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David Gutelius › Likes
Government 2.0: What’s Your Brand? - http://mashable.com/2008...
Sharon, David Gutelius and Marcus Greenwood liked this
The story behind Google Chrome - http://www.youtube.com/watch...
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Mattb4rd, embee, Caleb Elston and 2 other people liked this
MySpace Cofounder Tom Anderson Was A Real Life “WarGames” Hacker in 1980s - http://www.techcrunch.com/2008...
Ross Miller, Tanath, satoko and 6 other people liked this
"According to a New York Times article in October 1985, “Lord Flathead,” was the leader of an early black-hat hacker group when he was 14 years old. In July and August 1985, between his freshman and sophomore years, Anderson hacked into a Chase Manhattan Bank DEC VAX computer system (like the one in the image below) that handled “much of Chase’s data processing and record keeping, including records of home mortgages and…portfolios of major customers such as pension funds.” He subsequently showed up to 40 of his friends how to do it."
- Bret Taylor
You can't buy street credibility like that.
- Mike Boudreaux
I think much more highly of Tom after this
- Rob Kniaz
Rob - TC agrees with you: "Frankly, my opinion of Tom Anderson just rose significantly."
- hunter walk
It's impossible not to respect Tom much more after that
- Cesar Cardoso
FB: Zaz just had a blast at the Army football tailgate and game, despite the outcome... walking back to the Thayer hotel.
David Gutelius liked this
FB: Zaz is enjoying donuts and wireless broadband at CCL at USMA (West Point).
David Gutelius liked this
We Need To Kill The Business Card Once And For All - http://www.techcrunch.com/2008...
Larry Lewis, David Gutelius, Baard @ Pixum and 8 other people liked this
Amen to that. Good for the environment too.
- Steve Rubel
from Bookmarklet
The business card exchange process is not about exchange of business details, its a human-human communications method. Looking into the persons eyes, presenting with two hands, having pride over your business. A lot of communication is done (or should be done) through that important 10 seconds.
- Steve 'Chippy' Paine
then what will Gaping Void do? facebook graffitiwall's like me?
- Noah David Simon
Agreed with Steve/Chippy. Business cards are far more than pieces of paper. They're also VERY important pieces of creative information. I learn a lot about people from how their business cards are designed. Ten lines of contact data in a database are an information-poor replacement.
- Brent Newhall
Early adopters and Silicon Valley are the easy way to faillure - http://vanelsas.wordpress.com/2008...
Alexander Oelling, Mike Reynolds, Anne Bouey and 50 other people liked this
Microsoft and Apple. Does anyone remember how they got started?
- Paul Buchheit
@Paul there are always good examples of companies that succeeded that way. There are way more companies that make it on their own without this tech community. One needs to choose carefully imo. FF seems to have take the "Scoble" route it seems. Which can be fine and a very smart thing to do. But that doesn't mean it's always the best path. There are many alternative paths which can be very successful too. Just think about Easyjet, Gary Vaynerchuk Wine TV? Google Ads (you would know better than I could ;-) )
- Alexander van Elsas
Alexander, I'm not suggesting that there is any one right way. I think _who_ the early users are is less important than the fact that you have them. Also, Google is not really a counter-example -- early usage was very much among the tech crowd.
- Paul Buchheit
Aha, I wasn't sure what you meant by that, thank you. I tend to disagree with you on the who part. In my own experience, both startup and corporate, if your development cycle is driven by the early adopter crowd, then it is really important to get this right. Technologically driven early adopters for example are often (not always) feature driven. But if you have a service driven early adopter, he will be looking at integrating the entire experience into his life/work. Very different views.
- Alexander van Elsas
The Google ads example was a guess, I never followed that closely at the time (hence the remark you would know much better ;-) ) But Easyjet is a good example I think. A small revolution in consumer/business process thinking complemented by smart web based software. They never needed the tech early adopter to be successful. They addressed a consumer need form the start and did it with excellent execution.
- Alexander van Elsas
Alexander - I love this post! Our startup is looking to squarely take on mainstream users, so although getting the tech crowd to buy-in early is important early, it is just a part of the overall long-term business plan. We did quite well to be picked up by most of the top blogs when we launched our private beta (alpha) over a month ago. But we are well aware that this is a long term race/business. We are going for a simple and easy way for "normal " people to get acquainted with the best blogs.
- Scott Lockhart
@Scott thank you, appreciate it. And good luck with your startup ;-)
- Alexander van Elsas
"The startup fails because it went to build a cool tech solution for a problem that didn’t really exist" - the crux of this problem I think. Finding a real problem, solving some or all of the problem and thus providing value is tough. But that is the only way to success.
- Brian Sullivan
(cont..) Regator is based in Atlanta and maybe that lends itself to looking at things differently. We are working local media and the thousands of blogs we have on the site that our editors have hand-picked to help get the word out. We definitely love the A-list tech blog coverage don't get me wrong, as we do have features that appeal to more advanced users and we are doing some unique...
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- Scott Lockhart
BTW, it's not the tech crowd vs. the rest. There are many shades in between. In Germany, a recent study found out, that 3/4 of German tech savvy youth did not know what "blog" or "weblog" means. So I absolutely agree with Alexanders focus on the point of "integrating the entire experience into his life/work". That's what we should aim for.
- Benedikt Koehler
@benedikt, exactly. Although I do suspect that the average tech early adopter in Silicon Valley might be a bit different from other early adopters. They use: Twitter, Pownce, Friendfeed, Dopplr, Seesmic, Yelp, del.icio.us, Digg, Google Reader, StumbleUpon, Disqus etc. (I could go on for a while). These people live and breath (social media) technology, and that makes this crowd a bit more unique than the rest ;-)
- Alexander van Elsas
Great piece. I'm always surprised at how many people in SV can't understand the difference between here and the rest of the country/world. Thanks for sharing this!
- Jeremy Toeman
Jeremy thank you ;-)
- Alexander van Elsas
Threading different comment threads together as they both have some interesting remarks ;-) http://friendfeed.com/search...
- Alexander van Elsas
I'll definitely agree with Louis that the feedback from our private beta users and bloggers who covered us you really couldn't pay for. That said, we have incorporated pretty much all of it into the site, the exceptions being where it just was a gratuitous feature. We have had many a discussion on how to balance our site and not skew it completely tech. There are already so many good sites like that and that's not really where we want to be. Happy/relieved to see others thinking the way we do...
- Scott Lockhart
As a mainstream Friendfeed user, not a "tech" insider, I have to say that Elsas' points ring true. Community is being created, but is it just for the technorati, or is is truly an invitation to join an ever expanding circle?
- Michael Muller
Good points. As much as I enjoy peering in on the valley from afar, I did well in LA, and now, here in Texas, there are companies that startup and have success all the time, and they don't mind being off the SV radar. It's just a different radar, but it's the same currency.
- Dean Terry
I love this part -> "True enough, I believe that too, but my point is that the early adopter you really need just isn’t located in Silicon Valley."
- andy brudtkuhl
Alexander: I disagree with the Google example. Google succeeded BECAUSE it got the early adopters hot and bothered. It took me two years to convince my dad that Google was better. In the early days ONLY early adopters thought it was cool. In fact, this is why Microsoft missed Google and why Alta Vista didn't care about it.
- Robert Scoble
Robert, that was a bad example, as I already said to Paul (I wasn't thinking about Google search btw, but about Google adwords). But take my Easyjet example as a much better case where a different path lead to success too.
- Alexander van Elsas
@Andy, I didn't say that literally did I (well I did ;-) )? My main point is that there are many breeds of early adopters, not just the "Silicon Valley" type. It's important to consider that when you launch a new startup.
- Alexander van Elsas
BTW Robert, it was you that pointed me once to the example of Gary Vaynerchuk. A good example of someone that used a community to build a business ;-)
- Alexander van Elsas
@Alexander it may not be literal but when I release something I could care less about Silicon Valley and more about the community for which the product was developed..
- andy brudtkuhl
Alexander: yup, agreed. another example might be why Orkut (designed in SIlicon Valley) took off in Brasil, but not in the US.
- Robert Scoble
Another example would be Meebo. But instead of getting +me+ as an early adopter, they did get a lot of other people. The CEO told me they specifically put features into that product to serve them. Now they have more than 20 million users, even though I haven't seen Louis or me or Arrington get excited about them.
- Robert Scoble
Threading in another comment from Robert: I’m not really a good early adopter anymore, either. I look at all of you to tell me what is surviving on your machines. This is why I missed Evernote. I’m not going to be first to try things. There are simply WAY TOO MANY things to try (I have a folder of more than 1,000 things I haven’t tried yet). One of the reasons I use so many social...
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- Alexander van Elsas
And my response to him: @Robert, that may be so, but you still have a very powerful brand to get the word out. You prove that every time when you point people towards new services, blogs, or whatever. And that is very important too!
- Alexander van Elsas
Alexander: I'm only powerful if I listen.
- Robert Scoble
Apple and MS originally catered just to techies, but back then normal people didn't own computers.
- Gabe
Gabe, that's even worse -- they targeted weird users on a tiny platform. For the first couple of years, the only people who used Gmail were Google employees, not a very diverse userbase :)
- Paul Buchheit
I think it is inaccurate to say Apple/Microsoft catered to techies - I don't think the equivalent of that category existed then. Hobbyists I think is more accurate.
- Brian Sullivan
@Brian, you have a point. However, what is common between the two eras is the importance of social networks or groups (like the Homebrew club or the Boston Computer Society then or online groups today) as well as the influential writers/materials (like the TTL Cookbook then or some blogs today). Passionate infliuentials and early adopters mattered then and matter now.
- Loren Heiny
@Paul diverse enough as Gmail solved a problem for Google employees. It addressed a need. A need that could easily be translated mainstream. And for that reason it has become an excellent product.
- Alexander van Elsas
I think we have a harder time noticing the non-SV success stories because SV is where the megaphone is. I think if you look at any barometer that matters you'd find there are plenty non-SV startups that do quite well.
- Steve Spalding
I wonder if anybody has done analysis -- is it possible that non SV startups actually do better statistically in the medium/long run?
- Brian Sullivan
Alexander, if GMail worked for that reason, are SV early adopters the easy way to failure, or is it lack of mainstream need? Maybe you need to revise your title.
- Bruce Lewis
Bruce. the post was about the way new startups tend to copy each other's roll out strategy. Write code, get into contact with A-list bloggers, ensure the same early adopters get on board, and then mostly fail to leave this Silicon Valley community. I'm not saying this can't work. I'm saying that if you want to become main stream you need much more than that. One thing is to consider not using the path just describe, but find early adopters nearer to the mainstream crowd you were aiming for.
- Alexander van Elsas
In the case of GMail I suspect the developers were addressing a consumer need from the start (write a much improved web-based e-mail client). It may have been tested by Googlers at first (which is fine obviously), but the path to mainstream was there because they were addressing a consumer need. And obviously Google had already the distribution power to move beyond the Silicon Valley community. But if you are a new startup and your first 50K users are from this community it's much harder to break out.
- Alexander van Elsas
Government use of Social Media... - http://prprometeus.blogspot.com/2008...
David Gutelius, Benedikt Koehler, Walter Neary and 2 other people liked this
I was a member of Task Force Delta in the 70s..What a fantastic and memorable think tank/social network that was....Lots of peaceful and powerful social change evolved there...DOD has the funds to stay cutting edge if they choose to...
- lonnie b hodge
“Anyone else think current PR distribution methods (PR Newswire, PR Web) are old school and nearing exstinction?” - http://friendfeed.com/e...
Christian Anderson, lonnie b hodge, Oscar Antonio Moralí and David Gutelius liked this
Maybe not extinction, but if newspaper and other media changes, why wouldn't this?
- Jason Kintzler
Uh, yeah.
- David Zeitman
I don't use PR NewsWire anymore.
- Francine Hardaway
Here's a follow up to this conversation you may relate to: http://mediapitch.ning.com/profile...
- Jason Kintzler
PR Web has so much garbage on it...Nothing REALLY vetted and PR Newswire using Dubious SEO group for premium distribution in states.
- lonnie b hodge
I'm all for Social Media Press Releases (see: Brian Solis, Todd Defren, Chris Heur, "The Terrific Trio") distributed through bogs, but... watch out for Gina Trapani and Chris Anderson ;-)
- Amadou M. Sall
The press release won't ever just go away. There's sec requirements etc., but these companies need to change the way they see distribution.
- matt ceniceros
With companies using social media releases and online newsrooms, I think a more FriendFeed-like distribution method could take their place. Free, and filtered.
- Jason Kintzler
press releases are dead -- except for IR purposes / regulatory hoops.
- Christian Anderson
Diamonds in the Rough - - http://www.youtube.com/watch...
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Jason Cortright, David Gutelius and Scott Moskowitz liked this
Trying to pack after a crazy day of technical probs, my dog ate my Stl Cards hat, pool w/kids, and lots of talking.
David Gutelius liked this
What a launch yesterday for bit.ly. Never seen anything like it. People really love the service. Now we have to fill the pipe w/new goodies.
Brandon Wood, David Gutelius, Robert and 8 other people liked this
Bit.ly needs to auto-copy the URL to my clipboard, like tinyurl does. Time/hassle saver. My quick test of it didn't do that. ;)
- Kevin Hessel
we need an extension for Twhirl to do the conversion to the proper URL type.
- Greg
Congrats. So far I'm liking what you guys have put together. Hope it only gets better from here on out.
- Scott Jarkoff
Yes Twhirl integration, please!!
- Robert Couture
Congrats, buys. You triggered a land rush for bit.ly namespaces :) I second (or third) the Twhirl integration if Loic is reading.
- Barry Graubart
from twhirl
The lead singer of the Plain White T's gives hope to nerds throughout the land -- you too can be a rock star! I feel empowered.
David Gutelius liked this
Topix-a local news community - http://qik.com/video/123607
Mark Nassal, Brent Newhall, Ron Emrick and 33 other people liked this
Topix is kicking FriendFeed's ass. 125,000 comments a day!!! How are they doing it? They are focusing on local communities and anyone that doesn't read Scoble. In this video Topix' CEO, Chris Tolles, talks about what is going on in his business.
- Robert Scoble
Scoble is moving on from FriendFeed?
- Pat Hawks
Pat: no. But everyone else who isn't in the tech early adopter world is probably on Topix.
- Robert Scoble
How big is their community and how long have they been growing it?
- Brian Daniel Eisenberg
Yes, pretty much what I was saying yesterday, FF doesn't have a very diverse user base.
- Ross Maguire
It does seem like a nice cross between Google News and fav.or.it
- Pat Hawks
Topix used to be the only source I could find for local news. But I don't like how it happily embraces partial-text feeds and don't bother to add context at all, to the point of some entries being a vague headline with no text!
- Phil G
And before you say it, I know, FriendFeed is like that too. *sigh*
- Phil G
I don't know any non-early adopters that are using any of this technology...yet - maybe we define them differently. Topix provides more of an innate value prop for their time than FF does now, but I think that will change as more people begin to understand the value of a global federated conversation. Working on some music promotion use cases now :)
- Erica Toelle
http://www.topix.com/topix... More than a million people, 360,000 forums
- Robert Scoble
I think we should conduct a poll. Everyone here because of Scoble raise your hand (Raises hand).
- Roberto Bonini
There's 5 topics in my area just ostracizing the city and its inhabitants, 12 more doing the same for religion, and the rest are classic local news stories (murders, robberies, gangs, etc.). I think I'll stick with FF, Digg, SDR News, and NPR for my news.
- xero
Topix made a lot of its progress by being the default commenting host for many, many newspapers. It's majority owned by Gannett, McClatchy and Tribune Co. to begin with, but they've enlisted more competitors as partners. My company, MediaNews, joined up last year. Almost every paper in the Bay Area outside the SF Chronicle is owned by MediaNews (the fourth-largest owner in the country), and they all use Topix in some way to host their comments. Instant community (though poorly harnessed by the media).
- Kevin Hessel
I always find a lot of comment on my blog posts coming from Topix. At first I was puzzled, then I realized it was Topix's geo-specificity that made it so cool. I guess I need to pay more attention to Topix.
- Tom Guarriello
First topic I saw on the forums - "The Suite Life of Zack and Cody" - Last comment by "X-RAINBOW KRISSY-X". I'll be sticking with FriendFeed, thanks though. Honestly, it's not a bad news source at all, but I feel more comfortable with the topics at FriendFeed when it comes to discussion.
- Vince DeGeorge
A post I stumbled across the other day drew a distinction between hyper-local and hyper-personal style news aggregation. Topix at first seems to fit into the hyper-local mode when you restrict it to your city or zipcode. But there's also search that will bring up all the stories about your search term - no matter where they originated. Subscribe to the feeds for a bunch of search terms, and you've got yourself a hyper-personal aggregator. (Wish they'd use full text instead of partial text feeds, though.)
- Tom Landini
Oh, I love this poll (not): http://www.topix.com/forum... -- yeah, that's news. Glad I wasted my 5 minutes looking at that item from the Topix front page.
- Craig Eddy
I guess for non-tech people everything they see on FF is just noise, where to us the Zac and Cody conversations et al is just noise. Topix may end up being used as a tool by tech people, but probably not as a conversation forum. Then again, this begs the question of FF's growth beyond the tech/early adopter community.
- Kevin Bondelli
I have found Topix in my blogs log several times
- paul mooney
I still feel Topix is a little old fashioned, but they are generally under-rated, where as they should be what a lot of the 2.0 aggregation sites aim for. Community + they give back, no reposting full feeds, full links back etc...
- Duncan Riley
Fun fact: Thousands of web sites have more traffic/users than FriendFeed, but you won't catch me on them.
- Bwana ☠
Topix actually looks interesting. I doubt I'll sign up on it but it's worth Bookmarking.
- Outsanity
I wanted to like Topix, but I agree with Duncan - feels old fashioned. I signed up a long time ago, but found no real use for it. Maybe I should look again.
- Mack D. Male
Agree with Mack...lost interest upon initial viewing and have not returned since the 2007 revamp.
- Andy Angelos
Wow... I just emailed them about my hometown being incorrect. They responded within the hour! Talk about service!
- Mike Wills
Mmmm. Tastes like Usenet.
- Ernie Oporto
Had a look at the UK area and it looks like it is full of racist comments and not somewhere I would want to hang out. Shame.
- John Cooper
First off: Great video, Robert! Thanks for this; I'd never heard of Topix before, and now I'm intrigued. Second: No, Topix is not a Friendfeed clone; different market. Third: This is finally where I can really get local news, and a window into local opinion. Fourth: Yes, the conversations leave something to be desired. This opens an opportunity for improvement, no?
- Brent Newhall
Great interview
- Mark Nassal
Beetle on my floor - http://www.flickr.com/photos...
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marcell mars, Jason Wehmhoener, John Biesnecker and David Gutelius liked this
I've always loved macro insect shots.
- John Biesnecker
Herding Behavior on Friendfeed - http://www.web-strategist.com/blog...
zeroinfluencer, David Weiner, Noah David Simon and 4 other people liked this
Prediction: Jeremiah quits Twitter for Friendfeed.
- Steve Rubel
from Bookmarklet
STeve, I think FF is the best Market Research tool available right now !! :)- One can track events, thoughts and bleeps. I am begining to use FF Search to cull info rather then google.. it's a paradigm shift on how one gets/views info
- Peter Dawson
Peter, imagine if they add full text feeds!
- Steve Rubel
I'm no language expert but isn't there a negative connotation to the phrase "herding behavior?. From Wikipedia: "The term pertains to the behaviour of animals in herds, flocks, and schools, and to human conduct during activities such as stock market bubbles and crashes, street demonstrations, sporting events, episodes of mob violence and even everyday decision making, judgement and opinion forming." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki...
- Mike Doeff
@Mike, "...everyday decision making, judgement and opinion forming" thats exactly whats happening at FF.. early adopters are getting culled into the FF sandbox.. like it or not, this is sandbox for conversations, opinion forming and decision making. If this is not a 'herd behavior' of the early adopters then what is it ? I think 40-60% of twitters, just jumped into this sandbox, not knowing nada.. some stuck, some left..but thats how userbase begins ....
- Peter Dawson
Peter, I agree that there is a lot of group mechanics going on here. My point was that I often hear "herd behavior" used in a negative light. Here's another example from NY Times article: "Experts have long known that a classic phenomenon called herd behavior has a great deal to do with the wild swings of panic and exuberance that can seize Wall Street in the wake of surprising economic news." http://www.nytimes.com/2008...
- Mike Doeff
Yes herding alive on FF I just did an experiment on that 4 hours ago..good news is that means certain pr would work on FF :)
- Fred Grott
Mike, there are always two side to a coin. I'll digress. However, NYT has a funny way of explaining something and making it seem real, when in fact it an't. But then again, thats a classic of MSM media.BTW, when I say NYT, I also mean WSJ, Washpost and a host of other publications. They really do their job well too,I must say !!
- Peter Dawson
I can see it go either way. For some reason I prefer the term "swarming" (I think Ray Ozzie might have written an essay about this) versus herd behavior, which to me implies that people are blindly following something.
- Mike Doeff
Mooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
- l0ckergn0me
Well, you're looking at the newest cow in the herd. I have 0 interest in social networking. But as an Ad Pro, Steve's stream has been both fascinating and eye-opening. Moo!
- Ken Donofrio
Real Life Examples of Business Owners Using Social Media - http://www.smallbiztrends.com/2008...
Glenn Batuyong, David Gutelius, Liz and 2 other people liked this
Technology & Education - http://wiredpen.com/2008...
Roberto Bonini, Phillip Jeffrey, Michael Nielsen and 2 other people liked this
Reuters reports today on how computing technology is changing K-12 education, focusing on the Lilla G. Frederick Pilot Middle School in Boston. Comments from Michael Horn, co-author of Disrupting Class: How Disruptive Innovation Will Change the Way the World Learns http://news.yahoo.com/s...
- Robert Scoble
@senatorgrant Clear is awesome & is super fast, we used it at SFO & CVG, I highly recommend it, here's more info http://www.flyclear.com
David Gutelius liked this
I've been a Clear member for 3 years now, thanks to the airport in my Orlando base being the first to adopt the program. I absolutely love & swear by it. It's especially useful in Orlando where otherwise you'd be waiting in long queues filled with kids screaming because they're being forced to leave Disney World.
- M. Donaldson
Hasn't the TSA made it more painful to use now... and they have their own program? Also, at SFO you get put at the beginning of the line and can feel pretty bad when you barge in :)
- Dion Almaer
I love Clear. Orlando is so much better with it, and I just used it at Westchester County where it was a real blessing.
- Gregory Cohen
@Dion Almaer - I haven't noticed any real differences in Clear since when they began, save for they now require a photo ID and make you take off your shoes, both of which weren't required in the first year. And getting escorted to the front of the line lets me live out my mega-celebrity fantasies ...:)
- M. Donaldson
Starting the Forrester Wave: White Label Social Networks and Community Platforms - http://www.web-strategist.com/blog...
David Gutelius, Mike Reynolds, Charlie Nichols Browning and 4 other people liked this
doing a write-up of this for cmswire.com. looks great for enterprise customers. video shows some nice capabilities.
- john conroy
Thanks John, I can't wait to read it, leave a URL
- Jeremiah Owyang
Looking forward to the report Jeremiah!
- Craig Thomler
Thanks Craig, it's a real bear
- Jeremiah Owyang
Just a quick news bit on this Jeremiah. @cmswire.com http://tinyurl.com/6mc7b8 .
- john conroy
John, great coverage, I just tweeted it.
- Jeremiah Owyang
cool-- ;)
- john conroy
Anarchogeek: - http://anarchogeek.com/
David Gutelius liked this
rabble leaves Yahoo "Working with, or rather for Yahoo, was not so great. It was a constant painful struggle. Maybe at some point i’ll sit down and write about the relationship the reform movement part of yahoo had with the mothership. While i tried to
- susan mernit
always some interesting stuff in Springwise's weekly trends newsletter: http://www.springwise.com/weekly...
David Gutelius liked this
Retweeting @Damdam it's a great presentation http://is.gd/MBu (end of content marketing, conversation is the new king) but I hate slides!
lonnie b hodge, David Gutelius, Kerem Ozkan and Fred Neil liked this
One of Yahoo's problems was that being a primary purchaser of Silicon Valley startups is not a strategy nor is it a business plan.
Mitchell Tsai, David Gutelius, Hutch Carpenter and 7 other people liked this
Dare, let's argue out your Yahoo startup point here, cause you're wrong: http://tinyurl.com/scobleizer
- Robert Scoble
Dare is wrong because Yahoo didn't pay very much for the startups it bought. Flickr went for about $30 million. That's a rounding error on its books. And Yahoo got a LOT of value out of owning these small companies like Flickr, Del.icio.us, Upcoming. The problem with Yahoo is it lost its leadership in search. If it still had that leadership it would have no sin.
- Robert Scoble
@scobleizer Yahoo! lost search because they employed a portal and online media company strategy under Semel.
- Lou Paglia
@Dare the problem with Yahoo's acquisition strategy is that they did nothing more than integrate their login service and didn't integrate them into a larger strategy
- Lou Paglia
Yahoo! has three broad categories of Internet businesses; search, content and social applications. My tweet was specifically about the third. Buying MyBlogLog, Flickr, Delicious, Upcoming, etc didn't really move the needle on their social application strategy. Flickr has been a massive success purchased at a bargain but it's success hasn't been leveraged by the rest of Yahoo! except as an excuse to shut down Yahoo! Photos. The rest of the acquisitions have been a waste of time.
- Dare Obasanjo
Dare, I agree with Scoble that they were smart purchases (for the value of each entity) but I agree with you more based on how they leveraged them for synergy with their social media strategy
- Lou Paglia
I do think there is value in building all web properties in-house and I once said so. Here: http://tinyurl.com/6zak39
- Jamie
delicious could have been massively important to search. they just bungled it.
- Kevin Gamble
Jamie, I'm not sure where build vs. buy comes in. Some of the most successful products at Microsoft and Google came through acquisition. However given the amount of purchases Y! made during the height of it's startup buying binge it is somewhat sad that Flickr is the only real success story and they couldn't leverage it across all of Y!
- Dare Obasanjo
Sure. But I do think there is value in rolling your own as opposed to attempting to munge 2 disparate things together. Its useful to have a common code base if nothing else. Granted there are of course times when aquisition is the best way forward. Ouch these fence posts hurt.
- Jamie
Re: Thinking About Groups - http://avc.blogs.com/a_vc...
blahblah8888 and David Gutelius liked this
"Good point about group owners/coordinators/founders emre"
- Fred Wilson
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