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OMG! It’s A New Yahoo Homepage

Yahoo has redesigned its homepage, on the same day it announced improved profits (thanks in large part to the painful cost cutting of the past few quarters). Quite directly, Yahoo says "This new launch represents the most significant change to our homepage since the company’s inception." That's quite a statement….

new yahoo.pngYahoo has redesigned its homepage, on the same day it announced improved profits (thanks in large part to the painful cost cutting of the past few quarters). Quite directly, Yahoo says “This new launch represents the most significant change to our homepage since the company’s inception.”

That’s quite a statement. I’ve spent some time on the page, and I’m not sure it lives up to that billing. The big deal, in short, is Yahoo’s promotion of other sites that are not in Yahoo’s immediate family – Facebook, Myspace, and eBay made the permanent list of integrated suggestions – you can get your updates on a customized Yahoo page (no Twitter, sorry) – and the first splash I got suggested – quite randomly – This Old House and a few others.

yahoo celeb.pngThe parts of the home page that are not customized are overwhelmingly LCD (lowest common denominator) – very celebrity focused, for example. What to do? That’s what binds us all, I guess.

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The Year’s Half Over. So How Are My Predictions Tracking?

I like to do this exercise from time to time – asking how my predictions for the year are holding up given six months have passed since I posted them.   Well, let’s see, shall we? 1. We’ll see an end to the recession, taken literally, by Q4 09. I think…

nostraD-tm-3-tm-tm-tm.jpgI like to do this exercise from time to time – asking how my predictions for the year are holding up given six months have passed since I posted them.  

Well, let’s see, shall we?

1. We’ll see an end to the recession, taken literally, by Q4 09.

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Bing Starts to Get Real (Time)

I've been complaining that nearly no search engines surface real time data (for now, that's Twitter, but Facebook is coming soon enough, and there will be tons more). In fact, I complained to Microsoft about this well before the launch of Bing, and then complained some more when Twitter results…

gore bing twitter.pngI’ve been complaining that nearly no search engines surface real time data (for now, that’s Twitter, but Facebook is coming soon enough, and there will be tons more). In fact, I complained to Microsoft about this well before the launch of Bing, and then complained some more when Twitter results were not surfaced in initial beta versions of the service. Man, I’m grumpy lately, eh?

Well, that’s changing. Sort of. From a Bing blog post today:

There has been much discussion of real-time search and the premium on immediacy of data that has been created primarily by Twitter. We’ve been watching this phenomenon with great interest, and listening carefully to what consumers really want in this space. Today we’re unveiling an initial foray into integrating more real time data into our search results, starting with some of the more prominent and prolific Twitterers from a variety of spheres. This includes Tweets from folks from our own search technology and business sphere like Danny Sullivan or Kara Swisher as well as those from spheres of more general consumer appeal like Al Gore or Ryan Seacrest. Starting later today, when you search for these folks names in association with Twitter, you’ll see their latest Tweets come up in real time on Bing’s search results.

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Juxtaposition Fun

Seen in my feedreader just now. I dunno, it just struck me, Google can't do a helluva lot to help you, Newspaper Industry….

Seen in my feedreader just now.

I dunno, it just struck me, Google can’t do a helluva lot to help you, Newspaper Industry. juxtagoognews.png

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It May Be Free, But It’s Sure As Hell Underwritten

There's quite a wonderful authorial kerfuffle happening between Chris Anderson, whose recent book "Free" has been the target both of plagiarism charges (from Wikipedia, of all places, oh the wonderful irony, one might think Chris actually planted the whole damn thing…) and Malcolm Gladwell, who never met a clever anecdote…

wired ads free.pngThere’s quite a wonderful authorial kerfuffle happening between Chris Anderson, whose recent book “Free” has been the target both of plagiarism charges (from Wikipedia, of all places, oh the wonderful irony, one might think Chris actually planted the whole damn thing…) and Malcolm Gladwell, who never met a clever anecdote he couldn’t convert into a well turned (and dammingly entertaining) book of his own.  

I won’t go into the whole thing, because, honestly, I just don’t have the, er, free time.

However, I do find it noteworthy that Chris’s much-linked to riposte to Malcolm’s initial evisceration comes on Wired.com, where, shock of all shocks, advertising is prominently featured. Free, of course, doesn’t come without a business model.

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And a NYT Profile of Aardvark..

..which I've been talking about for some time…from the piece: Having humans, not software, supply the advice is important. Max Ventilla, who formerly was at Google and is now Aardvark’s chief executive, said, “Often the most useful answers don’t answer the original question. Example: ‘You don’t want to go to…

..which I’ve been talking about for some time…from the piece:

Having humans, not software, supply the advice is important. Max Ventilla, who formerly was at Google and is now Aardvark’s chief executive, said, “Often the most useful answers don’t answer the original question. Example: ‘You don’t want to go to the Caribbean now — it’s the rainy season — you want to go to Hawaii.’ ” ONCE you try Aardvark’s service, you can’t look at Yahoo Answers, the current leader in questions-and-answers, without feeling pity for its now-manifest limitations.

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Profile of Google Lobbyist…

…in the NYT today. Google has begun this public-relations offensive because it is in the midst of a treacherous rite of passage for powerful technology companies — regulators are intensely scrutinizing its every move, as they once did with AT&T, I.B.M., Intel and Microsoft. Some analysts say that government opposition,…

…in the NYT today.

Google has begun this public-relations offensive because it is in the midst of a treacherous rite of passage for powerful technology companies — regulators are intensely scrutinizing its every move, as they once did with AT&T, I.B.M., Intel and Microsoft. Some analysts say that government opposition, here or in Europe, could pose the biggest threat to Google’s continued success.

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When Value Is Created, Let It Be Curated At Scale

Facebook's opening up even more, as CNet reports. Facebook has posted an update to its "Publisher" settings – basically, the instrumentation to your status updates – that makes it possible to broadcast the value you create in the social web through composition – of a status update, a blog post,…

Facebook’s opening up even more, as CNet reports. Facebook has posted an update to its “Publisher” settings – basically, the instrumentation to your status updates – that makes it possible to broadcast the value you create in the social web through composition – of a status update, a blog post, or any other action that you might wish to declare. You can instrument it to be seen only by your network, or your network’s network, or everyone – and it’s that everyone part that makes Facebook a lot more like Twitter in terms of the ability for developers to create interesting executions based on that firehose. Think about what Microsoft did with ExecTweets, but with Facebook scale. Of course, that’s just the tip o’ the iceberg. Exciting stuff.

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Google v. Facebook? What We Learn from Twitter.

Last week I wrote a post in which I opined a bit about Facebook search. In it I wrote: Facebook is way more than its newsfeed, and its search play is key to proving that value, and extending it….No doubt building Facebook search today is akin to building Google ten…

Last week I wrote a post in which I opined a bit about Facebook search. In it I wrote:

Facebook is way more than its newsfeed, and its search play is key to proving that value, and extending it….No doubt building Facebook search today is akin to building Google ten years ago – bigger, most likely, in terms of data, algorithmic, and platform challenges.

If only I had waited a few days, I could have pointed to Fred’s piece in Wired, out this week. He profiles the ongoing feud between the King of Search, Google, and the upstart, Facebook. In his piece, he writes:

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Thoughts on Online Marketing

Many folks have asked me when CM Summit videos would be posted, several are up now. They include the opener, above, in which I give a short overview of the state of online marketing from my perspective – start at about 6 mins in if you want to miss the…

http://p.castfire.com/fAMEb/video/107595/2009_2009-06-09-151450.flv

Many folks have asked me when CM Summit videos would be posted, several are up now. They include the opener, above, in which I give a short overview of the state of online marketing from my perspective – start at about 6 mins in if you want to miss the throat clearing of setting up the show and thanking folks I’ve worked with. Perhaps the key thoughts: People Don’t Join Ad Networks, and Publishers Are Communities of Mind.

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