Source: Business 2.0

Photo: Tesla Motors

At last! A deadline. Experts warn that we have until 2015 to reverse global warming. Ever try to get anything done without a deadline? Impossible. Which businesses will likely help us meet the deadline? Wind and solar power plus biofuels are now a $16 to $21 billion business. But by 2015, "biofuels alone could be an $80 billion industry." Electric car companies like Tesla Motors are likely winners. Tesla "has already sold out its first run of the $100,000 Tesla Roadster." And Tesla's new side electric car battery unit "instantly received a $43 million order." Also, go long on something called "carbon capture and storage (CCS)."

Source: Financial Times

Today Google officially challenged Microsoft's dominance of your desktop by launching a thing called Google Gears. What is Google Gears? It makes it so you can use Google's word processor and spreadsheet both online and offline. So Google has nicely sidestepped the browser and using a bit of Javascript gained access to the Microsoft stronghold. Since it will now allow me to work on documents even when I'm offline, I'm going to try it.

Related:
Office competitors circle
Google takes aim at Office
Google's Web Office strategy

Source: I, Cringely

Bob Cringely says that if Google gets beaten by another company it's likely the founders will come from Google itself. Why? They've hired thousands of "straight-from-university geniuses, straight-from-start-up geniuses, and straight-from-Microsoft/IBM/Yahoo/wherever geniuses" all of whom are paid to work 20 percent of the time on developing new ideas most of which Google can't implement. And then there's the fact that the members of Google's "entrepreneurial petri dish" will soon begin vesting their stock options. Those who have planned "their future companies over free sushi and Diet Coke late at night in Google cafeterias" will start to visit Sand Hill Road all on their own.

Source: TIME

Barry Diller's Ticketmaster has traditionally had a lock on ticket sales but the web is changing the game. More concert promoters, pro sports leagues and smaller venues are selling their own tickets to build a deeper bond with fans. But Ticketmaster's biggest lost opportunity was being slow to address the secondary market, or "what used to be called scalping." Sites like StubHub effectively set the market price for concert tickets with fans paying an average of 45 percent above face value. Even Ticketmaster now auctions off premium seats. So no more camping out overnight for front-row tickets.

Source: PC Pro

A new survey finds that one third of IT staff "take advantage of their position to look through private files, wage data, personal emails, and HR details." They claim it's simply human nature. They ask: 'Why does it surprise you that so many of us snoop around your files, wouldn't YOU if you had secret access to anything you can get your hands on?"

Source: CNET

Google just rolled out a new feature on Google Maps that lets you see panoramic photos at street level for many streets in the San Francisco Bay Area, New York, Las Vegas, Denver and Miami. More cities will be available later. Google also announced Mapplets which allows mini applications to be created on Google Maps. Soon you should be able to get on a Google Map, view real estate listings and then check out the neighborhood right at street level.

Source: TechCrunch

Microsoft Live Search Maps now offers dramatic 3D photorealistic maps of New York City and eight other cities, keeping it "one step ahead of Google in 3D mapping." Where is 3D map search heading? Virtual tours of cities, searching for locations or stores and actually zooming to the location and seeing the actual place in 3D. We are not far from walking through cities we've never been to before. Watch the video. Amazing.

Source:
What is Google Earth really up to?
Microsoft Live Search
Realtime maps of cities

Source: Forbes

Forbes has published their list of 10 people who could change the world. Included in the list is Barry Bruce, a biochemist who is trying to harness the energy in photosynthesis to grow power; Esther Duflo an MIT Economist who is using randomized scientific trials to test which aid programs actually work to reduce poverty; and Thomas Linzey who as head of the Community Environmental Defense Fund is working to give ecosystems (trees, rivers) legal rights of their own. Three out of the 10 are at MIT and one is at Harvard. Check out the whole list.

Source: TechCrunch

Facebook is the sixth most-visited site on the Web with 24 million monthly unique users and they just opened up their platform to any company who wants to use Facebook as a launchpad. Michael Arrington calls their strategy the antithesis of MySpace who "frets over third party widgets, alternatively shutting them down or acquiring them." Facebook even allows third parties to serve their own ads. Time will tell if Facebook has problems with clutter and slowdowns due to all the add-ons, but it's obviously planning to create an eco-system much larger than MySpace.

Source: Don Dodge on the Next Big Thing

Angels invest just like VCs, except they make smaller investments. But they add up. In 2006 angels invested $26 billion which means that "angels have invested more dollars in more startups than VCs over the past 4 years." Boston angel groups include Beacon Angels, Boston Harbor Angels, Common Angels, eCoast Angels, Hub Angels, and Launchpad. Dodge notes that "the larger angel groups in Silicon Valley and Boston...invest between $350K and $600K per round, and maybe $1.5M to $2M per company."

Related:
The angel gap
Women angels

Source: Picturephoning.com

Giving a whole new meaning to the acronym MTV, a new report estimates that mobile TV will reach 244 million people worldwide by 2011. "There are over 80 mobile TV trials all over the world and already there are a handful of services launched. The bulk of those trials are already committed to turn into genuine services, in some cases with a nationwide footprint, in other countries in limited regions."

Source: Research Brief

A new study says that American "broadband users spend an hour and 40 minutes (48 percent of their spare time) online in a typical weekday, and more than half of that is spent accessing activities related to entertainment and communication." Two activities, sending email and visiting web sites for personal reasons, are more popular than TV.

Source: Textually.org

Mobile content generates more revenue than the Internet and The Guardian says that's "because most content on the web is free whereas mobile phones arrived with a payment system pre-installed for calls, followed by a premium service for texting. If the web had had its own payment system it would have taken a different course." I'll say. The result? Revenues from the web are estimated at $25 billion, whereas revenues from mobile are estimated at $31 billion.

Source: Endless Innovation

US product proliferation has gotten so ridiculous that every need we have has been filled several times over. And that's why Erich Joachimsthaler writes that it's time to retire the "need-fulfillment paradigm" - the business growth strategy that says "you find what products and services customers need, and then deliver them." Instead he's advocating a new practice that doesn't focus on the product, but instead looks for ways to create transformational change in the everyday life of consumers...things that are so obvious they're hiding in plain sight. Think Apple, GE Healthcare, BMW, Proctor & Gamble, Starbucks and Netflix.

Source: Businesspundit

Author Laurence Haughton says speed is a key competitive advantage. Why? The obvious part is that slow costs more and bureaucratic companies can be overtaken by fast movers. Plus it's the "ultimate customer turn-on. Everyone is short of time and we hate delays so people will pay for speed." But the less obvious part is that fast isn't all about the clock, "fast means to see trends and big opportunities before they are obvious to everyone (and you can't make any real money); to make decisions on the spot and without delay; to execute quickly at every level; and to anticipate the need for change before the marketplace decides you just don't "get it."

Haughton is hosting an online seminar on speed next Tuesday (12pm EST, 9am PST).

The industry is buzzing with social media news...

Yahoo is rumored to be in talks to buy UK social network, Beebo for $1 billion.

And Gartner is predicting that the population of virtual worlds will be 50 million by 2011.

So I suppose it's fitting that today I'm heading to New York to a ClickZ conference on Advertising in Social Media.

If you're a reader and you happen to be at the conference, ping me and we can say hello.

Source: Matthew Bellantoni

Social mapping combines blogs, tags, pictures and maps. And Matthew Bellatoni, a Boston area entrepreneur, is hard at work on a few new sites in that emerging space. Spotstory is a community where people share and find unique places with interesting stories. Most of the spots now on the site are in and around Boston. A.placebetween.us is a service that helps people find a meeting place halfway between them. It's surprisingly helpful - I can't tell you how often I've had to research that kind of info in the past. Check them out.

Related:
Flickervison
A corporate marauder's map
Google your own map

Source: BoomTown

When Microsoft bought aQuantive for $6 billion it paid 10 times more than aQuantive's revenue and close to 50 times its cash flow. No matter how Web 1.0 bubble that seems, buying ad companies is what the big Web players are doing, as Internet advertising has no where to go but up. Kara Swisher says the aQuantitive buy is Microsoft's answer to Google's $3.1 billion acquisition of Doubleclick - "anything you can do, I can do with a bigger bag of money."

Source: PC Magazine

All Things Digital is a new technology news site on the scene, but its writers are all high profile veterans. The Wall Street Journal's Walt Mossberg, "often called the "the Pope" of the tech press" is the headliner and so is Kara Swisher, of the Wall Street Journal San Francisco bureau. Unlike the WSJ, the site is free and PC magazine says it's "aiming to create a tech version of The Huffington Post." The site has the financial backing of the WSJ and also just happens to be a great venue for touting the All Things Digital Conference.

Source: Business 2.0

Om Malik observes that "humans have an overwhelming need to get together, talk, communicate, and interact...as we rush toward an always-on, ever more connected society, we want to mimic these offline interactions on the Net." If Twitter is for broadcasting text in real time, a new service, Kyte, is for broadcasting photos and videos you take with your phone. Upload them to your own channel and friends and family can tune in to your life. "500 channels? Try 7 billion."

Related:
Twitter twitter
Flickr and Twittervision
Lifecasting

Source: Marketing Daily

J.D. Power & Associates reports that consumers who are trading in large and mid-sized trucks and SUVs are getting smaller vehicles instead. So far this year, "small vehicles as a percentage of total new-vehicle sales have risen from 26.3 percent in 2004 to 31.8 percent." J.D. Power says that loyalty to SUVs directly tracks to the price of gas, now averaging $3.10 per gallon nationally. How many of these SUV owners have received a ticket from Cambridge-based Earth on Empty?

Source: PSFK

The travel and tourism industry is "carving out increasingly customized packages to target different life stages." The latest travel package on the rise is the "babymoon," targeting couples that are soon expecting a child. "Dozens of travel companies are offering weekends of pampering, shopping trips for baby-clothes and couples-massages." Better get it all in then. Because once junior arrives, life as you then know it is definitely over.

Source: San Francisco Chronicle

Remember when cell phones were a luxury and everyone had a land line? Not anymore. "Today, the cell phone is regarded as a necessity by a growing number of Americans - especially the young and the poor - while the residential phone is becoming optional." A new survey finds that "29.1 percent of people ages 25 to 29 and 25.2 percent of the respondents aged 18 to 24 have abandoned residential phones and rely solely on cell phones." Holdouts tend to be older, have families and own homes. If current trends continue, we "could be 30 to 50 percent wireless only in several years, mirroring present patterns in Europe."

Is the home phone dead? Join the discussion.

Source: O'Reilly Radar

Ever find yourself staring at those tickers in Times Square just waiting to see what news will come up next? Well here's something better. Flickrvision is a new feature on Flickr that runs like a movie in real time of photos as they're uploaded to Flickr. But the best part? It shows where they're located too. It's fascinating. Brady Forrest says "it's hypnotic to watch." I'll say. The idea is just like Twittervision, which shows real time Twitter posts on a map. On Flickervision you watch the world see, on Twittervision you watch the world think.

Source: TIME Work in Progress blog

Opinion Research USA has a "new monthly study examining tolerance thresholds" in various professional and personal scenarios. Tolerance is an interesting word choice. You need a lot of it in meetings. According to their research the top reason we hate meetings? Disorganization and rambling. Next most hated things are "People who interrupt peers and try to dominate the meeting" and cell phone interruptions. Other issues? No bathroom breaks, no food. I'm getting worn out just writing about it.

Do you hate meetings? Join the discussion.

Source: Penelope Trunk

Globe columnist Penelope Trunk has a hot new book that lays down the new rules for career success in her always smart, no-nonsense manner. It's a great read and I highly recommend it, along with her blog by the same name. Saying Gen X and Gen Y (today's 18-40 year-olds) are revolutionizing the workplace, Trunk says many old workplace issues are irrelevant because the goal is to create an interesting, challenging life instead of climbing the corporate ladder. Today's careerists hold 8 jobs before the age of 32 and while willing to work hard (as long as it's interesting), they demand flexibiltiy and seek - gasp - happiness. This is not your parent's guidebook. I'm giving it to the college grads and newlyweds in my life.

Baby name search optimization
Illustration: James F. Kraus

MicroHoo!?
Buffet shopping list?
Joost's $45m boost
Green buildings
Google perks
Celebrity wines

Source: USAToday

Google employees work hard, but they are pampered. Here's a sampling of on the job benefits..."free organic food, laundry machines, a gym, massages, volleyball court, bike repairs, on-site doctors" and on-site haircuts. "Workers with new babies can bill the company for up to $500 for take-out food." Why do companies pamper? "To motivate workers and give them a sense of community" and to boost productivity. Work hard. Get pampered. So you'll work harder.

Related:
Tour the Googleplex
"Have a life" perks
Laptop perk

Source: Forbes

Attaching celebrity to products drives sales. So it's not too surprising that star-powered wines are hitting the shelves. While some, like Joe Montana, just lend their name to the wine, other celebrities are very serious about the craft. "Later this year, actor Dan Aykroyd will release his Signature Reserve label in Canada; it will arrive in U.S. stores in 2008. That's on the heels of Sopranos star Lorraine Bracco's eponymous line and three Ernie Els labels, both launched in 2004." Will wine collections soon include Aykroyd reds?

Related:
Fine Wine 2.0
Wine as a spending indicator
Women who love wine and the men winemakers market to
The blogger's wine
Wi-fi wine glasses

Source: ZDNet Between the Lines

Joost promises to become the new way to watch TV on the internet - free to watch, high quality, full screen, lots of shows, easy channel flipping, plus search, chat and IM built right into the program. It's founded by the founders of Skype. They plan to provide ad-supported, copyright protected video. They just landed a whopping $45 million from VCs, CBS and Viacom. Joost promises what both big media and consumers are looking for. Is Joost the future of TV?

Related:
TV-Computer, Computer-TV
45% of Europeans watch TV online
Watch Current TV
TV is so last generation
We want YouTube on TV
TV out, Web video in

Source: TIME

Remember PeopleExpress? It was the JetBlue of the 80's but it turned out to be "a great concept that could not be sustained by the folks who got it off the ground." The board of directors at JetBlue are aiming to avoid that fate by moving JetBlue's founder and CEO, David Neeleman to non-executive Chairman and putting COO Dave Barger in the top spot. Most entrepreneurs don't cut it on day-to-day operations. Now hopefully JetBlue can get back on schedule and Neeleman can have more time to do what he does best - thinking up new ideas to improve air travel.

JetBlue now has flights to San Francisco. Yay.

Source: Slate

Daniel Gross says we can't throw the bubbles out with the bathwater. "Simply put, bubbles are how new commercial infrastructure gets built in this country." After the self loathing and losses when the bubble pops, we recover quickly and the infrastructure from the last binge forms the foundation for the next wave of commercial activity. Think of the telegraph, the railroads, Web 1.0. Just as important as hardwire infrastructure? Mental infrastructure. "Most of the pioneering Internet bubble-era companies failed as businesses. But they succeeded in making millions of people believe that it was safe, efficient, and desirable to conduct business online." And that doesn't disappear when the bubble pops.

Related:
Daniel Gross' new book is Pop! Why Bubbles Are Great for the Economy

Source: Wall Street Journal

The poison pet food problem has cast a spotlight on the fact that though there may be 101 brands of pet food, there is often just one manufacturer. 54 percent of consumers surveyed were unaware that the same manufacturer might make multiple brands of pet food. But the practice is widespread. Brands often private label different versions of the same product for discount stores or as generic brands. Other manufactures produce multiple brands of the same product and change the packaging to target different market segments. You'd think knowing this would take the mystique out of brand loyalty, but 60 percent of pet owners surveyed say it doesn't matter and they'll still shop by brand. Purchasing decisions are not rational. They're emotional.

Good reply from Biz Filtah reader Tom Curran:

"Brand loyalty may not be so irrational. Just because, for example, the same factory churns out pet food for multiple brands, does not mean that the food for each brand is made from the same recipe. The loyalty is to the recipe. Remember Coke? They changed the recipe and their loyal drinkers freaked out and revolted. The can still said "Coke" on the side, but that didn't matter. Coke drinkers were loyal to the recipe.

In the case of pet food, I am absolutely loyal to the recipe. Whenever I have tried to change brands of food for my dog & cat before, bad things have always happened. The critters are are creatures of habit. Change their food and either their hair falls out or they get sick all over the place. I'll stick to what I know works."

Related:
Will you practice brand abstinence this year?
Brand as mythology
This is your brain, buying
Mind-reading computers

Source: CNET

A new study from Pew divides adults into ten different tech personalities - from omnivores to indifferent to offline. They also note that while "73 percent of U.S. adults own a cell phone, 68 percent have a desktop computer, 30 percent possess a laptop, and 73 percent connect to the Internet," a much smaller percentage use Web 2.0 features. Just 8 percent of U.S. adults maintain a personal Web site, blog, or video blog. So how do you account for MySpace and YouTube? Omnivore-heavy teens weren't a part of the study.

Source: BusinessWeek

He is the oracle of Omaha and he's surrounded by "piles of cash." Having pronounced that he's got $40-60 billion to spend on an acquisition, speculation is rampant. What will Warren Buffet acquire next? If Buffet makes a play for a large company, BusinessWeek puts odds on Caterpillar, Ikea, Valero Energy, or Lowes. Typically Buffet stays out of businesses he doesn't understand, so no Yahoo! on this list.

Source: Rough Type

Think that enrolling your baby in the best nursery school while it's still in utero is forward-thinking? Just wait. Some of today's parents are thinking even farther ahead. Nicholas Carr points to a "sign of the times." According to the Wall Street Journal some expectant parents "are beginning to Google prospective baby names to ensure that their kids won't face too much competition in securing a high search rank." What's the perfect baby shower present for a soon-to-be newborn who has already been search engine optimized? Buy the web domain that matches their name.

Be sure to check out Mark Baard's new show, Tech Lab, broadcasting from the technology graveyard over at the Boston Globe. Mark is the Boston Globe's Personal Tech columnist and he's got all kinds of great 2-3 minute video segments for you technophiles out there. Read Mark's Personal Tech column on Monday in the Globe and check out his blog for even more good stuff.

Source: GetTrio.com

GetTrio.com blogs about stuff to buy, do and see. I enjoy their daily emails. Recently they observe that while Leonardo da Vinci had trouble getting people to pony up ducats for his inventions, "if he were around today, he’d have a corner office at Apple." A case in point is The Ride by Ellsworth, a revolutionary bicycle with a transmission built of separately rotating spheres that's based on one of da Vinci's doodles. To take the "smoothest ride of your life" you'll need a few ducats - they start at $3,000.

Source: FC Now

Buildings account for a staggering 38 percent of CO2 emissions in the US (more than either the transportation or industrial sectors) and they consume 70 percent of all US electricity. But there is reason to be optimistic "because the technology to make substantial reductions in energy and CO2 emissions already exists" and the industry is starting to get its act together. Architects, HVAC, and engineering groups recently signed an agreement to focus on designing zero energy buildings, with the goal of carbon-neutral buildings by 2030.

Source: The Groundswell

Charlene Li lists the reasons why a Microsoft - Yahoo! merger makes good sense and then bets that it doesn't stand a chance. Why? The merger would be too difficult and Google is already too far ahead. "To fully realize the value of the merger, I believe there needs to be true audience consolidation under one brand," and Li sees no evidence that Microsoft has the stomach for it. Then there's the daunting task of merging the culture, the leadership and the geography of the two former rivals, all the while chasing Google's relentless pace. Li recommends they date first through expanded partnerships before going down the aisle.

Source: xkcd via A VC

Now here's a great map.

If Yahoo and Microsoft merge, as the current rumors attest, they will likely remain locked up in an icy business culture battle up north - Yahoo the media company, Microsoft the technology company. And they still have the "Mountains of Web 1.0" to climb. Meanwhile the natives of MySpace, Facebook, etc. will keep on doing their thing, their way.

The new snob appeal of tap water
Illustration: James F. Kraus

Yahoo Flickrizes
Vacation dilemma
Online TV
Google vulnerable?
Best WiFi hotels
Solar farming

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?

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."

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."

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.

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.

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.

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

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."