Remember last week's opening para about Google Suggest Beta? I mentioned there that the suggestions were not based on the searcher's previous search history. Now let me tell you a bit about Google's My Search History. It's available only to registered users, mind you. Only if you sign in at Google with your Google (Gmail) account, will a link appear at the top right of the page, reading: 'My Search History'.

Clicking on it will display a list of your searches in reverse chronological order plus links to the web sites you went to see from those search results - something akin to what happens when you click on the Favourites button on your desktop. The calendar feature informs how many visits you've made to a given web page and when you viewed it last. With the search history function, you can search through the past record. Learn more on Google My Search History here: http://www.google.com/searchhistory/help.html.

Judging by the initial blogger reaction to it - which can be described as overwhelmingly favourable - Google seems to have unveiled another winner in its time-honoured tradition. However, I found a dissenting voice at this address: http://www.searchnewz.com/searchnewz-12-20050421GooglesNewMySearchHistory.html. In his ' Google's New "My Search History"', Contributing Writer Mark Fleming writes: "…I think a lot of people will have a problem with it. … most people simply 'Google it.' And with the extreme popularity of Gmail now, many people don't even realize that their Gmail account is their Google account … And then there is the broader issue. This history is not stored on your local computer, but on Google's servers. " Furthermore: "Even if you are completely innocent, you could do a search for something that tricks you into a site you shouldn't be in. Or, someone else could sit down [at] your computer and search for some illegal activity while you are signed in. Who knows what authorities might get a look at look at that information someday." Looks like Fleming - who writes the Google Tutor blog http://www.googletutor.com/ - has hit the 'privacy' nail squarely on the head, what? The previous week's comment on Google Suggest Beta can be read at http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_1351868,0003.htm.

"NOWHERE TO GO BUT UP." Meeker on Net advertising.

Morgan Stanley's Internet analyst Mary Meeker was far from meek when she predicted the future of web advertising at a late-April Ad: Tech industry conference attended by 6500 delegates. She put forth her views quite bluntly: "Internet advertising spending has nowhere to go but up." One of her surprising revelations was about one major Net company that "now spends more than 60 percent of its marketing dollars online". She called the Web "the most underutilized advertising medium" - getting only 3% of total US ad spending. However: "… it's a pretty good prediction of the way things are going for the successful companies," she added. Her prediction is based on the assumption that high speed Internet access to drive the growth in digital advertising will be forthcoming in adequate measure as audio and video marketing efforts become more Net-friendly and compatible.

Meeker identified two areas to watch for "explosive business growth": (1) China; and (2) the free software for making phone calls over the Internet, Skype, already claiming 33 million registered users. Meeker also said that the U.S. was about the only country where Internet users outnumbered mobile device owners. Also, the amount of Internet consumed vs. the amount of net ad spend suggested that the Internet remained - in spite of Google's and Yahoo's burgeoning income stats - a vastly "underfunded" channel. (Please see Elisa Camahort's 25 April post to be found at http://www.adtechblog.com/archives/20050425/keynote_via_disembodied_voice_2_mary_meeker/.) Talking to Business Week, Meeker called Skype "the most rapidly growing product from an acceptance standpoint the world has ever seen". Her 50-page pdf presentation can be downloaded free of charge at http://www.morganstanley.com/institutional/techresearch/pdfs/age_of_engagement.pdf. Learn about Skype here: http://www.skype.com/.

MS 'BLACK BOX'. Black mark for privacy?

Metaphors can be dangerous. For instance, when you fire up your IE, do you 'see' yourself as a pilot in the cockpit about to take off ? The reason I asked was, Microsoft has threatened to include in the next edition of Windows "the PC equivalent of a flight data recorder" (popularly known as 'black box') in order "to better understand and prevent computer crashes". Bill Gates asked the delegates at a recent Windows Hardware Engineering Conference to think of it "as a flight data recorder, so that any time there's a problem, that 'black box' is there helping us work together and diagnose what's going on". This move is sure to rankle privacy advocates although "the choice of whether to send the data, and how much information to share, will be up to the individual". http://techrepublic.com.com/2100-10590_11-5684051.html?tag=nl.e019.

OFFSHORING. Literally so. And, no tummy ache.

Ever heard of 'hybrid offshoring'? It's the brain-child of Sea-Code http://www.sea-code.com/ They describe it as "an innovative engineering service which creates high-end software engineering jobs in the U.S. while still providing lower overall costs for our clients." It's the mountain-Mohammed story the other way around, in other words. The Sea-Code ship docked off the US shoreline will house software engineers from low-cost countries like India and Russia - apparently without H1B visas - churning out software at salaries they would draw in their own countries for similar work.

Noteworthy quote from Sea-Code's home page:" With Hybrid-Sourcing SeaCode brings already offshored jobs back to the U.S. and assures that 90 cents of every dollar from our clients stays in the U.S. instead of flowing to foreign locations." Forbes seems ecstatic about it, headlining its story: 'C++ Faring Lads' http://www.forbes.com/business/forbes/2005/0509/048.html. Get the idea?

INDIA SAFE! Clean chit by FSA.

Good tidings for the Indian software industry! After an investigation into 10 offshore operations of leading UK financial institutions in Bangalore and Mumbai, the Financial Services Authority (FSA) gave a clean bill of health saying consumer data is at no greater risk in India than in the UK. "Offshoring does not mean 'out of sight, out of mind' and saving money into the bargain. Often the ante on management procedures has to be upped in offshoring environments - this doesn't mean that organisations will not be able to realise cost savings. It is just that they may not be as much as first thought," was the National Outsourcing Association (NOA) comment. http://management.silicon.com/government/0,39024677,39130154,00.htm. N.B.: Thank heavens, the FSA investigators did not visit Pune.

CYBERCABS, ANYONE? Not in Mumbai, no way, mate.

Mumbaikars are talking about the city cabs going mod some time soon. The taxi union chiefs are going to Singapore for a study tour, it seems. So, I thought of bringing to their notice what's happening in the US of A, especially to as many as 600 taxicabs in San Francisco, Boston and Chicago. Interactive Taxi, a Targeted Media Partners subsidiary, will be fitting cabs with the 'Internet-equipped' touch screen terminals - with networking technology from PeerDirect Corp. - and selling advertising to local businesses. The passenger will be able to access all by herself news, maps, weather forecasts, movie tickets, and restaurant reservations from the backseat. "The passenger interface is geared specifically towards the taxi-riding public. So there are buttons that lead to 'channels' on the system: We have every restaurant, every bar, every hotel, movie, museum. We have local [and] national news providers," Corey Gottlieb, President and CEO, Interactive Taxi, said. http://www.internetweek.com/allStories/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=59300938.

Brain teasers, riddles, logic problems and mind puzzles anyone? You can find over 7,500 of them - "the largest collection anywhere on the internet" according to Braingle's home page's claim. Apparently, they're submitted and ranked by users. http://www.braingle.com/.