Announcing Techtonic Shifts, the Blog
Louis James | Sept. 9, 2009 09:09 PM
Welcome to Techtonic Shifts, a new blog about the digital world from Louis James and the staff of Stuka's Seven. If it beeps, syncs, streams, crashes, or has venture funding, you'll read about it here.
So who am I? Best known on the Web for his alter ego, Luxxcorp, I started Stuka's Seven in 2003, where I am technology editor and write a biweekly column. You'll also be hearing from poker pals, a recovering political reporter and onetime blogger; plus there's the English contingeant, the business and technology-philes; and a host of other writers and designers at the magazine and website.
For us, tech isn't just an industry to cover -- we have to live with this stuff, too. So along with analysis of mergers and big product announcements, we'll post gripes about gadgets that bug the crap out of us. We'll interview brilliant entrepreneurs, and delve into the accidental subjects of fleeting Internet memes. We'll rhapsodize about the best new innovations but freely call out stuff that falls short. (One recurring feature that I can't wait to inaugurate is titled, subtly, "Things That Suck.")
This is our soft launch, so check back in over the next few weeks as we ramp up to full publication. And don't be shy with your thoughts -- you can reach us in the comments section or via email.
The Triumph of Web 2.5: The Future of Web Business - cultural shifts as well as a technological Posted by monsanto on September 20, 2009 at 11:22am in Ebay
In the 1990s, hundreds of billions of dollars were spent building the physical (fiber-optic cable, server farms, payment systems, software) and mental (marketing, hype, promotion) infrastructure of online business. Many of the companies that created the broadband ecosystem wound up going bankrupt. But they left behind a platform and user base that could be tapped into by new companies, which could gain scale without having to make massive investments. YouTube, MySpace, Facebook, Skype, Twitter, Salesforce.com, blogging software, and, above all, Google.
The first generation of dot-coms burned through cash rapidly because they had to spend a lot of money building and running their businesses—marketing and advertising to get the word out, not to mention software, consultants, and programmers to run online systems and analyze the results. Thanks to Web 2.0, many of these costs have plummeted. Many of the basics are now essentially free, which means a business built on the infrastructure laid down by the first two generations of Web companies can gain scale on a shoestring budget, all while giving away its products and services for free. Call it Web 2.5.
Yesterday, at a panel I moderated in San Francisco, Donna Wells, Mint.com's chief marketing officer, stunned a room full of digital marketing pros by noting that she really didn't have much of a marketing budget. Mint.com has gone from zero to 1.5 million users in two years with no ad campaign, save a mid-five-figures sum spent on search engine terms. Rather than purchase traffic, it has pursued the same type of strategy that food trucks and online magazines do: Using free social media and piggybacking on popular new communications technology. Mint.com has more than 36,000 Facebook fans and 19,000 Twitter followers, a well-trafficked blog, and a popular iPhone application.
Mint.com, which advises customers on how to pinch pennies, does some penny-pinching of its own. It uses Wordpress (free) to run its Web site and blog. To analyze traffic partners, conversion rates, and other essentials of an online business that generates its revenues through lead generation, it uses Google analytics (free and sufficiently simple that Wells' marketing staff can use it without the help of software experts). Wells referred to a bunch of other services it uses to keep tabs on its site, such as ClickTale and Crazy Egg and Compete, as "virtually free"—costing a few hundred dollars a month. Mint.com's main market research tool is Zoomerang, which helps companies conduct online surveys and collect user feedback. The cost: about $700 per year.
Mint.com has benefitted from a cultural shift as well as a technological one. During the free-spending housing bubble, a Web site that encouraged people to manage spending, comparison-shop, and save was definitely out of step with the prevailing mood. But once the financial and housing markets tanked and the nation went into recession, the zeitgeist shifted. Shrinking top lines have caused people to focus on the bottom line, and the savings rate has spiked. Third homes and luxury goods are out; coupons and growing your own vegetables are in. Saving is the new borrowing. Thus considered, Mint.com, which launched in September 2007, timed the market perfectly. It hit the Web at a time when more Americans suddenly had the time, inclination, and motivation to manage their financial affairs more prudently. And it gave them a way to do it without having to spend a dime.
The real change in thinking is "Giving the product away and making money some other way."
Twitter Shows That Stupid Stuff Sells
Sep 17, 2009 11:35 AM
Don't Tweet on Me
Twitter shows that stupid stuff sells.
The comedian Dane Cook apparently believes he is building his brand by pumping out a steady stream of comments on Twitter, the microblogging site that lets you broadcast 140-character messages to anyone who chooses to become your "follower." Cook's followers receive a regular series of bons mots: "Just got my hair cut. When finished she asked me, 'Do u want any product in your hair?' I said sure—how about dairy?" Or this: "The future is wide open. What a slut." Not laughing yet? How about: "I hollowed out the pages of a bible today & hid a smaller bible inside."
Cook's comments are so lame and unfunny that what he's actually doing is revealing, multiple times a day, how little talent he has. It's morbidly fascinating, kind of like the forbidden thrill you get watching Maury Povich's show or professional wrestling. You know it's awful. You know you shouldn't enjoy it, yet you can't look away. That, I'm afraid to say, is why I've come to believe that, of all the hellish things that have been spawned in the fever swamp that is the Internet, Twitter may turn out to be the most successful of them all—not in spite of its stupidity, but because of it.
http://www.oldpeopletalkingabouttheinternet.com/
funny
Louis James | Sept. 9, 2009 09:09 PM
Welcome to Techtonic Shifts, a new blog about the digital world from Louis James and the staff of Stuka's Seven. If it beeps, syncs, streams, crashes, or has venture funding, you'll read about it here.
So who am I? Best known on the Web for his alter ego, Luxxcorp, I started Stuka's Seven in 2003, where I am technology editor and write a biweekly column. You'll also be hearing from poker pals, a recovering political reporter and onetime blogger; plus there's the English contingeant, the business and technology-philes; and a host of other writers and designers at the magazine and website.
For us, tech isn't just an industry to cover -- we have to live with this stuff, too. So along with analysis of mergers and big product announcements, we'll post gripes about gadgets that bug the crap out of us. We'll interview brilliant entrepreneurs, and delve into the accidental subjects of fleeting Internet memes. We'll rhapsodize about the best new innovations but freely call out stuff that falls short. (One recurring feature that I can't wait to inaugurate is titled, subtly, "Things That Suck.")
This is our soft launch, so check back in over the next few weeks as we ramp up to full publication. And don't be shy with your thoughts -- you can reach us in the comments section or via email.
The Triumph of Web 2.5: The Future of Web Business - cultural shifts as well as a technological Posted by monsanto on September 20, 2009 at 11:22am in Ebay
In the 1990s, hundreds of billions of dollars were spent building the physical (fiber-optic cable, server farms, payment systems, software) and mental (marketing, hype, promotion) infrastructure of online business. Many of the companies that created the broadband ecosystem wound up going bankrupt. But they left behind a platform and user base that could be tapped into by new companies, which could gain scale without having to make massive investments. YouTube, MySpace, Facebook, Skype, Twitter, Salesforce.com, blogging software, and, above all, Google.
The first generation of dot-coms burned through cash rapidly because they had to spend a lot of money building and running their businesses—marketing and advertising to get the word out, not to mention software, consultants, and programmers to run online systems and analyze the results. Thanks to Web 2.0, many of these costs have plummeted. Many of the basics are now essentially free, which means a business built on the infrastructure laid down by the first two generations of Web companies can gain scale on a shoestring budget, all while giving away its products and services for free. Call it Web 2.5.
Yesterday, at a panel I moderated in San Francisco, Donna Wells, Mint.com's chief marketing officer, stunned a room full of digital marketing pros by noting that she really didn't have much of a marketing budget. Mint.com has gone from zero to 1.5 million users in two years with no ad campaign, save a mid-five-figures sum spent on search engine terms. Rather than purchase traffic, it has pursued the same type of strategy that food trucks and online magazines do: Using free social media and piggybacking on popular new communications technology. Mint.com has more than 36,000 Facebook fans and 19,000 Twitter followers, a well-trafficked blog, and a popular iPhone application.
Mint.com, which advises customers on how to pinch pennies, does some penny-pinching of its own. It uses Wordpress (free) to run its Web site and blog. To analyze traffic partners, conversion rates, and other essentials of an online business that generates its revenues through lead generation, it uses Google analytics (free and sufficiently simple that Wells' marketing staff can use it without the help of software experts). Wells referred to a bunch of other services it uses to keep tabs on its site, such as ClickTale and Crazy Egg and Compete, as "virtually free"—costing a few hundred dollars a month. Mint.com's main market research tool is Zoomerang, which helps companies conduct online surveys and collect user feedback. The cost: about $700 per year.
Mint.com has benefitted from a cultural shift as well as a technological one. During the free-spending housing bubble, a Web site that encouraged people to manage spending, comparison-shop, and save was definitely out of step with the prevailing mood. But once the financial and housing markets tanked and the nation went into recession, the zeitgeist shifted. Shrinking top lines have caused people to focus on the bottom line, and the savings rate has spiked. Third homes and luxury goods are out; coupons and growing your own vegetables are in. Saving is the new borrowing. Thus considered, Mint.com, which launched in September 2007, timed the market perfectly. It hit the Web at a time when more Americans suddenly had the time, inclination, and motivation to manage their financial affairs more prudently. And it gave them a way to do it without having to spend a dime.
The real change in thinking is "Giving the product away and making money some other way."
Twitter Shows That Stupid Stuff Sells
Sep 17, 2009 11:35 AM
Don't Tweet on Me
Twitter shows that stupid stuff sells.
The comedian Dane Cook apparently believes he is building his brand by pumping out a steady stream of comments on Twitter, the microblogging site that lets you broadcast 140-character messages to anyone who chooses to become your "follower." Cook's followers receive a regular series of bons mots: "Just got my hair cut. When finished she asked me, 'Do u want any product in your hair?' I said sure—how about dairy?" Or this: "The future is wide open. What a slut." Not laughing yet? How about: "I hollowed out the pages of a bible today & hid a smaller bible inside."
Cook's comments are so lame and unfunny that what he's actually doing is revealing, multiple times a day, how little talent he has. It's morbidly fascinating, kind of like the forbidden thrill you get watching Maury Povich's show or professional wrestling. You know it's awful. You know you shouldn't enjoy it, yet you can't look away. That, I'm afraid to say, is why I've come to believe that, of all the hellish things that have been spawned in the fever swamp that is the Internet, Twitter may turn out to be the most successful of them all—not in spite of its stupidity, but because of it.
http://www.oldpeopletalkingabouttheinternet.com/
funny
posted by LUXXXCORP at 4:08 AM
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