Sunday, January 30, 2005

Alexander the Great's Management

Alexander the Great changed history. What can we learn from him? Partha Bose, author of "Alexander the Great's Art of Strategy", observes:

"It fundamentally boils down to three things: it is where you want to compete, when and how you want to enter or exit that market and how do you want to go about competing when you are in that market."

"Those are fundamentally the three key strategic issues and again when you take a look at Alexander the Great's history you find that he was pretty much the first ever general to systematically think through those three key issues.

"Strategy is only as good as the organization's ability to execute it. Here again, there are lessons from ancient times."

Link
Source: CNN

See also:
Alexander and Darius - Belmont Club

Discuss:
AlwaysOn

Saturday, January 29, 2005

The Wisdom of Warren Buffett

What should we learn from Warren Buffett?

1. Be Grateful
2. Be Ethical & Fair
3. Be Trustworthy
4. Invest in Your Cirle of Competence
5. Do What You Love

Link
Source: Stuff I Think
[via Seth Godin]

See also:
Warren Buffett - Google News
Warren Buffett - Topix.net

Thursday, January 27, 2005

Amazon's A9: We Index the Real World!

"In short, Manber and co. (urged on by Jeff Bezos, who Manber says was 'very involved') strapped GPS-enabled digital video camera-cum-terabyte server rigs to the top of a bunch of SUVs, then drove them around the commercial areas of major US metropolitan areas, recording what then became composite still pictures of entire cities, one address at a time. A9 took more than 20 million images of 14 million+ businesses across ten cities (more are coming soon), then created a local search application they call Block View."

Link
Source: John Battelle's Searchblog

Jeff Bezos, Amazon, IMDB, Alexa, A9, Blue Origin...Can we connect the dots? Does Jeff Bezos want to index the real world? What's next?

Video:
Yellow Pages on A9.com

Audio:
Jeff Bezos - IT Conversations

Discuss:
A9 Search Engine Launches Yellow Pages - Slashdot

See also:
Amazon.com - Google News
Amazoncom News - Topix.net
A9 - Technorati
Amazon Web Services Blog
Seeking Better Web Searches - Scientific American
Web 2.0
Augmented reality - Wikipedia
VRlog

Wednesday, January 26, 2005

The Google Operating System: Plan 9

John C. Dvorak observes:
"If you follow the Google strategy their incursions are leading directly down a path often discussed during the late 1990's -- a browser-centric Internet OS."

"Think of the potential advertising revenue you can generate when you own the entire desktop environment."

"This strategy may account for some unusual hires by Google including Rob Pike from Bell labs, one of the development team members for an unusual distributed OS called Plan 9, named for the wacky Ed Wood cult film, 'Plan 9 from Outer Space.' While Pike may have been brought in to help the company deal with its internal software used to control tens of thousands of clusters, there is speculation that Google wants to push out onto the desktop. The company is already toying with distributed grid computing with its obscure Google Computer project: http://toolbar.google.com/dc/offerdc.html."

Link
Source: CBS MarketWatch

Google Software Downloads
Google Toolbar, Google Desktop Search, Picasa Photo Organizer, Google Deskbar, Gmail Notifier, Keyhole
Link

See also:
The Google Browser - Pandia Search World
Google - the next Microsoft?
Google's Next Steps or Google in 2010
Web 2.0

Monday, January 24, 2005

Google Voice?

It makes sense. Why? Do you want to search for your voice data? What about transcripts? People want this kind of information and I suppose they will get it. It’s about the data, stupid!
Link
Source: Google News
[via John Battelle's Searchblog]

Update:
Jeff Pulver says:
"A quick check at the Spring 2005 VON delegate database shows that a number of Google executives in fact will be joining us in San Jose in March."
Link

See also:
Google Broadband
Google Broadband - 2
Why Google Is Not Doing VoIP - Om Malik
EuroTelcoblog
Google prepares Skype-killer phone service - VoIP Watch
Google Voice - Technorati
The VoIP Weblog
Voicebuzz
Telecom News - Topix.net

Audio:
Telecom Transformation - IT Conversations
The Telephone is a Platform - The Web 2.0 Weblog

Wikipedia:
Voice over IP

Discuss:
Google Plans Free VoIP In the UK - Slashdot

Tuesday, January 18, 2005

Google Broadband - 2

Evan Hansen asks:

"Is Google planning to build a global fiber optic network from scratch? And, if so, why? The question has cropped up in light of a recent job posting on the search engine giant's Web site seeking experts in the field."
Link
Source: CNET News

Google should and will diversify its revenue model. They remember Netscape's doom and won't repeat the same mistake. The advertising model won't be enough in the future. Why? The click fraud and the new aggressive players in the search field are the main threats. Google Mini is part of the transformational process. Wireless Hotspot Finder...What's next? Can we say Google Broadband?

Audio:
Broadband Internet and Consumer Behavior - IT Conversations

See also:
Web 2.0
The New Moore's Law
Google's Next Steps or Google in 2010
The Future of Media - 2
Google vs. IBM
Om Malik on Broadband
Google - Google News
Google - Topix.net
John Battelle's Searchblog
Google Blogoscoped
The Unofficial Google Weblog
InsideGoogle
Google - Slashdot
Broadband - Google News
Broadband - Topix.net
Broadband - Wikipedia
Data centre - Wikipedia
Grid computing - Wikipedia
Internet2 - Wikipedia

Discuss:
Google's Dark Fibre Plans? - Slashdot
Google News - WebmasterWorld

Update:
Google Enterprise Solutions