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E-mail Tax

February 7, 2006

Perhaps I an now spoiled by the open and free nature of the Internet but I am pretty annoyed that Yahoo! and AOL are considering taxing e-mail by charging money to ensure messages are not marked as spam. Sure the service they say is optional but it is to the advantage of both these companies that control over a hundred million e-mail addresses to err on the side of sending legitimate e-mail to the spam filter. After all, the more mistakes they make the more often legitimate companies will be forced to pay this tax.

A lot has been made of the concept of Web 2.0 but I am wondering if a more apt description of it is the web with taxes. After all SBC and BellSouth are looking to charge content providers for access to high quality connections to their customers and e-mail companies will charge businesses to send e-mail.

It seems anywhere you turn someone with control is leveraging it to make a buck.

Posted in Google, Google

BMW Spams Google

February 7, 2006

In the search to optimize pages for search engines some sites use techniques described as spamming the search engines. There are a number of things you can do to be considered a search engine spammer and I have seen a few VoIP companies spanked by Google meaning their site no longer shows up on Google – even when you search for the company by name!

I was surprised however to find out that the German division of BMW was recently found guilty by Google of spamming as well. This means that the German language BMW is now dropped from Google! Ouch.

One of the challenges webmasters cite is that they aren’t sure what practices are allowed and aren’t allowed.

Posted in Google

Google and Dell Billion Dollar Deal

February 7, 2006

This morning, CNBC reported that Google is in close talks with Dell to install Google software on all Dell computers for a one billion dollar fee. CNBC continued to theorize that this will be a huge threat to Microsoft, a company whose stock is already languishing.

The debate then went into whether Google has an operating system and what it is exactly company will be installing on these Dell machines. I should point out that the report said that the talks were in a fragile stage at the moment.

One has to wonder exactly what software Google has that is worth paying a billion dollars to distribute. Is it a browser?

Posted in Google

Paris Peeved at Google

February 7, 2006

Let’s face it, the French don’t like when their culture gets overrun by cultures from other countries such as let’s say those countries where people show a proclivity to wear cowboy boots and 10-gallon hats. Perhaps Chirac had a bad experience while watching Dallas a few decades back and he never got over it. You know I ate French fries once while coming down with the flu and I couldn’t eat fries for a few months. In Chirac’s case it is obviously more serious.

So obviously seeing Google control the Internet is upsetting the French and French businesses.

Posted in Google

Google on the Desktop

February 8, 2006

Russell Shaw has some great analysis on what Google could be up to. It seems logical based on his analysis that we will soon see Google competing with Microsoft Office. It would further seem that this software could indeed be free meaning Microsoft’s cash cow is in jeopardy of being slaughtered.

Ouch. There are few choices you have when your competition takes something you charge for and makes it free. Microsoft has undercut the prices of so many rivals over the years and has given away software that others charge for that they may have put more companies out of business than the bubble bursting.

Anyone remember paid VocalTec Internet Telephony software being put away by Microsoft’s NetMeeting?

Google is now in the position to return this favor.

It looks as if the search leader is on track to become a bigger and bigger part of our software purchases and in so doing further reinforcing their dominance on the desktop.

Posted in Consumer Electronics, Google, SIP, Technology, VoIP

Getting Paid to VoIP

February 14, 2006

It seems that many of the predictions of the dotcom days are coming true. Online ads are a multibillion dollar industry and the industry is not slowing down. Virtually all companies sell online and all industries sell using the web in large quantities.. Perhaps one of the few industries that failed at selling online was the pet trade where 60 pound bags of food just didn’t make sense to ship.

Posted in Google, Technology, VoIP

The Search

February 20, 2006

I recently finished reading The Search, How Google and Its Rivals Rewrote the rules of Business and Transformed Our Culture, a book by John Battle. I have to say that reading this book helped me recall the history of search, the history of many of the dotcoms in the past and it further helped me recall all the missing dotcom pieces I either forgot or just never knew.

For example, do you remember that AltaVista was Google before there was a Google? This search engine had a clean interface and focused on returning the best results rapidly. The Search details how DEC botched making this search engine a success.

Posted in Google

VoIP, Nortel, Blackberry and Google Analysis

February 25, 2006

You can learn a great deal about the VoIP and broader communications and technology markets if you just listen (or in this case read) carefully. For example this week saw the launch of a new VoIP service by the name of TalkDaddy. The company differentiates itself by charging an annual fee of $179 for residential service and $299 for business. While this is not the first company to try an annual VoIP pricing plan it certainly continues a disturbing trend of service providers competing on price and not quality or features.

Posted in Broadband, CRM, Google, Science, Technology, VoIP, Wireless

PPLive and Net Neutrality

February 25, 2006

I was a bit harsh when I said it was game over for the LECs in a recent blog entry about content providers providing a Tivo-like service that prerecords a number of programs so as to simulate live TV. This could be done to avoid having to pay LECs for high-speed broadband access to their customers. The point is that if the LECs are going to spend all their time protecting their networks they will lose. It is that simple.

TMC News Snapshots

February 25, 2006

Here is a new service from TMCnet – News Snapshots™ that will allow you to have a single page to go to keep track of important companies and topics in communications and technology. Bill Gates even gets a page. A snapshot of Nortel for example allows you to keep track of news and articles about the company as well as a stock chart.

The service is in beta and we hope that it helps you keep track of the companies and topics you have interest in. Let us know if you have suggestions for improvement.

3COM
3GSM
Adobe Systems
Agere Systems
Alcatel
Apple
Aspect Software
AT&T
AudioCodes
Avaya
BellSouth
Bill Gates
Broadcom
Cablevision Systems
Cingular
Cisco Systems
Comcast
Convergys
Covad
Dell
Earthlink
EMC
Ericsson

Posted in Broadband, CRM, Conferencing, Consumer Electronics, Google, IMS, IPTV, ITEXPO, JITC, Open Source, Rates Technology, SIP, Science, Speech Technologies, Technology, VoIP, WiMAX, Wireless

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