I learn something new every day. Little did I know, being the trailing-edge blogger that I am, that Digg is so powerful. I’ve focused on links and Technorati, but there’s a parallel universe of traffic and Digg. Here’s a good example. This is my traffic log for the first few weeks of September. The spike [...]
My saga with my hosed hard disk is almost over. The people at the Apple store at Stanford Shopping Center took great care of me and swapped it out. Between luck, partial/old backups, and the hard work of my buddy Craig Hosoda, I have almost everything back in place. The total cost of my dumbness [...]
I came across a product called LinkSViewer from a company called GroupScope. It is a visual network analysis tool that explores relationships between management teams, outside board members, investors, and companies. It is the first application of the GroupScope network analysis engine (the result of research at Cornell University and the current work of the [...]
Do you remember comments like this about the photocasting product called FilmLoop when I posted my TechCrunch party pictures? This “FilmLoop” outfit is doomed. The scrolling thingie in the browser is cute, but when I click on a picture, I want to see the PICTURE, not a link to download an app that does the [...]
Not a day goes by when I don’t ask myself, “Why do smart companies do such dumb things?” We all know companies that cook the books and throw outrageous parties at one end of the spectrum to sell lousy products at the other. A sweeping answer is that companies are run by smart people, and [...]
Nisan Gabbay brought his blog, Startup Review, to my attention. He writes analyses (“The study of such constituent parts and their interrelationships in making up a whole.”) of successful online companies. I hope he can keep his blog going because it provides interesting and useful information. After a while, he may run out of successful [...]
A strong mind masks immaturity. —Dr. Mortimer Feinberg and John J. Tarrant How did you end your summer? A nice barbeque at the beach or maybe a quiet afternoon with the family? Mountain biking? Surfing? Bloggin? Playing in a hockey tournament? Go ahead: Ask me how my summer ended. On Saturday, September 2nd, I got [...]
As a follow up to Online Reviews and Small Businesses, check out this posting about the J curve of ratings. The most salient paragraph is: Across many clients in diverse industries this “U” curve turns out to be more like a “J” curve…almost a reverse “L”. The average rating across all clients is 4.3 out [...]
One of fortunate outcomes of the “democratization of information” is that anyone can now be a critic. You don’t even have to be work for a publication anymore because of sites like Local.Yahoo and Judy's Book. Even amateurs can rate businesses: Power to the people! Ilana DeBare of the the San Francisco Chronicle wrote a [...]
This is turning into Marketing Week where is a “week” is defined as whatever time period I am obsessed with a topic. I came across this great video from the Stanford Publishing Courses for Professionals program. It features Ina Saltz. Ina Saltz is the principal of Saltz Design and professor of electronic design at The [...]
Toyota is a great company. When I was in high school in the 1970s, our family had a Corona. it was a pile of junk—I thought it was made of recycled beer cans. Fast forward to the present: Toyota is kicking butt. The company stands for innovative engineering, high-quality manufacturing, and effective marketing. Compare, for [...]
Gadget Week never got rolling last week because I was on vacation in Santa Barbara, and it was difficult to recover from Career Week. :-) This blog is a potpourri of useful sites and cool gadgets. Iinnovate is a collection of audio interviews with David Kelley, founder of IDEO; Mark Leslie, founder of Veritas; and [...]
My buddy Andy Sernovitz, the CEO of the Word of Mouth Marketing Association, is coming out with a new book called, duh, Word of Mouth Marketing. I highly recommend this book because it was so practical, tactical, and hysterical. Here are the ten ideas, stories, and recommendations from the book that I liked the most: [...]
This is a video of “Startup Success,” the Churchill Club’s annual look at what it takes to build a successful startup. This panel of five Silicon Valley entrepreneurs discussed the challenges and critical success factors necessary to reach the promised land. August 17, 2006. Moderator: Guy Kawasaki, Managing Director, Garage Technology Ventures Speakers: Lauren Elliott, [...]
Marten Mickos joined MySQL AB as CEO in 2001. Under his leadership, the company has grown from a startup to the second largest open source company and the fastest-growing database vendor in the world. Prior to MySQL, Mickos held multi-national CEO and senior executive positions in his native Finland. He holds a masters of science [...]
I’m on the campus of UCSB this week at family camp, and it’s inspired me to blog about what students should learn in order to prepare for the real world after graduation. This is an opportune time to broach this subject because the school year is about to begin, and careers can still be affected. [...]
The first time I had to park this car, I was behind a Suburban trying to get into a lot near Moscone Center. The attendant made the Suburban leave and then said to me, “There’s no room in here for a Suburban, but there is for you.” Score one for the Honda Fit. It was [...]
These are photos from the TechCrunch party at August Capital. If you'd like to zoom or see all ninety-one pictures, click on a frame (only thirty are previewed here). If I got $1.00 for every time I heard “Web 2.0,” I would not have to work anymore. Low point of the evening: Kris Tate (founder [...]
Stephanie Tate is the university relations manager for Yahoo!. (This is not her picture; it’s a stock photo from iStockphoto.) She took a look at my cover email and resume and critiqued them. Just to prove that I’m not easily embarrassed—and to provide the most value to my readers, here’s what she said: I’ll pretend [...]