Facebook Homepage Redesign Continues

July 10, 2009

In March, Facebook rolled out a major redesign of its homepage incorporating real-time data streams and more easily accessible feed filters.

It turns out the redesign continues. The social network company is still seeking the right balance between real-time information and delayed updates that can be days or more old.

Facebook trying to balance real-time and aggregate data, says Christopher Cox

Facebook trying to balance real-time and aggregate data, says Christopher Cox

The question is how to mix them in the main news feed, says Director of Product Christopher Cox.

Cox, in an appearance at the CrunchUp conference on Friday in Redwood City, said that the company is using e-mail feedback from users and usage data it gets from the site to guide its work.

Facebook is testing several versions of the homepage, he added. The idea is to balance a “real-time and aggregated view” of the feed, Cox says.

Leave a Comment » | news | Tagged: | Permalink
Posted by Mark Boslet

Solving The Real Time Problem For Twitter And Facebook

July 10, 2009

Real-time performance has been aptly defined as the ability to automatically deliver a digital message in a consistently predictable fraction of a second.

Real time data feeds are slowed by the database, says Groovys Joe Ward

Real time data feeds are slowed by the database, says Groovy's Joe Ward

It is a definition Joe Ward, CEO of Groovy, eagerly embraces.

That’s because Ward believes he has solved a key bottleneck to the predictable delivery of online data, whether the rapid-fire messages are updates to Facebook news feeds or tweets on the Twitter network.

Groovy on Friday began shipping its SQL switch, the GSX 100, and with it its hope of bypassing the relational databases in the real time infrastructure.

The database is the slow link in the chain, says Ward, whose company recently moved from Australia to Silicon Valley. Instead of forwarding data immediately, or in real time, database feeds must be refreshed at intervals, meaning the flow of information is periodic instead of continual.

Database companies hope to compensate by using caches of memory chips to capture and feed information. But Groovy argues the technology it has spent three years developing is better suited for the task.

The GSX 100 has 24 computer chip cores that it uses in parallel to process information, and Ward claims it can save 20 percent of what a company spends to operate its databases and web and applications servers.

Interest in Groovy appears to be high. Companies such as Twitter and Facebook are finally realizing the constraints the database is having on real-time streaming, says Ward. “This is the one thing people haven’t been willing to say.”

With the launch of the GSX 100, this once hidden discussion may come out into the open. Most certainly it will in venture circles. Groovy, which has raised a couple million dollars in private funding up to now, plans to raise a $5 million to $10 million in financing from strategic investors.

If the GSX 100 proves a success, it may do that in real time.

Leave a Comment » | news | Tagged: , , | Permalink
Posted by Mark Boslet

Top Ten Monetization Ideas For Twitter

July 10, 2009

Angel investor Ron Conway recent decided to target his new investments at so-called “real-time” Internet social startups.

Its early days, says angel investor Ron Conway. Its Google in 1998.

"It's early days," says angel investor Ron Conway. "It's Google in 1998."

So it is no surprise he believes these emerging companies can make big money – including Twitter, which has already taken some of his money.

“Twitter absolutely can be a business,” he said during an appearance Friday at the CrunchUp conference in Redwood City. “They are building a very powerful brand.”

So, what opportunities do real-time startups have to turn Twitter-like data streams into cash? Here are Conway’s top ten ways:

*Lead generation
*Coupons (a $500 million opportunity)
*Analytics
*CRM (enterprise customer relationship management on the Web)
*Payments (massive opportunity)
*Commerce
*User authentication
*Syndication of ads
*Selling contextual and display advertising
*Selling followers to corporate clients

Conway didn’t say when he expected revenue to start to flow. “Whatever this is, it’s early days,” he says. “It’s Google in 1998.”

Leave a Comment » | news | Permalink
Posted by Mark Boslet

Performance Still Key To Computer Dissatisfaction

July 9, 2009

Ask PC owners what gives them the greatest dissatisfaction with their computers and the answer will likely be performance.

Recent studies show that more than 50 percent of users single out responsiveness as their key concern.

Adding memeory is one way to improve performance, installing modern security software is another, says Symantecs Jens Meggers

Adding memeory is one way to improve performance, installing modern security software is another, says Symantec's Jens Meggers

Machines simply don’t run as fast as they should. This was especially true three or four years ago when memory chip prices rose and vendors responded by scrimping on the RAM memory they installed.

While overall performance is better today, it is still not everything it should be. Fortunately, there are several ways to change this – all worth a little attention.

According to Jens Meggers, vice president of engineering at Symantec’s consumer products division, one key step is to add more memory. No secret here. Memory has long been the key performance variable, especially in machines making due with 500 MB.

A second way is to de-install unused applications. Computer users who frequently download software from the Internet can unknowingly end up with multiple toolbars and programs that soak up unnecessary chip capacity.

A final step is to install a modern suite of security software, obviously Symantec’s bread and butter. Meggers says older security software slowed down machines by using too much memory and adding to PC boot time.

With Norton Internet Security 2009, the suite’s boot time was reduced to 10 seconds and its use required between just 5 and 7 MB of memory. The suite also sped up malware scanning.

Symantec sent Norton Internet Security 2010 into beta testing last week with another key improvement – a performance monitor that shows how different software applications impact computer speed.

Computer performance is better today, says Meggers. But the problem hasn’t been eliminated, he adds.

He is right about that. The next step may come with better scrutiny of the downloads computer owner permit.

Leave a Comment » | news | Tagged: , | Permalink
Posted by Mark Boslet

Chip Forecast Reverses Course And Sees A Worse 2009

July 9, 2009

After weeks of more upbeat forecasts for semiconductor market, one research firm has reversed course and predicted a worse 2009 than previously anticipated.

ISuppli said it now sees semiconductor sales falling 23 percent this year with the weak automotive market a primary culprit for the deteriorating outlook. The firm in April had projected sales would tumble 21.5 percent.

“Conditions appear to be worse than previously expected,” says Senior Vice President Dale Ford. “The decline of worldwide automobile sales, particularly in North America, has had a major impact on overall electronic equipment shipments.”

In recent weeks, a number of research firms had raised their outlooks for the year citing greater business stability and a sharp draw down in semiconductor inventories. When inventories get too low, manufacturers replenish them by ordering more products.

So against that backdrop, the iSuppli reversal could be viewed as something of a warning – a canary in the silicon factory.

Yet, the research firm’s revision, release late Wednesday, did not paint a consistently dull canvas. Japanese chipmakers, which experienced a sharp reduction in first quarter production, have now reduced excess inventories and resumed production, it said.

This should contribute to global chip revenue rising 10.4 percent from the second to the third quarters and another 4.9 percent in the fourth quarter. Such an increase would be noticeable improvement from earlier this year.

Next year, chip sales should expand a healthy 13.1 percent, iSuppli added, suggesting a steady rebound will take hold. Let’s hope the firm is right this time.

Chip sales should reach $199 billion this year. Source: iSuppli

Chip sales should reach $199 billion this year. Source: iSuppli

Leave a Comment » | news | Tagged: , | Permalink
Posted by Mark Boslet

Private Equity Fundraising Takes It On The Chin

July 8, 2009

Private equity funds, including venture firms, have been able to raise just one third of what they did last year.

Fund raising through midyear is off 64 percent from the first six months of 2008, says Dow Jones Private Equity Analyst.

Over the period, 173 funds pocketed $54.9 billion so far in 2009, down from $152.7 billion.

Included in the total are 51 venture-capital funds, which raised $5.1 billion, compared with 13.6 billion last year.

The one bright spot in private equity was secondary funds – which purchases investment stakes from limited partners at a discount. The category set a new record raising $13.9 billion.

Leave a Comment » | news | Tagged: , | Permalink
Posted by Mark Boslet

Cisco Boasts Of Eos Progress, Promises New Customers

July 8, 2009

More news and entertainment are being consumed than at any time in history. But media companies aren’t benefiting. Instead they are withering on the vine.

you should expect to see announcements of customers, says Ciscos Dan Scheinman

"you should expect to see announcements of customers," says Cisco's Dan Scheinman

This business imbalance is something Cisco Systems would like to change.

The company staked out this ambitious goal in January when it unveiled its Eos software at the CES show. The software is designed to help media and entertainment companies sidestep middlemen, such as Apple and Google, which sit between content publishers and their customers – all the while taking a slice of their revenue.

At a briefing on Wednesday, Cisco said it is making progress with its nascent Eos. Seven refinements of the platform have been rolled out and announcements of key new customers are on the way.

Cisco Senior Vice President Dan Scheinman declined to name them. But he said evidence of Eos’ adoption is only a matter of time.

Cisco is actively in discussions with a broad range of potential customers, from sports publishers to moviemakers and television broadcasters, with substantial interest being shown, he said. “You should expect to see announcements of customers.”

Such announcements would be a welcome milestone in the Eos push. Up to now, the company’s single showcase customer is Warner Music, which has used Eos to create interactive Web sites for the artists Sean Paul and Laura Izibor. Cisco hosts the sites in a software-as-a-service arrangement.

But for Cisco’s all-encompassing Eos to be successful in this busy market place – the product combines site administration, analytics, content management and social networking in one platform – it needs more than an expanding customer roster. It needs a marketing hook.

This is one area where there are reasons to think Cisco hold the field. While Apple has shown it is able to sell a tsunami of music on its iTunes site, it retains the customer data and relationship, not the music company.

Google has a similar strategy with news content, repackaging news stories to draw traffic to its site.

Cisco says it has not intension of carving out a similar role. The goal is to shift the customer relationship and transaction data to the media company, says Scheinman. Even though Cisco hosts Eos, it doesn’t access consumer data, he adds. “We’re not sucking data out of the system.”

If this message fully sinks in, it may be a feather in Cisco’s cap. Still, one big challenge remains: convincing media companies they can build sites to compete with the likes of Google news or Apple’s iTunes, where store-like access to reams of content add considerable value.

As Cisco says, that is a matter of time, one way or the other.

Leave a Comment » | news | Tagged: , , , | Permalink
Posted by Mark Boslet

Web 2.0 Use At Home Is Key To Use At Work

July 7, 2009

Here’s an observation that wouldn’t have occurred to me. Yet it makes intrinsic sense.

The most frequent users of Web 2.0 technologies at work are the same people who use them most readily at home.

It makes sense? But what it suggests is a cross-grain corporate policy at which many businesses would balk. If companies value the qualitative or quantitative business benefits of Web 2.0, they need to encourage personal use by employees.

Implications for corporate policy may run across the grain

Implications for corporate policy may run across the grain

Web 2.0 has drawn a great deal of attention recently from company managers. Deployment is at an early stage, but the hoped-for benefits have been on the minds of forward-thinking businesses for some time: greater employee collaboration and an ability to mine an organization’s collective intelligence with social networking.

The observation connecting personal and business use of Web 2.0 comes from Forrester Research. The firm recommends businesses offer a “free sampling” to encourage adoption in the office and th market the benefits to decision makers.

But more than a one-time sample is needed. Web 2.0 has to become part of a company’s culture, both at work and at home. Otherwise its potential won’t be tapped.

Leave a Comment » | news | Tagged: | Permalink
Posted by Mark Boslet

Venture Industry Needs To Be Cut By 50 Percent

July 7, 2009

A new study of the venture industry points to some old problems – and some newly discovered ones.

Only one in five fast growing companies take venture capital, study says

Only one in five fast growing companies take venture capital, study says

It is common knowledge that venture-capital returns have been poor since the dot-com bubble burst in 2000. For almost a decade, returns have lagged the small-cap Russell 2000 Index by 10 percent, according to a study from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation.

At the root of this decline is the reluctance of public financial markets to buy stock in young, unprofitable companies and the maturing of the core markets that have propelled venture investing: information technology and computer networking.

Ok. So these deficiencies and structural issues are well known and widely debated inside and outside the industry. But what isn’t widely discussed is a topic with which venture partners and the National Venture Capital Association trade group will likely take issue.

According to the study, the venture industry likes to tout its role with companies such as Google, Genentech, Microsoft and Starbucks, but “less than one-in-five of the fastest-growing and most successful companies in the United States had venture investors.”

Only approximately 16 percent of the 900 companies on the Inc. 500 list from 1997-2007 had venture capital backing, and study found. What’s more, less than 1 percent of the estimated 600,000 new businesses created in the United States every year take venture financing.

So what’s the study’s prescription for bringing greater profitability back to the business: “we expect venture investing will be cut in half in coming years. At the same time, lowering valuations and improving overall exit multiples should help resuscitate the industry,” said Robert Litan, vice president of research and policy at the foundation.

“Whether it realizes it or not, whether it wants to or not, the venture industry has to change,” says study author Paul Kedrosky, a senior fellow at the foundation and an investor himself.

Such a prescription is quite a bitter pill for the industry to swallow. Therefore, don’t anticipate that it will. Instead look for better times to bring greater health to firms and funds. And chalk up this study as another dire warning in the series of dire warnings that defines this less than perfectly visible slice of the American economy.

Leave a Comment » | news | Tagged: | Permalink
Posted by Mark Boslet

More Speculation Oracle Is Planning A Future With Sun’s Hardware

July 6, 2009
Is a strategic turn for the industry ahead?

Is a strategic turn for the industry ahead?

If you listened to Oracle’s fourth-quarter conference call two weeks ago, you were likely struck by the company’s emerging strategy that software and hardware do mix.

Larry Ellison laid out his argument that integration from top to bottom – across server, operating system, database, middleware, and application – is a better way to go.

The mercurial CEO pointed to the Exadata database machine for data warehouses as the company’s “first experiment.” Oracle unveiled the machine last fall and boasts that it is selling extremely well – though chest puffing is a common trait at the company even when it is not warranted.

The strategic implications for Oracle’s planned acquisition of Sun are profound. Integration from Sun’s servers to Oracle’s application stack represents a departure not only for Oracle but for the business software industry, which has generally touted individual products and left hardware decisions to customers given the increasing commoditization of computers.

If indeed Oracle is looking toward life with a hardware division – and not intending to sell it off – it will be interesting to see how competitors SAP and IBM respond.

On Monday, industry pundit Bruce Richardson said he is becoming more convinced that Oracle’s heart is in the deal.

Even though the Justice Department has issued a second request for information, “it still appears the deal will be completed by the end of August,” said Richardson, chief research officer at AMR Research.

With that date in mind, the buzz is that Oracle is eager to hire supply-chain talent to try to make servers and chips into a profitable business, he wrote in a blog post.

If this is true, and if Oracle’s integration strategy begins to capture the interest of some customers, watch out. The business software industry is about to make another 90-degree change of direction.

Leave a Comment » | news | Tagged: , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Mark Boslet

« Previous Entries