Technically Speaking

Update: Appears that maybe we will find out more this afternoon, but for now it does appear to be a rumor.

Quite surprised that this was posted in one of the more respected and journalistic quality blogs, but VentureBeat is reporting that there is a big announcement on today for Yahoo. The rumor is that Yahoo CEO is going to step down effective immediately and that the sale to Microsoft is still on. This all comes from an internal memo that Matt received as a tip about some big announcement for this afternoon.

This all follows the top story on Techmeme this morning from the official Google blog. While Google has apparantly pulled out of the advertising merger deal, it is quite apparent that maybe this could be Yahoo’s last stand.

Should be an interesting day waiting on the confirmation of the above rumor, and if it’s true, Micro-Hoo game on. Of course the offer will be substantially lower than the first one of $45 Billion or $31 per share original offer, but at this point with Yahoo stocks sliding well below that $31 today (although on an upswing currently), is there another option out there that could save the one time shining star from the Valley?

Technically Speaking, this would be the best possible way for Yahoo to recover and start anew with all this Obama change is in the air mentality. All Yang has to do now is say “Yes we can!”

Now many of you saw the TechCrunch and the fantastic Mashable coverage as well as the low down from our CEO on our blog about the 12.5 cent guarantee.

I’m sure skeptics are laughing at us, and that’s fine as the point man for Lookery I can honestly say in the past 48 hours or so, we have been nothing but avalanched with new sign ups. Guarantee’s like this are not the norm in the business, and while people are still laughing at the 12.5 cent guarantee, I can guarantee you this - I didn’t get too much sleep since we dropped that announcement. I’m just glad that we have our in house person that totally understands the business.

Now thank goodness that Microsoft decided to buy Yahoo and announce it yesterday. It sort of calmed down the flow for a bit, but new people continue to trickle in. Trust me, it was almost like the old days of working the day gig, and blogging and podcasting until 1am in the morning. Good ol’ 18 - 20 hour days. Fun stuff.

Back to the MS buy or hostile takeover of Yahoo. If Yahoo turns down the offer, than all I can say is they fired the wrong CEO. You don’t get offered $44.6 billion dollars every day. While I agree with Allen’s great analysis of the situation - ie - more jobs lose on the Yahoo side of the house, maybe Microsoft can pull a rabbit out of the hat. Or maybe this is all smoke and mirrors. What I mean is maybe Yahoo has other plans and will counter offer with a more ridiculous price. Than again, whatever the counter offer, I’m sure Microsoft has the money to still write the check.

Tomorrow I’ll be flying out to San Francisco to be at the conference held on Monday Feb 4th - Customer Service is The New Marketing. Looking forward to meeting everyone there, as well as the other people I’m scheduled to meet following Monday’s conference.

Technically Speaking, that’s it from here - Full Disclosure: Rex Dixon works for Lookery. mortgage lenders

Yahoo who had some rumors hit the web late last week is now reported in the NY Times as seriously going forward with layoffs. The giant company which employs around 11,000 may be the first big online company to be laying off a percentage of it’s workers. This doesn’t bode well, as we all saw the world markets taking a big dive earlier today.

The last time Yahoo had sizable layoffs was in 2001, following the dot-com crash. Over the last year, the company added several hundred people, some through hiring and some through acquisitions of companies like the online advertising specialists Right Media and BlueLithium and the e-mail provider Zimbra.

Technically Speaking, how many of you still believe this guy? exercise equipment

It looks like Yahoo believes in the e-mail social network. I was using a program called Xobni when I was still on a PC, and while the concept is great, I just don’t believe that e-mail is entirely a social network. Yahoo mail as a matter of fact has a lot to be fixed before it could be considered a social network of any kind.

For one thing, when I open up my Yahoo e-mail account, I see too much information that I’d rather not. When I check my e-mail, that is all I want to see - simple interface where I can see what is in my inbox, etc. I don’t need to see news, sports scores, and other miscellaneous information beaming at me from my Macbook.

Of course the argument would be you see the same thing on MySpace when you log in. Just garbage tossed at you in mysteriously increasing numbers. Yes, that is part of the money making scheme of social networks. But your e-mail should be somewhat a sacred place to just do that. Why is it that everything must be turned into a social network these days?

E-Mail might be a good place to start one, but why not just put together a better social network plan? Why should you limp along with a system that is not regarded as one of the favorite mailing systems overall. I agree that there should be a sound plan when launching or talking about launching a social network via your bread and butter e-mail system.

I believe that the social networks of today are going to look like gigantic dinosaur ads that use to float across your screen to first - enjoyment and than annoy-ment. It is becoming quite clear the leaders are going to stay where they are, and the future of social networking lies in the fact to go back to square one before you launch one.

Technically Speaking, it’s not time to reinvent the wheel, but more like time to go back and evaluate if your wheel can be made better before throwing it out into the tire lot to begin with. Now that I put in my 2 cents on that, another Mike questions if you have started your holiday shopping!

It’s being reported in CNN Money today, that Yahoo’s ex-CEO just sold 750,000 shares of Yahoo stock. Well he actually did this on Tuesday, and it’s just being brought to the surface this morning.

NEW YORK (AP) - The chairman and former chief executive of Internet company Yahoo (NASDAQ:YHOO) Inc. exercised options for, and sold, 750,000 shares of stock, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing Tuesday.

Technically Speaking, I think we have enough coverage of Facebook and this was a good break up of that side of the news.

Zimbra who was bought by Yahoo for $350 million the other day is still making news. This time it appears that Richard over at RWW does a full analysis of why Yahoo wanted to drop $350 million on Zimbra. The answer is pretty simple, but he breaks it down pretty nicely.

Zink, a company that does inkless printing raised $25 million. Now isn’t this the same thing we did as kids at the fall festivals we had to go to? Take some wax paper and melt crayons with a hair dryer? Sound familiar? Well this company just took that idea one step further with some crystals on paper that turn into colors at a specific temperature. Very interesting. $25 million should help roll this product out to market. Miami real estate

Technically Speaking, that is two “Z’s” too many for now!

Mediabistro - Started as an offline venture by Laurel Touby has now just made $23 million by selling to Jupitermedia Corporation. She will remain on as Senior Vice President. This move enhances Jupitermedia Corporation with it’s own job board. Mediabistro is based out of New York City where Ms. Touby started this offline by hosting cocktail parties starting in 1993. She later opened the site in 1996. More coverage here.

Asia tuning in - to digital mobile television. With new handsets coming out seemingly every single time you look, it’s not a wonder they are going mobile tv in Asia. A good majority of the new devices are coming from the Asian realm, and they will be the first to be connected, watching television, as well enjoying technology to the extreme.

Europe is adopting - a mobile TV standard. According to the BBC, it appears that Europe is not going to be left behind in this mobile TV launch and expansion. Will America get on board this week? This year?

SocialMedia - Not my Planet Social Media Services, but more like another company embracing the Facebook. There are already players in the field that are helping to monetize the fb app field such as Lookery*. This is going to be a battleground for user acceptance, but competition is a good thing. More coverage here.

Yahoo failing - I guess that should technically be a question, but it appears that Yahoo new CEO and Co-Founder Jerry Yang is finding that being at the top is very disturbing. In fact it looks like in the next 100 days he will see if he can figure out what is wrong.

Technically Speaking, back later and don’t forget to read the Link Blog.
*Disclosure: Rex Dixon is currently working a bit with the Lookery group.

* In the right hand corner after you hit start - you will see “1/15″ - click the right arrow to get to Episode 15!

Episode 15 notes:

Google-Postini

Just in from Google HQ - news that Google has acquired Postini for $625 million. Postini has 300 employes and handles message security, archiving, encryption, and policy enforcement. Postini will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Google and the deal should close by the end of the 3rd quarter 2007. The Google blog has just updated with the news. There is also a very detailed FAQ document for download.

VentureBeat coverage
GigaOm coverage
Mashable coverage

Google-SocialStream

Google already has a social network (orkut), but it’s only popular in Brazil and India, doesn’t have a Googlish interface and had a lot of security problems in the past. That’s why last year Google sponsored a project at the Carnegie Mellon University’s Human-Computer Interaction Institute whose initial goal was to “rethink and reinvent online social networking”.

Mashable coverage

Yahoo-Mosh

Here’s a juicy tip - we’ve been hearing about a new Yahoo social network initiative called Mosh, which is at mosh.yahoo.com but can only be accessed from inside the Yahoo offices.

Hey!Spread beta

Spread your videos over the best video networks in one shot.

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* In the right hand corner after you hit start - you will see “1/11″ - click the right arrow to get to Episode 11!

Episode 11 notes:

Mugglenet

Emerson Spartz, the 20-year-old creator of the popular Harry Potter fan site Mugglenet (mugglenet.com), experienced a similar run-of-the-mill adolescence. “I wasn’t an entrepreneur when I started,” says Spartz, who now tallies more than 1 million hits per day at Mugglenet. “I became one after I realized the Web site’s potential.”

Although worried that his image as a businessman could tarnish his Potterhead status, Spartz tells BusinessWeek he pulls in “a six-figure income.” To angry fans who accuse him of financially exploiting their Potter passions, he simply cites server costs: Once a minor fiscal drain, they now run $125,000 annually. “If I can meet Harry Potter fans’ needs and make money at the same time, why shouldn’t I?” he asks.

Business and web 2.0

We’re now at the busy crossroads where globalization meets Web 2.0. This presents both a challenge to the old ways of doing business and an opportunity to gain tremendous leverage via the right goods and services. To thrive in this era, companies will have to figure out how to engage young people from all over the world when they conceive of products and services. Businesses need their help in turning concepts into finished products and, especially, in marketing them. Another angle: Companies can follow the trail of blogs and social networking sites to find and recruit young employees all over the world.

Better get used to it. Flying blind is the unavoidable consequence of coming to terms with today’s most important demographic group: the tens of millions of digital elite who are in the vanguard of a fast-emerging global youth culture. Because of smartphones, blogs, instant messaging, Flickr, MySpace, Skype, YouTube, digg, and de.lic.ious, young people scattered all over are instantly aware of what’s happening to others like them everywhere else. This highly influential group, many of whom are also well-heeled, is sharing ideas and information across borders and driving demand for consumer electronics, entertainment, autos, food, and fashion. Think of it as a virtual melting pot. As the population of the young and Web-savvy grows into the hundreds of millions, the pot is going to boil.

Plaxo re-launch

Plaxo, the contacts updating service, was popular briefly a few years ago but then started irritating people — it would constantly ping you with update requests from friends and solicitations to join Plaxo.

In short, it got a reputation of being “evil,” and then turned quiet, and we wondered if we’d ever hear from it again.

But tomorrow, the company launches with a promising new release. It’s a complete overhaul, and extremely ambitious. In some ways, it looks like it wants to target Facebook.

GigaOm spin on Plaxo

Now you can sync your Google Calendar and Address Book with your corporate calendar and address book Exchange/Outlook, Apple Apps, LinkedIn, and any other web service or software you prefer to use. (I say almost because there are still some platforms that are not supported, and the beta release isn’t quite bug free.) The Mountain View, Calif.-based start-up has just executed a reboot as a web-based service, and is now focusing on syncing. The company is also making all the information available via its mobile page: m.plaxo.com.

Google-Grand Central

Big rumor of the day: Google is buying GrandCentral. We checked with GrandCentral and they declined to comment. If it indeed does happen, it would be delicious irony: Craig Walker and Vincent Paquet were with DialPad, which got sold to Yahoo. So this would even the score. GrandCentral has raised about $4 million from Minor Ventures and has been looking to raise more cash. Google dollars might be an easier option.

Via - TechCrunch post - Google-GrandCentral

Spotplex

The web offers more than a few sites with variations on the Digg theme, but Spotplex, which has designed a potentially more democratic ranking system, is different.

Instead of the submit-and-vote system used by Digg and its clones, Spotplex ranks articles based on the number of impressions they get. Bloggers insert a line of code into their blogs, and Spotplex works in the background, tallying each time someone lands on an article’s page.

Mashable spin on Spotplex

The good thing about this service is that it’s rather hands off for bloggers; no need to go back to the site to re-distribute content or bookmark it. Of course the downfall of this model is that only items submitted by bloggers can be searched. In order for it to become an ideally useful tool for both bloggers and readers alike,

Google Reader down

Michael Arrington

MySpace vs Facebook

Over the last six months, i’ve noticed an increasing number of press articles about how high school teens are leaving MySpace for Facebook. That’s only partially true. There is indeed a change taking place, but it’s not a shift so much as a fragmentation. Until recently, American teenagers were flocking to MySpace. The picture is now being blurred. Some teens are flocking to MySpace. And some teens are flocking to Facebook. Which go where gets kinda sticky, because it seems to primarily have to do with socio-economic class.

More on Yahoo management shuffle

SAN FRANCISCO — Yahoo Inc. said Sunday that its chief domestic sales officer had resigned and that the company would merge its search and display advertising departments in the U.S. as the Internet powerhouse fights to catch up with online search leader Google Inc.

Yahoo said it hoped the latest shake-up would streamline the way it sold advertising to customers who increasingly want to buy ads across a variety of formats, including being linked to search terms, popping up as a graphical display and being shown as video.

The reshuffling comes after a major executive overhaul announced last week, with co-founder Jerry Yang replacing Terry Semel as chief executive. In the latest organizational change, Yahoo said Wenda Millard, chief sales officer in the U.S., was leaving the company effective immediately.

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* In the right hand corner after you hit start - you will see “1/10″ - click the right arrow to get to Episode 10!

Episode 10 notes:

Yahoo appoints new management

In a further shuffling of top roles, Yahoo Inc. appointed David Karnstedt head of North American advertising sales and announced the departure of long-time Chief Sales Officer Wenda Harris Millard, saying that industry changes required different skills at the Internet company.

Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia Inc. separately announced that Ms. Millard, 52, would be President of Media at the New York company, a new post overseeing its various online, publishing, TV and radio activities.

iPhone Mania? ???

SAN JOSE, Calif. - There’s hype. There’s hysteria. And there’s history. The hype around Apple Inc.’s upcoming iPhone is abundantly clear. So is the hysteria. But how the iPhone will leave its historical mark after Friday’s launch is to be seen.
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Will the gadget — which triples as a cell phone, iPod media player and a wireless Web device — be as “revolutionary” as Apple CEO Steve Jobs has claimed?

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New Logo for this SplashCast video blog - by - Scot Duke - Mr Business Golf

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