Webware

Google, ever eager to renovate the computing industry for the benefit of the Web and its own business, is working to link two nascent but potentially significant projects, its experimental Go programming language and its Chrome Web browser.

Gordon, Go's gopher mascot

Specifically, the company is building a foundation to let programs written in Go run directly within a Web browser endowed with Google's Native Client software. Native Client is designed to let browser-based programs run faster than is possible with today's widely used JavaScript; though it's still in its early stages, it's built into Chrome and available as a plug-in for other browsers.

A little poking around the Go source code reveals a reference to NaCl, the abbreviated name for Native Client. And Native Client is indeed on the Go agenda, said Rob Pike, one of the five core members of the Go team, in a Wednesday interview.

"We have an embryonic implementation of the NaCl support for Go using 8g," a compiler that produces code for x86 chips such as Intel's Core line, Pike said. "It's restricted by a couple of details of NaCl's implementation, but we hope to see changes to NaCl one day that will make Go a full-fledged language in that environment."

The Native Client compiler--the tool that converts what people write into software a computer can run--is specially modified to screen out a variety of software instructions that could expose a computer to an attack from a Native Client module downloaded off the Web. And the Native Client software itself checks such modules before they run. The result, if the security approach stands up to security scrutiny, is browser-based software that runs close to the speed of ordinary software that runs natively on a PC.

Rob Pike discusses the Go programming language at a Google Talk

(Credit: Google)

Native Client has been maturing, the most recent stage being inclusion of NaCl within Google's Chrome browser, though disabled by default for now. Google is using Chrome as a vehicle to distribute other Web technology, too, including Gears, which can let people use Gmail while offline, and WebGL, which gives hardware acceleration to 3D graphics in the browser.

Go is only experimental at this stage, but Google hopes to use it to produce some of the software running on its vast array of servers. Google's scale makes even academic projects potentially commercially relevant, which is enviable to many companies who've tried to get projects off the ground.

Indeed, an episode earlier in the Go team's history is illustrative. Pike, Unix co-inventor Ken Thompson, and Russ Cox all worked on the Plan 9 operating system project that, like Unix, began at Bell Labs. (Yes, Plan 9 is named after Ed Wood's famously bad movie, "Plan 9 from Outer Space.")

Unlike Unix, Plan 9 didn't have much commercial success, although Vita Nuova does sell a version called Inferno. Getting a mainstream operating system off the ground is hard: you must convince programmers, software companies, and hardware makers to embrace it; you must convince people to use it in the real world; and you must keep pace with the evolution of entrenched operating systems.

A bit of Plan 9 lives on inside the Go project, with various Plan 9 tidbits appearing in the Go source code. Pike, though, says there's not much.

Glenda, the Plan 9 bunny mascot, looks similar to Gordon, Go's gopher mascot. Both were drawn by Rob Pike's wife, illustrator Renee French.

(Credit: Bell Labs)

"The 6g/8g/5g compilers are almost completely new but are tied to the open-source Plan 9 compiler suite's C compilers and linker," Pike said. "That's really about it except for the obvious historical connection for some of the protagonists: Ken, Russ, and myself."

Programming languages face similar challenges as operating systems in getting off the ground: A lot of interdependent elements in the ecosystem must all be built simultaneously. It's what's known in the trade as the chicken-and-egg problem: you can't make a chicken without an egg or vice versa.

But Google makes things different for Go. It's devoting real resources to the project and believes it could be useful on its own servers to run software such as the Gmail service Web browsers tap into. It's got the chicken and the egg under its own roof.

And with the money Google could save by increasing the performance or efficiency of its servers even just a fraction of a percent, it has abundant financial incentive to make things work.

Marrying Go to browsers is just another aspect of the same issue.

Assuming Go and Native Client mature enough to be useful, Google can't mandate that Web developers embrace them; indeed, they generally haven't embraced Gears even though it can help with some Web site matters. But again, Google has a browser and some awfully big Web sites it can use to get the ball rolling.

Filling in a blank spreadsheet is an uphill battle, but one you can win.

(Credit: Screenshot by Jessica Dolcourt/CNET)

Ever since Documents to Go came out on iPhone--both the standard version and with Microsoft Exchange Attachments--the publisher has been keeping our interest with promises of a version that could edit Excel documents and create new ones in addition to just viewing them.

That version, Documents to Go 2.0, is now here. The update brings Documents To Go back to fairly equal footing with rival Quickoffice Mobile Office Suite, which added Excel creation and editing support a month before.

In addition to viewing Excel XLS and XLSX documents, both Documents To Go apps can now also create new spreadsheets and edit existing ones. After taking a quick spin through the features, we can say it looks as if publisher DataViz, like Quickoffice, has been able to cram a lot of core features into a small space. There's support for multiple spreadsheets, and the capability to resize rows and columns and search cells (the Find feature). There are also formatting and typeface tools, and support for older, even password-protected, worksheets.

While the addition of Excel support brings this app back into direct competition with the Quickoffice suite, what's true in both cases is that it's infinitely easier to edit an Excel document on the iPhone than it is to create one fresh. However, if you must put your tapping fingers through the pages, then the opportunity is now, finally, here.

A nice little summer shopping spree for AOL: Under the auspices of new CEO Tim Armstrong, the company has acquired "hyperlocal" news site Patch and hipster-oriented events listing site Going.com.

The acquisition of Patch isn't too much of a surprise. Armstrong founded and invested in Patch while at his former gig as Google sales chief. The start-up offers a model for local news on the Web and plans to have launched in a dozen cities by the end of 2009. Going, meanwhile, has been around since 2006 and offers event and invitation services along with ticketing. It's likely that AOL will use its technology to take the service beyond its party-friendly current target demographic.

"Local remains one of the most disaggregated experiences on the Web today--there's a lot of information out there but simply no way for consumers to find it quickly and easily," Armstrong said in a release. "Going forward, local will be a core area of focus and investment for AOL. The acquisitions of Patch and Going will help us build out our local network further with excellent local services that enable people to stay better informed about what's going on in their neighborhood."

He's not the only new-media executive thinking local: in his keynote address at the Advertising 2.0 conference on Wednesday, IAC/InterActiveCorp CEO Barry Diller called local "one of the few areas that hasn't been colonized" on the Web. IAC owns Citysearch, with which AOL has partnered in syndication deals.

Burst Media, a company that provides advertising services to Web publishers, announced the results of a survey Thursday, which asked 4,000 Web users how online privacy impacts their Internet experience. It found that privacy is a major concern for 80.1 percent of respondents who claim they want their personal information kept private.

Although privacy is a major concern for all age groups, only 67.3 percent of respondents aged 18 to 24 years worry about privacy, while 85.7 percent of those aged 55 years and older are concerned about their privacy online. Of those surveyed, 62.5 percent also said that it's "likely" that a Web site they visit is collecting their personal information and transmitting it to third parties.

$99 Music Videos Network, a joint venture of Next New Networks and Verizon, launched Thursday in the hope that it can transform the way music videos are distributed. According to the company, each Thursday it will debut one music video and a "making of" clip and make them available through YouTube and iTunes. Eventually, the company hopes to partner new artists and independent filmmakers to create videos on just $99 (thus the name). The first music video available on the site is "The Sun Song" from La Strada.

Portero, an online company that sells pre-owned authentic luxury-brand accessories like watches, handbags, and jewelry, announced that it has raised $6.6 million in a round of funding that was led by LFE Capital. The company said it plans to use the funding to expand its presence online and become a more well-known source for authentic luxury goods.

Domain registrar, GoDaddy, announced Thursday that its business is growing at a rapid rate and unlike many online firms, it's expanding its office space and hiring more employees. According to the company, it has already set company records for new customers and orders and plans to hire more employees to match customer demand. In fact, the company has already hired more than 100 people so far this year. GoDaddy plans to expand its customer care division, as well as its legal, accounting, marketing, and development departments.

Can you communicate what a Web site is about to millions of sports fans looking for entertainment above all else? Now that the Super Bowl is over, let's examine how well the online firms that bought ads fared in delivering spots that effectively communicated their online services.

Some companies did well. But it looks like others left viewers scratching their heads...

CareerBuilder
Online career search service CareerBuilder offered up a 60-second ad for the Super Bowl that used the tagline, "It might be time (to look for another job)" after providing examples of thoughts some workers might have when they're upset with their careers. My favorite: sitting next to a man who clips his toenails in the office...in his underwear.

It might have been somewhat entertaining, but CareerBuilder's ad didn't explain how the company would help job-seekers and opted instead, to deliver its URL at the end of the commercial. For those who have heard of CareerBuilder, that may have been enough. But for others who have never been to the company's site, the commercial won't answer why they should go there to find a job. Shouldn't that have been the point of the ad in the first place?

Cars.com
Cars.com is a popular destination for people who want to research, sell, or buy a car. But the company's Super Bowl commercial takes viewers through the life of David Abernathy, a supremely capable and confident individual who achieved great success in his life. Towards the end of the ad, Cars.com is finally mentioned as David worries about buying a car. Evidently, the online hub helped him in that endeavor.

Most of the commercial had nothing to do with cars at all. And even when the narrator finally mentioned the site, it only left about 10 seconds for the viewer to gain a solid understanding of what Cars.com is all about.

The commercial did tell viewers that Cars.com will help them buy a car, but it failed to inform them about the other site features they may have been interested in, like research and the option to sell their vehicles. Maybe that was Cars.com's intention all along, but I'm not convinced that talking about just one of its offerings for a few seconds in 30-second commercial is all that effective.

E*Trade
With the help of two babies, E*Trade Financial used its 30-second Super Bowl ad to promote its investment services. During the first 20 seconds of the commercial, the babies mentioned the troublesome economy and their need for a tool like E*Trade to help them "take control" of their investments. The ad ended with a narrator asking viewers to open one of the "1,000 new accounts opened each day" and "take control with E*Trade."

Much like other companies, E*Trade used its Super Bowl ad to provide more entertainment value than brand promotion. Sure, the babies were entertaining and it got a chuckle out of me, but simply saying that users can "take control" of their investments with E*Trade doesn't tell me what the company does.

E*Trade could have promoted its brand more effectively if it eliminated the banter between the babies and had them discuss all the features E*Trade offers instead. Without that, users who have never used or heard of E*Trade only know that the company lets them "take control" of their investments. But how?

GoDaddy
Domain registrar GoDaddy has always been known to provide sexy commercials to promote its brand. This year's two Super Bowl ads were no different.

Dubbed "Shower," GoDaddy's first ad showed race car driver Danica Patrick, jumping into a shower as a group of boys watched. The other, named "Enhanced," brings Patrick and three other women into a courtroom to discuss "enhancements." The ad is meant to make viewers believe that the women are discussing enhancements of the anatomical sort, but Patrick says that she "enhanced her brand" by buying a domain name through GoDaddy.

GoDaddy's "Shower" commercial didn't say anything about GoDaddy's services and its story had nothing to do with domain registration. That said, it did ask viewers to watch the "unrated" version of the commercial on GoDaddy.com. That's a ploy the company has been using for years, so it must work.

The "Enhanced" commercial does a better job of discussing what GoDaddy actually does. That said, it only mentioned domains in passing and even then it was sandwiched between discussions about enhancements that may or may not have been made to the actresses' bodies. Suffice it to say that domain registration wasn't the memorable part of that commercial.

Hulu
Online video site Hulu offered up an ad, called "Alec in Huluwood" for the Super Bowl, starring veteran actor Alec Baldwin. The 60-second ad takes place in an underground laboratory where Baldwin discusses in detail how Hulu will ensure you won't escape TV content, while reducing your brain "to a cottage cheese-like mush." The spot ends with a tentacle emerging from Baldwin's suit jacket and his claim that "we're aliens, and that's how we roll."

Hulu may have taken a decidedly extreme tack to promote its brand, but it did that exceptionally well. Combining a star from one of TV's hottest comedies, 30 Rock, along with some comedy, the commercial kept audiences captivated as Baldwin skillfully laid out the business model of Hulu: "Hulu beams TV to your portable computing devices, giving you more of the cerebral gelatinizing shows you want anytime, anywhere, for free."

Before the commercial aired, Hulu was known to a relatively small number of people in the Super Bowl viewing audience. But after the ad aired, everyone knew what Hulu is, how it works, and most importantly, that it's free.

It was a perfectly-crafted commercial from both an entertainment and marketing perspective.

Monster
Job search service Monster unveiled a 30-second spot for the Super Bowl that saw the camera swing 180-degrees around a wall. On one side, the boss of a company had a moose's head hanging from the wall in his beautiful office. On the other side, the rest of the animal's body was resting in the middle of an employee's desk as the narrator asked if it's time to find another job. After that, the narrator mentioned how many job listings are on the site and how to get there.

Monster's ad may have been simple, but it was extremely effective. It provided viewers with some entertainment--a must at the Super Bowl--but it used it to get to the marketing side of the ad, which mentioned the company's "millions of job listings."

Perhaps most important, Monster's ad included the company's URL: Monster.com. Many of the viewers may have already known it and even if the company didn't add the ".com", some would find their way to the site. But spelling it out makes it easier for the viewer and gets them to the site sooner. It's a simple thing, but it shouldn't have been overlooked by so many of the other companies advertising their brands at the Super Bowl--be they Web-based businesses or not.

Overstock.com
Online discount retailer Overstock.com made an appearance in this year's Super Bowl with the help of NBA player, Carlos Boozer. The ad starts with Boozer at a computer scrolling through Overstock's listings. Children standing around Boozer ask him what different products around his home are and he responds with the percentage discount. The ad ends with one child picking up his 2008 Olympic Gold medal asking him what it is. "That's about 20 years of dedication, right there," he responded.

I don't quite see the point of the ad. When Overstock's Web page is shown in the beginning of the commercial, there's no way to tell which site it is. You can't even see its logo in the few seconds that it's displayed.

Worse, the discount percentages Boozer throws out mean nothing without context, which eventually comes at the very end of the commercial when the company's logo and name are displayed. In the process, there was little indication given to the viewer about why they should choose Overstock over any other online retail destination.

Priceline
Priceline, the online travel deals site, featured William Shatner in its ad this year. The ad starts with a married couple discussing their desire to go on vacation, but eventually realizing that they couldn't afford it. Shatner, who was outside their home in a van, tells the husband to repeat after him and goes on to explain to the wife how they can save money on a four-star hotel by using Priceline. He does so, at times dropping into the old Captain Kirk-style of speech with its halting cadence. The ad ends with the wife agreeing to book the reservation.

Priceline's commercials are barely different each time they air, but they work. The ad offered some entertainment value and throughout, the message was made clearly to the audience: if you want to save money when you travel, listen to Priceline. Whether or not that's true is a different story. But the ad left little doubt in the viewers' minds. It was well crafted.

A distributed denial-of-service attack turned dark at least several thousand Web sites hosted by GoDaddy.com Wednesday morning. The outage was intermittent over several hours, according to Nick Fuller, GoDaddy.com communications manager.

Neither e-mail nor DNS services were interrupted, Fuller said.

While one GoDaddy.com tech support person told me during the DDoS attack that at least several thousand Web sites were unreachable, Fuller said only a very small percentage of sites were unreachable but would not provide exact numbers "because of security reasons."

To add to the consternation of Web site owners, GoDaddy.com's voice mail system pointed to its support page for more information about the outage and when it would be corrected. No such information was posted there.

GoDaddy.com was hit in November 2005 with a similar denial-of-service attack that affected 600,000 of its customers' hosted Web sites for roughly an hour.

(Credit: CNET)

Despite being a fan of Zagat's restaurant surveys, I've never been overly impressed with the mobile applications for Windows Mobile Smartphone and PocketPC, BlackBerry, and Palm.

Regrettably, Zagat To Go '09 for the iPhone and iPod Touch ($9.99 per year) isn't markedly different.

The components to a great mobile app are all there--venerable content, click-to-call, a Web site link, OpenTable reservations for some restaurants, and search and sorting filters--but the whole is somehow less than the sum of its parts.

Stability is a major concern, the app cries for an in-app browser, and Zagat To Go calibrates your location twice every time you open it, a repetition that quickly wears thin. Providing advanced search options to find, for instance, sushi restaurants nearby for under $30 would make the app immediately more winning.

iTunes App Store reviewers have also thoroughly picked a bone with the app over a "cheesy" link to other apps created by Zagat's mobile publishing partner, Handmark, and "frustrating," "misleading" information about the cities and countries covered. It's true that Zagat Survey is strongest in metropolitan US cities, with passable international coverage in the UK, Italy, and France, and some world cities, like Tokyo, Toronto, London, and Rome. Handmark should more explicitly list those cities to minimize the backlash.

It's also true that Zagat To Go will best serve the foodies who want to "cut through the garbage" found on Yelp's and Urbanspoon's iPhone apps and be funneled to finer dining. Big-city diners dedicated to Zagat's yearly survey have in this iPhone app a slightly more economical and much more convenient and interactive option than toting the book with them on travels near and far, or viewing the cramped mobile Web site from the Safari browser.

Update: 12/2/08 at 3:40 PM. Handmark commented in an e-mail that a new release being submitted to iPhone's App Store for approval today will request location access upon launching the app for the first time. A button on the main search screen will let you manually update your new location.