Yahoo defined internet search a decade ago, but since then the brand became somewhat strained in each and every aspect of its services. Google is to Yahoo where Yahoo was to AOL. The company did expand, but they made little effort in improving. It’s hard to dilute what direction they’re taking, or interestingly enough if they know the answer themselves. The fact is that the Yahoo brand has a lot of potential, and a substantial user base, but it needs a lot of work, and what good time it is during a corporate restructure. Here are a couple of suggestions and pointers to hopefully help them out.

Keep up. If the company is losing behind being competitive, one easy check-box is to improve user experience. Yahoo hasn’t changed much in years, and their design isn’t even good in the first place. Numerous companies managed to refresh their pages last year, though Yahoo supposedly being one, it shows how re-design is able to capture interests, and good re-design defines how users interact; it helps to keep users coming back, and this should be basic. The reason I choose other services is because their user experience is simply better, and it helps for example, going through relevant results and information, even searching.

Refine and define services. There isn’t a race to expand your portfolio, so don’t try to acquire and cover other services without refining what is already on the catalog. Yahoo has been very eager in trying not to be left out to what others are offering, but it does so briskly and impetuously. There is never a very well refined service offered by Yahoo, and while this is hard to realize, at least respond to user feedback and implement occasional upgrades. Yahoo Mail has remained the same ever since it was refreshed two years ago, and not to make it worse, but the classic interface is still an option. Third-party content is all over Yahoo, and while this keeps advertising revenue in-check, it’s not good for users. Content becomes diverse and dissipated, not to mention undesirable and in-your-face; it is like having the contents of an entire newspaper summarized on one page, and this brings us to consistency.

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Nikon FE Vivitar 17mm MF Kodak Professional T-MAX 400

What’s the next big thing in the technology industry. I glance down at my electronic devices and wonder; do I really need to spend money on another product? Why can’t one device just do everything I need, for a long period of time?

The catalogue of electronic products is expanding every single day, and every part of the technology industry is trying so hard to find the next phenomenon, the next industry benchmark, the next source of revenue. There’s no question that the role of technology is consistently changing, and our social behaviors with it, but as they expand diversity, potential scatters, and progress loses pace.

There are fortunately a few companies that give us a glimpse of the future; these are the industry’s roadmap, and Google and Apple are arguably the leading candidates. Google is continuing to expand internet services, increasing user convenience, and Apple is pushing innovation on interaction and distribution. There are other research being commenced throughout the sector, but frankly not a great deal is offered to the public.

The next big thing however, is the shift towards what is cloud computing; processing and storage being no longer local, but personal files and applications located solely on the internet, the cloud. This means that the users and their data will no longer be restricted to a single device, or a single area of access, the same information would be remotely accessible even on portable devices and home appliances, directly and remotely from the cloud.

This is not just having our mail on Gmail, our contacts on Facebook, or our photos on Flickr. The role of the computer completely dissolves into internet applications. The restrictions of hardware should no longer apply, nor are there compatibility issues, or upgrades. Resources are always readily available too, shared in fact, meaning significantly less time and resources wasted even from the get-go. The internet browser more-or-less becomes the operating system; think Google Chrome or Safari.

The problem is privacy. No one is openly willing to offer private information on a remote domain, and this is why some form of private storage is here to stay. In fact there will always be a need for a local workstation, because the internet is simply not reliable, nor is the connection to it. There hence is need for a local workstation, but in fact just one; the hub of a local network cloud.

The physical representation of the computer is merely a thin-client, because there is no need for intensive processing or storage, all is rather, remote on the local hub. Local clients feed off the hub for all that is necessary, applications, data and media, but in a relation no different than a wired display we know and understand today. The hub itself is of course connected to the cloud.

But what happens when you lose connection? Google Gears offer the foundations of a potential solution. What Gears does is off-load the internet application onto local storage, meaning being able to use Google Docs or Gmail seamlessly through the browser even offline. Expand this philosophy for every internet application, suites like MobileMe or iWork/Acrobat, and you have a thorough structure for cloud computing.

The departure is that because the core of the computer is remote, even locally, the physical client is no longer constrained. Interface can be designed for natural human intuition, being managed through voice, touch and gestures rather than typing and the traditional GUI. The device is free of technical restrictions too, such as having to sacrifice power for portability, meaning a resolution-independent device having access to the same applications and capability.

There is surely only need for 3 displays; a small on-the-go for portability, a workstation for tedious tasks, and a large television-equivalent as the media-center, but of course the fewer the better. The mobile device is what smart-phones are today, but more. There are no technical restrictions, well except for battery-life, but endless potential. Mobile device with the power of a workstation, being able to collaborate live throughout the cloud.

Internet applications are sold and broadcasted from the cloud, no different than Gmail or content distribution models like App/iTunes Store or Steam, and updates are made available immediately, pushed directly to clients. The same device open to applications that replace TiVo or Netflix, but forget about proprietary hardware. A single adaptable device being able to handle everything I need, for a long period of time. This is the future of computing.

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Here is an excerpt of recent articles I’ve shared on my Google Reader.

Theme park gives kids a taste of capitalism. CNN

Have we reached peak oil?

Central London’s unused underground tunnels for sale. New York Times

Google proves humanity is sick and sad, but absolutely hilarious.

Exxon Mobil posts record $45.2 billion profit in 2008.

New battery technology increases 17″ MacBook Pro battery life by 60%.

Google enters the smart grid industry.

Google voice search on the iPhone, and an on-the-fly translator.

“The Amazon Kindle is a revolutionary product for publishing; the breakthrough device in bringing published content straight to your hands. It is an ultra-portable device capable of handling thousands of published content at just 0.35 inches thin, thanks to its incredibly sharp and beautiful color electronic-paper display with multi-touch. It snuggles perfectly in your hand just like a typical paperback, so you can read and turn pages with either hand using the page controls on both sides of the device. Whether it is newspapers, magazines, novels, textbooks, or RSS feeds, it delivers, quite literally.

When you wake up in the morning, the day’s papers are delivered wirelessly to the device even before making the newsstands. Glimpse along the titles and flag whichever article interests you, then have the Kindle read them back to you using its text-to-speech feature during your commute. As you flip along the pages using intuitive gestures on the multi-touch display, the Kindle remembers exactly where you are, so if you happen to switch tasks, it can effortlessly bring you back where you left off.

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“… every so often the oath is taken amidst gathering clouds and raging storms… we are in the midst of crisis… our economy is badly weakened, a consequence of greed and irresponsibility on the part of some, but also our collective failure to make hard choices and prepare the nation for a new age… and each day brings further evidence that the ways we use energy strengthen our adversaries and threaten our planet. These are the indicators of crisis…

… we gather because we have chosen hope over fear, unity of purpose over conflict and discord… the time has come… to choose our better history… starting today, we must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and begin again the work of remaking America. For everywhere we look, there is work to be done. The state of the economy calls for action, bold and swift, and we will act… all this we can do, and all this we will do.

What the cynics fail to understand is that the ground has shifted beneath them… with old friends and former foes, we will work tirelessly… and roll back the specter of a warming planet… to those leaders around the globe who seek to sow conflict, or blame their society’s ills on the West; know that your people will judge you on what you can build, not what you destroy… nor can we consume the world’s resources without regard to effect. For the world has changed, and we must change with it.

Our challenges may be new, the instruments with which we meet them may be new, but those values upon which our success depends… these things are old. These things are true… what is demanded then is a return to these truths. What is required of us now is a new era of responsibility; a recognition, on the part of every American, that we have duties to ourselves, our nation, and the world… ”

1. President Barack Obama’s Inaugural Address, Organizing for America.
2. Presidential Inauguration, Wikimedia.

Matthew Honan’s experiment with the location-aware lifestyle.

“Simply put, location changes everything. This one input, our coordinates, has the potential to change all the outputs. Where we shop, who we talk to, what we read, what we search for, where we go; they all change once we merge location and the Web. I wanted to know more about this new frontier, so I became a geo-guinea pig. My plan is to load every cool and interesting location-aware program I could find onto my iPhone and use them as often as possible. For a few weeks, whenever I arrived at a new place, I would announce it through multiple social geo-apps… I would become the most location-aware person on the Internet…

The trouble started right away. I was going to be gone for a week on business. Did I really want to tell the world that I was out of town? It wasn’t just leaving my wife home alone that concerned me… anyone who cared to look at my Flickr page could see my computers, my spendy bicycle, and my large flat-screen TV all pinpointed on an online photo map. Hell, with a few clicks you could get driving directions right to my place…”

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1. Matthew Honan, Issue 17.02, Wired Magazine.

“There are other priorities now. Perhaps in 30 years it will be interesting to come back and speak about the beauty of a chair or a lamp, but today that seems a bit obscene. Even during the time it takes to do this interview, people will die from a lack of water… everyone talks about ecology, but we need to make it happen, not speak about it.”

“I hope the current economic crisis will lead to people looking for longevity. In an average house I see an enormous turn-a-round of stuff. There are plenty of homes where nothing is more than five years old. What happened to the things that preceded them? What happened to the possessions of previous generations? It’s almost like people had no parents or grand parents. Nothing has been passed on.”

Philippe Starck, Sir Terence Conran and Kirstie Allsopp discuss the future of design in midst of a recession, and an interesting yet generous response by Andrew Smith.

1. Caroline Roux, The Guardian.