Susan Mernit's Blog

Quote of the Day

Susan — 2006-11-13T15:53:00Z

"The web of the future will be much like the web today, only more people, better applications, more opportunities to be inundated with unwelcome information, a lot less privacy, and a lot more interactivity. Some will look at it and think back to now with nostalgia. Others will continue to have their eyes focused forward, even if doing so causes them to miss much of what's good now.
One other thing: if the trend I'm seeing at techmeme and elsewhere continues, the future web won't have a place for women. "

--Shelley Powers, commenting on John Markoff's NYTimes piece that, among other things, called the Semantic Web Web 3.o, a phrase I would like to avoid.

Setting the record straight on Dabble

Susan — 2006-11-13T15:53:00Z

Mary Hodder, friend and founder of video search/community service, Dabble, wants to make sure some folks get the facts right. Dave W comments that Dabble is like flickr, and Mary says nay.
Mary's kicker:
"Dabble launched 3 months ago, and is doing just fine. Flickr launched 2.5 years ago, Podshow and Odeo launched well over a year, and while I don't know their stats or situation, I would also imagine that they are in different spots as well, though without knowing or asking I won't assume they are doing well or not. Since Dave didn't ask us where we are after 3 months, I'm assuming he didn't ask them either.
Regardless, I want to be sure that we are understood as a video search with a social community around search and are doing just fine, thanks."

Any more questions, anyone?

Like.com: The future of razorblades is, uh, razors

Susan — 2006-11-13T15:20:00Z

The NYTimes has an article on Munjal Shah's implementation of photo similarity search as a shopping tool, with the headline Shopping Site Offers a Way to Raid a Celebrity'Closet. This, of course, is Like.com, the newly launched incarnation of Riya's photo algorithms, which apparently doesn't succeed in precisely identifying a person you know across thousands of photos, but works great on items--and people--that look like others.

Bob Tedeschi, the reporter, writes: "Like.com represents a fall-back plan of sorts for Mr. Shah, who originally used the technology behind Like.com to create Riya, which helps users organize their digital photos. That service has been popular among users and investors, having attracted $19.5 million from venture capitalists including Bay Partners and Leapfrog Ventures, but Mr. Shah said it had a doomed business plan, because there were not enough ways to make money from it."

Susan sez: The picture slays me, but I admire the realization that these super cool tools need commercial applications--and hope Munjal and his team generate a few more interesting products off their algo.

The Future of Magazines, in 60 words or less

Susan — 2006-11-10T23:30:00Z

"The wise magazine will enable its community to speak among themselves. And it will also find ways to extract and share the wisdom of its crowd.
(snip)
To gather a community together today and then not enable them to be a community is a waste or worse: It could be fatal to the brand. "

--Media guru and social media visionary Jeff Jarvis, who just keeps getting it right.
(Go, Jeff)!

Quote of the Day

Susan — 2006-11-10T14:46:00Z

"People in their teens and 20s feel more comfortable using a text message to communicate something serious than having to confront someone. It is instant gratification - and delayed mortification. At some point they will have to yell at each other."

--Delly Tamer, chief executive of online wireless retailer LetsTalk.com, commenting in an article that says Britney Spears let Kevin Federline know she was breaking up with him via a U R Dumped text mess (video on UTube.)

Quote of the Day

Susan — 2006-11-10T05:35:00Z

"Who would have thought it would come to this. I'd be playing at a cyberspace conference, brought here by AOL, introduced by my kung-fu brother."

--Lou Reed at the Web 2.0 Summit, entertaining at AOL's party.

(Via Justinsomnia)

Flock gets a new CEO: From the Big to the sorta Small

Susan — 2006-11-10T05:21:00Z

It was interesting to wake up this morning and find out that former NBC, AOL, Yahoo! broadband media exec Shawn Hardin's latest incarnation is as the newly re-loed Silicon Valley CEO of Web 2.0 browser company Flock.
Will Pate says: "Hardin has front-line expertise in technology-driven entrepreneurial ventures in addition to a business background with NBC and AOL. His creative and business experience spans Entertainment, Film, Television, Information Technologies, Mobile and Internet markets. He has been working at the intersection of media, technology, and business for over twelve years, including as a founding executive of NBC Television Network's Interactive Division, EVP & Group General Manager for NBCi, SVP for AOL Broadband and Head of Youth, Health & Games for the Yahoo! Media Group."

So it's another big guy goes to small company and has (hopefully) has big impact story, eh?
Somehow, this just doesn't feel the same as when Scoble went to Podtech...another big company to small play--this one feels different--like maybe Flock is hoping a guy with big media credentials will help them raise more $$-- and maybe Shawn is ready to run some Barcamps?

Quote of the Day (Riya rocks)

Susan — 2006-11-08T16:16:00Z

"It is the most interesting search experiences I've had since I first laid my eyes on Google about eight years ago."

--Robert Scoble, commenting on Riya's new Like.com, a photo-driven similarity search product created by Munjal Shah and team.

Susan sez: If I was a VC, I would have given tons of money to Riya--these are some of the smartest and most resilent people I have met in SV start up land. It is going to be fascinating to see if this shopping focused incarnation of their search algo catches on as the holiday shopping season ratchets up. Either way, I am sure there will be more instances of deployment of this very cool logic to drive visual shopping and more.

Longtime Riya friend Mike Arrington has the breaking news, tons more comments in the blogosphere. Nifty multimedia press release here.

And yes, this new product--and the parent company--are totally worth checking out in detail.

Democrats win back house; put money where mouth is supposed to be

Susan — 2006-11-08T05:22:00Z

Nancy Pelosi will be the new speaker of the house--first woman ever-and the Dems are going to get a chance to prove they can get it right,

Quote of the Day

Susan — 2006-11-06T15:49:00Z

"The real opportunity for media, in this day and age, is ostensibly the interactive platform, not just online, but mobile and gaming. Basically, promise a way for content companies to get closer than ever to their audience, to build community around their audience, to learn from their audience so they can put out better professional content."

--Quincy Smith, new CBS Digital president, in a Reuters interview on how he'll make CBS successful through innovation and M&A.

Noted

Susan — 2006-11-06T15:46:00Z

Business Week: Google to sell ads for newspapers--Owning the tools and the distribution and the platform--with 100 partners signed up.
Paid Content: Quincy Smith in at CBS Digital; Larry Kramer out, but will stay and advise.
The Polling Place Photo Project is a nationwide experiment in citizen journalism to capture, post and share photographs and document the local voting experience. Check it out!
Calcanis: Need some morning gloating? Read this rant on newspaper circulation decline--classic Jason--"Come on people, this is really simple... wake up and accept the fact that 90% of your audience does not want a newspaper on their doorstep every day. Why these executives are so obsessed with dead trees is bizarre."

Web 2.0: I am not going

Susan — 2006-11-04T00:53:00Z

I'm starting to get emails from friends who are coming to the Bay area for Web 2.0 conference--I am not going to be attending this year--have some training classes this week, believe it or not.
BUT, if you want to get together, or have a cool evening event you want to invite me to, let me know--I know there are going to be lots of interesting friends in town and hope to see some of you--and I am around this weekend and next.

Quote of the Day

Susan — 2006-11-03T14:36:00Z

"If executives need lots of data before they feel comfortable making a decision, chances are they will not act until it is way too late. Don't get me wrong, data are extremely valuable. It's just that, if we insist on too much data, we will often miss significant changes on the horizon. This isn't just about analysis paralysis; it's much more insidious.
(snip)
... To avoid being blind-sided, we need to pay equal attention to stories and train ourselves to detect patterns in the stories, even if the data supporting the stories remains fragmentary. Stories are generally our first indicators that something really interesting is about to happen; something that data will only reveal to us in full force much, much later."

--John Hagel, writing on what he calls "the greatest obstacles standing in the way of executives as they seek to create and capture more value for their stakeholders."

(Via Matt MacAllister)

Parakey: New project from Mozilla developer Blake Ross

Susan — 2006-11-02T14:52:00Z

Irrestibly detailed article (not silly) on Mozilla lead Blake Ross and his new Parakey project in Spectrum, the IEEE journal.
Not only is Blake's insiration his mom, but Parakey sounds kick-ass--and worthy of lots o' patents.
Matt M has soon good comments on Blake and Parakey; so does Venture Beat and Richard MacManus--there's more here.

WSJ calls Mike Arrington a surfbum, marvels at success

Susan — 2006-11-02T14:37:00Z

So Mike Arrington's the subject of one of those breathless trend-watch WSJ articles that says "Two years ago, Mr. Arrington was a surf bum in southern California."
The article is a hoot. Never mind that Mike is a lawyer, worked with Keith Teare, co-founded edgeio--the guy's really a slacker who stumbled into success --sez these two bozos.

LOL, what idiots these reporters must be.

Isn't this more proof old media has just lost its way?

Somehow, the reporters ponder, Mike Arrington has the magic juice that gets even the littlest starft-ups funded (this story reads like the oh-wow freshman piece for two high school newspaper editors hitting the big leagues) and has this amazed how did he make this happen? tone.

Given all the bloggers vs,. journalists hoopla around Mike recently, this silly piece scores one for the bloggers in my book.