Google PC kerfuffle (and meta-sign)

In today's IT Blogwatch, we look at the swirling rumors about Google's PC and are heard to mutter, "I want that one." Not to mention a warning sign warning you not to hit your head on the warning sign...

If the CES rumor mill springs true, we'll see a Google PC this week ... and it won't be running Windows. As Eric Lai reports, "Google Inc. and Wal-Mart Stores Inc. may be preparing a low-cost PC that runs an operating system created by Google ... could be announced as early as Friday at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas ... a report in the Los Angeles Times ... citing unnamed analyst sources, reported Sunday that such a Google PC could cost as little as a couple of hundred dollars." [Hmmm, "unnamed analyst sources"?]

» Ars's Eric Bangeman: "We can make some educated guesses about the nature of such a beast. It would definitely run some flavor of Linux, probably heavily customized ... could include Firefox with the Google Toolbar preinstalled and could easily tweak one of the IM clients to work with GTalk ... The bigger question is why Google would want to enter an entirely new market ... Another concern would have to be consumer acceptance of Linux as an operating system ... Google has been able to successfully challenge Microsoft on a number of fronts, but here's betting that desktop operating systems won't be one of them." [Big bet, Eric. Not sure I'd like to bet against either of these protagonists' pockets.]

» Emad Fanous fills us in with more detail: "The idea is that they have built many apps using AJAX that mimic desktop apps so they could provide a cheap network PC or kiosk that would simply use their apps in place of their thick client equivalents ... With their PPC Ads, how long until they go from the cheap PC to a free one that used spyware/adware to serve ads and/or track user behavior ... if they can get users to use broadband so that they are always online, constantly serving ads on their computer would probably pay for those computers within 6 months to a year for the average user…especially if users must register and they get to have the users’ addresses." [We wonder if a corporate version of such a beast would placate both Mark and Frank?]

» Danny Sullivan, SearchEngineWatch: "The 'Google Cubes' name? That comes from a separate Bear Stearns report that the paper cites, where the analyst firm said Google would roll out not a computer but rather a hardware device for moving media between computers and TVs ... a hardware device the company was thinking of giving consumers, to work as an interface between all types of electronic devices in a home. One chief reason [Robert X. Cringely at PBS] saw as distributing these cheaply was to help consumers get going with various broadband-enabled services, such as video on demand or voice-over-IP."

» Joe Wilcox, Microsoft Monitor: "CES hasn't even started yet, and already the Google-hype meter reads over modulation ... Linux pretty much has been a non-starter on the desktop for several reasons. Perhaps the most significant is the lack of meaningful applications, particularly the desktop productivity suite ... Apple offers a powerful operating system, on par with or superior to Windows XP (depending on features), honed for stuff people want to do (like music, mail and messaging) and supported by thousands of applications. All that advantage and still, compared to Windows, Mac OS usage is fairly small. Presumably, a Google PC would start with much less ... To Google, I say, 'Bring it on, baby.' Competition is good for consumers ... I would put the Google device in the dining room, so that the family could search the Internet, because search is how we get news, weather, phone numbers and much more. Such a device would be consistent with Google's 'search as a means to end' approach ... But a search device, even one that would have other utilities via a Web browser, wouldn't really be a PC."

» Cathleen Moore, Techwatch: "If this comes to pass, I wonder if it will relate at all to Google's disappointing partnership announcement with Sun Microsystems. In the build up to that collaboration, many observers theorized that Google might be prepping a service version of Sun's StarOffice productivity suite. If a Google branded PC does surface, maybe StarOffice, or the open-source OpenOffice suite, will have its day after all."

» JimK, Right-Thoughts:  "If they include image abilities through Picasa ... I’d consider one as a 2nd-floor computer, and if they made a laptop that played WMV/MOV/DivX/DVD as well as did basic stuff...I feel like I’d be an idiot not to buy one.  Even if it has to stay connected to the network to function."

Buffer overflow:

• Techdirt: Separating The Content From The Device
• Security Fix: Security Hole Claimed for BlackBerrys
• ITtoolbox: More tweaks to make that program work great!
• Schneier on Security: How Profitable is Cybercrime?
• boingboing: EU study: more exclusive rights = worse economy
• Ars Technica: An investigation into anti-spyware
• Simple Thoughts: Apache Harmony?
• RConversation: Microsoft takes down Chinese blogger
• Beyond VC: Where's your plan to manage your most important asset, your team?
• Rough Type: Tribes of the Internet
• Scoble, R.: Microsoft takes down Chinese blogger (my opinions on that)
• Mashable:  AllPeers - P2P File-Sharing Extension for Firefox
• Martin MC Brown: 2006: the year of digital media issues
• Alex Scoble: Cool keylogger backup tool
• Alex Scoble: Gotta love sleazeballs that stop at nothing to make a sale
• Martin McKeay: Weighing your alternatives
• Ken Mingis: How reliable is that ole PowerBook?
• Robert L. Mitchell: E-tailer customer service: It's nothing personal
• Shark Tank: Doing the Best They Can
• Douglas Schweitzer: Like rust, computer security never sleeps!
• Martin MC Brown: Getting back in groove

And finally... a warning sign about a warning sign? Isn't that a meta-sign?

Richi Jennings is an independent technology and marketing consultant, specializing in email, blogging, Linux, and computer security. A 20 year, cross-functional IT veteran, he is also an analyst at Ferris Research. Contact Richi at blogwatch@richi.co.uk. Also contributing to today's post: Judi Dey, our very own Antipodean.