Another place for tax dollarrs to visit?

A recent post in TechCrunch called for Government scrutiny of the Search business. The argument is that, since the commerce around Search, as run by Goog, is a black box with no transparency it's subject to abuse by a company that has achieved monopoly power.

I tend to think that market interference tends to often bring worse outcomes than the status-quo, but nonetheless, the post makes for an interesting read.

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Q2 Venture capital fundraising

Per the National Venture Capital Association, the numbers are not pretty:

25 Funds raised $1.7B, the lowest level since 1996 when 21 Funds raised $938mm.

Eight first time funds raised capital led by Domain Associated Management ($371mm and Andreessen Horwitz $300mm).

Here is the text of the release

If this is a sustained trend, no doubt it will affect the capital available for entrepreneurial companies and exacerbate the 'husbanding' of capital to support existing investments. Time will tell if the lowering of available capital creates a more holistic balance between a generation of capital efficient companies and the resources available to support them, or if we are destined to live in a feast n famine environment. Sphere: Related Content

Ten exciting Israeli start-ups

The influential Israeli business daily, The Globes and the blog site the.co.ils, paneled a jury to sift through 700 applicants to reach the final 10 to present live (streamed too) at the annual Internet, Media and Communications conference.

Congratulations to Reimage and here is the list of the finalists: Sphere: Related Content

Ten Years After

It's been ten years since a student in Boston, Shawn Fenning, led a computing revolution that nearly destroyed a multi-billion dollar industry, is profoundly affecting nearly all forms of digital content, spurred Congress to enact new laws, and was influential in promoting Free as a business model.

His Napster long ago was swallowed by turbulent seas, but peer to peer applications live on in more than 200 million computers and is now a respectable noun to be uttered in polite company.

The Pew Internet & American Life Project recently published a research report looking at the Music Industry 10 years after Napster. It's a good read, especially if you broaden your interpretation to include all digital content.

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Mice move elepants

Dave Winer, often called the 'father of RSS' recently posted about a new Google service PubSubHubbub, that provides near real-time updates of RSS/Atom feeds. Per David it:


makes it possible to build a distributed Twitter-like system with components that are not made by a single company, and with servers not run by a single company. It makes it possible to build a Twitter without the limitations of Twitter. (For example, no 140-character limit, the ability to handle enclosures, categories without #hashtags.)

The protocol is free; anyone can run a hub or subscribe.

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Swimming with the tide

Amazon jumped into a new niche today with the announcement of a beta version of an online cellphone store,AmazonWireless. As someone who recently went through cellphone purchasing hell, I welcome their entrance into a market where the sales effort contains too much unnecessary friction, and too often have unhelpful people, with best intent, just not helping.

It's about time

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All that shines is not Chrome

I've been doing some more thinking about the Chrome OS and its implications/next steps.

1. Google's ecosystem today is concentrated on breaking its service (SEO) vs supporting its infrastructure. There will have to be a huge amount of work to switch the DNA of this relationship to create the primordial muck for a new OS to be successful.

2. The OS will have a Linux kernel and much Javascript. The later is known for not being a speed demon and performance will be the first measure for its competitiveness (similar to the Chrome browser).

3. Despite the OS being 'fast, lightweight and optimized for the cloud' it will need to run/support some local applications. Such applications need to be readily available, perhaps via a GOOG iTunes like application store.

4. With Android and Chrome OS I would not be surprised if Eric Schmidt resigned from the Apple board as the more he takes on MSFT, the more Apple is exposed to 'friendly fire'

5. The PC era is now rapidly being commoditized from two fronts. The iPhone, which is now a computer, phone, camera, video camera, GPS, music player and game platform represents fantastic value and a classic example of exporting deflation for the benefit of customers. Let's do the math* (courtesy of Amazon):

Netbook PC $375
Phone (Nokia) $ 90
Camera (p&s) $125
Flip video $129
GPS $ 90
iPod $224
Nintendo DS $130

Total $1163

iPhone $399

Savings $764
% savings 66%

The other commoditizing force is the cloud which moves storage and computations away from the personal computer. Hence the move to low cost netbooks that, despite being low(er) power, represent the fastest growing segment of the PC market.

It's easy to look at Apple as a purveyor of premium priced products that gets away with it due to design and brand. I think this is a misplaced perspective that competitors will ignore at their peril.


*I know it's not totally 'apples to apples' due to quality of comparisons (e.g. camera pixels)


MOGUAI - Sittin On Chrome - The best home videos are here Sphere: Related Content