bob ketner

An interesting discussion over at TC, apparently Gartner says MS wants Yahoo because Vista is collapsing.

The referenced story is at ComputerWorld.com and affirms what I’ve said for years, which is that if the MS suite has simply never been designed for its users. It never had to be, because there was never competition for that user. Online advertising brings a revenue option to writing and hosting these very simple and most-needed functions (word processing, spreadsheet, presentation) such as found in Google docs.

We are humans that have a limited lifespan and not so much time to weed through a maze of just to achieve simple aims. Lots of businesses use only Macs and lots are switching to OpenOffice. They find it’s increasingly costly and silly to employ a phalanx of specialists just to maintain very basic functions. Then, where’s the motivation to “upgrade” just to acquire a bewildering and unmanageable set of arcane options that destabilize and crash on literally every use?

It’s a bit extreme to say that “Online advertising revenue is their only real hope” but let’s face it, really good usable alternatives are becoming available in the market and the MS suite will have to regain its prior stability and consider “users” perhaps for the first time ever.

At this point, the effort required to switch to an alternative is less than the effort required to invest in Vista and face the scores of head-against-wall moments that await.

Gift sites are notoriously hard to merchandise. Red Envelope did an ok job but apparently not good enough. The chat at TechCrunch speculates management issues because the company has $12.3M in the bank according to TC. Traffic failed to bump much for the big gift days 2 years straight though, indicating that online gift seekers found other avenues online or off.

Their catalog was ok but I’d say could have benefited by having fewer “premium” style goods and more personable items like those found at Etsy which is doing great on traffic. Their catalog did have the occasional jaw-dropper pricey item such as these braided bracelets for $150. yikes.

Again gift giving is a difficult play but still, this should have been a viable business by any measure.

So what wen’t wrong? Somehow the site dropped out of view in the storm that is 2.0. Without a strategy to mix into other sites I’m hard pressed to name any retailer strong enough to be a destination site on its own. Relying on affiliates is like relying on a volunteer workforce – it is outreach but looks like you can’t just sit back and watch the orders come in anymore.

On the other hand, it may indeed have been sustainable in operations, but mismanaged from the inside as some are commenting. This is often the case when things just don’t add up. Interested in avoiding this fate? Call me at 408-667-5949.

Yo yo dawg… check this out…

Via MOU blog.

Philip Rosedale spoke at the US House of Representatives’ Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet yesterday, April 1. I thought it was an April fools joke at first, but this is real.

Audio and video is here: http://energycommerce.house.gov/

Philip starts speaking at around 29:00 after an introduction. Almost the entire 90 minute meeting is focused on Second Life. A major score for Second Life in getting established as “the” virtual world. Dr. Larry Johnson of New Media Consortium likens Second Life to the opportunities that were brought about from settling the wild west, the rollout of electricity, television, and the internet itself.