Google Spreadsheets

Google have just released Google Spreadsheets for a limited number of beta testers. While Microsoft is moving into search and online ads market, Google is stepping into office application. Become another battle Microsoft vs. Google. Spreadsheets application on the web means that user can use Excel-like application anywhere without having to install the program, and it's FREE. The greater benefits of web spreadsheets application is information on demand and sharing. With web application, users could access their information anywhere and could also allow their co-workers or customers to access their information. Check it out at http://spreadsheets.google.com/

The question is how fast Google could develop all those formulas and features provided in Excel. and I don't think that Microsoft is sitting there doing nothing. I think that Microsoft also have plan to bring Office application to its live suite.

What's next from Google? web operating system?

Would Microsoft "Netscapes" Google in Search market?

Microsoft is building its MSN search technology into new version of Internet Explorer. Isn't that the same thing as it built Internet Explorer into its Windows OS and kicked Netscape out of the browser market? Although Google provides its services for free, most people won't bother type in the search engine website in the address bar to go to the search page and type in the keyword. They would instead type in the keyword in the search box on their browsers. Thus, if the default search box is set to MSN, typical user wouldn’t bother change it to Google. Google did complain this anti-competitive concern, but it was rejected by US Justice Department.

Nevertheless, Google is challenging the dominance of Microsoft. You might have been asked if you want to install Google software when you're installing JRE or other programs. Now you won't be asked to, but you will get pre-installed Google software when you purchase new computer from Dell. Google signed a deal with Dell to pre-install Google software including Desktop Search and Toolbar on millions of Dell computers sold to small and mid-size biz and consumers. Moreover, the default homepage will be set to Google in partner with Dell (like this one http://www.google.com/ig/dell?hl=en). The default search engine for search box in the browser is also set to Google.

Someone might be curious why Microsoft would bother try to get into search market while it can still make a lot of money out of its products such as Windows and Office. Because the market is huge. “Jupiter Research forecasts online advertising market to reach $18.9 billion by 2010” (http://www.jupitermedia.com/corporate/releases/05.08.15-newjupresearch2.html)

It’s interesting to see how this battle would end.

Ref:

BCC NEWS, "Dell deal bolsters Google search".
url: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/5019416.stm

JupeterMedia Press Releases.
url: http://www.jupitermedia.com/corporate/releases/05.08.15-newjupresearch2.html

Assembly.LoadFrom Method

This method dynamically loads dll file. If the assemblyFile parameter passed to the method didn't explicitly specify the directory and the FileNotFoundException occured, try check the Environment.CurrentDirectory to see if it is what supposed to be. One thing that could change the working directory when running the application is the OpenFileDialog. To prevent this to happen, set RestoreDirectory in OpenFileDialog to true.

Tags: .NET

sp_change_users_login

When restore database from another machine, the database user and login user might not be linked correctly. sp_change_users_login might fix the probelm.

Tags: SQL Server 2005

System.Diagnostics.Trace.WriteLine("Message");

Tags: .NET, C#

Visual Studio .NET 2003 Installation Problem

In the first step of installing Visual Studio .NET 2003, if you got the following message even after you reboot the computer.

"Setup has detected that another program requires the computer to reboot"

If it keep asking you to reboot, delete the registry key "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\PendingFileRenameOperations" or installing Prerequisites components from the Prerequisite CD by yourself.


For more information:
http://support.microsoft.com/?scid=kb;en-us;891402&spid=3040&sid=1252

Tags: Visual Studio .NET 2003

Google Talk

Google stepped into IM market. I’ve not tried it yet, but after read through the website, I’ve not seen any feature that differentiates it from other IM (from end user stand point). From developers (or geeks) standpoint, it runs on the open XMPP protocol, so that you might develop your own chat client to chat with your friends who are using Google Talk. This could leverage the standardization of the IM protocol. The idea of “service choice” stated on the Google Talk website (http://www.google.com/talk/developer.html) is interesting. People should have an opportunity to use their favorite chat client to talk to their friends regardless of which chat client their friends are using. I used to have ICQ, Yahoo Messenger, and MSN Messenger run on my computer at the same time because each of my friends has different preference in IM client.

From the business standpoint, this is another step of Google in internet service market. Nowadays, a lot of people are using IM all day. The IM user network is very huge and it could be a great advertising channel. Google Talk beta version doesn’t have any ads. It’s interesting to see if Google would integrate Google Talk to its ads service later (just like MSN, ICQ, Yahoo, and other IM service providers did). Google could integrate Google Talk to its ads system, so that it could display the ads that relate to what people are chatting in the Google Talk. Or Google might come up with new idea to gain benefit from its Google Talk rather than adding ads to it. Additionally, GMail account is required to login to Google Talk. This could leverage the number of its GMail user accounts. Google Talk could add more value to GMail to compete with other free email providers who have been increasing the size of the inbox to compete with GMail.

It’s interesting to see if Google Talk could fight with the network externality power of other IM service providers such as MSN, Yahoo, and AOL.

Let’s try …

http://www.google.com/talk/

Google AdSense

I was searching for Barnes & Noble in downtown this afternoon, when I noticed that there was an Amazon.com sponsored link on the page. hmm… interesting. I first thought that Amazon.com might add “Barnes & Noble” as a keyword for its website on that search engine. So, I entered “Barnes & Noble” in the search box in Yahoo, Google, and Clusty. Looking at the search result, I found Amazon.com sponsored link on Google (in the Sponsored Links panel on the right of the page, but not in the Sponsored Links panel on the top of the page). I didn’t see Amazon.com link on Yahoo and Clusty. To make sure that Amazon.com does have its sponsored link on yahoo and Clusty, I enter “book” on those two search engine. And yes, Amazon.com does have its sponsored link on those websites. I thought that if Amazon.com added “Barnes & Noble” as its keyword on Google, why it doesn’t do that also on other search engine. The answer is that Amazon.com didn’t add “Barnes & Noble” as its keyword. I think that what I’ve seen is what Google AdSense can do better than others. The Amazon.com’s sponsored link I saw on Google result page didn’t show up because of the word “Barnes & Noble”. As you might know, AdSense didn’t show sponsored links base only on the keyword search, but also on the result from the keyword search. For example, in this case, the first link of the search result is definitely www.barnesandnoble.com and its description is “BarnesandNoble.com - The World's Largest Bookseller Online.” Amazon.com’s sponsored link might have associated with the keyword “bookseller” or “online”. That’s why Amazon.com’s sponsored link shown up on the Google search result. This is what Google AdSense can provide better than those traditional sponsored link based on keyword search. In this case, someone who’s never heard about Amazon.com.com and probably looking for Barnes & Noble store could see ad says “Amazon.com.com has low prices on millions of new & used books. Find the book you want with search inside the book. Save with free super saver shipping on qualified orders over $25.” This could lead to a new customer for Amazon.com. This case shows that AdSense allows companies to show their ads to their competitor’s customers. Additionally, a company could also show different ad to different users. Ads that can catch particular users’ interest will get more chance to be clicked. It would be great if a company could show the ads that match viewers’ interest. For example, company might show the ads that express its competitive advantage over its competitor if the viewer is viewing a page that contain its competitor name. Whereas, it might show ads express its promotions to the viewers who are viewing the content shown that they’re price-concern consumers.

There are many interesting issues about this model. I googled “AdSense” and found many websites selling a book or a link to an information on how to make money with AdSense. Some website also sells a list of the “top paying” keywords. To someone who might not know what AdSense is, it’s an affiliate program that allows anyone to display ads on the website and earn money based on cost-per-click (CPC) or cost-per-1000-impressions (CPM). It pays different amount of money for each sponsored link depended on how much the sponsor pay for the ads. They also employ auction system and let sponsors name their own price for displaying their ads. If you pay more, your ads will show up on the top of the sponsored links. That’s why there are websites selling top paying keywords. If you put those keywords on your website, the top paying sponsored link will show up. And when your visitors see or click on those links, you will gain more money. As there are websites selling top paying keywords, people might put those keywords on their websites hoping that the top paying sponsored links will show up on their page although those keywords don’t actually relate to their website. Thus, people who visit those websites might not be a target group of those sponsored links. This will reduce the benefit of the AdSense which try to show the ads to the target users who are interested in the content related to the ads.

What if someone setup a website with sponsored links on the page and developed a program to load that page from different computers (this could be a virus that distribute itself to others computers and request for the page containing sponsored links), so that the system recognized those request as different users. What if someone asked people to open the webpage and click on the link to boost up the revenue gained from AdSense program and shared that revenue with those people (this could become MLM-like model: you could gain money by loading webpage and clicking on the sponsored links. You might also invite your friends to do so, so that when your friends clicked on the sponsored links you would also gain some money). These ideas are illegal. I’m not suggesting or inviting you to implement those ideas. But it’s interesting to think of this issue from different point of view (users, webmaster, Google, companies who post ads on Google). Those issues might affect a company when considering bidding for ads posting in Google’s AdWord program. Google must have some ways to prevent people from cheating its system.