Intel and Yahoo! are looking at new ways to bring Internet content and services to the television environment with the announcement of the new “Widget Channel”. The Widget Channel is a television application framework powered by the Yahoo! Widget Engine, and optimized for TV and related CE (Consumer Electronics) devices utilizing the Intel Architecture platform. Developers using the Widget Channel framework can utilize standard web programming languages and technologies to create widgets that bring together television content with interactive Internet-based services from a variety of sources. Yahoo! also plans on releasing their own branded TV Widgets that utilize their own services.

It sounds nice but how does this really pan out? The basic idea is as follows - developers create TV-based Internet applications in the form of widgets (powered by Yahoo! Widgets). These widgets then run on Intel architecture devices.. ah but what kind of devices are these? Since we’re talking about the television market, they have to be either HDTV sets, or set-top boxes (or perhaps standalone CE portable devices some day). This is why Intel is in the picture - they’ve been trying to break into the consumer electronics market and the Widget Channel is the perfect opportunity to do so.

Now why would Yahoo! want to be in this picture? Once software developers are on-board with their TV Widgets and set-top boxes get distributed to the masses, Yahoo! can 1) spread their influence via Internet services and 2) generate additional revenues through advertising - this time via televised content. Consider the possibilities of Internet based advertising delivered alongside television content!

The key to making this all pan out will be the hardware manufacturers of CE devices - the folks who manufacture HDTV sets, set-top boxes, and portable consumer electronics. If there’s wide-spread adoption, then Yahoo! and Intel could be on to something. If no one bites, then well.. this one will just drift off into space.

The two companies plan on releasing a software development kit to developers, advertisers/publishers, as well as hardware manufacturers of TVs and consumer electronics. The Widget Channel will also include a Widget Gallery where developers can publish their TV widgets across multiple devices.

[Check it out]

Technorati Tags: Intel, Yahoo!, TV Widgets, Widget Channel

Cloud computing certainly is all the buzz these days. Case in point, HP, Intel, and Yahoo! have announced a new initiative called the Cloud Computing Test Bed. This “Test Bed” is a “multi-data center, open source test bed for the advancement of cloud computing research and education.” The three corporations have partnered with Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA), the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (and the NSF here), and the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) in Germany to form the research initiative.

This test bed will initially consist of six data centers or what the companies are calling “centers of excellence.”. They will be located at IDA facilities, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champagn, the Steinbuch Centre for Computing of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, HP Labs, Intel Research and Yahoo! and they will each have between 1000 to 4000 processor cores on hand for data-intensive research associated with cloud-computing. Powering the clouds will be Apache Hadoop and programming languages such as Pig (which was developed by Yahoo! Research).

The promise of cloud computing is certainly out there - the real question now is - what problems are best solved by cloud computing. Certainly large data driven problems are best candidates since they can be broken up in many different pieces and then distributed across many processor cores. Everything from data mining projects, to astronomy related number crunching to cancer research could potentially capitalize on cloud computing.

Yet everyday chores can also benefit from cloud computing. Cloud computing as Prith Banerjee, senior vice president of Research at HP says, is a “platform for creating new services and experiences.” Indeed - if you treat the cloud as a platform, you can build all sorts of nifty solutions on top of it with the guarantee (or perhaps hope) that the platform will provide the necessary resources in terms of processing power or storage capacity to back it up. Consider Microsoft’s own recent foray into this with the Live Mesh program. No one actually knows how much processing power is behind the Mesh - and no one cares - as long as it’s up and running and provides the necessary oomph to power applications on the net.

In an increasingly connected world, cloud computing promises to deliver services round the clock no matter where you are in the world.. OK.. that’s still a bit “pie in the sky” but it’s a cool thought isn’t it?

[Check it out]

Technorati Tags: HP, Intel, Yahoo!, Cloud Computing Test Bed

I just wanted to remind all of you (in case you didn’t already know this) that Yahoo! is now making available two new email domains - ymail.com and rocketmail.com. Yahoo! Mail has been around for so long that there’s really no possible way for you to get the email address that you really want. Thus, Yahoo! is hoping to solve that problem with the addition of two new domains.

To sign up, just go to either ymail.com or rocketmail.com. They will both redirect to login.yahoo.com and you’ll be able to sign up for the new email addresses. Also note that ymail.com and rocketmail.com uses the same Yahoo! Mail user interface.

[Check it out]

Technorati Tags: Yahoo! Mail, Ymail, rocketmail

Yahoo and McAfee have teamed up to try and make the web just a wee bit safer to peruse. The online portal will use McAfee’s SiteAdvisor technology to label potentially “unsafe Web sites” that might appear within Yahoo’s search results as “risky web sites.” Things that might make a website “risky” include sites that host malware, virus infected downloads, links to other websites that have similar content, or have a track record of harvesting e-mail addresses for spam purposes. The McAfee/Yahoo partnership is a multi-year deal which could lead to McAfee technology being used in other Yahoo products such as Yahoo Mail. Yahoo Mail currently uses Norton Anti-virus software protection to scan e-mail attachments etc. Yahoo is also actively removing web sites from its search index that are identified as using “drive-by-download” attacks. These are attacks that are launched simply by visiting a website. You can read more about what Yahoo and McAffee are doing on this News.com article (as well as what Google is doing to protect search users).

[Check it out]

Technorati Tags: Yahoo, McAfee, Anti-Virus

Feeling a little lost with the whole Yahoo - Microsoft - Google - News Corp - AOL tangle? Don’t worry - a lot of other people are too. Yes Microsoft is still trying to get at Yahoo! and yes.. Yahoo! is still trying to sweeten the deal by 1) rebuffing Microsoft and 2) enticing other folks to be interested in the company - such as Google and AOL.

A flurry of activity happened over the last day or so but you can see a quick summary of it all over at News.com. Here’s the short end of it all.

1. Yahoo! announced that they were going to use Google for paid-search ads (which I find so damn ironic given Yahoo’s purchase of Overture.com several years ago - the ones who made paid-search work in the first place).

2. This was followed by reports that Yahoo! and Time Warner were doing the dirty dance.. and perhaps Yahoo! absorbing the AOL unit from Time Warner and TW receiving a 20 percent stake in Yahoo!

3. But wait.. there’s more! Now there’s word that Microsoft might be teaming up in a joint bid to purchase Yahoo!. The deal would supposedly bring together Microsoft’s MSN unit, Fox’s Interactive Media Unit and of course Yahoo!. Consider the possibilities there folks. MSN + MySpace + Yahoo! .. now that would be interesting eh?

While all of these combinations could definitely come to fruition.. I can’t imagine the sum of these parts being better than the original individual units. Microsoft, News Corp, and Yahoo! is a totally mish-mash of cultures. Imagine integrating the units? Combine folks in Los Angeles, San Jose, and Seattle into a cohesive unit.. oh yes.. have two different companies be the partners managing the unit. Yeah - that’s recipe for a working scenario eh? I don’t think so.

But what about Yahoo and AOL with a little help from Time Warner? Let’s be honest now. What does AOL really bring for Yahoo!?  As the years go by, AOL becomes less and less of a player and more of a has-been. Sure there are still millions of AOL subscribers now but it’s not a growing subscriber base. A synergy with Time Warner might be interesting from a content perspective for Yahoo but.. wait.. isn’t that what they’ve been saying for YEARS now with AOL and Time Warner? How is this different? Plus with Yahoo! trimming itself down by ridding itself of business units that didn’t make money - does it make sense to offer media services like this again?

IMHO - the best way to fight Google to be like Google. Be innovative. All of these companies are simply trying to play “catch-up” to Google and guess what? They can keep on trying and Google will keep on running ahead of them. Combing Yahoo! Search and MSN Search won’t create a bigger search property than Google Search. Combining the user communities of Yahoo and MSN won’t necessarily create a business that competes well with Google.

First and foremost, the companies need a singular vision of execution on the Internet. They need to make consistent service offerings, consistent product offerings, easy integration paths, and most of all - be innovative.

It’s clear that it’s possible to usurp a leader if you execute correctly. Having said all of this, I do believe that a Microsoft and Yahoo! combination COULD work. That deal makes sense because Yahoo! executes fairly well on the Internet (though not great obviously) while Microsoft’s MSN properties have been third rate for years. If the acquisition were to happen, the key to success would be execution and innovation. The ability to come out with compelling solutions - not just “me too” solutions, and the ability to execute on delivering them.

Ok.. I’ve said my peace. ha

Technorati Tags: Yahoo!, Microsoft, Google, News Corp, AOL, Time Warner