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<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Quixey</span></p><p class="caption">Tomer Kagan, cofounder, Quixey</p></div><p></p></div></div>In Silicon Valley's venture-backed startup culture, investors have one unspoken rule: we don't care about profits but you must grow revenue ... or else. </p><p>It looks like a startup called Quixey could be caught by the rule.</p><p>Quixey was founded in 2009 as a search engine of sorts for mobile apps. It involved a technology called "deep linking" which lets mobile apps link to parts of one another without launching the app.</p><p><span>Now, Quixey</span>'s young founder CEO Tomer Kagan is <a href="http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/quixey-gears-up-to-accelerate-its-go-to-market-strategy-in-mobile-search-and-adds-silicon-valley-tech-veteran-mark-lazar-to-its-executive-team-as-ceo-300248573.html">stepping down as CEO</a> to take on the chief strategy officer role. The board has hired Mark Lazar as the new CEO. Lazer has been a CEO of over 10 companies, the company says, and his best known company is one called LoopNet which went public in 2006.</p><p>Quixey was missing internal sales targets, several sources told <a href="http://recode.net/2016/02/29/quixey-coo-cto-depart-as-mobile-startup-misses-revenue-targets/">Recode's Mark Bergen</a>. In February, it lost other top execs, including its CTO and COO, Bergen reports, and it <a href="https://www.quixey.com/press/quixey-appoints-industry-leader-in-search-rajat-mukherjee-as-chief-technology-officer.html">promoted a new CTO, Rajat Mukherjee,</a> who hailed from Yahoo and cut his teeth at Google.</p><h2><strong>Yesterday's darling</strong></h2><p>In 2012 Quixey was on the rise, led by its then 28-year-old cofounder, Kagan, who raised over $24 million from Valley bigwigs like Maynard Webb and Google chairman Eric Schmidt's fund, Innovation Endeavors. <a href="https://blog.quixey.com/2015/03/06/announcing-our-60-million-additional-series-c1/">About a year ago,</a> Quixey <a href="https://blog.quixey.com/2015/03/06/announcing-our-60-million-additional-series-c1/">raised another $60 million</a> led by Alibaba with participation of investors such as SoftBank, Goldman Sachs, and GGV Capital, at about a $600 million valuation.</p><p>Kagen was known as a "futurist," meaning he envisions the future and works with scientists to make it come true, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/quixey-2013-6">he once told Business Insider.</a> He was on the board of the Machine Intelligence Research Institute (formerly the Singularity Institute) and worked with the National Science Foundation's futurist project (known as Emerging Frontiers in Research and Innovation or EFRI).</p><p>He saw a future where so many objects were run by apps, that an app search engine could be the next Google.</p><p>Today, there are a growing number of tools to do deep linking, including <a href="https://developers.google.com/app-indexing/android/test">one offered by Google,</a> and Quixey shifted its focus to in-app advertising.</p><p>Employees on Glassdoor have had some harsh things to say about the startup: 45% would recommend the company to a friend and 58% approved of <span>Kagen as </span>CEO. As <a href="https://www.glassdoor.com/Reviews/Employee-Review-Quixey-RVW8929234.htm">one employee explained</a>, "Quixey lacks focus. We're trying to do a million things at once."</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/science-behind-why-you-should-not-pop-your-pimples-acne-dermatology-2016-4">The science behind why you shouldn't pop your pimples</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="tqMDFpMjE6PO8_mQr4gBWt0uPdf4FBhK" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

The young CEO of Quixey, a startup that raised over $84 million, is being replaced

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container float_right"><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><keyword id="1474833" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Quixey">Quixey</keyword></p><p class="caption">Tomer Kagan, cofounder, Quixey</p></div><p></p></div>At 29, Quixey cofounder Tomer Kagan is well-known in the tech industry as a "futurist" meaning he envisions the future and works with scientists and others to make it come true.</p>
<p>He's a board member of the Machine Intelligence Research Institute and works with the National Science Foundation's futurist project.</p>
<p>His vision is that everything in our lives will be powered by software, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/quixey-2013-6">even things like personalized food and traveling hospitals</a>, and people will interact with the world through mobile devices.</p>
<p>But before you can use all of these apps, you have to find them, hence Quixey makes an app discovery search engine. It currently powers about 100 million searches a month and is used by companies like Microsoft, Sprint, and <span class="skimwords-unlinked">Ask.com</span>.</p>
<p>His work as futurist is proving to be a profitable edge for his company. On Thursday, Quixey announced that it had landed a huge, $50 million round of <keyword id="6357455" type="EVENT" weightage="60" keywordseo="Funding">funding</keyword> lead by the Alibaba Group.</p>
<p>Alibaba is the "Amazon" of China, the largest Internet ecommerce site in that country. Google chairman Eric Schmidt's fund Innovation Endeavors also contributed (it had previously invested in Quixey). So did Atlantic Bridge, Translink Capital, US Venture Partners, and Chinese VC WI Harper.</p>
<p>Quickey has raised $74.2 million to date. We caught up with Kagen to ask him about his company.</p>
<p><strong>Business Insider: Did your work as a futurist help him you nab this funding?</strong></p>
<p><strong>Tomer Kagan:</strong> When we're talking to investors we obviously talk to them about the future plans for Quixey and how we see the market 5, 10 and 20 years down the line. Alibaba and Quixey share the idea of thinking very long-term.</p>
<p>The fact that we have so many smart people backing us is proof they believe in what we're saying. It's humbling and exciting.</p>
<p><strong>BI: What's the advantage of being funded by Alibaba? Will it help you with the China app market?</strong></p>
<p><strong>TK:</strong> Alibaba is the platform for all commerce. Quixey is how people access apps and functionality.</p>
<p>Next year, 95% the world's population will have mobile access. By 2016, the mobile Internet will become the dominant form of Internet access, as people use 1.5 bil­lion smart mobile devices. Quixey is at the epicenter of this brave new world, and Alibaba's investment will ensure that we continue to expand globally and continue to keep a global focus.</p>

This 'Futurist' Just Grabbed $50 Million In Funding For His App Search Engine

<p><strong><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table center float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div></strong></p><p><strong><span> &#xa0;</span>Aiqudo wants to make every app on your smartphone controllable with voice commands, regardless of what device or voice assistant you prefer.</strong></p><p><strong><span> &#xa0;</span>The company has ties to Quixey, a&#xa0;much-hyped Silicon Valley startup&#xa0;that was backed by the likes of Alibaba and Softbank, but flamed out earlier this year.</strong></p><p><strong><span> &#xa0;</span>The idea gets at an underlying problem with today's voice assistants: They're effectively "walled gardens" that could fragment what devices and apps you're likely to use.&#xa0;</strong></p><p>All the big tech companies want to hear the sound of your voice.</p><p>Having a shapeless digital assistant that can tell you the weather, play music, and manage your day is now table stakes. There's Siri, Alexa, Cortana, Google Assistant, Bixby, and others likely to come. They're in phones, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-echo-success-could-spell-big-trouble-for-google-2017-1" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">speakers, cars, fridges</a>, headphones, and, likely soon, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/death-of-the-smartphone-and-what-comes-after-2017-3" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">augmented-reality devices</a>.</p><p>In every case, the fundamental goal is to reduce the need for touch controls and make it so these voice assistants - and thus, the companies that make them - become the filter through which you access all your information.</p><p>But John Foster thinks there's a problem: Everyone with a hand at the table is setting up their own silos.</p><p>"The way voice is shaping up right now - Amazon particularly, but also most of these other guys - what it looks like they're trying to do is create another walled garden," Foster says. "Amazon wants you to be in their experience. And they want to be there anytime you think of anything you want to buy. Which is great, it's super convenient. But you have to buy it from Amazon. That's how they're starting to encircle the world of the consumer, by making you do everything inside of Alexa."</p><p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div>Foster is the CEO of <a href="http://aiqudo.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Aiqudo</a>, a San Jose, California-based startup with a goofy name, a complex backstory, and just over 20 employees. The company&#xa0;<a href="http://www.prweb.com/releases/aiqudolaunch/voice-enablemobileapps/prweb14536848.htm" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">came out</a> of "semi-stealth" mode late last month; it's raised $5.2 million in Series A funding from <a href="http://www.abven.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Atlantic Bridge Capital</a> since its formation in March. It has also acquired <a href="http://www.sophiadata.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Sophia</a>, an Irish startup that's worked on using machine learning for digital advertising.<p>On a broad level, Aiqudo is trying to make it so you can do things within any app using just your voice. It has an app called Q Actions,&#xa0;<a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.aiqudo.q" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">available in beta</a> on both the Google Play Store and the Alexa Skills Store, which demonstrates this tech. (The company says versions for iOS and Google Assistant are in the certification process as well.)</p><p>Aiqudo's tech works similarly to a Siri or Alexa on a core level <span>-&#xa0;</span>you can use your voice to find info - but the company isn't really trying to make another assistant meant to go direct to consumers.</p><p>Instead, Aiqudo mainly wants to sell its voice tech as a service to developers that want to voice-enable their apps without having to work through multiple individual assistant platforms. It's also trying to sell to phone manufacturers that want to natively integrate voice tech into their devices (via the home button, for instance). It plans to make an SDK available later this summer.</p><p>Foster says Aiqudo is talking to "four of the top 10 Android OEMs" about potential partnerships, though he declined to give more specifics.</p><h2>Trying to bridge the gaps</h2><p>Aiqudo's working thesis is that voice assistants like Alexa are handicapping how useful they could be, particularly on phones, in the service of keeping the market on their terms. It's inefficient for developers to build out "skills" for various distinct platforms, Foster says, when the apps on your phone can already do most of what you're trying to do, and could just be voice-enabled.</p><p>"The developer has to create a skill for Alexa," Foster says. "Uber had to create the Alexa skill. Spotify had to create a skill for Alexa. What we're saying is: Just use your apps."</p><p>Think of it like mobile internet: You can't just connect your phone to an LTE network; you have to sign up with Verizon, AT&amp;T, or another carrier first, then accept the level of service it gives you. There's a similar platform war brewing with voice tech. Alexa works with the most apps and devices today, but it's still very limited on a smartphone. Google Assistant isn't as limited on the phone, but it's not as widely supported by third-party developers. If you own an iPhone, you're virtually stuck with Siri's limitations.</p><p>Each assistant is improving, but there are lapses in functionality wherever you go. (None of them can help you move around the Facebook app, for instance.) If and when they do improve, they'll centralize more control in a handful of giants' hands.</p><p>Aiqudo wants to tackle this, at least on smartphones, by making voice control tech available to apps without requiring the major voice assistants. In other words, it wants to sell a bridge that gives apps voice controls and connects them to various voice assistant platforms. <span>If an app jumps aboard Aiqudo's platform, it becomes voice-enabled wherever Aiqudo's tech becomes available.</span>&#xa0;</p><p>It does this by "onboarding" those apps to its own platform, mapping different sequences of touch inputs within those apps to certain voice commands. Aiqudo performs these so-called app "actions" by analyzing the apps directly on your device, according to CTO Rajat Mukherjee; it doesn't need any custom support from developers the way Alexa, Google Assistant, or Siri do. Mukherjee says the actions aren't necessarily tied to one specific app, and that Aiqudo is trying to avoid making you say specific app names to activate certain actions.</p><p>If you need to hail a ride home, for instance, the idea is to not have to specify whether you want an Uber or a Lyft. You just say "I need a ride home," and Aiqudo's tech will, in theory, recognize whatever ride-hailing app you use, enter in your destination info, and call for a ride without you having to touch anything. If you have Slack installed, you could say "show me the general channel," and it'll open the app and move you there. It's similar to the automated <a href="https://ifttt.com/collections" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">"applets" of IFTTT</a> in that sense.</p><p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div>Foster pitches this as being particularly useful for apps that want to be usable through voice commands but can't be bothered to do the work needed to get covered by all the current voice assistants.<p>"I use <a href="http://discover.surfline.com/app/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Surfline</a>&#xa0;to check the surf - it's got, like, 200,000 downloads," Foster says. "I don't think it's ever going to be an Alexa skill. So as long as I can't get to it through Alexa, Alexa's never going to reach that vision that they have of 'Alexa everywhere,' because now to check the surf I still have to go over to my app world and the Surfline app to check it."</p><p>The end goal is to make voice control a layer that just sits over the top of a phone's interface.</p><h2>Picking up the pieces</h2><p>Let's not mince words: Aiqudo has a long way to go before it's even close to relevant. A five-month-old startup trying to make a dent against Amazon and Google is still a stretch of the imagination, to put it kindly.</p><p>How Aiqudo came to be, however, is worth noting. The company has largely formed from the ashes of Quixey, a <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/quixey-founder-moves-over-for-new-ceo-2016-4" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">former Silicon Valley darling</a> that was once reportedly <a href="https://www.recode.net/2016/2/29/11588350/quixey-coo-cto-depart-as-mobile-startup-misses-revenue-targets" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">valued around $600 million</a> but <a href="https://www.axios.com/behind-the-fall-of-quixey-2333564105.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">flamed out earlier this year</a>. Quixey worked on the "<a href="https://www.recode.net/2014/10/28/11632330/how-deep-linking-could-fix-mobile" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">deep linking</a>" of apps, making it so information could be searched within apps and tethered between them the way it is with websites.</p><p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div>That promise garnered funding from big-name investors like Softbank and, most significantly, Alibaba. But Quixey struggled to fully realize the tech - which mainly involved emulating apps in the cloud - and developed a contentious relationship with Alibaba, its primary backer. That rift ultimately led to Alibaba shutting down Quixey in March.<p>Foster inherited Quixey's issues as its third and final CEO in November. But once the company's fate was sealed, he and Mukherjee - a <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/rajatmukherjee/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">former product manager</a> at Google and Yahoo - decided to rethink Quixey's app-searching concepts through the lens of voice tech. (Foster stressed repeatedly that the company is using new IP to do this.)</p><p>They were encouraged to start fresh by Atlantic Bridge, itself a Quixey backer, and eventually used its funding to hire a handful of former Quixey staffers. Those staffers <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/search/results/people/?facetCurrentCompany=%5B%2218059410%22%5D" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">currently comprise</a> about a third of Aiqudo's team, per LinkedIn.</p><h2>Obstacles to overcome</h2><p>Foster and Mukherjee are getting at legitimate concerns, both existential and practical, with today's much-hyped crop of voice assistants. When I tested <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/htc-u11-amazon-alexa-assistant-support-hands-on-2017-7" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Alexa's recent tie-in with HTC's U11 phone</a>, for instance, I found it frustrating that I could only play music from Amazon's own streaming service. Using Aiqudo, in theory, I could simply say "play some music" without having to worry about compatibility; my phone would just know what I want to do with it.</p><p>But there are equally legitimate barriers to Aiqudo ever taking off. First and foremost, Aiqudo's current app feels low-rent. Again, it's only a beta, and Aiqudo's goal isn't about going straight to consumers, but using it now is rough nonetheless. It forces you to tap a Messenger-style "chat head" to activate any command, defeating the "hands-free" idea right upfront, and it's highly spotty about interpreting "natural language" commands the way you want.</p><p>For instance, I said "I want to watch a YouTube video" and was brought to Facebook's video section. (On the flipside, I could use it to go to Facebook video in the first place.) Another time, I said "What's the top story" and was prompted to download the NBA app. And many of the "natural" commands that do work aren't entirely obvious. There's still a certain syntax required to get around.</p><p>Assuming the kinks are ever worked out, one big question is whether the voice platforms from Amazon, Google, and the like will become useful enough for consumers to overlook any concerns of walled gardens. Alexa is already working with many big apps, and Amazon is now paying new developers to use its tech. Google runs Android and makes several hugely popular apps, which gives Google Assistant a massive leg-up there. And Apple's vise grip on iOS makes it difficult to see any non-Siri voice tech taking off on its platform.</p><p>A more immediate question: How often do we even benefit from using phone apps with our voices to begin with? There are cases where it makes sense, sure, but today's voice assistants cover a fair chunk of those. It's not like tapping and swiping a touchscreen is a particularly laborious process. It hasn't become any less awkward to talk to your smartphone aloud in public, either.</p><p>Where voice commands <em>could</em> be more necessary is with augmented reality and virtual reality gear. Mukherjee says that Aiqudo's tech makes it so "any app is fair game," be it on an Oculus Rift or an Apple Watch. Right now, though, the company is focused mainly on mobile devices.</p><h2>The future is fragmented</h2><p>Whether Aiqudo can drum up enough interest to make using its tech worthwhile is totally up in the air. But if nothing else, its existence is an interesting thought experiment.</p><p>Voice assistants are integrating into more and more places; the smart speaker market in particular is expected to grow 60% from 2016 to 2017, according to Parks Associates research analyst Dina Abdelrazik. So let's say one day, voice tech starts to feel normal&#xa0;and become superior to touch - what happens if some apps and devices only support one assistant, while others only work with another? If Amazon's Alexa were to stay dominant, would that let Amazon dictate what devices you buy - and where you shop? Is recreating the type of platform war&#xa0;that led to Android and iOS dominating mobile devices the best thing for voice tech?</p><p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">"I think as the Internet of Things gets bigger and bigger and bigger, [the current voice assistant model] is not realistic," Victoria Petrock, an analyst at eMarketer, says. "Because someday you're going to buy a washing machine that's compatible with Alexa and everything else you have uses Google."</span></p><p>Even if Aiqudo's app-enhancing&#xa0;approach&#xa0;isn't the solution to tie everything together and make using voice controls more natural - <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/qa-with-andy-rubin-essential-ceo-2017-6" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">it's not the only one trying</a> - allowing the various&#xa0;assistants to talk to each other in some fashion would seem to cut down on annoyances for consumers down the road.</p><p>"Eventually, the tech industry will likely need to embrace some sort of standards if voice is going to become ubiquitous, just as we had to settle on standards for the Web," Tom Mainelli, an analyst at IDC, says. "Without them, progress will take much longer."</p><div></div><div></div>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/life-hack-amazon-echo-dot-car-infotainment-system-2017-7">Turns out the Amazon Echo Dot makes an amazing car infotainment system</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="w2aHJ3YjE6Msk98syneC2A0i7WL6MbKh" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

This startup, borne from a failed $500 million Silicon Valley darling, believes it has the cure for what's ailing voice assistants

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0PJaDYiKqTY">World Retail Congress Global Series/Youtube</a></span></p></div><p></p></div></div></p><ul class="summary-list"><li>Oath president and COO Guru Gowrappan will assume the role of CEO in October.</li><li><span>Gowrappan has served as president and COO since the early part of 2018 after being handpicked by </span><span>Armstrong.</span></li><li><span>An industry analyst sees it as a signal Verizon is not seriously interested in major investments to Oath.</span></li></ul><p><br />Tim Armstrong, CEO of Verizon's media and <keyword id="35666" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="advertising">advertising</keyword> business, Oath, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/oath-ceo-tim-armstrong-is-stepping-down-in-october-2018-9" target="_blank" rel="noopener">will step down from his position</a> in October, leaving the company a<span>fter a 10-year tenure running AOL and AOL-Yahoo amalgam Oath.</span></p><p>In his place, current Oath president and COO Guru Gowrappan will assume the role of CEO and will report to Verizon CEO Hans Vestberg. Armstrong will stay on at the firm to help with transition until the end of 2018.</p><p><span>"The fact that they are not bringing in new blood means that Oath is going to stay its course," Rebecca Lieb, analyst and founding Partner of <a href="https://www.kaleidoinsights.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Kaleido Insights</a>, told Business Insider. "It's a signal Verizon is not seriously interested in major investments and it's going to be business as usual."</span></p><p><span>Gowrappan has served as president and COO since the early part of 2018 after being handpicked by </span><span>Armstrong. He joined the company from Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba, where he spent three years as global managing director, focusing on expanding the international business.</span></p><p><span> Before that, he worked as COO at Quixey, a mobile tech company, and as COO for growth at Zynga, a social game developer. He also spent time at head of business operations at Yahoo.</span></p><p>"Guru's background in product and operations, as well as experience working within the C-Suite of Yahoo, a major component of Oath's assets, makes him a logical successor to continue the vision Tim laid out with the portfolio he is now handing over," <span>Michael Zacharski, CEO of ad tech marketplace <a href="http://www.emxdigital.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.emxdigital.com/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1536873007928000&amp;usg=AFQjCNEeY8TwU-zEzK59KfJChLloJeCZwg">EMX,</a> told Business Insider.</span></p><p><span> </span><span>"I think the signal is a clear one given Guru's background: Time to put our heads down, bring all things together, unlock the value of the sum of the parts that is not only Oath, but Verizon overall, and provide a unified product," Zacharski said.</span></p><p><span>In addition to executive changes, Oath employees were told in August that corporate functions - including finance, HR, communications, legal, and IT - would move to Verizon, while product, engineers, and media would stay under Oath, according to sources familiar with the matter. </span></p><p><span>That news, and other signals from Verizon about the future of Oath, ultimately may have been the catalyst for Armstrong to move on.</span></p><p><span>"When Verizon showed a lack of interest in buying other media properties to Tim Armstrong, the whole thing fizzled, he got bored," Lieb said. "It's very much not surprising that he left along with some other major executives."</span></p><p>The integration between AOL and Yahoo has never been on solid footing,<span> </span><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/insiders-say-verizons-marriage-of-yahoo-and-aol-was-always-doomed-2018-9">according to former senior AOL employees</a>.</p><p>And as a result of the decision to integrate parts of the company's business into Verizon, and the expected departure of CEO Tim Armstrong, Oath's executive leadership team is in flux, according to people close to the matter.</p><p>The company's chief people officer, Bob Toohey, a longtime Armstrong confidant, departed last week, and its CFO, Vanessa Wittman, and chief communications officer, Natalie Ravitz,<span> </span><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/3-members-of-oaths-leadership-team-are-leaving-the-company-2018-9">are planning to leave in the coming weeks, </a>according to people close to the matter.</p><p>Verizon, however, sees Gowrappan leading its next stage of Oath strategy. </p><p><span>In a note to employees, Verizon CEO Hans Vestberg expressed excitement over the news. </span><span>Gowrappan "will drive the next phase of Oath's global growth strategy," Vestberg wrote on Wednesday. "Guru is a proven leader in building brands, leading teams and driving results."</span></p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/woke-up-430-am-like-navy-seal-exercise-discipline-2018-7">I woke up at 4:30 a.m. for a week like a Navy SEAL</a></h3>        <div>                    </div>    </div>

Guru Gowrappan will be the next CEO of Oath, and analysts say the choice reveals the future of Verizon's ad business

<p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div>At Google's annual developer's conference on Wednesday the company previewed a lot of new&#xa0;tech.<p>One thing it showed off was something called Android Instant Apps.</p><p>While Android Instant didn't turn heads like Google's new home automation product, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/everything-google-announced-at-io-keynote">Home</a>, or its virtual reality tech, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/everything-google-announced-at-io-keynote">Daydream</a>, it could be the announcement&#xa0;that has some of the most profound implications for Google and its developers, one developer told us.</p><p>It's basically Google's way of taking on Apple iOS and "upending the app store model that's been so profitable to Apple," a&#xa0;developer who has been talking to Google officials at the I/O conference tells Business Insider.</p><p>The ultimate end game is to kill the traditional app store model altogether.</p><p>"They are trying to replace it and go back to the web model where they've had so much success. Google wants to break the notion of the App Store," this person told us.</p><h2>Today's mobile is not Google's world</h2><p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cosqlfqrpFA">Android Instant</a> gives Android users the ability to access an&#xa0;Android app (or even just part of it) even though they do not have the actual app installed on their phone.</p><p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div>For instance, a friend texts you a link to a&#xa0;recipe video but you don't have the video app installed. Click on the link and the app will run the video anyway, no install required.<p>As Google explains in i<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cosqlfqrpFA">ts video about Android Instant</a>, this makes mobile apps work like the web. On the internet today, if you click on a link, you are taken to a web page. You are not asked to install an app. You are not taken to the home page, but to the actual thing you want to see.</p><p>Thanks to Apple's App store model, mobile apps don't work that way. Apple makes money by&#xa0;selling apps. So the mobile world has evolved to encourage you to download an app.&#xa0;Consequently, developers with ad-supported apps focus&#xa0;on downloads, monthly active users, daily active users and so on.</p><p>This is not Google's world. Google rose to dominance on the web by studying what people are doing, so that advertisers could target potential customers. Consequently, Google still makes <a href="https://www.tnooz.com/article/google-rank-brands-android-apps-higher-mobile-searches/">more money from web search ads </a>than from mobile services.</p><h2>And this is a problem since the world is shifting to mobile</h2><p>A mobile technology called deep linking is supposed to provide this same kind linking function. <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/quixey-founder-moves-over-for-new-ceo-2016-4">Troubled startup&#xa0;Quixey </a>offers deep linking tech,&#xa0;as does DeepLink and&#xa0;URX (bought by Pinterest).&#xa0;</p><p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div>Google has deep linking tech in&#xa0;Android, too, called App Link. And Android Instant takes all of that the step further, by eliminating the problem of making someone install the app.<p>Google has basically required developers to use App Link.</p><p>Google&#xa0;changed its search algorithms&#xa0;so that apps that use App Link&#xa0;scored higher in search. Apps that didn't, were not ranked as high and weren't as likely to be featured in the app store, the developer tells us.</p><p>On top of that,&#xa0;the&#xa0;developers website search ranking might also be impacted,&#xa0;as apps (both iOS and Android) that use deep linking to link to websites score higher in Google's search algorithm too, <a href="https://firebase.google.com/docs/app-indexing/#how_does_it_work">Google has said.</a></p><p>In other words: use the tech in your app or your app, and your website,&#xa0;will be harder to find via Google.</p><p>The developer we talked to believes Google will use the same incentive for Android Instant.</p><h2>Developers like it</h2><p>But developers won't need a lot of encouragement. Many developers love the idea of Android Instant. Those who make apps for developing worlds&#xa0;for low-end&#xa0;phones with less memory, really love it.</p><p>Others&#xa0;hope it's&#xa0;going to make their apps easier to find the old search-the-App-Store method, this developer says.</p><p>Ultimately, Google hopes that instant apps become so popular on Android, that iOS users demand the same from Apple, thus ending the App Store model for good.</p><p>Google could not immediately be reached for comment.</p><p>Here's a video that shows off Android Instant.</p><p><div></div></p>

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