Kuty's shared items in Google Reader

Google Docs Adds Editing on Mobile Devices [Video]

2010-11-17T18:00:00Z

Long have we waited for a version of Google Docs that would work on our smartphones, and today, Google will start rolling out a mobile editor for both the iPhone and Android.

Google Docs is fantastic as a cross-platform, cloud based document editor (and as a collaboration tool, for that matter), but it was always a bummer that it only worked on desktop browsers. As of today, though, Google has released a mobile browser version of the Google Docs editor, so you can tweak your documents on-the-go. Just head over to docs.google.com and hit the "Edit" button when you're viewing a document. I don't have it on my device yet, but Google's rolling it out gradually, so we should all have it in the next few days.

The document editor works on Android devices running 2.2 Froyo and iOS devices running iOS 3.0 and above, including the iPad. Check out the video above for a demonstration.

Editing your Google Docs on the go [Google Docs Blog]

Google's Guide to the Web

2010-11-18T21:40:00Z

Google Chrome's comic book was a great way to introduce to the world a new browser, but not everyone knew what's an URL or a web app. "20 Things I Learned About Browsers and the Web" is a guidebook created by the Google Chrome team that tries to address this issue by explaining complicated terms like "Internet", "cloud computing", "JavaScript", "HTML5", "cookies", "URL", "IP address" using illustrations and real life analogies. Here's an example:

"An IP address is a series of numbers that tells us where a particular device is on the Internet network, be it the google.com server or your computer. It's a bit like mom's phone number: just as the phone number tells an operator which house to route a call to so it reaches your mom, an IP address tells your computer which other device on the Internet to communicate with — to send data to and get data from."

The guidebook is actually a great example of an HTML5 web application that works offline and Google recommends to read it in "Chrome or any up-to-date, HTML5-compliant modern browser". Most of the examples from the book are about Google Chrome and that's what makes it look like a Chrome ad.

Boxee Box by D-Link launches, good news re Netflix and Hulu

2010-11-11T01:30:48Z

The Boxee Box by D-Link is launching today in 33 countries with a brand new version of the software. You can order yours here.

If you have been spending more and more time watching videos on your computer and would like to be able to watch the same stuff on your TV screen, we think the Boxee Box is the best way to do it.

Here is why:

Tons of Movies and TV Shows, Netflix, VUDU and Hulu Plus

There is a whole generation out there for whom Movies and TV shows are synonymous with Netflix and Hulu. We have some good news for these users.

If you’re like us, you are a Netflix member instantly watching unlimited TV episodes & movies, and you want to rent new titles from a service like VUDU. It’s a killer combo and both will work great for you on Boxee.

Yes. We’re planning to bring Netflix to the Boxee Box before the end of the year.

We are also working with Hulu to bring Hulu Plus to the Boxee Box. We are very excited about the opportunity to work together to provide a Hulu experience that is optimized for the TV and the Boxee Box. We think you will love it!

This in addition to the thousands of movies and shows you can already access on Boxee. From services such as MUBI, OpenFilm, IndieMoviesOnline, and EZTakes.

Full HD all the way

You bought a TV that supports True HD and maybe even set up a surround system. Boxee can put them both into great use. Boxee plays videos in 1080p at 60fps without breaking a sweat and it will pass through 5.1 and 7.1 audio to your receiver.

The Internet has lots of 1080p videos (even YouTube), your new digital camera may also be able to produce 1080p videos. There is no reason to settle for 720p.

We eat codecs

The world of digital video is a gory mess. There are numerous codecs, video formats, audio formats, subtitle standards and people to mix them all together. The result is that your hard drive is likely filled with some weird Frankenstein files that make other devices choke.

Not all media players are made the same. We put some crazy hours going through a checklist of videos we thought the Boxee Box should be able to play. In Boxee playback you can trust. We think we have the best and most exhaustive player.

MKV, SSA, PGS, AC3, VC1, TS, H264, FLV, ASS, AVI, OGG, ISO, M2TS, VOB, SRT, AAC, FLAC, may be (should be) meaningless acronyms for some of the people reading this post, but they matter a lot when you click on a file and want play it rather than get an error message.

Waste hours watching videos shared on Twitter and Facebook

I can’t remember the last time I channel surfed on my TV (I don’t have cable now.., but even when I had one..). It is a frustrating, inefficient way to get to something you like in the age of the Internet, recommendation engines, social networks, etc.

It’s time for the TV experience to catch up.

Connect your Twitter or Facebook account to Boxee and get a feed of funny, thought provoking (well depends on who you follow) videos directly to your TV.

Search

I usually have no idea what I want to watch when I sit down on the couch, so seeing what my friends have shared or browsing through Netflix recommendations is what I usually do, but for the cases where I know I want to watch a clip from last night’s Colbert Report or a music video I heard about Search is the answer.

In Boxee you are always a click away from a search bar that lets you search the Boxee TV Shows, Movies and Apps libraries as well as the entire web for videos. Even better, the Boxee Box will start searching as soon as you start typing… it’s like Quiksilver for your TV.

HTML5 FTW

Frankly we would hate to see the future of made for TV experiences be built on top of a couple of proprietary app platforms that result in a bunch of disconnected islands. We hope the future of made-for-TV apps will be HTML based, so everything is linkable, searchable, shareable, etc. The stuff that makes the web great.

Boxee now supports HTML5 apps, which means that if you write an HTML page designed for 10ft it will work on any Boxee and Google TV devices, and hopefully other platforms will embrace this trend rather than try and invent their own platforms, which makes life hard for content owners, developers and ultimately slows down innovation in this space.

NY Times, HBO, Turner, USA Today, Vimeo, YouTube and many others have already created HTML5 Apps. We hope thousands more will follow.

And a browser, too

We are not big believers of browsing the generic web on the TV screen. Your laptop, tablet or mobile phone are much better devices for that purpose, but there are a lot of videos out there that you can only reach by opening a browser or typing a URL, so the Browser is kind of a fall-back in case there is no easier, quicker, cleaner option of getting to a video you want to watch.

This version of Boxee includes a beta version of our WebKit browser. You can type any URL go interact with the webpage, fill a form, launch a video in fullscreen. It’s not the greatest experience, but it usually gets the job done.

Changes to the user interface

For those of you of who have been using the Boxee Beta, this version includes quite a few UI changes.

Home Screen: The home screen of Boxee is simpler making it easier to navigate for new users. It features content or apps we believe are worth checking out and big, clear links to the main sections of Boxee

Menu: We made some big changes to the main menu. You can bring it up by clicking the Menu button. It enables you to quickly navigate through TV Shows, Movies and Apps or search for something.

Music / Photos: We’ve really focused this version of Boxee on video. With that in mind we decided to push music and photos into the files menu until we give it a little more TLC.

New Apps:

VEVO is the web’s number one premium music video service with over 1.1 billion worldwide streams and nearly 60 million unique visitors in the U.S. and Canada each month. They’ve done an amazing job at giving people one coherent place to get great high quality vids from today’s top artists. Building an app with VEVO was a no-brainer.

You’ll get access to

the latest videos featured on VEVO,
channels curated by VEVO like throwback hip-hop, alt rock, and Indie
up close interviews, impromptu performances caught on tape, and other videos
the Top 10 videos on VEVO and across major genres this week

So jump into the app and turn your TV into a music video jukebox.

Vice Magazine is one part Lonely Planet, one part National Geographic, one part Vogue, one part Nightline, and one part Hot or Not… If you’re looking for a gateway into underground culture anywhere in the world, chances are someone from Vice has the keys, which is why we’re excited to have VBS.TV, a video offshoot of Vice now on Boxee.

The brainchild of Shane Smith, Eddy Moretti, Suroosh Alvi and Spike Jonze, the Vice Broadcasting System (VBS) is a web-only network that streams a mix of domestic and international news, pop and underground culture coverage, and the best music in the world. People have used words like eclectic, smart, funny, shocking, and revolutionary to describe VBS, but we prefer to think of them as a shining example of fresh, interesting content that might be too interesting for mainstream TV.

Lastly, Accuweather has been kind enough to give us access to their weather API to build out a good looking app on Boxee. We still don’t know which way high and low pressure systems turn, but we figure the weather channel makes money so there’s got to be something to this. They’ve been a great partner and we look forward to bringing more apps

Kvetching on 311: What New Yorkers Complain About

2010-11-09T12:00:25Z

Interesting graphic at Wired, about one of the innovations of the Bloomberg administration: 311. Originally conceived of as a way to eliminate non emergency calls to 911, it has turned out to be a giant success, fielding its 100 millionth call recently.

Here’s Wired:

“Launched in March 2003, 311 now fields on average more than 50,000 calls a day, offering information about more than 3,600 topics: school closings, recycling rules, homeless shelters, park events, pothole repairs. The service has translators on call to handle some 180 different languages. City officials tout a 2008 customer satisfaction survey, conducted by an outside firm, that compared 311’s popularity to other call centers in both the public and private sectors. 311 finished first, barely edging out hotel and retail performance but beating other government call centers, like the IRS’s, by a mile. (At the very bottom of the list, not surprisingly: cable companies.) Executive director Joseph Morrisroe attributes 311’s stellar scores to its advanced technology, relentless focus on metrics, and employee training, which ensures that “customers will speak with a polite, professional, and knowledgeable New Yorker when they need assistance.”

If anyone still wondered whether the 311 concept was here to stay, New York’s 100 millionth call should have dispelled all doubts. So, for that matter, should the other 300-plus public call centers now in operation across the US. For millions of Americans, dialing 311 has become almost as automatic as 411 or 911. But—as New York learned in the maple syrup incident—the hundreds of millions of calls also represent a huge pool of data to be collected, parsed, and transformed into usable intelligence. Perhaps even more exciting is the new ecosystem of startups, inspired by New York’s success and empowered by 21st-century technology, that has emerged to create innovative ways for residents to document their problems. All this meticulous urban analysis points the way toward a larger, and potentially revolutionary, development: the city built of data, the crowdsourced metropolis.”

I called in a 311 complaint last year when the traffic light on 3rd Avenue and 42nd street was out — the operator told me they just received 4 other calls, and had referred the incident to Traffic Control, who were were dispatching a repair truck. As a lifelong New Yorker, it was quite a surprising experience . . .

Source:
What a Hundred Million Calls to 311 Reveal About New York
Steven Johnson
Wired November 2010
http://www.wired.com/magazine/2010/11/ff_311_new_york/all/1

"Find Big Mail" Sorts Your Gmail Attachments by Size for Easy Clean-Outs [Gmail]

2010-10-13T14:00:00Z

If you're running out of space in your Gmail or Google Apps inbox, the quickest fix is nixing the largest attachments you've got stashed. You can't do that from Gmail's web interface—unless you've enlisted Find Big Mail's help.

Find Big Mail creates three IMAP labels on your Gmail account — My Big Mail, My Really Big Mail, My Ultra Big Mail, corresponding to minimum file sizes of 500 KB, 2 MB, and more than 2 MB. Using those labels, you can further refine what you're looking for in Gmail's search: label:my-ultra-big-mail MP3 would help you clear out old songs your friends used to send you before web file transfers were so easy. Otherwise, you're free to run through the labels, select multiple emails, and pare down your account storage. When you're all done, you get an email report showing how your mail divides up into the three categories, along with the total space you'd reclaim by deleting these messages:

You can use an actual size sorting tool if you hook up Gmail to Outlook, Thunderbird, or other IMAP email clients, and there are Gmail-as-file-storage tools that get it done, too—though those tools can sometimes lead to temporary account holds from "unusual use." Find Big Mail authorizes through a temporary OAuth token, sorts your mail in a few easily understood labels, and only stores the sizes of your messages on its own servers, according to the team. It's a free service to use.

Find Big Mail [via Digital Inspiration]

Best Domain Name Registrar: Namecheap [Hive Five Followup]

2010-11-09T22:30:00Z

Last week we asked you to share your favorite domain name registrar. We tallied up the nominees, put them before you for a vote, and now we're back to highlight your favorite.

Namecheap took home a significant chunk of the vote and the first place slot with 39% of the vote. Following behind Namecheap, GoDaddy locked into a solid second place with 27% of the vote. 1&1 (14%), Gandi (8%), and Name.com (4%) rounded out the bottom of the Hive. Click on the image below to see the results in bar graph form.

Have a great idea for the next Hive Five? Shoot us an email at tips@lifehacker.com with "Hive Five" in the subject line and we'll do our best to give you idea the attention it deserves.

TekTrak Finds Your Lost iPhone Without the $99 MobileMe Tax [Video]

2010-11-03T17:30:00Z

iPhone: Apple's got a great app that rings or tracks your lost iPhone using its location data, but you can only use it if you've shelled out $99/year for Apple's lame-duck MobileMe service. TekTrak does the same thing for $5.

We've mentioned Find My iPhone before, and it's great if you actually want a MobileMe subscription, but if not, $99/year is a lot of extra to pay for lost iPhone insurance.

How It Works

For $5, TekTrak runs in the background, using your phone's location data to track your location based on user-defined intervals (you can set it to check in every 10 minutes, 20 minutes, etc.). If your phone's been misplaced or stolen, just log into the TekTrak web site. From there, you can map of where your phone was last time it checked in, try to ring your phone (in case it found its way into the couch cushions), or set the site to locate your phone, which will set your location to continuous mode (providing up-to-the-minute location).

Where It's Lacking

You can't argue with the relative price for the features you're getting, but TekTrak can't quite match up to Find My iPhone in a couple of ways. For one, it needs to be running in the background to work (for the non-jailbreakers, that's 3GS and above). Also, Apple's Find My iPhone can ring your phone even if it's set to silent; TekTrak can't (that's an iOS limitation). Finally, TekTrak can't remotely set a passcode or remotely wipe your phone. A nice solution for the first problem: just set a passcode beforehand.

Verdict

At the end of the day, if you're not willing to shell out for MobileMe (and we don't blame you), TekTrak looks like a decent alternative. While you're shopping for alternatives, you may also want to check out the similar Undercover ($5) or FoneHome ($2).

TekTrak [via TechCrunch]

Many Little Things That Make You Happy are Better Than A Few Big Ones [Happiness]

2010-11-03T18:45:00Z

You are a negative person. Not just you, but also everyone you know. The human brain responds more strongly to negativity, so it affects us more easily. When a negative event ruins your day, cure it with a happy one.

Several studies suggest that brain reacts much more strongly to negativity, based on a comparison of the electrical activity caused by both negative and positive stimuli. If you've ever had a really good day ruined by a bit of bad news, you've experienced this before. Hara Estroff Marano, over at Psychology Today, explains how heavy this negative bias really is and its real-world effects:

Because of the disproportionate weight of the negative, balance does not mean a 50-50 equilibrium. Researchers...have found that a very specific ratio exists between the amount of positivity and negativity required to make married life satisfying to both partners. That magic ratio is five to one. As long as there was five times as much positive feeling and interaction between husband and wife as there was negative, researchers found, the marriage was likely to be stable over time. In contrast, those couples who were heading for divorce were doing far too little on the positive side to compensate for the growing negativity between them.

So what can you do to counteract your negative bias? Little things. Big, exciting, positive stimuli are great but don't have enough of an effect to counteract negative stimuli. If you compound lots of good—but small—things, you may be able to positively stimulate your brain and turn your day around.

Our Brain's Negative Bias [Psychology Today]

Ray Ozzie's Message to All Industries

2010-10-27T13:55:59Z

Microsoft recently announced that Ray Ozzie, its Chief Software Architect and a sage of the high tech world, is leaving the company. On his way out the door, he wrote a public memo titled "Dawn of a New Day". I believe the scenario he presents in the memo is important enough to place it alongside other famous, game-changing documents, such as Bill Gates' "The Internet Tidal Wave" memo from 1995, which set the direction for Microsoft for the next 15 years.

In Ozzie's memo, he argues that the computer industries are at another of their periodic major inflection points. A transition is underway from a digital world centered around the PC and client-server computing to one based on what Ozzie calls "Continuous services and connected devices." As he writes, "... slowly but surely, our lives, businesses and society are in the process of a wholesale reconfiguration in the way we perceive and apply technology... For each of us who can clearly envision the end-game, the opportunity is to recognize both the inevitability and value inherent in the big shift ahead, and to do what it takes to lead our customers into this new world."

With this post, I don't want to join the cottage industry of people making predictions about the future of the high tech industry. Instead, I want to focus on what Ozzie's "new day" means for the rest of the economy — the companies that consume digital technology rather than produce it.

To oversimplify just a bit, companies that consume technology (in other words, all firms) are facing an increasingly stark choice between two digital models. The first is the status quo: people with PCs (and mobile phones if they're road warriors), client-server applications, servers in the data center, and a largeish IT staff to troubleshoot, maintain, and extend this whole infrastructure. The costs associated with this model are well understood, as are the levels of satisfaction it delivers to users and the executives writing the checks. The former are pretty high; the latter usually dismal.

The dawning alternative for the enterprise is people using a range of low-cost connected devices and applications and servers in the cloud (the public one, for all but the largest and most-regulated organizations). The costs of this model aren't hard to pin down; it might be more expensive now (especially when switching costs are included), but it's definitely going to get cheaper. The satisfaction it delivers, however, is pretty clear, and pretty high. As Ozzie writes, "...so many more people [are] using technology to improve their lives, businesses and societies, in so many ways. New apps, services & scenarios in communications, collaboration & productivity, commerce, education, health care, emergency management, human services, transportation, the environment, security - the list goes on, and on, and on."

So Ozzie's new day isn't just of interest to high tech and new media companies. It's also dawning for the industries that make up more than 90% of the US economy. Technology has been shaking up these sectors for some time now, and I predict this trend is only going to accelerate. I'm with Ozzie: "Organizations worldwide, in every industry, are now stepping back and re-thinking the basics; questioning their most fundamental structural tenets. Doing so is necessary for their long-term growth and survival."

What are you seeing? Do the organizations you know best believe that a new day of digital opportunities is dawning? Or are they too fully committed to the old paradigm to make the change?

(disclosure: I've been a paid speaker at Microsoft events in the past, but have no current financial relationship with the company. Microsoft is not a sponsor of any of my research or my center at MIT.)

Seven Keys to Switching from a Big Company to a Small One

2010-10-28T12:30:10Z

Moving from a big company to a small one is an exciting step for many successful managers. But some of the habits that made you successful in a larger company may prove destructive at a small one. Whether you are founding or joining a small company, here are some ideas to keep in mind to make the job as thrilling as possible and you more effective.

Forget influence- and empire-building. One of the qualities most consistently visible among successful larger company managers is that they know how to build influence and consensus for their initiatives within the organization. Similarly, acquiring a larger footprint of direct reports is often a sign of success at large businesses. These instincts kill small companies. Establishing and wielding influence may help you move resources in your direction in a large business. But it's essentially a rent-seeking exercise, intended first and foremost to shift a growing portion of the limited budgets of people and funds toward your team and away from others. While the final goal may be to grow revenues or market share, that's not the chief interest. Influence- and empire-building become ends in themselves. At a smaller company, that kind of behavior will simply create a tax on everything the business does. Instead of moving forward, the enterprise will go sideways.

Solve everything yourself. This is one of the harder transitions for people joining small businesses. The axiom applies to all matters, tiny to large. You can't wait around for someone from "IT" to set up your computer. There is no IT department! You should plan to schedule your own meetings and organize your own recruiting pipeline. If you're going to do something bigger like investigate a new channel opportunity, research it yourself, call prospective customers personally, make some mock-ups (if you can't use Adobe, draw on paper; if you can't draw, sketch; if you can't sketch, ask your nephew), model the growth, and create the PowerPoint deck. Small-company heroes are consistently self-reliant. Indeed, the impact of your business proposal on your colleagues will arise partly from the fact of the idea and partly from your having developed it in a scrappy way by yourself. The opposite is also true: at a small company, even if you have terrific ideas, if you're constantly demanding more resources to explore them, you risk turning your net impact into overhead creep rather than value creation. (This guideline needn't be taken too literally: if you can find one or two buddies within the company to collaborate with you on special project initiatives on their "own" time, that's great, too.)

Never cover your a$$. There's no place for CYA in a small company. Even though they're (appallingly) standard practice at many big corporations, CYA emails, meetings, and even quick asides during conversations ("you realize that my project is really depending on Joseph's finishing on time") are toxic at small companies. They sow division and mistrust at exactly the early stages when the business most needs to build and husband precious esprit de corps. The main purpose of a CYA comment is to defend one's own territory and career path, not enhance the company. Political behavior of this kind is a distracting levy on productivity across the board, and small companies die if they have to fight through any encumbrance of this kind. When you're considering a job at a small enterprise, look for colleagues and bosses who don't tolerate it. And never accept it when you see it happen on your team. In fact, call it out publicly — with good humor and light in your voice, of course, so you're not slamming anyone, but still publicly — to send the message that it has no place in your organization. A zero-tolerance policy for CYA doesn't equate to being blind to actual dependencies in your business. But it does force your team to plan for workarounds, and it creates a culture of mutual interest and success instead of territorial defense.

Go faster. Large companies move slowly because a) they are usually in reasonably good financial condition, so there is little urgency b) they perceive themselves as having a lot to lose from making bad decisions, and c) they have built barnacled layers of management and compliance over the years, so it's hard to get anything done without getting many people to sign off. These conditions usually don't apply in a small business. Speed gives you the greatest chance of success, especially at a start-up. Projects that might take a year at a large company can and should take 30 days at a small one. This is an enormous change in mindset for managers who've been successful at large companies, but it is hugely liberating once you make it. To make this work, eliminate "RFPs," "detailed roadmaps," and "12-month planning" from your vocabulary. Minimize discussion of "process" and "compliance" to levels of absolute necessity. Learn to test your assumptions in hours, days, or weeks rather than months or years. Hire consultants only to add bursts of extra capacity when you need it, not to confirm your suspicions. Eliminate one-on-one meetings unless they are necessary for reasons of confidentiality. Drop the perfectionism. If you can learn twice as fast by testing a half-baked product, do it. You'll make the final version faster, and, ultimately, much better than you could otherwise.

Don't solve problems you don't have. Managers at large companies often have the obligation and luxury of thinking about problems that may arise at some future time if things go well. At an established business, it is helpful and sometimes necessary to ask, years in advance, "what happens when a million customers want the product upgrade at the same time — will we be able to support the demand?" Or "What if HugeCo competitor undercuts our price after the service improvements prove popular?" Even for a small company, taking obvious, easy steps to minimize future risks can be good common sense. But spend little time on this — the risks of enormous success are so remote they aren't worth major planning.

Get used to waterfall budgeting. Large companies usually operate with annual budgets, and often the budgeting process is locked down months before the start of the fiscal year. At start-ups and smaller businesses, budgeting can happen opportunistically, monthly, or even on an ongoing basis. For a successful large-company manager, it can seem difficult to operate without knowing the resource pool for the coming year. But consider the ground game at a small business: when a $50,000 contract is signed (or disappears!), the impact across the business can be powerful and require your team to make a fast break or a quick pivot. The good news is that planning at a small company often takes no more than walking over to the boss's desk and saying "we've got to get another customer service manager to handle the load." In the right small company environment, the entire conversation should take minutes or even seconds. As companies mature, the budgeting process usually takes shape, allowing for monthly, quarterly, and eventually annual planning. But getting there can take time.

Understand that your daily impact is huge. Many of your managerial decisions will have enormous and possibly existential effects on the business. Larger companies rarely face life-or-death opportunities or threats. Small companies can face them daily. Discovering that your impact at the small company is massive compounds both the excitement and sense of responsibility for people newer to small companies. The most practical way to adapt is to focus on learning to evaluate and trust your judgment as quickly as possible, so that you can both plan and execute along the right path for the company as a whole.

Michael Fertik is a repeat Internet entrepreneur and CEO with experience in technology and law. He founded ReputationDefender in 2006 with the belief that citizens have the right to control and protect their online reputation and privacy. Michael recently co-authored Wild West 2.0 which quickly gained acclaim as an Amazon.com Number 1 Bestselling Internet book. He has been named a World Economic Forum Technology Pioneer for 2011

Declutter Your Task List by Asking "Where Does It Belong?" [Task Management]

2010-10-18T19:00:00Z

Asking "Where does it belong?" is a time-honored mantra to help people clean up and organize their physical spaces. Applying it to your task list is just as fruitful in guiding tasks to where they belong.

Photo by Emilian Robert Vicol.

Technology and minimalism blog Minimal Mac highlights the power of asking "Where does it belong?" when confronted with your task list.

Want to make your task list more powerful? Ask that question of each task. Sometimes the answer is "as an immediate action". Sometimes the answer is "on a context specific list" or "broken into smaller chunks". Sometimes, the answer is "as part of a greater project or goal". But, sometimes, the answer is "with someone else" or "done at some future date" or "not done at all"

Visit the link below to read more or check out our previous guides on how to clean out your to-do list for guilt free productivity and how to maintain a project list that doesn't crush your soul.

A Most Important Question [Minimal Mac via Unclutterer]

Best Web Analytics 2.0 Tools: Quantitative, Qualitative, Life Saving!

2010-10-19T09:10:33Z

What is the first thing you want when you think about web analytics?

Tools!

Of course tools. What to do, where to start, what's cool.

I was reflecting on that recently and thought it was incredible that in all my years of writing this blog I have never written a blog post, not one single one (!!), recommending tools for the complete web analytics 2.0 spectrum.

Well that ends today.

My goal is to give you a list of tools that I use in my everyday life as a practitioner (you'll see many of them implemented on this blog). You are not going to use all of them all at the same time (or with every client), but 1. it is good to know what is out there and 2. to be awesome you are likely to use one from each category.

[Disclosure:] I am the co-Founder of Market Motive Inc and the Analytics Evangelist for Google. I do not have financial or equity or any other stake in any company mentioned in this blog post (except Google). None of these tools vendors have any relationship with Market Motive either. They are on this list because IMHO they provide value and are better than their competition. [/Disclosure]

Before we jump into tools a few key bits of context, after all context is queen!

First Bit Of Context. . . Web Analytics 2.0.

This blog post is about web analytics 2.0. Not just clickstream analysis.

As defined in my second book Web Analytics 2.0 is:

1. the analysis of qualitative and quantitative data from your website and the competition,

2. to drive a continual improvement of the online experience of your customers and prospects,

3. which translates into your desired outcomes (online and offline)

An expansive view of what it means to use data online, both from the type of data perspective and the kind of desired impact perspective.

Second Bit Of Context. . . Multiplicity.

Given the definition above, I am a firm believer in Multiplicity.

Every single company, regardless of size, will require multiple tools to understand the performance of its website, happiness of its customers and glean key context from competitors and ecosystem evolution.

The quest for a "single source of the truth" on the web is futile.

Actually let me rephrase that. . . the quest for a single tool/source to answer all your questions will ensure that your business will end up in a ditch, and additionally ensure that your career (from the Analyst to the web CMO) will be short-lived.

Sorry.

You should know upfront that you are going to fail, often spectacularly, if you don't embrace the fact that you have many complicated questions to answer, from many different sources.

To be an Analysis Ninja, and part of a successful web business, embrace Web Analytics 2.0 and embrace Multiplicity. Use a clickstream source when you have to, switch to testing to move beyond HiPPO's and inferences from click data, invite customers on a regular basis share feedback with you using surveys and usability, and poke and prod your competitor's and ecosystem performance to know what to do more of and what to do less of and what you have been blind to.

Do that. Work hard. Win big. Rinse, repeat.

Third Bit Of Context. . . Don't Be Scared: Prioritize.

Many people get really scared and run for the hills when they first put Web Analytics 2.0 and Multiplicity together.

Don't be.

Depending on the size of your company (translation: resources available and what's impactful and doable) here is the priority order that I recommend for you to execute your web analytics tools strategy right. . .

Not everybody should do everything in the same order. In my humble experience the above order works best for small, medium and large sized companies.

The result of going in a specific order is that this does not have to all be done overnight. You can take your time and evolve over time.

For more on why I recommend this specific order please see my second book, Web Analytics 2.0, which many of you already have.

Fourth Bit Of Context. . . The 10/90 Rule!

I can't ever talk about tools without reminding you of my 10/90 rule for magnificent success in web analytics.

First presented at an eMetrics summit in 2005 the 10/90 rule was borne out of my observations of why most companies fail miserably at web analytics.

Put simply it states:

If your have a budget of $100 to make smart decisions about your websites… invest $10 in tools and vendor implementation and spend $90 on Analysts with big brains.

Summary: Its the people.

You may not go with precisely 90, that is ok. But overinvest in people and everything that is required to make those people successful: invest in process, invest in their training, invest in large monitors for them, invest in backing them up against senior management, invest in involving them in key business strategy meetings, invest in… you catch my drift).

The coolest tools, the really expensive tools, will deliver diddly squat for your business. They'll simply puke data faster and, if you implement them right, more efficiently.

It's your investment in the 90 that will deliver glory.

People matter.

With those minor caveats, and what it takes to be successful refreshers, I am really excited to tell you all about tools!

: )

The Best Web Analytics 2.0 Tools For Maximum Awesomeness!

Let us break this list into the components of Web Analytics 2.0 so you have some reference as to where each item fits (and this will also make it easier for you to pick tools for the priority order referenced in Context #3 above).

Clickstream Analysis Tools [The "What"]

To many people the clickstream world is all there is to the web analytics world. It is without a doubt the largest source of data you'll access.

There are hundreds (I kid you not) of clickstream tools, I recommend you keep your life on the straight and narrow and pick one, just one (!), of these three tools:

~ Yahoo! Web Analytics
~ Google Analytics
~ Piwik

Yahoo! and Google provide world class web analytics tools for free.

Custom reporting, advanced segmentation, advanced rich media tracking, auto-integration with search engine PPC campaigns, advanced mathematical intelligence, algorithmic data sorting options, complete ecommerce tracking, super scalable sophisticated data capture methods such as custom variables, open free and full API access to the data, loads and loads and loads of developer applications to do cool data visualizations, data transformations, external data integrations and more. I am forgetting the other 25 features these tools provide for free.

Additionally if you look at the massive progress these two tools have made in the last 24 months there is hardly anything, more like _nothing_, they can't do that other vendors, free or paid, can do.

There would have to be an overwhelming preponderance of evidence showing that your company is magnificently unique, extremely special and with such incredibly uncommon needs that you need to go with any other clickstream tool (including paid clickstream tools from Omniture, CoreMetrics, Unica, WebTrends or anyone else).

If you have never done web analysis, start with one of these two.

If you have always done analysis and only use clickstream tools like Site Catalyst or Coremetrics Analytics or WebTrends Analytics then switch to one of these two tools and invest the money in Analysts (and wait just a couple months for your mind to be blown by valuable insights).

This is not to say paid web analytics tools (that do more than just clickstream analysis) don't provide value.

If after rigorous analysis you have determined that you have evolved to a stage that you need a data warehouse then you are out of luck with Yahoo! and Google, get a paid solution. If you can show ROI on a DW it would be a good use of your money to go with Omniture Discover, WebTrends Data Mart, Coremetrics Explore.

If you have evolved to a stage that you need behavior targeting then get Omniture Test and Target or Sitespect. Good use of your money.

Etc etc.

Spending money on the base solutions from paid vendors is a very poor use of your money.

IMPORTANT: Many people think it is hard to get the free Yahoo! Web Analytics. Not true. There are three specific ways to get Yahoo! Web Analytics. Read this: How do I get a Yahoo! Web Analytics account?

If you are technically oriented, don't trust either Yahoo! or Google and up for an adventure I highly recommend you consider using Piwik.

It is a wonderful solution. It has been constantly updated in the two years I have watched it. Piwik provides you plenty of capability to explore your inner technical unicorn while allowing you to answer business questions.

Three tools. Pick one. Move on with your analytical lives. Move from a data collection obsession and develop a crush on data analysys.

Special Recommendations:

~ Feedburner

Any website that provides an RSS feed would do very well to use Feedburner.

There is a lot of clickstream activity that is happening inside your RSS feed (and away from your website). Without Feedburner you have zero insights into that behavior of your most precious customers, those who are pulling your site/blog/marketing without you having to hound them.

~ Percent Mobile

Most web analytics tools (including all the ones mentioned above) provide not great data about consumption of your website on mobile devices. By default they only work with JavaScript tags (Percent Mobile will also capture behavior on non JavaScript enabled phones) and even then their databases of phone attributes and carrier attributes are quite poor.

So if you want really good mobile behavior data (in a separate but useful silo) then go get Percent Mobile. There is a free starter edition if you just want to play with it.

~ Google Webmaster Tools / Bing Webmaster Tools

Most web analysts are not responsible for SEO Analytics, and it is such a shame. A huge vast majority of clicks coming from search engines continue to be organic clicks (which is why I love and adore search engine optimization).

Any web analytics on your site will tell you how many clicks came to you from a search engine. But do you know your organic impression share for your top keywords? You can only get that from Webmaster tools (I know, I know, it would look really good in Google Analytics!).

Besides that to me SEO is an important part of marketing. I consider it my business as a web analyst, to report on how well the site is being indexed, keywords it is showing up for (but not getting clicks for), changes in trends for impression share and clicks on search engines (via the brand spanking new Google Webmaster Tools report) etc. I consider that to be web analytics.

You may not. But I believe you'll do your company a great service if you do, and now you know where to go to get started. :)

Outcomes Analysis Tools [The "How Much"]

Most outcomes analysis you will do in identifying your macro and micro conversions (for profit or non profit sites, government or ecommerce) will happen inside other tools mentioned in this blog post.

For example you'll configure goals and ecommerce tracking in Yahoo! Web Analytics or Google Analytics or Piwik. You'll measure Task Completion Rate in 4Q (below). You'll measure Share of Search using Insights for Search (below).

Or, if you truly want my admiration, you'll compute Profit and Margin for your campaigns in Microsoft Excel or using the most relevant database query.

So no specific tools recommendation here. Only a plea to obsessively obsess about measuring outcomes and compute economic value, not just revenue. [See Quantifying Economic Value on page 159 of Web Analytics 2.0.]

Special Recommendations:

I'll make two types of multi-channel analytics outcomes recommendations here.

If you have a phone number on your site then you would be very well-advised to implement a phone call tracking solution on your website.

~ Mongoose Metrics
~ ifbyphone

I know Mongoose Metrics a bit more and have been impressed with their solution and evolution over the last couple of years. My trusted friends have been equally impressed with ifbyphone.

It is pretty easy to integrate phone outcomes data with your web analytics solution. See this video by ifbyphone: Google Analytics Phone Call Integration or this page on the MongooseMetrics site: AccuTrack. These solutions also integrate with other web analytics tools.

If you spend any decent amount of money on email, search or display campaigns and have a phone call option then it is pretty criminal not to use one of these guys to get a really good understanding of offline conversions. Without them you might be missing such an important part of the "what have we actually accomplished on our website" equation.

~ LivePerson

If you offer a live chat option on your website then outcomes can also be measured in a lovely manner using the LivePerson solution. With simple configuration updates in the tools you'll create a custom report showing you Source/Campaign, Visits –> Live Chat % –> Goal Conversion Rate –> Per Visit Goal Value.

Sweetness.

Experimentation and Testing Tools [The "Why" – Part 1]

I firmly believe that God created the internet so we could fail faster. I know of no other way to achieve one's global maxima on the web.

The fact that this is a great way to prove HiPPOs right or wrong is a bonus. The fact that this is perhaps the most amazing way to get your customers involved in creating win-win offers/content/experiences/outcomes is the cherry on top of the bonus.

~ Google Website Optimizer

GWO is free (you don't have to use AdWords or Google Analytics to use it) and is perhaps all you need as a robust A/B and Multivariate (MVT) testing solution.

Here's a free guide – 26 pages – to use the website optimizer optimally: PDF Download: The Techie Guide to Google Website Optimizer.

If you need ideas of what to test: Experiment or Die. Five Reasons And Awesome Testing Ideas.

No serious web analytics program in any company is complete without robust and persistent testing. None. Not a single one.

Special Recommendation:

~ Optimizely

If you want to jump into testing very very fast and start doing A/B testing tonight (I am not kidding: tonight!) then I recommend using Optimizely.

Slight amount of technical knowledge will be a plus, but it is really really easy to get started. Just go to their site and type in your URL in the blue box and hit the green button and you'll see what I am talking about. You'll be setting up you A/B test in 5 mins.

They even have a Platinum support plan where you get the CEO's direct cell phone number! How can you not totally love that? : )

~ AdWords Campaign Experiments by Google

I wish I could put into words how much I love ACE (AdWords Campaign Experiments). It is truly a blessing for anyone that does paid search marketing.

So many companies large and small truly suck at doing AdWords properly. And it does not matter if they use a large brand name Agency. This sucking can be solved immediately and awesomely by using ACE.

Adgroups and match types and content and copy and URLs and keywords and negatives and positives and bid prices and so many levers to pull to improve Impressions, CTRs and ROI of your AdWords campaigns.

Now you don't have to do the super lame before and after “experiments”, you can do true test and control experiments and learn how to win, and win big, at this AdWords thing you are spending so much (or so little) money on.

I hate to be a bearer of bad news but if your company or Agency is not using ACE every day to make you a ton more money, then fire someone.

Here's all you need to know about ACE: AdWords Campaign Experiments Videos & Guides.

Voice of Customer Tools [The "Why" – Part 2]

It is quite incorrect to believe that by analyzing the clicks of visitors to your website that you suddently have an ability to capture "voice of customer". That would be like trying to talk to your mom while holding a banana to your ear instead of a telephone.

I have been profoundly humbled by how much one can learn by using qualitative methods to collect VOC.

Of the hundreds of online survey providers out there, here are two of my current favorites:

~ 4Q by iPerceptions
~ KissInsights

I am extremely biased towards sensible short surveys, versus many people's preferred option of a 42 question puke "survey". I have come to realize that asking just a few right questions translates into a respect for the website visitor's time, an extreme focus at your end, and, blessedly, action by your company based on VOC.

4Q is a "site level survey." By default you ask just four questions (though you can add two more optional questions) when people exit your site. It provides the Key Performance Indicator that I consider to be the holiest of the holy in web analytics: Task Completion Rate (segmented by Primary Purpose).

If you want to see how 4Q looks and works click here.

KissInsights is a "page level survey." You ask one question (how can you not love that!) and have an ability to get a yes, no or open text answer. The survey invite is unobtrusive. You can control the amount of time spent on a page before the survey shows up, you can add conditional logic, and so much more, to the survey invitation process.

If you want to see how Kissinsights works just go to site and customize your own in a few seconds.

Both 4Q and KissInsights come with free starter solutions. Both are available in multiple languages. Each solves a different problem, and solves it very well.

Another great way to collect voice of customer (VOC) is to do usability studies. A recent sweet development is that you don't just have to rely on often expensive lab usability studies. You can conduct affordable, scalable and frequent online usability studies.

~ UserTesting.com
~ Loop11.com

For $39 a pop UserTesting.com allows you to specify the demographic and other attributes of the users you are most interested in and then have those users complete tasks you specify on your site. You get a video and a written summary of their experiences. Nothing more powerful than actual frustrated users right?

Loop11 is different in several small ways but the primary difference is that you pay a flat fee of $350 for each study while allows you to have to 1,000 participants and unlimited number of tasks. You are also in control of study participants and you can invite them via social media or a pop up on your site.

They also have a sweet demo, check it out here: Loop11 Participant Demo. The demo is a sweet way to convince your boss to give you money for a usability study (with either company! :)).

Finally one last VOC recommendation, this one very tactical and focused on single page optimization (vs. site and experience optimization with the voc tools outlined above).

~ Concept Feedback

On the surface it looks like a site for designers, but the reality is that this is a site for every Marketer, Analyst and pompous or humble HiPPO in the world.

You upload one of your pages and you have three options to collect feedback. You can get public feedback from their community of professionals (currently 8,000). You can get feedback, privately, from your company folks or current customers. Or finally (this is really cool especially if you are a small/medium sized company) you can get feedback from a Design, Usability and Marketing expert for a total of $300. How awesome!

If you want to see a sample of how this works check out this example, or many others on their site.

Now go look at your Top Landing Pages report, check out the pages with the highest bounce rates, upload them into Concept Feedback and stop stinking!

Special Recommendation:

~ Bounce

Bounce has fewer features but I have to tell you I absolutely love how simple it is to set up and how lovely the UI is. Same thing as above: type the URL of a page on your site into Bounce, share the URL with others, get feedback.

Check out how it works on this page I have just created in Bounce for Market Motive.

Competitive Intelligence Tools [The "What Else"]

Two simple and powerful reasons for embracing, nay jumping into bed all naked, with competitive intelligence data:

1. Get context to your own performance vis-a-vis your competitors (the ones you know about and the ones you don't)

2. Analyze ecosystem trends, opportunities, failures, impact of your tv ads, emerging customer preferences and changes, and. . .

I could keep going on.

Here are tools I use on a daily basis:

~ Compete
~ Trends for Websites
~ Insights for Search
~ AdWords Keyword Tool
~ DoubleClick Ad Planner

[Before you use any of these tools please please please read this blog post: The Definitive Guide To (8) Competitive Intelligence Data Sources]

Compete is a great place to get quick data about US Visitors for any website. Compete uses a mix of data collection methods (read post above) which makes their data much better than many others. Notice at the bottom of the report that you also get top five referral and destination sites as well as search analytics. If you pay you get a lot more. If you think a website gets more than 50k unique visitors a month chances are their data is well reflected in Compete (for US visitors only).

Trends for Websites is the place I got to for worldwide visitor data for websites located in any part of the world. It uses one of the largest sources of data in the world and can be an excellent way to understand Traffic, Search Keywords, and Also Visited data for a Chinese site or one from Brazil or South Africa.

[Learn more about the types of analysis you can do: Competitive Intelligence Analysis: Google Trends for Websites]

Insights for Search is one of my secret crushes. I love the fact a common person like me can have access to the world's “database of intentions” for free. It's like having a hose directly plugged into humanity's brain and understand what it (or segment of it) is thinking, feeling, doing. I use Insights for Search to analyze industries, analyze share of search, emerging trends and, this might seem odd, where to do offline advertising based on consumer intent.

[Learn more about the types of analysis you can do: Competitive Intelligence Analysis: Google Insights for Search]

AdWords Keyword Tool is impressive not just because of the petabytes of data it mashes together with ease but also because it is a source that 1. helps me refine my search engine optimization (SEO) strategy 2. download all the specific user-typed long tail queries for optimal PPC targeting and 3. get insights into specific verticals or brands I care about or am currently analyzing.

[Learn more about the types of analysis you can do: Google's Search Based Keyword Tool: Monetize The Long Tail of Search]

DoubleClick Ad Planner is my go-to source for demographic and psychographic analysis for any website or, how amazing is this, the whole entire darn internet! And this is the most amazing part, you are about to have a minor orgasm, it is the only source in the world where you can marry user attributes (content consumed, demographic, psychographic etc) with their Search behavior! It is impressive to get that type of insight into users. It is silly to ever do a single display advertising campaign (via any company: Atlas, Yahoo!, DoubleClick, AOL, etc) without using the data in Ad Planner.

[Learn more about the types of analysis you can do: Competitive Intelligence Analysis: Google / DoubleClick Ad Planner]

Regardless of the size of your company and regardless of your title, a "lowly" Analyst or Senior Squirrel or Director of Analytics & Optimization, if you don't do competitive intelligence analysis you don't do analytics.

Miscellaneous Emerging Analytics Tools [The "What Else Could I Possibly Do"]

Yes you are right that in my Web Analytics 2.0 framework there is no category called "what else could I possibly do." I am glad you are paying attention. : )

Unfortunately for you and me daily evolution is the norm on the web. We are faced with new marketing and measurement challenges and opportunities every single day. Here are some tools that I use to measure the emerging bleeding edge of those challenging opportunities. . . .

Twitter to me is a proxy of how data collection is changing and what the future of relevant metrics might look like. I explore that using these tools:

~ Klout

Klout has some of the cleanest metrics when it comes to measuring performance of a single twitter account. They've just added Facebook integration and measurement, a step in the direction of measuring our entire social presence.

~ Topsy

Topsy is a really good social search engine but I have found that it is the cleanest and most comprehensive when it comes to tracking the tweets and retweets of my blog posts (or pages on your site that can be tweeted/retweeted). Number of tweets about the page is now a key part of my Conversation Rate metric for any page on the site.

~ AnalyzeWords

AnalyzeWords to me is what sentiment analysis should be like / might be like one day. Rather than a quest for a non-useful shortcut like "positive" – "negative" – "neutral", it offers a real nuanced psychological analysis of data. [Learn more: Sentiment Analysis]

Another tool that takes a similar, but different, approach is TweetPsych.

Finally a small peek into how lots and lots of data that is fragmented today, spread between your site analytics tools and lots of other sources out there, is going to come together and delight you. . .

~ PostRank Analytics

A huge number of consumption of your content happens offsite (and hence is invisible to Omniture or WebTrends or IBM or Google Analytics). An even huger and scarier amount of influencing of your potential and current customers happens outside channels and locations where you exist. PostRank starts to bring all that together.

All your current website data (at least Google Analytics) and all your consumption and influence data from the social web. All in one place having a ménage à trois producing pretty babies. check them out, as you can see even from the cropped screenshot above, haivng all that data in one place transforms your understanding of success (or failure).

That's all I got for today. Phew!

Parting Words of Wisdom from a Practitioner.

I had promised tools and you got tools! Perhaps more than you cared for.

But do remember three very very important things:

1. You simply cannot survive in this world with a clickstream mental model. You have to embrace Web Analytics 2.0 and Multiplicity, or take a job in a different field because you'll be miserable in this one.

2. You don't have to use all the tools. See the priority map above. You should use at least three (again see the order in which you should implement them in the priority map) and be experimenting with one or two others.

3. If there is one thing you should be convinced of by now it is why following the 10/90 rule is so desperately and supremely important.

Every tool above is either free or has a limited free plan or is extremely affordable. Every single one is amongst the best in its class. And yet none would be useful unless you had a Michelle or a Amir or Enrique or Sasha who understands your business and has the drive to use the right tool intelligently to deliver actionable insights.

Happy Analytics!

Ok now its your turn.

Does your company have a clickstream web analytics strategy or a true Web Analytics 2.0 strategy? How many tools do you use on the website you are responsible for? Which of those are your favorites? Have a missed a truly exceptional tool in my list? Which of the above tools have you tried, and what's your experience with them? What is the tool you are dying to get, but has not yet been invented?

Please share your feedback / critique / thoughts / wisdom via comments.

Thanks.

PS: Ok ok ok. I know what you are asking for. Here's a handy dandy list of all the tools listed in this blog post:

+ Clickstream Analysis Tools [The "What"]

~ Yahoo! Web Analytics

~ Google Analytics

~ Piwik

Special Recommendations:

~ Feedburner

~ Percent Mobile

~ Google Webmaster Tools / Bing Webmaster Tools

+ Outcomes Analysis Tools [The "How Much"]

~ Mongoose Metrics

~ ifbyphone

~ LivePerson

+ Experimentation and Testing Tools [The "Why" – Part 1]

~ Google Website Optimizer

Special Recommendations:

~ Optimizely

~ AdWords Campaign Experiments

+ Voice of Customer Tools [The "Why" – Part 2]

Special Recommendations:

~ Bounce

+ Competitive Intelligence Tools [The "What Else"]

Compete

~ Trends for Websites

~ Insights for Search

~ AdWords Keyword Tool

~ DoubleClick Ad Planner

+ Miscellaneous Emerging Analytics Tools [The "What Else Could I Possibly Do"]

~ Klout

~ Topsy

~ AnalyzeWords

~ PostRank Analytics

To infinity, and beyond!!

Best Web Analytics 2.0 Tools: Quantitative, Qualitative, Life Saving! is a post from: Occam's Razor by Avinash Kaushik

Wanderfly Aggregates Dozens of Travel Tools into a Single Dashboard [Travel]

2010-10-22T13:00:00Z

Wanderfly is a travel search aggregator that compiles the results of dozens of popular travel search tools into one master dashboard for easy comparisons and trip planning.

Click on the image above for a closer look.

Wanderfly's goal is to make trip planning as painless as possible. You start with a basic set of inputs (where are you? how much do you want to spend? where are you going? what are you interested in doing?) and Wanderfly drills down through airfare listings, local events, and more. Wanderfly pulls from the databases of popular travel and event sites like Expedia, Yelp, Lonely Planet, and more.

If you're itching to travel but you're not absolutely set on one specific itinerary and date, Wanderfly offers a novel way to check out travel packages from around the globe. Wanderfly is a free service. For other interesting travel planning tools make sure to check out previously reviewed GoPlanit and Adioso.

[via Mashable]

Amazon Web Services Introduces Free Tier for One Year, Includes 5 GB of S3 Storage [Dealhacker]

2010-10-22T18:00:00Z

We've been fans of Amazon's very cheap S3 storage ever since its release, but they've just announced that they're adding a free tier to their pricing plan—so there's no reason not to grab 5GB of free storage right now.

Whether you're using Cyberduck's great S3 integration, hosting your iTunes library, or just backing up your system online, Amazon S3 has some pretty great uses. Until now, it was incredibly cheap, but not free. For the next year, though, you can get 5 GB of free S3 storage, along with a ton of other free features from Amazon's Web Services, including EC2 Linux Micro Instance usage, Elastic Load Balancer and Block Storage, and more. Even if you don't need things like a virtual Linux environment running for you 24/7 on Amazon's servers, the 5GB of free storage is easily worth the quick sign-up. The year of free service starts on November 1st, but you can sign up right now, so hit the link if you're interested.

AWS Free Usage Tier [Amazon Web Services via Mashable]

Find Great Pages Using Google Bookmarks

2010-10-21T21:56:00Z

The only way to share your Google bookmarks is by creating lists. By default, lists are private, but you can share them with other people and make them public. The nice thing about public bookmark lists is that they're searchable and you can find them below your Google Bookmarks search results.

I entered the URL for one of my bookmarks (a JavaScript compressor) and Google returned a list of pages related to web development. I bookmarked some of the pages, but I could also copy the bookmarks to one of my lists.

When I searched for this blog's URL, Google Bookmarks returned a list with useful Google sites and Google-related blogs. I could also enter some keywords in the search box, but the results aren't always relevant.

Amazon Will Let You Loan Kindle Books To A Friend -- But Publishers Can Turn It Off (AMZN)

2010-10-22T20:09:00Z

Amazon will add a neat new feature to its Kindle e-book program later this year, designed to let you loan Kindle e-books to your friends, either via Kindle devices or the Kindle app for the iPhone, iPad, Android, etc.

Sounds great! We've been hoping for this for a long time, because this is how people share paper books.

But there will be some big limitations.

First, "Each book can be lent once for a loan period of 14-days and the lender cannot read the book during the loan period," Amazon explains.

And perhaps more importantly, publishers will also be able to turn lending off for their books. Let's hope they don't screw this up.

(Via Fraser Speirs.)

Read: Here's What Next Year's iPad Will Look Like

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See Also:

WizardRSS Converts Any Partial RSS Feed to a Full Feed [Annoyances]

2010-10-11T19:30:00Z

Sometimes web publishers provide excerpt-only versions of their RSS feeds rather than offering the full text via RSS—requiring readers to visit the site for the full story. Webapp WizardRSS converts any partial RSS feeds to a full feed.

Earlier this year, Lifehacker's publisher moved our main feed to a partial feed. The editors weren't thrilled with the change, but we also rallied to provide our readers with an alternate full feed. If, however, you follow a site for which you can't find a full-feed option, just take the site's partial feed, plug it into WizardRSS, then subscribe to the feed it creates in your newsreader for the full posts.

I tested WizardRSS on Lifehacker's partial feed, and while it had a few hiccups, in general it worked very well. Thanks Ste-V-illagE and Rosa!

WizardRSS

Launching A Startup Alone Is Hard, But Faux-Co-Founders Are Worse Than Nothing

2010-10-12T21:10:04Z

"Aint nothin’ like the real thing, baby” ~ Marvin Gaye

Back in the Spring, my startup went through double bypass surgery. We had made the decision to completely scrap our first product, which we had devoted nine months of our lives to. It was an absolute restart. Simultaneously, my co-founder and I had decided that basically all of our startup’s problems were due to our less than stellar relationship. We decided to part ways: I would go it alone. A prominent angel investor advised me to quit: “It’s very hard to pivot a product. It’s even harder to pivot a team. Doing both at the same time? Next to impossible."

It’s still too painful for me to talk in much detail about how hard those months were, so for now I’ll just say “I didn’t quit.*"

At the time, I wrote a controversial post on co-founders for Business Insider. In it, I argued that if you cannot find the ideal co-founder(s), it is significantly easier to go it alone as a solo startup founder today than it was ten years ago.

I missed the point completely.

After all, I didn’t chose to go it alone. I relentlessly searched for the ideal co-founders, learning from my past mistakes, and hit the jackpot. Ozan, Ash, and I are Real Co-Founders at Topguest. So here’s the point: It is a priori better to have a real co-founder than to go it alone. I know now from experience. The problem is that most prospective co-founders are not real, hence co-founder conflict is the leading cause of startup death, as it nearly was for mine.

What are Real Co-Founders?

In my mind, there are just five universal criteria:

You genuinely feel that each person is an irreplaceable, non-substitutable requirement for success
You each believe that building this startup together is the absolute best thing you can do with your lives now and for the next number of years.
You have aligned expectations on what success means, and what it will take from each of you to achieve it. You speak up when the other is messing up.
You are each not only willing — but eager — to put the startup ahead of your personal life and all other priorities until success is achieved. This is not to say that real co-founders should not have a life outside the Company – some balance is absolutely critical. But the startup must clearly be the top priority by a longshot.
You like each other as people.

If even one of these criteria is not met, you are Faux Co-Founders. And Houston, you have a problem: Entering into a Faux Co-Founder relationship is categorically worse than going it alone.

Three Faux Co-Founder signals:

You talk about how this will be an “easy win.” Startups are almost never quick and easy wins. And if you plan for an easy win, you will almost certainly end up with a hard failure. Early traction can actually be really dangerous in this regard.
You agree to different levels of commitment. Commitment is highly mimetic. It is hard to stay equally committed at all times, but it’s actually pretty essential. Real co-founders work roughly the same number of hours over time. Conversely, the visible contributions at any given time will vary between founders, and you each need to be comfortable with this.
One of you would rather have higher salary and lower equity than the inverse. Real co-founders forgo short term compensation in favor of long term value creation. Mercenaries do not make for good co-founders.

This is not an indictment of the individuals who are part of Faux Co-Founder relationships. Indeed, they may be awesome human beings and could make superb early startup employees. But they are not Real Co-Founders.

So entrepreneurs, my advice is this: Before deciding to go it alone, do whatever it takes to build a strong partnership with Real Co-Founders:

Move across the country…

Give up tons of equity…

Rebuild your product in a completely different language…

Pivot your entire company…

Whatever it takes; it’s worth it.

One final thought: Real Co-Founders take out each other’s trash — metaphorically and literally. Thanks Ash and Ozan.

*And the prominent angel who advised me to quit? He’s now an investor in Topguest.

Geoff Lewis is the Co-Founder & CEO of Topguest, the new service that gives you real hotel points, air miles, and travel perks for your Facebook Places and Foursquare check-ins. Follow him on Twitter @justglew

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Send Me a Story Sends You Weekly Long-Form Nonfiction for Quality Pleasure Reading [Reading]

2010-10-07T19:30:00Z

Whether you want to expand your horizons a bit, or just don't have the time to pick out articles to read every week, Send Me a Story helps out by sending one piece of long-form nonfiction to your email, Kindle, or Instapaper.

Every Saturday morning, Send Me a Story will send you one article, from outlets like the New Yorker, Vanity Fair, New York Magazine, The Atlantic, and others—both past and present—for you to read at your leisure. By default, it sends it to your email, though you can get it sent to your Kindle or reader-friendly webapp Instapaper as well, if you're a fan of those services. It's a remarkably simple service, but definitely nice for branching out beyond your usual pleasure reading sources in a way that isn't a giant time suck. Hit the link to check it out, and if you want more interesting long-form articles, be sure to check out longform.org, from which Send Me a Story fetches its material.

Send Me a Story [via One Thing Well]

HasWifi Tells You If Your Flight, Well, Has Wi-Fi [Travel]

2010-10-08T00:00:00Z

If you're enamored with the magic of in-flight Wi-Fi, free web service HasWifi will let you know whether the flight you're looking at has it or not, so you can stay connected throughout your entire trip.

Unfortunately, it's difficult to tell which flights have Wi-Fi on board when you're booking your tickets. HasWifi lets you search by flight number (or with travel planning service TripIt), letting you know which flights do and don't give you your internet fix in the air. You can even vote a result up or down, helping HasWifi deliver more accurate results to other users. Right now, the service only tracks GoGo-enabled carriers, but it's got a pretty good database already, and still expanding. Hit the link to check it out.

HasWifi