Sunday, August 22, 2010

Google Test Updates Search Results as Characters as Entered

This apparently experimental feature of Google Search updates search results as characters are entered in the search term stream. Nobody outside Google can tell whether this might be be applied as a standard feature for all Google searches, but it certainly indicates an advance in algorithms, caching or processing, possibly all three to some degrees.

Saturday, August 21, 2010

LG Promises a Tablet "Better than the iPad"

LG Electronics is working on an Android-powered tablet device that will be "better than the iPad," says Chang Ma, LG vice president of marketing for LG's mobile-devices unit. If LG is deliver on that promise, it might ultimately be because it will be designed for content creation, not simply consumption.

The tablet will include content focused on creation such as writing documents, editing video and creating programs, the Wall Street Journal reports. It will also have "high-end features and new benefits," many of which will focus on productivity, Ma adds.

Get Your Netbook at the Drugstore

CVS will be offering a Sylvania netbook for $99.99 as well as Sylvania’s new LookBook e-reader for $179.

The $99.99 net book, which weighs under two pounds, has a seven-inch screen and comes loaded with Windows CE, will allow users to access e-mail, surf the Internet and visit social networking and video streaming sites (although one wonders how successful streaming will be on such a basic unit). CVS will be selling the netbook for about $5 less than Amazon. a

Facebook a New 800-Pound Gorilla in Location Services?


A rational observer would have to conclude that Facebook's "Places" will have repercussions on independent providers of social location solutions.

Ditto for Skype.

Facebook Places: Who Loses?

Most observers think Facebook's move into the location services space will have competitive impact on independent providers. Here's a discussion about potential losers.

Cloud Computing: When to Use it; When Not To

There's an old set of tradeoffs between buying services or "doing it yourself," where it comes to computing or communications infrastructure. Hosted VoIP virtually always makes more sense than buying systems for a smaller business. But premises-based solutions typically are more economical for large enterprises.

Something of the same argument can be when companies or people choose between cloud computing services and building their own data centers. Obviously, large enterprises often justify building their own data centers. Others might be able to justify renting space in somebody else's data center. Smaller organizations might well find that renting computing cycles is the better choice.

Google Sr. Manager, Production Network Engineering and Architecture at Google argues that the decision is highly dependent on duty cycle. Steady, predictable loads, especially at a high rate of utilization, will tip economics in favor of self-operated or co-located facilities. Highly-variable demand, and low volume, will tend to tip the economics in favor of a cloud computing solution.

"Think of it as taking a taxi vs. buying a car to make a trip between San Francisco and Palo Alto," says Gill. "If you only make the trip once a quarter, it is cheaper to take a taxi." But "if you make the trip every day, then you are better off buying a car."

"The difference is the duty cycle. If you are running infrastructure with a duty cycle of 100 percent, it may make sense to run in-house," says Gill. The detailed assumptions and analysis are here: https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0AgWfa8v6EGzjdElXQVFzU1plSXdEQmVHZ3M5YjlsNVE&hl=en&authkey=CM_RzL0E#gid=0

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Smartphone Application Market Bigger than Mobile Ad Market?

The worldwide smartphone applications market grew more than $2.2 billion dollars within the first six months of 2010. At that rate, mobile app store sales volume is bigger than all mobile advertising revenues.

Mobile application download numbers reached a total of 3.8 billion in only 6 months, compared to 3.1 billion in 2009.

Zoom Wants to Become a "Digital Twin Equipped With Your Institutional Knowledge"

Perplexity and OpenAI hope to use artificial intelligence to challenge Google for search leadership. So Zoom says it will use AI to challen...