Google wins a big one for search platforms

Last Thursday, September 28, a US federal court ruled for Google against a small player that it’s OK if Google sells ads to advertisers adjacent to name searches for their competitors. (Why does Bill Gates saying “it’s like they’re asking us to put a Pepsi in a six pack of Coke” come to mind). Issues of intellectual property rage on.

The small company, Rescuecom, argued Google was breaking trademark law by “free-riding” on the brand equity in their name. Also that Google made it difficult for searchers to find Rescuecom’s web site by deliberately doing the following: manipulating the search results, hence using the trademark internally.

Hmmmm. Gives us pause.

Rescuecom is contemplating an appeal. David Milman, founder and chief executive of the company, states, “A dangerous precedent has been set that allows a behemoth to pit smaller competitors against one another, while it rakes in the additional revenue”. “The immense power enjoyed by Google will be compounded by this ugly tactic as advertisers clamor to reach critical online audiences. Rescuecom will not be the last company hurt by this scheme.”

This case may set a precedent in trademark case law (if the ruling is not overturned on appeal): that keywords are not trademarks. Yet Google lost trademark lawsuits filed by designer Louis Vuitton in June 2006, and last year, by Le Meridien Hotels and Resorts. So this is not global consensus. Again the new world services must tread carefully when travelling out of N.A.

The release form will become an important tool on the web. Don’t steal this idea lest I pursue you but shouldn’t someone start a release service? http://www.pleasereleaseme-letmego.com. Don’t click this — it’s a parody!! I have not obtained a release from Engelbert yet.

All these skirmishes have driven me to get that Creative Commons button uploaded to my blog “forthwith”. Et tu?

Tagworld is MySpace on steroids

Tagworld, the creation of serial entrepreneurs Fred Krueger and Evan Rifkin, is yet another social network launched in 2005 which boasts app. two million users, a paltry sum compared to the 72 million+ users of MySpace. But Tagworld’s functionality is beyond compare as of this date and 100 million users is within radar range. It is said to be the “MySpace killer” (the “killer” term bugs me because no one has to die to make another successful – the incumbents only have to evolve). Let’s see a gigabyte of storage, a music player that plays your tunes, photo, video and bookmark sharing (that’s flickr,YouTube and del.icio.us all in one!), classifieds (Craigslist was bound to get more competitors)–all tagged with your own semantic descriptives and generated in real time. User generated content is far from reaching maturity on the web. You have not seen anything yet and Tagworld is the latest model. And for advertisers the pay-per-click model that monetizes most of the web is alive and well in Tagworld. But what’s even more outstanding about Tagworld is the information back to content providers as to who is using, viewing their content–that kind of feedback to all users is social networking to the power of ten. Everyone is talking more because everyone is saying “I’m listening”. That feels good. Blogs don’t quite do that.

55,000 square feet for Plexus 2007

Plexus 2007 will be held in Hall 5 at the International Centre, Toronto, smack dab in front our new airport terminal. For those coming in by air this will be incredibly handy. We are also locking up bedrooms at three hotels within a short jog from the venue. The venue is simply put–awesome! This relatively new hall is completely wireless including two swanky speaker theatres (Oralplex) and 40,000 sq ft (we may have to use more!) for our exhibitors (Demoplex). And plenty of space for reception, book signing events, press, food refueling and great networking luncheons in the Fuelplex. The venue is completely enclosed with all the amenities and parking your heart desires. Our site re-launch this weekend is exciting but the participants to be posted soon will put this special occasion over the top.

First Google Belgium Now YouTube – Intellectual Property is the “medium tail”

Web content services are now starting to negotiate user rates lest they be sued by studios (sound or screen) or authors for sharing their content. A lawsuit was launched by a journalist against YouTube in July for copyright infringment. Now the head of Universal Music is blasting YouTube and threatening to take action with the same cause. The value web services like YouTube bring to these studios is shadowed by the windfall the studios can obtain in US courts notorious for generous judgments. But this is incredibly short-sighted. Other media corporations see the future value and are cooperating with YouTube and similar services. The studios and media were asleep at the wheel while folks at Apple, Amazon, Microsoft and Yahoo! (to name few) and YouTube where busily developing the technology to enable massive entertainment distribution. YouTube reports 100 million viewers per day–that nears superbowl status! Gives me goosebumps. YouTube may be the poster child for opportunistic studios who were slow to act in a whole new paradigm. Surely the Belgium claim against Google will serve as fodder in a YouTube settlement or ruling. Brace yourself for more action; ambulance chasers are actively sniffing every opportunity (it’s more lucrative than a “slip and fall” practice).

What’s sad for start-ups like YouTube is that they are barely monetized with mostly VC money keeping them afloat. The pressure is on to tack ads on videos, web pages and perhaps even start charging a fee to users–so they can compensate the content producers whoever they may be. While studios were slow, the devices were even slower at keeping up the pace. The masses don’t want to watch TV or movies on their computers; however mobile devices have great appeal. Apple will be the first to offer the Apple iTV module early in 2007 making TV viewing possible. Yet analog TV still reigns. Digital TV is in progress. Broadband isn’t here yet–not for internet TV.

Perhaps there should be a fee levied by content producers (counterpoint) but value must also be placed on distribution. And valuators must assess the value of distribution and audiences delivered by YouTube–it is high and not to be undervalued. (We need the equivalent of Nielsen ratings for the web.) YouTube should be on the offensive and recognize their immense power and value in building these entertainment brands and their many licenisng initiatives. For Hollywood it is free advertising. It is a two-way street. And this is not about replicating the old model where all is downloaded to the audience–after all YouTube cannot sell buckets of popcorn at 100 times the cost; this revenue stream is just not there. Can surfers tolerate streamed 30 second spots in the TV model? This intrusiveness is what endeared users to the web. So many questions.

The studios need the YouTubes; hence, visionary media players are now collaborating. I do not believe YouTube will go the way of Napster. We are at a “medium tail” point. Change always meets with resistance. People kept burning oil lamps when bulbs were in use. I for one am offering my dirge herein at no fee but I always expect credit. Aye! there’s the rub.

Google ruling could shrink the internet! Everyone must get engaged!

The court ruling in Belgium last September 5th has me ferklempt. They have ruled that Google must pay a fee to newspapers from Germany, Belgium and France for the stories and images it has (partially) published on its Belgium site. The claim is that it takes traffic away from their newspapers. Huh? The fact is, it benefits these publishers greatly since you have to click-through to the newpapers to get the whole story. Hopefully, Google will get forensic accountants and valuators to look at the value Google click-throughs bring to these papers. In the meantime Google has to publish the judgment on their web site!! Copyright claims will run amuck! A dark view of a future at the hands of old-world adjudicators: information for a fee will cease to be accessed and nullify the value of the web. Memories of Napster…
Platform creators and services must stride carefully when entering other nations and societies. Google are going back to the battlefront this November 24 in Belgium. But this is not a battle for Google–everyone will be affected. It is our battle. Brothers and sisters in silicon valley lend your minds to this one. This could change the playing field. A fundamental shift. It is time to address copyright in the new world by new world standards!! What are those? Where’s Al Gore when we need him?! Al? Al?

Galvanizing Business in Canada

I have heard the buzz or should I say the “cry” for a web 2.0 conference in Canada. There have been a few spotty and some good events. But ones where many international rainmakers are speaking and opportunities to demo innovations for business and not just for developers? Uh uh. This has been non-existent north of the border. That’s why Toronto is hosting the next Innovation 2.0 Demo Plexus 2007, just for business this Nov 27 & 28.  We’ve conducted email surveys too and the demand is indeed strong. Business in Canada! don’t miss this opportunity to get a handle on what’s coming down the pipe for every silo in your business. For marketers, media and agencies the opportunities are vast. For technology the applications and ideas are beyond our daily imaginings. Learn how many corporations are already ankle or knee-deep into this new paradigm. Companies like GM, Disney, Boeing, many many more. We’ve got 55,000 square feet booked and then some. You’ll sit in the Oralplex (two staged theatres), travel through the experiential Demoplex, meet the stars at book signing events, connect (and feast on delicious food) at the Fuelplex, and cart away goodies and brilliant take-aways in the Plexus Packet. What’s more, the event will be hypeless–speakers will present interactively, some in conversations. This is different. Events 2.0 meets Web 2.0.

Plexus 2007 web site reborn

Now that we have gotten our Web 2.0 Conference and Exhibition in the “buzz”, we are working on our site’s aesthetics. Plexus 2007 will be reborn in a few days with new colors, graphics and organization. Not shortly after that there will some dynamic Web 2.0 apps working within the site too. We can’t wait to announce. Keep posted for the upgrade. Clear your cache because here it comes again!

Semantic web: W3C blows web wide-open

Semantic web assuredly is the big wave about to hit, slowly buzzing its way into conversation. At at time when we are still digesting user generated content and “the long tail“, ”semantic web” is an irrevocable reality. Don’t confuse this with mashups, an application which enables you to use content from many different sources to create new sites or services; this is already well on its way. You can call semantic web the “anti-application” web. This may annoy many an app developer; but progress cannot be stopped. Such is the circle of life and semantic web may be in the not too distant future, “the minnow that swallowed the whale”. Semantic web is about sharing of data without being constricted by applications. Not sharing in the way you may think. Think outside the app box. Read on because this entirely blows wide-open the capabilities of the web. Standards (OK, “recommendations”) are being developed by no other than W3C (The World Wide Web Consortium), an organization founded and led by Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the world wide web. W3C released the Resource Description Framework (RDF) and the OWL Web Ontology Language (OWL) as their “Recommendations”. W3C states, “RDF is used to represent information and to exchange knowledge on the Web. OWL is used to publish and share sets of terms called ontologies, supporting advanced Web search, software agents and knowledge management.” If this seems g(r)eek to you, keep going. Taken directly from W3C verbatim, here is an explanation of semantic web:

The Semantic Web is a web of data. There is lots of data we all use every day, and its not part of the web. I can see my bank statements on the web, and my photographs, and I can see my appointments in a calendar. But can I see my photos in a calendar to see what I was doing when I took them? Can I see bank statement lines in a calendar?

Why not? Because we don’t have a web of data. Because data is controlled by applications, and each application keeps it to itself.

The Semantic Web is about two things. It is about common formats for interchange of data, where on the original Web we only had interchange of documents. Also it is about language for recording how the data relates to real world objects. That allows a person, or a machine, to start off in one database, and then move through an unending set of databases which are connected not by wires but by being about the same thing.

Read Testimonials from early adopters of W3C RDF and OWL from organizations like Adobe, Boeing and Mozilla. When we talk about the next wave at Plexus 2007 semantic web will be high on the Agenda. Plexus 2007 would not be about Web 2.0 without it.

Visiting the Demoplex this November

As many of you know we are launching the first and largest demo-styled event for business, PLEXUS 2007 , north of the border in Toronto. (There have been other smaller and darn good speaker only conferences here). It may seem we are early out the gate but when you are organizing an event this size (over 50,000 sq ft) you need all the time you can get !! Many have been visiting our “beta” site due to be spiffed up shortly with completed speaker line-up including a number of celebrities in the realm. We have now changed the Multiplex (exhibition section) to the Demoplex–we want visitors to know that every exhibitor will be demoing and demoing and demoing–no business cards in the fish bowl draws here. Real hands-on experiences and learning. In fact, we don’t call exhibit space “booths”; they are theatres. The whole Demoplex will be one big theatrical experience with all senses engaged. Showtime is Nov. 27 & 28, 2007–and the visitors passes are selling already! Yahoo! Of course, our celebrity speakers and authors are the main draw–we are blessed to have their participation for the first time here in Toronto. It’s only going to get better from here on. Finally, businesses can get this knowledge all in one place in two days and make the kind of international connections they need to harness Web 2.0.

Videos and audios “over easy”

The very cool video capture service VideoEgg simplifies video capture for uploading to your site or blog. A very good demo video at its site demonstrates in a few minutes how easy it is whether you have recorded from a digital camera, videocam or cell phone. Voila! you have published to your blog or site. VideoEgg recently announced that they have agreed to provide their easy video creation tool to a wide range of social networking sites including Current.tv (now supplying Yahoo!), Tagged, Bebo, AOL, Dogster and Hi5. VideoEgg transcodes video from almost any device and makes posting it to the web really easy. Grouper (acquired by Sony for $65 million) rivals VideoEgg with this functionality. Similarly, Odeo enables users to publish audios for podcasting. Recording easily through a browser is the technology that is exploding user generated multimedia content. It’s not only about entertainment–think marriage proposals, birthday greetings, live births (maybe not) or business teams celebrating a new deal. Why not? It’s better than voice mail.

Yahoo! Yahot! video content – Watch the stock now

Yahoo! may have taken a stock hit yesterday but it is glowing hot today. Current TV has joined the venerable Yahoo! in creating Yahoo! Current Network, a video site that features both professional and user submitted videos organized in channels. And Yahoo! has been granted the rights to exclusive Current TV content for its video portal.
Yahoo! now have four channels of Current content including Yahoo! Current Action, Yahoo! Current Buzz, Yahoo! Current Driver and Yahoo! Current Traveler. The content is acknowledged by critics as superior to videos on YouTube. The battle is on for video content–variety and quality. Right now Yahoo! is lookin’ good.

Bar code readers heading mobility race

Motorola just purchased Symbol for a whopping $3.9 billion US. Symbol makes bar code scanners (and other things). Motorola makes cell phones (and other things too). Symbol + Motorola equals the capability to scan bar codes from your cell phone. Qode headquartered in Florida has already developed this capability as I blogged earlier. Wow! is this landscape changing. These little handhelds are far more than the previous appliances. They are now image search engines, cameras, podcasters, text messagers, web surfers, bar code scanners… These mobile devices and their various platforms will become indispensible in meeting our needs and lifestyles. This is not about telefony or entertainment anymore-it’s about access. Total unfettered accessibility. This is a space to watch.

Soapbox enters YouTube sandbox today

Microsoft launched Soapbox with a platform for video sharing. To think that 70 million videos are viewed daily on YouTube when it was only launched in Feb 2005. Boggles the mind! This is testament that entertainment habits are changing within a context of IP democracy. There is much room also-rans in this sandbox. Yet when MS gets in it the first movers and geeks get all their knickers in a knot. And it’s a feeding frenzy for critics. But truly Soapbox (now in beta) has all the bells and whistles with the added bonus that you can continue viewing a video while searching the site. (I see a great need for video sharing for business. Any takers?) Soapbox will be integrated with MS’s line-up of on-line services including MSN. This should provide Soapbox with a large pool of users from the get-go.These platforms cannot in all consciousness monetize themselves within the free user generated content model. How do they leverage their success then? It’s all about marketing. Will advertisers submit their own videos? Will home grown videos integrate brands for a fee? Will videographers share their videos for a fee? Or add ads at the end of their videos? There is opportunity within. It boggles the mind. Any ideas?

Corporate blogging before we turn into pumpkins

It’s getting to be a nightly date. Knowing the spiders and crawlers come out at the stroke of midnight. Aggregators pinging us in our sleep. So much to share. Got a call from a San Fransisco PR guy (PR guys are always nice) today extolling the virtues of his clients Newsgator and iupload. We all know the value of Newsgator (in fact their Founder is presenting at our Web 2.0 conference) but iupload is an exciting new story. It’s a blogging platform that does not require a programmer even though it allows you to create your blog from scratch. Typepad, a Six Apart product, is also noted as good for original blog creation for business. With iupload or Typepad you make the rules. No limits-so to speak. That’s great news for business. They can create departmental blogs for communication within (user generated “intranet”), or share with channels (user generated “extranet”) or find new ways to learn from their customers. Iupload call it the Customer Conversation System. Indeed. Blogging will go through many iterations–these are both worth doing. Businesses need this control and flexibility and can now get the competitive edge blogs offer. How much does it cost? I don’t know but I’ll bet it’s not enough. And a lot less than turning into a pumpkin because you are a late player.

Blogging demand stressing servers

The number of blogs added to the web monthly is startling. Some servers are showing signs of slowing — nothing adding capacity to meet the demand can’t solve. The charm of blogging is that it removes the middle man, the programmer who’s domain is hypertext language, and enables the common man to combust spontaneously. There is delight in the writing and in the reading of such authenticity. This is what “the long tail” is all about, power spread to the many rather that the powerful few. Anyone can set up a blog thanks to the phenomenal hosted web apps available. Many are free and monetize themselves by offering upgrades; yet the standard services they offer are exceptional. Among the most known are WordPress and Blogger. WordPress does not allow ads on their users’ blogs–they are truly the dot org of the business (after all they an open source platform). But bloggers are publishing and creating readership–the model for advertising! What’s strange is that WordPress prevents you from monetizing your blog in any form. When I was helping someone set-up a new blog they asked me if I was charging them for the help!

Other blog sites such as Vox (a private service), one of many offered by  Six Apart  and Logahead (touted as simple drap and drop style) are said to be the next generation for their simplicity. Live Journal, a strong brand, is a community-styled blog also operated by Six Apart. WordPress is stable but I had difficulty with images (not always easy) and the limited number of templates available are known to all as “WordPress”. It is restrictive against a sea of possibilities but all agree very good. We await WordPress 3.0. And surely a bevy of new offerings.

XenSource enterprise solution to die for

Those legacy systems that lock you in are simply on their way out. Virtual, open source systems, are the future. In fact, the ability to move multiple virtual servers on one machine are here now in XenSource. Imagine the cost saving when you need less servers! And use the whole server rather than 15% (the current usage per server). With Xen you can move from Windows to Linux without metal friction. The launch of MC Vista was delayed almost 2 years; confoundedly Linux was able to launch new versions quickly with global geek collaboration. It just shows that open communities (or what web 2.0 now enables) are nimble – and we know how speed (up to 3 months) is of essence to go to market. I digress. Xen is the hot new idea. Big name money has been thrown at Xen – new billionaires are gestating. If you are a CTO run the demo at their site now.

Path to 9/11 ABC blog yanked and unyanked

Sometimes it seems the democratization of the web may be the domain of the “little guy” who stands to lose little brand equity by expressing him/herself effusively. Lo and behold, under fire from right-wing critics ABC has yanked its related blog. “Path to 911″, ABC’s made for television drama, airing last night and tonight was fodder for the blog. Now that impetus will have to find new outlets… Excuse me, this just in… I am being interrupted with an update. Oh! it was unyanked two days later? Huh? (Hurry and join in the blog before a re-yanking where the “little guy” can control the chatter.)

Serial silicon scion Sabeer Bhatia sustains legendary status

Sabeer Bhatia founded Hotmail and quickly obtained serious start-up money from Draper Fisher Jurvetson. He later single-handedly sold this ground breaking app to Microsoft for $400 million–it is now worth billions. Among techies he is the stuff of legends. Sabeer tried his hand with Arzoo which failed at the hands of the bubble histeria. Now Web 2.0 is here with a vengance and will change the landscape of business and personal lives irrevocably. And Sabeer once again is waist-deep in this anti-deluvian reformation. With the launch of Blogeverywhere, a blog browser with an exceptional toolbar compatible with Firefox and Windows IE(beta), Sabeer hopes to form a sort of parallel internet, putting meat behind the term “democratization of the web”. Instacoll, is another true to Web 2.0 app, user generation through document sharing for Microsoft office. Arzoo is resurfacing as India’s premiere travel site to answer the call of its economic boom. Sabeer. Man to watch.

HP Chairman Patricia Dunn not yet fired

If HP doesn’t fire their Chairman (or entice her with a nice home in the Alps) they will be deemed to have accepted her conduct as acceptable. Integrity, transparency and good brand values when not observed can be a brand killer. This venerable company who has developed outstanding products over the years simply cannot withstand too many days within this controversy. Big PR is necessary forthwith. Starting with Pat’s departure. Just in case you haven’t heard, she’s been accused of masterminding the hacking of personal phone records of reporters and board members to uncover the source of boardroom leaks. Is that the new HP Way? We’ll see.

Amazon now rivals iTunes & traditional broadcast

Less than a week before it is predicted that Apple is launching something special in the download video segment, Amazon makes the first move with Unbox. It’s only Windows friendly–no Mac. And you can’t use a topbox. You can download movies from $15 and up and TV shows for about $2. It’s cast as being “vanilla” by tech critics. Hey, as long as you can see the movies. For marketers this might mean a different opportunity to piggyback. Anybody writing a clickable product integration app? The landscape is changing fast and getting more interesting. Players are increasingly crossing over into each other’s turf. Google into Microsoft. Microsoft into Google. Now Amazon into Apple. All are thinking outside their boxes. Why aren’t the networks and broadcasters in the playing field? They continue to see their ad dollars shrink with every new web app launch. Helloooo!