2007年11月28日 星期三

Renewable Energy Cheaper Than Coal

Google plans to invest in efforts to produce renewable electricity that is cheaper than power from coal-fired plants.

Google有驚人之舉,周二宣布以「比煤便宜的再生能源」(Renewable Energy Cheaper Than Coal)計劃切入替代能源市場,將斥資數億美元開發太陽能、風力、地熱等先進替代能源技術。

網 路搜尋龍頭Google創辦人兼產品總裁佩吉(Larry Page)說:「Google將開發足以供應整個舊金山市的10億瓦替代能源技術,並壓低每度(千瓦小時)價格至1~3美分(0.32~0.97元台 幣),過程『僅需時數年、不用數十年』,預見技術成熟後,一項十分有用的產業隨之成形,可以較燃煤更便宜的方式供電。」
另一創辦人兼技術總裁布林(Sergey Brin)則呼應表示,Google遲未找到便宜、無污染的解決方案來取代石化能源,降低電費成本與污染的迫切需求,刺激Google投入替代能源開發。

a service

自由時報
, Taiwan
- 2007 十一月 28
- 13 小時前
全球網路搜尋引擎龍頭Google公司,計畫推出讓消費者能透過網路在Google硬碟上儲存檔案的服務。華爾街日報二十七日報導說,這項新策略可能加速促成個人電腦邁向以網路為基礎的運算,以及加深Google與全球軟體霸主「微軟」的對決態勢。 報導說,Google正準備讓使用者把所有 ...


Google is preparing a service that would let users store data from their own computers on the company's hard drives.

2007年11月13日 星期二

EU Probes Google-DoubleClick Deal

EU Launches Extended ProbeOf Google-DoubleClick Deal
By PEPPI KIVINIEMI
BRUSSELS -- The European Commission Tuesday said it has launched a full-scale antitrust investigation into the proposed takeover by Google Inc. of Internet advertising broker DoubleClick, worried that the deal might concentrate too much online advertising in one entity.
The commission now has 90 working days - until April 2 - to decide whether to clear or block the merger. The commission's initial market investigation showed that the merger would raise questions in the markets for "intermediation and ad serving in online advertising."
The $3.1 billion acquisition has come under criticism by competitors and clients who fear that the combined entity would be in a uniquely dominant position in the online advertising markets, giving Google a vast presence in both search and display advertising.
Google maintains that the two companies are complementary, rather than direct competitors. However the commission said it is especially interested in whether DoubleClick would have grown into a proper competitor of Google on its side of the online advertising markets.
The commission will also investigate whether the merger - which combines the leading providers of various aspects of online advertising - could restrict competitors from freely entering these markets.

2007年11月5日 星期一

Google Enters the Wireless World





Google Enters the Wireless World


Published: November 5, 2007 紐約時報

SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 5 — Google took its long-awaited plunge into the wireless world today, announcing that it is leading a broad industry alliance to transform mobile phones into powerful mobile computers that could accelerate the convergence of computing and communications.

Mobile phones based on Google’s software are not expected to be available until the second half of next year. They will be manufactured by a variety of handset companies, including HTC, LG, Motorola and Samsung and be available in the United States through T-Mobile and Sprint.

The phones will also be available through the world’s largest mobile operator, China Mobile, with 332 million subscribers in China, and the leading carriers in Japan, NTT DoCoMo and KDDI, as well as T-Mobile in Germany, Telecom Italia in Italy and Telefónica in Spain.

The 34-member Open Handset Alliance, as the group is called, also includes many of the leading makers of mobile phone chips, like Broadcom, Intel, Qualcomm and Texas Instruments, as well as SiRF Technology Holdings, Marvell Technology Group, Nvidia and Synaptics. EBay (which owns the Internet calling service Skype), Nuance Communications, NMS Communications and Wind River Systems are also members of the group.

The technology is expected to provide cellular handset manufacturers and wireless operators with capabilities that match and potentially surpass those using smartphone software made by Apple, Microsoft, Nokia, Palm, Research in Motion and others. In contrast to the existing competitors, Google’s software will be offered freely under “open source” licensing terms, meaning that handset manufacturers will be able to use it at no cost and be free to add new features to differentiate their products.

As speculation about Google’s efforts trickled out over the last several months, expectations that the company would build what has been called a Google Phone or GPhone have mounted.

But for now at least, Google will not put its brand on a phone. The software running on the phones may not even display the Google logo. Instead, Google is giving the software away to others who will build the phones. The company invested heavily in the project to ensure that all of its services are available on mobile phones. Its ultimate goal is to cash in on the effort by selling advertisements to mobile phone users, just as it does on Internet-connected computers.

“We are not building a GPhone; we are enabling 1,000 people to build a GPhone,” said Andy Rubin, Google’s director of mobile platforms, who led the effort to develop the software.

Mr. Rubin said the open-source strategy would encourage rapid innovation and lower the bar to entry in the highly competitive handset market, where software accounts for an increasing share of the cost of making a phone.

Google’s long list of powerful partners illustrates the substantial inroads that the company has made in the highly competitive industry as well the challenges still facing the giant search engine firm. For example, the two largest cellular carriers in the United States, AT&T and Verizon Wireless, which together account for 52 percent of the market, are not part of the alliance.

Still, alliance members, which contributed technology to the project, said they had high hopes for it.

“Just like the iPhone energized the industry, this is a different way to energize the industry,” said Sanjay Jha, chief operating officer of Qualcomm, which makes chips used in wireless phones. Mr. Jha said the Google technology would bring better Internet capabilities to moderately priced phones. He also said that innovation could accelerate, as developers would be able to enhance the software as they saw fit.

Users would have the ability to load up their phones with new features and third-party programs.

“Today the Internet experience on hand-held devices is not optimized,” said Peter Chou, chief executive of HTC, one of the largest makers of smartphones. “The whole idea is to optimize the Internet experience.” Mr. Chou, whose company makes several phones based on Microsoft’s software, which are largely aimed at business users, said the phones based on Google’s technology would probably be marketed primarily to consumers.

The alliance represents a bold move by Google and its partners that mirrors the company’s efforts in the desktop computing industry to give away software and services and gain revenue through targeted advertising. As such, the new software strategy is a potential competitive threat to Microsoft and other mobile software and hardware designers.

John O’Rourke, general manager of Microsoft’s Windows Mobile business, said he was skeptical about the ease with which Google will be able to become a major force in the smartphone market. He pointed out that it had taken Microsoft more than half a decade to get to the stage where the company now does business with 160 mobile operators in 55 countries around the world.

“They may be delivering one component that is free,” he said. “You have to ask the question, what additional costs come with commercializing that? I can tell you that there are a bunch of phones based on Linux today, and I don’t think anyone would tell you it’s free.”

Microsoft is expected to sell about 12 million Windows Mobile phones this year, accounting for about 10 percent of the smartphone market, according to IDC. Apple, which began selling its iPhone last summer, accounts for 1.8 percent of the market.

The Google-led alliance also presents a potential conundrum to cellular operators, who have invested billions to build their networks and acquire customers. As phones become more like computers, they fear they will miss out on the potential bonanza of mobile advertising as Google and others take their share of the revenue.

Mr. Jha, of Qualcomm, said he believes that Google is working with carriers to reach common ground.

Google’s entry into the phone software business could present prickly issues for at least one other person: Eric E. Schmidt, the company’s chief executive. Mr. Schmidt sits on the board of Apple, and while Google is not making or selling phones, it will be providing a phone operating system to Apple competitors.

A brief demonstration of the Google software recently suggests that phones made using the technology will have features and design similar to the Apple iPhone. Mr. Rubin demonstrated a hand-held touch-screen device that gave an immersive view of Google Earth, the company’s three-dimensional visualization software.

Mr. Rubin, who is 44 years old and is a veteran Silicon Valley designer, said the software system that Google has designed is based on the Linux operating system and Sun Microsystems’ Java language. It is designed so programmers can easily build applications that connect to independent Web services.

As an example, Mr. Rubin said the company’s StreetView feature of Google Maps could easily be coupled — mashed up, in technology speak — with another service listing the current geographical location of friends.

Mr. Rubin also said that a program like Gmail could attach a photo to an e-mail message, regardless of whether the photo was stored in the phone’s memory or on a Web site.

A week from today, the alliance plans to make available tools for third-party programmers, called a software developers’ kit, Mr. Rubin said. But the group’s core technology itself will not be made available under an open-source license until it is commercially ready sometime next year, Mr. Rubin said.

Mr. Rubin also said that in the future, the Google technology could be used in other portable devices, including small hand-held computers and car navigation systems.

Google’s phone software is named Android. Mr. Rubin, formerly an engineer at Apple and General Magic, was involved in the design for the Sidekick cellphone while running a company called Danger. Mr. Rubin later founded a company named Android, which Google acquired in 2005.


Google魯賓 要讓Gphone酷斃了

來到Google產品總設計師魯賓(Andy Rubin)在矽谷的家門,如果掃描器不認得你,不替你開門,你按鈴後,一支拿著大錘的機器手臂會伸出來,敲響一具大鑼,這大概是世界上最貴的門鈴。

魯賓的門鈴很酷,他設計的Google Phone也有酷酷的味道。他的正式頭銜是行動平台總監,實際上就是鎮店新奇產品大師,手下有幾十位工程師,負責開發軟體,用在逐漸變成行動個人電腦的智慧手機上。

Google的策略和早年微軟擊敗網景的手段相同,就是開發出絕佳的軟體,免費送給手機廠商,變成產業標準後,再從Google提供的服務中賺錢,執行這個大策略的人就是44歲的魯賓。

工程師出身的魯賓善於設計整合程度極高的硬體與軟體,卻跟新一代的矽谷企業家不同,很有上一代工程師企業家的遺風,拿起銲槍、寫起程式和設計事業時,一樣輕鬆自如。

魯賓在紐約州恰巴卡長大,父親是心理學家,後來改行直銷新奇電子產品,這些產品拍完照後,就變成魯賓房間裡的東西,因此他在這方面的基因早早就確定了。

1989年,他到開曼群島度假,收容跟女友吵架後被趕出來的蘋果公司工程師柯斯威爾,柯斯威爾為了報答他的好心,邀他到蘋果資訊科技部門工作,開啟了他的矽谷生涯。

隨後魯賓在幾家著名科技公司服務,也自行創業,生產智慧手機。2002年,他到史丹福大學演說智慧手機的發展,當時坐著聽講、後來創辦Google的佩吉和布林,皮帶上就掛著他生產的智慧手機。

魯賓後來再度創業,設計出可以對任何軟體設計師開放的手持行動平台,獲得創投專家和無線網路業者的青睞,打算買下他的公司,他發了一封電子郵件到Google,告訴佩吉有人要跟他合夥的事,幾周之後,Google就搶先把他的公司買下。

魯賓承認自己沈迷新奇電子產品和更昂貴的玩具,Google卻反對揮霍,2004年Google上市前一天,工程部副總裁在全公司的會議中,拿著棒球棒站在台上說,誰開比寶馬三系列還貴的車來,就要用球棒砸爛。

魯賓只好另買一部便宜車,開著上班,一直想著怎麼調和公司不准揮霍和他喜歡開工程傑作汽車的衝突。不過他最喜歡的是想出跟一大群人接觸的方法,他希望想出一些東西,讓他跟世界上的31億支手機聯絡。(取材自紐約時報)



2007年11月4日 星期日

life really gets interesting?

wsj一篇關於mobile web的說法供參考

What Will Google Mean to Phones?

Search Titan Hopes
To Entice Others to
Develop Features
To Exploit the Mobile Web
By JESSICA E. VASCELLARO
November 5, 2007

What new tricks does Google Inc. have up its sleeve for changing mobile phones?

With its expected announcement as soon as today of the details of its ambitious plans, the Web search and advertising giant hopes to induce software companies to develop an array of new features for cellphones, from more widely available location-aware services that automatically link users to reviews of nearby restaurants to ways to almost instantly share photos with everyone in a user's address book.

If Google succeeds at rallying developers previously turned off by the hassles of developing for mobile phones, it could open the way for consumers to start doing more easily on their phones what they can already do on the Web. Phones are also likely to become more personalized, with screens that can show customized content.

Services available on cellphones overseas but rarely or not at all in the U.S., such as multiplayer mobile games or high-definition television, could emerge. Other changes will be more subtle: Cellphones may be able to run several functions at the same time more easily, for instance.

The mobile industry has long been tightly controlled by carriers and phone makers who strictly limit features that can be offered on cellphones. Google will still have to depend on the cooperation of those wireless gatekeepers; just how many features a Google-powered phone can support will depend upon how much control the carriers and handset makers yield in their deals with the company.

Key to Google's plans is a proposal to make cellphones' software "open" right down to the operating system, the layer that controls applications and interacts with hardware, say people familiar with the plans. Opening up the operating system means independent software developers would get access to the tools they need to build additional phone features. Google didn't respond to requests for comment.

As a result, Google's announcement is expected to set off a race among Silicon Valley developers, long shut out of the wireless industry, to come up with new applications for cellphones. Speculation over the past few months about Google's intentions already has developers excited over the possibilities.

Open standards "are a huge boost of motivation for us," says Max Levchin, chief executive of Slide Inc., which makes media-sharing software for online social networks such as Facebook Inc. and News Corp.'s MySpace. The 60-person Slide has recently begun to look into several ways to extend its services -- which include making slide shows and personalizing Web pages -- to mobile "on the assumption that things will change," Mr. Levchin says.

Internet start-ups have been reluctant to commit their limited resources to mobile. But Google is enormously popular with developers. For example, after Google announced a new set of common standards for building services for social networks last week, start-ups were brimming with questions about whether they would translate to mobile. "It seems like a natural progression," says Michael Dalesandro, chief executive officer of Where I've Been LLC, maker of a service that allows people to show off which countries they have visited on their social networking profile page.

Mobile video and music companies say open platforms would make it far easier for them to build features that allow users to share content with their friends on different carrier networks. And because open software can make it easier to tap the Internet from a cellphone, developers say Google's push is expected to boost the amount of content they can provide to mobile users.

Google "is setting a new bar," says Steven Goh, chief executive and co-founder of mig33, a mobile social-networking community with more than eight million users. Mr. Goh says more open standards will give companies like mig33 access to information "trapped in the [carrier] network" like messaging and location information. "Consumers will be able to capture what is happening in their lives at any point in time," he says.

Google won't be the first to provide common tools and standards for building cellphone applications. Makers of existing mobile operating systems like Microsoft Corp. and BlackBerry maker Research In Motion Ltd. give developers tools to build applications for their phones. Apple Inc. plans to release tools to broaden the range of third-party features allowed for its iPhone.

Google is expected to target a broader slice of the cellphone market, which could spur developers to come up with more features.

[Google]

The big question is just how much ground the carriers will give. While people familiar with Google's plan say the open platform is expected to be supported by at least two carriers in the U.S., Deutsche Telekom AG's T-Mobile and Sprint Nextel Corp., others aren't expected to sign on at this stage, in part because they worry that open-software standards could expose users to software attacks or security breaches.

That means developers will still have to design applications to carrier rules if they want them to work seamlessly on the most popular networks. Many mobile companies who are already finding ways to build services by working with carriers, or in some cases, around them, say that the introduction of new open platforms is good for fostering developer interest but won't dramatically change the industry right away.

Sam Altman -- founder of Loopt Inc., a mobile service already available through Sprint that allows a user to pin down the location of friends on a map and share messages and photos with them -- stresses that it will be a while before open platforms can gain enough market share for developers to be able to build to them exclusively.

Michael Robertson, founder of SIPphone Inc.'s Gizmo Project, which makes software that allows people to send Internet-based calls and instant messages from their mobile phones, says he would love to take advantage of open standards to enhance Gizmo's service with features like Global Positioning System technology, allowing users to know where their contacts are.

Mywaves Inc., a mobile video service, says open standards could help it expand its business model. Trying to comply with different carriers' standards has made billing on any aggregated level "virtually impossible" says Rajeev Raman, the company's chief executive and founder. But open standards could allow new mobile payment options to gain scale. "That's where life really gets interesting," he says.

---- Amol Sharma contributed to this article

Write to Jessica E. Vascellaro at jessica.vascellaro@wsj.com

2007年11月2日 星期五

OpenSocial

Social networking

Face off

Nov 1st 2007 | SAN FRANCISCO
From The Economist print edition

An alliance around Google plans to make social networks more open


COULD Facebook, a three-year-old social network and the hottest internet company of the year, soon be as passé as AOL? AOL, you will recall, was a popular but proprietary online service of the early 1990s. But then Netscape's browser made the web easily and widely available, and today AOL is a lumbering unit of a media conglomerate. Another such “Netscape moment” may just have occurred in online social networks.

On November 1st an alliance including Google, the most popular web-search engine, and several other firms announced a plan to make social networks as open as Netscape's browser made the web. The group released a set of standards, called OpenSocial, that allows software developers to write applications that work with any social network that participates. So far this includes Google's network, Orkut, as well as LinkedIn, Ning, hi5, Friendster, Xing, Plaxo and a few others. Together, these have some 100m users, or twice as many as Facebook has. Oracle and Salesforce.com, two business-software firms, are also supporting the new standards.

This is a stark contrast to the approach taken by Facebook. In May it began allowing outside programmers to write applications that run on Facebook pages. But it requires them to learn a new, proprietary software language to do so, so that such “widgets” run only on Facebook. Thanks to the site's popularity, that has not held developers back. But now they also have the option, with negligible effort, to make their widgets available on many other networks. The biggest developers of Facebook widgets, such as Slide, iLike and RockYou, have already said that they will do so.

Marc Andreessen, the co-founder of Netscape in the 1990s and co-founder of Ning, one of Google's partners, believes that the OpenSocial approach is good for almost everyone. First, it is “very, very good for the web”. Second, it is good for Facebook developers, because they can now distribute their widgets elsewhere as well. Third, it is good for anybody who wants to turn a website into an OpenSocial widget, which is very easy.

Facebook itself, Mr Andreessen admits, would “probably prefer to have that proprietary lock-in”, as AOL once did, so it may not be so happy. But Facebook need not be as slow as AOL was in adjusting to an open world. If openness means that social networking becomes mainstream as fast as the web did in the 1990s, all networks could gain. Meanwhile, Facebook is apparently about to reveal a new initiative in online advertising—a field dominated by Google.



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