Plunar: David Quiec's Weblog

BarCamp SF

2006-06-24T11:04:00.000-07:00

Here at the San Francisco BarCamp. I'm not sure if this is the first anniversary of BarCamp - it did start in the SF Bay Area last year in Palo Alto. If so, I can't believe that time goes by so fast. Updates later.

Linkie Winkie

2006-06-23T17:24:00.000-07:00

I'm guessing Linkie Winkie will link back to me if I link to it. Its a link bait experiment.

So here goes - let's see if my traffic goes up.

Inside AdWords: A letter from Eric Schmidt, CEO

2006-06-08T14:14:00.000-07:00

A week after eBay CEO Meg Whitman emails eBay's user base regarding net neutrality, Google CEO Eric Schmidt does the same. I found this message through the Google AdWords blog. This issue is really heating up - maybe Y!'s Terry Semel will be announcing next?

Inside AdWords: A letter from Eric Schmidt, CEO

2006-06-08T14:05:00.000-07:00

Nissan 2.0

2006-06-06T21:53:00.000-07:00

So, everyone seems to be taking advantage of the 2.0 thing. You don't know how many times I've heard this whispered in the last year. I'm sure this will go the way of "social software", "getting eyeballs", etc. Even Nissan (yes, the car manufacturer) has a new TV ad: shift_2.0. Sorry no links.

Plaxo goes VOIP

2006-05-23T16:08:00.000-07:00

CNET covers Plaxo's partnership with Jajah today:Plaxo gets hip to VoIP.

I agree with CNET et al that this is a packed market with Skype, Y!, MSN, etc allowing VOIP through their IM clients (maybe Seth and Meebo will join this game too?). But what Plaxo has for itself is a) a whole lot more contacts (and their telephone numbers), b) these numbers not finding itself in your mobile phone (and updating by itself), and c) a one-click activation on real phones (no learning and no additional hardware needed).

Not sure if they can dominate this market, but its another revenue stream that will keep the company afloat. I think it will have its own niche at the very least.

Gotta ask Mark more about this in the next Lunch 2.0.

AOL UnCut

2006-05-18T16:28:00.000-07:00

InformationWeek reports that InformationWeek AOL Quietly Unveils YouTube Competitor | May 16, 2006. AOL seems to be a follower these days, creating products that protect (not expand) its territory. Very sad for a Internet giant; they can do more.

Worse? The brand: AOL UnCut...sounds like a South Park movie...

Jerry & Dave: The New Penn & Teller

2006-05-16T07:52:00.000-07:00

So Yahoo! launches its new front page today, getting a lot of buzz from the media. As part of the release, they have Y! main man Jerry Yang and not-so-visible co-founder David Filo on a video. Filo's always been the shy one (from what I hear) and in this video that's pretty noticeable - he doesn't have lines, but he does speak his mind out...they're both like the Web 2.0 version of Las Vegas hit Penn & Teller.

Hotties of MySpace

2006-05-15T15:33:00.000-07:00

Nick Douglas of Valleywag tips us off with this: Valleywag: Hotties of MySpace: A NSFW adventure. You can find the official Playboy site here.

It's interesting how MySpace has pushed the limit to its social network. Makes good sense though since the succeeed by getting the good-looking LA people to come online. As we know, LA people are there to become actors and actresses. And, yeah, also pornstars....

Snap CPA Search Engine

2006-05-15T09:41:00.000-07:00

San Jose Mercury News reveals a new search engine today: Snap. So what's new with it? While everyone is familiar with the big engines, the search business is a dime a dozen - companies such as Mama, Looksmart, etc. making appearances. Well, the first is that the founder is Bill Gross, the person who started Overture (now Y! Search Marketing). And as you know Google wasn't original in its pay-per-click model - it was a copy of Overture's business.

Snap brings an interesting concept that appeals to advertisers - pay per action/acquistion. This means that you only pay the engine when someone becomes a bonafide customer! This is a better deal than paying for click; it just takes more risk out! It will probably be more $$$ per transaction, and will be harder to implement (you have to put tracking pixels). Yets it definitely an innovative way to develop the search engine business.

How about the service? Oh yeah, its very cool too. I especially like the screen shots of the results. It makes it easier to navigate and decide; you don't have to go off the page to do it.

JotSpot Acquired?

2006-05-10T22:09:00.000-07:00

Techcrunch reports that JotSpot might have been acquired. It's pretty interesting to see which part of Yahoo! they will go to. My guess is that they will fall under small business. It'll be a shame if it wasn't so. I don't think wikis are meant for consumers - the real value (and money) comes from businesses who need the collaboration to get their jobs done.

Smart decision to sell out IMHO. Salesforce.com's AppExchange is essentially the JotSpot vision....

New Google Services

2006-05-10T17:49:00.000-07:00

CNET came out with this story today: Google unveils new applications. What struck me most was Google Co-op. It seems to be Wink and Raw Sugar is trying to do - integrating social bookmarks into search. In more easy to understand word: getting people (i.e. the masses) to identify, define, and organize websites. I haven't heard much about the start-ups that are playing this game, but a big behemoth like Google entering your space is something to notice.

They have some changes too - like using experts and building it into Google Search (unlike Yahoo!, who separates Yahoo 2.0, Y! Search, and Delicious.

Home-made Google Ad

2006-05-09T16:57:00.000-07:00

The point here is whether Google is a filter, or what not (if definitely shows you that you can find things easier). The point is that people are die-hard fans that they'd create their own ad. The things that evangelism can do for you....

Super Happy Dev House 9

2006-04-30T14:15:00.000-07:00

Again another great event by PB Wiki's David Weekly (thanks!). Some interesting people attended and I made some new contacts:

1) Nick Douglas of Valleywag, a new gossip blog on Silicon Valley. They've gotten some mileage lately and its hard to imagine they came out only last Feb.
2) Sanford Barr of Stirr.net. His networking activities are well-attended, and has a good mix or technologies, entrepreneurs and venture capitalists.
3) Gabe Rivera, Memeorandum. A tech and political news site that is powered by a black box. Gabe tried explaining his algorithm to me. I didn't get it - makes it more powerful if you ask me.
4) Scott Beale of Laughing Squid. I really envy this guy - he gets to cover the fun events around SF. Its because he has a business model. Run a webhosting company.

If you've got time, you should really make it to SHDH (more details here). Its an opporunity to be productive and to hook up with other smart people to work on your project. Of course, I always end up hanging around the food and drink and bugging the attendees...but that's another story.

StartUp School AM

2006-04-29T13:46:00.000-07:00

Start-Up School jumpstarted with Joe Krauss of Jotspot. He has 7 good start-up lessons, most of it not new. What struck me most was his push for putting the business model on beta when you have your product on beta. This makes your service more “real” and gets people to give you the real compliments. Another good speaker was Bloglines founder Mark Fletcher. He has some technical recommendations on software, hardware, etc. Pretty useful to me since most of the topics talked about were something I’ve taken up during my Cal MBA. I think Atom will find the recommendations useful.

I’m looking forward to the afternoon sessions – they have Tim O’Reilly, Om Malik, Caterina Fake and Joshua Schacter!

Startup School + Other Events

2006-04-28T11:32:00.000-07:00

The 2006 Startup School happens tomorrow and includes a cool line-up of speakers - Caterina Fake of Flickr, Joshua Schacter of Delicious, Om Malik of Busines 2.0, and Tim O'Reilly of O'Reilly Network. I managed to get an invite so I'm really excited to go! These events as just hubs of ideas and energy. I am looking forward to talking to the folks who are attending and to listen to their stuff.

Two other noteworthy activities around the Bay:

1) Stirr.net - gets full easy. I got a early sound-off but managed to get my self on the wait-list. Bummer.

2) SF Win - Albert Lai of BubbleShare sounded me off to this. Interested in it and will try to go. A bit far (SF) from me. $25 entrance fee too.

Nintendo Wii

2006-04-28T10:56:00.000-07:00

Some people say that a rose by any other name is still a rose. If so, then Nintendo Wii (formerly known as the Nintendo Revolution shouldn't have anything to worry about. Nintendo drops Revolution, renames next gen console Wii.

Don't think so. Branding is all about image - and I don't think Wii is getting the good impressions. The first is that nobody knows how to pronounce it (it's "we" as in "us"; of course, I should be getting this flack too since Rrove is pronounced "rove" and not "R_rove"). The other issue is that Wii is_just_lame. Can't they come up with something else? Looking back, Revolution is much more powerful.

The right thing they've managed to do is get the media talking about them. Talk about lots of PR! And PR is, like branding, part of marketing. Hmm...maybe this was intentional?

SketchUp & Google Earth

2006-04-27T09:10:00.000-07:00

Came over this today - SketchUp - Home. It somehow reminds me of Second Life, and how you can create virtual stuff in it. For those who are not familiar with this company, they've been getting a lot of press lately because of new VC investment. Talking points are how people are creating digital clothes, houses, vehicles and selling them for Linden dollars. Of course, Linden dollars can be bought by using US dollars (what can't?). Check out this Business Week article on them.

Anyways, maybe this guy is thinking of creating a virtual world in Google Earth. With its large user base, he can get a small minority and have something going. Of course, there are problems - working with Google being the most obvious. Its a long-shot/far from happening but its an interesting project to think about.

ShopWiki

2006-04-19T19:30:00.000-07:00

Came about this new service via Search Engine Watch. ShopWiki is yet another shopping comparison engine. At first I thought it was a wiki where people can collaborate/review products (ala Wikipedia). I liked the idea, specially since I've been looking at affiliate marketing and how much you can make on it. Yet when I came to ShopWiki, it seemed like a search engine. And I don't see where you can change content like a wiki.

Doesn't work for me. It seems that its taking whatever buzz a wiki has. Or something like that.

The New Viral Marketing

2006-04-04T22:35:00.000-07:00

I recently came about a viral marketing article. Its interesting how this is being done today. Previously, it was all about emailing forwarding, games, and cards. Today, with the additional sophistication of users, its all about microsites and videos. I guess the easiness allows more people to create these interesting sites (here's an example from Simply Hired and Xmen 3) while the white-hot video sharing business allows better distribution of content (you dont really want to email a video right?)

Some viral videos went the Web 2.0 way - have user-generated content. A small subset have been lucky as in the case of Logitech webcameras. After this video came out, their products were the most searched for and most bought webcams off Amazon. Other were not so lucky, see this case of the Chevy Tahoe.

Its a new era, and there are new ways of doing things.

Bitty Browser

2006-03-14T11:49:00.000-08:00

Found this on the web today, and I recalled my conversation with Neil Kumar of Yelp in SHDH8 over this weekend. With the blog explosion, a lot of companies have developed "blog blings" (Neil's exact words) or a few lines of javascript code that people can cut and paste to their blogs. The result? Some fancy new features. I think Flickr started it with their Zietgiest, and Del.icio.us came up with the Linkorama. So here's a new one that can be customized for different effects: the Bitty Browser.

The Bitty Browser essentially allows you to embed a baby browser within your browser. So what? Well, for some web-surfing activities, you can prefer to stay in the same page (e.g. news, search, etc.). It's pretty cool and helpful, especially if you stick it into your blog (which is becoming everyone's homepage these days) and use it to navigate other sites.

Speaking of blog blings, Rrove has the Rrove Roll. Its essentially a list of the last locations you've been to. Yes, you should put that in your browser.

Here's an example:

Bitty Browser (iframes required)

Google Calendar

2006-03-06T23:34:00.000-08:00

I came about an article on the Google Calendar while surfing Digg. Seems that this is something people are talking about (although there is an update that this pic might not be the real thing).

The interesting observation here is not so much that there is a Google Calendar, but the fact that people are talking about it. I don't think you'll get the same interest level if it was Real Networks or Napster who released a new product/service/feature. (Yes, Apple would get the same hype.)

It reminds me of the big Gmail buzz that happened a couple of years back. People were scrambling for invites, some where actually auctioned off at eBay for $100. Imagine that.

And yet, I don't it was done on purpose. I think that it was just a way to control expectations. It probably was also done because a lot of people will have signed up, and Google wasn't ready for the load.

(It's also interesting that alot of companies are doing something similar today. A lot of companies under-the-radar have a 'Coming Soon' front page and a little "leave us your email address and we'll tell you when we are ready." Somehow, it's not going to work. Btw, do you see a "coming soon" product from Google?)

The point is - I think Google's marketing success is because they have great engineers (v. marketing geniuses running around). I guess their success has created a 'halo effect' on their next projects.

(A final note - not all Google products are successful. Take Orkut, Froogle, among others. Yet their good products are more, and have really blown the market.)

Web 2.0 Lists

2006-03-06T00:28:00.000-08:00

It's a bit shallow, but Rrove's inclusion to these two lists is nice.

Stabilo Boss's Flickr picture of Web 2.0 companies (click here for a bigger picture).

Sanjeev Narang's list of 900 Web 2.0 companies

Where 2.0

2006-03-05T22:46:00.000-08:00

With everything having a version 2.0, it shouldn't be a surprise that the location-based services that are coming out would have the same. Enter Where 2.0 - the future of mapping and local search. This should be a good event; local search is estimated to be a $4 billion dollar business and is a fastest growing component of the Internet search advertising industry.

Of course, Where 2.0 is an O'Reilly conference. In other words, its expensive. Early birds pay $1,100 while late-comers pay $1,700 or something like that. I wish Rrove would get an invite. I think we can provide insights from the last months that we've been running the project.

MSFT does Apple

2006-02-28T15:54:00.000-08:00

Great video of what Microsoft would do if they owned the iPod.

Tags: Microsoft, Apple, funny, humor

Rrove - Officially Beta!!!

2006-01-21T01:59:00.000-08:00

In the last couple of months, A friend and I have been working on an interesting social bookmarks project. IT'S FINALLY HERE!!! Yey!

Before I point you to the service, picture this scenario - you've been invited by a friend to his birthday party at a restaurant somewhere in the city. You had a great experience (i.e they serve an excellent Chicken BBQ Pizza), and you want to return to it. Well, guess what - you forgot how to get there (you've lost the invite, the address, and the map), and you're to lazy to email your friend.

You probably won't make it back, at least not soon.

Check out Rrove - its a social bookmarks service FOR LOCATIONS. Use it to save the places that you've been to, so you can return to them in the future!

And its done in a very simple, non-obtrusive way - you get it done IN ONE CLICK. After you add our Rrove buttons to your Bookmarks Toolbar (we'll show you how after you sign-up), head to your favorite map service and use it as you do right now (get a map of an address or get driving directions). After that, just click the 'Rrove This' button and your location(s) are saved in your account. You can come back to them anytime.

If you're familiar with what social bookmarks services do, then you'll know that this becomes a discovery engine. The locations you save can be marked public or private. If you make it public then you're letting everyone else on Rrove know about this location and what you think of it. This allows other people and yourself to explore new places.

You're probably excited about how it works, but a favor before you go. Please be gentle! This is a project and its highly experimental. The core function (saving locations) is pretty solid and the project is very stable. Neverthless, I'm sure there are ways to improve. If you have an idea or suggestion, email me at feedback@rrove.com.

OK - I've said enough. Go to Rrove.com now.

YouTube Sold?

2006-01-20T01:02:00.000-08:00

Got this over the Social Software Blog - rumor says that YouTube has a buyer. And, as with what the blog says, I think that it's Yahoo!. They already have other social bookmarks sites (e.g. Flickr, Delicious), so YouTube is a perfect fit.

Here's something new - if they're smart, they should take Digg next.

TWiki Dakar & Feb Wiki Wed

2006-01-19T16:49:00.000-08:00

TWiki.org is launching it's next generation TWiki (code-named Dakar) during February's Wiki Wednesday. This is the 4th version of TWiki and promises exciting new features including a WYSIWYG interface. Having been a TWiki fan for a couple of years now, I think that this is key feature that's been lacking. Sure, TWiki is mostly used by enterprises (who probably forces their users to live without one). But some savvy engineers are using it for (or as part of) their public websites.

There will be a short presentation by TWiki author Peter Thoeny, and a panel discussion about "The Future of Enterprise Wikis."

Sign-up for Wiki Wed (Feb 1, 2006) and meet everyone in the (T)Wiki space. Free food and drink c/o SocialText!

The Ideavirus and Promiscous Sneezers

2006-01-14T13:09:00.000-08:00

Just finished Seth Godin's 'Unleashing the Ideavirus.' A great read that focuses on getting customers to do the marketing to you. Makes a lot of sense since interuptive marketing (TV, radio, print) is very expensive today. Essentially he talks about talking to one person and having him pass on the message (versus talking to everyone).

Seth talks about two types of sneezers (i.e. the people who will forward your message for you). One is the powerful sneezer who will do it for better credibility. The other is the promiscous sneezer - he'll do it for a fee.

Well, I came upon this article on News.com today. Guess somebody's built a business model targetting promiscous sneezers, and they recently took in 13.8M(!) in funding. They're called BzzAgent.

Wonder if Seth knows about them - not on his blog yet.

MashUp Camp

2006-01-11T19:25:00.000-08:00

You had FooCamp, BarCamp, and TagCamp. Introducing - MashCamp! If the other un-conferences were any indication, this should should be a fun weekend of cool new stuff, smart people, and partying!

In case you don't know what a Mashup is - its a combination of two big company APIs put together. Perhaps the most popular is HousingMaps, a combination of Google Maps and Craiglist apartment listings.

Sign-up now! Only 250 slots available!

YouTube & MySpace

2006-01-03T17:00:00.000-08:00

Came about a story about MySpace's blocking of YouTube's video feeds today. It made me reflect about these two companies a bit more. If you think about it, MySpace is driven by user-generated content. A couple of years ago, this content was simply people and their pictures. Let's be honest, you go to MySpace to oogle the good-looking people of the opposite sex right?

Well, the next wave of content will be video - its these cool people in moving action, sharing more of their glowing personalities. Sure, its a bit irritating for to wait for MySpace pages to load because of the video. But despite this, the service is still thriving. So the visitors must be good with it and YouTube will capitalize on it.

Hmm...maybe YouTube will be acquired by News Corp too. Shouldn't be too out there. At the very least, they have similar sound names ('My' & 'You'; get it?).

What does this imply? We'll the other social networking services should take note! This is the chance to get a leg-up on MySpace. While MySpace has video feeds for a long-time, they're more towards MTVs than personalized stuff. Start integrating video feeds. Aside from YouTube, there's also SoCal based Revver. Cut a deal now!

Also: did I ever mention that I once did an email interview with Tom Anderson of MySpace? This was waaay before they were big - kinda proud of it, saw them coming from afar. Interview came out in the UC Berkeley MBA newspaper too (if you needed the proof). Note that his name bears a close resemblance to a certain Keanu Reeves character in a popular sci-fi trilogy.

Slickr & Flickrlicio.us

2006-01-01T21:16:00.000-08:00

Hey - Happy New Year! Wanted to kick-off 2006 with a bang...so here I am...with a blog post...!?

Came about a screen saver based on Flickr. I can't imagine it took a while for someone to think of this! Called Slickr, this software allows you to download Flickr photos with specific tags and to display them on your computer (duh). Be careful though - the program allocates 500MB to its cache...dunno if your really need this, but maybe you do since you want high-quality pics.

So, I was playing around with it trying to figure out how to get hot women from the Flickr site on my screen saver. Lo and behold - Flickrlicio.us (aka 'Babes of Flickr') is not available anymore - wah! I want my women!!! Bring back Flickrlio.us!!!

(I'm still figuring out the key tag words for hot women though. Someone have any ideas?)

While we're on this topic, how about a screen saver that looks like FilmLoop?

43 People

2005-12-30T09:55:00.000-08:00

Been out the last couple of weeks for some special people who are in town. Sure wish it wasn't over....oh well.

Today, I got a 43 People connect through David Weekly of PB Wiki. Looks like the guys at Robo-Coop (aka Amazon) are up to something interesting - another brand/product extension of their 43 services (they have 43 Things and 43 Places).

At first instance, its seems that 43 People is YASN service (YASN = Yet Another Social Network). Give it a go and you'll realize that it flips the entire paradox around. This is more about people you'd like to know than who you are and your relationships with others. Thus, a person who's not in the system can get a profile, whether he likes it or not.

I like the idea behind it. Soon people who own these profiles will be attracted to them, and probably claim ownership (check out this example on Steve Jobs). Good way to increase user base; use the people from 43 Things and 43 People....

Yahoo! Tags = Flickr + Delicious

2005-12-09T13:24:00.000-08:00

Just saw this today - Yahoo! acquires Delicious. As you know, Y! owns picture-tagging site Flickr. So the additions of Del.icio.us puts Y! 2.0 as the king of social search. Yahoo! is getting scarier each day.

Protopage = Google IG

2005-12-08T23:06:00.000-08:00

Found this new service today c/o the Social Software Blog. Protopage is an AJAX-driven personal homepage. You can easily add RSS feeds from new sites that update automatically, create yellow post-it notes that you can move around without page refresh, and even create your customized wallpaper. Pretty sweet - its a version 1.5 of Google IG. Speaking of IG - can somebody tell me what that means?

Digging Digg

2005-12-07T18:31:00.000-08:00

I've been playing around with Digg these last few days, and I've finally figured it out. If you're a fan of 'discovery' through Del.icio.us, then you'll totally dig Digg. At first impression, Digg seems to bring articles that its users find interesting to the top. Yet a close look at these links show that its not just news/headlines but also interesting random stuff. Consider what I've seen recently: a Lego execution of Grand Theft Auto, the new X-men 3 website, and the release of Fasterfox for Firefox 1.5.

It totally reminds me of my experience as I go through Del.icio.us's popular links (I usually hit humor). Digg is like the best of the popular links. Somewhat random, but totally cool information.

Get The Whole Thing

2005-12-07T11:20:00.000-08:00

Check out this great video: http://www.getthewholething.com/. I tell you this will spread, and will be a big hit for the sponsor company.

I'm itching to talk more about it, but you'll figure it out yourself. The execution is flawless - gets attention and communicates one_simple_message.

Perplex City Funded

2005-12-07T00:40:00.000-08:00

Wow - saw this News.com article today. Seems that UK-based Mind Candy, the creators of Perplex City, has received $3M in (probably) Series A funding from Index Ventures. Nice.

For those who do not know, Perplex City is an Alternate Reality Game (ARG). Think of an Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game (MMORPG - geez, what's with the acronyms) but off the Internet. Essentially, its a bunch of game cards/puzzles in different levels. What makes it different is that its built around a storyline with multiple characters, each with their own plots. You can follow the game through Perplex City blogs and websites (some of these urls are hidden in Perplex City websites and game cards; most are update daily). More than that, the answers to these puzzles are part of a larger puzzle that when solved will lead to a real location somewhere on Earth. What's in that location? $200,000 in cold, hard cash baby! Woohoo!

Obviously, this an interesting way to market a product. It also makes great PR.

I said that Perplex City is like an MMORPG; its an interactive game. Sure, you can hide in a hole somewhere and solve the riddles yourself, but part of the enjoyment is hitting the forums, going to special events, etc. to solve the clues and get to the big prize. (Oh yeah, I found Google makes a good friend who can solve the hardest puzzles....)

You should definitely give it a look. Its distribution is pretty limited but if you want to get cards (6 or so cards for $5) , Games of Berkeley in the SF Bay Area has them. As you can tell, I'm kinda hooked on Perplex City.

Thoughts on Marketing & Marketing with a Virus

2005-12-05T18:27:00.000-08:00

So far, the entries in this blog have been focused on the start-up environment - new companies/services, my market opinions, and events. Yet, I am not doing my background due justice. See, I'm a marketing guy. I think its high-time that I talk about interesting marketing campaigns that I've seen. Since this blog is dedicated to the Internet, I'll focus on online marketing.

Perhaps one of the coolest marketing activities out there is viral marketing. I'm we all agree on this. If you think about it, this is simply a super-charged word-of-mouth campaign. And, I don't think its the way it is now until the Internet came around.

Viral marketing campaigns are more effective as everybody gets connected and uses DSL. Consider this interesting video campaign by SimplyHired (through its SimplyFired website); wouldn't happen without a fast connection. Dave McClure sure knows what he's doing - the use of another website is pretty slick, and the team-up with YouTube is great.

(Speaking of YouTube - you should check out these two funny Korean girls. It's HILARIOUS.)

You probably know about other viral marketing campaigns: there's Burger King's Subservient Chicken. This just blows me away (although its a bit creepy). I blog about the interesting ones in the next entries.

Brain Jamming

2005-12-02T16:30:00.000-08:00

I got this from Hong Qu - BrainJams is happening tomorrow at the SRI offices in Menlo Park. Like BarCamp and TagCamp, BrainJams aims to be an 'unconference' where smart-people get together without formality (and without having to pay) and just discuss/learn from one another. Dunno about you, but I think its cool.

More than that, this is Silicon Valley and the people here are blazing the technology way. If this is similar to the past events I've attended, then it promises to be a rich experience.

Hong and I will be there. If you happen to read my blog and want to meet up, send me a message.

Also on the event track - the next Wiki Wed is happening on 7 Dec 2005. Yup, its at SocialText HQ.

The Uncyclopedia

2005-11-27T23:34:00.000-08:00

So, the beauty of Wikipedia is that you have an encyclopedia that anyone can edit. Because you have millions of editors, you are sure to have on-the-spot information and, of course, correct grammar.

Turn Wikipedia on its head and you have the Uncyclopedia. Like Wikipedia, its also runs on a wiki and relies on its visitors for information and the update of information. However, the objective is the opposite - you can be as far from the truth as possible. As long as its funny.

Think Wikipedia + The Onion.

Wayfaring

2005-11-27T23:21:00.000-08:00

Found this on the web today - Wayfaring. Its making your own maps (on various topics - surf spots, restuarants, geneology, etc.) and sharing it with others for their use and appreciation. I really like the User Interface. Pretty slick with big fonts (easy-to-read). Of course its integrated with Google Maps (isn't there anything that's not?).

I think that the content generated will be very useful. Creating content is pretty difficult/takes a lot of time though - what will motivate you to do this? Hmm...maybe if you can build a community....

Super Happy Dev House SIX

2005-11-24T11:52:00.000-08:00

Seems that SHDH 6 is happening December 10. Check it out. I enjoyed the experience the last time I was there. Figure I'll head out again to meet some very smart people. If you're and engineer or not, you're free to go. I'll let you know about the interesting projects.

Happy Turkey Day!

Mash Maps

2005-11-20T12:35:00.000-08:00

We all know that mash-ups websites are at the forefront of Web 2.0. For those who are unaware, mash-ups are created by combining the web services by the big Internet players. Perhaps the most popular mash-up was the first one - Housing Maps by Paul Redmacher (now of Google). Spurred by this service, Google released an open API two months later that sparked this trend.

There is so much excitement around this area, but all the mash-ups are Google Maps and something else (e.g. gas prices, pictures, pedometer, etc.). I still have to see a well-used mash-up that doesn't use this service nor another Map site. There's even a blog that keeps track off the new Google Maps mash-ups. Hmmm...I wonder if 43 Places count - probably not, because they're just taking their flagship service - 43 Things - and adding a Flickr interface.

Makes me wonder - why not just call it Mash Maps?

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Found a great News.com article on Mashups. Its part of a larger article called Taking Back the Web. Excellent read.

BusinessWeek's Web Smart 50

2005-11-11T18:36:00.000-08:00

Found this set of articles today at BusinessWeek. Interesting write-ups on 37 Signal's Basecamp and Digg. I'm impressed by Basecamp's 'Less is More' philosophy. I really think that technology is supposed to make people more productive and work less. Unfortunately, over the last few decades, people have actually worked more hours (I read that somewhere).

Digg is News 2.0, and incorporates the required human element/collective wisdom into the equation. Makes you wonder what the other 2.0 services will look like (i.e. Dating 2.0, Travel 2.0, Adult 2.0...)

What really inspires me about these two companies is how they started small to grow to tens of thousands of users - all through viral/grassroots efforts it seems. Seems like a great way to run a business.

Social Search

2005-11-11T00:28:00.000-08:00

So, we all know that the first version of search is Google PageRank (Y! directories are probably v.0.5...). For those not in the know, Google ranks a webpage by the number of links to it on other websites. The big idea is that webmasters would link (and refer) to the 'right' websites. Using the human element makes a lot of sense.

The next version of search starts with Del.icio.us and 'discovery.' By getting people to tag webpages with metadata (trans. providing one-word descriptions to each webpage), searchers will find sites in the deep, dark web. You can find them through Google too, on page 2056....

There are two interesting executions of this social-powered search (Wink calls it people powered search - pretty cool). The first version is the Wink and Raw Sugar model, combining tags with Google search (there are more features, but you'll have to figure them out yourself). The other version is Rollyo. With Rollyo, you use a 'search roll' (i.e. a list of websites) made by a person for a certain topic. Here, the searcher uses experts instead of the collective mind.

It sure will be interesting on what model will work in the long-run (or before v.3 comes out). But I'm sure James Suroweicki will bet on search + tagging; he is after all behind the Wisdom of the Crowds.

MySpace & Friendster Visitors

2005-11-10T08:14:00.000-08:00

Came to this article today: Friendster overture no endearing to all.

Check out the unique visitors they have - 535,000/month, according to Nielsen. Contrast with MySpace - 17M/month. Wow.

Web 2.0 (and Social Software)

2005-11-08T17:36:00.000-08:00

The buzz these days is Web 2.0. Heck, it even had a conference named after it. But what exactly does Web 2.0 mean?

Others say that its the second coming of the web - another bubble. Actually, a bubblet. And we can see that with a whole slew of companies coming out of the woodwork. Maybe its just me being at the heart of technology, but there are lots of new ideas and teams (this is good).

But Web 2.0 is not just another wave of ideas and businesses. Its a certain kind of technology. Back in 1999 - 2001, people were concerned with content to get visitors to their sites (getting the "eyeballs"). With Web 2.0, its content that is richer through technology improved with the interaction of people. Look at the innovations that have driven this movement - tagging, community interaction (resulting in a collective mind), sharing/openness (APIs from Google, Amazon, eBay, etc.). Of course there technology that allows this to happen better - AJAX and Ruby on Rails are some examples.

Where Web 2.0 will go is up in the air. I think that there will a lot of interesting opportunities here, and that some companies will go under when the bubblet pops. There will always be ups and down. My hope is that it won't be a big bust, and that people won't use Web 3.0 or something like that when the next upturn arrives.

(Side note: You probably noticed that Web 2.0 has a social component to it. Its interesting that social software seems to be swampped by Web 2.0, and that the former is fast losing its appeal. I think that if you say social software, people look at you and think that you're not in the know. On the other hand, Ithink people who use Web 2.0 is referring to a buzz word that he probably doesn't understand. Oh well.)

Meetro v. Meebo v. 800 lb. Gorillas

2005-11-06T13:43:00.000-08:00

Last night at the Super Happy Dev House, I had the opportunity to talk to Paul Bragiel of Meetro and to Seth of Meebo. Pretty good products with diffentiation from the big gorillas - AOL, MSN, and Y!

In case you don't know, Meetro is a location finder that allows you to meet the people in a geographical area. It allows to look for like-minded people, friends of friends, or interesting places. It sits on a downloadable client like most instant messengers.

On the other hand, Meebo is a AJAX instant messenger (yes, it runs on a browser) that connects to the big networks. Pretty cool if you can't download software (e.g. office), sharing computers, or using someone else's PC. Its a cool product eventhough it still misses the big features such as voice, music, etc. I still have to get used to having IM on a browser though.

The challenge for these two companies is the legality of connecting to the networks. You can get away with it (like Trillian) if you're a small company. But once you grow, it'll be more difficult. Plus, the big use for IM is moving to video and voice. And thats not easy to do.

Super Happy Dev House 5

2005-11-05T11:16:00.000-08:00

Got the low-down from Lloyd Budd of Flock. SuperHappyDevHouse5 is happening tonight. Mostly a hack-a-thon, the event has a 'Geek Pitch' - the techie version of the Elevator Pitch. Each attendee has 10min to present his cool project to an audience of peers and entrepreneurs. There will be drinks; it's a Saturday night. But somehow, I don't think you can mix code and alcohol.

Come on over - everyone's invited! Engineers or not.

More details here: Chris Messina's logo and event info, Event info on Upcoming.org

I'll be there, hoping to get some face time with Mike Rowehl.

Google Gamed?

2005-11-03T01:19:00.000-08:00

For an hour or so, I had some trouble publishing the recent 'What Wikis Do' post. I thought the problem was just Blogger but when I headed to Gmail and to Google Search, I had the same experience. Hmmm...I think Google was hacked or something. Don't really know, but keep an eye out on News.com (or the blogosphere via Technorati) tomorrow. I'll post something if I find any.

What Wikis Do

2005-11-03T00:10:00.000-08:00

Just came from Wiki Wednesday at SocialText headquarters, and had to meet some really great people into both the consumer and enterprise wiki space. There's a lot of noise on wikis these days that started when JotSpot got some funding.

Spent time discussing wikis with both Jack H. of WikiHow and David Weekley of PBWiki. They have great executions of wikis. WikiHow, born out of eHow, extends its article writing to a community of users and allows the model to scale (v. having paid authors do the writing; its just like Wikipedia). David W's approach is straight-forward - keep it simple: people don't know what wikis are. Don't complicate matters. Let them use it and learn.

Personally, the concept of wiki is difficult to understand. Try explaining it to mom. If you can, then I think your blessed. Blogs, which can be explained as 'online diary' is a challenge in itself.

It's because of this reason that wikis must be explained in a way that people understand. The way this could be done is by enabling it to do one_certain_thing. If you're a wiki person, you'd probably say that you can use wikis to write reports, to coordinate schedules, to keep notes, etc. Unfortunately, non-techie types are not that imaginative. How about a wiki just for writing papers or calendaring a group schedule? This service with have features tailored to its use, of course.

AdBrite

2005-11-02T17:05:00.000-08:00

Experimenting with online advertising through AdBrite - you probably noticed the sponsor links on the lower right corner. It'll be interesting to see how far I can bring this. I'm sure that I'll need around 100,000 visitors everyday to start making good money through a blog (if that happens, I can join blog networks Corante, Gawker Media, Weblogs, whatever). But a couple of hunder dollars (yeah right - more like a couple of dollars) each month wouldn't be bad.

I'm really a bad guy; the very least I can do is use Google AdSense (Blogspot is a Google service). I guess I'll give them a go in a few weeks and compare. But right now, they're making too much money to care.

Speaking of AdBrite - you should check them out. They messaging 'eBay of online advertising' - company makes a lot of sense, especially with a lot of small publishers (read: bloggers) joining the Internet. The AdBrite set-up was really fast; it took me around 20 minutes from sign-up to having the ad appear on the Plunar blog.

Check out my sponsors (I sure hope I don't have the wrong advertisers here), and show some love!

Plunar

2005-10-31T23:00:00.000-08:00

Some people are wondering about Plunar. What is it?

Plunar was my MBA project. You can say it was my thesis (if there was one for business school) - as I spent every waking moment doing it. It was a business plan built on TWiki - the most popular and widely used wiki software for the enterprise market. What's a wiki? Wikis are webpages that can be edited by any web-browser. Here's an article via Wikipedia (yes, Wikipedia is a wiki).

Worked with some very smart people - Sabino and Mira from the Business School; Shane from MIS, and DK from EECS. We were mentored by great people too - Peter Thoeny of TWiki, Stanley Knutson, Russ Holdstein, and Bob Tenant. Shout out to these great people!

Learn more? Here's DK's Plunar page (and a picture of the team).

Tagging Hot People

2005-10-30T18:49:00.000-08:00

I know you've spent some time checking out people on social networks. And you've all had your impression on them: pretty, smart, funny, etc. These descriptions are probably based on your impressions as you surf the page, or based on your actual interactions with them.

Each profile on these social networks has its own URL. Well, guess what - you can tag them on Delicious! So, how about a social experiment? How about tagging the hot people you find? Lets keep it simple, tag this way:

[social network]hot[guy/gal]

Thus, it would be: friendsterhotguy, tribehotgal, etc. You HAVE to keep it to one word.

To keep us all on the same page, use the following words for each service:

Friendster - friendster
MySpace - myspace
The Facebook - facebook
Tribe.net - tribe
Hi-5 - hi5
Multiply - multiply

Yes, I know its shallow but bear with me. Feel free to add the other networks I've missed.

Wikisphere

2005-10-29T22:48:00.000-07:00

A new player in the consumer wiki market - Wikisphere - gets $5.2M in funding from Trinity Ventures and Frazier Technology Ventures. The new company is run by Blue Nile Co-founder Ben Elowitz. Read more.

Credit Ross Mayfield for spotting this.

MySpace and The FacebookTombstones

2005-10-29T22:42:00.000-07:00

Saw this post from Danah Boyd's blog. Cal undergrad dies at car crash, and friends use her MySpace and The Facebook profiles to leave her messages. Its a bit creepy as the pages contain pictures of her when she was alive. And the pictures of her friends are not really sad looking.

Well, it is Halloween....

TagCamp Day 2

2005-10-29T18:55:00.000-07:00

Another round of ideas, discussions and meeting people today at TagCamp. I felt that I was at the end of an information firehose which so much stuff being thrown at me. Much more difficult since I'm a non-techie. But shutting down and getting some time-off, here are some of the companies that got my attention.

Kaboodle: allows you to organize information into one simple 'kaboodle page." Mainly used for shopping research, Kaboodle gives the user a way to make an educated purchase. Look for applications in academic research, trip planning, etc. The kaboodle page kinda reminds me of a wiki page. Like the one of the co-founders too - Manish Chandra - who's a BerkeleyMBA. Go Bears!
Wink: Search with tagging is turning out to be a biggie. We need to get into the hidden gems within deep dark web, something that Google can't really do. Dunno what the service promises, but hopefully Chief Architect Luke Lu will give me a peek. *wink*
Mobido: a new, one-man crew service that allows you to share pictures taken through your camera phone with people who know your special tag. Mike Prince runs this outfit and hopes to create social networks built around mobile phones.

Cool stuff coming from vertical search too - SimplyHired (jobs) and Oodle (classifieds). Also notice instant messaging/sharing company Imeem.

Lastly, special thanks to Hong Qu for allowing me to help him out inPhotoRouter.

TagCamp Day 1

2005-10-28T11:55:00.000-07:00

I attended TagCamp yesterday, and had the opportunity to meet some very smart people and listen to their ideas. For those you don't know, TagCamp is a geek-getaway to talk about the infrastructure, ecology and application of tags into what people are calling Web 2.0. More on TagCamp here.

Met up with Greg Nahrain of SocialTwister in the afternoon, and had the opportunity to have dinner with Stowe Boyd of Get Real before heading to Commercenet HQ on El Camino and S. California St.

Interesting new things:

Raw Sugar: and the use of tags in search; kinda reminds me of Eurekster though.
Riya: a start-up launching Monday; they're all about computer recognition of photos and photo-tagging
Danah Boyd talking about what motivates people to tag. Interesting how selfish motivations can contribute to the well-being of a group.

Hung around til 2am. More later.

Wiki Wednesday

2005-10-25T17:54:00.000-07:00

I'm not sure if you're familiar with wikis, but you might've used them without knowing it. Probably the most popular wiki is Wikipedia (duh) and, last I looked, its in the top 10 most visited websites in the world (according to Alexa). Essentially, wikis are webpages that anyone can edit. Because of that, it lends itself to collaboration between people, whether they know each other or not.

Well, the wiki world has its own community and that community has decided to do Wiki Wednesdays. Inspired by Mobile Mondays and Tag Tuesdays, its essentially a small get-together (Ross Mayfield calls it an 'ice cream social'), that happens in multiple locations during the first Wednesdays of every month. It's an event where similar-minded people get together, talk about what they're doing, and what's new inside (or outside) the wiki community.

I went to the first one in Palo Alto a couple of months back, and it was a nice experience (especially the informal demos that came toward the end). I managed to drag Peter Thoeny along too.

Well, the next Wiki Wed is next week - November 2. Drop by if you can.

The Start-Up Exchange

2005-10-24T09:43:00.000-07:00

Ross Mayfield and the guys at SocialText created some cool stuff in the last month. The Start-Up Exchange is a resource for aspiring entrepreneurs. It has a list of people and groups you can tap into - angels, VCs, fellow entrepreneurs, etc. Plus, a host of articles to help you in your way.

Btw, its a built on a wiki - so you should see more and more information each day as the people who use it contribute. If you stop by, you should add your knowledge to it.

Another favorite from the same group is a wiki for Wiki Wed. More on this next time.

User Generated Content & Friendster 2.0

2005-10-23T17:33:00.000-07:00

The key success of social networking sites is what they call 'User Generated Content.' Think about it - portals such as Yahoo!, AOL, and MSN have to work with 3rd party sites to syndicate content. Partners such as Bloomberg, Reuters, Motley Fool, etc. make coming to these sites more interesting.

With Friendster, MySpace, and Tribe, the content comes from the users. They provide the pictures, the opinions, and the information that make their members glued to their webpages. Very cool, no?

Friendster recently launched a new version that shows their members the newest information. They have a 'Dashboard' that lists all the latest pictures, testimonials, and what-not uploaded by a member's contacts. Not only does this encourage a member to spend more time surfing on Friendster, it also encourages the member to add more information and be 'checked-out' by his/her friends.

They call this Friendster 2.0. Hmmm...kinda like Web 2.0....

The 3rd Wave

2005-10-21T22:57:00.000-07:00

Social software got its start from the three social networking sites - Friendster, LinkedIn and Tribe. However, as it expanded, it actually took in blogs, wikis, instant messenger and the like under its fold. Anyways, the second wave of social software came with tagging and folksonomy: sites such as Flickr and Del.icio.us where the content is managed and shaped by its users. Pretty cool.

The third wave continues with the user-generated content started by the social networks, and management of information seen in the second set. This one is marked by sharing more personal stuff: events, places and calendars. Here some good examples of players on this field.

Events: Upcoming.org
Calendars: Planzo, CalendarHub
Places: Plazes

Check 'em out. They might be the next Google or something.

About David

2005-10-21T17:41:00.000-07:00

Observing the Internet, and looking to build cool stuff. I've tried a couple of times, have failed badly, and will keep on trying. Still got lots of consumer ideas, and looking to execute on them. I love social software and communities of interest (think Friendster, Flickr, 43Things, and Delicious). I've got the long-term, where-we're-going side covered. If you have the technical expertise (AJAX, Ruby on Rails, APIs), give me a holler at david DOT quiec @ gmail.com.

Here are some personal links you might be interested in: my pics on Flickr and my bookmarks on Delicious.