September 2010
30 posts
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The Foursquare Difference →
From The Next Web:
With Foursquare I get a game, I get tips on places to go and things to do, I get an easy way to access a record of places I’ve been, I get a chance to save money through mayor and check-in deals. In short, it feels rewarding to use. What do I get with Facebook Places? I get called a geek.
Quite right too, of course. My location isn’t of much interest to anyone [on Facebook]...
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Why 1% of Search Market Share Is Worth Over $1... →
It seems to me that Don Dodge was asked to blog this post by a superior at Google. (Trying to calm analysts’ over-priced fears?)
Anyways, here is the post:
Each 1% of market share is worth at least $1 Billion in market cap. Google has 50 points of market share and a stock market cap of $150B, or $3 Billion for each 1% of search market share. Other competitors don’t win the same...
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Gmail Creator: Facebook Has The Potential To Be... →
Paul Buchheit, the creator of both GMail and FriendFeed, just made an off-handed remark on Quora:
I believe many people were (and still are) significantly undervaluing Facebook equity. It has the potential to be worth more than Google. It’s already trading over $25B (vs the silly-low $6.5B that people were discussing at the time of the FriendFeed deal) - I think re-doing the math on this...
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Foursquare Expands Its Badge Offering →
Badges are a fantastic way of incentivizing people to complete certain activities. Whether it be checking in to a restaurant or going for a run, users are more likely to complete a task if there is a reward.
Foursquare was the first major startup to gracefully master this process. It now looks like they are attempting to branch out and become the de facto badge collecting website.
From...
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The Hardware Hacker Manifesto →
Cody Brocious, a self-proclaimed hardware hacker, lays out this hardware hacking manifesto in a recent blog post of his:
My name is Cody and I’m a hardware hacker. It started at the age of five, taking apart a toy computer to figure out how it worked. I live for that thrill of discovery and rush of power that I feel when I figure out what makes something tick, then figure out how to bend...
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WatchHere is my summer’s checkin history plotted on a map.
One word: awesome.
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Most Common Words Unique To 1-star and 5-star App... →
Really nothing more than some thought-provoking statistics here from Marco.org.
Keep in mind that the results are not representative of overall user opinions: most users don’t review apps, and people who dislike an app are more likely to leave a review than people who like it. Anyway, here are the stats:
★★★★★: awesome, worth, thanks, amazing, simple, perfect, price, everything, ever, must,...
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How To Use The Tweet Button On Tumblr
I must admit, it took me a while (lots of trial and error) to figure out how to properly implement Twitter’s Tweet Button on Tumblr. Hopefully this article will help you help you do the same.
Step 1 Head over to Twitter’s website. Under “Goodies” you will find the Tweet Button link. For brevity’s sake, just click this direct link.
Customize the Tweet Button to your...
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A Call For The Implementation of A Pigovian Tax...
(Cross-post from my Posterous)
Here’s a crazy suggestion, why not freely allow — but also tax — activities that harm other people? Well, that is the basic logic behind Pigovian taxes. With a Pigovian tax in place there is always an incentive to reduce the negative externality that is being taxed upon (such as pollution). In contrast stands regulation. Regulatory programs (such as cap-and-trade)...
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What People Don't Understand About OAuth and... →
(Cross-post from my Posterous)
Here’s a nifty “feature” of OAuth that most Twitter users aren’t aware of:
When you grant an application access with OAuth, you are giving them the same power you would with your username and password.
The main difference is that instead of a password that was chosen by you, a secret key generated by Twitter gives them access to your...
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Google Images Instant →
Hot off the heels of Google Instant and Youtube Instant comes yet another iteration of “instant” searching. The difference between this one and the others? I believe Google Images Instant to be the most useful.
How many times have you been searching for that one, unique image, but not known what specific query to input into the search form? Much like Google Instant, Google Images...
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Structural Unemployment Is Here to Stay →
(Cross-post from my Posterous)
From Wikipedia:
Structural unemployment is a form of unemployment resulting from a mismatch between the sufficiently skilled workers seeking employment and demand in the labour market. Even though the number of vacancies may be equal to the number of the unemployed, the unemployed workers may lack the skills needed for the jobs.
The problem that we now face in...
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Joel Spolsky: On Recruiting Programmers →
Chris Dixon supplies us with some cliff notes of a talk Joel Spolsky (founder of Stack Overflow) gave on recruiting programmers. It’s a worthwhile read if you have any interest whatsoever on working with programmers.
Here are my favorite bits of advice:
- Great programmers are 5-10x more productive than ok ones yet only get paid 2x or so more. (Perhaps this is why many leave to start...
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WatchFrom Business Insider comes a mashup of clips from some of their best interviews:
For every successful startup, there are countless other companies that have failed miserably.
What could they have done better?
Internet entrepreneurs Kevin Ryan, of DoubleClick and Gilt Groupe, Thomas Gensemer, of Blue State Digital, Marc Andreessen, founder of Netscape, and Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg –...
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On Google's ReCAPTCHA Service
I am fascinated by the sheer brilliance behind Google’s ReCAPTCHA service. Google had a major problem on their hands, thousands of books needed to be digitized, and they solved it by designing a free CAPTCHA service.
For those who don’t know, CAPTCHA stands for “Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart.”
A successful reCAPTCHA will...
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One Day Without A Cellphone. Think You Can Do It?
Last week, outside an elementary school, I saw a young woman talking excitedly on her cellphone. Just ahead a little boy was toddling along, his head down, arms hanging at his sides. Had she nothing to ask him about his first day of school?
No, that wasn’t the case at all. The young mother was blabbing away on her cellphone completely oblivious to what was going on around her. More...
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Will Apple Admit Failure? Face It, Ping Sucks. →
I’ve been toying around this past week with Apple’s new social-networking service dubbed “Ping.” The consensus seems to be that the service will flop. I agree.
I’m interested to see how Apple let’s this play out. Apple has far too much pride to admit failure. Ping will obviously be a dud, but will Apple let the service linger around without it taking off like...
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Bill Gates: What An Absolute Mess →
What happens when a company doesn’t clearly define its vision?
It is apparent to anyone that has used a Windows computer for more than a couple of minutes that there are quite a few design inconsistencies within the operating system.
The same cannot be said for other greats (read: Apple).
The corporate culture at Microsoft is deeply flawed. It is a complete mess and needs to be fixed.
...
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“Young girls these days are snapping non-stop pictures in the club destined for...”
– Wise words from Michael Mason, author of The G Manifesto.
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WatchFred Wilson, a venture capitalist from Union Square Ventures, shares with us his sentiment towards several of the larger tech companies (whether his position is long or short). It starts at the 12:14 minute mark. Here’s a brief synopsis if you prefer to read:
Google: [valued at $147 billion] You can’t short Google because it won’t be going much lower, but at the same time...
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The WSJ Agrees: HP Is Using Some Creative... →
From the WSJ, relating to a post that I wrote last week:
[HP] today said it will spend $10 billion buying its shares, which are languishing near the 52-week low.
Investors, of course, love the buybacks. HP shares are up 1.75% today, while the broader market is down by nearly that amount.
But looking beyond the corporate parameters of HP, the buyback arguably sends a dispiriting message about...