Destination Web Sites: Beware of iGoogle Gadgets, Alternative = Netvibes.com Modules

Google is an advertising firm, not a technology company. At this point, all of Google’s technology is subsidized VIA advertising revenue. They state this in their Annual Report (99% of revenue in 2005 was ad revenue) as a risk. Anyone who argues this point doesn’t understand the nature of business.

Google has announced Google Gadget Ventures, a Google pilot program dedicated to helping developers create richer, more useful Google Gadgets. But the catch is they are shelling out cash to developers who want to make their iGoogle site better. It actually makes a lot of sense: pay developers to enhance the functionality of their site. Enhance the functionality of your site, increase user value.

My major tech problem with Google Gadgets is simple: there are plenty of other Gadget platforms out there. Rather than building on the strengths of these competitive platforms and embracing their inherit “open nature”, Google decided to build their own and clutter an already mature technology vertical by bribing developers in order to promote their web properties. This quam takes a back seat to my real world problem with this Google bribe.

I’m a NetVibes.com user and will never use iGoogle ever. And if you see me building an iGoogle gadget it will be because someone is paying me to do so. Did you know you can build a NetVibes.com module and it’s basically the same as an iGoogle gadget? On top of that if you use NetVibes.com as your news reader, Google will not be stashing all your secret reading habits to later apply in pushing more tailored advertisements to you!

Alexa gives NetVibes.com a traffic ranking of 801 of all sites they rank. In comparison iGoogle, is ranked 1,261,393. So it is no shock they are literally paying developers to get them more traffic. They need it to build up their ad revenue as the information you consume does indicate the information you will consume.

Once again Google is trying to create a community effect – similar to Google 3D warehouse where they managed to have users contribute millions of 3D models to their repository. But in the 3D world, they didn’t pay people to provide these contributions – is this because they didn’t know how to monetize the 3D stuff on any large scale? Who knows.

Anyway, this venture is a significant step for Google as they realize that the number of available iGoogle gadgets will directly relate to the popularity of their iGoogle site and greatly enhance the granularity of data they can collect on you VIA the information you consume through their portal. They are trying to become a destination site, and no doubt will be knocking on your ISP’s door to be the default.

They are not doing this to get closer to any desktop – they are doing it to get closer to your pocket book VIA tailored advertising.

This is a direct response to a threat identified in the Google annual report:

“We also compete with destination web sites that seek to increase their search-related traffic. These destination web sites may include those operated by Internet access providers, such as cable and DSL service providers .…. If an access provider or a computer or computing device manufacturer offers online services that compete with ours, the user may find it more convenient to use the services of the access provider or manufacturer. In addition, the access provider or manufacturer may make it hard to access our services by not listing them in the access provider’s or manufacturer’s own menu of offerings, or may charge users to access our websites or the websites of our Google Network members. Also, because the access provider gathers information from the user in connection with the establishment of a billing relationship, the access provider may be more effective than we are in tailoring services and advertisements to the specific tastes of the user.”

iGoogle is bad.

Over and Out

Top Web Apps in Canada

This is a very blatant repost of a ReadWriteWeb article which may be found here.

By Heri Rakotomalala of Montreal Tech Watch

Canadians use the Internet more than anyone in the world. According to comScore, Canadians spend on average 39.6 hours per month on the Internet, followed by Israel at 37.4 and South Korea at 34, while the USA is in 8th position with 29.4. Canada also leads in online reach with 70% of households having Internet access. The average pages viewed per visitor is 3800 in Canada, while the U.K. is second at 3300. And at 67%, Canada has one of the highest broadband penetrations in the world, 21 points higher than the US. Finally, while Canada still lags in online advertising, with $28.05 per Internet user and the US with $71.43, ad spending is expected to grow 32% this year (Ernst&Young LLP). So Canada is a sophisticated, and growing, market for Web apps.

As in any other country, Canadians heavily use Google, Yahoo and other global services like ebay and craiglist; each of which has their own english and french canadian localized versions. In social networking, Facebook is the star app of the moment. For instance, Toronto has more than 650.000 facebook users, more than the combined facebook users in New York, Boston and Los Angeles.

Top Web Apps

Canada has a lot of startups that are reaching the global market...

Shopify is a simple, affordable and stylish service that lets you create your own online store. It is targeted at inviduals who want to sell online, without any programming.

Freshbooks handles time tracking and invoicing. The service is used by freelancers and consultants in over 100 countries. Mike McDerment, an active canadian web entrepreneur, runs the company.

Stikipad lets you create a personal or a group wiki for free, with an easy-to-use user interface.

Librivox publishes on the public domain audio books, as read by users. The digital library ranges from contemporary to classics, philosophy to novels. Last finished project: James Joyce's Ulysses, with 32 hours of audio.

DabbleDB lets you create and share a database, and then build an application on top of it, without requiring programming skills. The platform is innovative, with a simple point-and-click interface.

Nowpublic.com is the largest user-written news site in the world, according to the Globe and Mail, thanks to a thriving community. It is based in Vancouver, BC.

Sxipper manages your online identity via a firefox extension and OpenID. It tracks usernames and passwords; and fills in online forms. Sxipper comes from Sxip, which is working on new identity models for the digital world.

wikitravel, which this year won a Webby Award for Best Travel Website, is a free travellers guide. It also is aiming to produce print travel guides. This wiki project was started in Montreal, Quebec, and advises a "fair" (not "neutral") point of view from its contributors.

Cambrian House is an online community where users "crowdsource" an idea. Participants then share the profits if the software is successful. Robhinhood Fund, a "web2.0 charity" website, started at Cambrian House.

ClubPenguin is a virtual word for kids, where they can play and interact. The self-funded company is already profitable via monthly subscriptions, with $60 million projected revenues this year.

GiveMeaning is an online community about news and projects that change the world for good.

ConceptShare is an online collaboration tool for designers and creatives, where they can annotate and discuss current work.

AjaxWhois.com is a DNS lookup service.

ilovetoplay.com is a sports social network where you can find additional players for your team.

YubNub.org is an online command line.

Innovation and startup culture in Canada

Canada has a long history of innovation and success. The most well known is Flickr, which started in Vancouver, BC, and then became one of the key applications in the web 2.0 landscape. StumbleUpon, which was acquired by ebay for $75M in March, was started in Calgary, Alberta. iStockphoto was a pioneer in micropayments in stock photography, and was bought by GettyImages.

Conclusion

The future is promising for Canadian startups. In Montréal, for instance, barcamps, democamps, monthly Tech Entrepreneur breakfasts, and early investors like montrealstartup, have revived the local tech community. We now have promising startups like Standoutjobs which aims to reinvent the recruiting process, by using video and social networking to promote the company's brand; or Kakiloc, a location-based social network which integrates with mobile phones. These are just two examples of the promising web apps being built in Canada and being presented to the world. Let us know what other web apps you know of from Canada, that we may've missed.