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From Microsoft ‘Kitchen’ to talking paper

We thought we had heard it all last week when Microsoft revealed its plans for “surface computing,” which essentially means an ordinary surface, such as a tabletop or a wall, can become a computer. Remember Tom Cruise scanning newspaper headlines on a very slick, interactive device in the movie “Minority Report”? A Microsoft official told PC World: “It will feel like ‘Minority Report.’ Very futuristic — but it will be here this year.”

Today, however, two new reports show the futuristic fun has just begun.

Longtime Microsoft watcher Mary Jo Foley reports on ZDNet the software giant plans to release a series of customized Windows platforms for rooms around the home, starting with the kitchen. The “Kitchen Client” software, Foley reports, will power such features as family calendars, recipe centers, entertainment items and a shared bulletin board.

Advances in technology are always interesting as they impact life in the digital age. They also affect the always competitive online world, fighting for audience — and revenue.

But, wait, there’s more. PC World also reports Swedish researchers are studying how to print loudspeakers and keyboards on paper. In short, talking paper, activated by touch.

While such technology could be wonderful for the blind, there could also be such pitfalls as an ad playing every time it’s accidentally touched on a piece of paper.

Researchers told PC World that the technology will never leave the lab unless they can find a cheaper way to produce it.

We’ll be watching, or should we say, listening.

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Web 4.0 = Big Brother

... read the full comment by Bud | Comment on Say hello to Web 4.0 Read Say hello to Web 4.0

Well being a content creator, it would be a small pause to await a crazy video! Depending on how well and how “funny” the clip is depends on how long and if at all people will wait to watch, i belive the clips would have to be longer than say:

... read the full comment by DePoWeR | Comment on YouTube walks a tightrope Read YouTube walks a tightrope

What does this say about the economy? What did the dotcom boom say about the economy? A company with no assets, no products, and no earnings becomes an internet darling and sells a small fortune’s worth of stock. What does it say about the economy?

... read the full comment by Duke | Comment on Brands: It's all about the Web Read Brands: It's all about the Web

Blogging sucks.

... read the full comment by Andrew Sulivan | Comment on It's all about you Read It's all about you

Big deals rock online ad world

Here we go again, another huge online purchase. Microsoft today bought the Internet ad services firm aQuantive for $6 billion. Why aQuantive? It owns two major players — the marketing ad services firm Avenue A/Razorfish and ad-management technology provider Atlas. The Microsoft offer was reportedly more than 80 times aQuantive’s projected earnings this year.

What’s the hurry and why so much money?

First, there’s the competition. Google bought DoubleClick last month for $3.1 billion. Yahoo spent $680 million to finish its buyout of Right Media. (Disclosure: Cox Newspapers is a member of the consortium working with Yahoo on ad issues.) Just this week, AOL acquired the German firm Adtech AG and ad agency WPP group bought 24/7 Real Media. The major ad-serving companies are now snapped up.

Then, there’s the strategy. Kara Swisher of The Wall Street Journal writes today on her Boom Town blog: “As more ad spending shifts online, the ability to have expertise and to innovate quickly will become critical. What all these companies are buying — besides stronger relationships with advertising clients — are people and experience.”

Also, as Media Post editor Joe Mandese points out, these huge sums for acquisitions are drops in the bucket for the giants. Microsoft and Google paid no more than 2 percent of their market value for their acquisitions. Yahoo even less. WPP paid 3.5 percent of its market value.

So what’s next? As Mandese sees it: “The result is a strange new breed for digital marketing mongrels: Microsoft, a software giant is now part ad agency, part ad server. WPP Group is now part ad agency, and part ad server. And while Google disavows that it is morphing into an ad agency, it is certainly beginning to offer traditional media services functions, and now owns the biggest ad server in the market. “

We’ll let Microsoft platform and services unit head Kevin Johnson have the final word as he told Cnet today: “The online advertising market today is one that is $40 billion worldwide and projected to grow at a 20 percent rate per year over the next few years. It is a significant opportunity.”

Indeed.

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Google, Amazon and Apple, oh my!

What a time to return to the blogosphere and the online industry wars. Already this week:

—Google unveiled its “universal search,” which means users will be able to get search results from news, video images, local and book search engines at the same time. A senior Google executive revealed that the idea originally came from her simple question — hey, how can we give users Britney Spears photos, video and everything else in one Google search? Good question. The functionality will roll out in the coming days. Google also announced that they soon will unveil cross-language functionality, meaning search results will be instantly translated into other languages. They also are offering users a chance to play with a number of new search-related toys available at Google Experimental Labs. And the search giant also announced that they will expand their video search beyond Google Video and You Tube to other sources, including Metacafe.

Search expert Danny Sullivan has the best explanation of what Google is up to here. Google watchers like ZDnet’s Donna Bogatin offer dissenting views on the news. While she likens the Google changes to the debacle of Coke offering New Coke, she doesn’t think it will harm the search leader. Her take? She thinks users will prefer the simplicity of the old Google search.

Footnote: Yahoo has offered translation of search results in some languages for two years. They just didn’t find it a very popular feature.

Amazon has decided to compete against Apple, launching its own music service. It will sell songs in MP3 format without the anti-copying protection used by most online music sellers. That means users can transfer music to all devices, including Apple’s iPod and Microsoft’s Zune. While Amazon has its selling expertise and music from one major label, EMI, and a bunch of independent companies, it will have its hands full competing against the treasure trove of music on iTunes..

— Speaking of Apple, a hoax found its way to tech site Engadget claiming the iPhone was delayed until October and new operating system Leopard until January. Engadget reported that they obtained a fake e-mail that actually was circulated on Apple’s own e-mail system. Apple is investigating.

We’ve been out of circulation for a couple of months, but the online wars continue. What are some important developments you’ve seen in that time that you think warrant attention? Let us know.

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Divvio: The real deal?

A new startup launched today has the potential to gain a lot of attention in the online industry, should the product live up to its promises.

Divvio, the brainchild of telecom pioneer Hossein Eslambolchi, reportedly will find audio and video automatically, creating personalized multimedia channels based upon a user’s preferences and online habits. Baseball fans, for example, could have a dynamically updated channel of clips on a favorite team pulled from multiple sources each time they signed on.

The big challenge for Divvio - aside from whether its technology will work as advertised - is whether users will have the patience to stick with it through its growing pains. The engine that recommends content was not available at launch today. Divvio will only crawl a portion of the Web to start and its technology will need time to learn user preferences. It doesn’t work yet with mobile.

Divvio officials told Business Week last week the product will probably only find 10 percent of what a user wants initially, but figure it will grow to 60 percent by year’s end.

Why should Divvio be taken seriously? Eslambolchi was the leader who overhauled AT&Ts aging voice and data networks, turning the company around.

Amid the clutter of Web 2.0 startups, Divvio may be one to watch.

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Say hello to Web 4.0

Web 2.0? What about Web 4.0? No, another hiatus from blogging hasn’t left us loopy.

ZDnet’s Dan Farber picks up the discussion this week of where some people believe the Web will go over the next 25 years. He focuses on Nova Spivack of Radar Networks who outlined his vision of the future.

Web 3.0, explained here last summer, has garnered a lot of attention. Essentially, Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the Internet, and others are developing the “semantic Web,” essentially a means for databases to become “smarter” and more interactive with each other. So we’re talking about new ways for users to take advantage of the data stored in all kinds of databases.

OK, so what’s Web 4.0? Spivack doesn’t like to get bogged down in numbers. Web 3.0 is still a little fuzzy. However, Spivack features a chart on his blog showing a steady track from the “semantic Web” to Web OS (a Web-based operating system). Farber tries to explain: “The WebOS implies that machine intelligence has reached a point that the Internet becomes the planetary computer, a massive web of highly intelligent interactions.”

Farber also quotes futurist Ray Kurzwell who believes that by 2029 the WebOS will be on par — or better — than the human brain: “By that time, intelligent machines will combine the subtle and supple skills that humans now excel in (essentially our powers of pattern recognition) with ways in which machines are already superior, such as remembering trillions of facts accurately, searching quickly through vast databases, and downloading skills and knowledge.”

Who knows how accurate the futurists may be? In any case, it’s an intriguing discussion.

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