Monday, October 29, 2007

From Trevor,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cRLwx10ewxw&eurl=http://googlepublicpolicy.blogspot.com/2007/09/our-senate-testimony-on-online.html


This is very inciteful as to what Google is doing with this acquisition of Doubleclick.
Michael

Wednesday, October 24, 2007

Look what happened today!

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=awsbl7uatkuk&refer=home

Pulling Questions

Saturday, October 20, 2007

Deadline has passed..turn in ASAP!

Hey guys! I still haven't received everyone's research part. Michael and I have to put everything together by the 24th, so we need everyone to turn in their part by tomorrow at 5pm! Please post it on blackboard...click communication, group pages, google, file exchange! Hope everyone is having a good weekend! See you guys Monday!

Wednesday, October 10, 2007

Presenting.... WHA????

Hey you guys it's Michael (wreckin' on this microphone... err, keyboard- same difference). Anyway, as far as the presentation goes, I was thinking we go in segments but almost as though it were a talk show. Either Neha or I would be the talk show host- or hosts- and we'd be discussing Google. We could call each of you in to discuss and give your side of the project for the first half hour ( and also have some humorous dialogue/ banter). After the show was over we could then have a fifteen minute game, followed by fifteen minutes of food (aka thank you for listening to our long as all get out presentation). How's that sound?

Posting Research ishh...

Hey guys! Jesse told me about posting stuff on blackboard and it actually works out really well. So, from now on, if you everyone could post their stuff on blackboard that would be great! You go to communication, then group pages, google, file exchange, and then hit add!



See ya in class!



Neha

G History posted to Bb

I'm blowing up the blog here alone. Let me know if you have trouble accessing the doc on Bb and I'll send it through email. For the presentation I think it would be helpful to present some information in graphs to show trends in growth in areas like # of employees, number of search queries handled per day, number of web pages indexed, revenue/total value, etc... I can do a decent job with that and don't mind doing it, but someone with good experience graphing might do a better job. Anyone?

We need to start discussing some ideas for the presentation.

CNN Video that addresses our question

"Who's affraid of Google?"

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/business/2007/09/01/benjamin.andreas.kluth.interview.cnn?iref=videosearch

Tuesday, October 9, 2007

Google History Research

I will post Google History research and an extensive timeline to Bb before class on Wednesday. It's too much for this blog. Generally the history and the near future (if Google continues its current trend) reads like this for Google:

2007 - Google owns a LOT
2008 - Google owns me and you, and everyone else in the classroom
2009 - Google owns the world

Read more at Bb tomorrow...

Jesse

Saturday, October 6, 2007

Formatting our research

Hey guys,

Hope everybody's having a great weekend!

I started writing my Google research up in paragraph form, like a research paper, when I realized that I was probably making this harder on myself and for the folks who are pulling everything together in the end. I'm sure that we all have very different writing writing styles, so the end product folks will be applying their own style to all of the research in order to make a consistent-feeling project write up. It seems like that would be easier to do if all of the information was in note form... bullets maybe, rather than paragraph form. It would also be faster to write up the research in bullets. It would be a lot faster to find the key points and to determine what works together vs what doesn't and then apply your own style to final write-up. If the bullet uses a quote then use parenthetical citation in the bullet and list the sources at the end in APA format.

What do you guys think?

Oh, on another note, I emailed google corporate relations on the odd chance that they have tons of advertising stuff sitting around that they could send us to use to create a Google-esque environment for our presentation. I thought pencils or silly hats would be good to use as prizes if we play a game. It's a long shot, but it would be really cool if they came through! That's my A-level contribution as a substitute for making a google cake. I'll let you know if I hear back.

Wednesday, October 3, 2007

Interesting Article...

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2003920836_yahoo03.html

Check this out...it could help in the discussion of alternatives/competitors...

We is done foolz...

Group Google Prospectus

Since the creation of the movement of information via the World Wide Web the ability to find it has been among one of the most important add-ons to making information available. In recent years many companies have undertaken the charge of compiling and creating what we now call search engines. These figurative locomotives were used solely to bring information from point “A” to point “B”, nothing more and nothing less. With the recent push to corner the market many of these search engines began to offer much more than just a way to harvest information. One such search engine which has now cornered the market is Google. Since its conception, Google has worked continuously to offer every imaginable service to people so that they have no need to go anywhere else. Are these monopolistic practices or just trying to make things easier? In order to answer these questions, we will be looking into the following aspects of Google:

Theme #1: History
We want to research the origin of Google, ranging from how it came about to its original purpose. Also, we want to create a timeline of events of Google’s history to see its progression over time and how time has affected its power.

Theme #2: Google Labs
As part of our research, we want to become familiar with the Google labs feature like what the purpose of using it is and then assess its contribution to Google’s overall success.

Theme #3: Conspiracy Theories
There are a lot of people who are concerned with the amount of information knows about its users. We want to research the different conspiracy theories out there, including those that are profound and just plausible ones. The theories that we want to further look into are Daniel Brandt, The Ghost in the Machine, Minority Report Ad Invasion, Government informant, Big Brother, and Double Click.

Theme #4: Alternatives/Competitors
When looking at Google’s dominating presence in the world today, it’s interesting to think about what people used before using Google and how those competitors are holding up today. What currently separates Google from its competitors is its far reach into industries and markets that expand beyond Google's original purpose as a search engine, so is there really any hope for its competitors?

The Power Google has and will maintain comes solely from the consumer. This being the case, Google needs to a) continue to appeal to the human population or b) the human population needs to find an alternative to Google. The power aspect will tie all the themes together in order to decipher whether or not Google is truly evil or awesome.

Project Schedule
10/2/07: Email or Blog Initial Research by 5pm
10/10/07: Research on History, Google Labs, Conspiracy Theories, Microsoft, and Alternatives needs to be completed. Email to Manager and Marc.
10/17/07: Google Power Aspect Needs to be Emailed (All research/analysis should be completed at this time). Begin putting it together
10/24/07: PROJECT NEEDS TO BE COMPLETED
We’re giving each person a week to do his or her part so that the person who needs their work can have a week to get his or her work done. Our presentation date is October 29th!

Individual Roles/Responsibilities

Jesse: Google History
Amanda: Google Labs, Conspiracy Theories
Trevor: Google following Microsoft's Footsteps as a Monopoly
Brandon: Alternatives/Competitors
Marc: Power -- Analyzing the aspects above and putting it all together.
Michael: Creative Lead
Neha: Project Manager

Opening PaRaGrApH!

Since the creation of the movement of information via the World Wide Web the ability to find it has been among one of the most important add-ons to making information available. In recent years many companies have undertaken the charge of compiling and creating what we now call search engines. These figurative locomotives were used solely to bring information from point “A” to point “B”, nothing more and nothing less. With the recent push to corner the market many of these search engines began to offer much more than just a way to harvest information. One such search engine which has now cornered the market is Google. Since its conception, Google has worked continuously to offer every imaginable service to people so that they have no need to go anywhere else. Are these monopolistic practices or just trying to make things easier?
Thanks for posting guys! We're working on the prospectus now...
See you in class!

Tuesday, October 2, 2007

Google vs. Competition

"More Evil Than Google?"
http://www.forbes.com/home/technology/2007/07/03/google-evil-competition-tech-techbiz-cx_ag_0703googevil.html

"Microsoft, Google May Go Head to Head"
http://www.news.com/Microsoft%2C-Google-may-go-head-to-head/2009-1032_3-1020641.html

"Google vs. Everyone"
http://mashable.com/2007/07/07/google-vs-everyone/

"How Search Engines Work: Search Engine Relevancy Reviewed"
http://www.seobook.com/relevancy/

Markets:
1) Search: dominant
2) Advertising: leader
3) Video: leader (YouTube)
4) Blogging:
5) Mobile
6) Start Pages
7) Communications
8) Social Networking
9) Photo Sharing
10) Office Suite

Google became a dominating force in search industry with superior

algorithmic code that was designed to retrieve sites based on relevance,

not biased sponsored links. They used that as a foundation to expand

into advertising through keywords and paid per click links. Holding 56%

of the market,it is currently financially strong enough to expand into

other markets and play significant roles there, most notably in the

video market through its acquisition of YouTube for $1.6 billion in

November 2006. Other areas where Google is just now beginning to

develop include Office Suite, Blogging, Start Pages, and much more.

What currently separates Google from its competitors is its far reach

into industries and markets that expand beyond Google's original purpose

as a search engine.

work cited

Hof, R. (2007). Is Google Too Powerful. Retrieved Oct. 2, 2007, from Business Week. Web site: http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/07_15/b4029001.htm
Hey guys! I'm a little confused as to what my role was in this. I thought I would be summarizing the main topic question but I'm not sure. So this is probably wrong but just let me know!

So is Google too powerful? Google currently owns 50% of its market and that number is on the rise. Part of this power comes from this company's ability to buy out potential competitors. In this way, they are able to use other competitors for their ideas and products and then buy them out. In this way it has become a monopoly. By owning so much of this market, Google can provide the most relevant advertisements alongside search results, drawing more users and cash.

Sources

Here are my sources:

Fawzi, M. (2006). Evolving Trends. Retrieved Oct. 2, 2007, from Evolving Trends, Bay Area, California. Web site: http://evolvingtrends.wordpress.com/about/.

Moore, J. F. (1999). CNN Money. Retrieved Oct. 2, 2007, from CNN Money, Redmond, Washington. Web site: http://money.cnn.com/1999/11/05/technology/microsoft_finding/.

Google following Mircrosoft's Footsteps as a Monopoly. Prospectus

I hope this is good enough for the Prospectus. Let me know if I'm doing something wrong or treading in someone else's territory.

In Microsoft's monopoly court hearings in 1999, it was deemed that the company was using its huge market share to push out and eliminate the competition. At the time of the CNN Money article, Microsoft was on ninety-percent of desktops. Google has control of fifty percent of its market, but it has similar practices of using its large user bases to move into other markets. For example, one company beat Google to the punch about a collaborative spreadsheet application, so Google buys their competitor and puts out a similar product. The smaller company can not compete with Google's user base. For now, Google has a few competitors like Yahoo and Microsoft but its market share is growing rapidly.

P.S.- I want to address the question of the fine line between monopoly and just being the best at what you do. Again, let me know if I need to add anything.

...

hey guys!

remember to post or email me your ideas/research by 5pm TODAY!

my email address is: nharwani@email.unc.edu

thanks!!

Monday, October 1, 2007

Google history for prospectus

Let me know if we anything else from the history end. I think this is a nice, brief history of the company and I hope it works well in the prospectus. I'm looking forward to seeing what everyone else has to offer...

Google originated from a research project in 1996 by PhD. students at Stanford University. The goal was to create a web-based search engine that returned better results than other searh engines of the time. The project succeeded and by 2000 Google was addressing 18 million search queries a day, making it the largest search engine on the web. Today Google is still the leader in search engine marketing and has expanding their empire to include a verity of other products and services.

Thoughts on Google...

Hey everyone!

Let me just start off this posting with an interesting fact...Google has recently celebrated it's 9th birthday so happy belated birthday google! :)

alright, now on to the project...

Before we can delve into the world of google, we will be providing its history--ranging from its creators to the time span. As of now, our group is going to look at both the evil and awesome aspects of google. As part of our evil analysis, there will be research done on google's relationship with microsoft...perhaps even discussing its monopolistic properties. We will also be looking into the various conspiracy theories surrounding google and whether they have any validity. Basically, the main focus of our project is google's POWER. Where does this power stem from? What does google have? What could they potentially do with this power? etc. To show the positive aspect of google, we will be doing some in-depth research on the various google labs that help people do things in today's society.

ahhhh it's getting intense...

Reminder to Group Google: Prospectus is due on Wednesday...***