On average, a user spends 4:30 minutes per day on Google.com, spread across 22 pages, give or take a page. Each search you perform is over in ~12sec (270/22). Seems like nothing, but next time you search, start the clock – 12sec is a lot of time.
On Friday, May 23rd, the average user spent an additional 36sec on Google.com, playing Pac-Man of course. Assuming Google.com has over 500 million visitors a day (Wolfram-Alpha), then the Pac-Man players have consumed almost 4,820,000 hours of play (!), and, at a $25/hour rate = $120, 483,800 per day. Oh, and if all the Pac-Man players had Google employees’ benefits (higher hour rate of course), the cost leaps to $298,803,988.
In case you missed the homage, or just want to play (and burn more $$), Google has created a permanent page: google.com/pacman. Enjoy
Wednesday was a busy M&A day, and twitter helped me keep track of the excitement. Apple buying Siri, AOL selling ICQ and last but not least – HP buying Palm. 3 deals that will shape our lives in the coming years, and it’s no surprise all 6 companies involved (Apple, Siri, DST, ICQ, HP, and Palm) are in the mobile business. That’s were the action is happening now, were the focus is, and obviously – $$$.
Carlos Slim, the world’s richest man, said in one of the few interviews he gave, that he entered the mobile market in the 1990s (with Telcel, 92% market share, subsidiary of Telmex), because there are more opportunities for growth – in a household there’s 1 fixed-line, but at least 3 or 4 mobile lines.
Siri on iPhone
Apple’s acquisition of Siri (an iPhone app – personal assistant that understands what you say, accomplishes tasks for you and adapts to your preferences over time) is maybe the clearest ‘declaration of war’ against Google and its search engine. Voice search technology is the next thing in the mobile market, and Siri will be Apple’s answer to Nexus One’s voice search – a feature I loved when reviewing the device (Hebrew post), that although not perfect, will change the way each of us interacts with his/her phone.
HP’s move was a total surprise for me, that on the one hand seems somewhat natural – completes its Personal Systems Group, and on the other seems like another distraction from their main business (Services & Software). My first PDA was a Palm Pilot Vx, which I bought in 1998 for $100 or so. Since then Palm has evolved, mainly in software and technology, less in hardware, and I (as Mashable) believe it was this aspect of Palm’s business (over 1,500 mobile-related patents) that was most attractive to HP.
Palm Pre
Now, with webOS, HP has one of the best mobile OS out there, which can be installed on a variety of devices, from smartphones to tablets and maybe even netbooks. My thoughts for this deal are:
How it will translate in markets that have a strong HP presence with weaker Palm presence, such as Israel?
What the near future holds for HP-Microsoft cooperation? HP have made substantial investments in Windows platform, for both smartphones (Windows Mobile) and netbooks (Windows 7), and now, with in-house (and free) webOS, there is no need for that.
What are your thoughts? Can the new HP/Palm become a contender in the mobile market, against taking share from iPhone/Android/Symbian? Will you buy a webOS slate over an iPad?
The mobile market was definitely shaken this Wednesday, looking forward to seeing the ripple effect of that shake.
Dan used Google in a way most of us (me at least) haven’t thought of yet – researching human behavior. We do use Google to search for stuff, but Dan haven’t searched for anything. He merely started typing and waited for Google’s predictions – the drop-down list that opens up, suggesting you search queries, based on what other people frequently looked for.
What Men are looking for
The query Dan started typing was:
“how can I get my boyfriend to” and “how can I get my girlfriend to”. The results are hilarious, but proves what the entire world already knows: men are practical, women are after love…
Posted On October 3, 2009 at 03:10 in Uncategorized
Sharepoint is all about collaboration and at Intlock we preach for the exact same thing. Our solution, CardioLog, is the leading usage reporting solution in the market, thanks to these three factors:
CardioLog is aware of your portal structure;
CardioLog is an open platform solution;
CardioLog is familiar with your Sharepoint users
Doing business in a flat world has truly transformed the way businesses interact and work with one another, not to mention the endless possibilities for the customer – it has a global reach, to any vendor, anywhere in the world, in a click of a button. Intlock Partners Program provides just that – the opportunity to do business, together, worldwide. Our program enables complementary solution providers, integrators and distributors to have all business, marketing, and technological resources for offering best-of-breed portal control and monitoring to their solution offerings. Our current partners are already reaping the benefits either as VAR (value-added resellers) or Technology Partners.
If you’d like to hear more about Intlock Partners Program and understand how we can enjoy a win-win joint venture, drop me a line at dvir.reznik at intlock dot com.
Posted On August 24, 2009 at 22:41 in Uncategorized
Yesterday at 7pm the Samsung Galaxy campaign was launched, with Nitzan Brumer and myself as the first 2 participants. The goal is simple: updating twitter/facebook/both status for 48 hours, at intervals of 30min tops, using the #samsungalaxy tag. The prize: We get to keep the Samsung Galaxy, first Android based phone in Israel. The ‘X-Factor’: various treats to keep us awake and updating. Which means I can sleep, but only for 25min at a time. OR, build a Rubi program that will twit for me…
Android is more like iPhone than anything else I’ve seen. It starts with the homepage (3 of them actually), drag-and-drop and device speed (Qualcomm CPU @ 528MHz). There’s definitely a ‘cool-ness effect’ to this phone.
Cellcom and Samsung Israel did a great work on the Hebrew interface of the Galaxy. Menus appear as they should, no Bidi mistakes, keyboard layout is also great, very similar to you laptop/pc.
Google integration is super – as one should expect from a device running Google OS. Enter your username and password and every piece of data you stored at the G-cloud comes to your phone: Calendar, Contacts, Emails, GTalk, YouTube (you can define the Auto-Sync options). On the other hand – I feel a bit exposed knowing all that data is just ’sitting’ there…
Android Market cannot match Apple’s 65,000 apps, but it’s getting there. Easy to search and navigate, includes ‘My Downloads’ to keep track of your installs and some very cool apps!
The bad
The chassis of the Galaxy doesn’t match the iPhone or even N97 standards. It looks cheaper, not as ‘flashy’. The 6 keys at the bottom have no back-light, which makes it somewhat difficult to operate in the dark.
I haven’t found a way to ‘Close’ an app. Clicking on ‘Back’ takes you one step back, but the app stays open in the background – consuming battery and 3G/Wi-Fi/GPS.
Battery life. Although the device is not small (115×56x11.9mm), and packs an impressive specification, the battery is small. And coupled with the last bullet, working on 3G (wifi is less consuming for some reason) results in about 5 hours – not enough, and quite disappointing.
Single ‘notification’ alarm – for anything other than an incoming call. When you enable Twitter/Email/SMS notifications there’s no way of telling the difference – you must check.
No front camera for Video-Calls.
Camera is ok (5MP, Auto Focus, LED flash), but doesn’t match the N95/97 – in both picture and video quality. Also, I couldn’t find any ‘Zoom’ option when capturing, which is a bit annoying. There’s ‘Crop’ in ‘Gallery’, but why disable ‘Zoom’ to begin with?
Summary The Samsung Galaxy seems like an excellent answer for people looking for a non-iPhone Touchscreen device, that has roughly the same specs, in a less-expensive-Google-packaging. My fiancee liked it better than the N97, not to mention the various apps. The Android Market is definitely the ‘wild-card’ of this phone, and is the ultimate testiment to the power of the community – the variety is huge, and you can find applications to satisfy (almost) any wish.
Posted On August 22, 2009 at 23:38 in Uncategorized
Something good is happening to Israel in the social media scene. Twitter is getting A LOT of screen time, and even yours truly got his 30sec of fame in a recent TV piece (1:25min from start and again, later on) trying to uncover the mystery behind the micro-blogging platform.
Advertising agencies and consumer goods companies cannot ignore the stats and grown interest, so both started to incorporate social media aspects into their traditional and interactive campaigns. A month with Nokia N97, courtesy of N97Unboxing.co.il, did bring plenty of attention and social media coverage for Nokia Israel and the N97, but most reviews weren’t that favorable, and in my opinion might damaged the launch of the device.
But enough of Symbian, because I have roughly a week to learn a new language – Android! I’ll be switching to a Samsung Galaxy (aka i7500) within a week or so, part of a local campaign run by Samsung Israel, Cellcom (largest cellular provider in Israel), TheFusion, McCann Digital and Nir Refuah of course, to launch the first Android device in Israel. Details of the campaign are still sketchy, but I do know it will be a 48 hour contest (vs. another local blogger) during which I’ll have to send status updates (#samsungalaxy) every 30min or so. To keep me busy (and awake) during those 48 sleep-less hours, Samsung will pamper me with various treats and surprises. Good thing I haven’t found a job, yet…
So, couple of necessities before the campaign starts – help appreciated (Thanks in advance!):
Plenty of business leaders took advantage of this conference. One of them was Google’s co-Founder Sergey Brin, who joined Yossi Vardi to his periodically Garage Geeks party, hosted (quite literally) in a garage near Tel Aviv.
Here’s a fair amount of Sergey’s ad-hoc Q&A section, as filmed by Ayelet Noff.
I Read yesterday Palm’s latest announcement, of Palm Foleo, a new appliance, which is basically a very small factor laptop, 1.3 Kg (2.5 Pound), with a 10-inch screen. The Foleo serves as an external display, with larger keyboard, and syncs instantly with smart phones using Bluetooth technology. An update made in your smart phone will instantly appear on Foleo, and vise-versa (giving both products are in Bluetooth range). Why? because ’sometimes you need a bigger screen’, according to Jeff Hawkins, Palm’s founder. Will that reason suffice? not sure. In my opinion Palm are taking a big (and costly) step in entering a flooded laptop market, with a product that is inferior to most others, and only advantage being its ability to ‘always sync’ to smart phones. In an era when everyone are seeking smaller, faster, do-it-all gadgets (like Nokia N95), I’m not sure if adding a 2nd product to a person’s bag is really the correct way… Even now people are trying to minimize the amount of gadgets they carry: mobile phone already serves as a camera, email client, mp3, calendar and address book, GPS and more.. so why go against the trend? And you have to carry both products, your smartphone and the Foleo in order to enjoy the benefits they offer.. If Palm would offer their always-sync technology as a 3rd party software, that would be interesting – and an interesting way to expand your market, with current products, but new technologies.
Google goes offline Imagine reading your rss feeds in reader, checking your Gmail and editing a Google Docs document – offline. No internet connection needed… This is cool. In an on-going trend of making software as a service (SaaS), that requires an internet connection, the next logical step is making SaaS-O (Software as a Service – offline). Google Gears should do just that. Announced today, Gears is still in Beta and an Open Source application that allows the community to do some testing and mock-ups, while improving its abilities to accommodate their needs. If you plan on testing this new application, pay close attention to the install instructions..
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