gdp's Comments

Untitled : Paid Apps for Google Android based phones

Tue, 17 Feb 2009 09:19:27 +0000

"That could change later this year when more phone makers like Motorola, Samsung, LG, and potentially Dell start selling Android-based phones." At MWC yesterday, LG announced that they'd be choosing Windows Mobile 6.5 as their primary smartphone platform for all their new phones: http://www.microsoft.com/Presspass/press/2009/feb... That's a big brand explicitly not choosing Android, despite the reputed cost savings, openness, etc. of Android. I guess partnerships still reign supreme...

emc : Can you still read your files from 15 years ago?

Mon, 16 Feb 2009 12:37:49 +0000

From a software perspective, there are already file formats that are designed specifically for archiving data: for example, there's a subset of PDF called PDF/A that's an ISO standard. Of course, the side benefit of this massive increase in data is the increase in metadata (i.e. data about data). In the future, even if you can't read a file format, I'll bet you can find some data to tell you how you could read it...

NYC Restaurants : Visualizing Data

Mon, 16 Feb 2009 11:08:43 +0000

Jeik - you haven't highlighted the Radiohead 'House of Cards' one... shame on you! ;-) It kinda blew my mind when I first saw a high quality version of their video, recreating 3D scenes from laser data. Plus, they provide an app and the data so you can do the same. Ace.

Untitled : Bye - bye itunes! (I never liked you anyway)

Mon, 16 Feb 2009 11:03:31 +0000

Randomly, a colleague and I were doing some research into Spotify last summer because of their user experience. They use some complicated server & P2P streaming behind the scenes but the clever bit is the seeking to any position in a track with little to no delay. It doesn't sound that important but it's a really nice experience. The trick (I think) is that when you seek to a new position Spotify immediately starts playing sound - its just Brown noise, or something similar - but they blend that into a low-bandwidth version of the song as soon as possible, then into a high bandwidth version. It's all psychoacoustic smoke-and-mirrors, but it's amazing how you can trick your ears into thinking that some random noise is the song you want, so long as it quickly blends seamlessly into the thing you are actually expecting to hear. It's a shame you can't use the same trick with video. Cool application, but they're being screwed by the labels.

Untitled : How much do people trust google?

Tue, 10 Feb 2009 13:55:21 +0000

Interesting recent posts on Coding Horror about this. One from this week entitled The Elephant in the Room: Google Monoculture. The other is from 2 years ago and is called, rather ominously If It's Not in Google, Does Your Website Really Exist? Well worth a read to see the practical impact that Google's 'non-monopoly' has on real businesses. ;-)

LBS Internet Marketing 2008-9 : Tumblr Link

Mon, 9 Feb 2009 19:15:27 +0000

I understand it's really just a NAS device... something like a 20GB drive with integrated WiFi for use more as a teaching resource. Will try to dig out the source...

http://venkatesh.tumblr.com/ : How does Google do it ?

Wed, 4 Feb 2009 11:08:36 +0000

The trick with Google is not to look at their products in isolation: their business model isn't to make revenue on each of GMail, Chrome, Maps, Reader, Earth, etc, so an NPV analysis doesn't make sense here. Their overall strategy is to get people using the Internet more. That's it. Think about it: their primary revenue remains search ads. To grow that, Google can increase market share (difficult, since they have a 'near monopoly' on online search) or increase market size ('relatively' easy, given social, economic & demographic trends). Providing 'interesting', useful applications - that people wouldn't actually pay cash for - is a way to make the entire Internet experience better and increases usage. Google subsequently captures 8 out of 10 Internet searches that all these Internet newcomers make. Sure, they can do it because they have lots of cash, but it's a virtuous circle they're creating. Of course, they don't come up with all this stuff themselves. ;-) Like any good tech company, they're an active acquirer: - Deja was acquired & rebranded Google Groups - Blogger was acquired - Picasa was acquired - Keyhole's Earth Viewer was acquired and rebranded Google Earth - Android was acquired - Writely was acquired and became the word processor in Google Docs - @Last was acquired and became Sketchup - Youtube was acquired - etc, etc. I'd propose that Google have made only 2 important strategic innovations: their original search algortihm, and the subsequent business model. Everything else is tactical.

Untitled : Photo-tagging: Human & computer

Mon, 2 Feb 2009 12:53:50 +0000

Most of the reviews I've read of iPhoto's Faces feature consist of people trying to get it to recognize their pet dog... :-)

cwandell : Why would I ever Twitter?

Mon, 2 Feb 2009 12:51:57 +0000

Ditto - I think about joining but then catch myself with a "Phil, you self-important git. Who the hell wants to listen to your vapid ramblings?". So now I just post in blog comments. :-)

Qusai's Blog : Tumblr Photo

Mon, 2 Feb 2009 12:48:56 +0000

And what the hell has that picture got to do with marketing? Venkatesh: Dan could become the next Rickroll phenomenon...

Untitled : How much do people trust google?

Mon, 2 Feb 2009 12:41:44 +0000

I'd have to disagree with Google not having a monopoly: in my mind it isn't determined by whether they're alternatives available. It's determined by the presence of monopolistic pricing power. In this situation - despite Google's protestations - I expect they do wield excess power in the pricing of online advertising: the pricing of Google Adwords does implicitly impact on the pricing of competitive products from other market participants.

Qusai's Blog : Biz Models for the Web

Mon, 2 Feb 2009 12:34:41 +0000

I'm still fascinated by the Affiliate business model: i.e. Amazon listing a TV on their site with a list of competitors' prices (even if they're lower) and a corresponding click-through so you can complete the transaction on that competitor's site. Obviously there's a kick-back, but more importantly it ties into Amazon's strategy of being the one place you go to for all your online shopping needs. That's crazy, isn't it? Can you imagine traditional retailers doing that? i.e. You go into Tesco to buy an Apple, see the list of prices showing that Sainsburys has them cheaper, and then Tesco provides the transport to the local Sainsbury so you can complete your purchase! I suppose the bricks-and-mortar nullify this by operating price-matching schemes, etc.

Guinea Pig @ London Business School : Damn It Feels Good to be.. Blogger

Wed, 28 Jan 2009 17:44:23 +0000

I think you've got the makings of a nice Ponzi scheme there, Chen... ;-)

Fruition : Frictions in justice

Wed, 28 Jan 2009 11:11:11 +0000

Interesting current story about a blogger that wasn't allowed to sue the writer of a defamatory comment "because he did not delete the comment when he discovered it". Apparently that meant he "consented to the comment's publication.": www.theregister.co.uk/2009/01/28/blogger_deleted_... Weird decision. Surely he would have consented only if his blog was moderated and he let the comment through?

Bloggetta Veneta : ASOS magazine

Wed, 28 Jan 2009 09:11:33 +0000

I've bought clothes from ASOS before. I bought a low-priced, brown leather jacket from them in about 2004: no doubt suckered by "As seen on Brad Pitt in Fight Club" or something similar! It smelt strongly of cow when it arrived, but that's faded and I'm now really happy with it. :-)

Fruition : Twitter raising $20m at a $0.20-per-Tweet Valuation

Wed, 28 Jan 2009 09:08:04 +0000

But that's you making $15... how much have Blogspot made from that? That's the point I'm trying to make: the valuation is based on Twitter making on average $0.20 per Tweet. Where does that come from? I'm really interested to see what their 'VP of How-The-Hell-Does-Twitter-Make-Money' comes up with - does anyone have a suggestion for a business model for Twitter?

Guinea Pig @ London Business School :

Tue, 27 Jan 2009 11:58:46 +0000

Does any else find this really creepy? It reminds me of Aphex Twin's video for Come To Daddy. And that's both fantastic and scary.

Qusai's Blog : I hate Apple.

Mon, 26 Jan 2009 11:00:37 +0000

First, I should mention that I'm an ex-Microsoftie & probably not objective! Despite that, I hear this story pretty often: Mac user: "I love my Mac." Me: "Oh yeah? Isn't it a bit of a pain getting the right software?" Mac user: "Oh, well I use Parallels to boot into Windows." Me: "Ah." Is it just a hardware thing then? If so, Apple will be disappointed: I knows Jobs has said in the past (possibly in an All Things Digital talk) that he considers Apple a software & services company (albeit one that sells software in nice shiny boxes). I do enjoy using a Mac (my wife has one), but at the mo I'm using the Windows 7 Beta, and I have to say I'm really impressed. I'd encourage people to give it a shot...

Michal Bohanes' blog : So who believes that Facebook is still worth $15bn USD? Someone believes it's actually MORE tha

Mon, 26 Jan 2009 09:50:47 +0000

Colour me sceptical. Mr Lorenzen's blog entry is not an argument for how Facebook will generate $2.4bn in profits, it's a set of assumptions, some multiplication, and a shed load of hand-waving. The article offers no basis for the estimates: - how do you 'get' each user to make 28 searches per month? - how are they going to manage a 14% click-though rate? - why $0.30 per click-through?

Internet Marcoting : Advergaming

Mon, 26 Jan 2009 09:35:03 +0000

Yeah, I'd definitely like to hear about this. We talked about using games as marketing a lot on the last product I made before business school (http://creators.xna.com/)and it can be difficult to put a value on it. Clearly there's something there, but it's only sometimes about encouraging people to purchase and often about brand messaging.