I'm still not sure Google was all that concerned with "flipping the distribution channel" per se. It seems just as likely they just wanted to sell the phone and didn't want to have to go through a carrier to do it, just to get retail experience. Did Google every say that was what they were after, or did the breathless tech-press just feed that meme?

One thing I've noticed is that here reluctance/enthusiasm to study is directly tied to how efficient she feels the studying will be. If she knows she'll get an A because she does effort Y, she will do effort Y. My problem with the school system is that studying is too disconnected from results, and so kids end up feeling like their test results are random. That's a killer.

I hate to break it to you, but by 4th grade, the homework burden is around an hour each night, minimum. My 1st grader is in for 30 minutes each night. And that does not count the 15-45 minutes of reading they might do.

Lots to learn in 4th grade. You can debate the need, or the value, etc., but the fact is she has to pass the state and fed assessments, and that is how the system is setup. Railing against might eventually change it, but my girls are in it right now, so you have to play the game.

God, what a great show that was. For those who are members, it is available for streaming over Netflix.

That is fascinating; I may have to try that.

Yes! Forced accelerated evolution. Good way to think of it.

I think efforts like Wave illustrate how much Google would like to find brand new markets to compete in; I don't think they have had much like getting real advertising dollars out of things other than search.

But you're right at least to a degree -- they have decided that open-ness is better for Google. Whether it is just for search or for other future things is a debatable point I guess.

You could make this argument, although all their services have advertising. But I bet the lion's share of money comes via search advertising.

They bought DoubleClick for however many billions to change this.

AdMob, too, is not a search-based ad network.

I guess I could have refuted in the article; Windows Mobile's suckage seems like a well understood phenomenon. Hee.

I agree in the sense that any implementation would have to be soft enough not to be disruptive. But the challenge doesn't seem quite that hard. Web designers are, IMHO, way too concerned with controlling the precise presentation of their pages; when users have outlandish hardware, strange fonts or such, things break spectacularly.