Bettina Wulff And Her Google Problem

Used to only affect prejudiced American politicians like Rick Santorum, but is the former German First Lady now has a “Google Search Problem”?

By: Ringo Bones

A few days ago, Bettina Wulff – wife of former German President Christian Wulff – launched a defamation lawsuit on Google because the famed internet company’s search engine suggests that she has a somewhat “racy” past because of its autocomplete function. Given that this sort of “street-cred” is something a woman of her standing doesn’t need and she’s not the first political personality to be a victim of a well-orchestrated on-line smear campaign, are the “overlords” of Google in their “ivory towers” at Mountain View and Palo Alto really the ones’ at fault here?

A few years ago, a prominent gay rights activist in America launched a smear campaign against homophobic GOP politician by the name of Rick Santorum. With the help of other net-savvy gay rights activist in America and elsewhere in the world, whenever you Google Rick Santorum, the search result is something about the less than savory aspects of male gay sexual intercourse that’s only appropriate for those 18 or older. Scores of computer-savvy hacktivists – an overwhelming majority of them probably not employed by Google – probably used esoteric search engine optimization techniques so that whenever one use Google to search for Santorum this day and age, a less than palatable search result often returns.

Is something similar at work here with the former German First Lady Bettina Wulff? Well, based on news that came out of Germany during the past few years, former German President Christian Wulff has never been hated by net-savvy anarchists in Germany or the rest of the Eurozone to warrant such  politically motivated search engine optimization based smear campaign directed at his wife on such a wide scale. Work of a lone high-level cyberstalker, perhaps?

The Apple-Samsung Lawsuit Saga: Stifling Innovation in the Tech World?

Does the latest Apple versus Samsung copyright lawsuit eventually stifle innovation in the global mobile smartphone and tablet computer industry? 

By: Ringo Bones 

Back in August 25, 2012, a US jury in a California court decided that South Korea based tablet computer and smartphone manufacturer Samsung should pay Apple 1.05 billion US dollars for copyright infringement – i.e. Samsung used Apple’s technology in the manufacture of its best selling tablet computers and mobile smartphones in the Galaxy III series. To us mere consumers, the two companies’ products started to look almost exactly alike during the past few months – making one wonder if Samsung had just got the license from Apple to manufacture its own version of i-Phones and i-Pads. 

The court jury’s ruling states that Samsung deliberately stole Apple’s copyrighted technology to manufacture their own versions of the i-Phone and the i-Pad for profit. Sadly, it is usually us, the consumer, who loses in these types of titanic copyright infringement corporate battles because the money that could have been spent on product innovation are now being spent on copyright lawyers and in the complex world of patent law, copyright lawyers tend to be a dead-end investment in terms of profit returns – which means passing the expense to the consumer via higher product prices. And Samsung is at a disadvantage since Apple could pursue the case to deny entry of Samsung products in US territories.    

Even though Samsung was found guilty by US courts of copying critical features in the most popular mobile computing products of its main rival Apple, it could be that Samsung sales here in the Far East could remain unaffected. Samsung’s version of Apple’s most popular i-Phone and i-Pad variants are on average one-third the retail price of Apple’s – especially in Singapore and Hong Kong. But sadly, during Monday’s (August 27, 2012) trading, Samsung’s stocks took a rather steep dive wiping off 12 billion US dollars off the company’s value in the greatest single day loss in the famed South Korea based tech company. 

London 2012: Most Social Olympic Event Ever?

Given that there’s already a world-class wi-fi infrastructure already installed around every venue, how will our compulsive social network sharing shape the London 2012 Olympic Games? 

By: Ringo Bones 

Unlike the 2008 Beijing Olympics where the internet infrastructure of the People’s Republic of China had a robust government run censorship system already installed, the way more inclusive and egalitarian London 2012 Olympics had already become – with the uncensored warts and all – the most talked about Olympic Games on the planet if you look at the existing social network sites. And the games haven’t even started yet.

With an extensive wi-fi infrastructure already up and running at every venue, companies are already busy purchasing the broadcasting rights of their adverts on every social network platform that would be used during the 10 or so days of the Olympic Games. But will these companies eventually profit from their advertising investments that will be directed to a largely “passive” audience? 

Too soon to tell yet whether companies will benefit from their social network adverts uploaded during the duration of the London 2012 Olympics, but the UK government is far more enthusiastic about social network coverage and the on-going impact of social media by installing a massive light art sculpture in the London Eye that translate positive and negative Twitter feeds into some psychedelic light display - on the famed giant Ferris wheel. Even Boris Becker – veteran Olympian of the 1988 and 1992 Olympic Games – already has a sizeable Facebook and Twitter following. 

If social networks have their upsides – there are downsides too. A choice number of spectators lucky enough to be picked and invited to witness the dress rehearsal of the opening ceremony of the London 2012 Olympics on July 23, 2012 who are supposedly sworn to secrecy not to talk about any “spoilers” of what they’ve seen – though only some of them – can’t control themselves and blabbed about what they’ve seen on the social network of their choice. 

Yahoo’s Google Sourced Tech Support: Corporate Shot in the Arm?

Will the latest Google-sourced new executive of Yahoo finally take the ailing tech firm out of the financial doldrums? 

By: Ringo Bones 

Every Yahoo executive that had been replaced due to their inability to take the tech firm out of the financial doldrums had been fodder of late-night comedians during the past few years - especially when the punch-line of the joke goes “just found out he or she is being replaced while using Google’s search engine”. But will a new Google-sourced executive finally make Yahoo’s bottom line economically viable again? 

Tech firm Yahoo recently announced the appointment of former Google executive Marissa Mayer as their new chief in July 17, 2012. Meyer was the first woman engineer at Google. Not only that, Marissa Mayer is also currently pregnant with a baby due out in October. Will this move finally spell success for Yahoo since the tech firm has been facing an uphill battle in recruiting top I.T. talent from both Google and Facebook for a couple of years now? 

Given that it became the widely-accepted search-engine used by ordinary non-I.T. tech people years before it was overtaken by Google, Yahoo (officially spelled Yahoo! – with an exclamation point at the end) has since been facing an uphill competition with the upstart Google for over a decade. As far as I know, it is only here in South-East Asia or in some parts of India, places where there are more Yahoo! users than Google. 

Fake Facebook Users: The Bane of F-Commerce?

As the latest investigative report pointed out that companies might be wasting their money on social media adverts, does this spell the death knell of f-commerce? 

By: Ringo Bones 

Ah, f-commerce – the supposedly hipper, younger version of e-commerce that’s born out of the recent boom of handheld and mobile devices that can access the internet, especially leading social media sites like Facebook. But will this upstart on-line advertising business model soon be spoiled by fake Facebook users / profiles opting to click the like button? 

As the latest investigative report in the BBC – which was aired back in July 13, 2012 – pointed out that companies buying Facebook adverts are merely wasting their money due to most of the users clicking the like button are largely composed of fake or phantom users / profiles. Quite sobering, given that companies opting to paying good money for adverts on Facebook are probably just in it for the “like button clicks”. Sadder still, the investigative report also pointed out that most of those “authentic” Facebook users who opt to click the like button are simply doing it at random and probably have no interest in the company advertising their products or services whatsoever. 

A typical Facebook advert usually gets about 3,000 likes during the first 24 hours of posting. How much of these likes are from authentic users – or users who genuinely like or have used and liked the products and services being advertised are a different question entirely. Sadly, the “powers-that-be” on Facebook are currently quite reluctant to crack down on fake / phantom profiles and users unless they violate Facebook’s community standards as they are paid upfront by companies advertising on the famed social media site who are only doing so for the like button clicks. It might be a different story if these phantom / fake users start behaving like that notorious Nigerian Prince and start swindling Facebook out of millions of dollars. 

 

Should the Next Generation of Smartphones and Tablet Computers Be Tailored for Asian Users?

Given that India and the People’s Republic of China are now the fastest growing purchasers of the latest smartphones and tablet computers - should the next generation of these devices be more tailored to Asian users?

By: Ringo Bones

Even though these miracles of modern technology are designed in the West and then manufactured in the low-wage parts of the Far East, does it make good sense for the major “Westward Looking” consumer electronic companies start tailoring their next generation of smartphones and tablet computers for Asian users/customers? As of October 5, 2011, India and Mainland China had been shown from case studies to be slowly but continuously shown increasing demand for smartphones and tablet computers. And in these places, smartphones and tablet computers are for all intents and purposes the only way for ordinary people to access the internet.

Could we be seeing standard Mandarin and Sanskrit capable smartphones and tablet computers in the near future? Maybe, but given the internet had been very slow to adapt languages that doesn’t use the ubiquitous Roman letters, many see it as one of the obstacles in tailoring a significant number of next generation smartphones and tablet computers that could seamlessly be introduced to Indian Mainland Chinese markets, not to mention those that don’t use Roman letters in their written communications like Thai, Urdu or Pashtu.

But given retail consumerism that has been steadily shifting Eastward – as in toward the Mainland China and the Indian subcontinent, major consumer electronics firms may be ignoring this major chunk of the market at their own peril. Or maybe it could initiate a spin-off in devices that could smartly translate any written non-Roman lettered languages into something we at the deeply insular West can finally understand.

What Will Apple Be After Steve Jobs?

Known around the world for making the latest computer tech fashionable to a wide-range of folks – even to the fashionista crowd, will Apple continue to be one of the world’s top technology firms without Steve Jobs?

By: Ringo Bones

Even though he passed away in October 5, 2011 at age 56 after a long battle with pancreatic cancer, Apple co-founder and visionary will surely be missed. The computer technology company he co-founded with Steve Wozniak has always been seen as the “alternative” from the mainstream. Steve Jobs’ first ever major commercial product to be launched with much advertising fanfare was the 1984 era McIntosh, which itself was a technological tour-de-force at the time as to being the first ever personal computer that came with a mouse. Sadly, the 1984 era Mac didn’t do as well commercially in comparison to Steve Jobs’ more recent products.

The 1998 era rainbow-colored PC was probably the first toe-in-the-water exercise for Apple’s path to slowly but surely into becoming a consumer-electronic juggernaut of the 21st Century. From the i-Pod, the i-Phone to the i-Pad, Steve Jobs seem to manage to do the impossible by making computer technology hip and stylish enough for the fashionista crowd. Whether you love or hate his commercially successful inventions, there’s no denying that Steve Jobs is probably the most influential visionary when it comes to making portable internet access a commercially viable entity. Not to mention that during the height of his creative and managing powers at Apple, he forego focus groups and other corporate niceties citing that they tend to skew his creative vision.

Tributes had been pouring in of his untimely passing, from US President Barack Obama to Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, not to mention rival computer companies and more importantly, the millions of people who have benefited from his vision of establishing user-friendly and “fashionable” access to the global information superhighway.

Will Apple still retain the vision and brilliant inventiveness of Steve Jobs? Only time will tell; but – to the millions of his fans – it seems like he has already mapped out the direction for Apple to go through for it to remain as a strong and visionary computer technology firm.