The Google's Dilemma - Part 1

Google - the ultimate company to work for is no more so. There was a time when it was a matter of surprise if we heard anyone is leaving the company. Surprise because there wasn't any specific better place to go, the lack of alternatives they say. Yahoos , eBays and Amazons of the world were just not enough. The Google guys challenged AltaVista, the search engine before Google; they were the ones who brought simplicity of user experience to us; they were the ones who ruled the world; but not now.

The world they are trying to conquer has changed a lot since they engineered their search engine and their array of products. The user behavior has shifted from searching to engaging. The same and the new sets of users now want to stick to the web pages(read social sites). This is what lies against the Google's philosophy of using only and only data to define its strategies and future. They need to find out how best they can keep the web users stick to their page rather than just helping them out to find the information they want and allow them to shift gears to the other pages. Until the social web revolution , it was okay to send the users to other pages as many of these pages did displayed the google ads from Adwords and there was no strong rival , no strong alternative in web advertising. But the whole paradigm of online advertising is shifting. People now go to pages which are being 'liked' and 'recommended' by their (web) social friends. And this social race is the one which Google is fast loosing out.

There are other aspects too. Like , i want to purchase an Android phone but deep inside i know i need to compromise on the smooth touchscreen experience of Apple iOS. And that is why we are seeing the manufacturers like Samsung and HTC putting their own layer of user experience over Android. And the response which Google TV got from the critics has clearly forced them to postpone on the commercial roll-outs. It lost on simplicity (yes, Google forgot its own mantra) , no apps (you are no Apple who released the first iPhone without the apps either at a time when apps weren't craze as they are now) in current era is a big no-no and again it lacks social flavor(people like to watch what their friends recommend, engage through YouTube here, its all yours dear).

to be continued...

Groupon Business Model

Groupon started as a Wordpress Blog and is now a full fledged jewel in the Social Shopping arena. It is one the recent example of Lean startups which uses Customer Development process having more frequent contacts with end users and hence avoiding incorrect market needs and assumptions at the earliest.Such startups minimizes the work and time required to help the business to find the what attracts the market. Its always better to test the market first before scaling your product offering and that is what Groupon did.

Google in its bid to catch up with the lost social web space had reportedly bid for the Groupon acquisition offering it around $6 Billion at the start of this month but the offer got rejected. Groupon has now gone for a fresh round of funding which have valued it around $4.75 Billion currently.

With social media on rise , online collective action and fundraising activities is picking up the pace. Groupon bargains for huge discounts with businesses in local cities by guaranteeing them a certain minimum number of takers and send the deals to its subscribers. If the required number of takers are achieved then everyone gets the deal otherwise none gets it. Its a quick win for all - Groupon gives the businesses large number of customers in quick time and users pass the deal to many others enabling them to reach the minimum guarantee numbers. The best part is that the overall process is very fair and democratic. If the numbers are not reached then Groupon don't charge any penny from anyone. And even after the purchase , if the customer feels that he/she has been let down by the offer, a refund is done without any questions being asked. And they were smart to go local rather than offering national products such as a software or TV as Amazons, Tescos and Walmarts of the world are already providing deals on such items and they have ample muscle power to drive volume-based discounts. And you cannot see the deals rightaway on landing their page. The first thing which they do is to get people sign-up and subscribe to their mailing list for the daily deals. The current count is about 10 million subscribers and this small pie of the social media space has made the company almost touch the billion dollar sales.The game seems to have just begun.

There are pitfalls too. Firstly , there is an uncertainty on the actual number of people turning up for the deal, so if the number exceeds to what the respective business can cater to then it impacts the overall delivery and service. Secondly, the shoppers fall into the deal trap, thereby at times buying stuffs which they normally wont do and wont use. Third problem is that the overall model can be easily imitated. Amazon has been already funding the current biggest competitor of the Groupon - 'Living Social' and will surely acquire(to integrate with itself) it once the things scale up for good. In fact , the model is so simple that Groupon.com domain name was already bought by one individual based in UK for same objectives/plans and he twice denied the sale offer from the Groupon founders who finally got the trademark for Groupon which extended to UK as well and hence were able to buy the domain in third attempt for around $250,000.

By the way , will you call the model as a click and mortar one?

Wikileaks vs Bank of America

Any bet on who between the two will win the battle? Bank of America it seems has set up a 'war room' to counter the allegations and leaks which Julian Assange's Wikileaks is supposedly coming out with during early 2011. But will Julian wait till the new year to begin? Now when he has got the bail and the hurried manner in which the bank joined the likes of Visa, MasterCard and Paypal in stopping donor payments to WikiLeaks account, that seems to be highly unlikely especially after the "place your funds somewhere safer" instruction by WikiLeaks to the banks account holder in an albeit concealed manner.

At the moment, for example, we are sitting on 5GB from Bank of America, one of the executive's hard drives 

Julian Assange said it way back in October 2009 here and no doubt the bank is aware of it but still could not come up with any terms with them. Right now , they might be thinking to remain in the legal side of the wall in the shadow of US government which is eyeing to bring WikiLeaks down.But whatever the case may be,  wherever WikiLeaks go , once they release the secret info,  it in actual might lead to eruption of another series of crisis for the bank(s).Even then the bank is getting ready for this war rather than trying to avoid it. Once the WikiLeaks will expose your wrongdoing , will the same US government will spare you from getting into the investigations and trials. Will the US public , the taxpayers will spare you again this time also?

Bank of America seems to be taking the services of MarkMonitor which specialises in enterprise brand protection solutions including Domain Management (yes, they seem to be seamlessly buying-up domain names that includes the bank's top management executives along with words like 'sucks' and 'blows' which clearly outlines the panic amongst the banks' thinkthank) and Online Trademark Protection, an enterprise-class solution that identifies and responds to brand defamation, false associations, and unauthorized brand usage. MarkMonitors clientele includes names like Facebook and Google but the dangers to these IT clients includes more of phising and spam protections. Only time will prove how much of the fire fighting by the Bank will save them from getting into this leak mess.

Another food for thought is whether WikiLeaks really not making a world which is more transparent place to live where people are more accountable in their actions , words and thought process. The whole financial industry gets its bread and butter from what we call as information asymetry and it is this information asymmetry which time and again put the complete industry and economies of the world into trouble. Wikileaks is trying to get rid of some information asymmetry , hope its the same as those which bring the world into trouble.

Blogger vs Wordpress vs Tumblr

Okay ! This is not the first blog i have created but of course its been created with lots of pondering around. The reason being i had specific needs this time while i wanted all my previous blogs to be out of the audience i seek to for this particular blog. I wanted one particular name for the blog which already was owned by me in blogger but there were hell lot of posts in it which does not become part of the scheme of things i intend to do for the new one. And i didn't want to lose the old posts also, so i thought lets explore the same name on other blogging platforms.Hence started the quest:

I was aware of the next best alternative - Wordpress.com and had pretty good hands-on on what can be done and what cant be done on it. Its good , in fact very good and suffice for a normal blogging experience. The two setbacks which i can see are no way to monetize (Yes , the Google Adsense still rules) and non-support for Java Scripts and Google Analytics' code. The last part was a big deterrent because i intend to play around a lot with Google Analytics part. I then googled to find out the next alternative blogging platform. Typepad came up but got turned down as we need to pay for it except during the trial. Tumblr caught the eyes because of the wide range of templates , its sheer simplicity and ability to integrate with Google Analytics. But but but no widgets or the gadgets. So i landed up again with blogger account; didnt delete the old one with the name i wanted and finally chose The Social Canvas which went on well with the template which i could discover after lots of screening.

The learning is raw, intuitive reflection and judgment based on my own unique experience and point of view. The basic objective was to set up a blog from a long term perspective which would focus on social web and technologies in particular and can cover a much wider audience than those following my personal posts earlier while also giving me a lot of open options like ample templates to choose from , Google Analytics and Monetization. Of course i can invest time but not money so there is no question of having one of my own domain but yeah in the future the option should be open to link the current free blog with my own domain(its easy).

A Quick Summary :