Google Enters The Travel Industry
by tahera on September 3rd, 2010
filed under Techonolgy
Google has paid £460 million to purchase a flight information company called ITA Software. ITA is a software company that aggregates flight prices and schedules for all the major airline providers. It already has clients like American Airlines, Bing and Kayak, and ITA is integral to their reservation management system.
The keyword “flights” alone has 151,000,000 global monthly searches, so you can see how big the travel industry actually is. Google acquiring ITA will drastically change what Google offers to airlines, travel agencies, and customers, justifying why travel agencies are right in worrying Google might damage them by offering the flight data aggregated in their SERPs.
Currently when you search for flights on Google, you get such sites like Expedia, Orbitz and eBookers, it’s safe to say these companies may get stung when the giant enters the travel sector. Kayak whose main business is to be a travel search engine (and is also an ITA client) might find it hard to survive.
Google has dubbed the move “pro-competitive” and “pro-consumer” in a bid to justify the sale, claiming it is trying to provide a better and faster search experience for the user. They have no plans to directly sell airline tickets, but this does not stop other travel companies fearing the implications, this new power over data Google will have.
Kayak and Expedia were reported to have tried to convince ITA to not do business with Google, but the discussion was to far advanced at that stage, and the deal has now been concluded.
ITA was founded at MIT in 1996, and lives mostly behind the scenes, providing the data to companies, that filter through to you and me. Although £460 ($700) million sounds like a lot of money, they actually spent a great deal more in acquiring YouTube in 2006 for $1.65bn and DoubleClick a year later for $3.1bn!
Google is continuing to expand its reach slowly, raising evermore questions as to its motives. With increasing power over crucial data, antitrust concerns are paramount, the question is, when will it be too much?
‘Google Me’. Rumour or Truth?
by tahera on July 20th, 2010
filed under Chit-Chat, Techonolgy
Speculation has been flying around for a while now on whether Google is attempting to create a new social networking site. The rumoured site has been labelled “Google Me” and is an effort to try and compete against Facebook and the success they thought it would never have.
Can the world’s most popular search engine succeed in also becoming the world’s most popular social networking site?
In my opinion I think they have a very good chance in doing so. Orkut was hugely popular in India until recently when Facebook has crept in, and Google’s concerns have grown. The origins of the rumour come from a tweet from Kevin Rose (co-founder of Digg)
The tweet did not stay up long, as apparently he was told to remove it. This in itself fuels the rumours that it may not actually just be a rumour.
Google Buzz was a failure, and we are hoping Google learned from its mistakes. ReadWriteWeb made a good point: “90 percent of the content published into Buzz is automated: 63 percent is piped in from Twitter and 27 percent is from automated RSS feeds.” How is that social networking? It hasn’t been long since the launch and deterioration of this attempt at social networking. The new project must therefore be a complete service networking site and I’m thinking they will no doubt model it off Facebook.
The question on everyone’s lips is can Google really do social networking? Or should they stick to what they know best? However what is it that they know best? Google has its fingers in many pies, including acquisitions in the health industry, but they’ve tried twice now and failed with social media (buzz and wave) should they just sit back and let someone else have some control and power for once? Although both these ideas were placed on the backbone of another product, maybe that was their downfall, they need to make a whole new standalone platform to which people would sign up and interact.
If you think about all the Google products you use on the web today, it wouldn’t be hard for them to aggregate all your data into one site and create a networking platform.
So what could GoogleMe do and provide that would be different and rival Facebook, one exciting idea could be: integration with all existing Google products.
So you have gmail, Google docs, Picasa, Google checkout, Google voice and even search to name but a few. Would it be worthwhile if you or I could share a Google spreadsheet with a specific group through the social networking site? For example your group labelled “colleagues”. Or a group labelled “housemates” sharing cleaning rotas and bill payment details?
Although what Google come up with, can Facebook with their knowledge and experience do better? What would you like to see from ‘Google Me’ ?
Social networking could leave you open to abuse
by tahera on June 28th, 2010
filed under Techonolgy, Twitter
The ever growing craze of social networking using sites such as foursquare and twitter can lead you to harm, if you are not extra vigilant about what you disclose.
Someone who is even a little bit internet and tech savvy will be able to figure out where you are (not at home) and rob you. What about stalkers? Someone who has taken more than a shining to you will know exactly where you are and what you are doing in order to further fuel their obsession.
What would happen if you search “not for distribution” confidential filetype:pdf” – Go on try it, you will actually get results for documents that are in actual fact, not meant for distribution, if it’s not meant for distribution, why put them on the internet for all to see and find?
So, combining all the platforms and utilising the power of the internet, you will see it is very easy to find key information about a person. Let’s look at some examples.
First create a database of people in your area who tweet their location. Once you have these people, you can ‘follow’ them on twitter, and wait for them to next tweet where they are. Some silly people actually link their foursquare with twitter, and then “check in” at their home address. Disclosing this information to all. You can then use Google street view, to see exactly what his house looks like, and how easy it would be to enter.
So we now have a picture of our target (from twitter and/or foursquare) and we could easily look up where they work thanks to LinkedIn.
If you’ve put your phone number on these sites, then hey presto, you have a number to call to make sure no one is home before you start your robbery.
And why would you ever tweet, use foursquare to tell people you are on holiday? Many people will check in at the airport, boasting about how they are going away with the whole family for a holiday. As you know, you can look through the previous tweets timeline, and find one with his check-in to home, and guess what? You instantly have acess to an empty house – take what you will.
So if you’re posting personal data all over the interweb, using Twitter and playing Four Square, you just might want to think twice.
Social Media sites may not be seen in the same light as “real life” issues, but that does not mean you shouldn’t take the same precautions.
Should insurance companies charge higher home insurance premiums to people active in social media as a result? What if they get burgled and it can be proven you advertised you were not home. Would that work in the same way as car insurance? If your items are on display it’s your own fault you got robbed?
I got my inspiration from a site called www.pleaserobme.com, a couple of guys created a script that runs on Twitter for Foursquare notifications. Letting you search for people to see where they are, and to confirm they are not home. The site actually does not do this anymore, but is still there so you can see what they did.
This post can be quite dangerous, as im aware i am informing ‘bad’ people on how to do things, but i felt it necessary for people to know. I have however left a fair bit out as it’s probably best not to advertise such things.
A House Overlooking Water On The Moon…Yes please!
by tahera on November 14th, 2009
filed under Chit-Chat
It’s always been suspected that the moon’s surface had more water than we originally thought. Confirmation arrived on Friday that made exploring the moon exciting once more. The moon has always been considered as inhospitable, however now hopes have arisen for a future astronaut outpost.
“We found water. And we didn’t find just a little bit. We found a significant amount,”Anthony Colaprete, lead scientist for the mission.
The 25 gallons discovered was only what they could see as a result of the space shuttle crash on the moon, if that one spot showed 25 gallons of water, how much is spread over the rest of the surface? There could be much, much more, an abundance of water would be ideal for a base camp, supplying not only drinking water but water is needed for rocket fuel.
It was NASA’s Oct. 9 mission in conjunction with the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS), that gave us the incredible confirmation announced Friday 13th November 2009— much water, in the forms of ice and vapor existed on the moon!
GoodBye Carlsberg?!
by tahera on September 16th, 2009
filed under Chit-Chat
Top Football Sponsorship Deals
On Monday, the Standard Chartered Bank joined the ranks of rich organisations paying large sums of money to put their names on the shirts of leading European football teams/clubs. They agreed the best deal yet with Liverpool for four-years worth up to £80m (€91m).
The State of Britain
by tahera on September 16th, 2009
filed under Chit-Chat
Public spending will soon account for almost half the UK economy. Only in world wars has the British state assumed such importance in the past.
Gordon Brown has admitted for the 1st time public spending cuts are just around the corner as he addressed the TUC conference in Liverpool yesterday. We’ve been holding our breath waiting for Mr. Brown to utter the fatal C-word and all of a sudden we hear it four times in 10 seconds in the same speech!
This ‘game’ of waiting to see which senior minister will give in to become the first to admit spending cuts will be needed to tackle Britain’s £175bn deficit was becoming a joke….maybe things are finally changing?
Arnold Schwarzenegger Will Appear In The New Terminator…sort of…
by tahera on May 8th, 2009
filed under Chit-Chat
Arnie has starred in all three blockbuster Terminator films, and now will be appearing in the new terminator film all thanks to technology!
California governor Schwarzenegger will be in the film as an image, inserted in from earlier films. Being the governor and all, he had no time to shoot the footage himself!
The killer robot from the 1984 original Terminator movie will be used to play the 61 year old. A press screening in LA confirmed this delight at the thought of being in movies again. He is definitely going to be able to make it to the premier on 14th may and holds director Joseph McGinty Nichol in high regard.
Christian Bale will be playing resistance leader John Connor, in the new movie dubbed “Terminator Salvation”
A recent review I read on the “Ain’t It Cool News” website said the film was “uplifting and hopeful”. not sure what that’s supposed to mean, as it carried on with Arnie’s cameo was pretty “cool” but Bale’s performance was “a little over the top at times”. Anyhoo I look forward to seeing it when it hits the UK on the 3rd of June, I’ll make up my own mind…..