Netizen

Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Twitter's Growth Rate Accelerating?

They say that about the universe. Not only is it expanding, the rate at which it is expanding is accelerating.

Twitter Passes 200M Monthly Active Users, A 42% Increase Over 9 Months

This does not surprise me. Twitter can come across as geeky. But once you know how to use it, it is actually more delightful than Facebook. I am glad I am not being forced, but if you were to force me to pick between the two, I'd pick Twitter.

But the experience can be simplified further. And photo filters on Twitter would be a big hit, I think. One huge blind spot Instagram has is it is not on the web.

I have not yet joined Instagram because my first smartphone is still on its way. But if Twitter filters show up I might not even join Instagram. Except that I am on Facebook, and if there is closer integration I might have joined by default.

An Hour Spent On Twitter
Twitter Was Great On Election Night
If You Are Twitter
No, Biz, Twitter Has Real Issues

I still don't understand why I can't access all my tweets, why all my tweets don't show up in Google search results, why I can't embed multiple tweets at once. Why can't I search through all tweets, mine and that of others?

Twitter, FourSquare: Mobile Web Thingies
Twitter Is Massively Complex
User Friendly Twitter? Get Out Of Town
Goal: A Billion People On Twitter
Twitter At Five: Not Spitting Out Well
Twitter: The Obvious Missing Features
Twitter: Too Complex

Monday, December 17, 2012

Online Payments

Online shopping has been growing by leaps and bounds. Every year the holiday shopping season seems to bring with it an increased percentage of online sales. There are advantages and disadvantages to shopping online:

Advantages:

Convenience - You can shop at any time, and won't have to wait in line.

Certainty - You can search for the best deal on any given product without having to drive around to different stores. Simply click and purchase.

Conjestion Free - You don't have to fight the crowds, or deal with sitting in traffic.

Disadvantages:

Confusion - Sometimes it's hard to tell what a product is like without seeing it. Make sure you check a websites return policy before making a purchase.

Cost of Shipping - Sometimes there is a cost involved in shipping a products. Look for sites that offer free shipping. Many websites offer this during the holidays.

Customer Service - If you have a question, sometimes it can be hard to get the answer. This is getting better as more websites are figuring out ways to serve their online customers better. Some websites have a section of their site dedicated to FAQ's, have a live chat option, or a toll free number to call.

While the rest of the world (read "old economy") has been reeling in deep recession, Amazon.com, the ultimate online retailer seems to have no signs of hard times.

The ability to make an online payment is fundamental to the growth of e-commerce. It's important for the consumer to be able to make payments safely and securely. Online retailers are working with merchant accounts to make this part of their customer satisfaction guarantee. Check a website before making a purchase to make sure they have a reliable online payment option.

(This post sponsored by The Merchant Account Guru)

Commercial Break

And now time for a few commercial breaks.

Looking At A Few Parties

Where is Gary when you need him? He is all over the place. I might go to one, I might go to all, I might not go at all.

Looking For A Few Holiday Parties
A Season For Forgiveness

NYC MusicTech Meetup Holiday Party: Monday, Dec 17, 07:00 PM @ Knitting Factory, 361 Metropolitan Ave, Brooklyn
Holiday Rooftop Travel Massive: Monday, Dec 17, 06:00 PM @ Eventi Hotel, 851 6th Avenue, New York
UWS Startup Breakfast: Tuesday, Dec 18, 09:00 AM @ Aroma Espresso Bar, 161 W 72nd Street, New York
TiE New York Annual Holiday Party Networking Mixer: Wednesday, Dec 19, 06:00 PM @ Bombay Palace, 30 W 52nd Street, New York
New Work City Holiday Festival: Thursday, Dec 20, 10:00 AM @ New Work City, 412 Broadway, 2nd Fl, New York
Zemanta Holiday Party: Thursday, Dec 20, 06:00 PM @ The Black Door, 127 W 26th St, New York
Gogobot Wanderlust Holiday: Friday, Dec 21, 08:00 PM @ Culturefix, 9 Clinton Street, New York

Friday, December 14, 2012

Why Apple Can't Do TV

Apple can't do TV. It is because Apple thinks TV is a software problem. When Steve Jobs failed with that paradigm he started saying it was not software, it was the industry that was refusing to play along that was the problem. That was progress on his part, but that was not it.

Could Apple Do TV?
Has Apple Peaked?
Touch Is Transient

TV is a broadband problem, or rather a slow broadband problem. The key to reshaping TV is helping move to gigabit broadband speeds. At that universal speed you will have reshaped both TV and movies.

G For Giga, G For Google

Apple is nowhere close to entering that paradigm. Tim Cook wants to take another shot at the TV thing. But he will fail. He is still a prisoner to the thinking that says TV is a software problem.

Not.

Thursday, December 13, 2012

Smartphones Rule

Source: Business Insider

Larry Page Speaks

“Our job is to think of the thing you haven’t thought of yet that you really need.”

Fortune Exclusive: Larry Page on Google

was only Page's second wide-ranging conversation with a print publication since becoming CEO of Google in April 2011 ..... 70-minute discussion ...... It's my job and my personality never to be satisfied. ..... I've been saying the same thing about search in some sense for ten years or so. The perfect search engine would really understand whatever your need is. It would understand everything in the world deeply, give you back kind of exactly what you need. .... The fact that a phone has a location is really helpful for monetization. .... I view a whole bunch of things as additive that you can do on mobile that you couldn't do before. And I think with those things, we're going to make more money than we do now. ..... I think there's no company you would choose that would be better positioned to transition and innovate in mobile advertising and monetization. We've got all the pieces we need to do that going forward. ...... In general I think there's a tendency for people to think about the things that exist. Our job is to think of the thing you haven't thought of yet that you really need. ..... All the big technology companies are big because they did something great. I'd like to see more cooperation on the user side. The Internet was made in universities and it was designed to interoperate. And as we've commercialized it, we've added more of an island-like approach to it, which I think is a somewhat a shame for users. ......... it's actually hard to get people to work on stuff that's really ambitious. It's easier to get people working on incremental things ..... We had 18 different ways of sharing stuff before we did Plus. Now we have one way that works well ...... we actually need to understand things and we need to understand things pretty deeply. People are a component of that. ..... if you're vacation planning. It would be really nice to have a system that could basically vacation plan for you. It would know your preferences, it would know the weather, it would know the prices of airline tickets, the hotel prices, understand logistics, combine all those things into one experience. And that's kind of how we think about search. ....... we're very good at accepting worldwide payments ..... I think I have great advisors. There's a lot of people in our ecosystem and board members and so on who I rely on, and Sergey, as well, and Eric. ..... But I think again I'm a little bit in uncharted territory because I think what I'm trying to do is not -- I can't point to another company and say, "I want to do what they're doing." So I'm trying to cause something to happen, and it's not obvious how to make it happen. ....... As we start up new things, as we're working on new areas, as change needs to happen, I tend to get very deep. Then I make sure I have the right team and the right people are in place, and I'm confident they're doing the right thing. And then I'm gone for a long time. I might be gone for a quarter. ...... I don't see any particular reason why we shouldn't be much bigger, more impactful than we are now.