I have been trying out Bing last week, as has Fred, and the team at Clickable (and probably a lot of other folks). Generally, the verdict seems to be that it’s not terrible but has some obvious shortcomings, especially when it comes to integrating blog and very recent content. Despite these shortcomings, I do believe that Bing represents a real challenge for Google because of its design. This is not just a question of Bing adding some “bling” (could not resist) in the form of a picture on the...

I have been trying out Bing last week, as has Fred, and the team at Clickable (and probably a lot of other folks). Generally, the verdict seems to be that it’s not terrible but has some obvious shortcomings, especially when it comes to integrating blog and very recent content. Despite these shortcomings, I do believe that Bing represents a real challenge for Google because of its design. This is not just a question of Bing adding some “bling” (could not resist) in the form of a picture on the...

I wrote last September about the competing views around deflation versus inflation. Interestingly, about 9 months later we still seem don’t seem to have real clarity on the subject. Over that time we have approached deflation but there has also been a ton of government intervention, which has prompted op-eds predicting future inflation and even a new fund run by Mark Spitznagel (a long time collaborator of “Black Swan” author Nassim Taleb) to bet on inflation. On the other hand have been resp...

I wrote last September about the competing views around deflation versus inflation. Interestingly, about 9 months later we still seem don’t seem to have real clarity on the subject. Over that time we have approached deflation but there has also been a ton of government intervention, which has prompted op-eds predicting future inflation and even a new fund run by Mark Spitznagel (a long time collaborator of “Black Swan” author Nassim Taleb) to bet on inflation. On the other hand have been resp...

For the longest time I would have said that the right way to design a cloud application or service is as multi-tenant. But yesterday I was having a conversation with Peter Soderling from NY-based Stratus Security, which provides a secure managed API proxy (in closed beta). Peter said they had chosen to architect their service from day one as a multi-instance solution for added security and performance. If you are unfamiliar with the terms, a multi-tenant architecture commingles the data and p...

For the longest time I would have said that the right way to design a cloud application or service is as multi-tenant. But yesterday I was having a conversation with Peter Soderling from NY-based Stratus Security, which provides a secure managed API proxy (in closed beta). Peter said they had chosen to architect their service from day one as a multi-instance solution for added security and performance. If you are unfamiliar with the terms, a multi-tenant architecture commingles the data and p...

A long long time ago, when I was a management consultant, I did a strategy project for a large European IT company. At the same time this company was going through a “Culture Change” project with the idea of transforming itself into a fast and nimble “US like” culture, instead of its existing plodding and slow ways. The “Culture Change” project was huge and cost a small fortune. It involved a great many retreats, offsites, team activities, slogans, and so on. It went on for well over one year...

A long long time ago, when I was a management consultant, I did a strategy project for a large European IT company. At the same time this company was going through a “Culture Change” project with the idea of transforming itself into a fast and nimble “US like” culture, instead of its existing plodding and slow ways. The “Culture Change” project was huge and cost a small fortune. It involved a great many retreats, offsites, team activities, slogans, and so on. It went on for well over one year...

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...

We love investing in small and scrappy teams, but I have noticed a distinct anti-pattern that has affected many of these teams: as their site or service grows they neglect ops and it comes back to bite them. I believe the source of this pattern is twofold. First, many folks today are perfectly capable doing a fair bit of ops themselves because they have had to do it and also because there is just a ton of information available on the web. I find myself doing that when I help Susan with DailyL...

We love investing in small and scrappy teams, but I have noticed a distinct anti-pattern that has affected many of these teams: as their site or service grows they neglect ops and it comes back to bite them. I believe the source of this pattern is twofold. First, many folks today are perfectly capable doing a fair bit of ops themselves because they have had to do it and also because there is just a ton of information available on the web. I find myself doing that when I help Susan with DailyL...

On a panel at NYU last month someone asked how to make sure that having VCs on the board actually adds value. Other than saying “make sure you have the right VCs,” I thought it might be a good idea to start a series of posts addressing this question more broadly, that is, how to make sure your board is effective (independent of whether there are any VCs on it). Without further ado, here is Tip #1: communicate with individual board members outside of board meetings. Groups have their own dynam...

On a panel at NYU last month someone asked how to make sure that having VCs on the board actually adds value. Other than saying “make sure you have the right VCs,” I thought it might be a good idea to start a series of posts addressing this question more broadly, that is, how to make sure your board is effective (independent of whether there are any VCs on it). Without further ado, here is Tip #1: communicate with individual board members outside of board meetings. Groups have their own dynam...

In the mid 1990s at MIT, I spent quite a bit of time with Michael Dertouzos because we were both doing some consulting for Siemens Corporation’s IT division. Michael was heading up the Laboratory of Computer Science at MIT, which combined with the AI Lab is now MIT CSAIL. Michael was great at many things that made LCS a big success, including fund raising and attracting and supporting top talent. He was also a very quirky thinker. If you want to know just how quirky, ask me some day about his...

In the mid 1990s at MIT, I spent quite a bit of time with Michael Dertouzos because we were both doing some consulting for Siemens Corporation’s IT division. Michael was heading up the Laboratory of Computer Science at MIT, which combined with the AI Lab is now MIT CSAIL. Michael was great at many things that made LCS a big success, including fund raising and attracting and supporting top talent. He was also a very quirky thinker. If you want to know just how quirky, ask me some day about his...

Yesterday evening, NY Tech Meetup and CEA LineShows organized an event to pick a startup that would receive a free booth at the next CES. I don’t know how the presenting companies were chosen, but whoever did the initialy seleciton did a wonderful job of representing the diversity and accomplishment of NY startups. There was both hardware (Peek and MakerBot) and software/service (Livestream, Aviary, drop.io). There were all levels of funding from bootstrapped ramen-fed MakerBot to double-digi...

Yesterday evening, NY Tech Meetup and CEA LineShows organized an event to pick a startup that would receive a free booth at the next CES. I don’t know how the presenting companies were chosen, but whoever did the initialy seleciton did a wonderful job of representing the diversity and accomplishment of NY startups. There was both hardware (Peek and MakerBot) and software/service (Livestream, Aviary, drop.io). There were all levels of funding from bootstrapped ramen-fed MakerBot to double-digi...

I have been thinking about how our past experience can blind us to the potential of new technologies to provide a breakthrough experience. My favourite example is 3D movies. I remember the early versions that required red and blue glasses and delivered a horrendous image quality. Then there were the ridiculously bulky and heavy glasses used in IMAX 3D. Each time there were two reactions. First, 3D is not working. Second, who needs 3D in movies anyhow? The early failures made a lot of people g...

I have been thinking about how our past experience can blind us to the potential of new technologies to provide a breakthrough experience. My favourite example is 3D movies. I remember the early versions that required red and blue glasses and delivered a horrendous image quality. Then there were the ridiculously bulky and heavy glasses used in IMAX 3D. Each time there were two reactions. First, 3D is not working. Second, who needs 3D in movies anyhow? The early failures made a lot of people g...