Disruptors

What to do when your social network is no longer yours?

It was just over a year ago that Facebook opened up member restrictions to move from college kids to the rest of the world. This was clearly a good strategy as Facebook now has an astronomical valuation and a huge userbase. The question is what was/is the impact on the core audience (college kids) that made the site what it is today?

There are a number of sites that have sprung up like College Tonight and ConnectU, but none of them seem to be as captivating as Facebook itself. As TechCrunch's Mark Hendrickson writes:

Let's say you … Read more

Google's Android acquisition appears to bring mobile goodness

As Tom Krazit reports on the One More Thing blog Google is getting ready to unveil its Android phone software.

Google acquired Android in August of 2005 (most reports say it cost far less than $100m) and now two years later seems to have created what will become the dominant force in the handset operating system arena. Why? Because it's an open platform, which is exactly what consumers want and the carriers hate. Plus now that it's Google, the carriers will have no choice to all get in line once one of them (it looks like VZW first) … Read more

Signs of flailing: BEA now a Web 2.0 company?

My post on whether BEA Systems is screwed hasn't even been up for a full day, and the company decided to one-up me with this press release, marking a 180-degree turn from everything they have been pushing for the last two years.

The company had been talking about Aqualogic as an SOA (service-oriented architecture) story, and now it's pitching it as a blog-wiki mashup: "New Web 2.0 service solutions from enterprise infrastructure software firm BEA, along with enterprise social-computing products, are designed to accelerate the next generation of user participation."

BEA is clearly trying to push outside its bread and butter, but the message doesn't make much sense in relation to how the company is positioning the rest of their products.

BEA's statement goes on to suggest that the company could also be powering buzzword-compliant Web 2.0 initiatives: "BEA's enterprise social-computing products are designed to deliver the next wave of knowledge worker productivity--vital for increased business efficiency, growth and innovation."… Read more

Worse than the old Plaxo? (Email by WebLaunch)

There is an incredibly annoying trend that I am suffering where candidates are sending me resumes using a service that basically requires me to opt-out if I don't respond to the first email. This is actually more annoying than Plaxo, which was the bane of early 2000's and has now righted its course (though I still don't use it.)

Let me just tell anyone that thinks that this is a good idea that they are dead wrong. An impersonal email to the CEO that gets resent every few days will force me to write you off and … Read more

Silicon Valley Geek-out (Ashlee Vance's book is out--finally)

My pal and host of our Open Season podcast series Mr. Ashlee Vance finally had his magic tome: Geek-Silicon Valley hit the streets. It's an entertaining read and considering that Ashlee spends the majority of his time talking smack about software companies it's good to see that he can actually write :>

Link to The Duck Rabbit minisite