Hiconomics

I attended this cool presentation at BarCamp Sydney (#bcs5), last Saturday and thought it would be worth sharing…

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I read this post on TechCrunch this morning, about the potential explosion of Online Mobs on real-time sites/applications…
In this post Michael Arrington compares FriendFeed specifically to the disease Syphilis and to the fact that it’s going to have to evolve or die/collapse under the weight of online mobs gathering and wreaking online and offline havoc. The reason he compares FriendFeed instead of other realtime applications like Twitter is that with the likes of FriendFeed it’s a more centralised real-time discussion, allowing for a heated issue/discussion to propagate.

But sites like FriendFeed allow the centralization of a conversation to occur, with real time updates appearing on screen without even the need for a refresh. Things can get out of control instantly.

The rest of the article delves into the personal.

I wouldn’t go as far as comparing it to a fatal disease, but is this anything new? Why does he think authoritatian governments are so nervous and controlling of the internet? Precisely to stop anti-government mobs gathering. Sure the real-time factor allows this to get out-of-hand… but how different is it to IRC chat rooms… it would’ve been quite easy to organise the masses in that way too.

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FriendFeed, techcrunch, Twitter

I’m sure everyone agrees that Microsoft is a monster in it’s own right, from hardware and networking services to the Windows OS… and from Gaming (XBox) to MS Office… there is no doubt that Microsoft still has a large role to play in the tech world.

But… there is also little doubt that it will need to adjust and shift it’s business strategy…

The greatest threat to Microsoft’s weakening grip on the OS and Desktop software market is the recent convergence of three recent trends in tech: 1) laptop hardware, 2) the Cloud and 3) offline synchronising applications.

1) Cloud Computing comes in various shapes and forms from Amazon’s Web, Storage and Elastic hosting services (AWS, S3, EC2) to Salesforce’s SaaS (Software as a Service) model, and from Google’s Docs and App Engine to Microsoft’s own Azure platform. Cloud computing has provided many startups with easy, cheap and extensible solutions to develop and launch their products/businesses. It is here to stay…

2) Laptop hardware has developed a lot over the years, from increased processing speed, to more spacious hard-drives, to reduced laptop sizes… and the latest incarnation to take flight is the NetBook. Much has been written or blogged about the popularity of this device, but whether you consider it like a small laptop or like a big iPhone, it’s a cheap and lightweight device with very few peripherals that has been built primarily for use with the web. Most models don’t even have the capacity in place to install the standard desktop applications and software we’re familiar with. Very recently NetBook dedicated Operating System’s have started to develop, such as Jolicloud (which looks stunning), and Google’s Android OS platform.

3) In parallel to all the above there has been a very notable development, over the last couple of years, in offline synchronisation applications. Google Gears, is the most well-known and is used to power Gmail Offline and online office suites like Zoho… but there is also Mozilla’s Prism project which allows users to create offline desktop versions of sites icons of sites which are synchronised automatically when back online.

Now… if you’re not sure what I’m getting at… let’s combine all 3 together.

Imagine yourself using a NetBook that has nothing more than a Google Chrome browser (heavily integrated with Google Gears)…

If you’re online then use it to surf the web and access day-to-day tools, such as office suites (Zoho, Google Docs/Sheets, OpenOffice…), store and access your files on the cloud through DropBox… or even manage your business using Salesforce and oDesk…

And when you’re offline? Well… open a Prism to some of those same sites/apps, access and manipulate everything and then let it synchronise when you’re back online.

Unless you’re a designer or architect or in any other field that requires dedicated software, like Adobe Suite or AutoCad… why would you need anything else?

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Chrome, DropBox, Google Gears, Microsoft, Mozilla Prism, NetBook, oDesk, zoho

Recently, I’ve been spending a lot more time on Twitter than this blog. Aside from the speed and ease of spreading information in 140 characters, it’s really helped me connect to companies, bloggers and people who I otherwise wouldn’t have been able to reach.

One trajectory I’ve been going off on, is that of the Arabic web, and I’ve been connecting, researching and conversing with some of the up and coming players in that domain.

I’ve been a casual observer of the progress in the Middle East web arena over the years, but always found it to be several years behind the rest, whether it be in eCommerce, Online Retailing, Social Networking, or general usability. However, there has been a surge of late… and it’s getting much more interesting. For a start… there is increasing action in the startup arenas of Jordan, Lebanon, Tunisia, Egypt and the UAE… resulting in a rush to launch Arabic sites, Arabic social networks, Arabic apps (and contrary to the past, these are more than just Arabic versions of existing western sites). In addition the infrastructure is getting easier, with more support coming from governments in the shape of entrepreneurial direction/coaching/training and quite a few VCs are establishing funds for tech startups.

It’s great to see this excitement and rush, and it makes me wish I was closer geographically, as I’d love to get more involved and be a part of the current vibe.

If you’re interested in this scene, then here are a couple of sites to get you started… ArabCrunch and StartUpArabia.

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Arabic Web

Google Squared launched a few weeks ago , in a bid to collate, aggregate and structure the web’s data. If you run a search of any kind you’ll see it presents data in a tabulated format that resembles a spreadsheet.

It’s been touted as a Wolfram|Alpha killer. Personally, I’m not sure I see that as a relevant statement, for two reasons: 1) I’m not sure Wolfram|Alpha can be killed if it’s not actually alive and kicking yet… and 2) if we were to compare the output and the way the data is structured then Wolfram|Alpha wins hands-down.

However, one thing to note is that almost all the results I got returned were presenting, sites, links and information directly from the source. Take a look at the results for a hotel search ‘hotels in Sydney‘ or one for ‘flights‘ every result is for a hotel or airline themselves… no Expedia, no Kayak, no Opodo, no Orbitz, no Booking.com.

No mediators or content aggregators… except in the Amenities or Cuisine columns…

So… while I don’t think this type of Search will pick up much market share in the public domain, if it DID… does this mean that power will be back in the hands of the product owners and service providers? Does this tabulating of data shift content aggregation from mediators and syndicators to Google, and with it spell the inevitable end for the traditional web middle man?

Anyone have any thoughts on this?

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google, Google Squared, Wolphram|Alpha

It’s pretty evident that Microsoft have spent a huge amount of cash on marketing it’s new Decision Engine… Bing. The ad below and final sponsored message with the Daily Show is my favorite so far… and really drives the point in a cool way. Whether it actually gets you what you want faster is still debatable… but a cool ad nonetheless.

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Bing

I came across this clip of the CrunchPad… an eagerly awaited (well by me at least) device being designed and launched by the guys at TechCrunch.

From the clip below, you’ll see it’s a really cool gadget that sort of sits between an iPhone, a NetBook and the Kindle eBook Reader… designed solely primarily for browsing the web.

I would definitely consider buying this when it launches… you?

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CrunchPad, iPhone, Kindle, NetBook, techcrunch

Today, is the official launch of Microsoft’s new breed of Search Engine starting with the US… and spreading out internationally, to be completed by 3rd June. (I’ve blogged about Microsoft’s plans for a new Search Engine before, originally rumored to be called Kumo… I prefer Bing as a name).

Bing will be/is a Decision Engine which has been built with the sole purpose of helping you filter through the 100s of millions of websites and results returned. By the looks of things from this clip, it’s looking really slick, user-friendly and certainly seems to offer a new set of navigation features that will allow users to filter through content and access sub-level pages directly (similar to Google Site Links, but seemingly more usable). It also looks like it’s gone a step further than Google with it’s Meta Search (vertical search) functionality.

I’m not going to join the legions of rumor and hype-mongers who are touting this as the new Google Killer. I don’t think it will be, but it’s certainly good to see a bit of competition in the Search Engine space again… in addition to Wolfram|Alpha’s ‘Computational Knowledge Engine‘. 

From a business perspective, I can see from the clip that Microsoft’s PPC ads will be presented on this site (presumably from Microsoft’s AdCenter)… but not sure if there are plans for other business models. I’m also unclear on how the integrated meta-search of data (eg. hotel results) will get sourced? will their be an exclusive partner in each market for this? Will this cause some controversy on the biased-ness of the engine?

Incidentally, would you agree that the fact the engines are being marketed as ‘Knowledge Engine’ and ‘Decision Engine’ represents an acknowledgment that Google is all powerful at ‘Search’… and rather than compete directly they’re looking for differentiation?

Here’s a behind the scenes look at Bing… I look forward to playing with it over the next couple of days!

Bada Bing!

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Bing, Decision Engine, Kumo, Mircosoft, WolframAlpha

In typical Google style, and in a fantastic coup by their PR team… they managed to ‘again’ take hype and PR away from Microsoft’s Bing launch and press release. They did this by presenting their Google Wave platform at the Developer I/O conference… to much delight and applause.

Based and coded with HTML5, Google is working on a great platform that amalgamates and aggregates IM, Email, Online Docs, Social Networking, Collaboration and Annotation tools… into one all-encompassing platform. It’s hard to imagine or visualise what it can do, without seeing it for yourself… but it is likely to start a mini-revolution in how we use the web to communicate and work productively. It’ll be interesting to see how quickly people adjust to the changes and new communication methods… might take a while.

Aside from the platform itself being a novel concept, it is an open-source platform and Google are encouraging developers to take the platform and run with it. The possibilities and rammifications of this are likely to be immense. 

There’s been a lot of blogging about this new platform, but I thought Mashable’s Complete review was the best and most comprehensive. You can also watch the clip below (1hr:20min)… I’ve also uploaded other clips from the Developer I/O conference on the Hiconomics Video Channel. All very exciting stuff….

Google Wave has not launched yet, but you can sign up and be alerted to it’s launch.

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google, Google Wave, HTML5