Google

My first "you are an idiot for that blog post" phone call!

After an especially difficult morning, I was welcomed to the office with a delightful voicemail from my new pal Jon Prall. Jon took offense to the fact that I think that MS Exchange should die and that Google is taking over the planet. Being that it was my first experience with this blog bearing human communication I did the obvious thing and called him back. At first he didn't want to tell me who it was until I said that I don't deal with anonymous comments (plus I had his phone number :>)

Jon was concerned that I, … Read more

Google-DoubleClick deal hit by deleted Web page controversy

A political controversy over deleted documents and conflicts of interest could, opponents of the deal hope, imperil Google's planned $3.1 billion acquisition of the DoubleClick advertising firm.

The most recent round started with my colleague Elinor Mills' article on Wednesday afternoon, which noted that two liberal groups opposed to the merger asked Federal Trade Commission Chairman Deborah Platt Majoras to recuse herself from a vote because her husband is a partner at the Jones Day law firm, which is representing DoubleClick. Majoras recused herself from a previous matter involving Procter & Gamble because Jones Day was involved.

That … Read more

MEDgle makes sick search better

Web search is a whole lot easier than thumbing through a household copy of The Merck Manual when you're trying to find out what you're sick with. A simple search based on symptoms might steer you the right way, but several medical Web services have gone the route of attempting to emulate the kinds of questions you'd get when visiting a doctor's office. One of them, called MEDgle has quietly been offering up a symptom-based medical search tool for the last year.

The crux of MEDgle is the search tool, which either lets users type in … Read more

An exceptional year for Alfresco

It's hard to talk about the rising success of open source without at least mentioning Alfresco, given the successes of this past year. Given that I work for Alfresco, I try to keep references to Alfresco isolated and only part of larger discussions of open source. But there has been so much momentum and traction lately that today I can't help myself. Indeed, CMSwire went so far as to write:

Every week, it seems, there's a big announcement from Alfresco....The [company] has...some kind of magical app-building framework which enables them to rattle off integrated products at lightning speed.

The latest of these [Red Hat + Alfresco collaboration] is not quite as sexy, on the face of it, as the Facebook hookup. But in terms of its implications for the collaboration portal industry, i.e. for Microsoft, it could prove to be the killer app which takes Alfresco into the big time.

In the last quarter alone, Alfresco racked up the following:

Alfresco registered 400% sales growth over an already very robust fiscal year 2006;… Read more

Google Sync for BlackBerry arrives

As if we hadn't all already given up trying to extricate Google from our brains, the company came out Wednesday with sync for Google calendar and your BlackBerry.

It also supports Google Apps for your Domain.

If Google Sync for BlackBerry doesn't kill MS Exchange, I don't know what will. And really, Exchange should be dead already.

You probably need this BlackBerry Calendar Patch to make everything go right.

Groups ask FTC chair to recuse in Google-DoubleClick review

Two privacy groups are asking the chairman of the Federal Trade Commission to recuse herself from the agency's review of Google's proposed acquisition of online ad firm DoubleClick because her husband's law firm is advising DoubleClick on antitrust.

In addition, FTC Chairman Deborah Platt Majoras used to work at the law firm, called Jones Day, according to a complaint about the matter sent to the FTC on Wednesday by the Electronic Privacy Information Center and the Center for Digital Democracy.

Majoras' husband, John M. Majoras, is an equity partner with Jones Day and is in charge of … Read more

Linux and Windows interest on the wane; Mac interest trending higher

If you measure interest in operating systems based on search, Linux hit its peak in 2004 and has been on a downward slide ever since, according to Google Trends. The same is true of Windows, though the trend (as seen below) is less pronounced. The Mac? Well, let's just say that people can't seem to get enough.

But what happens if we measure interest based on press mentions? While all three operating systems seem to have increased their "mindshare" over the past four years, Windows has outpaced Linux and Mac OS, and by quite a margin:… Read more

Sources: FTC extends Google-DoubleClick review

Antitrust regulators with the Federal Trade Commission have received an extension to review the controversial $3.1 billion Google-DoubleClick megamerger, according to sources.

The FTC faced a Thursday deadline to either challenge the deal or allow it to go through. But the commission is now expected to stay quiet for at least several more days as it continues to study the impact of the proposed merger on competition and consumers. A decision Thursday is unlikely.

Google complied with the FTC's second request for information on the merger on November 14. Once a company complies with a "second request,&… Read more

Facebook to let other sites access platform code

This post has been updated with information about Bebo's implementation of Facebook's code.

And now, for something we didn't see coming: Facebook has announced that the architecture for its developer platform will be made available to other social-networking sites, potentially rendering moot the criticism that its strategy is too "closed"--and potentially dealing a huge blow to Google's yet-to-launch OpenSocial initiative.

Facebook senior platform manager Ami Vora posted a blog entry Wednesday with the announcement. "(We) want to share the benefits of our work by enabling other social sites to use our platform … Read more