Future of Search

3-4 days before i was reading some exciting news about legendary XEROX's Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) is going to license Natural Language Search(NLS) technology to Powerset, a startup company in Silicon valley that aims to build a better search engine than Google.It's a welcome news as today's search engine market has become unwanted 3 horse race(Google,Yahoo,Windows Live).

NLS is really a great vision and out of the box thinking as today's search market is mostly about advertising dollars.I am sure NLS is on the radars of Googles and Yahoos but it is yet to take off to main stream.Understanding natural language queries and retrieving relevant natural Language information only, presents a big challenge to these companies.But there are other problems like lack of availability of natural language content at disposal on net and the interface to enter natural language still not evolved.Recently companies like IBM,Microsoft invested some efforts to solve this interface mechanism like natural language speach recognition.

In fact companies like Baidu out performed Google and Yahoo in Chinese Market.This clearly shows how important NLS to attract everybody to search information.In India,if you see we adopted English as main stream language in internet search.This forced adoption of English mainly due to lack of technologies which can enable people to search and retrieve information in their own language.This is a clear evidence that there is a big big room for improvement in current search technology and it's far from perfect.

Another interesting development that took place recently is that European Mobile Service Providers(MSP) want to build their own search engine rather than adopting Google or Yahoo to serve their customers search queries from phones.With this they are hoping to trap advertising revenues from Mobile phone search.Currently Google and Yahoo do not share search revenues with carriers and at the same time escalating threat from disruptive technologies like VoIP prompted European MSPs to involve in this collective effort to improve revenue figures.But it really takes a big effort to convince customers to search from tiny screens.

There are other things like Contextual search,Localized search,Optimized results of cross search etc.The message is that at the end of the day customer should be presented with rich search experience irrespective of his mother tongue,location and that seems like a far cry at least for now.

Mobile Phone Networking

One of my Bangalore friend seeing a good vision in Mobile Phone Searching space and he wants to know whether consumers are ready for it and i request ,if you are happened to be visitor to my blog don't forget to take part in this small survey which can give some much needed input to my friend's vision.Personally i see a great potential in this market space as Mobile Phone is going to be mini computer in the coming days and it is already evident that companies like Microsoft,Apple,Google,Yahoo and some startups investing some great efforts to bring new dimension to innovation locked Mobile phone market.

If you ask me i'll always tell you that i would prefer web based mobile phone networking infrastructure rather than traditional one.But I don't think this will happen very soonly as Mobile Phone Service Providers (MSP) are invested heavily in building network infrastructure.I believe MSPs should upgrade existing infrastructure into some kind of Wi -Max platform and this along with raising numbers of Wi-Fi enabled hand held devices sold will present a great picture for the future of mobile phone market.This situation presents great opportunity for entrepreneurs,third party application developers who can create innovative value added services which currently accounts for only 19% of total revenues.Then VoIP based calls gives consumers more freedom to talk and it provides a great platform to distribute community created content like Video,Photos,Voice,Games etc.I may be talking about ideal situation but this is going to be eventuality in the hand held market.May be we can see hard core mobile computing from 2008 at least.

Quick changing world

The last 2 weeks vouch for how dynamic and uncertain the technology industry is and it has seen some of the most significant events like Vista's launch(Microsoft's flagship product after 5 long years),Michael Dell's return to hot seat(Back to CEO position),Steve jobs DRM theory,Zune phone rumors,Yahoo Panama launch(Online ad platform to trap search revenues),Apple's foray in casual gaming,Yahoo Pipes,Amazon,TiVo's Unbox(To download Movies,TV shows to watch on TV) and many more to list.

Let me look into some of these events briefly.First Microsoft's much hyped Vista which debuted along with another Flagship product Office 2007 on Jan 30.It took off well with good reviews for it's improved security features and eye candy look and feeling except for some speach recognition flaw and fight with anti virus software makers Symantec,Mcafee.Watch out for Microsoft's quarterly results this year.Bill gates and Ballmer both emphasized that Vista is not the last hurray for MS as most of the techno fraternity thought,'coz of Microsoft's increased focus on web based services and it's forced adoption of Software as Service model.They are investing heavily on Security,Gaming,Windows Live Services and consumer and life style space which clearly tells that Microsoft is going through a great transition period.Apple Inc. remains to be a great threat for MS as Apple releasing their most advanced OS Leopard this spring which can pouch some of the wannable vista upgraders(Apple's delayed version of iTunes for vista a clear evidence).The biggest threat to MS is most people haven't tasted Apple products so far and many of them wants to try now(As Apple have become most recognized brand after iPod success)as it is evident by the increased sales of Mac Books.

The biggest reason for Zune's flop is it's lack of aesthetic design and lack of USP.It clearly failed to distinguish it self in the Market place as Microsoft simply tried to clone iPod and it's wi-fi feature also couldn't save it.I cant' imagine Microsoft would release iPhone killer without saving it's dying Zune(supposed to be iPod Killer).Microsoft can still save Zune by promoting gaming in Zune('coz they already have strong foot print in gaming market with the XBOX success) and this is best time for them as apple is in talks with EA to design games for iPhone,iPod. MS should try to differentiate themselves rather than simply cloning to get Market share.As i am writing this,i got to know from crunchgear blog that Zune Phone is almost confirmed .It seems Microsoft never give up their Money throw-Monkey business approach.

At Dell Inc. it's purely Dell.I mean Michael Dell's return to CEO position after missing quarterly results in 2006.He also reduced the no.of people who directly reports to CEO from 20 to 12.It has much to do with Mark Hurd led HP's revival in PC Business with aggressive strategies.There is also rumor that Dell Inc. is facing pressure from private equity firms and these are really challenging times for Michael Dell to turn it around.All the best Dell and you may need to take a leaf or two from Steve Jobs' book.

Steve Jobs thoughts on Music came after the Norwegian Consumer Council has deemed Fairplay (iTunes DRM) illegal in Norway with the possibility of France and Germany following suit.Apple's DRM(Digital Rights management) technology restricts files downloaded from the iTunes store from being played only on iPod and not other music players.This is true with Microsoft's Zune,Sandisk's Sansa as well.Jobs says only 10% of the music sold is DRM protected and remaining 90% goes on sale in the form of CDs which can be cloned easily and he says if big 5 Music companies permits his iTunes store ready to sell Music without DRM.I am still confused about what could be the solution in this case as every portable player maker wants to take the advantage of DRM free music.Let's hope industry finds long term solution to this problem as Music is ever green market.

Yahoo's Project Panama, the web giant's Ad platform for it's search engine at last in action.With this they are hoping to tap advertising dollars to be in battle with google and winning back investor's confidence as Yahoo is also under pressure from Private equity firms(I hope this is rumor only).2 Days before Yahoo also launched Pipes service (a word from Unix) which allows you to aggregate data from one or more resources like feeders.I was already using newsgator service to collect news from various sources and it makes life easy and saves time.Today i tried Yahoo pipes and it's good and can do more than aggregating.

These days all biggies are fighting for living room space and Amazon-TiVo deal is the latest in that.After Apple Inc.unveiled it's vision about iTV(Now called Apple TV) almost all High-Tech companies who are in consumer space rolled out their plans.This is a converged world and Internet-TV convergence is long awaited one and many companies are trying to make it happen.Microsoft was one of the early players in web TV and they lost momentum and couldn't achieve their vision. Joost(Earlier the Project Venice),by Skype founders is one more example in that which is about delivering High-definition Video streaming based on P2P technology and it's still in invitation based beta testing.Watch out,Google is warning web can't support streaming and video.Then what about $1.6bn they paid to bought Youtube ,which is also about streaming video.Anyway,the message is clear.I feel in 2 yrs time from now, we can see fully converged world of TV-Internet.

Is Information Powerful?

I always wondered whether information is really powerful?Is every one of us really able to enjoy the fruits of advances in technology?Are developing countries able to take the advantage of internet?Certainly No.There are no.of reasons but i think primary could be following.

Lack of Internet and PC penetration.But i don't think this alone solves the problem and there needs to be right kind of training for people who use it and the user interface should be as simple as Television(Easiest to use and even a house wife adopts) and there is also lack of availability of natural language content at disposal .This lack of push button computing technologies and technology for the sake of technology approach of many High-Tech companies making consumers increasingly loosers.

Lack of internet penetration always makes life difficult for internet start ups(google,skype wannables) in developing countries and you end up loosing even if you got great idea and market.For example in india,internet is mostly used by Corporate workers,College Students and these two categories almost represent more than 90% total internet user base in india. But many of these users again uses Cyber cafes,Offices to surf net and very few surf internet from home.The question is can you build digital life around cyber cafes and offices?

In this case possible solution could be Mobile phone 'coz that's like a poor man's computer in a country like India.In 2006 alone more than 1bn Mobile phones sold around the world and countries like India and China representing major portion in that.But the closed game of Handset manufacturer-Service provider severly denting the chances of exploting innovative services in this market.For example in india most of the WAP services are locked to service provider.There needs to be a open and flexible platform in Mobile Phone market which can enable entrepreneurs to take advantage and create innovative services to empower the new way of information distribution.

Where skype gone?

Skype started like a rebel when it took on telecom industry.After E-Bay acquired it there is not much news from skype and no more rebel applications.Skype seems to be yet another victim of M&As.I hope i am wrong but off late there has been much talk going on podcasting and unfortunately most people still have a wrong perception that podcasting is limited to iPod.But i often wondered if podcasting having that much potential why didn't anybody bring it to mobile phones?I had given thought to it many times but delivering podcasts for free of cost on mobile phones seems really a costly affair and no advertiser wants to rally with you until your service tastes some success.There seems to be no perfect business model and proven player in this podcasting industry.Steve Jobs called it 'Future Radio'.What about voice social networks?Is that next killer application? Social network sites should start promoting voice.Hmm...hope we can solve this conundrum soonly.

Will you buy iPhone

As expected Apple announced phone version of iPod which will debut the market six months from now with a initial price tag of $499(4Gb model),$599(8Gb model) and cingular as the service provider.They also renamed the company as Apple Inc and they increasingly becoming Media and entetainment company where apple already distinguished themselves with innovative iTunes service.
Apple already controlling 75% MP3 Market in US and this new model could also take off well 'coz loyal iPod fans.But i am little skeptic about this hype and hoopla.
1)Isn't $499 too much for phone?
2)It may start off well but apple has to find a way to exercise price tag in the Version 2. like it did in iPod's case.
3)Is zune Microsoft's much hyped yet modest can bring new features and innovation to the market rather than staying copycat?(As Microsoft palnning Europe launch of Zune in the end of 2007)
4)May be by Q1 of 2008 market will be crowded with iPhone clones from handset leaders like Nokia,Motorola,Samsung and ericsson.
5)Will apple allow 3rd party applications,accessories for iPhone?If yes,that could change the landscape of closed game of hand set-service provider.
Apple really have tough game ahead to play it seems.

Got off the Mark

At last it seems happening after many scraps and i am sure i am gonna put some of the exciting and happening stuff here.Watch out.....