Between My Sheets

Google Pays a Bounty On New Customers' Heads

While it's easy to imagine this platform as "Android for watches," Pichai said the company was thinking "more broadly" and, according to the Wall Street Journal , pitched an idea for a jacket with tons of sensors. Google is rumored to be working on smartwatch of its own, butPichai declined to say if Google is working on any devices. Instead, Pichai said he thinks about the wearables market at "aplatform level." This "platform" idea move perfectly mirrors Android's strategy in smartphones and tablets, where Google licenses the OS out to other OEMs to produce hardware, and Google uses its influence over the software to drive people toward Google services. While on the surface it would make sense for Google to launch a wearables platform in the same vein as Android, this outcome wasn't a foregone conclusion. Google'sother wearables project, Google Glass, is definitelynot a platform that is welcoming to outside manufacturers. With Glass, Google is going the Apple route with a closed-off, fully vertical device where Google controls the hardware and software. None of the special Glass parts are shared with outside developers or OEMs. Google accepts app submissions for Glass, but it strictly controls what is and is not allowed in the Glass storefor instance, facial recognition apps are banned for no reason other than the fact that Google doesn't like them. It was easy to imagine the Glass OS being the future of Google's wearable strategy. The minimal, low-resolution, voice-based OS could have translated easily to a watch. But with the release of a proper Android SDK, Google Glass is looking less like "the future" of wearables at Google and more like a one-off, siloed experiment. Further Reading The 2014 Google trackerEverything we know Google is working on this year Google's plans for Android, gaming, smart homes, healthcare, robots, and much, much more.

Google’s giving bus rides to poor San Franciscans. Is this what the Google city-state looks like?

For some businesses this is a legal requirement. Google Apps for Business costs $5 a month per user or $50 a year for users. There is no limit to the number of users you can have on this service. Google Apps for Business with Vault costs $10 a month. There are also some third-party apps, such as Insightly, a small-business customer relationship management (CRM) program , that you can use with Google Apps. In addition, some Google programs, such as Hangouts for video-conferencing and Google Voice, a VoIP (Voice-over-Internet Protocol) , are often used with Google Apps for Business even though they don't come as "official' parts of the office suite. What's Hot on ZDNet A new Windows 8.1 update tries to win back desktop diehards Apple releases iOS 7.1 for iPhone, iPad Parekh said, "When we discover something amazing whether its a new local coffee shop or a tool that improves the way we work we want to share it with people we know so they can also benefit." "For those of us who use Google Apps, the ability to access all of our documents from anywhere on any device and being able to seamlessly collaborate with colleagues or customers across the world, are impressive moments," continued Parekh. "These are moments we want to share with friends and colleagues because the more the people in our networks use Google Apps, the more seamlessly we can collaborate with them -- whether its video conferencing via Hangouts, working together on Docs or sharing calendars. Best of all, it means we can all begin to experience a new way of working." To encourage users to share to the "joys" of Google Apps, Parekh wrote, "To help continue the momentum, were launching the Google Apps Referral Program . The referral program makes it easy to share Google Apps with your network and show them how they too can use these tools at work." This program is only available to users in the US and Canada. "To show our appreciation, were offering a $15 referral bonus for each new Google Apps user you refer." The fine print makes Google Apps referrals sounds like a pretty good deal .

Google gets serious about office apps: Offers $15 for referrals

The findings will give more clues on whether consumers are spending more. Recent store closure announcements by Staples and RadioShack are the latest signs of stress in some parts of the brick-and-mortar retail industry as more shoppers switch to online purchases. The changes may have negative implications for the commercial real estate market This is the 5th anniversary of the start of the bull market. Since stocks hit their recent bottom in March 2009, the Dow Jones index has gone up nearly 150 percent. The high-technology Nasdaq has more than doubled. The S&P index is at an all-time high after gaining for the past two weeks in a row. As a new week of trading starts, investors will be closely watching the latest developments in Ukraine. The stock market ended mixed on Friday, despite a mostly positive February jobs report. Americans are boarding public buses, trains and subways in greater numbers than any time since the suburbs began booming, according to new ridership numbers. Transit passengers took nearly 10.7 billion trips in 2013 the highest total since 1956, says the American Public Transportation Association.

So in a move that appears to counter that narrative, Google announced last month that it would pay San Francisco $6.8 billion to let low-income students aged 5-17 ride city buses for free. Now advocates are lobbying for free bus rides for seniors and the disabled, too. It's unclear whether Google or another tech company intends to pick up the tab for this idea. But Google's new role in providing city services makes me wonder whether Analee Newitz might have been right in predicting a city-state run by the search giant. A city-state is set apart from its surroundings in that it exercises legal sovereignty over its own territory. City-states often have their own religion, armies and other distinguishing features of a nation-state. And while the Bay Area is too closely tied to the California economy not to mention national laws and elected officials to be considered a literal city-state anytime soon, the fact that Google is stepping in to provide a service that would ordinarily come from the local government is a remarkable move. It's a paradoxical irony. The company will soon grant schools and libraries in Austin and Kansas City access to free and fast fiber optic Internet. Google serves as a source of relief for these communities that are unserved or underserved by the existing broadband market. But how many public services is too many? Over-involvement by Google in providing civic amenities that would otherwise be a city's responsibility brings Google's considerable control over our online lives into the real world. The prospect resembles the dystopian future laid out so bluntly by Dave Eggers in his controversial novel, "The Circle." If you haven't yet read Eggers' latest, "The Circle" posits a world in which one tech company has eliminated all the others and exerts a powerful influence over Silicon Valley.

Google Seeks to Dominate OS for Wearable Devices

It strikes me that,formy friends at least,the idea ofan office productivity platform would be somewhat less exciting than akick-ass espresso but your situation may be different. The referral program itself is fairly simple forevery user who signs up for Google Apps based on an existing customers recommendation, that customer will receive $15. All that is needed is a name and email address (and, yes, a valid taxpayer ID number US and Canada only). Diving into the terms, however, there seems to be a catch. Per Google and its corporate lawyers: Google will pay Participant a one-time fee of $15 (a Referral Fee) for each Eligible Referrals end user that results in a Valid Transaction provided that in no event will Google owe any payments to Participant for any single Eligible Referral entity in excess of an aggregated total of $1500/customer entity So dont bother referring your Fortune 100 buddies this program only pays on the first 100 users Google is gunning for SMBs here. There are also a bunch of hoops to jumps through new customers must sign up using a special link and they cant sign up to any extra service offerings. Google is also offering coupons to encourage sign ups the coupons give customers a $10 per user saving for their first year on Google Apps. Im not convinced on this one, Google. Referral programs are complicated and tend to just encourage bored people (not to mention Eastern European or African scam shops) to harvest massive email lists in order to make some cash. Is that really the approach you want Google to be connected with?

Google at Center of Antitrust Probe in India

The probe in India has been going on during the same time as similar antitrust investigations had been underway against Google in the United States and in the European Union (EU). In India, as in the U.S. and European cases, the antitrust probe related to allegations that Google has been "abusing its dominant position in the Internet search engine space," the paper reported. If Google is found guilty of the allegations in India, it could be subject to a fine of up to 10 percent of its average annual revenues over the last three years, or about $5 billion, the paper reported. In India, there are no provisions for settling such a case, the paper reported. Settlements were what resolved the similar cases in the U.S. and in Europe. The CCI has referred the case to its investigation arm, the Director General (DG), according to The Economic Times, which "has also collected comments from third-parties with regard to this case" in preparation for making a report back to the CCI. Antitrust probes around the world have been dogging Google for some time.