Coop's Corner

Here's the way things work at Microsoft: After correcting shortcomings in the first and second editions of its software, version 3.0 of a Microsoft product usually silences the company's worst critics, allowing management to get on with business of crushing rivals. But I'll be first to acknowledge that Silverlight breaks with that pattern.

Since the start of the Beijing Olympics, I've been using the Silverlight 2 beta to access video over the Internet and it works just fine. As a loyal Flash user, I was surprised when Microsoft won the deal to supply NBC with video-viewing technology for the Olympics. There was the obvious old-school tie between Microsoft and NBC dating back to their collaboration building MSNBC. Still, this was Adobe Systems' game to lose. And lose it did--big time.

In the end, Microsoft was able to convince NBC it could do more by using Silverlight than by sticking with Flash. Rob Bennett, the general manager of sports for MSN, told me that it came down to a two-day meeting in November, where he brought in the Siliverlight team. I'm simplifying, but his pitch was that Flash's scalability had never been put to an Olympic-size test. Accurate or not, that argument left the desired impression. What's more, even though Silverlight was new on the surface, Microsoft argued that under covers, it was really based on very familiar Windows Media technologies.

"We talked about features like adaptive streaming, the ability to automatically keep checking how much bandwidth you have and deliver the appropriate quality stream and how to be smart about knowing what's coming up in the stream," Bennett said. He added that Microsoft made a point of playing up the scalability of the Windows Media format as well as the ways in which Silverlight could help NBC with copy protection of its video streams.

So where was Adobe in all this? Good question. After leaving several phone messages, I got the hint: the PR team at Adobe has decided to go into bunker mode for the duration of the games. But not to get too down in the dumps, fellas. A second-place finish to Microsoft hardly rings the death knell for Flash. Far from it. In fact, Adobe Flash is being used to power CCTV's streaming of the games in China.

However, NBC's Olympics deal is a terrific boon for Silverlight. Microsoft is not disclosing specifics on the number of Silverlight downloads--except to say that it registers up to 1.5 million downloads a day. For the record, that's the same thing Microsoft has been saying since April.) However, a spokeswoman said that "in the last several days, more than 50 percent of the visitors to NBCOlympics.com on MSN already have Silverlight 2 installed."

NBC was more forthcoming. The network says that almost 25 million unique users have visited NBCOlympics.com on MSN during the games and so far viewed 456 million pages and watched nearly 22 million video streams.

Adobe's next move? John Dvorak had a delightfully curmudgeonly idea, suggesting that Adobe might well try to get back at Microsoft by releasing its Creative Suite for Linux. As they used to say in Mad magazine, file that one under "Scenes We'd Like to See."

Click here for more stories on tech and the Beijing Olympics.

Does the world really need another software add-on product?

That was my first question to Pat Sullivan, a serial software entrepreneur who started ACT and SalesLogix CRM. What was so broken that needed to be fixed with his latest company, Flypaper Studio?

CEO Pat Sullivan

(Credit: Flypaper Studio)

I suppose you could ask the same question about any number of so-called Web 2.0 apps that have appeared in the last couple of years. Still, as a former heavy-duty ACT user, I was especially curious to hear Sullivan's explanation.

The way Sullivan explains it, we're basically talking about something akin to Flash animations for dummies (my take.) With roughly a couple of million professional Flash programmers out there, ginning up fancy pages for their clients, the idea behind Flypaper is to give non-programmers the ability to repurpose that professional content. And, best of all, without paying anything extra for the "privilege." With so many companies in the United States battling the sub-prime blues, any cost-saving idea is worth serious consideration.

Flypaper dashboard

"There was a big problem in that Adobe Flash...is unavailable to the masses. The only way a mere mortal can do something really cool on a Web site or in a presentation is to hire a Flash programmer for a lot of money," said Sullivan. "They deliver (the finished project) to you in a form you can never edit or change. You're tethered to that programmer. We came to believe that that was really a big problem."

The project recently moved out of beta testing and is being offered in a free general release as well as a professional version for $195 per seat. The paid version also lets customers poll data through Web services and includes up to one gigabyte of storage.

I don't know if Flypaper's destiny is to remain an independent company or become a cool feature in another company's product portfolio. But the idea is intriguing. Flypaper would help businesses bypass pricey tech gatekeepers, who otherwise would be able to demand extra payment for extra work on their creations. As someone working in the Fourth Estate, I can't help but note the irony here. Over the last several years, so many techies have expressed delight at how technology was allowing the masses to bypass the former gatekeepers (ie: the press) to get their message out to the wider world. Now, it's come full circle. The implications potentially are profound. But that's fodder for another day.

Flypaper forms screen

In the meantime, the business plan was compelling enough to convince Sierra Ventures and SCF Arizona of Phoenix to supply $3.5 million in funding to Flypaper. The announcement hits the wire today. Last February, both organizations were participants in the first round of funding for the Phoenix-based company.

One immediate hurdle is the absence of enthusiasm among most regular people to try their hand at coding. Even if this is as simple as Flypaper claims-and nothing's ever as simple as they say in a press briefing--there's a lot of missionary work remaining. Flypaper will need to convince businesses its product is worth their peoples' time and invest the effort in training them. Corporate marketing departments and content creators will understand the gist of that argument without much trouble. But that's only a small part of any organization.

Sullivan says he heard similar arguments when he was selling contact management software.

"With ACT, there was a certain amount time the salesperson had to invest to get what they wanted out of it," he said. "But once they caught vision of what they wanted to do, they invested the time. I think the same thing will happen here...this is kind of like ACT in the beginning, where you had to convince people that yeah, you can do it. Every product has its market mountain to climb. That's part of the fun of it."

With the arrival of its online office product, Adobe Systems is putting Microsoft and Google on notice that viable alternatives do exist to the industry's reigning hegemons. What sort of impact the new products will have obviously won't be known for months. But the release is intriguing a lot of people who have weighed into the blogosphere conversation today.

This nifty-looking application suite allows users to create word processing documents, share files, convert PDFs, and hold Web conferences. Adobe also took the wraps off Acrobat 9, which includes support for Flash. You can test out the office suite with the beta of Acrobat.com that became available today.

Acrobat 9, set to reach stores in July, will be priced differently, according to feature functionality. The Standard version is priced at $299 or $99 to upgrade, Pro for $449 or $159 to upgrade, and Pro Extended for $699 or $229 to upgrade. Pro Extended also comes with Adobe Presenter, which can connect to Microsoft PowerPoint 2007.

Does it make sense for your needs? And where is Adobe heading with its product plans? Check out this video I did earlier with CNET's Elsa Wenzel, who offers her impressions after giving Adobe's product suite a run-through.

Was Steve Jobs trying to send an unofficial message to Adobe Systems? Something on the order of "get it in gear, guys, if you want to stay on my VIP list"?

As my colleague Tom Krazit reported Tuesday afternoon, Jobs used the Apple shareholders' meeting to publicly dismiss the the full-blown PC Flash version as "too slow to be useful" on the iPhone. He then went on to describe the mobile version--Flash Lite--as "not capable of being used with the Web."

That's an unusual--albeit refreshingly frank--way to talk in public about a business partner. Give Jobs credit for speaking his mind, although I very much doubt Adobe appreciated his candor.

I tried to get a comment from Adobe, which has worked closely with Apple over the years. Will Flash be supported on the iPhone or not? Here's the official non-response, response to my query:

""Flash and Flash Lite are a huge success. All major handset manufacturers worldwide license Flash today delivering a broad range of mobile devices ranging from feature phones to smartphones and consumer electronic devices. With more than 450 million Flash-enabled mobile devices shipped worldwide and 150 percent year-over-year growth we are on track to see 1 billion Flash enabled devices by 2010. Consumers demand a rich Web experience on any device and platform and Flash delivers just that. We look forward to our continued relationship with industry leaders to deliver engaging experiences to consumers worldwide."

Thin gruel. Hopefully, I can get a fuller answer later on.

Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen

(Credit: Charles Cooper/CNET News.com)

Good morning--belatedly, of course, to any folks living outside Pacific Time--from Adobe's San Francisco event Monday where the company is gathering developers supporting its much-ballyhooed Adobe Integrated Runtime software, or AIR. By now, all the world has read the first round of stories since the company made sure to brief everyone prior to Monday's "official" release. (Here's the link to our earlier AIR piece.)

I'll be blogging the event so tune back in for updates.

I'm looking forward to seeing what The New York Times has in store. I was talking with a couple of its developers. That's right--the Gray Lady is in the development business. That was news to me, but they say they've been working under the radar on some projects and ShiftD is the first fruits of their labors. They actually pushed the button last night around midnight, but some of the wires got crossed. Needless to say, the two guys from The Times who are demoing here didn't get much sleep. But they're mainlining coffee so I'm confident they'll last until their time slot.

*****

Shantanu Narayen, who took over as CEO from Bruce Chizen, is talking about a future filled with "rich, engaging online experiences." (If I had a nickel for every time I've heard that line. Oh well, that's part of every strategic overview spiel.)

He's talking about a new generation of devices coming to market that will take advantage of the proliferation of rich content and applications. And of course, the ability to work offline with the connectivity of the Web. (Can you spell A-I-R?)

*****

Adobe CTO Kevin Lynch

(Credit: Charles Cooper/CNET News.com)

Kevin Lynch just took the podium to give an AIR demo. He's showing off applications from different platforms--yes, Mac and Linux included--where AIR comes into play. He threw in a plug for the potential of AIR to give Linux a big shot in the arm. The product will be ready sometime later in the year.

He said the ability to reach mobile devices is where AIR may really have an impact. The product's still in concept stage but he talked about an AIR app for a small form factor. "The design center of what we build will shift" toward mobile devices first. "That's going to be liberating. Coming down from a big screen to a small screen doesn't really work that well."

Lynch just asked for a show of hands, how many people in the audience thought that was a workable idea? Looks like most people here agree.

*****

Lynch just clarified: the Linux version isn't yet ready for prime time. Still some tweaking to do but it's on the way.

Narayen is back on stage with Lynch to take questions and said the strategy will be "AIR anywhere." Unfortunately, no word from Adobe on what Apple might do. "Apple's a partner," he said. "You really have to talk to them about the road map. We're excited about seeing it on iPhones." Duh.

The R&D guys from The Times are onstage to demo ShifD. The product is still in beta and still has a few bugs. Drag content from a Web page to the Times' AIR app--in this case it was a smartphone. You're able to pull up the info, and it appeared seamless.

The Times is also working on an SMS way to send the content as a text message to your ShifD account, where it appears as an AIR app. (This will be available in another couple of days.) The same principle applies here as it did during the days when cut and paste really was cut and paste.

*****

FedEx is here. Its appointed rep is giving a dutifully company commercial on its AIR product. It's got all the expected shipping extras. Once logged in to the system, a user can pull shipment information based on the tracking number, filtering it every which way from Sunday. The product's on a limited beta for the next month. Once the company airs it out, so to speak, the plan is to roll it out globally.

The guy from MFG.com is taking his turn and I feel for him. He's going through demo hell right now, and the audience's attention is wandering while Adobe's technicians try to repair the glitch. Glancing around the auditorium, I just noticed that lots of guys turning out for the event are sporting chrome domes similar to yours truly. Call it geek chic or maybe there's something in the water in the Bay Area. Bald is beautiful, baby.

*****

Lynch and Demo conferences impresario Chris Shipley are onstage for a one-on-one ruminating about the state of software. Lynch obviously is bright but Shipley is a smart cookie. We used to work together at the now-defunct Interchange project (subsequently sold by Ziff-Davis to AT&T). She's worked hard, and it's great to see her inherit the role of (not-so) elder stateswoman. Lynch made an intriguing comment about the future of free software and a possible "sea change" on the horizon. I'm going to try to get him to elaborate during the lunch break.

*****

So I caught up with Lynch, who said that he and the Adobe brain trust envision a transition where "free" (for the user) may become the operative word. (I stress the word may.) The future's still hard to read, but he thinks it could feature a far more prominent role for advertising-supported options and premium subscriptions for products companies currently charge for.

Adobe's already dipping its toe in that pool. Premier Express, for instance, allows users to remix video. It doesn't cost you a penny but Adobe gets a revenue cut from videos that wind up on MTV.com, Photobucket, or YouTube.

"It's a lot like the move toward graphical user interfaces," Lynch told me. "That didn't happen overnight. It took awhile. We'll see what happens."

AOL, as expected, trotted out the AIR-based file-management application version of its Xdrive application. (Check out Rafe Needleman's review by clicking here.) The company also showed off an AIR version of AOL Top 100.

AOL brings AIR to Xdrive.

Marc Benioff of Salesforce.com is on stage now and he's in danger of putting the audience to sleep. Not because he's boring--Marc is anything but. The problem is that the big guy seems to be on auto-pilot and has lapsed into one stemwinder of a company commercial.

Marc Benioff of Salesforce.com

After 10 minutes, he's getting to the news--an AIR tool kit for developers who write apps for the company's software platform.

Yahoo's on deck but I get the gist of what's going on. For Adobe, this is an important step. But the salivating over how to manipulate rich Internet applications may be premature. My colleague at our ZDNet sister site, Larry Dignan, nailed it earlier in the day when he wrote:

"I haven't had that "A ha!" moment where a hybrid application is a must have."

Bingo. Most of the demos I saw today were cool but what the heck am I supposed to do with them? Maybe by the next "Engage" conference a year from now, we'll have a clearer idea where this is heading.