July 2008
22 posts
Official Google Blog: More transparency in... →
Lest anybody think that I am anti-google based on my previous post, here is a great example of google doing the right thing by increasing transparency on how they customize search results. Now all that would be needed is an opportunity for endusers to opt out of geo and recent search tracking on this information screen.
Clickable Series B
Clickable announced their Series B funding today. David Kidder blogged about it and this is the company’s official press release. I am traveling but will provide more information and commentary when I am back.
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With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility
Jason Calacanis takes google to task for becoming a content company and competing with publishers. While much of what Jason writes may seem clear to folks who have been competing with the content parts of google, I have come to believe that it is far from clear to googlers themselves. This is based on a number of conversations I have had with googlers on various inititiatives. Most of them seem...
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File System versus Database
At OSCON, I listened to a bunch of talks about distributed file systems (including HDFS) and scalable databases (including hypertable). What is intriguing is that both need to solve a similar problem at their core because they store stuff across machines: they need a way of tracking where stuff is. In HDFS that’s the job of the namenode and in hypertable the hyperspace — which in...
Scobleizer — The Silicon Valley VC Disease →
Interesting discussion about the question of whether the iPhone is a separate market, including a great comment by David Hornik.
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Is the iPhone a Separate Market?
The answer: It depends (on your perspective). I have had some fascinating conversations with folks in both advertising and games about the iPhone. There is an obvious chasm between incumbents who have existing businesses on other phones and folks starting up to target the iPhone. Those with existing businesses usually make an argument along the following lines — by the end of the year...
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OSCON Keynotes and USV Portfolio
Had a great time at OSCON yesterday. Day started with inspiring keynotes by Tim O’Reilly on the challenges for open source and by Chrstine Peterson from the Foresight Institute on Open Source Physical Security. Tim mentioned cloud computing and mobile as the #1 and #2 challenges for open source. Just as open source has made a lot of progress these two new trends threaten to move much of...
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NYT - LinkedIn Partnership Has Huge Potential
A while ago I wrote a post on “who will be my New York Times?” Today the NYT announced a partnership with LinkedIn that suggests that it may well be the New York Times itself! I have long thought that the social graph and industry information on LinkedIn would provide an ideal filter for determining relevant stories. I hope this means that I can soon get a personalized news feed...
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10gen
Just announced our investment in 10gen. Fantastic team working on an opensource cloud platform. Look forward to developing scalable sites and apps without having to worry about managing machines ever again.
Press Release Mumbo Jumbo
It makes sense for press releases to conform to a standard structure including a summary first paragraph and quotes for use in articles. But there is no good reason for the awful phrasing found in most press releases, the insertion of way too many buzzwords, and the use of generalized superlatives. Together they form what I call press release mumbo jumbo. I encourage all entrepreneurs to rid their...
Taking Control of Your Online Persona
If I meet with someone I generally google them beforehand. I assume others do the same with me. I believe this will be the norm for pretty much anyone soon if it is not already. I am therefore surprised to see how many people are not in control of their online persona. The only information that google turns up is what others have written about them. That may well include quotes take out of...
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Great Window on Science
The New York Times has a great article today on Edward O. Wilson. Since my undergraduate days I have been fascinated by his work on evolution. I loved his book Consilience which is incredibly thought provoking. But the real reason to read the article is to get a sense of how slowly the wheels of science can turn. For instance, it refers to Wilson’s 1975 book Sociobiology which had ideas...
Gaining Influence by Giving Up Control
We tend to be minority investors, which means that at least at the outset we (potentially together with other investors) own less than 50 percent of a business. That means we do not have control in the traditional sense. On the vast majority of issues, the board simply cannot just tell the founders what to do. But it does not mean that we lack influence. We tend to spend a lot of time...
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The Day Mobile Changed
The new iPhone is out and the App Store has opened. Apple’s servers appear to be melting down (which is sure to have folks ticked off). But those folks who have successfully upgraded (or bought a new phone) and installed apps appear to be ecstatic about the experience. Unless Apple totally melts down this will be the day that mobile changed.
Update: Looks like the activation meltdown is...
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Microsoft Wants You to Buy a New Computer
My laptop is getting a bit long in the tooth and like most Windows machines it is slowing down considerably. Tom Evslin wrote about this phenomenon earlier this year and came up with the wonderful image of barnacles. Oddly though he did not mention file fragmentation as one of the biggest sources of barnacles. Windows XP does a terrible job at keeping the disk from becoming completely jumbled...
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URL Shortening Considered Harmful
There has been a lot of praise for bit.ly, the new entrant in the URL shortening field created by betaworks. Now I do on occasion have a need for URL shortening for either tweeting or emailing, but other than that I consider the practice harmful (it should not even be necessary for email if email clients weren’t so awful).
Why do I consider URL shortening harmful? First, because good URLs...
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The iPhone’s Gaming Mettle →
Great summary of why the iPhone is such a game changer (pun intended). Meant to pull this information together, but much easier to link to it.
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Barack Obama and Winning (at Tennis and in...
My tennis game has improved a lot over the last few years. Some of that has to do with playing more often but most of it is the result of changing my attitude towards taking shots. For the longest time I simply could not keep myself from hitting the ball hard all the time and trying to win a point quickly. That resulted in many beautiful shots but even more unforced errors. I am simply not good...
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Creative Difference in Teams
A frequently asked question in panels on startups is whether it is possible to start a company by oneself. The answer is clearly yes and it has been done many times before. But there is a lot to be said for being able to work as a team. There are obvious benefits like being able to better cover the many disciplines required in a startup (for instance, we usually prefer founding teams that have...
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You Get What You Measure: The Problem with CPC
Had lunch yesterday with my friend Alan Gould who co-founded IAG Research and recently sold the company to Nielsen. We talked a lot about the various types of measurement available in Internet advertising and how they influence ad buying. Alan is working hard to build a measurement platform for brand impact of display advertising and I believe that this is a crucial missing element. Despite...
Partnership Dynamics
The VC decision making process can feel opaque and at times even capricious for entrepreneurs. Part of the reason is that many VC firms have complex internal partnership dynamics. This is especially true for larger firms with many general partners, since those firms need to have a way to come to decisions on deals. That often means that some partners are more senior and have greater say. It helps...