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Google to shut down Gmail, Cites lack of Two Billion Users and Google+

In a move that's sure to shock even the most loyal Google users, the search giant announced early Monday it would shutter Gmail and a host of other apps not meeting performance expectations.

"It really sucks, I know, but we were expecting two billion users and we're not seeing that," said Google CEO Sergey Brin while wearing his trademark Borg-like Google Glass. "But we really think Google+ is where it's at now. So we think users will adjust."

Users across the nation were outraged, tweeting "I can't love without Gmail! It is my productivity life-blood suckle at its information-giving tits like a newborn sow for breakfast lunch and dinner," and "I can't go back to Hotmail or Yahoo! I can't! I won't! Kill me now!"

When confronted with some of the tweets, Brin only responded, "They should be using Google Freaking Plus for that."

The news comes only a few days after the announcement that Google Reader, the RSS app that holds a small but loyal user base, will be shutting down July 1. That move, too, pissed people off something fierce.

We will update this story as more services are announced for shutdown.

Update: YouTube is getting the axe, too. Brin simply said, "Too much Bieber and humans," adjusted his Google Glass, and walked off.

Update 2: New reports provided to The Onion indicate that Sergey Brin may in fact be under the influence of a collective consciousness not dissimilar to the Borg that desires complete control over internet content for the purposes of advertising.

Update 3: Brin has announced, "Please use Google+, please use Google+, please use Google+." Also, his right eye is now fully machine.

#import2 demo

Infographic: Mobile OS Usage and Stats

via www2.crittercism.com

Takeaways: Android is still terribly fragmented across many, many versions. iOS is not but neither is it experiencing the mind-blowing adoption rates it once did, probably because more and more people are using the platform--people who care less and less about upgrading on Day 1 especially since the device need not be connected to iTunes regularly.

#android #apple #google #iOS #import2 demo

Businesses and Organizations will Benefit from Graph Search

Need a good plumber? An electrician? Someone to do your taxes? A doctor? A dentist? These are all typically questions that are great to ask friends. You trust friends. With Facebook Graph Search, there’s the promise of asking all your friends this at once without actually having to ask them. You can just search and discover professionals like this that they like.

via searchengineland.com

Danny Sullivan makes a great point here.

What's better than high-quality reviews? Easy: Recommendations from close friends whom you trust. Second-best? Recommendations from friends of of those friends.

There is nothing like word of mouth, and Graph Search is built on that premise. However, I'm not all grins and excitement about Graph Search. Remember Facebook Questions? It was going to be the Quora killer, the Quick-Poll-Site killer, but it was so underdeveloped and undercommunicated that no one used it. The same could happen to Graph Search. Thin ice ahead!

#import2 demo

The collision of social networking and search

It's been interesting to keep track of Google's move into a more personalized and contextualized search experience. First they integrated the +1 button as a way to let you know what search results your Google+ friends found helpful. Next they integrated Google+ results above other social networks' as a way to tell you more about people you were searching about. For a while they've tailored results for places and services based on your whereabouts.

Today, Facebook launched a missile across Google's bow with Graph Search. I've yet to use it but the initial launch will plant in important seed in Facebook users' minds: "Hey, don't worry about opening a window and searching Google--you can just search within Facebook and find similar results that also show how those results are connected to your social graph."

The value of a more personalized, contextualized search, whether it comes from Google or Facebook or Siri, can't be undermined. It could all be described as "Search 2.0" in which your intent as a user is more readily understood. Connections will be drawn for us and less time will be spent sifting through data that doesn't relate to our situation or profile.

As an aside, I think it's quite interesting that Facebook got Lars Rasmussen in on the "making of" video. You see, Lars was intimately involved in Google Maps and also the ill-fated Google Wave. Now he's with Facebook building a highly competitive product.

https://www.facebook.com/about/graphsearch

#context strategy #facebook #google #search #import2 demo

Verizon’s CEO announces $10M award

Proving that he’s a firm believer in technology’s ability to do good, he announced the Verizon Powerful Answers Award during the keynote. It will give $10 million to anyone who can use connected networks to provide useful solutions in the fields of healthcare, education, and sustainability. Verizon will open submissions for the contest later this quarter, in collaboration with the Consumer Electronics Association, which puts on CES.

via venturebeat.com

Right on, Verizon. Right on.

#competition #innovation #import2 demo

Is Siri really Apple’s future? « counternotions

Eliminating all intermediaries, Siri could “deliver” a customer directly to a vendor, ready for a transaction Apple doesn’t have to get involved in. Siri simply matches intent and offer more accurately, voluntarily and accountably than any other method at scale that we’ve ever seen.

via counternotions.com

I think some of the intent-based scenarios he articulates are not only possible but must-do. We are moving into an intention-based economy in which consumers express intent and the business models that make it will be there with the right answer at the other end. "Name your own price" was just a foreshadowing of the real deal that is now beginning to mainstream.

The other side of the future of Siri I find myself musing about is context. If I'm in the context of the Contacts app looking at a particular person, invoking Siri at that instant should give me the opportunity to say, "Text this contact to So-and-So." Siri would know the context of my statement thanks to the pronoun, THIS contact, and go from there.

Not only would a whole new layer of interaction between users and Siri be opened up, but app developers who build apps around these new more context-aware APIs will create whole new interfaces to exploit them.

Intent will make Apple money, but context will make Siri irreplaceable. Context AND intent = gold.

#apple #context strategy #intention economy #import2 demo

Scott Forstall, John Browett To Leave Apple As Ive, Cue, Mansfield And Federighi Take On New Roles | TechCrunch

This is definitely the most significant shift in Apple’s make up since Tim Cook took over the CEO role, and even though Forstall leaving is the flashiest aspect, the redistribution of duties shows a very different approach to the way Apple thinks about its products and product lines internally than what we’ve seen the past. The unification of iOS and OS X under one umbrella is, I think, particularly telling, and might signal increasing unity across Apple’s desktop and mobile software.

via techcrunch.com

Competely agree. Good analysis in this last paragraph.

#import2 demo

App Engagement: The Matrix Reloaded

Regardless of a company’s earlier success, thriving in the new mobile app economy depends on engagement and retention. After acquiring users, the real battle to keep and ultimately monetize consumers begins. In the brave new world of “mobile first,” engagement is the new battleground.

via blog.flurry.com

Content has always been king; it's just that some in the app market are starting to realize it.

Whether it's a website or print publication or iOS app--the story is not whether you have a presence in that medium, but if that presence is compelling.

#app development #content strategy #import2 demo

Discovery in D

Accompaniment by Aly, two.

#import2 demo

One of the best Quora Threads of All Time

via quora.com

Happiness

#import2 demo

Innovation Is Not the Holy Grail | Stanford Social Innovation Review

Everyone talks about rock these days; the problem is they forget about the roll.—Keith Richards

via ssireview.org

This is a fantastic opening quote for a section entitled "Overrating the Value of Innovation." Having helped pioneer an innovation program at a digital agency over the past two years, we've been in a constant battle to balance the energetic ROCK of hacking away at cool ideas with sustainable ROLL of bottom-line benefit to the company's overall vision.

Another great read from SSIR.

#innovation

Rain ditty

KITO International | Dell Social Innovation Challenge

via dellchallenge.org

I'm a Board member for this awesome social enterprise and count Wiclif as a personal friend. Very honored to be a part of this video (narration) and the growth of the organization we hope it effects.

Does technology really improve writing skills? @techieang

I’ve had many parents say, “yeah, but I want them to be able to write and not be dependent on the technology.” The parents are viewing writing as physically printing words. Is that what writing is? Is that my students’ perception of writing? It certainly isn’t my view. I see writing as a way of communicating a message. I see text as anything that conveys a message. It could be sound, moving images, photographs, slogans, stories, poems, recounts, titles under artwork, posters, ads, cards, reports, graphics, music, songs and so on. I use my biweekly newsletters to help build my parents’ understanding of what we are ‘writing’ each week. So is writing merely putting pencil to paper? I think not.

via techieang.edublogs.org

Wonderfully articulated. Technology is not a new intelligence; it is a tool for deeply fundamental intelligence.

And it can be used for well or for ill.

#education #literacy #technology

Best Infographic of Ocean Depths and Proportions I've seen in a long time.

via xkcd.com

So cool.

The New LMS Product: You

Blackboard's market share has fallen substantially in recent years: "71 percent to 50.6 percent in the last five years." And sensing blood in the water perhaps (yes, another biology metaphor), a whole new pack of LMS startups -- many of which claim to be non-LMS LMSes -- have jumped into the game, building new software solutions that look and function more or less like Blackboard

via hackeducation.com

I don't often post on education, but when I do, I post Hack Education.

Great blog.

The insight here is noteworthy: The established gorillas are dropping almost as quickly as the old curmudgeon of the handset world, RIM. They aren't truly social, they don't have great user experience, and they aren't poised to move quickly into mobile. Meanwhile, the startup scene is exploding with educational goodness that looks less like stuffy edu-software and more like purpose-driven social networking initiatives.

It's a beautiful thing to behold, really.

#education #technology

A crowd of hands, not a crowd of voices

Jennifer Pahlka's recent TED talk represents a kindred voice to the ethos of HiDef (www.hidef.co). Let's not talk about changing the future; let's change the future. We can do it right now with the platforms we design and develop and strategies we use to engage people to use them. Here's the talk. Highly recommended:

Jennifer Pahlka: Coding a better government http://www.ted.com/talks/jennifer_pahlka_coding_a_better_government.html

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