Avast Ye Scurvy Doggs!

Ahoy lan'lubbers, unless ye be sailing the murky waters of the underworld, it shud be known to ye that this day, Saturday the 19th day in September, be International Talk Like A Pirate Day. Gar. What'ever business ye be carryin' on with be sure to remember that ye must do it in proper tone and language.

All the words that'd be there to explain it all can be found here, me hearties. Or if ye be not with the smarts to read, listen to Cap'in who be responsible for dis gran' day.



Aaarrrrrr for those first mates what be on the Book o' Faces, listen to me words carefully. Go to the bottum o yer page and look for the secret clicker that be marked with words 'English (UK)'. Press yer cursor over these strange words and a pop-up will appear there right before yer eyes. Find the place that be sayin' 'English (Pirate)' and press it. Then ye be seeing yer Book o' Faces in a whole new light. Good luck ye scurvy doggs. Garrrr.

Interbrand's Top 100 Global Brands 2009

When it comes to the world's biggest brands, the interesting stuff usually never involves the top 5. It's far more interesting to look at midtable battles. The ribvalries and one-up-manships that go on between 50th and 20th places. This year it looks like Google have scored the biggest rise in brand value, with a 25% increase on 2008 estimated brand value. Google now sit at 7th place with a value of nearly $32bn. Not far off them, Amazon grew an wxtremely healthy 22% to almost $8bn.

As has been the trend over the last decade, technology companies have seen huge growth, however it may be the retail brands such as Zara and H&M that are the biggest surprises, both increasing their brand value despite the recession. That said, the recession has had a negative effect on many brands; including Morgan Stanley, HSBC and American Express, who all saw major drops.

Sitting in the revered top five sector, Coca-Cola remains the world's most valuable brand for the 9th year in a row, at $69bn.

Rank	Brand	2009 Value $m	%change 08	Country
1	Coca-Cola	68734	3%	US
2	IBM	60211	2%	US
3	Microsoft	56647	-4%	US
4	GE	47777	-10%	US
5	Nokia	34864	-3%	Finland
6	McDonald's	32275	4%	US
7	Google	31980	25%	US
8	Toyota	31330	-8%	Japan
9	Intel	30636	-2%	US
10	Disney	28447	-3%	US
11	Hewlett-Packard	2496	2%	US
12	Mercedes-Benz	23867	-7%	Germany
13	Gillette	22841	4%	US
14	Cisco	2230	3%	US
15	BMW	21671	-7%	Germany
16	Louis Vuitton	21120	-2%	France
17	Marlboro	1910	-11%	US
18	Honda	17803	-7%	Japan
19	Samsung	17518	-1%	S. Korea
20	Apple	15443	12%	US
21	H&M	15375	11%	Sweden
22	American Express	14971	-32%	US
23	Pepsi	13706	3%	US
24	Oracle	13699	-1%	US
25	Nescafe	13317	2%	Switzerland
26	Nike	13179	4%	US
27	SAP	12106	-1%	Germany
28	Ikea	124	10%	Sweden
29	Sony	11953	-12%	Japan
30	Budweiser	11833	3%	US
31	UPS	11594	-8%	US
32	HSBC	10510	-20%	Britain
33	Canon	10441	-4%	Japan
34	Kellogg's	10428	7%	US
35	Dell	10291	-12%	US
36	Citi	10254	49%	US
37	J.P. Morgan	9550	-11%	US
38	Goldman Sachs	9248	-10%	US
39	Nintendo	9210	5%	Japan
40	Thomson Reuters	8434	1%	Canada
41	Gucci	8182	-1%	Italy
42	Philips	8121	-2%	Netherlands
43	Amazon	7858	22%	US
44	L'Oreal	7748	3%	France
45	Accenture	7710	-3%	US
46	eBay	7350	-8%	US
47	Siemens	7308	-8%	Germany
48	Heinz	7244	9%	US
49	Ford	75	-11%	US
50	Zara	6789	14%	Spain
51	Wrigley	6731	10%	US
52	Colgate	6550	2%	US
53	AXA	6525	-7%	France
54	MTV	6523	-9%	US
55	Volkswagen	6484	-8%	Germany
56	Xerox	6431	1%	US
57	Morgan Stanley	6399	-26%	US
58	Nestle	6319	13%	Switzerland
59	Chanel	640	-5%	France
60	Danone	5960	10%	France
61	KFC	5722	3%	US
62	Adidas	5397	6%	Germany
63	Blackberry	5138	7%	Canada
64	Yahoo!	5111	-7%	US
65	Audi	510	-7%	Germany
66	Caterpillar	54	-5%	US
67	Avon	4917	-7%	US
68	Rolex	4609	-7%	Switzerland
69	Hyundai	4604	-5%	S. Korea
70	Hermes	498	1%	France
71	Kleenex	4404	-5%	US
72	UBS	4370	-50%	Switzerland
73	Harley-Davidson	4337	-43%	US
74	Porsche	4234	-8%	Germany
75	Panasonic	4225	-1%	Japan
76	Tiffany & Co.	40	-5%	US
77	Cartier	3968	-6%	France
78	Gap	3922	-10%	US
79	Pizza Hut	3876	-5%	US
80	Johnson&Johnson	3847	7%	US
81	Allianz	3831	-5%	Germany
82	Moet & Chandon	3754	-5%	France
83	BP	3716	-5%	Britain
84	Smirnoff	3698	3%	Britain
85	Duracell	3563	-3%	US
86	Nivea	3557	5%	Germany
87	Prada	3530	-2%	Italy
88	Ferrari	3527	0%	Italy
89	Armani	3303	-6%	Italy
90	Starbucks	3263	-16%	US
91	Lancome	3235	N/A	France
92	Shell	3228	-7%	Netherlands
93	Burger King	3223	N/A	US
94	Visa	3170	-5%	US
95	Adobe	3161	N/A	US
96	Lexus	3158	-12%	Japan
97	Puma	3154	N/A	Germany
98	Burberry	395	N/A	Britain
99	PoloRalphLauren	394	N/A	US
100	Campbell's	381	N/A	US

Countdown to Arthur's Day

16th September, 17:59 - the countdown is really on now folks. In just one week’s time, Dublin will be transformed into the epicentre of music, celebration and excitement for Arthur’s Day. Across Ireland thousands of people will be coming together to enjoy live music in over 33 venues across Dublin; including a special concert at the St. James’s Gate brewery itself.

A 48sheet carrying a Guinness 250 ad
coupled with a digital countdown clock

To get into the spirit of the occassion, people all over Ireland have been adding their names to an on-line petition. The petition was born out out of the Guinness 250 Facebook page, where the suggestion was put to the public - make Arthur’s Day a national holiday!

The Facebook page already has 26,795 fans and the online petition has 6,618 signatures.

So do you know what that means?

Only a quarter of Guinness 250 fans want Arthur's Day to become a national holiday! Seriously folks, what's up with that? Get to the page and get signing now!

Now I'm more then willing to tip my hat to all the loyal fans who already joined the fan page, lets face it, there's been one fan joining every 30 seconds. That's three fans in the time it takes your favourite pint to be poured ;)

So come on fans - sign the petition, who doesn't want another public holiday, especially in honour of such a great man.


Arthur's Day 2009
So where will you be at 17:59 on 24th September? Where will you be for this once in a lifetime moment, to raise a pint of Guinness to Arthur. In fairness, Arthur Guinness and his family were responsible for some of the most well known acts of philanthropy in Ireland and to honour and continue this legacy Guinness have established the Arthur Guinness Fund. The Fund is to enable and empower individuals with skills and opportunities to deliver a measured benefit to their communities. So Guinness & Co. are donating €6 million to the Arthur Guinness Fund. Could there be any better reason to toast the Arthur Guinness?

So all you need to do to join in the Global Toast to Arthur at 17:59 on Thursday 24th September, is get to one of the following venues or pubs (if you want to enjoy world class music), or just get down to your own local, pause a moment, and raise a pint of the black stuff to a truly great man.

To Arthur!


Pubs and Venues
This is the full list of artists that are publicly confirmed for each pub or venue. Now I say publically confirmed because each Pub will also feature 1 or 2 surprise special guests that won't be announced. The only way to know is to be there! Get on to ticketmaster now and get yourself a ticket.

The Academy
Fionn Regan, Imelda May, Paolo Nutini, Richard Hawley, The Kooks

Tripod
Calvin Harris, Jamie Cullum, Mongrel, Soul II Soul, Republic of Loose, Roots Manuva

Vicar Street
Black Swan Effect, OK Go, Razorlight, Reverend and The Makers, Sugababes, The Blizzards, The Magic Numbers

Whelan’s
David Gray, The Hot Rats, Lisa Hannigan, Noah and the Whale, The Enemy, The Undertones, The Wombats

Bruxelles
Jay Jay Pistolet, Jerry Fish and the Mudbug Club

Hogans
Born Blonde, Oppenheimer

Sin É
Concerto for Constantine, Dirty Epics

South William
David Kitt, The Infomatics

Brogans
Jerry Fish and the Mudbug Club, Cherbourg

Café en Seine
Leopold, White Belt Yellow Tag

Pygmalion
Hoarsebox, The Chapters

Spy
Oppenheimer, The Infomatics

Dicey Reilly's
The Chakras

The Baggot Inn
Leopold, Nat Jenkins

The Auld Dubliner
Jay Jay Pistolet, Lumiere

The Palace Bar
Fiona Melady, Sharon Shannon

The Church
Spring Break

The Village
Golden Silvers, The Coronas

The Odeon
Dirty Epics, General Fiasco

Oliver St John Gogarty
Born Blonde, David Kitt

The Temple Bar
Johnny Flynn, Lumiere

Flannery's
Cherbourg, Concerto for Constantine

Dakota
The Chakras, The Chapters

O'Donoghue's
Sharon Shannon, The High Kings

Market Bar
Golden Silvers, Mick Flannery

The Foggy Dew
Noise Control

Eamonn Dorans
White Belt Yellow Tag, Noise Control

The Stags Head
Johnny Flynn, General Fiasco

Mulligan’s
Fiona Melady, Mick Flannery

Doheny & Nesbitt
Eoghan Colgan, Nat Jenkins

The Bank on College Green
Hoarsebox, The Coronas

The Brazen Head
Eoghan Colgan, The High Kings

Whose View & The Best Pizza in Dublin

Last week I had the pleasure of sitting down with the guys behind the site whoseview.ie. Myself and a small group of bloggers and Tweeters were invited over to The Casting Couch to answer the question, what is the best pizza in Dublin?. The task was to blind taste test 6 different pizzas (each in plain cheese or peperoni), comment on all aspects on the pizza, and score them out of ten.

It was a tough job but I felt up to the challenge.

I should probably stop here and fully explain what any of this had to do with the internet.

WhoseView.ie is a review site based entirely on user generated review. You review whatever you want to review and you review it exactly as you want to. An excellent way to understand this is to look at one of WhoseView's most popular reviews todate: Luke's review of The Winding Stair. What you'll gather from this is that the site prides itself on the honesty and openness of its members. Unlike other Irish review sites, there is no moderation in relation to positivity or negativity of a review.

This makes WhoseView a real gem. For once you can be assured that someone's review hasn't been edited or curtailed to reflect more favourably then the member intended. The functionality of the site itself is also a real winner. The site is driven by a principle of user facilitation and user functionality. Members can use the site more like a social network. Add friends, comment on reviews and engage with people who have similar tastes/likes. In my mind this makes perfect sense. You actually get to communicate with other members and get can share your opinion - essential for a review service, and yet this is the first time someone has really done it.

Right, so back to the pizza issue.

I don't eat huge amounts if pizza but I know what I like and there's a big difference between good pizza and bad pizza. In this instant it became immediately clear that there is a kaleidoscope of areas a pizza can fall down, or excel. We considered the base, the sauce, the cheese, the peperoni, the cooking (ranging from burnt to undercooked) and how it all came together.

The results may surprise you... (in reverse order)
6. Godfather’s Leeson Street
5. Apache Pearse Street
4. Hell Wexford Street
3. Four Star Ranelagh
2. Domino’s Rathmines

and in first place: Bianconi’s in Ranelagh

All in all, it was a brilliant night and a lot of fun. The most important thing is that these guys have realised exactly what is needed on a review site. Real, honest, genuine reviews that come straight from people you can see and talk to. Hat tips to you guys, a job very well done.

Seariously Hot Ad

Following on from my post on Monday evening I thought I'd have a look around to see what really hot ads are out at the moment for a weekly post. So every Wednesday will now feature a post on my favourite ad of the week. Let me know what you think, or if there are any ads that are better then the ones I choose. So for week one, I picked this...

Need For Speed: Shift
The important part here is 'actual gameplay footage'! WOW! I remember playing racing games on my 8bit Master System and boy has gaming come a very, very long way. This ad may be based on 95%-99% gameplay footage but I don't care. It's simply stunning.

Augmented Google Earth

Two of my favourite Google services are Google Earth and Google Maps. Of course I've always thought how cool it would be if you could actually walk out of your house and give a wave to someone watching your house somewhere else in the world (I'm being romantic here and disregarding the potentially horrible invasion of privacy issues). Well something similar to that may not be all that far away!

Some clever boffins at the Georgia Institute of Technology have put down the building blocks for taking real-time streaming video augmenting Google Earth to dynamically create real-time movement within the 3D mapping system. Their new 'as live' version of Google Earth shows cars driving on motorways, people walking in the park, others doing their shopping, and even a football game in progress.

The technology is still in a very early stage of development (it's the subject of a thesis) but it shows the potential for what could be done with the hundreds of live feeds available around the world.

Surf 'Twilight Sensations'

Every now and then I see a TV ad that really captures my attention. The last ad to do it was from An Post, and in the same way this ad does it brilliantly.

The always excellent folk at BBH have created this new spot for Surf, promoting their new Twilight Sensations range. The ad sees a young girl getting swept way into a mysterious 'twilight' world while hanging out her washing. The ad is essentially all done by shadow puppetry with real-life action only coming in at the beginning and end. This is classic fairly tale stuff and is stunningly impactful, visually. I just love. The ad was directed by Guy Manwaring.



Copywriter: Marc Hatfield
Art director: Marc Hatfield
Media agency: Mindshare
Production company: Sonny London
Post-production company: Glassworks
Editor: Mark Edinoff
Audio post-production company: Factory Sound Studios

Michael Jackson: This Is It

June 25th 2009 will undoubtedly go down in history as one of the saddest days in music and pop history. Aged just 51 years old, Michael Jackson passed away. Forever known as the 'King of Pop', Michael lead a life of mystery and public attention. From his début with The Jackson 5 in 1964 through to the days and weeks preceding his untimely death, Michael was always a figure of wonder.

At the beginning of the year it was announced that Michael would return to the stage in a 10 date concert series at London's O2 arena. This would be Michael's first public performance since the HIStory World Tour in 1997, and was cited numerous times as one of the decade's most important musical events. Following record breaking ticket sales the initial 10 date concert was increased to 50 dates. Over one million people would be attending. Much of this may have been driven by Michael's own suggestions that it could retire after the shows; in his own words it would be his "final curtain call".

Although the concert dates have been cancelled, there is something seriously special on the horizon. A new film, This Is It, will "offer Jackson fans and music lovers worldwide a rare, behind-the-scenes look at the performer as he developed, created and rehearsed for his sold-out concerts that would have taken place beginning this summer in London's O2 Arena. Chronicling the months from April through June, 2009, the film is produced with the full support of the Estate of Michael Jackson and drawn from more than one hundred hours of behind-the-scenes footage, featuring Jackson rehearsing a number of his songs for the show."

The film is directed by Kenny Ortega, who was also Michael's creative partner, and is being produced by Randy Phillips, Kenny Ortega and Paul Gongaware. The film will only run for two weeks, with tickets going on sale on 27th September.

This is the trailer:



More information on Michael Jackson and the 'This Is It' film are available here:
www.michaeljackson.com/
www.thisisit-movie.com/


- - - Update - - -

Fans may also be interested to know that there is an opportunity to have your photo added to a Michael Jackson 'This Is It' mosaic as part of the film's promotion. By visiting the 'This Is Is' site, users can upload their image for consideration.

Convergence Culture

A number of years back, Faris Yakob, then the Digital Ninja at Naked Communications (now he is EVP Chief Technology Strategist at McCann Erickson New York), presented at the Account Planning Group Battle of Big Thinking in London. Faris put forward the idea of Transmedia Planning. Transmedia Planning draws heavily from Henry Jenkins' book Convergence Culture. In it Jenkins discusses the how culture has drastically changed with the advent of technology, in paricular communications technology and the internet.

These may be the most clued in, important pieces of thinking I've come across in relation to utilisation, development and understanding of the modern digital world. Start thinking Creative Commons licensing, digital mash-ups, user-generated content, and just about every other online/digital phenomenon that has grown out of the last decade. Think about how your consumption of media, and your ability and desire to create it, has changed even in your own lifetime. As primitive people stories are told around campfires, passed from person to person with no sense of ownership or acquisition. But with the advent of one-way mass communications such as tv, cinema and radio, these stories became the property of large corporations and publishers. The internet, and the technology that powers it and innovates it, has changed all that. Now anyone can share their story, or any story for that matter. Don't get me wrong, I fully understand that copyrights still exist but consider how even these are starting to slowly change. Consider how people like Trent Reznor or bands like Radiohead are starting to distribute their music. Consider the latest Championship Manager 2010 game, which asks you to pay whatever you feel is appropriate. This is part of convergence culture.

In the following video Jenkins gives his thoughts on convergence culture:

Augmented Reality: Nokia

I'd be the first to admit that I've been very critical of Nokia lately, but then they come out with something like this and I have to stop and reconsider.

This is the new Nokia future vision video. It's Nokia's showreel of their future innovation concepts - essentially their vision of aspects of future interaction with digital through mobile device and application. Here we see digitally-enabled glasses.



I honestly think this looks really exciting. This is the first seriously innovative application of cutting-edge digital that I've seen Nokia aim for. Instead of the usual 'stick more features on a standard phone', here we see Nokia actually moving outside the box. Of course the question now becomes, how much reality is in this?

I wrote about the innovations being made in contact lenses technology, so surely there is a better chance of seeing these glasses? Stay tuned - as soon as I hear anything I'll post about it.

Halo 3: ODST

Hopefully you've already seen the ad for Halo 3: Believe, because the guys at T.A.G. in San Francisco have created an amazing follow up film for the Halo 3 franchise. For the film T.A.G. have brought together the team behind the Believe film, with direction from Rupert Sanders and effects from Stan Winston Studios. The film sees the heroes from the game brought to life, and was shot across Eastern Europe in underground caves and at an old nuclear reactor.

Outdoor Video Projection

This is just too good not to share (for anyone that hasn't seen it - it's several months old to be honest). It was created by urbanscreen.com and is a "facade projection" installation that they produced. The piece is called 555 KUBIK - "How it would be, if a house was dreaming".

Art Director, Daniel Rossa, said " The conception of this project consistently derives from its underlying architecture - the theoretic conception and visual pattern of the Hamburg Kunsthalle. The Basic idea of narration was to dissolve and break through the strict architecture of O. M. Ungers "Galerie der Gegenwart". Resultant permeabilty of the solid facade uncovers different interpretations of conception, geometry and aesthetics expressed through graphics and movement. A situation of reflexivity evolves - describing the constitution and spacious perception of this location by means of the building itself."



Technical Director: Thorsten Bauer
3D Operator: David Starmann
Sound Design : Jonas Wiese

Display Advertising: Interactive

This is a great example of an interactive Banner Ad for a banking product. The ad is for ANZ Now and was created by M&C Saatchi Australia.

There was also a television commercial, known as 'Credits', which features one of ANZ's Small Business Specialists. The ad can be viewed here.

Google Street View - Japan

This is a fantastic animated video from the Google Street View Japan people. Explains the whole Street View process perfectly and is looks stunning too. Absolutely loving this video!

Augmented Reailty: Yelp Monocle

At the end of August Yelp released what is the first iPhone Augmented Reality app. The latest version of Yelp allows users to access a features called Monocle. The app gives you a real time overlay of Yelp's business listings within your field of view, utilising the iPhone's digital compass and GPS to provide geo-location.

The most interesting thing about the app is that it's actually an Easter Egg activated by shaking the handset three times. The feature is considered an Easter Egg as Apple don’t actually provide an open API to allow developers to access a live video feed from the iPhone’s camera. This essentially makes it impossible to develop Augmented Reality apps for the iPhone without hacking their software development kit. The Yelp app is available to download here.

Mashable's Jenn Van Grove demonstrates Yelp here...



Also check out Jenn's personal blog here.

Contagious Magazine

For those unfamiliar with Contagious Magazine, it's just about one of the best publications (online and offline) that you can lay your hands on. Contagious describes its purpose as being "to explore the shifting relationship between brands and consumers, to predict the impact of new technologies and to make sense of the fragmenting media landscape". Contagious says it "exists to simplify and to advise. It is the global marketing industry’s early warning system; an intelligence resource for those attempting to stay ahead of all this change". Contagious comes out quarterly with a free DVD showcasing over 100 pieces of creative work per issue. The DVD highlights each of these campaigns in a ‘challenge/solution/results’ format.

The following video is the Q3 promo featured on the most recent issue's DVD. Shown are Ken Block's DC csampaign, Evian's Skating Babies and the Nike Paul Rodriguez 'Today Was a Good Day' ad. Also shown are previews of some augmented reality features and a Technophilia showcase.



If you enjoyed this, check out Contagious's YouTube channel.

It's All About The Beatles

Tomorrow may as well be called International Beatles Day! The 9th September will see not one, not two, but three HUGE Beatles related events ripple across the world, at what will surely be lightening speed.

The first event is the launch of 'The Beatles: Rock Band'. I posted about this back in June, and I am still just as excited. The latest of the Rock Band episodes gives you the opportunity to experience the greatest rock band of all time. You get to be part of the Beatles’ rise to fame and become the band that made music history. Play as John, Paul, George or Ringo; get your mates around, practise your harmonies, and enjoy newly designed custom-built instruments.

As part of the pre-launch advertising campaign, the latest ad has been released, and as with the others, it's pretty awesome. The ad takes the iconic photograph of The Beatles crossing Abbey Road and brings it to life.



I expect to be playing the game tomorrow night at the Irish launch event in Whelans, so I'll do an update tomorrow on just how good it is.

One of the most interesting things about 'The Beatles: Rock Band' is that it will feature over 45 original Beatles songs. What makes this interesting is that even though The Beatles are one of the biggest selling bands of all time, their music is virtually unavailable legally in digital formats. You simply cannot legitimately download a Beatles song. So that brings us to Beatles event number two: (as reported by a number of sources) iTunes looks set to finally have The Beatles back catalogue available through its iStore.

This in itself may actually be directly linked to the third and final Beatles event. As reported by Rolling Stone Magazine, 9th September will see the release of the complete re-mastered Beatles collection. What does that mean? Well, nearly 22-years later, all of The Beatles back catalogue will be available as digitally remastered versions of the original studio albums. The best part isn't just that they are remastered, each album will feature the track listings and artwork as it was originally released, but with the addition of an expanded booklets including original and newly written liner notes and rare photos. For a short time, all of the 12 studio albums will come with an “embedded” documentary about its making.

So whether you were there for the rise of The Fab Four, or you grew up listening to your parent's vinyls, tomorrow is an exciting day.

Guinness 250 Years Celebrations: Update 2

I just wanted to give you a quick update on what's happening in the world of Guinness. Back in July I posted about the Guinness 250 Years Celebrations that will be taking place on September 24th, marking the first official 'Arthur’s Day'. Following on from the update posted in August I am excited to announce some more information that I got through yesterday.

On top of the previously mentioned superstars who will be performing on the 24th (Sir Tom Jones, Kasabian and Estelle) at The Guinness Hopstore; there have now been a number of additional announcements...

Joining the above artists are Roots Manuva, Paolo Nutini, The Magic Numbers, OK Go and White Belt Yellow Tag; as well as some top Irish favourites such as The High Kings, Jerry Fish and the Mudbug Club, General Fiasco, Spring Break, David Kitt, and Oppenheimer.

Guinness have also announced a number of additional International events that will take place to mark this new holiday - Sean Paul will headline in Lagos, Nigeria and The Black Eyed Peas will perform in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. These two events will be just a small addition to what is now over 60 artists performing more than 60 hours of live music in just one day all over the world.

Ireland's contribution to the global showcase will see Cat Deeley and Ronan Keating hosting the stage in St. James's Gate, with a bit of help provided by Colin Murray, Michelle De Swarte and Michelle Doherty with updates from the 4 studio venues. All of this will be broadcast on TV3, SKY and ITV2.

For the full details of all the acts and celebrities who are taking part in the 33 Irish events (the St James’s Gate concert, the 4 studio venues and 28 gigs in pubs around Dublin) just visit www.guinness.com.

The Recession is Over - Google Says So!

Google have made, what may seem like a rather bold claim; the economic downturn is almost over.

Eric Schmidt, Google's chief executive, revealed that "the worst of the recession is behind us" and that Google was moving into a period of "seriously looking at acquisitions" again. Schmidt revealed all in a recent interview with Nikkei, saying that Google is eager to move back into the search for venture-stage firms that show strong potential for growth, which it could acquire. Following on, Schmidt indicated that the main thrust of this search would be to make a number of strategic acquisitions expanding its cloud computing operation.

Schmidy commented on Google's belief that the "personal computer era" will give way to the "age of cloud computing" within the coming ten to 15 years. This is sure to see Google continue to expand both it's on-system software options and its web apps such as its Google Docs and Gmail.