Startup Success

I don't understand what this is... - Mitch

"...it’s important to understand why Billy and Sully used strict criteria to choose a product. First off, they’re hired guns – which means they usually don’t have an emotional attachment to a product the same way an entrepreneur typically does. ..." - Alex Schleber from Bookmarklet

Owners of the project: "Since what we really do is to develop custom recommendation solutions for our clients, Playalike is a very basic showcase of our award winning technology. We are geeks at hears but music lovers too.... We hope you will enjoy using Playalike as much as we did building it, and don't forget, the more you rate, the better Playalike will serve you. Report bugs to feedback@playalike.com " - Alp

ok, thanks @denizoktar! :) - Roberto (postoditacco)

Share your team conversations so everyone involved can clearly see what's being said, and you can all get more done. - Amiroo

man, i can't wait for theming groups...(and being able to permanently block spammers) - Zee.

the problem that I keep harping on is that the API is seriously behind all this cool stuff and the metadata (appears) to be lost when you get things via IM - Mike Taylor

great interview, good to hear that subscription to search will become available the coming months! makes it easier to implement a private customer support group, as Paul mentioned - Jeroen De Miranda

Real cool story and a fellow Canadian... thanks Zee. - Robert Freeze

Inspiring story - Michael_techie

Those look like Features. - Matt

The company forms based on the community that forms around the features... did that make sense? ;) - Jorge Escobar

"Companies that know how to leverage the power of bandwidth are more productive than competitors, find more profitable and efficient ways of conducting business, and even create new businesses, while rivals struggle to catch up" - mike "glemak" dunn from Bookmarklet

"Then the company’s CEO got up on stage, introduced himself, took out his Nokia smartphone, called some random guy in the audience and had him call him back on his phone afterwards. Projecting his mobile phone screen on a bigger screen for everyone to see, he demonstrated how he didn’t need to launch an application and just browsed his contact list to call the other person. Standard functionality, sure, but the cool part of it was the fact that the phone was lacking the presence of a SIM card, which is supposed to identify you as a subscriber of a telephony service." - Wang Yip from Bookmarklet

"I was intrigued. By now you’ll have guessed that the calling was done over Wi-Fi, which I suppose isn’t really unique even if it made me wonder how they did it without launching a third-party app like Skype. Looking to learn more, I went to their official coming-out event the evening after, when they presented the newly founded company to a host of local geeks in more detail, giving them the chance to beta-test the service for a couple of weeks to iron out bugs before launching publicly." - Wang Yip

Try to keep up to date, so my book budget has gone a bit up... Also try to make sure to get some walking in etc. My biggest problem is probably that I don't get out of the house too much. So scheduling walks etc. keeps me from shutting in totally. My wife is lovely at kicking me in the ass also :-P - Rasmus Lauridsen

Definitely the right move. I look forward to seeing the new site as well as the iPhone app when they release it. I know it's more of the norm in web/tech companies but it's really refreshing to have people who run companies and make business decisions communicate those directly to the user base instead of through some PR person. - Mike Bracco

I agree. This is the right move for seesmic, and I am happy that it was announced in this fashion. Leaving stuff like this to PR people or some random web site announcement wouldn't have nearly the same impact. With that said, what a great use for video.... - Josh Asbury

How do you find a new search engine if all you know is Google? Typing “search engine” into the usual box might lead you to Microsoft’s newly launched Bing, the combined search at Dogpile, or the former king of search, Altavista. But for those willing to dig around, searching for search engines can reveal a treasure trove: The net is rich with specialized search services, all trying to find a way to get their slice of the billions of dollars Google makes every year answering queries. For this article, we surveyed some 50 specialty search services and picked out our favorites. What follows is not a systematic ranking or review, but a general guide to a very vibrant world that few have bothered to explore in depth. - Wang Yip from Bookmarklet

Very cool listing of specialized search engines, for example: parkingspots.com to find parking spots in your city. - Wang Yip

if i've missed any important ones pls let me know - Zee.

Zee: Fair enough point if we look only at Europe. It's actually the third conference for eComm, the second of 2009. This is just the first one not in the USA, and several in the list are USA oriented. Sorry if I misread. - Ken Camp

Hi Jim What do you do exactly? thanks Susan - Susan B Mc from email

Enjoy your time here. You'll meet a great number of good friends and contacts. Susan - Susan B Mc from email

"In the space between a long-form blog and a short-form Twitter account, there are mini-blog services like Posterous (Posterous) and Tumblr (Tumblr) that seek to make blogging much more immediate, support all types of rich media, allow for longer entries if needed, and support short spurts that auto-post to Twitter as well. Once the niche powerhouse dominating this middle space, Tumblr has since seen Posterous, the somewhat unremarkable email-to-blog platform, rise from obscurity, iterate at lightning pace, and start to build up well-deserved web buzz and high profile users. This tumbling and posturing web-aholic has been using both sites for quite some time, so the head-to-head you’re about to read is filled with intimate knowledge of both applications." - Wang Yip from Bookmarklet

...meanwhile, smart marketers are profiting handsomely "Moving The Freeline". No one ever said that everything had to be free... - Alex Schleber from Bookmarklet

not free, but perception of free??? (wink nudge) - JuneM