Business 2 CommunityThis Week In Tech: Google, Heartbleed (Again), Yahoo, And Volvo
From dipping stocks to combating Heartbleed, this week in tech focused on surviving the ups and downs of our online society. We also see a few companies at the top of their game, going after the gold, and creating innovative ways to keep our eyes on the road and hands off our smartphones.
This is what happened, this week in tech.
1. Google is Sinking…Or Are They? – While some online companies are benefitting from the smartphone revolution (I mean, where is your phone right now? Probably inches away if not in your hand), Google is struggling to convert mobile advertising into revenue, and due to recent reports, Google’s stock plummeted 5.5 percent this month. While this may have rocked the boat for Google stockholders, this does seem that it will tip then over or have a huge impact on their company potential and future stock numbers. Google recently bought a drone and released Google glass for a one-day sale, which may offset future stock percentages and shows that they are keeping innovation at the top of their priorities.
Google also claims that first quarter results are never as good as the rest thanks to back to school and holiday shopping in the second half of the year. While Google has a positive outlook for the balance of the year, stockholders are key in setting the pace for investors. Let’s see what next month brings…
2. Soothing The Heartbleed Bug Bites – Unfortunately, there might not be a great ointment to cure last week’s Heartbleed bug bites and the damage is done. Companies created patches and users were told to change their passwords, but the threat still exits and the scale of the breach hasn’t been determined. Now, the discussion has transformed from what to do, into who should be blamed for this security star’s threat.
So who is to blame? While commercial software is easy to track because there is a company behind the site or app, OpenSSL is not commercial software. It is open and free source ran by volunteers. Everyone and everything uses OpenSSL, which is what made Heartbleed such a great security threat. There is no one in particular that can be blamed, but those managing the OpenSSL and volunteering their time could receive more support from all the companies that use this source on a daily basis.
Mashable’s contributor Christina Warren phrased it best when she wrote, “Heartbleed didn’t happen because OpenSSL is open source, it happened because the project wasn’t given the support it needed.” This could be an eye-opener for companies and a game changer for open source software.
3. Yahoo! Going for Gold – Mobile searching is rapidly growing with more people using smartphones and mobile devices instead of their laptops and/or desktops. Yahoo has placed priority on mobile search and seems to be doing well. With their sights set on Apple, Yahoo may slowly overtake Google and become Apple’s default search. While Yahoo’s deal with Microsoft prevents them from performing as well in desktop search, mobile search may help them get ahead in the search market and change the future of the company and their partnerships.
4. Driving Made Easy – Speaking of Apple, the technology giant teamed up with Volvo to demonstrate CarPlay at the New York International Auto Show this week. If you already have an iPhone, or are familiar with the iOS software, working the CarPlay system will be easy and hard to resist. CarPlay acts like a navigation system, but one that you can talk to using Siri, which will be accessed through the steering wheel. Need to send a message or make a call? CarPlay also makes this easy with just a simple Siri command. And with all this technology in cars and growing concerns about distracted drivers, safety remains a priority for carmakers. So while tasks are easy to accomplish without drivers taking their eyes off the road, there is still a tendency for drivers to look at the display and the well-known Apple graphics – something they must work to overcome. As a result, both companies are working hard to solve this issue. The goal is to keep eyes on the road, off iPhones, and drivers seamlessly integrating the use of the CarPlay innovation.
That’s it for this week in tech – did we miss anything? Let us know!
This article was syndicated from Business 2 Community: This Week In Tech: Google, Heartbleed (Again), Yahoo, And Volvo
More Tech articles from Business 2 Community:
