• Their site design is horrible. Apart from the Google.com search hub, the minimal approach is unnecessary. Some might argue that this style is the best kind of UI. I argue that it isn’t intuitive, and that the lack of any design doesn’t do any good.
• Adsense seems to be getting worse at judging what content to base the ads off of. Contextual ads aren’t revolutionary anymore.
• Innovation on projects like Google Docs has seemed to slow down. I loved Writely, but since Google acquired it, the plain UI has left is barren.

As you can probably tell, these problems aren’t issues that Google has actively done. They are all things that have occurred because of the expansion of this online ad company to encompass everything that an online service provider could offer. My problems with Google have been passively incured, until now.

Since Microsoft’s announcement of a hostile $44.6 billion offer for Yahoo Inc., Google has gone on the offensive and issued a public statement criticizing the offer. The post from Google’s official blog titled “Yahoo! and the future of the Internet” is a blatant attempt to bring negative attention to the situation.

In the post, Google states that while the internet has been about the principles of “openness and innovation,” Microsoft might try to “exert the same sort of inappropriate and illegal influence over the Internet that it did with the PC.”

“In addition, Microsoft plus Yahoo! equals an overwhelming share of instant messaging and web email accounts. And between them, the two companies operate the two most heavily trafficked portals on the Internet. Could a combination of the two take advantage of a PC software monopoly to unfairly limit the ability of consumers to freely access competitors’ email, IM, and web-based services? Policymakers around the world need to ask these questions — and consumers deserve satisfying answers.”

Why is this a ridiculous statement? Because the listed web services (email, IM, and web portals) aren’t where the money is being made. Google is an ad company, so why would an ad company be so concerned with another company that - according to Google - will dominate these web service markets? Because Microsoft and Yahoo have made their attempts at ad-selling departments as well.

What Google fails to point out in this statement is that they are the dominant leader with more than 65% of the ad-sales market. Monopolistic practices by Microsoft? If anything, the monopolistic practices for revenue-generating departments have been on Google’s side.

• Official Google Blog statement
• Microsoft.com response

I don’t mean to come off as a Microsoft fanboy (I own a Mac for my everyday use, but I love my Zune) or as a Google hater (I use Gmail both for personal and USC email accounts). All I’m trying to say is that for too long, Microsoft has been an easy target to yell monopoly around. Just because a company is successful and has a corporate face (as opposed to Google or Apple’s fun-eco-friendly faces) doesn’t mean that its sometimes aggressive, market-upsetting actions are illegal.

As has been tradition for the past few years, the kickoff of the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) is begun with Bill Gates giving the opening keynote. Tonight marks the last CES keynote Bill will give, and his intro to the address was very fitting. Here is a link to the video that was shown addressing what Bill’s last day at Microsoft might be like:

Bill Gates’ Last Day At Microsoft

Can anyone say cameo? And talk about getting your money’s worth. I didn’t count, but there are probably around 10-15 semi/full-blown famous people in that 6 minutes clip. Regardless of the fact that Bill can obviously get anyone in the world to do anything for him, this video was a nice piece of comedy that shined above what usually amounts to loads of geekery at events like CES. It’s sad to see such an outstanding innovator leave the industry, but there is little doubt in my mind that the work that he will do with his and Melinda’s foundation will rival what he did at Microsoft in terms of positive impact on the world as a whole.

As for the rest of the keynote, he and his Microsoft helpers did announce some interesting technologies, most importantly the broadcasting of the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics online with their Silverlight technology, but nothing really held up to the intro video. Even the Guitar Hero with Slash finale, it all seemed kind of lackluster when compared to the fact that an era of technology leadership is ending and that another is about to begin.

Addressing the CES conference, I probably won’t be covering any of it unless some product really jumps out at me. As for the Macworld conference, I’ll probably be all over that (even though I can’t go this year).

Sooo, I normally wouldn’t spend $170 on a wireless router, but I have a number of reasons as to why I decided to purchase this piece of overpriced Apple hardware:

1. I had $120 credit to a store, and I didn’t know what else to buy.
2. I needed a wireless router, and the Linksys router I was interested in was sold out.
3. I own a MacBook Pro, and I think that the whole Apple-addiction is getting to me.

I understand that none of these can atone for my careless money-spending, but I must say that this wireless-n router is pretty damn nice.

Let’s get the obvious points out of the way. It is beautiful simply because it was “Designed by Apple in California”. It’s white, geometric, and minimal in its design. And it isn’t really competitively priced, but what Apple hardware really is (I understand that it’s getting better)?

In my room, there are wires going everywhere, which is part of the reason why I wanted a wireless router. This cleaned up two stray ethernet cords climbing up the side of my desk (one for me and one for my roommate).

Onto the setup. It was really easy, all I had to do was install the drivers/software that came bundled with the router; no different from any other router I’ve used. It recognized my incoming internet instantly, and my MacBook Pro recognized the router equally fast. It was setting up my hard drive where I found problems.

Try as I might, I couldn’t get my computer to pair with the hard drive. Even though the router recognized it, OS X wouldn’t for some reason. It turned out that my hard drive happens to be one of about 10 that no longer works due to some software and firmware restrictions. I hope that gets corrected soon, but I don’t think it will seeing as this router has been out for quite a few months.

All in all, this router works as it should. I have set it up as a wireless print server instead of a hard drive server, and it does what it is supposed to. Is it worth $170? No, but I had store credit and I think it looks nice…

Google, in a suprizing and dissappointing PR move, has decided to come out against Michael Moore and offer to place HMO ads directly across from search results that include SiCKO. Why? Because Google believes that:

Moore attacks health insurers, health providers, and pharmaceutical companies by connecting them to isolated and emotional stories of the system at its worst.

Like many people, I have already seen Michael Moore’s SiCKO, the film about the sad state of the health care system in the United States. I saw the movie before it came out in theaters because Moore let it known that he wants people to torrent it, and that he didn’t mind at all that it was ripped to YouTube (although later taken off). But that’s beside the point.

I am fairly confused at Google’s reaction to the movie. Is this Google’s first overt move to reject it’s public user-base, turning instead to the big business ad customers? Of course, Google has more money to make by doing what it has done, but is it really worth it? SiCKO has received near universal praise for its criticisms, and I agree with the New York Times when they say that it is a “cinematic indictment of the American health care system.”

Apart from the purely capitalistic point of view (which is that Google is doing the right thing), today’s market relies on more than just your big money customer base. Companies must look out for the public, and I find this especially true for Google. While we, the average searchers, aren’t the ones directly paying Google, we are the ones looking at the ads. We don’t hold the large wallets, but in our massive numbers, we hold far more power than the businesses Google is trying to cater to.

This move by Google confuses me. I really hope that this does not become a trend in Google’s business tactics; it could lead to the gradual diminishment of one of the largest internet companies we know.

Update: Google has retracted the statements of their employee.

Note: All of the ? should be black boxes, I can’t get my databases to register the symbol, just check out the digg story.

Although Digg is currenly in the midst of a small scale user revolt over the release of their new comment system, its users are still able to submit great stories with even greater titles. Take this for example: ??? to declassify cl?????ied do?????ts. No, your browser isn’t malfunctioning; that’s how it’s supposed to look. The description for the post goes as such, “THE CIA says it it has decided to declassify most of a voluminous 1973 file known as “the family jewels”, which details some of the agency’s most notorious operations.” Fairly clever, huh? The comments for this submission are equally as good!

Please refrain from discussing or engaging in any sort of interoffice ????? or ????? or finger??? or ????sting or ????? or even ???? Even though so many people in this office are begging for it. And if anybody does anything with my sister Lindsay, I’ll take off my pants, I’ll shave ????. And I’ll personally ???… -jimsterbell

09-f9-11-02-9d-74-e3-5b-d8-41-56-c5-63-56-88-?? -praveenmarkandu

My thoughts on the new threaded comment system is that it ????’? so ????ing much that if I ever see Kevin Rose on the street I will ???? his ????? little ????. I HOPE YOU ??? KEVIN! -MikeonTV

Yeah, Digg users might be funny, but not a single one has any class.

Don’t get me wrong, I was BluRay to win this standards war. I believe that Sony’s PS3, while the most expensive, is the best “next-gen” console. I believe that it is years ahead of the Wii and of the Xbox360. But that argument needs to be saved for another day. Apart from the console wars being waged right now, BluRay is just the better format.

Has everyone forgot about Netflix? The one company that has risen above just being a “geek’s only” secret you shared with only your best friends. It’s public and normal people use it without a problem. Just for a second, think about what would happen if Netflix adopted HD-DVD. Obviously, Blockbuster is the larger of the two companies, but it is also falling much faster than Netflix is rising. If there was a coalition of sorts made of up every movie rental company/organization against Blockbuster’s adoption of the format, it could mean the end of both BluRay and Blockbuster. Of course, this won’t happen, but the Netflix situation certainly could.

Just playing Devil’s Advocate here, but just think for a second about the contradiction of your past words and current assumptions. As usual, only time will tell…

Of course anything that happens regarding Steve Jobs will make the tech blogs, but yesterday was a big day in the life of a newly converted Mac user. It was the start of WWDC, and as usual, Jobs gave his keynote as an opening act. Also as usual, there were massive rumors circulating both forums and blogs alike, some rumors came true, other fell back into the “save for next Apple event” pile. Here are some of the things announced today and my take left along side of them:

Mac OS X Leopard

• Desktop: We have a new dock and semi-transparent top bar. The new dock is definitely nice with the Stacks feature, but listing a semi-transparent bar as a feature? What’s up with that? If Jobs would have skipped the bar and focused solely on the dock, I would be much more pleased. Either way, the new dock is a definite improvement. It’s a step in the left direction.
• Finder: This is where I am most excited for Leopard. The finder has a whole new way of browsing through the files and folders located all around your hard drive. New icons that mimic the file/folder contents, new Cover Flow view, and and improved searching with Spotlight all excite me. I believe that Core Animation will be integrated somehow into the new Finder features which would make this new explorer even prettier.
• Time Machine: Nothing really new, but Time Machine looks nice. Admittedly, it is just a backup program with a pretty GUI, but what’s wrong with that? Having it integrated into my OS is very welcome.
• Spaces: Again, nothing new, but this is probably my second favorite feature coming to Leopard. This makes it OK for those of us who can’t fit four screens on our desks. It looks like it will have very intuitive integration into everyday use, and with the rapid increases in RAM size and decrease in prices, more programs are going to be open more of the time. One screen can’t really handle that without something like Spaces.
• iChat: A few new things make this simple text/audio/video chatting program even more appealing. You can now show your the people who you are chatting with your presentations, slideshows, or other things not pertaining to your face. Nice new features, nothing shocking though.
• Boot Camp: We all knew that Boot Camp would be integrated into Leopard, and although we were hoping that Apple would make it into a Parallels/VMware killer of sorts, Jobs presented it as a complementary product to these two others. The new Boot Camp will allow quick switching between your different virtual machines. Small update.
• Front Row: It will look like Apple TV, that’s nice… I guess. I don’t really use Front Row right now, maybe I will next year at college. This new interface doesn’t affect me too much.

iPhone

• 3rd Party Apps: No SDK, only web apps. Apple needs to learn that, although first-party limitations have worked thus far, competitors are coming in on all sides. Seeing as Apple is entering into a brand new market that already seems saturated with carriers and phone makers, being locked into the Cingular/AT&T contract sucks big time. Only web apps really hinders the capabilities for others to develop kick-ass applications.
• Size Issues: The picture of the iPhone has changed on the Apple website (which has also received a redesign). What is odd is that it now seems MUCH smaller than before. It turns out that after the old and new images are compared and the new one is vertially stretched, they match exactly. This is some shady imaging on Apple’s part. It looks like Andre the Giant’s hand holding the iPhone where as before it was Mini-Me’s.

Other/Misc.

• Safari 3 for Windows: I get the point of releasing an Apple browser for Windows. It can be used as yet another point of entry for Apple. It’s too bad that their product sucks. Mac users don’t even use Safari, why would Windows users. If Windows users are to use any browser other than IE (which sucks equally to Safari), they will either use Firefox or Opera. Apple still has a ways to go with this browser. They might want to focus on getting a home-court advantage before going to the visitor’s side.

  Update: Wired has done benchmarks on Safari 3, Firefox 2, and IE 7. Guess what? Apple lied. Safari is slower than both…

• Games: Another “why?” to me. Now that Parallels is making strides in virtualization with Windows and the integration of gaming on Macs using the Windows OS, why keep producing games for Macs? I don’t think it makes sense on a developer’s side. It makes perfect sense for Apple, but not for EA.

These new ads are very basic in nature. What do they show? How to work the device. Through clever workflow ideas (Calamari) they display the ways that the iPhone can easily switch from and to each different function in-between sessions. The narrator is soothing, the music appropriate, and the visual part is as simple as it can get: a hand holding an iPhone. Then again, it does have one level of complexity at times; its that damn second hand.

That second hand is going to be a big problem for Apple. The fact that the iPod is completely functional is one hand is amazing (but this attribute is repeatable). June 29th is the launch date according to these commercials.

Update: TUAW did an article about these new ads saying that the Mac ads should be more like this. I can’t agree enough. I feel that the Mac ads are rude and elitist. They are what make me NOT want to be like the Mac guy.

After realizing that there is no way that I could ever afford to buy all of the music that I wanted from Apple’s iTunes Music Store, I stepped into the world of subscription music services. After trying out just about every product on the market, I have come to the conclusion that Rhapsody is the best by far. Now imagine my dismay after learning that Rhapsody is a Windows only app! I was so disappointed that my favorite music discovery application was gone forever. Luckily for me, a few Google searches after getting over my sadness, I discovered Yottamusic.

Yottamusic seems (at first) to be just another subscription services sans a desktop application. It was the little note that says that Rhapsody users need not register that excited me. Yotta turned out to be an amazing service that uses the Rhapsody music library as a back-end and some great AJAX in the front-end to create a very sleek user experience. The best way to describe it would be to say that it is the Web 2.0 makeover of a service trying so hard to get out of the 1.0 stage.

Yottamusic works with many different browsers, and if you happen to be using one that they don’t officially support, they let you know immediately (but that doesn’t mean that your browser will be shut out). I understand that Rhapsody’s web service works with Firefox on OS X, but it’s interface and design is very sluggish and unintuitive. Yotta is its younger, edgier sibling that has all of the unnecessary bells and whistles left in the dust. If you do nothing else, check out the Intro Comic that they have to describe their product.

Update: Yottamusic has been shut down by Rhapsody. Replacement? Mog.

Take a good look at that image. Now realize that this 1GB flash media player costs only $40. Seeing the word Zen branded on these little devices tells you that they are part of the Creative Zen line of a wide variety of media players. And like many of Creative’s products, it does what Apple’s products do at a drastically reduced price. Apple’s Shuffle, which does the exact same functions (play music files randomly w/o an LCD screen), costs $80 (double the Zen Stone).

The Zen Stone exemplifies my main problems with Apple’s products and their pricing schemes. Apple is able to charge ridiculous prices for ordinary products employing technology that has been available for years. There is no use trying to deny that their marketing and PR departments are probably the best in the world, but I still don’t think that their products justify their prices. Paying more for an inferior product isn’t cool, though it might be fashionable.

What sent the diggers up in arms? The removal of a story submitted that had hit the front page about the 32 digit hexadecimal code that is used to unlock the encryption on HD-DVDs. This code is similar to the “illegal prime”number that was used to crack DVDs. The number is illegal to publish and copy because it can circumvent all of the copy-protection put on HD-DVDs, which means that HD-DVDs can now be pirated. Digg removed this story immediately because its moderators said that it was a legal matter for digg, and that it could not be responsible for such content on the site.

Diggers are viewing this as a persecution of their right to free speech, and rightfully so. Another little fact that enraged diggers is that reddit and other large social news sites didn’t immediately take down the posted links to the code. It has become an issue of standing up to the MPAA and RIAA (two groups which the digg crowd would lynch, burn and the stake, and mutilate if they had the chance); this is something that digg did not do. Rather than trying to put up a fight to battle DRM, digg bent over and acted like a little baby.

Finally, it has come to surface that Diggnation, a podcast done by digg owner Kevin Rose and his friend Alex Albrect, have been sponsored by HD-DVD in the past. Conflict of interests? I think so…Links to other stories:

• Breaking: Digg Riot in Full Effect Over Pulled HD-DVD Key Story - Gizmodo
  
• NO MERCY - DIGG OUT OF CONTROL - Mashable
  
• E3 Expo implicated in HD-DVD piracy - Destructoid

It seems that the Joost lot has seen a very nice turn of events as of late. Before now, the programing that Joost has offered its beta testers has been both random and irrelevant to their wants. The program is nice, but a pretty interface cannot cover up horrid content. It looks like CBS is coming to Joost’s rescue.

It has been announced that CBS is taking a shotgun approach to webcasting their TV programming, and Joost happens to be caught in the shot spray. This announcement is a buffer to the recent addition of Viacom programs such as MTV, VH1, and BET (all music channels). As to the programming being offered by CBS, already aired shows such as CSI, NCIS, and CBS Evening News with Katie Couric. It is unfortunate that Joost is getting more old content, but at least these shows have been viewed and praised by millions. This is quite unlike the other programming on channels such as LXTV and The Diddy Channel.

Being a part of the beta testing program, I am glad to see the recent increase in content which was released no less than a week ago. As the versions of Joost approach v1.0 (they are currently at v0.9.2), more exciting news is sure to rise pertaining to the program. While strides still need to be made relating to how users will be able to manage hundreds of channels at once and other usability issues, the ability to watch free TV programming is exciting for anyone involved.

If you want to participate in beta testing, I have a few invites left!

The YouChoose section of YouTube has started to allow presidential candidates one week each in the Spotlight on the News & Politics page of the massive video site. During their time in the Spotlight, they will be able to pose questions to the YouTube community. In response, people everywhere can upload their own “RE:” videos answering the questions asked.

This is your chance to engage the leaders who are competing for the most powerful position in the country. Let them know what you think and keep an eye on their replies. This is a great chance to get to know the candidates better by speaking across the level platform that is politics on YouTube.

This is a very interesting idea that YouTube is trying out. They are taking advantage of their massive active user population to possibly influence the ‘08 elections. So what does this mean? I think that the number of 18-24 age voters will go up. If this does nothing else, it will put good amounts of information right at the fingertips of millions of YouTubers. Giving people information where they already are (in this case, YouTube) is a very important aspect of informing potential voters. People are lazy, and putting political information in a place that doesn’t make people go out of their way is great.The Spotlight pages that the candidate pages are nice because they aren’t just places to post videos. They let you see both critical and fun facts about the candidates. This adds to the concept of putting information where people already are.

The downside? You are allowing the millions of pre-teens ample space to start more flame wars. As nearly every web forum has proved, it only takes one idiot to post something like “i will pwn u all! u suxors!” to have an entire thread to go astray. Hopefully the users of YouTube will keep their heads on while talking about politics so that we can see some actual intellectual debating go on.

Right now, we have Dennis Kucinich, Duncan Hunter, Rudy Giuliani, Barack Obama, Ron Paul, Bill Richardson, John Edwards, Chris Dodd, Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton, John McCain, Tom Tancredo, and Mitt Romney up on the page.

After Steve Jobs’ blaming the record industry for DRM saying that he’s all for DRM-free music, but not taking any personal responsibility for the problem, the major record label EMI has published a press release stating that it will be offering higher quality, DRM-free music on the iTunes Music Store. Here is a great summary of the points made today (by Gizmodo):

•EMI approached Apple about DRM free tracks, not the other way around.
•EMI is cool with any other music store doing DRM-free tracks. This is not an iTunes exclusive.
•Those stores can put songs in any format they want. The iTunes premium price and AAC 256 kbps format are Apple’s Marketing decision.
•One underpublicized aspect of this deal is that full albums will cost the same. That means that while LCD Soundsystem’s North American Scum will cost more than a DRM‘d version, the full album, Sound of Silver, that it came from will cost the same either way. Combine that with the ability to upgrade tracks into full albums, and DRM‘d songs into free tracks eases the stinging a bit.
•EMI made this move based on research that showed consumers want DRM-free tracks.
•They’re doing this to get a bigger stake in online music, believing that even though CDs are 90% of their sales, those figures will shrink or stay flat. They’re projecting that online sales should rise to to 25% of their sales by 2010.
•That includes music sales on cellphones. That’s 500-billion capable handsets, worldwide, by end of this year.
•The DRM-free tracks should, they believe improve sales: Even as piracy gets easier, so does the ability to play songs on any MP3 player available. (That is, once some other music store releases EMI tracks on MP3.)
•Although Jobs says, “We expect to offer more than half of the songs on iTunes in DRM-free versions by the end of this year.”, EMI says the first of the new tracks will be on sale in May.
•EMI won’t disavow RIAA lawsuits, however.