The first Xmas Tree of the Season chez Sanford
Complete with completely cheese-ified christmas music soundtrack.
TwitterPeeking celebs
@questlove from Late Night and The Roots
@bonniehunt (the next Oprah - duh!)
Posted by Amol Sarva
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Modern genealogy
Sent by Peek from http://me.drwn.com
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From: Ramesh Sarva
To: Pramila@sarva.org
Subject: Pictures of my parents & next to kin.
Date: Nov 21, 9:30 AM
To: ramesh@sarva.org
Subject: pictures for your file -----Original Message-----
From: bindiorder@aol.com
To: BindiOrder@aol.com
Sent: Mon, Nov 9, 2009 4:37 am
Subject: pictures
Posted by Amol Sarva
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Twitter is real-time, Facebook is merely social #betaday
A great panel at betaday debated search on Twitter vs Facebook. Which is more important?
The web is changing from pages to posts to messages, a consensus-view at betaday that I agree with. And since messages don't live on webpages, I think it means the webpage is dead again. Emails, tweets, statuses, API-driven events are not on pages that bots can crawl. Twitter embodies this messages world -- fast, short, not really page-anchored. Facebook embodies something different. It's not pages either exactly -- since so much of it's world is enclosed in this application. And it's even constantly changing, in real-time. My email changes in real-time too, but my email isn't 'the real-time web'. Twitter is. Because Twitter is the whole web in microcosmic message form. News, info, gossip, sports, stocks, chat, community, contacts, and direct communication. Facebook isn't. It's social. It's really interesting for some things (old friends? current ones?) but not for many others. Twitter, though smaller right now, can be far more vital and fresh and useful on many more topics. Hence, TwitterPeek. No Facebook Peek. They both are, but one is more important. Twitter. Both for search and as content. Sent from my Peek. See where at http://me.drwn.com
Posted by Amol Sarva
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Your startup, on TV
Peek gets a ton of press attention, so I often get 'wow!' comments and people wonder how they can get the same impact. Here are some ideas:
1. Be photogenic. We have a lovely gadget. You: make a visually interesting image that communicates what your service provides and make the images available to people in your pitches and on your website. Magazines and TV start with "will it look cool" as a crucial question. 2. Be anti-geeky. The blogs are geeky so you may think you need to satisfy their interests. But the average Oprah or Today Show viewer is totally uninterested in geeky stuff. If you scream 'we are good for mom!' then the producers of these media will hear you. They read the blogs. Peek of course is anti-nerd. 3. Do something that seems hard. Making a gadget seems impossible to most startup folks! Making a website seems totally easy. There is some truth there. What have you done that was insanely hard? 4. It helps to be in a space where there is lots of action. Smartphones -- crowded as heck but Peek was in every year-end tech roundup last year. 5. Be controversial. Part of why Peek made it to Time and Wired and BusinessWeek etc is because it is so strikingly different and contrarian. I think it's harder to have this impact by merely being 'better'. Unless as Steve Jobs says you are '10x' better. 6. Be part of a bigger trend and conflict. For us, the rise of easy tech and "regular people vs. geeks". Also "cell phone carriers rip you off". 7. Work the different media to their tastes. Blogs like controversy, leaks, little ones are OK, the unfolding blow-by-blow, relationships. The more-and-more mass media pick up on the smaller ones - so traction online leads to print then to broadcast. But the story varies. The TwitterPeek was all over the newspapers in INDIA and UKRAINE this week -- sans any snarky Engadget comments, all on message. 8. Do it yourself. It works better when the CEO sends the emails and gives the interviews etc. 9. Put yourself out there online too. Blog, pics, etc to be the personality that created it. Be the Steve Jobs, so to speak. 10. Email is totally fine. I don't think much of press releases. 11. While you are cultivating the whole "Steve Jobs" mystique, consider being an expert on some stuff. Email reporters when there is news on your subject matter with an expert POV. Give people interesting data from your business operations. 12. Mind the calendar 'norms' - when do people cover product launches (holiday)? Or write about summer vacation ideas? Or job search tips? The macro news environment has a lot to do with time of year, and the actual news too, so find your place in it. Sent by Peek from http://me.drwn.com
Posted by Amol Sarva
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Marathon!
First Halloween kids parade and today LIC celebrates the NYC Marathon midpoint, running through at this very moment. Get out to the Pulaski, Vernon or 44th Drive near Court Square to be part of the fun!
Sent by Peek
Posted by Amol Sarva
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Who Google kills with Droid
The new Droid buzz is exciting -- a challenger with gusto for the arrogant, invincible iPhone. Or is it?
It's a strategically crucial launch for Android, which has had little impact on the smartphone market so far. It's made mobile operating systems 'cheaper' (free) but not too many people are in that business these days (except Symbian, also free, and MSFT). The real players make gadgets -- Apple, RIMM, Palm. If -- if -- if this phone is a major hit (e.g., 1 million sold by Q2), it's a win for Google. But not at the expense of Apple. Rather, the likely loser is -- Palm. Those guys have the most to lose as they battle for a distinction. Dev community? Android's bigger. Fast 3G network? Verizon's better. Hardware slickness? Moto's thinner. Touch? Check. Open source/Linux? Check. Apple already brought Palm to its knees, by hoovering up the consumer non-enterprise part of the smartphone market. For the remaining share, why choose Palm over Android? It's a pattern that Google's rear-view mirror makes clear. Search? Killed Yahoo, not Evil Empire MSFT. Mail? More arrows in Yahoo and AOL's back? Maps? AOL's Mapquest and Yahoo again. Who suffers as Chrome grows? Mozilla. Or Google Docs? Folks like Zoho and OpenOffice. Not that Google only picks on upstarts or weaklings, it just doesn't really tackle the Microsofts and Ciscos and Apples and AT&Ts and Verizons and Comcasts and Facebooks etc etc. So if the Droid is a winner the loser will be the almost-comeback-kid Palm. The secret to success? Google takes the hindmost. Sent by Peek from http://me.drwn.com
Posted by Amol Sarva
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