Archives: October 2006

Vonage: More Bad News

Posted by: Olga Kharif on October 31, Categories: VOIP

Criticizing Vonage feels like kicking a dog. Yet, what else am I supposed to do looking at the Web-calling outfit's third-quarter results? The company's churn is up, customer acquisition costs are up, lifetime value per supbscriber is down. That's very troubling.

Google Gobbles JotSpot

Posted by: Rob Hof on October 31, Categories: Google, Power of Us, Silicon Valley, Web 2.0, Wiki, software as service, startups

Search giant Google has bought yet another hot startup that had hoped to be one of the next big things (and no doubt still does). JotSpot, the company started three...

Oracle Drops the Bomb on Red Hat

Posted by: Steve Hamm on October 25, Categories: open source software

Red Hat's stock took a pounding earlier this year when Oracle CEO Larry Ellison suggested that he might buy a Linux company and compete with the No. 1 Linux distributor....

Is Digg For Sale?

Posted by: Rob Hof on October 25, Categories: Digg, MySpace, Power of Us, TechCrunch, Web 2.0

Well, I guess anyone is for sale at the right price, but TechCrunch's Mike Arrington says several sources tell him the people-driven news site has been talking to a number...

An Upside Surprise From Amazon.com

Posted by: Rob Hof on October 24, Categories: Amazon.com, e-commerce

After shocking investors in the second quarter with disappointing earnings, Amazon.com turned the tables today with a surprisingly positive third quarter. Clearly, it's still spending a lot on new technologies...

Embarq: Wireless-Landline Call Convergence Is Finally Here

Posted by: Olga Kharif on October 24, Categories: wireless

Embarq just unveiled two new business services allowing for seamless wireless-landline call transfers. The industry's first, this offering is sure to spread to other carriers -- and, eventually, to consumers.

Pimp Your Google Search

Posted by: Rob Hof on October 24, Categories: Google, Power of Us, Search, TechCrunch, Web 2.0

Google on Tuesday will announce a way to customize your Google searches through a new feature called Google Co-op: Build and customize your own search engine * Specify the...

Edgeio Has Been Busy

Posted by: Rob Hof on October 24, Categories: Amazon.com, advertising, craigslist, eBay

Matt Marshall at VentureBeat reports that Edgeio, whose novel online classified-ad business I first described in detail here, has gotten its first venture round, $5 million led by Intel Capital....

IBM Sues Amazon.com on Patents

Posted by: Rob Hof on October 23, Categories: Amazon.com, IBM

After years of fruitless negotiations, IBM has sued Amazon.com for violating five patents that IBM claims are the foundation for Amazon's entire business. Investors yawned, probably for good reason, since...

Google Rolls On

Posted by: Rob Hof on October 19, Categories: Google

It seems like nothing can stop the search juggernaut. Third-quarter profits grew 92%, sales up 70%--and even after a 2% stock uptick before the report, after-hours trading has shares up...

1 Million Virtual Residents

Posted by: Rob Hof on October 18, Categories: Second Life, Social Media, games, gaming, virtual worlds

The online virtual world Second Life just hit 1 million residents. That's up from just 170,000 in late April, when my story about Second Life ran in BusinessWeek. As...

Trackback Spam and the Stunning Variety of Human Sexual Behavior

Posted by: Rob Hof on October 18, Categories: blogging

Because our blog spam filter seems to have gone missing the last few months, and no one else on this blog appears to check trackbacks (thanks, guys), I have had...

eBay: Not Out of the Woods Yet, But a Few Good Signs

Posted by: Rob Hof on October 18, Categories: e-commerce, eBay

Quick take on eBay's third quarter: It looks like eBay's plan to recharge its core marketplace, begun earlier this year, isn't firing on all cylinders yet. Gross merchandise volume rose...

Media Moves to Second Life

Posted by: Rob Hof on October 18, Categories: Second Life, advertising, virtual worlds

Reuters, Wired, the BBC, CNET--they're all plunging into the virtual world Second Life. Hey, maybe there's more money to be made there than here....

Tech IPOs on the Upswing

Posted by: Rob Hof on October 18, Categories: IPOs

Sure looks like it from Paul Kedrosky's analysis: But given that some high-profile companies such as Clearwire didn't go out, it still might be a little early to tell how...

Acme Packet: Almost as Big as Vonage

Posted by: Olga Kharif on October 17, Categories: VOIP

Acme Packet, a maker of IP equipment, just went public last week. And already, its market cap approaches that of Vonage, much better known and spending hundreds of millions of dollars on marketing. Acme's successful IPO may signal that the market is ready for more VoIP gear IPOs.

Firefox: Mission Accomplished

Posted by: Steve Hamm on October 11, Categories: open source software

When the folks from Mozilla prepared to launch their open-source Firefox 1.0 browser two years ago, their hope was to gain enough market share to compel Web sites to adopt...

Google Reader: I'm a Convert

Posted by: Rob Hof on October 11, Categories: Google, RSS, Yahoo, blogs

I've been frustrated in my blog reading the past few months because my preferred method of reading RSS feeds, MyYahoo (quit laughing, Mike), broke once I tried to read more...

The Dirt on Techdirt's New Blogger Community

Posted by: Rob Hof on October 11, Categories: Power of Us, Web 2.0, blogging, blogs, citizen media

I've always liked the sharp, pithy analysis of current tech issues on the Techdirt blog, but it turns out that's just the tip of the iceberg for the Belmont (Calif.)-based...

Google's "Not Office" Launches

Posted by: Rob Hof on October 11, Categories: Google, Microsoft, software

Google has just launched "Docs & Spreadsheets," notes TechCrunch's Mike Arrington, one of the bloggers who got an early look. Yeah, yeah, they're not trying to do an online version...

Network2.tv:The Vonage of TV?

Posted by: Olga Kharif on October 10, Categories: TV

Web-calling pioneer Jeff Pulver is working on a new venture, Network2.tv. His goal: To create an online network that will eventually compete with the likes of ABC and CNN.

GooTube for Real

Posted by: Rob Hof on October 09, Categories: Google, Power of Us, Web 2.0, YouTube, video

Not surprisingly, Google has indeed bought video sharing phenom YouTube. Although a lot of people, like Mark Cuban, thought it was a bad idea, the deal's done. It is quite...

GooTube? I Wouldn't Be Surprised By Anything These Days

Posted by: Rob Hof on October 06, Categories: Google, Web 2.0, YouTube, video

Big talk today is whether Google will buy the Web video phenom YouTube. On the heels of Mike Arrington's rumor that Google might buy YouTube, the Journal has someone else...

This Old Space

Posted by: Rob Hof on October 05, Categories: MySpace, Social Media, social networks

It looks like MySpace is not just for teens after all. For better (broader audience) or worse (yuck, who are all these sketchy old guys here?), some 68% of people...

Deep 6 for A9 Features

Posted by: Rob Hof on October 03, Categories: Amazon.com, Google, Microsoft, Search

Amazon.com is throwing in the towel on at least some features of its A9 search site, a perennial underformer in the search engine wars. Its Yellow Pages, with millions...

Video Product Reviews: An Idea Worth Five Stars?

Posted by: Olga Kharif on October 03, Categories: TV

Love Epinions.com and Amazon.com's reviews? Check out video product reviews on YouTube.com or ExpoTV.com, which lets people record and post video product reviews. Soon, the site will start compensating posters for their submissions, too.

Unrepentant PayPerPost Gets Funding

Posted by: Rob Hof on October 02, Categories: TechCrunch, advertising, blogging, blogs

Three months after getting slammed by BusinessWeek's Jon Fine, TechCrunch's Marshall Kirkpatrick, and a gazillion bloggers, PayPerPost is crying all the way to bank. The Orlando-based startup, which matches advertisers...