28Feb2007
Microsoft’s top technical executive, Ray Ozzie, has recently said that Google success in finding in advertising revenue “was a wake-up call within Microsoft”. But he said Microsoft plans to do more than simply mimic Google by rolling out Web-based versions of desktop programs or following its particular search and advertising model.
Instead of jumping belatedly into the fray with Web-only programs, he said Microsoft will pursue a mix of software loaded on PCs and Internet services that also work with the growing array of mobile devices, a strategy he called ‘’software-plus-service'’.
He said he sees free, Web-based, ad-supported software as a way to extend Microsoft Office’s reach, but gave no specifics. ‘’Advertisers do want a targeted audience,'’ he said. If Microsoft can deliver it, ‘’I don’t see a reason why advertisers won’t move'’. What comes next? Only time will tell.
25Jan2007
Chinese online population hit 136 million people by the end of 2006 becoming the world’s second largest behind the U.S. with a total online spending of $35,5 billion (47% more than the previous year).
Average Chinese Internet user spends $22 a month online, including payment to online services providers as well as shopping ang gaming. Still, the most popular Internet services in China are search engines (dominated by Baidu and Google and, to a lesser degree, by Yahoo!) followed by Internet portals (led by Sina.com, Netease.com and qq.com) and e-mail services.
But the most rapid growth in usage last year came from blogging. China now has 20.8 million bloggers. Top blogging sites are hosted by Sina, Qzone and MSN. Other new Internet services that are gaining particularly wide acceptance are personal Web pages similar to those on MySpace and video-sharing based on the Web 2.0 standards similar to YouTube. What comes next? Only time will tell.
27Dec2006
Wikipedia’s founder, Jimmy Wales, is planning to start a wiki-based search engine that will probably be launched in early 2007 with Amazon as partner.
The main idea behind this project is to build a human-based search engine over computer-based algorithms like the ones that Google and Yahoo! work with. According to Mr. Wales this kind of systems is no match for the editorial judgment of humans. So this new concept of search engine will rely on human intelligence to do what algorithms cannot.
The search engine has widely and wrongly been reported as being called “Wikiasari” which, as Wales has stated, that name refers to a former similar project, Wikia search engine, not affiliated with Amazon, A9, or Wikipedia.
Like its potential competitors, the revenue model for this new search engine will be advertising, though Mr. Wales himself thinks that catching up with Google, Yahoo!, MSN or even smaller players like Ask.com will be a difficult challenge. What comes next? Only time will tell.