Should have noted David Rosenblatt leaving Google yesterday, yet another senior, well regarded exec finding Google not the place to be these days, also, Tim Armstrong has hired a Google colleague to replace the head of AOL sales, so there's a trifecta. Also buzzing: Time Warner is looking to buy…
Also buzzing: Time Warner is looking to buy back its AOL shares from Google (remember that deal?!) so it can spin the puppy out. I swear, if folks just listened to this guy back in 2004, we’d all have saved a few news cycles (and lord knows how much bleeding.)
Meanwhile, Google is “on a charm offensive” to try to stave off becoming the Microsoft of this decade, in terms of antitrust, Biz Week says.
Google cannot like the parallels (with Microsoft, in the late 90s). The DOJ has opened an inquiry into its book deal (one I have not, to be honest, entirely grokked. In fact, neither has my agent or my publisher, which is rather interesting….). From the NYT: The inquiry does not…
The inquiry does not necessarily mean that the department will oppose the settlement, which is subject to a court review. But it suggests that some of the concerns raised by critics, who say the settlement would unfairly give Google an exclusive license to profit from millions of books, have resonated with the Justice Department.
Over and over I've predicted that Google will be forced to act like a publisher, because there's only so much demand that can be harvested, and sooner or later, Google's core revenue-generating customers – that'd be marketers – will demand some help creating supply. Supply means branding, and branding happens…
Supply means branding, and branding happens in the magical world of publishing. Here are two additional Google initiatives that point the company toward that world:
Google launches Digg-like feature
Read MoreIf you want to know why Facebook is working so damn hard to open up its site and make the newsfeed and statuses its main currency, why Google and Microsoft are fighting to incorporate real time/super fresh results into their SERPs, and why it seems everywhere you look, people are…
If you want to know why Facebook is working so damn hard to open up its site and make the newsfeed and statuses its main currency, why Google and Microsoft are fighting to incorporate real time/super fresh results into their SERPs, and why it seems everywhere you look, people are talking about Twitter, then look no further than these graphs, from Compete and Quantcast.
I’ve seen inflections like this before, with AOL in the early 90s, with Netscape and then Yahoo in the mid 90s, with Google seven years ago, with Facebook four years ago….and here we go again.
The real question is this: Has the Twitter rocket reached escape velocity, or will its Internet competitors bring it back down to earth?
Read MoreI nearly re-upped my subscription to the online version of the WSJ this evening, so as to read this piece: Facebook Opens Site To Developers Of Services. But I found the text here – also on the WSJ site. Genie's outta the bottle. From it: The announcement, expected Monday, means…
But I found the text here – also on the WSJ site. Genie’s outta the bottle. From it:
The announcement, expected Monday, means developers can build services that access the photos, videos, notes and comments users upload to Facebook, with users’ permission. That’s a big change for the social-networking site, which has exercised tight control over the look and feel of its service and how developers can interact with it.
Read MoreYesterday's news about Yahoo's layoffs was well received by Wall Street (which seems to love layoffs in every sector except its own), and part of the optimism about Yahoo's future seems to lay in folks expecting Yahoo and Microsoft to finally get around to doing a search deal. I've written…
Yesterday’s news about Yahoo’s layoffs was well received by Wall Street (which seems to love layoffs in every sector except its own), and part of the optimism about Yahoo’s future seems to lay in folks expecting Yahoo and Microsoft to finally get around to doing a search deal. I’ve written over and over that I think the two should do this, but as time goes by and the machine at Microsoft continues to iterate on its own internal search play, I find it harder and harder to see how such a deal actually gets done, at least when it comes to organic search.
Now, I predicted in January this deal would get done, of course, so I kind of have a dog in this fight. But recall how I predicted it would go down:
“Microsoft will gain at least five points of search share in 2009, perhaps as much as 10. This is a rather radical prediction, I know, but hear me out. I think Redmond is tired of losing in this game, and after trying nearly every trick in the book, Microsoft will start to spend real money to grow share (IE, buying distribution), while at the same time listening to the advice of thoughtful folks who want to help the company improve the product. However, search share is half the game, as we know. The second half is monetization, and Microsoft will continue to struggle here, unless it manages to buy Yahoo’s search business. Which it won’t, because….
Read MoreOne of the principal things nearly anyone does on Google.com is a vanity search: We ask the question: What do people see when they put my name into Google? Today, Google is announcing, for the first time, that anyone can change what is seen. (The initial launch is US only)….
One of the principal things nearly anyone does on Google.com is a vanity search: We ask the question: What do people see when they put my name into Google?
Today, Google is announcing, for the first time, that anyone can change what is seen. (The initial launch is US only).
This, to be clear, is a Very Big Deal.
Read MoreThrough its experimental Google Labs, Google has released a news time line. I remember asking Eric for this in 2002, so it's cool to see it actually happen (clearly, it wasn't top of the priority list seven years ago.) Google's own description: Google News Timeline is a web application that…
hrough its experimental Google Labs, Google has released a news time line. I remember asking Eric for this in 2002, so it’s cool to see it actually happen (clearly, it wasn’t top of the priority list seven years ago.)
Google’s own description:
Google News Timeline is a web application that organizes search results chronologically. It allows users to view news and other data sources on a browsable, graphical timeline. Available data sources include recent and historical news, scanned newspapers and magazines, blog posts, sports scores, and information about various types of media, like music albums and movies
Read MoreWell that took a long time. I've had something of a week, to be honest. I hope to be writing again soon. Not only did I lose my hard drive, I also has some family issues arise which distracted me from writing. I'm finally pulling out of it, thanks to…
I’m finally pulling out of it, thanks to many folks. My blog software is reinstalled, and I’m almost there with the rest of my digital life.
Missing a week of writing (and normal work flow) made me realize how much I like to think out loud in this space. When I don’t, it feels rather like when I miss a few days of exercise – I get edgy and irritable.
Read MoreWoooohooo! Festival in SF for year two…..check out this lineup….
Woooohooo! Festival in SF for year two…..check out this lineup.
