Looking for a recommendation for charting software that you can layer over web metrics / data. Looking for something that can be consumer facing and has similar styling to Google Analytics.
Any guidance is appreciated!
Web 2.0 + Fast Food = Sonic 2.0
I love the Sonic commercials.
The latest pokes fun at the web culture and the much-overused Web 2.0 phrase (I'm of course guilty). Sorry for the poor quality:
Microsoft Sends Letter to Yahoo Board; Gives 3 Week Notice
And with this, the Microsoft / Yahoo saga gets much more interesting...
Microsoft delivered a powerful message to Yahoo's board and it came with a swift deadline: get the deal done in three weeks or watch it disappear. Ballmer hits the nail on the head:
"During these two months of inactivity economic conditions have weakened considerably. Public indicators suggest that Yahoo!'s search and page view shares have declined. Now is the time for our respective companies to authorize teams to sit down and negotiate a definitive agreement."
I continue to believe that a Microsoft / Yahoo deal is a very good thing for consumers, advertisers and content owners. Though the feasibility of a clean integration is a certain impossibility - even a slightly-sloppy integration means:
- the combination of the 2nd and 3rd search and advertising platforms which, when combined, make a far more formidable opponent to Google
- a single advertising platform that actually justifies marketers effort and budget (currently marketers designate nearly 100% of their money and time to Google - mostly because the reach and returns are better, but partially because it's too time consuming to split efforts between two second tier players)
- MS has a better advertising platform. Yahoo has better reach. Merging the platform with the audience (and leveraging the data between the two) should instantly make a marketers ROI multiples better
- Competition will make Google and the Microsoft / Yahoo entity better and push each to innovate... always a good thing
- From a content owner's perspective, I badly want a formidable challenger to AdSense. The tier two vertical networks are great - but the industry needs a stronger option for contextual advertising.
Dear Members of the Board:
It has now been more than two months since we made our proposal to acquire Yahoo! at a 62% premium to its closing price on January 31, 2008, the day prior to our announcement. Our goal in making such a generous offer was to create the basis for a speedy and ultimately friendly transaction. Despite this, the pace of the last two months has been anything but speedy.
While there has been some limited interaction between management of our two companies, there has been no meaningful negotiation to conclude an agreement. We understand that you have been meeting to consider and assess your alternatives, including alternative transactions with others in the industry, but we’ve seen no indication that you have authorized Yahoo! management to negotiate with Microsoft. This is despite the fact that our proposal is the only alternative put forward that offers your shareholders full and fair value for their shares, gives every shareholder a vote on the future of the company, and enhances choice for content creators, advertisers, and consumers.
During these two months of inactivity, the Internet has continued to march on, while the public equity markets and overall economic conditions have weakened considerably, both in general and for other Internet-focused companies in particular. At the same time, public indicators suggest that Yahoo!’s search and page view shares have declined. Finally, you have adopted new plans at the company that have made any change of control more costly.
By any fair measure, the large premium we offered in January is even more significant today. We believe that the majority of your shareholders share this assessment, even after reviewing your public disclosures relating to your future prospects....
Tons of great reading available:
Silicon Alley Insider TechCrunch Todd Bishop's Microsoft Blog
Setting the Right Price
The Widgetbox office is off of Sansome and Broadway in San Francisco. It's a beautiful area (right along Embarcadero) - but doesn't have much to offer in the way of restaurants. There are two mom-and-pop shops next door: YoYos (udon and sushi) and Silver Star (Chinese food and Sandwiches).
This is a photo from the front window of Silver Star.
Check out the prices - which are completely arbitrary: Broccoli and beef is $3.68. Roast Chicken is $3.75. Potstickers are $2.98.
Why is chicken $0.07 more than beef? Why .68, .75, .98? Hilarious.
You Know You Have a Powerful Site & Brand...
... when you can communicate it as clearly as the folks at Twitter have.
This video is brilliantly put together and powerfully captures the Twitter product, community and brand. Well done.
YouTube RickRolls April Fools In
In general, I don't understand why April Fools jokes on the internet have begun on March 31st - but apparently that's now standard. I also struggle with April Fools internet 'jokes' because they are mostly just made up stories (easy to do - though cleverness is clearly difficult) - but that's what makes YouTubes 'prank' so great: they actively made a product change and, in doing so, poked fun at themselves. YouTube RickRoll'd their users and their videos - linking all their featured videos to that classic 80s music video.
It's debatable who's career was resurrected more by web 2.0: Chuck Norris or Rick Astley.
If you don't know what a RickRoll is, here is a great example. Yesterday's #1 story on Digg was titled "Lala (Tiki Bar) Showers Video", raked in nearly 7,000 diggs and linked to this video:
Flick'Rolled:
Some guy RickRolling his class:
Get A Life T-Shirt
Breaking: Blackberry 9000 Specs Revealed
My entire office now has iPhones and I really am one of the last remaining Blackberry addicts... and any slim chance of turning my Blackberry over for an iPhone just went out the window. Specs of the new 9000 series were revealed by the always-great Boy Genius:
* Everything we reported was true. 624MHz processor, 480×320 screen, GPS, Wi-Fi, 3G, etc. * The web browser flies. "Loads web pages in 3-4 seconds." * The BlackBerry 9000 in its current state runs OS 4.5 * Early launch date was slated for a consumer AT&T launch on June 18th. Remember that we predicted the device was delayed. See below. * The battery lasts around 4 hours with straight phone calling. "Battery sucks, to be honest. With Wi-Fi on, I only got a little less than two hours browsing the web," and all testers are reporting huge battery issues which could be why we’re all hearing it is delayed. * We’re not sure of the next part, but he said that the device either has 256MB of internal memory or 128MB. Don’t ask why we couldn’t tell the difference.
Update: AlleyInsider disagrees with me... strongly And CrunchGear is somewhere between us
beRecruited Teams Launches
Got an exciting phone call from Jeff Cravens, beRecruited's CEO, today. We launched beRecruited Teams today - a network of athletes by geography, high school, sport and team. Some fun stats and browse paths:
- California is the most active state on beRecruited - San Diego is California's most active city - Torrey Pines High School is the most active school in San Diego - with athletes from 14 different teams
But here is the stat that got me most excited:
beRecruited now has at least one active user from over 80% all US high schools!
Terrific news and hopefully the new Teams site and beRecruited Player Cards can extend that reach.