Netizen

Sunday, May 10, 2009

Brands Will Still Matter

I am as excited about the social web as anyone. But I think sometimes we draw off the mark conclusions as to what the social web is going to do to various market traditions. The market is the invisible hand. It is like that magnetic force that so fascinated child Einstein. The web does not displace the invisible hand, or many of its fundamentals. If anything, the web makes it even more invisible - if that is possible - and more handy. The web makes it more invisible by making possible transparencies that could not have been imagined before. JP is in London - or at least most of the time when he is not jet set - and when he goes for a cup of tea, I get to know like I were sitting next to him. That is amazing transparency, if you think about it.

Brands will still matter, but just like the invisible hand will become even more invisible, brands will become much more alive. The staying power of brands that deserve greater staying power will be enhanced. Brand names that deserve to sink will sink and fast. It will become less possible to prop up brand names through dishonest marketing techniques. In a world thick with the social web, sizzle and buzz will go to those who will deserve sizzle and buzz. The power will shift much more to the individual, and is that a bad thing? Is that not what we wanted all along? But it will not be any one individual. It will be individuals across the board. It will be the masses come alive. But not your faceless masses of demographic research or focus groups. It will be masses of people interacting with close and not so close friends.

A great gift of the social web will be the possibility of many, many niche brands. For someone like me who was born in one country - India - and grew up in another - Nepal - and has been in a third 10,000 miles away for over a decade now - America - the web is the only place where someone can see me whole. Is that amazing or is that amazing?

Facebook Faceoff Firefox
Stand Up Comedy: Thinking On Your Feet: 2.0
Is Reading Socializing?
New York City: Transformed Forever?
Reimagining The Office
Stream 2.0: The Next Big Thing?
Define Social Media
The Stream, The Lifestream, The Mindstream
David Gelernter: Manifesto
Blogging: Monkey Business?
Content Is Queen
Converting To The Mass Follow Formula On Twitter
Blogging = Learning + Teaching + Churning + Entertaining
The United States Of Entrepreneurs
My Relationship With Ashton Kutcher
The Human Is The Center Of Gravity In Computing
Blogging Several Times A Day
Visionary Entrepreneurs Will Recreate The World

Facebook Faceoff Firefox

Firefox Could Be the Real Facebook Challenger ReadWriteWeb
Mozilla Weaves Its Firefox Cloud InformationWeek
Google Chrome- Faster Than a Speeding Browser Connected Internet

Google Chrome Update Scheme Beats Firefox, Safari, Opera InformationWeek

Firefox to converge with social networks, predicts analyst StrategyEye (subscription)

C for capitalism. C for competition. Capitalism is all about competition.

Some have compared Facebook to an operating system, to a browser. And that is not recently. To many people on Facebook, that is also how they surf the web. That is how they read the news, consume videos. And look at all those people writing applications for Facebook, like they used to write for Windows, like they do for the iPhone, like they do for Twitter. (Skype: Hub)

Google also thought, we already have the people and their contacts, we call it Gmail. But Gmail is not exactly a Facebook threat.

Firefox would have to go through a fundamental reengineering to give Facebook a run for the money. And how do you do that without losing the basic soul of a web browser?

For now I see a ton of growth space for Facebook, and a ton of growth space for Firefox. And Chrome's got plenty of buzz.

Fractals: Apple, Windows 95, Netscape, Google, Facebook, Twitter
What Should Facebook Do
Microsoft, Google, Facebook: NY Tech MeetUp Has Arrived
The Unfacebook

I am not saying the fight is over before it has begun. What I am saying is I am excited as to what a social Firefox might mean.

In The News

Do we all work for Google now? CNet
Kachingle to 'sprinkle' dollars to online publishers
YouTube slowly building ad-friendly content
Refresh alerts come to Facebook's home page 'stream'
Sun shareholders sue to block Oracle acquisition
Study: Bioelectricity bests biofuels on miles per acre

A Mom's Day Menu

Monday, May 04, 2009

Ggoats

Image via CrunchBase

Google Blog: Mowing with goats

Five Years Of Gmail: What Would Gsus Do?

Google gets goats in search for new lawn mowers USA Today
Google Hires Goats Reuters
Google Gets Goats to Mow Lawn at Company Headquarters FOXNews
My Day With The Google Goats Washington Post, United States Google's ever-expanding quest to go more green ...... the area was previously covered in 4-foot tall brush, but within a few days, the goats had eaten it down to basically nothing ..... These goats, which were being picked up today and transported to their next gig (at Morgan Hill), will do this field-clearing once a year for Google ....... a few of them got sick due to people feeding them flowers ....... the lack of shelter for when it was raining, and the electric fence that encircled the goats. ........ the goats did the job they were brought in for, and were very efficient in doing so.
Google Goats to clear brush Computerworld, MA
Google fields low-tech wildfire prevention: goats AFP
Google outsources lawnmowing -- to goats Bizjournals.com, NC
Things to make you happy: Google employs goats CNET News, CA
Google's Got Goats! InformationWeek, NY
Google gets greener with goats The Palmetto Scoop, South Carolina
Bleating Goats and Bleeding Hearts InternetNews.com, NY
Google to mow greenery with goats MINA, Canada
Grazing Goats Green Google's Grounds GreenBiz, CA
Google hires goats as low-carbon lawnmowers Mountain View Voice, CA
Great Green Google Goats! xchange Magazine, AZ
Google gets its goat IT World Canada Blogs, Canada
Google hires a goat herd Pocket-lint.com, UK
Google farms out grass cutting to goats Geek.com
Google Hires Goats UberGizmo, CA
Google Uses Goats To Lawnmown Clean Back Garden ITProPortal, UK
Google hires 200 goats to mow the lawn NewsLite, UK
Google Hires 200 Goats to Munch their Weeds Search Engine Journal
Google Hires Goats to Mow The Lawn Sustainability Ninja, Canada
Despite tough economy, Google hires 200 goats CrunchGear, NY
Google Rents Goats To Replace Lawnmowers (I'm Not Kidding) Norfolk.VA.MyCityTalk.com, Virginia
Latest Google staffers are a herd of goats TechRadar UK, UK
Google using goats to clear weeds at their campus TechWhack, India
Google lowers hiring standards, now employing goats The Inquisitr, Australia
Google Harnessing the Power of Goats to Mow the Lawn Gizmodo.com
Google Rents Goats to Replace Lawnmowers and Fertilizer Fast Company
Google and Yahoo Both Use Goats for Lawn Mowing WebProNews, KY

Just when you thought all the buzz had shifted to Twitter, Google got goats!

Sunday, May 03, 2009

Stand Up Comedy: Thinking On Your Feet: 2.0

What would be the 2.0 version of thinking on your feet? Thinking on your feet is having something to say. But it is not like your friends on the other end can tell. Ah, you looked at my status update for 50 seconds before you could press that Like button. That does not count.

The first thing that would count is being in the loop. You might have been my college roomie, but are you on Facebook? Sure we met at that party two months ago, but do you have my Gmail address? If you are not on Twitter, I am not going to hold that against you, but you are no friend on the bleeding edge, are you?

My enthusiasm for the various social networking sites comes from reading about stuff in the news. LinkedIn showed up, and I signed up, although I have never used it the way it is meant to be used. Friendster showed up and I signed up. I got my invite to Gmail from Google itself when Gmail came out. There was at least one smart relative I could not convince to switch to Gmail back then. Hotmail gives me more space than I need, he kept saying. It is more than extra space, it is different, I said. Not listening.

My own enthusiasm for the various social services has had its ups and downs. For example, right now I am kind of lukewarm on Twitter use. I still "get" it, don't get me wrong. But these past few weeks I have been more into blogging. I blog and then I send the blog post links down the Twitter stream. Because my blog posts automatically show up in my Facebook stream, I find myself logging into Facebook after a new blog post. Is it there yet? Is it there yet? I guess it is not real time. The delay can be anywhere between a half hour to several hours.

Recently I have found a whole new use for my blog posts. I put out a blog post. And wait until it shows up in my Facebook stream as a note, and then I tag a whole bunch of people to any particular note. I think 30 are allowed. You show up in all of their Facebook streams. Cheesy. Yes, I have been thinking about you.

Like my most recent blog post/Facebook note: Is Reading Socializing?

I decided to tag all my black/African friends from college days to that note, or at least those that are on Facebook with me. Let's have a little reunion here. Yesterday I created a few different groups.

Reimagining The Office (High school classmates)
My Relationship With Ashton Kutcher (A whole bunch of women from the college days)

I like the idea that when one of the tagged individuals will click on the note, they will meet a whole bunch of other people that they know. Happy Reunion!

Now think on your feet. Say something funny.

Is Reading Socializing?

Reimagining The Office
Stream 2.0: The Next Big Thing?
Microfinance, Nanotech, Biotech, Software/Hardware/Connectivity
Define Social Media
Peter Thiel: Primitive Mind In The Tech Sector
The Stream, The Lifestream, The Mindstream
David Gelernter: Manifesto
Blogging: Monkey Business?
Content Is Queen
The Human Is The Center Of Gravity In Computing

Strictly speaking, not. Reading is not socializing. Status updates are not the same as saying hello in person. 2.0 socializing is make-do.

One consistent theme at this blog has been that the human is at the center of computing. Face time not only matters, but is central to the equation. But when I say face time, I don't mean just the caricature of it. As in, don't look at the screen, look at me. I mean group dynamics, I mean the larger human affairs, I mean staying in tune with the big political developments of the day.

But where 2.0 is indispensable is that although 5.0 is key and central, that 5.0 can not stand alone. (Web 5.0: Face Time) You need a rich 2.0 environment to give that 5.0 the best possible shape.

Prime Minister Jhala Nath Khanal
Pakistan Is Where The Fight Is, The Fight Is Not Military
Barack's 100 Days:Cool In The Face Of Big Challenges
Genocide/Ethnic Cleansing Of Sri Lanka Tamils

Friday, May 01, 2009

New York City: Transformed Forever?

9/11 happened here. But that was the work of the Al Qaeda. America and the world were transformed forever. The financial 9/11 happened. But that was not the work of the Al Qaeda. The bungee jump phase has already lasted nine months. I think we are about to hit the plateau phase. (That Plateau Feeling) How long will that last? When will we see the take off phase? How soon?

The pain of the bungee jump has been very real. It has been across the board, it has been across the country, it has been across the globe.

There's death to disease, there's death to accident, and there's death to crime. They don't fall in the same category. Children dying to diarrhoea do not fall in the same category as people dying to genocide. Two investment banks falling to the global financial crisis does not fall in the same category to the two buildings falling to 9/11.

This city has lost tens of thousands of jobs that will never come back. The challenge is to create tens of thousands of new jobs. The challenge is to create new jobs, companies, and industries. The basic greatness of this city has not changed. This city still attracts the top graduates of the top schools in the country. This city still attracts people from every town on earth. This city still has money, and people, and the infrastructure. This city has the capacity to create.

This city has the option to reimagine itself, and claim an even more central place in the planet's imagination. (Silicon City)

Reimagining The Office

Image via Wikipedia

Technology will never substitute face time. (Web 5.0: Face Time) But is the cubicle the best way to respect that fact? And if you have to stare at the screen for several hours each day, does that screen have to be in a cubicle?

And if people become so central to the knowledge economy ways, don't sexism and racism and other isms become unbearably intolerable? I mean, if you are trying to get the very best out of each member of your team. You want each person on your team to give the very best they can.

And if it is the knowledge economy and knowledge workers we are talking about, what does it mean to be committed to lifelong education? Education never stops. What does that mean?

Stream 2.0: The Next Big Thing?
Microfinance, Nanotech, Biotech, Software/Hardware/Connectivity
Define Social Media
Peter Thiel: Primitive Mind In The Tech Sector

If the best idea could come from anywhere on the team, what does that do to the traditional hierarchy? Is there a hierarchy? Has the pyramid become a cloud? The best ideas might come from outside the team. What does that do to the team? Could the team be learning?

What would it mean to take a company through one paradigm shift after another, every few years? How long can you keep that startup feeling before you are big but no longer on the bleeding edge?

People will leave. You will ask some people to leave. You will outsource some of your work, you will crowdsource some of your work. What does it mean to have a core team in that sea of volatility? What does it mean to build and enrichen and deepen relationships?

What would it mean to have a company completely at peace with social media?

But there's a flip side to the face time concept. What if geography is irrelevant, as it is, and I can attempt face time with you still? There's emailing, chatting, audio, video, there's facebooking, tweetering. That changes things. You can feel India's presence right here in New York City.

But the new office can't just be a fashion statement. The new office has to make more money than the old office. The new office should get rid of discredited, old paradigms, but it should also breathe new life into timeless values. Profits still matter. Innovation matters. Hard work matters. Playing by the rules matters. Breaking rules matters. Teamwork matters. Out of the box thinking matters. Leadership matters more than ever. Customer service matters. The market is the goddess we worship. Market forces matter. Democracy is the goddess we pay homage to. Doing good matters.

Some things change fundamentally. Some things never change.

Thursday, April 30, 2009

Feedburner Jump: 6 To 31
Facebook's Ad Space Is Different
Netizen Is No Spam Blog
Best Way To Increase Traffic To Your Blog
The Android Architecture
Android Netbook
Donut Android: Android 2.0
Android
Google: Tweet Me Baby One More Time
Real Time Search: Twitter Is Not Doing It
Google's Newest Venture: Google Ventures
Distributed Search
Wolfram Apha Is Cool
The Plateau Will Last Less Than Nine Months
Google Falling Behind Twitter?
Taking The Number 2 Spot On Google Search For Donut Android
Hitting Number 4 For Google Search Results on Cupcake Android
Donut Android: Windows 95, Android 2009?
Cupcake Android Delay Reason: Donut Android
Eminem: The Relapse: Twitter
Bad Time To Start A Company?
The Big Money Is Not In Blogging
Cisco's Big Dreams: A Clash Of Titans?
Google Analytics Says I Am Paul Krugman Friend, Cupcake Android Expert
What Does Your Resume Look Like Today?
What Just Happened?
Content Is Queen, Marketing Is Princess
Google Is Working On Search
What If The Plateau Lasts Nine Months?
Mideast Peace: Tech Industry Style
Job Hunting And 2.0
Brands Will Still Matter
Facebook Faceoff Firefox
Ggoats
Stand Up Comedy: Thinking On Your Feet: 2.0
Is Reading Socializing?
New York City: Transformed Forever?
Reimagining The Office
Stream 2.0: The Next Big Thing?
Microfinance, Nanotech, Biotech, Software/Hardware/Connectivity
Define Social Media
Peter Thiel: Primitive Mind In The Tech Sector
May 5 NY Tech MeetUp
The Stream, The Lifestream, The Mindstream
David Gelernter: Manifesto
Blogging: Monkey Business?
Content Is Queen
Cyber Security: Growing Challenges
Converting To The Mass Follow Formula On Twitter
Stephen Hawking Has Taken Sick
NewsDesk: China, Twitter, Hawking, Obama
Blogging = Learning + Teaching + Churning + Entertaining
The United States Of Entrepreneurs
Spamming Om Malik
Digg Button, Twitter Button For Your Blog Posts
My Relationship With Ashton Kutcher
The Human Is The Center Of Gravity In Computing
Blogging Several Times A Day
Visionary Entrepreneurs Will Recreate The World
That Plateau Feeling
Blogging Tips
0 Tweets, 30,000 Followers: Could That Be Oprah?
That StartUp Mentality (2)
That StartUp Mentality
A Blogger Is Also An Editor
Blog Daily
Where Have You Placed Your Ads?
Twitter Is Not Micro
Cupcake: Android 1.5
Skype: Hub
The Depth Of Your Friendships At Twitter
Goal: A Billion People On Twitter
Search Come Full Circle: That Human Element
Sites That Pay You To Blog
Five Years Of Gmail: What Would Gsus Do?
The Search Results, The Links, The Inbox, The Stream
Fractals: Apple, Windows 95, Netscape, Google, Facebook, Twitter
I Talked To Google Through Twitter And It Worked Like Magic
Cisco Unified Computing System: To Tidy Up Data Centers
NYTM 03/09/09: Fashion Institute of Technology
Jeff Jarvis: Bold Restructuring
Twitter And The Time Dimension
What Should Facebook Do
TweetDeck, Power Twitter, Twitter Globe, Better Than Facebook
NYTM Mailing List Continued Controversy
TCC: Twitter Community College
Twitter Tips: It's A Bird, It's A Bird
NY Tech MeetUp Mailing List Web 5.0 Controversy
Web 5.0 Is Da Bomb
Competing For the Web 3.0 Definition
NY Tech MeetUp: 02/03/09
Conceptually Diligent: Web 5.0 Is Repackaging Hello
Onto Digital Publishing
Mitch Kapor Now Following Me On Twitter
Plenty Of Fish: Online Dating King
Defining Web 4.0
I Get Twitter
Indra Nooyi: Power Woman
Yahoo: The Original Dot Com
Craig Silverstein
Apple's Mobile Space: Sizzling

Vint Cerf, Abdul Kalam, Larry Ellison
Mind Blowing
Diller Country, Month 2
Microsoft, Google, Facebook: NY Tech MeetUp Has Arrived
Silicon City
Nic Is Back
Open Coffee MeetUp: New Location
The Unfacebook
Money For Yahoo And Money For Google
Dell Memo
Entrepreneurs: Spikes
Bear Stearns: An Investment Bank
Web 5.0: Face Time
Search: Much Is Lacking
Enter The Titans: AMD Smacked By Intel
A Web 3.0 Manifesto
Nic Butterworth's Open Coffee MeetUp
Scott 2.0, MeetUp.com 2.0
Dell, HP, Apple
Michael Dell
Larry Ellison
Google Books: Primitive
PC
Carly Fiorina: The Academy Awards Of Business: Photos
Carly Fiorina: "The Academy Awards Of Business"
Early Stage Venture Capital
Google Audio, Google Office
The Next Search Engine
Google Video
Google: Free, Wireless Internet Access, Pay Per View Video
Yahoo Phone, Google Office, Google Finance
Are You A Fonero?
Kosmix: Desi Pride
Email, Search, News
Memo To Bill Gates
xMax
Free Wireless Broadband, Reenergized Microsoft
Google's To Do List Keeps Growing
China, India And The World
In Defense Of Google Digitizing Books
Google's Corporate Transparency
Google And Languages
Vonage And WiMax
Social Networking: Where The Internet Comes Down From The Clouds
Wi-Mesh
Superfast Cable Broadband And The Rest Of The Daily Soup
Into the Nitty Gritty Of WiMax
The WiMax Appeal
Google Again
The $100 Computer
Google Video Has Hit The Docks
Internet Phones, Video Blogging, Nano
Google And Browsers And More
Not Hardware, Not Software, But Connectivity
Google: Poised To Be The Number One Software Company In The World

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