Quantcast
Channel: Sergey Brin
Viewing all 279 articles
Browse latest View live

We Just Spotted This Guy Wearing Google's Secret Internet Glasses On The Train Like It's No Big Deal

0
0

A Googler wearing Project Glass

We just hopped off Caltrain, the Bay Area's commuter-rail system, at Palo Alto to share this with you.

When we got on the train at San Francisco, we spotted a man wearing a blue attachment on his glasses.

We instantly recognized it as Google's secretive Project Glass headsets, which display information feeds and capture photos and videos.

Why is this notable? At this year's Google I/O conference, Project Glass industrial designer Isabelle Olsson told us that only a "handful" of Googlers were allowed to wear them at present.

Cofounder Sergey Brin showed them off with an elaborate skydiving stunt.

The project, which showcases both Google's ability to process huge amounts of information and its increasingly large hardware ambitions, is said by some to be Google's future.

One of them is Vic Gundotra, Google's senior vice president in charge of social efforts including Google+.

Developers who attended I/O got to preorder a test version of the headsets for $1,500. But even those are not expected to ship until next year.

So who is this guy? Based on comparing our photo to other publicly available ones, we've tentatively identified him as Steve Lee, a six-year veteran of Google who leads product management for Google+. He's part of the team that launched Project Glass to the world in April.

Lee is the person who hooked Gundotra up with his pair, in fact.

We've asked Google for comment. Nothing back yet.

Update: Lee just replied on Twitter—it was him!

Please follow SAI on Twitter and Facebook.

Join the conversation about this story »


This Stanford Professor's Early Investment In Google Is Now Worth More Than $1 Billion (GOOG)

0
0

Back in 1998, David Cheriton cut Larry Page and Sergey Brin a check for $100,000 to help them get their new company Google off the ground. Now, that early investment in Google is worth more than $1 billion.

Cheriton, who still works as a computer science professor at Stanford, opened up to Bloomberg West on Tuesday about why he decided to invest in Google early on and what impressed him most about the company's founders.

"Actually, the first time they really impressed me as entrepreneurs was when I took them in to see John Doerr at Kleiner Perkins," Cheriton said in the interview. "To see two young guys fresh out of our PhD program go toe-to-toe with one of the most recognized venture capitalists in Silicon Valley, if not the entire world, really impressed me that they could handle the business side as well."

Cheriton also explained why he thought Sergey Brin was more likely to be Google's CEO than Larry Page, at least as of a few years ago.

"Sergey has always been a little more outspoken and aggressive about what they were going to," he said, "whereas I think Larry is a little more thoughtful and a little bit introverted and so, he seemed more like the scientist type than the CEO type to me."

Please follow SAI on Twitter and Facebook.

Join the conversation about this story »

Larry Page And Sergey Brin Are Vacationing In Fiji (GOOG)

0
0

Dragonfly, a 73-meter megayacht

Google's cofounders are vacationing in the South Pacific, the Fiji Times reports.

CEO Larry Page and Sergey Brin have long shared ownership of a fleet of private jets with Google's chairman, Eric Schmidt.  The newspaper photographed one of their planes, a Boeing 767ER, at the Nadi airport.

From there, Page, Brin, and a group of relatives and friends reportedly traveled to the Lau, Mamanuca, and Yasawa archipelagos on board the Dragonfly, a 73-meter megayacht.

According to CharterWorld.com, the Dragonfly has nine cabins and accommodates 18 guests and 16 crew.

So our first question: If Page is up to traveling, does this mean he's gotten his voice back?

We asked a Google spokesperson for comment and will update you if we hear back.

Please follow SAI on Twitter and Facebook.

Join the conversation about this story »

Sergey Brin Is Secretly Buying Up Property And Charging Below-Market Rent (GOOG)

0
0

Sergey Brin wearing Google Glass glasses

As a cofounder of Google, Sergey Brin has already done lots of very good things for the world on a macro scale.

He's given us a great technology that makes the Internet usable, created a company that provides jobs for tens of thousands of people, and donated millions to various charities. He's investing in genetic cures for diseases and space exploration, too.

But one of the coolest, warmest things he's doing with his money is on a much smaller scale.

According to the WSJ's Amir Efrati, Brin has created a small real estate holding firm called Passerelle Investment Company. With it, Brin is buying up downtown property in Los Altos, Calif., a small Silicon Valley town near where he lives, and is renting it out at below-market rates to stores he thinks families in the community need: a children's bookstore, a children's playspace, and a child-friendly coffee shop.

I can already hear people complaining about this post: "Great, a rich guy is making a rich town nicer to live in."

But Brin is doing a lot of other stuff for the world, and he doesn't have to be investing in his community like this at all, and it's just really cool that he is.

No wonder so many Googlers are rushing to work for Google X, Brin's secret projects division at the company.

Please follow SAI on Twitter and Facebook.

Join the conversation about this story »

Google Founder Sergey Brin Is The Landlord For These Ex-Military Techies Working To Save Soldiers' Lives (GOOG)

0
0

Tom Spooner, Hover Inc.

Google cofounder Sergey Brin has been buying up property in Los Altos, Calif., a small Silicon Valley town near where he lives.

He's charging below-market rent with the goal of trying to keep the right mix of businesses downtown, like toy stores for kids.

But Brin is up to more than fun and games. He's also the landlord to Hover Inc., 3D mapping technology company. 

Hover makes Indigo-i, a 3D modeling system designed to improve "situational awareness," a military term that refers to knowledge of one's environment in real time. Indigo-i is especially good at mapping and modeling buildings, which can help soldiers fighting in urban environments. Such knowledge can be "lifesaving," the Indigo-i website says.

Hover's CEO, AJ Altman, is a Marine who served as a ground intelligence officer. CTO Lu is a former Nasa astronaut. Software engineer Nicholas Ray worked on "America's Army," a hyperrealistic military video game. And Indigo-i's Tom Spooner as a former Special Operations operator.

Here's a video explaining how Indigo-i helps America's fighting forces:

Please follow SAI on Twitter and Facebook.

Join the conversation about this story »

A Bunch Of Models Rocked Google Glasses At New York Fashion Week

0
0

Diane von Furstenberg Sergey Brin DVF Google Glasses

Google took its presence at New York Fashion Week to a new level yesterday when it invaded the Diane von Furstenberg runway.

The company, which has live streamed shows from The Tents at Lincoln Center on YouTube for a few seasons now, gave the Furstenberg team glasses in carrot orange, white, and turquoise to use for the show.

Sergey Brin, co-founder of Google, walked with von Furstenberg during her finale — showing off the glasses.

"Beauty, style and comfort are as important to Glass as the latest technology," Brin said in a statement. "We are delighted to bring Glass to the runway together with DVF.”

Here's Google Glass in white...





...some turquoise...



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

Please follow The Life on Twitter and Facebook.

Google Cofounder Sergey Brin Is 'Dreading Today's Elections' (GOOG)

0
0

Google cofounder Sergey Brin is tired of the way America's democracy works.

Already annoyed that his vote "won't matter at all" because California isn't a swing state, he says he is "dreading today's elections."

The reason: "no matter what the outcome, our government will still be a giant bonfire of partisanship."

"It is ironic since whenever I have met with our elected officials they are invariably thoughtful, well-meaning people.  And yet collectively 90% of their effort seems to be focused on how to stick it to the other party."

His solution: he'd like the winner of today's presidential election to renounce his party afterwards.

"So my plea to the victors -- whoever they might be: please withdraw from your respective parties and govern as independents in name and in spirit.  It is probably the biggest contribution you can make to the country."

Here is Brin's full post, on Google+:

I must confess, I am dreading today's elections. Not because of who might win or lose. Not because as a Californian, my vote for President will count 1/3 as much as an Alaskan (actually it won't matter at all -- I'm not in a swing state). Not because my vote for Senate will count 1/50 as much as an Alaskan.  But because no matter what the outcome, our government will still be a giant bonfire of partisanship.  It is ironic since whenever I have met with our elected officials they are invariably thoughtful, well-meaning people.  And yet collectively 90% of their effort seems to be focused on how to stick it to the other party.  So my plea to the victors -- whoever they might be: please withdraw from your respective parties and govern as independents in name and in spirit.  It is probably the biggest contribution you can make to the country.  [If you agree, pass it on to your newly elected officials.]

(By the way, this is pretty good marketing for Google+, isn't it? Saying something controversial on Google+ so media will link to it and bring more eyeballs to Google's Facebook clone.)

Please follow SAI on Twitter and Facebook.

Join the conversation about this story »

How 15 Tech Tycoons Spend Their Fortunes

0
0

Larry Ellison wine glass

If you'd founded a tech company worth billions of dollars, what would you do with your cash?

That's a high-class problem faced by the moguls on this list.

Naturally, many of them buy expensive things, like cars, houses, planes—even islands.

But even if you're Larry Ellison, with a seemingly endless appetite for that stuff, there comes a time when you want to do more.

Maybe it's solving the world's problems, or just indulging in a geeky fantasy.

Larry Ellison: Anti-aging

Oracle cofounder and CEO Larry Ellison is known for pet projects like running the America's Cup sailboat race series, buying homes on Malibu's "Billionaire's Beach," and turning the Hawaiian island of Lanai into a sustainable living lab.

But he says his biggest philanthropic endeavor is medicine.

"I have a medical foundation called, very creatively, the Ellison Medical Foundation," Ellison said in an interview at the D: All Things Digital conference last year. "We are focused on diseases related to aging—I mean, for obvious reasons." (Ellison is now 68.)

Ellison spent about $1 billion on this foundation.



Bill Gates: High-tech toilets

Through the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Microsoft cofounder is working on a lot of social issues in health, education, and agriculture.

But one problem that really caught Gates' attention is ... poop. The foundation sponsored a "Reinvent the Toilet" fair. Gates himself judged the entries and announced the winners. 

He was looking for methods "for capturing and processing human waste and transforming it into useful resources," Gates said in a blog post announcing the winners.



Paul Allen: Brain research, sports teams, and collectibles

Paul Allen, Microsoft's other billionaire cofounder, also has a long list of pet projects that includes owning multiple pro sports teams, building a rock-and-roll museum, collecting vintage WWII planes, and more.

He's also invested a half billion dollars into the Allen Institute for Brain Science. Its mission is to figure out exactly how the brain works and how to solve diseases like Alzheimer's, which his mother suffered from.

Another goal of the institute is to replicate the brain and build machines with human intelligence.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

Please follow SAI on Twitter and Facebook.


An Awesome Photo Of Google Founder Sergey Brin Riding The New York Subway Wearing Google Glasses And A Beanie Hat

0
0

Here's an awesome photo of Google founder Sergey Brin on the New York City subway wearing Google Glass(es) and a beanie hat.

The photo was taken by Noah Zerkin, who describes himself as a "wearable computing and augmented reality enthusiast and hardware prototyper." He builds stuff at Supertou.ch Group.

Nick Bilton of the New York Times remarks that Sergey looks "like an assassin."

Maybe so. But certainly looks cool! And wouldn't you love to know what his glasses are telling him about you.

Sergey Brin Subway

Please follow SAI on Twitter and Facebook.

Join the conversation about this story »

Google Glass Has 3 Big Challenges To Beat (GOOG)

0
0

sergey brin google glasses

We like Google Glass.

When fully realized, we'll essentially have smartphones baked into the frames of our glasses.

Accessibility to the internet will be unparalleled and it will be able to overlay images with useful data onto the real world.

The way we see things, the company has three problems to solve before Google Glass can be as useful as it wants to be.

It could easily be overpriced. If you want to buy a very fancy pair of designer glasses, you could easily spend $300-$500. Google needs to aim right in this price range (and not much higher) to keep potential consumers interested.

How will we address theft? People steal phones. People steal tablets. It's not hard to imagine someone walking up to you, grabbing the Google Glasses right off your face, and sprinting away. Will there be a "Find My Glasses" feature?

People might not want to "wear" their technology. People who already wear glasses will have less of a hurdle to clear here – they're already accustomed to strapping eyewear to their faces every day. But a large portion of the population uses contact lenses or doesn't have corrected vision. There will likely be a social speedbump to get over before people are wearing them in public without being self-conscious.

Until then, we look forward to seeing the completed product ready for sale!

Don't Miss: An Awesome Photo Of Google Founder Sergey Brin Riding The New York Subway Wearing Google Glasses And A Beanie Hat >

Please follow Business Insider on Twitter and Facebook.

Join the conversation about this story »

3 Of Tech's Most Famous Billionaires Are Giving Away $33 Million To Biotech Inventors

0
0

priscilla chan

Some of Silicon Valley's most prominent billionaires are making a big push to guide the tech world's entrepreneurs into biotech.

Backing the Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences are Yuri Milner; Sergey Brin and Anne Wojcicki; and Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan.

Fittingly, they're making the announcement at the University of California at San Francisco's Genentech Hall, a building named after one of the Bay Area's biotech standouts.

Those names are tech royalty. Milner, the head of DST Group, made a prescient private investment in Facebook that has grown almost tenfold in value. Zuckerberg is the cofounder of Facebook, and is married to Chan, a physician who graduated from Stanford's medical school last year. Brin is the cofounder of Google; he is married to Wojcicki, who is the cofounder of a biotech startup, 23andMe

Chairing the foundation behind the prize is Art Levinson, the former CEO of Genentech who is now chairman of Apple's board.

Eleven scientists are getting $3 million apiece, and the backers of the prize are making five annual $3 million grants going forward. (Prize recipients will form a selection committee to determine future winners.)

It's a small piece of their respective fortunes, but these tech billionaires are making a statement.

Consumer Internet startups seem to be all that grip people's imaginations these days, with angel investors banking the small fortunes they made in the past decade's IPOs into social, mobile startup ideas they feel comfortable with.

But it is also a monumental challenge to get a large number of people focused on the life sciences. Biotech moves on a slower time scale than information technology. And while Silicon Valley's biotech industry is strong, it is still poorly integrated into the rest of the tech economy, with glaringly little exchange of ideas between the sectors.

Of late, eye-catching, multimillion-dollar prizes have become a popular way to get people focused on new sectors deemed too risky for traditional venture-capital investment, like space exploration or robot cars—witness the X Prize and the DARPA Challenge.

So the Breakthrough billionaires are proposing something simple: Less talk. More money. That might actually make a difference.

Please follow SAI on Twitter and Facebook.

Join the conversation about this story »

And Now Here's A Totally Gratuitous Picture Of Sergey Brin Wearing Google Glass (GOOG)

0
0

Google cofounder Sergey Brin showed up at the launch of the Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences, a biotech research-awards program he's backing with some other tech billionaires, wearing Google Glass.

Google Glass is in the news lately, as Brin's company has expanded availability of the Internet-connected headsets. It's one of the mysterious projects Brin now busies himself with in the Google X skunkworks.

Before getting whisked off to do some TV interviews, he chatted with an attendee in Russian. (Brin is originally from Russia.)

Our Russian is very rusty, but we caught that he was talking about Area 151, an arcade-game venue in Los Altos, Calif. Brin lives nearby and has backed several family-friendly businesses in an effort to make the downtown area more appealing.

He was wearing a tight, white long-sleeved Lululemon top. Dude is buff! (Click for a larger version.)

Sergey Brin at the Breakthrough Prize launch event

SEE ALSO: Big, Beautiful Photos Of Google Glass

Please follow SAI on Twitter and Facebook.

Join the conversation about this story »

Mark Zuckerberg Tries On Google Glasses, Asks, How Do You Avoid Looking Awkward With These Things? (FB, GOOG)

0
0

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg at the Breakthrough Prize launch

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg appeared to be genuinely delighted and intrigued by Google's computerized glasses when he tried them on for the first time yesterday.

Zuckerberg tried them on at the announcement of the Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences, an award for scientists working on life-changing work. He, along with Sergey Brin, Yuri Milner, and Arthur Levinson are giving $33 million to 11 scientists who have done breakthrough work.

At the event, Brin was wearing Google Glass, as he always does nowadays. Google Glass is Google's wearable computing device. It's a little monitor sitting just above the user's eye feeding discreet bits of information like directions, weather, or email. It can also take photos. Google Glass has the tech world in a bit of a frenzy after Google released a teaser video for how it could work (if all went perfectly).

Forbes reporter Ryan Mac listened in on Zuckerberg's conversation with Brin about Google Glass. According to his account, Zuckerberg said that Facebook has a team of three engineers waiting to get their hands on Google Glass. They're going to develop an application if possible.

This would be an interesting development since Google and Facebook have a frosty relationship. Zuckerberg told analysts on the company's more recent earnings call, "Our relationship isn't one where the companies really talk."

Google portrays itself as an open company, so we're sure Facebook could try to build something for Glass. But, Google has its own social network, Google+, which we're certain would get top billing.

Zuckerberg had bigger questions than application development about Glass. The kind of question lots of us have about Google's goggles. He asked Brin, "How do you look out from this without looking awkward? You know, how are you supposed to use these this without breaking eye contact?"

Brin didn't answer that question, at least not according to Mac's report.

Now Watch: Apple's Answer To The Google Glasses Is Past The Experimental Stage

 

Please follow SAI on Twitter and Facebook.

Join the conversation about this story »

Sergey Brin’s Brilliant Strategy To Make Google Glass Seem Normal

0
0

Sergey Brin DVF Google Glasses

Since Google launched its reality-augmenting Project Glass in June, it’s been pretty much impossible find a picture of Google co-founder Sergei Brin in which he’s not wearing the futuristic eye-piece.

Last night’s Vanity Fair Oscar party was no exception. Which means 150 of Hollywood’s most famous and beautiful people, from Natalie Portman to JJ Abrams,  got to look Brin in the eye as a tiny display glowed just above his right pupil, as if that were something totally normal that they should just get used to.

We don’t even know what to call this thing yet—is it a Glass, a pair of Glasses, or a pair of Glass?—and yet he’s already been spotted wearing it, or them, on the New York City subway and at the signing of California’s legislation authorizing (Google’s) driverless cars.

He wore them while hanging out with Diane Von Furstenberg, at New York City’s Fashion Week.
And, naturally, he had them on at the announcement of the Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences.

Using your own products is standard practice in technology companies that want to remain competitive—it’s called eating your own dog food or, more optimistically,drinking your own champagne.  But Brin’s experiment in public, always-on Google Glass(es) takes this to a whole new level. Intentionally or not, Brin is constantly projecting the image of a rich, famous, vigorous alpha-geek whom other might want to imitate—all the way down to never taking off the Google Glass.

This trends is only going to accelerate. Ostensible competitor Mark Zuckerberg has declared that he “can’t wait” to get his hands on  Glass. For Google’s sake, let’s hope this goes better than the last fashion trend Brin tried to start—wearing “five-finger” toe shoes to professional events.

Please follow SAI on Twitter and Facebook.

Join the conversation about this story »

Google's Sergey Brin Calls Smartphones 'Emasculating'

0
0

Sergey Brin at the Breakthrough Prize launch event

We get that smartphones can be inconvenient and annoying.

But "emasculating"?

That's what Google cofounder Sergey Brinsaid Wednesday in a presentation at TED, a technology conference in Long Beach, Calif., CNET reports.

He was making the case for Google Glass, Google's Internet-connected headset, which can snap photos, record video, and display information on demand.

"You're just rubbing a featureless piece of glass," Brin said.

We think Brin made a tragically poor choice of words here, for which he should apologize at the next available opportunity.

"Alienating" would have been fine.

It's true that smartphones require you to look down at a small screen, cutting you off from the world around you.

But "emasculating" suggests that Google Glass is somehow a more "manly" piece of technology, which is just wrong, and off-key—especially when Google's industrial-design team has done such fine work to create a good-looking gadget that can and should appeal to men and women equally.

With Brin doing smart things to promote Google Glass to consumers, like showing up at the Vanity Fair Oscars party wearing the headset—you know, like it's totally not a big deal—it's a shame he's not watching his words a little more carefully.

In related news, Brin recently wore a Lululemon athletic top to the announcement of a biotech prize in San Francisco.

It went perfectly with his Google Glass headset.

Please follow SAI on Twitter and Facebook.

Join the conversation about this story »


Signatures Of Famous CEOs, And The Secrets They Reveal (AAPL, MSFT, GOOG, FB)

0
0

jeff bezos signature

We asked a handwriting analyst to look at the signatures of some big-name technology executives and tell us what they say about their personalities.

Sheila Lowe, president of the American Handwriting Analysis Foundation, provided a blurb for us on Jeff Bezos, Steve Ballmer, and many more.

In researching this story, another handwriting analyst said Lowe is "great" at analysis. Lowe's group, the AHAF, is trying to get cursive back in school curricula.

Lowe cautioned that it's difficult to truly read a person's character based just on their signature. You need some handwriting samples.

"A signature by itself gives only a limited amount of information (it’s like looking at a photo of someone’s nose and trying to describe their whole face)," Lowe told us over email. "The signature is like the cover on a book, and doesn’t always jibe with what’s inside. It’s what the person wants you to know about them."

Since these people are in tech, we're guessing it's been years since any of them hand-wrote notes. As a result we have to use signatures we've found through various online sources.

With Bill Gates, Microsoft's chairman, what you see is what you get

Lowe: "Bill Gates takes the time to write a clear, clean, unpretentious signature that says, 'What you see is what you get.' There are signs of quick thinking, but the round dot over the 'i' says he’s patient with details. He’s willing to take the time to listen."



Jack Dorsey, founder of Twitter and CEO of Square's, "@" signature is about saying "who I am is what I do"

Jack Dorsey has two signatures we've seen online. This one plays on his Twitter founding.

Lowe's take on this: "Jack Dorsey’s extremely simplified signature drops his last name and with the @ symbol, identifies him with what he does ('who I am is what I do'). The k ends with a downward trail. If that’s how he normally signs, it may signify a desire to continually look back at the past and figure out how to benefit from his experiences, or to figure out how he got where he is now."



Jack Dorsey's more formal signature shows he's a bottom line kind of guy

Here's another Dorsey signature we found that's more formal. Says Lowe, "This is more his public persona. This one is a logo-type signature, which happens to be easy to forge in its lack of complexity. It’s another case of illegibility that allows the writer to hide anything he doesn’t want the world to see. He’s a bottom line kind of guy, impatient and with that strong ending stroke, aggressive."



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

Please follow SAI on Twitter and Facebook.

Sorry Google, I Like Using My Phone To Escape Awkward Social Situations

0
0

iphone, how to, curious, focused, texting, cell phone, Google's co-founder Sergey Brin made an impromptu appearance at a TED talk this week, saying:

"The cellphone is a nervous habit. If I smoked, I'd probably smoke instead, it'd look cooler. But I whip this out and look as if I have something important to do … It really opened my eyes to how much of my life I spent secluding myself away in email."

If the numbers of Guardian staffers bumping into each other with eyes glued to their phones is anything to go by, he's hit the nail on the head.

Brin may have a point, but I don't think we should embrace social awkwardness just yet – especially when technology enables us to escape from it. And who wants to waste time engaging with real people anyway? There are, after all, virtual friends you have to check in with – and they don't know you haven't showered today. To prove my point, here are five ways to use your precious smartphone as an emotional crutch:

Waiting in a bar on your own

The old faithful. Previously, you might have had to sit in silence, ignoring the slightly leery gent on the next stool, who keeps sidling nearer. You now have your whizzy little companion, and can spend time texting your errant friend frantically, or browsing all the selfies you took on Instagram. The leery gent won't approach you, but then neither will the rather handsome chap in the corner.

The corporate power battle

I believe the technical term for this kind of phone usage is "willy waving". A fairly new phenomenon, it mainly involves people sitting around in a meeting, all checking their mobiles with varying degrees of subtlety. The guy that wants you to know just how important he is will be frantically typing and swiping away, while you feel inadequate and undervalued. Don't worry, he's probably texting his mum or browsing Uni Lad anyway.

The dreaded journey

There are so many people. You are packed into a carriage, eye contact is dangerously possible, and you just know the lady with her head tucked into your armpit can tell you forgot to put on deodorant. Get out your phone, wipe the sweat from your brow! Yes, you're going through tunnel after tunnel, and all hope of a signal is gone, but be not defeated! You downloaded a crossword app and have three answers left to crack, so who cares if a sudden jolt means you bump into a small child and make it cry, Araucaria is absorbing, dammit!

A lunch companion

You've yet to make real friends with your co-workers, but you're too old to eat your sandwich in the toilet stalls. Lunch seems a bleak and awkward minefield. All eyes swivel to meet yours as you look for an empty seat in the canteen. Don't rock the comfortable routines that people have built up over years of 9-5 drudgery, just take out your phone. Shovel food quickly into your mouth while you browse the Daily Mail sidebar of shame, and leave before another lonely soul tries to join you. You feel nauseous but that's not the food – it's the endless curve-flaunting you've been reading about. Try the Guardian next time.

Sweet dreams

You're getting into bed for the night. Your partner lies next to you, arms outstretched, waiting for the intimate embrace that makes humanity so special. Your heart rate speeds up, your palms become clammy. You reach for your phone and mumble some excuse about checking an urgent email. Crisis averted. Close contact is for people with no super-speed wifi. You have Facebook to check.

This article originally appeared on guardian.co.uk

 
 

Please follow SAI on Twitter and Facebook.

Join the conversation about this story »

Inside The Early Acquisition That Helped Make Google A $200 Billion Company (GOOG)

0
0

sergey brin money

Google's AdSense product is a big source of revenue for Google. 

In Google's last fiscal quarter of 2012, ads placed on partner sites — AdSense — generated $3.44 billion in revenue, which accounted for 27 percent of the company's total.

AdSense is the product that places those text ads all over the Internet. (You can tell which ones are Google's by the small "by Google" attribution.) Google's technology scans the page for keywords and then displays relevant ads.

And that's in part thanks to Google's acquisition of a company called Applied Semantics back in 2003

"Applied Semantics – in both team and technology – helped accelerate the AdSense product, one which today delivers billions of dollars in revenue to Google," YouTube Director of Product Management Hunter Walk writes on LinkedIn.

Since Applied Semantics had a small executive team, former marketing director Eva Ho tells Walk, Ho was involved in preparing the decks and other necessary material for the acquisition. 

Ho says there were a few other companies looking to acquire Applied Semantics, but once Google came into the picture, everything happened pretty quickly.

"I remember coming in to work one day and Sergey was in our kitchen, hanging out by himself," Ho tells Walk. "I walked over and we struck up a conversation. I remembered how nice and humble he was – and thinking to myself how cool it would be to work for/with him. It all went so quickly that I didn't have much time to process any of it. Before I knew it, we were at the Google campus being announced at the Friday All Hands. It was certainly exciting times and Google made us feel so welcomed and included."

SEE ALSO: Apple's Former Retail Boss: Here's Why I Got Canned

Please follow SAI on Twitter and Facebook.

Join the conversation about this story »

Sergey Brin: Using A Smartphone Is Emasculating (GOOG)

0
0

Google founder Sergey Brin did a TED talk on Google Glass, and we're just seeing the video now via Hacker News.

He explained the motivation behind Google Glass saying that he didn't think the best way to interact with people and technology was by staring into a phone.

He also said he thinks there's something emasculating about the smartphone. You're just rubbing this featureless piece of glass. As we noted back in February, it's a weird choice of words since it somehow suggests Google Glass is manly.

Anyway, it's interesting to see Brin talk about the project. He also makes a joke about Yahoo and Bing at the end, saying if you want to find out information on Glass, just search for "If I had Glass" on Yahoo or Bing.

Watch his full talk below.

Please follow SAI on Twitter and Facebook.

Join the conversation about this story »

How Mobile Startups Are Taking Revenue From Carriers

0
0

Mobile Insights is a daily newsletter from BI Intelligence delivered first thing every morning exclusively to BI Intelligence subscribers. Sign up for a free trial of BI Intelligence today.


Why Mobile Startups Are Beating The Carriers (TechCrunch)
The carrier oligopoly is being challenged by over-the-top data services. And while the network operators are not about to lose their fiefdoms entirely, they are being pushed onto the back foot. The shift from circuit switched voice-plus-text services to all-IP mobile data has allowed Internet companies to come in and start disrupting their lucrative walled gardens. The traditional carrier revenue streams of voice and SMS are being eroded by more flexible and cheaper VoIP and over-the-top messaging alternatives, whether it’s Skype or Viber or Whatsapp or Line. According to a recent report by Strategy Analytics more than $3 billion in operator messaging revenue will be eradicated between 2012 and 2017.  Read >>

comscore google mobile desktopGoogle Is The Number One All Around Destination (comScore)
This is comScore's first official rankings based on Web and mobile using its Media Metrix Multi-Platform tool. The company started testing the new ranking technology in November, and its scoring accounts for people using multiple devices to access sites. The average property within the Top 100 increased its audience size by an average of 38 percent, and 19 of those properties had incremental mobile (i.e. smartphone and tablet) audiences that extended the reach of their desktop audiences by at least 50 percent. The properties with the greatest incremental percentage gains from mobile were Groupon (223 percent), Zynga (211 percent) and Pandora (183 percent). And Google hasn't budged from the top spot when it comes to its desktop and mobile audience. Read >>

Sergey Brin Talks Google Glass At TED 2013 (Phandroid)
While many of us (even those who pre-ordered at Google I/O or are waiting on the Early Explorers program) are still waiting on Google Glass to come to market, the specially privileged folks, like co-founder of Google Sergey Brin, are already walking around with the thing and talking about it. The aforementioned leader made an appearance at the TED 2013 conference earlier this month to talk about Google Glass and why Google wanted to create such an experience. Check out the video. Read >>

A Budget iPhone Would Throw The Market Into Chaos (BGR)
The buzz around the budget iPhone has grown deafening. This will be a product launch with a unique impact because of two trends that define the current smartphone market. If the budget iPhone really arrives this summer, it will drop smack in the middle of the tension created by slowing global smartphone volume growth and the extremely ambitious volume growth targets of the largest Asian vendors. The new smartphone leaders simply don’t have that much flesh left to rip from the haunches of the two fading champions. The period of making easy gains off the Nokia-BlackBerry volume dive is over. That leaves a tough equation for the industry to deal with. Read >>

iOS Vs. Android: The Apps Arms Race (Trademob)
Trademob put together an infographic contrasting iOS and Android. In particular, the graphic looks at the numbers around market penetration and user demographics as well as the differences between each platform that mobile advertisers need to know.

iOS vs Android apps

In the aftermath of the release of the Samsung Galaxy S4 last week, and Apple’s marketing backlash, the iOS vs. Android arms race has hit a milestone. Android is growing faster than ever, in terms of both their market share and the revenue they pay out to app marketers. And Apple’s marketing has taken on a decidedly "attacking" tone. Read >>

Yahoo To Buy Mobile News Summly (iDB)
Yahoo! announced that it will be acquiring mobile news startup Summly. The deal, said to be worth around $30 million, is for both the app and the team, and is expected to close sometime in the next few months. For those unfamiliar with the company, Summly created and maintains the popular news-summarizing iPhone app of the same name. It uses special algorithms to deliver "snapshots" of stories that match a users’ interests. Summly was created by 15-year-old Nick D’Aloisio two years ago at his home in London. It officially launched in December 2011 as a tech summarization prototype, and garnered immediate interest. Read >>

Average Mobile Customer Already Owns 2 Unused Cellphones (Love2Recycle via Mashable)
The infographic below, created by Love2Recycle, shows us why we need a smartphone recycling revolution. Did you know that the average smartphone user has two phones he or she doesn't use? Read >>

mobile phone recycle

Please follow SAI on Twitter and Facebook.

Join the conversation about this story »

Viewing all 279 articles
Browse latest View live




Latest Images