Is the Unique User an Endangered Species? Duh
Sarah Lacy is at it again. The Web 2.0 fluffer who has become just a tad more skeptical of late has a new article in BusinessWeek that asks a really dumb question: is the unique user an endangered species?
Lacy manages to fit more bizarre arguments and illogical examples into two pages than I would have thought possible and she’s asking the wrong question about a decade late. She doesn’t seem to recognize that metrics like “unique users” aren’t as valuable as she appears to have thought they would, which isn’t surprising given the fact that I don’t know what real experience she has dealing with the media buying process anyway.
An Open Invitation to Michael Arrington
Michael Arrington’s got beef. From spitting Germans to crazy stalkers, Arrington’s beef is quite mild. But apparently he’s a vegetarian and needs to get away.
To escape from all the unwanted (and unwarranted) drama, Arrington is going to lay low for a while and despite the fact that I haven’t found many positive things to say about the man, I am the blogosphere’s expert on keeping it on the down low and am extending an invitation to Arrington: join me in South America.
Seesmic Turns to Craigslist for Cheap Programmers
Update: Seesmic’s ad has curiously disappeared from Craigslist but for posterity’s sake, I’ve posted a copy of it here. I’m sure that its disappearance was a mistake and that Loic Le Meur will get it reposted ASAP once he gets done dealing with more important business in Davos with Seesmic investor Michael Arrington. I hear they’re close to wrapping up a arrangement to stimulate the economy using Seesmic. Or maybe they’re just stimulating each other.
Loic Le Meur loves to wax philosophical about the joys of entrepreneurship but running a startup is hard work. Le Meur’s company, Seesmic, hasn’t exactly taken the world by storm and Le Meur was forced to lay off a third of Seesmic’s staff last year.
Brooklyn Bridge for Sale: Kleiner Perkins Green Growth Fund Open to New Investors
Hey buddy. Have I got a deal for you. You know Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers? Yeah, the top-tier VC firm whose past investments include Amazon.com, America Online, Compaq, Electronic Arts, Genentech, Google, LSI Logic, Macromedia, Netscape, and Sun Microsystems amongst others.
It’s raising a $500 million Green Growth fund and boy are you in luck. Unlike most of its funds, which are as exclusive as a Madoff fund, KPCB wants to let you in on one of the best opportunities ever. Its Green Growth fund is, for a limited time only, open to limited partners who haven’t invested in one of its funds before.
Think Megan Fox is Sexy? I’ll Sell You 1 Share of “Synthetic Ownership Interest” for $10
Megan Fox is sexy. Really sexy. And if you’ve ever wanted a piece of action, you have your chance. Starting today, I’m selling 1,000 shares of “synthetic ownership interest” in Megan Fox for $10/each. It’s my version of the IPO – the Initial Pussy Offering.
If this sounds utterly ridiculous to you, the concept of a startup called OneSeason will too. Which is probably why it has raised $3.5 million in VC funding.
The concept of OneSeason is simple: turn popular athletes into stocks and allow the public to trade them in a market.
Will the Recession Strain “The Long Tail”?
With offline retailers looking more closely at the inventories they carry and cutting out products that just don’t sell very much (i.e. items in the “long tail”), one has to wonder if some online retailers will eventually be forced to do the same thing.
The decline in consumer spending looks to be a protracted affair and while the economics of online retailing provide for much more flexibility at the top of the market, with consumers spending less, I think that the “long tail” could very well come under pressure in some markets unless there’s a surprisingly quick turnaround in the economy
Welcome Back to Reality 1.0: Gen Y Hit Hard by the Economy
I’ve discussed Gen Yers before and most of the time, I’m told that I simply don’t get it. This despite the fact that I am a 20-something myself.
According to the Labor Department, Gen Y is feeling the wrath of the economy. The unemployment rate for workers under 29 is now in the double-digits: 11%. For teenagers (ages 16-19) that rate is approaching a whopping 20%.
One 24 year-old with a master’s degree told MSNBC:
We were told it was our generation’s time to shine, that we could achieve our dreams plus more. When I was laid off I thought finding another job was going to be cake.
Is the Regulation of the Financial Markets the Solution or the Problem?
Tomorrow Barack Obama will become the 44th president of the United States. His first task will be dealing with the meltdown of the American financial system and an economy that is currently headed towards eventual collapse.
Obama obviously falls into the Keynesian camp on the economic spectrum. He believes that government is going to have to play the leading role in the blockbuster drama called “The American Economy.” As I argued in my recent post on free markets, however, government intervention in the economy is actually the root cause of America’s economic problems. Increasing the role of government even further will likely lead to disastrous consequences.
On Facebook, You Cannot Have it Your Way
Burger King received quite a bit of attention for its Facebook Whopper Sacrifice campaign in which users who removed 10 Facebook friends were rewarded with a coupon for a free Whopper.
The campaign was executed using a Facebook application developed by Crispin Porter + Bogusky, the ad agency known for the wacky, the absurd and the occasionally creative.
Unfortunately for Burger King, you cannot have it your way on Facebook. The Palo Alto-based social network shuttered Whopper Sacrifice earlier this week citing privacy concerns. The problem: the Whopper Sacrifice app informed those unfortunate users who were removed by their cheapskate friends that they had been defriended.
D2.0 Exclusive: In-Flight Photos from US Airways Flight 1549 Crash Discovered on Twitter
If a plane crashes into the Hudson and nobody sees it, did it really crash? Fortunately we don’t have to answer that question because social media means that we see every disaster as it occurs. First.
The first photo of today’s crash of a US Airways A320 into the Hudson River was, not surprisingly, posted to Twitter by a user with an iPhone (we love you Steve Jobs!).
Citizen journalism is back in action and the usual suspects are already engaging in the typical blogosphere back-patting. This is the real-time web after all and as a plane went down in smoke, FriendFeed and Twitter “erupted with info.”
Unlike last time, I have to concede that social media is beating the mainstream media hands down. Why?
Because I have been able to locate in-flight photos taken by a passenger with a Blackberry Bold as chaos ensued. They were posted the account of a female Twitter user, who miraculously happened to take a photo of herself as the plane went down. Fortunately she, like all the other passengers, survived.
