Episode 0068,
09/27/2008
Title/Description: G1 Unveiled, Google + Yahoo,
Behavioral Marketing
Welcome to Course
Technology's CourseCast of the week, Episode 68, recorded September 27th, 2008.
This is Ken Baldauf bringing you this week's technology news and information. This
CourseCast is brought to you by Course Technology. Check out www.cengage.com/coursetechnology
for innovative textbooks and creative electronic learning solutions.
Story 1 - G1 Cell Phone
Unveiled
Google is calling it an
important milestone for Android and the cell phone industry. The first cell
phone running Google's Android operating system was released this week.
T-Mobile has named the handset G1 --- for obvious reasons. The handset was
manufactured by HTC and features a touchscreen and a slide-out keyboard.
What makes this phone truly
unique is its potential. Using the software development kit, or SDK, provided
by Google, developers from around the world can create all kinds of software to
run on the device. Thousands of applications have already been designed, many
of which will soon be available to G1 owners through an online distribution
system called the Android Market.
Compared to the iPhone,
Android-based phones offer some significant advantages. While Apple does
provide a software development kit for the iPhone, applications developed for
the iPhone are screened by Apple and AT&T who have already kept some very
useful applications away from iPhone users. For example, NetShare, software
that allows iPhone users to connect their notebook computers to the Internet
through the iPhone, was pulled from the list of iPhone application, most likely
because the software would undercut AT&T's ability to charge customers for
that access. Google and T-Mobile plan to offer an open marketplace that allows
any safe and stable application a chance for distribution. An even bigger
difference between the iPhone and Android platforms is that iPhone applications
only run on Apple handsets, while Android is open and designed to run on any
handset from any manufacturer that wishes to support it.
The T-Mobile G1 will be
available to the public in October. Look for more handsets that support Google
Android coming from other manufacturers and service providers soon.
Sources: Developers Expected
To Transform First Android Phone [NewsFactor], T-Mobile's G1
Android Phone Comes with Goggle Apps [NewsFactor] Google
rolls out rival to iPhone [Reuters] Android Has Arrived
[Technology Review]
Story 2 - Google + Yahoo =
Industry pushback
Google and Yahoo have
proposed a deal to combine efforts in online advertising. Yahoo plans to run
ads provided by Google on its many Web sites. Analysts estimate that the deal
could make Yahoo as much as $800 million. The plan is meeting with resistance
from the advertising industry and governments. This week the World Federation
of Advertisers (WFA) lobbied the EU in an effort to get the partnership
blocked. Microsoft is one of the strongest critics of the deal arguing that it
would provide Google with too much power, and control over 90 percent of online
advertising.
Sources: Advertisers
Want Google-Yahoo Deal Blocked [News Factor], Google-Yahoo Ad
Deal Continues To Stir Antitrust Fears [NewsFactor]
Story 3 - Behavioral
Marketing and the
An ethical controversy is
building around the intrusion of Web users privacy for the purpose of
behavioral marketing. Behavioral marketing is an approach to marketing that
displays ads targeted at each individual Web user's interests. Behavioral
marketing is a powerful tool for businesses, and provides more useful ads to
consumers than traditional forms of market segmentation. The ethical controversy
has to do with how personal information about consumers is collected, in order
to build the customer profiles necessary for behavioral marketing. There are a
few ways that companies are able to learn about consumer interests based on Web
use. One way is to store cookies on computers, small data files that are used
by Web servers to track Web use. Another way businesses find out about your
online habits is by buying the information from your Internet service provider.
ISP's use deep-packet inspection to learn what users are up to, and have been
known to sell that information to marketing companies. The latest round of Web
browser updates from IE and Firefox, include tools that allow users to turn on
a "privacy mode" so that no information is stored on the computer
that can be used to track online habits. This does not, however, keep ISP's
from performing deep-packet inspection to track your online habits. Government
intervention seems the only solution for keeping ISP's from spying on users.
Concerned lawmakers are investigating the practice of deep-packet inspection,
while marketing companies and ISP's argue that the practice provides a valuable
service to Internet users.
Sources: New Marketing Model
Tracks Web Activity, Profiles User [NewsFactor] Computing Privately
with Today's Web Browsers [News Factor]
And that brings us to News
Briefs:
That's it for this week's
Coursecast. Links to this week's stories and many more news and information
resources are provided at the Coursecast Web site at coursecasts.course.com.
Email us with your suggestions for the show at course.coursecasts@cengage.com.
Until next time have a great week and be sure to take advantage of the Power --
of Technology!