Month: January 2004

Don’t Let ‘Em Lock Down Facts….

Mary Hodder has a good post over at biplog about the new push in Congress to overturn Feist. Feist is the case which established you can't copyright facts, like, say phone numbers, or the temperature outside. Congress is looking to change all that, and that is not a good thing….

Mary Hodder has a good post over at biplog about the new push in Congress to overturn Feist. Feist is the case which established you can’t copyright facts, like, say phone numbers, or the temperature outside. Congress is looking to change all that, and that is not a good thing. The EFF has a page on how to make your voice heard here.

Why does Searchblog care about this? Lock down facts, and search is much less useful.

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So Is It Hot?

Search Tuna – yes, Search Tuna, is a registration site that purports to take search deeper – like a tuna diving deep in the sea. Yikes, the metaphors, migod. But, in any case, I registered, and I'm going to check it out. Thanks to Tim Bray for the pointer. Tim…

tunalogo.gifSearch Tuna – yes, Search Tuna, is a registration site that purports to take search deeper – like a tuna diving deep in the sea. Yikes, the metaphors, migod. But, in any case, I registered, and I’m going to check it out. Thanks to Tim Bray for the pointer. Tim is surfacing all sorts of cool stuff in search ever since his On Search articles were highlighted in SEW.

Anyway, as to Search Tuna. Some tidbits from their “about” page:

Search Tuna performs a live, customized web search for you. This takes some time, but our goal is to always get you the best results possible. In this sense, Search Tuna is a results engine.

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The Buzz From the Blogorati Ain’t Great…

But orkut keeps chuggin nonetheless. Xeni sounds off about how she can't seem to bail from the system (I think they never considered that anyone would *ever* want to leave…), Marc gets tossed in jail without a phone call or a lawyer, Corante is not pleased (pointing out that negative…

But orkut keeps chuggin nonetheless. Xeni sounds off about how she can’t seem to bail from the system (I think they never considered that anyone would *ever* want to leave…), Marc gets tossed in jail without a phone call or a lawyer, Corante is not pleased (pointing out that negative posts and comments about orkut have been deleted from the system, at least early on),danah has a more than a few pointed words as well (and 19 trackbacks and counting…). Folks, the buzz ain’t so good. What to make of it?

Well, I think it’s fascinating, but I’m writing a book about search, and watching Google manage this particular herd of cats is simply too interesting to look away. So here’s my comment, for what it’s worth: pretending that this is not a Google project is disingenuous. Orkut *is* a Google project. End of story. Even if it wasn’t intended to be, it is. And the folks at Google know that as important as the influencers in tech might be, orkut, in the end, is about the folks who could give a crap about the blogosphere. I’ll wager they’ll ride out the initial bad reviews, and hope the masses join up. Unless, of course, a few major journalists write it up as a bust. It’s rather like the Dean campaign, no? Are Xeni and danah providing the primal scream?

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Why Good Things Come After Bad Things Happen…

A proof point in the creative destruction that thrives in the Valley, Marc Canter writes: What happens when you lay off 30% of the work force and give a LOT of programmers too much time on their hands? Blogging, social networking, rdf and all sorts of ways of connecting them…

snoflowjpg.jpgA proof point in the creative destruction that thrives in the Valley, Marc Canter writes:

What happens when you lay off 30% of the work force and give a LOT of programmers too much time on their hands?

Blogging, social networking, rdf and all sorts of ways of connecting them together.  Like FOAF.

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RSS Advertising

Does anyone know anything about this outfit: RSSAds. The site is pretty thin on details, but I'm trying to grok how a business model will develop for RSS, and this company is clearly trying to set up against that issue. Anyone else out there have input or ideas? (Matt?)…

Does anyone know anything about this outfit: RSSAds. The site is pretty thin on details, but I’m trying to grok how a business model will develop for RSS, and this company is clearly trying to set up against that issue. Anyone else out there have input or ideas? (Matt?)

3 Comments on RSS Advertising

The Orkut/Data Connection

Jeremy Zwadony nails a key reason Google needs Orkut – it's the data…Yahoo, MSN, AOL all have boatloads of data about their users. For future search models like local and personalized advertising, and for user lock-in, this kind of information is critical. So far, Google has very little data on…

Jeremy Zwadony nails a key reason Google needs Orkut – it’s the data…Yahoo, MSN, AOL all have boatloads of data about their users. For future search models like local and personalized advertising, and for user lock-in, this kind of information is critical. So far, Google has very little data on its users. Orkut could solve that, for a portion of the user base…if it would work, that is. It was offline (unintentionally) most of yesterday…wonder if they are ruing the .net decision…

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The Economist on MSFT

A good overview of MSFT's role in the industry, with special attention paid to the European antitrust case and the role Google plays as MSFT's next target….

A good overview of MSFT’s role in the industry, with special attention paid to the European antitrust case and the role Google plays as MSFT’s next target.

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A Chat With Halsey

Yesterday I spent the morning with Halsey Minor, founder of CNet, then 12Entreprenuering, creator of Snap, icon of the boom and bust, and now CEO of Grand Central. Halsey was his old enthusiastic self (not to say he ever wasn't, but it's not been easy these past few years, after…

Yesterday I spent the morning with Halsey Minor, founder of CNet, then 12Entreprenuering, creator of Snap, icon of the boom and bust, and now CEO of Grand Central. Halsey was his old enthusiastic self (not to say he ever wasn’t, but it’s not been easy these past few years, after all, and he did move away for a spell).

Halsey is convinced he’s got a winner with Grand Central. After a couple hours of whiteboarding, it’s hard not to at least see his point. The company is in a really interesting space, essentially providing the glue that allows for innovative companies to create really cool tools through web services. While web services as an industry has been on a three-year slow smolder, I think it may finally catch fire this year.

Should it ignite, I am not as convinced as Halsey that Grand Central will be the winner. He points out that there’s really no one in the space doing what he is doing, but then again, Jonathan Abrams probably said that when no one had heard of Friendster. If Grand Central proves the space, IBM, MSFT, and others will move quickly to own it. Halsey has a defense on this point too, but in the end, it’s all about execution, so we’ll see.

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Google Deflates Expectations

According to reports surfacing via the Times in London, CEO Schmidt is telling private investors that he is in no hurry to go public, especially given how much cash his company is already generating. The race to claim the Second Coming of the Bubble seems dealt a setback. Silicon.com, Times…

According to reports surfacing via the Times in London, CEO Schmidt is telling private investors that he is in no hurry to go public, especially given how much cash his company is already generating. The race to claim the Second Coming of the Bubble seems dealt a setback.

Silicon.com, Times of London commentary, and news story.

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