Those of you who thought the idea of sell side advertising was interesting should check out what Ross has found: a French site which seems to be implementing just such a system….
I'm a Mac guy. That means I pay attention to what Apple does, because it pretty much defines my entire ecology. Yesterday Apple launched Tiger, a new update to its system software. While I realize this does not impact many readers of Searchblog, it's still a big deal, because…
I’m a Mac guy. That means I pay attention to what Apple does, because it pretty much defines my entire ecology. Yesterday Apple launched Tiger, a new update to its system software. While I realize this does not impact many readers of Searchblog, it’s still a big deal, because Tiger has a search feature called Spotlight which, as far as I can tell, is pretty damn cool. Do I have it yet? No. Will I get it? Yup. Stay tuned for more reports. Meanwhile, the strategic importance of search to Apple is summed up in this ComputerWorld piece: “Mac OS X Tiger: All roads lead to Spotlight”. From the piece:
“We think that people using Mac OS X Tiger will be in the Spotlight menu all the time,” said Brian Croll, Apple’s senior director of Software Product Marketing. “You can go there to find documents, pictures, applications or anything else you want. All roads lead to Spotlight.”
Spotlight and its ability to create and automatically update “Smart Folders” in the Finder will help users find and organize files on their hard drives. This has become more of a problem in recent years because “hard drives are so big we never throw anything away,” said Chris Bourdon, Apple’s product manager for Mac OS X.
The industry is posting record numbers, quarter after quarter. From the ClickZ piece: Online ad revenues for 2004 were up 33 percent to $9.6 billion, the highest level ever, according to the latest report from the Interactive Advertising Bureau and PricewaterhouseCoopers. New data include finalized revenue numbers from Q3,…
From the ClickZ piece:
Online ad revenues for 2004 were up 33 percent to $9.6 billion, the highest level ever, according to the latest report from the Interactive Advertising Bureau and PricewaterhouseCoopers.
I can't help thinking this is not the best image in the world for Google. On the other hand, I really love the passion and, well, sense of wonder this guy shows in his Google Blog posting. In essence, he came up with the idea of painting a mural…
I can’t help thinking this is not the best image in the world for Google. On the other hand, I really love the passion and, well, sense of wonder this guy shows in his Google Blog posting.
In essence, he came up with the idea of painting a mural of a massive robot connecting the globe through wires, inspired by Google data centers (the mural hangs in one).
Reminds me of the original, from Paul Ford’s classic Google Takes All essay:
Read MoreRead Jeff here. If you are a long time reader of Searchblog, this will be a nice summary of the long conversation we've been having on this site. Man, things are getting interesing….
First Google, now Yahoo….
I had a chance late yesterday to catch up with Jeff Weiner, point man at Yahoo for all things search. Jeff's been a great resource for both this site as well as the book, and it had been far too long since we last caught up. The last time…
Jeff’s always been the kind of guy who not only suffered my fascination with Joints after Midnight topics, he’s even encouraged them. This time around he brought one such topic to me: the overall vision statement for Yahoo Search. The statement is not particularly new, Terry Semel referred to it at the beginning of his comments in the last quarterly earnings call, but Jeff wanted to bounce if off me, and by extension, all of you. He also wanted to talk about where search was going, and the implications of the flood of news in this space over the past few months.
The vision statement for Yahoo Search is pretty damn good, if you’re into that kind of thing (I’ll admit, I am). Here it is, in its entirety:
Read MoreWe've had a problem with the TypePad registration system in the past day. It seems that no one can comment. If you can, please leave a comment on this post, so we can test this, and tell me what browser and OS you're using. I'll assume if there are…
UDPATE: Comments are indeed borked, and folks on my end and over at Six Apart are working diligently to fix it. Thanks for all the email, I appreciate it.
An interesting round up by Mark Glaser at OJR. I just finished an interview with Mike Homer for my B 2.0 column, and I have to say, this whole space very much reminds me of the early days of search – a new frontier, many new players, lots of…
I spoke to the author about all of this and he quotes me as the kicker to the piece:
CBS and other media companies are caught in a tough spot, wanting to exploit the technology and bring in ancillary income from “The Long Tail” — but are also worried that without DRM their content’s value will vaporize in a haze of file-swapping. John Battelle, author of the forthcoming book, “The Search,” and the Searchblog, says that at least now the entertainment industry sees the opportunity.
I personally can't wait till full 3G nets hit the US. I spent some time with Sky talking this and other stuff over recently, and the result is my current column in B 2.0. TITANS OF TECH Surfing the Virtual Wave EarthLink founder Sky Dayton helped connect our PCs…
I personally can’t wait till full 3G nets hit the US. I spent some time with Sky talking this and other stuff over recently, and the result is my current column in B 2.0.
TITANS OF TECH
Surfing the Virtual Wave
EarthLink founder Sky Dayton helped connect our PCs to the Net. Now he wants to put Korea’s version of wireless broadband on our cell phones.
By John Battelle, May 2005 Issue
For more than a decade, no matter how you’ve wanted to connect, Sky Dayton has been there with the hookup. The coffee shop owner turned Net entrepreneur started EarthLink and built the Internet service provider into a billion-dollar business. Then he wove a patchwork of Wi-Fi hotspots into a nationwide network, Boingo. Now he wants to reboot the cell-phone business.
All along he’s been guided by two ideas: You don’t have to own infrastructure to sell service, and customers care about applications, not technology. That’s why EarthLink and Boingo thrived while rivals spent hundreds of millions of dollars on Internet backbones and Wi-Fi routers, only to go out of business.
For his latest venture, true to form, he’s renting out space on cell-phone networks to give American customers something that South Korea has had for years: high-speed Internet access over a 3G (third-generation) wireless network and sophisticated handsets packed with the latest technologies. While DSL is fast and Wi-Fi is fun, both tether you to a limited area. 3G truly puts the Internet “in the air,” as Dayton likes to say. EarthLink, where he is still a board member, and Korea’s SK Telecom are putting $440 million into the new venture, SK-EarthLink, for which Dayton will serve as CEO while it prepares for a launch of service this year. Business 2.0 sat down with Dayton in his Santa Monica, Calif., office to get a preview of the wireless future.
How did South Korea get so far ahead of us in wireless?
Part of it is technical. They bet on Qualcomm (QCOM) technology, which is now the basis of all 3G networks. Lately they’ve even overtaken Japan as the hothouse of wireless development. Sprint and Verizon (VZ) and Cingular are just now rolling out the high-speed technology that SK Telecom deployed more than three years ago. We’ve been living in the past. The other part is cultural. Koreans study and work a lot harder. It’s no wonder they got so far ahead.
So what do they have that we don’t?
The applications that SK has built are a glimpse into the future — live video on a handset, multiplayer games, and location-based services. To provide those kinds of services, it created a huge infrastructure: billing, video streaming systems, gaming, mapping systems, all that stuff. We’re bringing that over lock, stock, and barrel and plugging it into the U.S. cellular infrastructure.
Why aren’t you building your own network?
I have a lot of respect for the capital and focus it takes to be successful at building infrastructure. It’s just not my core competency. EarthLink already had mobile virtual network operator agreements with Verizon and Sprint, and we contributed them to the joint venture. We have a foundation to build a house on now.
Which applications will draw users to the service first?
There are many I’m not ready to talk about yet. But there’s music and video and location-based services. On my first trip to Korea last summer, I was at a restaurant, and one of the guys was late. I asked his colleague, “Can you call him and see if he’s close so we can get on with lunch?” He said, “Just hold on a second.” So he flips open his phone, pokes around a bit, shows me a little dot moving on a map on his screen, and says, “He’s almost here.”
(continued in extended entry)
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