garyp
08-08-2004, 05:31 PM
Google $36bn float hangs in balance
Source: The Observer
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/business/story/0,6903,1278351,00.html
The Observer is reporting today that, "...advisers are meeting this weekend to discuss possibly delaying the public listing after a sharp fall in share prices in New York on Friday. An insider said last night: 'The float is teetering on the brink - it really is 50/50 at this stage, although many of us are optimistic.'"
and speaking of the IPO...
a VERY stongly worded opinion piece in today's SF Chronicle, G. Pascal Zachary (a writer at Business 2.0), rips the company for deciding to go public.
Google's dirty little secrets
S.F. Chronicle
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2004/08/08/INGI882I221.DTL
The stock offering is a shuck: a fleecing-in-the-making of little people who don't know any better. Shame on Brin and Page. Shame on their "adult supervisor," Eric Schmidt, Google's chief executive officer, whose distinguished tenure at Sun and Novell suggests he ought to know better.
How could Google's founders have lost their moral compass so quickly? The simple explanation is greed; Brin and Page have a chance to become fabulously wealthy. The prospect of great riches distorts the mind.
Google began as a public service that helps people search the Web. For ease of use and cost (it's free), "googling" deserves praise. And search isn't standing still. Brin and Page talk about revolutionizing the practice of searching the Internet, adding the ability to locate sounds and images in addition to text. Search is hot: Yahoo and Microsoft are chasing this same dream as well. But perhaps surprisingly, search is no longer the end game for Google. Public service is giving way to private agendas.
This is Google's dirty little secret and the worm at the core of the company's apple. Google's game is now advertising.
Note: In the article Zachary talks about the company adding the ability to locate sounds and images. This would be a new service for Google but the technology would not be revolutionary.
+ Speechbot (http://www.speechbot.com) has been online for several years with its technology allows you to keyword search every word spoken in several thousand hours of radio programming.
+ StreamSage (http://www.campaignsearch.com) offers a cool demo that offers the chance to keyword search words spoken during the current presidential election. Both of these tools use voice recognition technology.
+ Nexidia (http://www.nexidia.com) is also a major player in this space.
Finally, in terms of allowing the searcher to find file names both AltaVista, AllTheWeb, and AOL's Singing Fish have offered multimedia catalogs for several years.
Source: The Observer
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/business/story/0,6903,1278351,00.html
The Observer is reporting today that, "...advisers are meeting this weekend to discuss possibly delaying the public listing after a sharp fall in share prices in New York on Friday. An insider said last night: 'The float is teetering on the brink - it really is 50/50 at this stage, although many of us are optimistic.'"
and speaking of the IPO...
a VERY stongly worded opinion piece in today's SF Chronicle, G. Pascal Zachary (a writer at Business 2.0), rips the company for deciding to go public.
Google's dirty little secrets
S.F. Chronicle
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2004/08/08/INGI882I221.DTL
The stock offering is a shuck: a fleecing-in-the-making of little people who don't know any better. Shame on Brin and Page. Shame on their "adult supervisor," Eric Schmidt, Google's chief executive officer, whose distinguished tenure at Sun and Novell suggests he ought to know better.
How could Google's founders have lost their moral compass so quickly? The simple explanation is greed; Brin and Page have a chance to become fabulously wealthy. The prospect of great riches distorts the mind.
Google began as a public service that helps people search the Web. For ease of use and cost (it's free), "googling" deserves praise. And search isn't standing still. Brin and Page talk about revolutionizing the practice of searching the Internet, adding the ability to locate sounds and images in addition to text. Search is hot: Yahoo and Microsoft are chasing this same dream as well. But perhaps surprisingly, search is no longer the end game for Google. Public service is giving way to private agendas.
This is Google's dirty little secret and the worm at the core of the company's apple. Google's game is now advertising.
Note: In the article Zachary talks about the company adding the ability to locate sounds and images. This would be a new service for Google but the technology would not be revolutionary.
+ Speechbot (http://www.speechbot.com) has been online for several years with its technology allows you to keyword search every word spoken in several thousand hours of radio programming.
+ StreamSage (http://www.campaignsearch.com) offers a cool demo that offers the chance to keyword search words spoken during the current presidential election. Both of these tools use voice recognition technology.
+ Nexidia (http://www.nexidia.com) is also a major player in this space.
Finally, in terms of allowing the searcher to find file names both AltaVista, AllTheWeb, and AOL's Singing Fish have offered multimedia catalogs for several years.