Vogel Internet, Information Technology and e-Discovery Blog : Texas Internet, Information Technology, eCommerce & E-Discovery Lawyer & Attorney Peter S. Vogel : Gardere Wynne Sewell Law Firm : Dallas TX

Watching the world economy meltdown in the past year it’s not much of a surprise that Google value increased by about 25% to number 7 in the world with an estimated value to an $32B! Other technology companies did not fare as well as reported by BusinessWeek and Interbrand:IBM increased by about 2%, Microsoft lost about 4%, Intel declined by 2%, and Oracle lost 1%. So Google’s growth during the down economy means that Google must be doing many things right.

Google Could Become The Leader Source of News

With the announcement of Fast Flip Google now has a site where users can get all the news they need without ever leaving Google. Google reports that the “service is being initiated with the cooperation of about three dozen publishers, including major news outlets like BBC News, The New York Times, The Washington Post and Newsweek; magazines like Cosmopolitan, The Atlantic, Esquire and Good Housekeeping; and Web-only publications like TechCrunch, Salon.com and Slate.” In the meantime Microsoft added a service to Bing called Visual Search which adds a new way to view news and expand the uses of Bing search engine. Given the troubles in the newspaper world is any wonder that Google and Microsoft have new plans to take greater roles in news?

Google Finally Using DoubleClick to Boost Display Ads

After making a fortune on small text ads now Google will make redirect its energy to boosting display ads. No one should be surprised by Google use of DoubleClick to migrate to displays ads and be in direct competition with Yahoo! Yahoo! is the current king of display ads and Google’s move will definitely impact Yahoo!’s advertising revenue. We need to stay tuned to see how things play for Google and Yahoo! Stay tuned.
 

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On the same day Facebook reported that it finally became cash flow positive after 5 ½ years, Facebook also announced that it grew to 300 million users. Of course that’s all relative since in August 2008 Facebook reported that it had 100 million users, but also an almost unbelievable growth of 200% in one year! Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg said in a blog post that the goal of being free cash flow positive in its most recently ended quarter ahead of its 2010 target.

How Much is Facebook Worth?

A few months ago Digital Sky Technology’s $200 million investment meant that the estimated value of Facebook was about $6.5 billion. It seems likely that the private investors stand to profit nicely from Facebook’s tremendous success as Web 2.0 continues to grow wildly!

200% Grown in 1 Year, What Will Happen in the Next 12 Months?

What an unbelievable time in which we live to witness the past two years of Web 2.0 social networking. As I like to say the “Internet is the greatest social change that has ever happened in the history of humans….there are no boundaries of time and geography!” However since we are in the middle of this great social upheaval it is all the more difficult to see exactly where we are headed. Surely if Google, AOL, Yahoo!, or Microsoft had foreseen Facebook’s wild success , wouldn’t at least one of more of these giants created their own version of Facebook? What do you think?

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One might ask if every public employee must keep every email forever given this report that the Massachusetts Secretary of State ordered the seizure of City of Boston computers searching for deleted emails. This order follows a public records request by the Boston Globe to the Mayor’s office and which yielded only 18 emails during a 6 month period. If the computer forensics specialist cannot find the deleted emails one may only guess what can happen, including possible criminal proceedings.

Saving Every Email Forever

There are products that allow companies to save every email that is delivered to the mail server before the recipient ever gets the emails, which means that as we routinely delete junk, spam, or personal emails they are nonetheless saved forever. Of course how much storage does one need to save every email forever? Probably more than exists. So as a matter of reality businesses must establish Records Retention Policies that are practical and comport with actual practice and allow for the destruction of junk, spam, and personal email.

Google to the Rescue

After Google acquired Postini a couple of years ago it was not clear what was going on until Google announced its entry into e-Discovery with this bargain: “Flat $45 per user per year for up to 10 years of retention. Email archiving has never been simpler or more affordable.” Since ComScore reports that about 65% of all searches are conducted on Google one can be pretty much assured that every Judge in the US uses Google, so litigants probably will be on safe ground to tell Judges that all emails are stored on Google’s systems. Google not only offers emails on their Cloud with specialized search software, but also the peace of mind that Judges probably will think this a great idea to assure that emails are not destroyed.

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No surprise that dozens of filings were made in opposition to the proposed settlement of the lawsuit between the Google and the Authors Guild and Association of American Publishers which was filed in “2005 by the authors and publishers against Google over its plan to digitize millions of books from libraries without authorization from rights holders.” Although Google has received the support of Sony, civil rights groups, and antitrust experts, there were notable opponents to the settlement including “individuals, rival companies like Amazon and Microsoft, advocacy organizations, groups representing authors and publishers and even some foreign governments.”

EU Opposition of Google’s Settlement

Many voices in the EU complained at a hearing that the proposed settlement would give Google more power to exclusive rights to sell million of out-of-print works even though the copyrights are still valid. Not much of a surprise that Microsoft is backing the anti-Google settlement groups in the EU. Many groups in the EU feel that since they did not participate in the settlement that they were discriminated against.

What’s Next in the Lawsuit?

Federal District Judge Denny Chin must now sort through the filings to try to determine if the proposed settlement properly protects the authors, or else the case may continue on to trial. Among other issues for Judge Chin to consider are antitrust concerns that Google’s control over these works would give Google too much market power. There are many antitrust issues on the horizon for Google it seems with many opponents, not just with books but more broadly in the entire space known as eCommerce. Stay tuned as we see Google and eCommerce evolve.
 

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Wikipedia is without doubt the model for online collaboration, so it should be no surprise that the 16 US intelligence agencies would use Wikipedia’s software to connect dots to protect our country. Obviously the availability to Intellipedia is limited to users with proper government clearance and has grown since the 2006 launch to “and now averages more than 15,000 edits per day. It's home to 900,000 pages and 100,000 user accounts.”

Wikipedia Continues to Grow, or Not?

Recent reports are that Wikipedia which now has over 3 million English articles is one of the 10 most popular sites on the Internet, and roughly 60 million Americans visit Wikipedia every month. But at the same time at the recent Wikimania Conference in Buenos Aires reported that Wikipedia now has 330 million users and is in the top five websites. It doesn’t matter which statistics are more accurate as there is no question that Wikipedia is essential in today’s use of the Internet. But the Wikimania participants spent a lot of time bemoaning a major slow on Wikipedia’s growth.

Wikipedia Finished?

Much has been said about Wikipedia’s demise, but it continues to grow. So as the Internet morphs and changes, it’s also possible that more creative uses of Wikipedia software will be found, which is clearly what’s going on with Intellipedia. However since no one wants to be the US Cyber Czar one might wonder if we will ever have a Cyber Czar and whether the use of Wiki tools, and specifically Intellipedia really helps.

What do you think? 

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