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According to the Inquirer Google is planning on buying Valve, the developers of popular PC games including Counterstrike. Obviously Google is not interested in owning the gaming side (I wouldn’t think) but are more interested in Steam - the content distribution platform it uses to distribute its games, updates, add-ons, etc. What exactly is Steam and why does Google want the technology?

Steam is a successful digital distribution, digital rights management, multiplayer and communications platform developed by Valve Corporation. It is used to distribute and manage (sometimes exclusively) a wide range of games entirely over the internet, stretching from one-man independent efforts to some of the world’s most popular. Steam is set apart from its peers in terms of functionality primarily by its residency in the system tray, and the desktop tasks that the client software performs, which will be detailed in the article, to make use of that position. - via Wikipedia

Valve currently publishes over 440 games to 15 million active users via Steam. So yes, it scales. So why does Google want it? Android Market. The Android Market will be the distribution vehicle for applications and content to the Android mobile platform (like the AppStore for the iPhone) and Valve’s Steam will power it on the backend.

Google has unveiled details of the Android Market open content distribution system on the Android Developers Blog. This will help end users find, purchase, download and install various types of content on their Android-powered mobile devices. Developers will be able to offer their content on an open system hosted by Google. - via TelecomPaper

Now this is all speculation at this point and the purchase has yet to be announced. If I am wrong - I’ll let you know here. I have another guess waiting as to why Google would purchase Valve’s Steam - but all signals point to using its CDN (Content Distribution Network).

Technorati Tags: google, valve, steam

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If you aren’t one of us lucky ones that got in on the beta for Google Ad Manager - you are in luck now.

Today Google announced that it is opening up Google Ad Manager for all AdSense users.

If you are not familiar with Google Ad Manager - it’s an awesome tool to help you manage your online ad sales and inventory. I had been using OpenAds (now OpenX) to manage ads across multiple sites until this came a long. The beauty of Google Ad Manager is its integration with AdSense.

Google Ad Manager is a hosted ad management solution that can help you sell, schedule, deliver, and measure all of your directly-sold and network-based inventory

What about features?

Ad Manager offers a wealth of features to help you with:
* Inventory management
* Yield optimization
* Ad targeting
* Trafficking, ad delivery, and order booking
* Creatives and rich media management
* Reporting
* User interface navigation
* Account administration

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I was off the grid for the last few days and actually heard the news of Google’s entry in the browser market on BBC Radio via NPR… I know - old school.

Anyway - I don’t trust this thing at all. Why? Privacy. Skynet Google already knows far too much about me. The last thing they need to know is my browsing habits. Oh, and no Mac version.

Why so late in the browser game? Co-Founder Sergey Brin discusses why…

Man, Sergey really looks like he needs some sleep…

I’m also not happy about having ANOTHER browser to test my work in.

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You’ll see me in there somewhere. I think they misspelled my name and may have taken my “corn and pigs” comment out of context. But all in all they did a good job with the story…

Note: I cannot for the life of me get this clip to not auto-play… If you have any ideas let me know. Also note how much Gov. Chet Culver is sweating!

Technorati Tags: microsoft, data center, west des moines, iowa

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Microsoft *officially* announced its plans for the $500 million West Des Moines data center it is building.

Here are some details…
- “Next Generation” facility
- 50-75 workers at $70k annual salary
- 42 acres in West Des Moines (see map below)
- Construction to be completed in 12-18 months

Why Iowa?
- Tax Incentives
- Cheap Land
- Very (relatively) affordable power
- Cheap Labor (lower costs of living here mean lower relative wages)
- Fiber Backbone (the very UNDER-UTILIZED ICN Network)
- Central Geographic Location

Overall, there are up to and over 35 factors in data center site selection of this magnitude including what I mentioned above.

What’s a “Next Generation Facility”?
So what is this next generation facility going to power? As more and more of the web and business moves into “the cloud”, the need for an infrastructure to keep up demands new data centers. Microsoft is in a position where it’s taking many of its traditional platforms and and software into the “SaaS” model - or Software as Services. So when the next version of Microsoft Word comes out - it will be via a web browser, online. To power this next wave, Microsoft needs to build up its infrastructure. To get a handle on the challenge ahead of Microsoft, here are some numbers:

Microsoft challenges:
- 15x growth on servers
- 9x growth on egress
- 15x growth on power
- 3x growth on number of data centers
via DataCenterLinks

This “next-gen” facility will be different than the traditional data center, supposedly using the “container” model they have been working on. Basically a container is a semi-trailer (or shipping container that you see on barges and trains). Within this container are 1,000 - 2,000 servers. These containers are, literally, trailers that can be hauled in via trucks to scale the system. Microsoft has built a similar data center in Chicago that has two floors. Currently, the entire first floor is made up of 150-200 of these containers.

So basically what happens is a truck loaded with a “container” will pull into the facility, drop off the container, “plug it in” and turn it on. Bam! This container based data center often times can hold up to 11 times more servers than a traditional data center using the same amount of space.

Here’s a 3-D Demo of the Chicago Data Center - and what is likely coming to West Des Moines…

So where’s this going to be?

View Larger Map

Technorati Tags: west des moines, data center, microsoft, iowa

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