Is it Microsoft? No. General Electric? No. Coca Cola? No. Wal-Mart? No. Bank of America? No. Who could it be boys and girls?

Well it’s Google who once again who holds the top spot.

The doomers and gloomers who counted Google out for the count need to take two steps back and take another look at the search giant. Google is doing something right. The article states:

Google, the world’s top brand, led a parade of technology companies in Millward Brown’s annual ranking of top international brands. Google kept the top spot with a brand value of $86 billion, better than General Electric, Microsoft, Coca-Cola and China Mobile.

While Google gets most of the attention, its tech brethren made the biggest strides last year. The sector grew by 33 percent last year, outpacing all others except mobile operators, which grew by 35 percent. The two sectors combined accounted for 28 of the top 100 spots, with a brand value growth of $187.5 billion.

Apple broke into the top ten for the first time, moving up 9 spots to #7, one below IBM. Nokia took the #9 position while Vodafone came in at #11. Bay Area titans Hewlett-Packard came in at #16, followed by Cisco at #22 and Oracle and Intel at #26 and #27 respectively.

This is the second year in a row where Google topped the list. The company grew 30 percent in brand value from $66 billion last year. The tech scene wasn’t all rosy. While RIM’s BlackBerry jumped into the top 100, Motorola dropped from #60 to #92.

Also of note is that Apple is now in the top ten. Congrats Apple! Those Apple vs PC ads must be working.

Comments welcome as always.

Full SF Gate article is here.

Steve Ballmer was addressing a group of MVPs attending a summit meeting in Redmond when he asked the following questions:

“How many of you use Live Search as your default?” Ballmer asked.

A smattering of hands went up. Tepid applause.

“How many of you use Yahoo search as your default?”

Far fewer hands went up and the room was relative quiet, until it filled with laughter.

Ballmer, trying again, louder this time, “How many of you use Yahoo search as your default?”

The same response.

“How many of you use Google as your default?” Ballmer asked.

The vast majority in the audience raised their hands, cheering and hooting.

Ballmer also took a hard look at Vista when he stated the following:

“Windows Vista,” he said, pausing for a moment, “A work in progress.”

The crowd laughed and applauded.

“A very important piece of work and I think we did a lot of things right and I think we have a lot of things we need to learn from,” Ballmer continued. “Certainly, you never want to let five years go between releases and we just sort of kiss that stone and move on. Because, it turns out, many things become problematic when you have those long release cycles. The design point, what you should be targeting. We can’t ever let that happen again. We have some things that we can’t just set the dial back, but I think people wish we could.”

I believe that Microsoft does realize that Vista is problematic and that hopefully they can do a better job with Windows 7. Vista still leaves a bad taste that Microsoft is struggling to overcome. Some industry observers doubt that SP1 for Vista will be enough to make businesses switch. Only time will tell.

I wonder why Ballmer didn’t ask how many MVPs use Firefox?

Comments welcome.

Full story is here.

You gotta love technology. Just when you think you have a good handle on the latest and greatest, up pops something new. Enter Sony with its new OLED [organic light-emitting diode]. But like any of the new technologies there is just one minor issue. Cost. Currently the OLED TVs are expensive. I mean really expensive. How’s $2500 big ones for a 11″ screen.

Both Sony and Samsung have prototypes sized at 27″ and 31″ but there are no pricing available as of yet. Also there is no confirmation when these or larger screens will be available.

But what makes this new technology a true replacement for DLP, LCD, and Plasma televisions? According to a recent article in Consumers Reports is what they describe as ’stellar performance’. The blackest blacks and incredible clarity.

So I did a Google on OLED and found additional information on this next generation television at several web sites. Over at Gizmodo they say:

In the end, it’s not a thing you go out and buy. It’s a message in a slender frame. Sony never had massive R&D investment in LCD like Sharp or in plasma like Panasonic, and it’s clear that this is Sony’s way of saying, “Screw all of those, cuz OLED is what will matter, and oh yeah, Sony will drive OLED.” Am I putting too many words in your mouth, Sony? I hope not, because this time next year, I’d like to be staring at a 50-inch version of this junior wonder. OK, 32 inches will be fine. 25 inches? 20?????

It should be interesting to see these new televisions in action. But it may be awhile before this latest and greatest hit the store shelves. Which may be good for us consumers. Because when OLED does arrive, it could drive down pricing on the current crop of technologies. That is one of the beauty parts of technology. The newest of the new knocks down pricing of the previous newest of the new.

Comments welcome.

Full take on OLED is here.

Just when you thought that Google has done it all, it is introducing Gmail Paper, which currently is in beta testing. Google Gmail Paper is the latest in a new concept where you can get all of your Gmail messages printed for you and delivered to your home. On its site it claims it will even do up to 100,000 or more messages. It also states:

Is it free?

Yes. The cost of postage is offset with the help of relevant, targeted, unobtrusive advertisements, which will appear on the back of your Gmail Paper prints in red, bold, 36 pt Helvetica. No pop-ups, no flashy animations — these are physically impossible in the paper medium.

How about attachments?

All part of the deal. Photo attachments are printed on high-quality, glossy photo paper, and secured to your Gmail Paper with a paper clip. MP3 and WAV files will not be printed. We recommend maintaining copies of your non-paper Gmail in these cases.

Is there a limit?

You can make us print one, one thousand, or one hundred thousand of your emails. It’s whatever seems reasonable to you.

But what about the environment?

Not a problem. Gmail Paper is made out of 96% post-consumer organic soybean sputum, and thus, actually helps the environment. For every Gmail Paper we produce, the environment gets incrementally healthier.

I have already signed up for this free service and received my first shipment this morning from Google. I chose the 100,000 message option and received 22 boxes of printed emails. I plan to go through the messages this weekend and should be completed cataloging the messages by 04-01-08.

Comments welcome.

Gmail Paper website is here and it’s FREE!

PS If you need help with using Gmail Paper you can contact ubenhad@google.com.

In a no holds barred assessment of Microsoft buying Yahoo!, Eric Schmidt the CEO of Google thinks the purchase could hurt the Internet. In a remark made to reporters he stated:

“We would be concerned by any kind of acquisition of Yahoo by Microsoft,” Chief Executive Eric Schmidt told reporters.

“We would hope that anything they did would be consistent with the openness of the Internet, but I doubt it would be.”

Schmidt pointed to Microsoft’s past history and “the things that it has done that have been so difficult for everyone,” but he did not elaborate.

This does make one wonder just what the repercussions would be if Microsoft took over Yahoo! Or is Schmidt just talking smack to upset the folks at Microsoft? We are all aware that Microsoft came down heavy on the Google - DoubleClick deal. This could be just Google trying to get back.

What do you think?

Comments welcome.

Full article is here.

Google is trying to convince consumers that customers’ private data will be safe with the Internet search giant. On its blog site it has listed some of the concerns that people may have and what Google is doing to address these concerns. The first thing Google wants us to know is its philosophy:

Philosophy: First is our philosophy. At Google, security is a continuous process. We don’t just “check” a product for security before we launch it — we are thinking about security before the product is even created, and we are building it in throughout the product’s development. Also critical is our belief in layered protection.

It’s much like securing your house. You put your most private information in a safe. You secure the safe in your house, which is protected with locks and possibly an alarm system. And then you have the neighborhood watch program or the local police monitoring your neighborhood. It’s very similar at Google. Our most sensitive information is difficult to find or access (the safe). Our network and facilities (the house) are protected in both high- and low-tech ways: encryption, alarms, and other technology for our systems, and strong physical security at our facilities.

And finally, we’ve learned that when security is done right, it’s done best as a community (the neighborhood); we encourage everyone to help us identify potential problems and solutions. Researchers who work at security and technology companies all over the world are constantly looking for security problems on the Internet, and we work closely with that community to find and fix potential problems.

Google goes on to address other issues in its statement such as technology, process, and people. But the one thing that all of us must consider is, how concerned are you with Google having your stuff on its servers? Especially when it comes to health data. Would you feel secure or not?

Comments welcome.

Google blog and additional information is here.

Bill Gates seems to feel that Google doesn’t get it when it comes to the needs of business. Slamming Google Apps, the once head of the Microsoft empire stated that:

“In terms of Google, not to overstate it, but they really don’t understand the special needs of business. Today, their economic model is based on consumer search. They have done an incredible job there and obviously we’re investing in challenging them in that space …

“If you’ve seen … the Google tools that have tried to do productivity type things, they really don’t have the richness the responsiveness. You can see that relative [to] the success they have had there. Most of these Google products, to be frank, the day they announce them is their best day and then after that ….”

He also stated that whether Microsoft gets Yahoo! or not, it is ready to challenge the search field on the Internet. Interesting points. But will Microsoft really be able to challenge Google? Time will tell.

Comments welcome.

Complete article is located here.

There is no doubt that Google is one of the most successful technology companies in the world. The secret of its success as described by Hal Varian, Chief Economist for Google, explains why Google really owes its success to the ’secret sauce’ it is using. In his report he states:

It seems that a lot of people are trying to figure out why Google has done so well. The difficulty is that the typical economic forces at work in many technology businesses that lead to entrenchment don’t seem to explain our success. Let’s take a look at the usual culprits.

If it isn’t economies of scale, lock-in, or network effects, what is it that explains Google’s success?

The answer, at least in my opinion, is a much older economic concept called “learning by doing” that was first formalized by Nobel Laureate Kenneth Arrow back in 1962. It refers to the widely-observed phenomenon that the longer a company has been doing something, the better it gets at doing it.

Google has been searching the Web for nearly 10 years, which is far longer than our major competitors. It’s not surprising that we’ve learned a lot about how to do this well. We’re constantly experimenting with new algorithms. Those that offer an improvement get rolled into the production version; the others go back to the drawing board for refinement.

So I would argue that Google really does have a better product than the competition — not because we have more or better ingredients, but because we have better recipes. And we are continuously improving those recipes precisely because we know the competition is only a click away. We can’t fall back on economies of scale, or switching costs, or network effects, to isolate us from the competition. The only thing we can do is work as hard as we can to keep our search quality better than that of the other engines.

Which than brings up the question about Microsoft trying to buy Yahoo!. Will Microsoft be able to make Yahoo! as successful as Google or does it also need a ’secret sauce’ to succeed?

Comments welcome.

Complete article is here.

Google announced yesterday its involvement in an agreement with a Cleveland Clinic to start the storing of medical data for patients on a test basis. The pilot program will involve the storage of medical data, which will be available to all those who agree to participate in the program. Google on its blog states the following information:

This week, we hit another important milestone. We launched a pilot with a medical institution committed to giving patients access to their own medical records: The Cleveland Clinic. A large academic medical center, Cleveland is one of the first partners to integrate on our platform. Because of their size and reach with patients who already have access to their medical records online, Cleveland has been a great partner for us to test out our data sharing model. Patients participating in the Cleveland pilot give authorization via our AuthSub interface to have their electronic medical records safely and securely imported into a Google account. It’s great to see our product getting into the hands of end users, and I look forward to the feedback that the Cleveland patients will provide us.

Cleveland is just the first of many healthcare providers that will securely send medical records and information via Google APIs at your request. We’ve been hard at work collaborating with a number of insurance plans, medical groups, pharmacies and hospitals. While this pilot is open initially to just a few thousand patients, I see it as an important first step to show how Google can help users get access to their medical records and take charge of their health information.

The pilot program will include the ability for patients to access their medical information on the Internet. Though it was clear the type of security measures being taken, one would hope that the records would be secure. But will they be?

What’s your take? Would you allow your medical records to be accessed on the Internet?

Comments welcome.

Full Google blog article is here.

I have read many times that people are reluctant to make the switch from Windows to Linux stating they needed Photoshop for their work. Google seems to have heard you and has sought the assistance from Codeweavers [Wine] to improve the Photoshop experience in Linux. In a statement about how Google is supporting this project, Dan Kegel says:

As you might know, I work for Google, and part of my day job is to help improve Wine. Here’s a little report about what we’ve been up to.Google uses Wine primarily as the basis for the Linux port of our photo management software, Picasa. In fact, the Linux version is exactly the Windows build of Picasa, bundled with a lightly patched version of Wine. Most of the work in that port was to improve Wine so it could handle Picasa, and that work is still going on.

Google also sponsored some work by Codeweavers to improve support for Photoshop (’cause so many people want it) and While not yet perfect, those apps are a lot more usable now as a result. In particular, Photoshop CS and CS2 are quite usable indeed. (See http://wiki.winehq.org/AdobePhotoshop details.)

There is now one less reason to not make the switch.

Full article is here.