DISQUS

I thought I was going to get a non-tech jargon blog post again. But, of course, you had to throw one educational piece in there with the SEO reference. Classic Josh that I know.

Imagine how much more relief and fun it would have been if Jade and I were there with you and Sophia. I know I would have acted on your behalf. If someone is trying to cheat the system, we have to be there to make sure justice and fairness is served.

This has me thinking about the post that Fred Wilson wrote regarding fixing the IPO problem. He mentioned about the creation of a secondary market for private companies (namely startups) to allow entrepreneurs/employees/investors to sell/buy their stock. (http://avc.blogs.com/a_vc/2008/04/we-need-a-new...) Facebook and LinkedIn's news about these liquidity opportunities perhaps could pave way for this idea.

Great post, Charles. I'm a big believer Money 2.0 will succeed. The reassurance that startups must offer when asking for this private data from users is the same level of protection that banks and credit card companies use to handling online banking. If you're a user of online banking, my take is you'll eventually migrate over to one of those startup services. For those that don't trust the web can't be won. They will continue to balance their checkbooks with their handwritten checks and take their checks directly to the teller. Sites like Mint will only get better and they offer things the desktop apps can only dream of. And obvious business model is genious.

That said, I think the same will be done to "social investing." As much as innovation knock down the barriers to music and traditional media, I'm hopeful that sites like Zecco, Covestor (they are more social investing than personal finance), and CakeFinancial will open the door to much more transparency in this space. Their services will open the door to a much needed educational aspect that young professionals lack from their college education.

This is neat. Actually, this might be more appealing than their current site right now. However, there are still limitations with these "investment networks." You don't _LEARN_. So I guess if you're already comfortable in investing and believe in all your abilities, using a Cake or Covestor will be neat to prod about your success and fish for ideas. Ultimately, it doesn't give you the educational value add, though.

Rob - I think you can control your settings if you don't wish to receive any Flixster updates (assuming that's on Facebook?).

http://www.boygeniusreport.com/2007/10/03/black...

The next Blackberry 9XXX. :)

Hey Andrew,

Just wanted to drop my first comments on your blog after subscribing to your blog for some time now. :) It's interesting you bring up this point. Heck, I think the crowd your speaking to includes my team and I because we're in the process of building our product. (Not to mention it's also becoming a norm for all social networks to be doing this now...) It's important to have a "Newsfeed" type feature for sites that will make your user experience better. Facebook's system is great because while the feed is personalized, there's a sense of discovery and pleasant surprises. It compliments the user's experience while logged into Facebook. I'm not so sure I get the same vibes with many of the "other" sites. (MySpace and LinkedIn come to mind.)

Steve

Too many things on here. A bit too general for me. Good work, though.

Hi Charles,

I don't remember when I stumbled on your blog but I enjoyed your posts enough that I am a RSS subscriber of yours. :) Anyhow, I figured I add in my two cents on this topic.

I end up wasting my time on Tumblr, Twitter, and my Google Reader. Tumblr because it's the easiest way to blog/upload a picture, video, link/reblog someone else's post, and finally a stream feed of all the interesting things the folks I follow post. Twitter because I get latest updates (I leave Snitter, the desktop application for Twitter on) and it's fun. Finally, Google Reader to stay up to date on the latest news in the web space. It's also my way of getting free data whenever I'm lucky enough to have bloggers write about the industry that my team is building our startup idea around. (I read ESPN, too. But that's another story).

In regards to #1, what you can do is install a comment system Disqus or Intense Debate on your Wordpress to better manage your comments. It's like a social network for your comments. It might be good to check out. :)

Best,

Steve

P.S. Disqus was started by two UCD lads -- the college I graduated from -- so I am bias to recommend their product. heh heh.

mrshl:

If you were to look up ETFC on Google Finance (or any other portal), you would notice a downward scope over the past year. They had tons of write downs because of the subprime woes and are strapped for cash. There are rumors about them going bankrupt (but the vibe is that another company would gobble them up before they would go bankrupt). Either way, once the new broke about how terrible their balance sheet was, there were articles written that some users took their money out of EFTC and moved it to other, more healthy brokerages.

I love to this model to be proven effective. I will keep an eye on this.

Fred,

I love Tumblr. I'm addicted to this. It connects "me" in the most ways -- Twitter, Wordpress, my blackberry, quick photo uploads, easy edit functions, function dedicated to quotes... and I'm not even use all of its capabilities. Awesome. Perhaps comments could have been included. Then again, I think comments only look great when you have a loyal following like yourself. It looks scant and unmotivating to have a page full of entries without any comments. Like mine. :)

Steve

Nice investment, Fred! These games are addicting...

Nick-

http://www.facebookwidgets.com/p/Valleywag-Gets...

Surprising. Of all the wondering ideas out there and applications built, I guess whichever ones that see gold first gets the funding.

Bronze line traffic is Digg... 0.67... You're making me work hard.

I think I can tell you one of those sites... do I get 33 cents for my effort? The blue line is www.youporn.com.

Get me for my address... ;)

I just downloaded it onto my Blackberry. It's missing one core function -- it doesn't allow to check my inbox messages! While the application looks and feels very slick, that's a needed component that they are missing!

On a side note, the ability to upload photos, tag it, and stick it in an album was very nice.

- Steve

Hi Andrew,

My team over here in Davis, CA are interested in attending. I was on a response from Noah regarding questions about the Facebook application contest. By the time he responded and I checked, the discount for buying three or more tickets. For a small team over here, any way you can cut us a break? We should be eligible for the discount since we're bringing more than three folks over...

Thanks,

Steve

There with YCombinator.

Not to rain on anyone's parade, but is it newsworthy? Three Facebook applications built to get profiled.

I enjoy the articles, though. Mashable typically pump out articles a little faster than the rest of the Web 2.0 blogs. The content is slim, but nonetheless, the apps get what they want -- some publicity on a blog in hopes everyone will flock to their app.

Hi there,

I actually found out about this event a while back when I wanted to write my recap about Sun's Mashup event. So I thank you b/c I found this event to be very insightful and full of energetic, eager, young folks (probably b/c of the potential of getting connections for their own little startups?). Your recap was exactly along the lines of mine -- posted as a page on my blog. I attended Seth's for first session and then the Hot Markets one.

Anyhow, hope you keep up the writing -- your events listing is great for someone like me not in the area.

Best,

Steve

Good job on getting a spot! I didn't think other web entrepreneur guys existed in and around UC Davis so it great to know you. Good luck with everything.

- Steve

Good job on getting a spot! I didn't think other web entrepreneur guys existed in and around UC Davis so it great to know you. Good luck with everything.

- Steve