3 New Tech Updates Savvy Southeast Queens Residents Should Know

A Picture of St. Albans Memorial Park on Google Maps

 A Major Upgrade for
Google Maps

Jamaica, NY and the larger Southeast Queens area is a strong striving, middle class, and progressive community. We all know some of the world's most successful celebrities and entrepreneurs come from this historically rich and legendary area of New York City.  Southeast Queens, could be equated to the modern day equivalent of "Black Wall Street."

One of the ways we aim to keep Southeast Queens viable and cutting edge as a community here at the Southeast Queens Scoop, is to do regular articles on topics like technology, real estate, and investing. Today we want to keep you in the loop about 3 important technology developments you should know about.

1. Major Enhancements now Available with Google Maps. Who doesn't use Google Maps right?  Google Maps is usually the segue into getting driving, transit, and biking directions to distant places for most people online using either mobile devices, PCs, or MACs.

Google Map Pic of Jamaica Ave

Southeastern Queens, being as close to the suburbs as you can get in NYC, is where many people own cars, bikes, and take public transportation.  Therefore many use Google Maps.  Billions of people all over the world take advantage of the brilliant artificial intelligence technology behind Google Maps to get to unfamiliar destinations.

Over the years Google has been spending a fortune with promising new features powered by synergistic technologies like Google Earth.  Now Google obviously has integrated its powerful satellite technologies more fully into Google Maps. Savvy Southeast Queens residents should take a couple of minutes to see what the new Google maps has to offer.

The experience of using the new Google Maps is stunning.  Pick a city like New York, LA, or Paris and click streetview and it's almost like visiting the destinations in person. You have to check it out.  The Wall Street Journal gives 5 great features of the new Google Maps at: http://ow.ly/tTmN4

2. Facebook Buys Message Service WhatsApp for an Historic 19 Billion Dollars

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg

Recently Message Replacement app WhatsApp, was bought by Facebook for 19 Billion dollars! WhatsApp is reported as having 450 Million users (twice the size of Twitter). The venture capital firm Sequoia Capital, invested 60 million to back this startup and now it's ROI will be worth about 3 Billion dollars say industry analyst reporting to the Wall Street Journal. This ranks as the largest-ever purchase of a company backed by venture capital.
I wonder if many people in the US ever heard of WhatsApp, or use it's service? I've never even heard of them before and they have 450 million users.

This goes to show you the international scope of social media and mobile apps.  A company can command 19 Billion dollars to buy it out and ironically very few people have heard of it in the US.

Philip Green, a hedge fund investor and consultant with a tech background said recently "I have been using WhatsApp for over three years, but I will admit it was introduced to me by my London and European contacts. I don't think any of my American friends use it or have even heard of it."

However, some tech savvy people I talked to who hailed from Caribbean countries like Miquel Soares who has family in the Caribbean uses WhatsApp as an inexpensive way to stay in contact with friends in the Caribbean. Soares confides "I use WhatsApp to stay in touch with family and friends in the Caribbean. The cost is less than $1 a year for unlimited texting it is really a no brainer."

Hedge Fund Expert Philip Green

Facebook will make WhatsApp a stronger brand in the US.  This is a good development especially for Southeast Queens residents because many have family in the Caribbean, South America, India, Europe and Africa.  They will now increasingly have a low cost option to send text messages and stay in touch with family throughout the world.

The WhatsApp co-founder and CEO Jan Koum, is to join Facebook's Board of Directors, is now worth about 6.8 Billion dollars. I wondered if this buy is going to increase the value of Facebook?
 
However, some investors feel that protectionism is behind the move "it's similar to a record company signing an artist intentionally to keep them off the shelf" said one online user.  But 19 billion is a lot to pay to shelf a company.

This move for Facebook has to be about a ROI down the road. For instance when the WhatsApp business gets to 1 Billion users paying $5 dollars a year for the service Facebook will handsomely recoup their investment.  

I also asked Green if he thought WhatApp is worth the investment for Facebook.  This is what he had to say "of course WhatsApp, is over-valued and not worth $19 Billion, especially since WhatsApp has barely made $20 million a year in revenue since its inception. But it's not about current worth, but exponential growth. Mark Zuckerberg and his Facebook boys know what they are doing. Trust me."

Obviously having the option of buying an inexpensive texting app to contact people outside the US will be a great thing for Southeast Queens Residents. 

In light of the recent buy of WhatsApp by Facebook here is a good idea what how it can help you: http://ow.ly/tSInX
 
For more info checkout the Wall Street Journal's site link: Go To the WSJ site

3. Google Acquires False Click Detection Company Spider.io

IT Expert Miguel Soares

Also recently in the news: Google is always investing in programming/development enhancements like most tech companies, and is also into acquiring companies with advanced technology to advance it's ranking algorithm.  False clicks and impressions is a big problem for Google and other online media companies.

This is why Google buys a company known as Spider.io to help detect false ad impression activity created by bots.  I asked Miquel Soares, an IT project manager for top level corporations what he feels about this new tech buy from Google.

He stated "they are very nimble, and really leverage these companies to solve an issue. Resistance is futile. By detecting and eliminating the bots, they can promise their clients authentic clicks.  Google is also probably looking to get a competitive advantage over Yahoo and Bing." I agree with Soares this is a nimble move for Google.

This is an especially important development for Southeast Queens entrepreneurs.  Entrepreneurs in our economically promising area can invest in Google advertising with more certainty.

In an area with lots of potential customers of middle class status it is imperative for business owners to use modern search engine promotion like pay-per-click advertising on computers or mobile devices.  Large numbers of Southeast Queens residents, like many similar communities, are using mobile devices and computers to find businesses, services, and information in their area.

Therefore business owners could be leaving considerable amounts of money on the table not using search engines to position their businesses. For more info on this tech biz development with Google See the Full article

Also the bottom line for Southeast Queens residents who have stakes or investments in Google or Facebook this will be good news for their portfolios. These are very important tech developments to know for Savvy Southeast Queens residents. Written by Kamau Austin, Publisher Southeast Queens Scoop.

Kamau Austin