Finally!  Google released a new Google Mobile for us Apps users, making it possible to use the mobile mail client with your own domain.

To download, visit m.google.com/a from your mobile and download “Mail by Google”.

In case you haven’t already seen this:

Working from home has its perks, but it’s important to have a break now and then. Sometimes I clear my brain with a computer game, one of my favorites is an online version of Scrabble, “Betapet”.  It’s a Swedish version of the game and I have many friends in the game.

One of them is working on a ship, at the moment on it’s way to Rotterdam. I guess life on a ship can get pretty boring when you’re not working, not that much to do. However, on this ship, they have an active Internet connection!  It’s obviously a satellite link, but the connection is shared via a wireless network. This means that the crew can stay in touch with friends and family, use chat and email and even play online games.

Even though the technology isn’t exactly new, I still find it amazing.  I’m at home, playing a game with someone that’s on a ship at sea, literally in the middle of nowhere.

In Sweden, you can get wireless access to the Internet via 3G cell operators. For a flat-rate fee of less than 200SEK (appx $30) per month, you can connect to the world from your laptop. You get a decent, up to 7Mbit, connection that works in most parts of the country (well, there are some white spots on the coverage maps).

And it’s just the beginning.

Yeah, I like Amazon.  I’ve been a customer for 10 years and it’s possible to make money from the affiliate program.  But the former “book store” does have a few cards hidden up their sleeve.

Robert Scoble wrote an interesting post about Internet companies that runs their whole business without having any servers.  Read it to find the connection to the world famous book store.

In my opinon, Google has earned its place as the number 1 search engine. The geeks over at Google are bright and top notch, delivering innovative solutions like Google maps and Gmail.  Adwords was ground-breaking when it was released, it made it possible for small businesses to utilize web advertising with good control over the costs and results.

The downside is that Google may be growing into a monopoly. Google’s share of the search engine marketing continues to grow at the expense of its main competitors. Yahoo & MSN just don’t cut a good slice of the cake.

This dominance of online advertising, with the success of AdSense and the lack of alternatives, raises the possibility of a Google monopoly in online advertising.  They might end up governing the whole Internet and will have great powers to influence the success of other companies trying to make a buck from Internet users.

A company that grow too much may crumble from it’s own weight.  Recently, Cringley listed a few signs that this may already be happening:  The Next Microsoft

I’ve seen some of the signs myself. Sites I’m involved in are getting traffic from Adwords with keywords that are not in the campaign. For some reason, the Google algorithm decides that the keyword is relevant and displays the ad. The advertiser will be paying for the click, but the landing page may not at all be prepared for visitors searching for this particular keyword and no conversion is made. Stuff like this may cause the advertiser to leave Adwords and search for other options, but what if there are no alternatives?

Well, it’s not as exciting as it sounds. It’s not a phone, but an open platform, “Android”. Andy Rubin is behind it and it seems that he reused some ideas and principles from Sidekick.

Android is based on a Linux kernel and the platform is released as part of the Open Handset Alliance, among the members you’ll find Intel, Nvidia, T-Mobile, LG, Motorola and eBay (!). The first device using the Andriod platform is expected “next year” so I guess it could become a great christmas gift in 2008…

(read more at the Google blog)

This subject is getting worn out, but this blog post by Seth Godin is right on the spot. It’s amazing that the Big Five (well, not really five anymore) doesn’t get it.

The only new business niche they have gotten into is selling songs and ring tones to mobile phone owners and that was of course not their own idea. The mobile operators approached them with the concept. At first, the music industry was reluctant to the idea, but at least they gave it a try. Obviously they are now surprised that they can make money from something else then plastic discs.

Last year, I met one of the bosses from Sony BMG at a conference where he was talking about a successful deal they made with one of the European mobile operators. My guess is that he was the only one in the room that was surprised by the success.

This is really interesting, Amazon.com are now selling downloadable MP3s without any DRM protection. Plain vanilla MP3s that can be played in any MP3 capable player.

You don’t want to hear me rant on about DRM protection schemes, but they simply suck. All of them, for a number of reasons.

Awhile ago, iTunes Store started to sell DRM free music, but to a higher price than the protected downloads. That sucked, too, but I’ve been wondering which company would be able to compete with Apple and I had a hunch that it would be Amazon. Now they are launching the new site, already populated with 2 million songs. That’s not even close to the amount of songs iTunes offers, but it’s a good start.

Amazon is big enough to negotiate with the big labels, but they also have all the logistics in place to handle the smaller ones. After all, Amazon is already selling everything from baby shoes to gazebos from small manufacturers.

Being an Amazon affiliate, I’m quite excited about this. Even though MP3s are low ticket products, there should be enough room to earn affiliate commissions from this.

<shameless plug> Yes, my product AmazonHunter 2 does of course support the MP3 store… </shameless plug>

Link: Amazon MP3 store

Have you heard of Web 2.0? Of course you have. Do you know what it is? Sure you do. Well, your definition may differ from other peoples. The term Web 2.0 is redefined all the time and usually it’s just a marketing buzzword. ”I’m working with Web 2.0” could even be used as a pickup line, at least if you’re trying to lure an investor.

From a more technical point of view, most sites claiming to be Web 2.0 are using a technology called AJAX. This makes it possible to build applications that runs in your web browser with (almost) the same look-and-feel as a ”real” application running on your computer. AJAX allows the web page to be more interactive and responsive.

So what is so scary about this?

AJAX wasn’t exactly designed with security in mind. Some of the developers using AJAX today doesn’t even understand it, they are just building their application on top of any of several AJAX frameworks that are available. The problem is that there is a great chance that their final application will be open to something called Cross Site Scripting or XSS.

Cross site scripting means that a web page you are visiting can have embedded code that makes a call to another web page.

Here’s an example.

If you’re using Gmail, you probably have a Gmail browser window open all day long. At some point, you visit a web site with malicious code embedded into the page. The page may be making a call to Gmail in the background and there will be nothing visible for you to notice.

The code could for example send out an email from your Gmail account, or it could copy the contents of your address book.

I’m only using Gmail as an example here, I don’t believe Gmail is more vulnerable than any other site built with AJAX. It could happen on any of the popular Web 2.0 sites, Myspace, Facebook, LinkedIn, Hotmail and Yahoo to mention just a few. The evil web page you are looking at could be changing your Facebook profile or send messages to your friends network and you wouldn’t know about it before your friends starts asking you strange questions.

However, web based email is more vulnerable for one reason. The data you store in your email account may be of great value to the attacker. You probably received lots of emails that contains your secret password to web sites you are using. When the attacker gains access to your email, he also gains access to all those sites.

What can you do about it?

If you’re a developer, learn about XSS and what you should do to build code that is as secure as possible. Don’t fall into the trap of thinking “but my site doesn’t contain any information that has a value”. If there are users on your site that contribute content, that decision should be made by the user, not by you. You should do everything you can to protect the data your user provides.

If you are a user, be aware of this problem. Don’t become paranoid, but think twice before storing any sensitive data on a web-based service. Don’t use old web browsers because they are usually more vulnerable. Make sure you have anti-virus software that is updated.

People have been telling me that I should start a personal blog. Usually, my reply is “nah, I did that in 1996″. It’s true, I did publish some random thoughts on my web site in 1996, published with a simple “content management system” that kept track of my posts, but of course, it wasn’t called blogging at the time.

But, here I am now. There may be some tech stuff, some bits on internet marketing and even something slightly political sometimes.