Google

Building an Internet Empire

Cleaning Up On The Web With AJAX

Blake Ross of Firefox and Drew Lustro of Makeshiftonline are on this organization for budding entrepreneurs under 27. Check it out here.


Here's something on blogs in our world today. Its a quote taken out of the blog. Click on the quotes below to view it.

"That means that almost 2/3 of blog readers don't realize they are reading a blog. It is a fairly common theory amongst folks analyzing the blogosphere that blog readership is underreported in surveys - but Charlie's team found a way to quantify that with staggering results."

My New Role Model Julien Codorniou

Name: Julien Codorniou

Year 2000 --> Intern in a Paris incubator company
--> Joined Business School
--> Became a VC after Biz School
--> Joined Ernst & Young as an auditor to learn about numbers



--> Wrote a book





--> joined Microsoft France to bridge the VC and the entrepreneur world because he felt the French was not entrepreneurial enough
--> 3 months after joining MS France, he organized a 500-attendee conference for Microsoft
--> The CEO of Microsoft France has credited Julien for being the single go-to guy for hooking up Microsoft's engagement with the VC world.

And here's the punch: his age???


27.


Find his blog here.

Innovate or Die
Fox Gets it.

Ben Bernanke.
Name rings a bell? He is the new Fed Chairman, replacing the legendary Alan Greenspan. And Bernanke has one stock in his portfolio. Yes! Only one. To know what it is, click here.

Lets Chat via IM. Not with people but Bots.
Check out AOL's new feature.

Tivo Gets in Bed with Apple.
TV Shows on your iPod. From Tivo with Love.

Google's Stranglehold on Online Advertising
Click here.

Email is the most popular activity of Internet users. Now, that position is fast being endangered by the next challenger -- search. Read here.


Related news:

Shopping Online, made easier by search.

More about Blogs entering mainstream internet usage

Other News:
Internet at 10 Megabits/ second -> An ubiquitous platform for delivery of ALL services?

Watch this Company Change the World

Well, at least for photos.

First, lets start by asking how you take photos. Analogue or digital?

Second, how many hundreds/ thousands/ gazillions pictures do you have throughout your life so far ? PRetty damn much, if you answer "digital" to the first question.

Now, lets say you want to look for this photo you remember you took before, could be an ex-boy/girlfriend, family member, friend, (maybe in future?) that picture of Eiffel Tower, a childhood photo... How are you going to search for that?






Enter Riya, an image search engine based on facial and text-recognition technology. Google is rumored to be thinking of buying them, and Riya has not even publicly launced yet! They are still in Alpha phase...

By the way, Riya is named after one of the kids in the photo. According to what I heard at the TechCrunch party, that seems to be the daughter of the VP of Engineering.

I have a gut feeling that if Google does this deal, Riya may just turn out to revolutionize image search the same way the Keyhole's satellite photos did to direction-finding and online maps.

Google $500 anyone? ;)

Internet Boom 2.0

The focus will be on digital media companies involved in:
- content creation
- delivery channel

The Internet has proven to be a great disruptor to the delivery of media content over the past years and it has indeed revolutionized the way people interact with media. Look at the proliferation of online music file-sharing and movie-viewing and how RIAA and MPAA have camped out in the legal courts in a frantic, and possibly futile battle to fight the tsunami of innovation endangering their revenue bases. The notion of paying for music albums or even going to the cinema will be antiquated concepts to the newer generations born and bred through their youth with their familiarity to the Internet and their cellphones.

The game has changed, no way can a 10++ compilation of songs on a CD be useful to ipod or MP3 player toting users, they will simply rip and copy the music to MPs so they can lay it on these MP3 players, if so, why bother selling them as songs on CDs? Who carries CD players anyway? Sony's dead, embrace iPods and their clones. I think it was Carly Fiorina who first mentioned this: "Digital, Mobile, Personal and Virtual". That is how people will interact with all their data, photos, videos and whatnots in the future. Think movies and ask why anyone will consciously go to a cinema, run through the hassle of queueing, squeezing with other thousands of pple to watch it in a cinema when the non-social activity of movie-watching can be replicated in any who owns a high-end HDTV set hooked up to a computer with a broadband connection and a good-quality high end system all at affordable prices and equitable to the cinema experience, albeit with more privacy. My point for movies is:

since it is a non-social activity (when was the last time you spoke to a fellow movie-goer that is not a date nor family member DURING a show?)

- understand the technology available that would best present the same experience to the potential movie watcher (i.e. HDTV, sound system, computer, broadband) and find a way to deliver the same content to him/ her.

- i am not smart, but a simple investigation of the current product delivery process of a movie from the studio to the eyes of the audience requires multiple parties to be paid, racking up huge costs to the eventual customer that create ZERO value to the customer, based on the current state of technology.

Industry titans, of course, have recognized that. The Internet Revolution have permeated not just songs and movies but also games and created new online communities that interact amongst themselves. NewsCorp gets it, and are changing themselves rapidly with multiple internet-based acquisitions (e.e. Intermix Media, IGN Entertainment). So does Dow Jones with the purchase of Marketwatch.com, and New York Times who bought About.com.

Here's what the new Internet Boom will be based on:

- Sustainable Revenue Model (Online Advertising, look at the rocketing sales figures of Google, Yahoo! and MSN)
- A rapidly-expanding Global Internet-savvy population (broadband penetration is key)
- Content Democracy --> Self-published independent content generated by individuals around the world, not companies/ studios/ conglomerates.

These 3 forces are mutually-reinforcing, highly scalable and thus present endless new commercial opportunities for Internet enterprises.
The third-party externalities of the Internet boom will also directly and positively impact the wireless cellphone industry, consumer hardware industry, infrastructure providers, broadband service providers etc.

The whole physical universe, as we know it in the history of mankind, is migrating to the digital realm of bits and bytes. This is natural progression of our society, in terms of productivity, efficiency and convenience. There is no turning back of this wave of progress.

References:
The Second Dot-coming of Our World
NewsCorp Zeroes in on Internet
One Search Engine to Rule Them (NewsCorp-related companies) All

November 17

It finally happened. Google surges past $400, another psychological milestone for investors, Google-ites alike. Click here to know more. Could this stock really be the Microsoft-killer? My postulation is that it will take till the launch of Windows Vista to seriously ask some real questions of Google's sustainability. That, however, is also a tricky issue. Google is stomping on the lawns of many tech titans from EBay, Amazon, Yahoo that this lateral diversification of its services may dilute its strategic focus. Not to mention its single-source of revenue from online advertising, a highly risky pillar of financial dependence. The point is, Google stock will suffer a crumble and how the company reacts, in terms of its response to Wall Street and also to its own employees, will determine their long-term attractiveness as a stock. Google's anti-establishment stance towards Wall Street, e.g. its reluctance to announce quarterly figures, among other non-conformist actions, will be tested by the market during a plunge.

Enjoy it while it lasts, Google.

Here's another article. on the rumored interest of Google on Riya, a photo facial-recognition software company. They are having a TechCrunch Launch party tomorrow. More info on the party found here. Just how cool is this bit of technology? I have not had the chance to test its beta version yet but an user can basically use the software to train the algorithm to recognize faces from your pictures, allowin you to search across yur pictures, not just for topics, tags, but your friends. More info found here.

Tech-Savvy Politicians

Was reading this article on businessweek. A groupof tech execs are lobbying for more innovation-friendly initiatives in government and public services. No doubt those are rational, socially-beneficial sugestions, but i have a feeling that see the government as their next big customer too.

In any case, the point i wanted to make was that I am waiting for a tech-savvy engineer, probably from the Valley and from the Internet boom generation take reins of American government. That will really ensure the trickling down of technology innovation over the past few years into every facet of the public domain. Lawyers are predominantly over-represented in the main chambers of power, why not engineers and geeks from the Valley in the Presidential Elections 2 decades later?

Undervalued Media Stocks

Motley Fool has an article on the current value of media stocks and why they are good buys. An excerpt below.

"Digital distribution is here. The market has talked up Apple Computer (Nasdaq: AAPL), Amazon.com (Nasdaq: AMZN), and Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) as the three online behemoths that will make it happen -- but where do you think their content will come from?

Priming the digital pipeline
Amazon and Google are each working on initiatives to deliver the written word digitally. Whether it's actual downloads or value-added rentals, the end result is the same. Publishers are about to cash in on incremental revenue streams thanks to the margin-rich waters of digital distribution."

This author will also be profiling the freshest ideas in several other sectors such as nanotechnology, biotec et al. I will be keeping a lookout on these new columns.

Internet Usage and Traffic Stats

Internet users

Region % of world users
Asia 33.9
Europe 29.4
North America 23.2
Latin America/Caribbean 7.5
Africa 2.5
Oceania/Australia 1.8
Middle East 1.6
DId Tim Berners Lee even dream about this? I do, when i create my Internet media empire. :)


Top Internet user countries

Country Number of users % of world users
US 202.9m 21.6
China 103.0m 11.0
Japan 78.0m 8.3
Germany 47.1m 5.0
India 39.2m 4.2
Britain 35.8m 3.8
South Korea 31.6m 3.4
Italy 28.6m 3.0
France 25.6m 2.7
Brazil 22.3m 2.4

Courtesy of WWW.INTERNETWORLDSTATS.COM

have you wondered about the most popular sites out on the Internet? Here's a Top 10 list taken off this wonderful site.

1. Yahoo!

2. Microsoft Network (MSN)

3. Google

4. EBay

5. Passport.net

6. Microsoft Corporation

7. Amazon.com

8. Myspace.com

9. Google UK

10. AOL


Here's a link to the top blogs on the WWW.

Soros Jumps on the Tech Bandwagon

Even George Soros is ploughing his money heavily in the tech sector. Read here.

Another Crack in the Newspaper Industry

The demise of print media has been jailed for a long time since the bubble of the late 1990s. Then came the bust, and some thought the newspaper industry, as with other Old Media stakeholders would survive. With the current rave over Google's rising stock, it is a matter of time before Old Media start shutting down one by one. Here's an article. that talks about some prominent papers engaging in cost-cutting moves, omens of impending doom, if you ask me.

To quote directly from the article,
"Last month, Chicago-based Tribune, whose holdings include 11 daily newspapers, 26 television stations and the Chicago Cubs, said third-quarter profits tumbled 82 percent because of an adverse tax ruling that forced it to take a huge charge.

The media company's results also showed continuing sluggishness in advertising sales and lower revenue from newspaper circulation, although Tribune executives said recent circulation trends show improvement."

Reporters liad off, face up to reality. Gettin laid off is not a bad thing. Join the blogoshphere and create your own outlet of journalistic expression. For more info, you can always contact me. ;)

TV Companies, who's next in line for the guillotine?

News from the Internet Industry

LAunch of Google Base. P.S. It sucks.

Are Newspapers aka OLD MEDIA still worth Investing?

Facebook.com --> Web 2.0 Company Evolving to a Bubble 2.0 Company?

Yahoo Integrates more Content from Blogs (e.g. Gawker etc)

Wall Street's Infatuation wit Tivo

Are AOL's assets worth $15 billion???

The Digital Divide between Silicon Valley and Yahoo!

Yahoo's Internal Dilemma" Registration may be required

Today in Social Networks

Myspace usage continues to accelerate after NewsCorp's acquisition.



And then there's Friendster. The old favourite and darling of VCs a few years back have fallen from the pedestal of grace and favor in the eyes of investors today. According to this link, Friendster is going to be sold, at an astronomical valuation in my opinion of upwards of $15 million or even more. Its just a crazy pricing considerng how easy and how competitive the social networking industry is today, with every John Doe out there trying to create one. Just how much is "eyeballs" and buzz worth today? Yes, Friendster may be big in some Asian countries, read this, but someone has to be insane to pay that price without a clear strategy. Friendster's interface sucks, to change it would alienate its current users, depreciating one of the key selling points.

Today from Bjorn

The New Corvette















An American goes to China. This is one of the popular blogs out there on the Net. He just went to CHina, i believe. Would be interesting to see what he thinks of the Middle Kingdom from his American perspective.
Click to read article

The New Blackberry

One of my fave topics: how Internet is increasingly getting customized and individualized by Internet users around the world. This happens to also the the primary premise why the cliched Web2.0 trend is fuelling a revival of Silicon Valley geeks in launching new enterprises, some trivial, some world-beating.
Click to read article

E Commerce Boom in China

There's big money going on the online gaming world. SOme dude paid $100,000 for a virtual space station on the game Project Entropia - a string of binary code, literally. He's going to convert it into a Jurassic Park-cum disco after buying this piece of virtual (sic: real) estate. Virtual economies are going to be my next fave topic of interest. What particularly intrigues me is the possible revenue-generating opportunities from this seemingly obsentatious purchase.
Click to read article
Here's more on the virtual economy thriving in the online gaming world.


Another sign of the times, blogging takes hold in senior citizenry.


Skype, in my opinion, will disrupt the telecomm companies in no way any other industry has seen upheaval. Here's a peek into how this revolution is already taking place. You just have to wonder, how will the lives of generations after us differ from us, or even during the 1980s?
The VOIP Wave

Here's Round 2 of Microsoft vs Google, (after Round 1 of Lee Kai Fu)
Yahoo Gives Up on Race for AOL

IS Amazon making the right decisions?

Microsoft Web 2.0 Charge - A Rallying Call for Arms by the New Lieutenant

After San Francisco, Its Free Wifi for Mountain View now from Google

Here's one of the online music services I like-Pandora. They have this Music Genome Project where they analyze the similarities in terms of music style between the million songs on the planet. Used to only allow a fixed trial period but now a free version is available. Yet to check it out, but will do so soon.
Free Personalized Radio Station -- Pandora.com

Events Post

DATE: Tuesday, November 15, 2005
Venue: Stanford Business School

A Brave New (Virtual) World:
Commerce and Community in Virtual Societies

To an increasing degree, personal self-expression and social interaction are migrating from the physical world to on-line virtual worlds. By breaking down geographic limitations and providing greater control of how one is perceived by other users, virtual societies have proven an increasingly appealing environment for social interaction.

Numerous business models have emerged to capitalize on this virtual interaction and character personalization. Key questions this panel will explore include what opportunities exist to monetize this shift, what are the underlying social implications for increasingly living in virtual worlds, and what tensions are likely to arise as a larger percentage of social interaction and commerce moves to the virtual domain?

More info about the event here

Best Entrepreneurs Under 25 and News I read

Profiled by BusinessWeek: Entrepreneurs under 25

Bill Gates FINALLY understands the Internet.


Steve Ballmer at his best in drumming up Investor Enthusiasm

Google tries to diversify beyond a single-revenue stream model.

Search Engine War Heats Up in China. Yahoo-Alibaba VS Baidu.com


The New SlashDot -- Digg

Outsourcing 101 for IT Startups

Crossing the Great OS Chasm: Windows to MAC

Internet Community Uses Google to Support Nicolas Sarkozy's Hardline Stance on Paris Riots

Blogging for Fun and Profit