Google Lively (Virtual Rooms) - Not so lively any more
Google is shutting down this and several other (list on WebGuild) services. I am not surprised that they failed. The initial reception was quite poor (my earlier post). I still feel that there is a place for 3D Virtual Worlds beyond Games. We are still waiting for the Killer App - my bet is on Retail.

On a positive note, I am very impressed by the speed at which Google decided to kill this. It is important to cut and run when the message is on the wall!

Google SearchWiki
Finally, folks at Google have decided to directly involve users to improve search results. I have long maintained that direct user input is essential for better search results. Page-rank provides an indirect user input for search and, as proven by Google, is very effective in ranking search results. However, I am not very happy with the approach they have taken of identifying the users who have changed the search results. They do warn that others will be able to see that I made the change. Here is a link to a computerworld article about the negative press this feature has attracted. Obviously, privacy is a huge concern.

I am usually logged-into Google and was quickly able to change the order of search results. However, when I was not logged-in, the order was what Google had originally presented. I wonder if the input I provided will later propagate to the full system.

I am convinced that Google will find that the user input provides very valuable enhancement to the search experience. They do have to make sure that privacy is not compromised.

Microsoft Getting Serious about Cloud Computing
Interesting article in Business Week. I am intrigued by the scale of their offering and the approach of building a modular facility - a module being a container full of 2500 servers.

Trust Digital
They claim to provide Blackberry-level security to non-blackberry devices. We should look into it for iPhones, G1s and other non-blackberry smart phones.

Intel Presentation on Enterprise 2.0
Came across this article about a presentation by the Intel CIO on Social Media within the enterprise. Some interesting stats in the presentation.

DLA Piper Tech Conference
Attended a very interesting one day event in California. In addition to great weather enjoyed some very interesting sessions.
I was very impressed by Ray Ozzie. His comments were very insightful. Here are a few I noted:

• India is ahead on mobile
• China is seeing parallel growth in mobile and pcs
• Ray uses constraints to drive behavior within the organization
• cloud is fast becoming a hub that we connect to via fat pipes. This will again give us an opportunity to think about where work gets done: on personal vs central locations
• PCs and mobile phones become appliances that you log into to access your information - anywhere, anytime. This considerably reduces the cost of management of devices.
• media is the new document driving usage of local compute power
• every HD-IPTV end-point requires 6MBPS of bandwidth
• Instant Messaging has morphed into social networks (especially facebook)
• social networks are driven by technology, social dynamics and organizational design
• two big opportunities? mobile collaboration, virtualization / server consolidation
• biggest challenge at Microsoft? ability to manage complexity
  

Content Delivery from Amazon Web Services
Interesting new service that will allow customers to store and deliver content from the cloud (jeff barr's blog post). They are planning to compete with other CDNs, e.g. Akamai. Though, from what I can tell, this is a more explicit move of content into the cloud

Seamless teleworking with Cisco
The new product promises to hide the complexities of a VPN from an end user (article on Infoworld). Both Users and IT have a lot to gain from this.

Google - Android Developer Challenge
Winners and finalists in this competition for cool mobile apps developed for the Android platform.

Delivering Mobile Apps
Apple iPhone has unleashed a huge amount of developer activity for mobile apps. However, Apple's key to success is the AppStore on iTunes. AppStore makes mobile apps accessible. My top pick from innovations at Apple is iTunes.

Let us see what Google does in this space. I don't know what Microsoft has done for app delivery on the Windows Mobile platform or Nokia on Symbian (need to do some research here!). Post a comment if you know.

UPDATE (9/2/08: 2 PM EST): I just read this article on Infoworld suggesting that Microsoft is planning to build an iTunes-like Apps store! Their current solution is the Windows Mobile Catalog.

The other digital delivery solution I am very impressed with is from Amazon for the Kindle!

Wikepedia Edits forecast VP Picks
Interesting article on Washingtonpost.com.