It is now widely know that Apple plans to replace Google maps on iPhones, iPads and iPods with the rollout of iOS6 at its WWDC in June. It is reported that Apple’s maps, which was developed, in-house, will feature 3-D maps. The maps are based on the acquisition of three mapping software companies between 2009 and 2011, Placebase, C3 Technologies, and Poly9. The stunning 3D image above is from C3, which, according to the company, uses “previously classified image processing technology… automated software and advanced algorithms… to rapidly assemble extremely precise 3D models, and seamlessly integrate them with traditional 2D maps, satellite images, street level photography and user generated images.” The video below shows a flyover of Oslo using C3?s technology.

Forbes reports: “Apple will have a new maps app with much more highly-detailed imagery than Google, collected through military-style reconnaissance without the (ahem) gathering of any personal information. It is a good bet that Apple will finesse the transitions between the different map modes far better than Google’s wonky shift from ‘map view’ to ‘street view.’”

It is said Google make four times the ad revenue off of iOS than they do with Android. Apple in changing that. It is already dis-intermediating search queries through Siri, effectively cutting Google out of the valuable identity information associated with those searches. Now, by cutting off Google maps, it is cutting off the the large amounts of data Google collects to feed it advertising engine. This will invariably hurt Google faster that if can figure out how to find alternative sources of revenue, given that Google still relies on advertising for 98% of its revenue and that revenue keeps shrinking.

Great move by Tim Cook and the team. I am sure Steve Jobs is smiling.

Google is doing everything it can to force Google Plus on everyone. Yesterday, when Star Trek star Wil Wheaton, tried to like a video on YouTube, he was forced to upgrade to Google Plus.

“It’s pissing me off”, said Wheaton.

He wrote the following on his Tumblr account:

Oh, go fuck yourself, Google. This is just as bad as companies forcing me to “like” something on Facebook before I can view whatever it is they want me to “like.”

Just let me thumbs up something, without forcing me to “upgrade” to G+, you dickheads.

The worst part of this? For a producer like me, I’m going to lose a crapton of potential upvotes for Tabletop, because the core of my audience is tech-savvy and may not want to “upgrade” to yet another fucking social network they don’t want or need.

Soon it started spreading among his fans.

Neil Gaiman, blogged:

I wish Google would leave the Social Network thing to others. When Google does what it does, and does it well, it changes the world. When it rides bandwagons, it’s irritating.

I’m not on Google Plus, and I suppose that I won’t be liking YouTube videos any longer.

John Green also blogged:

I strongly agree with this. Making it so that only google plus users can decide whether a YouTube video is worth watching benefits no one except for Google Plus: It is bad for viewers, bad for video creators, and bad for YouTube’s ability to curate and tailor videos to potential viewers.

Google should know better. Microsoft has tried this same thing for years, and it doesn’t work. Forcing people to sign up for it may give Google some nice user stats to share on its earnings calls, but it won’t build long-term success or engagement.

Google should give up on social, it will NEVER succeed.

Google’s (GOOG), 2012 first-quarter earnings came in at $10.08 a share, topping analysts’ estimates of $9.64.

However, revenue came in slightly lower than expect at $8.14 billion.

Google also reported that it was splitting its stock 2 for 1. It stock was down negative 0.72% versus, compare that to the Nasdaq which was up 18.67%.

Google still gets most of its revenue from Internet search ads. Mobile search ads have become a bigger piece of Google’s business. Companies will probably commit 23 percent of their search-based ad spending to mobile devices by the end of this year, according to Marin Software, which helps manage about $3.5 billion annually in online ads. That’s up from 8.7 percent at the end of last year.

Users are clicking on these ads more aggressively, Marin Software found. It expects mobile devices to account for 25 percent of all user clicks on search ads by the end of this year, up from 12.3 percent at the end of 2011.

Including both mobile and desktop-computer searches, Google had 76 percent of spending on query-based marketing in the first quarter, according to Covario Inc., an online advertising company. Microsoft (MSFT) and Yahoo!  (YHOO), which are Internet- search partners, had 13 percent during the period.

Google is playing catch-up in the social-networking, its Google+ service, is badly lagging Facebook. Google+ users spent an average of 3.3 minutes on the site during January, compared with more than 7 hours for Facebook.

A Google engineer is blasting the company’s management, and accusing it of abandoning “20 percent time.”

Googlers are supposed to get 20 percent time to work on a personal project, like a new app or something entrepreneurial. It’s supposed to keep its employees excited and keep them from burning out working on the same Google project.

That’s all changing, says Michael Church, who lists himself as a software engineer at Google on LinkedIn. He wrote on Hacker News:

20% time is dead. It requires managerial approval...

Managers have free rein to fuck over an employee in Perf if they believe him to be “distracted” or at risk of future distraction by 20% time, even if that employee’s performance is otherwise strong. This doesn’t make Google any worse or any different from more traditionally managed companies. It does deprive them of the right to market 20% time as a perk without being called out as liars.

It happened after an all-hands meeting in July last year, according to the post.

Another person who appears to be a Google engineer said later in the thread that managers who deprive engineers of their 20 percent time for more than a quarter get in trouble.

We reached out to Google for comment, but haven’t heard back yet. Google still claims it offers 20 percent time on its jobs website.

Are you a current or former Google engineer that knows what’s going on in the Plex? We want to know how things are going under Larry Page! Shoot us a message at mlynley@businessinsider.com — we’ll keep it confidential.

Source SAI

On the eve of Good Friday, Apple’s (AAPL) shares rose to eclipse Google’s (GOOG) share price of $633.00. It happened at 9:29 AM PST. Google has had the highest share price since going public, only Berkshire Hathaway (BRK) has had a higher share price. I don’t know if there is any significance of the Good Friday move but I am sure that Great Steve Jobs is laughing.

Although this move is symbolic, it is a major blow for the advertising company that is trying to become a technology company to compete with Apple.

This will only accelerate the exodus from Google as many workers realize that Google’s best days are behind. Despite what it publicly states, Google has been, and is, the bastion of arrogance, racism and double standards. Glad to see the nexus of evil is on its death bed.

The brilliant Dr. Neil DeGrasse Tyson on explains why the time on your Android phone is always incorrect.

Tyson explains:

“The iPhone has the correct time unlike the Android-based phones…The bulk of the Androids get their time from GPS satellites. The timekeeping system for GPS satellites was defined up to 1982. And since 1982, 15 leap-seconds have been added to civil time. And those leap-seconds are not included in the Android timekeeping because they’re getting their time directly from GPS, whereas the iPhone compensates for this, puts those 15 seconds back in, and has therefore the correct time. As a result, most Android phones are exactly 15 seconds too fast.”

Skip to 15 minutes, 20 seconds to hear Dr.Tyson explain it himself:

Google (GOOG) has filed a patent that would allow the company to listen in on phone calls in order to target advertisements. The technology would listen to the phone call and target ads that are relevant to that conversation. Conversations would be sent to Google’s servers where it would be analysed and relevant ads will be will be targeted at you. Google, already has the technology to tweak its ads based on location, web history, email contents, smart phone usage, taste in music and film, and personal information.

The idea is not being received well by commentators, they say the move is over reaching into people’s personal lives. However, Google considers conversations on phones as public just like your home address on its StreetView on Google Maps.

The company is spending heavily in Washington to avoid the scrutiny of regulators and avoids the privacy investigation similar to the one launch by the European Union regarding the worm spying on Apple users. Privacy groups have complained to Washington, saying that the company is going too far, however Google does not see this as a problem of privacy but one of technology. Google, continues in this direction unnoticed because it knows that Washington is bought and nothing will happen to it. And they may be right, but at some point it will come to bite them.

Fear has taken over Google and its spreading like cancer. It became publicly evident when the Google (GOOG) missed its Q4 earning. Since then things have been rapidly deteriorating on all fronts. A big blow came when Apple CEO Tim Cook, unveiled the iPad last week. In a span of 3 days things have gotten worse.

- First, Google Android boss, Eric Chu was fired. I guess Google didn’t like the job he was doing.

- Second, Android Market, the equivalent of Apple’s App Store (AAPL), closed.

- Third, Google started forcing App developers to start using its Google Checkout system, which in turn started pushing developers away.

- Fourth, a top Google Android’s app developer, Zombieville, quit developing for Android and many are expected to follow this move. Zombieville, said that it spends 25% of its resources developing for Android, which brings in less than 5% of its revenues.

Android sales amounted to around 5% of our revenue for the year, and continues to shrink.  Needless to say, this ratio is unsustainable.

From a purely economic perspective, I can no longer legitimize spending time on Android apps, and the new features of the market do nothing to change this.

At its peak, the top 80% of paid Android apps saw less than 100 downloads. Yes 100. That’s after Google’s funny math with counts updates as downloads. With the latest move, there is absolutely no reason for any developer to develop for Android. Regardless how you spin it. Android is dead.

I have no position in Google.

Another major set back for Google (GOOG) and its Motorola Mobility Holdings (MMI) unit as they were ordered by the U.S. judge presiding over an Apple Inc. (AAPL) patent lawsuit to turn over information about the development of Google’s Android operating system.

“Motorola shall be expected to obtain full and immediate compliance by Google with Apple’s liability discovery demands,” the judge said in a February order.

The Motorola Mobility unit and Google must also hand over to Apple information about Google’s pending $12.5 billion acquisition of the mobile-phone maker, U.S. Circuit Judge Richard A. Posner in Chicago ruled yesterday.

Posner’s decision came in a patent lawsuit filed in 2010 by Cupertino, California-based Apple against Motorola Mobility, which has countersued.

“The Android/Motorola acquisition discovery is highly relevant to Apple’s claims and defenses,” Apple’s attorneys’ said in a March 2 filing requesting the judge’s order.

Motorola Mobility opposed Apple’s request, arguing that Google, the operator of the world’s most-visited Internet search portal, isn’t a party to the lawsuit.

“Google’s employees and documents are not within the ‘possession, custody, or control’ of Motorola, and Motorola cannot force Google to produce documents or witnesses over Google’s objections,” lawyers for the mobile phone maker said in a court filing earlier yesterday.

Apple, maker of the iPhone, has been waging a global fight with the former Motorola Inc. unit that sells phones using Google (GOOG)’s Android operating system.

Apple founder Steve Jobs fired Google CEO Eric Schmidt when he learned that Schmidt had been spying on Apple’s iPhone efforts.

In September, a few months after Google+ launched, Google announced that 40 million people were using the service. I found that number just had toooooo many zeros, like 6 zero extra behind it. Hence, I did some digging, you can read it here, Who is really using Google+?

I discovered the bulk of the traffic was coming from India. It was a gimmick that was staged to give the impression that everyone was using it. Now Wall Street Journal, has a great post titled, “The Mounting Minuses of Google+“. According, to the story Google+ is just a virtual ghost town. The story is based on the latest comScore report that show that the average Google+ user spent just 3 minute a month, on the service. That is basically, the time the spent signing up for the service as Google forces users to. By comparison, Facebook users spent 6 hours a month on the service.

As marketers and business development professionals your time is limited and there is not point wasting your time on Google+, which will give you zero returns. Focus on what is working. That’s my 2 cents.