Mark Evans

Business 2.0 Out of Business?

Business 2.0 could be on its last legs due to a downturn in advertising? So it ain’t so! Although it’s much thinner (slicker? streamlined?) than it was during the dot-com when the magazine went bi-weekly to handle the onslaught on advertising, Business 2.0 is still a solid read for anyone interested in business and technology. Of course, I suspect many of the magazine’s most avid readers are now reading it online these so that probably explains its ad struggles. It’s just another example of how magazines and newspapers are struggling because they’re unable to replace the decline in traditional advertising with the same or more online advertising. It’s a sad reality.

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What’s the Definition for”Jackpot”?

Answer: $100-million or 14x revenue. Question: What did Answers Corp. cough up to acquire Lexico Publishing Group, which owns Dictionary.com, Thesaurus.com and Reference.com. Analysis: The M&A boom is alive and well, especially if you’ve got a great domain name and lots of unique visitors (Dictionary.com attracts 11 million/month). For more, check out the NYT.

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Happy 10th Birthday, Blogging

Well, well - blogging’s 10 years old according an article in the Wall St. Journal. The first blogger was apparently Jorn Barger, who started a Web site called Robot Wisdom.

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Hang with the Private Beta Crowd

Ever feel like you’re on the outside looking in when it comes to all those cool Web 2.0 services with invite-only betas? Well, TechCrunch has discovered a new service called InviteShare, which, in theory, will make it much easier to get on invitation lists. At first glance, it looks user-friendly and there’s a good number of options. One tip: it would help to have each beta service described so you could browse through what’s available, and sign up for what looks interesting.

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Videotron Rocking Along

For the investors pursuing Bell Canada, here’s food for thought: Videotron just signed up its 500,000th residential and business subscriber in Quebec. Based on monthly revenue of $30/month, that’s $180-million of sales that Bell has lost to Videotron in local phone business alone.

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The Facebook Eco-System

You’ve got to think this Facebook thing is more than a social networking “fad” when major venture capitalists start talking about investing in Facebook Apps. Personally, I find the FB Apps space confusing. There’s just much noise and no way (or time) to separate the good ones from the crap. Then, you get swamped with offers from “friends”, which makes it even more complicated. I’ve tried a few apps but nothing of them have stuck.

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Andreessen Into Blogging

Marc Andreessen, who has become the “It Guy” of the high-tech blogging since, has a post today on what he’s learned about blogging over the past month. No doubt the guy is smart, connected and become a must-read for lots of people.

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Questions About Facebook’s Numbers

Alec Saunders has taken a look at ComScore’s Facebook numbers - 89% year-over-year growth - and concludes something is not quite right.

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“2.0″ is so Over!

Okay, let’s just bury the “2.0″ thing once and for all. The last nail in the proverbial coffin is the Globe & Mail’s decision to call Mathew Ingram’s tech column “Ingram 2.0“. I didn’t know there was an Ingram 1.0!

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Wi-Fi Woes?

There was an interesting article in the Toronto Star about how Toronto Hydro’s Wi-Fi network has seen slow growth in terms of subscribers and its footprint. From a technology standpoint, the article raised the question about whether Wi-Fi made sense given Wi-Max is emerging as a better wireless option. Truth be told, Wi-Fi outside the home can be a hit or miss proposition if you’re looking for a connection that is robust, reliable and fast. I’ve got an evaluation account with Toronto Hydro so I’m going to give it another whirl this week. One thought: if Toronto Hydro is really serious about getting into the Internet access business, what about running fiber to the home given it’s already got accounts with everyone already?

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