UberPulse

[Office 2.0] Cisco To Unveil 1st Internal Social Network

Cisco Systems has long talked about using social networking to expand communications among its employees and partners.

Now it is poised to make good on its promise. The company’s first internal social networking site is expected to be live by the end of November as part of a project to improve relations with outside developers, Jim Shepard, business development manager, said Thursday.

The project is more evidence the company means what it says when it vows to transform itself using interactive Web 2.0 technologies. The social network should permit developers to collaborate more effectively with Cisco engineers by forming ad-hoc groups and seeking out company experts for information.

Shepard said the company’s construction of an online community for developers should enable Cisco to lower costs and better track revenue. The community Web site presently supports wikis and forums.

Since it was launched 1½ months ago, the site has attracted 2,000 users, with 350 people on it on any given day, said Shepard. The social networking project is using technology from the startup Liferay.

By Mark Boslet, Editor at Large.

(1)

Google Seeing Docs Use Skyrocket

Google has 10 million active users of its online Docs and 500,000 businesses, Product Management Director Matt Glotzbach said Thursday.

Hundreds of thousands of them are paid users, Glotzbach said at the Office 2.0 conference in San Francisco.

“Adoption is skyrocketing,” he said. “We’re seeing 3,000 new business sign ups everyday.”

Glotzbach said the Docs usage appears to be driven by increasing interest in cloud computing, where computing services are available over the Internet. Google’s Docs offer a variety of online “cloud” services from e-mail to providing word processing, spreadsheets forms and Web pages where users starting this week can post video.

People are increasingly interested in collaborating and communicating with co-workers and friends around the world, he said.

Google recognized this interest in designing its Chrome browser, which was unveiled this week. Chrome can create desktop shortcuts for Web services and will run Web applications written in JavaScript faster than other browsers, he said.

By Mark Boslet, Editor at Large.

Cloud Computing: New Paradigm Or Technology Repackaged?

Cloud computing is among the most popular buzz word in computing today. Put a software application online, tap into it over the Internet and you’ve joined the latest paradigm shift in the business.

Doing so can save money and time by handing off the hosting, management and expansion of a company’s software and hardware infrastructure to someone else. Users have the same access to programs as before, just simply over the Web.

But is it really something new or a repackaging of products and services that already exist in high tech. The debate lingers.

Some say putting computing programs on the Internet, or in the cloud, make it easier for users to consume them, not only at the office but on the road. Executives say they can more easily offer access to customers, deepening key relationships on which their businesses depend.

But the other side of the argument highlights the steady pace of technological change going on for years. Cloud computing is enabled by cheaper computers and bandwidth, but it is not a radical departure from the past, says Rajesh Ram, vice president and co-founder of Egnyte, an online services company targeting small business.

The industry has been improving technologies for years; storage capacity has increased, computers are more powerful, the Internet has become easier to use and more ubiquitous.

“We’ve been reinventing a lot of wheels,” said Or Haviv, at Universeye, a maker of online software. Now cloud is taking all these improvements and rearranging them into something more usable to businesses and consumers, he said.

By Mark Boslet, Editor at Large.

Online Apps To Displace Microsoft’s Office

Online applications offering word processing, spreadsheets and personal productivity will make big desktop programs like Microsoft’s Office obsolete within ten years.

So claims Sridhar Vembu, whose online applications company, Zoho, reach 1 million registered users in late August.

Zoho has been targeting the market for three years and is adding 100,000 users a month. While its products likely trail Google’s online productivity apps in popularity, the Pleasanton company is drawing a lot of interest from users who want to collaborate (which is harder to do with desktop software) and who value the security of storing documents in the cloud as opposed to on a laptop, said CEO Vembu.

In three to five years, the battle between desktop and online apps will be fiercely engaged, he said. In 10 years, the future for desktop software will be bleak, though some people will continue to install it on their computers, he added.

Zoho says about 30 percent of its users are students and about 50 percent list their company names when they register, even if they use online documents for personal affairs.

Between 200,000 and 300,000 log on every month to work on documents. The rest come to the site when they are asked to view or collaborate on documents.

Desktop software still has more features, but “we’re getting closer now,” says Vembu. The company makes money by signing up corporate users.

By Mark Boslet, Editor at Large.

Microsoft Top Net Advertiser In June

Microsoft reached for its virtual wallet in June, becoming the largest buyer of display advertising on the Net, according to comScore.

The company was followed by the University of Phoenix, Experian and United Online.

Microsoft posted 5.5 billion display ad views as it ran a promotional campaign for Windows Live Search, comScore said. The online college, University of Phoenix, came in second with 4.7 billion, followed by Experian, which advertises for sites including LowerMyBills.com and FreeCreditReport.com. United Online, with its heavily advertised Classmates.com, was fourth.

Telecom firms Verizon, AT&T and Deutsche Telekom, which owns T-Mobile, and Vonage were among the top ten display advertisers.

By Mark Boslet, Editor at Large.

Global Chip Sales Rise Solidly In July

The global economic slowdown still hasn’t put a noticeable dent in semiconductor growth – much to the relief of high-tech companies.
Worldwide sales of semiconductors grew by 7.6 percent to $22.2 billion in July, according to the Semiconductor Industry Association. The trade group said Tuesday that year-to-date sales have increased 5 percent.

Behind the rise are solid sales of consumer electronics, personal computers and cell phones – which account for about 80 percent of chip demand.

LCD TV units are projected to increase 32 percent this year, digital still cameras will be up about 20 percent, personal computer sales should grow by approximately 13 percent and the cell phone market should increase about 10 percent.

Overall manufacturing capacity utilization in the chip industry remains high at 89 percent – with the most advanced production above 95 percent, the group said.

The only sour news in Tuesday report was that sales of DRAMs and NAND flash memory continued to decline because of continuing price pressure.

By Mark Boslet, Editor at Large.

Google Promises Not To Forget Firefox

You might imagine Google’s introduction of its shiny new Chrome browser would tarnish its relationship with the upstart browser Firefox.

Not true, Google executives said Tuesday even as they trumpeted the speed and capabilities of Chrome, now available in a beta test version by download.

The search giant said it would continue to collaborate with Firefox where it makes sense.

The open-sourced Firefox has been gaining market share from Microsoft’s dominant Internet Explorer, which has 73 percent of the market. “We’ll continue to help them to that,” said Google co-founder Larry Page at a press conference.

Google’s Chrome also will work hand-in-hand with Android, the company’s software for mobile phones, which includes a browser. The two browsers share some underlying code, but have separate development teams for their user interfaces.

By Mark Boslet, Editor at Large.

How Google’s Browser Helps The Company

Think of Google’s market place as the World Wide Web. If its Chrome browser makes the Web run faster, then the search giant benefits by having more of its applications run and more users come to its search page.

So said Google during a press conference Tuesday, during which executives unveiled Chrome, two years in development and now released for beta testing.

“There are very direct benefits,” said Google co-founder Larry Page. “If the browser runs faster, we get more searches.”

Simultaneously, as the Silicon Valley firm morphs from a search company to a maker of online applications, a browser brings a second benefit. Most Google developers write online applications in Java script, said Page. If Chrome can make that code run faster (many browsers don’t), “we’re going to make a lot of money,” he said.

Google claimed that Chrome is designed for the next generation Web application. These are more complex programs, weaving in complicated images and video editing.

Google saw an opportunity to design a browser as it watched how rapidly the Web was evolving, company executives said. The project became a huge investment for Google and one Page said he monitored closely.

“I’ve really enjoyed using it” in an internal test, he said. “I’ve used it as my primary browser.”

By Mark Boslet, Editor at Large.

The Reason For Google’s Web Browser

Of course, search giant Google hopes to put a dent into Microsoft’s dominance of browsing software with its introduction of the Chrome browser Tuesday. And it wants more control over the access to search from desktop computers.

But to hear from the Google’s own mouth, the strategy has a third arm. Here is an entry on Google’s own Official Blog by Sundar Pichai, vice president of product management, and Linus Upson, engineering director

“Because we spend so much time online, we began seriously thinking about what kind of browser could exist if we started from scratch and built on the best elements out there. We realized that the web had evolved from mainly simple text pages to rich, interactive applications and that we needed to completely rethink the browser.”

Think video and multimedia.

“Under the hood, we were able to build the foundation of a browser that runs today's complex web applications much better. By keeping each tab in an isolated "sandbox", we were able to prevent one tab from crashing another and provide improved protection from rogue sites. We improved speed and responsiveness across the board. We also built a more powerful JavaScript engine, V8, to power the next generation of web applications that aren't even possible in today's browsers,” according to the blog.

Welcome to the browser wars 2.0. The battle for the control of the Internet is flaring up again.

By Mark Boslet, Editor at Large.

[Nvision 08] Q&A with Nvidia CEO: It's Hard to Build a Start-Up, ATI Lead, No CPU Plans, CPU/GPU integration, Intel Larabee, Transmeta and More! (video)

Things could have gone out of control yesterday during a fireside chat with Nvidia's chief, - and moderated by analyst Jon Peddie - when it was interrupted by an activist handing out anti-Nvidia flyers about the chip recall issue. Fortunately, the chip maker CEO managed to keep his cool and even asked for one of the pink pamphlets!

"Could I get one of those [flyers]", said Nvidia CEO Jen-Hsun Huang to the activist. "Are you guys still a lot boycotting us?".

This incident aside, Huang covered a broad set of topics including his experience as an entrepreneur when he co-founded Nvidia 15 years ago or his role models as well as more technical questions like the future competition with Intel's Larabee, the integration of CPU and GPU and the recent licensing agreement with Transmeta.

Continue Reading"[Nvision 08] Q&A with Nvidia CEO: It's Hard to Build a Start-Up, ATI Lead, No CPU Plans, CPU/GPU integration, Intel Larabee, Transmeta and More! (video)"

France Dreams To Become A Digital Power. First Stop: Silicon Valley!

I just came back from a meeting in San Francisco with France's minister Eric Besson (pictured), concluding his 3-days visit in Silicon Valley. One of the French minister's mission is to transform France into a "digital power". Minister Besson met with a number of entrepreneurs and VCs in the Valley (mostly French expatriates) like 3Com Chairman Eric Benhamou, Allegis Capital general partner Jean-Louis Gassee, Office 2.0 conference organiser Ismael Ghalimi, GrandCentral (now Google) co-founder Vincent Paquet or Sequoia Capital VC Pierre Lamond.

Although minister Besson did not talk about his "digital plan" finished late July and that he will present next month, he did stress France's strengths in network infrastructure (either high-speed landline Internet or wireless 3G) and "elite" engineering schools and discarded France's rigid labour laws and high taxes as myths and legends!

From SIlicon Valley, the French minister was impressed by the generations of entrepreneurs present and still very much active in the region, the energy of people here, the concentration of VC money (he mentioned $60 billion), the cross-pollination of universities and industries, as well as the weather that will be hard to replicate in France.

"If the Bordeaux-Biarritz region [in the sunny South-West of France... Thanks Regis for correcting it!] decided to invest in technology, that could be the next Silicon Valley!", said Eric Besson who will be back in 3 weeks for the exclusive Google Zeitgeist conference in Mountain View, CA.

(1)

Skydeck to Launch By End of Year

Last month, Skydeck released the beta version of its mobile phone app. By the end of the year, the 1-year-old company plans to formally launch the application and itself, according to CEO Jason Devitt.

Skydeck's software allows users to keep track of and search through their cell phone calls much as they would their e-mail.

Devitt declined Tuesday to say how many people have signed up to use the software. But at a dinner of venture capitalists and startup execs, he said the take up has been good and is meeting his expectations.

The early adopters are professionals, such as sales people, lawyers and real estate agents, he said. The company expects to make money by offering business applications, including one to work with Salesforce.com software.

By Mark Boslet, Editor at Large.

Tiny Pictures Promises Movie Content For Radar Phone App

Tiny Pictures likes to say your mobile phone is your social network.

That's because its Radar application for mobile phones and computers lets groups of friends share photos and videos, and then comment back and forth.

Already the service has 1.2 million users, John Poisson, founder and CEO, said Tuesday, up from 750,000 in February.

Poisson said new features are coming to Radar by the end of September that will permit users to subscribe to channels and receive content, such as trailers and footage from new movies.

The company also may seek some more venture money, though no specific plans are in place, he said. Tiny Pictures raised $7.2 million from Draper Fisher Jervetson and Mohr Davidow Ventures in February.

By Mark Boslet, Editor at Large.

Tapulous Plans Advertising for iPhone Application

"We can probably get to break even very shortly," quipped Bart Decrem, CEO of the startup Tapulous, over dinner Tuesday.

Tapulous is the maker of the popular (if somewhat frivolous) musical Tap Tap Revenge (pictured) application for the iPhone and iPod Touch as well as Twinkle, an application that connects people with other people nearby.

In a week or so, Tapulous plans to announce that it is selling advertising and a soon-to-arrive premium edition of its applications.

"It's so easy [to make money]. It will be crazy to leave money on the table", added Decrem."

Already Tap Tap Revenge is registered on 1.25 million devices, Decrem said at a dinner of venture capitalists and startups in San Francisco. The opportunities for the Palo Alto, CA, company founded this year are there, he said.

By Mark Boslet, Editor at Large.