Steve Woda's blog

links for 2009-11-06

2009-11-06T09:30:53-05:00

20 of the Best Resources to Get Your Startup Off the Ground

Let’s face it: as an entrepreneur, the odds are stacked against you. Most businesses fail after the first few years, and even if you do manage to survive, that doesn’t mean your business will redefine an industry, become profitable, or change the world. Getting off on the right foot is essential to navigating a startup from its infancy to profitability. Luckily, there have been countless entrepreneurs that have gone through the same toils building their own businesses, and most of them are happy to share their experiences to better prepare you for the journey ahead. In addition, there is now an array of social media and web apps that no entrepreneur has ever had access to before. Together, these resources can give you the edge in a fast-changing business worl

(tags: Entrepreneurship tools)
19 Blogs You Should Bookmark Right Now

There are more than 130 million blogs on the World Wide Web today, and 1.5 million more are created each week, according to the blog tracking service Technorati. It is unknown how many of these are tainted by shameless self-promotion, mindless ranting, and other nonsense -- but you can bet the figure is extremely high. So Inc. scoured the Internet, tabbed through Twitter, and asked the smartest people we know to help us come up with a list of bloggers who, if you pay attention, can help reshape your perspective. Here's what we found.

(tags: Entrepreneurship blogs)

10 Leadership Battles – And How To Win Every One of Them : TerryStarbucker.com

In our quest to become great leaders we take on a constant stream of internal battles. Each and every day we choose our sides and try to do the right things, with the objective of achieving something great. There are 10 confrontations in particular that can make or break us, and we need to consistently be on the winning side of every one of them to reach the pinnacle of success.

(tags: leadership)
Cybersecurity Fears? Check Google Dashboard

Google is attempting to allay growing concerns about privacy by unveiling a one-stop shop for users to see what information it holds on them. The launch of Google Dashboard is the search giant's response to critics who argue its dominance of the web allows it to collect too much personal data. The page lists details of the Google products and services the account-holder uses, from which YouTube videos have been viewed to details of their Gmail inbox. It offers a single place for people with accounts to adjust their privacy settings or delete content. Although the dashboard shows only what a user does when logged into a Google service, it reveals the breadth of the information collected.

(tags: security privacy google dashboard)

links for 2009-11-04

2009-11-04T09:01:28-05:00

A Single Sign-In for All Your Websites? Google Hopes So - PC World

It's one of the basic tenets of online security: Never use the same password/username combo for every website that requires one. The logic is sound, of course. A single security breach could expose your most private information — such as banking and credit card numbers — to the bad guys. Problem is, who can remember multiple passwords and usernames? Many times I've signed up for a service, returned to the site a few weeks later, and quickly realized that I couldn't remember my login details.

(tags: google security)
Trick or Tweet? Malware Abundant in Twitter URLs - Wired.com

As many as one in every 500 web addresses posted on Twitter lead to sites hosting malware, according to researchers at Kaspersky Labs who have deployed a tool that examines URLs circulating in tweets. The spread of malware is aided by the popular use of shortened URLs on Twitter, which generally hide the real website address from users before they click on a link, preventing them from self-filtering links that appear to be dodgy. Kaspersky, an anti-virus and computer-security firm based in Moscow, created a tool called Krab Krawler, which extracts URLs from millions of tweets a day. The tools expands shortened URLs to examine words in the web address for those matching known malware sites. For unknown sites, Kaspersky visits the web page to determine if it’s hosting malicious code that could infect visitors. About 26 percent of Twitter messages contain a URL, according to Costin Raiu, chief security expert at Kaspersky.

(tags: security twitter)

Google Analytics "Inaccurate," Expert Says - Practical eCommerce

Many ecommerce merchants use Google Analytics to track visitor activity on their websites. But there are other analytics firms, too, that offer services to merchants. One of them is ClickTale, an Israel-based firm with over 35,000 clients, according to its co-founder. That co-founder is Tal Schwartz, who is both an academic and an entrepreneur. He launched ClickTale in 2006 when he was teaching entrepreneurship at a university in Israel. He says ClickTale is now “the industry leader in customer experience analytics, providing businesses with revolutionary insights into their customers’ online behavior.” ClickTale is hosted service, with monthly prices ranging from $0 to $790. Schwartz is both a fan of Google Analytics and a critic. He claims that Google Analytics is wrong in how it computes the time visitors spend on a site, and that the error can affect ecommerce merchants. We asked him about that.

(tags: google anlytics)
The Martial Art of Difficult Conversations - HarvardBusiness.org

My wife Eleanor and I used to live in a small house in Princeton, New Jersey. One night we returned home to find a car parked in our single space driveway with no owner in sight. We were tired and had nowhere nearby to legally park our car. So we had the car towed, parked our car in its place, and went to sleep. The next morning there was a loud knock on the door. Eleanor was the first to answer. She immediately regretted it. It was our next-door neighbor, we'll call her Leslie, and she was mad. As soon as she saw Eleanor she burst forth with a barrage of angry words and accusations. I was in the back of the house and could hear her clearly. It turns out the mystery car we had towed belonged to her son. Eleanor, usually calm and collected, began to defend herself against the bombardment of accusations, which only made Leslie angrier and louder. So they went at it, both arguing their points.

(tags: leadership)
Internet Out of Room Next Year, Warns Report

Without an immediate technology transition, the Internet could run out of addresses as early as next year, warns a new report. The survey, conducted by the European Commission, found that of the 610 government, educational and other industry organizations questioned across Europe, the Middle East and Asia, just 17 per cent have upgraded to a new Internet addressing technique called IPv6. These aren't the Web address you type into a browser to surf to your favorite website, but rather the underlying Internet protocol addresses that denote individual devices connected to the Internet. These form the foundation for all online communications, from e-mail and web pages to voice chat and streaming video.

(tags: Internet)
A fun post... VC in DC: In Venture Capital and at Grotech Ventures, Art imitates Life

Little guy with big head If you visit our Virginia office, you'll see this guy in the lobby on the coffee table. Yes, he's impressive. But to understand why he is in Grotech Ventures lobby, one needs to read the inscription in his skull.

(tags: vc grotech)
The Associated Press: Okla. hearing aimed at shaping 'sexting' measure

Teenagers may think it's harmless, but sending sexually explicit pictures and messages over cell phones can lead to emotional problems and criminal charges that will affect them for the rest of their lives, criminal justice officials said. Investigators and prosecutors on Thursday warned of the dangers of electronically transmitting racy images and words at a hearing organized by Rep. Anastasia Pittman, D-Oklahoma City, into the practice of "sexting," distributing nude or seminude self-portraits over cell phones. "Sexting alone just by itself will land a kid in jail," Pittman said. "They are not aware of the implications, the consequences. It's their future that we're trying to save."

(tags: sexting security kidsafe children)
The New Rules of Angel Investing - NYTimes.com

Angels still have wings, but they aren’t flying quite so high. The rules of the game of angel investing have changed in the post-crisis world. The average deal size shrank by 31 percent in the first half of this year, according to a recent study by the Center for Venture Research at the University of New Hampshire. The study shows that total angel investments fell to $9.1 billion in the first half of 2009, a 27 percent decline from the same period last year, but the number of companies getting venture investments actually increased by 6 percent, to 24,500.

(tags: vc Entrepreneurship)
LinkedIn: The Purposefully Unsticky Social-Media Site

LinkedIn may be the least glitzy of the major social media sites but it's also one of the most successful. Launched in 2003, it's been making a profit since 2007 and, despite the recession, some of its ad categories continue to sell at CPMs of $50 or more. Unlike Facebook or MySpace, it doesn't offer games or apps designed to maximize the time users spend there. It's a network for business people and its goal is to minimize the time its users spend to get what they need from each other. In this eight-minute interview, founder and chairman Reid Hoffman discusses LinkedIn's current operations.

(tags: linkedin social media)
Entrepreneurs Behaving Badly

Breaking news….If you are a startup pursuing funding, you have more in common with a politician or athlete caught behaving badly then you might think. A politician caught misbehaving, an athlete photographed doing something he or she shouldn’t be doing, or a celebrity who finds that one heated moment has turned into tabloid fodder for weeks on end all have one thing in common – how they communicate will likely determine whether the incident is a speed bump or a career ender. So what does this have to do with entrepreneurs pursuing VC funding? Everything! Crisis communications is usually identified as the effort to protect and defend an individual, organization or corporation’s reputation when crisis strikes and public confidence in the individual or organization is shaken or thrown into question.

(tags: Entrepreneurship VC)
This Year’s Top 10 Largest Venture Funding Deals - WSJ

Twitter Inc.’s $100 million funding round drew considerable attention for its massive size, but it’s not the largest venture deal so far this year. That round actually tied for the fourth largest, according to data compiled from Dow Jones VentureSource. Here’s a list of the Top 10 venture capital rounds through the third quarter. The deals are impressive considering the cloud hanging over the venture industry. Besides Twitter and another dot-commer, Facebook Inc., these companies range from massive clean-technology projects and health-care plays to wireless equipment makers and, in one case, a waste-collection service.

(tags: vc)

links for 2009-11-03

2009-11-03T09:01:23-05:00

Driven to Distraction - Britain Sets Tough New Laws for Texting While Driving - NYTimes.com

Inside the imposing British Crown Court here, Phillipa Curtis, 22, and her parents cried as she was remanded for 21 months to a high-security women’s prison, for killing someone much like herself. The victim was Victoria McBryde, an up-and-coming university-trained fashion designer. Ms. Curtis had plowed her Peugeot into the rear end of Ms. McBryde’s neon yellow Fiat, which had broken down on the A40 Motorway, killing Ms. McBryde, 24, instantly. The crash might once have been written off as a tragic accident. Ms. Curtis’s alcohol level was zero. But her phone, which had flown onto the road and was handed to the police by a witness, told a story that — under new British sentencing guidelines — would send its owner to jail.

(tags: texting safety kidsafe)
Racy MySpace pics spark school lawsuit - msnbc.com

Two sophomore girls have sued their school district after they were punished for posting sexually suggestive photos on MySpace during their summer vacation. The American Civil Liberties Union, in a federal lawsuit filed last week on behalf of the girls, argues that Churubusco High School violated the girls' free speech rights when it banned them from extracurricular activities for a joke that didn't involve the school. They say the district humiliated the girls by requiring them to apologize to an all-male coaches' board and undergo counseling.

(tags: myspace children social networking security safety kidsafe)

Technology Review: An App so You'll Never Forget

A language-learning application that's already big in Japan is coming to the U.S. in the form of a new iPhone app. Smart.fm, based in Tokyo, says that the adaptive-learning algorithms behind its software can help users memorize all kinds of information. Remember this: Though originally designed for language learning, Smart.fm's software has been expanded; now the system can include user-generated material on topics such as the Internet memes shown above. Credit: Smart.fm Smart.fm is one of several companies selling software designed to help users remember. The company's algorithms were inspired by research that shows people remember information more effectively they try to memorize it at key times, says founder and chairman Andrew Smith Lewis.

(tags: iphone education)
Social networks and kids: How young is too young? - CNN.com

Many parents also worry that younger users of social sites could be targets for online predators. While there are some concerns that kids aren't mature enough to make good decisions about their privacy, Subrahmaynam and Lenhart said most are savvy enough by their early teens to know what, and who, to avoid. Younger children, they say, need more parental supervision.

(tags: social networks kidsafe security children)

links for 2009-11-02

2009-11-02T09:01:19-05:00

Federal Grants for Small Business: Chasing Clean-Tech Stimulus Dollars

Entrepreneur Kevin Ross is hoping to capitalize on the burgeoning market for clean tech, buoyed by the hopes of winning some funding from the $70 billion earmarked for alternative energy projects in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). Ultimately, he says, farmers might be his biggest customer. The idea is to lease part of a farmer's land and make a "solar farm" of ground-mounted panels. The farmer would then receive leasing fees or else partner with SunBanks Solar for revenue sharing, with revenues coming from selling the power to local power companies. But to build his business accordingly, Ross, who is one of three employees including his wife, needs more resources. He was able to self-fund the company’s launch using about $50,000 of his own money, saved and invested over the years from his civil engineering firm, Land Design Services Inc. “We don’t have to have the money [to survive] but we could hire sales staff and buy trucks and hire a crew,” he says.

(tags: government grants finance Entrepreneurship)
New Social Networking Site Now in Business ... for Business

Social networking isn't limited to the time-wasting antics of kids on Facebook and Friendster. A new Web site aims to turn business networking on its ear. A prime tenet of all social networking sites is simple, a play on the six-degrees-of-separation meme: If everyone is only a few friends distant from everyone else, that girl you like — or your future boss — is just an e-mail away. Tracked.com wraps that concept in data analysis, creating a weird hybrid the company hopes will transform how business gets done. Want to see which companies other widget manufacturers are investing in, or stay on top of trades of your company's performance? Curious about which stock the executive board just traded? The site lets you track activity in a certain industry or for a particular company, even for a specific person, and create custom feeds of data along the same lines.

(tags: social media analytics business)

links for 2009-11-01

2009-11-01T09:00:57-05:00

Start-up CEOs Bank On Fatter Paychecks, Bonuses In 2010 - WSJ

Chief executives of venture-backed companies expect their compensation to stagnate this year. But they see more cash flowing into their wallets in 2010 – especially from bonuses, after about half went without them last year, according to a new poll. The CEOs surveyed by ExpertCEO, a Web site that helps connect more than 1,300 senior executives, made an average salary of $229,000 in 2008. Those executives expect to make the same amount in 2009, but they expect their salaries will rise to $243,000 in 2010. Additionally, 51% of VC-funded executives in the survey received bonuses in 2008 that averaged $101,000. Fifty-three percent expect bonuses in 2009 that average $93,000. But 85% plan to receive bonuses in 2010, with those bonuses averaging $102,000.

(tags: vc Entrepreneurship career HR)
Is It Safe to Post Children’s Images on Online Photo Sites? - NYTimes.com

FOR Jessica Gwozdz, a professional photographer and mother of two, Flickr was a blessing. It allowed her to share photos of her children, Grace and Henry, with distant, tech-averse relatives for whom a username and password would have been too great an obstacle. It even allowed potential clients to freely browse her gallery. Then a friend sent her an e-mail message with the kind of subject line no parent cares to read: “Oh no — it’s Gracie.” The message contained a link to Orkut, a social networking site popular in Brazil. Someone had created a fake profile, using headshots of Mrs. Gwozdz’s 4-year-old daughter. “They gave her a fake name, Melodie Cuthbert, and a relationship status that said she was interested in making friends and dating men,” Mrs. Gwozdz recalled in a recent telephone interview. Other Orkut members had given the profile a “sexy” rating of two and a half hearts.

(tags: child safety security kidsafe)

Technology Review: Windows plan lowers Microsoft profit but shares up

Microsoft Corp. said Friday its net income fell 18 percent in the last quarter, largely because it deferred revenue to let summertime PC buyers get free upgrades to Windows 7, which launched Thursday. Investors looked past that accounting decision, noting that if it had counted its deferred Windows revenue, Microsoft's earnings would have increased 8 percent from last year. Microsoft shares jumped $2.64, 10 percent, to $29.23 in morning trading, hitting a 52-week high. The upgrade program, which let someone buy a PC with Windows Vista and later install Windows 7 on it for free, meant that Microsoft counted only half of its Windows sales in the period. It will report the rest as customers upgrade to the new system through January 2010, when the offer expires.

(tags: microsoft windos)
U.S. Census Marketing Effort Is Reading Your Mind - Advertising Age

The upcoming census count will be accompanied by one of the broadest marketing efforts imaginable -- trying not just to reach every person living in the United States with a message, but getting all of them to act on that message. "Typically when you're marketing a product ... you market it to the people who are most likely to buy that product. In this situation, we have to market to everyone, whether they are likely to participate or not," said Vita Harris, chief strategy officer at DraftFCB, who is handling the general-market leg of the census effort.

(tags: census)
What Startups Are Really Like

I wasn't sure what to talk about at Startup School, so I decided to ask the founders of the startups we'd funded. What hadn't I written about yet? I'm in the unusual position of being able to test the essays I write about startups. I hope the ones on other topics are right, but I have no way to test them. The ones on startups get tested by about 70 people every 6 months. So I sent all the founders an email asking what surprised them about starting a startup. This amounts to asking what I got wrong, because if I'd explained things well enough, nothing should have surprised them.

(tags: YCombinator Entrepreneurship)
It’s Not My Company

VCs say a lot of stupid things. I’m guilty of it plenty and whenever someone calls me on it I try to acknowledge and change. One that I try really hard not to do is say “my company” when referring to companies I’ve invested in – I think it’s one of the most annoying things a VC can say. I was talking to a VC the other day about a few companies he had invested in. By the third time he referred to one of the companies as “my company” (as in “My company is working on X”, “My company would like to talk to Company Z about thing Y”) I felt myself starting to react. I didn’t really have a relationship with this VC, but I knew that he had never run a company (investment banking post college, MBA, then VC). I realized I wanted to stop him at some point and say “dude – it’s not your company – you are merely an 18% shareholder in the business.” I bit my tongue and had the conversation, but I’ve been thinking about this in the back of my mind ever since.

(tags: vc Entrepreneurship Leadership)
5 Tips for Promoting Your Business with Facebook

Facebook (www.facebook.com), with its millions of members, presents a not-to-be missed marketing opportunity for businesses and non-profit organizations. Facebook offers the marketer a number of ways to use the application for marketing. Here is the best news of all. The price is right. These marketing tools are free unless you choose to support your efforts with advertising. If you want to promote your business, organization of event, here are five tips for using Facebook to get your message out:

(tags: facebook social media marketing)
For Mobile Start-Ups, It’s Location, Location, Location - WSJ

Location remains a red-hot area for developers of mobile technology. Whether that word appears at the top of an entrepreneur’s business plan, or whether it’s just a footnote, it’s clearly crucial as phones, applications and networks continue to evolve. A large share of the 15 up-and-coming mobile tech companies that presented at the recent Dow Jones VentureWire Technology Showcase prominently feature a location component as part of their value proposition. And they’ve raised millions of dollars on the strength of their ideas. “We are pushing answers to your phone before you ask for them,” Sanjeev Agrawal, a mobile-tech entrepreneur, told VentureWire recently.

(tags: vc Mobile)
Sequoia Capital Charges Hard Through Recession - WSJ

While many venture firms have dialed back their investments amid a punishing economy, Sequoia Capital has made about 20 seed or Series A investments in the past 12 months, more than in the prior two years. That’s according to Greg McAdoo, partner at Sequoia capital, who spoke Saturday at Startup School, an event for entrepreneurs organized by Y Combinator at University of California, Berkeley. In front of a standing-room-only crowd, he repeated a common refrain among venture capitalists that recessions are great times to start companies and to invest in them. Sequoia, considered one of the highest-caliber venture firms, is putting its money where its mouth is, unlike some firms, who meet with entrepreneurs and go through due diligence without telling them that they don’t plan to invest. Entrepreneurs should research which firms didn’t invest during the last dot-com downturn and be wary, McAdoo said.

(tags: sequoia vc Entrepreneurship)
Help Your Company Join The Twittering Class

How to use social media -- Twitter, Facebook, Linked In -- to elevate your company's online cred. Social networking sites and services such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn have followed the same path to the business world that blogs did only a couple years ago: They're all online hangouts that evolved into sophisticated branding, lead generation and sales tools for business. And with the right approach, they are an ideal way to quickly -- and cheaply -- promote your small or midsize business.

(tags: facebook Twitter linked social media)
Big Cellphone Makers Shift to Android Platform From Google - NYTimes.com

Since 1996, Microsoft has been writing operating systems for little computers to carry in your pocket. It was a lonely business until the company’s perennial rival, Apple, introduced the Web-browsing, music-playing iPhone. But now that smartphones are popular, Microsoft’s operating system, Windows Mobile, is foundering. More cellphone makers are turning to the free Android operating system made by Microsoft’s latest nemesis, Google. Cellphone makers that have used Windows Mobile to run their top-of-the-line smartphones — including Samsung, LG, Kyocera, Sony Ericsson — are now also making Android devices. Twelve Android handsets have been announced this year, with dozens more expected next year. Motorola has dropped Windows Mobile from its line entirely in a switch to Android. HTC, a major cellphone maker, expects half its phones sold this year to run Android. Dell is using Android for its entry into the cellphone market.

(tags: Google Android Mobile)
The future of the GOP is outside the Beltway - washingtonpost.com

Bien-pensant conservative elites and establishment-friendly Republican big shots yearn for a more moderate, temperate and sophisticated Republican Party. It's not likely to happen. And probably just as well. The Gallup poll released Monday shows the public's conservatism at a high-water mark. Some 40 percent of Americans call themselves conservative, compared with 36 percent who self-describe as moderates and 20 percent as liberals. The conservative number is as high as it's been in the two decades that Gallup has been asking the question. What's more, fully 72 percent of Republicans say they're conservative. Thirty-five percent of independents do so as well -- and presumably the percentage of conservatives among independents who might be inclined, where the rules permit it, to vote in GOP primaries would be much higher.

(tags: Politics gop tcot)

links for 2009-10-31

2009-10-31T10:01:08-04:00

A Campaign for Clothes by a Guy Not Wearing Any - NYTimes.com

In about a dozen videos posted over the last two months to YouTube, a man claiming to be “the world’s fastest nudist” streaks through high-profile locations in New York City clad only in running shoes, tube socks, and a strategically positioned frontward fanny pack. “The first time you run by, they’re like, ‘Oh my god, that guy’s nude,’ ” he says in one video. “But the next time you run by, they’re like, ‘That’s the world’s fastest nudist!’ ” Popular blogs like Gothamist, The Huffington Post and Gawker featured the videos in September, with Gawker’s post drawing more than 25,000 views. On YouTube, the videos have garnered more than 60,000 views.

(tags: marketing Zappos)
For Facebook And Zappos, Two Divergent Views Of Its Employees - WSJ

For fast-growing technology start-ups, there are many approaches to employee hiring and retention. Two of the more successful Internet start-ups, Facebook Inc. and Zappos Inc., have very different methods, each with different goals: Facebook wants to hire entrepreneurs even if that means they will eventually leave, while Zappos wants to hire the best people to fit its culture and figure out how to keep them. Mark Zuckerberg, chief executive of Facebook, said at a talk this past weekend at Startup School, a Berkeley, Calif., event organized by Y Combinator, that Facebook seeks to hire entrepreneurial “hackers” - people who want to build something new - even though they may not want to stay for long. The company is focused on technology and tilts its hiring towards engineers, even for people in non-technical roles such as marketing, he said.

(tags: HR Entrepreneurship Leadership)

Ten Ways To Attract Angel Funding - Forbes.com

The papers are filled with scary statistics. Here are a few more for entrepreneurs on the hunt for capital from angel investors--those loosely banded groups of deep-pocketed individuals looking for the handsome returns that only risky, early stage investing can (sometimes) bring. According to the latest data from AngelSoft, which pairs entrepreneurs with angel groups in a particular city or ZIP code, only about one out of 100 companies that make a formal request for angel funding manage to secure the capital. Among the axed, three-quarters never make it past the initial screening process; of those that do, more than half are eliminated during live presentations and discussions, and another 10% during the following due-diligence process. It's a brutal gauntlet.

(tags: angel vc Entrepreneurship)
Swinging For The Fences

There has been a lot of talk about young entrepreneurs creating all the great companies; Gates, Jobs, Yang/Filo, Bezos, Dell, Brin/Page, Zuckerberg, etc, etc. I agree that visionary young people are worth backing and we do a lot of that at Union Square Ventures. But there is another kind of entrepreneur I love backing even more. It's the serial entrepreneur who has had a number of successes under their belt and now wants to swing for the fences. We have a bunch of them in our portfolio and there is nothing more fun than watching someone who has a ton of experience get behind the wheel and really step on the gas.

(tags: Entrepreneurship vc)
Eleven Easy Ways to Destroy Your Company - NYTimes.com

Businesses make hundreds or thousands of decisions every year, many of which seem inconsequential. But the smallest details can have business-changing or even business-ending consequences. Here are 11 of my favorites to watch out for: 1. The lowly extension cord. People get cold feet. They get a space heater. They plug it into a two-pronged extension cord. They forget to unplug it when they leave work. That night, while you are sleeping, your entire business burns down. Your brilliant marketing plan, your three-year projections, all of your records, your new product samples … . You get the idea. This is not something that most business owners think about, but insurance companies know that extension cords and space heaters are major fire hazards. It is good practice not to allow any extension cords in your business that aren’t three-pronged.

(tags: Leadership)
New Google Maps GPS for smartphones spooks competitors - washingtonpost.com

Wednesday morning, Google notified manufacturers of GPS navigation units that their services would no longer be needed. It didn't say so explicitly -- the news came in a corporate blog post about an improved Google Maps smartphone program offering turn-by-turn directions -- but the company didn't have to. The imminent arrival of a no-charge navigation service, complete with real-time traffic data and satellite and street-level views of a route, on phones running Google's latest Android software made standalone GPS devices look suddenly redundant. GPS manufacturers' share prices promptly fell off a cliff; Garmin's dropped about 16 percent and TomTom's plunged by 21 percent Wednesday.

(tags: Google maps GPS)
The Rise of Power Jeans - WSJ.com

When Dmitry Medvedev dined with the Obamas in July, the Russian president appeared both relaxed and powerful. He hit that elusive note by pairing his fine blazer, crisp buttoned shirt, and expensive-looking leather-soled shoes with dark, straight jeans. Power jeans are increasingly common in high-ranking business and political circles. Indeed, jeans are now a legitimate part of the global power-dress lexicon, worn to influential confabs where the wearers want to signal they're serious—but not fussy—and innovative.

(tags: fashion jeans)
The State Of The Mobile Web - InformationWeek

Opera has released a report on the state of the mobile web and it shows, as expected, growth in the number of people viewing the web on their mobile phones, the number of pages each person views and the amount of data they each consume.

(tags: Mobile Web opera)
Google Clarifies Open Aspects Of Android - InformationWeek

While the Android mobile operating system is open source, some of its most appealing features like tight Gmail integration and Google (NSDQ: GOOG) Maps are not, Google said in a blog post. The search giant faced some criticism last week when it ordered developer Steve Kondik to stop distributing a custom build of Android because it utilized closed-source applications like Gmail and Google. The Cyanogen Android ROM had become popular among Android tinkerers because it added many new features from the Donut build, and it also enabled sharing a phone's cellular data connectivity with a computer.

(tags: Google Android Mobile)
Android To Reign Supreme By 2012 - InformationWeek

Gartner is predicting that the number one smartphone platform will be Android by 2012, surpassing the iPhone. Can the platform, which is currently only ahead of WebOS in market share, overtake its rivals in just three years? Well, actually Nokia's Symbian platform will still be number one but that is only because they put that on so many basic phones, many of which are viewed as little more than feature phones. While I guess Symbian is technically a smartphone, I don't see it quite that way as so many Nokia users never install a third party app or are even aware you can do so.

(tags: Google Android Mobile)

links for 2009-10-30

2009-10-30T10:01:48-04:00

Google Voice lets users keep phone number - washingtonpost.com

Google Inc has introduced a new feature that will allow consumers to use its Google Voice service without switching to a special phone number, potentially broadening the appeal of the nascent, and controversial, service. Google said late Monday that new users of its service will be able to have the calls that they don't answer forwarded to a special Google Voice electronic mailbox, essentially bypassing the voicemail provided by their phone carriers. Google Voice offers a variety of voicemail management features, including unlimited storage and text transcription of voicemail messages. The service also allows consumers to make low-priced international calls by routing portions of the call over Google's infrastructure and the Internet.

(tags: Google voice)
Drifter suspected of murdering teenager he met on Facebook - mirror.co.uk

he body of a 17-year-old girl was found in a ditch yesterday after she was lured to her death by a man she met on the internet. Ashleigh Hall told friends she had a date with a lad of 16 who had contacted her on Facebook. A 32-year-old who is believed to be on the sex offenders register was last night being questioned on suspicion of murder. He allegedly confessed after he was arrested for a minor motoring offence in Sedgefield, Co Durham.

(tags: child safety security kidsafe)

New Google Voice Plan is Pointless - PC World

Move along folks, nothing to see here. I know that the headlines have been overflowing with the breaking news that Google will now let you use Google Voice with your existing cell phone number, but the limited functionality of the new Google Voice option is hardly anything to get excited about. Google developed the new Google Voice option to cater to those who want the features and benefits of Google Voice, but without having to switch phone numbers. People spend years sharing contact information and expanding their social network by sharing their mobile phone number, so it is understandable that some are reluctant to change the primary phone number people should use to contact them. The problem is that the new Google Voice option is lacking any of the features that make Google Voice worth using.

(tags: Google voice)
A New Approach To Dealing With A Lousy Boss - Forbes.com

The easiest way to deal with a lousy boss? Quit and go to work somewhere else. But who can do that today? With unemployment at 9.8% and White House economist Christina Romer telling a congressional panel last week that it is likely to remain "at its severely elevated level" through 2010, few employees have that luxury. Article Controls Emailemail imageprint imagereprint imagenewsletter comments (3) imageshare imagedel.icio.us imageDigg It! imageyahoo imageFacebook imageTwitter imageReddit imagerss Yahoo! Buzz Jim Camp, a Dublin, Ohio, executive coach who has consulted with the FBI on hostage negotiation tactics, believes there are less extreme measures you can take that will work just as well. He insists that you can overcome any boss problem with skilled negotiating.

(tags: negotiation HR career)

links for 2009-10-29

2009-10-29T10:01:18-04:00

Verizon CEO: iPhone Deal 'In Apple's Court' - InformationWeek

Does Verizon (NYSE: VZ) Wireless want Apple's iPhone, or does the iPhone want Verizon Wireless? Verizon chairman and CEO Ivan Seidenberg, pointing to his firm's strong wireless network infrastructure, said Monday that he hopes Apple "will decide to jump on the bandwagonthis is a decision that is exclusively in Apple's court." The issue takes on more resonance after AT&T (NYSE: T) signed up some 2 million wireless subscribers in its last reported quarter compared to Verizon's 1.2 million new customers. But AT&T has been victimized by its own success. Its exclusive deal with Apple to market the iPhone in the U.S., is straining AT&T's network because of the high rates of data usage by iPhone subscribers.

(tags: att apple iphone Verizon Mobile)
Google Gives HR Something New To Worry About

When Dr. John Sullivan said last week that employers have lost control of their brand, he likely wasn’t thinking of Sidewiki. Why should he? When the article was published Monday Sidewiki was not even three weeks old; Google launched it on Sept. 23rd. But Sidewiki’s potential for deconstructing a brand is enormous. Unlike all the networking sites, Twitter posts, and job board forums where the disaffected go to vent their anger, Sidewiki makes it possible to post these comments directly to your site. Just imagine the mischief a disgruntled job seeker or employee can wreak by posting their story directly to your site. Side by side with your video of happy employees talking about the fun and interesting work they do is a post — or multiple posts — from current and former workers denouncing your message as bogus.

(tags: Google sidewiki)

Want To Escape Google? There's An App For That - InformationWeek

Google (NSDQ: GOOG) understands that sometimes people -- and businesses -- have to pack up and move on to some other service. It is now offering a tool for users of Google Docs whereby they can convert, zip, and download all of their documents at once. This is interesting. Google is providing its users with the tools they need to liberate themselves from Google's services entirely. Google has an entire team of engineers powering its Data Liberation Front. Their task is to help users retrieve their data from the cloud and take it elsewhere via simple import/export tools.

(tags: Google docs)
Twitter Founders: From “Stupid” Idea To Possible IPO - WSJ

It all started with a “stupid” idea and a message about pinot noir. Two of the founders of Twitter Inc., Evan Williams and Biz Stone, talked about how the micro-blogging service began, the challenges it faced and an eventual potential IPO, at Startup School, an event organized by Y Combinator held at the University of California-Berkeley on Saturday. In 2006, Jack Dorsey and Biz Stone had an assignment at podcasting start-up Odeo, along with everyone else at the company, to build something new over two weeks. Dorsey drew up a simple sketch of a text-entry box with the word “Status” above it and the domain name, my.stat.us. After the pair soon built the technology that would later form the basis of Twttr, and then Twitter, the epiphany came early on when Williams sent a message - they called them status messages at that point - through the site to Stone in the form of a text message.

(tags: Twitter Entrepreneurship)
Recruiting the Brand

In the annals of corporate retail brands the name 'Air Jordan' resonates. The iconic basketball shoes named after the legendary NBA star Michael Jordan have endured for over 25 years.Air Jordan I The first pair of Air Jordans debuted in 1985 and immediately became a market sensation, racking up tremendous sales and spawning dozens of updated versions, which Nike continues to release today. Fast forward to 2009, MJ the legend is out of the game, but his and the Air Jordan brand's influence on the game continues, sometimes in unexpected and not so positive ways. Jordan's son Marcus, himself also a basketball player was recruited to play college basketball at the University of Central Florida (UCF). Marcus accepted the scholarship offer from UCF and is set to begin his college basketball career this Fall.

(tags: HR career social media marketing)
Verizon Still Wants the iPhone (Despite those Droid Ads) - BusinessWeek

Despite a recent slew of negative ads dissing the Apple iPhone in support of Verizon’s new Android-based device, Verizon chairman and CEO Ivan G. Seidenberg told investors on its earnings call today that the company still covets the iPhone. “This is a decision that is exclusively in Apple’s court,” said Seidenberg. “We obviously would be interested in any point in the future they thought it would make sense for them to have us as a partner. And so we’ll leave it with them on that score.” This statement jibes with my feeling that Verizon’s embrace of the Google Android operating system is just as much a negotiating tactic as a hedge against the iPhone.

(tags: Verizon Mobile apple iphone)
'Little Buddy' GPS device keeps tabs on your kid - Chicago Sun-Times

Best Buy is selling a transmitting device that lets parents keep track of their children. Parents can place the device in a child's backpack or lunch box, for example. The "Little Buddy Child Tracker" retails for $100 (far less than other devices that sell for $200 to $500). It combines global satellite positioning and cellular technology to signal the child's whereabouts to a computer or smartphone. Parents can program the device to set up specific times and locations where the child is supposed to be -- in school or at home, for example -- and the device sends a text message if the child leaves the site in that time.

(tags: child safety security kidsafe GPS)
Verizon could roll out three Droid phones by end of year

One Droid, two Droids, three Droids. How many Droid phones will Verizon unveil before the year is out? Depends on which blogger you ask. Today, the tech blogosphere swirled with rumors that the Verizon Droid will be soon be joined two additional Android-powered smartphones, including one manufactured by Taiwan-based manufacturer HTC. According to the folks over Brighthand.com, the HTC handset will likely be a tablet, possibly resembling the HTC Hero

(tags: Google Android Verizon Mobile)
What’s the Best Way to Improve Conversions? - eMarketer

Unsurprisingly, companies worldwide told Econsultancy in summer 2009 that the No. 1 conversion relevant to them was sales, with sign-ups and registrations a close second. Overall site conversion to sale was also the top metric used by client-side respondents, monitored by 68%. That was followed by overall site conversion to response, lead conversion rate and basket conversion rate. But many companies (39%) are not satisfied with their conversion rates. They reported A/B testing as the most valuable way to improve conversion, with more than one-half of companies saying it was highly valuable and another 42% saying it was quite valuable.

(tags: Conversion ecommerce marketing)
Facebook Grabs Social Net Share - eMarketer

Not only has Facebook surpassed MySpace as the leading social network in the US, it has moved far ahead in terms of market share of US social networking site visits. According to September 2009 data from Experian Hitwise, almost 59% of all social network category visits were at Facebook, compared with just over 30% for second-place MySpace.

(tags: social media facebook)
CEO holds office hours for public -- chicagotribune.com

Twice a week, two hours at a time, the CEO is in. Jason Fried, founder of the Chicago productivity software firm 37signals, just began holding "CEO Office Hours," set periods where almost anyone who wants to can call and chat with the head of the firm. While other company chiefs infuriate the public with extravagant bonuses, Fried's more populist approach is meant to bring the company closer to its clients and to other entrepreneurs. The move was inspired in part, Fried said, by university professors and their set availabilities to students. "I've always like that idea. It is a very personal sort of attention," he said. So when you call 312-416-9980 between 3 and 5 p.m. Central time Tuesdays and Thursdays, you either get Fried or a message suggesting you try back in a few minutes -- essentially, a version of waiting outside the professor's door.

(tags: Leadership Entrepreneurship)
A little venture capital goes a long way

When BlackBerry Partners Fund invested in a mobile game developer called SocialDeck, they decided to think small. Instead of the millions of dollars venture capital firms used to throw at promising technology industry startups, the fund wrote SocialDeck a cheque for $250,000. "If we'd given them $3-million, they wouldn't have known what to do with the money," said Kevin Talbot, co-managing partner of BlackBerry Partners Fund. Call it bite-size venture capital.

(tags: vc Entrepreneurship)
Are You Ready to Reinvent Your Business? - The Small Business Blog

Remember the famous Tom Hanks line in the movie A League of Their Own: "There's no crying in baseball"? Apparently, entrepreneurs aren't crying in their beer either. According to a study just released by ThomasNet.com, the online site that connects buyers and sellers globally, "despite challenges that are out of their control," business owners are both optimistic about their abilities to ride out the rest of the economic storm, and also expect to grow this year. An overwhelming 76 percent of those surveyed in the semi-annual ThomasNet Industry Market Barometer believe the economy will improve by the second quarter of 2010 or sooner. And 35 percent actually expect their businesses to grow this year.

(tags: Innovation)
Productivity Superstar: Could a VA Improve Your Productivity?

Even the most efficient of web workers may occasionally feel overwhelmed by the nitty-gritty details of running a freelance business or the more-to-do-with-fewer-resources stress of working for a company. In either case, when you find yourself in the thick of things, there’s help available in a new breed of ready-to-work, would-be productivity saviors called virtual assistants (VAs). If you’re uninitiated into the world of VAs, they are administrative assistants who work independently via the Internet and phone to provide support to busy entrepreneurs, tired telecommuters and hard-working corporate types. But as appealing as turning over your to-do list may seem, it’s not all a bed of efficiency roses. Witness my own first foray into hiring a VA. I made the classic mistake of not screening carefully enough and ended up losing $500, but also gaining insight into how to make the process work for me. But there’s no place for bitterness here.

(tags: HR)
Stop Trying To Get Rich! - Forbes.com

What we're going through is not just a recession, it's a reset. Sure, the impact of the crisis is being felt economically, but the root cause isn't economics, nor is it the failure of free enterprise and capitalism. The problem is the abuse of free enterprise and capitalism--greed. The problem is that we have lost our story line, as a nation and as a world.

(tags: Entrepreneurship)
Android 2.0 Changelog Is Droolworthy

Today Google (NSDQ: GOOG) officially made Android 2.0 available to developers and along with it a new SDK, toolbox and APIs for them to use in crafting their apps. Google also spilled some details about the features that are now going to be part of Android. Some of the goodies include support for multiple Gmail and Exchange accounts. Any developer interested in snagging the new tools should open their existing SDK and update it. That should be all that's necessary, at least according to Google. Aside from all the exciting new tools and APIs that developers will have access to, there are some excellent new features included in the next version of Android. Here's a quick breakdown:

(tags: Google Android Mobile)

links for 2009-10-28

2009-10-28T10:01:37-04:00

Americans Want Brands that Inform - eMarketer

The top characteristic US consumers want from brands they like is to improve their knowledge—and the least desirable one is for a brand to “only be visible in store”—according to the “Global Web Index” from Lightspeed Research. Helping consumers keep up to date on topics that were important to them was also key, followed by being entertaining, becoming part of a daily routine, and informing consumers about the product and the company. Consumers were relatively uninterested in brands that tried to act like their friends.

(tags: marketing)
Does Social Media Work for Small Biz? - eMarketer

Small businesses are not hitting it off with social media, according to an August 2009 study from Citibank. More than three-quarters of US small-business executives surveyed did not find social networks helpful for generating leads or expanding their business.

(tags: social media)

links for 2009-10-27

2009-10-27T10:01:32-04:00

Great article... The problem with iPhone killers? - washingtonpost.com

Here we are again. The hype leading up to a new mobile device is reaching a fever pitch. Motorola's Droid sounds, looks, and by some accounts, is impressive. As such, everyone's favorite superlative is being thrown out there once again: "iPhone killer." Of course, we've heard this before ? maybe a dozen times. The BlackBerry Storm was the iPhone killer, the Palm Pre was the iPhone killer, the G2, etc. Not only does the iPhone still survive, it thrives. Why? The answer is easy, but requires some explanation. Fundamentally, the problem with most iPhone killers is that they're not actually trying to kill the iPhone. They, as devices, may think they are, but most of them are playing a different game because of the OSes they run, and the companies behind them. One way to think about it is to compare smartphones and more precisely, their OSes, to religion (which we've done before). This is especially apt since the nickname for the iPhone is the "Jesus Phone."

(tags: apple iphone Google Android droid Windows Mobile)