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Can a tiger change its stripes? Can you turn water into wine? Can Ray Ozzie and Steve Berkowitz transform Microsoft into an Internet company from its Windows/Office roots? This is a question highlighted by the New York Times, which looks at Microsoft efforts to beef up is online operations through initiatives such as Live. At the risk of under-playing the dominance of Internet Explorer and the popularity of MSN.com, Microsoft isn't an Internet company and, frankly, it will never be seen as anything else other than a giant software company with some interesting side projects (e.g. Xbox).
This isn't necessarily a bad thing but it is what it is even though Microsoft has been struggling to convince people otherwise for the past decade. If you take a step back, Microsoft's track record beyond Windows and Office has been, at best, mediocre. A good example is television where it has toiled for years and spent billions of dollars to establish a foothold in the living room. Microsoft has acquired stakes in cable companies, purchased start-ups (anyone remember WebTV?) and, most recently, tried to developed an IP-TV platform for carriers. But after all this time, money and effort, Microsoft only has a modest presence in the TV or video markets.
Microsoft's problem - and challenge - is the Internet isn't part of the corporate DNA so it's hard to really be a vibrant and innovative Internet player when it's not really who you are. A part of this reality is Microsoft continues to make billions of dollars from selling Windows and Office. It's the business so Microsoft's lack of success in diversifying into other businesses is no different than what many other companies have faced over the years. Microsoft, however, is fortunate its core business continues to rumble along as opposed to being forced to diversify because the core business is eroding.
What Microsoft and investors need to accept is Microsoft will continue to be a software company with a Web presence as long as its continue to operate in its present form. If, however, the company decided to break itself into independent operations (Windows/Office, Xbox, MSN/Internet) then it might be a different story because each entity would have its own core mission and raison d'etre. In the meantime, Microsoft will attempt to fight the good Internet fight while chasing after dyed-in-the-wool Internet rivals such as Google and Yahoo.
For more on Berkowitz, News.com recently did a Q&A with him. By the way, read what you will into this quote Berkowitz gave the NYT about life at Microsoft compared with his previous employer, Ask.com: "I’m used to being in companies where I am in a rowboat and I stick an oar in the water to change direction. Now I’m in a cruise ship and I have to call down, Hello, engine room!. Sometimes the connections to the engine room aren’t there."
Technorati Tags: Google, Microsoft
Written by Mark Evans on December 10th, 2006 with no comments.
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Andy Abramson reads some reasonably definitive tea leaves and concludes that Yahoo! is de-emphasizing the Yahoo! Voice component of Yahoo! Messenger. Yahoo! Phone In, which I show you above, is an example of a Yahoo! Voice service.
The ultimate manifestation of that de-emphasis would be the removal of the voice component from Yahoo! Messenger [...]
Written by Russell Shaw on December 7th, 2006 with no comments.
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In a press release ("Yahoo! Re-Aligns Organization to More Effectively Focus on Key Customer Segments and Capture Future Growth Opportunities") that could become a classic case study for public relations students, Yahoo has cleared the decks for Susan Decker to become its new COO by firing Dan Rosensweig. You figure a media company such as Yahoo would figure out a more elegant way than issuing a 1,500+ word press release. Of course, Decker's ascension to COO has been the word's worst kept secret so you figure Rosenweig isn't too broken up about getting canned less than three weeks before Christmas. Tom Foremski raises a good point the speculation Rosenveig was the one who leaked the "Peanut Butter Manifesto" a couple weeks ago, while Paul Kedrosky wonders why co-founder David Filo's name is missing from the press release. Yahoo's biggest challenge right now appears to be figuring out what it wants to be. Does it want to be an Internet services companies or a media company? And how long does CEO Terry Semel stick around?
Written by Mark Evans on December 6th, 2006 with no comments.
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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.
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Rather than jump right into the Peanut Butter Manifesto comment-frenzy, I decided to let it simmer for a bit while doing some serious NFL channel-surfing. So what's the deal other than the shrouded motives of Yahoo senior V.P. Brad Garlinghouse, who thinks the company is spreading its resources too thin? If you go way up the strategic food chain, it may suggest the idea of trying to be all things to all people is fundamentally flawed. Yahoo, for example, has acquired everything from Flickr and del.ico.us to blo.gs and Musicmatch. The question is where there is a common theme behind Yahoo's M&A activity other than the need to buy cool technology/services and smart people? For that matter, does any of the major players' acquisition plan make complete sense? What many companies seem to be forgetting is their core purpose. In other words, what are they are offering and is that offering clear to potential and existing customers? What is Yahoo's meaning in life other than attracting as many people as possible and making money from them. If that's the strategic premise, the acquisition of Overture makes complete sense. As for anything else, that's open for debate. Perhaps the biggest concern from Garlinghouse's rant, P.R. exercise, power move, etc. is the M&A dreams may be coming to end an abrupt end for all those Internet start-ups who were banking on being acquired as a way to escape the reality a flawed or non-existent business plan, and/or a dwindling bank account. For an interesting look at acquisitions made by Yahoo, Google and Microsoft, check out this chart compiled by Shmula.com. Some other measured takes on the PBM come from Rob Hyndman, who believes it hints at senior management changes within Yahoo, and Mathew Ingram, who post titles - This peanut butter is del.ici.us - is among the most creative I've seen in a long time. Tags: Yahoo, Brad Garlinghouse, M&A, peanut butter
Written by Mark Evans on November 20th, 2006 with no comments.
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With all due respect, I believe that not enough of we pundits are grasping the big picture implied in Yahoo!'s announcement yesterday that it is pairing up with Cisco's Linksys division to offer a $99.99 list, Linksys-Dual Mode Cordless Phone for Yahoo! Messenger with Voice.
Let's look beyond the coolness- the handset with color display [...]
Written by Russell Shaw on November 11th, 2006 with no comments.
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With one of the pins on my BlackBerry's USB port unsoldered due to carelessness on my part and in the shop I have been using softphones even more than usual this week.
Over the last few days I have been conducting several conversations over AOL's AIM Phoneline, Yahoo! Voice, Skype, and even my Vonage softphone.
Bug [...]
Written by Russell Shaw on October 22nd, 2006 with no comments.
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This weekend marks the Indian festival of Dilawi.
Calls from the U.S. to parts of India are typically priced at 4.9 cents a minute on Yahoo! Messenger with Voice.
This weekend, though, Yahoo! Messenger with Voice is running a free calling promotion to India.
What we are seeing here is just the start of a trajectory that, [...]
Written by Russell Shaw on October 22nd, 2006 with no comments.
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I've been a Yahoo Mail beta user for the past couple of months. Although I really like the Outlook-like look and feel, it's far from perfect. For one, it seems to be a system hog. I can't you tell many times, I've had to wait for the inbox to load - during which it is difficult, if not impossible, to switch to another browser tab within Firefox. As well, the newest iteration somehow decided to no longer include my rogers.com e-mail address, even though it's the default account. It's a mystery because the rogers.com account was alive and well two weeks ago. As a result, I have to go back to the original Yahoo Mail service to use my rogers.com account. Looks like there is a bug in the beta.
Written by Mark Evans on September 22nd, 2006 with no comments.
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Found an interesting company that can do VoIP over EVDO, a popular high-speed data network used by Sprint, Verizon, and other mobile carriers.
PeerMe, today launched its free service designed to allow users of
Sprint EVDO mobile phones to make free unlimited calls. They currently offer a PocketPC and Windows Mobile 5 version of their client.
Actually, upon further review, my excitement over PeerMe has now waned. Although PeerMe uses VoIP technology to enable mobile phone users to communicate with other mobile phone users running PeerMe for free, it appears that PeerMe doesn't allow for PSTN calling. Thus, what you get with PeerMe is simply a PC-to-PC type service with IM capabilities. Well what's the point of that? PC-to-PC softphones and IM clients are a dime-a-dozen. How is PeerMe going to compete with the likes of Skype, Yahoo, Google, Microsoft, and others that offer IM, PC-to-PC,
and PC-to-Phone functionality?Well, maybe I should ask PeerMe that question. In the meantime, check out what their CEO had to say. PeerMe CEO Tom Lasater says, "Sprint has the best EVDO network in the U.S., but at the same time they have the highest churn in the industry and they signed up fewer new users than any of their competitors this year. We are giving them the ability to use their technological edge to become the leader in the U.S. wireless market."
"Nobody in the cell phone industry has done a marketing campaign touting the tremendous cost savings that can result from using peer-to-peer voice on a wireless broadband mobile device. Carriers are probably scared of cannibalizing their revenues, but lets look at the real cost of offering this service. Most people pay a flat fee for what is basically unlimited talk time within the U.S., so PeerMe usage is going to affect revenue from overseas calls. The reality is that the erosion of revenue from overseas calls already happened in the 1990s. Sprint should do a massive advertising campaign touting their EVDO-enabled devices as the solution for outrageous communications costs. Sprint could not only crush its mobile competitors with this strategy, they could also blindside the DSL and fixed-line broadband industry."
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Written by VoIP & Gadgets Blog on September 14th, 2006 with no comments.
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In Vonage Chairman Jeff Citron's worldview, the company may well be profitable in two years because- let me get this straight- the company will be able to pare down some of its outrageous marketing expenses.Why is this, Jeff?"You can walk into any room, do the 'Woo-Hoo' song and people know it's Vonage," Citron said during [...]
Written by Russell Shaw on September 12th, 2006 with no comments.
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Is
Raketu the next
Skype killer? Raketu today launched a new VoIP client that also offers information and entertainment services. Raketu’s communications features include dialout calling (
rakOut) to landline/mobile phones, Instant Messaging (supporting Raketu, Yahoo, MSN, AOL, ICQ,
Google and Skype), SMS-text messaging, and file transfers/sharing.
Raketu's information features include news, sports, weather, stock feeds, and an advanced internet and travel searching facility. Raketu’s entertainment features include a podcast reader/player, games, and a full featured multi-media player with karaoke. Raketu supports
click-to-call, click-to-im, click-to-sms, global online presence, and enhanced social networking features. I even noticed the software supports plugins,
including games such as the classic Battleships game. I guess this would be Web 2.0 meets VoIP 2.0. Still missing some of my "cool" features for the
perfect unified communications client.In any event, Raketu’s peer-to-peer (p2p) technology allows high quality VoIP calling and they claim the highest call-completion, without the security issues associated with supernodes (i.e. Skype) and other traditional p2p technologies. And unlike other p2p communications providers, Raketu does not use your computer for other users’ communications.
According to Raketu, "More exciting services are planned for the coming months when Raketu will launch in-bound calling, advanced voice mail, large conferencing, and more. Today, Raketu provides the most comprehensive integrated communications, information and entertainment tool available, providing more options, more control, and more personal activity features than any other service."
Raketu runs over any internet connection including <gasp> dialup.
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Written by VoIP & Gadgets Blog on September 12th, 2006 with no comments.
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Yahoo was right to get flustered when MySpace was declared the Net’s new #1. But if MySpace keeps growing at its current rate, Yahoo might have to face the music soon enough. ComScore’s July numbers are out and UBS takes a look: Yahoo is still the top site for page views and unique vistors, though MySpace is battling for a close #2 for total page views.
Yahoo sites had 37.7 billion page views for July, down 5% from the previous month and down 8% from the previous year. MySpace had 30.9 billion page views and grew 2% from the previous month and a massive 233% from the previous year. (Update: We used million instead of billion pageviews. Sorry about that.)
UBS says Yahoo’s drop is in part due to “summer softness” but let’s say if Yahoo dropped 5% every month and MySpace grew 2% every month, it would only be sometime later this year before MySpace actually does surpass Yahoo in terms of page views. Not that this downward trend is going to continue for Yahoo! Also, how come there was no summer softness at MySpace or Google?
Google still grew pretty fast, with 10.3 billion page views in July, up 1% from the month earlier and 69% up from the year before. And grew well on unique visitors too, with 103.9 million uniques, up 1% from the month before, and 26% from the year prior.
Written by Katie Fehrenbacher on August 9th, 2006 with no comments.
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The FeedBurner Networks and Adify are two recent examples of companies that are looking to cash in on the current boom in online advertising, and creating their own networks. They might not be alone, and even some of the older Web 2.0 properties might be looking to make an online advertising network play here. With nearly $16.7 billion being spent on online advertising, it is hardly a surprise that almost every is willing to throw their hat in the ring. The situation reminds me of the early days of Web 1.0, when ad networks popped up on a weekly basis, only to vanish is mists of time.
In the latest edition of the Om & Niall PodSessions, we discuss this trend and ponder about the issue of how some like FeedBurner share the bounty with the publisher. Will they do better than what the likes of Google, YPN and newer players such as Federated Media? Or will this be as Niall aptly writes is “another attempt to mine the seemingly free gold laying on the riverbed named user-generated content.”
Beyond that there are some other problems which these networks will have to contend with: the availability of crack sales teams with deep relationships with the advertising community, that typically moves at a pace slower than the Silicon Valley. The shortage of advertising sales talent is the Achilles heel of the new Web 2.0 ecosystem. (Ironically, the old media has a built in advantage here.)
Think about it this way – desktop applications that were once sold as shrink-wrap is now advertising supported. 411 services that cost as much as $1.99 a minute are being replaced by ad-supported services, and well even AOL is kissing a multi-billion dollar access business goodbye and replacing it with an ad-only model. Even Bill Gates has espoused a future where many of Microsoft’s services will be bolstered by advertisements.
You can listen to the podcast and comeback and your thoughts.
Written by Om Malik on August 7th, 2006 with no comments.
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Time Warner’s new found love for online video is a laudable attempt by the media giant to cash in on the hot new thing. But scratch the surface, and you find an online video equivalent of Frankenstein. Each division doing its own thing, with its own partner. And this is all within this week. Here is a quick rundown:
- CNN, (that belongs to Time Warner), is working with Blip.TV, which has licensed its software to CNN for getting video news submissions from amateurs.
- AOL has a deal and an investment in Brightcove.
- AOL has its own internal video efforts. Remember they also bought Truveo, which I guess is part of the new video search service, which allows them to sell videos including content from competitors. AOL also has UnCut video which is like CNN Exchange.
- Turner, a division of Time Warner, has invested in Revver.
- Time Warner has also invested in Veoh.
- Sports Illustrated, a magazine owned by Time Inc., the one that puts Time in the TW is working with Yahoo to do a video thing.
Now if that isn’t a bumbling strategy then what is! Why isn’t CNN using Brightcove? Or for that matter some version of UnCut Video. Why isn’t SI working with AOL. What the hell is the strategy here? When will they start selling The Sopranos and Entourage and all other HBO goodness? Okay, time to stop, and let you join in!
PS: Anyone willing to make a graphic of the frankenstein that is Time Warner’ online video strategy.
Disclosure: I am a former Time Warner employee, and currently write a column for Business 2.0, a magazine that is part of Time Inc., a division of Time Warner.
Written by Om Malik on August 1st, 2006 with no comments.
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All the buzz around video site YouTube indicates that the closely-held company could have a market value of around $1 billion.Given those numbers, it is only natural to crystal-ball YouTube's future: private, IPO, acquired, acquirer?To me, there are only six candidates with the business model and deep pockets to buy YouTube whole. Let me [...]
Written by Russell Shaw on July 30th, 2006 with no comments.
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Yahoo IM and Google Talk, both are getting major upgrades. Yahoo says its IM with voice is now out of beta and has published a list of 180-odd plugins that work with the Yahoo Messenger. Nice to see Pando right at the top of the most downloaded plugin list. This plug-in strategy seems to be working for them. Michael has rest of the details. Google Talk has a lot of new features, and the “Leave Voicemail” feature looks the most interesting to me.
Written by Om Malik on July 28th, 2006 with no comments.
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If you happen live in Northern California, (and most of you don’t,) then you might have noticed that after a few days of scorching heat, the climes have become a little cooler. More seasonal as they say. Why you can even see some fog on the horizon! That is also the state of the Internet stocks.
Yahoo disappoints, eBay balances (aka spins) and now Amazon’s earnings drop. Google, like daytime temperatures stay hot. Nevertheless, do you think this cold front coming the way of Internet stocks is going to last?
Written by Om Malik on July 25th, 2006 with no comments.
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On a day when most normal people would head to the beach, yours truly decided to head down to the sprawling GooglePlex, in Mountain View. This past Friday driving down Highway 101, you could feel that it would be the kind of day when the mercury would rise to record levels. Still, the prospect of getting a five-hour briefing from one of the more interesting technology companies was too alluring to pass up.
Most of the briefings were meant to be on background, but observations are for public consumption. Enduring the heat, and leaving the comfort of my double-screen deluxe digs, the biggest thing that was on my mind was – is there a method to the madness that is Google (GOOG)?
You can read about a company, you can chat with executives, and you can talk as much as you want with the analysts, but in the end it boils down to spending time, experiencing and observing company executives in their natural habitat. Similar visits to Yahoo (YHOO) (and other Silicon Valley giants) have helped form opinions about those companies.
So what mysteries did GooglePlex behold? Would it be a tightly scripted, public relations exercise, where one would have to read between the lines? Or would be it be a candid chat that would answer some of the tougher questions?
The inner cynic inside me screamed – dude, you are going to get lot of spin. As I walked towards Building 43, my initial thoughts focused on the sheer size and scope of the company, and what it must be doing to the chefs who dream up dazzling dishes for the Googlers! Not to mention the links in the chain of command!
Before the daydreaming got out of control, I ran into Chris De Bona, the open source evangelist at Google. A quick hello, a cup of black coffee, and soon I was chatting with Matt Cutts, one of Google’s software gurus
“When we were small, it was helpful to be very secretive, and it got into the corporate culture,” said Cutts, in response to my observation about this newfound openness (not that there is anything wrong with it) at a company he has worked for nearly six years. “I think we are talking more about our products now.”
Cutts explained some of the recent work Google has done in search, and its future plans. Cutts also pointed out that as the web grows in size and scope, Google is growing its infrastructure – both software and hardware – and growing with the web, improving its search results, making the crawl process faster. “In 2003, we used to crawl the web once a month, and now we update everything in two to three days,” he said. Some day, perhaps it will be hours, and then minutes.
(I wonder if we could come up with what could be an equivalent of Moore’s Law of Search, that could quantify the size of the web index, and how it correlates to bandwidth, storage and processing cycles.)
A nagging question, perhaps a tad too simplistic, I wanted an answer for — the impact of AJAX on search results. AJAX seems just the kind of thing that could outfox the crawlers. Cutts did agree that the AJAX was making life tougher for crawlers, and it was one of the areas Google was devoting a lot of its attention and time. “We are spending a lot of time on doing better analysis of JavaScript,” he said.
Cutts left me pondering about the importance of search to Google, and how it was still the brains behind the entire show. Following him were folks spearheading the Google WiFi division, Google Talk, Google Finance and Google Checkout. Their thoughts would surely find their way into posts on those topics, but it was head of Google Checkout, Benjamin Ling who brought home the real truth about Google – it is all about advertising and always has been.
He explained that if you spend $1,000 on the Google ad network, Google Checkout would process $10,000 worth of transactions for free. The more you spend on ads, the more transaction fee savings you get. “It will hyper accelerate our system,” he said. And with a twinkle in his eye, he said, “We make all our money on advertising.” Just like GMail that creates ad-inventory, and so will other little features that may or may not find mass adoption.
Five hours later, as I walked out of GooglePlex, I am more convinced than ever before - its all about search and advertising. Rest is just that … rest!
Written by Om Malik on July 25th, 2006 with no comments.
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The New York Times’ story on Yahoo v Google, says that only 44,000 Google Talk users. That can’t be true, and just doesn’t make sense.
comScore data shows a total of 976,000 unique users in June. comScore quantifies this number with “total activity” metric, which perhaps should be the only number that should matter. I have asked for clarifications from comScore. They have promised to get back shortly with more details. Worldwide, comScore data shows a total of 7,126,000 Google Talk users, and around 3 million people actually using the service daily.
Written by Om Malik on July 24th, 2006 with no comments.
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It’s no secret crazed eBay bidders generate a lot of sales in the last few minutes of an auction–maybe other Internet sites can add that same money-generating frenzy.
The mobile commerce startup behind eBay’s last-minute cell phone bidding system, UnWired Buyer says it has received a second round of funding for $6.1 million that will expand its current offer with eBay and could eventually help add more Internet commerce partners.
UnWired Buyer’s President and CTO Eric Smith says that the company’s auction service is already being used by “tens of thousands” of bidders through eBay, and that the company is looking to add more partners in the future. While Eric didn’t confirm any deals, he mentioned Google, Amazon, Yahoo, and even business-to-business sites, as possible targets for partnership.
Expanding beyond eBay might not be too hard. The service is flexible and easy to use for a lot of applications, given the company uses basic phone calls, out-bound-only calls, and VoIP for part of the back-end infrastructure to keep costs down. For any application that requires time sensitivity and inventory scarcity the service could add that last minute bidding craze over mobile.
For eBay, Smith says UnWired’s data shows that the service adds 17% to the value of the auction in the last 3 minutes–in addition he says when an UnWired bidder enters the bid, 26% of the time that auction had no bidders before it.
On those figures alone, Smith says the service helps Internet commerce sites by bringing in more sales. But eBay also takes a fixed fee every time an actionable auction happens. And the ebay users that are turning to UnWired are the hard-core users that buy on average 14 to 36 items per year, the company says. That gives Internet commerce companies a high incentive to keep those customers happy.
The company, which was formerly called gNumber, has now raised a total of $7.5 million to date, from Texas-based firms, Accent Texas Fund I, Aegis Texas Venture Fund, and DFJ Mercury among others. Not all the money being thrown around comes from the Valley, the Long Star state has been heating up too!
Written by Katie Fehrenbacher on July 17th, 2006 with no comments.
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Yahoo did not have to indulge in a makeover of their popular Yahoo Finance site, but they anyway went ahead and did it. Google Finance hasn’t posed much of a challenge so far, but it is nice to see Yahoo get more proactive.
C/Net News.com reports that the company is going to announce a new version of its site tomorrow, which will have enhanced interactive features including videos and charting widgets that users can embed in their own sites, such as blogs.
The new Yahoo Finance beta site features a full-screen application that allows users to add events like whether a company has had stock splits or dividends with one click, see competitor charts and click and drag to customize a chart’s time range, as well as type in specific dates.
It would be interesting to see what kind of counter move it elicits from not only Google, Microsoft and AOL, but from two other main finance sites, CNN Money and Marketwatch, both in desperate need of a major makeover.
Written by Om Malik on July 16th, 2006 with no comments.
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Internet Titans Amazon, Google, Yahoo, eBay, and IAX/InterActiveCorp joined together in writing a letter to Congressional Senators expressing their concerns about net neutrality. This is a clash of the titans for sure. Congress and the telecom/cable lobbyists on one side and large Internet behemoths on the other. Of course, a letter is a bit weak. The Internet titans need to pull out all the stops. Like cut the Senators access to Google.com,
Yahoo! and eBay.
When they can't get their fix of Googling, Yahoo Mail, or eBay auctions they'll change their minds. Yup, no doubt about it. If that doesn't work, just capture Pegasus in the swamp, fly to Washington, D.C. , put on your invisibility helmet, walk past security - no need to slap any officers (
ala Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney) - go straight into Congress's chambers, and using your impregnable sword given to you by Zeus, decapitate any net neutrality opponents. Ok, maybe not decapitate them, but give them a really good scare. Maybe wave the sword around making it appear to be floating by a supernatural force. Then pretend to be God and say "I am against blocking net neutrality. Do not anger me. Pass a net neutrality law..."
I'm just kidding.
Anyway, here's the letter:
Dear Senator,
We write to express our deep concern with the Advanced Telecommunications and Opportunity Reform Act, S. 2686. We ask you to insist that this legislation include meaningful and enforceable network neutrality provisions before it is considered by the full Senate.
The Internet has been an engine of economic growth and a vibrant platform for innovation and competition because of its open architecture. However, this open structure did not happen by accident; in fact, it is the product of non-discrimination rules that had long been in place to prevent network operators from limiting consumer choice.
Last summer, the Federal Communications Commission removed these protections. It is critical that Congress reinstate them in this bill and preserve consumer choice. The strong network neutrality amendment introduced by Senators Snowe and Dorgan would have done just that, but it was narrowly defeated in Committee on a bi-partisan 11 to 11 vote.
We fully support the goal of advancing competition in video services through franchise reform. But, as the telecommunications carriers increasingly use the broadband infrastructure to deliver their own video products, the only way to ensure that consumers will have real choice for video services is for Congress to re-establish meaningful network neutrality rules.
Without network neutrality, consumers will be restricted to online offerings limited by cable and telephone companies. For the first time, those companies - rather than consumers - will effectively become the gatekeepers to the Internet. Absent strong network neutrality provisions, consumers will no longer have the freedom to choose content from thousands of sources on an open Internet.Instead, the Internet will move backwards significantly with fewer options and limited choices.We ask that you protect their freedom.
We stand ready to work with you and your Senate colleagues to include meaningful network neutrality provisions in any national video franchising reform legislation considered in the 109th session.
Sincerely,
Amazon.com
eBay
Google
IAC/InterActiveCorp
Yahoo!
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Written by VoIP & Gadgets Blog on July 13th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Uncategorized and News and Google and yahoo and ebay and net neutrality and zeus.
That's the main Hip-Hop page from our sister (actually more like second cousin) site MP3.com. I see a Cingular Answer T9ones ad there. But why isn't there a Vonage, Skype, or Yahoo! Messenger with Voice ad there as well?Let me explain. Earlier this week the NPD Group came up with research that showed that fans of [...]
Written by Russell Shaw on July 13th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Vonage and Skype and General and trends and yahoo.
Yesterday Hitwise released stats that pushed MySpace into the #1 spot in terms of market share of visits, beating out Yahoo’s mail site for the first time. Murdoch must have been thrilled, but Yahoo was more than a little PO..d.
Yahoo responded by saying the Hitwise data was misleading and not accurate to compare MySpace with just its mail domain. A reasonable point, but Hitwise was still pretty clear on what it was claiming. A lot of people are debating this. I am sure folks from Hitwise would have something to say about this… we are waiting!
Written by Katie Fehrenbacher on July 12th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on yahoo and MySpace.
Following the crowd of the young online travel startups that are pushing community-based features, Yahoo is adding some more social functions to its Yahoo Travel site. While Yahoo launched Trip Planner late last year, looking to create a community around travel, the company has added the ability to share journals and check out other traveller’s trips on a tagged map. Yahoo has been adding more social features to many of its sites, including an upgrade of social-book marking My Web this weekend.
Yahoo Travel was already the 6th most visited online travel site in the U.S. in April says comScore Media Metrix, but it is increasingly competing with young startups that have the travel-based social-networking, blogging, and community-features down pat. Though, not the users yet.
Last month Gusto’s social networking-style travel site raised $4 million from investor William Darr, while blogging-based travel site Real Travel raised $1 million from private investors last November. Blog-based hotel review site Travel Post raised $1 million last July.
While VC’s are getting their check books out for community-based online travel, they shouldn’t expect Yahoo to be buyer. Of course, there are all those old school travel sites…
Written by Katie Fehrenbacher on July 10th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on yahoo and Start-Ups.
Google, Yahoo, Microsoft… most technology companies are using newer technologies (collectively called Web 2.0) to enhance the consumer experience inside the browser. Apple, however, is yet to incorporate these technologies and enhance the user experience for the customers of its for-pay dotMac service.
The $99-a-year service in the words falls woefully short of Apple’s otherwise high standards. Unlike the intuitive iPod, iTunes and Mac itself, dotMac is a bit of a beast.
Given that I have my early morning coffee in an Apple Mug, use an Apple pen to scribble notes, it pains me to write this - despite its shiny good looks, dotMac is not an easy web-service to use, and is very un-Apple like.
Which is a shame. With over a million users, it is not a small business, one with really high margins. (Some label it as an outright rip-off.)
Don’t get me wrong – there are a lot of good things about dotMac. The syncing of data between two or more Macs is a breeze, though there are free options available, if you are a do-it-yourself type. Still, lets start with three areas which I find seriously bothersome and could use some Ajaxification (for the lack of better word.)
iDisk, which Tao of Mac describes as “slow-as-molasses,” and I agree. [ Also, read Rui’s full scale rant on dot.Mac, which is seriously indepth and worth reading.] I could not agree more. Even on blazing fast connections, it takes forever to manipulate files, folders in the native state. I have had to resort to keeping a local copy, in order to get over these problems. It is the web-based access to the iDisk which is troublesome, and highly frustrating. Tiny start-ups such as Box.net have come-up with a nice and blazingly fast GUI for their storage service, why can’t Apple?
Apple Mail on the web is a throwback to the late 1990s. After using GMail and new Yahoo Mail, you know the web mail has evolved many generations. The Apple Mail, however, is slow, and non-intuitive, despite all those fancy icons. This is another area Apple should be adopting some of the newer technologies to speed-up the experience.
iCal, is another part of dotMac, which fails to impress. Sure, it is great on the desktop, (and I mean great) but on the web, all it is just a page, you can read, but cannot interact. What it needs is ability for users to add new events, and have sharing.
Having said all that, I think what dotMac on the web needs is a major rethink. It needs to come to terms with the reality of consumer expectations. This is not to suggest, Apple should use Ajax for the sake of using it. The end users don’t care – they want a good, fast and easy experience. And as it stands, dotMac cannot claim to do that.
PS: Given that there is a big community of us Apple fans, I want you to think how you would improve dotMac, send me your screenshots for a later post. If I like one, I will send you an Amazon gift certificate. All screenshots should accompany an email and if possible your website/blog address!
Written by Om Malik on July 9th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Google and yahoo and Apple.
In the ongoing battle between Yahoo and Google, Yahoo is winning on at least one front: Wireless. It is constantly launching new features, and new products to make Yahoo untethered.
ResourceShelf points to Yahoo Ready, a new utility that brings IM, mail, and contacts back-up. It is part of the Yahoo Go (mobile) offering. Too bad the service only works under a select amount of devices though some of the more popular ones like Motorola RAZR are supported. Still, it supports more devices than the limited number of handsets that can use Yahoo Go.
Elsewhere, MobHappy has a nice post on Yahoo’s ideas about mobile search, and the differences between search on mobile vs. the web–search on mobile uses more words than web search even though its much harder to input, given that the user wants to get it right the first time.
Written by Katie Fehrenbacher on July 5th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Unwired and yahoo.
The discourse and discussion in the blogosphere today is Google Checkout.
“The goal here is to make it be one nanosecond from the time the customer decides to buy to the time the transaction is complete and the product is on the way,” Eric Schmidt, Google CEO says in an interview with The New York Times.
End of CPC Advertising?
Read between the lines - this is a dangerous and most brilliant assault on the “cost per click” (CPC) plans of Microsoft, Yahoo and everyone else who is coming to the party … late. This move is about cost-per-action advertising. It is about kicking up the online advertising business … another notch!
Lets compare the two - CPC and CPA based ads. In case of CPA, there are no wasted dollars, no click fraud, and all the revenues are coming from sales. As an advertiser, you have no risk. You sell, you make money, Google gets a piece of the action. Why would you bother with other options?
Who Is Impacted?
This move impacts three companies mainly - eBay, Yahoo and Amazon - because these are the three premier gatekeepers of online point-of-sale info. Google doesn’t have the information, and needed it. If (bold for a reason 
) Google can make the Checkout work, the three giants suddenly have lost their advantage over Google.
Having said that - Amazon and eBay are more at risk. Despite having a large number of “proprietary eyeballs,” they lack their own advertising system, and need to depend on third party. Both should have built one, but they didn’t. Costly mistake perhaps, since they have existing merchants & eyeballs, and could certainly monetize their own traffic if they did.
Yahoo is in a better position comparatively speaking since it has its own advertising system. (Maybe there is room for a big merger in the web-space? Sramana Mitra believes eBay+Yahoo should just get on with it.!) A closer alignment might be necessary if these companies need to create a CPA based advertising model, and thus blunt the Google incursion into their e-commerce sales / reduce their advertising costs (many of which go thru Google).
Why Google Is Doing Checkouts?
Going forward, the much talked about Google Payment system (the Paypal rival) could give them even more leverage and hurt rivals in the process. But in a larger scheme of things, it could be trivial. Why because for Google, the real advantage is not just to gain payments market share & revenue, but to increase AdWords sales and reduce click fraud through the creation of a fundamentally better advertising system — that is, CPA-based ads.
Yahoo / eBay / Amazon had one significant advantage over Google the past few years — knowing point-of-sale data. As of today, it is not that much of an advantage. Sure they can launch CPA-based ads themselves also, but by the time that happens…
Written by Om Malik on June 29th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Google and yahoo.
Yahoo! Messenger with Voice 8.0 was released last night. I'e been trying this product, and have it open now. Lots of cool plug-ins. You can even add sound effects to your conversations.But there is something else in this rev that made me go "hmm."As I show you above, you can use the Yahoo! Messenger [...]
Written by Russell Shaw on June 20th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Skype and General and yahoo.
With more softphones on the market than you can shake a stick at, each with their own "island" of users that cannot bridge to other islands, I've become a bit disillussioned with the VoIP softphone market. Sure, there is talk about interoperability, support for SIP/SIMPLE, XMPP support, etc. but we still don't have a single unified client that can speak to
Skype users, AOL/AIM users, ICQ,
Google Talk, MSN Messenger, Yahoo! Messenger, etc