Business Week has a quote by Bruce Richardson, the chief research officer at the tech consulting company AMR Research, who attended the SAP conference, on May 17 in Boston: "When you talk to the SAP execs and you ask, 'Who are you worried about?' their answer is the only possible threat in the next 5 to 10 years may be some large Indian IT services firm that learns to build composite applications and can mimic or replicate the functionality that SAP has and do it all in new code, and not worry about being backward-compatible with the 27,000 customers SAP already has. "

So, are the Indian IT companies thinking along these lines?

Fred Wilson writes:

If you invest in the Internet, you must watch Google and understand them. And so I do that a fair amount.

What I see today is a big company (yes, they are big now) trying to extend its reach beyond search and into every nook and cranny of opportunity on the Internet. And without a lot of rhyme or reason.

Google has recently launched some very attractive web services like Google Local and Google Maps. Their SMS service is a killer app for cell phones. It seems like they are launching a new web service every week. It's so fast and furious that it is making my head spin.

But I don't understand how all of these new web services have anything to do with their core business of targeting advertising via search and contextual advertising. Do these services create more inventory for them to sell? Do they generate more data that allows Google to increase the relevance of the advertising? In some cases, like Local and Maps, I see the logic. In many other cases, it just seems like a laboratory turning out cool stuff and seeing what sticks.

And while they crank out more and more new stuff, their two core products, Search and Adsense, seem to be suffering from a lack of innovation.

Google has an enormous franchise and is better positioned than any Internet company I can think of.

But size is the enemy of efficiency and innovation. And Google has become a very big company very quickly. They are in Starbucks and McDonalds company now. That's great for them but its also great news for the little guy like Joe who can make a better cup of coffee or a better web service.

Anita writes:

Impulse information is something that you need within a few seconds of thinking of it. If it takes too much time, then your addiction and impulse wears off. You want to find that one thing. You want to find it fast. You want to find it now. You know what it is you are craving. The challenge is just to get it quickly.

You don’t want to browse through a lot of pages. You don’t want to sift through irrelevant content. You don’t want to be bogged down by massive hierarchical structures. You want something flat, quick, and satisfying. Something like a piece of chocolate after a big meal, a piece of candy at 4:00, a sip of coffee after a long meeting, or even a cigarette after sex. You need it. You want it. The moment matters.

The implications rethinking some of the way the web is structured could have implications structurally, functionally, and with content. Do we still necessarily need links, or is search better? Flatter databases with content that is readily available at a top level just waiting to be picked by an accurate query. Less network interactions. What would it mean to pear down content to only the really relevant information. Could we actually start to include short hand or texting phrases into content pages. Btw, w/o, 2, U, 4, etc. Cryptic perhaps, but if you get what you want and you get it now, perhaps more satisfying.

TiEcon 2005 has a good list:

"Our panel of industry experts started with a list of 50 to 100 companies in each category, and from that group identified the five companies we believe will be future movers and shakers within their industries, said Manish Chandra, chairman for TiEcon 2005's Emerging Stars program. "To be honored as Emerging Stars by TiE, these companies demonstrated leadership, good
fundamentals, and strong continuity in the market."
Emerging Stars must be private companies -- each with at least $1 million in funding, or more than $10 million in revenues. The list of bjective
measures used to identify Emerging Stars included an evaluation of their management team, market and industry drivers, competitive advantage, market buzz, revenues and business model, and corporate development.

Bob Wyman writes:

There are many who have commented on the differences between the "visible web" and the "hidden web." The hidden web is commonly defined as "the publicly accessible pages on the World Wide Web that are not indexed by search engines." To these two webs (visible and hidden) we should add a third web -- the Gray Web. By this I mean publicly accessible pages on the web that are not usefully indexed by search engines today. The Gray Web is both dark and visible at the same time. The Gray Web is composed of the structured data and the timely or rapidly changing data not well supported by most of today's search engines.

With Structured Blogging, we'll be able to post structured items in any of millions of blogs or web sites and have those items recognized, indexed, and searched on any number of search sites -- just like HTML pages are today. No longer will we need to rely on going to a small number of centralized, walled-garden, closed sites like MeetUp, eBay, Monster, or EVDB to publish or search for the kind of information that requires structure. Common search engines like Google, Yahoo! and PubSub will be able to usefully index this data. In the future, as search engines come to better support structured data, we will all benefit as the Gray Web grows smaller and the visible web grows larger.

Dear Abhishek,

As a child, it is very important for you to have a sense of curiosity about the world around you. Only through your questions will you be able to build the models that will help you understand and interpret what is happening. There were three sets of people who helped me a lot as I was growing up – my parents, my teachers, and my friends.

My parents fueled my learning. Even as a child, I remember going out every Sunday and buying either the latest Amar Chitra Katha comic or some other book. As I grew a little older, it was the magazines we used to get at home. We were not very well off financially – I can remember sitting with my parents every evening and writing out the day’s expenses in a diary. My mother would walk with me so we could save a few paise in the bus fare. But there was no compromise in the quest for knowledge. I grow up in a world of books – and they encouraged every bit of that interest.

My teachers at school reinforced this love. I was fortunate enough to have some wonderful teachers who encouraged my interest in maths and sciences. We had an excellent library where I would spend most of my lunch breaks. A lot of the books I’d read dealt with invention and engineering. I just had to know everything! I would then make my own notes – sometimes copying entire articles so I could keep reading them. (I guess it is no surprise then that I blog so much!)

Two of my friends stood out in particular – we would challenge each other in this quest for knowledge! Perhaps, it was the library which bonded us together. But that was just the physical environment. As I look back, Anand and Narendra were for me two friends I could always turn to for anything. That we were part of the same team when we won the Nehru Science Centre quiz contest was an icing on the cake. The friendship which began in school has lasted through the years – even though distance separates us now. Anand is in the US East Coast, Narendra on the US West Coast, and I am in India. But the bonds of friendship that began nearly 25 years ago still run deep.

You cannot select your parents. Your parents select your school. The school selects the teacher. But you – and only you – select your friends. As you grow up, you will spend more time in school amidst your teachers and friends. As in everything, a little luck is necessary to get the right teachers and make the right friends. I was more than a little lucky! I hope you will be, too.

I hope this quest for the new and unknown is something which passes on to you. The world is a fascinating place, and there is much to be discovered and done. Whatever you decide and do, I hope you will get off the beaten path and tread on the road less travelled.

Tomorrow: Emerging Technologies