March 31st, 2007

Google, TechCrunch: When April Fool's is no joke

Posted by Donna Bogatin @ 7:41 pm

Categories: Blogs, Culture, Google

Tags:

April Fools' Day is observed throughout the Western world by “trying to get people to believe ridiculous things,” so notes Pearson Education.

Ridiculous, however, is becoming more and more oxymoronic. 

For example, if a search engine declares a grandiose mission to organize the world’s information, would “The Moon” not be a logical next step? 

And, when a blogger declares a “controversy is interesting” page-view driven editorial mission, would a complete philosophical about face not be par for the course?

Google may intimate its April 1 announcements are merely “April Fool’s,” but they belie  Google’s infinite objectives. 

Michael Arrington may wink his TechCrunch Fuckedcompany.com acquisition announcement, but it smacks of his cunning. 

Last April Fool’s, Google announced "Google Romance (beta)”:

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., April 1, 2006 - Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) today announced the launch of Google Romance™, a new product that offers users both a psychographic matchmaking service and all-expenses-paid dates for couples who agree to experience contextually relevant advertising throughout the course of their evening. "Our mission, as you might have heard, is to organize the world's information," said Jonathan Rosenberg, Google's senior vice president, product management. "And let's face it: in what area of life is the world's information more disorganized than romance? We thought we could use our search technology to help you find that special someone, then send you on a date and use contextual ads to help you, ya know - close the deal."

Pin All Your Romantic Hopes on Google: When you think about it, love is just another search problem. And we’ve thought about it. A lot. Google Romance is our solution.

Google Romance is a place where you can post all types of romantic information and, using our Soulmate Search, get back search results that could, in theory, include the love of your life. Then we'll send you both on a Contextual Date, which we'll pay for while delivering to you relevant ads that we and our advertising partners think will help produce the dating results you're looking for.With Google Romance, you can: Upload your profile – tell the world who you are, or, more to the point, who you’d like to think you are, or, even more to the point, who you want others to think you are. Search for love in all (or at least a statistically significant majority of) the right places with Soulmate Search, our eerily effective psychographic matchmaking software.

Endure, via our Contextual Dating option, thematically appropriate multimedia advertising throughout the entirety of your free date.

WHERE’S THE GOOGLE JOKE? 

Last July, I underscored: Google online dating service: Google Romance for real?, discussing how Google is amassing a database of “People Profiles” via Base and surfacing them in “dating” queries at Google.com, in direct competition with Match.com, eHarmony…

Now, Google Base has a dedicated Personals Service!

WHERE’S THE TECHCRUNCH JOKE?

Earlier this month, I cited concerns that “Arrington has already shown that he does not consider TechCrunch to be ‘unbiased’ nor does he seem to be worried too much about editorial objectivity,” underscoring that Arrington himself knows that the TechCrunch effect on start-ups is an ephemeral one, with no apparent meaningful impact on the long-term prospects for new ventures.

Now, TechCrunch is investing big time to develop a new business model.  

Last November, Arrington was cited by the Wall Street Journal saying he realizes the current Web boom, and his fame, may not last. "History tells us that's what happens," he acknowledged.

ALSO: Blog buzz gets religion: Be buzzworthy, not boring

March 31st, 2007

Wired: 'April Fool's pranks for nerds'

Posted by Donna Bogatin @ 3:36 pm

Categories: Culture

Tags:

UPDATE:  Google, TechCrunch: When April Fool’s is no joke

The best April Fool's Day geek pranks involve making a gadget or a piece of software appear "broken," so says Wired magazine.

Michael Calore recommends "getting in the spirit, " but cautions:

One thing you should definitely not do is break anything. Only make the device appear broken. The point when the joke can't be reversed is also the point it ceases to be funny. Trust me.

"Appropriate" strategies advised:

Switch Their Keyboard to Dvorak

To switch a keyboard layout in Windows XP, go to the Control Panel (make sure it's in "Classic View" mode) and click on Regional and Language Options. Under the Languages tab, view Details. Click on Add and find "United States-Dvorak" in the list. Now you'll see Dvorak show up in the drop-down menu of default input languages. Choose it and click Apply.

Put the Mac to Bed

Newer Apple hardware comes with that cute little Front Row remote. Use it for pure evil by randomly putting the prankee's Mac to sleep. Perfect for Starbucks! Any Front Row remote will work (just hold down the Play button for a few seconds) as long as the person hasn't disabled the remote sleep option or paired a specific remote with their machine. But who does that?

New Key Layout

Manually rearrange keyboard keys with a Keycap Puller. Swapping letter keys only works on noob hunter-peckers, but you can still prank everyone else by reversing their 10-key keypad. When reversed, it looks just like a telephone, so they won't notice anything is amiss until they start typing numbers.

Blue Screen of Death

When the screen goes to sleep, the machine looks like it crashed. Be mindful the victim might lose data if they pull the plug.

Mangle the Mouse

Hide the mouse ball. You'll be amazed at how long people will curse and slam their unresponsive mouse onto the desktop before actually flipping the thing over. On the bottom of most mice, you'll find a plastic ring encircling the ball. Loosen it with a twist and pop the ball out. Dropping the mouse ball into their coffee cup will render it magically invisible.

ALSO: Google, TechCrunch: When April Fool’s is no joke

March 31st, 2007

Is Web 2.0 over? TechCrunch bails on startups (No Joke)

Posted by Donna Bogatin @ 2:17 pm

Categories: Blogs, Business Models, Self-Promotion, VC, Venture Capital, Web 2.0

Tags:

UPDATE: Google, TechCrunch: When April Fool’s is no joke

TechCrunch goes pro: What’s the deal? I asked earlier this month.

Michael Arrington, aka TechCrunch, now gives us the answer:

Today we are announcing that we have acquired Philip “Pud” Kaplan’s FuckedCompany.com in a stock for assets transaction.

Are congratulations in order? Hardly.

Arrington “explains” his editorial about face with typical TechCrunch pragmatism:

Since FC focuses on the negative news coming out of startups, and TechCrunch tends to focus on the positive, this combination may seem odd. But the sites are in fact extremely complimentary. For example, the audiences are about equal in size and have very little overlap. So from day one we will double our reach and traffic.

Arrington’s page views rule editorial rationale is not a new one for TechCrunch:

We decide what to cover based on personal interest and what we think will get page views. Just because your company has a nice design, or raised a boatload of cash, doesn’t mean you’ll be written about. If we wrote about every company, no one would come to the site. We make choices, and we are judged by our readers…

Plus, controversy is interesting.

In his own “reasons for the merger” explanation, Arrington reflects a “flexible” TechCrunch editorial approach:

The market moves in cycles, and its clear that we are at the tail end of the current boom (despite recent statements I’ve made to the contrary).

Arrington’s market cycle response:

With the combination of these two companies, we can now effectively cover a startup from the idea stage, through the hype and funding stage, and then ultimately cover its bankruptcy and liquidation as well.

What happened to Web 2.0’s greatest cheerleader for “cool apps,” no business model necessary Michael TechCrunch Arrington? Are the hundreds of hot Web 2.0 start-ups TechCrunch has rallied in its brief but powerful existence really all “ultimately” destined for “bankruptcy and liquidation”?

NEWS FLASH: Arrington has all of a sudden gotten business model religion!

He launched a series on “building a successful and profitable web app.”

What’s more, Arrington no longer believes hyping Web 2.0 start-ups is worth it, literally:

The current trend in blogging, led by Valleywag and others, is to “go negative first, and ask questions later.” That tabloid-style journalism tends to generate a lot of eyeballs and, subsequently, advertiser dollars. This is something we just can’t compete with. By acquiring FC, we can go more negative faster than anyone else out there.

TechCrunch bottom line?

Entrepreneurs with new ideas will always have a way to reach potential users and customers. They just won’t be able to do it here any more.

UPDATE: Google, TechCrunch: When April Fool’s is no joke

March 31st, 2007

Google CEO gets feisty over Microsoft monopoly

Posted by Donna Bogatin @ 12:36 pm

Categories: Business Models, Google, Microsoft

Tags:

Is Google CEO Eric Schmidt “feisty”?

So says Business Week magazine Silicon Valley bureau chief Robert D. Hof.

As part of the magazine’s current cover package: “Who’s afraid of Google?,” Hof presents a themed “conversation” with Schmidt, “Is Google too powerful?”

Hof on the exchange: “Schmidt was feisty and resolute.”

Schmidt was particularly “feisty” over Microsoft.

Despite Schmidt’s exhortations that “I don't want to talk about Microsoft” because “I have a long history there,” Hof offered “People increasingly compare Google to Microsoft in the mid-1990s, at the height of its power, arrogant at times.”

Schmidt: The comparison is absolutely false. And the reason it's false is that people do not understand the strength of the Microsoft monopoly. Microsoft had 90%-plus market share in a market where it was impossible to switch. And Google has neither. It certainly does not have that market as best we can tell, and it's trivial to switch. Microsoft hid behind the user-choice argument.

2% using the Mac. I mean, c'mon. Let's just use absolute facts here. Microsoft was at the height of its power because people didn't have a choice. Google may or may not be at the height of its power, but it's certainly the case that people have a choice. The comparison is just wrong. It's not correct.

Microsoft was accused of monopoly maintenance in many, many ways. It had to do with their tactics, their market share, the fact that they locked their users in. None of those are present in Google. Nor will they be.

Is the Schmidt “Google is not Microsoft and never could be” argument an irrefutable one?

Topix.net (majority owned by media companies Gannett, McClatchy and Tribune) CEO Rich Skrenta expressed to the Wall Street Journal earlier this month his frustration with 50% search engine market share Google’s monopoly like influence:

About 50% of visits to his news site come through a search engine, and about 90% of the time, that is Google. Some companies say their sites have disappeared from top search results for weeks or months after making address switches, due to quirky rules Google and other search engines have adopted. So the same user who typed "Anna Nicole Smith news" into Google last week and saw Topix.net as a top result might not see it at all after the change to Topix.com.

Even if traffic to Topix, which gets about 10 million visitors a month, dropped just 10%, that would essentially be a 10% loss in ad revenue, Mr. Skrenta says. "Because of this little mechanical issue, it could be a catastrophe for us," he says. Further frustrating him is that Google's response to Topix's plea for help was an email recommending that, if the switchover were to go badly, the company should post a message on an online user-support forum; a Google engineer might come along to help out.

"This can't be the process," Mr. Skrenta says. "You're cast into this amusing, Kafkaesque world to run your business."

After the Skrenta WSJ Google lament, his blog proclaimed “How to beat Google”:

Our entire industry is scared witless by Google's dominance in search and advertising. Microsoft and Yahoo have been unsuccessful at staunching the bleeding of their search market share. VCs parrot the Google PR FUD machine that you need giant datacenters next to hydroelectric dams to compete. They spout nonsense about how startups should just use Alexa's crawl and put some ajax on top of it. Ye gods.

Grow a spine people! You have a giant growing market with just one dominant competitor, not even any real #2. You're going to do clean-tech energy saving software to shut off lightbulbs in high-rises instead? Pfft. Get a stick and try to knock G's crown off.

Monopoly like crown, that is!

ALSO: Google's high-speed battle with Microsoft and What Microsoft is telling Google about mobile search and How Google SPIN trumps Microsoft PR and Google’s Ten Commandments

March 31st, 2007

Do you want Google in your refrigerator?

Posted by Donna Bogatin @ 11:32 am

Categories: Culture, Google, Google Software Applications

Tags:

Did you know the world's information includes your favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe?

Google CEO Eric Schmidt has oft said that the world's information Google aims to "organize" inlcudes YOUR personal information, all of it.

Google is now setting its sights on digitizing all the world's information in all the world's homes!

How so?

In "Welcome Google to your Digital Home!" earlier today, I announced Google's ambitions to make homes of the future more Googley.

WILL THAT BE A GOOD THING?

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READ: WELCOME GOOGLE TO YOUR DIGITAL HOME!

March 31st, 2007

Welcome Google to your Digital Home!

Posted by Donna Bogatin @ 8:59 am

Categories: Culture, Google, Google Software Applications, Search, Search Advertising, TV, Television, Web 2.0

Tags:

Google wants you in its Cloud today. Tomorrow, make way for Google in your Digital Home!

LG, “Life’s Good,” so touts LG Electronics, and it will undoubtedly be even better when things get Googley, in the LG + G for Google home of the future!

Think “Ten Commandments” Google is satisfied with a mere adding “extra value to consumers with enhanced mobile Internet experiences,” in its collaboration with LG Electronics?

Think again, Googler style.

In the LG-G (double G for enhanced by Google) Digital Home, refrigerators will not just “store food,” they will “store information,” as in capture “unforgettable memories” with a TV Refrigerator!:

Have cooking time with your friends on weekends. Not a good chef? Don’t worry. With a recipe from a TV-refrigerator, you will enjoy cooking from preparing ingredients to garnishing your dish. 

Imagine, while cooking, you can check your daily schedule, take a look at the weather forecast, and decide what to wear. This will save time during your hectic morning. LG Electronics innovative digital technology is here to make this imagination really happen. The LCD display on the surface of the refrigerator will let you search favorite recipes and get real time weather updates. The digital memo feature will let you leave brief messages and remind you of important events. You can even enjoy a fabulous opera concert over dinner by simply connecting the refrigerator to a DVD player. 

LG Electronics positions itself as a “cutting-edge digital technology” provider: "Digital Communications Technology of LG , the Messenger of Happiness.” 

LG already offers “digital experience” TV Refrigerator, as well as Robot Cleaner and Radio & Messenger Microwave Oven. Through the just announced “mobile experience” partnership with Google, LG will also be: 

Further extending collaboration to develop digitalized home in the future. 

As I said in “Google’s Ten Commandments,” Google knows where you LIVE, work, play…

TAKE THE POLL: DO YOU WANT GOOGLE IN YOUR REFRIGERATOR?

ALSO: YouTube: Why Google is running scared and Google Maps under siege and Google and Wal-Mart diagnose $4 trillion health care market

March 30th, 2007

Google Maps under siege

Posted by Donna Bogatin @ 7:27 pm

Categories: Culture, Google, Google Software Applications, Web 2.0

Tags:

Who says being the number one search engine in the world is all glory?

Google really does want to organize all the world’s information. What goes with all the world’s territory? Accountability to the entire world!

I recently asked rhetorically “Is Google a public service?” U.S. Rep. Brad Miller apparently thinks so!

The U.S. House Committee on Science and Technology's Subcommittee on Investigations and Oversight is calling upon Google CEO Eric Schmidt to explain why Google was "airbrushing history" by replacing post-Hurricane Katrina satellite imagery on its popular map portal with images of the region as it existed before the storm destroyed neighborhoods, uprooted trees and dashed bridges.

"Google's use of old imagery appears to be doing the victims of Hurricane Katrina a great injustice by airbrushing history," wrote Democratic U.S. Rep. Brad Miller, the subcommittee chairman, in a Friday letter to Schmidt, according to AP reports.

Also, brushed up on your swimming lately?

The blogosphere has been in a tizzy about Google Maps advice for “directions” from the U.S. to Europe:

“Swim across the Atlantic Ocean,” a mere Googley 5,572 KM!

ALSO: YouTube: Why Google is running scared and Google's Ten Commandments

March 30th, 2007

YouTube: Why Google is running scared

Posted by Donna Bogatin @ 5:53 pm

Categories: Business Models, Content, Copyright, Google, User-Generated Content, Video, Web 2.0, YouTube

Tags:

Google’s trademark Googley super confidence is no where to be seen in its in-house litigation counsel’s blustery quid pro quo Washington Post retort to Viacom general counsel Michael Fricklas’s prior op-ed.

While defiant, Michael Kwun is pithy, to a fault. It is ironic that his indignant “reply” to Viacom reads more like snack-size text-culture, than a lawyerly, fact-based argument. If he will be heading up Google’s $1 billion “massive copyright infringement” defense, Viacom may benefit.

Kwun: “Viacom's lawsuit is an attack on the way people communicate on the Web and on the platforms that allow people to make the Internet their own.”

NO, Viacom’s action is a civil action business as usual solicitation of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York to order Google to cease directly or indirectly infringing, or causing, enabling, facilitating, encouraging, promoting and inducing or participating in the infringement of any of Viacom’s exclusive rights protected by the Copyright Act.

The DMCA, in fact, states a right of “injured persons” to bring civil actions to obtain civil remedies in appropriate United States district courts.

Kwun: “In the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, Congress struck a careful balance between the rights of the copyright holder and the need to protect the Internet as an innovative communication frontier, not as another venue for litigation.”

NO, “Congress recognized the only thing that remains constant is change. The enactment of the DMCA was only the beginning of an ongoing evaluation by Congress on the relationship between technological change and U.S. copyright law,” Statement of Mary Beth Peters, The Register of Copyrights, before the Subcommittee on Courts, the Internet and Intellectual Property Committee on the Judiciary, United States House of Representatives 107th Congress, 1st Session, December 12-13, 2001.

Kwun: “Content-hosting sites such as YouTube, Craigslist and MySpace that want to take advantage of the DMCA's safe harbors must promptly remove infringing content if the copyright owner so requests, giving owners a quick remedy that doesn't require going to court. Copyright owners, in return, have the responsibility to identify infringing material they want removed. Viacom's lawyers helped craft this law but apparently don't like it, after all. They want to shirk the responsibility Congress gave them. Placing that burden on hosting platforms would turn the DMCA on its head.”

NO, Elements of notification required by the DMCA are not absolute:

Identification of the copyrighted work claimed to have been infringed, or, if multiple copyrighted works at a single online site are covered by a single notification, a representative list of such works at that site.

A statement that the complaining party has a good faith belief that use of the material in the manner complained of is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law.

The DMCA, in fact, puts the onus on “content hosting sites such as YouTube” to promptly attempt to:

contact the person making the notification or take other reasonable steps to assist in the receipt of notification that substantially complies with all the provisions.

I debunk Kwun’s wishful thinking “Fortunately, the law is clear, and on our side,” not so rousing conclusion in “Google vs. Viacom: Will Michael Kwun eat his DMCA words?”

The United States District Court for the Southern District of New York will not be swayed by Kwun’s not so Googley “he said, she said” anti Viacom emotional diatribe.

ALSO: YouTube: Why Google fears $1 billion Unsafe Harbor and YouTube: What Google CEO Eric Schmidt really thinks and Why Google will never pay for content and Google’s Ten Commandments

March 30th, 2007

Google news and views, Web 2.0 showcase: NEW at Digital Markets!

Posted by Donna Bogatin @ 12:46 pm

Categories: Advertising, Amateur Content, Business Models, Content, Copyright, Google, Media, User-Generated Content, Video, Web 2.0, YouTube

Tags:

Readers of this Digital Markets Blog know I am passionate about two things:

Google and Web 2.0!

To complement my ongoing, in-depth, exclusive reporting and analysis of all things Google and Web 2.0, I am authoring two new series going forward:

1) Web 2.0 Showcase and 2) Google News and Views

Web 2.0 Showcase presents concise snapshots of Web 2.0 companies, those with business models that is!

My inaugural edition this morning, Web 2.0 video showcase: Acceptable.tv, Brightcove, Payoneer, focused on the hot online video marketplace with must know companies, Viacom’s MTV and Jeremy Allaire’s Brightcove, both showcased at this month’s NY Video 2.0 Meetup, held at Columbia University on Wednesday.

MTV networks (of Viacom vs. Google lawsuit fame) is on a never ending quest to let “users be in control,” while still ensuring shareholders the financial controls they are legally entitled to!

Kenny Miller, EVP & Creative Director, Global Digital Media, presented the just launched Acceptable.tv, the latest Viacom initiative to leverage audience relationships and entertainment production expertise with the goal of further extending a monetizable franchise, online and off.

Miller acknowledged Viacom is still in the experimental stage, but expressed confidence that they will “figure it out.”

Acceptable.tv solicits feedback from VH1 fans online with the goal of choosing programming more aligned with viewer interests.

I asked Miller about the reliability of television programming decisions based on a small, and not necessarily representative, online subset of the VH1 viewing audience. Nielsen does not have a much bigger data set, Miller asserted.

Read about Viacom MTV Network’s VH1 most recent experiment: Acceptable.tv.

In the online video world, Allaire’s Brightcove is a hip, but nevertheless methodical, corporate business model fueled Internet TV vision for the future, as opposed to the anything goes YouTube “community (after Google first) rules.”

Tony Dunaif, VP, Content Partnerships, walked through a demo of the turnkey, self-serve Brightcove make your own Internet TV channel platform.

New versions of the Web based broadband service are rolled out every eight weeks, Dunaif proudly underscored. He is also proud of Brightcove’s top tier advertising clientele: Sony Electronics, J & J, Amex, Absolut…

I asked Dunaif why Brightcove needs $60 million in funding to pursue its business model. Dunaif indicated Brightcove’s total funding to date is about $83 million, but merely reiterated the Brightcove positioning statement for an explanation, international expansion.

Read about Brightcove’s business model.

Google News and Views broadens the Google discussion by highlighting different voices and experiences.

The inaugural edition this morning is an eclectic snapshot of what is going on with Google, both inside and out!

Also, a recap of my Google coverage and analysis, uniquely Digital Markets style!

Read up on all things Googley!

STAY TUNED TO THIS DIGITAL MARKETS BLOG! 

March 30th, 2007

First Presidents club: Clinton, Bush go wireless

Posted by Donna Bogatin @ 10:52 am

Categories: Cell Phones, Mobile, Self-Promotion, Wireless

Tags:

Only in America?

Two directly competitive former Presidents of the United States from opposing political parties join together on a business conference stage in a for (large) fee inspirational talk to expo attendees: William Jefferson Clinton and George Herbert Walker Bush.

What’s more: One of the retired Presidents’ son is the sitting President and the other retired President’s wife is a declared presidential candidate!

Staci Kramer captured the moment from CTIA Wireless 2007.

President Clinton is cited:“I think all these blog sites are creating a whole new opportunity for public debate that may revitalize our politics in an old-fashioned, good way.”

Perhaps, but one thing is certain: Bill is helping wife Hillary the good old-fashioned political money machine way, as I discuss in “Clinton ‘double-team’ in race for campaign millions,” the latest installment in my “User Generated Politics” special Digital Markets Series.

ALSO: Google wants Presidential candidates and their money and Hillary Clinton, Democrats lead Republicans in Web race to the White House and Google wins big as Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama battle 

STAY TUNED TO THIS DIGITAL MARKETS BLOG FOR CONTINUING COVERAGE OF WHAT I AM CALLING “USER GENERATED POLITICS” 2008