Today in Tech: Google to buy Frommer's; Facebook IPO; Infosys 3.0

Google to buy Frommer's When the Olympic games were on, Google was not only the most exciting search engine to visit thanks to the addictive games, but, for those for those who went past them, it was also the fastest to give Olympic results. Along with the regular search results, it also had a panel that gave the Olympic resulsts (for example tennis scores) straight from the official site. The idea is give you the information, instead of directing you to another site. As more people access Google through mobile, I guess, this feature will get more and more important. (Google has already integrated other utilities such as dictionary, calculators and currency converters in the search box). Google’s plans to buy Frommer's travel guides from Wiley is in that direction. It has been clear that Google sees a big potential in this segment after it bought Zagat food guide last September and travel software firm ITA before that.

Facebook: One analyst who got it right
Over at Forbes, Nathan Vardi writes about an analyst in Kazakhstan, who got the Facebook’s market value almost right while most Wall Street analysts turned out to be drastically wrong. How did he do it? Through a basic model looking at its cash-flows, margins, return on equity, return on capital and growth rates, Vardi says. And, how did he get it so right? Here’s the clue: “to research Facebook he says he opened a Facebook account for the first time and tested the product.”

Distance helps.

Infosys 3.0
Infosys has said before that it expects its products and platform division to account for a third of its revenues in the future. In an interview to FT, CEO Shibulal gives an idea on when he expects that to happen: “If I take a six- or seven-year horizon, we should be closer to the midpoint.”

From 6.5% now to 16-17% by 2018-19. Assuming that Infosys grows by 12% every year, Infosys 3.0 should be a $2.2 billion to $2.5 billion business by then.
Also of interest

• Intel to bring wireless charging to Ultrabooks: Geek
• Buying Twitter Followers? Beware StatusPeople, The Service That Exposes Social Media's Black Market: Fast Company (Click here to check yours)
• This Woman Traveled Across The Country For Free Using Only Social Media: Fastcoexist
•  Google+ offers custom URLs for verified accounts, other profiles to come 'over time' Engadget
• Big-Data Investing Gets Its Own Supergroup: NYTimes
• Gurnani is new MD for Tech Mahindra: PTI

The thoughts and opinions shared here are of the author.