Normal 0 false false false EN-ZA X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0cm; mso-para-margin-right:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0cm; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:" ...

Normal 0 false false false EN-ZA X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0cm; mso-para-margin-right:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0cm; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:" ...

 The New York Time reported today that Google is about to announce a direct Windows competitor. It is said that the new operating system will be based on the Google Chrome browser. The Chrome browser has some operating system like behaviour already built in. For example the browser can perform some operations while not conncted to the net. A recent statement by Marc Andreessen - developer of the origianl Netscape browser made the point that Chrome was in fact a modern operating system. The question is how does this all tie in to Google's long term strategy? The war with Microsoft is sure to intensify now that Google is openly going for the absolute bedrock Microsoft is built on. Just imagine for a moment what could happen if the Google OS took off. A new corporate user could be issued with a notebook that had Chrome OS loaded with zero Microsoft technology on board. And zero revenue for Redmond!  The user would then connect to the net for access to Google Docs with its free word proces ...

Did you know that the CEO of Google, Eric Schmidt is a member of the Board of Directors of Apple? I am sure that at the stage Google was a search company, the move to sit on Apple's board made sense. However the days where Google could be defined as a search company are over. Primarliy there are two areas where contention could certainly arise. iPhone where Google competes with phones that run Andriod mobile O/S. Mac OS vs Google Chrome There have been various public statements that have suggested that Schmidt resign from Apple's board most notably the one from Tom Krazit of CNET. An excerpt "your position on Apple's board of directors now looks completely untenable given Google's intention to release a lightweight operating system for personal computers called Chrome OS" .  Read his entire post here. For what it is worth, I agree. From the outside it looks like the two companies are competing for the same space and surely Schmidt's time and energy would be better spent doin ...

 Google has just released its Q2 - 2009 financial results. Things look pretty good for the search giant when you consider that in the world economy is in a parlous state. Total revenue for the quarter was about $5.52 billion. This resulted in nett profits of about $1.4 billion. With about $12 billion cash in the bank, Google is doing well. The full financial statement is here:  GOOGLE ANNOUNCES SECOND QUARTER 2009 RESULTS Google owned properties accounted for about 66% of all income. AdSense which delivers ads to partner sites made up about 30% of income. Other interesting figures: Can you guess how many full-time people Google employs worldwide? Try almost 20,000 (as at end June 2009)