The Wall St. Journal ran a B1 story this morning about the forthcoming online storage service from Google. Call it GDrive, call it Platypus, call it My Stuff - the vast majority of tech bloggers have called it old news. I disagree. I think there's a lot of potential for Google's online storage to be a game changing product.
It appears that the GDrive will sit on your desktop and sync automatically selected files automatically with online storage. Those files will be accessible from the desktop and browser at least as easily as they would be were they on your own hard drive.
Here's three ways I think this could be big.
Brightcove has never really been more than a half-hearted consumer video play, opting instead to function as a content distribution network for a large number of high profile media partners. Today Brightcove informed members of its Brightcove.TV site that it will no longer be accepting direct consumer uploads on December 17, 2007. That signals that the company is apparently giving up completely on any dreams of competing with YouTube (or smaller sites, such as Vimeo) as a direct personal video hub.
Instead, Brightcove.TV will become a hub for the distribution and promotion of its professional and network publishing partners. A quick search through the site suggests that perhaps Brightcove's direct consumer offerings never really gained much traction anyway. I was hard pressed to find any videos not from professional content producers or amateur video bloggers -- both of whom would likely be using either paid publisher accounts or the free, ad-supported network accounts (which will still be available).
Though Brightcove has received a lot of press, especially in the wake of its $59.5 million series C funding round closed last January, it has generally been as a CDN-type service for major content publishers, and not as a consumer facing service. While most Internet surfers have likely run into a Brightcove player or two on the web, it seems unlikely that many users interested in sharing video without embedding it on a blog or web site would choose Brightcove.TV over YouTube or other consumer oriented video sites with far larger audiences.
Today's announcements appears to indicate that Brightcove is finally giving up on the idea that it can compete with YouTube as a consumer video destination and is instead focusing completely on its content delivery and monetization offerings.
Verizon Wireless, America's #2 wireless carrier, announced today that it would open its network to non-Verizon phones and applications. That means any CDMA phone (i.e., even those purchased through rival carrier Sprint) will be eligible to work on the Verizon network provided that it passes muster at the new $20 million Verizon testing lab. Verizon said on a call this morning that any devices built to run on its cellular network will be eligible. As Kevin Tofel pointed out, "If you have the smarts to build a cellular-based device in your basement, VZW will test it and, if it meets the minimal network standards, it will get approved."
"This is a transformation point in the 20-year history of mass market wireless devices -- one which we believe will set the table for the next level of innovation and growth," said Lowell McAdam, Verizon Wireless President and CEO in a press release. Hyperbole aside, this actually is a fairly significant development in the mobile market. Large carriers have long resisted opening their networks and as a result, customers are locked into limited choices from provider to provider (i.e., you can only get Phone X on Network Y and your choice of phone OS is limited to what that network sanctions).
Last Monday I found out from my doctor that I have Diabetes (probably Type 1; I need more tests to confirm), which basically means high blood sugar. It was quite a surprise, as I have no family history of diabetes and it is relatively uncommon to get Type 1 diabetes in your 30's. However, I soon discovered that diabetes affects more than 240 million people worldwide. So it is something a lot of people have. Indeed, chances are you know of someone with it or you may even have it yourself. Because it is so widespread, there is a lot of web data, social networking options and even web apps that cater to people with diabetes.
In this post, I'm somewhat selfishly going to review the diabetes sites and apps I found across the Web. But this post also serves, I hope, as an introduction to the more general topic of 'Health 2.0' - a.k.a. healthcare that uses the Internet. Over the weekend, Frank Gruber posted an excellent round-up of health 2.0 resources on the Web. Frank pointed out that the big sites, like Web MD and HealthLine, are the resources most used. But there are a lot of newer sites and apps that offer a more modern, Web 2.0 approach. He also noted that both Microsoft and Google are making moves in health 2.0. For example see our story earlier this year on Microsoft acquiring MedStory.
As with Web 2.0, there is a lot of debate about the meaning of the term 'health 2.0'. According to the Health 2.0 conference blog, their definition "is currently focusing on user-generated aspects of Web2.0 within health care but not directly interacting with the mainstream health care system." This means things like search, communities, and tools. As yet Health 2.0 user-generated content has not been connnected to the wider health care system - which, according to the Health 2.0 conference organizers, hasn't even adopted Web 1.0 yet!
The first thing you might do if you discover you have diabetes, is do some Web searches on it. In my case my doctor and specialist had already explained the basics of the condition to me: it is fairly easily managed, via testing your blood a few times a day and injecting insulin maybe a couple of times a day (it varies by person). Also you must drastically cut your sugar intake in food and drink, and exercise moderately. There is no cure at this point for diabetes, so this routine must be followed indefinitely. So I was told all that, but still I was curious to find out everything I could... so, to the Web search engines I went!
Small business website creation service Homestead announced tonight that it has been purchased by Intuit for $170m. In addition to Intuit's personal and small business accounting software, and the company's partnership with Google to integrate services like Maps listing and AdSense buys, Intuit customers will now presumably be able to put up websites quickly and easily with Homestead. It's starting to look like an end-to-end service, putting Intuit's hands in the middle of a whole lot of businesses books, both virtual and otherwise.
Homestead released support for Macs and AJAX last year, but it this small business website creation software being scooped up as a hot commodity? Probably not like it would have been had the deal gone through during the late 1990s. Homestead raised money from Draper Fisher Jurvetson and Intel in 1998, then $17.5 million in a 1999 second round , another $10 million from Verisign and others in 2001, and $5.4 million more in 2002. So we're talking at least $35m in funding over multiple rounds and almost 10 years. It's at best a 5X exit but probably one that everyone is relieved to see happen. It's also a good example that even with an undeniably smart business model, loads of backing and the ability to survive the first bubble - a company like Homestead can take ten years to see an exit.
Reuters is reporting that Fox Interactive Media President Peter Levinsohn said Monday that his company is in the discussion stages of creating an ad network, internally dubbed "FIM Serve," that would service all of News Corp.'s online properties. Eventually, the ad network would be opened to non-News Corp. properties.
"We're well down the path in terms of discussions with some of the other News Corp properties to do ad serving," Levinsohn said at the Reuters Media Summit today. "Ultimately we'll take the company off network and become an ad network for assets outside of the News Corporation empire."
Earlier this month, FIM's MySpace unit announced its so-called 'HyperTargeting' ads, which use MySpace user profile data to target ads across 100 categories (with plans to expand to 1000). Could HyperTargeting eventually find its way outside of the social network and on to other Fox Interactive Media or News Corp. properties and beyond?
At the Reuters Media Summit today Fox Interactive Media President Peter Levinsohn said that Fox is planning some additions to MySpace in the next few weeks aimed squarely at Facebook. One of the most compelling, is the site's plan to let users create more than one profile to keep their contacts separate -- for example, friends, family, and business. The additional profiles will let you "express yourself in all those different segments," said Levinsohn.
Though Levinsohn tempered his remarks by indicating that he thinks there exists space for more than one social network (he even admitted to having a Facebook profile, saying, "Facebook I use more to communicate with people at work... Frankly I find MySpace substantially more entertaining."), it appears as though MySpace may be after the business social networking crowd -- in spite of Levinsohn's comments about using Facebook more at work.
While real TV in the US struggles over how much of a cut traditional, professional content writers ought to get from online and new media revenue - the venerable TVGuide announced today the winners of its inaugural Online Video Awards. The funniest video online according to the judges there? SNL's Dick in a Box. Originally aired in December 2006, the video is apparently believed to be funnier than any of the countless shorts posted online over the last 11 months. It is very funny.
The awards were based on 1.75 million votes, and the judgment of TVGuide editors. Awards were given in 18 categories, from Funniest Web Video (D.in a B.) to Best Original Web Drama Series ("Sanctuary"). The full list is available in the press release and the videos can be viewed through a pageload-heavy viewer on the TVGuide site. TVGuide uses the full text of the name Dick in a Box throughout the site and press release, but serves up a censored version of the actual video itself.
There doesn't appear to be a wide variety of sources from which nominees were selected. The vast majority of the nominees come from big, traditional media or other major establishment players online. The headline winners were all mainstream TV hits already. That isn't without exception, and perhaps I'm just bitter about the fact that CBS's Clark and Michael beat out the creative genius of Chad Vader. So far, at least, I haven't found Clark and Michael funny at all.
FunnyOrDie.com, Will Ferrel's site backed by GooTube investors Sequoia Capital, was named the best comedy site. Most people I've talked to say that entire site has been a vastly overpriced, one-hit wonder.
Online video reporter Liz Gannes puts it more plainly when she writes that "there’s not a little guy in sight." Gannes points out the more independent minded online video awards at the forthcoming Winnies.
It would be reactionary, of course, to say that all made-for-TV TV is bad TV and TV made for the web is good TV. There are plenty of quality cross-overs, but the TVGuide awards seem to overstate the case and be short on discovery of new content in the new medium.
Truth be told, there's a whole world of new online video sources and pundits out there. TVGuide has a huge brand and is obviously driving some traffic online already - but I'll take Digg video and Stumble Upon Video instead any day.
TVGuide, you're going to have to do better than this.
The New York Times is reporting that ABC News and Facebook have formed a partnership that will bring ABC political coverage to Facebook while lending social networking cred to the old media network. Part of the alliance has Facebook signing on as a sponsor of the ABC Democratic presidential debate on January 5th, 2008 in New Hampshire -- just days before that state's primary election and after the Iowa caucuses.
Both ABC and Facebook are late to the party. CNN and YouTube were the first told hold a new-meets-old media mashup debate (the Republican version will be held this week), and MySpace teamed with MTV for their ongoing candidate dialogues.
New media technologies are taking a bigger role in US election politics than they ever have, with candidates blogging, posting videos, using social networks like MySpace, Facebook, and LinkedIn, and Twittering. A stop at the Googleplex for an interview with Eric Schmidt has become an almost required campaign event this election cycle, and even web tech-focused blogs like TechCrunch are getting in on the act by interviewing US presidential candidates (today they talked with Barack Obama).
Today has been declared Blue Beanie Day, an only slightly tongue-in-cheek day for supporters of web standards to show their solidarity with the cause. Originating in the mind of Douglas Vos, founder of Facebook’s Designing With Web Standards Group, the day uses a blue hat as its symbol in honor of Jeffrey Zeldman, author of the landmark book Designing with Web Standards. Zeldman wears a blue beanie on the book's cover.
You might see blue hats on the heads of your friends' Twitter avatars, if you work in an office perhaps someone there is geeky enough to be wearing a blue beanie (maybe you should ask them about it - or perhaps it's you!) and there's a Flickr group dedicated to blue beanie photos (the most recent 20 of which are playing on the right, followed by a nice video of Jeffrey Zeldman).
Web standards are something we write about a lot here at ReadWriteWeb. We've gotten great feedback on posts about new standards like OpenID and OAuth. Most people, though, think of the W3C standards for CSS and HTML when the phrase is used. Belgian web design rock star Veerle Pieters has a good post today explaining her personal relationship to web standards and Blue Beanie day.
There are new standards being developed all the time. Old and new standards work together. That's the theory anyway, I'd like to see some informed discussion on Blue Beanie Day about the Google-led OpenSocial. To what degree does it build on and to what degree does it seek to replace existing standards?
