Google Forgets The Wow With New IM Client

from the something's-not-quite-right dept

Wed, Aug 24th 2005 01:16am - Dennis Yang

Rumors of a Google instant messenger launch turned out to be true tonight with the launch of Google Talk. After playing with Google Talk for a bit, most find that Google Talk lacks the “Google Wow” factor of previous Google product launches. Google Talk is missing any sort of search, doesn’t save conversation histories, and requires a GMail account (which is frustrating since that means your friend list is limited to friends with GMail and the 30 you invite). Sure, Google Talk supports the open Jabber standard; and while it is commendable that Google is making a stand here for interoperability, none of the “big three” widely used IM clients support Jabber, so it’s really not that big of a deal. With GMail and Google Maps, Google took a supposedly mature product arena and completely changed the rules. GMail challenged Yahoo to lift its arcane space limitations, and Google Maps ushered in a new era of AJAXian web development. Google Talk replicates what is already out there, and not very well. Yes, Google Talk supports voice, but there’s nothing really new or exciting about it. Hell, Google Talk doesn’t even have smileys. Update by Mike: The folks at Silicon Beat note that as part of this launch, Google is opening up Gmail so it’s no longer invite-only, which solves one small point made above.

35 Comments

Expand

Patent Hoarder Says Patent System Is Just Fine

Surprises

from the monorail! dept

Tue, Aug 23rd 2005 05:25pm - Carlo Longino

Patent hoarder Nathan Myhrvold is at it again, repeating his usual schtick that the patent system is just fine. Myhrvold, who’s hardly an unbiased source on the matter says everything’s okay simply because there aren’t very many patent lawsuits — a complete red herring. The issue isn’t the number of lawsuits generated, though there are plenty of wasteful, drawn out ones, it’s that the current system doesn’t award or encourage innovation. He also says “there isn’t any hard data to support” the idea that patent trolls are a problem. Maybe he just doesn’t like being called a troll. Fair enough: patent-hoarding hobbits like Myhrvold are a problem.

7 Comments

Expand

Some Authors Are Understanding The Power Of Electronic Books

Surprises

from the slowly,-but-surely dept

Mon, Aug 22nd 2005 02:50am - Mike Masnick

While some authors and publishers are freaking out over the possibility of electronic copies of books somehow driving them out of business, at least a few authors are embracing the concept. The latest is Warren Adler, the author of The War of the Roses and 26 other books. His latest book, however, is going to be self-published for free online. He’ll email you the latest copies from his website apparently. Rather than fearing the new technology, Adler is embracing it. He thinks that e-books will catch on, and sees no reason not to push forward in that space. He’s hoping that people who read this new novel will go out and buy copies of his older novels — which, he’s conveniently planning to sell on flash memory cards as well. Update: In somewhat related news, it looks like Amazon is launching a new service to let people download exclusive “short” written content for $0.49 a story. Not sure how well this experiment will work out, as some people may wonder whether the content is even worth that much as a download, but at least some authors are willing to experiment with digital content.

5 Comments

Expand

How Quickly Google Maps Staked Its Claim In The Online Mapping Space

Surprises

from the didn't-take-long-at-all dept

Mon, Aug 22nd 2005 01:26am - Mike Masnick

We were just talking about how the new interesting online mapping offerings seemed to come out of nowhere, and much of the credit for that has to go to Google — who breathed new life into the space, since it launched Google Maps in early February of this year. Considering that Yahoo Maps and (AOL’s) Mapquest had absolutely dominated the space for years, it’s impressive in that in only six months, Google has managed to take 10% of the market. Yahoo Maps and Mapquest are still in the lead, but it certainly didn’t take long at all for Google to carve out its own piece of the mapping pie.

6 Comments

Expand

Movie Theaters Finally Starting To Offer Much More Than Just The Show

Surprises

from the it's-about-time dept

Wed, Aug 17th 2005 10:02am - Mike Masnick

alex writes “Apparently some movie theaters are finally coming to the realization what’s been going on in the industry . As been previously mentioned theaters have to offer more to the customers these days to draw them in.” This certainly sounds like what many people have been saying the theater industry should do for quite some time. Yet, we still get stories from the head of the MPAA about how it’s downloading that’s causing the industry trouble, rather than a terrible theater going experience, awful movies, and much more competition for entertainment dollars. Also, it’s not just the theater experience they’re working on, but improving the content. Thanks to digital projectors these new theaters can offer live concerts or sporting events on the really big screen. As the article above notes, one of these new theaters lets customers watch baseball games (while serving beer and hot dogs) on the movie screens. Of course, the companies that are adjusting and are making these changes are smaller, independent movie chains. The big chains with their huge megaplexes are the ones still struggling and worried that people aren’t going to the movies any more. Maybe if their executives actually went to their theaters every once in a while to try to “enjoy” a night out at the movies, they’d understand why.

20 Comments

Expand

Someone Finally Fighting Back Against RIAA Lawsuits In Court

Surprises

from the about-time dept

Tue, Aug 16th 2005 10:01am - Mike Masnick

Ever since the RIAA started filing lawsuits directly against people for sharing music online, we’ve wondered why no one fought back and took the case to court in the US. As the courts in Canada have noted, simply having the IP address of someone you believe to be sharing an unauthorized file isn’t enough evidence to prove that person was file sharing. Earlier this year, a US judge, trying to clean up some of the details in the old, old, old Napster case, also specifically noted that making files available is not the equivalent of distributing — which is what all the RIAA cases charge. However, when presented with the option of just sucking it up and paying $3,000 to $10,000 and going on with your life, or spending time in court, paying lawyers’ fees and risking huge fines nearing a million dollars, the prudent choice for many is to simply take the deal. It’s almost a form of legalized extortion. Doing the right thing is almost always going to be more expensive and more painful than just giving in. However, Broadband Reports points to the case of one woman who is fighting back and says she’s willing to go to court to fight the charges the RIAA has filed against her, because they’re not right. She points out that she had never even heard of Kazaa. The details suggest that perhaps a friend of one of her kids was responsible for the file sharing — but, that certainly suggests that the RIAA got the wrong person. While the internet account may be in this woman’s name, the burden should be on the RIAA to prove who did the actual sharing — not who owns the account. It’s the same reason why they can’t sue an ISP for someone doing unauthorized file sharing on their system. Meanwhile, the quotes in the article show that, once again, the RIAA (and the reporter) don’t even seem to understand the issues being discussed. They repeatedly refer to “illegal downloading,” when that isn’t even what the RIAA has been filing lawsuits over. They’re suing over uploading or sharing — not downloading. Yet all of the quotes from the RIAA avoid the actual issues raised by this case (how do they prove the woman actually did infringe on their copyrights), and pops out the soundbites about how downloading is evil. In the past, unfortunately, when these types of cases have come up, the RIAA has simply dropped the case and moved on. Hopefully, they won’t be allowed to do that in this case — and will be forced to show how they can get actual evidence that the person they’re accusing uploaded an unauthorized file to someone else.

20 Comments

Expand

Who Knew Online Maps Would Be Such A Big Deal?

Surprises

from the didn't-see-that-coming dept

Tue, Aug 16th 2005 12:57am - Mike Masnick

Go back a year and ask yourself if you could have predicted that online maps would be a big deal today. I doubt many people would have thought so. Back then, the online mapping world was pretty much Mapquest and Yahoo Maps and they were more or less interchangeable. Neither one had changed in years. They were useful, but it seemed like a pretty mature space. However, that’s been changing quite rapidly over the last few months. Following the purchase of Keyhole, Google clearly rethought how online mapping worked and came up with a better solution (or, honestly, two better solutions if you look at Google Maps and Google Earth as separate products). Microsoft then followed with Virtual Earth, and suddenly the old Yahoo Maps and Mapquest started looking quite dated. Now, add Amazon/A9 to the mix, as they’ve launched their own mapping service, which focuses on the Amazon/A9 mission of driving more people to shop. It doesn’t have the satellite views, or even the simplicity of Google Maps. Instead, it integrates the maps with all those storefront pictures they surprised the world with earlier this year. Of course, with Google sending out trucks to do a similar project (combined with mapping images of local stores to 3D models of cities), it seems like this space is only going to get that much more competitive. So, how long will it be until a walk down the virtual street looks pretty much like a walk down the real street?

2 Comments

Expand

Blockbuster Decides Price Isn't Everything In Competing With Netflix

Surprises

from the not-sustainable,-apparently dept

Tue, Aug 9th 2005 11:19am - Mike Masnick

While there were rumors that Blockbuster might drop out of the online DVD rental game, it appears their interim strategy is just to raise prices to match Netflix. Since Wal-Mart decided to hand over their online rentals to Netflix, the battle in the US has become a two horse race. Of course, Wired News has dug up the old story that Amazon is going to enter the online DVD rental market — something that has been rumored for nearly a year. It’s still not clear if Amazon really will do this, or if they’ll end up partnering with someone else instead. In the meantime, though, with Blockbuster now matching Netflix on price, it seems the price war aspect of this may have gone away for the time being, and the two companies can compete on service and selection. Both have some advantages they can play up. Blockbuster can focus on their local stores with bundled offerings, while Netflix can play up their selection, community and recommendations engine.

Wikipedia To Tighten Editorial Control

Surprises

from the wiki-wiki-wiki dept

Fri, Aug 5th 2005 02:19pm - Carlo Longino

Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales says the online encyclopedia is deciding how to implement stricter controls over some of its content, including freezing “stable” pages and limiting editing access to certain controversial articles. While the Wikipedia community tends to remove vandalism on popular pages quite quickly, Wales is concerned that the fact that it appears there, even briefly, means “whoever opens the article at this moment will get annoyed — and therefore doubt our credibility”. Wikipedia’s reliability and credibility has come under attack numerous times from people for whom its accountability to the community isn’t as trustworthy as a commercial encyclopedia’s assumed authority. Indeed, Wales says setting up a commission to decide which pages should be frozen is one possibility, something many Wikipedia users and contributors may not like. Wikipedia already has a number of checks and balances for contentious entries, including the ability for admins to protect pages and prevent them from being edited. The changes Wales is suggesting sound like deciding certain pages are finished and complete rather than deciding they need to be protected from vandalism. But that could simply create more problems: it’s easy to not take a fight over content seriously when somebody knows they can be a part of ongoing changes to it; but if they’re presented with the possibility that something they don’t agree with may be enshrined in virtual wiki stone, unable to be edited, the fight will probably become much more intense. Any effort to enhance Wikipedia’s credibility with the outside world must toe a fine line and not alienate its community by becoming a source controlled by a select few — the opposite of the ideology upon which it’s based.

8 Comments

Expand

Google Gets Snippy With Reporters

Surprises

from the talk-to-the-hand! dept

Fri, Aug 5th 2005 09:45am - Mike Masnick

A well known reporter recently told me that Google refuses to grant him interviews with their executive staff because they don’t see any benefit to the company at all. The company is doing great, rolling in money and everyone knows all about them already. So why should they grant interviews? Especially if the reporter might (gasp!) ask tough questions? It seems that, in another case, they’ve taken this policy a step further to punish a news organization that wrote an article they didn’t like. Someone at Slashdot actually read all the way to the bottom of an article about Google’s need for a new chef (this is news?) where the reporter notes: “Google representatives have instituted a policy of not talking with CNET News.com reporters until July 2006 in response to privacy issues raised by a previous story.” That previous story was one discussing how people could find out all sorts of private info about others by doing Google searches. That’s a story that’s been done plenty of times before, but this time the reporter used Google to track down some info (nothing too shocking, honestly) about Google’s own CEO, Eric Schmidt. It’s not clear if the complaint from Google is about finding the info on Schmidt, the general point of the article or (perhaps!) because the reporter got some of the fairly important details wrong (there’s a correction saying the original article implied that Google’s desktop search was sending data about what’s on your desktop back to Google — which is completely false). Even if they’re legitimately pissed at shoddy coverage of their company, it still comes off as a bit arrogant to refuse to talk to anyone at News.com for a year.

15 Comments

Expand

<< Newer Stories Older Stories >>

Follow Techdirt

Subscribe to Our Newsletter

Essential Reading

The Techdirt Greenhouse

Read the latest posts:

Read All »

Techdirt Insider Discord

The latest chatter on the Techdirt Insider Discord channel...

Older Stuff

Monday
05:30	Enshittification Ahoy: Streaming Video Price Hikes Show No Sign Of Slowing Down (22)
Sunday
12:00	Funniest/Most Insightful Comments Of The Week At Techdirt (1)
Saturday
12:30	This Week In Techdirt History: November 16th - 22nd (3)
Friday
19:39	Clown Show: CDC Website Changed To Suggest Vaccines May Indeed Cause Autism (26)
15:28	Why People Don't Demand Data Privacy, Even As Governments & Corporations Collect More Personal Info (7)
12:56	Defense Contractor Lobbyists Are Trying To Kill Army 'Right To Repair' Reforms With A Bunch Of Lies And Bullshit (9)
11:04	Trump Says Democratic Lawmakers Should Die For Telling The Military To Obey Their Oath (37)
10:59	Daily Deal: Linux/UNIX Certification Training Bundle (0)
09:19	September Arrest, Deportation Of Firefighter Shows The Administration Just Wants Brown People Gone (16)
05:20	Trump Attacks Leave U.S. Cybersecurity Agencies Hollowed Out And Managed By Useless Zealots (9)
Thursday
20:13	Ken Paxton's Tylenol Lawsuit Is Off To A Terrible Start (25)
16:27	Ctrl-Alt-Speech: You Can't Antitrust Anyone These Days (2)
13:33	Why The Trump Administration's Comparison Of Antifa To Hamas, ISIS, And MS-13 Makes No Sense (27)
12:16	Trump’s Own Judges Easily Reject His Bonkers Lawsuit Against CNN For Calling His Big Lie A ‘Big Lie’ (5)
10:53	Cities Shut Down Flock Camera Networks Following Improper Access By Federal Agencies (10)
10:48	Daily Deal: EDU Unlimited by StackSkills (0)
09:32	Brendan Carr Launches Baseless 'Investigation' Into PBS, NPR, And BBC To Try And Silence Criticism Of His Weird, Unpopular Boss (14)
05:25	The TikTok 'Ban' Continues To Be One Of The Biggest Turds In Tech Policy History (6)
Wednesday
19:57	Sony Threatens Fan Server For 'Concord', Which It Shut Down A Year Ago 2 Weeks After Release (8)
15:33	How Trademark Ruined Colorado-Style Pizza (31)
13:35	Fans Of Open Access, Unite: You Have Nothing To Lose But Your Chained Libraries (0)
12:00	The Misleading Story Fox News Told About Portland Before Trump Sent Troops (16)
10:50	Texas GOP Had A Legal Path To Gerrymander. Trump’s DOJ Ordered Them To Take The Blatantly Illegal Path Instead (12)
10:45	Daily Deal: The Complete Superstar Photographer Bundle (1)
09:20	UK Pulls Access To Intel Since It Doesn't Want To Be Part Of Trump's 'Murder People In Boats' Program (13)
05:22	Trump Says He'll Sue BBC For '$5 Billion' Despite Apologies, Resignations Over Editing Gaffe (11)
Tuesday
20:03	The UK 'Sabzi' Trademark Dispute Between Deli Owner And Book Publisher Ends (2)
15:30	The Legal Case Against Ring’s Face Recognition Feature (6)
13:42	Kansas County Pays $3 Million Settlement For Illegal Raid Of Local Newspaper's Office (21)
12:07	Book Reports Potentially Copyright Infringing, Thanks To Court Attacks On LLMs (23)

Google Forgets The Wow With New IM Client

from the something's-not-quite-right dept

Patent Hoarder Says Patent System Is Just Fine

from the monorail! dept

Some Authors Are Understanding The Power Of Electronic Books

from the slowly,-but-surely dept

How Quickly Google Maps Staked Its Claim In The Online Mapping Space

from the didn't-take-long-at-all dept

Movie Theaters Finally Starting To Offer Much More Than Just The Show

from the it's-about-time dept

Someone Finally Fighting Back Against RIAA Lawsuits In Court

from the about-time dept

Who Knew Online Maps Would Be Such A Big Deal?

from the didn't-see-that-coming dept

Blockbuster Decides Price Isn't Everything In Competing With Netflix

from the not-sustainable,-apparently dept

Wikipedia To Tighten Editorial Control

from the wiki-wiki-wiki dept

Google Gets Snippy With Reporters

from the talk-to-the-hand! dept

Get all our posts in your inbox with the Techdirt Daily Newsletter!

The Techdirt Greenhouse

Monday

Sunday

Saturday

Friday

Thursday

Wednesday

Tuesday

More

Tools & Services

Company

Contact

More

from the something's-not-quite-right dept

from the monorail! dept

from the slowly,-but-surely dept

from the didn't-take-long-at-all dept

from the it's-about-time dept

from the about-time dept

from the didn't-see-that-coming dept

from the not-sustainable,-apparently dept

from the wiki-wiki-wiki dept

from the talk-to-the-hand! dept

Techdirt Daily Newsletter

Get all our posts in your inbox with the Techdirt Daily Newsletter!

The Techdirt Greenhouse

Email This Story

Tools & Services

Company

Contact

More