Well after reading it I thought compelled to share some thoughts on this subject. First Nate's whole premise is off kilter because it is defendant on Twitter's ability to overcome it's recent scaling issues and loss of it's of respect from the community.
Verbs for social objects: we need to think about the verbs that people perform on objects. E.g., Flickr’s aggregation of what people have done with your photos. We should be surfacing the available actions.
World of Warcraft's information methods for everyday life: “Imagine a physical world where we have as much peripheral information at our disposal as in WoW.” Not just “boring update feeds.” Innovate, especially on mobiles. We will see this stuff in the next 24 months. Some examples: Maps: Where my friends are. Phonebook: what are people up to. Email: prioritized. Photos: Face recognition.
A new take on social search: Detecting nodal points: “What should I be aware of that’s happening around me? Was what just happened significant to someone on the network.” And then deliver it to people at just the right time, perhaps via push. “Discovery is becoming social.” “It is the end of the era of search,” i.e., of querying for stuff. From browser to search to share (citing former ceo of paypal). From pagerank to “facerank” where what counts is friends in common, physical proximity, shared taste, shared objects."
Google has been very quietly getting ready to open a big ole can of whoop ass directed at Twitter. Remember Google could have bought Twitter but why didn't they?? Because they saw the potential in Jaiku as something much bigger than a micropayment service. Imagine and interconnected stream through this new service that incorporates email / video / maps / shopping etc.. on a platform that is truly stable and scaleable and monetizeable.
All of this running on Android equipped phones and piercing through all of the open social partner sites as well.. It's just a matter of time.
Interesting stuff today.. wondering if this interesting and quite proactive plan will get the tech community and more importantly Google to back Sen. Obama. I was very intrigued about his "transparency" comment regarding the government and opening up to America... It seems like this kind of came out of left field. It will be very interesting to see how the next month or so shapes up.
"I’ll put government data online in universally accessible formats. I’ll let citizens track federal grants, contracts, earmarks, and lobbyist contacts. I’ll let you participate in government forums, ask questions in real time, offer suggestions that will be reviewed before decisions are made, and let you comment on legislation before it is signed. And to ensure that every government agency is meeting 21st century standards, I’ll appoint the nation’s first Chief Technology Officer."
ServerMojo - Monitors your web server and will send you update notifications via Twitter.
Remember the Milk for Twitter- Remember the Milk (rtm) is a popular GTD web application. By adding the rtm Twitter member as a friend you can send commands to your account via the Twitter interface. This is particularly useful if you are using Twitter by SMS when you are out and about and you only have your mobile phone and no Internet access.
SugarStats - If you are diabetic then check out SugarStats. This site allows you to monitor your sugar levels and gives you all sorts of graphs and charts. Plus you can send in your data via Twitter.
Foamee.com is a fun IOU system built on Twitter that helps you track who you owe beers to (and vice versa). All you have to do is follow the account "ioubeer" and then send it @replies. So, say you owe me a beer for helping you change a flat tire, this is what you'd send to Twitter:
@ioubeer @biz for helping me change that flat tire
Then, your IOU will show up on the front page at foamee.com.
I wonder how developers will leverage some of these apps via Open Social and Facebook Api's...hmmmmmm there are so many facets of Twitter.. there are business applications, social and now even health and safety values being equated too it...
Well Ebay pulled all their ads off of US Google sites.. but today while surfing I found this Google syndication link... I wonder how much their traffic suffered to do a 180% so quickly??????
I have also posted a Compete.com Daily Vector Graph.. very interesting..
Let me start out by stating that I am a huge Jason Calacanis fan... I follow him on Twitter and take great interest in his candor and the way that he leverages PR.
When I first saw Mahalo.. I thought jeez is this really all he is introducing?? basically Cha Cha meets Wikipedia .. so I wasn't overwhelmed w/ the angle of going after the Fat part of the Tail.. it seems to me that the way to truly utilize a combination of People / Machine search is to target micro- niche's ... this became more evident when I searched for "Honda Civic"after listening to Jason's Podcast w/ SEO critics today on Mahalo being that I am a long time Honda enthusiast and directly involved in the Aftermarket industry. My impressions of the search results were that it was a totally "mailed in" .... I wonder how many more are?? Now let me preface I think that they Mahalo is on the right track w/ it's Greenhouse Program..
I could go on and on about the results on that page.. but the results speak for themselves...people want valuable info not the same old same old...
Jason this is you reputation on the line and with results like this.. I'm not sure you will gain loyal users.. but you are a sly one.. and I think that you are actually banking on that "Google Juice" when someone actually types "Honda Civic" into Google and the Honda Civic Mahalo page scores high on SERP i.e exactly how Wikipedia does...
But I thought the point was to provide the best possible results :(
The Blogosphere is abuzz w/ the today's action by Ebay to pull all it's advertsing on Google's US properties due to Google's light hearted attempt at making a point of Ebay's policy of not allowing Google Checkout as a viable option for Ebay users...then Google call's off there party...
I think that Ebay might actually be a little ascared of little ole Google Checkout.. the often mocked Google payment system... I believe it is actually gaining ground at a very fast pace.. it seems like every time I do a google search lately it is laden w/ Google Checkout sponsored adwords for advertisers.. plus it seems like it has really gained traction in the long tail of e-commerce sites..never mind the top retailers that have made the switch like BlueNile.com and Buy.com with 0% processing fees..
It will be interesting to see how this pans out and to watch the traffic rankings to see if Ebay see's a dramatic decline in traffic and revenue.
Ha. After a report that Ebay was boycotting Google's text ads, the search engine has decided to cancel a party to woo stores on the online auction site. Google planned to hold the cocktail party tomorrow night in the fringes of Ebay's Live event for its biggest sellers. Mountain View, which plays on online shops' disgruntlement with Ebay's monopoly charges, had entitled the invitation, provocatively, "let freedom ring." Ebay's Meg Whitman must have blasted her Google counterpart on the hotline. Freedom for Ebay's imprisoned retailers, who are being lured by lower fees on Google's credit-card payment service, may yet ring. But not just yet.
WED JUN 13 2007 BY NICK DENTON AT 6:18 pm 244 views
When Double Click agreed to sell to Google last month some of the big guys namely Microsoft got all worked up and started raising questions of Google's strength in the advertising market... Fast forward 3 weeks and MS bus aQuantive for $6 billion???
It's Funny how Google gets picked on sometimes..online advertising is a fraction of the whole advertising industry..but yet they are always singled out?
But yet the FTC is opening up a antitrust investigation against Google...I just don't get it..
The thing is that most of their competitors are failing to realize or are just afraid to admit is that people (us minions) like using Google because it makes our lives easier
The Federal Trade Commission has opened a preliminary antitrust investigation into Google’s planned $3.1 billion purchase of the online advertising company DoubleClick, an industry executive briefed on the agency’s plans said yesterday.
A couple of weeks ago I was reading Danny Sullivan's piece on Google coming to Oklahoma... and I couldn't help but think of why not NH?? We have a very business friendly tax structure for business's .. we are very close to allot of main hubs i.e Boston/NY and Google really hasn't setup shop in the New England area.
Ok so Google the perennial do-gooders for the free world could not only build an eco-friendly Data Center that would breathe life back into a community that welcomes such a move but it makes sense business wise.. We have a Governor in office that is very popular and is business friendly as well..
Saw this yesterday on Google Blogoscoped..and then watched the demo at CRM for Google ... Very slick presentation .. I wonder if this will catch on.. I think that other 3rd parties have a huge opportunity via Google's Api's for this function as well as Google Apps.
CRM for Google (CRM means Customer Relationship Management) is a set of gadgets for your personalized Google homepage that allows you to do things like track tasks, manage contacts, add notes, or create appointments. (In the beginning while playing around with this I got a couple of errors from Google’s servers telling me the gadget “information is temporarily unavailable,” but this worked after a while.) I wonder though if tools like these will not simply be made redundant by Google’s homegrown office, which is partly already released (e.g. there’s already an official Calendar widget), and partly to come yet (we’re still in need of a great cross-applications Google contact manager, for example). One benefit of Google-made widgets have is that you don’t need to login to an extra account – in the case of Etelos’ tool, you actually need to login once for every single widget – and that the data is shared with your Google apps, like Gmail.
On a related note, the company Realtime Applications released the Google Widget Creator so you can create custom database-like gadgets for your needs (your data will be stored on the company’s server). Check their Flash demo to get an idea of this tool.
Well it has been a long time coming but Google finally announced today that they have started implementing a CPA (Cost Per Action) System for advertisers. This has long been rumored to be what Google has wanted.. a way to tie Google Analytics/Adwords/Checkout into a click fraud free environment.
This also spells big trouble to Affiliate Programs out there like CJ and Linkshare
For our startup.. I had actually planned not to spend any $$$ on PPC (Lead Generation) .. rather I would allocate that $$ in Community Forums as a direct sponsor to engage w/ our members in more effective manner. This has changed my thinking due to the fact that I can measure if a campaign is working at gaining new members.
Google announced a limited U.S. only beta for a new service they are calling Pay Per Action ads. Google Pay Per Action will allow advertisers to create ads that cost only when a desired action is triggered. The advertiser sets the price per action; for example, an advertiser can decide to pay $5 per lead acquisition, as opposed to paying per click or per impression.
These Pay Per Action ads are available to a limited number of AdSense publishers. Publishers will be able to select which Pay Per Action ads they would like to display on their content sites. A publisher accepted into the beta can choose to display all pay per action ads, or select to show keyword specific ads or select a specific ad from a specific advertiser. To do so, the publisher will have to login to their AdSense accounts, go to the referrals section and select other referrals from the options.
Google is accepting U.S. advertisers and publishers into the beta now. Google plans on adding more advertisers and publishers into the program over the upcoming weeks.
For the past week I have been Twitterized ... I know I know.. When I first heard about it...I thought big deal.....but it is a really unique tool. I am especially interested in using this service as a communication toll for our new start-up...which is a member based e-commerce site. I can envision having one of our members sending a tweet out to the community when their $2800 turbo kit he bought arrives at his house or a member tweets about a great or bad experience thru our service or just an update on his or her project car...Ok enough w/ my rant....I really like Twitter :) ...
That brings me to my point :) ..... I have been looking at getting a new cell phone ... and I have been impressed by Helio's offerings. They have this cool feature called "Buddy Beacon" which allows you to broadcast your location (GPS) to your friends and vice versa...and you can easily turn it on and off. It also has Google Maps built in hmmmm... that got me thinking. There already is a version of Twitter using Google Maps which would add a set of tools that Helio doesn't have. Helio is the self proclaimed Web 2.0 phone company and has already landed deals w/ Boing Boing and Myspace. Why wouldn't Twitter like to join the club? This would be a great way to monetize the product on their end and kepp it free for it's users... That would be an awesome service...and would presumably be a huge blow to Google's property Dodgeball .... or would it? Allot of people are saying Dodgeball is dead... but could this be a service that Google is waiting to expand w/ their much anticipated venture into the Mobile Phone Market. Things that make you go hmmmmmm.
Microsoft founder Bill Gates testified before a Senate committee today about education. He did digress, however, into a topic that has perked my interest for some time:
Gates said the nation’s economy depends on keeping the country’s borders open to highly skilled workers, especially those with a science or engineering background. Federal law provides 65,000 H1-B visas for scientists, engineers, computer programmers and other professionals every budget year. High-tech and other employers say that’s not enough.
“Even though it may not be realistic, I don’t think there should be any limit,” Gates said, adding that Microsoft hasn’t been able to fill approximately 3,000 technical jobs in the United States because of a shortage of skilled workers.
Well as most people have heard by now Google has launched a premium service targeted at small and medium size business. This is the key difference between the all out war some are calling this w/ Microsoft Outlook. Microsoft has the medium to large size business's locked up.
Google is very smart in their approach going after the long tail..a place where most of their ad revenue comes from almost $1 billion a quarter. Here is a qoute from Eric Schmidt“The surprising thing about The Long Tail is just how long the tail is, and how many businesses haven’t been served by traditional advertising sales,”.
Most small business crave a simplified office environment. Gmail is simple to use and makes life easier. Docs and Spreadsheets on the other hand is a little rough around the edges but I have a feeling enhancements will be made available quickly.
I am surprised what hasn't been talked about more is the non integration of Jotspot's Wiki tools. This is a great set of tools for a small or med. biz as a virtual intranet for resources etc.. I also expect a rumored Power Point clone very soon as well which would give Google Apps a very powerful set of tools to really take it to the next level. Now this Premium package would be very attractive to larger business's.
I think that Google is counting on people who don't want to upgrade to Vista/Office 07 but see it as inevitable as an alternative solution. Could Google really be positioning itself better than we think w/ Google Apps?
That got me thinking of the "Ultimate Web Mashup". In one corner you have w/ a Combined Market Cap of $325B "MicroHoo" and in the other corner you have the King of Search and the King of Commerce "Googlezon".
K..so all kidding aside what would the web be like if these four companies morphed into two titans?
Now lets look at these mergers..first lets take a look at the Microsoft/Yahoo tandem. It seems like a decent match if you look at it from the point that Yahoo and Microsoft both are jack of all trades , masters of none... It's a no brainer in terms of obtaining market share in search appx. 41%. to Google's 51%. Microhoo could def. flex it's muscle's in the Media area as well. Publishing could explode to the mainstream with this combination. They already are sharing the IM space together so that's a start.
What about Microhoo Mail combines the best of Yahoo Mail and Outlook...tags/rss/im/news
This Mega-Power could develop a "new media landscape" which would challenge TV. With it's combination of bringing media to the home flawlessly.. NBC/Flickr/Blogs/Videos etc..
The Google/Amazon tandem on the other hand has a more of natural relationship...their users are alike (smart/loyal) and their services are alike.. S3/EC2 which goes hand in hand w/ cloud storage and hosting that Google benefits from via Google Docs and Spreadsheets etc...And the possibilities in Search would be major as well.. imagine integrated Google Book Search via Amazon listings this could also tie into products and videos as well via Froogle and Youtube.
Then the most compelling aspect to this merger would be the e-commerce implications. Hmmm what if they tied Google Checkout / Amazon E Commerce /Adwords / Amazon Historical Pricing /Amazon Affiliates etc together... Googlezon could effectively chew up 51% of all online transactions! With it's combined data capabilities Web 3.0 could be here quite quickly. Think about the efficiency in which services could be rendered. Yikes! it's scary..
Mashups would be amazing combining Google and Amazon services that users could create vertical hubs that would maximize the Long Tail effect. Advertisers would see higher click thru and transaction rates due to amazingly targeted content.
These are just some random thoughts..I would be happy to hear your thoughts on this topic.
Here is a video that has been around quite awhile but is still fun to watch especially how fast things are going right now in comparison to the time-line in this video.
I have noticed lately how everyone is on this vertical search engine kick for the last year or so. Then people got so excited when Jimmy Wales announced his intentions to jump into the search game. His slant would be a Social Search platform which would be inherently better than Google's.
I guess people are forgetting that Google has their own answer to vertical search it's Google CSE/Coop . They have disclosed that their in a recent Business 2.0 article that there are 100,000 CSE's built now and expect over 300,000 by April. I believe that they will use this data to develop a social search algorithm to integrate into their ranking based algorithm.
The obvious problem is how do these CSE get any traction? We know that viral marketing is the great buzz word everyone likes to throw around but how can this be accomplished by niche experts w/ little or no money to advertise and brand their product.
Me: Is SearchMash a Google wiki-styled search engine? If so, what is the goal of this new product?
Norvig: That's our playground for trying out new ideas -- of all kinds -- in a non-branded search engine where we are more free to experiment with different algorithms and user interfaces. It is useful because we don't have to adhere to the user's expectations for what Google is. It does include " Feedback: Were these results useful to you? ..." but it is not exclusively social/wiki-style; it is for anything we want to try out.
Me: So, are you testing out a wiki-styled search engine?
Norvig: Feedback from users is important, and we will continue to use the sources of user feedback we have been using, and will experiment with more in the future. I think that Google Co-op Custom Search Engine may be the largest current collection of user-generated information for search. http://google.com/coop/cse/
1. You can create plug in's via Firefox etc. 2. Build very robust back links 3. Get Organic!! Natural Search
My Suggestions: I. Google should reward CSE's in Google Rankings by offering a link to CSE's that cover the query entered. II. If someone Googled "GSR Brake swap" it would have a refinement link to CSE's for Honda's . III. Google should subsidize Adwords for CSE owners this article suggests that smaller more relevant micro sites do much better for advertisers. Google gets a cut of it anyway this will only help them in the long run. This would also be a great strategic move for Google in the future w/ their expansion: checkout/analytics/adwords into a CPA (Cost Per Action) model.
So Google wants to turn Google Earth into a virtual playground. Reading this post from VC Rankings got me thinking of how utterly simple Google uses all of their products to make a sustainable ecosystem. If they do pull this off especially w/ this recent acquisition will be their greatest achievement to date!
"Aside from Google, the beneficiaries of such a move would be, well, Benchmark Capital. As the main venture capital firm behind Linden Research, the operator of virtual world Second Life, Google's entry into the segment would further legitemize and popularize it. Once Google entered the segment, Linden Research would likely have to fend off many acquisition overtures from rival media companies." By Joshua Jaffe
Imagine the price of Second Life skyrocketing when Microsoft and Yahoo want a piece of the action.
Ha. After a report that 
