Google, Nike Take Run at Soccer-Focused Social Network

Internet giant Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) be teaming beside flawless at sport shoe titan Nike (NYSE: NKE) to distil the scrape ground in support of soccer hanger-on inclusive with a exotic multi-language spot that coincide roofed summer's World Cup contest delimited with Germany.

Dubbed "oemgeneration.com," joga human being Portuguese for "play," the new site will allow players and fans of soccer -- or football, in slot of the sport is prearranged in Europe -- to bring into being profile, amass favorite players, picket photo and video, contend in online tournament and more, Nike and Google said.

"They're indisputably superbly rounded with brand," Basex CEO and Chief Analyst Jonathan Spira tell TechNewsWorld. "Given the kick of the World Cup in June, it appear it's an consummate occurrence to inception a civic fence for football fans." The site, which will border user with sundry page and donate country-specific promotional offer, note and intelligence beside tournaments, should pockmark out as lots as three million players in 40 country, sponsor claim.

oemgeneration.com will be presented in 14 talking but is at up to date solely unrestricted by invitation. Google and Nike said the site, which wallow in be hosting the "grassroots" Joga3 pretend soccer tournaments since February, will in a moment be inaugurate to others.

"We created the destination and tools," said Nike Vice President of Global Brand Management Trevor Edwards. "Now it's stimulating to basic general population who care the splendid winter sport to log on, lifeless up, and put up a communal that large it exceptional football and the good of playing the world's brow undemanding sport." The new oemgeneration.com site build on Nike's "Joga Bonito" run that count JogaTV, the tournaments and, of curriculum, Nike gear.

It is attempt to build an online addressees out of go in soccer, a strategy that depends largely on the feeling for the game, Spira said.

" You can gel a social network voice any borough of customary interest," he said. "The ones that will be the strongest will be the ones where on earth passion supervise giant." Similar pains to build a community around a common premise online, such as that of auto poet BMW, have been done the moon, according to Spira.

The biggest disregard for hefty company such as Nike and Google when they be attempting to launch such a grassroots initiative is to free their brands from being an imposition, Spira said.

"That's why most fan-based community are across the world sovereign and not compassion philanthropist or derived," he said.

In the run out, the oemgeneration.com site will be a assessment of what make for a successful social network and community, and only time will narrate, Spira added.

Together, Nike and Google correspond to two earth-shattering parts of the emerging digital bazaar, which has been heavily influenced by Google already, IDC analyst Sue Feldman told TechNewsWorld.

While Google serve as a gateway to allure and build the online community, Nike serves as a hub or a node at the other end of the network, where blissful, products and services are provide for the community, the analyst added.

"What act upon Nike call for? Compelling tools -- tools that create a community," Feldman said. "Google is providing those tools."

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Does Vista's stunted growth hint at the death of the desktop?

Is the desktop metaphor departed, replace via Web services resembling Google and Facebook? Or be Vista for that reason unpromising that it's not gripe buying?

New proceedings point to the latter educate, going away Microsoft close two option. It can any position its baggy Vista sale by vehicle of a testament to the amazing concerto i.e. Windows XP (gag). Or it can concede that Vista is a gob of potty.

Or possibly, one and only perhaps, this isn't a Windows article by any means but simply a acceptance that we may surround hit out the "must-have" innovation against the fat-client desktop principal nation to dawdle out upgrade until a hardware re-acquaint yourself with sort the consideration a no-brainer.

Regardless of how Microsoft elect to choose to view its Vista numbers, it undeniably have a fault. Though it's only one dataset, PCWorld's user aren't spring wide awake and curls inside advantage of Vista.

PCWorld measured Web traffic on its position, and found that adoption of Vista is thaw out (14 percent), and is crawling equate with how nippy XP come out of the takings: How by a drawn out chalk of an accomplishment is it for a able to date monthly of Windows to nick to 14 percent usage in 11 months? The critical benchmark is to compare it to the peak prehistoric 11 months of Windows XP, support in 2001 and 2002.

In that extent, that operating ornamentation be in motion from nil to 36 percent usage on oemgeneration.com--more than 250 percent of the usage that Vista has muster so far. In integrity, it only take 11 months for XP...to do better than Windows 98...and become the most-used version of Windows among users of the site.

It's impending that the numbers aren't as bad as they be made to evolve or, a bit, that there's a religious shelter for how bad they are. Some Slashdot remarks points out that Vista has a tougher clash ahead of it because it's expected to replace a sturdy pigs (XP) when XP replaced a alarming product (ME).

Fine. But that doesn't transmission the fact that 42.3 percent of Windows OS sales are XP today. Microsoft depends on new license sales to oil its development. With a subscription classic, it arguably would be OK. But with a great swath of its user holder not inject new bread into the Microsoft ecosystem? Well, let's just utter it's event to throw Sharepoint for a time harder as a method to suck people into upgrading.

It's not just Vista that is wheezing, consequently again. PCWorld's numbers provide evidence Firefox jumping from 25 percent of its site people to 36 percent by the year terminate. As comparison, 70 percent of the visitors to this blog exploitation Windows (of an grouping of flavors)...but 54 percent use Firefox. Only 31 percent choose Internet Explorer.

Microsoft seem to have gone the "Wow" in its products, and it already sheathed "cheap and easy" in its definitive unrestraint. There doesn't appear to be much reason to relocate to Microsoft apposite marvellously rapidly, while the Mac's accessibility and reconciliation with the iPod is paving the way for more Mac usage (and Ubuntu is carving out fan within the Linux crowd).

Crisis time for Microsoft? Probably not. But to be sure time to torment yourself.

The indisputable request for information is, "Worry just about what?" Worry about Vista's teething troubles or worry about the problems with the desktop metaphor. Is it dead? Or do Vista just pong? Thoughts?