Netizen

Thursday, August 27, 2009

CubanSpeak: Change And The Internet

The Internet is about to change Mark Cuban WebHooks or PubSubHubBub

The Broadcast.com billionaire is bold in his assertions as usual. He is not always right, but he is always confident. More often than not, he is right. He likes to challenge assumptions. He likes to break away from the flock.

I don't think the internet has been dead and boring at any point. It has gotten more and more exciting over time. But I can sure do with more excitement, if that is what Mark means.

WebHooks and PubSubHubBub look promising. Sure. But there is some hyperbole in the original declaration. Hey, but then that is Mark Cuban talking.

The two promise to take real time to a whole new level. That sure is exciting. I am sure the two will be but members of a large family of similar applications. These are exciting times we live in.

On Business Models: Free Is Not Always Good
Free Is The Future: Picking A Fight With Mark Cuban

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

The FriendFeed, Facebook Merger

The Would-Be FFugees Shouldn’t Pack Up And Find A New Home Just Yet TechCrunch

Facebook buying FriendFeed has been one of the more exciting developments in tech as of recent. There has been much speculation as to if Facebook did it for the talent or the product. It has to be both. Facebook had been copying little features here and there from FriendFeed. So why not go all the way and acquire?

Image via CrunchBase

If you think social media is a sideshow, possibly even a distraction, then this is hum-ho news. But if you think social media is no hype, that it is a big deal, like I do, this is a huge deal. This merger is a big deal.

Image via CrunchBase

But this is not a Twitter killer merger like some have been suggesting. Twitter is in a slightly different space. FriendFeed was half way between FriendFeed and Facebook in terms of functionalities. It was a choice between imitating Twitter and acquiring FriendFeed. Facebook made the right choice.

Facebook Landgrab: A Friday Midnight Call
Facebook And Mashable: Social Media And Social Media Blog
Is Google Wave Social Enough To Challenge Facebook, Twitter?
Facebook's Ad Space Is Different
Facebook Faceoff Firefox
Fractals: Apple, Windows 95, Netscape, Google, Facebook, Twitter
What Should Facebook Do

Facebook buys FriendFeed: Is this a big deal? CNet
Facebook Acquires FriendFeed (Updated) TechCrunch

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Bing + Yahoo + Wolfram Alpha

What Wolfram Alpha Really Did This Summer: Struck A Deal With Bing. TechCrunch Google, which has a geek rivalry with Wolfram over the growing area of using structured data to improve search results. ..... Wolfram Alpha is not as approachable as Bing ...... Wolfram Alpha is the “technological equivalent of a boring uncle ...... In the end, Wolfram could have more luck licensing its data to other search engines than bringing people to its site, despite the surge in “fall traffic” Stephen Wolfram is still hoping for.

Ganging up on Google, eh?

I guess it makes sense for three small search players to gang up and see if they can dent Google's huge lead. But ultimately it is about the user experience. If Yahoo is at 20% and Bing at 10% and Wolfram Alpha at 1%, if they gang up, it is not necessarily true that the combined property will take 31% of the search market. Combined they are still but one product. And users are going to decide if they want to keep using Google for search, or they want to switch to this other product.

Bing has been more of a presentation of search results rather than core search innovation, but that still counts. And, boy, the marketing. I guess that is also innovation, just not in search.

Search is raw. There is so much room for growth and innovation. And Google knows that to be the case.

Twitter Should Hand Over Search To Google
Search: The Human Vs. The Machine
InRev TwitIn Now Does People Search
Dynamic PageRank And Real Time Search
Microblogging Search: What Took Google So Long?
Square Search
Blogger Search Gadget: What Took You So Long?
Wolfram Alpha: An Answer Engine, Not A Search Engine
Real Time Search: Twitter Is Not Doing It
Distributed Search

Monday, August 24, 2009

Something's Rotten, It's Not The Fish

The Truth: What’s Really Going On With Apple, Google, AT&T And The FCC TechCrunch how the Google Voice application hurts “the iPhone’s distinctive user experience.” ..... over the last few months Apple expressed dismay at the number of core iPhone apps that are powered by Google. Search, maps, YouTube, and other key popular apps are powered by Google. Other than the browser, Apple has little else to call its own other than the core phone, contacts and calendar features. The Google Voice App takes things one step further, by giving users an incentive to abandon their iPhone phone number and use their Google Voice phone number instead (transcription of voicemails is reason enough alone). Apple was afraid, say our sources, that Google was gaining too much power on the iPhone

This is a generational conflict. Apple and Google belong to two different generations of tech. This small iPhone app conflict is symbolic. The larger conflict between the two brands is to be seen in the smartphone arena where Apple sees the phone as a smaller desktop, and Google suggests there is nothing much to download, all apps should be web-based.

A happy ending would be if the costs for calls start sliding down dramatically. How do you do that? Serve ads like for search.

Weekend Reading

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