Vin Vacanti On That Techie Cofounder

Image via CrunchBaseVin Vacanti of Yipit, one of the hottest tech startups in New York City - not long back the not so hot, not so funded, but always promising tech startup - has produced a series of rather insightful blog posts on a topic that I have seen more early stage entrepreneurs in town struggle with than probably any other. The search for that techie cofounder beats the search for funding.

Askalo: Do You Know Your City?

Image via Wikipediahttp://www.askalo.com

Over 1,000 cities, 38 countries, 5 languages. Askalo is a web community. It is a platform. It is local. Ask questions. Share tips about your city. The Q&A format - Quora comes to mind - seems to be the latest craze in social. And Askalo brings that to city discovery.

Quora is a continually improving collection of questions and answers created, edited, and organized by everyone who uses it..... TechCrunch: Quora Has The Magic: Benchmark Invests at $86 Million Valuation ...... GigaOm: Former Facebook CTO Launches Quora, Competes with Yahoo Answers, Aardvark, Hunch

James Blake: Limit To Your Love

(Via David Noel)

Google, Please Don't Be Evil

Image via Wikipedia“[A] Nicaraguan military commander, using Google Maps as his guide, brought his troops into Costa Rica. He insists that he was just following what Google Maps said, and that he never intended to go into the neighboring country. Yet… the report also notes that there was a Costa Rican flag there, which the Nicaraguans took down and replaced with their own flag. You would think, at that point, that everyone involved might double check to make sure they were on the right side of the border. After raising their own flag, the Nicaraguans apparently set up camp, cleaned up a nearby river (nice of them) and then dumped sediment into Costa Rican territory (not so nice of them).”

— Nicaragua Accidentally Invades Costa Rica, Blames Google Maps (Via Matt Lehrer)

Ben Horowitz: Hip Hop Mogul

Ben: As Kanye says, hip hop is 1/2 what you say and 1/2 how you say it, so I put the tracks up on the blog http://bhorowitz.com
Me: @bhorowitz The hip hop quotes make your blog stand out and gets me to keep coming back. Although the posts are also good.

MapCrunch: Random Places

Image via Wikipediahttp://www.mapcrunch.com

This site is so cool. It taps into the Google Street View database to show you random pictures from all over the world - I just saw one from Antarctica - and it is quite a feeling. In some ways this feels better than Google Earth, although Google Earth is an experience of its own.

You hit the N key on your keyboard and the next picture shows up, and next, and next.

You can view pictures by continent or country. Not all countries are available yet, but that's okay. I will wait.

And there is the obligatory slideshow option. And, of course, full screen mode.

Bon Voyage.

The Video Format And Web Intelligence

Image via CrunchBaseIt is not that people are saying, oh no, the internet got us addicted to the text, we have no more love for the video format, or that we are cutting down on both French fries and video content.

The demand for TV shows and movies is bigger than ever and growing. So what gives? Why are people in the TV/video/movies business worried? Why are the cable people scared? They are scared because the times, they are a changing. And they are refusing to change with the times.

Google's Foreign Policy

(Source: Mashable)

Google's Gmail Envy

Image via CrunchBase

TechCrunch: Google To Facebook: You Can’t Import Our User Data Without Reciprocity

The use of the word data by Google here is key. That further confirms the point I have been making at this blog over months. Social is not in Google's DNA. Google does data, Google does information, Google does not do social. When it goes into local and location, it is hung up on data.

Leave Costa Rica Alone

Image via Wikipedia

Search Engine Land: Nicaragua Raids Costa Rica, Blames Google Maps

As of recent I have been thinking in terms of Costa Rica as the country where to have the pilot project for my microfinance tech startup. A member of the exploratory team suggested a small, central American country might be a good idea. And so I have been mulling over the name.

Facebook And Twitter: The Only Two That Count

Image via CrunchBase

TechCrunch: 2010 State Of The Blogosphere: Facebook And Twitter Drive The Most Traffic (Slides): They use many types of social media (LinkedIn, YouTube, Flickr, StumbleUpon, Digg), but when it comes to driving traffic back to their blogs only two social media services really count: Facebook and Twitter

I have long suspected this. People have been like if you want traffic for your blog, become a regular on Digg, go visit StumbleUpon, and I have resisted. I have put my efforts only into Facebook and Twitter.