Healthy Blog Reviews

Remember when Google won the bid to migrate the City of Los Angeles over to Gmail and other Google Apps? Yeah, it’s not going so well. In fact, the migration is going sooooo slowly that Google is having to compensate L.A. around $135,000 for the delay. So, what’s the hold-up? Well, apart from the fact that this is a local government organization–the poster-child of inefficiency–it appears the LAPD is the bottleneck: …while over 10,000 city employees have now been switched over to Google, she hopes to have up to 6,000 more moved in mid-August. After that, Levin said, the city will focus on “a more detailed schedule” for getting the roughly 13,000 members of the police department switched over. Apparently the police department is concerned about the security of Google Apps. That snorting sound you hear is coming from Redmond. Microsoft lost out on this bid to Google, but I’m sure they’re enjoying this latest setback for Google’s enterprise strategy.

Tags: bottleneck, city, from-the-fact, going-sooooo, google-apps, more-detailed, police, roughly, Search, security, snorting-sound, the-bottleneck, the-migration
Posted July 23, 2010 by cgseo under Social Media

Okay, it’s not the first time, but it does seem like a rather momentous one: bloggers are now being granted press passes from the City of New York. These passes allow qualified journalists to and even sometimes within police and fire lines (within reason, of course)—and everything from bloggers to other online-only content providers. Although bloggers are often recognized as press members at sporting events and even political meetings, a city officially recognizing online media as a legitimate news source isn’t something we’ve seen happen very often. Giving online content providers the same rights and privileges that they extend to traditional media shows a pretty impressive respect—and it does feel like bloggers have finally arrived. The old policy required tear sheets from print media to prove the applicant’s work in print media. Radio and TV submitted tapes, but there was no way to claim to be a member of the press if your work wasn’t running through “mainstream” sources. And that’s all about to change. Reports MediaPost : Under the new proposed policy, the New York Police Department would be able to issue press passes good for two years to any journalist who has personally attended and reported on at least six qualified events in the city in the preceding two years, regardless of whether the reports were published online, in print newspapers, magazines, books or other media. Events that will qualify include city-sponsored activity — like a press conference or parade — as well as emergencies where the city has set up do-not-cross lines. The proposal also allows inexperienced journalists to obtain single-use press passes. Okay, so realistically, this doesn’t affect the vast majority of bloggers. Even if you’re operating within the New York area, you’re probably not covering traditional news events. (But hey, if you are—woot for you!) But it does set an important precedent: a government legitimizing bloggers as journalists. I also like that NYC is allowing inexperienced journalists to gain officially-sanctioned experience. One of the most populous cities in the world is encouraging its citizens to report on its goings on and official activities. That’s pretty radically transparent, don’t you think? But perhaps most interesting: this is also happening at the hometown of one of the top newspapers in the country—one that’s struggling to adapt to the Internet . Recently, the New York Times has decided that their many popular blogs will be behind their pay wall (or possibly just count toward your pay meter limit) next year —is NYC’s move to legitimize competing bloggers going to be another nail in the Gray Lady’s coffin? What do you think?

Tags: city, cloud-computing, cloud-hosting, country, internet, legitimate-news, nyc, online, police, press, proposed-policy, qualify-include, reports-media, work
Posted March 3, 2010 by cgseo under Social Media

Apparently Google’s promise to bring ultra-fast broadband to select communities has small towns in a tizzy. I was pleasantly surprised to see neighboring Durham, North Carolina step up to the plate : After Google put out an RFI, or request for information, on the company’s blog on Feb. 10, about 50 people gathered at the Greater Durham Chamber of Commerce last week to form groups helping the city of Durham gather information for an application. The possibility of getting Google Fiber in Durham has also generated much enthusiasm online. A Facebook group has been formed with nearly 700 fans, and a Web site has been created at www.hifiberdurham.com, where people can submit ideas on how they would use the ultra-high speed network. Oh Durham, you’re going to have to try harder. Apparently the people of Topeka, Kansas, want Google broadband so bad, they are willing to change the city’s name to Google, Kansa–albeit not officially: Topeka Mayor Bill Bunten signed a proclamation Monday calling for Topeka to be known for the month of March as “Google, Kansas — the capital city of fiber optics.” Bunten told city council members about the proclamation prior to a special meeting of the council held at noon at City Hall to hear the first reading of a proposal that wasn’t linked to local efforts to convince Google to make Topeka a test site for an ultrafast Internet connection. That’s going all in! However, this is not the first time that Topeka has changed its name. Back in 1998 the city changed its name to “ToPikachu” in recognition of the launch of Pokemon/Pikachu franchise. Rumors are that if the Google thing doesn’t work out for them, residents can look forward to the city being renamed Tapioca Pudding , Kansas. It won’t bring them free broadband, but they’ll have pudding, so won’t care! ( via )

Tags: city, council, Durham, facebook, Kansas, mayor, north, North Carolina, people, proclamation, tapioca-pudding, Topeka
Posted March 2, 2010 by cgseo under Social Media

It sounds like a cross between Tomorrowland and a college dorm: Google wants on- (or near-) campus housing for their employees . Yes, the free on-campus laundry, free on-campus eateries, on-campus childcare (I’m just assuming that’s not free, but you never know) and free on-campus exercise facilities (making them 75% more free than where I went to college, but anyway) are just not enough to keep their employees at the Googleplex enough hours of the day. I don’t think the housing will be free, but you never know. This doesn’t necessarily mean Google has any plans to get into real estate development . Remember their wireless spectrum bluff ? Google may be appealing to make the change, hoping if you “rezone it, they will come.” It’s not a terrible theory—potential builders would have a built-in set of potential renters/buyers for the residential properties, which would make office retail space desirable there, too. So Google probably isn’t trying to take over every aspect of their employees’ lives (despite what it seems like with the on-campus oil changes, doctors, masseuses and dry cleaning drop off—which are not free, I assume). In fact, it started as the exact opposite—housing and services convenient to the Googleplex are virtually nonexistent. No, they’re not just coddling their employees so they can attract those recent college grads who’ve had Mom do their laundry for the last 20+ years . In fact, Google may be trying to save money with this move: some employees live so far away (and the Googleplex doesn’t have a lot of public transit access) that Google provides luxury buses with Wi-Fi for employees commuting from San Francisco. So what’s a multi-billion dollar corporation to do? Well, first, they start off with the proper legal channels. Last week, they wrote a letter to Mountain View, preparing to ask for zoning changes to allow housing in the nearby area. Naturally, they’re also being careful to plan sustainable development: Our goals for Google’s HQ are to provide a future redevelopment that is nurturing and regenerative to the environment provide a vibrant community and worklife balance [I'm not sure whether to laugh or cry there] for all and efficiently manage transportation and pedestrian access needs. This must include mixed uses office retail and residential along with the kind of land use development described in the Final Report by the Mountain View Environmental Sustainability Task Force. So their plans aren’t just to build apartment buildings—they want strip malls, too. Ah, yes, then life will be complete . The current zoning is for commercial use only. The city is preparing to discuss zoning changes, but don’t expect to move into your Google-themed housing too soon. TechCrunch also has the full memo from the Mountain View City Planner to the City Council, preparing to discuss the zoning changes: What do you think? Will Google get its real estate dreams? Will they be building, or will they step back and let others do the heavy lifting? Photo by Joe Penniston Join the Marketing Pilgrim Facebook Community

Tags: city, council, employees, environment, googleplex, make-the-change, marketing, mountain, mountain-view, plans, real-estate, residential, Search, zoning-changes
Posted February 19, 2010 by cgseo under Social Media