Oracle's Sun Deal: Oracle May Need to Loosen Its Grip

When Oracle announced its $7.4 billion acquisition of Sun Microsystems in April, the software behemoth was acting on a grand vision. The deal was part of Oracle's aim to become a soup-to-nuts supplier of everything companies need to run their computer systems, from chips and operating systems to databases and business programs. The grand plan may need some revision.

In order to alleviate pressure from European Union regulators worried about Oracle's (ORCL) growing power, Oracle may be forced to give up some control of a key aspect of the deal: the open-source MySQL database software owned by Sun.

The EU on Nov. 9 formally objected to Oracle’s acquisition of Sun. A Sun regulatory filing said the EU believes Oracle’s ownership of MySQL would have “potential negative effects on competition” in the $19 billion-a-year database market. SUnN (JAVA) makes computer systems and software including the Java programming language and MySQL database, a kind of electronic filing system.

"Taking a Tough Stance"

MySQL, available free of charge, runs the Web sites of some of the Internet's biggest brands. Among them: Twitter, Facebook, Google (GOOG), and Yahoo (YHOO). "They're taking a tough stance because 10 years down the road this could be a pretty big competitor to Oracle," says a securities analyst who asked not to be named because he was expressing personal views on the deal.

After saying in September that it's looking into aspects of the deal, Europe's more formal objection to Oracle's acquisition of Sun sets the stage for negotiations on how to make the deal pass muster. Regulators may ask Oracle to release a new version of MySQL that it doesn't control to preserve competition. Sun bought MySQL for $1 billion in 2008.

Oracle declined to comment for this article, but issued a statement Nov. 9 that said the EU’s objection "reveals of profound misunderstanding of both database competition and open-source dynamics…Because MySQL is open source, it cannot be controlled by anyone," Oracle said.

MySQL is distributed under an open-source licensing agreement, which lets users freely modify its code, companies including Google, Amazon.com (AMZN), and a software development project called Drizzle that's staffed partly with Sun employees, have already modified the database or incorporated it into commercial products without buying an officially supported version from Sun. For example, Amazon.com on Oct. 27 announced that customers can rent the MySQL database from Amazon over the Internet, paying by how much data they store and transfer. Google maintains its own version of MySQL, too.

The EU Is Positioning Itself

The presence of these versions in the wild suggests that forcing Oracle to spin out yet another version of the software may be redundant. "The remedy's already there," says one industry executive familiar with the EU's thinking, who says a regulated new version of the software would have little impact on the way companies license and use MySQL, which is prized for its speed and adaptability to running large Web sites. "The vast majority of the installed base isn't controlled by the vendor…I'm at a loss why any other remedies would be needed," this person says. "There's something illogical in the whole thing."

Whatever the proposed concessions, even Oracle's competitors believe the Sun deal will get done. "They're doing what the EU always does—making provocative statements," says an executive at an Oracle competitor. Analysts say the EU wants to position itself as an advocate for technologies that are more open rather than proprietary—closely guarded by license owners.

Source:

http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/nov2009/tc2009118_559520.htm

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Google's Desire to Scan Old Books has Critics Casting it as Goliath

Google's ambitious plan to scan millions of old, out-of-print books, many of them forgotten in musty university libraries, has turned into one of the biggest controversies in the young company's history.

A broad array of opponents, ranging from Google competitors Microsoft and Amazon to libraries and copyright scholars, has joined forces to oppose Google's proposal to create a comprehensive online repository of the books and split the revenue from access to that catalog with authors and publishers.

Facing a November deadline to revamp the proposal, which Google struck with the book-publishing industry after a class-action lawsuit, the company with the unofficial motto "Don't Be Evil" is fighting the perception among some that the plan is an unseemly power play to seize the lucrative dominance of digital books.

Company co-founder Sergey Brin has said repeatedly in recent weeks that Google is primarily acting with the public good in mind to preserve the world's cultural heritage in old books.

"I've been surprised at the level of controversy there," Brin said at a recent Internet conference in San Francisco. "Because digitalizing the world's books to make them available, there's been nobody else who's attempted it at our scale."

Federal regulators didn't see it that way, with the U.S. Department of Justice asking a federal judge this fall to reject the proposed class-action settlement. Department officials say Google's plans would potentially violate federal antitrust laws.

The issue has clearly become more prominent because of Google's vast ambitions -- its dominant search index to more than a trillion of web pages, and its march into digital maps, mobile phones, online video and other sectors of the Internet.

The controversy has shown Google is not that different from other profit-driven corporations, said Siva Vaidhyanathan, a professor of media studies and law at the University of Virginia.

"It really took something this big and grand to show that Google does have problems, and does have vulnerabilities, and can be exploitative," Vaidhyanathan said. "I'm as surprised as anybody that this turned out to be the moment in which Google's true nature came to light."

Source:

http://www.physorg.com/news176738669.html

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Facebook Poll Launches Secret Service Investigation

If you are a developer, you better watch the content you post on Facebook or else you could be on the receiving end of a Secret Service investigation. This has occurred after a third party application was pulled that allowed users to create Facebook polls. A recent poll that was placed on Facebook posing the following question: “Should President Obama be killed?”

The answers to the poll were either “yes,” “maybe,” “if he cuts my healthcare” and “no.” The Secret Service agency spokesman James Mackin has said an investigation has been launched because of the poll. Facebook users reported the poll to the site owners and it was quickly taken down. The application has been suspended until the developer can prove that they can better filter the content generated by the poll creator. Facebook handles these situations by asking users to police the site and flag any inappropriate content.

It appears that the application was created over the weekend and first appeared on the developer’s page Advanced Alien Technology. The user that created the poll has yet to be named.

Source:

http://www.gadgetell.com/tech/comment/facebook-poll-launches-secret-service-investigation/

Custom Web Design Chicago

Six Inconvenient Truths about SEO

You've probably seen them: programs claiming to teach you how you can use SEO to boost your Google rankings and in turn build a successful internet business that runs on cruise control. All for the low price of $49.95.

While such programs almost always fall into the 'scam' category, there is truth to the notion that SEO can be a pathway to success. If you run any sort of website, chances are you need traffic, and SEO can deliver it. But there are some inconvenient truths about SEO that often get ignored, especially in 'newbie' circles. Here are six of them.

SEO takes time. Everyone loves the idea of instant rewards. Unfortunately, it's hard to find instant rewards in the world of SEO. In my opinion, any commitment of less than six months isn't a commitment at all because in competitive markets it's my experience that you shouldn't expect to see results that drive meaningful returns before then.

SEO is not fair. Paid links work and your competitors might be winning by using them in flagrant disregard of Google's 'rules'. But that's life in the world of SEO. Just as in life generally, some people break the rules, get away with it and prosper as a result. You can fret about this or focus on your own efforts.

Top SERPs aren't always possible. Hard work and patience can go a long way, but let's be honest: everybody in your market wants top SERPs for the valuable keywords. You all can't have them. Bottom line: there's only one top spot and only one person can get it.

SEO is not all about process. The mechanics of kicking a soccer ball are easy enough to understand. But chances are you're not Ronaldo. The same is sort of true of SEO. While you can learn the mechanics, from page structure to link building, there's something beyond the mechanics. The truth is that there are naturals who just have a natural talent for putting it all together and getting to the top of the SERPs.

SEO isn't a standalone marketing strategy. I cringe whenever somebody tells me that his marketing strategy is "viral marketing". Yet "SEO" isn't much better. Sure there are some people who use nothing more than SEO and whose websites bring in big bucks, but for the average person just starting out, SEO should be looked at as a potentially valuable part of a more comprehensive marketing strategy. That doesn't mean that, in the end, SEO can't represent more than 50% of where you spend your time and money, but depending on the nature of your business, paid search, display, email and offline techniques can all play a big role too and are worthy of consideration.

The last mile counts more than the first 99. The process of getting great SERPs can be a long, strenuous journey. But getting great SERPs isn't the end of this hundred miler. Success is based on what you do with those SERPs. So if you're in the business of generating leads, for instance, all the organic search traffic in the world won't do you an ounce of good if you're not converting, or converting but still leaving lots of money on the table. Bottom line: SEO done right delivers intent; the job of your website is to convince the user to take action.

Source:

http://econsultancy.com/blog/4882-six-inconvenient-truths-about-seo

Chicago Web Site Design Company

Google Chrome Beta Gets Bookmark Sync

The test version of Google's browser will let you save your favorite sites, and access them from multiple computers

The latest beta version of Google's Chrome Web Browser is making it easier for you to keep track of all your favorite Web sites across multiple computers. The search giant introduced bookmark syncing this week as a feature of Chrome's latest trial version. Google started testing bookmark syncing earlier this year on developer builds of Chrome, and its release on the beta channel means bookmark syncing is one step closer to becoming a standard feature of Chrome's stable version.

Bookmark SYNC

Once you've downloaded the Chrome beta, you can access the new feature by clicking on the wrench icon on the far right side of your browser window. Then select "Synchronize my bookmarks," and a pop-up window should appear asking you for your Google Account information. Sign in, and Chrome will store your bookmarks in your Google Docs account. To sync your bookmarks across multiple locations, just download the beta version of Chrome on each computer you use, and repeat the steps outlined above.

When you add, delete, or edit your Chrome bookmarks on any device, those changes will be updated across all your computers. You can also add bookmarks from other Web browsers like Firefox and Internet Explorer by importing the data into Chrome, and the new additions will be automatically synced with the file in your Google Docs account. Google does not allow you to edit bookmarks directly from Google Docs.

Other Alternatives

If Google Chrome is not your thing, but you like the concept of bookmark syncing, you can also get the same functionality on other popular browsers. Internet Explorer users can download the Windows Live Toolbar to store and sync bookmarks with Microsoft's online storage service,

SkyDrive.

Firefox users can download the Xmark add-on that allows you to synchronize your bookmarks and passwords. And Opera users can get in on the syncing action through Opera Link, which stores bookmarks, speed dial entries and more. You can also access your Opera Link data within competing browsers at link.opera.com. If you don't want to be tied down to a specific browser brand, try out Delicious, the social online bookmarking site.

Speed

Google says the latest developer build of Chrome is thirty percent faster than the browser's current stable version. Chrome's new speed claims come on the heels of similar statements from Mozilla, which released the beta version of Firefox 3.6 on Friday. Despite the media attention heaped on Chrome since its initial release last year, the browser is still far behind in popularity compared to the two market leaders: Microsoft's Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox.


Source:

http://www.infoworld.com/d/applications/google-chrome-beta-gets-bookmark-sync-746

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Windows 7 Share Surges 40% in First Week of Release

Overall, the Windows OS continued to lose share globally while Apple's Mac OS X picked up most of that loss, according to Net Applications

Windows 7's market share surged nearly 40 percent in the week following its release, according to Web measurement company Net Applications.

Overall, Windows continued to lose share globally, dropping 0.23 of a percentage point during October, while Apple's Mac OS X picked up most of that loss, gaining 0.15 of a point to finish the month near 5.3 percent, its highest ever.

For the week after Microsoft launched Windows 7 on Oct. 22, the new operating system's share averaged 2.66 percent, a jump of more than 39 percent over the 1.91 percent average for the part of October prior to its retail release.

Windows 7's peak of 3.48 percent on Saturday, Oct. 31, represented an even larger 82 percent increase over the average of Oct. 1 through Oct. 22. For the month, Windows 7 finished with a market share of 2.15 percent, up 41 percent over the 1.52 percent for September. The numbers from Net Applications mean that about one in every 44 personal computers was running Windows 7 last month.

But some countries boast a much higher Windows 7 share, Net Applications said. "Upon analysis of global Windows 7 usage share, we noticed a distinct pattern," the company said in a note posted on its site. "Russia and many Eastern European countries already have significant share of Windows 7 usage. We are sure these are all properly licensed users."

The tongue-in-cheek comment was well taken: Of the top 25 countries by Windows 7 usage, 17 are in Eastern Europe or formerly part of the U.S.S.R. Slovenia, where 7.8 percent of the computers ran Windows 7 last month, led the list, followed by Lithuania in the No. 3 spot (6.5 percent), Rumania as No 4 (6 percent) and Latvia at No. 5 (6 percent). In Russia, at No. 21, 4.2 percent of all machines used Windows 7.

Net Applications' implication -- that the Windows 7 share in Eastern Europe is due to counterfeit copies -- is backed up by data from a May 2009 report generated by the Business Software Alliance (BSA), an industry-backed anti-piracy organization, and research firm IDC. In 2008, the piracy rate in Central and Eastern Europe was the highest of all seven regions the BSA and IDC tracked.

Slovenia's piracy rate -- the estimated percentage of all software in use that is not legally licensed -- was 47 percent last year, more than double the rate in the U.S. Lithuania, Rumania, Latvia and Russia, meanwhile, had piracy rates of 54 percent, 66 percent, 56 percent and 68 percent, respectively.

However Windows 7 was acquired -- legally or not -- its increase was outweighed by a steeper-than-usual decline in Windows XP last month. The eight-year-old operating system lost 0.92 percentage point in October, significantly more than the 0.64 point average loss each month during the past year, falling to 70.6 percent.

Vista rebounded from September, when it fell for the first time in more than two years. Vista's October share of 18.77 percent, however, was still off its record of 18.8 percent in August.

Windows' overall share dropped 0.23 of a percentage point to 92.5 percent. Microsoft's OS has lost about two and a half share points in the last year.

As it has repeatedly, Mac OS X was the recipient of most of the users lost to Microsoft: Apple's operating system climbed by 0.15 of a percentage point to end October at 5.27 percent, a new record and only the second time it's finished above 5 percent since Net Applications revised its methodology in June.

Net Applications Measures Operating System usage by tracking the machines that surf to the 40,000 sites it monitors for clients, which results in a pool of about 160 million unique visitors per month. It weights share by the estimated size of each country's Internet population.

Source:

http://www.infoworld.com/d/windows/windows-7-share-surges-40-in-first-week-release-471

Chicago Website Design

Is Google Trying to Kill us by Screen-Only Navigation?

With all the hype around Google’s big announcement yesterday that they would be providing Android devices with free turn-by-turn directions, you’d think stand alone GPS companies should call it a day and pack up the office. But we are missing something: nowhere does Google say anything about spoken turn-by-turn directions.

Turn left in 1.3 miles

One of the best features in a GPS Navigation System, in my book at least, is audible instructions so I don’t have to take my eyes off the road. TeleNav, which I use, even speaks the road names I should be turning on to. How can a GPS navigation system be viable without spoken instructions? Isn’t this traffic safety week or something?

Rerouting?

I’ve been thinking since the announcement that I must have overlooked it. I twittered my question to bloggers and got no responses. I combed Google’s Navigation site and watched videos. The closest I came to any kind of confirmation was a mute button. Not very convincing, right?

There is nothing better than connected GPS (IMO) and Google brings this. I really dig the street view, another great thing Google brings. But without spoken navigation instructions, what’s the point? It will be just a step above the Google Maps route info on the iPhone. At best, we can hope to get pulled over by all these no texting laws for this, at worst we take our eyes off the road and miss who knows what. Surely Google isn’t trying to kill us, right?

I’ll continue searching. If you find something on this, post it in the comments. We’ll get to the bottom of this, hopefully before the phone launches.

Source:

http://www.gadgetell.com/tech/comment/is-google-trying-to-kill-us-by-screen-only-navigation/

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