May che bien go minh nguyen

Mobile TV

Mobile TV is a name used to describe a service to subscribers via mobile telecommunications networks, most probably the mobile phone carriers. South Korea is at the forefront of this developing sector and BT in the United Kingdom was the first company outside Korea to implement Mobile TV.

Mobile TV involves bringing TV services to the mobile phones. It combines the services of a mobile phone with television content and represents a logical step both for consumers and operators and content providers. Mobile TV over cellular networks allows viewers to enjoy personalized, interactive TV with content specifically adapted to the mobile medium. The services and viewing experience of mobile TV over cellular networks differs in a variety of ways from traditional TV viewing. In addition to mobility, mobile TV delivers a variety of services including video-on-demand, traditional/linear and live TV programs. Another exciting opportunity for users is Mobile TV pod casts, where content is delivered to a user’s mobile on demand or by subscriptions. Stored locally on the handset, this content can then be viewed even when there’s no network connection. And a service provider can schedule the delivery to “off-peak” hours, for example during the night.

Technically, there are currently two main ways of delivering mobile TV. The first is via a two-way cellular network and the second is through a one-way dedicated broadcast network. These include digital video broadcasting-handheld (DVB-H), digital multimedia broadcasting (DMB), TDtv (based on TD-CDMA technology from [IPWireless]), 1seg (based on Japan's ISDB-T), DAB and MediaFLO. None is ideal as all have drawbacks of one kind or another: spectral frequencies used or needed, signal strength required, new antennas and towers, network capacity required, or business model.

Using the existing 3G (WCDMA/HSPA) network is the fastest and easiest way to get Mobile TV off the ground. It allows for the quick start an operator needs to grab the initiative and develop relationships with both customers and content providers. There is more than enough capacity in 3G networks to scale up for a mass market of Mobile TV services, particularly if an operator has HSPA as this will provide for several steps of capacity increases. And MBMS (Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Service), which means broadcast over 3G networks, will soon allow a traffic channel to be shared by all the users that are simultaneously watching the same program in the same area. MBMS complements HSPA to support higher loads in dense areas and ensure efficient network utilization.

However out of the 120 plus commercially launched mobile TV services worldwide, more than 90% of these are based on existing two-way cellular networks, using unicast. With unicast, content is transmitted separately from a single source to a single destination, like from a server to a mobile handset. And that is how each individual can get the content they want. With broadcast, the same content is delivered to a very large number of mobile handsets in a single transmission.

By using a combination of unicast and broadcast, network capacity and investments can be optimized. Broadcast bearers can be used for the most popular programs, and an unlimited number of additional programs and on-demand content can continue to be delivered efficiently using unicast. In the combined unicast–broadcast scenario, the user will not notice any difference in how content is delivered. The user will have a single user interface (TV client) in the terminal to access all content. This combination unicast and broadcast provides the best way to meet personalization and mass market.

* Device Manufacturer’s challenges


1. High Power Consumption: Battery technology for mobile portable devices may be stuck in a rat's race. Battery life improved can be eaten up by the upgraded mobile content and enhanced functions. However, dashtop mobile devices can be powered by 12-volt vehicle battery, but the vehicle battery will not be a total solution for portable mobile.

2. Memory: To support the high buffer requirements of the mobile TV. Current memory capabilities will not be suited for long hours of mobile TV viewing. Furthermore, potential future applications like peer to peer video sharing in mobile phones and consumer broadcasting would definitely add to the increasing memory requirements. The existing P2P algorithms won't be enough for mobile devices, necessiating the advent of 'mobile P2P' algorithms. There is one start-up technology that claims patentability on its mobile P2P, but has not drawn attention from 'device manufacturers' yet. Due to patent protection, it cannot be disclosed here.

3. User Interface Design: A large number of mobile phones do not support mobile TV; users have to purchase new handsets with improved LCD display and user interface that support mobile TV. This new design has to appeal to the end-users and increase the clarity of images without making the handset very bulky. The wider LCD touchscreens will be preferred by end-users and iPhone's popularity in the Unites States is part of the compelling evidence.

4. Processing Power: Device manufacturers should improve the processing power significantly to support a MIPS intensive application like mobile TV.


* Content Provider’s challenges


The mobile TV industry opens up a new market for the content specifically tailored for mobile TVs. These could include making new mobisodes –mobile episodes of popular shows which are relatively shorter in length (3 to 5 minutes), modifying the content to suit mobile TV. Providers need to think of innovative ways of editing content, increasing close-up shots for clarity on small screen, etc.

European Union feels it urgent to choose a single standard for mobile TV in European nations. EU seems determined to pick one standard by 2008, and indications are that EU is inclined to back Nokia-led DVB-H, while European broadcasters count on market mechanism.

* GPRS
* 3G
* DVB-H (Digital Video Broadcasting for Handhelds) - available in Europe, US, South Africa and Asia
* S-DMB (Satellite Digital Multimedia Broadcast) - South Korea, Japan
* CMMB (China Mobile Multimedia Broadcasting) - China
* MediaFLO - launched in US, trialled in UK and Germany
* ISDB-T (Integrated Service Digital Broadcasting) - Japan and Brazil
* T-DMB (Terrestial Digital Mulitmedia Broadcast) - South Korea, Germany
* DAB-IP (Digital Audio Broadcast) - UK

Laptop

A laptop computer, or simply laptop (also notebook computer or notebook), is a small mobile computer, which usually weighs 2-18 pounds (1-6 kilograms), depending on size, materials, and other factors.

A laptop computer is much smaller than a desktop. Laptops usually run on a single main battery or from an external AC/DC adapter which can charge the battery while also supplying power to the computer itself. Many computers also have a 3 volt cell to run the clock and other processes in the event of a power failure.

As personal computers, laptops are capable of the same tasks as a desktop computer, although they are typically less powerful for the same price. They contain components that are similar to their desktop counterparts and perform the same functions, but are miniaturized and optimized for mobile use and efficient power consumption. Laptops usually have liquid crystal displays and most of them use different memory modules for their random access memory (RAM), for instance, SO-DIMM in lieu of the larger DIMMs. In addition to a built-in keyboard, they may utilize a touchpad (also known as a trackpad) or a pointing stick for input, though an external keyboard or mouse can usually be attached.

UMPCs
These Ultra-Mobile PCs are mobile computers with a size comparable to PDAs - they are extremely portable. Because of their small size, they incorporate a 20 cm (7 inch) or smaller touch-screen for the user to interact with it (as with a virtual keyboard), though some (such as the OQO Model 02) are designed with a miniature physical keyboard (a thumbboard) and mouse interface. They house lower performing, power-saving components (in comparison to larger laptops). Examples of UMPCs are the OQO Model 02 and the Sony VAIO UX Micro PC.
Ultraportables
Laptops with screens typically less than 12 (30cm) inches diagonally and a weight of less than 3-5 lbs (1.4 - 2.3 kgs). Their keyboards are usually not full-size. Their primary audience is usually business travelers, who need small, light laptops. Ultraportables are often very expensive, have extended battery life, house power-saving CPUs and almost always have integrated graphics. However Dell released the XPS M1210 and XPS M1330 which has 12.1 and 13.3 inch screens. Both system have dedicated graphic solution and they are under 2kg. The end result is ultraportability and a hefty price tag.

A Sony VAIO FJ76 Notebook
A Sony VAIO FJ76 Notebook

Thin-and-lights
Laptops usually weighing in between 4-6 lbs (1.8 - 2.7 kgs) with a screen size of between 12 and 14 inches (30 - 35cm) diagonally. Examples of this variety: the Sony VAIO CR , HP Pavilion DV2000 and Apple MacBook.

Mainstream
Laptops weighing in between 5 and 7 lbs (2.3 - 3.2 kgs),with a screen size of 14.1 inches (35cm) and 15.4 inches (39.1) .Examples:Dell Inspiron E1405, E1505,1420,1520/1521 and 1501, Acer Aspire 5520, 5920

Desktop replacement computers
Powerful laptops meant to be mainly used in a fixed location and infrequently carried out due to their weight and size; the latter provides more space for powerful components and a big screen, usually measuring 17-20 inches (43 - 51 cm). Desktop replacements tend to have limited battery life, rarely exceeding three hours, because the hardware is not optimized for efficient power usage. Sometimes called a luggable laptop. An example of a desktop replacement computers are gaming notebooks, which are designed to handle 3D graphic-intensive processing for gamers. These notebooks possess similar features as desktop computers.An example of this is the Dell Inspiron E1705,1720/1721, XPS 1710, 2010, Sony AR, Acer Aspire 7720 and Apple MacBook Pro.

[edit] Related devices

Laptops can be understood as a particular point on the continuum of more or less portable computing devices: the point at which the device is large enough to use substantially the same software as a desktop machine, but small enough to support Mobile computing. Other points on the continuum include:

Transportables, also called portable computers
Computers which can easily be moved from place to place, but cannot be used while in transit, usually because they require AC power. The most famous example is the Osborne 1. A transportable, like a laptop, can run desktop software; but it does not support mobile computing.

Tablets
Computers shape like slates or (paper) notebooks, with touchscreen interfaces include a magnetized stylus and software for allowing input to be recognized by the touch screen. As of 2007, the most common subcategory is the Tablet PC, which is essentially a laptop with a touchscreen. Some tablets have no keyboard; others, called "convertibles", have a screes which can be rotated 180 degrees and folded on top of the keyboard. Tablets may have limited functionality in certain applications that require an actual physical keyboard for typing, but are otherwise capable of carrying out most tasks that an ordinary laptop would be able to perform.

Internet tablets
Internet appliances in tablet form. An internet tablet supports mobile computing, Internet tablets usually use linux and theyre able to run some applications but they cant replace a computer, Internet tablet feature a MP3,Video, Internet Browser, Chat, and picture viewer

Personal digital assistants (PDAs)
Small computers, usually pocket-sized, usually with limited functionality. A PDA supports mobile computing, but almost never runs any desktop software.

Handheld computers
A high-end PDA or small tablet.

Smartphone
A handheld or PDA with an integrated cellphone.

As will be clear, these categories are blurry at times. For example, the OQO UPC is a PDA-sized Tablet PC; the Apple eMate had the clamshell form factor of a laptop, but ran PDA software. The HP Omnibook line of laptops included some devices small enough to be called handheld computers.they are very good. The hardware of the Nokia 770 Internet tablet is essentially the same as that of a PDA such as the Zaurus 6000; the only reason it's not called a PDA is that it doesn't have PIM software. On the other hand, both the 770 and the Zaurus can run some desktop Linux software, usually with modifications.
An opened Osborne 1 computer, ready for use. The keyboard sits on the inside of the lid.
An opened Osborne 1 computer, ready for use. The keyboard sits on the inside of the lid.

[edit] History

Before laptop/notebook computers were technically feasible, similar ideas had been proposed, most notably Alan Kay's Dynabook concept, developed at Xerox PARC in the early 1970s.

The first commercially available portable computer was the Osborne 1 in 1981, which used the CP/M operating system. Although it was large and heavy compared to today's laptops, with a tiny CRT monitor, it had a near-revolutionary impact on business, as professionals were able to take their computer and data with them for the first time. This and other "luggables" were inspired by what was probably the first portable computer, the Xerox NoteTaker, again developed at Xerox PARC, in 1976; however, only ten prototypes were built. The Osborne was about the size of a portable sewing machine, and importantly could be carried on a commercial aircraft. However, it was not possible to run the Osborne on batteries: it had to be plugged into mains.

In 1982 Kaypro introduced the Kaypro II, a CP/M-based competitor to the Osborne 1. The Kaypro II featured a display nearly twice as big as the Osborne's and double-sided floppy drives with twice the storage capacity.

A more enduring success was the Compaq Portable, the first product from Compaq, introduced in 1983, by which time the IBM Personal Computer had become the standard platform. Although scarcely more portable than the Osborne machines, and also requiring AC power to run, it ran MS-DOS and was the first true IBM clone (IBM's own later Portable Computer, which arrived in 1984, was notably less IBM PC-compatible than the Compaq[citation needed]).

Another significant machine announced in 1981, although first sold widely in 1983, was the Epson HX-20. A simple handheld computer, it featured a full-transit 68-key keyboard, rechargeable nickel-cadmium batteries, a small (120 x 32-pixel) dot-matrix LCD display with 4 lines of text, 20 characters per line text mode, a 24 column dot matrix printer, a Microsoft BASIC interpreter, and 16 KB of RAM (expandable to 32 KiB).

However, arguably the first true laptop was the GRiD Compass 1101, designed by Bill Moggridge in 1979-1980, and released in 1982. Enclosed in a magnesium case, it introduced the now familiar clamshell design, in which the flat display folded shut against the keyboard. The computer could be run from batteries, and was equipped with a 320×200-pixel plasma display and 384 kibibyte bubble memory. It was not IBM-compatible, and its high price (US$ 8-10,000) limited it to specialized applications. However, it was used heavily by the U.S. military, and by NASA on the Space Shuttle during the 1980s. The GRiD's manufacturer subsequently earned significant returns on its patent rights as its innovations became commonplace. GRiD Systems Corp. was later bought by Tandy (RadioShack).

Two other noteworthy early laptops were the Sharp PC-5000 and the Gavilan SC, announced in 1983 but first sold in 1984. The Gavilan was notably the first computer to be marketed as a "laptop". It was also equipped with a pioneering touchpad-like pointing device, installed on a panel above the keyboard. Like the GRiD Compass, the Gavilan and the Sharp were housed in clamshell cases, but they were partly IBM-compatible, although primarily running their own system software. Both had LCD displays, and could connect to optional external printers. The Dulmont Magnum, launched internationally in 1984, was an Australian portable similar in layout to the Gavilan, which used the Intel 80186 processor.[1]

The year 1983 also saw the launch of what was probably the biggest-selling early laptop, the Kyocera Kyotronic 85, which owed much to the design of the previous Epson HX-20. Although it was at first a slow seller in Japan, it was quickly licensed by Tandy Corporation, Olivetti, and NEC, which saw its potential and marketed it respectively as TRS-80 Model 100 line (or Tandy 100), Olivetti M-10, NEC PC-8201.[2] The machines ran on standard AA batteries. The Tandy's built-in programs, including a BASIC interpreter, a text editor, and a terminal program, were supplied by Microsoft, and are thought to have been written in part by Bill Gates himself. The computer was not a clamshell, but provided a tiltable 8×40-character LCD screen above a full-travel keyboard. With its internal modem, it was a highly portable communications terminal. Due to its portability, good battery life (and ease of replacement), reliability (it had no moving parts), and low price (as little as US$ 300), the model was highly regarded, becoming a favorite among journalists. It weighed less than 2 kg with dimensions of 30 × 21.5 × 4.5 cm (12 × 8.5 × 1.75 inches). Initial specifications included 8 kilobytes of RAM (expandable to 24 KB) and a 3 MHz processor. The machine was in fact about the size of a paper notebook, but the term had yet to come into use and it was generally described as a "portable" computer.

Possibly the first commercial IBM-compatible laptop was the Kaypro 2000, introduced in 1985. With its brushed aluminum clamshell case, it was remarkably similar in design to modern laptops. It featured a 25 line by 80 character LCD display, a detachable keyboard, and a pop-up 3.5 inch floppy drive.

Also among the first commercial IBM-compatible laptops were the IBM PC Convertible, introduced in 1986, and two Toshiba models, the T1000 and T1200, introduced in 1987. Although limited floppy-based DOS machines, with the operating system stored in read-only memory, the Toshiba models were small and light enough to be carried in a backpack, and could be run off lead-acid batteries. These also introduced the now-standard "resume" feature to DOS-based machines: the computer could be paused between sessions, without having to be restarted each time.

The first laptops successful on a large scale came in large part due to a Request For Proposal (RFP) by the U.S. Air Force in 1987. This contract would eventually lead to the purchase of over 200,000 laptops. Competition to supply this contract was fiercely contested and the major PC companies of the time; IBM, Toshiba, Compaq, NEC, and Zenith Data Systems (ZDS), rushed to develop laptops in an attempt to win this deal. ZDS, which had earlier won a landmark deal with the IRS for its Z-171, was awarded this contract for its SupersPort series. The SupersPort series was originally launched with an Intel 8086 processor, dual floppy disk drives, a backlit, blue and white STN LCD screen, and a NiCD battery pack. Later models featured an Intel 80286 processor and a 20 MB hard disk drive. On the strength of this deal, ZDS became the world's largest laptop supplier in 1987 and 1988. ZDS partnered with Tottori Sanyo in the design and manufacturing of these laptops. This relationship is notable because it was the first deal between a major brand and an Asian original equipment manufacturer.

Another notable computer was the Cambridge Z88, designed by Clive Sinclair, introduced in 1988. About the size of an A4 sheet of paper as well, it ran on standard batteries, and contained basic spreadsheet, word processing, and communications programs. It anticipated the future miniaturization of the portable computer; and, as a ROM-based machine with a small display, can — like the TRS-80 Model 100 — also be seen as a forerunner of the personal digital assistant.

By the end of the 1980s, laptop computers were becoming popular among business people. The NEC UltraLite, released in mid-1989, was perhaps the first notebook computer, weighing just over 2 kg; in lieu of a floppy or hard drive, it contained a 2 mebibyte RAM drive, but this reduced its utility as well as its size. The first notebook computers to include hard drives were those of the Compaq LTE series, introduced toward the end of that year. Truly the size of a notebook, they also featured grayscale backlit displays with CGA resolution.
The Macintosh Portable, Apple's first attempt at a battery-powered computer
The Macintosh Portable, Apple's first attempt at a battery-powered computer

The first Apple Computer machine designed to be used on the go was the 1989 Macintosh Portable (although an LCD screen had been an option for the transportable Apple IIc in 1984). Actually a "luggable", the Mac Portable was praised for its clear active matrix display and long battery life, but was a poor seller due to its bulk. In the absence of a true Apple laptop, several compatible machines such as the Outbound Laptop were available for Mac users; however, for copyright reasons, the user had to supply a set of Mac ROMs, which usually meant having to buy a new or used Macintosh as well.

The Apple PowerBook series, introduced in October 1991, pioneered changes that are now de facto standards on laptops, such as the placement of the keyboard, room for palm rest, and the inclusion of a built-in pointing device (a trackball). The following year, IBM released its ThinkPad 700C, featuring a similar design (though with a distinctive red TrackPoint pointing device).

Later PowerBooks introduced the first 256-color displays (PowerBook 165c, 1993), and first true touchpad, first 16-bit sound recording, and first built-in Ethernet network adapter (PowerBook 500, 1994).

In 1994, IBM IBM released RS/6000 N40 PowerPC laptop running AIX (Operating system based on UNIX), manufactured by Tadpole. Tadpole also manufactured laptops based on SPARC and DEC_Alpha CPUs.

The summer of 1995 was a significant turning point in the history of notebook computing. In August of that year Microsoft introduced Windows 95. It was the first time that Microsoft had placed much of the power management control in the operating system. Prior to this point each brand used custom BIOS, drivers and in some cases, ASICs, to optimize the battery life of its machines. This move by Microsoft was controversial in the eyes of notebook designers because it greatly reduced their ability to innovate; however, it did serve its role in simplifying and stabilizing certain aspects of notebook design. Windows 95 also ushered in the importance of the CD-ROM drive in mobile computing and initiated the shift to the Intel Pentium processor as the base platform for notebooks. The Gateway Solo was the first notebook introduced with a Pentium processor and a CD-ROM. By also featuring a removable hard disk drive and floppy drive it was the first three-spindle (optical, floppy, and hard disk drive) notebook computer. The Gateway Solo was extremely successful within the consumer segment of the market. In roughly the same time period the Dell Latitude, Toshiba Satellite, and IBM ThinkPad were reaching great success with Pentium-based two-spindle (hard disk and floppy disk drive) systems directed toward the corporate market.
A 1997 Micron laptop
A 1997 Micron laptop

As technology improved during the 1990s, the usefulness and popularity of laptops increased. Correspondingly prices went down. Several developments specific to laptops were quickly implemented, improving usability and performance. Among them were:

* Improved battery technology. The heavy lead-acid batteries were replaced with lighter and more efficient technologies, first nickel cadmium or NiCD, then nickel metal hydride (NiMH) and then lithium ion battery and lithium polymer.

* Power-saving processors. While laptops in 1991 were limited to the 80286 processor because of the energy demands of the more powerful 80386, the introduction of the Intel 386SL processor, designed for the specific power needs of laptops, marked the point at which laptop needs were included in CPU design. The 386SL integrated a 386SX core with a memory controller and this was paired with an I/O chip to create the SL chipset. It was more integrated than any previous solution although its cost was higher. It was heavily adopted by the major notebook brands of the time. Intel followed this with the 486SL chipset which used the same architecture. However, Intel had to abandon this design approach as it introduced its Pentium series. Early versions of the mobile Pentium required TAB mounting (also used in LCD manufacturing) and this initially limited the number of companies capable of supplying notebooks. However, Intel did eventually migrate to more standard chip packaging. One limitation of notebooks has always been the difficulty in upgrading the processor which is a common attribute of desktops. Intel did try to solve this problem with the introduction of the MMC for mobile computing. The MMC was a standard module upon which the CPU and external cache memory could sit. It gave the notebook buyer the potential to upgrade his CPU at a later date, eased the manufacturing process somewhat, and was also used in some cases to skirt U.S. import duties as the CPU could be added to the chassis after it arrived in the U.S. Intel stuck with MMC for a few generations but ultimately could not maintain the appropriate speed and data integrity to the memory subsystem through the MMC connector.

* Improved liquid crystal displays, in particular active-matrix TFT (Thin-Film Transistor) LCD technology. Early laptop screens were black and white, blue and white, or grayscale, STN (Super Twist Nematic) passive-matrix LCDs prone to heavy shadows, ghosting and blurry movement (some portable computer screens were sharper monochrome plasma displays, but these drew too much current to be powered by batteries). Color STN screens were used for some time although their viewing quality was poor. By about 1991 , two new color LCD technologies hit the mainstream market in a big way; Dual STN and TFT. The Dual STN screens solved many of the viewing problems of STN at a very affordable price and the TFT screens offered excellent viewing quality although initially at a steep price. DSTN continued to offer a significant cost advantage over TFT until the mid-90s before the cost delta dropped to the point that DSTN was no longer used in notebooks. Improvements in production technology meant displays became larger, sharper, had higher native resolutions, faster response time and could display color with great accuracy, making them an acceptable substitute for a traditional CRT monitor.

* Improved storage technology. Early laptops and portables had only floppy disk drives. As thin, high-capacity hard disk drives with higher reliability and shock resistance and lower power consumption became available, users could store their work on laptop computers and take it with them. The 3.5" HDD was created initially as a response to the needs of notebook designers that needed smaller, lower power consumption products. With continuing pressure to shrink the notebook size even further, the 2.5" HDD was introduced. One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) and other new laptops use Flash (non volatile, non mechanical memory device) instead of the mechanical hard disk.

* Improved connectivity. Internal modems and standard serial, parallel, and PS/2 ports on IBM PC-compatible laptops made it easier to work away from home; the addition of network adapters and, from 1997, USB, as well as, from 1999, Wi-Fi, made laptops as easy to use with peripherals as a desktop computer. Several laptops also have built in 3G Broadband wireless modem.

* Other peripherals such as video camera and fingerprint sensor.

To meet Wikipedia's quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup because it is in a list format that may be better presented using prose.
You can help by converting this section to prose, if appropriate. Editing help is available.
This section has been tagged since September 2007.
Hard disk from a Dell Latitude
Hard disk from a Dell Latitude

* Most modern laptops feature 12 inch (30.5 cm) or larger active matrix displays with resolutions of 1024×768-pixels and above, and have a PC Card (formerly PCMCIA) or ExpressCard expansion bay for expansion cards. Internal hard disks are physically smaller –2.5 inch (6.25 cm)– compared to the standard desktop 3.5 inch (9 cm) drive, and usually have lower performance and power consumption. Video and sound chips are usually integrated. This tends to limit the use of laptops for gaming and entertainment, two fields which have constantly escalating hardware demands.[citation needed] However, higher end laptops can come with dedicated graphics processors, such as the Dell Inspiron E1505 and E1705, which can be bought with an ATI Mobility Radeon X1300 or similar. These mobile graphics processors tend to have less performance than their desktop counterparts, but this is because they have been optimized for lower power usage.
* There is a wide range of laptop specific processors available from Intel (Pentium M, Celeron, Intel Core and Intel Core 2) and from AMD (Athlon, Turion 64, and Sempron) and also from VIA (C3 and C7-M). Motorola and IBM developed and manufactured the chips for the former PowerPC-based Apple laptops (iBook and PowerBook). Generally, laptop processors are less powerful than their desktop counterparts, due to the need to save energy and reduce heat dissipation. However, the PowerPC G3 and G4 processor generations were able to offer almost the same performance as their desktop versions, limited mostly by other factors, such as the system bus bandwidth; recently, though, with the introduction of the G5s, they have been far outstripped. At one point, the Pismo G3, at up to 500 MHz, was faster than the fastest desktop G3 (then the B&W G3), which ran at 450 MHz.

Some parts for a modern laptop have no corresponding part in a desktop computer:

* Current models use lithium ion and more recently lithium polymer batteries, which have largely replaced the older nickel metal-hydride technology. Typical battery life for most laptops is two to five hours with light-duty use, but may drop to as little as one hour with intensive use. Batteries gradually deteriorate over time and eventually need to be replaced in one to five years, depending on the charging and discharging pattern.

A memory chip removed from a high-performance Alienware laptop
A memory chip removed from a high-performance Alienware laptop

* Docking stations became common laptop accessories in the early 1990s. They typically were quite large and offered 3.5" and 5.25" storage bays, one to three expansion slots (typically AT style), and a host of connectors. The mating between the laptop and docking station was typically through a large, high-speed, proprietary connector. The most common use was in a corporate computing environment where the company had standardized on a common network card and this same card was placed into the docking station. These stations were very large and quite expensive. As the need to additional storage and expansion slots became less critical because of the high integration inside the laptop itself, the emergence of the Port Replicator as a major accessory commenced. The Port Replicator was often a passive device that simply mated to the connectors on the back of the notebook and allowed the user to quickly connect their laptop so VGA, PS/2, RS-232, etc. devices were instantly attached. As higher speed ports like USB and Firewire became commonplace, the Port Replication was accomplished by a small cable connected to one of the USB 2.0 or FireWire ports on the notebooks. Wireless Port Replicators followed.
* Virtually all laptops can be powered from an external AC converter. This device typically adds half a kilogram (1 lb) to the overall "transport weight" of the equipment.
* A pointing stick or touchpad is used to control the position of the cursor on the screen. The pointing stick is usually a rubber dot that is located between the G, H and B keys on the laptop keyboard. To navigate the cursor, pressure is applied in the direction intended to move. The touchpad is touch-sensitive and the cursor can be navigated by moving the finger on the pad.

Intel, Asus, Compal, Quanta and other laptop manufacturers have created Common Building Block standard for laptop parts.

[edit] Disadvantages

[edit] Standardization issues

While there are accepted world standards of form factors for all the peripherals and add-in PC cards used in the desktop computers, there are still no firm worldwide standards relating to today's laptops' form factors internally, such as supply of electric voltage, motherboard layouts, internal adapters used in connecting the hard disk, optical drive, LCD cable, keyboard and floppy drive to the main board. Most affected by this are uneducated users, especially if they attempt to connect their laptops with incompatible hardware or power adapters.

Laptops are more complex than simple-to-use consumer electronics. A large number of different parts with similar functions may cause some difficulties to repair technicians, as they have to familiarize themselves with different sets of hardware, but this is part of the job in a specialized trade.


Any current compatibility problems in the laptop trade are reflective of the early era of personal computers, when there were many different manufacturers, each and every one of them having their own systems and incompatibility was more a norm.

Some mostly internal or proprietary parts made by laptop producers aren't interchangeable with other manufacturers' products, so that the same manufacturer's components are used with the laptop they produced. Some of the reasons for this are to ensure product stability, prolong product lifetime, to avoid dubious warranty issues and to protect computer beginners from harming their machines.

A significant point to note is that the vast majority of laptops on the market are manufactured by a small handful of ODMs.[3] The ODM matters more than the OEM. Major relationships include:

* Quanta sells to (among others) HP/Compaq, Dell, Toshiba, Sony, Fujitsu, Acer, NEC, Gateway and IBM - note that Quanta is currently (as of August, 2007) the largest manufacturer of notebook computers in the world
* Compal sells to Toshiba, HP/Compaq, Acer, and Dell
* Wistron sells to HP/Compaq, Dell, IBM, NEC, and Acer
* Arima sells to HP/Compaq, NEC, and Dell
* Uniwill/ECS sells to IBM, Fujitsu, and Dell
* Asus sells to Apple (iBook), Sony, and Samsung
* Inventec sells to HP/Compaq, Toshiba, and BenQ

To compensate, some manufacturers have and have had product lines where they have refrained from including some internal hardware in their products by adding in the number of standard hardware outlets and ports, thereby letting users choose their own hardware that they can connect.

In terms of hardware components standardization, PCMCIA/CardBus has proved to be a rather enduring standard. Older laptops lacking a USB port can have a PCMCIA USB/FireWire adapter plugged in. Modern adapters have two to four USB ports or they can be USB/Firewire combo adapters. Thus, such compatibility problems with getting hardware and peripherals connected has nowadays become a non-issue.

[edit] Free software

In some situations, users may have to pay for the additional cost that is wielded by some laptop manufacturers, by using their proprietary hardware extensions and including internal hardware that lacks documentation that would be instrumental in developing free software drivers.

Users of free and open-source software (FOSS) are more affected by this, as internal laptop hardware is not as easy or downright impossible to replace (when hardwired) than with stock desktop PC's. If internal laptop hardware is lacking drivers, it is of little use for free software operating systems (such as Linux and *BSD), and is essentially deadweight. To avoid such hardware, one must carefully research the desired products and choose manufacturers that are known for making good drivers or favoring free and open source software.

[edit] Naming conventions

Naming of features and parts used and/or their categories also differs from manufacturer to manufacturer, such as "system board" used by IBM and "motherboard" used by Compaq, "display cable", "LCD cable", "flexi-cable" are the terms used by the general public refer to the cable connecting the external display to the main board for transferring the digital signal (actual signalling is more or less standardized, though). Hardware problems with cables can be solved by correctly buying the right cables in the first place. Having some cable adapters is handy when dealing with hardware that was manufactured in different time periods by different standards.

The palm rest is called "palm rest" by Dell[4], the "keyboard bezel" by IBM[5] and the "upper CPU cover" by Compaq and HP.[6]

Similarly, some manufacturers prefer the term "Battery Life," while others use "Battery Run Time," to describe how long a laptop battery is able to supply operating power to the Laptop when disconnected from main power supply.

[edit] Upgradeability

Laptops' upgradeability is severely limited, both for technical and economic reasons. As of 2006, there is no industry-wide standard form factor for laptops. Each major laptop vendor pursues its own proprietary design and construction, with the result that laptops are difficult to upgrade and exhibit high repair costs. With few exceptions, laptop components can rarely be swapped between laptops of competing manufacturers, or even between laptops from the different product-lines of the same manufacturer. Standard feature peripherals (such as audio, video, USB, 1394, WiFi, Bluetooth) are generally integrated on the main PCB (motherboard), and thus upgrades often require using external ports, card slots, or wireless peripherals. Other components, such as RAM modules, hard drives, and batteries are typically user-upgradeable.

Many laptops have removable CPUs, although support for other CPUs is restricted to the specific models supported by the laptop motherboard. The socketed CPUs are perhaps for the manufacturer's convenience, rather than the end-user, as few manufacturers try new CPUs in last year's laptop model with an eye toward selling upgrades rather than new laptops. In many other laptops, the CPU is soldered and non-replaceable. [7]

Many laptops also include an internal MiniPCI slot, often occupied by a WiFi or Bluetooth card, but as with the CPU, the internal slot is often restricted in the range of cards that can be installed. The widespread adoption of USB mitigates I/O connectivity to a great degree, although the user must carry the USB peripheral as a separate item.

NVidia and ATI have proposed a standardized interface for laptop GPU upgrades (such as an MXM), but again, choices are limited compared to the desktop PCIe/AGP after-market.

On January 2007, Asus announced XG Station external video card for laptops. XG Station is connected to the laptops using USB-2 and Express card interface.

On February 2007, there is a new standard for external PCI Express cable and connector. Future laptops can be expanded using external PCI Express backplane and chassis.

A modern mid-range HP Laptop. It is best used as a desktop replacement
A modern mid-range HP Laptop. It is best used as a desktop replacement

For a given price range (and manufacturing base), laptop computational power has traditionally trailed that of desktops. This is partly due to most laptops sharing RAM between the program memory and the graphics adapter. By virtue of their usage goals, laptops prioritize energy efficiency and compactness over absolute performance. Desktop computers and their modular components are built to fit much bigger standard enclosures, along with the expectation of AC line power. As such, energy efficiency and portability for desktops are secondary design goals compared to absolute performance.

For typical home (personal use) applications, where the computer spends the majority of its time sitting idle for the next user input, laptops of the thin-client type or larger are generally fast enough to achieve the required performance. 3D gaming, multimedia (video) encoding and playback, and analysis-packages (database, math, engineering, financial, etc.) are areas where desktops still offer the casual user a compelling advantage.

With the advent of dual-core processors and perpendicular recording, laptops are beginning to close the performance gap with PCs. Intel's Core 2 line of processors is efficient enough to be used in portable computers, and many manufacturers such as Apple and Dell are building Core 2 based laptops. Also, many high end laptop computers feature mobility versions of graphics cards, eliminating the performance losses associated with integrated graphics.

Laptop coaster preventing heating of lap and improving laptop airflow.
Laptop coaster preventing heating of lap and improving laptop airflow.

A study by State University of New York researchers says heat generated from laptops can significantly elevate the temperature of the scrotum, potentially putting sperm count at risk. The study, which included more than two dozen men ages 13 to 35, found that the sitting position required to balance a laptop can raise scrotum temperature by as much as 2.1°C. Heat from the laptop itself can raise the temperature by another 0.7°C, bringing the potential total increase to 2.8°C. However, further research is needed to determine whether this directly affects sterility in men. [8] A common practical solution to this problem is to place the laptop on a table or desk.


Laptops are generally prized targets of theft, and theft of laptops can lead to more serious problems such as identity theft from stolen credit card numbers.[9] Most laptops have a Kensington security slot to chain the computer to a desk with a third party security cable. In addition to this, modern operating systems and software may have disk encryption functionality that renders the data on the laptop's hard drive unreadable without a key, providing the laptop was not turned on while stolen.

Mozilla Firefox

Mozilla Firefox is a web browser developed by the Mozilla Corporation and a large community of external contributors under the control of the non profit Mozilla Foundation. Features included with Firefox are tabbed browsing, spell checker, incremental find (via the Find toolbar), Live bookmarking, an integrated download manager, and a search system that includes Google.

Firefox's source code is available under the terms of the Mozilla tri-license (MPL/GPL/LGPL) as free and open source software.[3] This has allowed third party developers to create Add-ons which provide specialist functionality. There are more than 2000 add-ons[4] with the most popular including Forecastfox (weather forecasts), FoxyTunes (MP3 player), AdBlock Plus (block ads), StumbleUpon (website discovery) and DownThemAll! (download functions).[5]

Firefox is officially abbreviated as Fx or fx [6] and popularly abbreviated FF.[7] It is a cross-platform browser, providing support for various versions of Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X and Linux. The current stable release of Firefox is version 2.0.0.8, released on October 18, 2007.[8]

According to Market Share by Net Applications, 14.88% of the world's Web browsers used Firefox in September 2007, with 14.42% using version 1.5 or higher.

Dave Hyatt and Blake Ross began working on the Firefox project as an experimental branch of the Mozilla project. They believed the commercial requirements of Netscape's sponsorship and developer-driven feature creep compromised the utility of the Mozilla browser.[11] To combat what they saw as the Mozilla Suite's software bloat, they created a pared-down browser, with which they intended to replace the Mozilla Suite. On April 3, 2003, the Mozilla Organization announced that they planned to change their focus from the Mozilla Suite to Firefox and Thunderbird.[12]

The Firefox project has undergone several name changes. Originally titled Phoenix, it was renamed because of trademark issues with Phoenix Technologies. The replacement name, Firebird, provoked an intense response from the Firebird free database software project.[13][14][15] In response, the Mozilla Foundation stated that the browser should always bear the name Mozilla Firebird to avoid confusion with the database software. Continuing pressure from the database server's development community forced another change; on February 9, 2004, Mozilla Firebird became Mozilla Firefox (Firefox for short).[16]

The Firefox project went through many versions before 1.0 was released on November 9, 2004. In addition to stability and security fixes, the Mozilla Foundation released its first major update to Firefox version 1.5 on November 29, 2005. On October 24, 2006, Mozilla released Firefox 2. This version includes updates to the tabbed browsing environment, the extensions manager, the GUI, and the find, search and software update engines; a new session restore feature; inline spell checking; and an anti-phishing feature which was implemented by Google as an extension[17][18] and later merged into the program itself

Features included with Firefox are tabbed browsing, spell checker, incremental find (via the Find toolbar), Live bookmarking, an integrated download manager, and a search system that includes Google. The developers of Firefox aimed to produce a browser that "just surfs the web"[20] and delivers the "best possible browsing experience to the widest possible set of people."[21]

Users can customize Firefox with extensions and themes. Mozilla maintains an add-on repository at addons.mozilla.org with nearly 2000 add-ons in it as of September 2007.[22]

Firefox provides an environment for web developers in which they can use built-in tools, such as the Error Console or the DOM Inspector, or extensions, such as Firebug.

Mozilla Firefox supports many web standards, including HTML, XML, XHTML, SVG 1.1 (partial)[24], CSS, ECMAScript (JavaScript), DOM, MathML, DTD, XSLT, XPath, and PNG images with alpha transparency.[25] Firefox also supports standards proposals created by the WHATWG such as client-side storage[26][27] and canvas element.[28]

Although Firefox 2 does not pass the Acid2 standards-compliance test, development builds of Firefox 3 do.

Firefox uses SSL/TLS to protect communications with web servers using strong cryptography when using the HTTPS protocol.[30] It uses a sandbox security model[31] and the developers use a "bug bounty" scheme, for finding fixes for some security[32] and feature additions. Official guidelines for handling security vulnerabilities discourage early disclosure of vulnerabilities so as not to give potential attackers an advantage in creating exploits.[33]

Because Firefox has fewer and less severe publicly known unpatched security vulnerabilities than Internet Explorer (see Comparison of web browsers), improved security is often cited as a reason to switch from Internet Explorer to Firefox.[34][35][36][37] The Washington Post reports that exploit code for critical unpatched security vulnerabilities in Internet Explorer was available for 284 days in 2006. In comparison, exploit code for critical security vulnerabilities in Firefox was available for 9 days before Mozilla shipped a patch to remedy the problem.[38]

A 2006 Symantec study showed that Firefox had surpassed other browsers in the number of vendor-confirmed vulnerabilities that year through September; these vulnerabilities were patched far more quickly than those found in other browsers.[39] Symantec later clarified their statement, saying that Firefox still had fewer security vulnerabilities than Internet Explorer, as counted by security researchers.[40] As of October 25, 2007, Firefox 2 has four security vulnerabilities unpatched, the most severe of which was rated "less critical" by Secunia.[41] Internet Explorer has eight security vulnerabilities unpatched, the most severe of which was rated "highly critical" by Secunia.[42]

Firefox is free and open source software, and is tri-licensed under the Mozilla Public License (MPL), GNU General Public License (GPL), and the GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL).[3] These licenses permit anyone to view, modify and/or redistribute the source code, and several publicly released applications have been built on it; for example, Netscape, Flock and Songbird make use of code from Firefox.

The official end-user builds of Firefox distributed from mozilla.com are licensed under the Mozilla EULA.[2] Several elements do not fall under the scope of the tri-license and have their use restricted by the EULA, including the trademarked Firefox name and artwork, and the proprietary Talkback crash reporter. Because of this and the clickwrap agreement included in the Windows version, the Free Software Foundation (FSF) consider these builds proprietary software.[43]

In the past, Firefox was licensed solely under the MPL,[44] which the FSF criticizes for being weak copyleft; the license permits, in limited ways, proprietary derivative works. Additionally, code under the MPL cannot legally be linked with code under the GPL or the LGPL.[45][46] To address these concerns, Mozilla re-licensed Firefox under the tri-license scheme of MPL, GPL, and LGPL. Since the re-licensing, developers have been free to choose the license under which they will receive the code, to suit their intended use: GPL or LGPL linking and derivative works when one of those licenses is chosen, or MPL use (including the possibility of proprietary derivative works) if they choose the MPL

Trademark and logo issues
The generic globe logo used when Firefox is compiled without the official branding
The generic globe logo used when Firefox is compiled without the official branding

The name "Mozilla Firefox" is a registered trademark; along with the official Firefox logo, it may only be used under certain terms and conditions. Anyone may redistribute the official binaries in unmodified form and use the Firefox name and branding for such distribution, but restrictions are placed on distributions which modify the underlying source code.[47]

To allow distributions of the code without using the official branding, the Firefox source code contains a "branding switch". This switch allows the code to be compiled without the official logo and name, for example to produce a derivative work unencumbered by restrictions on the Firefox trademark (this is also often used for betas and alphas of future Firefox versions). In the unbranded compilation the trademarked logo and name are replaced with a freely distributable generic globe logo and the name of the release series from which the modified version was derived. The name "Deer Park" is used for derivatives of Firefox 1.5, "Bon Echo" for derivatives of Firefox 2.0, and "Gran Paradiso" is used for derivatives of Firefox 3.0.

Outside of certain exceptions made for "community editions", distributing modified versions of Firefox under the "Firefox" name requires explicit approval from Mozilla for the changes made to the underlying code, and requires the use of all of the official branding. For example, it is not permissible to use the name "Firefox" without also using the official logo. When the Debian project decided to stop using the official Firefox logo in 2006 (because of restrictions on its use incompatible with the project's guidelines), they were told by a representative of the Mozilla Foundation that this was not acceptable, and were asked to either comply with the published trademark guidelines or cease using the "Firefox" name in their distribution.[48] Ultimately, Debian switched to branding their modified version of Firefox "Iceweasel".

The rapid adoption of Firefox, 100 million downloads in its first year of availability,[49] followed a series of aggressive marketing campaigns starting in 2004 with a series of events Blake Ross and Asa Dotzler called "marketing weeks".[50]

On September 12, 2004,[51] a marketing portal dubbed "Spread Firefox" (SFX) debuted along with the Firefox Preview Release, creating a centralized space for the discussion of various marketing techniques. The portal enhanced the "Get Firefox" button program, giving users "referrer points" as an incentive. The site lists the top 250 referrers. From time to time, the SFX team or SFX members launch marketing events organized at the Spread Firefox website.

The "World Firefox Day" campaign started on July 15, 2006[52] — the anniversary of the founding of the Mozilla Foundation — and ran until September 15, 2006. Participants registered themselves and a friend on the website for nomination to have their names displayed on the Firefox Friends Wall, a digital wall that will be displayed at the headquarters of the Mozilla Foundation.

Mozilla Firefox's marketshare has grown for each growth period since inception, mostly at the expense of Internet Explorer. Internet Explorer has seen a steady decline of its usage share since Firefox's release. According to Dutch web analytics firm OneStat, by June 2007, Firefox was the second-most widely used browser, with 12.72% of global usage share.[53] By September 2007, according to data made available by U.S. firm NetApplications, Firefox's market share had grown to 14.88% globally.[54]

Downloads have continued at an increasing rate since Firefox 1.0 was released in November 2004, and as of September 7, 2007 Firefox has been downloaded over 400 million times. This number does not include downloads using software updates or from third-party websites.[55] They do not represent a user count, as one download may be installed on many machines, or one person may download the software multiple times. According to Mozilla employee Asa Dotzler, Firefox had about 110 million users as of August 2007.

Forbes.com called Firefox the best browser in a 2004 commentary piece.[57] PC World named Firefox the "product of the year" in 2005 on their "100 Best Products of 2005" list.[58] After the release of Firefox 2 and Internet Explorer 7 in 2006, PC World reviewed both and declared that Firefox was the better browser.[59] Which? Magazine named Firefox its Best Buy web browser.[60]

Internet Week ran an article in which many readers reported high memory usage in Firefox 1.5.[61] Mozilla developers said the higher memory use of Firefox 1.5 is at least partially an effect of the new fast backwards-and-forwards (FastBack) feature.[62] Other known causes of memory problems are malfunctioning extensions, such as Google Toolbar and some old versions of Adblock,[63] or plug-ins, such as older versions of Adobe Acrobat Reader.[64] When PC Magazine compared memory usage of Firefox, Opera and Internet Explorer, they found that Firefox used approximately as much memory as the other browsers.[65] Tests performed by PC World and Zimbra indicate that Firefox 2 uses less memory than Internet Explorer 7.[59][66]

Like other browers, Firefox too has had a number of vulnerabilities that have affected its security, although according to CERT, not as many as Internet Explorer.

Softpedia notes that Firefox takes longer to start up than other browsers,[67] which was confirmed by browser speed tests. IE 6 also launches slightly faster than Firefox on Microsoft Windows since many of its components are built into Windows and are loaded during system startup. As a workaround for the issue, a preloader application was created that loads components of Firefox on startup, similar to Internet Explorer.[68] A feature of Windows Vista called SuperFetch does a similar task of preloading Firefox if its usage is high enough.

Relationship with Google

The Mozilla Corporation's relationship with Google[69][70] has been noted in the media, especially with regards to their paid referral agreement with Google. The release of the anti-phishing protection in Firefox 2 especially raised controversy.[71] Enabled by default, anti-phishing protection is based on a list that is updated about twice per hour and downloaded to the user's computer[72] from Google's server. The user cannot change the data provider within the GUI,[73] and is not informed who the default data provider is. The browser also sends Google's cookie with each request for update.[74] An additional, explicitly opt-in security feature has been added to recent builds by the Mozilla Foundation. This anti-phishing feature provides live protection by checking each visited URL with Google.[75] Some Internet privacy advocacy groups have expressed concerns surrounding Google's possible uses of this data, though Firefox's privacy policy states that Google may not use personal information for any purposes other than the anti-phishing protection feature.[72]

In 2005, the Mozilla Foundation and Mozilla Corporation had a combined revenue of US$52.9 million. Approximately 95 percent of this revenue[76] was related to their search engine relationships.[77]

Response from competition

Microsoft's head of Australian operations, Steve Vamos, stated in late 2004 that he did not see Firefox as a threat and that there was not significant demand for the feature set of Firefox among Microsoft's users.[78]

Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates has used Firefox, but he has commented "so much software gets downloaded all the time, but do people actually use it?"[79] A Microsoft SEC filing on June 30, 2005 acknowledged that "competitors such as Mozilla offer software that competes with the Internet Explorer Web browsing capabilities of our Windows operating system products."[80]

Despite the cold reception from Microsoft's top management, the Internet Explorer development team does have a healthy relationship with Mozilla. They meet regularly to discuss web standards such as validation certificates.[81] In 2005 Mozilla agreed to allow Microsoft to use its RSS logo in the interest of common graphical representation of the RSS feature.[82]

In August 2006, Microsoft offered to help Mozilla integrate Firefox with the then-forthcoming Windows Vista,[83] which Mozilla accepted.[84]

In October 2006, as congratulations for a successful ship of Firefox 2, the Internet Explorer 7 development team sent a cake to Mozilla.

Yahoo!

Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) is an American public corporation and global Internet services company. It provides a range of products and services including a web portal, a search engine, the Yahoo! Directory, Yahoo! Mail, news, and posting. It was founded by Stanford University graduate students Jerry Yang and David Filo in January of 1994 and incorporated on March 2, 1995. The company is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California.

According to Web traffic analysis companies (including Comscore, Alexa Internet and Netcraft), Yahoo! has been one of the most visited websites on the Internet,[3] with more than 412 million unique users.[citation needed] The global network of Yahoo! websites received 3.4 billion page views per day on average as of October 2005, making it one of the most visited U.S. websites.[citation needed]

Early history (1994-1996)

In January 1994, Stanford graduate students Jerry Yang and David Filo created a website named "Jerry's Guide to the World Wide Web." Jerry's Guide to the World Wide Web was a directory of other websites, organized in a hierarchy, as opposed to a searchable index of pages.

In April 1994, "Jerry's Guide to the World Wide Web" was renamed "Yahoo!". Filo and Yang said they selected the name because they liked the word's general definition, as in Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift: "rude, unsophisticated, uncouth." The name can also be a backronym for "Yet Another Hierarchical Officious Oracle".[4] Its URL was akebono.stanford.edu/yahoo.[5]

By the end of 1994, Yahoo had already received one million hits. Yang and Filo realized their website had massive business potential, and on 1 March 1995, Yahoo was incorporated.[6] On 12 April 1996, Yahoo had its initial public offering, raising $33.8 million dollars, by selling 2.6 million shares at $13 each.

"Yahoo" had already been trademarked for barbecue sauce, knives (by EBSCO Industries) and human propelled watercraft (by Old Town Canoe Co.). Therefore, in order to get the trademark, Yang and Filo added the exclamation mark to the name.[7] However, the exclamation mark is often omitted when referring to Yahoo.

[edit] Growth (1997-1999)

Like many search engines and web directories, Yahoo diversified into a Web portal. In the late 1990s, Yahoo, MSN, Lycos, Excite and other Web portals were growing rapidly. Web portal providers rushed to acquire companies to expand their range of services, in the hope of increasing the time a user stays at the portal.

On 8 March 1997, Yahoo acquired online communications company Four11. Four11's webmail service, Rocketmail, became Yahoo! Mail. Yahoo also acquired ClassicGames.com and turned it into Yahoo! Games. Yahoo then acquired direct marketing company Yoyodyne Entertainment, Inc. on 12 October 1998.[8] On 28 January 1999, Yahoo acquired web hosting provider GeoCities. Another company Yahoo acquired was eGroups, which became Yahoo! Groups after the acquisition on 28 June 2000. Yahoo also launched Yahoo! Messenger on 21 July 1999.

When acquiring companies, Yahoo often changed the relevant terms of service. For example, they claimed intellectual property rights for content on their servers, unlike the companies they acquired. As a result, many of the acquisitions were controversial and unpopular with users of the existing services.

[edit] Yahoo! International

Yahoo! is known across the world with its multi-lingual interface. They have sites for different countries, among English sites, (such as Yahoo! Canada, Yahoo! Australia (Yahoo!7), and Yahoo! India) .

[edit] Dot-com bubble (2000-2001)

On 3 January 2000, at the height of the Dot-com boom, Yahoo stocks closed at an all-time high of $118.75 a share. 16 days later, shares in Yahoo Japan became the first stocks in Japanese history to trade at over ¥100,000,000, reaching a price of 101.4 million yen ($962,140 at that time).[9]

On 7 February 2000, Yahoo.com was brought to a halt for a few hours as it was the victim of a distributed denial of service attack (DDoS).[10][11] On the next day, its shares rose about $16, or 4.5 percent as the failure was blamed on hackers rather than on an internal glitch, unlike a fault with eBay earlier that year.

During the dot-com boom, the cable news station CNBC also reported that Yahoo and eBay were discussing a 50/50 merger.[12] Although the merger never materialized the two companies decided to form a marketing/advertising alliance six years later in 2006.[13]

On 26 June 2000, Yahoo and Google signed an agreement which retained Google as the default world-wide-web search engine for yahoo.com following a beta trial in 1999.[14]

[edit] Post dot-com bubble (2002-2006)

Yahoo was one of the few surviving large Internet companies after the dot-com bubble burst. Nevertheless, on September 26, 2001, Yahoo stocks closed at an all-time low of $4.06.

Yahoo formed partnerships with telecommunications and Internet providers to create content-rich broadband services to compete with AOL. On 3 June 2002, SBC and Yahoo launched a national co-branded dial service.[15] In July 2003, BT Openworld announced an alliance with Yahoo[16] On 23 August 2005, Yahoo and Verizon launched an integrated DSL service.[17]

In late 2002, Yahoo began to bolster its search services by acquiring other search engines. In December 2002, Yahoo acquired Inktomi. In February 2003, Yahoo acquired Konfabulator and rebranded it Yahoo! Widgets, a desktop application and in July 2003, it acquired Overture Services, Inc. and its subsidiaries AltaVista and AlltheWeb. On February 18, 2004, Yahoo dropped Google-powered results and returned to using its own technology to provide search results.

Google then released Gmail, its webmail service offering 1 GB of storage, on 1 April 2004. Yahoo responded by upgrading the storage of all free Yahoo Mail accounts from 4 MB to 100 MB, and all Yahoo Mail Plus accounts to 2 GB. In 2007, Yahoo took out the storage meters and made the storage limit unlimited. On 9 July 2004, Yahoo acquired e-mail provider Oddpost to add an Ajax interface to Yahoo! Mail Beta. Google also released Google Talk, a Voice over IP and instant messaging service, on 24 August 2005. On 13 October 2005, Yahoo and Microsoft announced that Yahoo! Messenger and MSN Messenger would become interoperable.

Yahoo continued acquiring companies to expand its range of services, particularly Web 2.0 services. Yahoo Launch became Yahoo! Music on 9 February 2005. On 20 March 2005, Yahoo purchased photo sharing service Flickr.[18] On 29 March 2005, the company launched its blogging and social networking service Yahoo! 360°.[19] In June 2005, Yahoo acquired blo.gs, a service based on RSS feed aggregation. Yahoo then bought online social event calendar Upcoming.org on 4 October 2005. Yahoo acquired social bookmark site del.icio.us on 9 December 2005 and then playlist sharing community webjay on 9 January 2006.

On 27 August 2007, Yahoo released a new version of Yahoo! Mail that makes it possible for users to send instant messages to the largest combined instant messaging (IM) community including users of Yahoo! Messenger and Windows Live Messenger, to send free text messages to mobile phones in the U.S., Canada, India and the Philippines.[20]

[edit] The future (2007- )

Yahoo! Next is an incubation ground for future Yahoo technologies currently in their beta testing phase. It contains forums for Yahoo users to give feedback to assist in the development of these future Yahoo technologies.

[edit] Products and services

Main article: List of Yahoo!-owned sites and services

Yahoo provides a wide array of internet services that cater to most online activities. It operates the web portal http://www.yahoo.com which provides contents including the latest news, Yahoo Finance and gives users quick access to other Yahoo services like Yahoo! Mail, Yahoo Maps, Yahoo! Groups and Yahoo! Messenger. The majority of the product offerings are available globally in more than 20 languages.

[edit] Search

Yahoo offers diversified services; it provides vertical search services such as Yahoo! Image, Yahoo! Video, Yahoo! Local, Yahoo! News, and Yahoo! Shopping Search. As of August 2007, Yahoo! is the second-most used search engine, after Google [21].

[edit] Communication

Yahoo provides internet communication services such as Yahoo! Mail and Yahoo! Messenger, Yahoo Mail is the largest e-mail service in the world with almost half the market share.[22] In March, 2007, Yahoo announced that their e-mail service will offer unlimited storage beginning May 2007, and they have started offering the unlimited storage, but this will take several months to cover all subscribers to allow smooth transition. [23]

Yahoo also offers social networking services and user-generated content in products such as My Web, Yahoo! Personals, Yahoo! 360°, and Flickr.

Yahoo Photos was shut down on 20 September 2007 in favor of Flickr. On October 16, 2007, Yahoo announced that they will no longer provide support or perform bug fixes on Yahoo! 360 as they intend to abandon it in early 2008 in favor of a "universal profile" that will be similar to their Mash experimental system.[24]

[edit] Content

Yahoo partners with hundreds of premier content providers in products such as Yahoo! Sports, Yahoo! Finance, Yahoo! Music, Yahoo Movies, Yahoo News, and Yahoo! Games to provide media contents and news. Yahoo also provides a personalization service, My Yahoo, which enables users to collect their favorite Yahoo features, content feeds, and information into a single page.

Yahoo has developed partnerships with different broadband providers such as AT&T (via BellSouth & SBC), Verizon Communications, Rogers Communications and British Telecom, offering a range of free and premium Yahoo content and services to subscribers.

[edit] Mobile

Yahoo! Mobile includes services for on-the-go messaging, such as email, instant messaging, and moblogging; information, such as search and alerts; and fun and games, including ringtones, mobile games, and Yahoo Photos for camera phones.

[edit] OneSearch

Yahoo introduced its Internet search system, called oneSearch, developed for mobile phones on March 20, 2007. The company's officials stated that in distinction from ordinary Web searches, Yahoo's new service presents a list of actual information, which may include: news headlines, images from Yahoo's Flickr photos site, business listings, local weather and links to other sites. Instead of showing only, for example, popular movies or some critical reviews, oneSearch lists local theaters that at the moment are playing a certain movie, user ratings and news headlines regarding the movie. A zip code or city name is required for Yahoo oneSearch to start delivering local search results. The results of a Web search are listed on a single page and are prioritized into categories. The list of results is based on calculations that Yahoo computers make on certain information the user is seeking.[25]

[edit] Commerce

Yahoo offers commerce services such as Yahoo! Shopping, Yahoo Autos, Yahoo Real Estate and Yahoo Travel, which enables users to gather relevant information and make commercial transactions and purchases online.

[edit] Small Business

Yahoo provides services such as Yahoo Domains, Yahoo Web Hosting, Yahoo Merchant Solutions, Yahoo Business Email, and Yahoo Store to small business owners and professionals allowing them to build their own online stores using Yahoo's tools.

Yahoo also offers HotJobs to help recruiters find the talent they seek.

[edit] Advertising

Yahoo! Search Marketing provides services such as Sponsored Search, Local Advertising, and Product/Travel/Directory Submit that let different businesses advertise their products and services in the Yahoo network. Yahoo! Publisher Network is an advertising tool for online publishers to place advertisements relevant to their content to monetize their websites.[26]

Yahoo launched its new Internet advertisement sales system on February 5, 2007 called Panama. It allows advertisers to bid for search terms based on their popularity to display their ads on search results pages. The system takes bids, ad quality, click-through rates and other factors into consideration in determining how ads are ranked on search results pages. Through Panama, Yahoo aims to provide more relevant search results to users, a better overall experience, as well as increase monetization -- to earn more from the ads it shows [27]

[edit] Revenue model

About 88% of total revenues for the fiscal year 2006 came from marketing services. [5] The largest segment of it comes from search advertising, where advertisers bid for search terms to display their ads on the search results, on average Yahoo makes 2.5 cents to 3 cents from each search. With the new search advertising system "Panama" Yahoo aims to increase revenue generated from search.[28]

Other forms of advertising which bring in revenue for Yahoo include display and contextual advertising.

[edit] Financial data
Financial data in millions of US $ Year 2003 2004 2005 2006
Sales 1 625 3 574 5 258 6 426
EBITDA 453 1 000 1 505 1 066
Net Results 238 840 1 896 751
Staff 5 500 7 600 9 800 11 400

Source :'OpesC'

[edit] Criticism and controversy

[edit] Yahoo Invests in Shark Finning

Yahoo has a 40% stake (one billion dollar investment) in Alibaba, a company that facilitates the sale of shark-derived products worldwide. [29] When asked about their investment in Alibaba, Yahoo responded in part: "We know the sale of shark products is both legal in Asia and a centuries-old tradition. This issue is largely a cultural-practices one." [30] Sea Shepherd Conservation Society brought further attention to this by sending a letter to Yahoo, which went unanswered. [31] Subsequently, they have called on the public at large to express their displeasure to Yahoo and Alibaba directly in the hopes the senseless killing (for Shark fin soup) of sharks can be stopped before it is too late.

[edit] Yahoo paid inclusion controversy

In March 2004, Yahoo launched a paid inclusion program whereby commercial websites are guaranteed listings on the Yahoo search engine after payment.[32] This scheme is lucrative, but has proved unpopular both with website marketers (who are reluctant to pay), and the public (who are unhappy about the paid-for listings being indistinguishable from other search results).[33] As of October 2006, Paid Inclusion doesn't guarantee any commercial listing, it only helps the paid inclusion customers, by crawling their site more often and by providing some statistics on the searches that led to the page and some additional smart links (provided by customers as feeds) below the actual url.

[edit] Adware and Spyware

Yahoo has also been criticized for funding spyware and adware — advertising from Yahoo's clients often appears on-screen in pop-ups generated from adware that a user may have installed on their computer without realizing it by accepting online offers to download software to fix computer clocks or improve computer security, add browser enhancements, etc. The frequency of advertising pop-ups for spyware, generated from a partnership with advertising distributor Walnut Ventures, who had a direct partnership with Direct Revenue, could be increased or decreased based on Yahoo's immediate revenue needs, according to some former employees in Yahoo's sales department. [34][35]

[edit] Work in China

Yahoo, along with Google China, Microsoft, Cisco, AOL, Skype, Nortel and others, has cooperated with the Chinese government in implementing a system of internet censorship in mainland China.

Unlike Google or Microsoft, which keep confidential records of its users outside mainland China, Yahoo! stated that the company will not protect the privacy and confidentiality of its Chinese customers from the authorities.[36]

Human rights advocates such as Human Rights Watch and media groups such as Reporters Without Borders state that it is "ironic that companies whose existence depends on freedom of information and expression have taken on the role of censor."[37]

[edit] Chinese dissident imprisonment controversy

In April 2005, Shi Tao, a journalist working for a Chinese newspaper, was sentenced to 10 years in prison by the Changsha Intermediate People's Court of Hunan Province, China (First trial case no 29), for "providing state secrets to foreign entities". The "secret", as Shi Tao's family claimed, refers to a brief list of censorship orders he sent from a Yahoo Mail account to the Asia Democracy Forum before the anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Incident.[38]

The verdict stated Yahoo Holdings (Hong Kong) confirmed that an IP address, registered by a Hunan newspaper that Shi Tao worked for, accessed the mail account at a particular time. He had sent the message through an anonymous Yahoo account, but police had gone straight to his offices and picked him up. Reporters Without Borders (RSF) is concerned with the ease with which Mr. Shi had been caught. In February 2006, Yahoo General Counsel submitted a statement to the U.S. Congress in which Yahoo denies knowing the true nature of the case against Shi Tao.[39] In April 2006, Yahoo Holdings (Hong Kong) is under investigation by Hong Kong's Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data.

Criticism of Yahoo intensified when the court document stated the company aided Chinese authorities in the case of dissident Li Zhi. In December 2003 Li Zhi was sentenced to 8 years imprisonment for "inciting subversion".

On 2 June 2006, the union representing journalists in the UK and Ireland (NUJ) called on its 40,000 members to boycott all Yahoo Inc. products and services to protest the Internet company's reported actions in China.[40]

In July 2007, evidence surfaced detailing the warrant which the Chinese authorities sent to Yahoo officials, highlighting "State Secrets" as the charge against Shi Tao. The warrant requests "Email account registration information for huoyan1989@yahoo.com.cn, all login times, corresponding IP addresses, and relevant email content from February 22, 2004 to present." [41][42][43] Analyst reports and human rights organizations have said that this evidence directly contradicts Yahoo's testimony before the U.S. Congress in February 2006.[44]

Yahoo contends it must respect the laws of governments in jurisdictions where it is operating.

Wang Xiaoning is a Chinese dissident from Shenyang who was arrested by authorities of the People's Republic of China for publishing controversial material online.

In 2000 and 2001, Wang, who was an engineer by profession, posted electronic journals in a Yahoo group calling for democratic reform and an end to single-party rule. He was arrested in September 2002 after Yahoo assisted Chinese authorities by providing information. In September 2003, Wang was convicted of charges of "incitement to subvert state power" and sentenced to ten years in prison.[45]

On April 18, 2007, Xiaoning's wife Yu Ling sued Yahoo under human rights laws in federal court in San Francisco, California, United States.[46] Wang Xiaoning is named as a plaintiff in the Yahoo suit, which was filed with help from the World Organization for Human Rights USA. "Yahoo is guilty of 'an act of corporate irresponsibility,' said Morton Sklar, executive director of the group. 'Yahoo had reason to know that if they provided China with identification information that those individuals would be arrested."[47]

Yahoo's decision to assist China's authoritarian government came as part of a policy of reconciling its services with the Chinese government's policies. This came after China blocked Yahoo services for a time. As reported in The Washington Post and many media sources:

The suit says that in 2001, Wang was using a Yahoo e-mail account to post anonymous writings to an Internet mailing list. The suit alleges that Yahoo, under pressure from the Chinese government, blocked that account. Wang set up a new account via Yahoo and began sending material again; the suit alleges that Yahoo gave the government information that allowed it to identify and arrest Wang in September 2002. The suit says prosecutors in the Chinese courts cited Yahoo's cooperation.[48]

Human rights organizations groups are basing their case on a 217-year-old U.S. law to punish corporations for human rights violations abroad, an effort the Bush administration has opposed:

In recent years, activists working with overseas plaintiffs have sued roughly two dozen businesses under the Alien Tort Claims Act, which the activists say grants jurisdiction to American courts over acts abroad that violate international norms. Written by the Founding Fathers in 1789 for a different purpose, the law was rarely invoked until the 1980s.[49]

On August 28, 2007, the World Organization for Human Rights sued Yahoo for allegedly passing information (email and IP address) with the Chinese government that caused the arrests of writers and dissidents. The suit was filed in San Francisco for journalists, Shi Tao, and Wang Xiaoning.Yahoo stated that it supported privacy and free expression for it worked with other technology companies to solve human rights concerns.[50]

As a result of media scrutiny relating to Internet child predators and a lack of significant ad revenues, Yahoo's "user created" chatrooms were closed down in June 2005.[51] Yahoo News' message board section was closed on December 19, 2006[52] due to the trolling phenomenon.


On May 25, 2006, Yahoo's image search was criticized for bringing up sexually explicit images even when SafeSearch was on. This was discovered by a teacher who was intending to use the service with a class to search for "www". Yahoo's response to this was, "Yahoo is aware of this issue and is working to resolve it as quickly as possible".[53]

Google

Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG and LSE: GGEA) is an American public corporation, specializing in Internet search and online advertising. The company is based in Mountain View, California, and has 15,916 full-time employees (as of September 30, 2007).[3] Google's mission statement is, "to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful."[4] Google's corporate philosophy includes statements such as "Don't be evil", and "Work should be challenging and the challenge should be fun", illustrating a somewhat relaxed corporate culture.

Google was co-founded by Larry Page and Sergey Brin while they were students at Stanford University and the company was first incorporated as a privately held company on September 7, 1998. Google's initial public offering took place on August 19, 2004, raising $1.67 billion, making it worth $23 billion. Through a series of new product developments, acquisitions and partnerships, the company has expanded its initial search and advertising business into other areas, including web-based email, online mapping, office productivity, and video sharing, among others.

Google began as a research project in January 1996 by Larry Page and Sergey Brin, two Ph.D. students at Stanford University, California.[5] They hypothesized that a search engine that analyzed the relationships between websites would produce better results than existing techniques, which ranked results according to the number of times the search term appeared on a page.[6] Their search engine was originally nicknamed "BackRub" because the system checked backlinks to estimate a site's importance.[7] A small search engine called Rankdex was already exploring a similar strategy.[8] Convinced that the pages with the most links to them from other highly relevant web pages must be the most relevant pages associated with the search, Page and Brin tested their thesis as part of their studies, and laid the foundation for their search engine. Originally the search engine used the Stanford University website with the domain google.stanford.edu. The domain google.com was registered on September 15, 1997,[9] and the company was incorporated as Google Inc. on September 7, 1998 at a friend's garage in Menlo Park, California. The total initial investment raised for the new company eventually amounted to almost $1.1 million, including a $100,000 check by Andy Bechtolsheim, one of the founders of Sun Microsystems.[10]

In March 1998, the company moved into offices in Palo Alto, home to several other noted Silicon Valley technology startups.[11] After quickly outgrowing two other sites, the company leased a complex of buildings in Mountain View at 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway from Silicon Graphics (SGI) in 2003.[12] The company has remained at this location ever since, and the complex has since become known as the Googleplex (a play on the word googolplex, a 1 followed by a googol zeros). In 2006, Google bought the property from SGI for $319 million.[13]

The Google search engine attracted a loyal following among the growing number of Internet users, who liked its simple design and usability.[14] In 2000, Google began selling advertisements associated with search keywords.[5] The ads were text-based to maintain an uncluttered page design and to maximize page loading speed.[5] Keywords were sold based on a combination of price bid and clickthroughs, with bidding starting at $.05 per click.[5] This model of selling keyword advertising was pioneered by Goto.com (later renamed Overture Services, before being acquired by Yahoo! and rebranded as Yahoo! Search Marketing).[15][16][17] While many of its dot-com rivals failed in the new Internet marketplace, Google quietly rose in stature while generating revenue.[5]

The name "Google" originated from a misspelling of "googol,"[18][19] which refers to 10100 (the number represented by a 1 followed by one-hundred zeros). Having found its way increasingly into everyday language, the verb "google", was added to the Merriam Webster Collegiate Dictionary and the Oxford English Dictionary in 2006, meaning "to use the Google search engine to obtain information on the Internet."[20][21]

A patent describing part of Google's ranking mechanism (PageRank) was granted on September 4, 2001.[22] The patent was officially assigned to Stanford University and lists Lawrence Page as the inventor.

Financing and initial public offering

The first funding for Google as a company was secured in the form of a USD100,000 contribution from Andy Bechtolsheim, co-founder of Sun Microsystems, given to a corporation which did not yet exist.[23] Around six months later, a much larger round of funding was announced, with the major investors being rival venture capital firms Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and Sequoia Capital.[23]

Google's initial public offering took place on August 19, 2004. 19,605,052 shares were offered at a price of $85 per share.[24] Of that, 14,142,135 (another mathematical reference as √2 ≈ 1.4142135) were floated by Google and 5,462,917 by selling stockholders. The sale raised $1.67 billion, and gave Google a market capitalization of more than $23 billion.[25] The vast majority of Google's 271 million shares remained under Google's control. Many of Google's employees became instant paper millionaires. Yahoo!, a competitor of Google, also benefited from the IPO because it owned 8.4 million shares of Google as of August 9, 2004, ten days before the IPO.[26]

Google's post-IPO stock performance has been very good as well, with shares surging to $500 by 2007, due to strong sales and earnings in the advertising market, as well as the release of new features like the desktop search function and personalized home page.[27] The surge in stock price is fueled primarily by individual investors, as opposed to large institutional investors and mutual funds.[27]

The company is listed on the NASDAQ stock exchange under the ticker symbol GOOG.

Growth

While the company's primary market is in the web content arena, Google has begun to experiment with other markets, such as radio and print publications. On January 17, 2006, Google announced that it had purchased the radio advertising company dMarc, which provides an automated system that allows companies to advertise on the radio.[28] This will allow Google to combine two niche advertising media—the Internet and radio—with Google's ability to laser-focus on the tastes of consumers. Google has also begun an experiment in selling advertisements from its advertisers in offline newspapers and magazines, with select advertisements in the Chicago Sun-Times.[29] They have been filling unsold space in the newspaper that would have normally been used for in-house advertisements.

Google was added to the S&P 500 index on March 30, 2006. Google replaced Burlington Resources, a major oil producer based in Houston which was acquired by ConocoPhillips.

Philanthropy

In 2004, Google formed a non-profit philanthropic wing, Google.org, giving it a starting fund of $1 billion.[30] The express mission of the organization is to help with the issues of climate change (see also global warming), global public health, and global poverty. Among its first projects is to develop a viable plug-in hybrid electric vehicle that can attain 100 mpg. The current director is Dr. Larry Brilliant.[31]

Acquisitions

See also: List of Google acquisitions

Since 2001, Google has acquired several small start-up companies, often consisting of innovative teams and products. One of the earlier companies that Google bought was Pyra Labs. They were the creators of Blogger, a weblog publishing platform, first launched in 1999. This acquisition led to many premium features becoming free. Pyra Labs was originally formed by Evan Williams, yet he left Google in 2004. In early 2006, Google acquired Upstartle, a company responsible for the online word processor, Writely. The technology in this product was used by Google to eventually create Google Docs & Spreadsheets.

In February 2006, software company Adaptive Path sold Measure Map, a weblog statistics application, to Google. Registration to the service has since been temporarily disabled. The last update regarding the future of Measure Map was made on April 6, 2006 and outlined many of the service's known issues.[32]

In late 2006, Google bought online video site YouTube for $1.65 billion in stock.[33] Shortly after, on October 31, 2006, Google announced that it had also acquired JotSpot, a developer of wiki technology for collaborative Web sites.[34]

On April 13, 2007, Google reached an agreement to acquire DoubleClick. Google agreed to buy the company for $3.1 billion.[35]

On July 9, 2007, Google announced that it had signed a definitive agreement to acquire enterprise messaging security and compliance company Postini.[36]

Partnerships

In 2005, Google entered into partnerships with other companies and government agencies to improve production and services. Google announced a partnership with NASA Ames Research Center to build up 1,000,000 square feet (93,000 m²) of offices and work on research projects involving large-scale data management, nanotechnology, distributed computing, and the entrepreneurial space industry.[37] Google also entered into a partnership with Sun Microsystems in October to help share and distribute each other's technologies.[38] The company entered into a partnership with Time Warner's AOL,[39] to enhance each other's video search services.

Also in 2005, the company became a major financial investor of the new .mobi top-level domain for mobile devices, in conjunction with several other companies, including Microsoft, Nokia, Ericcson, and others.[40] In September of 2007, Google launched, "Adsense for Mobile", a service to its publishing partners providing the ability to monetize their mobile websites through the targeted placement of mobile text ads,[41] and acquired the mobile social networking site, Zingku.mobi, to "provide people worldwide with direct access to Google applications, and ultimately the information they want and need, right from their mobile devices."[42]

In 2006, Google and News Corp.'s Fox Interactive Media entered into a $900 million agreement to provide search and advertising on the popular social networking site, MySpace.[43]

Products

Main article: List of Google products

Google has created services and tools for the general public and business environment alike; including Web applications, advertising networks and solutions for businesses.

Advertising

Most of Google's revenue is derived from advertising programs. For the 2006 fiscal year, the company reported $10.492 billion in total advertising revenues and only $112 million in licensing and other revenues.[44] Google AdWords allows Web advertisers to display advertisements in Google's search results and the Google Content Network, through either a cost-per-click or cost-per-view scheme. Google AdSense website owners can also display adverts on their own site, and earn money every time ads are clicked.

Applications

Google is well-known for its web search service, which is a major factor of the company's success. As of August 2007, Google is the most used search engine on the web with a 53.6% market share, ahead of Yahoo! (19.9%) and Live Search (12.9%).[45] Google indexes billions of Web pages, so that users can search for the information they desire, through the use of keywords and operators. Google has also employed the Web Search technology into other search services, including Image Search, Google News, the price comparison site Google Product Search, the interactive Usenet archive Google Groups, Google Maps and more.

In 2004, Google launched its own free web-based email service, known as Gmail.[46] Gmail features spam-filtering technology and the capability to use Google technology to search email. The service generates revenue by displaying advertisements from the AdWords service that are tailored to the content of the email messages displayed on screen.

In early 2006, the company launched Google Video, which not only allows users to search and view freely available videos but also offers users and media publishers the ability to publish their content, including television shows on CBS, NBA basketball games, and music videos.[47] In August 2007, Google announced that it would shut down its video rental and sale program and offer refunds and Google Checkout credits to consumers who had purchased videos to own.

Google has also developed several desktop applications, including Google Earth, an interactive mapping program powered by satellite and aerial imagery that covers the vast majority of the planet. Google Earth is generally considered to be remarkably accurate and extremely detailed. Many major cities have such detailed images that one can zoom in close enough to see vehicles and pedestrians clearly. Consequently, there have been some concerns about national security implications. Specifically, some countries and militaries contend the software can be used to pinpoint with near-precision accuracy the physical location of critical infrastructure, commercial and residential buildings, bases, government agencies, and so on. However, the satellite images are not necessarily frequently updated, and all of them are available at no charge through other products and even government sources (NASA and the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, for example.) Some counter this argument by stating that Google Earth makes it easier to access and research the images.

Many other products are available through Google Labs, which is a collection of incomplete applications that are still being tested for use by the general public.

Google has promoted their products in various ways. In London, Google Space was set-up in Heathrow Airport, showcasing several products, including Gmail, Google Earth and Picasa.[48][49] Also, a similar page was launched for American college students, under the name College Life, Powered by Google.[50]

In 2007, some reports surfaced that Google was planning the release of its own mobile phone, possibly a competitor to Apple's iPhone.[51][52][53] The project may be a collaboration between Google and Orange, HTC, Samsung, or another manufacturer. However, very little is known about the project and most of the information available is speculation. In October 2007, Google SMS service is launched in India allowing users to get business listings, movie showtimes and information by sending an SMS message.[54]

Enterprise products

In 2007, Google launched Google Apps Premier Edition, a version of Google Apps targeted primarily at the business user. It includes such extras as more disk space for e-mail, API access, and premium support, for a price of USD50 per user per year. A large implementation of Google Apps with 38,000 users is at Lakehead University in Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada.[55]

Platform

Main article: Google platform

Google's services are run on several server farms, each consisting of thousands of low-cost commodity computers running stripped-down versions of Linux. While the company does not provide detailed information about its hardware, a 2006 estimate consisted of over 450,000 servers, racked up in clusters located in data centers around the world.[56]

Corporate affairs and culture
A license plate seen in the Googleplex parking lot.
A license plate seen in the Googleplex parking lot.

Google is particularly known for its relaxed corporate culture, reminiscent of the Dot-com boom. In January 2007, it was cited by Fortune Magazine as the #1 (of 100) best company to work for.[57] Google's corporate philosophy is based on many casual principles including, "You can make money without doing evil", "You can be serious without a suit," and "Work should be challenging and the challenge should be fun." A complete list of corporate fundamentals is available on Google's website.[58] Google's relaxed corporate culture can also be seen externally through their holiday variations of the Google logo.

Google has been criticized for having salaries below industry standards[59]. For example, some system administrators earn no more than $35,000 per year – considered to be quite low for the Bay Area job market.[60] However, Google's stock performance following its IPO has enabled many early employees to be competitively compensated by participation in the corporation's remarkable equity growth.[61] Google implemented other employee incentives in 2005, such as the Google Founders' Award, in addition to offering higher salaries to new employees. Google's workplace amenities, culture, global popularity, and strong brand recognition have also attracted potential applicants.

After the company's IPO in August 2004, it was reported that founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page, and CEO Eric Schmidt, requested that their base salary be cut to $1.00.[62] Subsequent offers by the company to increase their salaries have been turned down, primarily because, "their primary compensation continues to come from returns on their ownership stakes in Google. As significant stockholders, their personal wealth is tied directly to sustained stock price appreciation and performance, which provides direct alignment with stockholder interests."[62] Prior to 2004, Schmidt was making $250,000 per year, and Page and Brin each earned a salary of $150,000.[62]

They have all declined recent offers of bonuses and increases in compensation by Google's board of directors. In a 2007 report of the United States' richest people, Forbes reported that Sergey Brin and Larry Page were tied for #5 with a net worth of $18.5 billion each.[63]

Googleplex
The Googleplex
The Googleplex

Main article: Googleplex

As a play on Google's name, its headquarters, in Mountain View, California, is referred to as "the Googleplex" — a googolplex being 1 followed by a googol of zeros, and the HQ being a complex of buildings (cf. multiplex, cineplex, etc). The lobby is decorated with a piano, lava lamps, old server clusters, and a projection of search queries on the wall. The hallways are full of exercise balls and bicycles. Each employee has access to the corporate recreation center. Recreational amenities are scattered throughout the campus and include a workout room with weights and rowing machines, locker rooms, washers and dryers, a massage room, assorted video games, Foosball, a baby grand piano, a pool table, and ping pong. In addition to the rec room, there are snack rooms stocked with various cereals, gummy bears, toffee, licorice, cashews, yogurt, carrots, fresh fruit, and dozens of different drinks including fresh juice, soda, and make your own cappuccino.[citation needed]
Sign at the Googleplex
Sign at the Googleplex

In 2006, Google moved into 311,000 square feet (28,900 m²) of office space in New York City, at 111 Eighth Ave. in Manhattan.[64] The office was specially designed and built for Google and houses its largest advertising sales team, which has been instrumental in securing large partnerships, most recently deals with MySpace and AOL.[64] In 2003, they added an engineering staff in New York City, which has been responsible for more than 100 engineering projects, including Google Maps, Google Spreadsheets, and others.[64] It is estimated that the building costs Google $10 million per year to rent and is similar in design and functionality to its Mountain View headquarters, including Foosball, air hockey, and ping-pong tables, as well as a video game area.[64] By late 2006, Google also established a new headquarters for its AdWords division in Ann Arbor, Michigan.[65]

The size of Google's search system is presently unknown; the best estimates place the total number of the companies servers at 450,000, spread over twenty five locations throughout the world, including major operations centers in Ireland and Atlanta, Georgia. Google is also in the process of constructing a major operations center in The Dalles, Oregon, on the banks of the Columbia River. The site, also referred to by the media as Project 02, was chosen due to the availability of inexpensive hydroelectric power and a large surplus of fiber optic cable, left over from the dot com boom of the late 1990s. The computing center is estimated to be as large as two football fields, and it has created hundreds of construction jobs, causing local real estate prices to increase 40%. Upon completion, the center is expected to create 60 to 200 permanent jobs in the town of 12,000 people.[66]

Google is also making steps to ensure that their operations are environmentally sound. In October 2006, the company announced plans to install thousands of solar panels to provide up to 1.6 megawatts of electricity, enough to satisfy approximately 30% of the campus' energy needs.[67] The system will be the largest solar power system constructed on a U.S. corporate campus and one of the largest on any corporate site in the world.[67] In June 2007, Google announced that they plan to become carbon neutral by 2008, which includes investing in energy efficiency, renewable energy sources, and purchasing carbon offsets, such as investing in projects like capturing and burning methane from animal waste at Mexican and Brazilian farms.[68]

"Twenty percent" time

All Google engineers are encouraged to spend 20% of their work time (one day per week) on projects that interest them. Some of Google's newer services, such as Gmail, Google News, Orkut, and AdSense originated from these independent endeavors.[69] In a talk at Stanford University, Marissa Mayer, Google's Vice President of Search Products and User Experience, stated that her analysis showed that half of the new product launches originated from the 20% time.[70]

Easter eggs and April Fool's Day jokes

Main article: Google's hoaxes

Google has a tradition of creating April Fool's Day jokes — such as Google MentalPlex, which allegedly featured the use of mental power to search the web.[71] In 2002, they claimed that pigeons were the secret behind their growing search engine.[72] In 2004, they featured Google Lunar (which claimed to feature jobs on the moon),[73] and in 2005, a fictitious brain-boosting drink, termed Google Gulp was announced.[74] In 2006, they came up with Google Romance, a hypothetical online dating service.[75] In 2007, Google announced two joke products. The first was a free wireless Internet service called TiSP (Toilet Internet Service Provider) [76] in which one obtained a connection by flushing one end of a fiber-optic cable down their toilet and waiting only an hour for a "Plumbing Hardware Dispatcher (PHD)" to connect it to the Internet.[76] Additionally, Google's Gmail page displayed an announcement for Gmail Paper, which allows users of their free email service to have email messages printed and shipped to a snail mail address.[77]

Some thought the announcement of Gmail in 2004 around April Fool's Day (as well as the doubling of Gmail's storage space to two gigabytes in 2005) was a joke, although both of these turned out to be genuine announcements. In 2005, a comedic graph depicting Google's goal of "infinity plus one" GB of storage was featured on the Gmail homepage.

Google's services contain a number of Easter eggs; for instance, the Language Tools page offers the search interface in the Swedish Chef's "Bork bork bork," Pig Latin, ”Hacker” (actually leetspeak), Elmer Fudd, and Klingon.[78] In addition, the search engine calculator provides the Answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything from Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.[79] As Google's search box can be used as a unit converter (as well as a calculator), some non-standard units are built in, such as the Smoot. Google also routinely modifies its logo in accordance with various holidays or special events throughout the year, such as Christmas, Mother's Day, or various birthdays of notable individuals.[80]

IPO and culture

Many people speculated that Google's IPO would inevitably lead to changes in the company's culture,[81] because of shareholder pressure for employee benefit reductions and short-term advances, or because a large number of the company's employees would suddenly become millionaires on paper. In a report given to potential investors, co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page promised that the IPO would not change the company's culture.[82] Later Mr. Page said, "We think a lot about how to maintain our culture and the fun elements. We spent a lot of time getting our offices right. We think it's important to have a high density of people. People are packed together everywhere. We all share offices. We like this set of buildings because it's more like a densely packed university campus than a typical suburban office park."[83]

However, many analysts are finding that as Google grows, the company is becoming more "corporate". In 2005, articles in The New York Times and other sources began suggesting that Google had lost its anti-corporate, no evil philosophy[84][85][86] In an effort to maintain the company's unique culture, Google has designated a Chief Culture Officer in 2006, who also serves as the Director of Human Resources. The purpose of the Chief Culture Officer is to develop and maintain the culture and work on ways to keep true to the core values that the company was founded on in the beginning — a flat organization, a lack of hierarchy, a collaborative environment.[87]

Criticism

Main article: Criticism of Google

As it has grown, Google has found itself the focus of several controversies related to its business practices and services. For example, Google Book Search's effort to digitize millions of books and make the full text searchable has led to copyright disputes with the Authors Guild. Another trademark concern is about Google's Gmail in the UK and several other countries. Now, in those parts of the world, it is known as Google Mail. Google's cooperation with the governments of China, and to a lesser extent France and Germany (regarding Holocaust denial) to filter search results in accordance to regional laws and regulations has led to claims of censorship. Google's persistent cookie and other information collection practices have led to concerns over user privacy. A number of Indian state governments have raised concerns about the security risks posed by geographic details provided by Google Earth's satellite imaging.[88] Google has also been criticized by advertisers regarding its inability to combat click fraud, when a person or automated script is used to generate a charge on an advertisement without really having an interest in the product. Industry reports in 2006 claim that approximately 14 to 20 percent of clicks were in fact fraudulent or invalid.[89]