A while back, I wrote that display advertising is too complicated. Today Google announced their entry into the display ad exchange business. Both in their announcement and in this conversation with Neal Mohan from Google, the idea of bringing simplicity to the market is cited as a major driving force. Google also describes the system as if it were the first display ad exchange ever. Of course the reality is a bit different, with Yahoo/Right Media and others having offered exchange capabilitie...

A while back, I wrote that display advertising is too complicated. Today Google announced their entry into the display ad exchange business. Both in their announcement and in this conversation with Neal Mohan from Google, the idea of bringing simplicity to the market is cited as a major driving force. Google also describes the system as if it were the first display ad exchange ever. Of course the reality is a bit different, with Yahoo/Right Media and others having offered exchange capabilitie...

The top link on techmeme right now is yesterday’s post by Jason Calacanis titled “Yahoo committed seppukku today." It is worth reading because it powerfully (and hilariously) lays out the position that handing over search to Microsoft is a huge mistake for Yahoo. It is a position I am very familiar with, because I made much of the same argument (although in a less entertaining fashion) last May. But it is more than a year later and I am not sure the logic still applies. First, Yahoo has lost ...

The top link on techmeme right now is yesterday’s post by Jason Calacanis titled “Yahoo committed seppukku today." It is worth reading because it powerfully (and hilariously) lays out the position that handing over search to Microsoft is a huge mistake for Yahoo. It is a position I am very familiar with, because I made much of the same argument (although in a less entertaining fashion) last May. But it is more than a year later and I am not sure the logic still applies. First, Yahoo has lost ...

Much of the discussion of the real-time web has focused on content generated by humans, such as tweets. But the bigger growth over the next decade is likely to come from m2m interactions. One big source of data will be smart meters. For instance, the UK government recently unveiled a plan to equip every home with a smart meter by 2020. The real-time electricity usage data from these meters can be used for better management of consumption by individuals, companies and utilities. In addition to...

Much of the discussion of the real-time web has focused on content generated by humans, such as tweets. But the bigger growth over the next decade is likely to come from m2m interactions. One big source of data will be smart meters. For instance, the UK government recently unveiled a plan to equip every home with a smart meter by 2020. The real-time electricity usage data from these meters can be used for better management of consumption by individuals, companies and utilities. In addition to...

It is an interesting juxtaposition to have GM file for bankruptcy the same day that Microsoft launches its new search engine bing. It would be difficult to find a clearer illustration of how the shift from atoms to bits is transforming industries. It is not just the recession that is causing a smaller demand for cars – the demand will never be the same. Using the net, we can share cars more efficiently. Video conferencing reduces the need to drive for business. And streaming video (search for...

It is an interesting juxtaposition to have GM file for bankruptcy the same day that Microsoft launches its new search engine bing. It would be difficult to find a clearer illustration of how the shift from atoms to bits is transforming industries. It is not just the recession that is causing a smaller demand for cars – the demand will never be the same. Using the net, we can share cars more efficiently. Video conferencing reduces the need to drive for business. And streaming video (search for...

So Google dropped any pretense of Chrome being anything other than a full fledged entry into the browser market by introducing extensions. At the same time Microsoft has released IE8 as the latest installment for Internet Explorer and something tells me that automatic upgrades are on their way. Welcome to the latest installment of the browser wars. This wil ultimately be good news for endusers as it spurs innovation. In the meantime, it means even more of a nuisance for developers as there ar...

So Google dropped any pretense of Chrome being anything other than a full fledged entry into the browser market by introducing extensions. At the same time Microsoft has released IE8 as the latest installment for Internet Explorer and something tells me that automatic upgrades are on their way. Welcome to the latest installment of the browser wars. This wil ultimately be good news for endusers as it spurs innovation. In the meantime, it means even more of a nuisance for developers as there ar...

Fred posted on the weekend about giving Bing a chance. I am doing the same this week having set Bing as the default search engine in Firefox. My main reason is that I firmly believe in the need for search diversity. A search mono-culture would be bad for the Internet for several reasons:Too much power. Search is so central to the web experience that it provides a lot of power. That power should not be concentrated in a single player with a very high market share. I am not suggesting that Goog...

Fred posted on the weekend about giving Bing a chance. I am doing the same this week having set Bing as the default search engine in Firefox. My main reason is that I firmly believe in the need for search diversity. A search mono-culture would be bad for the Internet for several reasons:Too much power. Search is so central to the web experience that it provides a lot of power. That power should not be concentrated in a single player with a very high market share. I am not suggesting that Goog...

The frontpage of Techmeme is simply stunning at the moment. So many important things happening:Google announcing an attempt to completely remake communication and joint document prodcution with Wave. See “Went Walkabout. Brought back Google Wave” on the Google blog. Microsoft is trying to get back into the search game with Bing. It definitely looks like an attempt at a differentiated offering as can be seen in the video promoting it (although launching via a video seems a bit lame). Hulu, whi...

The frontpage of Techmeme is simply stunning at the moment. So many important things happening:Google announcing an attempt to completely remake communication and joint document prodcution with Wave. See “Went Walkabout. Brought back Google Wave” on the Google blog. Microsoft is trying to get back into the search game with Bing. It definitely looks like an attempt at a differentiated offering as can be seen in the video promoting it (although launching via a video seems a bit lame). Hulu, whi...

It’s been about a week since I made the big switch from a Windows laptop to a MacBook. Here is a quick update for all of you who are still holdouts. If you need Exchange integration (like I do), I can highly recommend Parallels 4.0. As the screenshot shows, Parallel’s “Coherence” mode lets Windows apps appear like native apps in the dock. It is also possible to associate file extensions in Finder with Windows apps, allowing me to launch Excel by double-clicking a .xls file. The clipboard work...

It’s been about a week since I made the big switch from a Windows laptop to a MacBook. Here is a quick update for all of you who are still holdouts. If you need Exchange integration (like I do), I can highly recommend Parallels 4.0. As the screenshot shows, Parallel’s “Coherence” mode lets Windows apps appear like native apps in the dock. It is also possible to associate file extensions in Finder with Windows apps, allowing me to launch Excel by double-clicking a .xls file. The clipboard work...

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 and the defrag utility that comes with Windows XP must not have been touched in a decade. I have now ...

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 and the defrag utility that comes with Windows XP must not have been touched in a decade. I have now ...