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Google rolls out real-time search, Near Me Now, extended personalization

Publié: décembre 7, 2009, 11:28pm CET par Jacqueline Emigh

By Jacqueline Emigh, Betanews

After stirring up privacy concerns with a personalized search announcement, industry search engine leader Google threw a press conference today to launch a slate of other new search offerings for PCs and mobile phones, including a possibly equally controversial feature that integrates Twitter tweets and blog posts with news articles in real-time searches.
Google's announcements also include two new location-based options for iPhones and Droid phones: Near Me Now and Product Search.
In the personalization announcement made earlier today, Google is tweaking your search results based on your past Web History. While personalization has long been available to users who sign up for Google services like Gmail and Google calendar, the feature will now be enabled by default across all Google search engine users, unless a user specifically opts out of personalization by turning it off.
In coming months and years, Google searches will become even more personalized, through greater awareness of where you're located, your areas of expertise, and "who your friends are," said Marissa Mayer, Google's VP of search product and user experience, in a press conference Monday.
Since October, Google has already blogged about 33 new "search innovations" on its Web pages, according to Mayer. "We're really excited about [increasing] that rate of innovation."
Back in the early days, Google crawled the Web about once a month, a pace that then picked up to once a week, every few days, and ultimately every few minutes, noted Amit Singhal, a Google engineer.
For searches that are even more up-to-date, Google's new real-time search capability will be available in some parts of the English-speaking world today, and in other areas a few days later. In case the feature isn't showing up in your browser yet, you can go to a new option called Google Trends to try it out. You can use it to check out news stories and blog posts about "hot topics" such as Tiger Woods' multiple mistresses (nine at last count).
In the first quarter of 2010, Google will bring out a new feature for translating voice searches between languages, said Vic Gondotra, Google's VP of engineering, who suggested that Google's Internet search could carry as much historic impact as the invention of electricity, the steam engine, and the Gutenberg printing press.
Google also announced the upcoming integration of user pages from Facebook and MySpace into Google searches. But under questioning by journalists, officials contended that Facebook and MySpace members will need to opt in through the two respective social networks for their pages to show up in searches.
The new Near Me Now feature for mobile phones, slated for availability over the next few weeks, will show you points of interest in the nearby geographic area after figuring out your location.
Product Search, a capability due out a couple of weeks later, will let you search nearby stores for products you're interested in buying and find out whether those products are in stock. Google is currently testing Product Search with Sears and Best Buy.
Also, a new image search feature called Google Goggles is now available for Android-based Droid phones through a new software updates. With Google Goggles, you can upload an image of an object -- such as the Eiffel Tower, for instance -- and then search for information about the object. Our Tim Conneally already tested it out earlier today.
While Google Goggles is also able to recognize faces, Google isn't enabling that capability out of sensitivity to privacy concerns, Singhal said.
Earlier in the day, some privacy advocates such as the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) criticized Google's move to extend personalized searches to all users by default.
During a Q&A session at the press event, privacy issues went largely untouched. But one journalist suggested that Google's new real-time search might lead to inaccuracies and rumor-mongering, by giving the same relevance to recent user-generated content such as blogs and tweets as it does to news articles from major publications.
Singhal admitted that, although Google is emphasizing "quality and relevancy," presenting "the truth" in search results is a tough research problem. It is Google's "ultimate objective years down the road to get to that point," the engineer responded.
Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2009
Google Goggles: Hands on with the Shazam of the Real World

Publié: décembre 7, 2009, 10:10pm CET par Tim Conneally

By Tim Conneally, Betanews

As an Android fan, I've been looking forward to Google Goggles since the second I heard about it, and today it has officially been made available. It is a new lab from Google which turns your Android device's camera into a search input device. Similar to the way Shazam can identify a song by its audio "fingerprint," Goggles can identify landmarks, books, logos, artwork, and contact info simply by looking at it.
From the very first query, I was hooked. Maybe it's because my experience was so interesting. The very first piece of data I submitted was the PriceWatterhouseCoopers logo on my colleague's coffee cup on the desk next to me. Rather than return information about the company, the result was tennis player Jimmy Arias. I figured something wasn't quite right and snapped another picture for a second try. The results were the same.
But then I noticed why this was the answer:
Notice the logo down by his knees? Google Goggles saw it and matched it up with my query in just seconds. Discovering this fact was ten times more rewarding than if the app had just linked me directly to the company's Web site. So I went crazy and attempted the logos of everything in my immediate surroundings: the EFF, Snapple, Dell, and Apple. Only Snapple's worked, linking to the very image I captured, and then to the company's information, the rest were inconclusive.
Contact information is another useful and clever feature of Goggles: Using optical character recognition (OCR), scanning a business card automatically inputs contact information into your address book and returns Web results against the name. Scanning my own business card for a test, most data was returned passably: My office and direct numbers were each in their own field, and my name was in the name field. My e-mail address and URL were both slightly flawed, however. I apparently now work for a company called "tetanews," which is can be found at wwrw.tetanews.corn.
At least it was good for a laugh. A second scan in better light pulled in all the information flawlessly. Unfortunately, Goggles does not utilize the flash on the Motorola Droid for snapping images.
To test the book cover search, I randomly pulled a book called "The Call of the Siren: Manatees and Dugongs" off of a nearby shelf. It only took one try, and Google Books pulled up the abstract and cover image, a link to Amazon.com's listing, and a link to information about the author, Tim Dietz.
With GPS turned on, Goggles also acts as an augmented reality app, with tabs that indicate nearby points of interest along the bottom of the camera view window.
It's a free app available right now in the Android Market, like most of Google's other apps for Android, it's an absolute must have, even at this early stage. We're testing Goggles on the HTC Dream/G1 as well as the Motorola Droid, and I will post our extended results in the comments section. If you're an Android user with a different device, We'd like to hear your results.
Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2009
Microsoft: Windows 7 Family Pack wasn't 'pulled,' it just sold out

Publié: décembre 7, 2009, 8:43pm CET par Scott M. Fulton, III

By Scott M. Fulton, III, Betanews

In response to a Saturday story from Betanews contributor Joe Wilcox, a Microsoft spokesperson told Betanews this afternoon that "the offer has not been 'pulled'" -- specifically, that it did not revoke anything with regard to its three-license Windows 7 Home Premium Family Pack offer. It simply sold out, as Microsoft says its "while supplies last" offer clearly indicated as early as last July.
"The Windows 7 Family Pack was introduced as a limited time offer while supplies last in select geographies," the spokesperson told us. "Response has been very positive and, in some cases, the offer has sold out. Customers interested in upgrading their PCs should purchase Home Premium, Professional, or Ultimate upgrade products."
One of those select geographies was apparently the Web, where the Family Pack offer was discontinued last week. "The Windows 7 Family Pack offer has ended. Please check our other offers," reads a notice on the page to which Google, Bing, and other search engines direct customers searching for the Home Premium offer.
Some may wonder how much bother it would be for the company to simply print up more multiple licenses, or to keep selling downloadable editions online under a three-license deal. But that deal was a huge discount, as the single-license Home Premium upgrade edition currently sells for $119.99, and Microsoft may only have planned to absorb a limited blow from that discount.
The Family Pack upgrades had sold for $150. A check of Walmart.com this afternoon showed Family Pack upgrades were still available on some store shelves, although that retailer had stopped selling the product online.
Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2009
Can tween and teen iPod touch users assure iPhone's success?

Publié: décembre 7, 2009, 7:18pm CET par Joe Wilcox

By Joe Wilcox, Betanews

For years, analysts have opined about the iPod "halo effect" on Mac sales -- the idea being that people buying iPods who enjoy the experience and exposure to the Apple brand will be more likely to buy Macs. Mobile platform analytics firm Flurry, which data I am using for the first time, claims there is a second halo effect -- iPod touch to iPhone. Flurry puts some hard, and quite believable, data behind this assertion.
In a blog entry posted yesterday, Peter Farago, Flurry's vice president of marketing, described iPod touch as "Apple's weapon for mass [iPhone] consumption." His reasoning: Younger consumers buying iPod touch now and will buy iPhone later.
"While the Android platform is the most legitimate challenger to iPhone smartphone dominance, it's important to remember that the iPhone's flank is protected by an often overlooked, powerful fighting brand: iPod touch," Farago writes. He notes that Apple has revealed 58 million iPhone OS devices sold -- shipped, really -- through September 2009. "Of those, Flurry estimates that just over 40 percent, around 24 million, are iPod touch devices," he continues. "While it is clear that the iPhone has significant short-term revenue value for Apple, Flurry believes that the iPod touch holds more long-term strategic value for Steve Jobs and team."
Happy Meal Marketing
Farago certainly isn't the first person to suggest that Apple's mobile platform should be regarded as iPhone and iPod touch, since they use the same operating system. But he makes a connection to younger users, putting forth data to back up the claims (the charts here are those Flurry provided in the blog post). He writes:
Apple is using the iPod touch to build loyalty with pre-teens and teens, even before they have their own phones (think: McDonalds' Happy Meal marketing strategy). When today's young iPod touch users age by five years, they will already have iTunes accounts, saved personal contacts to their iPod touch devices, purchased hundreds of apps and songs, and mastered the iPhone OS user interface.
This translates into loyalty and switching costs, allowing Apple to seamlessly 'graduate' young users from the iPod touch to the iPhone. For OEMs hoping to challenge Apple, we believe an even greater sense of urgency must be adopted.
Lock-in is an approach long used by many capitalists. Microsoft crafted lock-in into a science during the 1980s and 1990s, by establishing de facto standards around DOS/Windows protocols and file dependencies coupled with proprietary application file formats. U.S. trustbusters claimed Office-Windows created an "applications barrier to entry" that thwarted competing products. Maybe, but those so-called dependencies also improved business productivity and communications, by reducing the number of disparate file formats -- and applications needed to read them -- and by diminishing operating system fragmentation.
Microsoft's big lock-in advantage was less about its technology and more about human behavior and business logistics -- as measured in switching costs. People develop habits they are slow to change. Any IT manager bringing in new applications or processes can attest to the human switching costs, where employees resist adopting something new. The other switching cost is logistical, when there is a high cost switching from one platform or product to another. Microsoft competitors face these costs when trying to get businesses to move to free, open-source software. Even Microsoft struggles with switching costs, when businesses hold fast to older Office or Windows versions because of costs associated with upgrades.
If Apple can lock in younger users now, future switching costs, familiarity with iPhone OS and fascination with the Apple brand could turn millions of iPod touch users into future iPhone users. Marketers dream of locking in users young so they will be customers as they grow older. Cigarette marketing has repeatedly come under fire for allegedly marketing to kids. Microsoft has long deeply discounted software for the college and university markets, hoping to lock-in future customers.
The iPod touch Generation
There's another factor, which Farago only indirectly considers: Generational behavior. Sociologically, generations aren't just about time of birth. Each generation has clearly defined characteristics that distinguish it from others. Today's tweens and teens are at the end -- and a little beyond -- the Millennials, which are sometimes referred to as Echo Boomers or the Net Generation. Millennials are highly social, more likely to take buying and fashion cues from their peers than advertisers. Farago rightly observes that today's tweens and teens fall into an even more social group:
Anecdotally, we know the 'iPod Touch Generation' is made up of heavy MySpace, Facebook and SMS users, who voraciously share their lives with, and influence their ever-expanding social graph. Importantly, this also includes promoting products they like. Empirically, Flurry compared how iPod touch session usage has changed over the last six months across key application categories important to this demographic; namely, social networking and games.
Certainly, several analyst studies -- and declining Nintendo DS and Sony PSP sales and Nokia's discontinuation of N-Gage -- identify iPod touch as a gaming device growing in popularity. The games tweens and teens buy today, they'll want to take with them to their cell phone. Apple's DRM, formats and technologies will make iPhone a top priority for many members of the iPod touch generation. If influence matters, friends will want to belong to the same iPhone club. If social networking apps are better on iPhone OS, the iPod touch generation will want these, too.
All of this is made possible by a key technology decision made by Apple that I blogged about in February. Before iPhone launched in June 2007, wireless carriers generally controlled mobile operating system updates. The resulting fragmentation created a barrier to mobile applications development. With iPhone and iPod touch, Apple controls and distributes the updates, creating a single platform across many devices. So those 58 million iPhone OS devices are a single platform, something no other mobile operating system developer can claim about its products.
In October, I blogged that "Apple will lose the mobile device wars." But Apple may yet win the mobile platform wars. At the least, if Flurry's analysis proves right, today's tween and teen iPod touch users may be tomorrow's iPhone users. Assuming they buy a computer, too, it could easily be a Mac and Windows PC. Hey, if one Apple, why not a bushel?
Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2009
Clever iPhone game returns after being bumped over a name dispute

Publié: décembre 7, 2009, 7:07pm CET

By Paul Hartsock, MacNewsWorld

The story of "Edgy" sounds like an iPhone developer's worst nightmare. You create a game that includes a lot of intricate puzzles and levels. Lots of time goes into it, so you think it's appropriate to charge a moderate amount, as iPhone games go. There seems to be no reason for the App Store to reject it -- no shaken babies, no naked ladies, no Internet tethering, just clean old puzzle-solving fun. Approval is granted, public reaction is generally positive, and it seems you've caught your little piece of the iPhone dream.
Then it all starts to unravel over a single word: the name of the app.
"Edgy's" orginal title was simply "Edge." It first appeared on the App Store about a year ago, but a few months later it was removed. That action stemmed from a complaint from a company called "Edge Games," according to what Mobigame told FingerGaming last May. Apparently Edge Games is very protective of its name, and it's gone after several titles that use the word "edge," never mind how common the word is in ordinary conversation. Edge Games' lawyers have also reportedly targeted titles like "Mirror's Edge," "Planet's Edge" and "Edge of Extinction." Expect more lawsuits if U2 or W. Somerset Maugham ever make their own games.
In fact, Edge Games' rapid-fire litigation machine has apparently motivated a member of the International Game Developers Association to attempt to remove Edge's CEO, Tim Langdell, from that organization's board. Langdell has since resigned from the IDGA, according to Wikipedia's take on the situation, but the article the Wiki entry cites for that statement is oddly no longer available on the IGDA's own site. Anyway, he's not currently listed as a director.
The Apple App Store abhors this sort of controversy, so "Edge" has disappeared and reappeared on its shelves multiple times over the past year, depending on who's winning the argument at any given moment. This week it came back with a new name -- "Edgy" -- and I hope that one-letter difference is enough to call off Edge Games' attack dogs for good.
Pointless naming feuds aside, what do you actually DO in "Edgy?" The closest comparison I can come up with is an old Atari game called "Marble Madness." In that one, you control a marble as it rolls around platforms arranged with holes, obstacles, moving parts and labyrinth-like pathways in order to get from point A to point B as fast as possible without falling into the void. "Edgy" simply has you moving a cube instead of a marble, which makes you more stable when trying to stand still but makes certain maneuvers a little trickier.
The main goal is to get through each level as fast as possible, but along the way you can collect so-called prisms (little colored cubes) for bonus points. Many of these prisms lie outside the shortest way to get to the finish line, so sometimes you'll find yourself trying to tackle a particularly difficult section of the puzzle just for the hell of it, rather than to score a good grade and get to the next level. There are 46 levels in all, and they get more complex as you move on.
"Edgy's" "Marble Madness" similarities are as much about style as they are about concept. "Edgy" nails "MM" mid-'80s feel with minimalist, blocky, high-contrast graphics and hints of neon lights around the edges. The music -- credited to Romain Gauthier, Simon Perin, Richard Malot and Jeremie Perin -- has this sort of 8-bit techno disco ring to it. I felt like I was playing an old Nintendo with an upgraded sound card. It complements the looks of the game perfectly, and I highly recommend playing this with the sound on.
Control can be a difficult task to approach in designing iPhone games. "Edgy" lets you have it your way. You can control your cube directly with your finger on the touchscreen (not my favorite because it blocks your view), or you can roll it around by tilting the iPhone (which I don't like because it makes me feel like I'm about to drop the thing on the pavement). I preferred the third option, which just gives you a four-directional trackpad at the bottom of the screen.
"Edgy" is an example of an iPhone game done right. It isn't a dumbed-down version of a game that was originally made for a console, and its control options let you handle it however you're most comfortable. Its concept is simple enough to understand and play immediately, though its dozens of well-designed levels and puzzles keep you guessing. And its style is refreshingly retro without trying too hard.
Mobigame could do well to design more levels for "Edgy" and hit up in-game sales, so even though the whole naming controversy may have scored the game a little more notoriety than it otherwise would have received, I hope the fight's finally over and done with.
"Edgy," a game from Mobigame, is available for USD$4.99 at the App Store.
This story was originally published on MacNewsWorld
© 2009 ECT News Network. All rights reserved.
© 2009 BetaNews.com. All rights reserved.
Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2009
Intel's marriage of CPU and GPU not ready for prime time

Publié: décembre 7, 2009, 6:54pm CET par Scott M. Fulton, III

By Scott M. Fulton, III, Betanews

A spokesperson for Intel confirmed to Betanews this morning that the company's highly anticipated initial release of a commercial processor product based on its CPU+GPU architecture, code-named "Larrabee," will not come within early 2010 after all. This despite the first public demonstration late last September that seemed to indicate all was on track for a release in the first half of 2010.
"Larrabee silicon and software development are behind where we had hoped to be at this point in the project," stated spokesperson Nick Knupffer. "As a result, our first Larrabee product will not be launched as a standalone discrete graphics preoduct, but rather be used as a software development platform for internal and external use."
The project represents Intel's first attempt at a commercial product architecture that implements pipelining architecture for parallelism. Pipelining is what makes graphics architecture possible, essentially taking the same series of instructions with different data and distributing them through a very long chain. For massively parallel applications like graphics (drawing billions of filled triangles in real-time, for instance), pipelining is far preferable to multi-core, which doles out multiple, dissimilar threads that run in parallel but that are distributed sequentially.
Still, pipelining can be useful for applications other than graphics, which is one reason Intel and other manufacturers, including Nvidia and AMD division ATI, are actively experimenting with hybrid architectures. Some very good signs had been emerging from Intel's experiments, including not only a beautiful demonstration at the last Intel Development Forum in September, but a demonstration at a supercomputer demonstration last week by no less than Intel CTO Justin Rattner.
There, Rattner closed his keynote speech with a Steve Jobs-like "One More Thing" demo: a live test of a Larrabee architecture chip breaking the one teraflop barrier (one trillion floating point instructions per second). That's not a first, even for a commercial graphics card -- ATI was demonstrating teraflop cards in mid-2008. But it would put Intel in a position to compete directly against AMD's ATI division, as well as no-love-lost rival Nvidia, at the high end of the market.
Maybe not next year, though, as Knupffer's comments indicated that we'll hear an update about a Larrabee graphics card's progress "some time in 2010." At that time (whenever that really is), Intel may go into more detail as to the development of a "throughput computing development platform" based on Larrabee -- probably a blueprint for more supercomputing applications, but not consumer products.
There will be some sort of consumer hybrid computing product from Intel this month, Knupffer said: "Our plans to deliver the world's first CPUs with integrated graphics this month are unchanged." But that will evidently not be on the high end of the scale, but more of a value play. Intel has long been a producer of integrated graphics components, but in the performance department, they've never really won awards, especially from consumers.
Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2009
An alternative to Research in Motion's enterprise e-mail? There's an app for that

Publié: décembre 7, 2009, 6:46pm CET par Tim Conneally

By Tim Conneally, Betanews

Hardly a day goes by when our inboxes and feeds aren't flooded with messages from companies announcing that they have created a new iPhone application. They range from the disappointingly simple to the disconcertingly arcane, but as a whole skew more toward the consumer. So when a significant player in enterprise services releases an iPhone app, it's worth looking into...especially when it's from an "underdog" company trying to challenge a market leader.
Good Technology, a long-running provider of mobile e-mail solutions, today debuted its Good for Enterprise iPhone app, which provides secure access to corporate e-mail, calendars and contacts with companies using the Good for Enterprise mobile e-mail solution.
This means Good's e-mail service -- by many accounts, the strongest competitor to BlackBerry -- is now available on nearly all of the most popular handset operating systems: iPhone, Android, Windows Mobile, Symbian S60, PalmOS.
Good Technology has been competing as the "little guy" in corporate mobile e-mail for several years, offering an alternative to powerhouse Research In Motion. It's even commenced litigation against both Research in Motion and Microsoft concerning its remote e-mail patents.
But now that Good for Enterprise is on the iPhone, the company can present a much stronger threat to Research In Motion's enterprise e-mail dominance.
"The iPhone is far and away the most requested device for accessing corporate networks," Good Technology's chief marketing officer John Herrema said in a statement this morning. In the company's survey of 500 IT departments in the US and UK, it found that nearly 82% of respondents wanted to hook their iPhone into their work accounts.
Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2009
Now you can tell Microsoft what to do

Publié: décembre 7, 2009, 6:15am CET par Joe Wilcox

By Joe Wilcox, Betanews

Microsoft advertising has people claiming that "Windows 7 was my idea." I'd like to make "my idea" more real for Betanews readers, by offering a soapbox to give Microsoft a piece of your mind (be polite, but firm); first some context on why do it now.
For Microsoft, the New Year really is a new beginning. January 1 marks the half-way point in the company's fiscal year and the period leading into the annual review process. Employee reviews can't be good this year, with Microsoft morale low (or so I've been hearing) following calendar 2009 layoffs.
I've been collecting stories from laid-off Microsofties, which I had planned to post on my (languishing) Oddly Together Website but have decided to put at Betanews instead, assuming I can get permission for the site switch from everyone who shared a story. I'll be in touch with the story sharers this week and expect to put together composite stories into two or three different posts really soon. Another, separate post will reveal the trends the former employees' stories reveal about the firing -- eh, layoff -- process. Some advice to Microsoft employees who have long "length and level," now would be a good time to think advancement, unless "brutal" is a word you'd like applied to this year's review; or "pink slip," in worst-case scenario.
The new year also marks the start of Microsoft planning for the new fiscal year, beginning July 1. That's why I regard January 1 such a good time to be telling Microsoft what to do. Each year, rather than make predictions for the year ahead, I take a more arrogant approach: Offer unsolicited advice for the coming calendar year. This year, I am offering Betanews readers a chance to the join in the fun. If you ever wanted a say -- a voice -- you can have it. I will collect the best reader suggestions from this post's comments and put them together in a few weeks. This would be separate from my annual telling-Microsoft-what-to-do post.
Meantime, below I briefly review my 10 suggestions made for 2009, hoping they might be examples for Betanews readers. Did Microsoft listen to me? Here is the shortlist of recommendations with my assessment of Microsoft's response to them, with response ranked low-to-high 1 to 10:
10. Chuck Windows' Software Assurance requirements. Like Vista, Windows 7 requires enterprises to pay extra for Software Assurance upgrade protection to get the Enterprise version. I wrote: "Be sensible, Microsoft. If enterprises have less to spend, do you really think they'll spend more on Windows 7 Enterprise because of Software Assurance?"
Microsoft Response: 0. Microsoft kept the Software Assurance requirement, which is good for the company's bottom line but bad for cash-strapped IT departments.
9. Advertise everywhere. I recommended: "Recession is opportunity for smart companies with strong brands and loads of cash to maximize marketing effectiveness. Less ad chatter means your message will be better heard, and you don't want people to forget your brand."
Microsoft Response: 9. The company's 2009 marketing was outstanding, simply a remarkable turnaround.
8. Fire your ad agency. I contended that ad agency Crispin Porter + Bogusky had squandered first chunk of the $300 marketing budget. Those Microsoft CEO Bill Gates and comedian Jerry Seinfeld TV commercials had about as much appeal as Elaine Benes dancing.
Microsoft Response: 0 -- and good thing. By spring 2009, Microsoft marketing hit its stride, with a series of great campaigns: "The Rookies" and "Laptop Hunters," later followed by the absolutely great "Bing" and "Windows 7 was my idea" campaigns. I was wrong, Microsoft.
7. Expand emerging market programs like "Unlimited Potential." I warned Microsoft: "People will be more likely to steal than buy your software. You've got to make the stuff easier to buy than to steal." The global economic crisis presented Microsoft chance to be the good guy, by offering low-cost solutions and gaining legitimate share in emerging markets.
Microsoft Response: 5. Unlimited Potential wasn't as lively in 2009 as the previous couple of years. Microsoft is still working with local governments, but there is more emphasis on hawking something, such as Microsoft's OneApp or MultiPoint Server.
6. Be real to people. Microsoft has no charismatic leader like Steve Jobs, but the company needs one. I chided Microsoft: "You must choose someone -- and pretty much anyone would be better than the no one you've got now."
Microsoft Response: 6. There still is no charismatic leader, but really great product marketing did make Microsoft more real to people in 2009.
5. Clean up your branding. It's a mess. Microsoft has long defied good branding conventions, by using too many similar brands, having too many sub-brands and by repeatedly changing brand names.
Microsoft Response: 6. New brands like Bing are excellent. Even Windows Phone and Windows 7 are good improvements. But Windows Live/Bing services branding is a mess.
4. Become the world's Web hoster. Economic crisis should be a sales opportunity to bring more businesses to hosted services, and I told Microsoft to ramp them up.
Microsoft Response: 4. Microsoft Online Services execution is OK at best, and pricing could be better, even after recent cost cutting. More importantly, Azure cloud computing platform didn't even make a 2009 debut. Microsoft will launch the service on January 1, but Azure now feels more like an older version of Amazon Web Services than the revolutionary cloud OS promised in October 2008.
3. Make incubation projects the top development priority. Some of Microsoft's best new or emerging products came from incubation projects the previous two years. I contended that these internal startups "engage enthusiasts"; "create positive buzz"; and "show how Microsoft can truly innovate."
Microsoft's Response: 0 -- total fail. During layoffs and cutbacks, Microsoft eliminated most of its best incubation projects and laid off key innovating employees.
2. Open Microsoft retail stores. For the second year in a row, I asked Microsoft to open its own stores -- in 12 cities: "Beijing, Berlin, Boston, Chicago, London, Los Angeles, Moscow, New York, Rio de Janeiro, San Francisco, Sydney and Tokyo (or Seoul)."
Microsoft Response: 7. The company opened two stores, in Arizona and California, and a café in France. Microsoft made a good start, but two stores simply aren't enough.
1. Launch an application store. I strongly recommended: "Your application store should start with development tools for offering Silverlight apps to most any platform: mobile, desktop or Web. Suggestion: Use your Xbox Live/Zune Marketplace infrastructure to get up an initial store fast. Within six months, you'll need a real store, built with Silverlight, that can run on any platform."
Microsoft Response: 4. Microsoft did launch a Windows Mobile app store and combined some Xbox Live/Zune Marketplace features. But integration is scant among the three app stores, and Silverlight looks like a calendar 2010 story.
Now, with that, I once again ask you to offer up your suggestions for Microsoft during calendar 2010. Comments are open.
Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2009