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.

Movies, Dude

So I met this guy at Digital Dumbo last week, and we exchanged cards, and we exchanged emails later. And we are talking and he is like, how would you like to come to this event I am co-organizing? I forget precisely what, but it was nothing to do with movies.

Google Needs To Reinvent Gmail

Image via CrunchBaseI have heard this over and over again over months from many, many people. Gmail has slowed down to a trickle. Email continues to be a massively popular program. Google might have tackled the web over a decade ago, but no one has been able to tackle the inbox. The inbox is ripe territory.

TechCrunch: Hey Gmail, 1994 Called, It Wants Its Dial-Up Level Performance Back

TechCrunch is a blog that mostly talks about which startup got funded. But today it has been talking about the slowness of Gmail. Fast is a good reason to be in news, not slow. Slow is no good.

Zuckerberg Interview: Scoble's Recording

(Source: Robert Scoble)

Andy Bechtolsheim: 100K To 1.5 Billion Through Google

This is a remarkable story. A hundred thousand dollars turned into a billion and a half dollars in a decade: that is utmost remarkable. There is no lottery, no Vegas that can give you that kind of a return.

A lot of people could cough up the 100K if they had to. The question is what was Andy doing at the right time at the right place? What was he doing at that Stanford faculty's home that particular morning?

Facebook: Mobile, Social, Local, Deal, Check, Deal

Watch live streaming video from facebookinnovations at livestream.com

(Via Rachel Sterne)

Facebook's Aggression

Facebook Blog: Making Mobile More Social
Search Engine Land: Big Deal: Facebook Emerges As Major Player In Mobile And Location-Based Services
TechCrunch: Facebook Revamps The Mobile Log-In Process With Single Sign-On
BGR: Facebook has 200 million active mobile users, improves iOS and Android applications
TechCrunch: Facebook Gives All Developers Access To Full Set Of Places APIs (Including Their Venue Database)
Inside Facebook: Facebook Launches Local Deal Service for Places

Image via WikipediaFacebook's out to conquer the web. Facebook is the biggest competitor that Google ever had. It is not Microsoft. To compete with Google, you needed to be online, and Microsoft is not exactly online. And this competition did not come from search, it did not come from the government stepping in with some anti-monopoly lawsuit.

After Party

I have missed three NY Tech MeetUps in a row. That is uncharacteristic of someone who used to show up when the NY Tech MeetUp was half a dozen people at a Lower East Side bar. But I missed. And livestreaming does not work for me, I never really went that route. So I showed up for the after party last night: 218 Sullivan. No presentations, and no beer, I decided, and it was such great fun. I worked the room like a politician.