23 million , according to technology ...

Microsoft, Google mine for ideas in their own wayMarketWatch - 4 hours agoIt began a companion two-week business consulting camp, called Innovation Accelerator, two years ago. According to the contest rules, applicants sign away ...

Tata iKS Announces igetit Powered By GoogleTen Links (press release), CA - 10 hours agoWe believe that engineers will become better at design innovation and knowledge reuse by providing a web application that enables access to our information. ...

Tech tools create lead-conversion opportunityInman.com (subscription), CA - 16 hours agoThe latest innovation in this area is that some of these systems will text or call you when a "hot prospect" returns to your site for a second time. ...

The Google WiFi Saga / Creative Commons SpectrumO'Reilly Radar, CA - 23 hours agoThere is undoubtedly an elastic coupling here between the need for control (and safety) and the freedom that innovation requires to flourish. ...

Google Innovation Blogs

An Argument for Agilism (without the rhetoric)1 hour ago by Tuesday Creative
Read any of the nearly 550000 hits for the Google search "Windows vista disappointment" and you will find that I'm not the ... Agilists see the people much differently and recognizes that no innovation comes from a beleaguered staff. ...
Tuesday Creative - http://tuesdaycreative.vox.com/library/posts/page/1/

Does the social Web realize that people talk?1 hour ago by nospam@example.com (Trevor Baca)
... shopping carts and comment boards -- as well as Google Maps and Feedburner-type web services, ... Of course, costing money isn't the end of successful innovation. ... Client-side installs are a barrier to innovation, not a help. ...
Jaduka - http://blog.jaduka.com/

Weekly Wrapup2 hours ago
Imagine opening Google Analytics and seeing a correlation between number of del.icio.us bookmarks and sales, or ad hits." Other analysis posts this week:. European Startups and Web Innovation Around The World; Web 3.0 = (4C + P + VS) ...
Read/WriteWeb - http://www.readwriteweb.com/

The Google WiFi Saga / Creative Commons Spectrum2 hours ago by radeondt
You remember the whole Google wi-fi ruckus and saga right? ... safe in our beds because google will finally know everything and everyone and have adverts ... for control (and safety) and the freedom that innovation requires to flourish. ...
Digital News Internet Related... - http://dewantoro.org

Creativity2 hours ago by Kevin Dee
A quick Google search uncovers many sites offering innovation tools or networks to help you work through creative ideas. 5. Understand and enjoy the innovation you see in other people’s ideas, such as Larry Keating’s “No Panic ...
The Eagle Blog - http://eagleceonews.blogspot.com/index.html

The Sequel: Under The Radar Conference Round Up Part 23 hours ago by Shay Nowick
We’ve added even more compelling startups in the Office 2.0 sector and they’ve all got one thing in common: innovation! ... which adds a ton of function to your Google calendar (and makes it much easier to look at! ...
Under the Radar - http://undertheradarblog.com

Do Canadian VCs play games? Google Buys Adscape Media.4 hours ago by austin
Google today announced that they have purchased formerly Ottawa-based video game ... PaidContent - Google does by Adscape after all for $23 million. ... In today’s marketplace where innovation through acquisition becomes more common ...
Billions With Zero Knowledge - http://www.billionswithzeroknowledge.com

The Innovation Index up 4% - Weekly Report 02-14-074 hours ago by Sanjay Dalal
(NASDAQ: YHOO) continues to lead The Top 20 Innovators of The Innovation Index in ... The Innovation Index closed at 72.31 on February 14, 2007, up 2.93 points from the ... Google Inc. - (NASDAQ: GOOG) Hewlett-Packard Co. - (NYSE: HPQ) ...
Creativity And Innovation Driving... - http://creativityandinnovation.blogspo...

25 самых интересных стартапов VoIP4 hours ago by YLinc
... наградами TMC Labs Innovation Award и EuroStart Channel Excellence Award. ... С таким человеком теперь Jajah смело конкурирует со Skype, Google Talk и Gizmo ... мгновенными сообщениями с пользователями Nimbuzz, Google Talk и MSN. ...
Виртуальный офис:... - http://www.livebusiness.ru