2007: Search Rungs and More Than an iPhone Frenzy

Looking Back

In the tech world, the year is finishing much like
2006, with Google still dominating the search landscape despite increased competition from heavyweight players like Yahoo and Microsoft and innovative startups like Powerset and Hakia.

Competitors would have had a much better chance if the search giant instead stood still during the year (as if that was going to happen).

In May Google announced what it said were “the critical first steps” to giving users universal
search
capability. The idea is to enhance basic search functionality so that it’s sophisticated enough to draw on all the different media types and information sources and present individual users with the best results for all of them. The result was a horizontal bar of navigation links for Web, Images, Video and results from Books.

Google said it can now significantly enhance results where it has rights to copyrighted or access to public domain content. Video includes results form its own Google Video and YouTube properties. Book results tap what Google vice president of search products and user experience Marissa Mayer said is one of the company’s “most under appreciated assets.” Google has a database of over a million book titles available for viewing.

In 2007 Google also made public a Web site where users can try out search tools still in development at Google
Experimental
. One example gives search results in either a timeline or maps formats.

The iGoogle home page debuted in 2007. If you like the simple, uncluttered look of the classic Google search page, iGoogle probably isn’t for you. Similar in some ways to a classic portal or home page with feeds of select information, the iGoogle page gives registered users a way to get personalized results.

One simple example, if your registered address is in Southern California and you type in a query for surfing equipment, the top results will be local to the zip code you registered. Google said it’s looking iGoogle to a much deeper level of personalization. For example, if you typed in a query for Broadway shows, it would know your preferences (comedy, tragedy, etc.) and come back with top results best suited to those interests. “That’s what we’re shooting for,” said Mayer. “A search engine that understands ‘me’.”

Looking Back

Page 2 of 3

In search of what we searched for.

What do YouTube, Wikipedia, Facebook and iTunes all have in common?

You might be surprised to know that the four popular Web sites were ranked the top four tech-related search terms on Yahoo. The Sunnyvale, CA-based Internet portal just completed an analysis of top trends for 2007 based on billions of searches at its site this past year (through just after Thanksgiving).

Apple’s iTunes, iPod and iPhone are ranked 4,5 & 6 in popularity, but it’s not all about people wanting to visit the Apple-related sites. In the case of iPhone, there was a lot of publicity and controversy about Apple’s rebate announcement that may have sparked a lot of interest in that type of information from other sites.

Rounding out the top ten was the Nintendo’s Wii, Microsoft’s Xbox 360, Sony’s Playstation 3 and the “Guitar Hero” game.

Google took a different tack, tracking the top ten fastest rising terms in the U.S.: follows:

  • 1. iphone
  • 2. Webkinz
  • 3. tmz
  • 4. Transformers
  • 5. YouTube
  • 6. Club Penguin
  • 7. MySpace
  • 8. Heroes
  • 9. Facebook
  • 10. Anna Nicole Smith

If you don’t have little kids you might be scratching your head over Webkinz, a popular stuffed animal that also has a virtual online counterpart. Linux fans don’t account for Club Penguin’s placement on the list; in fact, it’s a virtual world for kids acquired by Disney earlier this year.

Google also released a “Fastest Falling” list of search terms that included; World Cup; Mozart; Fifa; Rebelde; Kazaa; Xanga; webdetente; sudoko; Shakira and MP3.

At Ask.com, MySpace was the only social networking site to make its top ten list for the year which was otherwise made up of generic-sounding terms save for, of all things, the term Google:

  • 1. MySpace
  • 2. Dictionary
  • 3. Google
  • 4. Themes
  • 5. Area Codes
  • 6. Cars
  • 7. Weather
  • 8. Games
  • 9. Song Lyrics
  • 10. Movies

Ask.com’s Top Presidential Candidate Searches for 2007 was headed, in order, by Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Fred Thompson, John Edwards and Mitt Romney.

No big surprises in the first part of the company’s list of Top Sports Team Searches for the year: Boston Red Sox; Dallas Cowboys; New England Patriots and Colorado Rockies, but some fans might raise an eyebrow or two at the Chicago Bears at number five, edging out the New York Yankees.

Next page: The iPhone takes a bow, and is then booed.

Looking Back

Page 3 of 3

The iPhone takes a bow; later booed.

Apple finally settled all the rumors when it unveiled
the iPhone at the start of 2007, a much-anticipated device that actually lived up to a good part of the pre-release hype. Ironically, the iPhone had its debut at MacWorld Expo, a show traditionally focused on new Macintosh computer and software. But with the iPod Apple’s best-selling product line, computer systems are no longer the company’s main drive. CEO Steve Jobs confirmed that when he also announced the company was changing its name from Apple Computer Inc. to Apple Inc.

The iPhone’s innovative touch screen and full Web browsing capabilities are well chronicled. In fact, though it’s called a “phone” Apple rightly claims its really three devices in one, phone, iPod music player and Web access device. All that was enough to get the MacWorld crowd frothing in anticipation, only to have their mouths go dry when Jobs announced the device wouldn’t actually be available until June.

But the five month delay only seemed to heighten the anticipation and the iPhone’s release (exclusively at AT&T and Apple stores) in June became an event, with consumers camping
out
ahead of time to plunk down either $499 or $599 for the 4GB or 8GB version respectively.

But the two-tiered pricing later became a PR nightmare for the company.
In September Apple shocked
early buyers
when it announced it had lowered the price of the 8 GB iPhone a whopping 33 percent from $599 down to $399. Adding further insult to consumers who paid $499 for the 4 GB iPhone, Apple announced that version was discontinued.

Suddenly the early iPhone buyer’s mood went from smug to snarly and the blogosphere was rife with outrage. Jobs & Company quickly went into damage control mode, offering the early buyers a $100 credit for Apple products.
While some felt the offer didn’t go nearly far enough, the furor over the discounts largely died down. Critics noted the $100 credit would essentially serve as a marketing tool for Apple that would drive buyers back to the stores where they might even spend more than the credit.

Apple also had something for those who wanted the iPhone’s cool features but didn’t want to spend so much or perhaps didn’t need the phone features.
The iPod
Touch
has the same touch-screen interface, the same picture and video playback features and the Safari browser for Internet access just like the iPhone. The iPod Touch comes in two configurations: an 8GB version for $299, and a 16GB version for $399. Both have 22 hours of audio battery life, or five hours of video playback.

The iPhone also proved popular among hackers who unlocked
the features that tie the device to AT&T’s phone service. Both Apple and AT&T share in the service revenue so it will be interesting to see how the companies respond in the coming year particularly in light of the new openness promised by competitors such as Verizon
and the forthcoming Android
phones due out in the second half of 2008 based on a software platform from Google.

Microsoft as the great unifier?

Microsoft still talks about the crucial role of PCs, the desktop computers responsible for much of the company’s success. But it’s clear the software giant’s ambitions extend much further, whether its XBox game systems, software for mobile devices or its latest push, unified communications (UC) software.

At a splashy event in San Francisco in October, Microsoft formally rolled
out
its UC strategy with cofounder and chairman Bill Gates on hand as well as several big industry supporters and other key partners and customers.

The idea behind UC is to bring more features to corporate phone systems (not the mobile side, where innovation is rampant) that Gates said haven’t changed much in the past 30 years. Simply put, office phones aren’t that smart compared to their mobile brethren. Gates chided what little innovation phone system companies have made, noting they’ve added a lot of buttons that people don’t know what to do with, and small screens that don’t provide a lot of information.

Microsoft is bringing new communication features to office workers via its Office Communications Server (OCS), which offers the ability to add VoIP, video, instant messaging, conferencing and presence to Microsoft Office applications.

“Eventually, the PBX   goes away,” Gates said. But he also noted the hefty investments most companies have in their current PBX systems. Gates said company’s could transition to Microsoft’s Office Communications Server at their own pace, while keeping the PBX in place.
Several major PBX makers were on hand in support of Microsoft’s plans.
Nortel Networks, Ericsson and Mitel Networks all announced next-generation software applications that would build on Microsoft’s voice platform. Nortel already has made numerous joint
deployments
with Microsoft.

Of course the great thing about unification schemes is there’s never only one. IBM tried to steal a bit of Microsoft’s thunder by previewing its own unified communications plans for 2008. “Office isn’t the only application in the enterprise,” Akiba Saeedi, director of IBM’s Unified Communications and Collaboration division, told InternetNews.com. “We want to offer customers more choices.”

IBM is promising a tight level of integration between its own Sametime UC platform and its new, free Lotus Symphony productivity suite. Under IBM’s plan, Sametime customers will be able to share and collaborate on presentations, word processing and spreadsheets created in Lotus Symphony and conference using Sametime’s on-premises Web conferencing app or IBM’s recently acquired Web-based conferencing application, Lotus Sametime Unyte.

For now Microsoft is the space’s undisputed leader, according to Gartner’s oft-cited Magic Quadrant report, followed by Cisco due in large part to its $3.2 billion acquisition of WebEx in March, followed by Nortel, IBM, Alcatel-Lucent and Avaya.

Despite all the attention and investments these companies have made, businesses only spent about $363 million on unified communications applications in 2006, according to Infonetics Research. However, the market is expected grow between 25 percent and 30 percent each year through 2010, making it a roughly $700 million sector within three years.

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