The FCC steps it up!

First an awesome BusinesWeek article (yes Tim, your favorite website).  Then an update since the article.

(But even before that I want a firefox extension to allow me to highlight parts of a webpage...)

In this short article, Dr. Amol Sarva (CEO of Txtbl, a mobile e-mail start-up) reminds us that Google's vision for the wireless industry has the opportunity to open it to a flood of innovation enabling entrepreneurs to finally make a big impact in the mobile industry.  This is contrary to the current market for entrepreneurs, er..rather the lack thereof because carriers maintain an iron grip on what applications can be downloaded onto their phones.  And what IF you sign on a carrier?  Don't bother to party like a rock star because you've now only got exposure to 1/5 of the market.  Unless your name is Steve Jobs and your product makes its own market.

Dr. Sarva reminds us of the four principles: open devices, open services, open applications and open networks.

Update Article: Interesting that the FCC's rules dictate that the winner of the bids should operate wireless networks that could be used by any mobile device, service or application.  Google has always said that it won't operate it's own wireless network.  Do they have something up their sleeve?  Or will they partner with an established player and attempt to change the mentality to open networks.

If Google operates its own network, there will be a fundamental shift the way we view wireless communication.  It will be the full convergence of the laptop and the original cell phone, and of WiFi and smart phones.  Which would be fantastic because then there's no difference to when I open my laptop and surf the internet and when I make a telephone call (although I could see myself paying two separate rates for those two services, but hey, maybe with clever advertising, I can get it for "free").

I'd like to see Google operate its own network because then they will have more flexibility to define it however they want. Although in a partnership, hopefully Google has enough clout like Apple does to force a carrier to make changes to its rate plans.

Quick Mobile Articles

A quick on-the-go update to spread a couple very interesting articles (mobile related again...).

A short and interesting article about the mobile search market . But the interesting is who gets a cut of the revenue, whether it be the traditional telecoms or the search giants emerging from the internet era? In the beginning it will most likely be a mash-up of the two sides in various agreements. But if Google has its way and a new variation of phone model emerges -- one that enables the user to pick services and applications as they choose -- then the internet giants are well equipped to ship out applications for this purpose.

(Quick detour: This sort of "application shipping" was seen with 1. the desktop computer, 2. the internet, and 3. Facebook.)

The second interesting mobile article is precisely about mobile marketing and advertising. I think eMarketer puts it the best: "The PC's killer app meets the small screen." It's a fair point that the mobile world will be a different animal given the small screen size. Banner ads and text ads probably won't suffice. But I don't see users paying fees to download applications for use on their phone. So it looks like advertisers and the companies will need to be paid another way... but how? Subliminal advertising, video ads, sponsored music videos?

Why Parakey sold out

Ron, great article selection, as usual. I think you're also trying to hook me in with the whole mobile theme, since you know how much I love this area of technology.

But let's skip that for the moment, because today I want to comment on Parakey.

I think the implications of Parakey's acquisition runs deeper than just cloud computing. Because on first glance, selling Parakey to Facebook doesn't make sense. Parakey is a startup with ambitions to merge the operating system with the Internet. With a declaration like that, I expected Parakey to take over the Internet with a glorious and breathtaking IPO. Why would they sell out on their destiny?

On second glance, something still doesn't seem right. Parakey has backing from Sequoia Capital, a major venture capital firm. Since its applications are supposed to run on the user's machines, it doesn't need to spent money buying massive server farms. All of this suggests that the company is doing relatively well financially, even after two and a half years of development. No need to fix what's not broken.

So why would Parakey sell to Facebook?

Third glance:
It's about the network.

Facebook has a massive social network, but not just any social network... a social network with privacy controls full of people you know and trust. Parakey has a platform for sharing ANY content you have on your computer. Put them together and *poof* you've got a true online collaboration in a way never before seen on the Internet.

Forget about loading your pictures from your hard drive to Facebook... it'll be shared automatically as long as you move your pictures into the right folder. Got a bunch of short stories you've written but nobody has seen? Well, with Facekey (or Parabook) you would be able to load these stories up, select the friends who can view them, and have them join you in a collaborative writing session. Heck, throw in some spreadsheet capabilities in there and soon you and your friends could be picking stocks based on trends that you've crunched on your individual computers.

My guess is that Facebook wasn't the one who wanted to acquire Parakey. I think Parakey wanted to be acquired by Facebook. Facebook provides the missing link to Parakey's technology... a way to easily control who can view the files you want to share. With this deal, I think it is poised to do exactly what it set out to do: allow for sharing and collaboration on a scale never before seen on the Net.

Google Strikes Again

Oftentimes it seems like we're so engrossed with the way things are and just making incremental changes that we forget about the basic ways of certain services.  Take mobile carriers for example: we pick a carrier, stick with a plan, stick with whatever phone we are given and are generally at the mercy of our wireless carriers.  Now let's take TVs: we head over to whatever store we want (Costco is where I got our TV), pick an unnecessarily large plasma TV up and then head home.  Then we have a choice as to what service we want to subscribe to.

Two services we generally use, but different choices at different times for the consumer.

This is where Google comes in and decides to flip this current marketplace on its head.  Google wants to bid on a piece of the 700 Mhz spectrum that is being put up for auction by the government.  This would be to allow for Google to be in charge of the airwaves over which it could distribute its services and pump more revenue from advertising related to the services.  In their vision, it would be great to have a phone on which you can put any application you'd like and be able to register it with any telecommunication service you'd like.

Google's vision is summarized by a quote about CEO Eric Schmidt, "Schmidt stressed the importance to Google of a network where anyone could plug in any device and have access to the full abilities of the Internet. In such an environment, Schmidt noted, mobile phone users would become significant consumers of online advertising, Google's core business."

Big (but subtle) news!

Parakey, the mysterious startup that Blake Ross (creator of Firefox) had been working on, was acquired by Facebook on Thursday.  This is a very interesting development that gives us a glimpse into the product of Parakey and the vision of Facebook.

Parakey, as far as we know, was to be some sort of in-browser operating system, the true sky-computing.  Sky -- in the opposite sense of having windows on your computer right now.  Your files and applications are all stored online.  Facebook seems to be headed this way as well with their "Social Networking OS" in the form of opening up their APIs to developers for creating "applets."

There's so much potential with this "cloud OS," because increasing mobility is where everyone is headed.

Data transfer rates through Edge, WiMax, EVDO, and direct from the telecoms all are increasing and there's a coming convergence with the mobile phone and the laptop.  We can see both sides taking a step toward each other; from the mobile phone stemmed the Blackberries and the Palm Treos and from the laptop, come the OQOs and the UMPCs.  The UMPCs were arguably rather silly products, but imagine if storage were not a concern, then all of a sudden you eliminate the need for hard drives on the devices, then processing power can be decreased and therefore the chipsets can then be smaller.

Mixed-Media open source and getting any Beta you want

Alright, quick post:

Very cool site to get invitations to new betas! A great way to check out the upcoming new ideas and companies! Invite Share is the way to go! It's a great way to get yourself on the "guest list" to these beta tests. The more you share, the higher your VIP status to gettin' into the partay (read: beta test).

Oh and Tim, this one might be interesting to you. Gelato CMS, no reference to our recent Eurotrip and the lavender gelato you had, and the CMS stands for content management system (not coconut-mocha-strawberry), is an interesting open source project that allows you to put up mix-ed media posts. The code might be interesting to dig through and see how the different formats used.

Alright, off to finish exploring LA!

And we're back! --> T-shirts and Yahoo?

Blame school, global warming or some random 3rd world country's political instability -- either way we've been gone too long. But with midterms, finals and other petty distractions behind us, we're back in action.

On the chopping block today there's a few interesting companies going on here:

Design By Humans. First off there's their deadpan catchphrase, "By Tees. Get Noticed. Be Human," they've got a rather closed off talent pool, unlike Zazzle. But all the same, their small pool ensures that they've got good talent. But they seem to have a good selection process through their contests to choose good designs. And let's not forget the increasingly popular: profit sharing schemes; promote Design by Humans and you get credits toward T-shirt purchases!

Hey Tim, from this article on TechCrunch, sounds like your people are catching up quite nicely! Search traffic up 47% over the year?? Not bad. I think we should have a discussion on what the heck Yahoo is doing. Microsoft has solid markets in place, i.e. (no pun intended) entertainment with the Xbox and Zune, and quite obviously its dominant OS. These divisions at least hold down the fort while Microsoft battles Google. Yahoo needs to be dominant in at least one thing it does.

To that effect I suggest a full-suite of Mobile Services. With the iPhone using Google Maps and obviously Windows Mobile using Live services, Yahoo needs to jump in on this. I'd say some more research is needed.

Zune there will be a phone...

After a particularly rough midterms season, we're back with lots of exciting news to catch up on! And speaking of "catching up," Microsoft moves fast! They might have pulled a fast one on Apple this time. Seems like yesterday when Tim and I were at Microsoft and J Allard launched a Zune across the auditorium into a pack of interns when one kid asked, "Can you comment on the durability of the Zune compared to the iPod?"

The Zune product, while far from being a perfect product was an engineering and marketing phenomenon. The entire cycle was done in less than a year, from product conception, design, service-crafting and manufacturing. I'm excited for what the Zune phone will bring.

I'm glad to see an alternative to the (overly hyped) Apple iPhone due for June. I can't wait for the Zune phone, it will be interesting to see what type of integration Microsoft will put into the Zune. Will this be a smartphone with enhanced music features? Or will this be a Zune with smartphone capabilities like a calling list and a sync-able calendar?

What I want? This to be available for Cingular, oh and more product details dang-it, and while I'm at it, I also want them to get rid of the poop-colored Zune.

Yourminis...

Sounding deceivingly like another site dedicated to skimming profits from the Ipod phenomenon, Yourminis has in fact nothing to do with that (nor does it have anything to do with the mini Entemann's powdered donuts...).

Instead Yourminis is a site giving you the ability to take your personalized Google start page to the next level. It combines the Vista side bar, the Mac widget thingy and all the neat things Web 2.0 has to offer.

Their clean and stylish ajax interface allows you to organize your widgets minis on your personal space. Everything from searching ebay or amazon to playing mp3s, from text editors to RSS feeds, from Rotten Tomatoes movie reviews to even access to your box.net files. Each mini has its own style and character, giving a comfortable user interface. And for the anal perfectionists out there, it even displays a grid when you're dragging the minis around.

Subtle neat thing they're doing? Allowing you to test out the service without signing in. Given my serious commitment issues, this is a neat chance to give this site a whirl, before giving them my email address!

What do I want to see on it? A mini for Pandora, then I would definitely use this as my start page and never leave.

This might become my Bloglines for everything-else-other-than-RSS-feeds.

25 Start-ups to Watch!

Here's a fantastic index card-style summary of what CNN Money thinks are the up and coming start-ups.

Debrief to follow soon in an update!

Entrepreneurship Week @ Stanford

For those interested in entrepreneurship, Stanford University hosted the National Kickoff of EntrepreneurshipWeek USA. One of the speakers, Stephen Jurvetson particularly inspired me with his talk on entrepreneurship. Here's some of the things that stuck out in my mind (and what I think):

• Dynamic Duo - Successful ventures have often worked well with a dynamic duo, notably (of course) Jerry Yang and David Filo (Yahoo!) and Larry Page and Sergey Brin (Google). My experience has always shown me the Dynamic Duo model works well for any endeavor, having each other to bounce ideas back and forth and to support each other through the tough times.
• Infectious Enthusiasm - If the entrepreneur is passionate about something, it radiates outward and spreads to others, whether it be to use the product or service but maybe even also to work on it.
• Be Humble - No one likes to work with a know-it-all. As a matter of fact it doesn't matter if it's working with someone or talking with someone about your idea, you never know what valuable feedback or advice they might be able to offer.
• High-growth market - You're looking for that high-growth market to conquer! The clean technology revolution is a great example of a market that will show explosive growth soon!
• Anchor Point - It's important for an entrepreneur to understand his strengths and weaknesses and know exactly how he can contribute to an idea; essentially: what can you do that no one else can, or what do you know that no one else does?

Dell Ideastorm: Consumers in the driver seat

Exactly one week ago, Dell launched a brilliant new customer service initiative called "Dell Ideastorm." It's essentially a massive forum where any opinionated, Internet-saavy user can logon to post, vote, and bash suggestions for how to improve Dell's services. Forums like this are not new, but I have rarely seen a company so open with its customers.

Among the top requests:

1. Provide Open-Source Alternatives for Operating Systems, Word Processors, Internet Browsers, etc. Some people have argued that the minority of computer geeks using Linux and its variants do not make a big enough impact on the bottom line to be worth marketing to. But after seeing the voting numbers on the site, even if they are skewed, I find it hard to believe that Dell should ignore the masses clamoring for a pre-installed Linux box.
2. Barebones systems for ease of upgrading. The boom times of the computer industry are over, just about everyone has a computer or two or five in their homes. But where one trend ends, another begins, and people are now looking for cheap systems that can plug into existing hardware to replace broken components. Like a computer with no monitor and no keyboard and no operating system that can just be used as a standalone upgrade.
   
3. No more overseas tech support. Three things are needed for good tech support: 1) They fix it. 2) They fix it fast. 3) They treat you with respect while fixing it. With the delays and miscommunications from overseas call centers, 1) and 2) are not met by Dell's current customer service. Time for a change.

For any Dell owners out there, if any of these things seem like "common sense" to you, you are absolutely right. They are common complaints that have been around for years. But the cool thing is that all of this information is out in the open. It changes the game. Before, where the CEO was captain and commander of his ship, he/she alone would determine the direction of sailing. Now it's the whole consumer community that can request services of a company. And suggest ideas for new product directions, new services, and even marketing. This is why Dell's Ideastorm is amazing. It's completely broken down the barriers between a big company and its end-users, allowing consumers to truly guide the direction of a large company.

My favorite post:

Have Michael Dell in the Dell Commercials
"It would be really cool to have Michael appear in a commerical where the customer is shown ordering a system on line. Cut to - The door bell rings - Customer opens the door and Michael is standing there with their system.
YOU GOT A DELL!!"