When they got a new idea, something they thought was truly an improvement, they started using it immediately. They didn’t wait for other people to confirm, they put it into action and it quickly became part of their behavior.

Speed of implementation can be key as it takes effort to do something
new… and the longer you wait to implement (procrastination), the more the initial commitment that new idea brought will dissolve. We are
very prone to sticking with habits, so the faster you implement the change the less
likely you are to just let your old patterns dominate.

When you get a good idea write it down, plan its use and then start using it immediately….or at the least commit to trying it for 21 days (the length of time it takes to form a habit).

If you can find one new technique per month of every couple weeks (they can be small ones two), you will add 12 – 26 new tools to your game every year!

To those in Canada…Happy Canada Day!

Jason Fried on 37signals Launch of 1st iPad App
by Frank Gruber on June 29, 2010
http://techcocktail.com/home/2010/06/29/jason-fried-on-37signals-launch-of-1st-ipad-app/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TechCocktail+%28TECH+cocktail%29

On the eve of hosting our second Mobile TECH cocktail Chicago mixer event last week, we were excited to hear that 37signals had launched it’s first iPad application called Draft. The application is very much a sketch pad that can be used to jot down or whiteboard out anything your creative heart desires. The images are then captured and can be sent to Campfire or sent somewhere else via email. We reached out to 37signals founder and co-author of REWORK, Jason Fried (@jasonfried) with a few questions about the application launch.

What was the inspiration of the Draft iPad app?
We build things because we need them. Before draft, sharing quick design sketches involved paper, a sharpie, a scanner, and then an email/upload to the tool of choice. Draft cuts out all the tedious steps. We just sketch in Draft, click the “Share in Campfire” (or email) button, and it’s sent off in seconds. It’s a significant workflow improvement for us.

How long have you been working on the product?
A few months on and off. We worked with the guys from Overcommitted on the project. They did the backend work, we guided the design and overall vision for the app.

At $9.99 how did you figure out pricing on the app?
For us, pricing an app like Draft is an opportunity to experiment and learn. Many iOS apps are either free or priced at a buck or two. You don’t learn much if you price your app at $0.99.

Further, this is a very niche side project for us – we’re not going to get rich off Draft one way or another. We’re also not interested in market share when it comes to something like Draft. So, we decided to limit our overall user base by pricing it on the high side. We’d rather have 1000 people at $10 using Draft instead of 10,000 at $0.99. Same revenue, lower costs, more profit. Fewer resources are required to support 1000 customers. That feels like the right balance for an app like Draft.

Lastly, we believe it’s definitely worth $10. For me, personally, it’s worth a few thousand dollars. I put a high value on my time. I’m very aware of the cost of daily hassles. So $10 to remove tedious steps from my daily workflow is the deal of the century.

In the end it’s up to everyone to determine their own price/value threshold.

Where do you find yourself using the Draft app the most (use case or use cases)?
I use it every day, many times a day. Whenever I design UIs, I sketch first. Draft is on my desk all day. It’s in my iPad dock, front and center, so I can tap, draw, and share in a matter of seconds.

I still use paper too, but when I know I want to share something with someone, I reach for Draft.

I try and stay up on the latest current events whether through the newspaper or TV (less and less), business magazines (some), internet newspaper sites (some), google reader (some) and subscriptions to many of these on my Ipad (more). Sometimes there are stretches when I feel like I am lacking education, be it in the class room or from worldly information. Therefore I have made a commitment to education this year and through a few different facets. One being continuing studies at University of Toronto and potentially some other institutions.

In addition, I like to hit some local sponsored events that stretch the mind. On Monday night I attended the 5th installment of the Munk Debates. Originally started by one of Canada’s business leaders Peter Munk, the program has exploded from the first educating 300 people in the Royal Ontario Museum on Terrorism to the latest installment at the Telus Centre for Performing arts, holding 1,100 people (plus an overflow room) with thousands joining by live webcast around Canada and abroad.

The topic below was debated by some pretty big heavy weights in the Industry, on both sides of the border. Former US Politicians, Presidential candidates and long published authors. I encourage you to check the link below to read up on their positions and further education yourself on a issue that will be paramount to our generation as we reach retirement.

In concluding, the night was a reminder for me that continually stretching the mind in other fields and deliberating both sides of an issue can drive motivation in many aspects of your life. I feel educated on an important topic, energized and focused today. All good things.

The Topic

“Do ballooning health care spending, evermore expensive prescription drugs and an increased use of private medicine foreshadow the wholesale reform of Canada’s universal, single-payer system? Or, are the divisive debates, social inequities, and sky-high expenditures associated with the U.S. experience with private medicine a validation of Canada’s universal Medicare system?”

The goal of the 5th semi-annual Munk Debate is to encourage a far-ranging discussion of one of the great policy unknowns facing Canadians: the future of our health care system.

http://www.munkdebates.com/debates/Healthcare

Have a great Wednesday!

Monday May 24, 2010 by Don Dodge – Developer Advocate at Google

Every salesperson knows this, but many entrepreneurs don’t. If they aren’t ready to listen, it doesn’t matter what you have to say. Saying it five different ways won’t help. Saying it louder, faster, more often, or getting other people to say it for you won’t help either. Better to move on to the next opportunity, and come back to this one when they are ready to listen.
This is true for pitching VCs (Venture Capitalists), potential partners, strategic acquirers, customers, prospective employees…and just about everyone else. One young entrepreneur told me it was true of dating too.

So, why is it always a surprise to us when the other party won’t listen? Well, we believe so much in what we have to say that we can’t imagine anyone not wanting to hear it…and act upon it.
When I worked at Microsoft I would often find new startups that were doing amazing innovative things that could really add value to what Microsoft was doing. If the timing was right, and the product group was ready to listen, things happened very quickly…and successfully. I remember when I first saw Xobni I knew instantly that this would be great for Microsoft Outlook. I immediately sent a note to the top people in the Outlook group. They responded the next day and met with them the following day. Within a week or two Bill Gates was demoing Xobni to thousands of people on stage at the Microsoft Office Developers Conference.
Then there is the normal case. A year or two later I met the people from Gist. I was impressed. Gist had a great collaboration product that worked nicely with Outlook email. Gist captured all the relevant data, from lots of different sources, about a person in context of the email in front of you. The founders previously worked at Microsoft. Brad Feld, a personal friend, and well known within Microsoft, was a major investor. So, this should be easy, right? Wrong. The product group was not ready to listen. No matter what I did, or who I talked to…nothing.

Fast forward 18 months. I bring Gist to Google and they totally get it. Yesterday Google made an announcement about Gmail Contextual Gadgets. Gist (and Xobni) were part of the announcement. So, the people at Google are smarter than the people at Microsoft, right? Not really…maybe in some cases…but that isn’t why it worked. It happened because the timing was right. They were ready to listen. Google had a product announcement coming up and needed ISV products to showcase.

I must say that Gist and Xobni both pulled off amazing engineering feats to get this done within days. They worked around the clock to meet an impossible schedule. The people at Google were amazed they did it. Now, Gist and Xobni could have said “Forget it. I have been down that road before and no one listened. I’m not going to turn my world upside down for you guys”. They would have been completely justified in saying that. But, they saw opportunity and pounced on it.

So, why won’t they listen? Lots of reasons. They could be totally heads down on a product release driving like crazy to a deadline. They could have other priorities that trump this one. They could have a similar idea already in the works. Or, they just simply aren’t interested.

Things change with time. In the past I have taken a company or idea back to a group six months later…and they loved it. What changed? They were ready to listen. They were actively looking for ideas or solutions to problems they didn’t know they had six months earlier.

Lesson for entrepreneurs – Focus on people that immediately get it. It won’t be obvious to you who they are or where to find them. They will self select. They will react positively almost immediately. Pitch to everyone you see..all the time. You never know who will “light up” on your idea and want to help you. This goes for investors, customers, partners, potential employees, etc.

Don’t waste time trying to convert someone who isn’t ready to listen. Move on to the next prospect. Go back to the doubters later with a fistful of customers or partners. Or better yet, let them come to you…when they are ready to listen.

Invent your future, let your customers guide you, or a little bit of both. Speak up, is Monday and the start to a new WEEK!

http://blogmaverick.com/
Apr 6th 2010 9:49AM

An article by John Doerr had a great quote from technology luminary Alan Kay that every entrepreneur needs to remember “The best way to predict the future is to invent it.”

I’m working with a company that at one point had a product that was not only best in class, but also technically far ahead of its competition. It created a better way of offering its service and customers loved it and paid for it. Then it made a fatal mistake. It asked its customers what features they wanted to see in the product and they delivered on those features. Unfortunately for this company, its competitors didn’t ask customers what they wanted. Instead, they had a vision of ways that business could be done differently and as a result better. Customers didn’t really see the value or need, until they saw the product. When they tried it , they loved it.

So what did my company do when they saw what their competitor had done ? They repeated their mistake and once again asked their customers what they wanted in the product. Of course the customer responded with features that they now loved from the other product.

They didn’t improve their competitive positioning. They put themselves in a never ending revolving door of trying to respond to customer requests. To make matters worse, resources and brainpower that could be applied to “inventing the future” were instead being used to catch up with features that locked them into the past.

Entrepreneurs always need to be reminded that its not the job of their customers to know what they don’t know. In other words, your customers have a tough enough time doing their jobs. They don’t spend time trying to reinvent their industries or how their jobs are performed. Sure, every now and then you come across an exception. But you can’t bet the company on your finding that person at one of your customers.

Instead, part of every entrepreneurs job is to invent the future. I also call it “kicking your own ass”. Someone is out there looking to put you out of business. Someone is always out there who thinks they have a better idea than you have. A better solution than you have. A better or more efficient product than you have. If there is someone out there who can “kick your ass” by doing it better, its part of your job as the owner of the company to stay ahead of them and “kick your own ass” before someone else does.

Your customers can tell you the things that are broken and how they want to be made happen. Listen to them. Make them happy. But they won’t create the future roadmap for your product or service. That’s your job.

The best way to predict the future is to invent it. Words that should always be part of your product or service planning.

I was talking to a friend of mine about the IPAD and other technologies Apple was brining out, and in addition, other technologies that would change the way we live. I thought this post, summed it up well.

This guest post was written by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers partners John Doerr, Bing Gordon, Chi-Hua Chien and Ellen Pao. We covered KP’s increase in the size of the iFund last week, and additional insights from KP’s Matt Murphy on the iPad. This post goes into a lot more detail on KP’s investments in the first iFund, and what opportunities they see for the iPad.

It’s hard to imagine that once there was no Internet. Just 15 years ago there was no browser, no web point-and-click. It was 1994, and Steve Jobs had left Apple. Steve was making Toy Story, and object-oriented software for Next.

Then one day Bill Joy showed me a beta version of Mosaic, the FIRST web browser. It was magic. Bill said “John, I have NO idea where this is going. You just better dive in.”

The rest of the 90’s were a ONCE-in-a-lifetime experience. Entrepreneurs created the Web, and great ventures – Netscape, Amazon, Ebay, Google, and others. And they changed our lives. Silicon Valley became the Florence of the New, Networked Economy.

The advent of the iPad feels like deja-vu, like it’s happening all over again. Not once, but TWICE-in-a-lifetime.

Inventing The Future
Newsweek put it best… “Steve has the uncanny ability to cook up gadgets we didn’t know we needed… but suddenly can’t live without.” Steve showed us what computer legend Alan Kay told us… namely, “The best way to predict the future is to invent it.”

At Kleiner Perkins we say “If you can’t INVENT the future, the next best thing… is to FUND it.”

The iFund
So two years ago Apple and Kleiner Perkins announced an unexpected collaboration: the $100 million iFund. The best venture fund for mobile entrepreneurs.

Think back to March 6, 2008. The iFund idea was risky – some thought crazy. There was no 3G iPhone. No apps. No appstore. And no iFund.

Today the iFund is 14 ventures. 3 are stealth. We are proud to have backed great entrepreneurs in communications, gaming, publishing, media, mobile advertising, and mobile commerce. The iFund companies include:

Booyah – Creating new forms of entertainment to the masses by bringing together elements of the real world and the digital world. Booyah’s MyTown is the largest social check-in platform today, with over 1.6 million users checking in 4 million times per day.
Cooliris – A 3D interface for browsing vast amounts of rich media content on the iPhone and web.
GOGII – Leading free texting (textPlus), communication, and group social interaction product for mobile, serving over 5 million users who have exchanged over 2 billion messages on textPlus.
iControl – Stay connected in real-time to what matters most – family, property, home, and business-from anywhere in the world, anytime, day or night.
InMobi – The largest independent mobile ad network, reaching mobile users in 37 countries.
ngmoco – The first iPhone/iPad-only games publisher with 20+ titles and the Plus Network for 3rd party developers. ngmoco’s games are installed on over one-third of all iPhone / iPod users and played over 20 million minutes per day.
Pelago (Whrrl) – Mobile social network and discovery app that allows you to find people, places, events, and trends through the eyes of your friends and other people on the Whrrl platform.
Pinger – A publisher of great utility and entertainment apps for iPhone, with 13 hit titles on iPhone including Doodle Buddy, Photo Chop and TextFree.
Shazam – The world’s leading mobile music discovery and socialization application – enabling consumers to experience and share music with others.
shopkick – Focused on the intersection of mobile and the physical retail world, shopkick’s goal is to dramatically improve the experience of consumers’ shopping experience.
Zynga mobile – The world’s largest social gaming network, bringing social games to iPhone and iPod Touch.
Each of these companies has received capital from the iFund and participated in bi-annual iFund Summits with other founders, CEOs and industry leaders. Through this network, we’ve seen phenomenal collaboration between iFund companies and tremendous learning in a space that evolves rapidly and changes daily.

iFund ventures have had well over 100 million downloads. And we expect more than $100 million in revenue from these companies this year. We’ve already committed $100 million, and raised another $330 million from others. That’s almost ½ billion dollars.

Good News – Bad News
That’s the good news. Truly good news. But the bad news – is that at the worst possible time, on eve of the iPad, the iFund is out of money.

The first rule of venture capital is (to quote my friend Coach Campbell) is…“you gotta have the friggin’ money.” It’s hard to be a venture capitalist if you don’t have the money.

Doubling Down
So we’re doubling down on the iFund, increasing its size to $200 million dollars. Here’s the real reason why…

The original PCs in the early 80’s were pretty crummy, that is, until 1984 when Apple introduced the mouse and the Mac… Back then Alan Kay, inventor of the Dynabook tablet, said “The Mac is the first PC worth criticizing.”

Fast forward to 2007. When Steve introduced the iPhone, Alan Kay told him “Steve, make the screen size 5 by 8 inches and you’ll rule the world.”

Welcome, iPad
On Saturday (April 3) the iPad arrived. We believe it will rule the world.

I’ve touched it, held it, and caressed it. It feels gorgeous. It feels like touching the future.

It is not a big iPod. But it IS a very big deal.

The New World
We’re going from the Old World to a brave New World.

From the Old World of the traditional, tired window interfaces… to the wonderful new world of TOUCH.
From the Old World of Point and Click to the new SWOOSH of Fluidity.
Instead of old, artificial, indirect interfaces, the iPad is direct and NATURAL.
Instead of WYSIWyg – what you see is what you get – it is WYTIWis. What You Touch… IS what IS.
Instead of holding a MOUSE, you’re holding MAGIC.

To read more click the link at the beginning

By Mark Cuban
Feb 4th 2010 12:16PM

http://blogmaverick.com/2010/02/04/why-have-so-many-internet-people-lost-touch-with-reality/

Sometimes its hard to tell if people are trying to be funny, mean, interesting, provocative or are just plain stupid or completely out of touch with reality. I know I get accused of being all of the above all the time.

The other day in New York I gave a speech at the AlwaysOn Conference which AdWeek summarized nicely here. The audience was primarily newspapers and people related to their business. So as I do when I speak to a group like this, rather than just shilling a product, service or position as many, if not most keynote speakers do, I try to put myself in the business shoes of the audience. Then I discuss what I would do if I owned, ran or invested in their business, and the approach I would take to some of the strategic issues of the day.

The concept of directing comments to a vertical segment of a market is nothing new. I have been doing it for more than 20 years. Yet for some reason, based on comments from a few folks over the past couple days, there are some relatively high profile people in the internet business that have a tough time grasping that concept. Tech Crunch – a site I love. SearchEngineLand – Run by Danny Sullivan, I think he Danny likes to banter to create traffic, smart on his part. But I also think he doesn’t fully understand all the business elements on some of the topics he has challenged me on. Then there is Jeff Jarvis who always like to slam me. Which is ok by me. I just consider the source. As Jeff describes himself ”Most of my holdings today are in mutual funds because I’m a lousy investor.” Which tells me all I need to know about his business knowledge.

While its fun to make a list of those who have criticized me, the criticism is incredibly valuable. As a businessperson and one who tries to stay ahead of the technology and business curve, even when it means taking a position that is far from popular, critics serve the purpose of always “making you check your hole card” . In other words, the more a position I take gets challenged, the smarter I get on the position. So the criticism is welcome.

Of course the criticism can be fun for me to challenge and also wrong. Which much of the criticism of my Newspaper Industry speech is.

Danny Sullivan thought he had caught in some hypocritical act because I am an investor in Mahalo, a human powered search engine that leverages SEO techniques to increase traffic and revenue. First of all, I invested in Mahalo in 2006 . Not yesterday as Danny would seem to imply. Nor am I involved in the day to day management of the company. Im always available to answer questions when they ask. Which they do every so often.

To read the rest click the link above

Talking the IPad, Kids, Making Money and Video
Jan 28th 2010 7:34PM
by Mark Cuban

I cant wait to get my hands on the IPad. Its going to be a HUGE hit.

You can book it right now that it will be the product that kids of this generation grow up with and look back on with affection just like we did with the first video games. Video games changed how we grew up. The IPad will change how kids grow up.

Apple was brilliant in how they cultivated apps for the IPhone and Touch. With so many apps for kids, any parent with young kids and either of these 2 devices will tell you that their kids use and love them. In fact, it was this very reason that I helped create Puzzle Palace for the IPhone. It allows my kids to take the pictures they take and turn them into puzzles. My 3 year old loves it.

The IPad will take this to the next level. I recognize that its very expensive for most families right now. Hopefully that will change over time. If it does, you can bet every home with kids will have an IPad. And the first person to create the “kidproof” covering will make money as well (Hint to entrepreneurs) On the flipside, the minute these devices hit critical mass in families, the DVD market for kids, who watch the same movie over and over will end as we know it. Download Scooby Do one time and the need to hassle with all those DVDs for the kids at home or on trips becomes a distant memory. A relic of an older generation.

Thats big.

Whats also big is the exclusion of flash. The reason is obvious. No flash. Far less streaming over 3G. Less streaming over 3G means less bandwidth consumed. Less bandwidth consumed means ATT can offer a GREAT price on the 3G data service. I personally have never had problems with the ATT Network. The limits on 3G streaming probably means I wont going forward either. Thats a good thing.

Its big that there is no USB port. As a content producer thats not a good thing. It means that Apple wants to force us through ITunes to sell content. It will be the path of least resistance for consumers to add content to the IPad and a HUGE source of revenue for Apple. Im sure there will be work around alternatives, but they wont be able to match the simplicity of the ITunes Store.

Outside the Apple Universe, the company that should be licking its chops is Dish Network. Their SlingBox product just became a grand slam. I absolutely LOVE the sling box app I run on my IPod Touch to watch NBA League Pass games, HDNet in a hotel room and other shows that I record on my DVR. I cant wait to put it on the IPad and its big screen.

And finally, if i was just out of school and fluent in all things Wi Fi , networking and wireless, I would immediately go door to door offering to fine tune your home’s wireless network. With new HDTVs coming out with Wi FI, the IPad, SlingBox, Netflix Streaming and other applications consuming tons of bandwidth in the home, it is an ABSOLUTE certainty that 99pct of home networks can be improved and perform significantly better. Be that kid in your neighborhood that comes in and fine tunes everyone’s wi fi in their home for 50 or 100 bucks (or more if you live in a fancy part of town) and you will make some good money.

A great blog post by Mark Cuban on living and working on the edge! If only all of us could be at this level while at work and play. So why don’t we?

“The edge is getting so jazzed about what you do, you just spent 24 hours straight working on a project and you thought it was a couple hours.

The edge is knowing that you have to be the smartest guy in the room when you have your meeting and you are going to put in the effort to learn whatever you need to learn to get there.”

I can’t go more than a week without shooting baskets. There is something about the feel of the ball coming off my hand, and the sound of the ball going through the net. It just feels good.

If I’m just standing in the gym, I can shoot pretty well. Playing in a game. Well it’s not quite what it used to be. I used to have a spin move that would work for me no matter who I was playing against or what level they were at. If I could get a pick and the defender went under, I didn’t have to think about it, I could hit the shot. These days, my mind knows what to do, but my body just laughs at me. Put me up against 20 year olds, and I won’t embarrass myself but it’s only because I know how to set a pick and hit an open, a very wide open jumper, and spend the rest of the game getting out of the way.

I love to compete. I always have. Playing basketball was just something I had to do no matter how good I was and its something I will always do, no matter how old I get. It gives me a chance to blow off steam. It gives me a way to refocus.

But no matter how much I love to play the game or how involved and competitive I get during a Mavs game, it’s only a minor release. Real competition comes from the sport of business.

In sports, you know who your opponents are. You know when you are going to play a game. You know pretty much how long the game will last. It’s mentally and physically exhausting if you are at the top of the game, but it still pails at the effort required to be successful in business.

The sport of business isn’t divided into games. It’s not defined by practices. It doesn’t have set rules that everyone plays by.

The sport of business is the ultimate competition. It’s 7×24×365xforever.

I love the sport of business. I love the competition. I love the fire of it. It’s the feeling of the clock winding down, the ball is in your hands, and if you hit the shot you win…all day, every day.

Relaxing is for the other guy. I may be sitting in front of the TV, but I’m not watching it unless I think there is something I can learn from it. I’m thinking about things I can use in my business and the TV is just there.

I could take the time to read a fiction book, but I don’t. I would rather read websites, newspapers, magazines, looking for ideas and concepts that I can use. I spend time in bookstores because 1 idea from a book or magazine can make me money.

I’m not going to go to dinner with you just to chat. I’m not going to give you a call to see how you are. Unless you want to talk business. Other guys play fantasy sports. I fire the synapses to get an edge.

That’s what success is all about. It’s about the edge.

It’s not who you know. It’s not how much money you have. It’s very simple. It’s whether or not you have the edge and have the guts to use it.

The edge is getting so jazzed about what you do, you just spent 24 hours straight working on a project and you thought it was a couple hours.

The edge is knowing that you have to be the smartest guy in the room when you have your meeting and you are going to put in the effort to learn whatever you need to learn to get there.

The edge is knowing is knowing that when the 4 girlfriends you have had in the last couple years asked you which was more important, them or your business, you gave the right answer.

The edge is knowing that you can fail and learn from it, and just get back up and in the game.

The edge is knowing that people think your crazy, and they are right, but you don’t care what they think.

The edge is knowing how to blow off steam a couple times a week, just so you can refocus on business

The edge is knowing that you are getting to your goals and treating people right along the way because as good as you can be, you are so focused that you need regular people around you to balance you and help you.

The edge is being able to call out someone on a business issue because you know you have done your homework.

The edge is recognizing when you are wrong, and working harder to make sure it doesn’t happen again.

The edge is being able to drill down and identify issues and problems and solve them before anyone knows they are there.

The edge is knowing that while everyone else is talking about nonsense like the will to win, and how they know they can be successful, you are preparing yourself to compete so that you will be successful.

That’s what makes business such an amazing sport. Everyone plays it. Everyone talks about how good they are or will be at it. Just a small percentage are.

To read the rest click below:
http://blogmaverick.com/2009/12/09/the-sport-of-business-3/

Google makes waves and may have solved the data center conundrum
Posted by Larry Dignan @ 2:08 am
http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=9937

Google is pondering a floating data center that could be powered and cooled by the ocean. These offshore data centers could sit 3 to 7 miles offshore and reside in about 50 to 70 meters of water.

The search giant filed for a patent in February. The patent outlines a concept that would not only be savvy engineering, but deliver great returns. Rich Miller at Data Center Knowledge called Google’s patent a “startling new take on data center engineering.” I’d call it brilliant engineering, but the financial engineering could be even more impressive.

To wit:

* Google could power these data center pontoons with wind potentially and cool them with water. You could argue that these ocean data centers could be self sustaining.
* Property taxes? There’s no property.
* State negotiations and building rights? Launching these data centers may require a lot less red tape.

Google points out the painfully obvious for anyone in the data center business: “It can be expensive to build and locate data centers, and it is not always easy to find access to necessary (and inexpensive) electrical power, high-bandwidth data connections, and cooling water for such data centers.”

Google’s idea for offshore data centers isn’t necessarily new. A company called IDS has plans to build data centers on cargo ships, but these would be tethered to a pier. Google is talking about a self-contained unit (excluding bandwidth connections) that would sit offshore much like an oil rig.