Google Archive

As soon as the announcement was made at Google IO this morning that all 5,000 attendees would be received the yet-to-be-released Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1″ tablet, I joked around with some friends that tonight we would see the first batch listed on eBay. I figured they would be priced at about $1,000 if we assume that a “limited edition”, “not for sale” version would bring in about a 30% premium.

Well I was wrong on both fronts…the first two auctions are now online on eBay for the tablet.

The two auctions are:

• Auction 1 – A buy-it-now price of $1,699 plus $10 shipping, currently with no bids. This is a one-day auction. UPDATE: This auction has ended with a final price of $1,358 with 25 bids.
• Auction 2 – A buy-it-now price of $1,999 or make best offer with free expedited shipping. This is a three-day auction.
• A few more tablets have started to appear on eBay – ranging from $900-$2,000.

Update #1 – the first tablet has hit Craigslist – the best deal so far for $800.

I will update this post as I see more auctions and listings appear online. My guess is that we will see about 100 of the Samsung Galaxy Tab tablets appear for sale within the next 24-48 hours.

Last week I was the first to report that Google Video would be removing the ability to watch hosted videos and would delete the videos effective May 13, 2011. I also created a how-to guide to help you download your Google Video hosted videos in the event that the download button wasn’t visible in your account.

Shortly after my post, Francine Hardaway posted on Twitter that she wondered why Google Video didn’t just create a simple Google Video-to-YouTube converter. Many others posted similar comments (some using expletives) both on Twitter and on CN.

Today Google announced they have created an easy way to move your Google Video hosted videos to YouTube.  The Google post notes, “we will be working to automatically migrate your Google Videos to YouTube.” You can also go ahead and migrate your videos to YouTube now. To do so, you need to make sure your YouTube and Google accounts are connected and then it’s as simple as clicking the “Upload videos to YouTube” option.

The best part about the migration tool is that Google is working to make sure your links won’t break and will be forwarded to YouTube. I am not sure if that includes embedded videos or just links to hosted videos.

It’s great to see that Google has listened to user feedback and created a quick transfer option.

(title came from suggestion from Ed Tatton)

One of my colleagues in Switzerland just forwarded an email from Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) which includes a very important update regarding the Google Video service.  Two years ago Google announced that they would discontinue support for uploads to Google Video. At that time Google noted, “Don’t worry, we’re not removing any content hosted on Google Video — this just means you will no longer be able to upload new content to the service.”

It appears that might be changing. The email below (in German) basically includes the following changes:

• As of April 29, 2011, you will no longer be able to view videos hosted on Google Video
• As of May 13, 2011, you will no longer be able to download videos hosted on Google Video
• Google suggests you re-upload your videos to YouTube

Update Friday 9pm: We can now confirm that these changes are worldwide. Early this morning we reported that the changes might be for the German Google Video but the email below (now in English) confirms that the changes are worldwide.
Continue reading “Updated: Google Video To Delete Uploaded Videos on May 13” »

When I was a youngster, I busted my butt at the supermarket every week. And about once a quarter, I bought the new Nike Air Jordan sneakers. These sneakers were crazy expensive and my mother would yell at me (mainly because people were robbed for their Jordans in NYC) that I shouldn’t spend so much on sneakers. But I remember that even though they were expensive, there was something magical about wearing them. I can’t dunk a ball (though I was good at the three) but walking around Brooklyn in the sneakers just made me feel a bit cooler than if I bought just the basic sneakers.

When people ask me why the iPhone has been so popular, I reply by saying, “it’s the white headphones.” I only owned an iPhone for three weeks when it first launched because there was no AT&T signal in my apartment building in Manhattan. When I returned the iPhone, I went with a Samsung ACE which has Windows 6 Mobile. The phone has been great, it handles email great, phone calls with Sprint have always been rock solid and I like the keyboard. It’s a great utility phone, but it doesn’t have the white headphones.

I’ve taken two flights with Virgin Atlantic in their Upper Class service (I used points back in the day when the points from Delta transferred – it was sweet!). The experience from the second I arrived at JFK and LHR was absolutely amazing. Virgin Mobile has tried to copy the “look” of Virgin Atlantic but I am not sure the experience offered is the same.

I am not an Apple fanboy, but there is no doubt that when you buy an Apple product or visit one of their stores, it’s like slipping your feet into a pair of Air Jordans. I think Apple has realized that making a phone is easy, it’s making an experience that is much harder. These mobile devices are attached at our hips, in a purse, a fanny pack, or a belt clip night and day. And so the experience is so important today with technology. I bought an Apple iPod Touch during the holidays on Amazon and just opening the packaging made me think the device was made for the experience.

Continue reading “My First 24 Hours With Android and Virgin Mobile and Why Apple Currently Has Won The Experience Battle” »

I feel for Mahalo founder and CEO Jason Calacanis this past week. He finishes his Launch conference (my recap), heads to the afterparty and probably gets 10,000 text messages because that was just about the time that Google announced their algorithm change. Assuming Jason wasn’t briefed by Google about the change, that really is pretty horrible timing and I wouldn’t wish that on anyone, even a guy from the B-line (I am D-line).

This afternoon Jason and Mahalo president Jason Rapp sent out a mass email noting that, based on the Google changes, they will be reducing Mahalo staff headcount immediately by 10%. Here are a few key points directly from Jason and Jason:

• (re: the google change) Despite those efforts, unfortunately, the Google changes have led to a
  significant dip in our traffic and revenue. It’s hard not to be disappointed since we’ve been spending millions of
  dollars on producing highly professional content.
• Today we have eliminated a handful of positions in the company (about 10%), and we’ve cut a number of non-essential services we provide internally. In addition, we are re-evaluating our freelance content
  production, pausing it in the near term and determining how to best produce the high-quality educational material we aspire to in the long run. We are not, however, diminishing our video production efforts.
• Interestingly, while the search side of Google has impacted us negatively, Google’s video unit (YouTube) continues to be our strong partner, encouraging us to ramp up our video production and publish even more of our expert video lessons with them.

What’s really interesting to me is that I remember when Mahalo first launched, Jason told me numerous times he didn’t care about Google because he was going to build loyal users who would just come directly to Mahalo (e.g. similar to how we just go to TripAdvisor to look up a hotel).

Continue reading “Mahalo Reduces Headcount by 10% After Google Algo Change” »

Yesterday I provided an overview of my experience creating an app for CloudContacts in the Google Chrome Web Store. Today I’d like to share three suggestions on how Google could easily improve the usability for Google Chrome Web Store customers. My focus on usability suggestions are from the average Internet user standpoint, not from the viewpoint of an early adopter. For the Google Chrome Web Store to gain traction and a mainstream audience, it’s critical that app discovery (both pre- and post-install) is the number one priority.

Web Store Categories page suggestions:

1. Make the links I point to in #1 (see screenshot below) clickable. Breadcrumbs should provide a way to navigate and these breadcrumbs should allow me to get back to the category page once I make a selection and click to the app page. Same goes for the left category link – once I select an app, this is no longer a link but it should be – this would allow me to get back to the utilities page. In the current setup, there’s no way to get back to the category page once I select an app.
2. There must be a way to easily be able to view all of the apps in a category. Currently the only way to get to this view is to click the “All” button under Popular as noted in #2 below. The issue is, from a usability perspective, a user may want to view all of the apps, not only those that Google has listed as popular.

Post-install Chrome browser suggestions:

After you install an app, an icon is placed on a page you may never see — the “new tab” page. I can’t seem to find any other way to find or load an app without clicking the new tab button.

Continue reading “Suggestions for Improving Usability in the Google Chrome Web Store” »

Over the holiday break, I decided to look into creating a CloudContacts app for placement in the Google Chrome Web Store. I’d like to share some thoughts on how the process went from both the developer and usability perspectives. I looked around at a number of the apps in the Chrome Web Store and found that many were just bookmarks to the actual website. Some apps, like the Amazon Web Shop looks like it is a full app using HTML5 which provides a pretty neat store browsing experience. Seesmic CEO Loic Le Meur confirmed that their social media app provides additional functionality when installed via the Chrome Web Store.

One note…I only have experience using the Google Chrome Web Store via the Chrome web browser. I don’t have the Google Chrome OS or one of the new Google Cr-48 netbooks.

I won’t go deep into the development of the app here, I will write another post later this week on HTMLCenter. The basic decision is whether you want to build an installable web app or a packaged web app.  You can also publish a Chrome Theme or an Extension inside of the Chrome Web Store. Installable web apps can be as simple as a bookmark to a website similar to what I created for CloudContacts or can be more robust as in the Seesmic and Amazon examples I noted above.

Creating the basic app is easy — just a few lines of code in a text file, an icon of your service and a zip file containing both files. You are required to pay $5 fee to “register” as a developer before you can publish any apps to the Chrome Web Store.  After you upload your app, you are taken to a control panel for the app. Here you can set items including pricing, categories, default language, detailed description of the app and other items including if the app has mature content. You can select to tie the app into a Google Analytics account and select to use OpenID for authentication. Lastly, you can upload a variety of screenshots including some promo screenshots in case Google decides to feature your app (Seesmic is one of the featured apps).

After all of the selected changes are complete, you can publish the web app to either a selected list of testers or to the world. I found the usability on this testing functionality to be lacking. Like any good developer, I decided to send the app to CloudContacts team members and to other colleagues so they can test and provide feedback. After I received a number of suggested changes, I was ready to hit the big button and make the web app live to all. Unfortunately that isn’t possible. The publish button was replaced with the following text, “Publishing to test accounts will make the app available only to trusted testers you choose. You will need to create a new listing to publish your app to all users when you are done with testing.” I had to manually copy over all of the elements into a new web app and then publish that app to the world.  This is just not good practice because the typical process is to move forward to production with an app that has been tested. Instead I had to just hope I copied everything over correctly.

Continue reading “My First Experience Developing An App for the Google Chrome Web Store” »