It’s official: Google has merged it’s spreadsheet product and Writely into an office package according to Google Watch.The direct URL is docs.google.com, and as I’m writing this it’s actually now up and working. I never used Writely previously so it’s all new to me, but it certainly looks nice when you login. The online collaboration features will be the key selling point I think.
Arieanna makes a good point. We all know what happens when companies are acquired by Google. They stagnate, the sit and stew on their own success whilst the competition gets smarter and eventually gets better. Question is though, who is the next YouTube, is it out there yet?
I mentioned in passing, in this post, my theory on leaks. You see, in this post I used the figure that 50% of all leaks are authorised by the company involved as either a way to talk up/ hype a launch, or as a way to market test an idea or product. I used that figure because I thought it would be close to tangible, in that it would be hard for many people to argue with it. However my gut feeling tells me something else. I actually really think that the figure is 90%, but I can’t prove it, and I think that this whole Google/ YouTube negotiation stuff fits into the 90%. It’s controlled. Way to controlled. I don’t for one second believe that somewhere along the communications chain that some one has leaked without authority. Case in point: the b5media VC funding. Sure, we are only small fry, but get this: we told all of our bloggers hours before it became public. Of 90 odd people, none of them leaked it. Sure, Google is a whole lot bigger again, but Google employees are loyal. So to are their lawyers. So to would be the Youtube inner team and their lawyers. Mark my words, they would have swarn everyone involved to a strict cone of silence. The chances of someone leaking is about 1 in 10, so it’s not impossible, but 9/10 chance it’s unlikely, which is why I totally think the Techcruch rumour is true. Some one got the green light to leak this news, so that Google could see how the market would react. And hence, after days of free market testing (feedback) Google now has a decision to make. On what I’ve read, if they thinking about buying YouTube, they will. Sure, there’s been some negative stuff, but hey, no one really knows who Mark Cuban is outside of the United States anyway!. It’s a developing story, but one that will no doubt end up as being one of those stories that will last 20-30 years in folklore 🙂
Interesting debate between Jason Calacanis and one of the investors in the Pay Per Post program.
My natural inclination is to fully support what Jason is saying. Personally I wouldn’t use the program (although I did sign up for an account when they first launched so at least I could take a look), and neither as a matter of course would b5media. But something has been niggling away inside of me, indeed it has been since I first saw the Pay Per Post people launch. I know that morally there is a serious issue here, and yet I’m finding it difficult to condemn them.
Then it struck me. Well ok, to be more precise I looked at the current debate from an economical viewpoint as opposed to just a moral or ethical one.
Pay Per Post isn’t actually that evil. Sure, it’s not for everyone, but all they are doing is articulating into something more measurable what already goes on day in, day out in the blogosphere, and for that matter the rest of the world as well.
You scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours.
I quite regularly get emails from people I know, friends etc.. pointing me to their latest amazing post or new blog, and I regularly, and happily post about them. There’s a direct economic benefit in the transaction: I get something to post about, the person who emailed me gets a link from me with the possibility of new readers, and at least in part a tangible number of visitors via the link.
Now we all know Engadget, and indeed all the Weblogs Inc., blogs don’t keep any product samples sent to them for review, right?
Great, but there is still a transaction in place.
Lets say a gadget company gave first review rights to Engadget for a new gizmo. The company gets publicity, and Engadget gets an exclusive, helping to maintain and/ or increase the readers to the site. Those visitors have a net return to Engadget because those readers click on ads, so there is also a direct financial benefit for Engadget.
Even leaks work the same way. What if I said that roughly 50% of all so-called “leaks” are actually controlled/ authorised releases by the actual company involved. The authorised leaks are usually for two reasons: viral/ hype building, or market testing. If you’re leaking on the next best thing you’re doing so because you want to continue building expectation/ hype: fuzzy photos, tech specs, other tidbits….sound familiar? If you’re thinking about doing a product, but you’re not sure how the market will respond, you leak the basics and see what the reaction is. It’s cheaper that running focus groups, and if the response is negative you never officially launched/ produced/ went ahead with the product anyway. But I digress some what, because here’s the catch: the art of leaking also has a direct economic relationship between the company/ person and the blog or website. So company XYZ decides to leak to Engadget. They get a direct benefit from either Engadget building the hype or providing them with free market testing. Again, Engadget gets an exclusive from which they gain more traffic, and hence get more advertising revenue.
Does this all sound unethical? I’m picking on Engadget here because it’s obviously the flagship of Weblogs Inc, and Jason is the one making such a big deal out of Pay Per Post, and yet what I’ve described here could apply to just about any blog out there, in any field.
Which takes me back to Pay Per Post. Their only crime is to be upfront and honest about deals that take place every day. Instead of hiding behind the law of undisclosed returns, they’ve actually put a dollar figure on these transactions. Ethically and morally I don’t for one minute like the fact that they don’t ask their bloggers to disclose the posts they are being paid for as being that (paid for..and indeed they should force their bloggers to disclose this when they make paid posts), however as a transactional tool between advertisers/ companies and bloggers, there’s little difference between the free flag flying promo posts Engadget and just about everyone else does (particularly when talking about products) and these posts. Indeed, one is in many ways more honest that the other, and it’s the later. At least we can measure the transaction with Pay for Post 🙂
Tags: Jason Calacanis, Pay Per Post
You know, I’ve loved Firefox for a long, long time. I can’t live without my tabbed browsing, I’m literally lost without it, but with Firefox 2.0 someone at Mozilla has totally dropped the ball when it comes to the most compelling feature I use Firefox for, and that’s the tabs feature. You see, I like the way tabs work in Firefox 1.5. I like the fact I can have 30 of them open and see them all on the Tab Bar. I like that I don’t have to go to each tab to close it, that I can just click on the top right hand corner to close the tab (indeed, it’s this very reason I won’t use Opera because I love my close box there). Firefox 2.0 does away with both features in a standard install, and the new version plays like the latest version of Opera…and even worse is a new feature called Scrolling Tabs. IT’S AWFUL. Instead of seeing all your tabs you now only see about 8 of them, to go to a tab outside of this you need to scroll like you would with an opened Window where the picture was too big…scroll to the right to see the rest of the pic, but you’ve then got to scoll back to see the left hand side. Awful. Indeed, I’d suggest there are going to be a lot of very pissed off Firefox users when they discover how much the Mozilla team has totally mucked up a tab system that worked brilliantly.
But there is hope. After far too long trawling Google and the Firefox/ MozDev forums, you can fix both problems. To remove the X from each tab and to put it back on the right hand side like it should be, and was in earlier versions, do as follows in Firefox:
– In the Address Bar type “about:config”?Ǭù and hit Enter.
– Right-Click and select New then Integer.
– A box pops up requesting the Preference Name, enter browser.tabs.closeButtons then press OK to go on.
-Then type 3 to set the X back where it belongs.
To remove Scrolling Tabs (info from Cybertechnews via the Moz forums)
1. Start Firefox.
2. In the Address Bar type “about:config” and press Enter.
3. Right-Click and select New Integer.
4. A box requesting the Preference Name will popup and you should enter “browser.tabs.tabMinWidth”?Ǭù (without the quotes). Press OK to continue.
5. Select a the minimum value that you want for the width of the tabs (I set mine to 0 and the default value is 125). Then press OK again.
6. Right-Click and select New->Integer.
7. A box requesting the Preference Name will popup and you should enter “browser.tabs.tabClipWidth”?Ǭù (without the quotes). Press OK to continue.
8. I also set this value to 0 but you may choose whatever minimum you would like. The default value is 115. Then press OK again.
I’ve done both and now I’m a lot happier…having said this though the Mozilla team should build in the ability to tweak this stuff from the Options menu…if only because I’ve donated to them before and I say so! 🙂
Tags: Firefox
Just read Scoble saying that the new Firefox, currently at RC 2 is quick. He’s right, just downloaded it then, I’ve immediately noticed the different.
Also a tip for Firefox users, if you haven’t downloaded it yet, get DownThemAll.
From their page:
“DownThemAll is all you can desire from a download manager: it features an advanced accelerator that increases speed up to 400%, it allows you to pause and resume downloads at any time and, last but not least, it’s fully integrated into your favorite browser!”
I’ve actually had it installed for a while but wasn’t using it for my downloads. I started about 2 weeks ago…downloads are just that much quicker. For example, the download of FF RC2 which was about 5.8mb downloaded on my 2mb cable connection in about 7-8 seconds at an average of 200kb/s…incredibly quick compared to the standard FF download feature…indeed, it looks like the Mozilla team hasn’t done a thing in the new version to improve this feature of Firefox either, which is a shame,anyhow: DownThemAll is highly recommended.
Tags: Firefox
Credit where it’s due, Quadszilla over at SEO Black Hat might just be on to something with this post.
Cam has a scoop. Idiots. Good help someone that they write the truth, and in this case it was only in part the truth, after all, we all know how completely and utterly up sh*t creek Telstra are as a Telco 🙂
Technorati has launched a daily Vlog. Great. Great way to promote the service, but I can’t help but ask the question: why spend time doing a Vlog when your rank service is still broken? Case in point:
Notice the 862 incoming links down the bottom, and yet it’s ranked on 628 links? There are 37% more links than is showing in the rank line. But it’s not just my own personal blog either:
Indeed, I can go through just about every single blog by b5media and get the same result, as well as thousands of other blogs as well. The rank index isn’t being updated. Please, make the video blog shorter, and use that time to get someone to press the magic button once a day! People trust you Technorati: they use your statistics to judge their own sites and those of others. You’re not repaying this trust because you’re not paying attention to one of the core features your users like to use. Indeed, you’re making video blogs instead.
Tags: Technorati
I’m surprised none of the A-List picked up on this.
David Cameron, the leader of the Conservative (Tory) Party in the UK has launched his own blog, and to make it more interesting, it’s a video blog at that.
And dare I say, it’s pretty damn good.
Sure, I’m not interested as an Australian in what he’s got to say, but format wise it’s 100%. I’ve watched a couple of the videos, and my reaction: it’s not just spin: Cameron comes over as being natural and honest. It’s a great step forward in terms of political campaigning. Recommended.
Tags: David Cameron, Tories, Conservatives
Duncan Riley on SiliconANGLE Chiang Mai One
