Last week, Google announced the launch of the Enhanced Campaigns Upgrade Center for AdWords. It is in the process of rolling out.
Today, Google released a tutorial for how to use the Upgrade Center ahead of the transition date.
“In order to take advantage of the powerful bidding tools, smarter ads, and advanced reporting that come with enhanced campaigns, you need to start by upgrading your campaigns,” Google says.
The video discusses how to use the tool to upgrade and merge legacy campaigns.
Back in January we noted how following a trying year, electric car startup Coda Automotive was quietly dealing with a number of lawsuits over unpaid bills. These lawsuits followed layoffs and slow sales of the company’s first car on the market, a much delayed electric sedan. Well, a couple months later, Coda’s legal troubles have compounded with more lawsuits and the fate of Coda appears highly uncertain.
While Coda settled a couple of those billing disputes from earlier this year, two of those companies that settled have filed new lawsuits stating that Coda didn’t begin paying the agreed upon settlement fee. Auto supplier CDH Detroit said that in a settlement agreement with Coda in early March, Coda agreed to start paying CDH Detroit monthly installments of $28,186 for almost a year, resulting in a total bill of $338,234. In the new suit filed April 26, CDH Detroit said that Coda allegedly missed that first monthly payment (embedded below).
Car engineering and development company RLE International (as well as an affiliate contract work company RTECH) said that Coda also settled with them and agreed to pay them $50K a month for a year and a half, but didn’t start paying the first monthly bill. The suit, dated April 25, alleged that Coda owes them $850,029.15 in total (embedded below).
In addition, events company Exhibit Works filed a suit on March 19, alleging that Coda owes them $242,265.27 (embedded below). A company called BET Services has filed a suit on April 24 alleging that Coda owes them $454,228 plus interest (embedded below). A billing and accounts receivables company called Corporate Billing filed a suit back on January 16, alleging Coda owes them $248,800 for an unpaid bill for auto parts (embedded below). And there’s at least two other pending suits in Los Angeles County Court.
Finally, former Coda employee Tony Bulchak just filed a class action lawsuit against Coda on Monday. Since the case is so new, the online complaint isn’t available yet, but I’ll update this when it is. I would assume the class action is over the layoffs, but I’ll confirm that when the documents are online.
Like how Fisker Automotive is now unraveling, Coda Automotive seems to be coming apart at the seams as well. Media reports are starting to sound its death toll, too. How much longer til Coda files for bankruptcy?
CDH vs Coda
RLE/RTECH vs Coda
Exhibit Works vs Coda
BET vs Coda
Corporate Billing vs Coda
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The builders of Wii hacking devices, Wiikey, have announced that they’ve found a method to hack the Wii U to play content via USB media. The kit also claims to work on devices from any region and requires no soldering.
Because there is no mention of “homebrew” content like video players and the like, this looks to be a hack that enables piracy on the platform. Called the WiikeÜ, the device will connect to the Wii U via USB. The current WiiKey device allows you to hack the original Wii in a similar way.
The quest to hack the Wii is not new. The homebrew community is also working on methods to run media via USB and there are ways to add a Homebrew Channel to the Wii U, allowing users to download apps not licensed by Nintendo. Users cannot yet burn copies of games onto recordable disks because the Wii U copy protection is built directly into the Blu-ray drive, making a software hack difficult.
While this is no good for Nintendo in terms of piracy, it could pique interest in the platform as a homebrew system. Sadly, piracy usually comes first and foremost in cases like this one.
I have a question for you? Is 24-month financing the same as 2-year contract for service? Washington State attorney general believes so. He calls T-Mobile’s “no contract” plans deceptive. Last week, the carrier agreed to making changes, paying court fees and offering customers refunds on phones purchased between March 26 and April 25.
About 45 minutes ago, I got email from T-Mobile offering full refunds on devices purchased during the time period (that would be iPhone 5 for my daughter and father-in-law). I live in California, not Washington State, but T-Mobile is headquartered there. So the court order is farther-reaching, which is why I’m posting today.
Here’s what I received:
Dear T-Mobile Customer,
This notice is being sent to you pursuant to an agreement between the Washington State Attorney General’s Office and T-Mobile. Please note: wireless service is required to maintain your phone or device payment plan. If you cancel wireless service, all remaining payments become due, and will be charged to you in a lump sum on your final bill. You will no longer be able to make monthly payments.
Because you may not have understood this aspect of your telephone or device purchase, we are giving you an opportunity to return your phone or device for a full refund, including the down payment. You may do this by calling T-Mobile at 1-877-746-0909 (or by dialing 611 from your T‑Mobile phone) within 30 days and returning your phone or device as instructed. You must return your phone or device within 14 days of cancelling service in order to receive a refund. If you return the phone by then, you will not be required to make any additional payments.
For more information, please call T-Mobile at 1-877-746-0909 (or dial 611 from your T-Mobile phone).
Sincerely,
T-Mobile
To ensure future delivery of emails, please add announcements@t-mobile‑email.com to your safe sender list or address book.
T‑Mobile USA, Inc., PO Box 37380, Albuquerque, NM 87176
The carrier’s new Simple Choice plan offers unlimited text, talk and web, starting at $50 per month. Subscribers bring their own phones or purchase from T-Mobile, under two options: Full price, or smaller amount down plus 24 monthly payments. If they choose the latter but later cancel service, and therefore are no longer customers, T-Mobile demands remaining money owed on the phones.
T-Mobile sells the 16GB iPhone 5 outright for $579.99, which is about $69 less than Apple, or $99.99 upfront. Other carriers ask $199 and 2-year service contract, which if broken requires an early termination fee (typically between $325 and $375). T-Mobile’s so-called “deceptive” tactic: To get full 24-month financing, phone buyers must have phone service. You tell me, is there any difference between T-Mobile’s and other carriers’ service obligations?
Photo Credit: Christina Henningstad/Shutterstock
Charles Phan, author of “Vietnamese Home Cooking” recently participated in an “At Google” talk, discussing his book.
“In his eagerly awaited first cookbook, award-winning chef Charles Phan from San Francisco’s Slanted Door restaurant introduces traditional Vietnamese cooking to home cooks by focusing on fundamental techniques and ingredients,” says Google in the video description.
Google offers the book itself on Google Play.
Chris Kimball, author of the book, “The Science of Good Cooking,” recently gave an “Authors at Google” talk at the company’s headquarters. Google has now made it available for all to watch.
More recent At Google talks here.
Machine learning is everywhere these days as companies and organizations find themselves trying to make sense of data sets far too large and complex for the human brain alone. On Tuesday, Skytree cashed in on the hype with with an $18 million Series A round led by U.S. Venture Partners along with delivery giant UPS and Sun Microsystems co-founder and former CEO Scott McNealy. Skytree launched in February 2012 with $1.5 million in seed funding.
Machine learning is such a hot topic right now because data volumes are becoming so large and complex that humans alone can’t query their ways through them fast enough or intelligently enough to spot latent patterns among the mess of data. It’s the algorithmic engine that powers a bunch of Google services and your Netflix recommendations, as well as web content-curation service Prismatic and alternative-underwriting platform ZestFinance. As we covered in some detail at this year’s Structure: Data conference, machine learning is particularly powerful when its ability to correlate tens of thousands of variables is paired with human judgment about what really matters.
Skytree co-founder Alexander Gray (second from left) at Structure: Data 2012. (c) Pinar Ozger
Skytree, for its part, sells a product called Skytree Server that lets users run a wide variety of machine learning algorithms across whatever data they have. It might be an oversimplification, but Skytree is essentially a souped-up version of statistical-analysis packages like SPSS or SAS that’s designed to run fast — and, more importantly — without sampling across a scale-out server architecture. In March, the company also rolled out the beta version of a new product called Adviser that can run on a laptop and walks more-novice users through the analysis of their data, including what methods were used and why, and whether the findings are statistically significant.
I suspect we’re just seeing the opening salvo in what will be a rush to fund machine learning startups over the next couple of years. Skytree is among a number of increasingly promising startups in the space, including (but certainly not limited to) Ayasdi and Quid. As more individuals see the promise of machine learning and get skilled in applying it to their particular problems and datasets — as UPS apparently has — it could become become one of the go-to analytic methods in the big data era.
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Last week, Yahoo announced its new iPhone app, taking advantage of Summly, the personalized news technology it recently acquired. Today, the company announced the app’s Android counterpart.
The app features summarized stories with rich images, personalized stories, visual search, and a share button for sharing stories to social media.
“The new Yahoo! app for Android delivers the best of the web with a virtually endless stream of personalized stories,” says Yahoo Senior Director, Mobile and Emerging Products, Fernando Delgado. “It’s designed for those moments when you need short news summaries to help find what you’re looking for, or when you have more time to enjoy them.”
Users will see the visual stream of stories by default, but can switch to classic view by clicking the top left icon with three bars, selecting “All Stories,” and tapping “Visual”.
“Your news stream will display short summaries and immersive imagery associated with each story,” says Delgado. “Once you’ve picked a story to read, you can continue to the bottom of the article to pull up the next one.
You can scroll to the bottom of each story, and checkmark the topics you ant more of (or “x” out of them).
The app is available in the Google Play store.
Google announced today that it is adding app activities from Google+ Sign-in to web search results.
“When users search for your app, they often want to go deeper and see what in-app content fellow users find interesting,” writes Google+ Director of Product Management, Seth Sternberg, in a blog post. “Today we’re making this possible by bringing app activity to Google search results.”
“Soon, if you search for a site or app on Google.com (and that app has integrated with Google+ Sign-In app activities), you’ll see popular and aggregate user activity to the right of search results,” explains Sternberg. “Searching for Fandango, for example, will show the top movies among Google users. And when you click on a movie, you’ll go directly to its page on Fandango.”
This is one of the biggest additions of Google+ into Google Search that we’ve seen since Google launched “Search Plus Your World” personalized search (not counting Google+ Local).
The feature is rolling out on desktop search over the coming weeks, and only with a limited number of apps at first. Launch partners include: Deezer, Fandango, Flixster, Slacker Radio, Songza, SoundCloud and TuneIn.
In somewhat related news, Google is shutting down the Meebo bar in favor of Google+ Sign-in.
Google made local business pages (and the reviews contained within) a lot more visible this week, with the launch of Google Now for the iPhone and iPad. That includes negative reviews from anonymous, non-accountable “Google Users,” just so you know.
Are anonymous reviews on Google business pages a problem? Let us know what you think in the comments.
Google Now was introduced last year as part of the Android Jelly Bean update. It is often referred to as the future of search, or at least the future of Google Search. It pushes information to users when they need it (or when Google thinks they need or want it) without the user having to search for it.
The majority of Android phones still don’t even have it yet, but as time goes on, that will change. I only recently upgraded my own device to one that has access to the feature, and have only begun to learn first-hand just how powerful Google Now can be. The more it learns about you, the more it has to offer.
One of the things Google Now has to offer is a flow of suggestions for places that are near you when you spend any considerable amount of time in some location. For local businesses, this can be a great thing.
What’s not so great for a business, is when Google pushes negative reviews in front of any number of users.
Negative reviews are one thing, but anonymous reviews allow people to say whatever they want without being held accountable. Businesses are already suing people for defamation over some of the things they say in online reviews, when they are saying things they can be held accountable for. Anonymity just lets people say whatever they want. Even if they’re trashing your business. And anonymous reviews are still appearing right in front of Google Now users curious about what place Google is telling them is nearby.
I noticed this the other day. I took a look at the Google Now “Places” card and saw that the Lock & Key cafe was nearby. Here, you can take a look at their page. The top reviews from real people have “Very Good” and “Excellent” descriptions across the board. Then it gets into the anonymous “A Google user” and the rating is “Poor to fair”. This is followed with another anonymous review, also with a rating “poor to fair”.
At least Google is showing the positive reviews from users with names at the top, but are they always doing this? Sure, not all anonymous reviews are negative, but many are.
Google has actually moved away from anonymous reviews in policy. When they made the move from Google Places to Google+ Local as the format for local business pages, users were supposed to be required to sign in with their Google account to leave reviews (they’ve adopted a similar policy for Google Play). When I have tried to leave a review while not logged into mine, I’ve been prompted to sign in. But as we’ve seen in recent months, this isn’t always working for some reason.
Old anonymous reviews from before the change are staying on business pages. That’s nothing new, but a few months back, we looked at an example where even new reviews were coming in from anonymous users. One user complained about this in a Google help thread. The Google representative acknowledged the problem, and indicated they were looking into it.
I checked back on the page in question today, and those anonymous reviews are still there. It’s unclear whether they’re still accepting new anonymous reviews. I’ve seen no indication from Google that they have corrected the problem.
When I looked at that Lock & Key page that Google pushed to my attention, it dawned on me that Google is likely pushing a whole lot of anonymous negative reviews to a lot of Google Now users. Then this week, they greatly expanded the user base for Google Now by launching it for iPhones and iPads.
For those concerned about Google Now pushing negative reviews in front of users, there is a silver lining. Well, for one, it also pushed positive reviews, which hopefully far outweigh the negative ones anyway. But also, iOS simply isn’t able to take advantage of Google Now the way Android is. It doesn’t use the iOS notifications system, so basically users have to specifically open the Google Search app, log in (if they’re not already logged in), and find the cards at the bottom. Not quite as much of a game changer as the Android version. In fact, Fast Company says, “The future of Google Search is leaving iPhone users behind.”
But still, Google Now is (apparently) the future of Google Search. It’s expected to come to the Chrome browser, which will put it in front of significantly more people. It might even come to the Google homepage, which would obviously be huge.
It will be interesting to see if Google does anything with the anonymous reviews. Even as the old ones (which apparently Google has no intention of getting rid of) continue to show up, local businesses would do well to encourage new customers to write reviews, and hopefully bury any old unfavorable, anonymous reviews. Of course, it would also help if Google keeps from letting new ones flow in.
Have anonymous reviews been a problem for your business? Let us know in the comments.
It’s a safe bet that we’ll see Chromebooks with Intel’s new Haswell chips inside as Chrome OS code shows various references to Intel’s next big product. Haswell is the name of the fourth-generation Core processor and is officially expected to launch at Computex in June. The chip promises a vast improvement in battery life and sleep states, with Intel hoping to double the run-time of computers that use it when compared to devices — such as the Chromebook Pixel — running on current Ivy Bridge chips.
So what’s the evidence that Haswell-based Chromebooks are in the works? Chrome Story author Dinsan Francis spotted numerous references to Haswell in code for Chrome OS. The code name for the device build is Slippy and I did my own code-hunting to verify Francis’ report. Haswell is mentioned all throughout the code, as is Lynx Point, the chipset controller expected to complement Haswell.
As the Chromebook Pixel is the highest-performing Chromebook to date, it’s possible to see a refresh as a Haswell-powered Chrome OS laptop. If so, the Pixel may be a bit more appealing because it only gets five hours of run-time on a single charge; one of the few technical challenges of the expensive machine. Google could also use Haswell to create a Chromebook in the “middle ground” range: There are no Chromebooks priced between $550 and $1,249, for example.
Don’t expect any new Chromebooks with Haswell at the Google I/O developer event in two weeks, however. It’s an outside possibility that a prototype product could be shown off, but there won’t be one for sale until after June.
While Haswell hasn’t officially debuted yet, it’s quite common for hardware and software companies to get early chip samples. This allows time for integration and testing so that when the chip arrives in larger quantities, new products can immediately hit the market.
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I always like to hear about people improving their use of technology – especially when that means engaging kids in exciting activities that help them learn. There are some schools that are doing that well – but it’s difficult partially because technology changes so quickly and teachers often do not have the luxury of time to keep up on these changes. So I was delighted to read about a project at Thompson Reuters that got folks in industry working directly with kids…
When a group of Attracta Abulu’s co-workers at Thomson Reuters in Eagan decided to offer computer-coding classes for about 50 middle-school-age children of their colleagues, she jumped at the chance for Obi.
“I knew it was something he would really enjoy,” she said.
By developing those classes, Thomson Reuters programmers joined an informal worldwide initiative of programmers who are working to teach students the language of computers.
“We have to take some of the mystery out of technology so students can understand they can learn to control it,” said Rick King, Thomson Reuters’ chief operating officer for technology. “We want to stimulate more people to think about technology careers.”
Rebecca Schatz, who advocates for more computing education with the website CodeSavvy.org, said there is a “groundswell” of similar programmers worldwide working to pass along skills to the next generation. A group recently launched CoderDojo Twin Cities, a free workshop where students can learn to code, build websites and develop games from mentors who work around the metro area.
“Since it isn’t happening in our schools, it’s rippling up from everywhere else,” Schatz said. “It’s high time for it. It is amazing that it’s 2013 and we are not teaching our kids to code.”
It’s great to see industry and community partners stepping up to fill the gap in education – almost like a call back to mentorship or apprenticeship. I think it’s another sign of the change in the industry of education. Last summer I wrote about another impact of technology on education – specifically the ability to learn online from schools (k12 to top universities) with or without getting credit. I think we’re at a crossroads in education and how we teach will change a lot in the next decade with schools partnering with businesses and offering more personalized solutions to individual students.
Sears Holdings recently launched Fulfilled By Sears, a turnkey fulfillment service for third party merchants, that include products and services for online, in-store, mobile and fulfillment logistics.
“Our goal is to help our clients unify their business across all channels so that however their customers may shop – they have a single cohesive, seamless and delightful experience,” Bill Kiss, Vice President, Chief Digital Marketing Officer, Sears and Kmart Formats, tells WebProNews. “The solutions provided by Sears are designed to be flexible, allowing merchants of any size, shape or form to leverage Sears’ expertise, scale and technologies. Merchants can choose which solutions they need and implementation of the solutions are quick, easy and cost efficient.”
Fulfilled by Sears is competitive with other fulfillment solutions available in the market.
“It offers merchants with an enterprise-level fulfillment solution as a viable option for their business at an affordable price that is transaction based,” Kiss explains.
“Fulfilled by Sears offers a very simple and transparent pricing model without hidden fees,” he says. “For example, we do not have a separate, oversized rate card nor do we have multiple fee structures based on product types. Rather we have one simple rate card based on weight and dimension of the item regardless of the product type.”
“In addition, Fulfilled By Sears merchants can market and sell to ‘SHOP YOUR WAY REWARDS’ Members who buy and spend more, and who recently exceeded 60 percent of Sears transactions and sales,” Kiss says.
Sears promises merchants the instant ability to handle dramatic increases in order volume.
“Sellers can take advantage of Sears’ status as one of the country’s largest online mass merchants, with a sophisticated network of warehouses, technology, distribution centers and online order fulfillment processes,” Kiss says. “The process that handles Fulfilled by Sears orders uses the same fulfillment centers, technology, and workforce that are used for Sears.com orders – so sellers can feel comfortable knowing that spikes in volume are common and our fulfillment services and processes are designed with that in mind.”
They also claim to be able to reduce operating expenses for businesses (always a welcome feature).
“Fulfilled By Sears is a game-changer for sellers of any size seeking a way to grow income and sales without increasing overhead costs like storage, shipping and personnel,” Kiss says. “With Fulfilled by Sears you can cut out the high cost of storing and managing your own inventory and take advantage of Sears’ scale and expertise to grow your business, while avoiding increasing expenses. Plus, Fulfilled By Sears seller fee structure issimple, transparent and easy to understand.”
Merchants aren’t the only ones who will reap the benefits of Fulfilled By Sears, according to the company. Merchants’ customers will also feel some.
“Fulfillment and customer service is backed by Sears – a trusted brand with the distribution system in place to get customers their products quickly and safely,” Kiss says. “Sears Marketplace is an innovative community that allows sellers to sell products on Sears.com. Sellers work with Sears to provide our SHOP YOUR WAY REWARDS Members and customers with millions of additional items and endless aisles of unique products.”
Fulfilled by Sears from Gisteo.com on Vimeo.
Fulfilled By Sears comes in a pay-as-you-go model. It doesn’t charge order handling fees for items sold on sears.com, and without long-term commitments, sellers are free to leave whenever they want.
As of the time of this writing, they’re running a special promotion, where sellers can get zero pick/pack fees for items sold on sears.com and fulfilled by sears, as well as zero storage fees for the month of May, and a 50% rebate on inbound shipping costs if they sign up and ship Sears their inventory by the end of May.
Merchants using Fulfilled By Sears can earn a ” SHOP YOUR WAY Guarantee” badge.
George Jung, the famed drug smugger, whose life story took the big screen form of Blow (starring Johnny Depp as Jung) has been tapped to write the biography of McAfee antivirus founder John McAfee.
Impact Future Media, which secured TV and movie rights to McAfee’s life late last year, while McAfee was in hiding from Belize authorities, is behind the project. The title is No Domain.
“We are honored to be working with George Jung on this once in a lifetime project,” said François Garcia, CEO and Co-founder of Impact Future Media. “Most people know George for being an outlaw, but behind that sits a man who is also one hell of a writer. He is the perfect person to spin this yarn about the enigmatic John McAfee.”
“I feel like I have known George Jung for a very long time. The words he has put down on paper are the very words I would write if my talent for writing was anywhere near as rarified and beautiful as his,” said McAfee. “I am overwhelmed by his efforts, and am most grateful to him.”
Impact Future Media shares an old quote about Jung from Depp: “To Otisville Federal Correctional Institute, he is merely Inmate #19225-004. To me, he is not a number, he’s not a convict, and he’s not a criminal. He’s a great man whose wisdom and knowledge, unfortunately, was greatly overshadowed by the choices and mistakes he made all those years ago when he hadn’t even had time to brush himself off from the conditioning wrought upon him by his parents.”
According to the Federal Bureau of Prisons, Jung is due to be released from prison in November of next year.
Its Official … impfm.com/boston-george-…
— GEORGE JUNG (@THEGEORGEJUNG) April 29, 2013
SGI announced that iVEC and the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) have selected SGI to provide the massive data management infrastructure at the Pawsey Supercomputing Centre. The centre is part of the Australian Government Super Science Initiative to support the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) and the Murchison Widefield Array (MWA) radio astronomy facility.
The ASKAP and MWA projects are expected to generate eight petabytes of data each year, all of which will be stored at the Pawsey center. When data is added from other research areas, the storage estimates are raised to ten petabytes annually. To manage this massive amount of data CSIRO selected an SGI InfiniteStorage and SGI UV 2000 based solution to address the scale and cost-efficiency requirements for a project of this magnitude. The solution comprises disk storage systems and licences to support up to 100 petabytes of online storage that is virtualized across multiple performance tiers by SGI DMF software, with data ingest and workflow managed by SGI LiveArc. The primary six petabytes of storage is integrated with 40 petabytes of data tape libraries and provides expansion capabilities to support a seamless 100-petabyte hierarchical storage management (HSM) online environment.
“iVEC is committed to ensuring Australia maintains its place as a world leader in research and scientific computing, and the Pawsey Centre is a critical pillar in this strategy,” says Neil Stringfellow, iVEC’s executive director. “SGI’s storage and data analysis infrastructure is a vital component of the Pawsey infrastructure. In particular the SGI UV 2000 visualisation system with its very large shared memory capability will enable our researchers to manipulate their data in a completely new way, leading to the potential for new insight and ambitious analysis.”
The SGI UV 2000 based data-analysis engines and visualisation systems are expected to come online shortly after the Pawsey Centre is in production later this fall.
“For decades, SGI has been solving Big Data challenges for researchers across science and industry in an effort to find answers to the world’s toughest challenges,” said Jorge Titinger, president and CEO, SGI. “We are very pleased to support the data management needs of the Pawsey Supercomputing Centre. They are conducting impressive research, and with our InfiniteStorage and UV 2000 technology, will be able to reach results and interactions more quickly. We look forward to continuing this partnership and seeing the Pawsey Centre’s revolutionary solutions to challenges in science.”
People pining for Skype video calls directly in the browser have something to look forward to today, provided they use Outlook.com for their email. On Tuesday, Skype announced a preview of web support for its audio, video and instant messaging services in Firefox, Internet Explorer and Chrome. The service is integrated directly with Outlook.com, making it easier to make and receive Skype calls directly from your inbox.
Skype is rolling out the new service Tuesday in the U.K., with the U.S. and Germany to follow in the coming weeks. Worldwide availability is expected over the next four to five months.
Being based in the U.S., I can’t test Skype over the web just yet, although I’d like to since I use a browser-based Chromebook Pixel as my full time computer. In the meantime then, I’ll have to be satisfied with this Skype demonstration video:
Note that in order to get Skype in Outlook.com you’ll have to install a browser plug-in. That tells me that Microsoft likely isn’t using the WebRTC protocol to enable Skype in the browser even though last year it signaled support for it. Firefox and Chrome already support WebRTC, which natively allows for audio and video calls in browsers without any plug-in required.
It would be nice to see Microsoft eventually open up Skype to browsers without requiring Outlook.com. I doubt it will; at least not for a long while. Kudos to Microsoft from a business perspective, however: it’s a smart play to make the company’s email service more attractive to the millions that already use Skype around the world..
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Sure, today Google is dominant in search, but it may not always be. And while Microsoft is doing its best to hammer on the search giant on privacy-related issues, the threats to Google’s search business, such as the one posed by Apple’s Siri technology, which bypasses search pages entirely, are far more disruptive than an ad campaign.
That is what Kansas City, Mo.-based startup Leap2 hopes its new search site that combines the web, location and social in a way that delivers detailed results while allowing for serendipitous discovery, will be: Disruptive in a way that draws search market share from Google. The startup launches its site Tuesday on mobiles and also said today it had raised $1.6 million in first round funding. The round was led by Dundee Venture Capital, with support from OpenAir Equity, Linseed Capital and the Wichita Technology Corporation.
Mike Farmer, the CEO of Leap2, is no stranger to search, having tried seven years ago with a web site called Kozoru. But this time he thinks that focusing on mobile, as well as bringing in social elements to a search gives end users better results as well as a few nice surprises.
The Leap2 web plus social results page.
For example, when the app opens, you see a home screen that offers the day’s news as a slate of pictures. Some are self-evident and others are perhaps a mystery. Clicking on a picture offers you one of the day’s top news stories. Once you enter a search term, the screens splits in half with the top half showing Twitter results related to the search and the bottom half showing images of the web sites that match your search.
Here’s where it gets dicey. Searches for “the best brunch in Austin” or “tacos and tequila Austin” (it’s a restaurant) worked well. I saw relevant websites, pictures of places, and even tweets from people who were there and a tweet promising me a discount next weekend at a brunch locale. But when I searched for my name and other people’s names, I started running into what is the bane of the mobile web — requests to download apps.
My people searches drew up magazine and LinkedIn results that I couldn’t see without clicking through to the “no thanks” button on the screen that pops up asking me to download a mobile app. I, like the rest of the population, hate those screens. Farmer is hoping that the mobile web becomes less about apps and more about the web soon, but I’m not holding my breath.
Location results page.
Things like the discovery of discounts or even insights from Twitter, (Farmer wants to integrate FourSquare, Yelp and Facebook eventually for the social aspects) plus the integrated location and directions, help make this a contender against Google Now, which I adore for its ability to read my calendar and tell me when to leave the house to make a meeting. Leap2 can’t offer that, and it’s going to face the same challenge that all search engines face, which is enticing users to click on it as opposed to going with the already-integrated search functions.
As for monetization, Farmer said that some time in the future Leap2 will integrate sponsored search results, initially among the social cards on the top half of the screen. The goal will be to play relevant results based on the location, the search or other information gleaned. Farmer gave the example of real-time deals. He plans to have the same image-filled-card-like interface that spans the app now, be the same interface for showing sponsored search ads as well.
The mobile app for iOS and Android launches Tuesday, with the website launching on Wednesday. Give it a try. I thought it was worth using, especially when I’m on the go, as it gives a much richer picture on the small screen than I might otherwise get.
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There is no shortage of confidence in the Hadoop space, and market leader Cloudera bolstered its own on Tuesday with the general availability of its Impala SQL query engine for Hadoop. And if CEO Mike Olson’s comments are any indication, we’re in for a long ride of competitive jockeying and oneupmanship as Cloudera and its peers go all Microsoft or Google and create myriad new data-processing engines to turn their Hadoop distributions into bona fide platforms.
Launched as a private beta in May 2012 and made public in October, Impala is Cloudera’s attempt to address the growing demand for interactive SQL analytics on Hadoop data. It’s essentially a massively parallel database designed to share the same storage platform and metadata as Hadoop MapReduce, only it’s its own separate processing engine.
Impala actually uses the same “nearly ANSI” version of SQL as does current standard bearer Hive, but that technology (created by Facebook in 2009 as a data warehouse layer for Hadoop) doesn’t run nearly fast enough to sate many users’ demands for interactive analytics. This is because Hive transforms SQL queries into MapReduce jobs, meaning every one is processed against the entire corpus of data in the Hadoop Distributed File System.
Only Cloudera isn’t the first to do have the idea, nor is it alone in trying to sell interactive SQL on Hadoop. The idea was first commercialized by Boston-based startup Hadapt in 2011, and is now being pushed by numerous startups and larger Hadoop players. Among them: Pivotal (formerly EMC) Greenplum, MapR (with Drill), Hortonworks (with Stinger), Drawn to Scale, Splice Machine, Jethro Data and Citus Data.
But Cloudera is arguably the biggest name pushing SQL on Hadoop, and CEO Mike Olson thinks Impala stands out for a variety of reasons — not the least of which is that it exists as a product. “Nobody else is shipping production-grade SQL query support on Hadoop,” he told me during a recent call. “At least not in open source.”
He seems content to let the startups do their things, instead focusing his competitive attention on Cloudera’s big three Hadoop-distribution competitors in Pivotal, MapR and Hortonworks. Greenplum and Pivotal SVP Scott Yara was full of confidence — and R&D budget– when the company announced the Pivotal HD distribution and HAWQ technology in February, but Olson claims the approach requires a siloed DBMS within HDFS and is a “rearguard defensive strategy” to protect the company’s sunk costs in its database technology.
As for Hortonworks, Olson questions the wisdom of its Stinger initiative to boost Hive’s speed, noting that “Hive never got good while it was running standalone on MapReduce.” Hortonworks is also partnering with vendors such as Teradata to let their platforms access Hadoop data in its native format, but those approaches still require sending data over the network. “It’s not the way you would build it if you woke up in the 2000s and were building this anew,” Olson said.
Olson acknowledged that the MapR-led Apache Drill project is cut from the same cloth as Impala (that is, being a Google Dremel clone designed specifically for Hadoop), but “the difference is we’re shipping code,” he said. Being generally available and ready for production workloads means Cloudera can lock down users and market share before many even have a chance to experiment with Drill.
He all but dismissed questions over the readiness of Impala, spurred by rumblings in the Hadoop space that Cloudera rushed it into public beta in order to get on the scoreboard against more fully baked offerings. “I don’t feel we’re under the gun competitively to pull it out of beta because no one else has product in the market,” Olson said. “I have no problems … calling this GA quality.”
He did, however, acknowledge that Impala is shipping with a “minium viable feature set” that the company has plans to build on in the near future. Impala Senior Product Manager Justin Erickson noted a few issue of concerns, including around the number of concurrent users Impala can support, but said they have been addressed during the beta period.
Really, though, the whole point of Impala and all of its competitors is to turn Hadoop from a tool for batch analytics and mass storage into a platform that can handle nearly all of companies’ data-processing needs. In that regard, it appears we’re just getting started. Cloudera, MapR, Pivotal Greenplum and Hortonworks are already pushing their own products and projects, and Olson said “it’s absolutely our intent” to enhance Cloudera’s platform with even more open-source products — perhaps even more database technologies — that will let users do more stuff with more types of data.
Over time, this strategy could result in Hadoop displacing the current breed of databases and data warehouses and becoming the single data store atop of which users run whatever applications they so desire. For now, though, especially when it comes to Impala and the data warehouse incumbents, Olson is taking a measured approach. “The likelihood that we’re going to knock them off in the near term,” he said, “… it would be a tough fight to win.”
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Everyone’s favorite electronics hobby shop, Adafruit has posted instructions for building your own HAL 9000 replica out of a big red button, an Arduino board, and some cleverly cut plastic. Best of all? With the press of a button you can make HAL tell you want to do – until you kill it.
HAL is mostly made of laser cut plastic parts and a few nice decals. His brains are a Arduino Uno R3 with speakers attached and his jolly red button is a $10 arcade button. Best of all, the buttons come in white, blue, and green so you can make your own weird version of HAL that lives in an alternate 2001 universe.
To be clear, this is not an exact replica. However, it’s cool enough to, say, act as a cubicle charm or workspace novelty that will allow you, the human, to triumph over the encroaching hellfire of technological domination.