poobalan.com

SwarnaBumiputran of Malaysia

Archive for the ‘TechStuff’ category

Google’s search engine goes universal

May 17th, 2007

|

Subscribe in a reader | Subscribe to poobalan.com by Email

Google’s search engine goes universal By MICHAEL LIEDTKE
http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D8P5PROG0.htm
In its latest technological leap, online search leader Google Inc. will begin showing videos on its main results page Wednesday along with photos, books and other content previously separated into different categories.
Under a new “universal search” approach that Google began rolling out Wednesday afternoon, some requests will produce more than just a series of links and snippets pointing to other Web sites.
As an example, the results to the search request “I have a dream” will include an actual video showing Martin Luther King Jr.’s famous 1963 speech along with the usual assortment of Web links.
The videos will be shown on Google’s results page if it’s contained in the company’s own database or the vast library of its YouTube subsidiary. A thumbnail will direct traffic to videos hosted on other sites like Metacafe.com.
Other Google results will more frequently show photos or information from the more than 1 million books that the company has copied during the past two years. More news stories and local information pertaining to search requests will be displayed on Google’s first results page — perhaps the most prized showcase on the Web.
Google’s database has included photos, books, videos and local information for several years, but fetching the content usually required searching through one of the customized channels featured in a row of links above the main query box.
A new link to Google’s increasingly popular e-mail service, Gmail, will be added above the query box in the next day or two to make it easier to access for existing users and presumably more alluring to Web surfers who haven’t already opened an account.
By intermingling different types of Web content on its main result page, Google is betting it can become even more useful to its millions of users and maintain the competitive advantage that has established the Mountain View-based company as a cultural and financial phenomenon.
The increased emphasis on video also could alienate some longtime users who revere Google for its traditionally staid results page.
“It’s going to be interesting to see how people react,” said Greg Sterling, who runs the research firm Sterling Market Intelligence. “I think it will create more value for users.”
The changes also illustrate the challenges facing Yahoo Inc., Microsoft Corp. and a host of smaller Internet search engines as they try to gain ground on Google. While those rivals have been investing heavily in improvements just to catch up, Google has been spending even more to soup it search engine.
Last year alone, Google’s capital expenditures totaled $1.9 billion, and the company is on a pace to spend even more this year as it builds more data centers to handle heavy-duty computing jobs. Google executives said it took two years to lay the groundwork for the switch to universal search.
The change realizes one of the visions that drove Google’s $1.76 billion acquisition of the video-sharing site YouTube. Just days before announcing that deal last October, Google co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page lamented their inability to show videos on the main results page and said they were working hard to address the weakness.
Now that Google is showing videos in the search results, it may not be much longer before the company begins airing video ads in addition to the short text ads that have accounted for nearly all of its profits so far.
“I do think this opens the door for a richer medium on the search results page,” said Marissa Mayer, Google’s vice president of search products and user experience. “For us, ads are answers as well.”
Since all videos from YouTube and the company’s database will be streamed on a player embedded on the main results page, the change also could mean people stay longer on Google’s Web site — another factor that could boost profits. Although Google also distributes ads to thousands of other Web sites, it makes more money from messages on its own property because it doesn’t have to share the commissions.
“Our goal is not to have people spend more time on Google,” Brin said Wednesday. “It’s for people to accomplish more on Google.”
By creating another major channel to show YouTube videos, Google also could be courting more copyright trouble. Since its inception, YouTube has regularly shown pirated videos posted by its users, a problem that has spurred several copyright infringement lawsuits, including a $1 billion damage claim by Viacom Inc.
Both Google and YouTube say they have adhered to the law by removing pirated videos after receiving a request from a copyright holder.

Comments Off on Google’s search engine goes universal »

Posted in TechStuff

Tags: BN MIC Video

Blogging From hobby to a steady five-figure income

May 11th, 2007

|

Subscribe in a reader | Subscribe to poobalan.com by Email

From hobby to a steady five-figure income
http://www.nst.com.my/Current_News/NST/Friday/National/20070511085449/Article/index_html
SAMSUL Zamzuri Abu Bakar, 32, gets puzzled looks whenever he tells people about his profession.
He blogs, but for most people, blogging is a hobby, not a job. The economics graduate also does marketing but his neighbours don’t see him leaving home smartly dressed to meet clients with briefcase in hand, like most marketers.
In fact, Samsul Zamzuri is often at his home in Sungai Buloh. He is one of a small but rising number of Malaysians who earns an income solely through the Internet.
It started off in 2003 as a hobby for the technology enthusiast, then working as an internal auditor. His first website offered free downloands of software allowing Windows-run computers to have a Apple Macintosh interface. Both are rival operating systems.
“After a while, my friend suggested I put up advertisements there. I signed up with Google Adsense and my first US$100 (RM350) cheque came six months later,” said Samsul Zamzuri. As he devoted more time online, traffic to his website soared — and so did his income.
By 2005, while earning about RM2,000 from his day job, Samsul Zamzuri was already chalking up between RM7,000 and RM8,000 in advertising fees from his stable of websites and blogs.
In August that year, he took the drastic decision of quitting his job to focus on his online ventures.
Now, he owns more than 15 websites and earns a five-figure salary. Some of the websites are on gadgets like handphones and digital cameras. He hires bloggers from countries like the United States, New Zealand and Ecuador.
Samsul Zamzuri bears the costs of running the websites and shares the profits with his partners. All his marketing (to get companies to advertise) is done online.
His top revenue earners are directory websites where companies pay to get listed, and are then ranked higher in search engine results.
His number two money-earner is his first website (www.osx-e.com), the one which got him hooked into online forays in the first place. Samsul Zamzuri claimed he had been offered up to US$20,000 for the website, but declined the bid for sentimental reasons.

His advice for those who want to follow in his footsteps?
“When you start, don’t think of making money first. Treat it like a hobby. Be patient and hard working. The rewards are sweet.”

Comments Off on Blogging From hobby to a steady five-figure income »

Posted in TechStuff

Tags: MIC

Net Entrepreneurs in Malaysia

May 11th, 2007

|

Subscribe in a reader | Subscribe to poobalan.com by Email

Spotlight :Casting the Net for money Chow Kum Hor
http://www.nst.com.my/Current_News/NST/Friday/National/20070511085348/Article/index_html
Samsul Zamzuri Abu Bakar, who works up to 12 hours a day on his laptop, has a monthly five-figure salary.
KUALA LUMPUR: Fed up with day jobs and measly pay, a small but rising number of people have become full-time Internet entrepreneurs, some raking in five-figure salaries, often in the comfort of their living rooms.
A popular Internet income generator is through the sale of advertisement space in websites and blogs. Others sell anything from e-books to software, either authored themselves, or through an affiliate programme.
There are no statistics on the number of Malaysians who have gone full-time into online money-making ventures, although anecdotal evidence suggests more are doing so.
However, before Malaysians start jumping on the Internet income bandwagon, the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) has a word of caution: Beware of online scams.
“Surfers should not fall for get-rich-quick scams that are aplenty online. MCMC continuously monitors and acts on them,” said a spokesman from the regulatory body from the communications and multimedia industry. But for those who have struck gold online, the returns are generous, not only in terms of pay.
Most work from home, which means they do not have bosses breathing down their necks, don’t have to get stuck in traffic jams and can spend more time with their families.
Liew Cheon Fong, who runs a technology blog (www.liewcf.com), claimed he was the first Malaysian to go into blogging full-time in 2005 in what started out as a hobby to share computing tips with friends.
The Kluang-based 27-year-old computer science degree-holder posts a few entries in his blog daily. He needs to keep his entries interesting to attract web traffic, failing which his income could dip.
One of his sources of income is Google Adsense, an online advertisement programme run by Internet giant Google. Liew gets paid whenever visitors click on advertisements placed on his blog.
Website operators who sign up with Google Adsense display advertisements related to their websites. For example, a blog on pets may feature ads on dog shampoo or pet grooming services.
Often, revenue generated online is in US dollars and credited into e-commerce facilities like PayPal. While Malaysians cannot withdraw money from PayPal accounts, many use them to make online purchases instead.
Unless you earn a monthly five-figure salary like Samsul Zamzuri Abu Bakar, 32, a Sungai Buloh-based Netpreneur (see accompanying story). He has opened an account with a United States bank which allows him to withdraw earnings credited into PayPal.
Then using his ATM card, he withdraws his money here.
But Samsul, who co-runs several blogs on gadgets like handphones and digital cameras, said many people have the misconception that entrepreneurs making money over the Internet involve “just working a few hours a day and spending the rest of the time watching their money roll in”.
Samsul spends up to 12 hours in front of a computer, either liaising with his co-bloggers, marketing his blogs or simply surfing the Internet for ideas or to keep abreast with the latest developments in technology.
There are also drawbacks when your sole income is derived from such unconventional means. A common complaint is erratic income.
In Samsul’s case, revenue peaks during the Christmas and the US summer seasons when sales of technology items go up, while for the rest of the year, earnings can be slow.
Last June, Liew’s income was badly hit when Google dropped his blog’s ranking, resulting in a drastic reduction in the number of visitors to the site. Liew has since recovered after Google upgraded his ranking. Now, almost a quarter of a million visitors go to his blog per month.
Gobala Krishnan, 27, who sells e-books and software online, said it was more important to plan ahead and follow it through. Otherwise, his earnings would be affected in the long-run. He claimed to be making RM20,000 to RM30,000 per month.
How does one identify online cheats, especially since some of the operators are based overseas?
Krishnan offered his rule-of-thumb: “If it’s too good to be true, it’s probably a scam. Just like any business, Internet business takes capital, time and dedication.”