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Friday, May 4, 2007
Source: CNET
Brad Garlinghouse, SVP of Yahoo wrote an internal memo last November called the "Peanut Butter Manifesto" that was widely leaked. His point? Yahoo was spread too thin. Now he says "I'm eating my own peanut butter." Yahoo has announced that it will close down the very popular Yahoo Photos and transition everyone over to Flickr, a photo site that they bought two years ago. Interesting move. Flickr is a favorite of the techie set. Not that it's a technical site. Far from it. In fact it's WAY better than Yahoo Photos. The question? Will non-digerati Yahoo Photos members transition ok?
Related:
The peanut butter leak
Camera shopping via Flickr
Where in the Flickr?
Posted by mwelch at 12:09 PM
Source: Web Worker Daily
Americans are "lousy at taking vacations." Work on the web, and it's even worse. This may be shocking, but in other parts of the world, "three to five weeks of vacation are required by government or corporate policy." It's true that the Web creates flexibility. You can take your laptop to the beach or to the mountains and dip in and out of work. But is that really a vacation? Does it achieve the effect of you coming back refreshed and relaxed? "If your email will give you a few minutes off to think, this might be the year to consider whether a real vacation is in the cards."
Posted by mwelch at 10:41 AM
Source: Wired
Digg is a site where users pick the stories that go on the home page. DRM is a technology that prevents you from copying movies and music illegally. The Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 is a controversial law that makes it illegal bypass DRM. And this week they all came together in a perfect storm.
Digg users persisted in promoting an encryption key that would break the DRM for HD DVDs, even as Digg continuously deleted the stories due to pressure from a cease-and-desist order. In the face of a growing user revolt, Digg went all in with their users saying, "If we lose, then what the hell, at least we died trying."
When the wisdom of crowds is empowered and the crowd thinks the law is wrong...you have a revolt. Think Boston Tea Party. None of this - DRM laws, user-generated media, legal standing - is figured out. Welcome to the "revenge of user-generated content."
Posted by mwelch at 02:02 PM
Source: TechCrunch
I work with people in the UK all day long. We all speak English but even so, things can get lost in translation. But discussions of American TV shows are always right on target. Why? Because my European friends are all watching American TV...online. And a new study from Motorola confirms it. Apparently 45 percent of Europeans now watch television online on broadband connections. In the US we're just beginning to do that. Did you miss Heroes on Monday? No problem. See it here with fewer commercials.
Posted by mwelch at 01:12 PM
Source: A VC
VC Fred Wilson blogs that of all the companies in his portfolio only one of the founding entrepreneurs is older than 45...and he's a serial entrepreneur. "Nine of our eleven entrepreneurs are in their 30s. One is in his 20s... That says to me that prime time entrepreneurship is 30s. And it's possibly getting younger as web technology meets youth culture." Very true. And in Wilson's case, which also represents the norm, all of them are men. The 365/24/7 pace of founding a startup is a tough sell to those in their 40s and to women with families.
Posted by mwelch at 01:20 PM
Source: BoingBoing
The tagline for the blog HotelChatter is "Where to stay when you leave." Not only do they have a good tagline, they have the scoop on hotels that business travelers need.
The site just published its annual list of US hotels with the best wireless Internet access. Top honors go to Marriott's budget hotels which include Residence Inns, SpringHill Suites, and Courtyard. "All have strong, free, fast, working wireless in the rooms and the lobbies." Kimpton Hotels (my fav) got downgraded this year because they "did away with free WiFi access at their two New York properties" and their wifi sign-in process is cumbersome.
Travelers want their free wifi! Hotels that don't provide it should remember that today, email is life.
Posted by mwelch at 12:56 PM
Source: Fast Company
 Search Wikia, is a for-profit search engine project founded by Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales that is aiming to take on Google. Why is Wales so optimistic? Fast Company cites these stats: "Only 21 percent of professionals always feel that search engines understand their queries." And only "10 percent always find exactly what they want on their first attempt." But 93 percent of us try, try again by using alternate keywords. With stats like that, Google is vulnerable. Before Google launched, search wasn't very good, but most of us didn't really know it. Could a company like Search Wikia, come out of the blue and show us, again, what we're missing?
Related:
Wikipedia founder takes on Google
Posted by mwelch at 04:04 PM
Source: Slate
Instead of offering an international selection of bottled water, gourmands like Chez Panisse are offering filtered tap water, either still or carbonated on premises. Why? "It takes a lot of energy to create a bottle of water and ship it from Europe to California." Not to mention that "a gallon of bottled water costs more than a gallon of gas." But it's more than just a green issue. Perrier or Evian used to be a product for the elite few. But now the masses tote around plastic bottles of Coca-Cola-owned Dasani water. It's right about now when the elites usually admit that the practice is "dangerous and socially destructive."
Posted by mwelch at 03:03 PM
Source: VentureBeat
Hayward, Calif.-based Optisolar will build what it calls the largest solar power farm in North America, using solar cells manufactured in Silicon Valley. The Ontario, Canada-based farm will draw "on a monstrous 40-megawatt capacity" to produce enough energy to power 10-15,000 homes. "If all goes according to plan, the farm will be up and running by 2010." Currently the world’s largest solar farm is the 12-megawatt Erlasee solar park in Germany.
Related:
Smells like green spirit
Google plants solar trees
Blueberry solar
Nano-solar energy
Solar coffee
Solar powered trackable clothes
Posted by mwelch at 03:03 PM
Business Filter in today's Boston Globe
 Gorilla, chimp or monkey?
Illustration: James F. Kraus
$10-a-seat airline
Your backup plan
Virtual conferencing
Reverse rings
Jott it down
MySpace? Meet Gaia
Posted by mwelch at 11:15 AM
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