Browse by Tags

• Tech train wrecks in 2007

  Posted Dec 19 2007, 03:52 AM by Kim Peterson
  Filed under: Microsoft, Yahoo, Palm, Facebook, AMD, Take Two Interactive
  Rating:

  

  This year has been a disaster for some tech companies. Oh sure, it's been a fabulous ride for Apple, Amazon and Google.

  But this post is about the losingest losers out there. The train wrecks. The Lindsay Lohans of technology. Here are the companies, and their "oops" moments, that made 2007 memorable:

  Yahoo
  Share performance: Down 30% since the end of October.
  Oops moment: Launching a public soul-searching in the form of a 100-day self-examination to craft a strategic plan.
  What happened: The 100 days ended with no big announcements. Yahoo is too large and too laden by its own bureaucracy to be nimble. What's more, the company lost valuable search market share to Google this year.
  Chance of recovery in 2008: Moderate. Yahoo is overhauling some core services, including e-mail and photo, but has been unable to monetize a user base that numbers some 475 million. Lots more work to do.   Read More...

  Discuss ( 49 comments) 78,869 Views Digg this | Email this | Link to this

• Facebook's mea culpa comes at last

  Posted Dec 05 2007, 09:16 PM by Kim Peterson
  Filed under: Facebook
  Rating:

  The Facebook debacle-in-the-making may have peaked today, now that founder Mark Zuckerberg has come out of hiding and apologized. To quickly recap: The social networking upstart rolled out an advertising push that was so invasive and abusive that 50,000 members signed a petition to protest the move. The ad program, called Beacon, ushered in a tidal wave of bad publicity for the company. Read my last post for more on Beacon.
  

  Zuckerberg was nowhere to be found as the PR crisis ballooned. Today, his cup of contrition runneth over. He posts:

  "We've made a lot of mistakes building this feature, but we've made even more with how we've handled them. We simply did a bad job with this release, and I apologize for it. While I am disappointed with our mistakes, we appreciate all the feedback we have received from our users."

  He's saying all the right things, but the apology just sounds unconvincing. Like it's been picked apart and reassembled by an army of PR people and lawyers. Zuckerberg should have given us the real deal.   Read More...

  Discuss ( 4 comments) 2,075 Views Digg this | Email this | Link to this

• Facebook decides harassing members no longer good idea

  Posted Nov 30 2007, 04:13 AM by Kim Peterson
  Filed under: Microsoft, Facebook, Overstock.com
  Rating:

  Social networking site Facebook is finally backing away from its overly aggressive and ill-conceived advertising strategy. To understand how maddening this ad push was, consider what happened to Forrester analyst Charlene Li. As she explains on her blog, she recently bought a coffee table on Overstock.com. Then she logged into Facebook and saw this on her page:

   

  She used her personal e-mail address to buy the table and had no idea the purchase would show up on her Facebook news feed for all her friends and work contacts to see.   Read More...

  Discuss ( 58 comments) 59,729 Views Digg this | Email this | Link to this

• Facebook begins abusing its members

  Posted Nov 07 2007, 07:47 AM by Kim Peterson
  Filed under: Facebook
  Rating:

  Facebook is going to have its members start shilling for products. The idea is brilliantly evil. 

  How does it work? If I tell Facebook that I like Diet Coke, all my friends on Facebook will start seeing ads for Coca-Cola with my picture and the fact that I like Diet Coke.

  What's more, companies will be able to track what Facebook users are doing on the Web and send them targeted ads. If I buy something from a retailer like Amazon, my friends will know about the transaction. 

  I've never seen a company go so far in forcing viral marketing among its users. But why would any of us want to be involved in this? My friends don't want to see me hawk Toyotas. I don't want anyone to know that I just bought mascara on Amazon.

  Shame on Facebook for trying to turn its members into hacks. If this is a blooming success I'm divorcing the Internet. This marks the start of irreconcilable differences.   Read More...

  Discuss ( 159 comments) 55,544 Views Digg this | Email this | Link to this

• Google OpenSocial: It's no Facebook killer

  Posted Oct 30 2007, 09:53 PM by Kim Peterson
  Filed under: Google, Facebook

  There have been rumors far and wide that Google is working on its own social network. Turns out the company is working on something better, though it's no threat to social networking darling Facebook.

  OpenSocial, which Google will introduce this week, lets programmers make applications for many different social networking sites at once. Doesn't sound like a big deal. But first you have to understand that part of Facebook's appeal are the 5,000 programs people have built for the site. You can compare movie tastes with other users, share music, ask questions and pick your top friends. Those programs -- as silly as some of them are -- keep users on Facebook and keep the ad revenue flowing. They're a big reason why Facebook is raking in the cash from Microsoft and others right now.

  Developers are busy creating programs for Facebook and ignoring all the other social networking sites out there, including Google's own Orkut, a network popular in Brazil but not in the U.S. So Google bands together with other social networks and figures out a way that developers can write programs for all of them at once.   Read More...

  Discuss ( 1 comments) 941 Views Digg this | Email this | Link to this

• Microsoft-Facebook deal: What a snooze

  Posted Oct 25 2007, 08:06 AM by Kim Peterson
  Filed under: Google, Microsoft, Facebook
  Rating:

  So Microsoft spent $240 million for a 1.6% stake in Facebook. Big deal. Microsoft spends that kind of money the way most of us shell out for a grande latte. It means nothing.
  
  That hasn't stopped people from freaking out about Facebook's valuation. Microsoft's investment values the social networking site at $15 billion. But understand this: no one is buying Facebook. That $15 billion is an empty figure. It also means nothing.
  
  I read this deal two ways. First, Facebook got a nice chunk of change from Microsoft without having to give much in return. Second, Microsoft made an advertising business deal and that's it.   Read More...

  Discuss ( 52 comments) 41,088 Views Digg this | Email this | Link to this

• Oh come on. Facebook is terrorizing Google?

  Posted Oct 16 2007, 11:12 AM by Kim Peterson
  Filed under: Google, Microsoft, Facebook
  Rating:

  

  The headline "Facebook's got Google running scared" makes me giggle.

  I love Facebook, but it's a ridiculous notion that this overhyped and overvalued social network is making Google execs wet their pants. Facebook is the current belle of the social networking ball, grabbing more attention and notoriety than any of its predecessors. These networks fall in and out of favor (remember Friendster, anyone?) but Facebook has taken some truly ingenious steps to stay at the top. Its best move was making it easy for people to develop applications for use on the site.

  Microsoft and others are vying for a small stake in Facebook, and 23-year-old founder Mark Zuckerberg is reportedly juggling term sheets from suitors these days. A stake of less than 5% is going for $300 million to $500 million, according to the Wall Street Journal. What an outrageous valuation.   Read More...

  Discuss (no comments) 2,100 Views Digg this | Email this | Link to this