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Droid does, but will IT support it?

Verizon’s first Android phones, the Droid Eris by HTC and Motorola Droid, are being released today. The commercials highlight a string of new features not currently available on some other (iPhone!) phones (”Everything iDon’t Droid does“).

Although this new generation of smartphones seems to be a tech geek’s dream, IT might actually be most resistant to new technology when it will impact the business. IT has to decide early on if it’s going to support yet another new smartphone. The BlackBerry was once the standard, and RIM paid a lot of extra attention to enterprise IT support capabilities. IT spent a lot of time getting applications to work on BlackBerry, only to be faced with the iPhone a few years down the road.

The executives (interestingly not the Gen Xers) were the big iPhone purchasers. The C-level brought these new devices in as primary work phones and expected IT support. And since IT is ultimately there to support the users, if the decision makers want Exchange on their iPhones, well, they’re going to get it. IT would have to manage iPhone support costs and risk exposure while working around hardware and OS limitations.

The problem is, IT then has to worry about a new set of security policies (last year Apple’s iPhone and Google’s Android OS both had exposed flaws). Are there remote wipe capabilities? Is there encryption available? Further, the apps the sales team needs to use — for example, Salesforce.com, CRM, etc. — have to work on these new devices.

Although Verizon is offering some Exchange support for an additional fee ($15), recent reports state this will just be a software feature and won’t actually be in the same league as corporate network integration.

Do you really want to manage four sets of the same application (one for each potential device) and four different security policies, five times over?

You have to decide where to draw the line on device support – balancing user needs with business realities.

Recession or not, we can still give thanks for technology

Years ago, writing a “grateful” journal was all the rage. Helps to keep things in perspective (at least, that’s what Oprah told us). So, given that it’s been such a tough year for business, I thought I’d step back and see what I could find to be thankful for. Here’s my list.

5. I’m thankful for the idea of a Microsoft-free world (not that it would ever happen.) But, finally I see business ready for some changes in the technological hierarchy, experimenting with open source applications and operating systems. Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome are fiercely competing with Internet Explorer – and are holding their own. It may be a long road, because legacy programs die hard, but the possibility is on the horizon.

4. I’m thankful for GOOGLE and its ability to just keep getting it right. The search engine giant with incredible apps (for both business and pleasure) introduced the G1 Google phone this year. Google is taking on Apple and Microsoft with browsers and search engines – and is now competing in the mobile device ring, welcoming open source applications. I must also thank the company for providing us with small-talk topics (“So, have you tried out the new Google Goggles?”) and connecting us with our peers on GTalk.

3. I’m thankful that we had a real example of how Web 2.0 and social networking could change the world. We saw the impact social networking and the Web generation had when it came to the election. Text messaging, Facebooking, blogging and Twittering were used by the masses to connect and promote – creating quite a stir and forever changing the way candidates campaign. From online health records to wikis, we are using the Web to manage our lives and keep us informed.

2. I’m thankful we’re all more aware of security risks. This year we’ve experienced everything from the San Francisco network lockout to concerns about VoIP and unified communications. The Emerging Cyber Threats Report for 2009 warns us of an even rockier future – estimating that 15% of online computers will be botnet-affected this year. There are no rose-colored glasses for looking at security – we know the risks.

1. I’m thankful that despite the economy, technology continues to flourish and companies continue to innovate. Even though budgets are getting cut and IT innovation is becoming more difficult, people are making it work. Costs can be cut by moving to green IT, virtualization and SaaS applications. Not too shabby

If my glass-half-full approach didn’t satisfy your appetite, check out this year’s list of tech turkeys compiled by Rachel Lebeaux, associate editor of SearchCIO.com.

Google Flu Trends: What is it?

Chills, body aches, fever — it’s flu season. Am I sure of these symptoms? Of course, I Googled them. If you find yourself doing the same as cold and flu signs creep up around you, you may be contributing to Google’s newest effort to mark trends — Google Flu Trends, that is.

Google.org, a branch of the company committed to addressing world problems (as stated in the company vision), recently launched Google Flu Trends — aggregating Google search data to estimate flu activity across the country.

According to Google, people searching for flu-related search topics and people with actual flu symptoms are closely related. Google compared the query counts with data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and found that certain flu queries were popular during flu season. Keeping track of how often these specific queries show up during flu season can provide flu circulation estimates throughout the United States. During last year’s flu season, Google.org was able to accurately estimate current flu levels one to two weeks faster than published CDC reports.

Although still in the very early stages, Google Flu Trends could give you a heads up on flu season to prevent you from catching the dreaded affliction. According to Medical News Today, more than 97 million cases of the flu are reported annually. With a one- to two-week advance notice of flu trends in your state, you may be able to take the necessary precautions to prevent sickness (and sick days).

As of now, most states are in the low to moderate zone for flu trends.

Google Chrome: How secure is your information?

Google is growing. From Chrome to G1, it’s not just for searching anymore.

As the Google giant is creating new breeds of consumers (“cross-consumers,” I call them — spanning email, news, mobile devices, Web browsers, etc.), what is happening to all of our personal information? Google knows who we’re emailing, what we’re emailing, what we’re searching…

The launch of Chrome in September marked a big step for Google — the browser would be in direct competition with Microsoft’s IE. I downloaded Google’s Chrome right away, eager to test it out. I enjoyed features like “Google Suggest,” which sends Google searches as you’re typing them out, anticipating your search desires. With every word you type out in your search query, you get links pertaining to that particular phrase. As if searching could get easier?

As it is, we can literally find out anything about everything. Google culls information from many sites and quick answers can be seen directly on the search results. If I wanted to know the dates of the American Civil War, I just need to type in American Civil War and I immediately get the start and end dates in the summaries. I don’t even have to go to any of the sites if I don’t want to.

But even if I’m not going anywhere, my information still is.

How secure is my information? Brian Rakowski, product manager for Chrome, said queries sent to Google through the autosuggest feature include the user’s IP address and the time the query was made. But Google logs only 2% of this information, according to Rakowski, and makes it anonymous after 24 hours by removing the last four IP address digits associated with the query.

What about the privacy feature on Chrome — the incognito tab? This feature turns off autosuggest and allows users to surf the Web without leaving a history or cookies. But, according to Google, you can’t entirely cover up someone’s Internet activity.

Search wisely.

Gmail apps: Text your contacts

Google Gmail users now have the option to send text messages to mobile phones. The experimental app, found in Gmail Labs, was made available to all users Thursday night.

The feature is very similar to chat – find your contact (if the mobile number is saved in your contacts list) and the option to send an SMS will be available. The text message will appear on the person’s phone as a number from a 406 area code – which will be associated to your account and the number to which all incoming texts to your Gmail account will be sent. Although free for the Gmailer, mobile plan charges may apply for the person on the other end.

Gmail Labs has recently introduced some interesting apps to heighten the Gmail experience. Google Goggles, the email app to test your frame of mind when sending emails after hours, was introduced earlier this month. Met with mixed reviews when tested on drunk emailing (it seemed almost anyone could get through the simple math questions, no matter how inebriated), the overall concept seemed interesting when used to slow you down (and cool you down) before hitting “send.”

Although a great way to — umm — waste time, Google Apps and Gmail chat are not just for personal use and can actually be useful tools in the office. In an official Google blog post by Matthew Glotzbach, product management director for Google Enterprise, more than 1 million businesses have selected Google Apps to run their business, and tens of millions of people use Gmail every day.

The cloud computing-based system did have a glitch in August, when an outage halted emails for a few hours, but according to Glotzbach, Gmail has a 99.9% reliability score. According to the research firm Radicati Group, companies with on-premises email solutions averaged from 30 to 60 minutes of unscheduled downtime and an additional 36 to 90 minutes of planned downtime per month. With Gmail’s one glitch in the year, it suggests it’s more reliable than other enterprise email solutions like Novell GroupWise and Microsoft Exchange.

It’s all about communication – and it seems Google is making communicating within the workplace easier with creative apps and (fingers crossed!) great reliability.

Interested in more about Google and cloud computing in the midmarket? Watch SearchCIO-Midmarket.com’s recent video interview with Glotzbach.

Geekin’ out with Google’s G1

On Wednesday, the G1 Google phone for T-Mobile with Android – the first “free, open source and fully customizable mobile platform” – was made available in stores to the general public. A geek at heart, I was anxious to check out the much anticipated Android Market, which allows third-party developers to create applications with the Android-provided source code.

I trudged out to T-Mobile to pick one up. When we walked in, I was greeted by the store manager in his limited-edition G1 T-shirt. “Hi, welcome to T-Mobile, what can I help you with today?” As if he didn’t already know.

Within 45 minutes I had my G1 and, with a sigh, I turned off my beloved BlackBerry (stripped of its SIM card) for the last time. Leaving my BlackBerry behind was bittersweet – such a reliable phone … never had a problem with it.

So if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it? Absolutely not. Although I had gotten used to the reliability of my BlackBerry, it was a stagnant sense of “fine.” Nothing was wrong, but things could get better. Things like open source applications and no one dictating which apps “belonged” to the platform. The possibilities are endless.

In an ironic twist, the day before the G1 hit stores, Microsoft declared it “Anti-Piracy Day.” Digital rights management schemes invoke negative reactions from many end users, which made me wonder — here’s the ironic part — if going open source would eliminate the licensing and piracy efforts companies like Microsoft are concerned with? Open source allows developers to create and edit without the licensing issues.

But, of course, it’s not just the Microsofts of the world that are affected — piracy harms the open source community as well. The need for creativity and the feeling of “giving back to the community” provided by open source could be harmed if people aren’t paying exorbitant prices for their pirated copy of MS Office (getting it free or at a reduced rate) – why bother working towards a change?

So, don’t be a software pirate and look forward to the possibilities of open source — think of all the apps!

Google Goggles may prevent work email regret

Google has introduced its new Mail Goggles – and I love the idea.

The application, once enabled, will check your mental clarity by making you solve math problems after clicking send; then, if you can’t solve the problems, the email doesn’t go through. The default settings make Mail Goggles only active late night on the weekends but are completely adjustable. According to the Google Blog, the late-night default settings are there because “that is the time you’re most likely to need it.” The buzz centers around the midnight drunk emailer, the person who comes home and just has to send the ex an “I miss you” email because all those beers really made everything seem so clear – the email equivalent to “drunk dialing.”

OK, that’s one scenario. But it can provide professional protection as well.

Think about it: Maybe you weren’t pummeled by pints on a Tuesday night; instead, you were working late finishing up a project … alone. You’re at your wits’ end, feeling underappreciated. Upset, frustrated, angry – you decide that you’re going to send an email to your boss (or your co-worker … or whoever will listen at this point). In the heat of the moment, you draft a passionate email and hit the send button – and you’re prompted with math questions. After an attempt at ratios and long division, suddenly, maybe you’re not that upset after all. No harm done, the email is cancelled and you aren’t haunted by the ghosts of emailers’ regret as your passive-aggressive words slip away into cyberspace.

With email being the main form of communication within many companies, people in the organization have to be more aware of their emotions in stressful situations. Why? The online disinhibition effect: People behave with less restraint on the Internet than in real-world situations.

This is obvious in some of the email horror stories I’ve read and heard. What about you? Any “friend of a friend” email tales of regret?

Google and the tech stock drop

Yes, even Google, one of the Internet companies best-positioned for a financial downturn, has falling stock. I watched the real-time trading with sick fascination as the little red down-turned arrow blinked again and again. Maybe it’s not as surprising to some; stocks go up and down on a regular basis. But the stock dropped more than $50 since last week, hitting the lowest numbers since March 2006. Analysts have cut back their earnings estimates for Google based on the weakening global economy and the rally of the dollar. But analysts remain optimistic on search advertising’s strength in a potential advertising recession

Google, a search advertising money-making machine, essentially organizes online information and then throws some ads on it. This search advertising brings in about 40% of the $40 billion online advertising dollars spent each year, overpowering the likes of Microsoft Live and Yahoo. So what is a company like Google to do when the times get tough?

Look for more advertising opportunities?

The New York Times reported that Google released AdSense for Games, offering 15- to 30-second commercial-like ads bringing more advertising formats to brand advertisers. Google will also start click-to-buy advertising on YouTube with the YouTubevertorial. A Google blog post on the matter describes the click-to-buy links as “nonobtrusive retail links, placed on the watch page beneath the video with the other community features.” Essentially, users interested in the material can get instant gratification and click to buy the song, game, etc.

Already bombarded by ads wherever we go online, I’m curious to see how these new ad formats will affect the typical Web user. Will we get bogged down with advertisements in a financial slowdown?

Google steps up to preserve the nuances of American history

I used to write for newspapers. Which is a bit like saying I was a telegraph operator, in that both jobs carry a certain romanticism linked to their glory years and are widely considered irrelevant today.

As Nelson on The Simpsons once pointed out: “Ha ha. Your medium is dying.”

But as news gathering shifts to a more affordable, more equitable and more easily distributed medium, a part of me worries people don’t realize the value of newspapers – that is, the value of physical newspapers that have already been printed.

I recognize that a huge part of master data management is about knowing what not to keep. I also recognize the “Big Brother” fears that come with the Internet’s relentless cataloging of information.

But, anecdotally, this country is losing its history. Like I said, I’ve worked in newspapers. I can personally assure you that community papers – arguably the most important newspapers, historically speaking – are not properly cataloging and safeguarding their physical archives.

Once something is gone - it’s gone. Which says a lot about being sure your IT department has a comprehensive and clear data storage scheme.

So thank-freaking-God for Google on this one. In its quest to index all of the world’s information, the decade-old behemoth has started to scan and catalog newspaper archives.

Admittedly, newspapers, especially those written by 21-year-olds in small Vermont towns with little editor oversight (here’s looking at me) are often wrong or not completely informed. And much of the information becomes seemingly irrelevant by the next morning.

But you don’t know what you’ve got ‘til it’s gone, and you often don’t know what you need until you need it.

Imagine, for a moment, that your governor or potential vice president came up in a small town that largely escaped blog watchers and the city pages of the major metro papers. Wouldn’t it be great to have universal, uninterrupted access to the pages of the local weekly, allowing anyone in the world to dig into this person’s public history?

And, as The New York Times article points out, obituaries, birth announcements, wedding announcements and the like are invaluable when tracking family lineage – a tedious task under any circumstances.

Certainly, piecemeal cataloging is occurring. An otherwise dismissible trend story I once wrote about vandalism to city property has been sourced on the Wikipedia entry for “street sign theft,” for example.

But that’s just one story. I would be thrilled if I could use Google to access images of everything I’ve ever written. (Not everyone would be so excited — I covered crime and criminal courts and printed the names of alleged criminal offenders daily.)

Again, I know for a fact that some small newspapers in this country are one building fire away from losing their entire archive. Sure, most small papers have an extra set of microfilm stored away in a second location. Still … things go neglected and missing. That would be a travesty.

Google stands to make money here, of course, but our nation will benefit by having the folks in Mountain View contract to preserve our history free of charge.

Google’s Chrome: Not your average Web browser?

Microsoft’s IE is facing some serious competition. With Mozilla’s Firefox, Apple’s Safari and Opera Software ASA’s Opera and recently Google’s Chrome, it seems Microsoft is falling back a bit. Computerworld reported Microsoft lost almost a full percentage point in the market share during the month of August. Recently launched Chrome, has already picked up one percent of the market in 24 hours.

Chrome has a privacy mode and a combination address-and-search bar. It also runs each tab as a separate process to prevent a single site to crash the browser. But what makes it special? Firefox and Safari have privacy modes (IE 8 Beta 2 also boasts a privacy setting dubbed “porn mode” by bloggers) and the address-and-search bar is nothing new… so what’s the appeal?

Chrome could turn into far more than a Web browser.

Designed to improve upon the way browsers handle JavaScript (used by Google’s spreadsheet and word processing programs), Chrome may turn into a much stronger platform – incorporating word processing, e-mail and photo editing. An all-in-one browser!

But being chock-full of all these added goodies is making Chrome look a little gluttonous. According to Craig Barth, chief technology officer at Devil Mountain Software Inc., Chrome is a pig. A memory hog, to be exact.

Researchers say Chrome uses more memory than IE 8. Pair that with an older PC and you can expect some slow performance. But can you blame a snail for being slow if he’s carrying his house on his back? Chrome is carrying quite a load (segregated-tab capabilities? JavaScript equipped?) so memory consumption is no surprise. But at this point, what’s more important for the user seeking a solid Web browser?

With so many companies using IE, will they be ready and willing to switch to Chrome? Chrome is raw and pure—built from scratch by Google (and not the descendent of an ancient Microsoft design… what was it, again? Mosaic?). But IE is well-known, understood and pretty much everyone knows how to use it. Because so few ready to retrain their staff and test their application compatibility, IE may remain on top of the business browser world.

But who knows? The shiny newbie may win out. After all, Chrome was just launched! Let’s see where they stand after a month – at least.