Lessons learned starting a business in the U.K.

The Internet is abuzz with talk of Goolge’s newest service. It’s too early to tell if it will catch on or not, but this could be another area where Google takes something that already exists and makes it massively better (as it did with email, mapping, and of course search).

Google’s first big attempt at conquering the social space with a service called Orkut was only successful in Brazil and India. Facebook has claimed much of the rest of the world and twitter is clearly the leader in micro-blogging.

But this time Google is taking a different approach. Google Buzz it seems is very similar to Twitter and the Facebook News Feed, but improves on those concepts. What makes it compelling however is the integration with Gmail. Everyone with a Gmail Account is a Google Buzz user within seconds. Setting up a profile takes seconds and following the people in your address book is easy.

Is Google Buzz a Twitter Killer?

I don’t think so. Just as Hotmail is still around today, even though many of its users moved to Gmail, Twitter will still exist as a place where celebrities boost their egos and their revenues with huge followings. What Google might achieve is to create an alternative to Twitter that is actually more relevant for its users, because it’s not about getting as many followers as possible.

Is it a risk to Facebook?

I’m sure Mark Zuckerberg is keeping a very close eye on it. With all the services that are directly integrated (eg. Picasa, Google Voice, Google Talk, etc.), people might not feel the need to go to Facebook anymore to check up on what their friends are doing.

Logo property of Google.

The tripadvisor.com of the Android Market either doesn’t exist yet or it’s too hard to find. I need a reliable service that helps me find good apps.

For now I’ll just list my favorites:

10. Mushroom Wars/Wrath of the Fungi [Game] - This simple but addictive game is great distraction when you’ve got time to burn. The app allows up to four players, so you can even play with friends.

9. Quickpedia [Reference] – Offers up Wikipedia in an easy to read format. The “nearby” function will show you the Wikipedia articles about things in your proximity.

8. Taskiller Free [Utility] - This app is great for shutting down all those pesky apps that might be draining battery power in only one tap.

7. Get me Home (London) [Reference] - This is only helpful if you need to take public transportation in London. But if you’ve ever used it to figure out how to get home after missing the last tube, you’ll know how useful it can be.

6. Google Sky Map [Map] – Is that a star or a planet? Just point your phone at the sky!

5. Dolphin Browser [Browser] – Freed me from the default browser that always jumped to t-mobile sites and gave me back tabbed browsing. Also, gesture shortcuts can be activated. Annoying though is that the keyboard “space bar” is only accessible with 2 taps.

4. Gem Miner [Game] - The concept is simple, but this is the most comprehensive free game I have found. Not just a teaser, you can play for hours and then save your game and come back to it later.

3. Layar [Browser] – Augmented reality, this “browser” is like a looking glass into the future. It’s also prone to make you dizzy. The browser will show you points of interest ( bars, pubs, restaurants, tweets…) around you including how far away they are.

2. Google Goggles [Search] – So called “visual search”. This one isn’t even available for my outdated Firmware (please HTC – update me!!). Use the camera to photograph a business card and automatically add to your contacts or snap a shot of a book cover and find out how much it costs on Amazon.

1.  Shazam [Awesome] - Never mind the retro cool name, I can’t get over that I can walk through a crowded store and use Shazam to reliably identify the song playing over the store’s sound system. No more going to the DJ in just to ask what song he’s playing. Now they just need to roll up Pandora, Shazam and Last.fm into one awesome music app!

Android Logo courtesey of Google according to terms described in the Creative Commons 3.0 Attribution License.

Courtesey of Wikimedia.org

Many will  recognize “Volkssport” as a German word due to its similarity to a popular automotive brand. The word can be translated loosely as national pastime (literally as people’s sport).  What baseball is to the USA, hockey to the Canadians and football (soccer) to much of the rest of the world, it seems “Google Bashing” is the new Volkssport in Germany.

This new public sentiment follows on the heels of public debates on the privacy issues with Google Street View (the service has not launched in Germany although it is already available in many other countries including neighbouring countries France, Netherlands, Denmark, Switzerland and the Czech Republic), copyright issues with Google Book Search, and a more general feeling that Google’s increasing level of access to personal data stinks of world domination.

Google takes World

Christoph Kappes posted a highly interesting analysis of Google at Carta, in which he argues that the only way to distinguish potential privacy threats from unsubstantiated fears is to analyze the business rationale behind Google products and services.

For the benefit of non-German speakers I have summarized the key points below (bear with me it was a very long post):

• Knappes begins the article by saying that in the discussion about Google many sound arguments have been made on the individual topics, but that nobody has synthesized them to create an overarching view of Google as an organization.
• Additionally, he sees the Debate polarizing into two groups: fanboys and conservatives, neither of which are objective.
• The author therefore aims to identify what exactly google does and explores the motivations behind particular activities in order to identify whether all this Google Bashing is justified.
• The article provides a comprehensive view of Googles activities in three areas. Google is more than a search engine, it is a powerful player in the advertising space, a software provider (Gmail, Docs, Wave, Apps, Maps, etc.) and a hardware provider (Knappes focuses on the Nexus, but the Google Search Appliance and the rumored Tablet are others).
• Knappes goes on to summarize that Google is primarily focused on advertising. The company does whatever the advertising value chain requires. Services such as Gmail or Google Maps provide new or better advertising methods (personalized, localized).
• Google developments such as Wave, Livingstories, Fast Flip or Google Voice represent strategic projects where disruption in traditional media usage is taking place.
• Other projects such as Chrome/Chromium Browser and OS as well as pushing Go or HTML 5 are in order to strengthen the online platform (and ensure Googles continued participation). In the same way Google’s efforts with Android are to strengthen the mobile platform.
• The author compares Google to an automobile company that does not just make cars but also provides related services such as financing and fleet management. He argues that other conglomerates have a much wider spectrum of activities (Knappes names Otto, one could substitute this with GE)
• The general conclusion is that Google acts like a rational business with the aim of profitability. Though it is becoming very dominant in the advertising space it is not abusing its position (having a dominant market position is legal, it is the abuse of that position that can be sanctioned by the state). On the contrary, Goole is a strong proponent of open standards.
• Knappes potential threats in the areas of privacy and misuse of data, but notes that these don’t apply only to Google but also to social networks and others. Technology is making new forms of discrimination and abuse possible (examples: MIT Friend Lists & Homosexuality Study, Face Recognition in Picasa).
• Even if Google lives up to its “Do no evil” mantra, there is always the risk of external influence or even a takeover. Nations could at some point  begin to fight over Google as they have over oil fields and other ressources.
• Knappes calls for a more general debate on privacy and data security.

The post by Knappes is one of the most objective I have read. He manages to look past sensationalist “world domination” theories and see Google as the rational business that it is.

Google is taking all the necessary steps to ensure it will continue to grow and be profitable:

• Providing products and services for advertisers
• Ensuring that proprietary platforms will not hinder it’s participation in existing and new markets (Chrome OS vs. Microsoft, Android vs. Apple)
• Preparing itself for disruption (in part by creating it)
• Finding new sources of revenue to compliment advertising revenue (cloud services etc.)

As one of the fastest growing and successful companies around, clearly it will be the object of speculation. But privacy and data security are issues that are not restricted to Google, they need to be discussed in the context of the entire Internet and not restricted to one company (no matter how dominant). An open discussion is needed that includes governments,  regulators, interest groups and companies like Google and Facebook.

Recently at the eCommerce Expo I had a conversation with a photographer about online digital printing services. She told me she had been searching for a service that could print photos on metal, but so far had not found one in the UK. It is clearly a product photographers are looking for, but searching for “print on metal” did not turn up many viable options (some examples  here, here and here). In the ePhotozine Forum it also became clear that printing photographs on metal is not a service that is easy to come by. It seems like there are two alternatives: 1) have a regular print mounted on what is often called an “alloy box” (note: the picture is often not actually printed on metal in this case, but “glued on” ) or 2) go to a specialist in signage and get a quote made (my guess is that you’ll be paying through the nose.

Print on Metal - Aluminium Composite Panels

There is one alternative though: myprinting has just launched its online digital printing service in the UK and offer what they call aluminium composite panels. The panels are only 3mm thick and made of two thin strips of aluminium with a polyethylene (plastic) core. The service allows you to upload a digital photo, select the desired size and format (there are 5 formats with about 4-5 sizes each) and have your image printed directly onto the aluminum. It is an attractive new product and I am very interested to see how photographers like it.

Once upon a time, we used to open up the back of our cameras and load them with film. It was an embarrassing mistake to forget to wind the camera before everyone was finished saying “cheese”. Well with the arrival of the digital camera, those days are over. Also over are the days when you would bring your film to be developed without having any idea of the quality of the prints you would get. Photographers have evolved: they take more photos, but they print less.

The days of individual photo prints are over.

Shoe boxes full of out of focus photo prints are history as is the photo album. Sure, there will always be a nostalgic group of scrap-bookers and arts & crafts fans that love the smell of glue and will make their own albums. But a new generation of photographers has emerged who instead of filling shoe boxes are creating customized hardcover books from their most impressive photos. Photo books are a way for photographers to turn their photos into a story and have them printed professionally. The outcome is a hardcover book identical in quality to those you would find at a high street shop.

The guardian has a decent overview of the online digital printing market here. What’s missing is the new breed of specialized online digital printing services that is emerging. While the old-school (Photobox, Snapfish) are still giving away individual prints, companies like myprinting have specialized on providing photo books and wall art for a new type of customer.

Photo courtesy of Aaron on Flicker.