Information Explosion

Since the advent of WWW , the number of websites have been doubling itself every year. Leave aside the hidden web or the deep web for the time being. If we want to explore the power of the web we would have to live for a little over a million years. The size of the web has been a popular discussion topic amongst both the academia and industry professionals. I remember attending a seminar on information extraction from the web using heuristics and other algortihms. Well, that was an academic seminar and was related to finding ways to make the information more accessible. A few days later I attended another seminar presented by an industry professional who talked about the expansion of web and the difficulty in capturing this information.

The traditional way to access the information is through the use of a search engine. The search engine technology has improved a lot from the directory based search engine started by Yahoo!. However everyone talks about the expansion of the web and the difficulty to find relevant information. Instead is there a way to filter information by involving the human element. There are search engines which are doing their job by indexing billions of web pages every day and throwing up results for the key words you want on the click of a button.

Is it time to ask ourselves if we need this much amount of information or we are content with the information we can digest ? If the answer to above question is No then we definitely need a different approach to look for information. The war is on in the search engine areana and its all for good. Competition is good for consumers. If there is a Google and a Yahoo and a Microsoft and an Amazon competing in the search engine market and are providing faster more reliable searches , it is definitely advantageous for the customers. I would encourage this competition and help them improve the way they look at information.

I am concerned about the time people spend on the search engines looking for information. A change in perspective would provide a satisfactory experience on the web. I have been using the web for 8 long years. I come across a website and use it most of the times. Like I use yahoo to upload photos and snapfish to order prints and shutterfly to utilize my free prints. There could be other websites which I am not aware of. There is a flickr which a lot of people use then there is Picasa a photo search tool and there is Hello which is also a google product.

Things are changing new websites are emerging, old websites are enhancing their content. However in all this mush, one thing remains common that I go for the same website again and again. If there is a blog or a discssion forum providing details about the quality websites and people discuss about it from time to time it will be very much possible for them to know which are the best websites and the quality websites. The human element is important. If you are looking for deals you might use froogle or pricegrabber or bizrate but there are more like deals2buy and many more such sites which people don't know about. If there is a discussion forum where in websites are discussed based on the topic and then we can access such discussions to determine what are the best websites we will be able to know about better websites. Its called incremental growth in knowledge.

So it is time now to have a change in perspective of looking for information. Search engines are definitely good but an element of experience and endorsement will provide a human touch to these search engines. The idea can be taken forward by search engines listing popular websites for different categories. This will provide the users a good starting point as to where to go instead of just typing int he search engine box.

What is important is to create a parallel piece backed by a self policing rating provided to websites for a variety of categories. If I want to read some good computer content and know about the trends my favorite place would be to go to say computerworld.com or informationweek.com However for some other people it would be Business2.com or any other related technology magazine. The idea is not to compete with the search engines but to create a parallel feedback based content where in freedom of discussion and recommendation would work. As more and more people are relying on the word of mouth publicity websites will definitely be more than happy to provide incentive to people who will get them more customers.

It would be good if we start looking for footsteps left by people who have already been there on a website than to leave it on to a search algorithm to tell us if we were looking for the informaiton thats listed on the top of the page of the search result.

The Art of Planning

Imagine a football field with no goal posts and two teams all set to play against each other. Is goal important? Now imagine the same field with two goal posts at opposite ends and no teams on the field. Is a team important? Take a different scenario with both goal posts and team present on the field with the teams having no plan in place. Is planning important? The final scenario is when all the three elements: a goal, a plan and a team are present but there is no set of rules. Is rule an important element?

Once we have all the four critical elements in place we can have an enjoyable football game. Life is also a game as you take decisions about what you are doing with your life every minute. From Newton to Einstein to Hawking each of us have 24 hrs a day; still we have only a few Bill Gates or Scott McNealy or Steve Jobs. Most of the people blame it on the opportunities, some other call it luck and a few others call it destiny. It’s a different word for describing the same phenomenon. The end result is that they could do great things if they try to make the best use of their time.

The concept of planning could be mapped to both your professional and personal life. Organizations around the world preach that employees should have a work life balance. However in all the cases it is the responsibility of the individual to create that critical balance. Utilizing the four elements mentioned above, it provides an opportunity to the individual to see things they have never seen, to think clearly , to do constructive thinking and to get more out of life. This all comes with good planning. Planning is an art and its personal , its not hereditary , it can be learned and everyone can do it.

FireFox: Foxing the Internet Explorer

The invention of World Wide Web by Tim Berners Lee in 1991 changed the face of technology and the exchange of information. Internet was a disruptive technology providing the users with infinite possibilities and uncountable opportunities. In these 13 years we have experienced all the possible business cycles in the internet companies.WWW also led to the use of a new interface called the browser which is an essential software required to surf the web. The earliest browser called the Mozilla browser(www.mozilla.org) was an Open Source Software available for free but had its own limitations to access the web.

The limitations of Mozilla provided an opportunity to develop a new browser which should be able to address the changing technical requirements of the websites on the internet. From plain html websites to the addition of scripts on the page to providing users with a unique experience, a company called Netscape was born. It was a huge opportunity and James Andreesen the thoughtful entrepreneur , a visionary could see the importance of the browser and the internet. He was a key member of the team that worked on the Mozilla project and understood the technicalities and the business aspects of the internet as well as the browser market.

In 1994 , Netscape was born and it started giving the advanced browser for free. In a few months the company went public and the share price soared. The market capitalisation was unbelievable and James Andreesen was a pioneer in the new breed of entrepreneurs to take the internet forward.Microsoft's Bill Gates missed the internet bus by ignoring the new technology. For 2 years till 1996 Netscape was the only browser in the market. The Internet explorer although introduced by then was no way comparable with Netscape in terms of the features offered .

By 1996 Netscape had 97-98% of the market share of the browser market. The rest of the users still relied on Mozilla. The introduction of Internet Explorer in 1996 by Microsoft and the use of bundling strategy by tightly integrating the explorer in the Windows operating system started the so called " Browser Wars". This is undoubtedly the most exciting war fought on the internet turf. An interesting book was published to capture the incidents occuring between the year 1996 to 1998 when the market share of Netscape dropped from 97% to less than 15% and the market share had a coreresponding increase for the Internet Explorer. The book titled " Competing on Internet Time" provided a sequel of incidents which happened both at Netscape and Microsoft to hold the Internet turf. It also described the fact that competitive advantage can be gained or lost in the internet very fast.

We all know what happened after 1998 when the share price of Netscape plummeted and it was eventually bought by AOL. This marked an end of another creative company of the internet , another victim of the Microsoft hegemony. For 5 long years after that version after version Microsoft improved the Internet Explorer to gain a near 100 % market share in the browser market. The company of the size of Micsrosoft proved yet again that if they decide to go against a product or a company they have the might to kill the same with their sheer size.

Since then Microsoft has been expanding its wings to capture the internet. Product after product from IE to hotmail to msn.com to passport to msn messenger to media player to msn TV , there is hardly any area of the internet which Microsoft has not captured. The Open Source community has been monitoring Microsoft's monopolistic strategies on various product fronts and has been trying to regain the lost ground by providing state of the art products to counter Micrsoft on the Operating System and now on the browser.

The same Mozilla which has continued to improve the existing browser year after year has launched the Firefox browser a few weeks back. After 6 million downloads since its launch and smooth integration with almost all versions of Windows , Firefox has started the next level of " Browser War". Netscape made some serious mistakes by forgetting that they are still a start up and underestimating Microsoft's power to comeup with parallel products which has been proven over and again. Firefox which is still an Open Source and free for use is banking on the security threats diagnosed in the Internet Explorer recently. This will provide them with ready acceptance as the code for Firfox is available and can be made as secure as possible for governments and companies seeing IE as a threat on the security front.

The tabbed browsing feature offered by Firefox differntiates itself from IE and the same is also available with Opera, another internet browser popular in Europe.Mozilla is looking for companies who will provide a branded version of Firefox by developing customizable browser requirements according to the security needs of different companies. Rumour is still in the IT sector that google should adapt Firefox to provide browser and integrating the advertising through the browser, a claim which has not been acknowledged by google. Google in the past registered Gbrowser a domain name which leads people to think that google is eyeing on the browser market to capture more eyeballs through a product which is a gateway to the internet.

The developments in the next few months will provide us with more details on the popularity of the Firefox and product comparisons will determine the shift of the users. The Internet Browser has low switching costs and has huge network effects if considering the economics of the internet. If the rumours are true and google is eyeing on the browser market , Firefox could be the next big thing after the search engine initiative of Google. The war has just begun and internet time is ticking.If Firefox will be able to become another offering from Google and it is able to monetize the browser by delivering cutomized advertisements with each browser click both Firefox and Google will benefit out of this relationship. Netscape was the first pure internet company and Google could take the tradition forward by becoming another pure play internet company.

A lot more is going to happen in the near future on the OS and the search front. The proposed launch of LongHorn the next generation of the Windows Operating System by Micrsoft in 2006 will be another big event for the computer industry. Will Firefox regain the lost market share of Netscape and establish an Open Source presence in the browser market or will it stumble as yet another product from the OSS community ? A lot more is going to happen in the year 2005 , so keep an eye on the browser market. If you haven't tried Firefox it is available for free at www.mozilla.org . Go ahead try it and then you will be able to decide to continue using IE or switch to Firefox.

Education: An idea machine

I consider myself lucky that my parents provided me with an opportunity to study at world class institutions. This definitely has been a blessing for me and I have been able to think better.Sometimes I wonder that constructive thinking is also a gift of education or may be a gift from GOD. It is of utmost importance that all of us who fall into this category utlize our education to generate ideas to make our country a better place.

While I was studying in a US B-School I realized that a lot of emphasis is given on the process of generating ideas and it was highly appreciated. Having been through the Indian education system it was a novel approach of thinking. Unlike the Indian counterparts , the educational institutions in the US are looked upon as places for generating ideas for improving the existing processes, generating new technologies and challenging existing business models.

The process of generating ideas should start at home.It is very important to propogate encouraging thoughts in growing children and university students that the idea in their mind could be the next big thing on this earth. We have to construct a framework to develop this thinking for our own future growth. India as a country has a huge growth poential but the only inhibition is the attitude of people. A competent thought process and an encouraging response with sound backup of financial resources will provide visionaries and thinkers to create new products specific to the Indian Market.

Universities are a good breeding ground for entrepreneurship and students should be provided with resources to give their idea a preliminary shape. A lot depends on the encouraging attitude of the professors to give constructive feedback and assist in the development of the students. India has a good educational framework and by instigating the students to learn problem solving skills, universities will provide students a tool which they can carry for the whole of lifetime.
Creative strategic thinking plays a key role in development of new products. It has been evident from business history that most of the products in popular use today have been created as a solution to a specific problem in hand.To overcome that anomaly people have created a new product which will help reverse the problem and will provide a creative solution to it. This happens only when the person is always on a look out for better ways of doing things. Kaizen could be a japanese word but it has to be brought in everyday life and propagate continuous improvement philosophy.

We , the educated folks should take the opportunity to encourage creativity and innovativeness by always looking for continuous improvements and trying different approaches. The aim of innovation is to improve the life of the people around you by challenging the status quo. With an innovative approach you can as well improve the life of a broader set of people. So go ahead and dont kill the next big idea in your mind. Just do it.

The author is an alumnus of IMT, Ghaziabad and is currently a student of Information Systems Management at Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah , USA

Google: A Behemoth

Google has come a long way since its origination from a research project of two Stanford graduates. The company which boasts 55% of the market share in the WWW searches is undoubtedly one of the most innovative technology companies in the world. It has changed the way people behave on the internet. The Google search bar has become a starting point for most websurfers and its ubiquity has attracted advertisers from all across the world to demonstrate their links on the side bar using the Googe Adsense program.

For most of the web surfers Google is simply a search engine , a means to an end , a way to reach their web destination. However Google is spreading its roots to conquer the webspace by utlizing its creative and tech savvy workforce to develop new products to improve your lives. Have you got a chance to download the Google desktop search which makes the search for documents on your own computer much easier than the bundled search tool provided by Microsoft's Windows OS. If not go to http://desktop.google.com and download the software for free. With increasing harddisk space extracting information from your own computer has become difficult to handle. The MS Windows search tool provides little help in searching even the most obvious files on your 40 GB hard disk. The desktop search software from Google is an attack on Microsoft's turf but it was definitely required to make the searches faster and relevant on your own computer.

With the recent acquisition of KeyHole ( www.keyhole.com) Google is making a foray in the market for mapping the coordinates of your home or office building or searching for places of interest using satellite images. The service was used by media companies to map the conflict areas during the Iraq War. The images are available at a precision of as close as two inches. The advancement in technology has provided us an ability to look and feel the places where we have never gone before.

Ever tried Google SMS ? With a few simple clicks from your cell phone you can know about the Pizza places near your place using the text messaging facility available on most of the cell phones.Just type in pizza followed by the zipcode and send it to GOOGL . In a few seconds you will receive 2-3 messages giving you addresses and telephone numbers of the Pizza places near your zip code. Have you ever wondered if you will be able to find the price of a product on the move ? Just type in price ipod and send it to GOOGL and you will receive price quotes for different models of ipods available. Presently this service is available in the US only.

Have you ever wondered what GPRS means ? Get on to the Google search bar and type define GPRS and with in seconds you will get definitions for the GPRS technology which is used in your GSM cell phones. Using the Google Definitions you will be able to find practically any information which you do not understand.These were some of the cool tools available from Google and the company as well as its tools are growing on a daily basis.

The invitation based Gmail has changed the way people use email. Since the time I have subscribed to gmail and have been using the same as a primary email account , I have utilized 200 MB of space out of the 1000 MB being offered. I still remember using hotmail with just 2 MB of total space available and have still maintained that account but will definitely not be able to continue for long.

There are many more services offered by Google from photo organizing software to Google search toolbar. Just visit Google and click on About Google. The company seems to be a sapling on the surface but it has its roots firmly placed in the ground and is building a strong foundation to develop a truly world class innovative company. Check this space for more information about the tools you can use to improve your webexperience.

The author is a graduate student of Information Systems Management at the Marriott School of Management, Brigham Young University , Provo , Utah.

Use of Technology

This is an introductory write up which will describe the things this blog will contain in the future. Technology is developing at a faster pace , much faster than we can adapt. We need certain tools which will help make our life easy and will provide us satisfaction. These tools might range from reminder services to automated birthday cards or getting a service for free or anything that you can think of.

The internet has provided us with an opportunity to explore various options without spending a dime and then decide about the usage if it is a paid service. There are zillions of websites existing which will make your work easier and will make you feel comfortable at the click of a button. This blogger is also one such service where in you can vent your feelings whenever you want whereever you want provided you are connected to the internet. So this will contain tools and links and interesting things for people who are as curious as I am for exploring new opportunities and ideas on the web.

Knowledge is power and once you can make the right use of technology there is a possibility that you will make your life better by doing the work faster and in a much better way. SO guys and gals watch out for this space with more to go and you will be surprised how easy it is to do what you always wanted to do with just a computer and an internet conmnection.