Google Is Building A Same-Day Amazon Prime Competitor, “Google Shopping Express”

Google is stealthily preparing to launch an Amazon Prime competitor called “Google Shopping Express.” According to one source the service will be $10 or $15 cheaper than Amazon Prime, so $69 or $64 a year and offer same-day delivery from brick-and-mortar stores like Target, Walmart, Walgreens and Safeway (though no specifics were mentioned by our sources).

When and if it launches, the product will be a competitor to Amazon Prime, eBay Now, Postmates’ “Get It Now” and even smaller startups like Instacart.

We’re hearing that the project is being run by Tom Fallows, an e-commerce product manager at Google, and is an effort to focus Google’s e-commerce initiatives. Google Wallet and Google Shopping need a focal point, and serving as a “store shelf” to big-name retailers could be that in. Google has been scrambling for a way to capitalize on its advantages in the space — the fact that it’s arguably one of the first places people visit when they want to find a product — for a while.

If the Google Shopping Express service debuts publicly, and we have no reason to think that it won’t, this would mean that the company could capitalize on its recent acquisitions of both BufferBox and Channel Intelligence to dominate the online-to-offline retail market. Google could possibly use its BufferBox delivery lockers to facilitate the ease of shipment — like what Amazon has been testing in Seattle, New York and the UK. It could use Channel Intelligence’s data-management platform to coordinate sales and delivery.

-TechCrunch

Mahindra To Debut An Electric Car On March 18

India's first new electric car in more than a decade will be launched on March 18, ushering in what may be the first earnest and well-financed competition to petroleum-powered cars in the world’s second-largest country.

The Mahindra E2O is a four-seater hatchback targeted at upper-middle-class families in need of a second car in congested cities like Mumbai, New Delhi and Bangalore, where it expected to first go on sale. It is expected to have a range of 100 kilometers (62 miles) and a top speed of about 80 kilometers (almost 50 miles) an hour.

Unlike the U.S., Europe, China or Japan, all of which have multiple automakers building electric cars and pushing for the infrastructure that supports them, India has just one: Mahindra Reva. The entity came about in 2010 when Mahindra bought Reva, a small electric-car company that over a decade sold less than 5,000 models of its tiny electric car, the REVAi. India has millions of cars on its roadways but only a few thousand electric cars, and almost no public electric car chargers.

I got the chance to to test drive the E2O in January at the Reva factory in Bangalore. At the time, Reva General Manager Kartik Gopal told me that simultaneously with the E2O’s rollout, the company would introduce components to support electric vehicles, including a fast charger intended for public parking spaces and businesses that can fully charge the battery in 70 minutes, as well as the Sun2Car, a 10-meter-wide car canopy covered with solar panels that could partially replenish the battery even if India is suffering from one of its frequent power outages.

At the time, Reva founder Chetan Maini also told me that the company wouldn’t launch the car until it got a promise from the Indian government that it would offer a rebate on each E2O to the tune of at least 150,000 rupees ($2,790). The government has long been planning a $4.13 billion scheme to subsidize electric vehicles in order to reduce the country’s emissions of both CO2 (which warms the atmosphere) and smog (which hangs in a cloud over most large Indian cities).

The government hasn’t made any comment on its electric-car bonanza since January, but given that the country’s flagship electric car is about to roll, an announcement may be forthcoming.

-David Ferris, Forbes

Facebook to showcase new look for newsfeed on March 7

(Reuters) - Facebook Inc will unveil a new look for its popular "newsfeed" next week, the latest move by the Web company to revamp key elements of its 1 billion member social network.

Facebook will showcase the newsfeed makeover at a media event on March 7 at its Menlo Park, California headquarters, the company said in an emailed invitation to reporters on Friday.

The event will be Facebook's second high-profile product event this year, following the rollout of its social search feature in January.

Facebook's newsfeed, which displays an ever-changing stream of the photos, videos and comments uploaded from a user's network of friends, is one of the three "pillars" of the service, along with search and user profiles, Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg has said.

The last major update to Facebook's newsfeed was in September 2011. Since then, the company has incorporated ads directly into the feed and the company has shifted its focus to creating "mobile first experiences," as more people now access the social network every day on mobile devices than on desktop PCs.

The mobile version of Facebook still lacks many of the features available on the PC version, said Brian Blau, an analyst with industry research firm Gartner. "So maybe this is a way to bring some of that together," he said.

Shares of Facebook, the world's No.1 social network, were up nearly 2 percent, or 52 cents, at $27.77 in midday trading on Friday.

(Reporting By Alexei Oreskovic; Editing by Marguerita Choy and David Gregorio)

Google glasses: Ask not when, but why

Google has just announced that it's searching for test subjects for one of the company's newest projects, a pair of Internet-connected eyeglasses called Google Glass. Testers are expected to pay $1,500, plus tax, for the privilege of trying a pair of glasses that display information on a minuscule screen at the top of a person's field of vision. In the promotional video, users are shown flying airplanes and biking in traffic, which to me suggests an obvious question: Will Google be including an organ donor card with the glasses kit?

A number of other obvious questions appear to have been neglected, not just by Google (a company that seems to have forgotten the phrase "core business strategy" in recent years) but also by the mostly fawning reporters who cover it.

Those questions mainly concern "the public," most of whom do not have the time, the money or the interest to be early adopters for an idiotic-looking head device but will have to deal with the sorts of people who are already eagerly plugging the Twitter hashtag "#ifihadglass" into their application.

OK, I said "the public," but I'm talking about myself.

I'm talking about the most basic things, really. I'm talking about the number of people who walk straight into me on the street every day because they're too busy scrolling on their smartphones to watch where they're going, and never think to apologize for it.

I'm talking about feeling tired of not being able to go into any public place without the risk of having my picture taken without my permission by someone who wouldn't even know what the idea of permission means.

I'm talking about how much our basic social standards have already been eroded by "smart" ubiquity, and how as a society we haven't even digested what we've already got.

I'm really not interested in the questions that are being asked about Google glasses (When will they be for sale? What will the retail price be? Is hipster eyeglass company Warby Parker really going to be designing them? How will they be serviced?) when the simplest one hasn't yet been discussed: Do we need these right now?

When something new comes on the market in this tech-obsessed region, it's always considered crazy talk to ask why instead of why not. But the truth is that these products create changes in behavior that affect us all. If the loss of civil public behavior doesn't bother you (or if you're part of that problem), there are still fundamental matters that need to be addressed.

I recently read that pedestrian deaths are up 4.2 percent and injuries up 19 percent nationwide and that 1,152 people went to the emergency room last year thanks to "distracted walking." (That number's considered to be very underreported, because people are still rightfully embarrassed to admit to lacking common sense. Sadly, that sense of shame is likely to erode, too.)

Imagine the numbers a few years after a flock of people have started wandering the streets with a computer plugged into their eyes.

It's not the business of either Google or any other technology company to think about manners or public safety and certainly not common sense. It's up to the rest of us to consider those things. Unfortunately, when it comes to the basics, our vision right now is as cloudy as those silly glasses.

When something new comes on the market in this tech-obsessed region, it's always considered crazy talk to ask why instead of why not.

Caille Millner is a San Francisco Chronicle columnist. E-mail: cmillner@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @caillemillner

Smartphone users check mobiles 150 times a day: study

People are increasingly becoming dependent on their cell phones, checking them every six-and-a-half minutes, according to a new research

In total, users check their smartphones an average of 150 times during a waking day of 16 hours, the study found. 

Looking at their phone is the first thing many people do each day - as they use its alarm function - and is also the last, the study commissioned by a mobile phone brand found.

In between, phones are used to check the internet and read emails, as well as to make calls and send texts, the 'Daily Mail' reported. 

Even people who have less-sophisticated devices check their phones frequently, it was found. 

A person just using a phone with basic functions will rack up dozens of uses a day. Mobile technology consultant Tomi Ahonen who analysed the study, wrote on his blog that people make, receive or avoid 22 phone calls every day. 

They also send or receive text messages 23 times a day, Ahonen said, and check the clock 18 times. 

"The average phone user places three calls per day and also receives three calls," Ahonen said. 

"Where are the other 16 times? Interruptions! We have a dropped call (one per day) or we make a call attempt that won't go through (one per day)," he said. Setting the alarm, playing games, changing songs, taking pictures and plugging and unplugging the phone all added to the number of phone views, he said.

-MidDay

Google announces India's first ever mapping competition 'Mapathon 2013' to help improve India Maps

Google has just announced its Mapathon 2013, which calls on users to improve the India version of Google Maps. To know more about the campaign click here.

The Mapathon begins on 12 February and goes on till 25 March. There’s a prize for those who log on to improve Google maps. The top 1000 mappers in India stand a chance to win Android tablets, smartphones, gift vouchers and Google merchandise. To register for the competition click here.

And how can you improve Maps?

The Google Map Maker is an easy-to-use tool that will allow you to add more detail to Google Maps through a few simple clicks.

Using the tool, you can select a specific area on Google Maps and add new information based on your own local knowledge and experience or by referring to the satellite imagery on Google Maps. Click a second time to save and submit your input — and once the submitted edit has been verified, the new information will be added to Google Maps.

Only edits made by users in India, will be considered for submission.

-FirstPost

Samsung to launch Android-powered fridge

Samsung will launch a fridge with a built-in Android tablet and an internet-connected washing machine by the end of the year.

By Matt Warman, Consumer Technology Editor

The Samsung refrigerator with built-in Android tablets will help people keep track of ingredients, order groceries and act as baby monitors using built-in cameras. The company’s flagship washing machines can be controlled remotely using mobile apps.

Speaking at the manufacturer’s European Forum in Monaco, Russell Owens, Samsung’s head of sales for digital appliances, said the T9000 refrigerator and the 12kg washing machine will be available in Britain later in the year.

Samsung’s flagship web-connected home appliances have previously been available in North America and Asia, but have not been available in Europe.

The T9000 refrigerator was launched at CES in Las Vegas in January, with Samsung suggesting that the built-in Evernote application could allow busy couples to share shopping lists as soon as they ran out of something.

Although pricing has not yet been announced, a T9000 refrigerator without the touchscreen is sells in America for around $4,000 (£2,500).

Mr Owens said that Samsung would concentrate on developing its premium appliance range in the UK, and that consumers increasingly associated the brand with connected appliances because of the “halo effect” from the company’s phones and TVs.

He described the category as “a major growth area” for Samsung. Consumers in the UK currently replace appliances because they are broken in two thirds of cases, but only replace them every ten years, or every 15 if they are built-in. Rival manufacturers including LG are also focusing on similar products, but have not announced UK availability.

Samsung also announced in Monaco that its S9 ultra high definition television would retail in Europe for 40,000 euros (£35,000).

-Telegraph