Small Business Labs

OCTOBER 14, 2019

We cover the importance of flexibility a lot (if you do a Google search on "flexibility "Small Business Labs"" you will find 3400 citations). The underlying data comes from a remote worker study done by the social media marketing firm Buffer. The big pro is, of course, flexibility.

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Small Business Labs

FEBRUARY 19, 2015

We were somewhat fascinated that the survey asked about Google. Kudos to Google for developing their brand to the point where people think of turning to Google for advice instead of what they really do - pointing to places where people can get advice. Surveys have traditionally asked about turning to the Internet for advice.

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Small Business Labs

JUNE 5, 2013

Most of the hype is due to Google Glass , which is being worn below by VCs Marc Andreessen, general partner at Andreessen Horowitz, Bill Maris, managing partner at Google Ventures, and John Doerr, general partner of Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. By the way, am I the only one who thinks Marc Andreessen may be an conehead?

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Small Business Labs

MAY 4, 2015

Key quote on from their article on their study of Google Trends data related to the search term "coworking": The worldwide searches for the term “coworking” on Google have reached their current peak this March. According to analysis by Deskmag, global interest in coworking is booming and at all time highs.

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Small Business Labs

NOVEMBER 8, 2016

Google Maps is allowing users to place local delivery orders. While currently a relatively small market, it's attracting companies of all sizes and shapes.    A few examples of recent activity in this space include: Facebook is offering food delivery from within its app. Groupon is now offering food delivery services.

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Small Business Labs

OCTOBER 22, 2019

And 3rd, this didn't happen at Google or Facebook or some tech startup. Related to this, she was able to pitch the chief human relations officer (CHRO) at GE on her experiences. This means the senior team at GE is now aware of digital nomads. It happened at GE, a traditional manufacturing firm.  million American digital nomads.

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Small Business Labs

NOVEMBER 12, 2012

  As a recent Washington Post article on the company points out, it has two major differences from Google - they don't track their users and they don't filter search results based on tracking their users.   DuckDuckGo has some other interesting advantages relative to Google. An   This is good.

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Small Business Labs

MAY 22, 2013

The announcements that Google and Lockheed Martin have purchased quantum computers has led to a lot of recent coverage on the topic. MIT's Technology Review reports both Lockheed Martin and Google likely paid in the $15 million range for their quantum computer.  Quantum computers are very, very fast.

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Small Business Labs

AUGUST 25, 2016

Google, of course, is still in the driverless car business. But Fortune reports some of their employees have moved on to other ventures because they felt Google is not moving fast enough.  .  Ford announced plans to mass produce driverless cars and have them in commercial operation in a ride-hailing service by 2021.

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Small Business Labs

AUGUST 11, 2016

We did this doing a simple set of Google searches. Regus continued its coworking push opening one of their Spaces spaces near Google  in Silicon Valley. But it's also clearly growing really, really fast. For example, we took a look at just news from the past week on coworking space openings in the U.S. and Canada. and Canada.

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Small Business Labs

AUGUST 27, 2014

The cloud storage price wars being waged by Google, Amazon, Microsoft have been getting a lot of press this summer.   And Google is telling everyone to expect price declines to continue. As the article points out, the current price is not far from $0.   But the price declines are not just limited to storage.

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Small Business Labs

AUGUST 8, 2017

Google recently announced a $50 million fund to be used for programs and research that will help people prepare for the future of work. But those not interested in wading through it all, their Navigating the Future of Work podcast provides an excellent overview and summary. Deloitte’s not the only big company diving into the future of work.

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Small Business Labs

FEBRUARY 3, 2015

The number of citations has accelerated since, with Google reporting more hits on this term this month (January 2015) than all of 2010. As you can see from the chart below, the use of the term "digital nomad" started to gain traction in the 2008-2009 time frame. This is a lightweight, mobile office. And it feels great.

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Small Business Labs

MARCH 3, 2015

Same day delivery services are being offered by Amazon , Ebay  and Google  in a variety of geographies.  As a side note, I really like Google's same day logo (pictured to the right). Seems like everyone is getting into logistics. Even  the U.S. Postal Service is experimenting with same day delivery.

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Small Business Labs

APRIL 14, 2011

Interesting survey from Google on tablet PC use.    Google surveyed over 1400 tablet PC owners and found: 68% of tablet users spend at least 1 hour a day on their tablet. Google doesn't break the data out by device, but one has to assume that the vast majority of respondents owned iPads.  "  . 

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Small Business Labs

AUGUST 14, 2012

  But is also had the following quote:  "Google trucks will deliver local services." " The article doesn't explain this quote, nor can I find any other references to Google starting mobile retail stores. works well as low cost incubators, allowing entrepreneurs to test concepts and ideas.

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Small Business Labs

MAY 21, 2013

Twitter uses a Google-like auction system for Promoted Tweets.  And like with Google, you only pay for performance, with performance being measure on a cost-per-engagement (CPE) basis. Like with Google Adwords, minimizing cost per engagement is going to be key to a positive ROI.

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Small Business Labs

FEBRUARY 26, 2015

There are also about 30 million Google searches per month for the search term “cat" Despite cats dominating web traffic, a few dogs and other animals also do well online. The  The article picture below shows a mix of animal Internet stars.

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Small Business Labs

JUNE 11, 2016

It shows just how dominant Google and Facebook are in terms of online advertising. The report nicely organizes the information on the topics covered (the report outline is below). But all of these areas have been extensively covered elsewhere.    The one chart that really jumped out at me is below.

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Small Business Labs

MARCH 30, 2015

The article chart below shows the impact of these efforts on the prices of common Google adword search terms related to the on-demand economy. . And the major on-demand economy companies are each spending millions of dollars a year on Craigslist ads.

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Small Business Labs

DECEMBER 23, 2015

Google also has a Santa Tracker this year. Clearly a good sport, Shoup went along with the children's lines of questioning, periodically checking NORAD's radar for signs of a giant sleigh led by a red-nosed reindeer. He was the first of many good-spirited servicemen and women to track Santa in action. Happy Holidays!

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Small Business Labs

JANUARY 20, 2014

  Using web-crawling technology similar to Google's, they've amassed data on over 27 million U.S. Radius  is one of the more interesting big data startups.  small businesses.  They sell this data to companies looking for help with prospecting, lead generation and target marketing.

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Small Business Labs

OCTOBER 11, 2011

  The chart below shows the number of Google search hits for the term "coworking"   Yes, you don't want to read too much into Google search data, but we've found it to be a good indicator of trend directions. .  This is illustrated by several clear signals.  

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Small Business Labs

MARCH 13, 2014

Thanks to Google, driverless cars are getting a lot of attention these days.   While still a ways in the future, designers are already thinking about the day when cars become living rooms and office spaces on wheels.

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Small Business Labs

AUGUST 13, 2015

And while the poster child for wearable computing, Google Glass, has not done well, exercise wearables maker Fitbit recently announced "spectacular" financial results. ." The blending of the physical and digital worlds has been a hot topic among futurists for a long time and it's starting to happen.

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Small Business Labs

JANUARY 27, 2011

  It's getting a lot of recent attention because Google, Apple and others are planning on using NFC in their mobile payments product lines.   But having both Google and Apple pushing it means it has a good shot.    The picture below shows Visa's NFC payments system in action. . 

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Small Business Labs

APRIL 26, 2012

 They also seem to think that the major platform players like Google, Apple and Facebook are getting interested in wearables. .   Forrester believes that consumer interest in wearables for applications in health and fitness, navigation, social networking and gaming is starting to grow.

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Small Business Labs

AUGUST 25, 2015

For example, Google just announced they are leading a $100 million investment round in 3D manufacturing company Carbon3D. But even as it slumps a bit, there's still a lot enthusiasm around the 3D printing industry and no change in the view 3D will eventually fundamentally change how things are made.

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Small Business Labs

JANUARY 12, 2015

Farm 2050 is is a joint effort by a of diverse group of companies - including Google and DuPont - committed to advancing the future of food through supporting Ag-Tech entrepreneurs and startups. But Matteucci is right that everybody eats. We also agree that Ag-Tech is big and going to get a lot bigger. Others also agree.

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Small Business Labs

DECEMBER 22, 2014

Farm 2050 is is a joint effort by a of diverse group of companies - including Google and DuPont - committed to advancing the future of food through supporting Ag-Tech entrepreneurs and startups. But Matteucci is right that everybody eats. We also agree that Ag-Tech is big and going to get a lot bigger. Others also agree.

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Equipment Google Management 100

Small Business Labs

JUNE 15, 2015

According to Time's How Silicon Valley is Addressing the World's Food Crisis : the food industry and tech industry have started to intersect and companies like Google and Yahoo have major research projects related to the future of food. ." Food products and technology have become a hot area in Silicon Valley.

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Small Business Labs

SEPTEMBER 16, 2013

Apple is including Bluetooth LE (they call it iBeacon) in iOS7 and Google has already adopted it for Android. This is a low power version of Bluetooth that is being quickly adopted as way to allow smartphones and other computer devices to communicate with smart objects.

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Small Business Labs

SEPTEMBER 24, 2012

venture backed companies (which includes firms like Fed Ex, Microsoft, Google, Starbucks, etc.). To put this number in perspective, it's more than the 12 million people the venture capital community claims works for U.S.   It's way, way more than the roughly 3.5 million according to the industry but only 2.2 economy.

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Small Business Labs

SEPTEMBER 19, 2013

 Another quote on the outlook for people who aren't highly educated and/or highly skilled in ways attractive to data factory companies like Google and Facebook: “It means that life is very tough for most everyone in America” says Moritz. Moritz also covered the downsides of this shift. The median American household has stagnated.

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Small Business Labs

APRIL 19, 2016

There's even a growing number of specialty search engines successfully living in the shadow of Google.  Most failed, but I think it's fair to say search overall has done OK as an industry.   Industries thrive by providing products or services that add value to their customers.

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Small Business Labs

JUNE 1, 2011

  Google and Paypal started in the same building and In 2010, 83 companies in Palo Alto raised $966 million in venture capital. Startup Central:  Mountain View has emerged as a major tech town with firms like Google, Intuit, LinkedIn located there. 

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Small Business Labs

MARCH 29, 2011

Google : The Wall Street Journal reports that Google is teaming up with Master Card and Citibank to embed Near Field Communications (NFC) technology into the Android operating system.  Visa card holders to send and receive funds from other Visa cardholders anywhere in the world. 

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