It always interesting to know “the buzz”, to know what’s really “happening” in our small global village. In an electronic generation of ours the Googles, MSNs and Yahoos can actually tell what is collectively on our minds day in and day out. For example how would you react if you were told that Paris Hilton is more important than the dreaded cancer disease or in 2006 Paris Hilton was more in the minds of people than even Hurricane Katrina? Sounds trivial, doesn’t it? Well the collective minds of the world seem rather trivial if we are to go by the search data released by the major search engines Google, Yahoo and MSN. Read more

The Microsoft Contradiction

Synchronization between thought, word and deed. Or if that sounds too much at least some commonality between word and deed. Microsoft definitely doesn’t believe in that. Ignorant they can’t be. They are the biggest organization on earth. Or maybe it’s a part of their corporate communication strategy to say something and do something else to ward off competitor threat. I can give many examples right from the time they started. A few gems being “the internet is a passing fad” and “640K ought to be enough for anybody.” For the sake of freshness let’s forget history and look at what was said in May this year by their own founder Bill Gates.
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Inching into the Microsoft Empire but yet far from it

An invasion every now and then

Around two months ago I had written a column titled “The Encroaching Tiger”. Now again Google is keeping the heat on Microsoft. Google is bent on invading right into the heart of Microsoft heads on. No guerilla tactics, no behind the back strategies or even remote diplomacy. Pure war, heads on. The war of desktop supremacy has been on for three years now. But the attacks got direct only recently when Google acquired Writely a direct competitor of MS Word. It’s then took the war further by the overnight launch of Google Spreadsheet. Read more

Web and Telecom - The New Economy in Perspective

We are living in a digital civilization. It’s the age of web and telecom. Last week I mentioned, the Microsofts and Googles of the world are the corporations that govern our existence on the web. Google offers mostly everything for free. The ‘free’ attraction and freedom is gone. Call it the subliminal effect of brands in the e-age but that’s the future of the interactive brand. It’s a phase when things that will matter in the new economy are being built and when empires are built, a lot of dust is thrown up. This digital age is currently witnessing a phase when giants to gather a foothold in the mega market of tomorrow are fighting it out. The Google versus Yahoo versus Microsoft saga has been written about for years now. There is an equally interesting war in the telecom world. The CDMA versus GSM war. Read more

The Story of Google from Shame back to Courage

“Courage takes many forms. There is physical courage, there is moral courage….” So said the American sport Journalist Howard Cosell. He went on to add yet still higher types of courage. Around seven months ago my favorite Internet Company lacked even the basic courage to take a stand. Google, my absolute favorite gave in to Chinese censorship early this year. Annoyed like its millions of fans across the globe I wrote a column titled “Goodbye Freedom – Shame on you Google”. This week has been rather wonderful. The old Google is back. The courageous Google, the entrepreneur’s dream Google has taken a stand and showed the best any new media company should.