My take is that if someone nails behavioral targeting to a point where the ads I see are all based on my interests and likes and the ads that are not shown to me are based on stuff that I’m not interested in I’m okay with that.

For companies that’s the holy grail as well, showing only ads that are relevant to users and being able to target specific customers. That’s what all companies in the digital marketplace are working on, and Yahoo! is no exception.

One thing I’d be interested in seeing is how likely big successes can be followed up by big successes. I was talking to a guy here at Yahoo! who came on board as part of an acquisition. It was his second time being in a company that was acquired. I hadn’t heard of the first company and if I wasn’t working at Yahoo! I doubt I would have known the name of the second. But he was able to be a part of two solid start ups that had solid exits. Nothing spectacular like Skype in terms of exits, but very successful.

So here’s my theory, when you have a big successful exit, something like Skype – which sold to eBay for $2.6 BILLION everyone has their eyes on you. They want to know what you do next and if you enter an industry they’re all over changing business models and investing in innovation to make life difficult for you.

I think this is why Joost is having a hard time. As soon as the media industry saw the guys who started Skype going into the video industry they were investing and building like crazy. Look at what’s happened since Joost started, Hulu launched and has done well, the BBC launched it’s iPlayer, NBC has broadcasted the Olympics and the NFL is talking about broadcasting it’s games online.

To me this explains why so many people who have a killer entrepreneurial effort the first time around end up in the VC world or go into hiding for some time. I’m not saying it’s impossible for people who have had a successful entrepreneurial experience to pull it off a second time. I’m just saying they have a spotlight on them and that’s something first time entrepreneurs or people who have only so-so experiences can avoid.

I started wondering about whether you need to support local teams when you play for a local team. Tom Brady was spotted wearing a New York cap while he played for New England (Karma may have gotten to him with his recent injury). Michael Jordan tried out for the White Sox while on a hiatus from the Bulls, but if he had played for the Dodgers or the Tigers would Chicago Basketball fans have been less welcoming when he came back to the Bulls? I find Cleveland fans attention and venom towards LBJ amusing, if he takes a franchise from nowhere to the NBA finals in two years my take is let him do what he wants.

But I also started thinking about the similarities between this and when you work for one company and use products from a rival. If you work for Nissan and drive a Toyota, if you work for Microsoft and use a Mac, or, heaven forbid, if you work for Yahoo and use Google, does this make you disloyal?

Personally, I think its okay for an individual to use a rival product. With the caveat that you’re using something because it’s better and meets your needs better (whether in terms of cost or design or some other important feature) and that you use your own products to a point where you know what the market needs are and work to your best to improve the company you work for.

But I won’t be switching from Firefox, my browser of choice, just yet. I’ve tried Chrome a lot over the last couple of days, and I like it. I’d probably put it on my mom’s computer. But for me it’s just not integrated enough. While I was using it I found myself opening up the same site I was browsing on Chrome on Firefox and adding sites and pages to my delicious account. I found myself using Firefox to update and read through my twitter pages. And then I found myself sticking around Firefox after doing these tasks.

Don’t get me wrong, I think Chrome’s got potential and I’ll keep using it off and on to see how it develops and if I’m on another computer that doesn’t have all my Firefox extensions but has Chrome, it would be a no-brainer, Chrome here I come. But 99.9% of the time Firefox is still going to be my browser of choice.

I can see Chrome taking market share from Internet Explorer (my prediction is IE get’s hit hardest), Firefox, Opera, Flock (yes people do use Opera and Flock). But this user is sticking with Firefox. For now.

I can get by with the one hour difference between CET and GMT, and although it’s stretching the difference between CET and EST is manageable as well. But man, getting in touch with anyone in the PST during work is a pain in the a**.

My guess is that some countries which are outsourcing hubs do not work the typical 9-5 work day but rather something that fits their partners in Europe or in North America. But there’s no way I’m starting the work day at 2pm just to be on point with the east coast and get good overlap with the west coast. And I don’t expect other countries to do this either.

You do get a chance to catch up on work or get things done at other times when people are still sleeping or commuting. Overall, the way I’m coping is that you have to assume that there will be delays in communication, that instead of getting an answer that day or a response that hour you’re waiting till the next day to hear back on things. It’s not ideal but it is the cost of doing business globally.

I think he’s bang on. And not just with regards to hedge funds, I think all industries are being shaken up by technology. Those that adapt and change will be the ones who thrive. And not just the investors in technology and tech companies, I mean all industries.

We’re using the internet more and more for research and having a good website that can be found (i.e. the company has done decent SEO work) can be the difference between acquisition and rejection. That’s today. Tomorrow being on twitter could be the difference between customer service in a hurry that is responsible for retention versus a costumer moving away from your service. I’m not saying everyone will be on twitter (although they should), I’m saying that technology is revolutionising the way we communicate and adaptation is necessary.

In a nutshell, it’s the same old story, adapt or die b*tches.

Examples:

• 95% of the gyms in Switzerland do not open before 9am. Which means working out in the AM is next to impossible
• All the retail stores are closed on Sunday and most are closed by 7pm. This means if you don’t get what you need at places like IKEA on a Saturday you’re waiting till next week, or the week after.

What ends up happening is you sleep longer but still get to work earlier. You enjoy your Sundays, taking long walks by the lake front and reading lots. Not bad things.

Having such tight restrictions on what and when you can do doesn’t impact your quality of life negatively. Having a 24 hour culture might be good for some, but having a 10 hour 6 days a week culture is pretty good for everyone longer term.

Seeing the notice “the new Facebook, try it now” at the top of my page is pretty useless I’ve tried it, didn’t like it, case closed. I don’t know why they’ve redesigned it in the first place. I guess they have to do something with all their investors’ money.

Think you should have a clear idea on why you’re undertaking a redesign and you should make sure the redesign is for a valid reason. Some redesigns are needed, to make more money, because there’s new technology, because the old design is looking really dated. Facebook looks like they’ve done the redesign to bury some of the not so nice applications – basically things that make money for other companies.

I’ve been using F’book less and less these days (in fact if the blog wasn’t reblogged on the platform not sure if I’d use it that much at all) and if they force the redesign on everyone I’m guessing that might be the final nail in my usage coffin.

A day later and once again I’m thinking about how something she does in school relates to business, specifically managing people. It makes me laugh when people judge success by how many people they manage, no one can give a large number of people the same attention that they could to a small number.

What’s the ideal number of people you can manage? I’m not sure, but as there are 5 days a week my guess is that no one should directly manage more then 4 people. There just isn’t enough time to really help, lead and develop more people – and still get on with your own job. So what happens when you hit four, have one of the team support and manage one of the others.

Of course this doesn’t work for every organisation and specific skill, perhaps it’s easier to manage more engineers then it is to manage analysts or whatever. But I think the overall principle holds, organisations need to have a cap on how many people report to other people, if not it opens the door for neglect.

Eight and a half years ago I came to London with little more then a dollar (actually I came with about 50K CAD in debt, thanks OSAP) and a dream. Even though I’m really looking forward to leaving London, there are a lot of things I will miss, off the top of my head:

• The cool areas and discovering at least one new area every year
• The parks, Hyde, Regents, Primrose Hill, great for picnics, kite watching, and general “veg”- ing out when the weather allowed (which wasn’t often enough)
• Borough market and flower power brownies
• The free museums, especially when the budget was tight or friends were visiting (especially the Tate, the National Portrait Gallery, and The V&A)
• The people, Londoners are a special breed; it took me about 16 months before I really felt like one
• Great restaurants, forget whatever you’ve heard about English cuisine, the food is brilliant from the restaurants of big name chefs to the chains to the local cafes.
• The tech, biz and media communities - it may not be wall st or the valley but can’t think of another place that has so many diverse vibrant communities

The not going to miss list is much shorter – the weather. I’ve got the man flu right now and I’m sure it’s because the rain/sunshine mix is so unpredictable. London has two seasons rain and more rain.

But that doesn’t change the fact that I feel more at home here in London then I have anywhere else in the world. It’ll always have a special place in my life and one that I can’t see being taken.