In 2005, Google put to the test the crowd v. the individual. Similar to our previous legal battle, this one looks at who brings the better answer to the question: a group of people with varying levels of knowledge on a topic, or a single person who’s an expert in the field. The answer: the crowd. The Wisdom of Crowds argues that it’s through the power of crowds that more accurate predictions and information can be ascertained.
Google verified this through an internal project called, Google Predictive Markets (GPM) – no link provided cause I can find one accessible to outsiders (not that I’m an insider…yet). I think the genius in this is the use of the 20% time to work on validating theories …
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This quote is my favorite part about wearing a shirt from Woot!. While Woot! has taken the net by storm, Threadless was here first. Two great places to buy shirts – two different ways to buy them. Let’s skip the battle royal and jump right into what makes Threadless tick.
Threadless has one of the most innovative business models and communities to hit the net in quite some time. Get designers to design tshirts, have people vote on the best designs, then produce only those which the community loves. Why is this so great? You don’t waste resources on tshirts no one likes — all the designs are winners in the eyes of the community.
Woot!, my BFF, has a similar concept: they host …
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I was also debating calling this post: “My parents are on Facebook and I’m in therapy,” but didn’t, obviously,…so I’ll just leave that as the intro.
Facebook v. LinkedIn. Personal v. Professional. Friday night pics v. Weekday resume. It all faces off here, today.
It’s no mystery that I’ve done extensive research on Facebook. Facebook is where we spend our nights, and LinkedIn is where we spend our days. They aren’t competitors. So everyone who thinks this, STOP! Two different purposes and people won’t mix them. There are more pictures on Facebook than Flickr. There are more resumes on LinkedIn than career sites. Even Bill has a LinkedIn profile (though only 5 connections). Facebook has more people than the entire population of the USA.…
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Wikis are an amazing thing. There’s no doubt in the view of the world, that Wikipedia is the best known wiki online – heck, it’s the first step for any research paper for anyone under 35 (I assume others are using libraries and other “research techniques). The Telegraph reported that Wikipedia has seen the plateau of growth and is in the mature stage of a business life-cycle. The challenge comes in getting content on to a site and building a community around it. (And kudos to Jimmy for keeping Wikipedia alive as a non-profit!)
Wikis are easy to use as a reader, but I think the challenge comes in setting them up and getting an active community involved in editing and publishing. Creating and editing …
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Now we’re flooded online with everyone wanting to use the word “buzz” and today, I’m blogging about BzzAgent, the online/offline word-of-mouth buzz building company. For the record, my favorite two online “buzz” are my friends at BOL and The Buzz Report. Now back to BzzAgent.
I’ve been running my own blog for quite some time now, over 7 years. The question at hand here is the value of corporate blogging. BzzAgent ran Bzz.com for quite some time (it was an on-again off-again relationship, currently off-again) as their corporate blog. Major companies have blogs to say what’s going on: Microsoft’s Channel 9, Google, Dell, and even universities pushing blogs. What makes a blog successful for a company is better described by …
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First of all, disclosure: I’ve worked for companies who’ve done business with both Brightcove and their competitors. There. You’re welcome FTC.
Let’s dive, for five minutes or less, into online TV. Tons of players who came to the table: Joost, Google Video, Yahoo Video, and let’s just throw in AOL Video for kicks. (I know there are a few more, but let’s face it, there aren’t.) Yup, you’ve heard of all those above…and how they died a slow and painful death (or are currently doing so). Brightcove (today’s focus), is no different.
Brightcove aims to be the YouTube of commercial video, the Hulu for things businesses want to show off, the College Humor of not-funny things. (clip links were selected for …
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My good friends over at Read Write Web just posted a great article summarizing the Google v. China stand off. Check it out.
Kristen from my MBA class provides a bit of case insight on this issue as well.…
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Google is coming home, to your home (and mine). How? Two words: energy (and dark fiber – but more on that in minute). Okay, that’s a few words – but deserves to be said again, energy. First, in interest of full disclosure, Google owns me. My email, my profiles, my docs — half of my online life is tied up in Google or at least connected to Google; all of this by choice. Okay, back to energy.
Google made a big announcement with their jump into organizing personal energy consumption with Google.org’s (the non-profit end of Google) PowerMeter. It’s no mystery that Google has a strong interest in being green (the photo above is of their Mountain View campus – note all the solar …
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People have been trying to figure out how to turn my cell phone into my next credit card. I had the opportunity to read a write up by HBS on Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (NTT) and their spin-off company, NTT DoCoMo. DoCoMo is focused on bringing mobile payments into reality via their partnership with FeliCa. FeliCa has the ‘chip’ technology while DoCoMo knows the phone market. Good partnership, but huge social hurdle to overcome.
Credit card companies were nervous to jump in to the RFID-type of cards. Speedway had a speedpass (not sure if they still do) that allowed customers to pay for gas with a key-token-type-device-thing. Chase has a “blink” technology that utilizes an RFID-like chip in the card so you can tap your …
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Reed Hastings knew what he was doing when he started Netflix – and he’s still got it. Netflix was really the first-mover when it comes to making DVDs accessible and available within homes within 1 business day. Netflix can reach 90% of people within 1 day, and in the past months they’re reaching everyone via digital downloads/streaming. One of the challenges in the digital space has come from movie industries wanting people to still buy DVDs rather than just get them via Netflix. Working with Warner Bros, Netflix announced a partnership last month that they’ll stream movies for the first 28 days, and then ship DVDs; promoting people to buy the DVD instead of just renting it via Netflix. Brian Beckowski captures the thoughts of …
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