What’s Technorati?

By Mark Evans in Main Page, Search Engines 1 Comment

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There’s a lot of buzz today about Technorati’s new now-you-see-it, now-you-don’t Digg-like tool called WTF (Steve Rubel captured screen shots before the service was pulled down). You can get a variety of takes on WTF from folks such as Mathew Ingram and Mr. Arrington but what struck me about WTF (other than the, well, colourful name) is how yet another feature from Technorati fits into the greater strategic scheme of things.

I mean, Technorati’s raison d’etre is apparently to be the world’s leading blog search engine – and I think they’re still among the best despite competition from Google, Sphere, Feedster, etc.. But what puzzles me about Technorati’s direction is how its move into non-search services enhances the core search offering, which is struggling to keep up with the blogosphere’s growth. Sure, you don’t want to be a one-trick pony but lots of people will tell you Technorati has to do a better job at search before it branches off into other areas.

Technorati’s multi-faceted strategic direction struck a chord after reading a recent post by Mapping the Web that talked about companies trying to be “too many thing for too many people” by offering lots of features rather than one to three really good features.

“How often do you read a features set that is over a page long and you’re left wondering… “WTF does this thing actually do for me?” It’s a daunting reality. Now, isn’t it refreshing when you browse a feature set that is minimal (only in terms of size). You can paint a clear picture in your head as to what the system/site/software can accomplish for you.”

Maybe Technorati should take this advice to heart.

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Web 2.0 Entering the Mainstream

By Mark Evans in Main Page, Media, Web 2.0 4 Comments

Has Web 2.0 reached the tipping point where it’s about to stumble into the mainstream? Read/WriteWeb’s Alex Iskold believes this is about to happen based on the activities of mainstream media such as Time and the NYT that are enthusiastically embracing tools such as RSS, deli.ico.us and Digg.

“It appears that we are nearing a tipping point for the mass adoption of prominent web 2.0 services, like digg and del.icio.us,” he said. “Endorsement by mainstream media opens these services up to millions of people who otherwise would either not know about them, or not take them seriously. So these are not just links, these are literally endorsements – or recognition of additional value for mainstream media.”

McManus is definitely on to something given some of the recent conversations I’ve been having with corporate executives who realize this Web 2.0 phenomena is starting to get interesting, and perhaps it’s time to start looking at whether any of them can be adopted. One of the challenges facing the mainstream is figuring out what applications are worth exploring. Do you get into Digg and del.ici.us, or try to find tools that are better, more user-friendly, easier to install, etc. – not an easy task given the growing number of tools/services in each category. But the fact companies are started to talk about Web 2.0 tools is a fairly impressive indication that they’re catching up to the rest of us.

What I tell companies looking at Web 2.0 tools is experiment, dabble, play, and not be disappointed if something that’s rolled out fails to resonate with employees, customers, investors, etc. It’s still early in the game so there is plenty of time to figure out what works and what doesn’t. The only way they’re really to going fail is if they choose to ignore Web 2.0 tools.

Stating the (Wireless) Obvious

By Mark Evans in Main Page, Wireless 3 Comments

According to Moody’s, Canada’s wireless market is “an oligopoly”. And, not surprisingly, prices are twice as high as the U.S., which has caused market penetration (56%) to lag behind the U.S. (76%) Stop the presses, you mean Canada’s wireless carriers aren’t aggressively battling each other for business by offering consumers attractive deals? You mean all the talk among wireless executives about “disciplined pricing” is just code for raising prices higher so ARPU can be increased.

Well, wonders never cease. And I thought there was healthy competition within Canada’s wireless market as carriers fought tooth and claw for market share. Then again, the Canadian government did shrink the competitive landscape when it approved Rogers’ $1.4-billion acquisition of Microcell. And it’s not like the MVNO market has spurred more competition, although Virgin Mobile is really trying hard to be a pain the ass to Telus, Rogers and Bell.

Who knows, maybe the de-regulation of the local telephone market will cause home phone prices to increase, which, in turn, could make wireless service more attractive. Then again, there’s no indication wireless carriers will stop chanting the “disciplined pricing” mantra any time. As long as there’s growth left in the market, why offer deals when there’s no need for them?

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How to Generate Vista Buzz: Spend $500M on Ads

By Mark Evans in Advertising/Marketing, Main Page, Microsoft 5 Comments

Vista is a nice upgrade from Windows XP but it’s hardly a ground-shaking product even after five years of development and 50 million lines of code. The lack of enthusiasm has been muted (highlighted by the WSJ’s Walter Mossberg who described it as “worthy, but largely unexciting product”.

So what can Microsoft do to get people talking about Vista, which has many attractive features and far better security? How about spending a whopping $500-million on advertising, which makes the $150,000 or so that Microsoft spent sending free Ferrari laptops to bloggers look like a drop in the bucket. Over the next little while, it is going to be impossible to avoid Vista. There will TV commercials, billboards, magazine, newspaper ads and public transit vehicles featuring Vista. Even Bill Gates is getting into the action by making appearances all over the place, including The Daily Show.

The strange and ironic part about spending $500-million (which is higher than the GDP of 17 countries) is, at the end of the day, most people will end up buying Vista anyway. At some point, you’ll have no choice but to trade in your Pentium III, 1GB machine for someone even more powerful, which, of course, will be powered by Vista. It’s like that old Fram oil filter ad where the garage mechanic says “You can pay me now, or you can pay me later”. Well, you get Vista now or get Vista later but either way you’re going to get it – unless you’re a Mac-ite.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not suggesting Vista is a bad or unworthy product. I’m just saying there’s no reason to be rushing out the door to upgrade if your computer is doing most of what you want it to do now. My sense is Vista is just phase one of a multi-part plan to introduce a far better OS than XP. Rather than delay Vista’s launch, Microsoft finally got it/rushed it out the door, which likely explains why people see it as alright but not earth-shattering.

For more, check out this video by the NYT’s David Pogue, who looks at how much Microsoft borrowed by the Mac. Engagdet’s Peter Rojas blogged live from the official Windows Vista launch event in NYC, while CrunchGear offers up six good reasons not to upgrade to Vista.

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Plagarism is Alive and, Sadly, Well

By Mark Evans in Uncategorized 10 Comments

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Wordpress boss Matt Mullenweg believes spam is one of the blogosphere’s biggest threats but another increasingly troubling issue is plagiarism. We’re not talking about people taking the ideas of other bloggers but outright theft of entire posts or passages. A recent example is The Client Side, which had its posts ripped off without attribution or even a hat tip by Scott Kress, an experienced blogger who should know better. Over the weekend, several b5 bloggers noticed a blog called All Women Talk is using other people’s content without permission.

Within the media, plagiarists are treated like vermin and quickly ostracized. In the blogopshere, it seems many people are still trying to get their heads around plagiarism. On one hand, it can be somewhat flattering to have your content “borrowed” by someone else because it suggests what you’re writing is interesting. Many blogs using your content will try to get around it by linking back to your blog or giving you credit.

After awhile, however, you begin to realize you’re doing all the work while someone else is reaping the benefits (readership, traffic, advertising revenue) by scraping your content. I mean, why should someone ever visit your blog if they can read it somewhere else? And pretty soon you realize the linkbacks are insincere tokens of thanks. Rather than giving you some props/credit, they’re a cheap and inadequate way of quasi-asking for permission.

So what can you do if another blogger is ripping off your work? You can start with a friendly comment or e-mail, suggesting that while you’re flattered by the attention, it would be better if they put together their own thoughts on a particular topic while citing the blog where they got the idea through a hat tip or link. If that doesn’t work, a harsher e-mail or a post on your blog outing the plagiarist may be the next move. In extreme cases, you can considering using Digital Millennium Copyright Act, (DMCA) to compel people to take down material seen as infringing on copyrighted content.

For more information on plagiarism, check out Plagiarism Today, a blog that looks at plagiarism, content theft and copyright issues.

LinkedIn Cashing In

By Mark Evans in Main Page, Venture Capital No Comments

LinkedIn is one of those rare Web 2.0 companies – it has a business model (sponsorships, subscriptions, advertising) and it’s profitable, it’s become a highly useful tool for more than nine million users, and built a loyal following given all the LinkedIn requests that hit my in-box. So, it’s no surprise the company has raised $11.8 million of venture capital. As much these VC deals are interesting, I’m waiting for the first tranche of Web 2.0 IPOs to hit the market to see if anyone has the chutzpah to actually do an offering. Then again, why go through all the effort if someone’s going to make the liquidation a snap by making a lucrative acquisition offer.

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