Tag: Google

  • Identity crisis.

    Beenie Man "Who Am I" Cover

    Google+ triggered an online identity crisis. Here’s how I’d been managing my online identity since leaving Yahoo.

    • joseph.by is the domain I use for all of my personal stuff (tumblr and personal email)
    • josephby at joseph.by is the email address I use for my personal identity, including email and calendaring with Google Apps
    • josephby at everbird.com is my work identity, used for company email and other work logins
    • josephby at gmail.com is my legacy Google account, used for Google Talk

    This all worked well enough until Google launched Google+ without support for custom domains; at that point I found myself constantly switching between my two personal Google accounts for “personal” stuff.

    When Google+ launched I figured I’d use my personal Google Apps account with it. Except that Google+ didn’t support Apps accounts. So a bunch of people added me as josephby at gmail.com making things worse.

    I now realize that my mistake was conflating a clever email address with my online identity. I already established an “identity” within Google. Once I registered the joseph.by domain I should have just setup an MX record to forward mail to my existing personal gmail account.

    I learned that you can be as clever as you like with vanity domains, but don’t let them screw up your online identities.

  • Youtube gets down to business.

    It’s incredibly difficult to create a product that both delights customers and generates revenue. As a result, the usual way to build a digital media business is to first create something that users love and then, months or years later, find a way to really monetize it. Youtube followed this model for years. It now looks like Google is serious about making money from Youtube. And just in time.

    As audience and time spent continues to shift from TV to the web advertisers are looking for scalable but innovative channels through which to reach consumers. Youtube is best positioned to do this. It will be interesting to watch and see what happens.

  • Deterrence

    Today’s Wall Street Journal includes a great article on the cold war between Google and Microsoft (subscription required). The author looks at why Microsoft is launching a free, online-only version of Office, and why Google is responding in part by launching its own OS. He believes that “neither Google nor Microsoft really have an interest in challenging each other’s core franchises if it means risk to their own. Their posturing is primarily defensive—fear of loss is greater than hope of gain.”

    A good read for a Wednesday morning.

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