Marc's Voice

Who got bought today - post #1

I really need to just start another type of post - called “How can we spend the money that cost us nothing” category.  As Wall St. continues to lay their bets on Google, I wonder what IAC and Barry Diller are going to do?

I also wonder when Microsoft will come out swinging - assuming that Ray Ozzie can move aside all those ‘old guard, obnoxious, arrogant - no wait!  They all left and went to work for Google already.  So yes - Microsoft will come out buying companies - and spending some of their $30B in cash - horde.

STOP the PRESSES:  As I was writing this, Michael Arrington posts THIS.  Now I SWEAR I didn’t know about any of this new news - as I’ve been busy with clients, shipping code and in general - actually making things.

But THIS post totally verifies what I was just saying:

- Ray Ozzie is changing Microsoft in front of our eyes - in almost real time

- and that they’re opening up, while everaging Vista and their existing businesses

- Congrats to Zend.  We use php5.

- Once all these apps are on-line and they have APIs - platform loyalty as we know it - goes out the door.  So BEWARE of GData!  EMBRACE open companies like Yahoo and AOL - and GRAB some cash from these large compabies that have no other way of spending it!

- oh yah - did I say that these giant centralized social networks are going to be eaten alive by 10,000 smaller niche oriented, vertically driven contexts?

And congrats to Reddit and JotSpot.

Conde Nast is an interesting story.

I encountered pure NIH at Conde Nast (”now where IS that social network they were working on?”) - but it looks like they’re letting Kourosh Karimkhany have a little pushke to play with.

So congrats to Kourosh!

At this point - I don’t see how Google is going to incorproate JotSpot - well you know what? Let them worry about that!  JotSpot is coolio, SocialText just got more valuable and everyone wins.  I just wonder whether Google will allow JotSpot to mesh into ANY web service or require that they ONLY use GData.

Isn’t this chess game getting interesting.

Well for what it’s worth - regardless of who buys us - I’ll pledge to work with everyone.  How does that sound?

Well I guess unless they pay an absurd amount of cash - at which point it’s “yessum master, what ever use says mahster.”

Visual Links #7

In case you were wondering what Reid Hoffman looks like?

As many of you know, I am a proponent of faces in user interfaces.

I believe faces area core component to any social - anything - software.

So I have scolded and pleaded with Reid Hoffman on many occasion, both publicly and privately - to include faces in LinkedIn.  he has refused.

Anyway - here’s a rare photo of Reid.  From Loic.

Bye Bye Pluck

We knew that this bubble thing had to start getting a dose of reality - real soon. 

This is part of reality.  Not every play can get bought out.

Maryam Scoble

Great lady.

Puts up with total shoit from her geek hubbie.

Actually I think that makes her a saint.

$1,275 phone from Bang & Olfson

Its called the ‘Serene’.

Burning Man 3D

How many years you been waiting for this?

Disruptive coincidences

Dam!  I missed my chance to disrupt the Disruptors Roundtable.  I guess they didn’t want me disrupting too much.  They must be afraid.  I know that Arrington and OM are afraid.  That’s why they won’t have dinner with me - or see me.  But be assured - I will keep disrupting.  Guarenteed.  I didn’t spend 25 years in this busienss - to just go along with the VCs and cutie pie startups.

Gaurav reports from TIEcon.

Fred Wilson bitch slaps Arrington.  Take that - “whack!”

Niall on the state of social bookmarking (and tagging - really.)

Arnaud Leene agrees - it’s Media RSS.  Now we just need to get Yahoo to get David Hall back on the case.

Greg Reinacker sees my point - we have a long way to go til aggregators are media-ized.

I asked Marshall Kirkpatrick why he didn’t include videoEgg and blip.tv in this post on white labeled video services.  He said videoEgg didn’t quite match the model and that he didn’t know that blip was in that business.  Well Marshall - videoEgg did UnCut for AOL and blip did CNN.

I was watching TV last night (instead of disrupting) and every single show - despite what it was supposed to be about - was about sex.  Needless to say Microsoft agrees.  And we know why Larry and Sergey were arguing about the big bed - right?  Valleywag makes a living at it.

I just love it when the dot com 2.0 startup disintermediates existing businesses.  Now the question is - “is it illegal or the data completely wrong?”  We know these systems can be gamed, just like we know that Diebiold voting machines ain’t secure.  But this is serious business, as the US housing market is taking a dive, and Zillow could contribute to that.  If only their VCs knew this was going to effect the valuation of THEIR homes - as well.

If Scott Adams can hack his brain, then can’t Dilbert disrupt he system and get some work done - once in a while (this fits into today’s theme of disrupting.)

Maya’s Mom - the epidomy of an insider Silicon Valley venture.

Matt Mower wants one account to bind them all.  But Matt - Google just doesn’t care about anybody else - remember?  They’re the new Microsoft. Half of Google’s execs came from Microsoft.

My condolences to Rafat and Staci for losing Jemima Kiss.  But her name alone could get a job almost anywhere - and the Guardian it is.  Oh - and congrats to Jemima.  BTW she deserves it.  Not to say that working for Rafat ain’t a plum gig, but I’ve never met a tech reporter who grokked it as fast and articulate - then Jemima.  Well maybe Dan Farber.

EMI loves to talk about how digital hey are and they often use the number 25% - as….. well lets just say it ain’t true.  Just ask Ted Cohen or Lara Legasick.  Take it from me - these people are about as xenophobic as it comes.

Steve Rubel agrees with me - MyESPN is a big deal.

Anf finally today - here goes Macromedia again trying ot jump start their own ecosystem.  Haven’t they learned by now?  Nobody wants to hang out with slimeballs?  Does anybody remember Grand Cenral or their earlier attempts at capturing and locking up a content distribution network?  This latest attempt is just pathetic.  Someone please tell Kevin Lynch to just go cash out his stock and buy a mansion and chill.  They just don’t get the web or us.  The technology and platform we handed to them (or one could say “stole”) is ALL they’re ever gonna innovate with.  That juice ran out years ago.  Just cause you’re called Adobe now - doesn’t mean all your problems go away.  Throwing $100M at something doesn’t make it right.  IMHO.

More on media feeds, aggregator support and coolio functionality

OK - the conversation continues.  I just got this from Greg Reinacker (who I consider one of the GodHeads of aggregators):

Marc -

The Vloggies

I don’t really watch Video Blog posts - but I love theHill88.  I’d vote for her - as Best Vloggerette - but she’s not nominated.

Oh well.

And the rumor is that blip.tv is having  a pre-party at the House of Shields.

My Dentist goes Cyber

If I were a VC I’d be investing strictly in Health oriented companies.

The amount of automation, modernization and catch-up that the health and medical professions require is staggering.

If you want to get your kid into a sports league, you have to go to their Doctor’s office and get a copy of their health record - on paper.  If you want to have blood taken, they fill out a paper form and have you carry it to the lab. Paperwork is still the predominant way of collecting and moving information - and every dam time you go to another doctor’s office, you have to fill out the same dam form - again.

It’s so archaic - its downright embarrasing.

And to think that some VCs can’t find anywhere to invest their money.  That’s even more pathetic.

So it warms my heart to receive this email from my Dentist.  Next thing you know - I’ll be able to book a seat for a teeth cleaning just as easy as booking a table at a fine restaurant.

Congrats to Doctor Pope!

Lots of feedback on the need for RSS media readers - roundup

Dare Obesanjo is adding audio to RSS Bandit.

Some folks (Michael Meiser and Peter) have been saying that mefeedia does media.  No wonder Mary Hodder likes it so much.

Michael also points out that YouTube has feeds - but they’re just really hard to find.  I agree.

No word from Greg Reinacker yet - but Nick Bradbury did chime in on FeedDemon and Media RSS:

Marc, I agree with you that the big roadblock is that we haven’t standardized on how to embed media into feeds. We also haven’t standardized on the user experience, but perhaps that’s just a sign of healthy competition in the aggregator space.

IMO, Media RSS is the best format, especially since it’s already used in video feeds from Google, YouTube, Yahoo and Microsoft. Flickr also uses Media RSS in their tag feeds.

FeedDemon has supported a subset of Media RSS for quite a while now, and NewsGator’s API recently started supporting it, too. Here’s a screenshot which shows how FeedDemon handles Media RSS in YouTube feeds:

http://www.bradsoft.com/typepad/post-img/youtube3.png

This is in addition to FeedDemon’s podcatching features, which sync enclosures with your iPod or WMP device.

Dave Winer points out that his News River supports audio - as did the original Radio Userland.  I totally remember that.  And Dave also says that NetNewsWire supports audio.

Scott T thinks the issue is that none of the parsers support media.

Joseph Bell says Picassa has media in its feed.

Hubert says “don’t forget biulling and licensing info - as well.

Mihai Parparita points us to Google Reader.

Arnold Brown talks about Streampad.

And Hariold Gilchrist tells us about his Castbrowser.

And finally Shannon Clark always seems to have allot to say.

The “I’m so glad I live in California” list of links - cause it’s a beautiful day here

I’m glad to see Noah Glass get a little mention once in a while.  Twitter was Noah’s idea.  But then again - Odeo was more or less a rehash of something Noah did earler - as well.  Noah used to work for me and was even a roomate for some time - with his wife (at the time) Sonya.  Now Noah has made a ‘modest gain’.  Congrats Noah and keep it Obvious - dude.

Ah - I just remembered why I never started using My Web 2.0 by Yahoo.  Cause I knew the day was coming when Bookmarks would get an upgrade.

Nov. 6th is not only the day for WidgetsLive - but also Mobile 2.0. Organized by my friend Daniel Appelquist (of Vodofone) - it’ll feature a who’s who of mobile nerds.

Cozi looks pretty coolio - social media for families.

Congrats to Brightcove on another deal.

Sacre Bleu - locked out of Le Web.  Now the question is: “when to headbutt?”  No seriously I’d love to do something called “why I prefer to do business in Europe.”

Snowcrash inside of Second Life.

Its a wonderful day in the neighborhood - Vox has shipped.

Now group based aggregation has a name - ‘neighborhood’. 

To me - VOX is a DLA for sure (digital lifestyle aggregator.) 

Really the first of a new breed, which I consider PeopleAgrgegator to be part of - as well.  We’re just not done yet.  Vox rocks - as it connects to outside services, will have a full range of APIs and support OpenID - as well. 

I really like Vox and havebeen playing with it for a while. Its the best way I know to get a message to Anil, Barak or Andrew Anker.

Congrats to all those 6Aers.

Microformat for describing media

Kevin Marks has quickly pointed out that there IS an on-going effort to define a micrformat for media - so that folks can ‘describe’ a media item in a page.

This is a key point in the evolution of these standards.to

So now I guess the issue is how to marry and keep in sync - the “in page tags” - with the “subscription format schemas”?