Tag Archives: Google

Tech Tuesday: Google App Engine for Promotions

Most online promotions, whether a new loyalty program or product launch, are short term and usually only require a massive amount of computing power during the first couple days when traffic is extremely high.

With traditional hosting and web applications you would pay for this computing power long after it is necessary. This is a problem that can be solved by using cloud computing and Google App Engine does a fantastic job at it.

GAE (Google App Engine) is a complete development stack that allows you to quickly build and host web applications that will automatically scale to your needs. It is built on the same infrastructure that runs all of Google’s web products including their search engine. 10 years of Google’s brightest ideas in scalability and performance driven systems literally given away for free. At least initially. You begin with free daily quotas for things such as number of requests, CPU time, datastore access, and data storage. Once your free quotas are up you pay for what you use. Each App Engine application comes with an administration panel which allows you to view and change the limits to increase your quotas.

This setup is ideal for short term promotions that will have a huge initial hit of visitors and then die down afterwards. The traffic from your returning visitors may even fall within the free daily quotas, in which case, you would only pay for the initial traffic hit.

App engine gives you the same cloud computing type scalability such as Amazon EC2 except there is no server configuration, maintenance or instance handling necessary. This means you won’t need to do these yourself or pay someone to do these things.

However, there are some drawbacks to GAE. You are confined to using the python or java programming languages and most of the popular frameworks for these languages aren’t compatible with the database GAE uses called Big Table. This isn’t to say that they won’t work, but that you need to build the app in a certain way which prevents it from being easily ported to a more traditional hosting environment if the need should arise.

Additionally, if your application requires connecting with a third party API through a firewall that needs to be setup with your server’s IP address GAE, like other cloud computing options, will not support this since your apps outgoing IP will change depending on how GAE is distributing its resources. However, if you control the firewall and the servers behind it you could use the Secure Data Connector for this task.

With the few caveats aside, GAE brings cloud computing to the masses in a way that is both accessible and competitive. It prevents the need to deal with servers and the hassle of setting up and choosing hosting plans. By forcing the development of scalable applications and having virtually no barriers for entry GAE is a very promising platform, not only for short term promotions, but for any type of web application whether large or small.

Google’s Nexus One

Many nerds waited with bated breath for the announcement of Google’s new phone, Nexus One, and it’s finally here! Wired already has a pretty in-depth review on the new phone and it looks slick. Mashable’s got a nice little bullet list of features.

And, best of all, Google has a fun 3D product tour for people who want to see what the Nexus One will look like in their hand.

As an iPhone user and devout Mac fangirl, I hope Apple’s paying attention. That threaded e-mail makes me jealous as does the dark interface. Sometimes it’s the little things people.

The most magical time of the year — Google Zeitgeist 2009

Come on, you’re as excited as I am by Google Zeitgeist day aren’t you? Google Zeitgeist is where Google digs through “billions of queries people typed into Google search this year. We use data from multiple sources, including Insights for Search, Google Trends and internal data tools. We also filter out spam and repeat queries to build out lists that best reflect “the spirit of the times.” All of the search queries we studied are anonymous—no personal information was used.”

This year John McCain, Heath Ledger, and the Olympics were out while Michael Jackson, Twitter, and Facebook were in. Interesting how social media services made the top three this year. Also interesting, the Twilight phenomenon knows no bounds, infecting the Fastest Rising Image searches with four spots in the top 10, making the vampires the only fictional characters on the list (unless you count Lady Gaga as fictional).

In local (Minnesota-related) news, you should see how searches for Bret Favre spiked in August, and here’s the Top 10 Searches for Minneapolis:

1. southdale amc
2. gophermail
3. anoka county jail
4. mn unemployment benefits
5. guthrie theater
6. shakopee schools
7. riverview theater
8. eden prairie schools
9. star tribune obituaries
10. running aces

And if, like me you have no idea what running aces is, it’s a harness racing horse track/poker club near Forest Lake. I had no idea such a place existed until right now. See? Google Zeitgeist is totally educational.

Emerging Tech: WebGL and you

When Google announced in July that they were creating an operating system (Chrome OS) that was essentially a browser, I’ll admit I was pretty skeptical. Then I started to think about what we nerds use our computers for and wondered, does this move by Google actually make sense?

First, we like to browse the web, something we typically do with a browser. We like being social with instant messaging… and Google has GTalk in the browser – you can also chat on Facebook in the browser, and you can connect to AIM or Yahoo with services like Meebo.com. Occasionally, we nerds use Microsoft Office-like programs to get work done. Google has Google Docs that does all that in the browser, too. The solution then dawned on me. We also like to play 3D games like Crysis or Batman: Arkham Asylum, Half-Life 2, etc. Flash can’t pump the polygons to make these quality games and there really isn’t anything else out there that can. The browser can’t do 3D gaming!

“Clearly”, I thought, “Google is making a mistake with this Chrome OS business because they can’t satisfy the 3D gaming market. Chrome OS won’t go anywhere.” I then smugly went about my business knowing that I had out-thought Google and my skepticism was well met. Google 0, Rex 1.

Much to my dismay, I saw this YouTube video showing of a technology called WebGL.

3D graphics…in a web browser?

I decided to look further into this technology and see how it worked. WebGL is a JavaScript binding to OpenGL ES 2.0. This allows for hardware-accelerated 3D graphics in the browser without any additional plug-ins. This means that future games may not be shipped on a CD or be installed at all, just point your browser to a website and enjoy. Game releases could be essentially the same thing as a website launch. This kind of technology could go beyond games. What if your kids could open a webpage and see a rich 3D version of SpongeBob Squarepants’s world? Could you take a car for a test drive in the browser with 3D graphics and real physics data similar to the racing games of today? How about viewing consumer products in 3D before you buy? The possibilities seem endless.

When will this be available? It’s tough to say a hard release date, but this is already showing up in the nightly builds of Webkit (the technology that drives Chrome, Safari, and Palm Pre browsers, among others) and Firefox. I’d speculate advanced browsers will incorporate WebGL technology in 2010.

And as to the viability of Google’s Chrome OS…  Well played, Google.  Well played.

Ganging up on Google

After a year-and-a-half courtship, Microsoft and Yahoo announced today a deal that calls for a Bing-powered Yahoo. In a joint statement, the two companies said they’ll join forces so that “advertisers no longer have to rely on one company that dominates more than 70% of all search.” (CNNMoney.com pegs it at 65%)

Here’s the 10-year deal (which has yet to clear possible regulator hurdles): Microsoft will fork over to Yahoo 88% of revenue gained from searches on Yahoo sites, while Microsoft gets to use Yahoo search technology in its own search platforms.

Microsoft chief exec Steve Ballmer said the deal allows the software company to “create more innovation in search, better value for advertisers and real consumer choice in a market currently dominated by a single company.”

Yahoo chief exec Carol Bartz said she looks forward to her company’s increased focus on its strengths, citing producing niche media sites, marketing and on-line display ads.

Read Write Web thinks, “Bing is a worthy competitor to Google’s search engine, which both Microsoft and Yahoo try not to mention in all their press materials, but whose shadow obviously looms large over this deal. Advertisers aren’t likely to spend a lot of money on a search engine that only commands less than 10% of the market, but once combined with Yahoo Search, Bing could easily reach 20% or more. At this point, advertising on Bing becomes far more interesting.”

This morning on Wall Street, Yahoo shares dropped 11% while Microsoft’s remained flat, reports TechCrunch.

Yahoo and Microsoft begin their honeymoon period with a combined 28% of U.S. search traffic.

Google Chrome OS announcement makes nerd’s pulse race

It’s been speculated for a while now that Google has been working on a netbook-optimized operating system. Well, tonight, it became official.

So today, we’re announcing a new project that’s a natural extension of Google Chrome — the Google Chrome Operating System. It’s our attempt to re-think what operating systems should be.

Google Chrome OS is an open source, lightweight operating system that will initially be targeted at netbooks. Later this year we will open-source its code, and netbooks running Google Chrome OS will be available for consumers in the second half of 2010. Because we’re already talking to partners about the project, and we’ll soon be working with the open source community, we wanted to share our vision now so everyone understands what we are trying to achieve.

Going on, they talk specifically about the architecture it’s going to run on.

Google Chrome OS will run on both x86 as well as ARM chips and we are working with multiple OEMs to bring a number of netbooks to market next year. The software architecture is simple — Google Chrome running within a new windowing system on top of a Linux kernel.

Wait. Did they just say a new windowing system on top of a Linux kernel? That’s kinda-sorta what OS X did, but Apple doesn’t seem to want to make a netbook.

Now it gets interesting (aka “opinions”).

• Chrome OS will compete with osx (~linux/bsd with a better windowing system), especially since Apple hasn’t talked about releasing a netbook. If Linux was built with a more intuitive and polished GUI, I think it’d be more widely adopted than it is.
• Also competes with Microsoft (win7, gazelle (pdf link) and their oem relationship with netbook vendors

And if I had my fingers crossed with a wishlist in mind, it would be:

• Native iscsi support – load the kernel from the web
• A better package management system to preserve the UX (ie, a lesson learned from android)
• Webkit (osx, chrome os) creates a better opportunity for SaaS and PaaS

If you’re interested in real insight, these are some great places to start:

• /Message: A New Take On Operating Systems: Responding to Chrome OS
• Hacker News discussions
• Slashdot comments (especially this one).

Friday Links: Three stories you should be paying attention to

We’ve had so much going at The Nerdery we haven’t posted any Friday Links. We’re still pretty busy, but there have been a few stories popping up that really deserve your attention:

• If you have not been following the fall-out from Tropicana’s new packaging, you’re missing out. The new packaging is being blamed for 20% drop in Tropicana sales. It’s a study in consumer behavior and brand loyalty.
• Today’s Future Tense, talks about how the Internet has “shattered” advertising, by giving consumers a new way to gather information on goods and services. It’s a thought-provoking listen and well worth a couple of your minutes.
• And finally, it appears as though Google is in talks to buy Twitter. Wowee! There’s never a dull moment, is there?

Google Zeitgeist 2008

Google has released its Zeitgeist for 2008, which sort of feels like a yearbook for the planet. In the Zeitgeist report, Google tallies up the fastest rising search terms for the year. They define fastest rising as, the most popular searches conducted for 11 months of 2008 and ranked based on how much their frequency increased compared to 2007. Google divvies up the info by country, topic (sports, showbiz, etc.) plus they compile a big grand daddy list of the most popular search terms globally.

The global list had a quite a few surprises on it for me (who knew Heath Ledger was more popular than Obama?) and the US-centric list made me feel woefully inadequate for not knowing who in the heck David Cook was (I know now, thanks Google).

Find out who made the list.

P.S. Did you notice how Goolge is using Pantone’s mimosa, dubbed the color for 2009?