ITV

Tag: Google

  • Google to invest in Himax

    Google to invest in Himax

    MUMBAI: Taiwan based Himax Technologies announced that Google will acquire 6.3 per cent interest in the company‘s subsidiary, Himax Display (HD).

    The purpose of the investment is to fund production upgrades, expand capacity and further enhance production capabilities at HD‘s facilities that produce liquid crystal on silicon (LCOS) chips and modules used in applications including head?mounted display (HMD) such as Google Glass, head?up display (HUD) and pico?projector products.

    Under the Agreement, Himax will also invest additional amount in HDI to fund its ongoing capacity expansion. HDI will also use a portion of the proceeds to substantially reduce its loan from Himax. The transaction is expected to close in the third quarter of 2013 subject to regulatory approvals and other closing conditions.

    Google also has an option to make additional investment of preferred shares at the same price within one year from closing. If the option is exercised in full, Google will own a total of up to 14.8 per cent in HDI. Himax Technologies holds 81.5 per cent of HDI at present and will remain the major shareholder of HDI after the transaction. Google will join the core group of HDI share holders including KPCB Holdings, Khosla Ventures I, L.P. and Intel Capital Corporation.

    Google‘s investment in HDI will not have a dilutive effect on Himax‘s Nasdaq?traded shares, HIMX.

    Founded in 2004, Himax Display has focused on developing commercial applications for LCOS technologies, in?house manufacturing expertise and production lines with proven, high?volume shipment track records. Over the last few years, HDI has devoted its research and development of its LCOS technology for new applications of head? mounted display and other wearable computing applications.

  • NASA to host Google+ Hangout

    NASA to host Google+ Hangout

    MUMBAI: NASA will host a Google+ Hangout from several NASA centers at 2 p.m. EDT (Eastern Daylight Time) on 23 July as the agency prepares to fly two unmanned aircraft over Atlantic Ocean hurricanes this summer.

    NASA‘s Hurricane and Severe Storm Sentinel or HS3‘s mission is a five-year project that first took to the field in 2012 from NASA‘s Wallops flight facility at Wallops Island. HS3 is investigating the roles of the large-scale environment and storm-scale internal processes in hurricane formation and intensity change in the Atlantic basin. HS3 scientists will use two NASA Global Hawk aircraft during the campaign, one with instruments measuring the environment around a tropical cyclone and the other with instruments looking into the storms.

    Participants in the Hangout will hear about the 2012 mission and preparations underway at Wallops for the upcoming flights. The HS3 lead scientist will explain how NASA will peer into hurricanes and a Global Hawk pilot will discuss remote flying over tropical cyclones.

    Panelists for the Google+ Hangout are NASA‘s Goddard Space Flight Center HS3 principal investigator Scott Braun, NASA‘s Dryden Flight Research Center Global Hawk pilot Tom Miller, NASA‘s Ames Research Center HS3 project manager Marilyn Vasques and rosenstiel school of marine and atmospheric science senior research associate Brian McNoldy .

    Google+ Hangouts allow as many as 10 people or group chat, while thousands more can watch the conversation live on Google+ or YouTube. The Hangout will also be carried live on NASA Television and the agency‘s website.

    NASA‘s social media followers can submit questions on Google+ or Twitter in advance and during the event using #askNASAHS3. Before the Hangout begins, NASA will open a thread on its Facebook page where questions may be posted.

  • Google appears poised to unveil new Nexus tablets

    Google appears poised to unveil new Nexus tablets

    MUMBAI: Google appears to be getting ready to introduce the next generation of its Nexus tablets.

    The unveiling is likely to come at a 24 July event in San Francisco. Google sent invitations on Wednesday to the media.

    The event will be hosted by Sundar Pichai, a Google executive who oversees the company‘s Android and Chrome operating systems.

    Android, the world‘s leading mobile operating system, powers Google‘s line-up of Nexus tablets. Those devices have emerged as a popular alternative to Apple‘s iPad since Google released the first Nexus tablet with a seven inch display screen last July.

    It has become customary for top-selling devices to be upgraded at least once a year, fueling speculation that is what Google is about to do with the Nexus next week.

  • Google, Facebook corners more than half of advertising revenue spend in Asia

    Google, Facebook corners more than half of advertising revenue spend in Asia

    NEW DELHI: Google and Facebook have cornered around 60 per cent of the advertising revenue spent online in Asia, even as the online spending on commercials in India is around seven per cent.

    A study by Economist Intelligence Unit‘s (EIU) report on environment for Asia‘s Internet businesses revealed that the market is challenging as its size in Asia is still small and there are many players competing in the online advertising space.

    Monetisation through online advertising is not easy, as even big names in the global publishing industry have seen that there are simply too many players competing for same advertising dollars, the report said.

    “In Asia this is compounded by the small size of individual markets. In Malaysia and Thailand, for example, just one per cent of advertising revenue is spent online. In India, this is slightly higher at seven per cent. But of the $ 410 million being spent online, 60 per cent goes to Google and Facebook, with only the remaining 40 per cent going to other online players,” it added.

    This is mainly because Google and Facebook have the highest number of users on the internet, being the top two sites in the world.

    “Online advertising budgets, while growing, remain small and skewed towards the larger players. While e-commerce is growing rapidly, finding the winning business model remains difficult in many markets,” the EIU report said.

    Outside of North Asia, entrepreneurs report that internet users are reluctant to pay for intangible items such as content. This is particularly so when there is pirated content easily available, it added.

    However, EIU said mobile advertising is slowly gaining traction and Asia will be one of the biggest markets.

    While online advertising in Asia is forecast to grow at a modest pace (from 24 per cent of worldwide online advertising in 2010 to 26 per cent by 2015), the mobile advertising market is really taking off.

    By 2015, Asia is expected to account for one-third of the mobile advertising market globally, it said.

    Online advertising spend in India was about Rs 2,260 crore as of March 2013 and is estimated to grow to Rs 2,938 crore by 2014, while, mobile advertising is estimated to reach Rs 250 crore in 2013, a growth of 40 per cent year-on-year.

    Globally, online advertising revenue stood at USD 99 billion in 2012, which is estimated to grow at 15 per cent to USD 113.5 billion in 2013. In the case of mobile advertising, the revenues were USD 6.4 billion in 2012 and is expected to touch USD 9.7 billion in 2013.

  • Google revamps Android Maps app, drops Latitude

    Google revamps Android Maps app, drops Latitude

    MUMBAI: Google has overhauled its Maps app for Android smartphones and tablets, giving it some new search, navigation, and discovery features. The changes will also soon be making their way to the company‘s iPhone and iPad apps.

    “Today‘s update is an exciting step forward for Google‘s maps – one that we hope will make it faster and easier for you to explore and discover places you want to go,” Google Maps director Daniel Graf wrote in a blog post Wednesday.

    For starters, the revamped app aims to help in navigating around traffic a little easier. In addition to current traffic conditions, one can also see reports of problems on the road and tap to see incident details. While driving, Google Maps will now alert if there‘s a better route, and more quickly reroute the driver to his destination.

    There‘s also a new Explore feature, which offers up places one might like to eat, drink, sleep, and shop. On tapping the search box, a list of suggested places without even having to type anything can be seen.

    To help one decide on where to go, the app includes a new 5-star rating system that will give the user an idea of how the user‘s friends and others have rated places like restaurants, bars, and coffee shops. Zagat badges and curated lists are also now integrated into search results, so one can quickly spot expert-approved places.

    This is also Google‘s first dedicated Maps app for Android tablets and iPads.

    “A dedicated tablet design brings all the features of this new app to Android tablets

    and iPads, which makes exploring the world from the comfort of your living room much more fluid, smooth and fun,” Graf said.

    But alongside all the new goodies, some older features are going away, including Latitude and check-ins, which is no longer part of the new Google Maps app and will be retired from older versions on 9 Aug. Google, is instead pushing the newly added location-sharing and check-in features of Google+ for Android. My Maps is also not included in this release, but will return in future versions of the app, Google said.

    Finally, the offline maps feature for Android is also no longer available. You can still access maps offline, however, by entering “OK Maps” into the search box when viewing the area you want for later.

    The new Google Maps app is compatible with devices running Android Ice Cream Sandwich and Jelly Bean, as well as iOS 6 and above.

  • Google brings IIFA home, SRK and Shahid to host the event once again

    Google brings IIFA home, SRK and Shahid to host the event once again

    MUMBAI: Millions of Bollywood fans gear up for one of India‘s biggest Film Awards to be held in Macau this weekend, the International India Film awards (IIFA). This year, IIFA is making Google its home, bringing Bollywood and all its glamour to users with a unique digital experience.

    Google hopes to enhance the IIFA experience by bringing the weekend action to users through Google+, YouTube and Search. Bollywood stars will join a Hangout On-Air live from the Green carpet, YouTube will capture the glitzy pre-event parties and Knowledge Panels across Search will showcase everything the viewers need to know about the nominees.

    From discussing the Union Budget with the Finance Minister to getting to chat with their favorite cricket star – Hangouts are everywhere and after so many successful ones hosted in areas such as politics, film promotions, spirituality and sports, it comes as no surprise that the platform is being taken to the next level with IIFA this year.

    YouTube, too, after just wrapping up the IPL, will bring behind-the-scenes sneak peeks from the IIFA Weekend to fans. And it doesn‘t end there, now, when searching for Shah Rukh Khan or Barfi! Knowledge Panels tell you everything about the movie from within Search, without clicking on a link.

    Speaking on this association, Google India marketing director Sandeep Menon said, “We are extremely excited to bring IIFA home this year. With this association we hope to ensure a never before experience to all Indian movie lovers. Since the very beginning, Google has always focused on providing the best user experience possible. We take great care to ensure that all our products ultimately serve the audience. We will be using Google+, Google Search Trends and YouTube in order to provide a great experience to the IIFA watchers. This association will help us to reach out to millions of IIFA fans and bring live action from IIFA 2013 to their desk tops and mobiles.”

    The superstar of Indian Cinema, Shah Rukh Khan will play host at the upcoming 14th IIFA Awards at The Venetian Macao along with Shahid Kapoor. This year along with the impressive line-up of performances by the biggest stars in the Indian Film Industry, IIFA 2013 will also see a host of prominent personalities attend the event including Irrfan Khan, Vidya Balan, Anil Kapoor and many more.

  • YouTube to help ad makers create ads

    YouTube to help ad makers create ads

    MUMBAI: YouTube‘s latest venture – ‘holding the hands of advertisers‘. Even though viewership for online video streaming sites is constantly on the rise, advertisers have remained a little hesitant about massively increasing their spending for online video ad time, largely because they‘re not entirely clear on whether they should just repurpose television advertising or create a variant in order to take maximum advantage of this still-new medium.

    Luckily for them, YouTube announced plans to help 100 major advertisers adapt to the possibilities and realities of online video advertising. During an appearance at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity on Thursday, Google‘s vice president and global head of content at YouTube, Robert Kyncl, said that “the type of creative experiences and what works well (on YouTube) just can‘t be done on television.”

    He explained that YouTube can go beyond the 30-second spot, and that the advertisement can be an entire show. “On television, advertisements don‘t have the creative freedom, can‘t have the two-way conversation, and don‘t have the sharing or amplification effect content receives on YouTube,” he said.

    Brands taking part in the program include American Express, General Electric, Johnson & Johnson, and PepsiCo. Kyncl said that, in the program, “Advertisers will receive the same white glove treatment as top content creators do.”

    The intent of the program is to demonstrate the value of YouTube as a setting for advertising, but as Kyncl told the Guardian, it isn‘t to suggest that YouTube is simply a replacement for television in that sense. He explained that advertisers working with creative agencies are generally used to doing fewer TV ads at a higher cost.”We‘re talking about creating an ongoing conversation with audiences … Not just TV ads four times a year,” he said. “Advertisers need to rethink their cost structure; it is practical to produce many more ads through YouTube.” Kyncl stressed that this plan is about working like a content creator and not just an advertiser.

    The program launched with a pilot this September, with four advertisers being invited to a week-long retreat and workshop in YouTube‘s headquarters in Los Angeles to discuss ways in which they could better take advantage of the Internet and YouTube.

    This isn‘t the first time that YouTube has reached out to customers like this. In 2007, the company launched a partner program for content creators similar to this new scheme that‘s grown into a massively successful undertaking with millions of partners taking advantage. If the advertiser program is as successful, then YouTube and its business partners will likely be very happy.

  • Forecast sees big payoff for Google’s mobile ads

    Forecast sees big payoff for Google’s mobile ads

    MUMBAI: Google will sell more mobile advertising than the rest of its rivals combined for the second straight year, according to a new forecast that highlights the expansion of the internet search leader‘s moneymaking competency from personal computers to smartphones and tablets.

    The report released on Thursday by the research firm eMarketer projects Google Inc will generate nearly $8.9 billion in mobile ad revenue throughout the world in 2013. The figure reflects the projected amount that Google will retain after paying commissions to its ad partners.

    The prediction calls for Google to hold a 56 per cent share of the overall mobile ad market, which is expected to approach $16 billion this year. In 2012, Google accounted for 52 per cent, or $4.6 billion, of the worldwide mobile ad market, according to eMarketer.

    Facebook Inc, the owner of the largest online social network, is expected to rank a distant second in mobile advertising this year with about $2 billion in revenue from phones and tablets, eMarketer predicted. Although still far behind Google, Facebook has been making rapid inroads in the mobile market. Last year, Facebook sold less than $500 million in mobile advertising.

    The report marks the first time that eMarketer has released digital ad numbers spanning the entire globe. The firm‘s previous estimates, which are closely watched in the industry, have been confined to the US ad market.

    eMarketer‘s figures are intriguing because Google doesn‘t disclose how much of its total ad revenue flows from the rapidly growing ad market. Google‘s success in mobile advertising stems from its ability to establish its internet search engine and other services, such as digital maps, Gmail and the Chrome browsers, as frequently used applications on mobile devices.

    The company accomplished that largely by forging a partnership with Apple Inc when that company‘s iPhone came out in 2007. Google then baked its services into Android, a free operating system now running on more than 900 million mobile devices.

    Android‘s success transformed Google into a competitive threat to the iPhone and iPad, prompting Apple to dump some of Google‘s services as built-in programs on those devices. But many iPhone and iPad users are still relying on Google products by installing apps on their Apple devices.

  • DDB Mudra appoints Subhasis Chatterjee as AVP

    DDB Mudra appoints Subhasis Chatterjee as AVP

    MUMBAI: DDB Mudra has appointed Subhasis Chatterjee as AVP. Subhasis will report in to senior VP Shally Mukherjee.

    Subhasis makes the shift from Contract Advertising where he was group account director. With over 12 years of experience, Subhasis started his career at Hutchison Essar and then made a switch to the agency side. He‘s worked with some well-known agencies including Bates, Publicis Ambience and Triton.

    Commenting on joining DDB Mudra, Subhasis said, “I started my career working with a great brand – Orange, where I saw how a brand was more than just what we see in the ATL space. While the lead task of brand building may still depend on mass media, the Indian consumer wants much more from brands today. The multi-domain expertise of DDB Mudra Group, offers great potential to deliver such comprehensive and true brand solutions. And I am excited to lead this effort for my businesses.”

    In these 12 years, he‘s worked on famous brands such as Google, Piramal Realty, Tata Photon, Set Wet, Papa John‘s Pizza, Parachute Aftershower and ICICI Debit and Credit cards among others.

    On his appointment, DDB Mudra Mumbai senior VP Shally Mukherjee said, “Subhasis comes with cross-category experience and a great ability to partner clients and grow business. He will be partnering me on driving the DDB Mudra Group agenda while adding value to our clients‘ businesses and growing with them. He is a great addition to the team and we expect him to help further the confidence that clients have in DDB Mudra. We extend a very warm welcome to Subhasis and wish him a rewarding career with the organisation.”

    DDB Mudra Group president Rajiv Sabnis said, “Subhasis is a welcome addition to the DDB Mudra West talent pool. He comes from a strong creative and planning culture and we look forward to his contribution in the organisation. He arrives at a time that DDB Mudra has upped the ante in the country and we are looking at consolidating and providing strong growth in the coming years. We expect Subhasis to deliver senior counsel to our clients and ensure communication integration across our group specializations. We welcome Subhasis to the DDB Mudra Group family and wish him a long and successful innings here.”

  • Google acquires Waze for over $1 bn

    Google acquires Waze for over $1 bn

    MUMBAI: Google has acquired Israeli technology company Waze for an estimated $1.03 billion.

    Waze makes a crowds-sourced traffic app that uses input from drivers. It will complement Google‘s mapping capability. Reports add that the deal is seen by many as a defensive move by Google to keep Waze from being acquired by Apple or Facebook.

    Google says that the aim is to help drivers outsmart traffic. Drivers will be able to find the best routes from home to work, every day. The Waze product development team will remain in Israel and operate separately for now. Google Maps will be enhanced with some of the traffic update features provided by Waze. At the same time Waze will be enhanced with Google‘s search capabilities.

    Google adds that it will also work closely with the Waze community, who are the DNA of this app, to ensure they have what‘s needed to grow and prosper. Google notes that the Waze community and its dedicated team have created a source of timely road corrections and updates. The effort is to make a comprehensive, accurate and useful map of the world.

    Waze founder Noam Bardin said, “Larry Page, Brian McClendon and the Google Maps teams have been following our progress closely and are excited about what we‘ve accomplished. They share our vision of a global mapping service, updated in real time by local communities, and wish to help us accelerate. We are excited about the prospect of working with the Google Maps team to enhance our search capabilities and to join them in their ongoing efforts to build the best map of the world.”

    “Nothing practical will change here at Waze. We will maintain our community, brand, service and organisation – the community hierarchy, responsibilities and processes will remain the same. The same Waze people will continue to collaborate with you, and we will continue to innovate, our product and services, making them more social, functional and helpful for everyday drivers. Our employees, managers, founders and I are all committed to our vision for many years to come,” he added.

    He also wrote on his blog on why the company did not go in for an IPO. “Why not stay completely independent? We asked ourselves: “Will Waze still be a fun project to participate in, and a fun place to work, as a stand-alone public company?” He noted that choosing the path of an IPO often shifts attention to bankers, lawyers and the happiness of Wall Street. “We decided we‘d rather spend our time with you, the Waze community. Google is committed to help us achieve our common goal and provide us with the independence and resources we need to succeed. We evaluated many options and believe Google is the best partner for Waze, our map editors, area managers, champs and nearly 50 million ‘Wazers‘ globally.”

    He adds that Waze will continue to make a real impact on drivers globally, helping them save time and money while making everyone‘s daily commute a bit more efficient and fun.