Trying to follow…

a new toy software found www.backpakcit.com from 37signals (the guys from Ruby on Rails among other stuff). A nice tool but google already has something like that called Google Calendar, Google Notebook, Picasa and blogger. But I got to admit that Google doesn’t combine easily. Maybe we should try to create a mashup from some google service to acces them easily, like  notebook,  calendar, gmail and blogger…

I recently discovered MIcrosoft One note and I’m already an avid user. I like the concept of no save button, the organisation is splendid with maybe even to muh options (they still can get it right like Google or Apple) but the only thing missing is a automatic backup system (and the thing is performant but still I get the feeling of memory clutter.)

Check it out…and let me know what you think

I have been looking for some wine resources on the internet for quiet some time now. And never found something good, allthough there are some nice initiatives and a lot of action is going on. Maybe I also get distorted by my profession. But now I found a vodcast, which I think is good. I cannot use it because the wines are american inspired, but the presentator does his best and doesn’t pretend to be the next Parker (Actually he does pretend that but with less ambitian). Anyway check it out at tv.winelibrary.com

Google and the competition

This is a nice article about Google and the competition in the fields Google is active in. On most of those area’s Google is going or is already marketleader. but sometimes the competition is strong.For me Google is the perfect web 2.0 company. They pick services from the stack, develop them perfectly and then launch them. The crowd picks it up and Google can optimize the service. When a certain point of acceptance is reached, google can start with optimizing the business model and at the same time keep the service up to date.

For me that is web 2.0. Separating service and data and optimizing each of them. The goal is to make money from it, by making the service or the data popular. Therefor it is necessary to optimize the service for user acceptance, get some ‘fanbase’ and then start optimizing the business model. That is also the case with netvibes eg, they have their fanbase right now. And now they are starting to optimize the revenue.

A new player in search town, www.sputtr.com. This a not a search engine as such, but a mash up of a lot of different platforms their search options. Pretty nice design, very web 2.0 and a functionality that I never needed but is nice to have. Is it a killer app? Nhaa, but nice to know and to have. I find myself using it more and more… Actually it is one of the things I miss in aggregration platform as netvibes, even Google. The possibility to search easily on different platforms.
I have this plugin in Firefox that does that and I use that one a lot. Today sputtr became my new startpage.

Microsoft released their live platform a while ago (to react to the success of Gmail?) and now they copy something else of Google, the labs. But somethings are luckely different. The MicroSoft Live Labs have some other features they work on such as Photosynth. That is a tool in which you can load some photos and the tool makes a 3D image of it. Works great for panoramic pictures, check it at thisvideo.

You can find the link in my blogroll.

Microsoft released a new mash up tool like Yahoo pipes (pipes.yahoo.com).

The service is called PopFly and looks pretty nice. Not much storage space but nice anayway. For those who want to create their own mashup, checkt it out at http://www.popfly.ms

Is this again a case of the big ones overruling the little ones? Aparantly Amazon has stopped working with ZLio because Zlio pays the customer back with it gets as discount from amazon. And the reply of amazon is

It has come to our attention that you may be paying some of your referral fees back to customers as a form of rebate. While we are certain that your idea would meet with some success, we have decided against working with any Associates who employ this rebate model.

Under the Associates Program, Associates may choose to recommend either individual products or our entire service to their visitors in exchange for a small percentage of the resulting sales. The goal is to introduce our services to new customers this way, helping them find us through sites that offer value-added editorial assistance or which provide trusted advice in choosing e-commerce sites.

Given our relatively slim retail margins and our strong discount pricing, the referral fees we pay can only be sustained as we meet new customers through our Associates. Many of these customers return to us later for items unrelated to those recommended by the Associate web site, and this future business helps to offset the referral fees we pay. For this reason, we’re able to pay nearly all of our margins to Associates in referral fees.

When an Associate re-directs these fees to the customer, it changes the entire relationship in ways we did not intend. Under the ‘rebate’ model customers actually have a disincentive to return and shop with us directly, undermining the expectation of repeat business that is necessary to fund the program.

In addition, Associates are prohibited from placing orders through their own Associate tagged links. Please note, per the Operating Agreement:

“You may not purchase products during sessions initiated through the links on your site for your own use, for resale or commercial use of any kind. This includes orders for customers or on behalf of customers or orders for products to be used by you or your friends, relatives, or associates in any manner. Such purchases may result (in our sole discretion) in the withholding of referral fees and/or the termination of this Agreement.”

I understand the amazon position but my favourite is Zlio. great concept, good site. Check it out at

the article

zlio.com

One of the best movie clips that describe web 2.0. fantastic.

last week, there was some commotion about a girl (?) that posted a little clip on Youtube. In the clip you can see a controller of the public railways give somebody a fine for using a non-valid reduction ticket. It was a correct fine, but the man in question wasn’t really polite. The person who used the non-valid ticket knew that and ‘acted’ digraced. But in the end it was a correct decision. Now that clip is posted…but with some added comments and in the end gunshots. So we are talking about more then plain journalism.

On tv, in the sunday morning show ‘De zevende dag’ there was a public debate about the movie. Most of the attendees agreed that the clip was to personal (the gunshots) but that freedom of speech was also allowed.

I don’t think you can call freedom of speech on this. Werner Ramaekers was in the debate team and called it civilian journalism, if the editing was not done. I agree but I still think that the movieclip even without editing was over the top. People can not just record a person in function and post it on the web. The person is in function and has to do something of which we don’t know what he thinks about. But he has to do it (like police on a demonstration for a cause they can support). While the moviemaker is often NOT in function and thus personal. A journalist making the movie is also ‘in function’ and so abstract to the case. He is neutral, but public clips seldom are. So if there are rules for journalism and you call people making movies as civilian journalism, then the rules should also count for them.

It is a difficult issue, and I’m not completely sure about my own stand in this. But I feel its dangerous to just let everybody film everything and then afterwards let the community decide. In this case the comments on YouTube were horrible for the poster, but that was too late for the controller and his reputation.

Feel free to comment

A link to the debate (in dutch)

Google video Full Version