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Verizon Wireless to open up in ’08

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Today Verizon Wireless announced a new open development initiative aimed at accelerating innovation and growth in the wireless market.

Verizon Wireless today announced that it will provide customers the option to use, on its nationwide wireless network, wireless devices, software and applications not offered by the company. Verizon Wireless plans to have this new choice available to customers throughout the country by the end of 2008.

Obviously, Verizon Wireless is feeling some pressure from the imminent arrival of Google in the wireless arena. This is a great decision by Verizon Wireless, because the decision makers at VZW had the foresight to see that fighting Google (and any potential partners) would be a losing proposition. In the long run they would simply lose subscribers looking for more device options and innovative mobile software and applications.

By giving their customers the choice of “bring-your-own” device service, Verizon Wireless is offering the best of both worlds. Customers bringing their own devices can enjoy the coverage and reliability of Verizon Wireless’s network, while also being able to pick and choose what software and applications they want to use. This option also offers a lot of flexibility and adaptability for business customers and mobile web users. These customers will be able to install and use the specific mobile applications they need to transact business and carry out other online activities that couldn’t be performed on a mobile device before. These innovative mobile web applications will initially be developed through the Android Open Handset Alliance.

The only question I have is “I wonder how long it would have taken Verizon to open up like this if Google had not made the move into the wireless market?” 😉

An introduction to search snippets

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Google’s Matt Cutts uploaded the following video to his blog last night. In the video, Matt discusses the anatomy of a Google search result. In particular he discusses the search snippet and the many different ways that Google’s algorithm “generates” this snippet.

As you can see, the search snippet is a valuable indicator of relevancy for a searcher. It basically tells the searcher a little bit about what content is on the page in relation to their search query. As Matt mentioned, Google will sometimes generate this snippet using your page’s meta description tag or Google can pull some text from one or more areas of the page. By optimizing its meta description tags and the content on its pages, a franchise company can increase search engine traffic to its website. Including information such as an individual location’s physical address, areas served, etc. in that page’s meta description tag and body text, a searcher is much more likely to see relevant information in the snippet. Then (hopefully) they will visit your site.

Thanks to Matt for making this video.

Attn: Flickrphiles, Google Mappers, and Web Gurus – Microsoft Photosynth Offers a Peek at What’s Next

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A picture is worth a thousand words. How about all of the pictures ever taken of one place?

Microsoft Photosynth is a new and incredibly interesting software technology developed in collaboration with the University of Washington, Microsoft Research, and Seadragon. Photosynth represents a serious evolution in spacial representation technology. The software creates 3D environments out of pictures for easy visualization and manipulation by users. Photosynth organizes images automatically by determining the physical location of where images were captured and what the subject matter of the image is. Like puzzle pieces, individual images are put together to create a complete picture or in this case, 3D world. As Photosynth gets more images to build with the environment will “grow in complexity”. It creates the composite environment using nothing more than a set of images files. New photos are assimilated into an environment with “no hand intervention” and “no tagging” by the user.

Blaise Aguera y Arcas is one of the main developers of the technology. Watch this excellent overview by him:

Internet Mapping and Photography – Convergence of Ideas

Technologies like Google Maps and Google Earth fundamentally changed the way people use geospatial information in everyday life. Humanity is no longer limited by static maps. Everybody is a cartographer of sorts now. Users can easily redefine borders, content, and even overlay driving directions on their custom maps. The mapping technologies we take for granted today are made possible by satellite imagery. It would be hard to argue they don’t offer a “global perspective” of things. They have actually replaced globes for such a perspective.

Photo sharing websites like Flickr, Picasa, and Shutterfly are made possible by the recent revolution in photography. The proliferation of digital cameras, high-speed internet, and storage space enables anybody to be a photographer today. If you think about it, a site like Flickr is one giant collective photo album / gallery. Flickr is a photography lover’s dream. The photos are divided and sub-divided into groups through user-generated keyword tags, geographic locations, sets, and groups etc. Flikr and sites like it are capable of almost infinite categorization. They create a dynamic archive of our world shaped by the collective photographic record of humanity. Ok, stretching too far? Spend some time on the photo sharing sites and think about the family album you grew up with. Ask a 16 year old what a negative is.

Photosynth

The “point cloud” 3D models Photosynth generates are very cool in their own right but of course there are other interesting image display applications already: 360 degree “panoramic” images, “virtual tours”, Google Street View, and the previously mentioned mapping tools. Photo sharing sites/applications have improved dramatically in recent years. Photosynth does not replace photo sharing. It builds on the ideas of web mapping and photo tools to create something very new.

How is it new and different?

The social aspect of Photosynth is what makes it so exciting and such a radically different application. Satellite imagery is scarce so maps are not timely. Other imagery tools need setup by the user. Photosynth has near unlimited data to create a visual representation of something. Its data set could include the millions and billions of individual images on the web. 3D models are created automatically without user input. Photo sharing sites rely on users to tag photos with relevant keyword information so they can be organized and categorized. Photosynth analyzes the image itself to determine what it is in relation to others in a set. Using their incredible image collections Photosynth allows social networking users to “make something emergent that’s greater than the sum of its parts”.

What are the applications for this type of technology?

Use your imagination. A photo set of a given location is the only requirement. The demo only has a handful of locations but they are thoroughly enjoyable to travel through. Right now Photosynth is in pre-beta development but you can try it by visiting the Microsoft Labs site and downloading a plug-in. Microsoft acquired Seadragon in early 2006 and the Photsynth project is currently being developed by the Microsoft Labs group. While you shouldn’t expect to build your virtual closet anytime soon, the folks at Photosynth say they are working hard to bring this technology to market.

Googles Android

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I’m sure most of you have all read about Android from at least a dozen other places. For those who haven’t, Android is an open source software stack for mobile devices that includes an operating system, middleware and key applications. Anybody can download the development kit from Google and design mobile applications on the Android platform. To attract some of the best and brightest developers, Google has launched the Android Developer Challenge.

The Android Developer Challenge will provide $10 million in awards for great mobile applications built on the Android platform. The Challenge will be broken down into two phases. During Challenge One, developers must submit their applications to Google between January 2 and March 3, 2008. The 50 most promising entries will each receive a $25,000 award to fund further development. The 50 developers will then be eligible for even greater recognition through ten $275,000 awards and ten $100,000 awards. The second part of the Challenge will launch after the first handsets built on the platform become available in the second half of 2008. Google doesn’t go into specifics about what Challenge Two will entail.

The primary aim of the challenge is to encourage the development of innovative and useful applications that promote a better mobile experience. These mobile applications will become excellent tools for franchises and small businesses to attract potential customers. Applications that focus on local search and location based services can heighten a small business’s visibility for a certain geographic area. For example, a business traveler could use this application to find dry cleaning companies close to his or her hotel, see what services they offer, their business hours, and read reviews from previous customers. Another example could be a bar using a location based service application to display an ad about their after work drink specials. The bar could have the application ad only display on mobile phones within a two mile radius of their physical address, thereby highly focusing the ad to their target.

The possibilities are truly endless with Google’s Android platform. It will be very interesting to see what applications come about in the next two years and how these applications will benefit local businesses. If you’re a small business or franchise owner, keep an eye out for continuing developments with the Android platform.