One More Travel Day

In which we leave the Vineyard for home, after seven weeks of being on the road. I'll post this weekend.

• Posted by John Battelle at 4:37 AM
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Web 2 LaunchPad Open For Submissions

The third annual LaunchPad, where we highlight cool companies in our industry, is open for submissions. The release is here.

This year we're doing something new - having a panel of VC judges who critique your presentation on stage. It's a great chance for a handful of companies - 6 to 8 - to present in front of all 1200 of the Web 2 attendees and press/bloggers.

Also, we are not charging a fee to enter or win, and the competition is open to any company that is pre-public - not just companies who are launching. If you want to enter your company, head here.

• Posted by John Battelle at 1:16 PM
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Economist on Google

Huh. Seems they've done their, er, book reading.

Such an ascent is enough to evoke concerns—both paranoid and justified. The list of constituencies that hate or fear Google grows by the week. Television networks, book publishers and newspaper owners feel that Google has grown by using their content without paying for it. Telecoms firms such as America's AT&T and Verizon are miffed that Google prospers, in their eyes, by free-riding on the bandwidth that they provide; and it is about to bid against them in a forthcoming auction for radio spectrum. Many small firms hate Google because they relied on exploiting its search formulas to win prime positions in its rankings, but dropped to the internet's equivalent of Hades after Google tweaked these algorithms.

And now come the politicians. Libertarians dislike Google's deal with China's censors. Conservatives moan about its uncensored videos. But the big new fear is to do with the privacy of its users.

This from the cover opinion piece. More on Google in the issue here. The conclusions and coverage are, well, familiar.

• Posted by John Battelle at 1:07 PM
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Yahoo ReOrgs, Again

Paid Content has an overview. Also NYT.

I am tired of Yahoo's internal focus. I think I speak for many of us. Get back to being Yahoo.

• Posted by John Battelle at 7:27 PM
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Hot LInks

Danny schools Scoble and shows us our own Gphone hype timeline.

FareCast launches hotels.

Google and MSFT hold hands on fair use.

A new news metasearch engine.

• Posted by John Battelle at 7:47 AM
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CFO Needed: Your Job: Not So Fun

Google CFO George Reyes is stepping down. He's, er, quite well compensated for his nearly six years of service.
He's got good timing. The future for Google's new CFO is going to be rough: Think Microsoft after Windows had its initial run. Ho to keep the Street happy when it expects double digit growth every quarter. Ick.

• Posted by John Battelle at 5:41 PM
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Boing Boing Adds Gadgets, Comments, New Design, More

Check it out!

• Posted by John Battelle at 10:35 AM
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Travelin' Back

It's the last days of summer. On my way back to the Vineyard for a few days before heading home. Wow, that summer went quickly...

• Posted by John Battelle at 9:21 AM
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Other Quick Updates

I am traveling today and won't be posting much, quick news:

Bloglines has updated. (RWW)

So has Yahoo Mail (TC)

Oh, and Orkut (Vbeat)

Go Speed Racer! (A pal of mine is working on this film)

• Posted by John Battelle at 5:19 AM
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It Starts With Deals Like This

And slowly, creators get a better deal. From the NYT coverage of the South Park creators's novel ad revenue split-based deal with Viacom:

But what is likely to draw the most attention in Hollywood is not the richness of the pact, but the network’s willingness to share its advertising revenue.

..“The landscape has shifted dramatically,” Mr. Herzog said. “The way of the Web seems to be, there’s a very low barrier to entry, so you don’t need, necessarily, a major media company to be in business, or a movie studio, or whatever it is — you just need to be able to set up shop and go. You’re seeing a lot of guys doing this, funnyordie.com being the best example.” (Funnyordie.com was started this year by the comic actor Will Ferrell and his production partner, Adam McKay.)

• Posted by John Battelle at 5:07 AM
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Social Graph Gets Scobelized

Scoble's got some bold predictions in video about the future of search here. TC picks up here. I don't buy the Techmeme or Mahalo claims, but FaceBook? Could do.

• Posted by John Battelle at 4:56 AM
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New Ad Models Abound

It's really a thrilling time to be in the media business. YouTube and now FaceBook are hard at figuring out conversational media. I shoulda posted on this Friday, when I did my voicepost on the YouTube ad model. I'll voicepost on FaceBook's, based on this Journal article, soon. The article is behind a pay wall, so I'll summarize and then riff. But not now, as I have 12 family members in a small cottage to feed...

• Posted by John Battelle at 3:06 PM
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For Me, This Means Vacation

• Posted by John Battelle at 9:44 AM
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Reader JG Writes

• Posted by John Battelle at 5:23 PM
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Accoona's Underwriter Bails

Shocker.

(previously)

• Posted by John Battelle at 6:39 AM
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Mayer At SES: Google Mobile Bump

Google's got a bump in summer mobile traffic, Marissa says at SES (ars). I have to say, this is consistent with my usage - I use Google a lot on my BlackBerry.

I have to say, I don't see why a Gphone makes sense. Just ride the top of the platform that is already being built in mobile....

What do you guys think? You want a Gphone? You use Google a lot on your phones?

• Posted by John Battelle at 1:07 AM
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Voicepost: YouTube (and Google's) Approach to Video Ads, Thinking Out Loud

I have to just call out to HP, and say thanks for making this possible. It's a really cool way to market, by adding value to the conversation in a very real way.

Previous coverage of YouTube's new ad unit.

My main point: Innovative in execution: Yes, but like AdWords was - lots of stuff that already existed, but packaged and moved forward. Innovative in the business model? No. And for now, that's the right thing to do.

Have a listen:

• Posted by John Battelle at 10:12 AM
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The Web's End

One of my simple charms, those who work with me relate, is that I'm totally blind to obvious stuff when it comes to UI. It's like I'm interface handicapped or something. If there is a way I can break the interface, I break it.

With that in mind, is it really possible that no one in this great web world ever asked the question: "How Do You Create Comments In Adobe Reader?"

Apparently the answer is yes, no one ever has. Not even at Ask. Yeah, I know, lose the quotes and there will be more answers. But still.

Meanwhile, I am still wondering. Where is the flippin' comment tool?

Update: I love this, hours after I whined about no results:

• Posted by John Battelle at 12:19 AM
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Skrenta on Mahalo, SEO, etc.

Rich has chops in this space. A very good read.

We know this from experience: No one will ever go to Mahalo directly, just as no one ever went to About.com, dmoz, Tripadvisor, Nextag, IMDB or any other vertical or broad-but-shallow site. Google is where everyone starts and Mahalo's distribution strategy has to be SEO. Its traffic is going to live or die based on SEO skill and Google's continued favor.

• Posted by John Battelle at 5:04 AM
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Watch This Space: Microsoft Edges Closer to AdSense

Over at Ars:

Microsoft announced yesterday via the Windows Live Blog that it plans to extend its Content Ads beta program to all US customers who wish to advertise on MSN properties. Previously, the program was limited to a small selection of advertisers and the MSN sales team, but it will now be available to the public to test out starting on August 29. The ads will be displayed on select Microsoft properties—such as Real Estate, Money, MSN, and Windows Marketplace—and will eventually expand out to other Microsoft-owned properties and "premium partner sites." If Content Ads manage to take off as well as Google's AdSense program, then competition between Microsoft and Google could heat up and force both to offer even better options to advertisers and, eventually, publishers.

• Posted by John Battelle at 4:52 AM
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BlackHat Blog Soul Stealer

Watch and learn as Justin, an engineer at FM, figures out how to defang a sleazy blackhat!

• Posted by John Battelle at 4:43 AM
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Embeddable Maps from YouTube

It warms my heart to see functionality that once was reserved for Big Guys, like AOL, get spread out to everyone. Case in point: Used to be the only place you see embeddable maps was at large sites that had done licensing deals with MapQuest et al. Now, Google is making it possible for anyone to have embeddable maps.

This is great, but read the TOS. By using this, you are bound by Google's overall TOS, including I imagine its use of any

data your create through using this feature. And you are bound by some interesting Navteq policies (that's the data provider), which are, well, read the fine print. In short: Don't mess with them. They are particularly irritated by any hacking with regard to automobiles, thank you very much.

And don't even think about using this in a commercial manner. Er, but, what is commercial these days? I guess we'll see.

The strategy is clear. Local is a huge business play for any search driven company. And the more distribution you get, the better. Smart, eh?

• Posted by John Battelle at 4:32 AM
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You in Finance? Check Out Money:Tech

Paul and Tim are partnering up for Money:Tech in NYC this Feb. Sounds great!

• Posted by John Battelle at 3:48 AM
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Google Responds - Welcome to the World Of Customers....

Customers weren't too happy with Google when it shut down Google Video. To its credit, Google responds:

We recently emailed you to let you know that Google is ending the
Google Video download to own/rent (DTO/DTR) program, and that
you'd receive a Google Checkout bonus equal to or greater than the
total amount of your Google Video purchases.

Since then, we've received feedback from people dissatisfied with
our approach to phase out the Google Video download to own/rent
program, so we've decided to take additional steps to address
these concerns:

1. We will fully refund your credit card for the total amount
of your Google Video purchases.
2. We're going to continue to support playing your videos
through February, 2008. We won't be offering the ability to buy
additional videos, but what you have already downloaded will
remain playable.
3. The Google Checkout bonus you've already received is yours
to keep. You can use your bonus at the following stores:
http://www.google.com/checkout/signupwelcome.html . Your bonus
expires on October 31, 2007, and the minimum purchase amount must
be equal to or greater than your bonus amount, before shipping and
tax.

• Posted by John Battelle at 3:37 AM
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Tafiti

Check out Microsoft's experimental engine, Tafiti ("to research" in Swahili, we are certainly running out of search names). You have to install Silverlight first (I covered this technology, an answer to Flash/Ajax, here and in particular here). Turns out, there's Silverlight for the Mac (WOW!).

So this is a play to do several things. One, to show off Silverlight. Fair enough - check out the Tree View, pictured here, kinda cool. Two, to execute a cool application that helps people share search sessions. From an email I got from Microsoft:

Tafiti helps people use the Web for research that spans multiple queries and sessions by helping them visualize, store and share the result. Search is becoming increasingly specialized, across different user scenarios, vertical subject areas and entry points. What works well for simple destination searches doesn’t necessarily work as well for more sophisticated research projects.

You can drag your results, literally, to a shelf on the right and store them, share them, etc.

And finally, well, if this works, it'll help create a database of metadata that might inform better search. It's all very As We May Think.

Here's the FAQ.

• Posted by John Battelle at 1:21 AM
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YouTube Unveils Ad Strategy

Instead of pre roll or post roll, Google and YouTube come up with an overlay with integrated player. For now it's only with select partners on select videos (ie, the commercial ones). The really interesting question is when/how this will scale to the tail. I'll comment on it more later, for now, read the Merc...

And take a look at this pic:

and this explanation of how it works from the overview sent to me by YT:

• Posted by John Battelle at 12:44 AM
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Light Day

There is a lot going on, but I'll write about it later. Today I am taking off.

• Posted by John Battelle at 5:57 AM
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The Social Graph

PageRank was based on a big graph: the links that make up the web. The next breakthrough, many argue, will be based on the social graph, the links between us all. Facebook is clearly based on this insight. If you are interested in this issue, and feel it's important (I do, in particular, who owns and profits from this information), read this write up from Brad Fitzpatrick who, it turns out, started at Google....today. Also working on this is David Recordon, who is going to Six Apart to work on these ideas. Interesting!

• Posted by John Battelle at 11:30 AM
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Comscore Launches qSearch 2.0

From the release:

comScore, Inc. , a leader in measuring the digital world, today announced the launch of comScore qSearch 2.0, the second generation of search measurement. Previously, the search universe was defined as searches occurring at the major Web search engines. With search becoming a more ubiquitous activity across the Web, comScore is expanding the market view of the search universe to encompass other searches that occur on the Internet.

comScore's qSearch 2.0 interface will provide clients with an in-depth view of the search universe in the U.S. and worldwide that encompasses:

-- Core Search Engines -- the five major U.S. search engines (i.e. Google
Sites, Yahoo! Sites, Microsoft Sites, Ask Network and Time Warner
Network).
-- Top 50 properties worldwide where search activity is observed, which
includes sites such as MySpace, Baidu, and Naver.
-- Major "vertical" search locations -- such as eBay and Amazon in retail
and Expedia in travel.
-- Partner Search -- searches initiated at partner sites that redirect the
visitor to a search engine site.
-- Cross-Channel Search -- counts multiple searches when employing more
than one search tab (e.g. Web, images, news) for a single search term.
-- Local Search -- maps, directions, and local directory listings.
-- Worldwide Search -- includes comprehensive reporting of worldwide
search, with individual country reporting for the U.S., Canada, Mexico,
U.K., France, Germany, Japan, China, and Korea. Additional countries
will follow.

• Posted by John Battelle at 10:56 AM
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Rise of Conversational Media

The Times piece today adds a nice narrative flourish,keying off AOL's results, on the idea I've been talking about for some time now: That a new form of media is rising, and it's one that the portals are not quite sure how to deal with. (For more on conversational media, see these posts).

As advertising is moving from offline media to the Internet at a rapid clip, portals, which command some of the biggest audiences online, should be among the top beneficiaries. Instead, the travails of the mass market portals like AOL, as well as Yahoo and Microsoft, indicate a decline in power....

...Part of the challenge for portals is that people are starting to approach the Internet in a different way. A new generation of Web users has grown increasingly adept at finding what it wants online and is less reliant on portals for guidance. What is more, younger audiences are spending more time on social networking sites and less time on traditional Internet portals.

...Social networking sites are not the only culprits. Thousands of smaller Web sites, like blogs, news collectors and niche content sites, are also attracting growing numbers of Internet users and advertisers.

Yup.

• Posted by John Battelle at 5:52 AM
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Suing the Gray Hats

The trademark question keeps on keeping on. Friday American Airlines sued Google for trademark infringement. This is the same kind of suit that so far has gotten nowhere, recall American Blinds and the tons of others like it. When you look at the kind of companies that come up when you do a search for "aa.com" or "American Airlines," however, they are not United or Delta. They are cheap-o (literally) AdSense arbitrage services that perhaps irritate American because they subvert the airline's ability to gouge its customers by directing searchers directly to the AA website.

Just a thought.

• Posted by John Battelle at 3:00 AM
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Calacanis Profile

Fun profile of Jason in FC.

• Posted by John Battelle at 5:31 AM
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Google Turns Off Another Service

Folks thought they had bought videos for life, but Google turned it off. Folks thought they had a phone number for life, but now, not so much. Google knew this was coming, but it's sure not good PR.

• Posted by John Battelle at 6:22 PM
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WordPress v Moveable Type

I've got pals at both companies, and our authors at FM use both (I use MT). I've always wondered about whether the grass is greener, here's Mashable's handy review of both.

After tallying it all up, Wordpress comes out on top beating Movable Type in many areas.

Overall, Movable Type is a well put-together offering by SixApart definitely warranting a try: we’d say it’s actually superior for no-nonsense business people who want a professional solution fast. However, Wordpress is the stronger offering for the general user with great features and an unsurpassed community.

In a few months, as Movable Type heads towards greater openness, we think the gap will be closed. MT will certainly be worth another look around that time. And frankly, if you plan to spend many years with your blog platform of choice, why not try out both and see which one you prefer?

• Posted by John Battelle at 6:04 AM
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Newspapers: Stages of Google Grief

I've been arguing this for quite some time, along slightly different lines.

• Posted by John Battelle at 5:35 AM
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Heart or Head?

(image)
Having had multiple brushes with serious injury, several involving my spine, I've come to the conclusion that the most important organ in the process of healing is your brain, no matter where the injury is. This piece in the Washington Post really intrigues me. A fellow who has an artificial heart claims he has lost the ability to feel emotions. He feels "cold hearted."

I think this is all in his head. And I have no right to say that, as I'm no expert. But that's what I think.

• Posted by John Battelle at 3:00 AM
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Voice Post: On Being "On Island"

• Posted by John Battelle at 1:44 PM
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Truveo Relaunches

Truveo, which AOL bought some time ago, has relaunched today. More coverage here and here.

• Posted by John Battelle at 9:35 AM
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Microsoft's Positive Trajectory

It's a short story, but I wanted to note it as we see what Microsoft will do in search in the coming 12 months. From Reuters:

"Over the next 12 months, we've got a very aggressive engineering plan with multiple releases of search coming forward. So, I think we are on a positive trajectory," (Microsoft President Kevin) Johnson said in an interview.

• Posted by John Battelle at 5:44 AM
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DRM Lessons

Ken gives us a good one, in this early (Aug 12) piece on the lesson of Google shutting down video purchases.

See, after Google takes its video store down, its Internet-based DRM system will no longer function. This means that customers who have built video collections with Google Video offerings will find that their purchases no longer work. This is one of the major flaws in any DRM system based on secrets and centralized authorities: when these DRM data warehouses shut down, the DRM stops working, and consumers are left with useless junk.

• Posted by John Battelle at 5:21 AM
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Google Health Screenshots

Philipp's got em.

• Posted by John Battelle at 5:14 AM
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Henry Does Some Ad Math

Nice post showing trends in online ad spend vs. offline.

Put differently, U.S. advertising revenue at all 19 companies increased 8% year over year in Q2, to $13.8 billion ($55 billion annualized). The online portion of this pie grew from $3 billion to $4.2 billion (23% share to 30% share). The offline portion, meanwhile, shrank from $9.9 billion to $9.6 billion (77% share to 70% share). The online companies, in other words, picked up 7 percentage points of market share in a single year.

• Posted by John Battelle at 2:41 AM
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Google and Adobe

Allan Leinwand over at GigaOm (Allan is a partner at Panorama Capital) suggests Google should buy Adobe, to secure a position in video with Flash, among other reasons. This is one of the reasons we have Bruce Chizen, CEO of Adobe, at Web 2 again this year. It's a very interesting time to be Adobe.

• Posted by John Battelle at 2:18 AM
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Sun and Google Do Something

Looky here! All that hype, nothing of it, now this. (Via TechDirt).

• Posted by John Battelle at 3:02 PM
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Yahoo Beats Google!

In a study on customer satisfaction, anyway. (CNET)

• Posted by John Battelle at 2:41 PM
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Yahoo Upgrades Local Again

Of its many properties, I've found Yahoo's Local the most useful. Today the site got another upgrade. From the release:

Sunnyvale, CA – August 15, 2007 – Yahoo! Local (http://local.yahoo.com) unveiled a new look today, announcing a more robust relevancy algorithm and several new product features to focus in on what people want to know about most – what’s best and closest to them. The new version also offers users the ability to comment on reviews; one of several features designed to create more vocal and active user communities. Additional features being launched draw from the deep Yahoo! Local database of events, local businesses, and user ratings and reviews.

New features launched today on Yahoo! Local include:

· Weekender – Offers a weekly selection of events, movies (including show times and reviews), dining picks, Flickr photos, and more to help people plan their weekends.
· Comment on User Reviews – Gives the option of adding comments to user reviews, adding a new level of user-engagement and authenticity to reviews.
· Improved Relevancy Algorithm – Makes search results even more accurate by effectively taking user reviews and other UGC-related items into consideration.
· More “Local Buzz” – Shows the top-moving search terms in your hometown with a new search cloud and exposes the most recent reviews of businesses in your area to see what people are buzzing about.
· Best Local Events – Taps into the Upcoming social events database to include a more prominent display of the best events in your hometown. New venue pages also integrate upcoming events and more detailed venue information.
· Most Popular – Highlights the best of a city in the key categories of Restaurants, Health & Beauty, and Home & Garden.
· My Local Improvements – A new “save for later” feature allows people to save businesses or events to their My Local profile. The added ability to upload a user photo or avatar is designed to create a more personal and vibrant user community.

• Posted by John Battelle at 5:54 AM
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gBox

I missed this (MarketingVox) while traveling to the Doc's:

A string of announcements, unintended quotes and other moves have led to the early unveiling of a new music purchasing service.

A correction has been made to this story. The gBox is a product purveyed by Navio with ads served by Google; it is not itself a Google product.

First came the news that Universal Music Group would begin selling DRM-free music through a variety of outlets. Rhapsody, Best Buy and Amazon were all named partners in offering tracks from UMG, which would be in MP3 format and priced at $.99 a piece.

The non-inclusion of Apple's iTunes as a place for the songs was a direct slap in the face of the company, which UMG has been sparring with recently.

Some time ago the label announced it would not renew its long-term contract with Apple, opting to go day-to-day. Universal has been among the loudest calling for a new - preferably variable - pricing model on iTunes, which Apple has steadfastly refused to address.

With all this comes news of the trump card, the gBox by Navio. The gBox serves DRM-free music, courtesy of Universal, as well as ads from Google.
While gBox is not a music storefront in and of itself, it's awfully close. Users who search for the name of a Universal artist or band will be shown an ad, bought by Universal, that takes them to where they can buy the song. Google then gets a percentage of all referrals.

I will be getting smarter on this soon, and report back as soon as I can (embargoes, etc. will delay the reporting). In short, this is Google proving its PPA model, and doing os in a way that might make Eric's board meetings at Apple a bit uncomfortable for a while.

• Posted by John Battelle at 5:35 AM
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Yet Another People Search Engine: Peek You

PeekYou relaunches today. I've played a bit with it, the release claims it's better than everyone else, I don't see it. The bar ain't too high right now. Who out there is going to start to scrape all the social networks and get this right? OR is someone already and I'm missing it? PeekYou says it can do it:

A PeekYou profile helps other people find your websites, social-networking pages, photos, or anything else about you online. You can also create a profile for friends or relatives to ensure that they may also be easily found online.

But it didn't find my LinkedIn, MySpace, or Facebook page. It's not like I'm hard to find....

• Posted by John Battelle at 5:21 AM
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