The Prickly Prince From Microsoft Strikes Again Michael Arrington Sun, 12 Oct 2008 20:38:31 -0000 Dare Obasanjo, a Microsoft employee and the son of a former President of Nigeria, doesn't like it when people disagree with him. I found that out in 2007 when Obasanjo vandalized the TechCrunch Wikipedia page in response to a post we wrote that was mildly critical of Microsoft's hiring of a blogger to edit certain Wikipedia entries relating to Open Office standards. His actions as an individual and as a representative of Microsoft were outrageous.
Today he writes a post accusing us of "encouraging...garbage" on TechCrunch because we've reported on the market fall over the last week, pointing to three examples (out of over 100 posts last week) where we chronicle the fall of Yahoo and Google stock, and the Seesmic layoffs. A number of other blogs jumped on the bandwagon, calling for the negativity to stop (obviously none of these writers read TechCrunch this last week).
"The last thing we need is popular blogs AND the mass media spreading despair and schadenfreude at a time like this," he says. Will Verizon’s New Three-Cent Hike Kill SMS Services? Erick Schonfeld Sun, 12 Oct 2008 16:39:35 -0000
On Friday, word got out that come November 1 Verizon Wireless plans to tack on an extra 3-cent charge for every SMS message sent by Web information services to any of its mobile subscribers. That hike will be on top of the 20 cents per message that Verizon subscribers already pay (even those with "unlimited" plans). Thus, in one fell swoop, Verizon is attempting to boost its SMS revenues by about 15 percent.
While it may be good for Verizon, the additional charge is not good for any service that sends out millions of SMS messages each month. The move caught a lot of Internet companies, SMS aggregators, and media companies by surprise. For instance, I asked Twitter co-founder Biz Stone what impact it would have on the micro-blogging service, which lets users keep up with every Tweet they follow via SMS, and he didn't know:
We're still investigating with Verizon so I don't have a definite answer for you right now. Brightcove 3 (Leaked ScreenShots) Erick Schonfeld Sun, 12 Oct 2008 13:10:30 -0000
Brightcove, the Web video distribution platform used by media companies including Dow Jones, Warner Music, and the New York Times, is getting a massive makeover. Most people won't see it, but its customers will. A new version of the Web-based software that they use to upload, manage, and distribute their videos is rolling out soon. It will be called Brightcove 3. (For more background, read the preview of the Brightcove 3 beta we wrote last june, and our interview with Brightcove CEO Jeremy Allaire in August).
We received the leaked screenshots below, and paired them with the corresponding current sections of the Web software. As far as we know, they've never been seen before. Judging by the screenshots, Brightcove 3 is much more visual, intuitive, and offers Web video publishers a ton more options than before. Click on each screenshot for a larger image.
MashLogic: Take Back The Web (By Getting Awesome Links) Michael Arrington Sun, 12 Oct 2008 08:46:38 -0000 Bessemer Venture Partners is launching an incubated startup called MashLogic into private beta today, with the audacious promise of helping people "take back the web."
They say (and they're not alone) that the web today is driven by page view economics and search engine optimization goals, which leads publishers to link to themselves too often. The result is a less than optimal web experience.
There are Greasemonkey scripts that strip out these inefficient links, and various services like Adaptive Blue are adding browsing and link options for users via a plugin. Another startup, Sphere, acquired by AOL earlier this year, is a pop up window triggered by users that shows other content they might be interested in based on an index of the current page. It worked, well enough to get them acquired at least.
MashLogic is a more direct approach. Users must download a Firefox plugin to use it, but there's no toolbar. Instead, you simply change the settings to tell it what kind of information you'd like to have included on web pages. Links to Wikipedia is an easy one. But it also has company links to LinkedIn to show you people there you might know. And a currency converter. Etc. It's like a frickin Swiss Army Knife for hyperlinks.
Profit Maximization V. Survival Maximization Michael Arrington Sun, 12 Oct 2008 00:55:39 -0000 A lot of criticism has been aimed at venture capitalists the last few days. The VCs are telling their portfolio companies to get ahead of the curve and conserve cash right now, and companies are starting to take their advice.
The criticism is coming from people who don't understand that the world has changed in the last week and that companies need to change with it. And so they're asking why VCs waited until now to tell everyone to conserve cash. Others are saying the boom is the VCs fault, and for them to lecture companies on conserving cash is ironic.
Fred Wilson wrote about this issue today and says VCs have a responsibility to give their best advice to their portfolio companies: "It's all about acting responsibly and making sure we all survive to fight another day."
But he doesn't address the issue head on. I will. What we're talking about is the goal of profit maximization, which is what every for profit business needs to aim for or go out of business. In the good times, that means growing intelligently. In the bad, it means maximizing your chances of survival.
Forget the Front Desk: Hotels Go High Tech Greg Kumparak Sat, 11 Oct 2008 22:24:16 -0000 There's nothing like a bit of luxury when staying at a nice hotel. Be it in-room dining or the staff waiting on your every need, feeling like a king for a day is a matter of taking advantage of the hotel's services. Unfortunately, the systems in place for requesting such things are years behind, teetering on the edge of archaic. You can stare at the minuscule writing on the phone handset in hopes that dialing the listed numbers won't throw you into an infinite loop of forwards and "accidental" hang ups or, at some hotels, you can click your way through a sluggish and ancient feeling TV interface. They may as well be using pneumatic tubes.
Runtriz, a software firm out of Hollywood, CA, is aiming to bring hotels up to speed. Following a series of quiet test runs at other LA hotels, they've debuted a product called "Hotel Evolution" at the Malibu Beach Inn in Malibu, CA, which puts all of the hotel's offerings in the palm of your hand.
404Nua - Comprehensive round up of all internet related news worldwide as well as a mailing list.
Meta Description: [ Learn how to create successful Internet marketing campaigns. ClickZ has expert advice about Internet marketing, email, brand and interactive marketing, and search engine marketing. Read the latest Internet advertising news, e-commerce market research, Internet statistics and more. ]
Security Space - Monthly published research reports covering issues like web server market share, popularity of web sites, and web authoring tools.
Meta Description: [ Web Surveys showing market share and trends of a number of different technologies and businesses, including web servers, ISPs, advertising agencies, service solution providers, certificate authorities, and more. ]
Atlas of Cyberspace - Maps and graphic representations of the Internet.
Meta Description: [ An atlas of maps and graphic representations of the geographies of the new electronic territories of the Internet, WWW and other emerging Cyberspaces. ]
Behind the Numbers - A handy repository of news and analysis of key Internet metrics and indicators. From the editors of CIO.com.
Meta Description: [ A look behind the numbers you need... ]
Browser stats - Browser usage stats from the major sites and some analysis.
Meta Description: [ This weekly web-based newsletter offers news about browsers and web design, helps you find browsers old and new, presents design resources, and reports internet statistics. ]
Cooperative Association for Internet Data Analysis - CAIDA collects, monitors, analyzes, and visualizes several forms of Internet traffic data concerning network topology, workload characterization, performance, routing, and multicast behavior.
E-mail Server Software Survey - Market share analysis of Email server software used across the Internet.
Meta Description: [ Email Server Survey Results for April 2003 ]
Geography of the Internet - Data, maps and analysis on the geographic distribution of Internet domain names by city, region, state, and country.
Meta Description: [ Zooknic is a leading source of information on the diffusion, use and geography of the Internet. Zooknic specializes in analysis of growth of domain names and the dynamics of the domain name market ]
Global Internet Revenue Survey 2002 - This is a confidential internet survey for online entrepreneurs and web site owners.
Meta Description: [ Internet Revenue Survey - 2002 ]
Global Internet Statistics - An up-to-date chart of the estimated number of people online in each language.
Guide to Internet Statistics - A selection of links to statistics, demographics, generators, worldwide maps and ISP details.
Meta Description: [ internet users statistics - complete guide to internet users and statistics use reports for internet users demographics and reports ]
404GVU Center's WWW User Surveys - Historical and current information on the growth and trends in Internet usage. View of developing web demographics, culture, user attitudes, and usage patterns, advertising, electronic commerce, intranet web usage, and business-to-business transactions.
Meta Description: [ GVU Surveys, Demographics, Internet Usage,
Internet Users, WWW User Surverys, GVU WWW User Surveys,
Georgia Institute of Technology, Georgia
Tech, Research, Graphics, Visualization, Usability, GVU Center ]
ICT statistics - Statistics extracted from the ITU World Telecommunication Indicators Database, concerning the spread of information and communication technologies in over 200 economies worldwide
Meta Description: [ Market Information and Statistics Maps and Graphs Global and regional maps and graphs ICT Statistics Subscribe to our Indicators Mailing List to receive updates on publications, events... ]
500iDiary - Internet Measurement System - Combines Internet tracking with surveying to deliver knowledge about the Natural Population of your web site.
Meta Description: [ The iDiary - Internet Measurement system combines Internet tracking with surveying to deliver the most comprehensive knowledge available about the Natural Population of your web site. ]
Internet Demographics Directory - Directory of Internet demographics, user surveys, backbone/ISP reviews and Internet topology. Entries categorised and ranked.
Meta Description: [ Links to Internet Demographics reports, studies, user trends and research. Categorized directory with site descriptions and reviews. ]
Internet Domain Survey - Attempts to discover every host on the Internet by doing a complete search of the Domain Name System. Statistics available for free and commercially.
Internet Mapping Project: Map gallery - Contains graphical representations of the Internet. Looks like star maps, but with websites grouped by ISP.
Meta Description: [ Lumeta Corporation's Internet Mapping Project maps the topology of the Internet. ]
Internet Use(rs): Demography and Geography of the Internet - Academic paper from 2003 analysing the geography and demography of the Internet. By Dr Albert Benschop of the University of Amsterdam.
Meta Description: [ Geography and demography of the internet. Author: dr. Albert Benschop (University of Amsterdam) ]
Internet World Stats - Internet usage data for 233 countries and regions, consolidated from various periodic surveys.
Meta Description: [ Internet World Usage Statistics for 233 countries and regions of the world, 2007 population statistics and information for Internet Marketing Research. ]
NEC Study - Predicts competition and diversity on the web.
Meta Description: [ Predicting competition and diversity on the web. ]
Netcraft Web Server Survey - A monthly updated survey of web server software usage on computers connected to the Internet. Also surveys most popular websites, and top level domains.
404Nielsen//NetRatings - Information on Website usage, internet access, and advertising data.
Meta Description: [ Nielsen//NetRatings services define the global standard in online audience measurement. You can rely on the syndicated, customized media and market research to stay informed about your competition, understand your audience and engage your customer. Each service-tailored to a particular research n... ]
StatMarket - Updated daily and based on stats from over 65,000 sites. Everything from search engines, browsers to screen resolutions, ISPs.
Meta Description: [ WebSideStory is a leading provider of on-demand Digital Marketing services. More than 700 companies worldwide use HBX Analytics, WebSideStory's flagship hosted web analytics service. ]
statMetrix - Subscription service that provides monthly research reports and newsletters for global web activity, search engine use, web browser market share, operating systems, connection speeds, and mobile web trends.
Meta Description: [ statMetrix provides Professional research reports and newsletters for worldwide trends in internet usage, global web activity, ecommerce trends, browsing habits, enabling web developers and agencies to build usable, targeted websites for their audiences ]
WebHosting.Info - Provides statistics and research data about the Web Services Industry. Tracks over 35,000 Web Hosting Companies Worldwide.
