Disqus - Latest Comments for Eric

Re: Firefox Mac Keeps Crashing On Me

Eric — Wed, 22 Aug 2007 12:26:33 -0000

I got so sick of having FF crash on me all the time that I switched to Camino -- and haven't looked back. http://www.caminobrowser.org/

Re: Rusting “Tesla towers” found in Russia?

Eric — Wed, 04 Jul 2007 19:41:22 -0000

Great find!

Re: A "citizen journalism" trifecta of failure

Eric — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 20:49:16 -0000

I was just thinking the same thing! But what about The Washington Post launching its own local site at around the same time?

Auspicious timing. Er.

Re: Yahoo: Somebody set us up the bomb!

Eric — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 16:49:44 -0000

That's "somebody set up us the bomb," not "us up".... all your blog are belong to us.

Re: Zoho Writer: Where the hell is Google?

Eric — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 12:48:10 -0000

To be honest, this publication broke the embargo last night so I published:

http://www.labnol.org/internet/office/use-onlin...

Re: Xobni is Very Cool | Charles Hudson's Weblog

Eric — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 18:17:27 -0000

I've been thinking about switching back, too.

I almost got Matt to switch to Gmail, but now that he's using Xobni....

Re: Google’s feast continues — gobbles ImageAmerica, imaging company

Eric — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 12:55:56 -0000

http://www.postini.com/news_events/pr/pr070907.php

Re: Caltrain ridership booms — Silicon Valley’s roller coaster

Eric — Mon, 30 Jul 2007 23:25:08 -0000

Well, gas prices are no doubt a factor -- however, other systems around the country haven't had the same success.

For example, Las Vegas: http://travel.latimes.com/articles/la-trw-monor...

Re: Nonprofit software provider eTapestry bought for $26.3 million

Eric — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 15:40:21 -0000

Right. I'll send that correction along to the Indianapolis Star, too.

Re: AdMob ups ante in mobile ad fight

Eric — Wed, 08 Aug 2007 15:51:53 -0000

I've heard $25-$30 CPM for Third Stream, but haven't seen confirmation.

Re: AdMob ups ante in mobile ad fight

Eric — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 04:23:47 -0000

@Jonathan Frate. Is this your first-hand knowledge, or are you referencing another source?

Like I said in the post, Admob isn't providing its revenue numbers.

Your criticism of the company may be fair, but based on the data from Jupiter -- and other sources -- the mobile ad market is growing fast, which is some cause for optimism.

Re: Redpoint backs Chinese virtual world/gaming company, Leeuu

Eric — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 12:46:28 -0000

Tangos, see update with the mention of GCIC. Do you (or anyone) know who Hipihi did get funding from most recently?

Re: Grayboxx, a notable local search company — to come

Eric — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 13:10:20 -0000

jtw: search for "grayboxx," instead :)

A. Smith: Yes, Ask is another one. And yes, there's hype around local search. Still, based on what I saw of Grayboxx's approach, I think they're doing something different that could work well.

Re: Surprise: chief executives out at Podtech, Technorati

Eric — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 03:27:52 -0000

Andrew, both companies recently took on a curiously small amount of additional funding -- but link directs correctly now.

Re: Facebook application bought for $3M [update: Or not?]

Eric — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 14:34:35 -0000

Thanks, Brandon! I found it interesting and updated story accordingly.

Re: Venture Vehicles, maker of high-priced electric scooter, gets backing

Eric — Mon, 20 Aug 2007 18:42:31 -0000

Surely at least some fact-based criticism of a concept car/motorcycle is reasonable?

Or maybe not, and we should change the title of the post to:

"Venture Vehicles, maker of the JesusCar, gets backing"

Re: Facebook debunked

Eric — Tue, 21 Aug 2007 15:27:13 -0000

MOTHER, what does being "jewish" have to do with anything? Keep garbage statements like that off this blog.

Re: The anti-iTunes movement: gBox, Universal, Wal-Mart, MTV, Rhapsody

Eric — Wed, 22 Aug 2007 16:59:22 -0000

Why yes, I did. Thx.

Re: IBM’s QEDwiki — Web 2.0 widgets for big businesses

Eric — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 14:08:07 -0000

C Weinberg: There certainly are an increasing number of business-focused app marketplaces. I'll be writing about this area in more depth.

Re: Yahoo buys Buzztracker for $5 million

Eric — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 17:01:55 -0000

Thanks. Clarified paragraph.

Re: Mint: The easiest way to manage your personal finances

Eric — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 21:54:33 -0000

Well, I gave Mint my personal data. I trust Mint at least as much as I trust Bank of America, frankly. Also, the US government can access anything BofA has and much more. Who do you trust?

Re: Email company Xobni launches, may steal Techcrunch prize

Eric — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 23:11:11 -0000

Well, I use Gmail -- and living in the Valley is expensive -- so I might have voted for Mint. But it does seem like a lot of Outlook users are impressed with Xobni. I could sure use Xobni for Gmail.

Re: Cookie tracking: How Facebook could be worth $100 billion?

Eric — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 11:53:39 -0000

Todd Allen: Cookies aren't necessarily tied to a single site. Ad networks already try to use cookies to identify individual consumers across sites, then serve them the ads that are most relevant to the sorts of sites they've already visited. These ad networks are missing the data that Facebook users have entered into their profiles about what they actually like. Cookies may be the most direct way to identify Facebook users. Make sense? Also, I don't get the Princess Bride reference.

Chris: Even harder than having to read about all the hype around Facebook is having to write about it all the time. Still, don't you think a specific clue as to how Facebook could actually become so valuable is something worth reading?

Re: Cookie tracking: How Facebook could be worth $100 billion?

Eric — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 13:09:20 -0000

Todd Allen: My name is Inigo Montoya, you killed the point of my blog post -- that cookies are how Facebook's data will be applied to web ads -- prepare to... just kidding.

I haven't seen the movie in years, so I was a little rusty on the reference (thanks, Dave).

Re: Cookie tracking: How Facebook could be worth $100 billion?

Eric — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 13:43:16 -0000

A. Smith: This blog has let loose its fair share of criticism on Facebook's valuations over the past year. But remember back when everyone told Zuckerberg he was crazy not to sell for $100 million? Now, Facebook is making 50% more than that in annual revenue.

That said, I'm not endorsing the $100 billion number. I've pointed to what those who do believe it are saying, and I'm describing what their case is.

Please go read Lee Lorenzen's post that I linked to. For example, he points out that Facebook is on track to gain up to 200 million active users by next year. Whether or not you agree with such an estimate, a year ago would you have thought that Facebook would have doubled to 50 million active users today?

Specifically, if the number of users keeps going up on Facebook, this means the advertising value of each Facebook user doesn't need to go up in order for the company to become immensely profitable. Facebook would just know more about more people who surf the web, and would then help companies serve up more relevant ads to them.

Re: Hitwise: Facebook has how many more US visitors than OpenSocial?

Eric — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 18:50:01 -0000

MK: We've since published a new graph in a more recent story, that shows OpenSocial to be five times larger than Facebook.

Re: More about the Google ads that run inside Facebook

Eric — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 18:44:26 -0000

Thanks for clarifying, Scott. I've edited to reflect this.

Re: Google introduces group IM for Gmail

Eric — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 17:24:03 -0000

Andy, prepare for my not-Google-supported emoticons on IM

Re: Mizpee, a mobile service that tells you where to go (for clean bathrooms)

Eric — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 15:34:55 -0000

Brad and Zemode, I certainly agree that hyperbole is not worth reading.

Here's the thing. The company's concept scored it an exceptional amount of blog coverage. That coverage, at least, seems to have resulted in a significant traffic boost.

For other startups plotting how to drive traffic, this is valuable information. Mizpee, as I wrote, is a product of Yojo Mobile. It was pretty clearly designed not only to help people find bathrooms but to help Yojo get more brand attention for the next time the company launches a product.

Re: Bigger than Beacon: Politician presses Google on privacy issues

Eric — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 23:57:50 -0000

Pran, I agree.

To be honest, I have given up on keeping my online activity private. I mean, my internet service provider could track every web site I visit if it wanted to (in fact, it may be doing that as I write this -- I have no way to tell).

With that assumption, why not let these companies use the data they already have about me to serve me ads that I may be more likely to pay attention to?

I'm not saying I want all of this to be reality, I'm just saying it is reality.

Re: Google’s Knol, a challenge to Wikipedia?

Eric — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 13:28:14 -0000

Stephen, Google is in the content-hosting business now, not just the search engine business.

Consider: YouTube, Blogger, Pages, etc. Yes, these sites help Google make money through running Google ads.

Google is threatened by Wikipedia because Wikipedia one-ups content -- such as blog posts on Blogger -- within Google's own search results.

That means people go to Wikipedia instead of sites that serve Google ads.

Google then loses money. Knol seems designed to counter that.

Re: Roundup: Kyte gets more, Microsoft’s ad deal, NetSuite’s golden IPO, more

Eric — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 15:18:10 -0000

Did you have to post that, Chris?

Re: Scribd woos publishers, schools

Eric — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 23:43:34 -0000

DivShare claimed it was alive (but for sale) at the end of last month:

http://venturebeat.com/2007/11/25/divshare-says...

Re: Hulu launches private beta, faces challenge

Eric — Wed, 26 Dec 2007 21:41:44 -0000

Thanks, Gerald. We've clarified the Hulu beta launch timeline.

Re: Dear Google Reader: Use OpenSocial to figure out who my friends are

Eric — Sat, 29 Dec 2007 18:44:22 -0000

Jack, Google's definition of what public "sharing" means has been confusing to many people.

Many interpreted "share" to mean "share privately," based on Google's description of what the "sharing" option has meant up until the introduction of "friends."

Example: Text from Google's help page on the obscure, non-search-indexed "public" URL generated for your Shared items.

"Like any regular web page, your public page is viewable by anyone who knows its address. Send the link to your friends and family, and they'll be able to read what you've recommended. They can bookmark your page in their browsers for easy access, and they can even subscribe to it in Google Reader."

http://www.google.com/support/reader/bin/answer...

When Google says this is a URL that you tell "friends and family" about in order for them to find, there is no suggestion that Google will all of a sudden define your "friends" as people you chat with on Gtalk.

So there are two problems here for Google. Miscommunication about what sharing has meant and will mean in the future -- then, wrong assumptions about who your friends are.

Re: WhatsOpen shows you what nearby stores are open

Eric — Sun, 30 Dec 2007 14:01:04 -0000

Rob Scott, as far as I can tell, the company does a better job of showing you "whatsopen" than its competitors. That's useful. So I wrote about it last night, when the public beta went live.

Re: Facebook, Google, Plaxo join DataPortability workgroup — lots of hype, even more work to do

Eric — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 18:04:28 -0000

Hi Dick,

For my answer, please see my follow-up post, via the pingback below this comment.

Thanks.

Re: Associated Content uses Attributor to detect online plagiarism, grow traffic

Eric — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 15:37:53 -0000

Thanks, TheBarefoot. I've corrected.

Re: United Mobile raises round, offers cheap international calls from your mobile

Eric — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 01:37:25 -0000

Yuri, my understanding is that a nicely profitable chunk of international roaming rates does go to a US users' home carrier.

I carelessly used the term disk. I've fixed.

Re: LinkedIn to launch new research network

Eric — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 14:31:00 -0000

Brock, good point.

This is where the rubber meets the road when it comes to who owns your data: You, or other companies, or both?

LinkedIn can argue that it created the network -- that you're willing to pay for -- so it should own your connections inside of it.

Re: Comscore: Online video traffic surged in December — mostly to YouTube

Eric — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 14:52:43 -0000

Larry, I've just updated the post. Views have grown more than 34 percent since Comscore began tracking videos in January, 2007, with a seven percent increase in December alone.

Re: Actually, social networks and their widgets are making money, thanks

Eric — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 02:11:46 -0000

Luke, Dell's goal was to build its brand's public perception as a "green" company, which is what happened because the Graffiti competition got more than a million votes

This new public image could in turn lead to more Dell computer purchase by people who want to buy "green."

You're missing the point by trying to guesstimate CPMs -- I'm not even sure what CPMs you're referring to.

Re: Zynga launches Facebook game developer platform, which might prove valuable

Eric — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 03:31:23 -0000

Zach,

My information on SGN's Gaming Hub came from Facebook's own statistics, as I linked to, above. My point about the Hub is that since it launched, only less than two hundred people have added the application. From my understanding, the Hub is a central component of what SGN is offering to Facebook game app developers.

Re: The changing face of Facebook: Profiles get lift

Eric — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 22:01:44 -0000

Rob Gordon, fair enough. I'm willing to take heat for covering Facebook. I'm one of the people who think that it does matter. I'm making a point of covering why, as you'll see from the posts I've done so far about advertising, e-commerce, and other ways that people can create businesses out of social networks.

I know that according to pole I did last Friday afternoon about Facebook, *half* of a fairly random sampling of VentureBeat readers think that Facebook is doomed.

http://venturebeat.com/2008/02/22/facebook-hiri...

I generally do posts that argue against that argue against skeptics like you. But of course, you'll also notice that we do not-so-fawning posts about Facebook from time to time. :)

Re: Roundup: iPhone SDK rumors, Bischof at Meritech, and did Wordpress slap Fox?

Eric — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 22:15:44 -0000

Thanks for catching the typo, Yuri. Fixed.

Re: Facebook Platform = GooJan (Trojan) Horse?

Eric — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 12:39:04 -0000

Good call!

Re: The Sound of Young America Live in San Francisco

Eric — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 16:06:30 -0000

The headline, which I read wrong at first, suddenly made me wonder if the age of the average San Franciscan is dropping due to all of the 20somethings moving in to work in the tech industry.

Re: A History of San Francisco’s Tenderloin District by Peter Field

Eric — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 23:41:15 -0000

Great photo! San Francisco has a fascinating historical cityscape.

Re: LinkedIn Gets a Makeover

Eric — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 13:23:41 -0000

Touche, Nick.

I've never heard of Myspace being used for business networking, except by starving musicians. Myspace basically isn't a contender when it comes to social networking for professionals.

Imho, business social networking has the most opportunity for growth, as work-related social connections are integrated into the software you use in the office. LinkedIn is in the best position to execute on that.

Also, Myspace's strategy is disorganized. First they did their own big announcement about their platform. Then they said, "guys, we were actually part of Open Social the whole time -- get it!" And it's still not clear what app could be a big deal. Sure, Slide and RockYou and some other companies will exploit it.... but what are we talking about here, a universal Food Fight? :)

Re: Facebook to Spawn a Mullet Pandemic?

Eric — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 21:49:38 -0000

We agree. I should have been clearer: Top app developer companies have many reasons to join OpenSocial. This is one of them.

Re: Facebook’s Inconsistent Pages Policy

Eric — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 16:55:40 -0000

I've just spoken with iLike about their pages: They took some of their pages off the site temporarily due to an internal bug. Those pages will be back up. Facebook hadn't taken any action.

Re: Thanks for the push, Google, now leave Facebook to it

Eric — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 00:36:57 -0000

Pithy post, Dan.

Re: Public and private spaces, and why YouTube comments are so awful

Eric — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 15:16:23 -0000

I'm almost certain that the social network in Turkey is Xuqa.

Re: Mint Launches

Eric — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 04:19:17 -0000

Take a look at Cake Financial. It might be to your liking.

Re: 2007/07/20/bebo-developers/

Eric — Sat, 21 Jul 2007 19:32:57 -0000

I especially like the last point:

"What can beat Facebookâ€™s openness? Radical openness that doesnâ€™t attempt to tie the user to any particular site. That, however, doesnâ€™t seem to offer a great revenue opportunity."

OpenID needs to become more transparently useful to people, too. Right now most aren't getting it like they get Facebook.

Re: What I was using to hit Facebook — unreleased Plaxo Pulse

Eric — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 11:49:30 -0000

Plaxo was literally going to run this service for me this morning -- they told me how useful it [was] for you. Then I woke up to see today's news.

Not sure if I'm going to run it or not....

I understand Facebook's position, but I sure would like all my friends' contact info in one place.

Re: What I was using to hit Facebook — unreleased Plaxo Pulse

Eric — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 12:40:40 -0000

@Dan Birdwhistell

Plaxo WAS using OCR to scrape these email addresses. I just wrote about that here (sorry to link-spam in the comment section, Scoble):

http://venturebeat.com/2008/01/03/i-was-about-t...

Re: Plaxo to get bought by Facebook?

Eric — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 23:12:29 -0000

I think I heard that some of the Facebook engineers were impressed by Plaxo's script ;)

Re: Introducing Publish2: Networked News

Eric — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 13:41:53 -0000

Congrats! This could be seriously good news for quality journalism.

Re: Wrong On Hyperlocal: Google And Web 1.0 Killed Backfence

Eric — Mon, 09 Jul 2007 06:20:49 -0000

Great post. Makes me think of the opportunity for local media right now:

They need to use their established brands and their still-real print power to build their web sites.

I've seen a few college newspaper sites this year start doing really well over the past year or two, and the communities on them have exploded in size.

Re: Twitter Hype of the Day: Nightline Explains "Tweeting"

Eric — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 12:54:49 -0000

Peter, I came here to flame you for not believing that Twitter is the next big step forward for mankind, but I see I've been beaten to it. *sigh*

Now I'll have to write another post suggesting that Twitter is great for web developers, journalists, politicians and "social media gurus" but not necessarily everyone else, and you'll have to come tell me how I'm stupid for thinking that. Oh well.

Re: Forbes In Process Of Buying Social Bookmarking Service Clipmarks?

Eric — Wed, 08 Aug 2007 04:08:17 -0000

Maybe 75 percent not-quashed, based on what the founder is saying now -- http://clipmarks.com/clipmark/464EF3EF-BEEB-4C4...

A nice move for Clipmarks, considering the strength and breadth of competition

Re: 'Facebook Is Not for Sale'

Eric — Thu, 03 May 2007 18:15:18 -0000

Facebook opened up to third parties last August, and has been developing its API since then.

http://developers.facebook.com/

Most of the 3rd party applications that I've seen have been along the lines of "Hot or Not" but I expect more web companies to start connecting with it. The social context that FB can provide has fascinating potential.