Of course there is no way yet to say if Google is the current high bidder, but we do know for sure that Google has won. The auction has now surpassed the reserve price of $4.6bn (sitting at $4.7bn) according to the New York Times. This is significant because now the winner of this auction, even if it’s not Google, has to “follow the rules” that Google proposed. What are the rules? the FCC will force the winning bidder to allow any device from other carriers to run any applications on their network — perfect for the Open Handset Alliance.
If there is only one bidder left in the auction, there will likely be no more bids, but according to the New York Times article, we should know more by this afternoon.
For complex reasons, if no new bid in the first auction arrives this morning, it would mean almost certainly that only one company is left in the bidding. With this bid, we still don’t know. But we should know more early this afternoon. If there is, in fact, only one bidder, it would have no logical reason to bid any more, now that it has hit the $4.6 billion minimum. If another bidder is still interested, it will have to keep bidding today.
Google has decided to extend the submission deadline for the Android Development Contest to April 14th. Google cites the reason for the extension is because they are going to release a new version of the SDK very shortly that has lots of improvements and incorporates many user suggestions. But part of me wonders if the real reason is because there is a lack of submissions to date? Either way, it’s a good thing for developers entering the contest because they now have more time to polish their applications, and make a strong case for the cash.
We’d like to let you know that we are extending the submission deadline for the first Android Developers Challenge to 14 April 2008. Based on the great feedback you’ve given us, we’ve made significant updates to the SDK that we’ll be releasing in several weeks. In order to give you extra time to take advantage of these forthcoming UI and API enhancements, we’ve decided to extend the submission deadline. — Quang Nguyen, Developer Advocate
According to the article, the operating system will have a new UI enhancements. Right now, it’s too minimalistic in my opinion, so I’m thinking there have likely been significant changes made. I’m definitely looking forward to playing with the new SDK!
Tony Ruscoe is at it again, he found an experimental server for Google Docs and noticed a link at the top that says “Experimental! Offline Access” in big red letters. Clicking the link popped up a Google Gears box that asks the for access.
Once the user has given Google authority to sync documents, it begins working. After it is done, you are able to launch http://docs.google.com even without internet access. Unfortunately, as Tony points out, you can’t really do much more than rename document files (not even presentations or spreadsheets yet). Given the uselessness of this feature, it’s not hard to imagine it’s still in the early stages and could take a while for it to be officially implemented.
The “experimental server” is still a mystery to me, so I can’t verify this information first hand — however Tony is very trustworthy, and anything he says can generally be taken at face value.
[images via Google Blogoscoped]
The Google founders, and employees alike have a fetish for LEGO — so why not celebrate the 50th year of it? The newest Google Doodle is a Google logo built with virtual LEGO pieces. I wonder how long it will be before they sell a “Google” LEGO kit?
To make clear how important LEGO is to Larry and Sergey, take a look at the first server that hosted their search engine:
The brick’s popularity only grew as hired employees bought into the LEGO cult. Check out this blog post from 2006 that explains the phenomenon more clearly.
Google launched the new Google Theme API a couple weeks ago — but today was the first update of the directory. There are now 49 different themes to choose from — including my new favorite “Live Planet - Northern Hemisphere” that shows you how the earth would be illuminated right now if you were to view it from space.
Some of the other new themes include:
I wonder how long it will take for someone to create a third party iGoogle theme directory — just like when Google first launched their gadget directory, Philipp Lenssen and a couple others made their own directory because it was too difficult to get your gadgets listed in the official directory.
When you register a domain name, you have 5 days to give it back for a full refund. This paved the way for “domain tasters” to monetize their efforts by placing AdSense ads on these temporary pages. Domain tasting is the act of registering a domain or many domains to get a taste of their traffic, then returning them if they don’t meet a certain threshold.
At least one Google partner was making over $3 million per month by putting ads on these temporary domains. Google decided to make sure these people weren’t cashing in like this by introducing a new rule — Google won’t pay out for on a domain that is less than 5 days old. This doesn’t stop people from switching to another ad provider, but just by doing this, other companies may be tempted to do the same thing.
This is a smart policy move on Google’s part to ward off impending litigation that might have hit them in the coming months. Trademark lawyers have been getting crafter at taking down Kiting by suing under other laws. The new weapon of choice is not using Trademark laws but Forgery laws. The penalty for forgery is much worse and cares a much higher fine per article that is forged. Dell, Yahoo, and BMW have all filed lawsuits in the last two months that ask for millions of dollars of damage from Google partners and I think Google sees the writing on the wall, they might be named next. — DomainTools blog
Will Yahoo turn on on Domain Tasters too though? There is a good chance they will because they are already suing domain tasters under the forgery law mentioned above. Due to this AdSense update, all those people who were taking advantage of the system will be looking for money elsewhere, and the next likely choice is Yahoo. Now Yahoo has to decide whether to play nice and cash in on same people they are suing, or kick them where it hurts. It should be interesting!
Philipp Lenssen and Tony Ruscoe from Google Blogoscoped noticed that Google has taken another step closer to launching Google Health. The new information is in the form of a login screen (that still doesn’t work) that has a logo, and more information about the service.
There are links for things like a product tour and privacy information, however none of those links currently point anywhere. Here is a list of features that the login screen lets us in on:
- Build online health profiles that belong to you
- Download medical records from doctors and pharmacies
- Get personalized health guidance and relevant news
- Find qualified doctors and connect to time-saving services
- Share selected information with family or caregivers
Interesting enough, Marissa Mayer told us that Google Health will be launched sometime early in 2008 — start your stop watch!
Valleywag reported that Digg went offline today to make changes — but then later updated their article to say nothing major changed between the previous version, and the “new” one. Well, there is at least one change that came out of the updates — and that’s a new Google Gadget for iGoogle.
Old:
New:
The change between the old and new version is significant. Compare the two with the images above. If you use iGoogle, you can install the new gadget from this page.
Cesar Mascaraque, an executive at Google, has left the company to work for Ask.com as European managing director. His reason? “Ask.com is the fastest growing search engine”. Really? Over the last two months at least, Ask has been losing ground according to Hitwise. In fact, Google is the only one that consistently gains ground from month to month.
“I have watched the brand set itself apart from competitors by pioneering new products and offering innovative ways of bringing search to users,” he said.
“I look forward to working with the international teams to build on this already successful model.” — Cesar Mascaraque
Aside from the reasoning, it is great to see Ask continually stepping forward to challenge Google — competition is good, and if anyone can give Google a run for their money, Ask.com can.
According to Brulant, 1 out of 10 surveyed online merchants are using Google Checkout, in comparison to last years 1/20. It’s still unclear how popular Google Checkout actually is though — the study doesn’t provide much detail as far as the actual numbers are concerned. According to the same study, PayPal saw a 217% increase in their adoption between February and December of 2007.
It will be interesting to see what happens now that Google’s payment processing fee is no longer free. That was one of the main reasons most online merchants decided to give it a shot. Unfortunately, right now only the US and UK are able set up a “seller” account through the service, and there is no information available that gives us any indication of when they will expand to other countries.
Garett Rogers is employed as a programmer for iQmetrix, which specializes in retail management software for the cellular and electronics industry.
See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
