Amazon (AMZN) said today that its S3 utility storage service now holds more than 10 billion objects, meaning that S3 has doubled in size since its April announcement that it had reached 5 billion objects. Amazon said that more than 290,000 developers have signed up to use AWS since its launch in March 2006.
The company also announced that it was expanding S3 to allow customers to store objects on the company's infrastructure in Europe, a development that could broaden international adoption of the service.
S3 is a "cloud" storage service offering scalable storage infrastructure, with fees based on usage. It has been widely used by Web 2.0 providers such as the photo sharing service SmugMug, which said S3 helped it save $1 million over the course of a year. The service, along with Amazon's EC2 cloud computing offering, has had periodic performance issues, leading Amazon to offer a service level agreement (SLA) last month.
The location of data centers is an important issue in storage, as many countries have regulatory guidelines mandating that companies store customer data within their borders. This was a factor in storage specialist Iron Mountain's decision to open new data centers in Canada. A number of European countries have similar guidelines.
"Since the U.S. launch of Amazon S3, developers in Europe have asked us to add the ability to store data in Europe," said Adam Selipsky, Vice President of Product Management and Developer Relations for Amazon Web Services. "They wanted the same high quality, low cost service, but with lower latency and local data storage. We've been working hard to make this a reality and are excited to offer Amazon S3 from European datacenters."
Martin Gill, Head of New Media for Comic Relief, said S3's "enormous scalability, combined with the legal benefits of holding data and assets within the EU, makes the European storage of Amazon S3 a brilliant early Christmas present for us." Comic Relief will use S3 to support its fundraising efforts in the UK.
If I wasn’t happily married, I’d ask Liz Gannes to marry me. The NewTeeVee reporter points to a Forrester report - the most bullish ever, by far - that US video ads will hit $7.1B by 2012. Obviously, this must be true. As we have done over the years, we’re updating our “video ad market tale of the tape accordingly:
An estimate of the US online video ad market for 2009 - set in 2004: $657 million | Source. An estimate of the US online video ad market for 2009 - set in 2005: $1.5 billion | Source. An estimate of the US online video ad market for 2010 - set in 2006: $2.3 billion | Source. An estimate of the US online video ad market for 2010 - set in late 2006: $3 billion | Source. An estimate of the US online video ad market for 2011 - set in late 2007: $4.3 billion | Source. An estimate of the worldwide online video ad market for 2011 - set in 2007: $10 billion | Source. An estimate of the US online video ad market for 2012 - set in 2007: $7.1 billion | Source.
Here’s the graph, so it must be true:
No comment. Actually, as bullish as that sounds, look at the historical, actual growth in search ads:
By the way, my crazy post that web ads will surpass TV ads by 2021 isn’t so crazy now, is it? Let’s admit that such projections are self-serving, notwithstanding that, if search ads will be over $16B by 2012 and web video ads will be over $7.1B by 2012, right there, you are at $23B… my projections done earlier this year put 2012 ad revenues online at $36B. So figure search + video = $23B, that means classifieds, display/banners, sponsorships need to weigh in at $14B to make the numbers hold up. And, if we’re right about 2012, can we be that far off for our 2021 projection?
"Google Phone" turned out to be a mobile platform and not a phone optimized for running Google apps. "Android is the first truly open and comprehensive platform for mobile devices. It includes an operating system, user-interface and applications -- all of the software to run a mobile phone, but without the proprietary obstacles that have hindered mobile innovation," announced Andy Rubin on the Google Blog. Android was launched as part of the Open Handset Alliance, an organization that has a lot of other important members: Sprint Nextel, T-Mobile, Intel, NVIDIA, LG, Motorola, eBay, Nuance Communications and more.
The goal: "through deep partnerships with carriers, device manufacturers, developers, and others, we hope to enable an open ecosystem for the mobile world by creating a standard, open mobile software platform". The SDK will be available on November 12 and the first devices based on Android should be launched next year.
"Through Android, developers, wireless operators and handset manufacturers will be better positioned to bring to market innovative new products faster and at a much lower cost. (...) The Android platform will be made available under one of the most progressive, developer-friendly open-source licenses, which gives mobile operators and device manufacturers significant freedom and flexibility to design products. Developers will have complete access to handset capabilities and tools that will enable them to build more compelling and user-friendly services, bringing the Internet developer model to the mobile space. And consumers worldwide will have access to less expensive mobile devices that feature more compelling services, rich Internet applications and easier-to-use interfaces -- ultimately creating a superior mobile experience," explains the press release.
Android is based on the Linux Kernel and has some interesting particularities. "Android does not differentiate between the phone's core applications and third-party applications. They can all be built to have equal access to a phone's capabilities providing users with a broad spectrum of applications and services. (...) Android breaks down the barriers to building new and innovative applications. For example, a developer can combine information from the web with data on an individual's mobile phone -- such as the user's contacts, calendar, or geographic location -- to provide a more relevant user experience. With Android, a developer could build an application that enables users to view the location of their friends and be alerted when they are in the vicinity giving them a chance to connect. (...) Android provides access to a wide range of useful libraries and tools that can be used to build rich applications. For example, Android enables developers to obtain the location of the device, and allow devices to communicate with one another enabling rich peer-to-peer social applications."
It seems that Andy Rubin didn't forget the principles used when he built Sidekick: a great platform for developers, always connected to the network and that doesn't cost too much. In less than a week, Google announced two important initiatives that contain the word "open": OpenSocial and now Open Phone Alliance, but Android seems much more open and more meaningful for developers and users.
In a conference call that followed the announcement, Eric Schmidt said that an Android phone "with a real browser, won't need customized programs and websites, so it'll be easy for devs to support the phone by supporting any desktop browser". Apparently, the browser is a very strong point of the phone. By bringing the web closer to mobile phones, Google could become even more important in people's lives of and could increase its reach.
Here are some new iGoogle themes that will probably added soon to the customization dialog (the descriptions are from Google). To add one of these themes to the active tab, go to iGoogle and type in the address bar the JavaScript code you'll find below. Then click on "Save" in "Select a Theme For This Tab", without selecting any theme. The first theme (Solar System) changes daily, while the rest of them change depending on the time of the day.
Solar System: For those of you who like to space out, this theme will help you do so. Enjoy a different scene from our solar system on your iGoogle homepage, each day of the week.
Go to iGoogle and type in the address bar: javascript:_dlsetp('preview_skin=skins/planets.xml');
Autumn: The leaves are falling and the air is crisp. It's fall, and the raccoons are enjoying every bit of it. Follow them through the day as they tackle the onslaught of leaves and prepare for a barbecue feast.
Go to iGoogle and type in the address bar: javascript:_dlsetp('preview_skin=skins/autumns.xml');
Hong Kong: It's the Hong Kong skyline in soft beautiful colors. Add this lively cosmopolitan city to your homepage and watch as the day goes by.
Go to iGoogle and type in the address bar: javascript:_dlsetp('preview_skin=skins/hongkong.xml');
J. R.: Introducing J.R., the friendly giant monster who makes his home on your iGoogle homepage. Follow him throughout the day as he keeps himself busy going about his daily chores and hanging out with his friends.
Go to iGoogle and type in the address bar: javascript:_dlsetp('preview_skin=skins/jr.xml');
Aja Tiger: From the cave looking out, follow the Aja Tiger through the day and the seasons. This Korean theme is a fun and friendly one for your iGoogle homepage.
Go to iGoogle and type in the address bar: javascript:_dlsetp('preview_skin=skins/tiger.xml');
Google China is playing around with a new homepage prototype at google.cn/hp?sp=china. At this time this is an alternative, not a replacement to the existing, more minimalist Google.cn, and it’s also not even linked from the Google China homepage yet... might be Google is only test-driving this for now.
What you can see on this page – check the screenshot with automated English translations added – is a lot of content; a push model vs the Google.com pull model, more suited for guiding people around (Yahoo/ portal-style) than relying on people always knowing exactly what they’re looking for. There’s tabs for music, TV stuff, games, software links and more. There are Google tools to choose from like the Google Input Method Editor (to transliterate Pinyin keyboard input into Chinese letters), or the Google toolbar. The tool links are showing an animated icon when you hover over them, similar to what happens at Google Korea. There’s the hot searches of the day, and a directory-style navigation below (the data to which we met earlier this year during the release of daohang.google.cn).
Sometimes the PR materials are so full of noise that they become more interesting than the actual product they’re supposed to advertise. Such is the case with Clickster, a desktop software application which searches MP3s on web sites and lets you rip them from MySpace profiles and Shoutcast’s radio stream.
We’ve seen a fair share of MP3 search engines, but what makes Clickster interesting is their claim that their way of downloading MP3s is perfectly legal and free. I’m definitely not the one to advocate the fight against music sharing, but I honestly don’t see what separates Clickster from any other search engine that grabs MP3s from a zillion blogs and other sites that post songs with dubious legal origin.
Even the screenshot of the free version of Clickster from Remlap site displays songs from a Libertines album. Now, Libertines were a British Band signed with the label Rough Trade Records. If you download those songs for free from the internet, wouldn’t you think that Rough Trade will probably consider this to be piracy?
Consider this excerpt from Clickster’s PR pamphlet:
“Unlike peer to peer networks that are increasingly coming under pressure from western governments and the recording industry to crack down on illegal file sharers Clickster provides a safe, fast and comprehensive alternative, directly sourcing over 30 million mp3’s hosted on web servers.”
Yeah, right. Downloading copyrighted music without paying for it will be frowned upon by the music industry, regardless of whether you’re using http or some p2p protocol to download.
The fact that Clickster can rip music off MySpace profiles or Shoutcast streams sounds nice enough from the user’s standpoint, but since the recording industry has been trying to prevent such actions for years, once again I doubt one can consider this to be a legal way to freely download music.
Don’t get me wrong: I’m not saying that the recording industry is right at everything they do to prevent music sharing. But on the other hand, simply saying that something is “legal” and “free” won’t make it so.
Handset Alliance to create an open platform (to be called Android) for a Linux phone that can run mobile Google apps and others. The 34 partners include T-Mobile, Sprint Nextel, NTT Docomo, China Mobile, Telefonica, Telecom Italia, Motorola, Samsung, HTC, Qualcomm, Intel, and Google itself. No mention of Verizon, AT&T, Vodafone, or Nokia (which is pushing its own Ovi development platform). Here is the press release. Writes Andy Rubin, the man behind the Google Phone. :
Despite all of the very interesting speculation over the last few months, we’re not announcing a Gphone. However, we think what we are announcing — the Open Handset Alliance and Android — is more significant and ambitious than a single phone. In fact, through the joint efforts of the members of the Open Handset Alliance, we hope Android will be the foundation for many new phones and will create an entirely new mobile experience for users, with new applications and new capabilities we can’t imagine today
Android is the first truly open and comprehensive platform for mobile devices. It includes an operating system, user-interface and applications — all of the software to run a mobile phone, but without the proprietary obstacles that have hindered mobile innovation.
Reports started trickling out last week that Google is ready to announce its Gphone, or rather Gphones. It is more a reference design, than a single phone. Android-based phones will start to come out on the market in the latter half of 2008 (from HTC at minimum). One mobile startup CEO I know says he was contacted on Friday by Google and given the final go-ahead to port his app onto Android, which his company has not even started to work on yet. The software development kit will be available on November 12. Today’s announcement is just that. There is nothing concrete here in terms of products or services, but going mobile represents a major growth opportunity for Google, which wants to bring the Internet (along with search and contextual ads) to your phone.
John Biggs at CrunchGear is liveblogging the conference call, and he is also streaming the audio
Here are my notes from the call:
Google CEO Eric Schmidt notes there are 3 billion mobile users. He says:
“We want to create a whole new experience for mobile users.”
“This will be the first fully-integrated software stack, including an operating system and middleware, being made available under the most liberal open-source license ever given to mobile operators [and handset makers].”
“This is not an announcement of a Gphone. We hope thousands of different phones will be powered by Android. This will make possible all sorts of applications that have never been made available on a mobile device.”
He think s a”lack of a collaborative effort” is what has been keeping back the mobile Web. Android will help developers reduce complexities and costs across different mobile devices.
“Mobile software complexity and cost is increasing, but mobile users want the same apps as they have on the Internet. Android will be able to deliver on this.”
Sergey Brin: “As I look at it I reflect, ten years ago I was sitting at a graduate student cubicle. We were able to build incredible things,. There was a set of tools that allowed us to do that. It was all open technologies. It was based on Linux, GNU, Apache. All those pieces and many more allowed us to do great things and distribute it to the world. That is what we are doing today, to allow people to innovate on today’s mobile devices. Today’s mobile devices are more powerful than those computers I was working on just ten years ago. I cannot wait to see what today’s innovators will build.”
No ad-supported phones, says Andy Rubin in Q&A: “Part of this Android solution is a very robust HTML Web browser, so there is really no difference between browsing on a phone [and on a PC]. Contrary to speculation, you won’t see a completely ad-driven phone on this platform for some time.” But he confirms that this plays into Google’s overall advertising strategy by bringing a more fully functioning Web browser to the handset. Notes that Android will require at minimum the equivalent of a 200 MHz ARM 9 processor. The platform is open source, and that will be its competitive advantage over other mobile platforms.
Schmidt: “The best model is to be open. that is what the Internet has taught us. The test of course is whether the applications and developers emerge. The reason we are announcing now is to make sure developers have time to make available applications that have never been available before but are common on Macs and PCs.”
And not that he is announcing anything, but: “If you were to build Gphone, you would build it on this platform.”
Qs about ability of carriers to lock down devices. Rubin: “When you free something into the open it is up to the industry to do something with it.” (i.e., it is not Google’s problem).
Q: “So if the industry wanted to create completely locked down devices, that would be possible?”
And Rubin: “Yes.”
Schmidt: “While that is possible, it is highly unlikely.” Uh-huh, what planet does he live on?
Q: Any overlap with OpenSocial?
Schmidt: “Google announces products whenever they are ready, and the teams are different. OpenSocial will be a framework that will run extremely well on Android for all the obvious reasons. Developers building interesting social apps will have the benefit of mobility as Android becomes widespread.”
Dell says it will pay $1.4B in cash to buy EqualLogic, which sells storage units for virtualization. This is huge win for management and investors, who put in only $52M. Backers include Charles River Ventures, Sigma Partners, Focus Ventures and TD Capital.
EqualLogic had exected to complete an IPO by the end of this year and had filed an S1. For 2006, EqualLogic had $68M in revenue and lost $4.3M. In the first nine months of 2007, it had $91M in revenue and lost $1.9M.
Storage has become Dell's fastest-growing business unit and the company is pushing to increase its offering there with EqualLogic.
Is your life lacking some much needed direction? Things to do before you die. Goals to accomplish by the years end. People you'd like to meet, places to visit. Most everyone has a list of things they'd like to accomplish-- ambitions, goals, and dreams they want to follow through with. But what happens? Dreams fall to the wayside, life gets in the way so to speak. Somehow you've managed none of your goals, or perhaps you really hadn't any in the first place. those may help you.
MoveMoutains helps you achieve your goals. The site basically acts as a life coach, but you don't need pay for their services. It’s actually free.
eLifeList is a social network centered around goals, or as the site creators call them Life Lists. This is essentially an inventory of things you want to accomplish during your lifetime
This goal-oriented site brings together a community of similarly minded people whose aim is to help each other accomplish their aspirations and thus live their lives to the fullest. Members of the site can join in on preset goals and they can search for pals who want to achieve the same things. There’s a whole community at work here, so you’ll never feel alone.
Optimost offers more experience across a wider range of industries than anyone else in the field. That experience is not only in their technology, but also in their professional services, which encompass everything from test planning and design all the way through implementation and data analysis.
This site will help you keep track of all your goals. Once you've registered simply jot down your goals (quick description, title) and the date by which you'd like to accomplish them.
LifeTango lets you make the most of your life by helping you create a Life List. Can't think of anything? Let the brainstorming wizard take over. Browse other people's goals
SuperViva is a site which can help you make that happen. Basically, you make a list of all your life goals, whether they be tiny minutiae, or lifelong tasks. Of course, if you haven’t got any ideas on your own you can take a tour of other people’s life lists and get inspired from there; check out the idea inventory and the idea lists.
Snap.com will launch the Snap Shots Ad Network Monday at Ad:Tech, a new program that allows advertisers and ad networks to deliver context-based ads to Snap Shots users.
Snap Shots, for those not familiar with the service, are the little site preview windows that pop up on websites with the service enabled, mouse over the image at the end of this link to Snap.com for a demo.
Under the new program, each time a Snap Shot is triggered, the Snap Shot window reveals both the information the user specifically requests and a context-based ad centered directly where the viewer’s eyes are focused. The focus of the ads is said to be better as the are contextually served against a specific link, ignoring other information on the same page that may otherwise result is lower quality contextual results.
Snap.com has over 2,000,000 Web site operators, bloggers and individual Web surfers currently using Snap Shots served via a webpage or browser. The Snap Shots service is used approximately 15 million times daily and is available in 43 different languages.
The Snap Shots Ad Network will initially offer three ad formats that include simple banners and text to expandable rich media, with ad serving provided by DoubleClick.
