Google Wants Inbox to Be Your Email System for the Next Decade

Two years ago, a team of engineers and designers on Google's Gmail team decided that Gmail wasn't cutting it.

Google's signature email program first hit the Web in 2004. In its earliest days, it was a godsend to everyone who battled against a daily rush of messages.

But email has once again become too onerous. There's too much mail and it performs too many functions in our lives. Email is a place for correspondence, for status alerts from social networks and online stores and airlines, and a file system for transferring and storing important documents. For many people it's also a to-do list and quasi-calendar, the central planner and task manager for your day. And though it is tremendously useful and will never die, email is also, for many people, completely annoying.

So the Gmail team decided to rethink email. "We decided, 'What if we cleared our minds, started fresh, and built something new to help people get back to what mattered to them?'" said Alex Gawley, Gmail's product director, in an interview at Google's headquarters. "What if we did more of the work for them?"

The program that Mr. Gawley and his team have come up with is Inbox, and Google on Wednesday plans to release a version for Android, iOS devices and the web on an invitation-only basis. Inbox isn't an upgrade to Gmail. It's a long-term replacement for it. Though Gmail isn't going anywhere - Inbox's creators stressed that they love Gmail and that Google plans to keep working on it - Inbox is meant to be your email system for the next decade. You'll sign into Inbox with your Gmail account and you'll see all your old messages there, and much of what you do in Inbox will be reflected in Gmail. But Google expects most people to use Inbox or Gmail, not both. In fact, both Mr. Gawley and Jason Cornwell, Gmail's lead designer, say they get their mail through Inbox, not Gmail.

Google's Inbox replaces email's familiar main screen with more thoughtfully designed previews of messages that share the overall aesthetic of a social-networking feed.Credit

Google showed me an in-depth demo of Inbox, but I wasn't given a chance to use it on my own email. What I saw of it looked interesting. Inbox replaces email's familiar main screen - a list of subject lines and senders - with more thoughtfully designed previews of messages that share the overall aesthetic of a social-networking feed. When your friend sends you some photos, you see the pictures right on the main screen, and you can flip through and dismiss them without going into the message.

The iOS version of Google's new Inbox app, which integrates social and to-do list functionality with email. Credit Inbox also relies on Google's data-mining prowess to improve these highlights. For instance, instead of showing you a message from your airline about your flight, it shows you real-time information about that flight gathered from the web. When you click on the highlight, you can always see the underlying message, but if the software does its job well, you won't have to click on the message.

Finally, Inbox functions as a to-do list. You can create tasks and reminders that appear in your inbox alongside your messages. The tasks are super smart, pulling in relevant data to make them useful. If you type "call my dentist," it might populate the task with your dentist's phone number and only her office hours.

Some of these features aren't completely novel. Inbox requires a series of gestures to navigate and sort your messages, a system that feels similar to that of Mailbox, an email start-up that was bought by Dropbox. (Box names are popular in Silicon Valley.) It also automatically categorizes some of your email in a way that Gmail and Outlook already do.

Overall, though, there's enough that's new in Inbox that I'm eager to give it a long-term whirl. I'll report back if it improves how I deal with my messages, or if it's just another gloss on a eternal tech problem.

Internet trial packs for 2G, 3G subscribers

Vodafone India launches Internet trial packs for 2G, 3G subscribers

Surbhi Chawla, April 10, 2013

With an aim to increase the uptake of mobile Internet on its network, Vodafone India has introduced 'one-time trial packs' for its 2G and 3G subscribers.

The subscribers will have to shell out Rs. 25 for the 2G plan and Rs. 49 for a 3G plan. These plans are available for both postpaid and prepaid customers and have a seven days' validity. The data limit available in this pack is 500MB.

To activate this plan Vodafone users will have to send an SMS 'TRY' to 111. This is a trial offer and hence the subscribers will not be able to purchase it as a paper recharge or e-top up.

For a prepaid subscriber, who us already subscribed to an Internet pack, this plan will overwrite their current pack. On the hand, for a postpaid subscriber, the trial pack would be additive and customer would go back to the current Internet pack subscribed when the trial is over.

Post the completion of the seven day trial period, this pack will not be auto renewed. Additionally, the subscribers will be given an option to choose from the existing 2G and 3G Internet packs that Vodafone India is offering.

Sharing his views on these plans, Vivek Mathur, Chief Commercial Officer, Vodafone India said, "Our core objective is to drive mobile internet adoption among non-internet users. In our endeavour to provide differentiated experience to our customer, we have introduced a new category of trial packs to make mobile internet more interesting, less intimidating for them. We see tremendous potential in this offer as non-users will be able to discover the benefits of mobile internet and how it can change their lives."

Vodafone has also brought back its popular mascot Zoozoo, to help the company in creating awareness about mobile Internet. The company has also shared that the Zoozoo fan page on Facebook had crossed 10 million fans. To celebrate this feat, Vodafone has also created an exclusive video with an interactive Facebook application. This application shows users a new Zoozoo video every time they launch the app.

New Ticketmaster website

New Ticketmaster website to make online 'CAPTCHA' puzzles easier

Associated Press, January 30, 2013

Ticketmaster, often the target of fan anger when tickets to popular concerts get sold out in seconds, is removing an annoyance that can slow down the buying process the jumble of letters that people need to decipher known as "CAPTCHA."

The puzzles provided by Google Inc. are meant to deter automated systems known as "bots" from purchasing large numbers of tickets the instant they go on sale. Scalpers have been known to employ bots to acquire tickets, which they resell for a profit.

CAPTCHA, an acronym that stands for "Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart," was developed by Carnegie Mellon computer scientists in 2000. Google bought the company that spun off from the university in 2009 in part to help it digitize books.

Since only humans, not computers, can decipher CAPTCHA codes, websites install the systems to keep tickets out of the hands of large-scale scalpers. In the fight against more sophisticated bot operators, CAPTCHA codes have become increasingly more difficult - so difficult that the puzzles started slowing down flesh-and-blood fans.

Take a recent CAPTCHA puzzle, which looks like a bunch of distorted letters that is meant for a buyer to interpret and type: "dsrific LCDAppr." Because of the way the letters are bent out of shape on screen, it's tough even for humans to tell if the two instances of the letter "p'' are capitalized or not.

Ticketmaster is overhauling its website to provide easier puzzles. It has run trials online, and in the next several weeks, it will replace all its online puzzles provided by Google with easier ones provided by a New York-based startup called Solve Media. On mobile devices, Ticketmaster is eliminating the need for puzzles entirely, using its own technology that verifies the user through a "push" notification to the device.

Fans using the website will now see common phrases, such as "freezing temperatures," or multiple choice questions such as "which one is a country?" followed by a drop-down menu of answers including "monster truck," ''puppy" and "Spain."

The key is that Solve Media looks for certain digital clues - which it won't divulge - to determine if the ticket-buyer is a person or a bot. The technology will dole out an easy puzzle to a person. It will give a bot a difficult one.

That has already made the fan experience better, says Kip Levin, Ticketmaster's executive vice president of eCommerce. The average time it takes to solve these puzzles has been halved from about 14 seconds to about 7 seconds, the company said.

"Anecdotally, we're starting to see an uptick in fan satisfaction," Levin said. "We're happy with what we've seen from a security standpoint as well."

Some puzzles are in the form of ads. A puzzle sponsored by Southwest Airlines Co. makes buyers enter the words "Bags Fly Free." One by TurboTax requires buyers to type "File Free."

Ari Jacoby, the CEO and cofounder of Solve Media, called advertising the "third leg of the stool" for his business after improving user experience and security. Because the sponsored puzzles use company slogans or product names as answers, they are "highly effective and memorable," Jacoby said.

Solve Media has more than 6,000 customers including magazine publisher Meredith Corp. and online portal AOL Inc., which is also an investor. Advertisers have included a range of major brands such as McDonald's, Toyota, CBS and Pizza Hut.

In February, Solve Media expects to serve up 200 million puzzles. Adding Ticketmaster will boost the number of possible ads it can send out. In 2011, Ticketmaster parent Live Nation Entertainment Inc. sold 141 million tickets, although it's unclear how many were purchased online

Google: Internet

Google: Internet age navigation drives economies

Agence France-Presse, January 30, 2013

Fresh from unveiling detailed online maps of North Korea, Google on Wednesday touted studies showing that Internet Age navigation tools boost the economic engines of nations.

The global "geospatial industry" brings in $270 billion in annual revenue and companies in the sector pay more than $90 billion in wages each year, according to a report by economic consulting firm Oxera.

Firms working with global satellite positioning, digital maps and navigation systems are a "promising engine for economic activity now" and will grow by 30 percent annually, according to Oxera.

"If policymakers, private companies, researchers and consumers continue to invest in this emerging industry, we can expect this technology to continue driving growth in the broader global economy," Oxera said in its report.

Geospatial technology has ripple effects ranging from making it easier for someone with a smartphone to find a nearby cafe to efficiently routing shipments or figuring out the best place to open a shop or place a billboard.

Oxera estimated that businesses worldwide have saved $17.3 billion due to time saved by using navigation technology and that people had a total of 1.1 billion hours lopped from their travel time.

Charlie Hale, of Google Maps' public policy team, described the geospatial industry as companies dealing in maps and navigation devices.

Major shipping firm UPS uses modern navigation technology to plot efficient delivery routes, taking into account weather, altitude, road pitch and myriad other factors, according to Hale.

Governments tap into mapping technology for a range of needs, from disaster responses to urban planning and improving mass transit systems.

"The key is that we shouldn't take it for granted," Hale said. "Policy makers need to support making map data available and private companies like ours need to keep investing in this."

Companies and countries with modern map skills and data have economic and competitive advantages, he argued, citing the Oxera study and a US-focused study by Boston Consulting Group.

"It is like any technology transition," Hale said. "If you were a small business 50 years ago, your marketing could be the yellow pages and those with TV ads had competitive advantage."

Now, businesses that are easy to find on online maps have an edge.

Evidence is even growing that people with better grasps of digital era mapping and navigation technologies earn higher incomes, according to Hale, who confessed to being the son of a geography teacher in Maine.

"It is about being able to use satellite imagery, GPS, all the tools the average global worker is going to have to rely on," he said.

Google offers free Internet

Google offers free Internet to South African mobile users

Agence France Press, November 15, 2012

Google said on Wednesday it has entered into a deal with South Africa's giant telecoms operator Telkom to offer free Internet access to mobile phone subscribers that cannot afford data costs.Under the deal dubbed "Free Zone," subscribers to Telkom's 8ta mobile phone service can access the web and versions of Gmail and Google+ without paying for data charges, as long as they have data-enabled handsets.
"Around 80 percent of South Africans have a cell phone, and much of this mobile resource is untapped due to data charges that many cannot afford," Google South Africa manager Luke Mckend told AFP.
Many mobile phone users find data charges for email, web browsing and social applications, to be too expensive.
"Our goal is to make more of the mobile web affordable for everyone, in order to enrich their lives with information at their fingertips," said Mckend.
Google launched a similar deal with a mobile phone provider in the Philippines earlier this month.
Amith Maharaj, senior managing executive at 8ta, said the idea is to help South Africa, the wealthiest country on the continent, keep pace with the rest of the developed world.
"Breaking down the barriers to Internet adoption is critical for South Africa to keep up with the rest of the world in terms of socio-economic development," he said, citing World Bank studies that a 10 percent rise in Internet use could result in one percent increase in GDP.
"Now 8ta subscribers can enjoy a free value added service to explore the Internet, check emails and connect with friends, ultimately boosting internet adoption in South Africa."
The deal is on trial until the end of May next year.
8ta is the mobile phone brand for the Johannesburg Stock Exchange-listed Telkom, South Africa's largest fixed line phone company but struggling parastatal.

Google to face lawmakers

Google, Amazon and Starbucks to face UK lawmakers over tax

 November 12, 2012

UK lawmakers will quiz executives of Starbucks, Google and Amazon on Monday about how they have managed to pay only small amounts of tax in Britain while racking up billions of dollars worth of sales here.

The Public Accounts Committee (PAC), which is charged with monitoring government financial affairs, has invited the companies to give evidence amid mounting public and political concern about tax avoidance by big international companies.

"It is hard for the ordinary person to believe it's fair," said Margaret Hodge, a member of parliament for the opposition Labour party and chairman of PAC.

"It makes people incredibly angry in the current fiscal climate," she added, in reference to the austerity measures which large budget deficits have forced on the UK, and other countries.

Britain and Germany last week announced plans to push the Group of 20 economic powers to make multinational companies pay their "fair share" of taxes following reports of large firms exploiting loopholes to avoid taxes.

A Reuters report last month showed that Starbucks had paid no corporation, or income, tax in the UK in the past three years.

The world's biggest coffee chain paid only 8.6 million pounds in total UK tax over 13 years during which it recorded sales of 3.1 billion pounds.

Campaign group UK Uncut, which is opposed to government austerity measures, and which has organised protests against British telecoms operator Vodafone <VOD.L> and pharmacist Boots over their tax practices, said in a statement on Monday that they planned to target Starbucks.

Starbucks said it followed the tax rules in every country where it operates and sought to pay its fair share of taxes.

"We are committed to being transparent on this issue and look forward to appearing before this committee," a spokeswoman said.

Starbucks Chief Financial Officer Tory Alstead will give evidence to the committee, as will Matt Brittin, Chief Executive Officer of Google UK, and Andrew Cecil, Brussels-based Director of Public Policy for Amazon, a PAC spokesman said.

Google's filings show it had $4 billion of sales in the UK last year, but despite having a group-wide profit margin of 33 percent, its main UK unit had a tax charge of just 3.4 million pounds in 2011.

The company avoids UK tax by channeling non-U.S. sales via an Irish unit, an arrangement that allowed it to pay taxes at a rate of 3.2 percent on non-U.S. profits. Amazon's main UK unit paid less than 1 million pounds in income tax last year. The company had UK sales worth $5.3-7.2 billion, filings show.

Amazon avoids UK taxes by reporting European sales through a Luxembourg-based unit. This structure allowed it to pay a tax rate of 11 percent on foreign profits last year - less than half the average corporate income tax rate in its major markets.

Google declined to comment. Amazon did not respond to requests for comment.

Hodge and former financial services minister Paul Myners told the Sunday Telegraph newspaper that the government should consider a new revenue-based tax to ensure profits from UK sales didn't go offshore.

Google reports unexplained disruptions

Google reports unexplained disruptions to its services in China

Agence France-Presse, November 10, 2012

Google on Friday reported unexplained disruptions to its services in China.

"We've checked and there is nothing wrong on our end," a Google spokeswoman told AFP.

An online tool that tracks outages or disruptions to the California-based Internet giant's services showed online traffic in China plummet mid-day.

The disruption followed reports that Chinese Internet users have evaded censors to take pot shots at President Hu Jintao's assessment of his performance in a farewell speech.

Hu launched a week-long Communist Party congress in Beijing on Thursday with a speech that touted his political leadership, but also warned in stark terms of worsening problems such as corruption that threaten the party's legitimacy.

Users of the country's hugely popular microblogging sites -- the only major forum for relatively open expression in the tightly-controlled country -- reacted with cynicism.

The GreatFire.org website, which early last year began tracking Internet censorship in China, reported Friday that testing showed an array of Google websites were blocked there including search, email, and maps.

"This means that none of these websites, including Google Search, currently work in China, unless you have a VPN or other circumvention tool," according to a blog on the site, which monitors China's censorship online.

Beijing has denied involvement in the cyberattacks on the California-based firm, calling such accusations "groundless."

Google on Friday confirmed a sharp drop in access to its products in China, noting that it was the middle of the night there and that a clearer picture of the situation should be available as the day got underway.

Chinese censors last month blocked online searches related to the New York Times as well as the newspaper's websites after it published an investigation on the wealth of the Chinese premier's family.

China operates a huge system of Internet control and censorship dubbed the Great Firewall of China, aimed at snuffing out information or comments that the government considers a threat to its authority.

In early 2010, the Google said it suffered cyber-attacks from China-based parties apparently intent on hacking into the Gmail accounts of Chinese rights activists.

The resulting row caused tensions to spike between China and the United States and ended with Google reducing its presence in the Chinese market