Google Puts Lid on New Products – Los Angeles Times

Realizing that its myriad services are confusing users, it will focus on refining what it has.

By Chris Gaither, Times Staff Writer
October 6, 2006MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. —

In another sign of Google Inc.’s growth from start-up to corporate behemoth, the company’s top executives said Thursday that they had begun telling engineers to stop launching so many new services and instead focus on making existing ones work together better.

The shift is a major departure from Google’s previous strategy of launching new services rapid-fire and highlights the 8-year-old company’s struggle to stay focused during swift growth.

The other Google search site | News.blog | CNET News.com

October 3, 2006 4:51 PM PDTGoogle has created a search site without any Google branding to test new features. The site, SearchMash, has a simple blue and white interface with a search bar and an option to click on “popular searches.” Once keywords are entered, the results page features links to results running down the left side of the page and the top three image results on the right side.

SearchMash also lets you click on a result and drag and drop it to change the order. Also, when a link is clicked on, the user is offered the option of opening the listings in the current window or a new window, seeing more pages from the Web site or finding similar pages. Additional results are added to the bottom of the original results page by clicking on a “more web pages” link.

With SearchMash, Google “plans to test user interface ideas without Google’s brand somehow skewing the tests,” Danny Sullivan, editor of Search Engine Watch.com wrote in a blog posting on Monday. “It’s pretty slick.”
Posted by Elinor Mills

Google in Talks To Buy YouTube For $1.6 Billion – WSJ.com

Deal Could Put Search Giant
In Top Spot for Online Video;
A Front Door for Web Visits
By KEVIN J. DELANEY
October 7, 2006; Page A1The latest prize in the great Internet land grab, online-video company YouTube Inc., could soon be snapped up by Google Inc.
[Chad Hurley]

Web-search giant Google is in talks to acquire YouTube for roughly $1.6 billion, a person familiar with the matter says. An acquisition of the closely held company would catapult Google to the lead spot in online video at a moment when consumers are rapidly increasing the amount of time they spend viewing video clips online, and Internet video advertising is booming.

The discussions between Google and YouTube are still at a sensitive stage and could break off, says the person familiar with the matter. Other technology, media and entertainment companies have expressed interest in taking stakes in YouTube this year, according to people familiar with the matter. Google rival Yahoo Inc. earlier this week expressed interest in holding acquisition talks with the video start-up, these people say. YouTube also turned down a lower proposed value from Google earlier this week, before commencing discussions about the possible $1.6 billion deal.

Survey: Telecommuting now more the rule, not the exception

October 05, 2006 (Computerworld) — Most companies now offer workers the option to work from home, satellite offices and other locations, according to a survey conducted by Philadelphia-based Yoh Services LLC, a provider of talent and outsourcing services.The survey also found that most human resources managers expect the use of telecommuting to increase over the next two years.

“We learned that companies need to build a product that says, ‘if you come and work for us, here’s what you’re going to have: a casual work environment, a flexible schedule’ — whatever that may be,” said Jim Lanzalotto, vice president of strategy and marketing at Yoh. “Companies are realizing that in order to attract the best people to come work for their companies, they need to create an environment that’s conducive to do that.”