Google buys On2’s video technology. Why?

Google announced today that they intended to purchase On2 technology for $106.5 million. While just a drop in Google’s seemingly limitless ocean of cash, this acquisition seems to be for a technology component (or two). On2 specializes in making video processing codecs and software that optimizes video for the Internet.

The big question is: Why?

Here are some reasons which I think may make the most sense:

First, Google’s YouTube unit has many Petabytes of video stored on Google’s server farms around the world. Every day that number grows. It costs a lot of money to keep that data live, online and backed up. It also costs a lot of money in bandwidth to deliver it to Google’s users. One of On2’s core competencies is bringing the size of SWF Flash (and H.264) files down while keeping the quality level high. As Google moves to make more and more of Youtube’s videos High Definition, this becomes even more important.

Even single digit percentage drops in file size to Youtube’s collection would make the technology valuable enough over a few years to make the sale a good deal. But there could be more to it than that.

On2 also makes software that optimizes video for mobile. Not only does Google have the Android handsets, but it also has users with iPhones, Blackberries and Windows Mobile devices that are going to be downloading more and more of their content.

Another big deal is the HTML5 standard that embeds native (not Flash) video. The standard is up in the air right now because Apple and the Open Source community both have different ideas of what should be the standard format for video. Apple obviously wants its Quicktime friendly H.264 while many in the Open Source community want Ogg Video. On2 could have either a third choice or a technology that allows both to be generated for webpages using HTML5. Either way, google is a big player in this space and will want to have a say.

What I think is at play here is that major advertisers are getting ready to sign up for big campaigns with Hulu. Google, when all is said and done, is an advertising company. They make 99% of their money from ads and everything else they do are just ways of getting those ads into our eyes.

They see Hulu’s platform (based on the On2 technology btw) as the biggest competitor to their Youtube juggernaut. While Youtube can be mildly entertaining for viral videos, Hulu is grabbing more eyes for a longer period of time with better quality programming. If Google wants to participate in this space, they are going to want a piece of that action. And at $100 million, they can afford to get into the game.

Who Can Take the Cake in Chrome Creativity?

Update: Google says the Google Chome Icon Project is over now.

Original Article: Feeling creative? Fan of Google's Chrome browser? If your answer to either of these questions is yes, you might be interested to know that Google is hosting a global project in which it is asking fans to submit creative videos in which they create a Google Chrome icon.

Jason Toff from the Google Chrome team says the idea for the project came when the team itself was experimenting with using different objects to create the icon - like this cake for example:

What Google considers to be the best entries to this project, it will feature on Google and YouTube. "We know from past experience that users are the ones who come up with the coolest stuff. So with that, we now turn the challenge to YOU to make a video showing the formation of the Google Chrome icon in a big, unusual or creative way," says Toff. He tells me he likes the magnets one so far (video below):

You may recall that earlier this year, Google created its first television advertisement, and this was for Chrome. I don't know if any of these designs will make it into an actual commercial or not, but I suspect the initiative itself is designed to generate buzz and draw awareness to Chrome. Not a bad viral campaign.

Participants have until July 22 to submit their videos. You can do so here, and while you're there, you can also check out what other people have done. I'll leave you with a few samples below. By the way, they should be between 15 and 60 seconds long.

source: http://www.webpronews.com/topnews/2009/06/11/can-you-take-the-cake-in-chrome-creativity

Intel Launches Facebook App For Research

Intel has launched a Facebook application that allows people to donate their PC's unused processor power to research diseases and study climate change.

Intel developed the app called Progress Thru Processors, which allows Facebook users to choose to contribute their extra processing power to research efforts of Climateprediction.net and Africa@home. Climatepredicition.net is focused on understanding global climate change by predicting the Earth's climate testing the accuracy of climate models.

Africa@home is focused on finding strategies to fight malaria by studying simulation models of how the disease spreads and the potential impact of new anti-malarial drugs and vaccines.

In addition, Progress Thru Processors also allows users to contribute to Rossetta@home, which is focused on finding cures for cancer and other diseases such as HIV and Alzheimer's.

"Progress Thru Processors underscores our belief that small contributions made by individuals can collectively have a far-reaching impact on our world," said Deborah Conrad, Intel vice president and general manager, Corporate Marketing Group.

"By simply running an application on your computer, which uses very little incremental resources, you can expand computing resources to researchers working to make the world a better place."

Launched in public beta, the application activates only when a PC's performance is not being fully utilized. The application runs automatically as a background process and will not affect performance.

For Progress Thru Processors, Intel partnered with GridRepublic, a not -for-profit volunteer computing organization.
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Is Google Really Threatened By This Yahoo Microsoft Deal?

Are you tired of reading about the Microsoft Yahoo deal yet? Obviously not or you wouldn't be reading this. There has been a whole lot of coverage to digest, and there will certainly be a whole lot more as the deal gets scrutinized and continues its journey to fruition.



There has been a lot of talk about the deal being bad for Yahoo and good for Microsoft. This may or may not be true, as it's really way too early to tell for sure, but Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has been doing his best to try to convince people (mainly Yahoo shareholders) that Yahoo is in fact getting a good deal.

Yahoo's shareholders of course didn't see it that way, and Yahoo's stock plummeted after the announcement of the deal. But that's because "nobody gets it," according to Ballmer. Shareholders wanted cash, but Ballmer says they should be happy with the elimination of Yahoo's search costs and the added advertisers that will surely come from the deal.

Others in the industry feel that Yahoo is simply making a big mistake by eliminating its own search business. Although there's no denying that Bing has been building some buzz, and those pricey TV ads are helping to fuel that, but how many of the average Yahoo users will even care?

The ultimate question of this whole thing is will this really give Google significant competition in the search space? Again, it's too early to truly tell, but my gut is telling me it's not going to make an incredible difference.

If a typical Google user has tried Bing and decided to continue using Google as their primary search engine of choice, they're not going to abandon it because Yahoo's using it. Does it matter that much to Google if Yahoo users are using Bing? They were already using Yahoo over Google, so what's the difference?

Microsoft and Yahoo may get some more advertisers out of this with the combination of Bing and Yahoo making up a greater percentage of the search market share, but it's not like its going to draw advertisers away from Google, which still controls an incredibly dominant amount of that market.

And let's not overlook the fact that when something eye-catching occurs in the search industry, and Google's not the one catching eyes, they are usually quick to counter with their own offerings (or at least acknowledge that they will be forthcoming). When Bing launched and started highlighting all of its "cool new features," Google was quick to add a link to its homepage highlighting some of its own "decision-engine-like features."

As some discussed back then (namely Danny Sullivan if I'm not mistaken), Bing's launch merely highlighted some things you could do with a search engine that other search engines (like Google, and in some cases even Microsoft's own Live Search) were already doing. Bing's launch has been more about branding than anything (despite the fact that it does bring some new things to the table).

I could be incredibly wrong, but I just don't see this partnership between Yahoo and Microsoft having a tremendous effect on Google. Many want to see more competition in the search industry, and that's a good thing. Competition can only make the industry as a whole better.

But Google is so dominant for a reason. People like Google. Like I said when Bing launched, even if the competition offers a product that is just as good or even better in some ways, it's going to take Google dropping the ball and driving people away on their end to make a significant impact on its share of the search market.

Google is so far ahead, and it has been for so long. Think about all of the products that Google users are already tied into from Gmail to Google Docs to AdWords to Google Calendar, etc. Google search is always right there. Users have a lot of their online lives invested in Google, and switching is probably asking a lot to most of them. Yes, you can use both Gmail and Bing, but it's about convenience and familiarity.

Microsoft has done a very good job combating the branding issue that has held them down in the search market for so long though. Bing appears to be doing much better than Live Search from that standpoint. We'll see what happens.

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Facebook Offers A Username Mulligan

Just last month, Facebook announced that they would allow users to choose a custom username, a.k.a. vanity URL, for their Facebook profile. A post on the Facebook blog warned users to:

"Think carefully about the username you choose. Once it's been selected, you won't be able to change or transfer it."

Well, that's not true anymore. You can now change your username, but only once. At the time of this writing there is no official announcement from Facebook about the username change option.






It's unclear when Facebook added this new option, but we're sure some Facebookers will appreciate it, as ReadWriteWeb points out. If you wish to change your username, go to the "Settings" tab at the top of your profile and click on "Account Settings". The second option down is "Username", just press "Change" and pick your new username.

Last month, Mashable put together a pretty comical list of the "15 Silliest Facebook Vanity URLs", maybe some of those users would like a mulligan on their initial username choice.

source: http://www.webpronews.com/topnews/2009/07/23/facebook-offers-a-username-mulligan