Google Can’t Seem to Quit China

Google doesn’t really want to be out of China it appears. Despite a principled stand against censorship and the subsequent revelation that Chinese government surrogates were behind GMail hacking the company is contemplating a “return” to the Chinese market.

In fact it’s still there but in a half-hearted way.

Google CFO Patrick Pichette told the Times of London that the hacking episode last year that resulted in Google no longer complying with Chinese censorship restrictions was simply a “roadblock.”  Pichette is quoted in the Times (via Fox Business) saying, “China has 1.2 billion people. For Google to say, ‘We’re going to live on our mission, but not serve 1.2 billion people’ — it just doesn’t work. China wants Google.”

Beyond the notion of serving Chinese internet users, Google is finding it very difficult to resist the lure of the largest internet and mobile market in the world — and the potential revenue that it represents.

Baidu reportedly had a 73 percent share of the Chinese search market in Q3, while Google had 21.6 percent. Google now has an 8.9 percent share of the current Chinese advertising market, behind Baidu and portal Alibaba.

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Adobe Responds to Apple’s New Rules

Yesterday, seemingly out of the blue, Apple issued a statement saying it will ease up restrictions for development tools used to create iOS party apps. Now, Adobe has reacted with a statement of its own, calling Apple’s decision “great news for developers”.

Here’s a short history: back in April Apple had banned developers from using Flash to build iOS applications, after which Adobe said it would no longer invest in the Flash CS5 feature that lets developers create Flash apps for the iOS platform.

Now, after Apple has taken a step back and lifted most of the restrictions, Adobe will continue to develop this feature. From Adobe’s statement: “Apple’s announcement today that it has lifted restrictions on its third-party developer guidelines has direct implications for Adobe’s Packager for iPhone, a feature in the Flash Professional CS5 authoring tool. This feature was created to enable Flash developers to quickly and easily deliver applications for iOS devices. The feature is available for developers to use today in Flash Professional CS5, and we will now resume development work on this feature for future releases.”

Of course, if all this hubbub made you hopeful about seeing Flash inside a browser on an iOS device, it’s not happening, at least not in the foreseeable future. Adobe points out that “Apple’s restriction on Flash content running in the browser on iOS devices remains in place.” So, it’s good news for developers, who can once again safely use Flash to create iPhone apps, knowing they have support from Adobe and that their apps won’t get banned by Apple. But the “Flash on iOS” saga may not be over just yet.

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Google stops censoring search results in China

Google has stopped censoring its search results in China, ignoring warnings by the country's authorities.

The US company said its Chinese users would be redirected to the uncensored pages of its Hong Kong website.

In January, Google had complained about a "sophisticated cyber attack originating from China". 

China accused Google of violating a "written promise" it made when entering the market to abide by laws requiring it to filter its search service. 

A Chinese official was quoted by the state-run Xinhua news agency as saying Google's decision to ignore the promise regarding its Chinese-language search portal Google.cn was "totally wrong". 

The White House said it was dismayed that Google and China had not been able to resolve their differences. 

US National Security spokesman Mike Hammer said: "We are disappointed that Google and the Chinese government were unable to reach an agreement that would allow Google to continue operating its search services in China on its Google.cn website." 

Chinese government officials had warned Google repeatedly that it would face consequences if it did not comply with the country's censorship rules. 

In a blog post, the company said the Chinese government had been "crystal clear throughout our discussions that self-censorship is a non-negotiable legal requirement". 

Slowdowns

Google Inc. Share Price change [-0.45%]

Google's chief legal officer, David Drummond, said that providing "uncensored search" from Google.com.hk was "a sensible solution to the challenges we've faced - it's entirely legal and will meaningfully increase access to information for people in China". 

It said there might be some service slowdowns and delays in getting search results while it beefs up resources to handle the re-directed queries. 

"We very much hope that the Chinese government respects our decision, though we are well aware that it could at any time block access to our services," Mr Drummond wrote in the blog post. 

He added that Google would carefully monitor access and provide regular updates via a dedicated page to show what was available via its services in mainland China. 

One cause of the row was Google's revelation on 12 January that it - and more than 20 other companies - had been the victim of a cyber attack that originated inside China. 

During the attack Google lost some intellectual property and discovered that the attack was aimed at the GMail accounts of human rights activists. This attack led Google to "review the feasibility" of its Chinese operations. 

In the blog entry posted on 22 March, Google said it would maintain an R&D and sales presence in China.

It said the size of its sales team would depend on how many Chinese people can get at the Hong Kong-based site. Currently about 700 of Google's 20,000 strong workforce are based in China. 

Opportunity cost

Baidu is the market leader for online search in China

On Sunday, state media in China had attacked Google for what they described as the company's "intricate ties" with the US government.

Google provided US intelligence agencies with a record of its search engine results, Xinhua said.

While Google is the world's most popular search engine, it is a distant number two in the Chinese market, which is dominated by Baidu. 

However, because of the size and growth rate of China's internet population, any loss of business there is likely to harm Google's future growth prospects. 

Analysts said that initially Google's prospects would not be dented by shutting down Google.cn as it is responsible, at most, for 2% of its annual $24bn (£15.9bn) revenue. 

"Near-term, not that big a deal," said Tim Ghriskey, chief investment officer at Solaris Asset Management. "Long-term, if this stays in place, it's a negative. China is certainly a great growth opportunity." 

China operates one of the most sophisticated and wide-reaching censorship systems in the world. 

Thousands of police officers are employed to monitor web activity and many automated systems watch blogs, chat rooms and other sites to ensure that banned subjects, such as Tiananmen Square, are not discussed.

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U.S. to Allow Export of Web Services to Iran and Cuba

According to The New York Times, the United States Treasury Department will tomorrow give Internet services license to export consumer-aimed services like instant messaging and photo sharing to countries with which trade has previously been restricted, including Iran, Cuba and Sudan.

The United States defines these nations as “closed societies” because their governments sometimes try to restrict the free flow of information between citizens, however in many cases trade is restricted by the United States in response to those actions. This new license would allow U.S.-based Internet companies like Yahoo to export certain services that can be described as “free mass-market software,” despite trade sanctions.

The U.S. State Department and members of Congress previously recommended this move to aid efforts to open up the societies in question. The value of exporting these tools has already been established.

Last year, the State Department asked Twitter to postpone its scheduled downtime so Iranian protesters could continue to use the service. Digital communication technologies like Twitter, Facebook, e-mail and SMS text messaging were used by Iranians to organize protests and to get information to the American and European media.

After Google threatened to leave China if the country doesn’t ease up its regulation and restrictions on the Internet, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton gave a speech declaring the administration’s commitment to the free flow of information on the Internet. This is one example of that commitment.

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Google Buzz Not a Twitter or Facebook Killer, Says Google Exec

Google Buzz is not a rival to Facebook or Twitter, says Google exec Bradley Horowitz — instead he sees it as a platform for conversation, and hopes other services will be able to flow in and out of Buzz.

In an eWeek interview earlier this week, Horowitz, Google’s VP of product management, was asked whether Buzz was intended as a challenger to Twitter and Facebook. He replied:

“Absolutely not. Per what I just said, this is creating a new category of communication. It’s filling a niche, which is not currently met in the market. I think something unique is happening on Buzz that will continue to evolve. It’s hard to create a trend line or extrapolate too much from six days of use, but certainly conversation and the conversational Web is a place where Buzz has excelled. I think it is unique and offers a compelling interesting experience.”

 

Conversation Is Key

Horowitz also explained that Buzz goes beyond updating your status (like Twitter) or checking in (like Foursquare) — it’s about engagement:

“It’s not just status-casting. It’s not just checking in. It’s really meaningful interactions around meaningful topics within Buzz and it’s reaching the right audience and people are engaged. That kind of value proposition is I think unique to Buzz. I’ve heard that again and again. In the realm of positive feedback, I think that people are finding that the conversational mode of buzz is very, very powerful and the quality of audience is also great.”

 

Buzz: An Open System

Google’s plan, it seems, is to create an open platform for social messaging, such that Google Buzz is integrated with services all around the web. Horowitz aims to create the “most open, well integrated, well behaving social network in the industry.”

This technical openness could create the kind of developer stampede that made Google Maps, Twitter and Flickr take off. The only unknown is whether technical openness could be in opposition to the private nature of our e-mail inboxes.

 

 

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Microsoft and News Corp in Discussions to Remove Newspaper Content from Google

Yes, really. Rupert Murdoch’s crusade to blame Google for the failing newspaper business model continues today, as it emerges that News Corp has conducted talks with Microsoft about de-indexing the company’s sites from Google and (presumably) being paid to include them in Bing instead. The concept makes sense only if you buy Murdoch’s claims that Google “stealing” content rather than simply helping people find it.

The revelation comes from the Financial Times, which has a strong track record for accurate reportage – this is unlikely to be a fluffy rumor. The piece reads, in part:

Microsoft has had discussions with News Corp over a plan that would involve the media company’s being paid to “de-index” its news websites from Google, setting the scene for a search engine battle that could offer a ray of light to the newspaper industry.

The impetus for the discussions came from News Corp, owner of newspapers ranging from the Wall Street Journal of the US to The Sun of the UK, said a person familiar with the situation, who warned that talks were at an early stage.

However, the Financial Times has learnt that Microsoft has also approached other big online publishers to persuade them to remove their sites from Google’s search engine.
News Corp and Microsoft, which owns the rival Bing search engine, declined to comment.

I say go for it. So, I’m sure, do all the other web publishers who see that removing many of the major news sites from Google will provide even more traffic for the upstarts. News Corp is merrily making itself irrelevant to web consumers, while continuing to use Google as its punch bag rather than addressing the radical transition of media into the online world.

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Facebook Lite goes live

Social networking site Facebook unveiled a new downsized version of its Web site to selected test users, but accidentally revealed the 'Facebook Lite edition' to a much larger group than intended.

According to Facebook, the Lite edition is a fast-loading, simplified version of Facebook that enables people to post comments, accept friend requests and look at photos and status updates. Facebook Lite is being tested in India and other countries where new users are flooding to the service. Invitations to take part in a private test of 'Facebook Lite' reached a variety of U.S. bloggers only to have the enclosed links to be available to everyone online.

The screen shots of the new version captured and posted online revealed a Facebook page devoted to fresh comments and updates from friends in a style that could challenge the real-time interplay on Twitter.

Facebook had announced on Monday that it had acquired FriendFeed, a startup which allows members to see what their friends are doing online and share content. FriendFeed has been described as a potential rival to Twitter in its ability to conduct real-time search, an area where Facebook has been seeking to expand.

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Windows 7 half the price in UK

For once, the U.K., which frequently gets the shaft in technology cost comparisons vs. the U.S., is going to do better than the U.S. Quite a bit better, at least for now, with C|Net discovering that they're getting a 50% price advantage on Windows 7.

Checking Amazon.com in the U.K., full versions of Windows 7 Home Premium will cost the equivalent of £65 ($107), while Americans will have to pay $200. That's a full version; even an upgrade version will cost more in the U.S., at $120 (£72).

Looking at Windows 7 Professional, the same discount percentage isn't offered, but there is a lower price in the U.K. A full version will cost $299 (£181) in the U.S., while it runs £129 in the U.K.

Why's this happening? It's unclear, C|Net's theory is that Microsoft is honoring its pricing for Windows 7E, which was cheaper because an upgrade wasn't possible. Of course, 7E has since been scrapped.

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Microsoft Disputes Firefox One Billion Downloads Claim

Two weeks ago, Mozilla announced a major milestone for its Firefox web browser: one billion downloads. They even launched OneBillionPlusYou.com to mark the occasion and demonstrate just how large one billion really is.

Not everyone’s in awe of the number, though. A senior executive of Microsoft, the current browser market leader, has made statements today that essentially question the validity of the one billion downloads milestone. Oh, and she talked about how IE6 cannot die as well.

According to The Guardian, Internet Explorer General Manager Amy Barzdukas asked people to be skeptical of “large number claims” and called the Firefox number “interesting math.” Here’s some of what she said:

As with any marketing statement, I’d encourage people to be somewhat sceptical about large number claims. It’s an interesting number and I have not seen the math [but] how many internet connected users are there? 1.1 billion, 1.5 billion, something in that area.

Of course, these comments come as Firefox continues to chip away Microsoft;s browser market share. While Internet Explorer is still the dominant browser, nearly 1/4 of the world’s computers now run the Firefox open-source browser. Perhaps there’s a little browser envy laced into her comments?

Ms. Barzdukas also reiterated a statement from the company earlier this week that it won't cut off support for IE6 anytime soon, as well as explaining why she thinks IE6 is still used by so many:

The reason that a consumer would still be on IE6 at this point is a lack of awareness or the ‘good enough’ problem,” she said. “If you’re satisfied with what you’re doing and you’re not particularly curious about new technology and don’t really care, upgrading sounds like a hassle. Part of our communication needs to be making clear that there are significant advantages to upgrading to a modern browser.

We still want IE6 to die, but her position is understandable and consistent with what we’ve heard from Microsoft. Maybe it’s that they’re scared people will switch from IE6 to Firefox instead of to IE8, or maybe they just don’t want the complaints that would come with cutting off support. Regardless, we’ll leave Mozilla and Microsoft to quarrel over the numbers.  

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Two Giants : Google vs Microsoft

Google and Microsoft are having cold war in between them. One after other the two giants are launching similar type of applications.

Search Engine:

Google Search has been one of the dominant from the last few years. After all Google has changed its name to verb i.e googling. Google Search occupies 58.70% of the Search Engine Market Share.

Microsoft has been testing its various versions of search engines first was MSN search, then Live Search and recently Bing.

Documents:

Google Docs have been growing in features and users. They provide a level of collaboration that Microsoft documents simply don’t offer. But they don’t provide as many options as Microsoft Office and they just don’t have nearly as many users. This is one area where the majority of users still prefer the desktop to the web.

Microsoft Office, with Word, Powerpoint, and Excel have been the leading way to create and edit documents for years, and for good reason – they’re widely used, widely known, and feature-rich. There’s also now Microsoft office Live which while not as collaborative as Google Docs isn’t a bad solution and has the benefit of being connected to the desktop apps.

Communication, Email, and IM:

The search giant has a suite of very popular communication products – Gmail and Gtalk being the best known. The X factor in this debate though, is the upcoming Google Wave Communication platform, which has impressed us so far. There’s also the intriguing Google Voice offering to consider.

While Google’s probably more revered for Gmail and its communication suite, Hotmail is still bigger, and Live Messenger is heavily used. Microsoft also produces the popular Outlook software and has software in a variety of arenas, such as Windows Live Meeting, giving the company an edge in the enterprise.

Mobile:

Google’s has good traction with its Android mobile OS given it’s relatively new to the space. It runs on more than one million T Mobile phones and has a strong app platform. Many of Google’s apps also run well on mobile phones, especially Google Maps and YouTube.

Windows Mobile still shippedtens of millions of units last year, far outpacing Android. It also has apps to run Office, Outlook, and Windows Media Player. We think the long-term trend favors Google, but as of right now Microsoft is the leader.

Operating System:

Let’s say this: we can’t wait to see what Google has in store for Google Chrome OS. We’re skeptical that it could ever kill Windows, but Google will be Microsoft’s most powerful challenger yet.

This is Microsoft’s bread and butter. Windows is the reason Microsoft makes $60+ billion in revenue every year and has stayed on top for so long. Its stranglehold is legendary. Yet Windows Vista proved that it is not invincible.

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Microsoft Had Its Own Version of YouTube?

Is there any industry where Microsoft isn’t competing with bitter rival Google ? Think about it: Bing vs Google Search, Google Docs vs. Microsoft Office (soon to be online), Gmail vs Hotmail, Windows Mobile vs. Android, and let's not forget Windows vs Google Chrome OS.

With all of these high profile battles, you really can’t blame us if we’re saying “meh” to the news that Microsoft is closing Soapbox. Wait, what’s Soapbox you ask? Why, that’s their version of YouTube and part of the far more popular MSN Video Website.

The YouTube clone opened up in early 2007, not long after Google bought YouTube for $1.65 billion. It just hasn’t gained much traction though – thus why you’ve probably never heard of it. And when you’ve had a product out for over two years and you fail to make any inroads on your much larger competitor, it’s a good time to quit.

But hey, I hear Microsoft’s embarking on a new venture: Retail store. Maybe they’ll have better luck there.

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