Fred’s blog post today is about how new and powerful HTML5 apps are emerging, giving the new Kindle Cloud Reader as an example. The Cloud Reader is also an example of something else: if you tax a system too much people will find ways to work around it. This is highly relevant to anyone running or starting a marketplace. You can’t be greedy! (Sorry, Gordon). I had written a while back – in the context of eBook pricing – how Apple’s take rate of 30% was significantly too high. The Kindle Cloud ...

Fred’s blog post today is about how new and powerful HTML5 apps are emerging, giving the new Kindle Cloud Reader as an example. The Cloud Reader is also an example of something else: if you tax a system too much people will find ways to work around it. This is highly relevant to anyone running or starting a marketplace. You can’t be greedy! (Sorry, Gordon). I had written a while back – in the context of eBook pricing – how Apple’s take rate of 30% was significantly too high. The Kindle Cloud ...

Managed to get into Google+ last night and here are some very early impressions. First, there is a lot to learn and explore. They clearly built a ton of different things and it will take folks, myself included, a while to figure it all out. It does feel a bit like they wanted to take on Twitter, Tumblr and Facebook in one fell swoop, which is a tall order. Second, it does still feel a bit rushed because stuff doesn’t hang together all that well yet. For instance, navigating from circles to th...

Managed to get into Google+ last night and here are some very early impressions. First, there is a lot to learn and explore. They clearly built a ton of different things and it will take folks, myself included, a while to figure it all out. It does feel a bit like they wanted to take on Twitter, Tumblr and Facebook in one fell swoop, which is a tall order. Second, it does still feel a bit rushed because stuff doesn’t hang together all that well yet. For instance, navigating from circles to th...

I am excited on many levels to see Google release Google+. First, it was about time that Facebook faced some head on competition. If nothing else it will make Facebook better. Competition is a healthy thing. Second, I like the idea of trying a different cut on how to organize people and relationships. We have had friends and followers, groups and lists, and now we have circles (incidentally, Etsy has had circles for a while). There are two important issues that I am really curious about when ...

I am excited on many levels to see Google release Google+. First, it was about time that Facebook faced some head on competition. If nothing else it will make Facebook better. Competition is a healthy thing. Second, I like the idea of trying a different cut on how to organize people and relationships. We have had friends and followers, groups and lists, and now we have circles (incidentally, Etsy has had circles for a while). There are two important issues that I am really curious about when ...

Despite their best efforts to screw up the Mac client, I still love Skype both as a consumer service and as an independent company. Back when eBay decided to spin out Skype to private investors instead of waiting and spinning it out to eBay holders I was surprised (to put it mildly). Now I am equally surprised at the thought of Skype selling to Google or Facebook instead of going public. Does the team behind Skype have so little faith in their ability to be a meaningful independent company? S...

Despite their best efforts to screw up the Mac client, I still love Skype both as a consumer service and as an independent company. Back when eBay decided to spin out Skype to private investors instead of waiting and spinning it out to eBay holders I was surprised (to put it mildly). Now I am equally surprised at the thought of Skype selling to Google or Facebook instead of going public. Does the team behind Skype have so little faith in their ability to be a meaningful independent company? S...

While I have a feeling that Larry Page won’t take any of my suggestions (darn), I am happy to see him come out swinging hard. What a welcome contrast to when Jerry Yang took over as CEO at Yahoo. Several people have written that it is a bad idea to have a corporate wide bonus depending on the achievement of social goals. I happen to disagree. Social is pervasive and google is behind, so in fact everyone in the company should be thinking about how they can contribute to fixing that. It would b...

While I have a feeling that Larry Page won’t take any of my suggestions (darn), I am happy to see him come out swinging hard. What a welcome contrast to when Jerry Yang took over as CEO at Yahoo. Several people have written that it is a bad idea to have a corporate wide bonus depending on the achievement of social goals. I happen to disagree. Social is pervasive and google is behind, so in fact everyone in the company should be thinking about how they can contribute to fixing that. It would b...

If there was any doubt, the iPad is a huge winner for Apple with 7.3 million units shipped in the last quarter. Casual observation from flying a fair bit has made that obvious over the last few months. You can’t walk through a packed air plane (and they are mostly packed these days) without seeing a ton of iPads. Most people are watching movies on theirs, some play games and very few do anything else (some email, some web browsing). What one doesn’t see at all – so far – are Android tablets. ...

If there was any doubt, the iPad is a huge winner for Apple with 7.3 million units shipped in the last quarter. Casual observation from flying a fair bit has made that obvious over the last few months. You can’t walk through a packed air plane (and they are mostly packed these days) without seeing a ton of iPads. Most people are watching movies on theirs, some play games and very few do anything else (some email, some web browsing). What one doesn’t see at all – so far – are Android tablets. ...

I am thrilled to see Larry Page take over as CEO from Eric Schmidt. In a post a few months back I had expressed my worry that Google was headed the way of Yahoo under too much “professional management” and not enough visionary founder leadership (contrasting it at the time with Facebook). Instead of a list of 6 things that he should do, I believe Larry really only needs to succeed at one: re-establish clarity of vision for the company. The vision I would love to see Google embrace is: Google ...

I am thrilled to see Larry Page take over as CEO from Eric Schmidt. In a post a few months back I had expressed my worry that Google was headed the way of Yahoo under too much “professional management” and not enough visionary founder leadership (contrasting it at the time with Facebook). Instead of a list of 6 things that he should do, I believe Larry really only needs to succeed at one: re-establish clarity of vision for the company. The vision I would love to see Google embrace is: Google ...

Apple app store subscription policy is a clear case of overreaching. I have written before about how I don’t think the 30% take rate for Apple is justified or sustainable. Extending that pricing to an ongoing relationship is particularly problematic. The argument – made by no less than Jobs himself – that Apple should be entitled to a 30% cut for a “new subscriber” seems to suggest that these subscribers simply would not exist without Apple. While true that Apple has built a hugely innovative...

Apple app store subscription policy is a clear case of overreaching. I have written before about how I don’t think the 30% take rate for Apple is justified or sustainable. Extending that pricing to an ongoing relationship is particularly problematic. The argument – made by no less than Jobs himself – that Apple should be entitled to a 30% cut for a “new subscriber” seems to suggest that these subscribers simply would not exist without Apple. While true that Apple has built a hugely innovative...

Whether or not you like Google+ one thing is clear: Google is all in on this one. Unlike Wave or Buzz which were halfhearted launches at best, Google+ is being woven deeply into everything Google does, including of course search, maps and Android. This is an all out assault with all of Google’s resources applied to it and anyone who dismisses it does so at their own peril and is ignoring an important historical precedent. Google’s efforts here are reminiscent of Microsoft’s push into the appl...

Whether or not you like Google+ one thing is clear: Google is all in on this one. Unlike Wave or Buzz which were halfhearted launches at best, Google+ is being woven deeply into everything Google does, including of course search, maps and Android. This is an all out assault with all of Google’s resources applied to it and anyone who dismisses it does so at their own peril and is ignoring an important historical precedent. Google’s efforts here are reminiscent of Microsoft’s push into the appl...

Yesterday it was revealed that Microsoft is clearly using Google search results and people’s clicks as an input to Bing’s algorithms. That raises a bunch of interesting questions about who owns what online. First, let’s talk about where Microsoft could have this data from. There are two possible sources: Internet Explorer and any Microsoft browser plugins (e.g., conceivably something like Silverlight could do this). In either case this may or may not be a violation of the terms of service tha...

Yesterday it was revealed that Microsoft is clearly using Google search results and people’s clicks as an input to Bing’s algorithms. That raises a bunch of interesting questions about who owns what online. First, let’s talk about where Microsoft could have this data from. There are two possible sources: Internet Explorer and any Microsoft browser plugins (e.g., conceivably something like Silverlight could do this). In either case this may or may not be a violation of the terms of service tha...