Steven's Thoughts

iphone - Reenvision your Website design

All my friends have an iphone. I don't have one and I have to admit I am jealous and at times I've been a hater. But the interface is absolutely amazing. An interface that allows you to move and expand things with your fingers. This is not only going to be the future of mobile computing, but this is going to change any computer interface. Imagine being able to truly interact with the computer the same way you would with when you where a kid with your Lego blocks. This kind of interaction will help us understand data in a much more intuitive way then through excel pivot tables. It will not require someone to be an excel maven to be able to analyze data.

The iphone allows us to start designing Websites that are going to take advantage of this kind of interactivity.

Check out Jeff Han show off a cheap, scalable multi-touch and pressure-sensitive computer screen interface that may spell the end of point-and-click.


 

Microsoft has now developed this application for Windows 7

Why has the video Chocolate Rain been viewed 12,001,015 and counting? All is it is a song sung by a deep voiced 25-year old named Tay Zonday.


Dr Pepper recently jumped on the viral bandwagon and decided to make a music video to celebrate their new Cherry Chocolate beverage and used Tay Zonday -- of course the song is called Cherry Chocolate Rain.

Tay is blowing up. Various professional musicians such as John Mayer and Green Day drummer Tre Cool have covered the song.

So why is video so catchy? He is sort of Steve Urkel looking and repeats the theme often enough that it sticks in your mind. Well, I don't know. But if you do let me know.

What impact are videos like the Obama Girl going to have on the presidential campaign?

More people are getting their news from sources like Youtube. Even over the top publicity like this video should provide more exposure for a candidate.

People are still getting a kick out of the Hillary 1984 video. Viral videos are becoming an important trend that the progressive candidates will have to embrace.   

I have been wanting to post this for a while.

Please help save internet radio.

I love pandora.com -- no I don't think you understand -- I love pandora.com. I have found so much interesting music through this site. It is so much better then the collaborative filtering that is done through sites as amazon.com. The music that is streamed to me is not based on people who bought the same music as me, but based on my personal preferences.

I am sure Itunes as well as Amazon have made a ton of money from me. I must have downloaded as least 10 MB of legal music, just because if pandora.


So why am I blogging about this again? Well, on March 2, 2007 the Copyright Royalty Board, which oversees sound recording royalties paid by Internet radio services, increased Internet radio's royalty burden between 300 and 1200 percent and thereby jeopardized the industry’s future. And this could end me gettig to know all this new music.

You can go to savenetradio.org and call your representative to support the H.R. 2060, the Internet Radio Equality Act.

               
 

Kids are different they: Only watch one hour of TV a week Most of it is recorded on a DVR They don't watch commercials They block online ads Don't use e-mail Their cell is the primary communication channel Text message all the time (4000 plus) This is an interesting panel on why advertising might be dead as Guy Kawasaki moderates a panel of high school and college students to uncover what young people are doing with their cell phones, cameras, computers, game counsels, and parents credit cards. This is a Churchill Club event. 9/21/06

User-friendly no longer means easy to use navigation, a good site should also understand your preferences. I  love that I can get a book from AMAZON delivered to my door the very next day after I click on only one button. No credit card information, no address needed. They have my profile and serve me better because of that. There are a number of sites that make this easier for me because I have spent the time for them to understand me. These preferences are my online identity. In the future this online identify will be portable and I can share this with any site that I want to.

Dick Hardt, CEO of sxip gave an interesting presentation at the recent Open Source Convention. I recommend watching it out.

"as the online world moves towards web 2.0, the concept of digital identity is evolving, and existing identity systems are falling behind. new systems are emerging that place identity in the hands of users instead of directories. simple, secure and open, these systems will provide the scalable, user-centric mechanism for authenticating and managing real-world identities online, enabling truly distinct and portable Internet identities."

Finally a useful SMS application.

I know this is not new, but I have been using this everyday and it really is very helpful. Just send a text message to 46645 with the name of a place you want to go to and the city it is in. For example; Mundial Bar New York City. A few seconds later a text messages comes back with the address. Very simple. I am not sure how they make money with this, but it works for me.

Most firms have have struggled with video content on their sites. In the last year due to increase in broadband and overall interest in online video more firms are launching video casts.

Amazon will start broadcasting a weekly live program with Bill Maher that will also be archived.   

There are a number of sites dedicated to video content:

http://www.youtube.com/

http://video.google.com/

http://www.ifilm.com/

http://www.boreme.com

The future is in online video.

While researching for new ideas for kasina's monthly Industry Analysis, I came across blogpulse, a site that tracks trends and 'buzz' by monitoring what's being said on 11 million blogs. I wish I'd thought of this.

Interesting Web 2.0 predictions from Randy Charles Morin for the year 2006:

1. Let's start with some easy ones. Somebody will buy YouTube for $millions. I love YouTube.
2. Somebody will release a new version of RSS or a competing syndication format.
3. Yahoo will release RSS integration in Yahoo! Mail and Microsoft will release RSS integration in Outlook. Although both will be incomparable to Attensa and NewsGator, they will dominate the new adoption of RSS and will become the top two RSS clients sometime in 2007. Microsoft will trail Yahoo! in 2006, but surpass them in 2007.
4. The number of blogs in the United States will exceed the number of citizens.
5. Some Web 2.0 companies that failed to get purchased and didn't have a revenue model will begin laying off employees. The majority of the fall out will likely not occur till 2007.
6. The number of AdSense-based (or YPN or Chitika) Web 2.0 start-ups will accelerate, while free, no ad Web 2.0 start-ups will stagnate and might drop off.
7. MSN, Google and Yahoo! will continue to compete for the API marketplace. A new API will be released by one the big three in every month of the year.
8. Advertising on the Web will continue to accelerate, but the massive number of new publishers and new ad servers will create a lot of chaos in the marketplace. More than one ad server will fail to make their payments to publishers and several, most, if not all ad servers will be sued by advertisers for click-fraud. Yahoo and Google will prevail through the storm, maybe Microsoft too!
9. Dave Winer will get pissed at somebody for doing something. And he'll blog about how much of a jerk he is for several months. I'm guessing it has to do with videocasting.
10. And here's the cake. RSS-based appliances will make there debut. Recipes on fridges, microwaves, ovens and through the roof from there.

Chocolate Rain

Why has the video Chocolate Rain been viewed 12,001,015 and counting? All is it is a song sung by a deep voiced 25-year old named Tay Zonday.


Dr Pepper recently jumped on the viral bandwagon and decided to make a music video to celebrate their new Cherry Chocolate beverage and used Tay Zonday -- of course the song is called Cherry Chocolate Rain.

Tay is blowing up. Various professional musicians such as John Mayer and Green Day drummer Tre Cool have covered the song.

So why is video so catchy? He is sort of Steve Urkel looking and repeats the theme often enough that it sticks in your mind. Well, I don't know. But if you do let me know.

Youtube part of the campaign - Obama Girl

What impact are videos like the Obama Girl going to have on the presidential campaign?

More people are getting their news from sources like Youtube. Even over the top publicity like this video should provide more exposure for a candidate.

People are still getting a kick out of the Hillary 1984 video. Viral videos are becoming an important trend that the progressive candidates will have to embrace.   

Save the Internet Radio

I have been wanting to post this for a while.

Please help save internet radio.

I love pandora.com -- no I don't think you understand -- I love pandora.com. I have found so much interesting music through this site. It is so much better then the collaborative filtering that is done through sites as amazon.com. The music that is streamed to me is not based on people who bought the same music as me, but based on my personal preferences.

I am sure Itunes as well as Amazon have made a ton of money from me. I must have downloaded as least 10 MB of legal music, just because if pandora.


So why am I blogging about this again? Well, on March 2, 2007 the Copyright Royalty Board, which oversees sound recording royalties paid by Internet radio services, increased Internet radio's royalty burden between 300 and 1200 percent and thereby jeopardized the industry’s future. And this could end me gettig to know all this new music.

You can go to savenetradio.org and call your representative to support the H.R. 2060, the Internet Radio Equality Act.

Next Generation Innovation 2006

               
 

Kids are different they: Only watch one hour of TV a week Most of it is recorded on a DVR They don't watch commercials They block online ads Don't use e-mail Their cell is the primary communication channel Text message all the time (4000 plus) This is an interesting panel on why advertising might be dead as Guy Kawasaki moderates a panel of high school and college students to uncover what young people are doing with their cell phones, cameras, computers, game counsels, and parents credit cards. This is a Churchill Club event. 9/21/06

Identity 2.0

User-friendly no longer means easy to use navigation, a good site should also understand your preferences. I  love that I can get a book from AMAZON delivered to my door the very next day after I click on only one button. No credit card information, no address needed. They have my profile and serve me better because of that. There are a number of sites that make this easier for me because I have spent the time for them to understand me. These preferences are my online identity. In the future this online identify will be portable and I can share this with any site that I want to.

Dick Hardt, CEO of sxip gave an interesting presentation at the recent Open Source Convention. I recommend watching it out.

"as the online world moves towards web 2.0, the concept of digital identity is evolving, and existing identity systems are falling behind. new systems are emerging that place identity in the hands of users instead of directories. simple, secure and open, these systems will provide the scalable, user-centric mechanism for authenticating and managing real-world identities online, enabling truly distinct and portable Internet identities."

Google SMS

Finally a useful SMS application.

I know this is not new, but I have been using this everyday and it really is very helpful. Just send a text message to 46645 with the name of a place you want to go to and the city it is in. For example; Mundial Bar New York City. A few seconds later a text messages comes back with the address. Very simple. I am not sure how they make money with this, but it works for me.

Do Webcasts work?

Most firms have have struggled with video content on their sites. In the last year due to increase in broadband and overall interest in online video more firms are launching video casts.

Amazon will start broadcasting a weekly live program with Bill Maher that will also be archived.   

There are a number of sites dedicated to video content:

http://www.youtube.com/

http://video.google.com/

http://www.ifilm.com/

http://www.boreme.com

The future is in online video.

Buzz Tracking

While researching for new ideas for kasina's monthly Industry Analysis, I came across blogpulse, a site that tracks trends and 'buzz' by monitoring what's being said on 11 million blogs. I wish I'd thought of this.

Web 2.0 Predictions

Interesting Web 2.0 predictions from Randy Charles Morin for the year 2006:

1. Let's start with some easy ones. Somebody will buy YouTube for $millions. I love YouTube.
2. Somebody will release a new version of RSS or a competing syndication format.
3. Yahoo will release RSS integration in Yahoo! Mail and Microsoft will release RSS integration in Outlook. Although both will be incomparable to Attensa and NewsGator, they will dominate the new adoption of RSS and will become the top two RSS clients sometime in 2007. Microsoft will trail Yahoo! in 2006, but surpass them in 2007.
4. The number of blogs in the United States will exceed the number of citizens.
5. Some Web 2.0 companies that failed to get purchased and didn't have a revenue model will begin laying off employees. The majority of the fall out will likely not occur till 2007.
6. The number of AdSense-based (or YPN or Chitika) Web 2.0 start-ups will accelerate, while free, no ad Web 2.0 start-ups will stagnate and might drop off.
7. MSN, Google and Yahoo! will continue to compete for the API marketplace. A new API will be released by one the big three in every month of the year.
8. Advertising on the Web will continue to accelerate, but the massive number of new publishers and new ad servers will create a lot of chaos in the marketplace. More than one ad server will fail to make their payments to publishers and several, most, if not all ad servers will be sued by advertisers for click-fraud. Yahoo and Google will prevail through the storm, maybe Microsoft too!
9. Dave Winer will get pissed at somebody for doing something. And he'll blog about how much of a jerk he is for several months. I'm guessing it has to do with videocasting.
10. And here's the cake. RSS-based appliances will make there debut. Recipes on fridges, microwaves, ovens and through the roof from there.