Yahoo is falling apart
It’s kind of sad seeing what has become of Yahoo as of late. It has been in the news for some time as it negotiates on and off again with Microsoft that eventually led to nothing. This did not make too many shareholders happy as they saw perhaps billions (yes billions) of dollars fly away. This created more drama with major shareholders such as Carl Icahn’s attempt to dissolve the board of directors and the head of Yahoo Chief Executive and co-founder Jerry Yan on a stick.
Eventually Yahoo turned to Google as their white knight but that deal (partnership?) turned out to a be a lame ad sense deal . Yahoo might as well have just created a publisher account. Shareholders see this as a ~ $800 Million deal, which pales in comparison to the ~ $12 Billion. Maybe Yang uses a different algorithm?
What is perhaps most interesting is mass exodus of Yahoo execs. What will become of Yahoo?
Bell offering movie downloads
Looks like Bell is jumping on the movie download bandwagon, ala Apple iTunes, Microsoft xbox 360 , Netflix, etc. Interesting arguments from the article in regards to this announcement and in the CRTC investigation on their own peer-to-peer throttling practices. Now I wonder when Rogers will follow suit with their own movie download offering.
Rogers has recently instituted a policy of enforcing download caps for customers. If Rogers were to offer movie downloads, it makes you wonder how they enforce internet usage, yet promote extensive movie downloading which would no doubt take a huge chunk of bandwidth. Then again, Rogers seems to have the reputation for not caring for customers as they continue to grow and expand into new media businesses. I’ve had a few run ins with Rogers myself that has recently led me open up their “iron grip” as much as possible by canceling my cable service and look at other alternatives.
It is nice to see that Canada is slowly catching up to the online media that our US neighbours enjoy so much. We can probably blame a lot on the CRTC’s restrictions. Let’s just hope that there’s some additional competition to keep Bell and Rogers on their toes.
Review: GrandCentral
Synopsis: Great in theory, not so great in execution
GrandCentral is a “free Google-owned internet service that uses VoIP to link customers’ phone numbers together”. It is currently in private beta and there have not been any invites available since March 14, 2008. Lucky for me, I managed to snag a “blogger invite” just before the deadline to sign myself up for an account.
Some Features include:
- Screen Callers - Know who’s calling and screen unknown callers
- ListenIn - Hear why someone is calling before taking the call
- Call Record - Record calls on the fly and access recordings online
- Block Callers - Unwanted callers won’t be able to reach you anymore
- Notifications - Receive voicemail notifications via email or SMS
- Ring Different Phones - One number that rings different phones based on who’s calling
- Greetings - Personalize your voicemail greetings by caller or group
- WebCall Button - Let people call you from a web page without showing your number
- CallSwitch - Switch phones in the middle of a call
It has allowed me to setup one US based phone number that forwards calls to my Canadian based number. In this case, it goes to my cell phone but I can also set it up to direct to various other phone numbers, all controlled via a easy to use web interface. This effectively allows people in the United States to call me for free since they simply call the US based number which is local for them and it will automatically call my phone number in Canada.
Not only that, through the web interface, it allows me to call any US based number for free as well. It basically provides a middle layer. All this for free….at least for now. Sounds great doesn’t it? It is great in theory and when it works, it’s a phenomenal service.
The main problem is that it is simply not reliable. On too many occasions, there have been sudden dropped calls and inability for calls to get through. There has been one major service disruption, and just today, apparently they almost forgot to renew their domain name!
This past weekend, all Canadian number seemed to be blocked and had me worrying that they suddenly decided to change their policies. It has since been restored. They are not the fastest on replying to support requests, however, I will give them credit since one of the customer service reps did call me to verify that things were resolved. A pleasant surprise.
You can get an idea about these and other issues by checking out their discussion rooms. I think most people agree that it’s simply not reliable and not quite ready for prime time. Would not use for business purposes until they’ve ironed out the kinks.
You would think that things would improve once Google got their hands on it but I am wondering if it’s just another one of their acquisitions that they put on the back burner as far as development is concerned (can we say Google Talk?)
Feel free to give me a call on GrandCentral
Free Photoshop Book in PDF
SitePoint, one of my favourite websites for resources and tips on web design/development, is offering the book “The Photoshop Anthology: 101 Web Design Tips, Tricks & Techniques Free” for the next 28 days.
Click here and enter your email address to get access to the links.
Direct url: http://photoshop.aws.sitepoint.com/
Definition of Web 1.0 to Web 3.0
A great article Explaining Web 1.0, Web 2.0 and Web 3.0 that provides a simple explanation of the popular buzzwords that have defined how our Internet experiences has changed through web movements.
Quick Summary:
- Web 1.0 - books, news, music and everything else being moved into a digital format
- Web 2.0 - the sharing of data and social networking
- Web 3.0 - data being integrated and applying it into innovative ways
The author’s definition of Web 3.0 is a little ambiguous considering it hasn’t happened yet but it seems like the next logical step. I would also throw in mobile web services, data mining and aggregation. I also suspect that security and privacy will be critical topics as there is just so much data available to be analyzed and used.
Anything else you can think of that will make up Web 3.0? Predications?
Microsoft Bid for Yahoo Off - Let the games begin
So it appears that Microsoft has withdrawn their bid for Yahoo. A bit of a surprise that Microsoft didn’t try a hostile takeover, but I guess that would be business suicide considering Yahoo’s continuing refusal to work a deal with them. Could only get worse if MS attempts something hostile. Good on them not to will to Yahoo’s weak attempt to push the share price up. Now let the speculation run wild as to what will happen next with Yahoo.
- Yahoo’s share price tanks on Monday (it rose quite a bit after MS bid)
- Once the share price drops (see above) Microsoft comes back to the table and attempts to purchase at a lower price
- MS goes after AOL instead
- Google laughs and breathes a side of relief and negotiates some kind of ad/search deal with Yahoo
- Steve Balmer leaves Microsoft over this failed bid
- NewsCorp now goes after Yahoo
All I can say is that there will be some interesting developments from some of the biggest players in technology and could have some serious aftershocks throughout the industry. Stay tuned!
Online photo editing provided by Adobe
Adobe just released a pretty cool web app that allows users to upload photos to their account and use a flash based online tool to edit it. Obviously not as robust as their flagship Adobe Photoshop but still pretty cool. Great use of Flash.
Check it out. They provide 2GB of free space for your photos: https://www.photoshop.com/express/landing.html Fun to play with but I doubt I’ll ever use it.
Will it be Gigg or MicroDigg?
Rumour has it that both Google and Microsoft are on the verge of making an offer for the social news site Digg.
Google, Microsoft Said To Be Preparing Bids For Digg - TechCrunch
And despite a number of false starts, this time a sale looks like it might actually happen, and soon. We hear from a source very close to the deal that four companies are in heavy due diligence with Digg - two media/news companies, and two big Internet companies - Google and Microsoft. And Google and Microsoft are on the verge of making their bids.
Interesting developments and I love reading the comments on Digg about it. Obviously many are opposed to the idea of Digg “selling out”. How can you blame them for selling? My only problem with it is that it’s not me!
Facebook vs University Cheating
Interesting developments in regards to cheating and social sites such as the ever popular Facebook.
: Study groups may be a virtual trademark of the Ivory Tower – but a virtual study group has been slammed as cheating by Ryerson University.
Ever since the Internet became mainstream, cheating has always been a tough battle for schools an university. If I remember right, it began with online papers/essay sites which would actually sell so called “university grade” term papers and reports from a database or sometimes would simply write one based on the topic submitted.
Now with the popularity of social sites, it’s even easier to communicate and share ideas but what’s the difference with a Facebook group vs a traditional study group? The same information is shared except that it can reach wider audiences more easily. Are universities just behind in the times in recognizing the new ways that students study, meet and share ideas? Facebook is an easy scapegoat due to the shear popularity of it but doing a google search, I sure you can find thousands of other ways to cheat online if you really wanted to.
Website of the Week: Smashing Magazine
Smashing Magazine is currently on my RSS feed and one of my favourite websites for tips on CSS and web design. Provides excellent tips and tutorials from icons, usability to CSS tools and techniques. I find I am going there more and more for clean and elegant design ideas.
For you web developers out there, don’t forget the Web Developer’s Handbook. It’s a starting point that provides hundreds of links to web resources.
Stay tuned for more resources.
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Unscientific and unsupported theories on life, sports, tech and all things important to me.
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