Google's Articulation !!!

Soon You Can Port Your Phone Number to Google Voice for $20 !!!

Google Voice users, this is big: You might already be able to port your own phone number into the service. Google just unleashed a test program a few hours ago.

According to Google, this ability to port your own inbound phone number is currently in a test phase that’s available to certain users.

“We’re continually testing new features to enhance the user experience. For a limited amount of time, we’re making the Google Voice number porting process available to users. We don’t have any additional details to share at this time, but plan to offer this feature to all users in the near future.”

With a few clicks, you can have people call the regular phone number that you’ve been using all these years, without having to teach them to call a different number just so you can use Google Voice and all its Gmail-like features. Simply go to Phone, Settings, and if you see “change/port” next to your phone number,you’re in luck. Click that and you’ll soon be done.

Easy enough, except for that $20 charge you’ll have to pay to make it happen. Keep in mind that if you do select that option and pay your $20, whichever landline or cellphone provider you were paying to use that phone number before might want to charge you an early termination fee. Buyer beware.

On the other hand, this long-awaited feature will make it a lot easier for new users of Google Voice to adapt to the service. It’ll be simple to just drop your old service automatically by paying the $20 and importing that number to Google Voice.

iPhone comes to the TV at a knock-down price... well kind of...

The future of television is in flux as traditional manufacturers battle hi-tech companies to control the living room, say analysts. The view comes as Sony prepares to unveil the first Google-powered lcd tvs.

Connecting the TV to the web has become a focus among manufacturers and set top box makers vying for market share. Google's emergence has energised things said commentators as has Apple's renewed bid for domination with its TV converter. Apple boss Steve Jobs has famously referred to Apple TV as a "hobby". Its failure to catch on with consumers is something Mr Jobs acknowledged at a news conference in September. "We've sold a lot of them, but it's never been a huge hit," he said.

The new version of the product has been reduced from $299 to $99 but will only allow people to rent content rather than buy it. Initially, it will only offer TV shows from a small handful of providers such as Fox, ABC/Disney and the BBC. "We think the rest of the studios will see the light and get on board pretty fast with us," said Mr Jobs.

Google's Reshuffle !!

The Eric Schmidt Era: Google 2001 vs. Google 2011 !!

Will the end of Eric Schmidt's nine and a half years as CEO of Google and the return of co-founder Larry Page to that role have an impact on the company's direction?? I'm no Google insider, but I'll be startled if it has no noticeable effect. In announcing the news yesterday, Schmidt said that Page will call the day-to-day shotswhile he focuses on external relationships, government affairs, and the like. 

That makes Page--who's kept a far lower profile than Schmidt or fellow co-founder Sergey Brin until now--the single most important Google executive. If the idea was to keep Google the same as it ever was, there wouldn't have been any reason to switch up Schmidt and Page's roles.

We'll see in the coming months whether Google remains the amazing, ambitious, undisciplined, diffuse, sometimes inspiring, occasionally aggravating company it's been in the Schmidt era.

 For now, it's worth contemplating just how much it's changed since he became CEO in August of 2001--back when Google was just a really popular search engine.

	Google 2001	Google 2011
Executive change	Eric Schmidt replaces Larry Page as CEO	Larry Page replaces Eric Schmidt as CEO
Ages of Google founders	28 (Larry Page) and 27 (Sergey Brin)	38 (Larry Page) and 37 (Sergey Brin)
Revenue	Undisclosed (the company was private and didn't have to say)	$29 billion (2010)
Profits	Undisclosed, but it was its first profitable year	$8.5 billion (2010)
Employees	400	24,000
Products	Google Web Search, Google Image Search, Google Toolbar, Google Translate (the company told Cnet it had no plans to get into the e-mail business or otherwise become a "portal")	Google Web Search, Android, Blogger, Chrome, Chrome OS, Gmail, Google Analytics, Google App Engine, Google Apps, Google Blog Search, Google Books, Google Calendar, Google Buzz, Google Checkout, Google Code, Google Desktop, Google Earth, Google Finance, Google Goggles, Google Health, Google Image Search, Google Latitude, Google Groups, Google Maps, Google News, Google News Timeline, Google Patents, Google Product Search, Google Reader, Google Scholar, Google Sites, Google Talk, Google Toolbar, Google Translate, Google Trends, Google TV, Google Voice, Knol, Orkut, Picnik, Picasa, SketchUp, YouTube, and countless others that aren't leaping to mind right now
Principal competitors	AltaVista, AskJeeves, Excite, Yahoo	Apple, Facebook, Microsoft, Yahoo
Searches per day	70 million	Approximately 3 billion
Rank among all Web sites	#15	#1
Companies acquired	Deja.com	Aardvark, AdMob, AllBits, Android, AppJet, Applied Semantics, Blind Type, Bump Technologies, Deja.com, DocVerse, Dodgeball, DoubleClick, eBook Technologies, FeedBurner, Genius Labs, Gizmo5, GrandCentral, Invite Media, Jambool, JotSpot, Keyhole, Like.com, MeasureMap, MetaWeb, Neotonic, On2, Orion, Outride, Picasa, Phatbits, Picnik, Postini, Pyra, reCAPTCHA, ReMail, Ruba, Simplify Media, Skia, Slide.com, SocialDeck, Urchin, Where2, WideVine, Writely, YouTube, and numerous others
Major homepage design innovation	Google logo is centered on page for first time	Google Instant displays results as you type (September 2010)
Mobile initiative	WAP-friendly search on Cingular phones	Android 3.0 "Honeycomb"
Big idea	Google search results in Swedish Chef-ese	Self-driving cars
Top search term	"Nostradamus"	"Facebook"