Entrepreneur Watch

Google tries to make the world green

Don't you just hate it when people don't take your brilliant advice? I've been telling people for years that we need a new publication dedicated to covering technology entrepreneurs, but does anybody listen? Geez...

Larry Page hates it too. At the American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting last February, Page called for the scientists present to focus some of their creative energy on creating clean energy. Apparently, not enough of them have taken his advice.

So now he's dedicating some of Google's resources to the task. In his blog post he starts out by noting that "Clean and affordable energy is a growing need for our company."

Perhaps he's trying to justify why Google is getting into such an unrelated field with that opening. In a Fortune article a couple days ago, Brent Schlender already asked, "Is Google Spinning Out Of Control?"

And that opinion was based just on "two extraordinarily ambitious strategic gambits" -- OpenSocial, an attempt to create an open platform for social networks and Google's new cell phone initiative to create an open platform for phones. Imagine what Schlender thinks of this latest initiative.

Google, says Schlender, has no experience in creating platforms. Well, unless you consider things like  Google Maps a platform with all the mashups being created.

But he's right, these efforts do take Google well beyond its traditional expertise. These are attempts to do something good and useful for the world.

The key phrase in Page's blog is, "we're seeking to  accelerate the pace at which clean energy technologies are developing." Google is trying to be a catalyst for others to take up the challenge. It's the same with Google's attempts to push municipal wi-fi into the world. Many others have taken up that gauntlet, even as Google's experiment in San Francisco failed.

StreetInsider.com quotes Dr. Larry Brilliant, Executive Director of Google.org: "by funding research on promising technologies, investing in promising new companies, and doing a lot of R&D ourselves, we may help spark a green electricity revolution that will deliver breakthrough technologies priced lower than coal."

If Google can't pull these deals off, maybe it can inspire others to, perhaps even helping to fund them. Google put some money behind Meraki Networks, which is getting volunteers or entrepreneurs to share their own broadband networks with cheap wi-fi devices, even inspiring the founders to start the company in the first place.

Coincidentally, after the Google/Earthlink attempt to offer San Francisco a free wi-fi system went into apparently permanent limbo, Meraki offered to give away routers to SF residents to spread a little free wi-fi love there.

As an inspirational force, I say, more power to Google.

 

CNN coverage of Google vs. the iPhone

Blogs can influence the mainstream press.

CNN London saw my blog about the Google phone and set up an interview with me to discuss it.

You can see the video on CNN International here.

It's currently listed as the Video of the Week in the right hand column. The title is "Google takes on the iPhone."

Google's Android phone: Less than met the ear

Google made its anticipated announcement about a new Open System phone. People listened. What they heard was less than what they heard last week. The stock seems to be sliding a little in after-hours trading -- although not by much.

I had thought it would decline further. This was only an announcement of a new operating system for cell phones, not the unveiling of some fancy new gizmo like the iPhone. Handset makers include HTC, Samsung and Motorola.

But it's easier to get the handset makers on board -- they can cut costs with an Open and probably free OS -- than it is to get the mobile carriers to buy into this. As the Wall Street Journal predicted, Deutshe Telelkom's T-Mobile is a partner in Open Systems crime. So are Sprint Nextel and NTT DoCoMo.

Sprint and T-Mobile are desperate for something to distinguish themselves, and a wealth of new applications may help. Japanese carriers like NTT are more open to Open.

Absent are AT&T and Verizon, the biggest U.S. carriers. The Wall Street Journal brings up the legitimate issue of concern over rogue applications that may be security risks and steal info from us.  "Those issues partly explain why large U.S. operators like AT&T and Verizon ... have yet to sign on to Google's initiative."

Sure. I'll accept that. But I'll bet iPhones to land line handsets that the bigger reason is that they don't want to give up the ability to overcharge us for features.

Still, this will be a start -- in the second half of next year -- to wresting some control from the carriers. It will not only allow third party apps, it will operate on more than one carrier's cell network. That's got to put pressure on the Old Age carriers.

And perhaps when the handset makers reveal their phones there will be some nice surprises. We don't know yet if Google will release APIs for apps makers before the phones are released.

Also, analyst Jeff Van Rhee at Craig-Hallum, who follows Nuance Communications (maker of the Dragon voice recognition system) recently told me that there have been strong rumors that a Google-backed phone will include Nuance's software.

That could make QWERTY keyboards on phones obsolete. Just speak your email message or web search. That's a good app and one that Steve Jobs mysteriously passed on with the iPhone.

Now let's see if Google can pull it off. For everyone's sake, and the sake of real competition, I hope so.

Fun with Google phone rumors

My name is Richard and I'm a Google rumor junkie. I admit it. I can't get enough of them. I've tried taking up drinking as a diversion, but it just doesn't overcome that craving for the heady elixir of Google rumor mongering. (Just how does one monger, anyway?)

The Google phone rumors are as tasty as they come. The only thing we know for sure is that it's helping drive Google's stock into the stratosphere. Is this a revolution? Is it just over-enthusiastic hype for what will turn out to be a series of search and email applications?

Here's a sampling. You decide. Then tell me. Addicted minds want to know.

The latest photographic rumors include this photo of the alleged Google phone, courtesy of HT Lounge. The site says the device is made by HTC, and that "HTC is already planning to ship 50,000 Google Phone test units out to developers by the end of the year."

The Wall Street Journal, of course, started the rumors of a new, open cell phone platform. What's a platform? The Journal says it's cell phone software that's "'open' right down to the operating system."

Then it tantalized us with a free sample rumor that Google is "in advanced talks with two top U.S. cellphone operators, Verizon Wireless and Sprint Nextel Corp., about selling handsets tailored to its new mobile-phone operating system, people familiar with the matter said."

Like most dealers, the Journal refuses to give us any more unless we pay up. Subscription? Didn't Dr. Murdoch say it was going to be free?

So we turn to other sources. Bloomberg steps up with its own sources who say "Google is in talks with Verizon and Sprint Nextel about developing mobile-phone software and services."

Software and services? What does that mean? Google Maps and Search? Bloomberg says that "Verizon Wireless spokesman Jim Gerace confirmed the companies have talked." But he won't say what they talked about. Give me more!

OK, it still looks like an OS. "An operating system would give Google another way to profit from sales of mobile phones, which outsold personal computers by more than 4-to-1 last year, according to Gartner," says Bloomberg.

But wait, there's less! PC World says that "Pundits are predicting possibilities ... from a specific phone running a new Google operating system to a suite of applications that work on a wide range of phones."

Damn. No OS. In fact, PCW quotes Ken Dulaney at Gartner saying "Building an OS is the dumbest thing [Google] could do." It doesn't have the experience.

Without an open OS, no universal apps from third parties running on all phones.

Reuters also disappoints with sources that say these talks are Google apps, not an OS. "Verizon Wireless is in active talks about putting Google applications on phones it offers, people familiar with the matter told Reuters."

So are we talking about a Google phone running on just a few cellular networks, with Verizon just taking some Google apps and trying to keep control over its handsets? Could be. 

And CNN/Money speculates that the speculation of a Verizon deal is nothing more than speculation. ”A person close to Verizon says no deal with Google is imminent. Verizon isn't commenting.”

If so, Verizon might find that missing out on the iPhone and the Google phone starts to hurt business, and eventually caves in. God willing.

Red Herring takes that Trojan Horse view, quoting an anonymous analyst. “The search king, the analyst said, has a short-term goal to make concessions to the carriers and gets its products into the market, and it has a long-term goal to pursue spectrum and invest in an open network.” That’s the 700 MHz spectrum that Google is supposed to bid on. 

On ZDNet, Eric Everson, founder of MyMobiSafe.com puts a real buzz kill on the whole idea of an open cell phone platform by noting: “While many of the emerging third-party developments will be pure and safe in nature, the poor state of security throughout the mobile industry will literally put millions at risk.” 

I’ve got to admit, he’s right. What happens when we start buying things through our cell phones? Maybe Google has some new built-in security system. I haven’t found any rumors to that effect. 

Well, let’s keep our hopes up. 

Here’s my speculation: 

However it happens, maybe a new (Linux-based?) OS will emerge and allow apps developers to go cross-platform. 

Google-branded hardware built by third parties is not likely to match the slick design of the iPhone, but it may give us cheaper services and more apps. We’ll all be happy until hackers start breaking in. I don’t know what Google will do about security.

People will be disappointed over what Verizon announces. It’s going to resist this trend as much as possible. It will start off by adopting some of the Google apps, and maybe jump further in later. 

Google will get some smaller carriers to buy in to its platform, which means an OS. Independent apps will catch on. Google will start wrenching cell carriers’ control from them, but it may take years. They’ll fight it by whining to the FCC first. 

Remember, you heard it here first. Unless I’m wrong. Then you didn’t hear a thing.