Microsoft Should Worried About Firefox 3 !!!

I was going through techCrunch blog and I found this article interesting Mozilla Discusses Firefox 3 and Microsoft’s Public Embrace of Open Standards?

In the history of internet browser, Netscape came out first and then Microsoft but Microsoft figured it out to do same thing what Netscape have done. Microsoft even came out with better browser and cheaper. Having a browser of its own meant nothing without marketing, though. Microsoft‘s first move was to make Explorer freely available to anyone, unlike Netscape, which still charged a modest sum for the use of its browser. Then came Firefox which is a free, fast open-source, multi-platform, extensible Web browser developed by the Mozilla Foundation. It has excellent support for Web standards, using the Gecko rendering (or layout) engine.

Now Firefox and Internet Explorer are the two main competitor. Firefox 2.0 and Internet Explorer 7 begin their battle for the hearts and minds of the Web browsing public. There is like nose-to-nose competition and neither is going to give an inch while there are a few other contenders went out fromthe competition. Check this out for Browser Wars: The Saga Continues.

Nowadays, most of the PC users are Internet Explorer base but Firefox also getting popular day by day. There is a big number of fan of Firefox, around 160 million people who now use the Firefox. That’s big number of people and Microsoft must have noticed that. Most interestingly, it is relatively small company compare to Microsoft where 150 people puts out more elegant web browser than Microsoft. For instance, there’s still no IE support of next-generation Java script.

This figure illustrates that that Firefox users are more likely to be better-educated or are seeking to be better educated. Specifically, a far greater proportion of Firefox users than Internet Explorer users visited sites in the education category (78 percent vs. 56 percent), sites that sell books (60 percent vs. 34 percent), as well as sites in the directories/resources (reference) category (70 percent vs. 46 percent).

Recently CEO of Firefox John Lilly invited a group of bloggers to company’s Mountain view. Firefox 3, which has been in development for three years
and has been slated for release in the first half of this year in June or sooner. Firefox also working on Firefox Beta 4 and Beta 5. Firefox 3 is meant to carry forward the motto of keeping the internet “open and participatory”. It will support 50 languages, unlike IE7, which was released with support for only one. About 50% of the extensions developed for Firefox currently work with Firefox 3, with further compatibility expected to accelerate in May.

In addition, Firefox included more security such as new anti-malware techniques which will prevent users from visitors sites that might infect their computers with malicious programs. That’s why I think Firefox has come out of nowhere and taken 17 to 28 percent of market share and increasing day by day. Based on that analysis I think Microsoft should worried about Firefox 3. What you guys think?

–Romiz

Funny Gates versus Jobs Video

Facebook’s New Privacy Control Policy!!!

Social Network Facebook is now even more serious on user’s privacy matter. Most importantly is their latest privacy control where Facebook users now able to control their profile whatever they want to visible to their friend list.

Last Wednesday, Facebook has released different types of privacy controls for their users and received significant amount of positive responds. Now users can create their profile in such a way where friends can view specific details in their own profile by using new privacy settings. On the other hand, users can keep their specific information by locking profile to their friends, friends of friends, or even particular individuals.

Matt Cohler, vice president for product management at Facebook, said it was seeking to evolve beyond the simple privacy controls originally aimed at relatively homogenous groups of college-age users. He also said,

“We have a lot more users, a lot more types of users, a lot more relationships; we have a lot more types of relationships”

However, the use of Facebook is growing very rapidly over the past year and a half. Two-thirds of its users are outside the United States, compared with about 10 percent 18 months ago, when most members were student age and in the United States. Facebook users now can select other types of strangers to view their profile. Facebook has designed privacy controls for college/university students where a university graduate student can create their profile just for other graduate students which just allow graduate students to view or access their profiles, along with staff and professors are not able to view their profiles.

But given the previous example, I was just wondering will it be work perfectly if a professor log in Facebook , and change his or her own status to an undergrad student. Suppose if someone change his/her status at university from professor/alumni to a graduate student. I think Facebook system will not restrict it to do this because Facebook does not have any verifying tools for that.

Finally, there is no doubt that it is a security flaw in Facebook’s according to the new privacy control policies. So I think it is not enough yet and too much to fix up in privacy matter. Especially, Facebook must focus on status control system. They should work on it to verified user’s status otherwise a graduate student will easily become a professor or a professor easily can change their status to a grad student.

–Romiz

Peer-to-Peer (P2P) Student Loans!!!

I was reading TechCrunch and I came with this article “Fynanz: How Student Spell Peer-to-peer Loans”. What is a student peer to peer loan? Student Peer to Peer loan (peer to peer lending) is a way to borrow and lend money using the internet as the marketplace between person to person. The idea is similar to ebay for loans. Check this out for more about on peer to peer loan.

The peer to peer (p2p) lending continues getting better day by day in the world. Fynanz is launched on last Monday and it is the latest among of them which is devoted solely to P2P student loans. Fynanz is an innovative marketplace and its offers student loans with the lowest interest rate on private student loans. Most of the lenders are individual such as family, friends, alumni and others who believe that “Education is the Best Investment”.

CEO of Fynanz Chirag Chaman (former banker) initially has invested $500,000 and said that:

“We looked at 15 years worth of data to create an underwriting model specific to student loans. We now what are the factors that reduce default rates. I was doing structured loans at Citibank.

You can think of it as securitization for the masses, but I am removing investment banks from the process.”

How does it work?

 

• First of all, students have to sign in.
• State the details of their loan (how much they need, desired interest rate, desired payment term, etc)
• Fynanz then rates each potential borrower based on credit history and information gleaned from historical student loan records.

Right now it is only available for resident of Florida and New York. But that will expand to the entire country later this year and anyone can become a lender. Check this out for more about on Fynanz “an interviewed of Fynance CEO, Chirag Chaman about Fynanz”.

I think student p2p lending is a very good idea which will give the opportunity to the middle-class students to fund themselves to study in a private university even in an expensive university. This idea may come out as a solution to the ever increasing number of the successful students. Then the student may be able to stop depending on government student loan. Other advantages could be avoid banks and other middleman, anonymous transaction, a whole new asset class, optional rates and loan amount, lower interest rates for borrowers, higher returns for lenders, faster and easier process, increased transparency and control, and satisfaction.

On the other hand, peoples want to supports students but they always worried about will student be able to repay to them. People scared to lend their hard-earned money because of huge risk involvement. Interest rate could be another issue for the businesses like Fynanz, Prosper, Zopa, Kiva, Lending Club, Loanio . Because of now interest rate on student loans is tend to be very low which will give them tough time to attract students. Also for traditional student loans borrowers have the option to defer payments. But many investors don’t allow delaying payments or they might charge high interest rate.

–Romiz

 

Promote a Product by Giving It Away (from wired.com)

Three digital business models are that could change the online world of advertising. A three digital scheme is essentially free to do whatever it wants. It can charge prices to one side and the other side in whichever proportion, whichever ratio it estimates fit. Three possibility digital models are Advertiser-Supported Advertising, Advertiser-Subsidized Devices, and Just-in-Time Advertising. I think these three digital business models will take hold over the next four to five years.

I like the idea of Advertiser-Supported Advertising. If we look at online industry, it’s been already existed. Most of the companies are increasingly launching their own content platforms. For an example Budweiser, they have launched BudTV. I think till now the most effective Advertise-supported advertising is Google’s “Ad by Google”.

In addition, is consumer loves advertising? MSN ad shows the relationship between the advertiser and the consumer:

This ad is very nicely done all around with a solid script and casting. This video not only just talked about advertising executives but also shows wider audiences of marketing manager. I think in this video shows on three thing such as support, complain, and to offer suggestion or express thankfulness. At the end, it is an indication that consumers are becoming more demanding.

Customers are very intense in competitive business environment. A customer has always options to switch to competitors that offer lower prices or better offers to gain market share. Check this article details on how to attract and keep customer: IBM New Digital Media Solutions Answer Challenge to Attract Customers, Increase Sales. I think every business have to be creative (i.e, R&D department) and come out something new and attractive to keep customer. So to survive such in competitive environment, a company has to come out with a tangible difference to its customers. Now days most of the organizations are accomplish their goal by introducing information and software technology (STR) at the center of their creative process.

Finally, is “free” a business model or a tactic? Josh Kopelman of Redeye VC notes the penny gap. Fred Wilson has written on In Defense of Free in 2005: “free is a great way to make money. You just have to know how you are going to get paid for being free.” The fundamental idea of every business has always remained same: create something of value for people who will pay for it. So there is nothing free it’s just a business tactic. Free business model depend on additional services beyond the core offering. If we look at the Last.fm, it’s actually encouraging for paid subscribers with better internet radio. Same idea goes with Skype where internet calls are free but you have to pay for landline connection. Now the best way to generate money is Web 2.0 economy.

So, after the internet evolution, do you think “free” is still a business model?

–Romiz

Google Offers Google Map on Cell Phones

Google map + Cell phone photos + Dumpster diving = Awesome

Last night I was reading TeachCrunch blog and I found this article interesting Google Gears Goes Mobile. This article has talked about Google’s various tools and techniques, but I feel interested about Google Map in handsets and I decided to bring it here.

Recently Google has introduced version 2.0 (v2.0) of Google Maps for cell phones. This mobile mapping and local search is a beta version of Google “My Locations”. It is a device with GPS built and a new feature which uses data from cell phone towards to provide an approximation of your location on a Goolge Map. But it does not work for every cell phone unfortunately.

Which phones does Google Maps support?

Google Maps works with the following devices:

• Most Java-enabled (J2ME) mobile phones.
• Palm devices with Palm OS 5 and above.
• All color BlackBerry devices.
• Windows Mobile devices with Windows Mobile 2003, 5.0 and above.
• Symbian Series 60 3rd edition devices.
• Some recent Motorola devices
• Some recent Sony Ericsson devices

Visit here for How do you start using Google Maps once I’ve installed it onto my phone?

Another one: Take the power of Google Maps with you on your mobile phone.

Is it free?

Google is providing free of cost for Maps for cell phones. It is free of cost if you have Windows Mobile and then just visit the site and download the CAB file. But you have to pay the costs of contract net. So to make sure you have to contact with cell phone provider about your plan and monthly fees.

Does Goolge Map work everywhere?

Currently Goolge Map for cell phones is available for just over 20 countries. They are still working on to spread it all over the world.

I think it is really cool and easy to install. It is a great innovation from Google and so much better than map search function anyone have it before. In overall, Goolge Map for mobile is a pretty efficient program, it’s free and very simple to use/settings and there is no reason you should not have it on your phone.

Mac Or Pc

Love your worst possible customer!!!

I was reading Jeff Jarvis blog and came across with this article “lover your customer”. Customers are the livelihood of every business. Every business must have to spend a significant amount of time and effort maintaining customer satisfaction. Surveys suggest that service-driven companies are able to charge up to 9% more for the goods and services they offer and grow twice as fast as the average. These are powerful incentives for becoming the best customer-service company in any industry.

A customer doesn’t care about you they just want to get best product and services because of they are paying for it. The only thing that customers know is that when you walk through their door, they want to be taken care of. So if you don’t take care of that customer, even though he/she isn’t buying anything from you, he/she will never get to the point of being a major customer. You have to treat everyone equally. So your objective must be to provide the highest standard of Customer Care possible for both good and worst customer.

Jeff Jarvis had a column in Business Week’s customer-service issue arguing that customers who complain about you are doing you a great favor.

Here’s some free advice: Go to Google, enter any of your company’s brands followed by the word “sucks,” and you will see the true consumers’ reports. Brace yourself, for it won’t be pretty. Wal-Mart’s unofficial Google Sucks Index turns up 165,000 results; Disney 530,000; Google 767,000. What’s yours?

There are many reason customer can leave you such as:

• They felt your pricing was too high or unfair.
• They had an unresolved complaint.
• They took a competitors offer.
• Most importantly they left because they felt you didn’t care.

So, the bottom line is that one of the key components in marketing and business growth is to spend the majority of your time and effort development customer relationships, so that you can increase your business from existing customers. This is a strategy that will move you forward in increasing your sales and business.

–Romiz

 

Mashup: Good or Bad?

I found this article interesting when I was reading my feeds; it is posted on the Fred Wilson blog. What is mahsup? Mashup is originally referred to the practice in pop music particularly in hip-hop of producing a new song by mixing two or more existing song.

To create mashup song at first artist has to come up with idea (idea creation). Then simply choose two favorite track which are you want to mashup. Once you got the idea start cutting the selected song. And then start mixing selected song together to create a whole new track (obvious it is not that easy).

Check this site for how to create mashup- Guidelines.

The reason for mashup increasing rapidly is the growing blog culture of the internet and cheap remixing tools are making it easier than ever for djs to create mashups and share them with the world. Mashup is the product of internet where people easily able to create and upload it. But bloggers might be afraid of it according to copyright issues.

Lwarance lessig said that according to copyright law mashups are illegal, and increasingly, as record levels learn about mashup artists they are doing what their lawyers say that they have to do, which is to stop it and shut it down. The people producing mashup are furious. Mashups themselves no longer promote the work of the artist. Yet the existing regime of copyright says that that is absolutely obvious, that this is what you should do, and the claim of ‘they have a right to do this’ turns out to be very, very weak.

Every creative thing has a good side, and has a bad side. I think mashup is a creative idea where every artist has to spend huge amount of time to produce an attractive music or music video. Some of them are come out nicely done and some of them are really lethargic to watch or listen. But if someone really put on that good effort then sometime it is really nice to watch even actual artist would love to watch this. But the original artist and the true lover of the song might not like it unless they have control over it.

—Romiz

Yahoo said that Rhapsody will handle its digital music

I was reading TechCrunch and found this article interesting “Yahoo to Shut Premium Music Service, Redirect Users to Rhapsody”. At first Yahoo was thinking to shut its premium music service back in September 2007. They were planned to shift Yahoo Music Unlimited to the Rhapsody service. It would transfer customers to Rhapsody over the coming months, while allowing subscribers to access their music library from a new Rhapsody account. Yahoo Music Unlimited plans came in at between $5.99/ month and $8.99 /month, compared to Rhapsody’s $12.99/ month charge.

Recently they have said on Monday that Yahoo music service will be now handled by Rhapsody America, an on demand subscription service run by RealNetworks Inc and Viacom Inc. “This really works to make Rhapsody much more available to a much wider audience,” said Sheeran, a senior vice president at RealNetworks

The acquisition was acquired after announced Microsoft Corp made a $44.6 billion bid on Friday to take over Yahoo. As a result it raises a question that… whether RealNetworks and Yahoo will be able to execute their new partnership if Microsoft succeeds in buying Yahoo. The reason is relationship between Microsoft and RealNetwroks were locked in a bitter and stretched anti-trust difference of opinion for eight years until Microsoft agreed to settle with RealNetworks for $761 million in October 2005. Also RealNetworks founder and chief executive Rob Glaser, is a previous Microsoft executive. Furthermore, Microsoft already has developed huge choices of digital music products and services, which include an online music store and its Zune digital media players.

Yahoo will now focus on ad-supported streaming music and music videos. RealNetworks and Verizon Communization planned to create a digital music service called Rhapsody America, which would be able to compete with Apple Inc’s successful iTunes Online Store.

—Romiz