Google's Urs Holzle on speeding up the Web [video]

I stumbled across this video of Url Holzle, Google's Senior VP of Operations, talking about speeding up the Web at the Velocity 2010 conference over on Data Center Knowledge and found it to be absolutely fascinating!

Each to their own (wave)

Earlier today I stumbled across an interesting article over on mashable.com. In it the author, Ben Parr, asks: Google Wave: Is the World Ready?

(In case you haven’t heard about Google Wave [wikipedia entry]: It’s a soon to be launched service that aims to combine e-mail, instant messaging, social networking and wiki-like features into a single coherent package. If I remember correctly one of the tag lines at its introduction was something along the lines of: what e-mail would look like if it were invented today)

The article makes some good points about Google Wave breaking many of the currently established online communication patters which might not necessarily fly with many users. Subsequently the author draws the conclusion that Google Wave will either succeed spectacularly or completely bomb.

In my mind this is somewhat of an odd statement to make given that on the Internet many forms of communication are used in parallel. I for example use e-mail, blogging, twitter, forums, wikis, IRC, (to a lesser degree these days) instant messaging and (very seldomly) Facebook. All of these communication tools have their specific up- and downsides, yet at the end of the day I use all of them.

Now even if Google Wave turns out to be the best thing since sliced bread it won’t completely replace all of these other tools. Initially it would probably find a niche (e.g. communicating with my more geeky friends and university colleagues) and then slowly start taking over some of the other communication tasks. However each technology / platform has its set of advantages which will result in it being used.

I therefore view Google Wave as an additional offer that, based on what I’ve seen so far, could be quite attractive for many purposes. But it won’t take over as my single way of communication and I believe the majority of the other 1.5 billion using the Internet today will feel the same way. Hence Google Wave will probably neither be a total failure nor an astounding success but rather something in between (like most other technologies).

Not too excited about Google Chrome

It's all over the news right now and apparently the official announcement will be made at a press event at Google HQ today at 11 a.m. PDT.:

Google will release a new open-source browser based on a combination of Apple WebKit and Mozilla Firefox and held together with some custom code by Google.

Looking at the currently available information and the single screenshot from CNet above I have to say it's hard to get too excited. (Admittedly the idea to (pre-)announce a browser via a comic book is pretty sweet!)

Unless Chrome uses signficantly less memory and/or renders pages and all those Web 2.0 sites signficantly faster than Firefox I don't see too many incentives to switch. Additionally it will be hard for Chrome to compete with the plethora of Firefox extensions, unless they somehow manage to maintain compatibility that is.

Now something that I’d be excited about is a project to crossbreed Thunderbird and Gmail. Both approaches offer some pretty damn cool features but combined they could really give all other e-mail solutions (even the Outlook / Exchange combination) a run for its money.

Something to keep in mind

Jonathan Rosenberg, Senior VP, Product Management at Google posted some interesting thoughts on the official Google blog the other day. In an entry called "Our Googley advice to students: Major in learning" Rosenberg talks about the importance of "non-routine problem-solving skills" for knowledge workers.

Here's a real-life example, a challenge a team of our engineers once faced: designing a spell-checker for the Google search engine. The routine solution would be to run queries through a dictionary. The non-routine, creative solution is to use the query corrections and refinements that other users have made in the past to offer spelling suggestions for new queries. This approach enables us to correct all the words that aren't in the dictionary, helping many more users in the process.

He goes on to mention:

It's easy to educate for the routine, and hard to educate for the novel.

Not that this is a terribly new or exciting insight but it's definitely an important one to keep in mind when you look at things like education and learning in your own life.

Interesting tidbits from Google

I follow two or three of the Google blogs and while catching up on them the other day I saw 3 interesting stories that I wanted to share:

Google learns to crawl Flash

Now that we've launched our Flash indexing algorithm, web designers can expect improved visibility of their published Flash content, and you can expect to see better search results and snippets.

That's pretty sweet as a lot of Web sites (too many actually) heavily rely on Flash which makes it close to impossible to search information on them. I'm mainly thinking of all the fancy, flashy Web sites that restaurants, bars, clubs and hotels have these days.

Google Developer Days comes to Munich, Germany on September, 23

Mmm, that could be fun... Let's see, if the registration fees aren't insane (which I fear they will be) I might go there just to see what kind of people hang out there. Plus secretly I hope to be able to glance at some cool new technology!

Google Code Jam is back

If you're a great sprinter, you've probably been in a few races. And if you're a great chess player, you've probably had your share of matches. But what do you do if you're a great programmer?

You participate in Google Code Jam of course! Unfortunately its Web site is a bit disappointing, since the thing started some days ago I was hoping to see what the challenges are, how people are approaching them, etc.

P.S. The song currently played in the café / bar where I am is Falco's Amadeus... :-)

Larry Page - 05/22/08 - Ronald Reagan Building

Even though I didn't have to go to work today (thanks to some Austrian holiday) I kicked myself out of bed at 7 a.m. The reason for that was Google's Larry Page being in town to speak about "Google Unwired, Expanding Broadband Access and Allocating Spectrum More Efficiently".

While the topic generally isn't something that gets me too excited I've been spending some time reading, thinking and talking about topics such as broadband and connectivity (obviously mostly in the larger context of OLPC). Initially Page seemed like a relatively dry speaker, often checking the notes on his BlackBerry. He did warm up a little and after about an hour and especially during the Q&A he appeared to be quite relaxed. My impression was that he is a relatively down-to-earth guy, well, as much as you can be when you own several billions and invented the best thing since sliced bread (literally!).


He made several interesting comments, both on the topic of broadband connectivity and spectrum allocation and also other topics such as Google Android and the recent events regarding Microsoft and Yahoo. One of the key comments was when Page talked about "an open environment being good for business" which directly translated into more revenue for companies such as Google. Another interesting one was pointing out the fact that many people, especially in developing nations, already own a connected devices (a mobile phone) but still can't get online. The most outrageous idea he mentioned was an automated service that would auction off wireless spectrum similar to how Google's ads work...

Well, it was well worth getting up that early, as the session definitely provided lots of food for thought.

Welcome to Google App Engine

Last Friday I received an e-mail informing me that my account had be set up for Google App Engine. In Google's own words:

"Google App Engine enables you to build web applications on the same scalable systems that power Google applications."

Sounds good, right?

Anyway, after watching this series of videos on YouTube I thought I'd give it a try. While I'm certainly not a Web 2.0 kinda guy I have followed the developments when it comes to Web services and applications quite closely. So I figure this time 'round I can actually get down into the trenches myself and do some coding. Obviously I have something OLPC-related in mind but I'm not quite ready to reveal what ideas my brain is crunching these days. I'd love to try and hack together a simple prototype right now but I'm too tired already but I hope to get something up and running tomorrow.

At the same time I'm currently working on several aspects of our OLPC Activity Handbook where I've also made some progress over the last few weeks and things will be coming together nicely over the coming days.

But now, sleep.

interesting iPhone and Android comparison

Alexander Schatten posted an interesting comment called "Two Cultures: iPhone and Android" on his Software Engineering - Best Practices blog. He compares the very different approaches that Apple and Google are taking when it comes to the SDKs of their respective platforms and also the distribution mechanisms behind it.

From a philosophical point of view I also prefer the more open Android approach but having said that I believe that Apple is going to me more successful with the way they do things. As Alexander also points out "the open source model also had a problem in providing a consistent and user friendly UI experience" and I believe that UI is what makes or breaks a consumer electronics device such as a mobile phone. The open-source approach is particularly strong when it comes to enabling people (developers) to come up with customized versions that fit their unique needs. It therefore allows for a broad ecosystem of similar, yet not identical, sub-systems to emerge (e.g. KDE vs. Gnome). However I believe that when it comes to a 24/7 device such as a mobile phone less can be more and most people (customers) would prefer a product that may do less but does those things in a very polished way. This is exactly what the iPhone is doing and people like me might complain about the lack of 3G, video-recording capabilities and whatnot all day long but at the end of the day I still *want* an iPhone for the simple fact that it does its things so incredibly well.

Other than that I also believe that the iPhone application-distribution via iTunes is a relatively smart thing. Again I might prefer a 'marketplace' that's not 100% Apple-controlled but at least there's a single point where people (customers) can look for new applications. I'm afraid that with Android it's going to be much more of messy situation where there might be a significantly wider selection of software available but without an easy way to access it that might go unnoticed by most people.

Anyway, this is certainly a very interesting topic and I'll keep a close eye on the developments over the coming months...

Update (an absolute must-read): "How Apple Got Everything Right By Doing Everything Wrong" (from the current edition of Wired)

Google's Android

So, guess what. This is probably the one-millionth blog posting about the "Android" platform that Google and its partners announced today. Still, I'm set on adding my thoughts on today's developments, even if it's just for the sake of getting them out of my head.

I know some people are probably going to be disappointed that Google didn't announce a gPhone but I actually think that Android has a bigger chance of improving mobile phones than any single device would have had.

Now what exactly is Android? While there aren't any real details available at the moment the Official Google Blog gives a brief overview of what it's all about:

"Android is the first truly open and comprehensive platform for mobile devices. It includes an operating system, user-interface and applications -- all of the software to run a mobile phone, but without the proprietary obstacles that have hindered mobile innovation."

The interesting thing here is that Google has teamed up with 30+ other companies to really push Android. Some notable partners are HTC, LG, Marvell, Motorola, Nvidia, Samsung, T-Mobile and Texas Instruments. I'm sure we're going to see more companies join the Open Handset Alliance (OHA) over the coming months.

I have to say that this might just be the best thing that has happened to mobile phones in a long time! As previously mentioned I've kept a close eye on the (slow) progress that the OpenMoko platform and its flagship product, the FIC Neo 1973 have made in the past months. The thing is that I really like the idea of having a common software platform for mobile phones and if executed well this development could really improve both the quantity and quality of mobile phone applications and services.

I was also interested to hear what my friends Igor and John of LiveVote.ca fame were thinking (btw, you guys should set up a poll about what people think of Android!). They both replied basically saying the same thing: show us the SDK (which should become available Monday, November 12th) and then we'll see how potent the whole thing really is.

By the way, Apple probably isn't too thrilled about the whole thing because it just mocks them and their decision to lock down the iPhone. Plus now their February date for the iPhone SDK will also look like too-little-too-late! Seems like Steve Jobs really made the wrong decision here... On the other hand OpenMoko will also have to speed up their development because otherwise they might find themselves in a race they simply can't win.

All in all I haven't felt this optimistic about the future of mobile phones in a long time. We definitely have some very interesting times ahead of us!

What will the perfect mobile device look like?

If you're interested in mobile phones and what these thingies could look like in the (not so) near future then I'd definitely recommend you to read this article [itnews.com.au].

I agree with most of what's being said and I'm actually thinking about getting that Neo 1973 from OpenMoko once it really hits the market towards the end of this year...