Month: April 2004

The Web As Platform

I've decided to add a new category to Searchblog, and with it a new facet of coverage, which I'm calling The Web As Platform. For reasons I hope to make clear over time, I think search represents critical binding for this particular erector set. This meme has been around for…

I’ve decided to add a new category to Searchblog, and with it a new facet of coverage, which I’m calling The Web As Platform. For reasons I hope to make clear over time, I think search represents critical binding for this particular erector set. This meme has been around for a very long time, in various flavors, but any number of circumstances are gathering which have given it significant traction and I find it important and fascinating. I’ve been doing a fair amount of work in this space, work I’ll be announcing later in the year, but for now, I hope you agree this is a space worth watching.

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IntelliTXT: Your Advertising Peanut Butter Is In My Editorial Chocolate….

Back in 1998, February to be exact, I shared a stage at the TED conference with Bill Gross, founder of IdeaLab. Richard Saul Wurman, TED's founder and impressario, introduced us both. I went first. I gave a short overview of my new magazine to a polite and curious reception. Gross…

logo2Back in 1998, February to be exact, I shared a stage at the TED conference with Bill Gross, founder of IdeaLab. Richard Saul Wurman, TED’s founder and impressario, introduced us both. I went first. I gave a short overview of my new magazine to a polite and curious reception. Gross then got up and in ritalin-starved fashion began a manic pitch. Imagine, he told the incredulous audience of tech and entertainment influencers, an entirely new search engine model, one driven not by editorial results, but by the raw metrics of the market itself – a pay-for-placement search engine, where the highest bidder wins top spot.

Afterwards a number of folks gathered around to congratulate me, and at the same time to ridicule Gross’s vision. After all, I was starting a magazine predicated on principles pretty much diametrically opposed to Gross: objective and high-integrity journalism. Pay for placement? Bah! It will never work. Keep up the good work, Battelle.

Well, what Gross presented six years ago was GoTo, nee Overture, nee AdWords. What I was pitching was The Standard. Enough said.

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Re-Find

A reminder to sign up for Re-Find, the email summary of the week that was on Searchblog, in the upper left hand corner. If you're into that kind of thing, that is….

A reminder to sign up for Re-Find, the email summary of the week that was on Searchblog, in the upper left hand corner. If you’re into that kind of thing, that is.

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Claria Clarified

Perhaps I was being a bit too off the cuff in my last post on Claria. Full disclosure: A good friend went to work for them recently. This person admitted the company's past, but said that in fact it was mending its ways. New management has come in, folks with…

Perhaps I was being a bit too off the cuff in my last post on Claria. Full disclosure: A good friend went to work for them recently. This person admitted the company’s past, but said that in fact it was mending its ways. New management has come in, folks with a good track record at Excite, pre-bust. I’m looking forward to learning more soon. On that note, look for my post on IntelliTXT shortly.

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Claria Files For IPO

Change your name from Gator, get the books in order, put happy smiling people on your website, and file. OK, Marchex, Advertising.com, BrightMail, Shopping.com, Salesforce, Claria. Do we have a trend yet? Do we have a problem yet? Bankers: Deutsche Bank Securities, Piper Jaffray, and Thomas Weisel Partners. The S-1…

claria-logoChange your name from Gator, get the books in order, put happy smiling people on your website, and file. OK, Marchex, Advertising.com, BrightMail, Shopping.com, Salesforce, Claria. Do we have a trend yet? Do we have a problem yet?

Bankers: Deutsche Bank Securities, Piper Jaffray, and Thomas Weisel Partners.

The S-1 is here.

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Google and Online Currency?

Not sure entirely what they're on about in this eMarketer report, as it's an excerpt, but the suggestion is made, after lengthy throat clearing, that Google create its own online currency so as to compete in the SFO (Search Find Obtain) space. The article correctly points out that Google lacks…

googleNot sure entirely what they’re on about in this eMarketer report, as it’s an excerpt, but the suggestion is made, after lengthy throat clearing, that Google create its own online currency so as to compete in the SFO (Search Find Obtain) space. The article correctly points out that Google lacks muscle in the Obtain part of the equation, compared to Amazon and EBay. But then it says Google should get its own currency. I don’t think so. But, what do you think?

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Yahoo Earnings Jump, Stock Does the Splits

Yahoo announced earnings (PDF) just now, and the numbers were stronger than expected. The company earned $132 million on revenues of $758 million ($550 excluding TAC), up from $55 million on $283 million a year ago. EPS came in at .14, the street was expecting .11. The stock is up…

yhoomgrarsgif.gifYahoo announced earnings (PDF) just now, and the numbers were stronger than expected. The company earned $132 million on revenues of $758 million ($550 excluding TAC), up from $55 million on $283 million a year ago. EPS came in at .14, the street was expecting .11. The stock is up more than 10% in after hours trading. If you want to download their presentation on their earnings, click this link. The company posted strong gains across nearly all the core metrics – uniques, active users, cash flow, international revenue …etc.

To add to the euphoria, Yahoo announced a 2 for 1 stock split, and boosted guidance. The conference call is slated for a half hour from now.

(Thanks for SEC nod, Gary)

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Privacy Advocates: Suspend Plans For Gmail

In a letter released yesterday twenty eight privacy experts and civil liberty organizations urged Google to suspend Gmail. This is quickly becoming a significant test of not only Google's ability to communicate its intent to the world, but of what it means to live in a web centric world where…

gmail_logoIn a letter released yesterday twenty eight privacy experts and civil liberty organizations urged Google to suspend Gmail. This is quickly becoming a significant test of not only Google’s ability to communicate its intent to the world, but of what it means to live in a web centric world where your data is out there, with all the consequences, good and bad. One company cannot solve this problem.

PS – Gmail also has some trademark issues…

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The Google Platform Meme Grows

…with this post from Kottke. The concept is further pushed by Danny Sullivan in a post here and in an AP piece in which yours truly is quoted. Excerpts from Kottke: They have this huge map of the Web and are aware of how people move around in the virtual…

…with this post from Kottke. The concept is further pushed by Danny Sullivan in a post here and in an AP piece in which yours truly is quoted.

Excerpts from Kottke:

They have this huge map of the Web and are aware of how people move around in the virtual space it represents. They have the perfect place to store this map (one of the world’s largest computers that’s all but incapable of crashing). And they are clever at reading this map. Google knows what people write about, what they search for, what they shop for, they know who wants to advertise and how effective those advertisements are, and they’re about to know how we communicate with friends and loved ones. What can they do with all that? Just about anything that collection of Ph.Ds can dream up.

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The Trademark Lawsuit That Won’t Go Away…

A lawsuit at the heart of the trademark/paid search issue will not be tossed out lightly, a judge ruled yesterday. CNET reports….

A lawsuit at the heart of the trademark/paid search issue will not be tossed out lightly, a judge ruled yesterday. CNET reports.

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