Ajax Girl

Google may be the leader in the worldwide search engine market, but in Nippon, it has some catching up to do: In 2007, Yahoo Japan saw a whopping 76% of the nearly 350 billion search engine and portal-related pageviews registered in the country, clearly outperforming Google (second with 5.4%, according to Nielsen Japan). More recently, ComScore shows that in July, Yahoo Japan had ten times as many monthly pageviews (21.9 billion versus 2.2 billion for Google) and nearly twice as many monthly unique Japanese visitors (46 million versus 26 million).

The Japanese web market is just too big to be shrugged off: The country boasts one of the highest Internet penetrations worldwide (74%, compared to 70% in the USA), a $5.7 billion online advertising market (out if one estimated to be worth $45 billion globally) and is ranked No. 3 in terms of total web population (94 million, about as many as Germany and the UK combined).

So how does Google challenge Yahoo’s position as the hub of the Japanese Internet?

In the West, the popularity of Internet portals has waned in the past years, but not in Japan, where seven sites in Alexa Japan’s Top 25 are of this kind. That forced Google to change its simplistic design for the local market: Similar to Google China, for example, the Japanese version now contains tab links to other Google properties. It also features a keyword suggestion function in the searchbox.

Nippon-only initiatives include allowing users of Mixi (Japan’s biggest social network) to embed Google Maps on their blogs, partnering up with web company Hatena (which operates Japan’s most popular social bookmarking service) and launching “One Green Project”, a microsite dedicated to prevent global warming.

But these measures are just of the cosmetic kind. In fact, Google Japan keeps localization of its fixed Internet site at a relatively low level (it doesn’t transform into a Yahoo-like portal site, for example). Instead, the company aims at taking over the Japanese market with a double-staged approach: Avoid Yahoo and take over the (bigger) mobile web market first to win the fixed Internet later.

Mash-up Strategy of Collaboration, Experimentation and Circumvention
Japanese cell phone carriers can regulate which search engine their Internet service subscribers use by default. A good spot on the official, pre-installed starting menus is crucial to winning the mass market.

That’s why in January this year, Google Japan inked a deal with the country’s leading telecom company NTT Docomo, following a partnership with the country’s No. 2 carrier KDDI au that started in 2006 (both mobile partners also were among the first to join the Open Handset Alliance but have been rather close-mouthed about Android development ever since).

Google’s mobile strategy—in Japan and possibly elsewhere—depends on whether the 74 million Docomo and KDDI au Internet subscribers will embrace the Googlization of their mobile web life.  (Compare that number to the 15 million subscribers that the No. 3 carrier, Yahoo partner SoftBank, serves in this country)

Both NT Docomo and KDDi au incorporated Google’s search engine directly into their default start menus, synthesizing content from both mobile and PC web sites (including the display of contextual text ads). Users can also easily access Google Calendar, Youtube and other Google services. Some Docomo handsets now come with pre-installed Google Maps Mobile. In addition, Google gets access to a massive amount of behavioral data in the world’s most advanced mobile web market. So it’s no wonder Google Japan says its partnerships have had “a huge impact” on business and traffic (although it refuses to disclose specific details).

The company additionally uses insular, cell phone-enamored Japan as an isolated testbed for unique mobile web applications and services to be deployed worldwide at a later stage.

It’s not only about search and ads: KDDI au, for example, started to offer a rebranded, Japan-only version of mobile Gmail (“au one mail”). The service is free of charge and can also be accessed through PCs, doubling as a Trojan horse for Google to attack Yahoo Mail’s premier position in Nippon’s email arena. Japan is also the world’s first country where users can integrate animated picture characters into their mobile Gmails (very important in Nippon) and use Google Mobile to get extra-fast info after earthquakes strike.

The holistic strategy the company pursues not only avoids a losing, long-term confrontation with Yahoo Japan but also strengthens the brand among Japanese web users and the mobile industry in general. The company also gains insights on how to improve and adjust its search technology for the Japanese and international markets.

One examplary finding John Lagerling, head of Google’s Wireless Business in the region, publicly shares: Contrary to popular belief, traffic on mobile Google doesn’t get a big bump in the morning (when millions of Japanese commute to work and school) but peaks from 6pm through bed-time at 1am. Lagerling expects usage trends like this to be repeated outside of Japan once flat-rate data plans and browser-enabled handsets prevail on a global level.

Google’s multilayered strategy certainly makes sense strategically: Japanese people usually demonstrate unwavering loyalty in established, popular uber-brands like Yahoo. Google still needs to prove a) its now beneficial partnerships will sustain, b) it can really take over Yahoo’s place through the backdoor, c) what role Android will play in the future and d) how much Google’s Japan-specific experiences can shape the mobile web on a global level.

Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0

Source: TechCrunch
Original Article: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/r5bq3Ng9sDI/

If FriendFeed displayed only video, it might look like Utagoe Live 100. The service lets you track live video streams from all of your friends on one screen. Tokyo-based Utagoe just launched it as a hub for broadcasting and watching multiple, free live video streams simultaneously (from sites like Qik, Ustream, Justin.tv etc.), video-based chatting and conferencing. Aiming mainly at the U.S. and European markets, the service is available in English.

Utagoe Live 100 is browser-based and, as its main selling point, requires just a 400 kbps Internet connection to display around 100 different live streams on one screen (settings can be individually adjusted). The underlying technology, dubbed “traffic controller”, is self-developed.

The Flash-based site has an uncluttered structure and features a very straightforward UI. Users can change the size and order of every window and also customize the entire grid of videos. The RSS function allows users to add live streams from friends and other sources to their “My page” with two clicks (Utagoe calls this “importing”). Like FriendFeed and Twitter, friends can follow each other’s status. It’s possible to communicate with friends by typing text messages (via speech balloons overlaying the video stream).

I tried out the application, which is in public beta, and it worked flawlessly, even with my mediocre PC and Internet connection. What Utagoe Live 100 needs in future versions to appeal to more users is an automatic pre-categorization of video sources and topics, an opt-in solution for adult-oriented streams and a ranking function for members wanting to cut the noise. But with streaming picking up speed as a mass phenomenon, Utagoe might well find its place in a lucrative niche.

As a next step, Utagoe plans an expansion to the iPhone and other mobile devices. The site will be monetized with video ads and an ad system the company developed that automatically displays affiliate links matching the text chat messages that users type. (Who’s watching who?)

Vaguely similar services can be found mainly in the TV realm, and include sites like Inner Live or TVChannelsFree. But Utagoe lets you watch your friends. (In that sense, it’s more like multi-person video-chat service PalTalk)

Here is a demo video (without sound):

Utagoe Live100 demo from utagoe on Vimeo.

`

Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.

Source: TechCrunch
Original Article: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/MVWbJ4tjEtA/

It’s not enough that you watch the political party conventions on TV, read the political coverage in newspapers, and the reactions in blogs. Some people are not reacting on blogs, they are reacting on Twitter. But how do you follow all of that raw political discourse, and do you even want to?

Stephen Taylor, a Canadian blogger and political analyst, has hacked together govtweets, a site that constantly updates with the latest Tweets that mention any of the political candidates (McCain, Obama, Palin, and Biden). He also created a Facebook app. The Tweets automatically update and scroll down the page. There is no way to search for past Tweets, and once a Tweet scrolls off the page there is no way to find it again. So Govtweets is nothing more than a snapshot of the national conversation, but it is still fascinating to watch it unfold.

Here are some recent Govtweets (newly announced Republican VP candidate Sarah Palin seems to be dominating the conversation):

An Alaskan’s Perspective on Sarah Palin: A down-to-earth description of Sarah Palin’s time as Alaska’s Gover.. http://tinyurl.com/6h7h69

August 31st - 4:52:47 am PST

GOP Alaska State Senator: Palin Not Ready to Be Gov/VP: “She’s not prepared to be governor. How can she be p.. http://tinyurl.com/5gp6mk

August 31st - 4:52:43 am PST

Who scrubbed Wikipedia’s entry for Sarah Palin just before nom announcement? http://tinyurl.com/6n9dnk

August 31st - 4:51:41 am PST

Interesting watching the Obama meme evolve: http://tinyurl.com/6nyehp Worth seeing all three pages.

August 31st - 4:51:21 am PST

An Alaskan’s Perspective on Sarah Palin: A down-to-earth description of Sarah Palin’s time as Alaska’s G.. http://tinyurl.com/6h7h69

August 31st - 4:51:02 am PST

Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.

Source: TechCrunch
Original Article: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/mfGnwhHMBa4/

Are you confused about Net Neutrality? Who isn’t? Some people argue it is necessary for continued innovation on the Internet, and point to Comcast’s bandwidth metering as a sign of things to come. Others claim that it is unnecessary regulation that will create unintended consequences in its wake. Opposing Views, the debate site that pits experts against each other to argue the pros and cons of the big questions of the day (read our launch review), last night put up a page on Net Neutrality. The page lays out the arguments pro and con for Net Neutrality, and then links to fuller arguments.

Marshaling the arguments for Net Neutrality are the Save The Internet Coalition, the Open Internet Coalition, and Public Knowledge. (It’s a freedom of speech issue, the ISPs are quasi-monopolies that cannot be trusted, innovation on the Web is at stake). Arguing against are the Cato Institute and Hands Off The Internet (it’s a technical issue best left to engineers, the cost of Net Neutrality will be passed onto consumers, regulation will backfire). Readers are then encouraged to vote on who is winning the argument, an add their own points of view, which can be elevated to the main discussion page.

Here’s a sample of some of the back-and-forth. The Open Internet Coalition argues that it is a fundamental principle:

Too often, the discussion of why we need to protect the open Internet degenerates into a stale debate about regulation versus the free market. In fact, it’s impossible for innovation to continue apace without some basic rules of the road to protect that innovation.

The open Internet was the principle leading the development of the Internet as the first open global communications network. And it helped drive the development of a host of Internet applications like Facebook, YouTube, and Skype. There would have been no motivation for the developers of these applications to have expended time, effort, and in some cases, their own financial security, in pursuit of their vision if they weren’t guaranteed their inventions would have been able to work over any Internet connection.

The Cato Institute warns of the difficulty of enforcing fuzzy concepts:

it’s important to remember that network neutrality is fundamentally a technical principle. Like any technical principle, it is fuzzy at the edges.

. . . Leading network neutrality proposals contain numerous ambiguities that would create uncertainty for everyone in the Internet industry. Here’s just one example: the most prominent network neutrality proposal of the 2006 congressional session, known as Snowe-Dorgan, defined a “broadband service provider” as “a person or entity that controls, operates, or resells and controls any facility used to provide broadband service to the public, whether provided for a fee or for free.” Does this mean that the owner of a coffee shop with a WiFi connection would be subject to FCC regulation of its firewall configuration? One would hope not, but that’s what the language seems to suggest. The same point can be made with respect to hotels, Internet cafes, airports, and even individuals who choose to make their home WiFi connection available to their neighbors.

Where do you stand on Net Neutrality? Go debate.

Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.

Source: TechCrunch
Original Article: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/J2X-HsBZqDI/

Update on the TechCrunch Tablet: A humble (and messy) beginning. Prototype A has been built. It’s in a temporary aluminum case that a local sheet metal shop put together for us that’s at least twice as thick as it needs to be, but the hardware has been defined and is nearing lockdown. We booted the machine in the case for the first time today, accessed the Wifi network and were able to navigate a web page via the touch screen.

Most of the work is transitioning to software and UI, and real industrial design work on the case is beginning.

We are still far from having beta units but there is now a team working on the project, and an incredible group of people and companies have reached out to us to help. We’ve learned a lot about building a hardware device over the last few weeks, and it’s clear that it is quite possible to build a high performance web tablet in the price range we anticipated.

Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0

Source: TechCrunch
Original Article: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/P1d3jgb3uDQ/

They weren’t around to bring their real swords.

It’s no burning man, but CrunchGear is live at the Penny Arcade Expo where we’re playing RPGs, engaging in cosplay, and decreasing our chances of perhaps, one day, losing our virginity. Pop by CrunchGear for more news and photos.

Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0

Source: TechCrunch
Original Article: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/LN4_xwcziRc/

Late last year we discovered that MySpace cofounder Tom Anderson, arguably the most popular individual on the Internet with 240+ million MySpace friends (he is added by default to every MySpace account) was actually 37 years old, not the 32 that he continues to claim on his MySpace page.

Now we’ve learned a much more colorful part of Anderson’s history: In 1985, when he was fourteen and in high school in Escondido, California, Anderson was subject to one of the largest FBI raids in California history after hacking into a Chase Manhattan Bank computer system and subsequently showing his friends how to do it. He was never arrested because he was a minor, but the FBI confiscated all of his computer equipment and some newspaper accounts of the incident stated incorrectly (see image below from a 1986 LA Times story) that he was “convicted in federal court of computer hacking and placed on probation” (the statements were corrected in subsequent articles). Anderson used the hacker name “Lord Flathead.”

MySpace and Anderson would not comment on this post. But most of the information is now available online as news articles from the 1980s (and earlier) have been added to Google and other search engines. We came across an initial article accidentally and started investigating from there. Some of the information in this post has been obtained by a source close to Anderson, including the connection between Anderson and his hacker name.

Lord Flathead Goes Too Far

Anderson, using the name Lord Flathead, was a computer hacker at least since he was 13 years old, which is just about the time the movie WarGames came out in theaters. Like David Lightman in WarGames (played by Mathew Broderick), Anderson was able to hack into computer systems by simply figuring out the right phone number (this was called “war dialing” and was done with the help of a simple computer program that dialed sequential phone numbers until it received a modem response, signaling a computer system on the other end, usually a UNIX mainframe that often had a default password or no password at all). Once you were past the password security, you often had deep access to whatever system you had called.

According to a New York Times article in October 1985, “Lord Flathead,” was the leader of an early black-hat hacker group when he was 14 years old. In July and August 1985, between his freshman and sophomore years, Anderson hacked into a Chase Manhattan Bank DEC VAX computer system (like the one in the image below) that handled “much of Chase’s data processing and record keeping, including records of home mortgages and…portfolios of major customers such as pension funds.” He subsequently showed up to 40 of his friends how to do it.

Anderson obtained or guessed the passwords necessary to get through the first level of security and, once connected, changed at least two passwords to prevent bank officials from accessing the system. The group also created fictitious accounts, and Anderson, using the Lord Flathead name, left a message saying that unless he was given free use of the system he would destroy records.

The bank notified the FBI and they set up an “electronic trap in the computer system that traced the calls to at least 23 homes in the San Diego area.” Fifty FBI agents then raided the homes of Anderson and his friends and seized 25 personal computers. The raids were conducted simultaneously at 7 pm to prevent anyone from notifying the other hackers and giving them a chance to destroy evidence. This was one of the largest FBI raids in California history. Our source says the FBI was expecting a serious criminal conspiracy ring of hardcore hackers, not a group of teens led by Anderson, a high school freshman.

Tom was hacking for quite a while before the raid, says our source. Tom, a minor at the time, agreed to stop committing computer crimes and was put on probation. His computer was never returned.

One of the reasons Anderson would hack into living room sized mainframe systems was to get access to computers that could run a C compiler to learn programming. There were no open source or free C compilers at the time, and personal computers had very limited memory and processing power, so hackers would try to access them on other systems.

As far as we can tell Anderson never attempted to destroy records or transfer funds. We can’t find any records of prosecutions being made against any of the people raided.

Supporting documents are here. The LA Times article linked above and the Newsweek article talk about a friend of Anderson, a hacker named Bill Landreth, a published author for Microsoft Press on computer security issues. At Bill’s suggestion Anderson spoke with a literary agent and published books about computer security as well (we are trying to track them down).

Landreth was living with Anderson’s family and disappeared in September 1986 after leaving a suicide note. We haven’t been able to determine Landreth’s fate, although based on this article from 1991 he or someone with his name became a government agent investigating security crimes.

Frankly, my opinion of Tom Anderson just rose significantly. This was pretty hard core stuff in the 80s. Twenty years later he would go on to cofound what would become the largest site on the Internet.

Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.

Source: TechCrunch
Original Article: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/npgdUO9aJTA/

After a few weeks, Elevator Pitch Friday is back with a vengeance. This week’s featured video comes to us from a self-funded, young male-oriented, yet-to-launch startup called BeTheBetterMan.com, with the pitch delivered by founder Eric Mayville.

The video’s a bit dark, but it’s enthusiastically delivered and straight-forward. Here’s the pitch:

As Eric describes further in the comments of the pitch:

…the options for challenges are endless as they can be user created or supplied by someone like the staff at Be The Better Man, some examples would include who can do the best Christopher Walken impression? Do you have the most bad ass beerpong table? What is the best song for the summer?

Now a Christopher Walken impersonator contest — that’s something I’d like the internet to do right. When they launch this fall, BeTheBetterMan.com faces some tough competition in their space, including the star-backed iBeatYou and video-focused Strutta.

Let us know what you think of this pitch in the comments.

Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0

Source: TechCrunch
Original Article: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/YDSOEsOKMzs/

Six weeks ago we launched an API for our technology database, CrunchBase. The idea was to give away lots of clean, structured data about the companies we cover, data that could be used to build new services and improve upon existing ones.

Since then we’ve seen a number of impressive things built on top of the API. And the traffic has started to add up: between July 15th and August 15th we fulfilled nearly 800,000 API requests, compared to ~1.3m page views for the website itself.

We now have over 15 projects hooked up to CrunchBase with many others on the way. Developers interested in using CrunchBase data for their own projects should check out the API documentation.

Today we wanted to highlight a few of the more sophisticated product integrations to date.

Apture

Apture is a startup trying to bring “depth to the web” with contextual popups that require no browser plugin. The product’s blog integration provides a very visual and intuitive way of navigating CrunchBase entries. Here are some examples (click on the little book icons to the left of the links): YouTube, FriendFeed and Evan Williams. Also, check out this video they compiled:

Zemanta

Zemanta, a blogging enhancement tool that launched back in March, recently integrated CrunchBase so that publishers can easily slurp in extra information like company logos into their posts.

Zemanta’s product integrates closely into blogging platforms such as WordPress, and it helps to semantically link up parts of your post with sites from around the web (CrunchBase now included). These guys have been on our case (and rightly so) to release an API for a couple of months now, so it’s great to see their implementation go live.

You can check out a demo of their product here.

Flash CrunchBase

Nicolás Parziale has created a very cool flash app inspired by They Rule that visualizes the graph of connections throughout CrunchBase. You can start with a company (such as Digg, shown below) and then flesh out different parts of the graph with your mouse. You can even input any two companies, causing the app to crawl the web and visually display all of the connections between the two.

Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.

Source: TechCrunch
Original Article: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/qrCCahriY2I/

Apple’s App Store is quickly becoming a hotbed for elite developers looking to capitalize on the store’s easy distribution model and huge exposure opportunities. Since the store’s launch less than two months ago, we’ve seen reports of apps reaching massive user bases and and collecting millions of dollars. But while the store has seen its share of its successes, it also has its flaws - most notably in the way it exposes users to apps in the first place.

The most glaring exception on the store is the lack of an all-time most popular applications list. While there are a pair of lists for current “Top Apps” (one for paid apps, the other for free), the list changes on a daily or even hourly basis. In turn, the most recently released applications dominate the list, with over half of the current list constituted by apps that have been released in the last ten days. This is great for Apple - most people turn to the Top Apps first when they open iTunes, and it’s in Apple’s best interest to always give them something new to play with.

But what about the apps that everyone should have? The ones that have seen hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of downloads, but no longer reach the top app lists because most people already have them? Shazam, the app that lets you hold up your iPhone to a speaker to figure out what song is playing, is currently ranked 16th, so it won’t appear on the home page. Tap Tap Revenge, one of the platform’s most popular games, has fallen to 20th. And Twitterific - a Twitter client that seemed cemented in the top 10 soon after the store’s launch, seems to have dropped off the list entirely.

If the current situation persists, even the very best apps will always lose out to the up-and-comers - a situation that only encourages developers to pump out applications as quickly as possible, rather than creating something really useful. Apple devotees are known for valuing polish and functionality - it would be a shame for the store to fall prey to the spammyness seen on other platforms.

Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.

Source: TechCrunch
Original Article: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/LGjDwYZoZTg/