Eureka = Add + Improve + Improvise

Moved to http://adeelkhan.ca/

2010-08-18T20:47:00.001-07:00

Hello,

Thank you for your valued readership. All future updates will now be made @ http://adeelkhan.ca/

See you on the other side

App for Budgeting

2010-07-15T19:56:00.000-07:00

While I may have not been that active on the blogging front. But....

Last week I stumbled upon a P.C based budgeting application. It wouldn't be prudent to disclose the actual name of this application at this point. However what I can tell you is that, the application is flexible, it is cross platform. It is small, nimble. However the only caveat is that the application is only available for P.C and is only available in an offline format.

The application is free to use and it has a powerful graphical user interface also referred to as a GUI in geekspeak.

Immediately I realized the power and ease of use of this application. I reached out to the developer for the actual product with the suggested idea that we should:
1) Create and implement a web front end, with the app on the back end server
2) Create a smart phone application for the service
3) But more importantly, I suggested that the process of updating the budget should be effortless.

The proposed idea revolved around updating the actual budgeting interface with a pre-determined email address on the server side. The actual message would follow a certain naming and numbering convention.

I will make use of an example for illustrative purposes:

* User sends an email to enderwiggin.budget@xyzbudgeting.com
* Subject for the actual email is : 92 : utility : hydro
Where 92 is the dollar figure, utility is the category and hydro is the category type
* The receiving servers would accept this information. Route it to the correct account and update the listed budgeting information for the given users.
* Overtime, the listings contribute towards a holistic view. The server does all the math of additions and subtraction on expense vs income e.t.c
* User would obviously have to provide some information through the web interface or an iphone/other smartphone app

Now an online service that offers budgeting solution is not entirely new. Enter Mint.com and close to a dozen and a half other services that compete with it.
Even the idea of updating information via the use of sending emails to a pre-destined email address, is not new. Blogspot actually offers this functionality. And there are some other recent startups that have taken this very idea and built a successful platform by leveraging some element of social networking.

Back to the subject at hand. I then proceeded towards doing a quick analysis to ascertain:
* What services does mint.com offer
* What services does mint.com's competitors offer

There is a wide spectrum of products and the services offered within this category. But primarily we have specialized applications that can pick up your budgeting information automatically from your credit and debit transactions. And all the competitors are trying to mimic that in some fashion.

What we are proposing is to take out the automatic transactions out altogether. So the user has control over what expense they would like to submit and tracked. Yes there is manual work involved. But it remains to be seen, what percentage of the user base will be inclined to be doing just that.

Also based on my analysis, no online budgeting service is offering this service the way we we have envisioned it. But that being said, we are still in the feasibility and profitability assessment phase. Still brainstorming whether this idea will pick up or not.

Quick Update

2010-07-15T19:39:00.000-07:00

Wow!

I haven't posted anything on the blog for a long time!

Well truth be told, back in 2009 I stopped posting specific ideas on the blog due to intellectual property concerns. I have been tracking access to this blog for a long time. Back in 2009 I started seeing dozens of hits from some of the big guys. Maybe it was coincidence, or maybe not.

Anyhow, since the early 2009, I've also noticed the following:

* Google focusing a bit more on cross collaboration for it's different products
* Microsoft moving onto a web version of office
* Tineye or visual search has yet to take off. But I hear Google is experimenting with visual search at the moment.

I am going to make a sincere effort of trying to post more often. However if you have a product that you would like me to :
* Review
* Pick Apart
* And then offer suggestions for enhancements.

Then do drop me a note and I will be more than glad to help you out.

Idea(s) for Google Alerts

2009-02-11T17:32:00.001-08:00

I've been using the alerts mechanism offered through Google Alerts for a couple of months now.

What kind of service does Google Alerts offer, you ask? Well, in a nutshell, it is basically a service that allows you to receive email/rss(feed) based alerts

Now Google is not the first to be offering an alert mechanism engine such as this one. Most major news service allow you to configure some sort of an alert system. Breaking News from CNN alerts come to mind. Also companies like www.cnet.com allow you to configure and receive alerts on any entity that you'd wish. I am sure there are tons of others out there.

The (Google) alerting structure is quite simple, yet by virtue of Google's algorithms (read : Googly spiders crawlin) quite powerful. I mean an alert(ing) structure that would harness the capabilities of one of the best Search engine(s) that we have. Potentially scourge the entire Google index to get you comprehensive listings of all the alerts generated. And then compile and send those alerts out to you in a timely manner. Armed with a BlackBerry or a mobile device of choice, you have information at your fingertips as soon as it is made available.

After using this engine (Google Alerts :) for a couple of months I have brainstormed a couple of suggested improvements for this utility/application/service. So without further ado:

* idea # 1 *
Incorporate Google Alerts with the services rendered by Blogger (for trending and analysis):
Description for this idea:
At the moment all the alerts are sent using the following settings:
Delivery mechanism: email/rss
Frequency : daily, weekly, as it happens
Type : News, Blog, Web, Comprehensive, Video e.t.c

Once you receive these alerts (email/rss), there is very little you can do with this data set when it comes to trending and analysis. I consider email/rss as static entities, whereby you can do very little with the data set, once it is actually delivered to the "destination". If the alerts received can somehow be posted onto the blogger infrastructure (owned by Google), then this would enable you to go have a one-stop repository for all your aggregated alerts. Now you have an alternative to view the data-set in it's entirety from a a trending and analysis perspective.
Pros :
* No more having to log-in to your email to look at any given alert
* Not having to scroll through the alert in your mobile device to go through each and every link. You can just go to your customized blog to get this information
* Trending and Analysis for you would be done automatically (Blogger automatically categorizes each entry by date/month)
* Ability to sort through the data set and remove undesirable alerts. Example: having an alert for the term "Honda" might occasionally bring up alerts about the actual character in the Game Street-Fighter2. Where as you set the alert up for the actual Japanese Car manufacturer (sorry cant think of a better example right now :)
Cons :
* Potential abuse of service (SPAM)
* Could lead to a bit of a clutter in blogosphere

* idea # 2 *
Incorporate Google Alerts with a)Blogger + b)Google Trends
Description for this idea: Same as above. Only in this case you get a little Google Trend window (java applet/png image) show up beside each alert posting that would give you the frequency of how many instances of that term were generated in a specified timeframe. Google could even charge customers building some enhanced feature set into such an architecture.

Think about it : Any Enterprise's marketing team would love to know what kind of "impression" their marketing campaign is actually making it on the web. I'd love to elaborate on this specific idea. If someone from Google is reading this, and I know you are (thanks to Google Analytics :) then please free to get in touch with me.

* Also *
At this point, and again if someone from Google is reading this. I would really encourage you folks to think inside the box. Yes inside. Not just relating to this idea, but all of Google's products in general.

I say this because Google has tons of great/useful products(apps) that make retrieving, sorting and storing information efficient. However there is very little to no synchronization pertaining to how many of those applications work well with each other (if at all). There is so much useful data, I'd just hate for it to go to waste or to be used inefficiently.

Note to users new to Google Alerts/Or those interested in the product : If you happen to manually look up (verb:google) information regarding a particular Company, event or any other "term" per say. Then you might want to check out Google Alerts, it will save you time :)

Future of Search

2008-11-27T20:34:00.000-08:00

I've always been of the mind-frame that the future of search/searching is in-fact incorporating image search. i.e the ability to submit an image and have the search engine report back with all the results it can find in the expanse (Intra/Internet). Video categorization and search would eventually be the next evolutionary step....but image search has to evolve and grow before that occurs.

I did post an idea back in 2006 in this very blog that did touch base upon the searching capability using and tagging entities and images. ( Click here and refer to item "xvi) Google Big-picture:")

Anyhow this is quick little post about a startup I discovered the other day. It's a company called IDEE (inc) which develops advanced image identification and visual search software. They are based out of Toronto and after reading about them initially, signing up for a beta account on their website and playing with the couple of products they have rolled out. After experiencing all of this, well let me just cut to the chase and state that I will be eagerly awaiting for their IPO to be rolled out.

Check out some of their products listed under their main page .

I spent some time checking out the capabilities of one of the application/service they offer. The service is called http://tineye.com. You have to register on the website to get on the beta (instantaneous). Basically it is an image recognition service whereby you upload an image on the website and hit go. In a typical submit/get request the idee servers will crawl through the image set and try and find an identical or near-identical match for the image you submitted. I ran some tests on the http://tineye.com website and here are some of the results I received for the various request (number of items returned):

1- tux (304 results submitted)
2- stanley cup (7 hits)
3- arctic fox (2 hits)
4- image of george bush (486 hits)
5- particular image of stephen hawking (14 hits)
6- particular image of Hal 9000 (2001 space odyssey) (37 results)

I'd be really curious to know how Idee's algorithm's actually work. The way I percieve it, it would obviously have to do with some sort of pattern recognition. But (and this is a presumption on my part) what would end up happening is each one of the images that Idee Inc's server's would crawl, they would carve out some sort of outline for these images and then store it in their back-end database. The outline would be the first step, the algorithm would also assign each one of the images some unique attributes that makes the image unique. Something along the lines of what facial features do for face-recognition. But this indexing and characterization is where the magic is occuring and that's what I would like to know is how it it occuring.

Otherwise if the algorithms are actually going down to the pixellization level then my theory goes to the bin. However...I highly doubt that the indexing is happening down on a pixellation level as the system/cpu overheading for rendering a job like this across the huge expanse of the internet would be too much for the servers to handle.

Already Idee Inc has some big names as their customers, including www.digg.com and Associated Press.

Do keep in mind that http://tineye.com is not the only service they offer :)

If image search is of interest to you, then you'd definitely want to track the progress of this company.

Before I go I have to mention that, I actually got to know about these folks reading the Toronto Star. Ironically now that I do a search on the toronto star website (www.thestar.com) there are no search results returned for either Idee and or tineye or the founding members of this company. Wasted 10 minutes trying to find the article I originally read in print format.

recaptcha

2008-11-27T19:44:00.000-08:00

Have you spent countless seconds (which seem like hours) trying to figure out a word ---> in order to post a comment on a website you visit. Images that must be translated into words (human/machine differentiation) which look something like the image below:

After repeated (failed) attempts...did you eventually get frustrated while trying to decipher the given text...cursing to yourself "all I'm trying to do is post one little comment"

If this happened to you..then like myself you probably did doubt your typing capabilities for a tiny period of time (A brief history of annoying times : recaptcha)..thinking perhaps your caps lock are on..and or...your'e getting the fat-finger syndrome. Only to try one more (say the 14th time) and eventually you get through.

If like me...all of these things have happened to you as well. Well...then my friend please have solace in the fact that you are not alone. All of this has happened to us from time to time. Today after my 8th attempt at trying to post a comment on a given blog I visit (www.michaelgeist.ca). I realized that the service is offered by a company called : "recaptcha". Quickly perusing the website it seems like it started off as a project at the Carnegie Mellon University. Anyhow...I was getting quite frustrated with the various attempts in trying to figure out the words through the text/sounds based information provided. I was eventually able to figure out what the words were, but decided to send the recaptcha folks a lil note, regarding some tips and suggestion. Here is the excerpt:

Subject : General comments about recaptcha

Email Body:

Hello,

I think you've made it far difficult for the human being to decipher what text to type by the options you provide through your service/application:
1- Text based values:
I think it would be far better if each one of the letter had some sort of spacing in between them. Rather then have wavy lines going through the text and/or shrinking/blotted out text for that matter. Do you folks conduct any kind of metrics in regards to how many attempts it takes any given users before they can get through the service provided by you guys and try and do what they are trying to do. I have a funny feeling recaptcha is resulting into humanity losing some precious hours (cumulatively)
2- Sound :
This option doesnt even work. Have you guys run any kind of QA testing using external candidates that have never used this service before. And if you did, may I ask what kind of success rate(s) did you get? I've been sitting here for 10 minutes trying to makes sense out of the cacophony that is generated through my speakers when I try and "listen" the the actual word. It's almost as if I have to tune out everything else, then obviously pay utmost attention and then perhaps run some type of pattern recognition/ anti-crypto exercise in order to determine the actual word. There is the main voice of a person who takes 3 seconds to speak out each letter! But then on top of that there is the cacophony of all the other people talking in the background. It reminds me of the telemarketer calls that I occasionally receive from different parts of the globe. Only in that (telemarketer's) case I am able to understand what the person on the phone is actually trying to say.

Please make your product a bit better (a.k.a user friendly). I am sure the bright minds who came up with this product will be able to figure out how to make this a bit more user friendly without the sacrifice of letting machine decipher/crack the "code" and get through.

Regards,

I must say, it has been less than an hour since I sent a note to these folks and I've already got a response. Check it out:

Hi Adeel,

reCAPTCHA users have a 96% success rate on images. We're always improving, however we have to be careful to not get too easy and allow bots in.

As for our audio, we highly recommend using headphones and listening to a CAPTCHA multiple times. We do realize the current design is hard, and are getting ready to release a new type of audio CAPTCHA in the near future.

- Name Withheld

It's an evolving technology and they are pushing for improvements. Let's cut them some slack

www.vudu.com

2008-10-04T11:09:00.000-07:00

A bit short on time right now. But I think this is a very promising start-up.

Will come back and blog more about this. However let's just say that if you:

Enjoy watching movies

you believe a trip to BlockBuster (pickup and dropoff) is all too time consuming

Netflix is too much of a hassle

And DVD or rendering media through disks is simply too old of a technology.

Then this is something you will appreciate. I haven't had a chance to check it out myself, although I'd love to get my hands on one. But this product is already getting rave reviews anywhere from Wired magazine to Rolling Stones magazine.

Check it out at:
http://www.vudu.com/

Ideas for Blogger

2008-10-04T10:57:00.000-07:00

Blogger should provide the ability to move posts between two or more blogs.

Taking it up a notch, some sort of a widget that enables you to port content from one blog to another. This can be related to just one user account, or multiple user accounts.

Oh and, if anyone is listening : Typing letters from a gif image while "editing" a post doesn't make rational sense. For new posts...yes...as you want to limit the amount of spam feeds. But Edits...not really. Either that or there should be a timeout clause...where you have to start repeating the process after a min of edit mode.

Joost via Browser

2008-09-08T20:24:00.000-07:00

Noticed an article being dugg the other day that entailed that Joost will be available over the browser soon.

Since I was on the original BETA, I tried to get onto the new beta site, which can be found at http://new.joost.com/. However seems like the new Beta is solely on an invitation basis only.

I along with hundreds (perhaps thousands), had been forever requesting the Joost development team (through their forums) to release a Linux version of the application. There wasn't much in terms of an encouragement, that a Linux based client would ever be delivered. Accessing Joost over a browser, however sounds like a more logical choice.

However it would be interesting to find out how this decision by Joost actually came about. I say this because a browser version of Joost is already available, however not through Joost themselves. Developer Paul Yunez developed and released a flash-based Joost clone that renders in a browser. I just gave it a go myself and it works for the better part. However after rendering a couple of videos using this interface I noticed that Paul has simply developed an interface that would take videos off a couple of website(s) and render them on the browser through an interface that looks like that of Joost's. So in-effect you have videos hosted on Google video and hence this is simply a clever cloak. Conversely, Joost was hosting most of the content themselves, hence the higher quality videos (not quite HD).
Paul Yunez's website (so called Joost interface) can be found on the following location. Click here

In the interim, I would really like to get on the actual Joost beta. If anyone else got on this beta and if you happen to have any invite(s) left, then please send me a note.

Blogger's Block

2008-09-08T20:18:00.000-07:00

WOW! It has been more than an year since I posted anything on the blog. I guess it was a cumulative effect of a self dubbed "Blogger's Block" (Wait...I just ran a search on Google and as I expected..I am definitely not the first one to coin this term). But yes, the inactivity was most definitely due to the Blogger's Block which was invariably a long term side-effect of a couple of things.

I guess the time has come to remove the picture of the scrupmtuos Masala Dosa off the main page of the blog and actually start blogging.

So without further ado!

बी बैक सून

2007-07-11T14:32:00.000-07:00

re: More Generic Ideas

2007-03-08T11:56:00.000-08:00

It's been about 2 months since I've been contributing to the CH project.

Managed to pump out 15 ideas during this time frame. Well I submitted 17 ideas, but have to get rid of two of my ideas, the platform doesn't allow me to do that at the moment.

--Update---

CH has revamped their services. The outcome has been dubbed as "CambrianHouse 2.0"

The most significant change is moving from a pre-screening process to a "come one come all" platform.

The other significant change is the ability to turn any of your ideas submitted into a project. This provides the ability for collaboration with and amongst the different CH members out there.

There are other minor changes incorporated along with the above mentioned, notably:
- incorporating wiki's and forums for individual projects
- tagging and highlighting posts/ideas/projects with video
- "pitch": basically marketing strategies to sell your idea in a couple of sentences.
- incorporation of other elements with your idea/project (logo/video e.t.c)

So, what's my take on CH, being a member for the past 2 months.

Personally I think they are moving in the right direction. They are making the right kinda changes at the right time.

Notably:

The elimination of the "screening" process by means of picking and choosing ideas to be submitted to "idea-explorer" was a good move. It removes that bottleneck and makes CH stands out as a true crowdsourced venture.

Listening to the community. Responding, Adapting and delivering in a timely manner

The CH panel (staff), seems to be an energetic and helpful bunch. I am fairly active on the forums and part of one or two startup projects (winner of ideawarz). And the CH guys seem to be helping out with rolling out the startups any way they possibilly can.

Suggestions: (If anyone at CH happens to ponder by):

As more people hop on the bandwagon. And the activity spurs, CH will need to deliver simple tools that help people keep track of their submissions.
I think this can be divided into two classifications:
1) People who would stick with one idea and work to make it turn into a deliverable product (the wiki and forums under project would suffice when it comes to their needs)
2) People who contribute to multiple projects/ideas. With increased activity, it might be hard for them to keep track of all the suggestions made any given/day/week.
Couple of propositions in that regard:
a- Better tracking with time-stamped intervals. I have highlighted this in the following forum post (click here)
b- Follow a simple "Online forums" type structure. Where posts pertaining to comments posted for ideas/projects are filtered on the top. (Based on the recent activity)
c- Tag/notify an individual user, if their attention or comments are required for a pertinent post/idea/project. (I guess the messaging feature could work in that regard). But I have a feeling this will be handled with the "soon-to-be-rolled-out-features" like " Task Management\Tagging and Project Tagging"

3) Collaboration software: Virtual whiteboard.

4) I've mentioned this before. CH should market themselves at targetted spots. Particularly Schools and pertinent departments within schools. (Comp Sci).

Set-top box 2.0

2007-01-07T11:14:00.000-08:00

Set-top boxes are so neanderthal. From your local cable company to even Tivo.

Neanderthal in terms of functionality and ease of use.

Before I explain this idea, I'd just like to point out that I am lazy. I'd much rather get to a space (virtual or non) in a single click, then say 5 clicks. In that regard the "remote control feautures" can be quite cumbersome when it comes to be using any "set-top" box.

Marry the mouse with the set-top box:
This idea is very simple. Marry a pointing devices with the set-top box/Tivo.
This will result in the death of the remote control, it will save the couch potatoes precious minutes.

I sent this idea to Tivo, let's see if I hear back from them.

More Generic Ideas

2007-01-07T10:50:00.000-08:00

To make up for the lack of submissions to this blog, I have been contributing to the "Cambrian House" project. It is basically a "crowd sourced" project. Where you submit your idea and if it is selected, the idea is worked upon by the community for an end product.

I have submitted a couple of ideas on the site, a growing list nonetheless!
If anyone is interested, they can peruse ideas submitted by me by visiting the following Link:

Please click below ---->

my{virtua}space {dot}com

2006-12-19T05:28:00.000-08:00

That domain name is already taken. I have yet to peruse that website, but the emphasis is not on the domain name.

This idea revolves around a startup catered to service the social networking needs of the broadband populace. For this idea to flourish, we need 8 to 10 megabit connections to be the norm. peruse to ---> [ skip ] if you are solely interested in what my idea entails:

8 to 10 megabit connections are the norm in places like South Korea.
Blazing fast broadband is one of the reasons why startups like cyworld are a phenomenal success in that region. Well the "phat" connection along with cultural gravitations towards the "cute" aspect of things.

cyworld.com now has a north american presence. However they are using the same formula they used in South Korea to cater to the North American masses.
I predict failure for cyworld.com (in North America) using the same strategy they used in South Korea and other asian countries.
Unless they educate themselves, learn, adapt and act accordingly.

You cannot sell social networking solely based on cute avatars to the North America public. Some pundits are predicting that cyworld could rival myspace.com in the future. But I predict, it will not so as to cause even a ripple in the pond with the word myspace written all over it.

I can speculate/rant more on cyworld, but i will keep it here for now.

[ skip ]

Social networking needs to evolve as well. This idea is very simple. Users create a virtual room the likes of "second life". Or more like the room is leased to the user.

However unlike the vast expanse of second life, this virtualdom will be restricted to one room per person. Users are connected with each other based on their existing list of friends or friends they wish to add to their list.
- Once you are in each others friends list, users can peruse each others cribs a.k.a virtual space
- Users decorate their room, but instead of the painstaking process of creating everything yourself (like in second life) you get 1000 base point to buy stuff from quick access control panel. (Drag and drop)
- For creativity's sake users can design their own items too
- Similar interest are linked together
- using existing technologies and infrastructure and incorporate them into the virtualdom instead of re-creating everything --> youtube, digg, blogger, myspace
- Users purchase multi media for others to peruse their aesthetic tastes in everything from arts, entertainment (DRM=Apple+napster alliance), media et all.
- An alliance with RIAA, so users can play the same music on their virutaldom and on the device of their choice
- user controllable list access, of who is allowed to enter into their room and browse which "belongings" [a] of that user as such.

[a]:
The "belongings" part is key here.
This is what will generate the moola.

However, due to the business potential of this idea. I will keep it here for now. If anyone is interested in learning more about this idea, what it entails and what can be done to make this business plan work. Please drop me a line via the comments section. If anyone is embarking upon a project that incorporates "virtual spaces with social networking", but keeping it limited ---> in terms of scope (i.e think anti-vast-uber-secondlife'ness) then I have lots of ideas to make this product work.

Windows Live Spaces

2006-11-24T13:19:00.000-08:00

Tracking suggestions made to the Windows Live Spaces Team\Feedback:

Suggestion # 1:

You should have a "diggin" it section on the blog (space). Not to be confused with digg.com:

Logic behind this Idea:


       |          |       |       |       |
     Music:     Food:   News:  Gagdets   etc

User can digg any particular thing. And then other people on your list (messenger) who are "digging the same thing" Can be tagged\linked together.

So say for example, I am digging "My Chemical Romanace"'s Music right now. I would digg it, and then another person on my msn list diggs it and just like you have the comments sections at the bottom of the blog entries. You will similarly have the "tagged" section and both of us are going to be linked to each others interests automatically.

Outcome:
People are linked via similar interests mentioned on their blogs.

Linking similar interests is not a new idea, but perhaps a new perspective when it
comes to blogs.

What should google do? - Ideas for Google [ On-going]

2006-10-19T21:09:00.000-07:00

Originally published on Oct 9th 2006. Now ported to this blog. [ Constantly being updated ]

I posted the following on an Orkut forum called "What should google do" on the 9th of October 2006.

some suggestions
i) Incorporate programs like "writely" and "google spreadsheet" within google pack
(Google launched writely and Google spreadsheets together on Oct 12.
I actually just wanted to see the two programs together. Since these are "live services" , it makes sense to offer them together. Google Pack is sorta different.

ii) Incorporate the most popular programs within google talk (think tabs on the side)

iii) Google talk should be more maleable. Users should be able to add and remove the tabs of their choice (blogger, orkut, google {desktop} {video}{finance}{analytics} {earth} come to mind)

iii) form an alliance with Microsoft and Yahoo when it comes to Instant messaging (just like yahoo and microsoft did)

iv) Google should buy http://www.netvibes.com

v) Expand google travel. incorporate it with google earth.

vi) Set up a presence in "second life"

vii) Work more closely with the makers of BlackBerry (RIM) and other wireless handheld makers.

viii) Offer more content (wml) for Wireless handheld, Blackberry users. (news)

ix) Form an alliance with Apple, atomfilms. Sell google videos (tv serials, episodes) through the itunes website.
This was before the Google+Youtube announcement

x) Work on Google OS. A live cd version (like knoppix) that users can plug into the cd and use to surf the web, chat, use writely and google spreadsheet, listen to some music

xi) Build more functionality into Google video player. Perhaps buy Real media player or winamp from Nullsoft\Aol and incorporate that techology into google video player.

xii) ***Google University***. Free Educational resources for everyone. Specially focusing on third world country. In this regard google can incorporate with companies like heymath.net and for higher education with MIT's OpenCourseWare.

xiii) Last but not the least. Google MUST not, SHOULD not buy youtube. I will start a separate thread for this topic
Again this was before the merger announcement

xiv) Today I thought if Google had a "presentation software" like Microsoft Powerpoint, then it could seriously dent the "casual Microsoft office" market. I mean OpenOffice has always been there. But everyday computer users are more familiar with Google software or are prone to be, then something like say Openoffice

xv) Google Widgets:
Pre-configured scripts that run automatically, semi-auto. Users can configure
and run these widgets in various google applications\products:

examples:

Gmail:
If you always delete messages from you spam and trash folder. Then you can have a script\macro\widget do it for you. SImilarly only display emails using a certain "label" upon sign-in

Gtalk:
Gtalk is integrated with Google Finance (e.t.c). Everytime you log into Gtalk, a gooogle finance page pops up which displays the stocks you are tracking in your google finance portfolio.

Writely:
Everytime you open writely, you want to open a new doc or spreadsheet. This process is automated using widgets.

To top it all off:
Every time you load Google desktop, all the widgets you have configured are loaded using Google desktop.

I do all of this using batch scripts. And I believe Yahoo has just launched a yahoo widgets product (which I have yet to check out). I am downloading it as I type this.

xvi) Google Big-picture:
Main logic behind this concept:
Google search results are formatted such:

a) that one entity is linked to another
b) all returned entities are linked to your "parent search term"

CNET owned News.com is doing something like that [ Click here for
example ---> Ok this example doesn't work half the time. ]

On News.com, the back-end the "big-picture" technology is being served by
http://liveplasma.com/
It is worthwhile to check out the live plasma website and see the
capabilities this technology has to offer.

The potential by encorporating technology like this is endless for Google or
any other search engine out there. The results can be be incorporated in:
a) Google search results
b) Orkut
c) Google Finance
d) Blogger
e) Google Scholar
f) Google Book search
g) and a whole lot more!

Attached is a screenshot of a search on www.liveplasma.com when I search for
"Anthony Hopkins" on the site.

xvii) Google | grep : ( Added 12/18/2006)

Run a search and pipe it to conventional linux grep command

Examples:

"leonardo |grep -i renaissance"

"robert langdon |grep -i \"associate prof mit" |grep -vi \"dan brown" |grep
-vi \"da vinci code"

The search would be put in soft quotes, to get the grep functionality working. A trailing slash or a predefined set of characters (example \&) could be added before the search term, so that the contents within the soft quotes are not taken literally and that the grep executes.

Update: Mar 08, 2007
The following document entails, that which I wished to accomplish with the above mentioned proposition.

Shells:
To keep google grep separate from the conventional search engine page. Another "shell could be created". (An inter-laced Java applet over the browser) whereby you use the "google grep" shell to execute your search terms without the fuss of remembering all the switches. This way the conventional search page and the google grep search pages can be kept as separate entities.

what should microsoft do?

2006-10-19T21:08:00.000-07:00

I read a very interesting article in the wired magazine about Microsoft. The article focused on where Microsoft is headed under Ray Ozzie.

Some ideas for Microsoft. If anyone is listening.

i) Keeping in consideration that MSFT will be focusing more and more on "Live Services"

Office Live
A stripped down version of Microsoft Office. User completes their work and would save their document on the "live drive" (internet storage) or local storage on their pc\pda\smart fone.

(Google has an edge over Microsoft, as they have already released http://docs.google.com)

I can see MSFT following suit, very soon.

ii) Granularity. Not everyone wants the fully bloated version of Ms Office, nor is the public keen on spending 300$ on purchasing it. Break every popular Microsoft product into i) Basic ii) Advanced iii) Elite.
Basic being the stripped down version whereas the other two moreso for the user who needs to choose the pertinent components in every software package.
Users who opt to go with Basic or Advanced, can simply download the requisite add-ons they wish to acquire from the web for a very insignificant sum.

iii) I know from reading the MSDN updates that MSFT has been running linux labs for a couple of years now. Perhaps it's time Microsoft started working on it's own version of Linux. I am not sure of how this will work (GNU licensing). The OS will be completely free offcourse. Microsoft could then offer incentives, kind of like coaxing the customers to try their live services and eventually make money off advertising. Hardwiring Live services is calling for a law suit. Users will be happy that they have a more secure, virus free OS. However again I am not sure of the legalities involved (GNU licensing) [ note to self - read up on it ].

iv) Social Networking presence.
cyworld is huge in South Korea. Primarily because it offers the users a chance to upload and display rich media content on the website (songs, graphics, background wallpaper, animated characters et all). Perhaps it's a "cultural hit" or perhaps this has to do with the 12 mbps dsl lines that 98% of the South Koreans have running into their living rooms. Cyworld has launched their US site lately and are trying to generate some buzz.

MSFT should revamp their spaces website. Make it more nimble. Make it hip and make it kool. Then partner up with the hip companies out there and cater to the masses who are willing to spend.(13 -33 yr olds). By partnering up with media companies et all, sell content directly through the website. And sell it cheap 0.05 cent downloads or download a pack for 2 $. More you spend, more eye candy. (avatars, wallpapers, skins, music that you can play on your profile et all)
Better yet, classify the spaces website. a) For professionals b) For teens e.t.c . Professionals can setup their portfolios and teens I dont know download hillary duff songs I guess. I have other ideas for the spaces website and others, but I will keep it to this for now. Sleep is more important

contd Oct 19th 2006:
v) I suggested Virtual Machine, so that Microsoft can port Office Online on Linux. Using an LFS (Linux from scratch) image, you can run multiple VM's (Virtual Machines) on a single blade server. Consolidating hardware and software like this, Microsoft can then rent out Microsoft Office usage on a time sharing basis. User is billed by the amount of time they spend on the product. I also suggested linux, as there will be considerably less overhead and things just run smoother on linux (not to mention the security factor)
+ Office Online. Microsoft can "rent" virtual machines loaded with full Microsoft Office components to users. Users can thus make best use of their time and be charged on a per min\hour basis. Microsoft is are already doing this in technet labs, so why not make it generate revenue for them, whilst keeping the customer happy. Microsoft can accomplish this via some sort of an active x widget aswell. But I think a virtual machine + full microsoft office suite would be a better alternative. User should be able to download the document on their local hard drive or live internet storage. I can see this generating a lot of revenue, specially keeping students, casual Ms Office users and even business executives.
User should be able to open the documents in an online version of Microsoft office for free. Also batch processing should be incorporated - for teachers\profs etc.
If users end up spending 300$ or more on renting Ms Office Online, then Microsoft can ship them a free complimentary copy of Ms Office (*Elite version, not basic ;)

[ wip ]

I posted excerpts of the the above mentioned, on the Microsoft Office forums, and I got some sort of a response (from one of the contributor's I believe):

1. Microsoft Works.

2. Open Office (http://www.openoffice.org)

3. Not very likely - Microsoft has already tried the Software as a Rental model.

--
Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]

source: