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Overheard - MapReduce is a screwdriver

“Just because you’ve got the best hammer in the entire world doesn’t make everything a nail. If you’ve got a screw, even a cheap, old, rusty screwdriver is going to do a better job. And MapReduce is a lot better than a cheap, old, rusty screwdriver.” Mark C. Chu-Carroll, Databases are hammers; MapReduce is a screwdriver

RDBs are absolutely brilliant things. They’re amazing tools, which can be used to build amazing software. I’ve done a lot of work using RDBs, and without them, I wouldn’t have been able to do some of the work that I’m proudest of. I don’t want to cut down RDBs at all: they’re truly great. But not everything is a relational database, and not everything is naturally suited towards being treated as if it were relational. The criticisms of MapReduce all come down to: “But it’s not the way relational databases would do it!” - without every realizing that that’s the point. RDBs don’t parallelize very well: how many RDBs do you know that can efficiently split a task among 1,000 cheap computers? RDBs don’t handle non-tabular data well: RDBs are notorious for doing a poor job on recursive data structures. MapReduce isn’t intended to replace relational databases: it’s intended to provide a lightweight way of programming things so that they can run fast by running in parallel on a lot of machines. That’s all it was intended to do.

Overheard - Google’s patent for Ringback Advertising

A patent assigned to Google describes how the search giant can monetize its Voice service: play ads while a call is dialing or placed on hold. John Timmer, Google patent could bring ads into your phone

The patent application, called “Ringback Advertising,” is assigned to Google. In general terms, it describes a system for delivering ads to any sort of phone system, including IP, cellular, or landline phones. The idea is to place software somewhere within the flow of telephony data that can identify when a given call is not active, then request audio ads for delivery during that time. Although this obviously pairs nicely with Google’s Voice service, there’s no reason it couldn’t be rolled out to telcos that choose to partner with the search giant.

Overheard - Who cares what a browser is?

Google intern Scott Suiter went to Times Square and asked 50 random people three simple questions: “What is a browser?” “Do you know the difference between a browser and a search engine?” “What browser do you use?”

It wasn’t exactly JayWalking, but to read some of the comments as this Google video makes its way around the blogosphere, you might be tempted to think it was.

JayWalking, if you’re not a Tonight Show fan, was a popular man-on-the-street interview segment where former host Jay Leno would stop pedestrians and ask them questions about American history, current events and other things a fifth grader would probably know. The more stupid the answers, the funnier the segment.

It’s pretty clear just from this little micro-survey that people were confused about the difference between a browser and a search engine.

The question is, does it really matter?

I don’t type in “http://” anymore.  I rarely type in “www.”  What I do instead sets my husband’s teeth right on edge because it’s so lazy. You see, sometimes I’ll search right from my browser window.

If you’re still pulling up the Google home page to begin your search, try skipping that step.  Open IE or Firefox and in the browser toolbar where it says “address,” type in your query –

And then imagine a whole generation of kids growing up doing the same thing.  They don’t care if they’re using the right window or the right word.  Would you be embarrassed because you called a generic bathroom tissue a “Kleenex?”  Or feel stupid if you called the HP office machine that copies and collates a “Xerox machine” instead of a photocopier?  Nah.  And that’s about how important any of this stuff is going to be to the next generation.

The video ends by saying “Less than 8% of the people who were interviewed on this day knew what a browser was.”

Bing - Your new verb

[Microsoft] is set to launch an $80 million to $100 million campaign for Bing, the search engine it hopes will help it grab a bigger slice of the online ad market. Abbey Klaasen, Microsoft Aims Big Guns at Google, Asks Consumers to Rethink Search

Microsoft has updated and rebranded LiveSearch with a new name. Bing. According to Ballmer,  they picked the name because it was short, it could be used as a verb and didn’t have negative connotations.

In spite of Ballmer’s good intentions, there’s a lot of buzz about “why THAT name?”

I don’t know….If someone said to me “I don’t know what iguanas eat — let me go Bing it,” I think it would sound ok.  I could see people using Bing as a verb.

I do wonder, though, if Microsoft people working on the engine secretly thought of Kumo (the old code name) as Beta Bing?  And btw, Abbey Klaasen is the only pundit I’ve read who describes the new search engine correctly — it’s a vehicle for generating ad revenue.

HTML 5 - The browser is a Web platform

HTML 5, whose most recent draft from the HTML Working Group was published in mid-April, is attractive to developers because it allows them to write for open browser standards instead of operating systems. The ChannelWire, Google Says HTML 5 Tools Leave Microsoft In the Dust

There’s a lot of buzz this week about HTML 5.  It’s not radically different from HTML 4, but adoption does mean the end of codecs and plug-ins for rich media. In his keynote at the Google I/O developers conference, Gundotra talked about the importance of five main HTML 5 concepts: canvas tags, video tags, geolocation, application caching/database and Web Workers.

The <canvas> tag defines graphic, such as graphs or other images.

The <video> tag defines video, such as a movie clip or other video streams.

Geolocation is an API that provides scripted access to geographical location information associated with the hosting device.

Application caching/database - HTML 5 contains several features that address the challenge of building Web applications that work while offline. The HTML 5 specification provides two solutions to this: a SQL-based database API for storing data locally, and an offline application HTTP cache for ensuring applications are available even when the user is not connected to their network.

Web Workers is an API that allows Web application authors to spawn background workers running scripts in parallel to their main page. This allows for thread-like operation with message-passing as the coordination mechanism.

The whole idea of “the browser is the operating system” was buzzed about when Google released Chrome. It was a difficult concept for me to wrap my head around — but if I think of it as “browser as a Web platform” it makes more sense.

“The Web has won,” said Google Vice President of Engineering Vic Gundotra. “It has become the dominant programming model of our time.”

Overheard - Privacy and Google Street View

Google’s Street View can be a helpful tool, but it is meant to help Google sell ads and make money, not protect your privacy. Brian Cooper, Google Street View Continues to Raise Privacy Concerns

So how can you protect yourself? First, check your address using Street View. To report a concern with Street View imagery, enter the address you desire and click “Search Maps.” Then, click “Street View” in the thought bubble that appears on the map. Once the “Street View” image appears, click “Report a Concern” in the bottom left corner of the Street View image and enter the details of your complaint.

Overheard - Google ditches radio

The flushing sound you hear is what remains of the $106 million Google paid to purchase the dMarc Broadcasting advertising network back in 2006 at the start of its radio misadventure. David Coursey, Google: Not the King of All Media

There was reason for concern because, as we all know, Google is, was, and shall remain a media company pretending to be a technology company. That is an important thing to remember: Google has yet to create a big moneymaker that isn’t tied to search-related revenue. And I think that business is starting to show cracks as new technology appears on the horizon even as Google’s search results become less useful over time.

Google ditched their audio ads. That’s not the big deal. The big deal is that so many companies are behaving as if they’re buttoning down before the storm. I thought we were already IN the storm.

Each day the earth seems to shift beneath my feet a little as the vendors we work with struggle to get back to their core competencies — and at the same time realign their marketing messages to capture the attention of anyone who’s dropping dollars.

I have this mental picture of farm animals being skittish before an earthquake or the dogs sensing a thunderstorm half an hour before there’s even a cloud in the sky.

Maybe we’re all sensing the cracks in Google’s foundation?

I need to read more about the semantic web.

Overheard - Another GDrive sighting

It would appear Google has its own Loch Ness monster, with mysterious sightings suggesting the existence of Google GDrive, Google’s mythical online storage service. Sylvie Barak, Mythical Gdrive surfaces in Google code

`Twas brillig, and the slithy toves when bogger Brian Ussery stumbled across a wee bit of code hidden away in a Google Pack software bundle for Windows users, which appeared to contain GDrive’s product category and description.

Atlanta blogger Brian Ussery spotted a reference to the mythical GDrive last week — and started a blogswarm. The description said:

GoogleGDrive provides reliable storage for all of your files, including photos, music and documents. GDrive allows you to access your files from anywhere, anytime, and from any device - be it from your desktop, web browser or cellular phone.

OMG — what if the rumors in 2009 — as compared to the same rumors in 2006, 2007 and 2008 turned out to be true?

Sigh…

I think the only interesting thing, when we finally get confirmation that indeed — the GDrive is ready and available — will be how much free storage Google grants you. Microsoft started out with five but now gives you 25 GB for free with SkyDrive. If Google tops that, THEN I’ll be impressed.

Oveheard - Google Chrome is out of Beta

It’s not too often Google shocks people these days, but declaring its Chrome browser a finished, 1.0 product after only four months was sure one of those moments. Google, the land of the perpetual beta (five years and counting for GMail, three years for Docs), declared the bits golden code after 100 days of public consumption. Andy Patrizio, Does Google’s Chrome Need More Polish?

Google may or may not have a secret operating system project in the works, one that mimics the interface of the Android operating system for mobile phones, but for PCs. If it does, it would fit with Google’s revised mission statement for Chrome, “to build a browser to give users a better experience of the Web.”

Overheard: Overlay ads beat out pre-roll ads for viewer’s attention

In a study released Thursday, Google and MediaVest used NeuroFocus findings to show that overlay ads appearing in YouTube videos grab consumers’ attention and boost brand awareness. Mark Walsh, Google: This Is Your Brain On Advertising

With revenue from YouTube ads falling short of company expectations at an estimated $200 million this year–mostly from display ads–the pressure grows to find new ways to monetize the Web’s largest video site.

I had to look up overlay ad.  They’re semi-transparent overlays that cover the bottom fifth of the screen and then disappear after 10 seconds. If you click the ad, a pop-up with a full commercial plays right in the main player. At the end of the commercial — or when you click the close icon — the original clip resumes playing.  Overlay ads come in two flavors, video and plain text.  If marketers were observing my brain waves, they’d see that my emotional response to such an ad was favorable.  Unlike a pre-roll ad, you don’t have to sit through a commercial to see the content.

Today’s word is neuromarketing.