Archives for 2007

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Google Killing the Picasa Brand, Round II.

Posted on January 11, 2007 ·

A few weeks ago I noticed that Google was in the process of slowly killing the Picasa brand. You can still download the program, in fact it is still called Picasa, but Google ads now refer to Google’s Photo Software:

 

I guess I was partly right: Google now advertises Picasa as part of Google Pack.  Although  it’s possible to opt out, users who don’t pay attention end up with a bundle of apps they did not want:  by deafult they get Google Earth, Google Screensaver, Google Desktop, Google Toolbar for Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox with Google Toolbar, Ad-Aware SE Personal, Norton AntiVirus 2005 Special Edition, Adobe Reader 7.  Nice “gift” from the company that wants to do “no evil”.

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Filed Under: Marketing / PR, Software, Technology ·
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Not the Father? Who Cares? Ordered to Pay Child Support Anyway.

Posted on January 11, 2007 ·

Court orders alleged father to pay child support.  Alleged father does not respond.  Clock ticking, “debt” accumulates. “Father” gets arrested.   Surprise: DNA proves he is NOT the father, which is what he said all along.  Court decision: he has to pay “debt” anyway.

Where?  In the great state of Arkansas.  Full story on AP.

 

Filed Under: Misc ·
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Gotta Love the ZunePhone

Posted on January 11, 2007 ·

Apple plans to sell 10 million iPhones in the first year.  In the first day 60K people got the ZunePhone.

 

 

Filed Under: Humor ·
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I’ve Arranged an iPhone for My Readers

Posted on January 10, 2007 ·

If not for calling, at least to show off smile_tongue

Get it here.

 

Filed Under: Humor ·
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"Money Talks" Gets New Meaning – James Bond Style

Posted on January 10, 2007 ·

“Canadian coins containing tiny transmitters have mysteriously turned up in the pockets of at least three American contractors who visited Canada, says a branch of the U.S. Department of Defence…

…The counter-intelligence office of the U.S. Defence Security Service cites the currency caper as an example of the methods international spies have recently tried to illicitly acquire military technology.”

Read the full story on CBC News.

 

Filed Under: Misc ·
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iSue

Posted on January 10, 2007 ·

iBanana released; Chiquita sued by Dole – a hilarious piece by Anshu Sharma.  Hey, I guess this proves that even Oraclers can have a good sense of humor …

Where’s my iPhone, I want to call everyone with the news…

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Filed Under: Humor ·
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Leave Your Dumb Speaker Agency

Posted on January 10, 2007 ·

Excerpt from the email I’ve just received:

“From the Desk of Jordan Steinberg

I’m looking to see if your group has a need for Keynote Speakers and/or Entertainment for your upcoming meetings or events.

My office books professional speakers and entertainers for Citigroup, California Assn of Realtors, Kraft Foods, National Safety Council, American Nurses Association, Abbott Labs, NH/VT Fairs, National PTA, Federal Housing Authority, Power Auto Group, Major League Baseball, UCLA, SHRM, Colorado Assn of School Execs, American Assn of Pediatrics and 3,500 other clients.

The Speaker Agency represents 5,000 of North America’s top speakers and entertainers. We have top people in all categories and budget ranges. Just let me know your dates, needs and budgets and I will find you perfect fits. “

The email came with thumbnail photos of several featured speakers.  Out of respect for their privacy, I’m not showing the pic, but I have a piece of advice to them:  leave this agency.

I’m not looking for any speakers, and even if I were, they would not be from this background.  I don’t think the Speaker Agency knows that I am NOT Fortune 1000.  Their email is not only spam, it’s just plain dumb – does not reflect well on the speakers they represent, IMHO. smile_angry

 

Filed Under: Business, Customer Service, Marketing / PR, Social Networking ·
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Let’s Not Spam MyBlogLog

Posted on January 9, 2007 ·

It  certainly  feels  like  every  single  blog  is  talking  about  MyBlogBlog’s  acquisition  by  Yahoo.  I think TechCrunch gets the “Best Title” award: Yahoo Buys MyBlogLog. No, They Didn’t. Wait, Yes.

Well, I am the exception, I am NOT writing about the deal

smile_speedy

When I first installed it on my blog, I thought this was all about providing useful outbound stats (who clicked what..etc).  Then the faceroll showed up, and before we noticed, MyBlogLog transformed itself into a social networking tool for bloggers.   That’s all fine, I like it and use it. 

But recently I am starting to get spammed.  Probably not “bad” spam, just a network’s growing pains – contact notifications from people I’ve never before heard about.  I went through this with LinkedIn, until I established my own “less is more” ground rules.   Now, let’s recognize that LinkedIn is primarily for business, and by definition is more restrictive  – online contacts there should really reflect one’s real-live network.  I feel MyBlogLog is more open, there is room for creating new “friendships” online – yet I think it would be helpful to establish some protocol before contact-hunting escalates to far. 

Making someone a contact is not the only way to network, and if we don’t already know each other, it’s certainly not the right initial step.   That’s what joining each other’s blog communities and sending messages are for.  But frankly, “interesting read!” is not a message – if this was a blog-comment, it would be borderline spam.  Which brings up the other point – if you join someone’s blog community, supposedly you’re interested in actually reading the blog itself, will likely engage in a conversation through comments or trackbacks, and soon you will really know each other – that’s the right time to add them as a contact.

By following this simple protocol, we can keep MyBlogLog spam-free.  What to you think?

 

Filed Under: Blogging, Social Networking, Software, Startups, Technology ·
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Wetpaint Attracts More Funding

Posted on January 9, 2007 ·

(Updated)

Wetpaint, the “wiki-less wiki” received a $9.5 million Series B round in addition to its $5.25 million Series A in October 2005.

TechCrunch compares it to other wikis, especially key competitor Wikia:

“Wetpaint has a much more newbie-friendly user interface than Wikia, and is targeting a different audience. Frankly, it’s just a lot more pleasant to look at a typical Wetpaint site than a Wikia one, although the content on Wikia is often much deeper than the equivalent on Wetpaint.”

I’d take this one step further: Wetpaint isn’t really just a wiki, it’s a wiki – blog – forum hybrid. Even novice users can just happily type away and create attractive pages with photos, videos, tagging …etc. without the usual learning curve. These pages can be shared, other users can contribute, entire communities can grow and thrive – in fact that’s what it’s all about: online community creation.

Last August I issued a challenge to find another wiki just as easy to use with a comparably rich feature-set – the challenge still stands.

My only concern is that they appear to burn money faster than the other wiki-companies – but I guess if the investors are not worried, it’s really not my business

smile_wink (And in fairness they have a different business model)

Update (1/9): VentureBeat comments:

“With Jotspot gone for now (presumably, Google will relaunch it in some fashion), and players like Socialtext increasingly focused on selling its wiki software to company users, Wetpaint is among the more convenient Wiki softwares for individual projects.”

As much as I like Wetpaint, I have to disagree. I’ve never considered it a project-oriented collaboration tool. It’s clearly geared towards community creation, and like I’ve hinted above, for that purpose it’s the friendliest platform avaialable today. Business -even small projects – requires a few additional features like document handling (attachments, version control..etc), email integration ..etc.

JotSpot was quite good for that, too bad it’s gone. Socialtext used to be quite ugly, but the new UI is quite nice – it misses a few features though. The new kid on the block is Zoho’s Wiki , (bias alert: I’m and advisor to Zoho) with quite a few features for an initial beta release. It already supports embedding documents, spreadsheets, presentations, videos..etc, and with improved integration to the full Zoho suite later this year it will be a killer combination.

Update (5/13/08):  TechCrunch article on Wetpaint’s traction.

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Filed Under: Collaboration, SaaS, Startups · Tagged: , , , , , , , , , ,
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TechCrunch Did Not Build it; It Can’t Knock it Down Either

Posted on January 7, 2007 ·

(Updated)

Fred Wilson doesn’t like Mike Arrington’s deadpool:

“So I have to shake my head at the resurrection of the dead pool, which was made popular last time around by Fucked Company. Do we really need to celebrate when companies fail?”

No, we don’t, and I don’t think TechCrunch does.  Let’s be realistic: TechCrunch did not build this boom. Yes, a well-timed review helps a startup gain initial traction, but Mike does not make those companies successful: whether they make it or not, they do so on their own. And when they fail, they fail own their own merits, too.  Failures are part of business reality, and reporting on them only makes TechCrunch balanced. Without it Mike would be just a biased cheerleader (something he was accused of in the past).

In fact Arrington’s latest post, Bubble, Bubble, Bubble is optimistic, despite the title:

“But this doesn’t mean we’re in a bubble. In fact, I think the exact opposite. I think a few failures are direct evidence that we are not in a bubble and that the private venture markets are actually in the process of letting off a little steam to keep things rational…

…I also disagree that too much money is chasing too few good ideas … Remember that VC’s business models are designed to fail most of the time – the majority of their investments are expected to go belly up, and they hope that just one or two out of ten have a big return…

…So every time a startup dies, I don’t think it’s evidence of a bubble about to burst. I think it’s evidence of a market that is working exactly as it should. Most companies fail, but enough win to keep the whole ecosystem healthy.”

This does not sound like deadpool celebration to me. Au contraire, it sounds like realistic, but still positive market assessment. 

Most companies in the “deadpool” are/were way overfunded for what they do. They, and their investors did not follow the model outlined in Fred Wilson’s excellent article, Web 2.0 Is A Gift, Not A Threat, To VCs. A must-read, IMHO.

Update (1/8):  Our little discussion made it to The New York Times.  

Filed Under: Blogging, Business, Software, Startups, Technology ·
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