Un poco de todo - Carlos Domingo Official Blog

Windows live and start.com

I have been checking Windows Live, looks pretty good and I am getting a Windows Live Mail account to check it out.
My first impression is that it looks strikingly similar to www.start.com that I used for a while some time ago. However, both pages are pointing to different places and have different content but they certainly seem to share technology, the layout and a lot of the functionality. I wonder whether start.com will eventually disappear and be absorbed by live.com

CD

The beauty of blogs: design simplicity

One of the things that I like the most of weblogs is that the web sites are fairly simple (and if you are using an RSS Reader, you do not even have to see the web site) so the only thing that really counts is which font are you using. My sister is using a very annoying font in her blog and I am trying to get her to change it. Browsers do not allow to many font choices to start with and people should stay with simple fonts like Helvetica or Arial (btw, check this link for an interesting story about how Microsoft made Arial the most popular font and here for a test to see whether you can differentiate Helvetica from Arial). At the end of the day, the important thing of a blog is the content and the opinion of the blogger so keep it simple and use a simple font.

How safe is Google revenue?

Gadgetopia is joining FM Publishing network of sites and I thought that the reasons behind it, as described in their announcement, were very interesting: "Google Adsense has tanked". The reason as to why is not clear but it this starts to become a trend, this could pose a threat to Google's one and only revenue stream, click-through advertisement tight to search. In today's Web 2.0 world. this is viewed as the most efficient way for companies to spend their advertising money, much like in Web 1.0 Double Click's banners was. So if click through starts declining and advertisers start looking for alternatives, this could create a serious issue for Google.
Interestingly, Henry Blodget is reporting the opposite after an informal poll.

CD

How many cell phones out there?

The World Summit on the Information Society in Tunis has just released some interesting information on cell phone penetration. Italy and UK are leading the pack with 109.4% and 102.8% penetration (Spain is fourth with 93.9%) but the interesting part is that China is number one in absolute numbers with 334.8 millons but just 25.5% penetration, so huge growth opportunities are available. The US is second in absolute numbers with 181.1 millions and 61% pentration, a lot lower than European countries. Surprinsingly, Japan only has 71.6% penetration of cell phones, I thought that it will be much higher.

CD

Buying stocks with your cell phone

Just heard yesterday over dinner a friend of mine mentioning that in Japan, 20% of the stocks that are traded over the Internet are traded from cell phones. No idea whether this is true but looking at how much people use Internet applications from their cell phones in Tokyo I can certainly believe this. Japan is definitely ahead of the curve in Internet access via cell phones.

CD

Are we really not in a bubble?

Just finished reading Battelle's article in The New York Times about the current IT situation and whether we are in the middle of another bubble or not. I certainly agree with him that "the Internet is exciting again" but I disagree that we are not in a bubble just because "the financiers aren't driving" and there is a "lack of public offerings" (there are some though, unprofitable buy.com is filing to go public).

I think that one of the main differences between this potential bubble and the previous one is that the exit strategy is not to IPO anymore but to be acquired by Google, Yahoo, Microsoft or AOL, witness Keyhole, Picasa, WeblogsInc., Flickr and many others. Even now there are rumors that Riya, a web site that automatically categorizes pictures with people's names using face recognition technology, is being acquired by Google for up to $60MM (other rumors claim a $40MM price). That web site is still in Alpha testing and has no customers (and presumably no revenue stream) so when someone like Google is willing to pay that top dollar for it, it makes me think that we might actually be on a bubble.

Carlos

Dropping some blogs from my RSS Reader

One good advice that I got at the session on information overload at Mind Camp was to cap the number of blogs that you are reading, So now I just got my coleage Michael Gerlek starting a blog, an another coleage, Ron Lake, recently starting a new one, so I decided to take that advice seriously and drop some blogs. Which blogs to drop first? Well, first, Weblogs Inc. blogs, I am tired of the Unofficial blog of ... that is written by a guy is paid to that pretty much blog about either news or other blogs but provides little or no new information and very mild opinons and because he is paid to blog he just keeps blogging and blogging, and blogging to eternity. Last example, on the Unnofficial Apple Blog I just got this very "interesting" post about Apple opening an Apple Store in Salt Lake City. No comments about Apple strategy with retail stores, how many they have, what has been their revenue since they started that strategy, whether their existing channel has been affected, just a totally irrelevant post about yet another Apple store in the middle of nowhere being open. Blogs are about opinion, if I want to read just news I already have newspapers or online news. Moreover, the blogger is saying "If you're going to attend the opening in Salt Lake City, please send us links to your photos and reports! Good luck and have fun" so I might even get pictures in yet another irrelevant post about such an "important" event. Enough. Bye, bye, Weblogs Inc. blog, not reading you anymore.

CD

Cool pics of Barcelona

The Museum of History of Barcelona has post the results of a photography contest with some really cool pics of the city, check it out here.

Create your own Web 2.0 company

Came across this post, I thought it was hilarious, try it out.

Carlos

Elvis is alive!!!

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Originally uploaded by carlosd - unpokodtodo.

Not really, I am just playing around with the blogging extensions of Flickr and I wanted to try posting a pic so I picked up this one from last summer in Las Vegas with Mari....

CD