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Getting rid of Spam
Is it just me, or is everyone else getting spam promoting Norton Antivrus software? I’m used to getting spam for weird herbal supplements and other solutions guaranteed to increase the size of certain...
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How to build a $2 Billion Brand without Advertising
Forbes has an interesting article on how Google has built a $2 Billion brand through a superior product promoted through word-of-mouth. Apparently, this $2 Billion number is an estimate based on...
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Is Sun Down for the Count?
The New York Times has an article on Sun and whether it can survive and thrive after the dot com bubble. It goes into the usual arguments such as hardware becoming a commodity, the threat of Linux, and...
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Could the BlackBerry Network Shut Down?
Forbes has an article on the legal battle between RIM and NTP, a Virginia based holding company over patent infringements. NTP has waged a successful legal battle against RIM and there is a real...
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Is the Tech Recovery Near?
ZDNet has an article on an IDC survey that indicates that companies are ready to start spending on information technology. According to the survey, 85% of the CEO’s and CIO’s out of 1,000 participants...
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Overture: the Business Model that Survived
Overture has announced that they will be acquiring the Web search properties of Fast Search & Transfer (FAST) for $70 million in cash and up to $30 million over the next three years, based on...
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Search Engine Wars Heat Up
With all these announcements around web search engines being acquired, I thought I would give some of them a try to see how they compare to Google. I didn’t do an exhaustive study, but innovation and...
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How Amazon is going to take over all Product Discussions on the Web
I just got this link to a US patent issued to Jeff Bezos on “Method and system for conducting a discussion relating to an item” from a posting on slashdot.org. Basically, it’s a patent issued around...
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Impact of 9/11 on New York not as Severe as Originally Estimated
SFGate has an article on a report issued by the Federal Reserve which claims that New York’s economy would still be struggling, even if the 9/11 terrorist attack never happened. The basis of this...
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Virtual Worlds and the Real World
Business 2.0 has an interesting article that talks about There Inc.‘s technology and business model. There are others companies in this emerging space such as Linden Lab with Second Life, but There...
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FreshDirect: The Dell Model applied to Groceries
If you live in New York, chances are that you have seen advertisements for FreshDirect. FreshDirect is a relatively new compay started by an ex-investment banker and one of the founders of Fairway...
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EasyGroup: Another Company based on a Sensible Business Model
Fortune has an article on Stelios Haji-Ioannou and his various “Easy” companies that form the EasyGroup conglomerate. Stelio has started a number of companies that range from rental cars, airlines, to...
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Salesforce.com: Partying like it’s 1999
Fortune has an article that chronicles Marc Benioff’s story in building Salesforce.com, with initial funding from Larry Ellison, to a successful startup generating $50M+ in annual revenues. It’s an...
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The War Against Iraq Starts
It’s all over the news now. The War against Iraq has started and the US has started with tactical strikes against Iraq. Iraq has retaliated by launching Scud missiles against US forces in Kuwait. Let’s...
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Who Made All that Money during 1998 and 2001?
It’s interesting to see a number of articles on who really made all that money during the bubble years. Besides the obvious suspects such as founders of companies, it looks like investment bankers had...
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Executive Backgrounds and the Bubble Era
Two seemingly unrelated news articles caught my eye recently. EDS announced that Michael H. Jordan will be replacing Dick Brown as their new CEO. Of course, Dick Brown got a nice severance package for...
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East Coast to West Coast
It’s been a while since I posted anything to the blog. The primary reason is that I’ve spent the last month or two getting ready for relocation from the east coast to the west coast. Now that I’ve made...
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Autistic Savants and Trans Cranial Magnetic Stimulation
There’s a fascinating article in the New York Times Magazine on the research being conducted by Allan Snyder, who studies human cognition. Snyder has been researching autistic savants (think Rain Man)...
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Start of the Tech Recovery?
Today is June 21, 2003, which is the date that Brain Halla and Dr. Amad Bahai predicted in February, 2003 would be the start of the tech recovery in Silicon Valley. Now that we’ve reached the date,...
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Microsoft in a Post-PC world
There is an article in the Seattle Weekly that makes an interesting point about Microsoft’s success and fate being tied to the personal computer. It makes this argument by pointing out that while...
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Bonanza Time for Technology Patent Lawyers
It seems like patent lawyers are having a field day (and raking in the dough) with all the litigation around technology and intellectual property patents. Here are some stories around patent litigation...
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The $140 Million Dollar Man
The New York Times has an article on the $140 Million compensation package for Richard Grasso which caught my eye. The compensation package is for his 36 years of service and the majority of it is...
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Microsoft’s Midlife Crisis
The New York Time has an article on the changes that Microsoft is going through these days. The entire article seems like Microsoft response to commentary in the press that their best days of growth...
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The Recovery is Here!
It looks like Brian Halla and Dr. Amad Bahai weren’t that far off. They predicted (half-jokingly) that the economic recovery would start on June 21, 2003. It’s the end of August now and more people are...
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Thoughts on Social Networking Software
For some reason, Hollywood goes through these periods where major studios race each other to get the same type of movies made on the concept du jour. In 1998, it was insects and asteroids. There was “A...
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How has RSS changed your Life?
I’ve been following the RSS space for some time, and I’m starting to get the feeling that it really could have a significant impact on how we all access and receive information from online sources. It...
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The $42 Millon Dollar Chihuahua
After the Dick Grasso story, I couldn’t resist writing an entry on this story. Apparently, two people approached Taco Bell with the idea of an advertising campaign around a talking Chihuahua. After...
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Social Networking: Is there a Business Model?
Yesterday, I attended the MIT/Stanford Vlab event on Social Networking and Business Models. I didn’t take notes, but Stewart Butterfield has a great writeup on the event which captures the general...
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Little Help from Friends of Friends of Friends
David Kirkpatrick from Fortune has written an article called “I Get By With a Little Help From My Friends of Friends of Friends” that is a look at the emerging social networking space. It’s a well...
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The End of the Google Honeymoon?
I think it’s fair to say that we’re starting to see the end of the honeymoon between Google and mainstream media. If you do a search for news articles in the past year, you’ll see a steady stream of...
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Social Networking – Victim of its own Success
With all this attention from mainstream media and VC’s, it seems inevitable that social networking is destined to go through a mini bubble and crash, hopefully followed by a sustainable recovery, much...
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Technology Adoption S-Curve
It seems that every time you go to a talk held by a luminary in Silicon Valley, one question keeps coming up again and again. Everybody wants to know what the luminary thinks is the next big thing....
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Gmail – The Google Trojan Horse
One of the unwritten rules in Marketing is that you do not make major product announcements on April 1. For some reason, the smart people at Google’s ignored this rule and soft-launched the widely...
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Blogging and Silicon Valley Culture
One of the great things about living in Silicon Valley is the plethora of events featuring some of the most influential people and top thinkers in technology. If you have the time and interest, you can...
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The $25 Billion Yellow Pages Industry
I can’t recall the last time I used the Yellow Pages and it looks like companies are beginning to recognize this trend. The New York Times has an article on a study by the Kelsey Group which indicates...
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Sony’s Missed Opportunity in the Handheld Market
Sony announced today that they will be exiting the PDA market in the US and European markets. On the surface, this seems surprising since Sony was the third largest vendor of handheld PDA’s in 2003...
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Accel/SNRC Symposium
One of the great things about blogging is the spirit of information sharing within the community. An example of this is Jeff Nolan’s <a...
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Friendster: The Next Big Media Company
Friendster recently announced that Scott Sassa, former President of NBC West Coast, will be taking over the CEO role from interim CEO, Tim Koogle, former CEO of Yahoo. Scott Sassa is the former...
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Netflix and 800lb Gorillas
I have been a Netflix customer for some time now and it has been interesting to see the company grow and evolve, given the changing dynamics of their space. Netflix pioneered the DVD rentals-by-mail...
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Moving on from WebEx…
It has been a while since I posted an entry to my blog. The primary reason for not blogging over the last year and a half has been my position in the WebEx CTO Office. Given my role in investigating...
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Why there is always Hope for Startups
The best business books have a profound yet easy to understand insight based on a simple observation. The Innovator’s Dilemma is one of those books. It is also one of the best examples of why there is...
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Askpedia.com
It has been a while since I posted anything on this blog. It’s not because of a lack of topics. Over the last few months, there have been some pretty interesting developments in the whole Web 2.0...
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Askpedia Alpha Program
I’m pleased to announce that we have launched the Askpedia Alpha program. After many months of hard work, it’s gratifying to have other people use our service and provide valuable feedback. We know we...
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Askpedia is in Open Beta
After Alpha and Private Testing for a few months, I’m excited to announce that Askpedia.com is now in Open Beta. Basically, this means that anybody can access the sign and ask/answer questions. All of...
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Askpedia passes 100,000 registered users
It has been a while since I posted on this blog. The primary reason is because most of my time has been consumed by Askpedia. The hard work is starting to pay off. Askpedia recently crosses 100,000...
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My 3 Minutes of Fame on Fox Business Network
Here’s my 3 minute interview on Fox Business Network regarding Askpedia and the cease and desist from IAC.
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Why companies fail in international markets
The recent fire sale of Helio by SK Telecom to Virgin Mobile for $39M has made me reflect on Korean technology companies in the United States. Korea is one of the most advanced countries when it comes...
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The Six D’s of Internet Ecosystems
” No man is an island, entire of itself “ Like all living things, companies thrive and prosper when they’re part of a diverse ecosystem that provides the right infrastructure for sustained growth and...
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US Entrepreneurs are Chickens, Korean Entrepreneurs are Pigs
A Chicken and Pig are making breakfast together. The Chicken lays eggs and makes fried eggs. The pig cuts its belly and makes bacon. The question is, who’s more committed to making breakfast? Some...
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