Google Voice For iPhone Pulled From The App Store Because It Keeps Crashing (AAPL, GOOG)

Google has pulled its Google Voice iPhone app from the App Store because the latest version keeps crashing, Engadget reports.

Google told Engadget that the app's latest update causes it to crash at sign in.

The app has been pulled from the store until the bug can be fixed. (Don't worry, if you already have Google Voice on your phone you can still use it.)

We've been having problems with Google Voice since upgrading to iOS 5. The app crashes almost every time we try to check our inbox. Still, the problem doesn't appear to be affecting everyone. We'll keep you posted once the bug-free version is live in the App Store.

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Google Music Store Will Launch This Quarter (GOOG)

Google's long awaited music store is on schedule for launch this quarter, and the major labels are starting to spread the word to their subsidiaries and partners.

We got word from the owner of an independent record label.

Recently, his distributor -- which is run by one of the big major labels -- contacted him to say that Google Music's download store would launch in Q4, with major catalog titles first, followed by more obscure titles.

The distributor told our indie-label source that he had a few days to make any concerns known.

Our source is concerned that the majors will take big up-front payments from Google Music then not share those payments with the smaller artists that his label handles.

But it sounds like the deal is progressing regardless. No date was given, except "Q4."

Yesterday, the New York Times first reported that Google was entering final negotiations with the major labels and was hoping to have a store in "weeks." The Wall Street Journal reported that Google was still having trouble getting deals with some of the labels, but might open the store regardless.

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Sources All Over The Ad Tech Industry Think Google Is Going To Buy Akamai (AKAM, GOOG)

What's the next big move for Google?

We're not sure, but multiple ad tech industry sources think Google is about to buy Akamai.

We've been chasing a rumor that Google is about to make a big ad tech acquisition. The one name that kept coming back at us was Akamai.

At this point, it's mostly just a rumor, but almost a dozen sources inside and outside of Google are telling us that they've at least heard about a looming Google-Akamai deal.

Then again, Akamai is one of those companies that's always mentioned as a take over target.

Also: a high-level source at Akamai that we talked to shot down Google speculation.

Still, all of our sources think Akamai would be a good fit for Google.

There are two reasons.

REASON ONE: Akamai is sitting on a trove of valuable data that Google could use to vastly improve its business. Akamai delivers video and knows what people are watching, when they're watching it, and how they're watching it.  

Google could use that information to improve search, video, display, everything. There's a huge risk in "sniffing" the data from Akamai to influence other parts of Google as one source put it. Google would have too much information, and it would have even more government regulation.

Image: Yahoo Finance

REASON TWO: Akamai's stock has been crushed in the last year. It's off by 50%, so the company could be had for a decent price. A recent Bloomberg article speculated Akamai would sell for $7.4 billion or more.

UPDATE: BONUS REASON THREE: If Google wants to turn YouTube into a cable alternative, Akamai's technology would be very useful. It would be a fast, efficient way to deliver video.

If you know what Google is interested in buying, email us at jyarow@businessinsider.com or call Jay Yarow at 646.376.6037.

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Intel Has Shut Down The Group Making Chips For Google TV (INTC, GOOG, ARMH)

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Intel has shut down its Digital Home Group and will no longer make chips for interactive TV set-top boxes like the Google TV devices from Sony and Logitech, or the similar Boxee boxes from D-Link.

As reported earlier by AnandTech, the engineers from the group are being merged into Intel's tablet group.

Intel confirmed the move, explaining: "There is a ton of synergy between tablets and TVs (both are mainly content consumption, viewing devices) so we will combine the remaining CE businesses with the tablet organization (headed by Doug Davis). As you can imagine, this was a tough decision – Intel led the creation and launch of the smart TV category and its first products. But, these collective actions will help to ensure that Intel has the best people focused on top business priorities."

The move makes sense for Intel, as the first generation of Google TV has been a flop, and the prospects for interactive TV are uncertain at best.

Meanwhile, it's been pretty clear for a while that Google was looking at ARM for the next generation of Google TV.

ARM president Tudor Brown said the company was talking with Google last November. Earlier this year sources said that the next generation of Google TV would use a faster chipset, which suggests those talks were successful.

Whatever the case, if the interactive TV revolution ever happens, it looks like it will be powered by ARM rather than Intel -- just like smartphones and tablets are today.

Intel will continue to make silicon for set-top boxes for IPTV networks, and for other kinds of Internet gateways, such as cable modems. It will also keep making chips and software for use in digital TVs themselves, mainly for tuning and color correction.

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Zynga's Mafia Wars 2 Is On Google+ (GOOG)

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We're here at Zynga's event in its new San Francisco headquarters, and the company just announced that Mafia Wars 2 is available on Google+.

It's an important move for Zynga, which has been largely dependent on Facebook for distributing most of its games.

It's only the second Zynga game available on Google's new social network, after Zynga Poker. It launched on Facebook yesterday. The original Mafia Wars has been one of Zynga's most popular games, but usage peaked around 10 million accounts and 2 million daily users last April as per AppData.com.

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Google Just Opened Its First Retail Outlet In London (GOOG)

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Make no mistake: Google is going directly after Apple.

It already has the most popular smartphone platform in the world. With the purchase of Motorola, it will have a credible hardware arm.

And now, it's opened its first retail outlet.

As the London Evening Standard reports, it's just a small "pop up" store within a U.K. computer retailer called PC World. Right now, it only sells Chromebooks and headphones, and it will only run for a few months until Christmas.

It's called the Chrome Zone — the same name as the outlets in several U.S. airports that let you pick up a Chromebook before you fly out on Virgin Airlines.

It's just an experiment for now. A spokesperson told the Standard "It's something Google is going to play with and see where it leads."

But this is exactly how Microsoft got into the retail game a few years ago: by creating "Microsoft stores" within big outlets like Circuit City, Best Buy, and — yes — PC World in 2008. It learned what it needed to know.

A few months later, Microsoft opened its prototype Retail Experience Center to journalists. In February 2009,  Microsoft announced it would open its own line of stores. Now, it's approaching a dozen. It plans to build 75 of them by 2014.

Google doesn't have enough products to sell to justify its own line of retail stores. Yet. But by the time it does, look for a gleaming chain of Google Stores to sell whatever it comes up with.

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7 Ways Google Analytics Will Improve Your Small Business Website

7 Ways Google Analytics Will Improve Your Small Business Website Login With Facebook | Login With Twitter | Login | Register War Room Home Tech Entertainment Wall Street Markets Strategy Sports Lifestyle Politics EuropeData Misc. Your Money Video Latest Your News War Room Home Management Hiring & Firing Founders' Corner Instant MBA Document Center HiveTapePRContributors Follow us on Facebook and get updates from War Room posted directly to your news feed 

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This article originally appeared at American Express OpenForum

Analytics software is essential for any online business: it helps you understand ways to reach your audience and drive traffic to your site.

Google Analytics is one of the easiest ways to do this, and is especially helpful for the eternally busy small business owner or the on-the-go blogger.

It allows you to access both general statistics and minutiae in detailed, comprehensive reports. And of course, it includes all the basic specs, like how many visitors you're getting, and lets you refine your information based on date range.

Here are 7 things Google Analytics will tell you about your website:

1. The Browsers and Operating Systems Your Visitors Use

Whether they're coming from Internet Explorer or Chrome, Analytics will tell you. Your website's report will show a breakdown of which browsers are used and how frequently, This feature is useful because sometimes web features are incompatible with certain browsers and operating systems. If a significant chunk of your visitors are using a system that doesn't suit your website, it might be time for you to troubleshoot. Second, browser choice says a lot about your visitor base. If most of them are using a boilerplate program, like Internet Explorer or Safari, your site should be extra user-friendly and easy to navigate. Newer browsers with more bells and whistles, like Chrome, signal net-savviness.

2. What, Specifically, Isn't Keeping People Interested

It's good to know where your visitors are flocking, but it's perhaps more important to know which page of your website they're viewing when they click away to another site. Funneling resources to features that aren't captivating users is clearly not a smart business move, and Google Analytics can help you avoid making that mistake. By showing you the Top Exit Pages of your website, the program shows you the frequency at which web visitors jump ship navigate elsewhere, all broken down by the individual pages of your site. Based on that report, you can decide whether those ill-trafficked parts of your website should be scrapped or just retooled.

3. What Exactly Draws People To Your Site

Very likely, your Google Analytics Keywords report will list a collection of words and phrases familiar to your organization as the main drivers to your site. But the rate for each of those terms, especially when cross-referenced with the feature that shows how many new visitors are logging on versus returning ones, can be substantially useful in developing a marketing strategy. If you know what's pointing people to your site, you can work backward -- explore advertising opportunities with sites that focus on related topics or, if it makes sense, gear your homepage toward the subject matter that's drawing people in. If the point is to captivate visitors and keep them clicking around your site, this tool is a most valuable one.

4. How Many People Just Aren't Interested At All

Your site can have all the hits in the world, but if people aren't finding their way to your site and staying there to explore, it's tough to foster growth online. To help you better understand how many people are coming to your site to stay, Google Analytics offers you a Bounce Rate breakdown. So what's Bounce Rate? It's the proportion of your website's visitors that navigate away without clicking through to a second (or third, or fourth) page. True, you can tally that person's visit as a hit to your site. But there's no lasting power there, and a high Bounce Rate indicates your site isn't making a very strong impression. Check out the ultra-useful Bounce Rate among first-time visitors, perhaps the purest form of the metric because it deals with visitors who are ostensibly entirely unfamiliar with your website.

5. How Much People Are Poking Around

The Depth of Visit function sounds a little Big Brother-esque, but it's important for you to know how many pages people are viewing each time they head to your site. This feature shows the proportion of visitors that view one page, two pages, three pages, and so on. If typically people aren't looking at more than one or two pages per visit, it might be time for a redesign or at least a reorganization of content.

6. Whether People are Viewing On The Go

The ubiquitousness of smartphones and tablets means you need to keep up with that technology. If a significant portion of your website's visitors are finding you on their mobile devices, as Google Analytics can show you, you need to be sure your website is mobile-friendly and accessible. In cases where this feature shows you a sizable enough crop of visitors are seeking you out on such devices, it could be worth it for you to explore building a site specifically designed for use on them.

7. When You've Hit A Million Clicks

...or any other myriad benchmarks you've decided are important. From number of clicks and visitors to increases and decreases in traffic, the Alerts feature of Google Analytics provides you instant updates (which can be sent to your phone) to let you know when you've achieved them. This function could help you mark milestones, like when you finally reach that million-visitor mark, or realize you're in the danger zone, like when the number of unique visitors drops by half. 

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Google Tried To Buy Flipboard, Flipboard Said No, Now Google Will Try To Flatten Flipboard (GOOG)

Not a Googler (we don't think) (Flickr/opacity)

Kara Swisher has dug up some more details on Google's forthcoming, allegedly "mind-blowing" Flipboard copycat.

Google approached Flipboard about an acquisition last year, Swisher reports. Flipboard opted to stay independent. During the talks Google told Flipboard if it couldn't buy it, then it would just build its own version.

Which is just what its doing. The new product is being called "Propeller" internally.

This is (at least) the fourth time in the two years or so that Google has taken this approach. It tried to buy Groupon, was rejected, and launched Google Offers. It tried to buy photo sharing startup Path, was rejected, and launched a few photo sharing apps, which were later killed off. It tried to buy Yelp, was rejected, and launched Places.

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Google Is Secretly Spending Hundreds Of Millions Of Dollars Turning YouTube Into A Cable Alternative

Now we know what Google's "big ass ideas" for YouTube, Web TV, and (maybe) Hulu are: build an alternative to cable.

Last spring, Google announced that it would spend $100 million loading YouTube up with original content.

Two industry sources tell us that Google is actually spending much more than that acquiring content for YouTube – perhaps as much as $500 million or more.

"They are throwing around huge money," says one of these sources, an executive who has found himself bidding against Google for video content.

"They're fronting production costs to the tune of tens of millions of dollars per deal."

This source says Google is sending out RFPs and striking deals with cable programmers, independent studios, and even people that aren't primarily in the video business.

A second source, this one involved in Google's acquisition talks with Hulu, says that the company's initial outlays for content are indeed in excess of $100 million and that they could easily reach $600 million over time.

This kind of big spending on content makes sense out of Google's bid for Hulu and all the TV and movie rights it comes with, doesn't it?

Bring in the fact that Google just bought a big cablebox maker, Motorola Mobility, and the whole thing terrifies traditional media companies, including Hulu's parents, Disney, News Corp, and Comcast.

Says one source:  "You can imagine if Google were to buy Hulu and they were comissioning all this content and they were willing to take losses for a few years, that would become a real alternative to cable."

Another source says: "Google is really going to move the needle, but it's not going to happen instantly."

"If you go back to when the cable channels launched in the US, nobody watched right away, but every day since then they've taken a little more share. [But] the 500 channel universe never happened. Now it's going to happen. Google is forcing the organization of video onto the Web."

We've emailed Google PR about this story and will update the story if we hear back.

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THE GOOGLE INVESTOR: iPad Market Share Grows While Android Tablet Share Shrinks (GOOG)

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GOOG Strong In Up Market 
Markets are on the rise for a fourth straight session after major central banks coordinated efforts to offer liquidity into the strained European banking system. Shares of GOOG are up strong, exponentially more than the rest of technology. Catalysts include continued Android momentum in the smartphone and tablet markets worldwide; Motorola acquisition approval and integration; regaining ground in China in search and pushing forward in mobile; any signs of life for Google TV (including Motorola); the roll-out of Google Music and social network Google+; and progress in other newer initiatives (location-based services, mapping, gaming, Chromebooks, etc.). The stock trades at approximately 11.2x Enterprise Value / EBIT, inexpensive relative to historical trading levels.

Why Did Google Buy Zagat? (TechCrunch)
Marissa Mayer, Google's VP of maps and local, says that aside from the strong brand the company has created over the past 32 years, Zagat has a lot of great partnerships, content, and a great team behind it. "We thought there was a lot of value for our users," she says. "Users want to know, what to expect when they're going somewhere." Could spell trouble for OpenTable. Zagat will remain separate from Google Places. And it's ZaGAT, pronounced like cat.

Android Tablets Lost Market Share In Second Calendar Quarter (Various via iDygest)
According to IDC, Apple not only continues to dominate the global tablet market, its share of the market continues to grow while Android's slips, even to the hands of RIM's PlayBook and HP's TouchPad. Worldwide media tablet shipments rose by 88.9% on a sequential basis and 303.8% year-over-year in the second calendar quarter of 2011. Apple took a 68.3% share in the second quarter, up about 3% from the first quarter. Android tablets slipped to 26.8% of the market from 34% in the first quarter.

Microsoft, Yahoo And AOL Team Up To Take On Google (All Things Digital)
In an effort to outsmart Google, AOL, Yahoo and Microsoft have reportedly agreed to share remnant ad inventory with each other. Can anyone say collusion? Bing now powers Yahoo search in North America and the two companies share advertising sales and revenue, but Google still brings in the lion's share of online-ad cash. Under the plan, each of the companies will sell each other's "Class 2 display" inventory or leftover banner ads the companies can't sell on their own. Why doesn't Microsoft just buy both companies?

Google Buys Patents From IBM (Bloomberg)
Google has acquired a group of 1,023 patents from IBM. Terms of the transactions were not disclosed. The transaction is the latest move in the ongoing arms race in the mobile computing business. In particular, the company would appear to be seeking ways to protect Android.

Julian Robertson And Sequoia Say Google's A Great Investment (Seeking Alpha)
Julian Robertson is an investing legend. The Sequoia Fund isn't too shabby either. Both like Google as an investment idea. How strong is Google's search share? The days of someone coming up with a clever algorithm and competing against Google in search are essentially over. There’s really only one competitor out there and that’s Microsoft. And we all know what a money pit that is.

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Why Google Bought Zagat

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Marissa Mayer, Google's VP of maps and local, was the final interview today at TechCrunch Disrupt. Mike Arrington asked her why Google bought Zagat.

Aside from the strong brand Tim and Lisa Zagat created over the past 32 years, Mayer says Zagat has a lot of great partnerships, content, and a great team behind it.

"We thought there was a lot of value for our users," she says. "Users want to know, what to expect when they're going somewhere."

Zagat will remain separate from Google Places.  Reviews from all over the web will still be pulled into every Places page, not just Zagat content.

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THE GOOGLE INVESTOR: Google Stock To Outperform Next 12-Months (GOOG)

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GOOG Sideways In Volatile Market
Markets are volatile today as European debt fears are keeping investors cautious. Shares of GOOG are trading sideways as well, mostly in the negative. Catalysts include continued Android momentum in the smartphone and tablet markets worldwide; Motorola acquisition approval and integration; regaining ground in China in search and pushing forward in mobile; any signs of life for Google TV (including Motorola); the roll-out of Google Music and social network Google+; and progress in other newer initiatives (location-based services, mapping, gaming, Chromebooks, etc.). The stock trades at approximately 11x Enterprise Value / EBIT, inexpensive relative to historical trading levels.

HTC In Market For Mobile Operating System, Could Limit Number Of Android Phones (AppleInsider)
Smartphone maker HTC has publicly stated it is considering buying its own mobile operating system platform, with HP's WebOS a potential option for acquisition. While the company has said Google made the "correct" decision to buy Motorola Mobility for its patent portfolio and the company became a direct beneficiary of the Google-Motorola deal when HTC filed a new lawsuit against Apple based on patents acquired from Google, having its proprietary operating system might limit the number of Android-based phones from the company. Or HTC could ditch Android completely.

Google Loses A Bit Of Search Market Share In August (Business Insider)
According to the latest search share data from comScore, Google lost a few basis points while Bing and Yahoo gained a few. Google's share was down 30bp month over month. This is good news for Bing however, overall, the big picture for the search landscape remains the same with Google's search share stuck around 65%, and Yahoo and Bing are in the 31% range.

Google Launches Daily Deal Aggregator In China (PCWorld)
Google launched a new portal in China that catalogs group buying deals, a return to activity there after pulling back from its operations in China more than a year ago. The site is called Google Shihui and was launched as a public beta. Shihui is an experimental search feature that aims to help people find deals through China's enormous number of group buying sites (4,000 according to analysts). It also worth noting that the new service is running on Google’s Chinese website “Google.cn”, rather than Google’s Hong Kong website.

Cramer Likes Google For His September Stock Picks (Seeking Alpha)
Jim Cramer is not concerned about Google's recent anti-trust issues. They have positions in mobile, social and cloud services. The company is currently a part of the broader market sell-off. Cramer thinks the fundamentals are solid. Google has a $170 billion market cap and trades at ~19x earnings.

Google To Outperform And Exceed 52-Week Highs In Next 12 Months (Seeking Alpha)
Google could exceed 52-week highs over the next 12 months. Google has made all the right moves to positively affect the future of its company. Google is on pace to post full year earnings that significantly outperform its record year in 2010. The stock has trended lower during the market's recent sell-off because of economic uncertainty. For Google's upcoming earnings report, expect insight into its plan for Motorola Mobility and other recent acquisitions.

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It Makes Sense For Google To Own Motorola's Hardware Business To Build Super Cheap Tablets (GOOG, MMI)

There was some speculation that Google was buying Motorola for its software patents and would spin off the hardware business as soon as possible. 

Google Chairman Eric Schmidt poured cold water on that idea. Google wants Motorola's hardware business. 

There's only one way that makes sense: if Google makes cheap tablets to compete with the iPad on price.

The success of the HP TouchPad fire sale and customer surveys show that there is pent-up consumer demand for a cheap tablet. And given the superiority of iPad hardware, the only way for Android to compete is to undercut on price. 

Is that possible? Well, iSuppli estimates the 16GB TouchPad's bill of materials at $296. The biggest cost items in a tablet are the touchscreen and memory chips, which could both be knocked down a peg for an explicitly low-cost tablet. Google could buy huge inventory upfront to bring down unit costs even further. 

And of course, it could sell a tablet at a loss or just breakeven. 

Could that bring a tablet to $300? $249? $200?

Here's why it makes sense for Google to potentially spend billions of dollars on this: Apple is right, we're moving to a post-PC world. Smartphones and tablets are the future of computing. And in that world, there is a race on to be the platform of the future, with network effects accruing to the biggest platform, just like in the PC wars of the 1980s.

On smartphones Google is winning that race, narrowly. By taking a disruptive approach, distributing Android for free, it has gotten manufacturers and carriers aboard and can flood the market with devices. Despite the iPhone's stunning success, Android is edging past it.

But this strategy doesn't work for tablets, where carriers offer few subsidies and Apple's manufacturing and design superiority means it can offer the best tablets at a price others can't match. Tablets are Apple's ace in the hole in the post-PC platform race. 

Google isn't going to beat Apple on design, so it needs to beat it on price, like PC manufacturers did in the 1980s. But Apple having become a manufacturing behemoth, that probably means selling tablets are breakeven or at a loss. Samsung and Motorola can't afford to do that, because they are commodity manufacturers with razor-thin margins. Google can. 

What's more, there's no time to waste. Apple knows what's at stake and has priced the iPad very aggressively. If and when Apple lowers the price on the iPad, all that pent-up consumer demand of people who want a tablet but can't bring themselves to spend $500, will go away and take away an opportunity to grab a big slice of marketshare right out of the gate.

If anything, that's what we suspect is behind the Motorola buy.

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Google+ Isn't Just A Social Network, It's An "Identity Service" (GOOG)

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Google+ is not just the search giant's effort to take on Facebook: it's primarily an "identity service" that Google will use to help build other services.

That's according to Google chairman Eric Schmidt, who was explaining why Google+ is requiring users to stick with their real names.

As Fred Wilson points out, Schimdt's statement raises the question of who Google+ is really for -- you, or Google?

Lots of companies have tried to establish an identity system for the Web. The idea is that if users have a single trusted identity, it could ease their interactions offline and online -- imagine never having to sign in to get your email or make an online purchase, for instance. Microsoft made an effort in the late 1990s with Passport, but its ambitions were thwarted by privacy advocates and the FTC. Facebook's social graph is another effort.

Before Google+, your Google identity was really only used on Google sites. But with Google+ and the +1 button, that identity system can extend across the Web -- if you're signed in to Google+ and you +1 a particular Web site, that information can be tracked. That helps Google provide more personalized services (like search results) for you, but could also help with ad targeting.

Schmidt also said that Google believes the Internet will work better if people know that you're a real person rather than a fake person or a dog.

Andy Carvin asked the question, then paraphrased Schimdt's answer on -- of course -- a Google+ post.

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Google TV Will Hit Europe Next Year (GOOG)

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Google Paying $500 Million To Settle Federal Investigation Over Illegal Ads (GOOG)

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Google is going to pay $500 million to settle an investigation with the federal government over illegal ads, the New York Times reports.

Google was displaying ads from illegal online pharmacies that don't require subscriptions, or sell illegal drugs, the Times says. Advertising these companies is against the law. Google says it's trying its best to stop the pharmacies from advertising.

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THE GOOGLE INVESTOR: What If Google Made Android Proprietary And Exclusive To Motorola? (GOOG)

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GOOG Up As Market Holds Tight
The markets are edging higher despite new home sales hitting a 5-month low and persistent fears that the economy is taking a double dip dive. Shares of GOOG are up stronger than the rest of technology. Catalysts include continued Android momentum in the smartphone and tablet markets worldwide; Motorola acquisition approval and integration; regaining ground in China; any revival or partners for Google TV (including Motorola); the roll-out of Google Music and social network Google+; and progress in other newer initiatives (location-based services, mapping, gaming, Chromebooks, etc.). The stock trades at approximately 10.2x Enterprise Value / EBIT, inexpensive relative to recent trading levels.

Android Still Leading Smartphone OS Platform
(The NPD Group)
Surprise, surprise. Android is still the leading U.S. smartphone platform, with 52% share in the second quarter, according to NPD Group. Of note, Motorola’s market share fell in the quarter to 9% from 12% the year prior. Motorola’s overall Android sales halved since last year from 44% to 22% in the face of Android competition from Samsung and LG. However, Google’s recent Motorola purchase will likely bring new life to the phone manufacturer.

What If Google Went The Apple Route With Motorola? (9To5Mac)
There’s a good reason why Apple’s products “just work.” But it’s been a bumpy road from the onset as competitors and critics ridiculed its vertically integrated approach to business. But what if Google actually tried the Apple model with Motorola (which today makes about one in ten Android smartphones)? According to Piper Jaffray, Android proprietary and exclusive to Motorola would add about 35% to operating income and by 2015, the phone business would add $10.5 billion in operating profit and $56 billion in revenue. There's only a few problems with that: significant share and ad revenue loss.

Samsung Could Squeeze Google In Response To Motorola Acquisition (Forbes)
Samsung’s chairman has asked the firm’s top management to strengthen its software capabilities. This could be a longer-term threat to Google. Google is the market leader in the smartphone operating system market with Samsung as the largest player in the Android ecosystem. With the help of Android software, Google mainly makes money through mobile advertising revenues as Google is the default search engine on Android smartphones. One good thing, it's also forcing Samsung to develop and innovate.

Motorola Helps Google In Two Key Areas, Both Of Which Have Been Well Discussed
(Seeking Alpha)
The deal with Motorola solves problems in two areas:

It will add 17,000 patents to Google’s patent portfolio to help defend Android and the ecosystem from Microsoft and others. The benefits should be both immediate and long lasting.The three main competitors for Android all have vertically integrated OS and smartphone manufacturing either in-house or through mutual agreement. Google will obtain a strong smartphone manufacturing partner with a checkered history.

The market sell off has negatively affected Google’s share price and August is historically known for weakness in technology stocks. Once the selling abates, Google will become very attractive.

HTC Continues To Insist The Motorola Acquisition Was Good (The Wall Street Journal)
HTC doesn't plan to ditch Google's Android or build its own rival operating system in the wake of Google's acquisition of Motorola, according to the CEO. Mr. Chou says, "we welcome the news of today's acquisition, which demonstrates that Google is deeply committed to defending Android, its partners, and the entire ecosystem". He was quick to point out that the OS is only part of the device's "ecosystem" and that HTC had the means to differentiate its phones in other ways.

Traffic From Streaming Video Expected to Grow by at Least 1300% (ReadWriteWeb)
If you think we're eating up a lot of bandwidth streaming video now, just wait. That 3.45 Tbps figure from last year will be blown out of the water within five years, according to a detailed report put together by Akamai, Harvard University and University of Massachusetts. The researchers suggest that "it is reasonable to expect that throughput requirements for some single video events will reach roughly 50 to 100 Tbps" within two to five years. The low end of that estimate represents an increase of about 1349% from 2010's peak (at least as far as Akamai's CDN is concerned). Great news for YouTube.

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The New York Times adopts the Google Labs approach

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Posted 08 August 2011 13:05pm by Patricio Robles with 1 comment

Google is arguably one of the most innovative companies of our time. A big part of that is that, despite the fact that the vast majority of its revenue comes from a single revenue stream (online advertising), the company has been eager to experiment with new ideas not necessarily related to search.

One of the primary ways it has conducted its experiments in public has been through Google Labs, "a playground where our more adventurous users can play around with prototypes of some of our wild and crazy ideas and offer feedback directly to the engineers who developed them."

Earlier this month, Google announced that it is phasing out Google Labs. In a blog post, Bill Coughran, Google's Senior Vice President for Research and Systems Infrastructures, explained "While we’ve learned a huge amount by launching very early prototypes in Labs, we believe that greater focus is crucial if we’re to make the most of the extraordinary opportunities ahead."

But the Google approach to experimentation isn't dead. Case in point: yesterday, the New York Times officially launched its take on the Google Labs model.

Beta620, named after the newspaper's street address, is "a public beta testing site where web surfers can experiment with new products that could eventually take root on NYTimes.com." Some of these products include TimesInstant, which provides Google Instant-like search for nytimes.com, and The Buzz, which tracks social media buzz around Times articles.

Unlike Google Labs, which was filled with a hodgepodge of projects that were, at worst, remotely related to Google's revenue-generating businesses, AdAge notes that The New York Times believes Beta620 won't share the same fate as Google Labs because "because the projects being tried there bear on its core digital product." The true success of Beta620, of course, will be determined by how much the Times learns from Beta620 users and what of value, if anything, it eventually incorporates into nytimes.com.

Long-term effects notwithstanding, The New York Times' adoption of the approach pioneered by Google serves as a good case study for other businesses that are active online. Determining which features to develop and which features to add to an existing product or service can be extremely difficult. In some cases, creating an online 'lab' where experiments are beta'd may provide the best balance between opening your ideas and innovations to a broader community and not modifying your core products and services too fast or too soon.

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Google+ and search results: the opportunity for brands

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Posted 16 August 2011 10:27am by Matt Rhodes with 5 comments

You may have noticed that Google has started using data from Google+ in search results. For a user this is intriguing and potentially useful - it personalises your search experience.

For brands it begins to explain the benefit you can get from Google+, as well as showing how you should make the most of the opportunities that it offers.

If you are logged in to your Google account, your search results are now enhanced by things that your contacts have shared in Google+.

If somebody in your Circles has shared a page publicly then this gives that page a boost in your search results. These 'Google+ enhanced' results are designed to give you a more personalised search experience by showing you things that are likely to be more relevant to you.

The real impact of this change, however, is for brands. It gives a clear reason for brands to engage in Google+ and impacts both the search and the social strategies that brands should adopt.

Imagine Tesco had a brand page on Google+ and that I had them in one of my Circles. It would no doubt be sharing its pages in updates and doing so publicly. This would give a boost to the Tesco homepage whenever I search for something on Google.

So if I search for 'supermarket in Chesterfield', Tesco is going to come nearer the top (maybe at the top); if I search for one of its other products (eg 'pet insurance') it would also appear nearer the top of the search results.??

What does this mean? Well this would be a real benefit to brands having a good presence on Google+. By having a clear and well used presence on Google+, sharing content with those who have you in their Circles, you are actually benefiting your search engine optimisation and, almost certainly, increasing clicks through to your site.

The priority, it would then appear, would be for brands to grow the number of people who have you in their Circles. The more peoples' Circles you are in, the more people will get your page in their enhanced search results.

However, this race for Circles hides a more complicated approach to Google+ that is needed. If every supermarket was in your Circles, then the net impact on search results for any single supermarket would net out to zero.

All supermarkets would be equally enhanced and so none would change position relatively in search results. The aim with Google+, therefore, would be for brands to beat the competition to being in peoples' Circles.

You want them to follow you and none of your competitors and so you need to be fast to market and have a real, definitive reason for people to engage with you and not with your competitors. You need to offer them something useful and unique.

There is a clear danger of Google+ being used as part of an SEO strategy alone, forgetting and foregoing the social benefits you can get.

The truth is that Google+, whilst delivering significant SEO benefit, is a social experience and needs to be managed as such. You need to have a clear reason for people to engage with you and put you in their Circles. And you need to create and experience that is significantly more engaging than your competition.

The winners will be those who have a clear social strategy and have Google+ as part of it. In the meantime the best things brands can and should do is to experiment and understand how it works, and then build brand presences as and when Google allows them.

Matt Rhodes is Client Services Director at FreshNetworks and guest blogger on Econsultancy. 

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Google says Hello Moto to patents and gold-standard Android

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Posted 18 August 2011 09:30am by Rich Holdsworth with 0 comments

If I had the cash, I’d have bought Motorola just to sack the marketing department that came up with the cringeworthy ‘Hello Moto’ line on their adverts.

I hope Google has this as the third action on its to-do list after ‘grab the patents’ and ‘make a bloatware-free android handset’.

There’s no way that Google looked at Motorola and decided that it had to have their hardware. Since the days of the StarTac I’ve always thought of Motorola as an also-ran in the hardware market. The company lacks the build quality of HTC, the glitz of Samsung and the previous design innovation of Nokia.

This (planned acquisition) is a play to strengthen Android's position as it comes under threat by patents that will push up the price of use and set a standard by which other Android manufacturers will be judged in terms of implementation. But I suspect there is more.

In considering this recent news I have considered further what Microsoft and Nokia may be up to. I’ve had a revelation – not saying I’m right – but suddenly things make more sense.

Accept for a moment that iOS devices stagnate, as many learned commentators think they will, and consider only Android and WP7 operating systems.

Microsoft has cleverly protected its UI and device specification, reducing the on-screen variation to a bare minimum. Looking at Windows 8 previews and the upcoming Xbox dashboard update and it's easy to understand why.

Metro is a wonderful UI and consistency across multiple screens is going to an essential part of Microsoft’s proposition over the next decade.

Google has done quite the opposite. Its operating system is so open and the rules so relaxed that there is a ridiculous amount of variation across the many devices out there. This weakens the Android proposition completely as consumers cannot share their loyalty to this platform among themselves.

These recent moves by Microsoft and Google seek to level out these issues and strengthen both of their positions.

Microsoft will not be diversifying its OS, that would weaken it. But consumers buy handsets, not operating systems. If Nokia can get back to what they were good at, then we can expect there to be some seriously innovative hardware running WP7 OS.

This will set a precedent and promote more ingenuity from other WP7 manufacturers.

To date, Google seeks to control and define its OS on devices more than it has to. Perhaps to say control is going to far but it certainly wants to influence they way Android is implemented.

Providing a ‘gold standard’ by which Android devices will be judged and can be recognised by consumers is attractive by anybody's standards. Imagine an Android device running at peak performance with only first part bolt-ons to the OS. Maybe I’m just weird but that’s exciting.

Where does this leave Apple? Well, wearing my burn suit I’d say that it could well leave them out in the cold. iOS is looking old now but to truly innovate on a software level Apple needs to compromise either by removing legacy app support in future hardware or adding legacy support into new OS revisions that is costly and unreliable (a problem that Microsoft knows only too well).

While I said earlier that consumers buy phones not operating systems this can only go so far. And I suggest that Apple’s device design is so iconic, so simple that only revolution can keep them relevant over the next few years.

Rich Holdsworth is CTO and Co-Founder at Wapple and a guest blogger on Econsultancy. You can also follow Rich on Twitter. 

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