Gangup on Groupon

Groupon has become what any e-business dreams to become; after only two years in operation as a daily deals site, Groupon has been offered a $6 billion acquisition offer from web giant Google. But instead of accepting early retirement, Groupon’s owners surprised everyone…they turned the offer down. Now we’re waiting to see whether Groupon just signed its own death warrant, or if Google will show mercy.

Groupon launched in November 2008 as the answer to the Chicago city-dweller’s dilemma: there’s TOO many choices. Too many restaurants. Too many museums. Too many events. And too many reviews about all of the above. Groupon’s purpose is to feature one good or service each day with an incredible discount so users feel comfortable trying something new. The site has spread rapidly and now includes deals for more than 300 markets and 35 countries.

Daily deals sites have been getting a lot of spotlight thanks to Groupon. This week’s Baltimore Sun included an article about a local rookie trying to get in on the daily deals game, Chewpon. While Chewpon is still a newborn, the site is already handicap by launching without a larger database of restaurants. Baltimore is a big and demanding city and a site like Chewpon is just going to die if it can’t keep up with the $7 for $15 worth hamburgers and milkshakes at Z-Burger that Groupon is currently offering me. (Side note: I just opened an account with Groupon, how can a college kid refuse free anything??)

So it’s obvious why Google would find purchasing these company so appealing. The integration of Google Maps and the Groupon service alone is worth millions. Imagine the apps, for example. The problem is figuring out exactly how much Groupon is actually worth. According to Sharon Gaudin’s Computerworld article, the estimates of its revenues vary from $500 million to $2 billion, incredible numbers for a two year old company. Some are skeptical of the $5 billion appraisal since it was last valued at $1.4 billion eight months ago.

Either way, Groupon is taking a big risk to think that they can either get a much better offer, or beat out Google.

Because it will come down to beating the Google machine if it so chooses to make its own model of Groupon, something Google is more than capable of doing. Needless to say not Groupon or any other lookalike, has the resources to beat Google at that game. Groupon’s only chance is if Google tries again with them, something that Dan Olds, an analyst at The Gabriel Consulting Group, thinks could happen:

"I'm not convinced that this deal is completely dead. I think it's only three-fourths dead…Google might take another run at them.”

I think Groupon would be extremely blessed if Google did decide to try again because there are going to be many emerging competitors, such as Chewpon, chomping at the bit, so to say. Groupon should enjoy its view from the top before Google rips it down.

Google Tackles eBooks

It should come to no surprise to anyone that as popularity rises for eBooks, Google is already claiming a big piece of the pie. With the launch of Google Books on Monday, it is already claiming to offer 3 million titles, both free and priced, in comparison to Amazon’s 750,000. Now the world has front row seats for the race to be the eBooks King. But is the title really worth it?

Before Google, Amazon and Apple were the top contenders with Amazon at an obvious lead. Now, Google is only a few short strides away. Both offer free and priced titles. Both have deals with Random House Publisher which means they will have that new John Grishom or vampire teen romance novel. Both offer mobility. Amazon with their Kindle while Google is planning on releasing Web reader software for browsers to be used on Androids and iPhones.

This is all well and good, but I don’t think it matters who comes out on top. Just like radio was the end of print and television the end of radio etc, etc, eBooks are going to start getting credit for ending how we get our literature. But as a reader, I can’t think of a substitute for weathered binding, dog-eared pages, and sand still in the creases from last summer’s beach book. I am not saying that eBooks is a dead end of market. On the contrary, eBooks is a new market that will continue to skyrocket. In fact, the industry is expected to triple by 2015 to almost $3 billion. I myself have thought how great it would be if I could Ctrl + F my way through a book. I just don’t believe that by then our bookshelves will be left bare except for a lone eBook reader and its charger.

So maybe Google will win this battle in its war for total Internet domination, or maybe Amazon will continue to dominate. Frankly, I don’t think it matters since only 7% of online adults currently read eBooks. Yes, we still plenty of time to watch that number rise, but we won’t see paper printed book prices drop drastically. Everyone believed that the Internet would destroy magazine sales, but this print ad reveals a surprising truth.

Google has, so far, had a great sense for what is important on the Internet. So important, that people when people think “search,” “maps,” “news,” and “images” they say “Oh, just Google it.” But Amazon is a worthy competitor and I think that Google Books has a long way to go until they are on equal footing.

http://www.informationweek.com/news/smb/hardware_software/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=228500296

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/12/08/google_books/

Salesforce Unveils Database Product, Taking On Oracle

Salesforce.com, a leading seller in online customer-relationship management programs, is attempting to catch up to Oracle Corp. by introducing Database.com. This new software is a database full of information that can be used by developers to build online applications. This is a great step forward for Salesforce because it is expanding the company into a new market, a market of developers. Now, in addition to selling finished programs, they are supplying information to developers who would like to create their own programs. This use of IT and expansion is going to skyrocket the company to Oracle's level, if not higher. There is no limit to how successful this could be, since program developers are always looking for the next best thing. Now, with the help of Database.com, all the tools needed are in one location, something that some developers have been looking for and is too good for the others to pass up. CIOs of corporations will be pleased to hear this news and are expected to jump on it immediately, which will bring a ton of revenue to Salesforce, and the companies helping them (Informatica Corp. and Progress Software Corp.). The article states that revenue may increase 22 percent for the 2012 fiscal year, a huge increase for a single company to make in such a short period of time.

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-12-07/salesforce-unveils-database-product-taking-on-oracle.html

Facebook Under Pressure to Be Greener

Facebook, the popular social networking site, is currently receiving complaints from an environmentalist group called Greenpeace International based on the construction of a data center in Oregon that will be powered by PacifiCorp, a company that “gets 58 percent of its energy from burning coal” (Ross).  With membership of more than 500 million people as of this past July, Facebook is a company that uses unimaginable amounts of energy to store and send messages, pictures, and other information.

Facebook’s decision to move to Oregon was incredibly wise in terms of creating an energy-efficient data center; however, representatives for Greenpeace have called their choice of power supplier “terrible” and have referred to Facebook as “The So Coal Network” on their website.  Greenpeace has even gone so far as to start a movement, as part of their IT sector climate campaign, that urges Facebook to “Unfriend Coal” and stop using “the dirtiest source of energy and largest source of global warming pollution in the world” (Greenpeace.org).  Furthermore, Greenpeace outlines the steps Facebook needs to take to be greener, which focus on moving the company away from coal and advises them to turn towards renewable energy sources such as wind, sun, and geothermal.

Greenpeace International presents a valid argument in their attempt to get companies to “choose environmentally friendly energy sources to fuel their servers” (Ross).  According to Tom Brokaw of the Discovery Channel, “Burning coal emits almost twice as much carbon per unit of energy as natural gas and 1.25 times as much oil.  As a result, coal is behind 93 percent of the carbon dioxide emissions from electrical generation in the U.S.” (discovery.com).  Greenpeace International’s executive director, Kumi Naidoo, has even challenged Mark Zuckerberg himself.  He pushed him “to drive the deployment of renewable energy sources needed to avert the most devastating possible effects of our changing climate” (Ross).  Naidoo also stressed to Zuckerberg how important it is for global business leaders to be aware of their “company’s environmental impacts” and noted that “it is both a threat to a company’s reputation and financial health risk to ignore [these impacts]” (Ross).

According to AllFacebook, the unofficial Facebook blog, the site is gaining about 450,000 people per day.  Moreover, “Facebook may have become the Internet’s second most popular destination after Google [and] is essentially acquiring a small state every day” (betanews.com).  For this reason, it is essential that Facebook is aware of our global environment and begins to move towards a more energy efficient strategy.  Although “coal-burning power plants are the largest U.S. source of carbon dioxide pollution, produc[ing] 2.5 billion tons every year,” there are some states that are moving in the right direction (nrdc.org).  California and New York are examples of this positive progress: “California has required its largest utilities to get 20 percent of their electricity from renewable sources by 2017, and New York has pledged to compel power companies to provide 25 percent of the state's electricity from renewable sources by 2013” (nrdc.org).

Greenpeace has been campaigning to make the IT industry more environmentally friendly for about five years now, and they are adamant about this cause for many reasons.  One particular concern that Greenpeace has is the current growth rates of data centers and telecommunications networks.  At their existing growth rates, these key components of “the cloud Facebook depends on, will consume about 1,963 billion kilowatts hours of electricity in 2020, [which is] more than triple their current consumption and more than the current electricity consumption of France, Germany, Canada and Brazil combined” (Greenpeace.org).  Mark Zuckerberg has replied to Greenpeace’s campaign saying, “Some of the old data centers we rent use coal, but most are already green” (Ross).  He also pointed out that the new center in Oregon uses hydro power dams.  Moreover, Facebook rented out various data centers, which were also being used by other companies, so it was virtually impossible to change the facilities without an agreement between all of the companies using the facilities (Ross).  Another positive change that Facebook has made is their shift from “many small leased data centers to fewer large customized ones” to increase energy efficiency.  Barry Schnitt, a spokesman for Facebook, has even said that Facebook is “one of, if not the most, energy-efficient data centers in the world” (Ross).

As Facebook continues to grow, they will seek out new methods of obtaining energy without harming the environment.  The company’s widely known name and status allow them to set the standard for other IT companies, so hopefully they will continue on their path to becoming entirely environmentally friendly.  This will not only help their business, but it will also benefit our planet as a whole.

-Katie O’Neill

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/04/business/energy-environment/04iht-rbogface.html?_r=1&scp=6&sq=information%20technology&st=cse 

http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/campaigns/climate-change/cool-it/ITs-carbon-footprint/Facebook/?thingstodo

http://dsc.discovery.com/convergence/globalwarming/interactive/interactive.html 

http://www.betanews.com/article/Just-how-fast-is-Facebook-growing/1231372431

http://www.nrdc.org/globalwarming/f101.asp

New cell phone STD testing

With the rate of sexually transmitted diseases rising steadily in the United States, especially around college campuses, some British health officials decided help people find out if they have an STD quickly. By urinating on a small USB sized chip and inserting that into your mobile phone, you will immediately be able to tell whether you have been infected or not. This saves people the humiliation of getting checked and saves a lot of time by avoiding doctor's offices. By creating this device, it will hopefully stop the spread of STDs because people would become aware of them immediately and would be able to save future partners.

If this technology is not too expensive (price has not been determined yet), we should see a huge decrease in the STD rate and many lives saved. One of the main reasons that STDs spread is because the carriers of these diseases don't get checked, and continue to unknowingly have relations with different partners, infecting them as well. Another thing that this technology does is that if the user tests positive, the software in the device can tell him where the nearest medical office is in order to get treatment. So this device allows you to avoid the doctor for testing, but if treatment is needed, it will even help you find the treatment you need.

I think this is a great idea because it will help college kids who don't want to have to have their parents set up a doctor's appointment and don't want to go to the school's doctor. With this innovation, they can check themselves easily and discreetly and take the necessary steps for treatment after testing positive. This also saves parents from the scare they experience when they hear their child is getting tested for an STD.

http://www.informationweek.com/blog/main/archives/2010/11/pee_on_your_pho.html

Health IT Improves Patient Care

There have been many advances within the medical field recently, and one of the most dominant is the introduction of IT into the field. As the article states, the HITECH legislation of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act has allocated over $20 billion for the adoption of health IT. E-health records and e-prescription systems enable patients to access medical records wherever they are, and they reduce the risk of medical errors. Health IT includes systems that can check for adverse reactions to medication as well as confirm medical IDs, which ensure that patients receive the proper medical care. Health IT also is able to keep patients out of the hospital and treat them at home, which is useful for chronically ill and elderly patients.

Examples of Health IT are e-medical records and mobile prescribing. Doctors can access medical records and send prescriptions to pharmacies via their mobile smartphones or laptops, which enables the speedy and accurate delivery of prescriptions. E-medical records are particularly useful for doctors who are at home and on call, because it enables them to keep track of current patients and monitor their conditions from their own homes. E-prescribing also gives the opportunity to cell service providers to create applications on their cell phones and make a profit off of them from medical professionals and patients. AT&T is one such company that has already entered this market. RFID devices are also being used by hospitals and other medical facilities. They can keep track of both patients and medical devices. This enables hospital staff to know when patients have left a specific ward, and it ensures that all equipment can be found quickly in the case of an emergency. Before drugs are administered, health care providers have begun to make use of Bedside Medication Barcode Scanning, which helps ensure that patients are receiving the proper drugs and avoids medical errors.

Medical errors have been the cause of many avoidable deaths, and the medical profession is constantly trying to minimize them and avoid them from being repeated. According to the article, a study published nearly 10 years ago estimated that close to 98,000 Americans die each year due to preventable medical mistakes. Since the baby boomers are now elderly and in need of more health care, this is a time with the opportunity for many more such mistakes. Medication error tracking is one such method used by doctors to prevent them. The article discusses a clinical decision support tool called Monarch, created by Datawatch. Tools such as this help to analyze data to discover the reason for medical mistakes, and they allow healthcare providers to discover ways to avoid these mistakes in the future, through methods such as health process modifications and increased staff training.

These health care advances have the potential to drastically improve health care within the US. They give the opportunity for IT tech companies to make an enormous profit, because these technologies will quickly become commonplace in every medical institution.

Eileen Browne

http://www.informationweek.com/news/galleries/healthcare/patient/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=227700175&itc=ref-true

MyBlank?

By the end of November, people ages 14-35 will be tuning in to all of their entertainment and pop culture needs through My_______; that’s MySpace for anyone who hasn’t yet seen the new logo and design of the website. As of October 27, the beta version of the new MySpace has been released for select users and is expected to be open to everyone by late November. But it will no longer be the social network it has been for the past seven years. Actually, according to CEO Mike Jones, it won’t be a social network at all.

“We want to be the leading social entertainment destination…connecting users to content that defines different entertainment tastes. We’re not a social network.”

It seems that MySpace is trying to take the best ingredients of its social media competitors to make some giant, super entertainment hub. Users can trend and follow topics like Twitter, receive badges for recognition like on FourSquare, and, of course, view Facebook-y topic “Pages.” And, not only is MySpace taking chapters out of its competitors books, it’s teaming up with them! So users can link this plethora of entertainment and pop culture to every other social media site that they already use.

The new bracket logo suggests that this site is going to be the gateway of personalized entertainment, a one-stop shop at your fingertips. Honestly, I’m not sure if this will be more convenient for me than it is to just Google news, single releases, and reviews. As of know the plan seems pretty ambiguous. Here’s the promotional video that was posted on MySpace:

Welcome to the new Myspace

Myspace | Myspace Video

MySpace has turned into such a joke since Facebook stole the spotlight that I don’t think it can redeem itself. The increasingly popular “Dear Blank Please Blank” website might have put it best:

Dear MySpace,

It’s so cute when you try.

Sincerely, Facebook

I think that at this point in the game people are comfortable with their social media sites. Even the biggest pop culture fanatic has settled in with who they want to follow on Twitter, perfected their likes on Facebook, and probably doesn’t give a hoot about FourSquare. Hell, every time Facebook changes its layout there’s an uproar expressed on statuses for at least a week. MySpace is playing catch-up but everyone else is already at the finish line.

Not that this concept of using (stealing) the best ideas from its competitors is a bad idea. But we can already link our FourSquare to our Facebook and our Facebook to our Twitter, and our Twitter to our Tumbler, and well, you get the idea. Who need ANOTHER link in the social media site chain? It may be too early to tell, but MySpace may have just hung itself with that chain.

http://blogs.forbes.com/velocity/2010/10/27/the-new-myspace-has-arrived-not-a-social-network-but-an-entertainment-hub/

http://dearblankpleaseblank.com/permalink.php?viewid=22614

Crunch Time

It may soon become very difficult to use our cell phones any more. According to The Federal Commission, there is a “looming spectrum crunch”, the result of the rapid increase in mobile data and the fear of being unable to keep up. According to CNN’s Amy Gahran, “users [will] end up waiting and waiting for Web pages, maps, apps, and more to update”, which some are feeling already. Gahran is someone who feels effected and admitted that she “switched from an iPhone to a Droid Incredible, which offers much snappier performance, largely due to relatively low congestion on Verizon’s network”. In her article, “FCC warns of looming mobile spectrum crunch”, she refers to the Federal Communication Commission as her lead source. As this crunch draws upon us, will we be able to bear it or will it overload the spectrum. The FCC claims that in the last six months, “subscriptions to data services [have] increased by 40 percent” and between the first quarter of 2009 and the second quarter of 2010, data used by wireless consumers have grown “by more than 450 percent”. This rapid growth is currently affecting the speed of some company’s phones such as AT&T, which is the major contributor to recent data expansion. With recent developments in the technology world, such as the iPad and smart phones, the data world needs to expand. ABC News’ Ann Compton, Yunji de Nies, and Sunlen Miller, published on June 28, 2010 that “President Obama today signed a presidential memorandum approving a new effort to sell off government-owned and commercial spectrum to be used to upgrade communications nationwide”. This reveals the government’s ability and desire to capitalize on this growing issue.

In order to fix the crunch carriers need to update their networks as well as operate on more frequencies. The memorandum signed by Obama calls for making 500 MHz of spectrum available over the next 10 years. White House officials believe that the memorandum will generate “‘hundreds of thousands of jobs’ with revenue potential that could reach, ‘in the tens of billions of dollars.’” Chloe Albanesius, on pcmag.com, wrote that the FCC and Senators Jay Rockefeller, Joseph Lieberman, and John McCain support an open sale, as opposed to a handover of “a swath of spectrum known as the ‘d-block’” to public safety officials. According to Gahran, “the FCC’s National Broadband Plan calls for freeing 300 megahertz of spectrum… [adding] at least $100 billion in value to the U.S. economy”. So far, we can only benefit from the sale of spectrum. Money generated may help U.S. carriers begin switching to 4G and LTE network technology, but probably not enough, according to the FCC. If this all fails and the spectrum becomes overloaded, mobile broadband will become slow and “your smartphone ends up feeling like an expensive, fancy turtle”. Slowing the network would upset a lot of people and impede the way some people live their lives. The entire economy that is centered on broadband would begin to crumble and some businesses will fall. These reasons are why the sale of additional spectrum is gaining interest. The National Association of Broadcasters claims to be in support of selling spectrum as long as broadcasts are not interrupted. The next few years will really change broadband balances, as decisions are made to sell or expand on current spectrum. The only thing known for certain is that if more is not freed, then there will be a major slowdown in broadband connections.

Sources:
http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/mobile/11/05/gahran.mobile.spectrum.crunch/index.html

http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2010/06/-the-spectrum-crunch-president-obama-takes-on-the-shortage-of-wireless-capacity.html

http://www.pcmag.com/print_article2/0,1217,a=253000,00.asp?hidPrint=true

Finally, Pop-Ups that Save Time and Frustration

Andrew Diddel Blog 4, 11/9/10

IS 251, Tallon

Though Google has held its place as the most dominant online search engine for many years, they seem to be continually progressing and installing new ideas and innovative ways to enhance the online search process. As highlighted in Thomas Claburn’s recent article, Google Debuts Instant Previews, the latest advancements in Google’s technology allows users to see images of the available Web sites following the Google Instant search. The goal for this application is to allow users to access information more quickly, as well as maximizing the relevance of the search, as the users receive aid from the pop-up windows containing screenshots of the link.[i]

As a reader, I found that the most intriguing piece of the article was the information on what Instant Previews can and cannot provide. Claburn informs his readers that one of the intentions of the new technology is to improve the way that the Google searchers can anticipate what they are clicking on, following their search. “Previously, Google relied on contextual snippets, the one or more lines of text culled from Web pages and matched to users’ queries for display on search results pages” (Claburn). In the past, I have always found that the website titles as well as the snippets have been sufficient in the preview of my search results. Considering that I typically search for pretty specific things, I would not need screenshots of the Web site in order for me to click on the link. If I typed “Lebr” into Google, in .28 seconds, I would have the most recent and relevant news and links pertaining to LeBron James. Following my search, the first three links available to me are LeBron James’ Wikipedia page, his NBA.com player profile, as well as www.lebronjames.com. The main purpose of this argument is that, the search engine is already so advanced, and so filtered, that as a user, the images are not necessarily going to convince me to go to one website rather than another, as I already know what I am looking for.

This being said, it would be irrational for me to completely ignore the effect of Instant Previews when searching for topics that are not so familiar, or so clearly in the public eye, i.e. LeBron James. With the hopes of allowing for more interaction within the search, Google product manager Raj Krishnan said, “It allows quickly comparing the results in a way that wasn’t possible before.” When doing research on foreign topics or statistics, having Instant Preview would be a HUGE help considering the amount of time that could be saved without having to click on each link, hoping to find which results seem credible. In her recent article, Google adds Instant Preview to search, Sharon Gaudin points out that Instant Previews “will also at times highlight the most relevant parts, as well as where the search term appears on the page. If a user is looking for a chart or list, they'll be able to see if one appears in the preview.”[ii] Initially, I found that some of the points that Thomas Claburn made did not necessarily help promote the new technology, as I found Google’s online search to be flawless, and of the utmost simplicity even after each new improvement. However, after trying out Instant Previews for myself, and further reading on Gaudin’s views of the technology’s benefits, I feel as if Claburn definitely understated its relevance and overall helpfulness to the typical online searcher.

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[i] Claburn, Thomas. "Google Debuts Instant Previews." Information Week. 9 Nov. 2010. Web. 9 Nov. 2010. .

[ii] Guidan, Sharon. "Google Adds Instant Previews to Search." Computer World. News Analysis, 9 Nov. 2010. Web. 9 Nov. 2010. .