Google Fiber and Network Effects
Google surprised the world (once again) when it announced in 2010 that it planned to provide its own internet service that would be 1000 times faster than the basic broadband connections being offered by major ISP’s like AT&T and Comcast. Called Google Fiber, the service was supposed to provide a gigabit internet connection to home […]
RoboRoaches and the Information Cascade
Information cascades are not only for humans. Other members of the animal kingdom also get influenced by it. Cockroaches for example get influenced by it when they decide on a shelter. Scientists have found that a typical cockroach decides on a shelter based on its darkness and on whether there are other cockroaches in it. […]
Product Differentiation vs. Strategic Imitation
http://marshallinside.usc.edu/Mweinstein/teaching/fbe552/552secure/notes/fads%20paper%20from%20jep.pdf Traditional economic and business strategy encourages product differentiation, which results in less competition and greater profit for a company. However, this is not often the reality of business strategy in many industries. The mobile phone industry is a perfect example. The introduction of touch screen devices just a few years ago started a […]
Mechanism Design
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jason-hartline/badminton-and-the-science-of-rule-making_b_1773988.html “Badminton and the Science of Rule Making” gives a survey of the science of Mechanism Design, which can be understood as the inverse of game theory. Instead of being given a game with players and payoffs where you seek the outcome, you have an outcome in mind and seek to construct a game such […]
Nexus 4 Cascade
Google’s newest phone, the LG Nexus 4, has gotten a fair bit of attention lately. Not because of its functions or specifications, but because of its record time of selling out in multiple countries in about in hour after launch. This in itself speaks for volumes about the fraction of people who wish to purchase the phone […]
Developing a Social Network
The nature of social media has revealed a new importance to the study of networks. Social media has given us the opportunity to understand the vast and complex networks that control our lives. Over the summer, I worked on creating a social media website. The website was directed toward a specific audience – the art community. […]
Voting for the “Lesser of Two Evils” in a Two Party State
In the months leading up to the 2012 U.S. presidential election, many people were unhappy with both Obama and Romney. Rather than voting for a candidate, they were merely voting against their least-preferred of the two. These people were deciding to cast their vote for the “lesser of two evils.” This isn’t just anecdotal; if we look […]
Nate Silver and Thomas Bayes In this article by the Guardian, we explore the usage of Bayes Theorem by celebrated political predictor Nate Silver. During the recent Presidential election, armies of pollsters were claiming that the race was too close to call, some even giving the upper hand to Romney. But not Nate Silver. Nate […]
The Direct Benefit Effect in the Classic “PC Gaming v. Console Gaming” Debacle
http://technicallyeasy.net/2011/02/is-pc-gaming-dying/ In the article, the idea of PC gaming dying out due to rises in the console gaming market is discussed. The notion is ruled out as something that will not likely take place because of the versatility and upgrade-ability of PC systems; however the author addresses that the notion does gain a foothold every so often […]
What makes Google so Good?
Article: http://www.businessweek.com/stories/2006-03-05/the-secret-to-googles-success Ever since a young age I always knew what my favorite search engine was: Google. All of my family used it, and so did almost all of my friends. For the longest time I actually didn’t know other search engines existed except for Wikipedia because I needed to look up a lot of […]
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