Esdena: Social Marketplace

Google Extends Street View Service

2012-09-21T19:18:00.001-07:00

The Street View service of Google had been met with a lot of adulation and criticism over the years. In reality, the street view service has created a lot of peppy news during the time it has been there rather than offering any constructive utility. Google’s street view service has also been criticized citing reasons such as involuntary participation and invasion of privacy.

As of now, the Google street view service is limited to exterior views of a building or some places and given the resources, a user can easily view 360 degree images of a place, personal property or a commercial building.

The extension of the Street View service which is a pilot project of the search engine giant Google now allows people to peek inside businesses found on its maps. Essentially, the new feature is an extended version of its Street View technology and is being promoted as a completely voluntary feature. One can also see this development as an extension of Google’s Art Project which took Street View technology inside 17 acclaimed museums.

A Google spokesman said that “this project is another creative implementation of Street View technology, to help businesses as they build their online presence. We hope to enable businesses to highlight the qualities that make their locations stand out through professional, high-quality imagery”.
There are speculations already in regards to the scope of this feature since popular opinion does not see much use of the latest feature. http://www.todaycomponents.com/crydom-d2w203f-solid-state-relay.html Unless a business is into retail or intends to promote its infrastructure, there is virtually no requirement of street views popping into the interior of a commercial place. Moreover, live images do not really sound like a very good idea for any business.

Last week, meanwhile, Google confirmed that it is set to remove some features from its Reader in order to boost its new social networking site. The search engine giant said that the sharing features on its RSS news reader would soon be removed.

Well, considering the way things are shaping up for Google Plus, the social network of the search engine giant, Google certainly needs to find unique ways to create some movements in those verticals. Although, trend watchers are not certain if the revamped Street View service would help Google to create a stir which it can then capitalize on their social networking platform. However, one can certainly expect that the two verticals to merge at some point of time.

Google acquired YouTube for $1.65 billion in stocks

2006-10-10T06:43:00.000-07:00

I am sure a lot of you have already heard about this, Google officially acquired YouTube yesterday with $1.65 billion in stocks and other consideration. This act slaps Mark Cuban right in his face. Read his blog post about

His prediction about Youtube's failure prior to the acquisition: http://www.blogmaverick.com/2006/09/29/riddle-me-this-copyright-gurus/
His thoughts on the acquisition before it went down:
http://www.blogmaverick.com/2006/10/07/some-thoughts-on-youtube-and-google/
His thoughts on the acquisition after it happened:
http://www.blogmaverick.com/2006/10/09/i-still-think-google-is-crazy/

Being in the industry of internet development, I really don't know what to think of this. Mark Cuban did raise a great point about potential detrimental law suits regarding copyright infringements and how "Gootube" is actively sorting out deals with various media companies to allow pretty much their contents to be pirated in return for sharing of revenues. It will be interesting to see how it plays out.

Anyhow, here's a video of the 2 founders, Chad and Steve, of YouTube sharing their thoughts on the acquisition.

college textbooks,social marketplace, Google, YouTube,Mark Cuban,

Bill Clinton on FOX bashing Chris Wallace

2006-09-25T08:28:00.000-07:00

If you have not already saw this on TV, you need to see it. Whether you like Clinton as a president/husband or not, you have to admire his analytical skill and his courage to admit mistakes and address important issues. Enjoy!

Part I

Part II

college textbooks,social marketplace, Politics, Bill Clinton,FOX, >,Chris Wallace,

Northwestern, Evanston, and Chicago

2006-09-20T08:34:00.000-07:00

Hey welcome back NU students! Hope y'all had a great summer either chilling at home with friends and homies, filling up your resume with internships or volunteering stuff, or travel abroad to do some touristy/not so touristy stuff.

When I was Evanston at May earlier this year to visit my sister, NU gave me 3 impressions:

1. Cold
2. Cold
3. Cold

For real, it was May and it was maybe 40-50. I was freezing even with my long sleeves and jackets on. What do you guys do in the winter!?

Anyhow, welcome back guys, and if you want to steer away from getting ripped off by Norris, come check out our site at www.esdena.com where you can buy/sell directly from/to other NU students!

college textbooks,social marketplace, Northwestern University, Evanston,Chicago,

Social bookmarking, Social Marketplace

2006-09-16T18:22:00.000-07:00

Social book marking has gotten more and more popular in the internet world, companies like technorati, del.icio.us, Digg are the pioneers of this movement and others like Google, Tagworld, MySpace are jumping quickly on the bandwagon.

As more and more users engage in social bookmarking and internet marketers make their websites "social bookmarking friendly", many speculated that social bookmarking sites are going to take over search engines as the dominant place where web users find their websites.

The question is, will they?

college textbooks,social marketplace, social bookmarking,

Welcome back MIT! and Why Do People Hate Corporations

2006-09-06T07:33:00.000-07:00

First of all, welcome back MIT students! Good luck with your 1st day of class and all that!

Anyhow, I don't know about elsewhere, but at least here at Rice, people HATE corporations. Businesses and extreprenuers are seen as mercenary, greedy pigs that care only about money.

These people just never seem to remember their own parents probably will not have a job if it werent for these businesses, the very school that they go to is probably funded by an entreprenuer, and the TV, A/C, car... that you "can't live without" are probably invented, materialized, and promoted by corporations.

There are several questions I want to ask:
Did Greenpeace invented Hybrid cars? Or did Toyota?
Did Friends of the Earth revolutionized the energy industry by introducing more efficient fuels? Or did BP?

My point here is, I believe for-profit corporations are more effective than non-profits organizations in achieving social means.

Why? Because of tax breaks provided to companies when they make donations.

What? Yes, because of the tax breaks, very often, a company almost HAVE to donate some money. I mean, financially, they will have to pay anyway, they might as well build a good rep by donating those money they would otherwise in paying in form of tax. Therefore businesses will always donate to non-profits which fit the following criteria:

1. Have close connections with the corporations
2. Throw a good (by good, I mean luxurious most of the time) charity event
3. Able to create good PR for the business

Ok, so NONE of these 3 says anything about the non-profits ability to achieve their social goals. My point is, because non-profits are removed from direct force of the market, they are NOT as efficient as for-profits to benefit the society.

Because lets face it, you will only buy a coke for $1 if you think it worth more than $1 to you. What is a better prove of contribution to the society than that?

You can disagree with me, but this is what I think.

college textbooks,social marketplace, education, non-profit organizations, society, charity

New Features + More Satisfied Customers

2006-08-31T08:21:00.000-07:00

Hi, just a quick update here, after this week of hectic transactions, we acquired some valuable feedbacks from y'all and made some changes to the site accordingly.

First off, we recognize that many of you do not use your school email as your primary email address, and thus offer you to add a secondary email address on your account. To add one, please go to "my account" and then "my profile".

Also, there was a little confusion about what the buyers and sellers should do after the sale online, we therefore included more instructions on our sales emails and emails confirmation, including the contact info of both the buyers and the sellers. We will also add more instructions throughout the sales process to ensure seamless transactions.

We have also compiled a list of ideas you guys gave us and will implement it soon, so check out our site at www.esdena.com often!

At the mean time, here's another list of happy customers of Esdena.com! (Thanks Cole, Pradyna, and Gilbert for giving us permission to post your picture here!)

college textbooks,student marketplace, education, testimonials, new features

Why are YOU still at Rice? Go get a life/job!

2006-08-29T10:59:00.000-07:00

I have been promoting Esdena.com with Jack on Rice campus for the past 2 days and it is personally quite awkward for me to hand out flyers in the middle of academic quad. It is awkward at several different levels:

1. For students that do not know me or have not seen me:
It is awkward because they think I am some sort of promotion guy that is just soliciting for a company or something

2. For students that kind of know me or have seen me around:
It is awkward as they are probably thinking, "What is he doing handing out flyers?"

3. For people that knows me decently well, well enough to know that I have graduated:
This is most awkward of all, they are like, "What are YOU doing here?" or "Why are you STILL here?" and probably thinking "gosh, go get a life/job". What they do not realize is that this IS my life/job/business. My business is college orientated and campus is where my business partners, customers, suppliers are from.

Despite all the awkwardness, I really treasure this opportunity for me to really interact with my customers, and I got some valuable feedback from talking to some of them face to face. (Thanks Jessica, Monique, Ekim, and Christian) and here are some encouraging statistics of Esdena at Rice this week:

1. Over 1200 students responded to our promotion (flyers and email) and visited our site
2. Of which over 220 of them registered as members
3. And resulted in over 50 sales and countless listings

Here are some of our satisfied customers: (Thanks Alexandra, Ekim, and Vanessa for giving me permission to post these pictures)

From tomorrow onward, we will shift gear and start marketing at UT and Tulane. Jack will be travelling to Lousiana this weekend whereas I will mainly work with Clement on the site stuff and do some internet marketing. So hopefully you won't see me at Rice unitl Mardi Gras (Hanszen's one)!

college textbooks,student marketplace, education, Rice University, Esdena

High Hopes for Esdena

2006-08-29T06:04:00.000-07:00

Today is the second day of school. I have high hopes for Esdena's capability to work at Rice this semester, the books are selling on Esdena. There were a few transaction problems but overall nothing that our Clement couldn't handle.
Today I will be telling all my friends to put their books for listing on Esdena to have more books available.
Look for me in a green-ring T-Shirt with Buy/Sell Textbooks at www.esdena.com

cheers, PS: that's my new cat, Hermione

Dis-O Good Time & welcome back Rice!

2006-08-27T10:34:00.000-07:00

Yesterday evening was Dis-O at Rice (for those of you that don't know, Dis-O is like a party which celebrates the end of orientation week). It is kind of weird to be there at first since I have already graduated, but after a few drinks, it's alright.

It's good to be back to Rice, everyone seems so nice and friendly and it's good time mingling and catching up with people. What is really funny to seeing those kids who went abroad or took a break last semester/year. Sometimes, it feels like they have never left, or maybe I am just not that close to any of them.

On the other hand, I cannot believe I forgot to wear my Esdena shirt. What is a better chance to promote the site to our target audience?

Anyhow, I will be flyering Rice tonight and also handing out flyers tomorrow. So don't be a stranger, come say hi if you see me!

college textbooks,student marketplace, education, college party

Open question: What is important to YOU?

2006-08-24T06:24:00.000-07:00

This is an open question.

What is important to YOU when you make a decision to purchase a textbook?

Is it just the price?
Is it the convenience?
Do you know what is international edition and do you mind using them?
Do you mind using instructor's version of textbooks?
Do you mind using used textbooks?
How important to you is the CD or whatever there is in the book?
Would you be detered if the site you buy at do not offer payment processing?
?

Please let me know, cause I am curious.... leave us a comment about what you think about this.

college textbooks,student marketplace, business, back to school

Just doing it right

2006-08-22T05:19:00.000-07:00

At school, we are taught that we have to do everything right. We have to go to classes on time, turn in assignments on time and properly, and we have to abide to dorm rules or what not. We are accustomed to think "doing it right" is the norm.

Since I have stepped into the business world, this has NOT been the case.

I am constantly amazed that how far ahead from the pack you will be as long as you can just "do it right", you don't even need to be creative or do anything innovative, just "doing it right" is enough. Just like Fedex pride itself on delivering your packages on time; Pizza Hut has a 30 min delivery gaurantee...

In fact, most of the time, businesses do not pay on time, do not answer all their phone calls, and do not deliver products/services on schedule.... Is being "right" too much to ask from the adults?

college textbooks,student marketplace, business, entrepreneurship, web 2.0,

Hi this is Dominic

2006-08-20T18:27:00.000-07:00

Hi this is Dominic, co-founder of Esdena.com, just thought I would say hi here and kind of explain what this blog is all about.

Basically, this blog serves as a communication platform between Esdena's users and us, we will tell y'all (sorry this is a Texas thing) here what Esdena and the founders are up to and then you guys can leave us comments about pretty much anything besides those that are already covered by customer support.

Just a little background about Esdena.com, we are the world's largest student marketplace in terms of no. of listings and the world's first socialized marketplace. The unique thing about Esdena is our focus on locality and social network. In essence, users can join a network (college), add friends within the network, and then trade items within or outside their network.

As textbooks season is approaching, we are extremely busy promoting the site. In the following days and weeks, we will post here and update y'all about our progress and talk about the experience we have here. At the mean time, please check out our site www.esdena.com to see if you can find any books you need for class!

college textbooks,student marketplace, back to school,

Esdena has officially launched in the 2006 school year!

2006-08-20T16:55:00.000-07:00

Testing.