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January 2, 2009

Stanford Students May Have Answer To Video Monetization

Another group at Stanford may have come up with the next big thing. Zunavision is a way to embed video inside video and could lead to true successful video monetization.

Okay it has been out there since midNovember, but it really does have some of the slick tricks needed to ultimately help the video industry develop a working revenue generating model.

The insert can be placed into the background of a video - and people can walk in front of it - so if you had a video and put it on the wall in the background it renders into the video and allows foreground action to continue.

Once they have a clickable solution, video advertising will be officially scalable to true monetization. In the meantime, play with it.

Posted by Frank Watson on January 2, 2009, 8:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (8)

Free Computer Engineering Classes From Stanford

If you want to take some of the same courses the Google and Yahoo founders took, nows your chance and they are even free. Part of the Standford Engineering Everywhere initiative, the courses include all needed sylabi, handouts, tests and access to reading lists.

"For the first time in its history, Stanford is offering some of its most popular engineering classes free of charge to students and educators around the world.," the Stanford website explains.

“We are excited to extend our teaching and learning opportunities worldwide through SEE,” said
Jim Plummer, dean of the Stanford Engineering School. “We hope SEE will enable a broad range of people to learn, to share their ideas and to make their own contributions to knowledge.”
The 10 courses, arranged in three subject areas, include one of Stanford's most popular
sequences: the three-quarter introduction to computer science. SEE also offers three courses on artificial intelligence and robotics, and four on linear systems and optimization. The address for SEE is http://see.stanford.edu - the university press release explains.

Now if it only came with free time.....

Posted by Frank Watson on January 2, 2009, 8:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Apple Should Buy Yahoo: Why I'm Now Convinced

I'm not the first to ponder this, but I would never have given it true consideration until today's earlier speculation about Google Android netbooks. Should Google head in that direction, it would make the company not just a search engine but an operating system provider. Simply competing in just the mobile handset market isn't enough, but getting on mini laptops - that's an

They would be the opposite of Microsoft, which was first all about operating systems and later about search.

That would leave Apple and Yahoo, one an operating system provider and computer manufacturer and the other the second place search engine with a wealth of solid web properties (finance, sports, news, etc.)

Apple has built its business on providing the awesome alternative to existing products that are already quite decent. The iPod, iPhone, and all of Apple's laptops weren't the first, but they were an impressive addition to existing markets. In the case of the iPod and now the iPhone, they took the markets they entered into a whole new level.

Search is waiting for the next level. Apple is noted for its great file search on its laptops, though iTunes search sucks so bad, it needs some definite help. Apple has the corporate culture to innovate search. Perhaps what it needs is talent.

Yahoo has that in droves, but management has been holding it back.

Now, I know that the natural response is that Apple has close ties with Google. But I'm not sure how long those will last. Already, Google CEO Eric Schmidt, who sits on Apple's board, leaves board meetings when the iPhone comes up due to the conflict of interest with Google Android.

If Android hits the netbook market, how could Schmidt legitimately remain on Apple's board at all?

Another caveat is that if Apple were to acquire Yahoo!, the brand Yahoo! would likely cease to exist. This would become more acceptable if Yahoo!'s stock drops to $2-3 a share, which is the only likely scenario in which Apple would actually pick up Yahoo.

At that point, they would very likely have to fight Microsoft to do it. Microsoft's cash reserves are deeper than Apple's, and Microsoft would want to beat out Apple on both search and operating system fronts.

But almost no one sees Yahoo as thriving under Microsoft. The second and third search engines would be consolidated, but increasing search market share would be a big IF.

Apple right now is the only viable, visible shot search has at innovating - unless there's another genius building the next great thing in a dorm room at Stanford. But they'll have to be very forward thinking and beat Microsoft to the punch at just the right moment. With their increasing share of the pc market as of late, they might just be able to pull it off.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on January 2, 2009, 10:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)

Google Explains the Nuances of Language Translation

Since search involves people from all of the world speaking a variety of languages, Google takes language translation very seriously. Shankar Kumar and Wolfgang Macherey recently took to the Official Google Research blog to explain more about Google's translation methods.

Specifically, Kumar and Macherey talked about the Minimum Bayes Risk (MBR) criterion in how to determine which translation to return to a user. It's best explained in their own words:

Essentially, we look at a sample of the best candidate translations (the so called n-best list) and choose the safest one, the one most likely to do the least amount of damage (where 'damage' is defined by our measurement of translation quality). You might want to view this as choosing a translation that is a lot like the other good translations instead of choosing that strange one that had the good model score.

Kumar and Macherey went on to say that they improve the diversification of MBR by adding candidate translations. They build lattices (a mathematical set, not a fence, though the fence is a decent visual) of translations which the MBR uses to search for the n-best approach. The more languages added to the lattice, the more diversified the search is.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on January 2, 2009, 10:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Google Wants You! (To Vote for Mobile Product Ideas)

Have an idea to improve a Google Mobile product? (Like the ability to edit Google Docs on the iPhone? Just sayin.) Now you have a way to suggest it.

Or vote for it, if someone else has suggested it.

Google Mobile has launched its Product Ideas site and once you're signed in, you can suggest and/or vote on ideas you want to see implemented - or taken away. Click here to access the site.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on January 2, 2009, 9:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Google Android on a Netbook: How Soon Will We See It?

Thought Android was just for mobile phones? Think again! VentureBeat has taken an Asus Eee netbook and thrown Google Android on it as the operating system. It took them four hours to configure and they expect to see the first Android Netbooks in 2010. Keep in mind this is purely speculative and not at all official from Google.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on January 2, 2009, 9:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Apple Founder Steve Jobs Health Declining?

Seems Steve Jobs health could be in serious decline, though at this stage the information seems to be rumors.

Interestingly, Gizmodo - the publication that starting the health conversation - said "Steve Jobs' health is nobody's business."

I hope JObs health issues are not serious, and that he is around to inspire more inventions such as the iPhone.

Though I am sure the average stockholder would be concerned given the possible impact such news could have on the stock price.

As a Dallas Morning News tech blogger states:

Actually, I suspect the "strategic loss" of Jobs will be a huge bang with investors. The guy literally invented the iPhone, after all.

That's not to say that Apple can't recover from Jobs' departure or death, but I would bet that the company's stock, especially given the current economic malaise, will get hammered if/when Apple confirms these reports.

Posted by Frank Watson on January 2, 2009, 8:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

IE Browsers Drop Below 70% Market Share

The Dallas Morning News reported Internet Explorer - Microsoft's pervasive web browser - has fallen to 68% market share.

Firefox is now over 20% and browsers such as Safari, Opera, and Google's Chrome make up the rest.

The article shows Chrome at below 1% though I have seen reports that have that number as high as 2%.

Posted by Frank Watson on January 2, 2009, 8:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Google Offers Browser Security Handbook

Google recently published a Browser Security Handbook and given that they are now in the browser space it is worth a read.

It gives a good overview of how a browser works and then details security issues to be aware of, as well as some good advanced security issues. Perhaps if we were a little more aware of securing our browser we could avoid attracting those malware and other ghosts in the machine that reduce computer speed.

The section on CSS and javascript are worth a read if you have some tech background as it gives insights into how hacks are possible, as well as how Google sees things.

Posted by Frank Watson on January 2, 2009, 8:07 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

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