The Rise of the ‘netbook’ – and is it hurting Apple?

It is not a surprise but the ‘netbook’ style and size of machine appear to be making a bull run even in a bear market. And some Mac users have made the move and others are considering it. Most ‘netbooks’ run Windows (XP for now mostly) or a version of Linux. I’ve got a super-netbook like Toshiba Protege and I gotta say I love it. If the G-Phone isn’t ready for prime time well this make room for more netbooks. I am not seeing covergence in mobile devices instead I see people havein many mobile devices to serve a specific need or mode, its sort of like bags (luggage) and shoes. Hmmm, anyway need to ponder this trend some more.

Rumors of New Digital Head at Microsoft

This is from BoomTown:

Former Yahoo Tech Star Qi Lu Likely to Be Named Microsoft’s Digital Head by Next Week

Interesting for me, as this is the division within MS that I work. Looks like a smart move, but to be confirmed if it is true. It sure would be fun to be at MS while they really start to innovate in search and go after the big G.

Side note: Yahoo!, which was a great company but man how far have they fallen. That’s gotta suck.

UPDATE: yes, this rumor was true and more here from BT. And he is a genius.

Interview with Mr Ballmer – interesting stuff

There is a nice recap of an interview that MSFT CEO Steve Ballmer gave last week at the Churchill Club in Silicon Valley on Seeking Alpha. This is worth a quick read – it will only take 7 mins. During the Q&A Mr Ballmer let a few “zingers” fly:

Ballmer also let off a few zingers in the Q&A session.

• One attendee complained about the unreliability of Windows – Ballmer said he’d fix his computer himself after the talk before giving a more serious answer.
• When asked about advertising supported websites, Ballmer stated that there are very few sites that can run their business on advertising alone today. He used Facebook (a Microsoft partner) as an example, and said there was still a lot of work to be done there to figure out monetization.
• In response to one question about education, Ballmer said he thought we weren’t doing enough to teach our children about computer science, and that computer programming knowledge should be a requirement for high school graduation.

I have to say, I agree about the ad model not being able to support everything online! He also made an interesting remark about advertising software (or technology). The tech area is one MSFT is doing some great stuff in and a space that appears to be out of fashion while a lot other companies (YHOO, AOL, Fox Interactive) are focused on media and ad networks.

There is still a lot of upside that will come from ad technology that is then applied in smart ways to solve business digital advertising problems (inventory mgt, optimization, automation, etc). And IMHO the tech side will not ultimately be dominated by Google – this is where publishers can take back control. Man, I’ve got to find time to work on my ‘RISK’ thought piece outlining how to win as a publisher vs. GOOG. Next time I am at the beach.

Microsoft Builds a New Mouse Trap – its called BrowseRank

Microsoft Research has come up with a new and novel way to rank search results based on user beahviour. The alogorithm is called BrowerRank and is a rival methond to Google’s famous PageRank. Over on News.com there is a very good review of the work and you see the orignal release for MS Research over HERE and the research paper is HERE (pdf).

Where there is Smoke, Fire is FAST to Follow

It is not the best of summers so far for enterprise search player Fast Search & Transfer (FAST – now owned by Microsoft) as additional squalid (TC piece HERE – with lots of details and a translated text of a Norwegian article) and one might say ‘dirty’ details from FAST’s accounting issues continue to be reported. The Norwegian press seems to smell blood in the water and are circling like true pack of ‘hack’ jackals.

Let’s hope that somehow the company gets through this maelstrom and can capitalize on the synergies (that I pointed out earlier in the year) that they can bring to the Microsoft in the media space. Just imagine having a network of publishers with all that content, all those users, all that site search traffic and with technology provided by the ‘publisher’ friendly folks from Redmond (not the Googleplex)? There is a serious play waiting to be exploited using those content assets with MSFT tech resources that still allows the publishers to stay in control… I will call this the ‘meta network’ concept for now (need to flesh it out and post back at a later date on some details).

Microsoft buying Powerset – adding to the search arsenal

Microsoft has announced plans to buy natural language search player Powerset for a reposted $100M (FT.com). This deal will help MSFT in the search war with Google. No surprise on this deal as Powerset has some very cool technology. This SFGate piece on the company is worth a quick read.

Engagement Mapping – funny videos



You can find the full set of these videos on the AtlasVids Channel.

Microsoft Making Waves in Europe

Microsoft made two interesting announcements so far this week in Europe. The 1st shows strong momentum in the ad serving space with a series of new publishers taking MSFT advertising technology products designed for large publishers. This shows growth across Europe and a continued commitment to the publisher side of the online ad ecosystem.

The 2nd announcement – European Search Techology Centre to deepen investments in Live Search – is much more exciting as it show more commitment to search and specifically to the European market. Setting up a search technology (R&D) hub in Europe is significant. And with such a large war chest of money and no sign of a Yahoo deal, one would anticipate lots of investment on this initiative… I can see many interesting ways for Microsoft to disrupt the search landscape in positive ways in Europe. Watch this space.

[Disclaimer: I work for Microsoft, however the above are my own thoughts and not based on any insider knowledge.]

Over on AdViking

So from now on the majority of my online advertising and search related posts will be over on AdViking. The focus of AFullerView will narrow or perhaps widen to Web 2.0, local search, green issues, science and whatever else inspire me to post (ie – random stuff, funny things etc). Here the latest posts on AdViking:

• Another Reason Why Brand Ads Matter Online
• Glassdoor.com: Proof for Niche Verticals or Bubble 2.0?
• Is Microsoft Becoming More Aware of Publisher Conflict?

 

FAST is now a Microsoft Subsidiary

Microsoft closed its acquisition of enterprise search company FAST last Friday. This deal was originally announced back in January.