Efraim Schwartz over at ComputerWorld reported back in July the results of various studies that indicate that IT jobs will drop in 2009. Contractors, projects, overall spending down. The news is dire: “Almost no investment in cloud computing”.
Well, I don’t have any studies to refer to just gut predictions.
Like that old sly cop with the corduroy jacket on your favorite TV show, I got some hunches.
Shining up my crystal ball:
YES…….
Economy is kinda clouding things up, but yes, a few things seem clear..
- Yahoo – Microsoft will scoop them up
- Windows 7 – Unfortunately for Microsoft, this will probably dud, too many factors against it.
- Ipod Touch Tablet – An internet-capable touch screen tablet –March or June
- Chrome 2 – will run on cell platform and desktop, instant browser sync
- Digg – Google property
- Giants win the Super Bowl – not a tech prediction-that just popped in there.
Again, 1-5 are based on nothing but hunches here people. #6 is something else entirely. (We make no claims to the validity of any of these predictions, however)
Side note – Gizmodo posted this rumor about Steve Jobs on their website. Nothing that wasn’t said before, but there are alleged reliable sources here. Jobs is the Walt Disney of Computing™, let’s hope this rumor is not true. Long live Jobs and I will take one of those Touch Tablets please…
Have a good 2009..
Yeah, Everyone does these. Top 10 – etc.
I thought about it. Techmeme did a nice job of the biggest stories. Thanks end the end-of-year read. So, I’ll analyze it.
- The Yahoo-Microsoft Story – Yeah this had to be the story of the year. Microsoft overbids it turns out for Yahoo. Yahoo plays hard-to-get. Yahoo cozies up to Google. That doesn’t turn out so well. Yahoo is worth a fraction of what Microsoft bid for it. This one is not over by a long shot.
- Apple Announces last year at MacWorld – The fanboys will be onboard anyway and this was their event. (FYI – I carry an iPhone) Apple has plenty of press nowadays, this is not much of a big deal.
- Google Chrome – So far it has been ho-hum. There was a big splash, some people tried it, but this is not a world changer as it turns out. (FYI- it’s my second browser and I love it)
- Apple Developer Connection – The App Store is the single greatest thing about the iPhone.
- Google Spoken iPhone App – Cool and wow. I like the sound of that and it sums up that app nicely. It really does work well. Now is this a story of the year? Um. It could lead to lots of exciting things, but to me, not really a story of the year.
- Google/Valve buy – an interesting rumor that didn’t come true. Google with all that money, all that cash and everyone talking about what to buy. Kinda funny isn’t it?
- RIAA Music lawsuits – Dropping the lawsuits against Grandma Jones, it means little as I expect the RIAA to increase the pressure on the internet providers.
- Google>Microsoft> Digg – Once again see Comment for #6
- Windows 7 – Reports are saying its a glossy version of Vista. I think the timing of this OS may be unfortunate for Microsoft – with the economy stumbling and tech/personal spending in a crunch. If Windows 7 is not a game changer, then this baby may thud.
- iPhone 3G – This was a story that deserved to be way higher on the list. Apple finally put it all together and delivered again a “game changer”.
Wasn’t there an Olympics or something? What about LinkedIn? I’ve been on that for maybe 2/3 years now, but it seems to really have blown up now. Facebook anyone? Twitter? Not really news, but their influence and presence has grown..
The Zero-day XML vulnerabilities once reported to only be affecting IE7 targets are now prompting warning from Microsoft to its customers across all supported versions of its Internet Explorer Web Browser.
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/advisory/961051.mspx
Workaround centers on setting Internet security settings to high and disabling the Ole32db.dll via ACL - not an end user-friendly operation. Apparently the noted attacks have predominantly been noted against IE7 and on Chinese sites. It exploits the way IE handles XML. The exploit could potentially be used to access several types of sensitive data, however thus far it is only reported to be stealing passwords for computer games.
There are reports that Microsoft is considering fixing the flaw through an emergency software patch outside of the standard “Patch Tuesday”.
Now is a good time to give Google Chrome a try.
Lofty goals are important. Changes in the technology continuum create a better experience for everyone. No doubt about it. Things like the rise of Google, Youtube, Ebay, and so forth are all examples to that.
Something new comes along, some folks make money, a leap in technology is made and everyone plays catchup. And then we are all better off.
So let’s talk about this Chrome business. Now, just because a browser is better doesn’t mean people will use it. The only thing that will change Internet Explorer’s dominance is knocking Windows off the desktop. Don’t hold your breath.
I have been a Firefox user for years. I use IE when I have to. I love the flexibility, quickness, the tabbed browsing, extensions, etc all that stuff that makes it a 100X superior browser to Internet Explorer. And I have tried to get so many people to change over. Technical people, non-technical people, you name it. The bottom line is Internet Explorer is good enough. There are enough new features being released in IE that few but the technically elite will bother to change. I am also betting that most people that switch to Chrome will be Firefox users at least at first.
What will undeniably happen is that all the browsers will keep pace as well, transforming the web as we know it in the long run. Chrome and Firefox need Internet Explorer and vice versa. At the root of it all is a focus on Google Chrome to be the platform for their web-based Apps. We will have to see if this incentive along with the technical prowess of this browser is enough to turn the tide.
So give Chrome a whirl, know this is a first version. Some things will come up as Alex Lewis has mentioned, but they can and will improve. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves and proclaim this will knock Microsoft’s browser out of the box. Maybe with steady improvements and some marketing or a tie-in with an Android-based phone revolution, we will see something significant in the long-run. This is certainly significant news and it could be one piece to a grand story that remains to be told.
Just a short note on Google Chrome. I downloaded it today to try it out. I had not idea how hard that would be. The download was easy but it doesn’t seem to work with a lot of webpages. Most importantly for me if you try to visit Outlook Web Access the Exchange 2007 CAS server will force you into downlevel “OWA Light”. Any browser I use absolutely must support the full functionality of OWA. Maybe I shouldn’t have had such high expectations from a beta product but I expected more from Google given all the hype.
My opinion is Chrome will have a somewhat limited use scenario once the novelty wears off. There’s a lot of potential with google app integration, but the web is full of unrealized potential (see Google, youTube, monetization).
Today is Labor Day and I promised my family that I would take the day off, but just can’t resist this story about Chrome. It’s a great conversation and an important project - The web needs a Modern Browser and it’s called Chrome.
I’m taking the day off but would love to hear from anyone about what a Modern Browser looks like?
Phil Lenssen has the story about the upcoming announcement.
Over on my personal opinion blog I talked about the implication of this being an operating system war. There I talk about this being an operating system war in full action. One between Microsoft and Google. Google is coming out with their own browser called Chrome. This browser is a direct maneuver to block Microsoft IE8 (and other msft moves) from cutting off Google’s ‘hooks’ in search and desktop environments.
Chrome - Beyond Search - Chrome goes beyond search. Google having a browser (Chrome) is strategic. It’s just one piece of the user environment (aka the edge software) that Google needs to own to have a fully functional operating system. By making Chrome open source Google sends a message to the army of software developers that the Google platform is worthy to develop ontop of. Also Google garners the support from a growing and rabid community of developers while deflect any policy and antitrust discussions.
From a platform perspective Chrome as an open source development project increases the range of edge devices that the software can be ported to. I am talking about Android both phone and set top box environments. Open sourcing the project is good for developers and if played right great for Google. We will see which company is friendlier to developers - meaning how does each platform vendor incorporate new developer technology.
Impact on Startups
I am very bullish on Chrome as a good thing to push competition and innovation. It will be a good thing for startups to leverage this massive platform shift. For startups it’s an opportunity if you can see the vision of these platforms then intersect a business or technology deal into it.
Good Luck Google and I hope to see startups and 3rd party technology in the platform. For me success will be judged by the user experience and the amount of 3rd party participation. Google will fail if they can’t build a developer ecosystem around their platform.