This has got to have a big WTF on it. According to Adotas, Google is testing 2560 x 1920 ads and 1×1 pixel ads. Pretty much, great big mother you know what ads, and itsy bitsy, teeny weeny pixel ads ala the Million Dollar Homepage. If it’s true, now I’ve seen everything 🙂

Aaron writes at Technosailor that he believes that Technorati is now tracking MySpace. I really don’t think they are, because if they are they really suck it at. Consider the numbers. 61 million odd users. Technorati tracks less blogs than the total number of blogs in China. My understanding is that MySpace blogs can’t be tracked, they have an internet version of what corporate bankers would know as a Chinese Wall.

Facebook is chasing $2b (USD) for their site, having knocked back $750 million. Now it’s in the top 100 at Alexa, which equals premium site, but $2b for an online property. It’s not even 1999 again….it’s a whole lot more at this. price.

If you are interested in Web 2.0, podcasting, and start ups, check out the latest 2web podcast. I’m quite…well….strong in it. 🙂

Update: I’ve just listened to it and I’d think it’s our best podcast to date 🙂 If you’ve got an iPod or computer for that matter, have a listen!

Michael Robertson points to ajaxWrite, a new online version of Microsoft Word requiring no login. I was reading about it, looking at some screen shots, and thought I’d give it a try. It was a little slow (I’m guessing the servers are getting a pounding). I go to open a file using the service. It then killed Firefox. Completely. All my morning reading tabs lost. 30 minutes of going through my Bloglines subs and opening the stuff I wanted to read and potentially write about…gone. I’m tempted to just slam the service, but if you compare and contrast the potential of this thing to say Writely (which you still can’t use without an invite) you start to think Google could have bought a lot better. Time will tell I guess, but it’s a Web 2.0 idea with huge potential, if and when they iron the bugs out.

To me Flock is the poster child for the bad side of Web 2.0, a solution without a problem. Chris Messina says he’s leaving because basically he doesn’t like working with lots of people, or something he describes as (and I kid you not on this) the “vapor sublimation process”. Talking like this I’ve got no doubt he’ll fit in really well with the next Snake Oil Web 2.0 startup he ties up with. Of course the reality is the long tail might be long enough to sustain the like of Flock into the future. It’s easy to criticise companies like this because of the public profile they have, but with Google money coming in through search (like the Mozilla foundation has) Flock may even break even. Although with some 20 odd staff I’d think they’d be wanting to get something out there in the marketplace pretty soon. When you are talking those sorts of numbers you are talking Web 1.0 burn rates. Compare this with say NewsVine who I understand is burning less that $100k per month. Now that’s a sustainable way to start a business.

(in part via Flock sucks)

Dave Brubeck at MySpace. You can even listen to one of the greatest peices of music EVER WRITTEN. Blue Rondo a la Turk.

I couldn’t help but draw a Darren style tangent though. Is 100 years time, when the people of the future look back at the music on the 20th century, they’ll remember few people, but Dave Brubeck will be one of them. Sure, he was never the most famous of musos, nor the biggest seller, but he was different. He pushed music to new boundaries. He went outside the 4/4 beat we get delivered every day and explored different beats, different ways of putting together music.

There are hundred of millions of bloggers out there. Many would argue saying pretty much the same thing, and sure, some will go very well. But will you be remembered in 10 or 20 years. Being different may be risky, it may be bold, but breaking new ground also means that you can stand out from the crowd, and if your idea or way of doing things catches on, you may well be remembered as well.

It’s one of the reason why I’m getting more and more sucked into Web 2.0, podcasting and chatting with the 2web crew and listening to people like Nik Cubrilovic. I can’t honestly say whether what Nik is trying to establish with Omnidrive will be sucessful, but he isn’t just following the crowd, he’s committed to building something bigger than he is, something that may well stand the test of time. Aside from some of the throth in Web 2.0, there are people out there like Nik with similar ideals. There not all build and sell merchants, these are people who are trying to build new things, things that haven’t been done before. Many will fail, but some will suceed, and by being bold, by being different, they are aiming to be remembered in the future.

Yaro Starak is now the patron for a new Web 2.0 Australian style del.icio.us site: AustralianBlogs.com.au. It will be interesting to see what sort of market there is given the power of exisiting sites such as del.icio.us itself and others like Digg. It also might get Ben to get a move along and launch Gnoos more quickly as well 🙂

This was good fun, and interesting as well. I could have talked about this stuff for hours.

It’s not been announced publicly, but I’ve joined the 2web crew. Nik emailed me last week with an invite and it got totally buried in amongst the 5 million other emails. For those of you interested:

2web is a group of Australian bloggers and entrepreneurs who are passionate about web 2.0. What we all have in common is that through our businesses and blogging we develop, implement and evangelise web 2.0 ideas around web services, open standards, new media, blogs and the web as a platform.

It’s pretty similar to an Australian version of the Web 2.0 working group. I don’t know all the guys in it well, although I do know some (and of course Darren is one of the 9 initial members as well), but it should be good, certainly if the email list and podcasts are anything to go by, and the coming together of some diverse people from around Australia, with different business plans and operations, all working to the same goal, and I’d add uniquely all working from home chasing the Web 2.0 dream (no part timers in this crowd) makes for an interesting bunch of people.