November 21st, 2006
You are currently browsing the articles from the VoIP Digest written on November 21st, 2006.
The latest issue of Wired Magazine (a healthy 284-pages, including the holiday buying guide) arrived today with a cover story on YouTube ("YouTube Grows Up"). I haven't got around to reading it yet but it got me thinking about the many similarities between YouTube and Napster.
Both services came out of nowhere and quickly became popular with millions of users looking for free content. Napster, unfortunately, incurred the wrath of the music industry, which was far from prepared to consider the idea of selling music on the Web. On the other hand, YouTube's popularity came at a time when the large content producers, broadcasters, etc. had already realized there was a new distribution model to be leveraged even if the business models weren't fully-baked yet. While Napster got lawsuit-ed into oblivision (well, neutered and eventually sold to Roxio as a shell of its former self), YouTube was snapped up by Google for $1.6-billion, and its founders - Chad Hurley and Steve Chen - are hailed as entrepreneurs heroes.
So what's the difference between the two players? Napster was clearly ahead of its time, and the music industry didn't have the time, energy or creatively to counter-attack or strike a deal with Shawn Fanning. Meanwhile, YouTube's time was/is nearly perfect because everyone knew video was going to be big on the Web, and had started to gear up for it. It didn't hurt that Apple launched the video iPod, which hammered home the "hello, video is here" message.
Another difference is YouTube has been able to reach licensing agreements with content owners, while Napster failed to bring any of the major labels onside. Of course, it's still left to be seen whether Google can turn YouTube into a business (aside from making it yet another platform for AdSense). I wonder whether Napster would have enjoyed the same kind of adoration if Fanning had started it in late-2004 or late-2005 rather than 1999. Would it have made a difference? Would the record labels have embraced it as an exciting new way to distribute content? Who knows, it might have even been a legitimate rival to iTunes.
For more thoughts, check out Peter Cashmore, eHub and, of course, Mark Cuban.
Written by Mark Evans on November 21st, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Web 2.0 and video and Main Page and Music.
It was five years ago today when Yahoo signed a deal with SBC Communications, then the second largest phone company in the US. It was a sign of the times – a decidedly hip Yahoo was teaming up with the dowdy phone company, in a bid to over come the downturn.
SBC, since then has become AT&T and if all goes according to plan (like the BellSouth merger,) will truly become Ma Bell 2.0. For Yahoo that is good news, because many (if not all) of AT&T’s 8.2 million DSL subscribers use some Yahoo service or the other. It has been a profitable and stabilizing alliance, especially for Yahoo.
Back in the day when I had a DSL account, I got the whole package from SBC, just never bothered to use the CD that would have forced me to use Yahoo services. In fact I never used the SBC/Yahoo email offering, because frankly that was so mainstream. Mainstream is the right word. My sister uses SBC DSL and has a start page, which is well, Yahoo start page. It is also true of some of my non-geek friends.
Judging by the number of ads that pop-up just on the start page, and assuming that a measurable number of people are using the Yahoo services, AT&T must put a nice chunk of change in Yahoo’s pocket. However, since AT&T is a phone company, which means a tough business entity, there must be nice referral revenue flowing in the other direction. (Since publishing, a source has confirmed that Yahoo, does indeed pay AT&T for the traffic/referrals.)
The two companies don’t talk about the money that changes hands. Given that they are jointly celebrating their fifth anniversary, it must be some serious amount of cash. Not that there is anything wrong with it!
In recent times, Yahoo and AT&T have gotten even closer. Yahoo services are quite visible in AT&T Homezone triple play (DSL, Voice and Satellite) offering. Yahoo Messenger makes outgoing calls using the AT&T network. The AT&T alliance helped Yahoo sign up other phone companies including British Telecom and Deutsche Telecom.
The past, it seems has been perfect for these two partners, but deep down the future has to be tense. If you start stripping away the layers, it is Yahoo, which has an ongoing relationship with the consumers. The email accounts, the photo services or even the start page – those are Yahoo’s preserve. When a person switches from AT&T DSL, the relationship goes with Yahoo. A senior executive at one of Yahoo’s other phone company partner expressed big concern over this end-relationship, and posited that in the end it would become a thorn in their side. Of course there is the other option – AT&T buying Yahoo! Stranger things have happened!
Written by Om Malik on November 21st, 2006 with no comments.
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USRobotics has released their latest Mini-cam. The USRobotics USR9640 Mini-cam for Skype is the latest in a suite of Skype products USRobotics has released. In October, USRobotics released USR9360 Dual-Mode VoIP phone for Skype. The USRobotics USR9640 is Optimized for Skype and the USR Mini Cam features true 1.3 megapixel capture capability and full motion video at up to 30 frames per second. The webcam supports new codecs that enable high quality video from a small device. The camera automatically adjusts to low-light conditions, and includes image tuning options such as brightness, saturation, contrast, and horizontal and vertical reversing. Face-tracking auto-focus, digital zoom, and a full 70-degree viewing angle, make the USR9640 Mini Cam the ideal camera for both desktop and laptop video communications. The USRobotics USR9640 Mini Cam with Headset will be available in January and have a MSRP of 39.99 USD. Look for the USR9640 to have a street price of $29.99 or less when it hits retailers in January.
Written by Smith On VoIP - Insights on VoIP Products and Serv on November 21st, 2006 with no comments.
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Australian VoIP service provider GoTalk , has recently begun shipping its own USB memory stick that contains their softphone and can be loaded onto any PC or Laptop. Vonage launched a similar USB memory stick, the Vonage V-phone, a few months ago. From what I hear there will be more then a few service providers launching this same sort of device in the coming weeks. I do not really see the value in the device. It is touted as the ultimate solution for travelers, business people, and general nomads, but most people I know who use VoIP already have their softphone loaded on their laptop, which they carry with them everywhere.
Written by Smith On VoIP - Insights on VoIP Products and Serv on November 21st, 2006 with no comments.
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While some concepts, like photo-sharing, have seen more than their share of social web app activity, other areas are nearly untouched. Take personal finance. While it will take some tricky maneuvering to avoid overstepping privacy bounds, a recently launched startup called Wesabe is trying to take public the parts of personal finance that can collectively help people make better decisions.
Wesabe CEO Jason Knight’s pitch: “When it comes to personal finance, you’re all alone. if we pool our collective knowledge, we might know something.” Wesabe combines 43 Things-style goal-setting, local reviews and tips, and the nitty-gritty of your bank accounts. The idea is Quicken or Money software as a service with the addition of a community.
Key to Wesabe’s success will be company’s projected vibe. It has to be clean-scrubbed and shiny-faced to get users in the door. To that end, the site is well laid-out and easy to use (I especially like the “badgification” tool which turns any imported graphic into a tip button). Click on the “I’m freaking out” button at any time and you get a Flickr slideshow of kittens.
A downloaded client interfaces with your bank account so the startup doesn’t give itself a chance of mis-managing your passwords. Users have two identities within the system — the one they use privately to compile their income and expenditures, and the one they use to share tips and goals with other users. Knight is making himself personally available for customer support at an 800 number from 12 to 4 p.m., seven days a week (except Thanksgiving), for the launch period. Full export capabilities are promised, but not available yet.
On the personnel front, Knight and cofounder Marc Hedlund, who met as teenagers participating in the squeaky-clean Junior Statesmen of America, are self-funding the six-person, Berkeley, California-based company. Knight was formerly a marketing executive with various companies, while Hedlund was an entrepreneur in residence at O’Reilly Media after co-founding Popular Power and Lucas Online. For more personality, check out their Wheaties for Your Wallet blog.
I held off on writing about Wesabe while waiting for the team to finalize full support for my bank, Bank of America. (For personal background: in terms of financial software, I think once I bought TurboTax, but that’s about it. I do use online banking and bill payment tools as well as the simple and effective BillMonk to keep track of household expenses.) However, Wesabe is an interesting enough idea to tell you about it without fully testing the product, and those of you who use Washington Mutual, Wells Fargo, or many other banks should be fine.
Once within the interface, your bank transactions are automatically uploaded for your tagging and grouping. The system learns from other users, so if one of those typical inscrutable transactions “STORE 00021 PURCHASE #5698″ appears, and someone has already labeled it “Apple Store,” the system will tag it appropriately. Wesabe also surfaces collective wisdom by telling you how much you are spending on your services — say, car insurance — relative to its other users, and showing tips that are relevant to the tags you choose.
The system also tries to be smart about weighting feedback by gauging the relationship between a company and a customer. So, for instance, a captive user’s complaint about her mobile carrier would be taken with a grain of salt, while a clothing store’s fan club couldn’t easily push its rating off the charts.
Then, because an advertising-based business model would be entirely inappropriate, the company will have to convince users to upgrade from free to $4.99 per month (though early members will get the premium level for free through 2007). Knight admits the challenge is helping people save enough money that they will be willing to spend money on his product.
I think I will try using Wesabe for the next month or so. I did overdraw my checking account last week, so I already have my first goal ready-made…now I just need to find a good picture for a badge! Let us know if you think you could overcome your privacy concerns to make your finances a little less lonely.
Check out a couple detailed product reviews from Matt Haughey and Michael Calore.
Written by Liz Gannes on November 21st, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Featured and Software 2.0 and Startups.
A story in the San Francisco Examiner this weekend says that the rift is growing between those that think San Francisco’s planned city WiFi network should be owned and run by the Earthlink/Google team, versus those that think a network should be owned by the city:
At a meeting of the Local Agency Formation Commission on Friday, Supervisors Jake McGoldrick and Ross Mirkarimi indicated that the Board of Supervisors may soon vote to make San Francisco’s proposed public Internet service the property of The City.
Such a decision could put the Supervisors in conflict with the Mayor’s plan for the Google/Earthlink deal, and would no doubt
stall the city’s network considerably. Considering it has already taken the city this long to make the Earthlink/Google decision, we’re not sure if a sudden 360 turn would be in the city’s best interests. But we’re mostly wondering why a publicly-owned network is being investigated after this deal has been done already and not before?
On this recent news Craig Settles, WiFi analyst, says:
“this turn of events provides a very strong lesson on why cities that are considering, or are in the process of planning their networks, must execute a thorough and inclusive constituent-needs analysis and technology due-diligence. Based on what I have observed of their activities, had the people driving this initiative taken their time to first do the type of focus groups Philly did with the diversity of constituent groups, plus executed one or two pilot projects, there would not have been the steady drumbeat of constituent and activist discontent.”
Written by Katie Fehrenbacher on November 21st, 2006 with no comments.
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That's "World Of Warcraft: Eye Of The Storm."
You may think this is a pretty cool experience, but try it on an Internet without net neutrality guarantees.
In one of the other places I hang my blogger hat, I wrote a post this morning about a study by technology consultancy Ramp^Rate that says online gaming would [...]
Written by Russell Shaw on November 21st, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on General and Regulatory.
Like a lot of you, I spent some time this past weekend reading Brad Garlinghouse’s “Peanut Butter Manisfesto” to fellow Yahoo executives… also reading all the reactions in and around the blogosphere. Not to make light of a serious situation, but I have to agree with Nick Denton when he dubs Garlinghouse as Silicon Valley’s own “Jerry Maguire”.
While Garlinghouse’s memo was full of common sense and practical suggestions, I didn’t feel that it addressed the root of the problem at Yahoo. In my view, Yahoo’s most significant dilemma is a high-level strategic one… where the question is: Do we need to, and want to, be the king of search? Put another way… is Yahoo in direct competition with Google? The world certainly perceives it as such.
To further analyze this strategic question, let’s zoom out even more. At its core, search is a content aggregation and distribution platform. So to some extent, if your goal is to be the king of search, it is synonymous with wanting to be the king of aggregation and distribution for all the world’s content (hence, Google’s mission statement). But I say “to some extent” because search may not prove to be the optimal platform for all media types. Clearly, search has proven its efficacy with text and documents, but it still has a long way to go when it comes to pictures, videos, and audio.
Given that, one must qualify the desire to be the leading content aggregation and distribution platform with the specific media type/area one wants to dominate. For instance, as video becomes the next wave of media type to conquer, it remains very unclear whether search is the best path to aggregation and distribution. In fact, if YouTube (and most other video-sharing sites) are leading indicators, one can conclude that community is a far more effective filter for precision and recall when it comes to non-text media types. Which would actually prove tremendously beneficial to Yahoo… and therein lies the opportunity (one that doesn’t go head-to-head against Google’s strongest assets).
If you strip away all the layers that make up Yahoo, what you’ll find is the Internet’s largest communications and community company. And being so represents a comparative advantage versus Google… in all the areas where communications and community matter most. The challenge is to turn that comparative advantage into a competitive advantage by developing the vision and strategies that hit Google where they are most vulnerable. Put simply, Yahoo needs to leverage its strengths in communications and community to become the dominant content aggregation and distribution platform for all non-text media.
Ironically, the senior executive in charge of communications and community at Yahoo is none other than Brad Garlinghouse. As such, he is the one who needs to be held accountable for making sure that his operating/business units provide the necessary resources for overall strategic execution. Perhaps that’s what he has been trying to do internally but ended up hitting a wall. Whatever the case may be, it is Garlinghouse’s domain that needs to be opened up and become accessible by all groups/divisions within Yahoo.
And I’m not trying to be a Monday-morning quarterback here… in fact, 14 months ago I wrote a piece about the strategic implications and significance of community, and how companies like Yahoo would increasingly gain their competitive edge from the consumers themselves (now that they are also producers and developers). As such, it’s critical to realize that the priorities of “marketing” have been inversed… whereas the primary function of marketing used to be to broadcast a product’s benefit to consumers, the priority of marketing now should be to be a proxy for consumer control, because it is the consumers who will lead your company to success. Just look at the recent successes of MySpace, YouTube, Facebook, etc. These companies let their users create their competitive advantages… the win did not come from central product planning. That said, I was wrong back then when I stated that Yahoo seems to be doing it right… they failed to execute.
Google injects every initiative it can with its core search DNA. Yahoo must do the same with its communications and community DNA. And on that front, my advice is to first dismantle the ill-conceived Yahoo Media Group and reorganize its interface to traditional media and Hollywood with its core social media assets. They made a very big and expensive mistake by bringing in a traditional broadcast TV executive to run this group… one that AOL seems destined to repeat with their recent executive shuffle. The rules of broadcast media are antithetical to the factors that drive social media, and the thing that I will agree with Brad on is that such insights and visions must be something that is intuitive and native for the leadership at the top.
Photo via Flickr by Football Squares
Written by Robert Young on November 21st, 2006 with no comments.
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Vonage announced a move this morning that if they handle it right- and that's one big honkin' IF- their customer service could improve several fold.
I'm talking about a new alliance with open-source relational database management system vendor EnterpriseDB. Vonage has already moved part of its trouble-ticket system for customer support from mySQL to EnterpriseDB [...]
Written by Russell Shaw on November 21st, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Vonage and General.
As more and more cell phone users access the mobile web, it’s not a surprise that mobile search is becoming one of the first widely-used mobile web services — fifteen percent of Koreans that access the Internet with a cell phone use mobile search, according to this Korea Times article today, and Google and SK Telecom plan to release their mobile search engine next month to push that number even higher. In comparison, 8% of cell phone users have ever searched the web via cell phones in the U.K., and a little over 10 million have tried it out at least once in the U.S., according to M:Metrics.
Given Google’s search-synonymous brand, this begs the question, how well will Google’s search fare in the mobile environment? If it is up to consumers and brand recognition alone, the company could easily dominate many of the world’s mobile search markets. Out of the 10 million plus subscribers who tried out mobile search in the U.S, Google was used around half of the time, or by 5.25 million users. But Yahoo also had around 4 million users and MSN Mobile/MSNBC had around 1 million. AOL Mobile, Go2 Search, and “I’m not sure who provides my mobile search” made up the rest.
Google might be leading off the U.S. mobile search market with its brand name, but the mobile web isn’t yet like the open Internet environment. Carriers, and handset makers, still dominate the mobile deck. Yeah, mobile web users can just type in any web site in a mobile browser, but the deck still dominates mobile eyeballs and some carriers don’t want to do a deal with such a dominant search brand like Google. That means Google might not as-easily recreate its web-based search success on cell phones. Tellingly, Sprint announced a deal with Microsoft for mobile search last week.
We were curious how much progress Google has actually made, doing deals with carriers and handset makers for mobile search. We asked Google and they compiled this timeline for us. How well do you think Google is handling the mobile search market?
Google’s mobile search deals with carriers:
- Leap Wireless - 11/6/2006
- SK Telecom - 10/30/2006
- NTT DoCoMo - 10/5/2006
- Celcom - 9/20/2006
- Optus - 9/14/2006
- KDDI - 7/19/2006
- Beeline - 5/16/2006
- Telefonica - 5/3/2006
- Vodafone - 2/14/2006
- T-Mobile EU - 6/29/2005
Google’s mobile search deals with OEMs (type of deal varies):
- Nokia - 5/16/2006
- BenQ - 4/27/2006
- Sony Ericsson - 2/28/2006
- Opera - 1/24/2006
- Research in Motion - 1/12/2006
- Motorola - 1/5/2006
Written by Katie Fehrenbacher on November 21st, 2006 with no comments.
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Akamai has bought Nine Systems for about $160 million dollars, the company announced this morning. We had previously reported on this pending merger exclusively. We had asked Akamai to respond, but kept on waiting, only to read about the news on the wires.
The transaction price is being pegged at around $150 million, or roughly nine times revenue. Our sources say that the deal could be announced sometime later this month. Nine Systems specializes in streaming rich media over the Internet, and will become a value-added service for Akamai, which needs to add more such services in order to fight off commoditization of its CDN business, when that happens.
Under terms of the agreement, Akamai will acquire all of the outstanding common stock, preferred stock, and vested and unvested stock options of Nine Systems by issuing approximately 3.1 million shares of Akamai common stock and approximately $7 million in cash. Akamai plans to integrate Nine Systems’ Stream OS, a suite of configurable rich media management tools that enable easy production and publishing of content online, into the global Akamai network, the company said in a press release.
If Nine employees want to let us know how they feel about this deal, drop us a line. We would certainly love to keep close tabs on how Akamai treats its “acquisitions” after they have closed.
Written by Om Malik on November 21st, 2006 with no comments.
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The big story of last week was the launch of the two new gaming consoles, Sony PlayStation 3 and Nintendo Wii. With the launch of these two platforms, the gaming generation upgrade is near complete. So far, Nintendo is being viewed as the unlikely winner, and PlayStation 3 as the big loser.
Regardless of who wins, the proliferation of these new kind of networked devices makes you pause and think about the overall strategic implications of these devices, especially for the new-fangled Web 2.0 services.
Huh? Well, that would be my reaction, but hear me out. Both Wii and PlayStation are now shipping with internal browsers. Several other devices (PSP, Mylo, Nokia E and N Series phones) have almost fully featured browsers. In other words, we are transitioning from PC-as-browser-base to “browsers everywhere” reality.
The increase in the number of browser end points means more opportunities for companies that are offering web services – everyone from Google, Yahoo to Microsoft. A Meebo IM client designed specially to run on the Wii? Flickr slideshow application for Sony PlayStation 3, or a tiny widget for Yahoo Music for music playback?
Note from Liz: This week I stopped by Yahoo to meet with Patrick Barry, who directs the company’s digital home group. Barry talked about the thinking Yahoo has put into “the lean-back internet,” on a TV screen 10 feet away and accessed with the limited tools of a remote.
Barry toggled between a few DVR and media center setups, which included TV-ready Flickr slideshows and video search, saying everything but Yahoo groups, message boards, and shopping might find a life on the big(ger) screen. While most of the interfaces for these things are pretty terrible, the coolest mashup of TV and web services is for Yahoo’s popular fantasy sports leagues on Intel Viivs. Stats and league standings run alongside a sidebar, with chat (“smack talk”) coming in SMS-style. The idea is for sports fans to “leave the laptop out of your lap and eat your chips,” says Barry.
These web-based services (or widgets) can especially shine on connected devices like Wii and PlayStation 3. This is a thought I just cannot shake off! If you would like to share your thoughts, let us know.
The post first appeared as part of GigaOM Weekly email newsletter dated November 19, 2006
Written by Om Malik on November 21st, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on online games and Software 2.0.
Merrill Lynch analyst Vivek Ayra has seen the light about the Blackberry Pearl. Based on strong-than-expected demand for the Pearl, Ayra has bumped up his 12-month target price on RIM to US$165 from US$135. His bullishness is based the imminent launch of a Cingular Pearl; a huge opportunity in Western Europe where smartphone sales are expected to grow 38% a year until 2010; low-cost monthly data plans such as T-Mobile's $19.99 all-you-can-eat package (Boy, it would sure be great to see those kind of deals in Canada but it's unlikely given how our wireless carriers have embraced "disciplined growth"); and the launch of new Pearl "siblings" such as the Indigo and Crimson, which will feature QWERTY keyboards (which is what will make me jump into a Pearl).
Speaking of smartphone growth, In-Stat has a new reported that shows unit sales nearly tripled from 2004 to 2005, and jumped by 50% during the first half of 2006. That said, In-Stat analyst Bill Hughes said there is reason for caution. "Many smartphone users continue to carry the very devices that smartphones are meant to replace. Also, users have been slow to add new applications to their devices. Most users have only downloaded a few applications." Tags: RIM, Blackberry, Pearl, Merrill Lynch, In-Stat
Written by Mark Evans on November 21st, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Main Page and Research in Motion.
Forget about the Peanut Butter Manifesto; Yahoo's latest strategic foray (aside from buying Web start-ups such as Bix..but not MyBlogLog) is a deal with seven newspaper chains (which collectively own 176 newspapers that collectively have 12 million subscribers and 58 million monthly Web site visitors) to share content, advertising and technology. This comes hot on the heels of a three-month test agreement that Google unveiled earlier this month with the New York Times Co., Tribune Co., Washington Post Co. and Hearst during a three-month test period.
These deals are getting a lot of coverage given the high-profile players involved but they should be viewed with a high degree of skepticism. How come? Well, striking deals is easy; making them work is a completely different thing. The newspaper industry, however, should get some credit for trying something different at a time when their operating and advertising models are under siege from online competitors. The big question is why weren't newspapers being as creative and aggressive much earlier?
As for Google and Yahoo, these strategic gambits are all about attacking other advertising markets. The newspaper ad market, for example, is worth $48-billion, which makes it a juicy target for new competitors. Obviously, both sides see these deals as win-win propositions, which is why everyone is so enthusiastic . But before everyone gets too excited, let's see whether the two sides can dance with each other. At first blush, you have to ask how both sides are going to play nice given the Web is attracting more advertising while newspapers are getting less. It would be easy to suggest the newspaper industry is getting desperate so doing a deal with the devil is better than doing nothing at all. In many ways, newspapers have only themselves to blame given it has taken them so long to determine an online strategy (e.g. free content vs. subscriptions) and embrace new tools such as blogs, podcasts and RSS.
Update: Eric Jackson has a terrific "open letter" to Jerry Yang and David Filo, which suggests CEO Terry Semel needs to go. Eric recommends Susan Decker as his replacement.
Tags: Yahoo, Google, newspapers, advertising
Written by Mark Evans on November 21st, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Uncategorized and yahoo and Main Page and Media.