What's up with del.icio.us? (some features to improve the service)

As you have noticed, lately I am concerned with the web2.o bubble to explode. I am a Del.icio.us user from the very beginning and I appreciate the usefulness of its service. Although there are some strange signals that scares me:

1. There is no evidence of improvement or new features. So, what are they doing in the office?
2. I cannot see a business model in the service. I thought they would launch a premium version, but no new in that sense.
3. They are not refer in the most web2.0 reference publications (techcrunch). Of course that is not a real signal, but it adds up to the other.

Since I am worried for the fact that some day it may come up they close down the service, I am starting to back up all my bookmarks.

I launch some recommendation on features to the outer space so if there is live in Del.icio.us planet they may hear it:

• Instant messaging tool to chat with other delicious users online
• Export/import tool
• Drag and drop bundle tool

Beware when enroling a 2.0 service

Related to the concerns arised from our last post, there is an important issue. What if you trust your content to a startup
which may disappear if they do not succed to find a buyer? There is the recent case of Stage6.

Of course, you may subscribe a product provided by a well known company as IBM and they may close down. But we know IBM business model is not a short-term one. Though, we know that most of web2.0 startup are based in a "grow as fast as you can and sell to Google". But what if Google does not buy?

There are lots of web2.0 services which are very useful, but should we trust our content? There might be this point when making a decision on which service we do enrol.

You can check a full list of goog ideas and services: Techcrunch Deadpool

Start-up but not risky business

A post in Mark Evan's blog about Seesmic venture capitalists inspired me to write this. It seems that there is a kind of start-up business ready-to-sell before they start operations.

This is my hypothesis: an enterpreuneur sells his/her company to a huge company. He/she gets the money and the popularity in the environment. Then is time to set up a new business, but never risk the money he/she got from the big-deal. He/she has to get money from venture-capitalists, if possible very popular in the hood. So the point is the first company and have a good idea-product to interest venture-capitalists. If it works, we share profits; if it fails, we share loses, but we never lose.

But my concern is that most of these VC are also web2.0 startup enterpreneurs. They invest in someone else's project. Is that a safe managerial strategy?

Experiencing the bubble

This is my experience trying to buy a webTV service.

21-Oct-07: I contacted the commercial department asking for more details of the service provided.

25-Oct-07: I contact the CEO (a quite known enterpreneur and Web2.0 guru). He immediately answered begging excuses and sending a copy to the commercial department urging to contact me.

07-Nov-07: As I got no answered I send an email to the contact the CEO provided me. I get an email from another commercial staff. two days later I get a phone call and we discuss the details and terms of service. He tells me he will send me all the details by mail.

09-Nov-07: I send an email asking for those details (I never trust a phone conversation, I need downwritten statements). Got the email, but lacking of details. I analyze the data provided and send him an email back asking for the rest of information as well as for some other details.

14-Nov-07: Got an aswer saying "I am not able to anwser, I need to check it with the technical service. I will send it to you asap".

21-Dec-07: No answer or any followup by this company.


Bad service or no interest on providing a service. Is this company just waiting for the right moment to be sold for a dizzy amount of honey money?

Is the market going too fast?

Almost everyone in the online video Industry agrees that its future lays on the monetization of content. So, in the last months we have seen an explosion of new services offering new opportunities for publishers and advertisers.

[note: while I was writing the post when I have seen the last post by Dan Rayburn where he states that advertising is just getting started though the environment is evolving: "more niche competitors, the Viacom lawsuit, the big media companies entering the space (Hulu) and the problem with getting advertisers to spend money around UGC content."]

I think there are two axes of rapidly evolution of online video. Firstly, there is a ride to deliver the highest quality:

• A couple of days ago Brightcove "announced a new service for delivering broadcast-quality Internet TV. Extending their widely adopted Internet TV platform, the new service, Brightcove Show, will give content publishers the ability to deliver instant-on, broadcast-quality streaming video to their viewers".
• Youtube is planning to deliver content bases on the H.264 standard
  
• The players (Silverlight and Adobe) figth is about to begin.
• Etc...

Secondly, new ways to embed or to somehow include ads in videos. Not long ago, Google-Youtube announced they would embed ads, and now they point out their brand new Adsense Video Unit.

My question is, may be advertisers and publishers overwhelmed by such a rapidly growing diversity of solutions and offers? The point is that since the first moment you offer a solution to the potential advertising client, up to the moment you really start developing the project, your solution is already old-fashioned. For most clients this noise is tough to understand, to feel comfortable with your solution and, eventually, get on this roller coaster and enjoy. They are used to "burn the windows of distribution" step by step. That is, they invest for a communication campaign and then they want it to work for a certain period of time.

My concern is that technology capabilities and potentials are going at light speed while advertising and consumers video literacy have a 1.0 speed.

What did it happen to the Yahoo! Current Network?

When redacting my previous post, I dived into the Current TV world, that i consider one of the ever best ideas on iptv. Some time after I discovered Al Gore's Current TV, I got surprised because of the Current TV - Yahoo! partnership, what was called the Yahoo! Current Network.

Current TV is an independent cable and satellite TV cable network broadcasting in the USA, UK and Ireland. Current TV programming is mainly based on content provided by users. The content providing is based on Current TV's website. Users upload their contents which allows other users to rate it. To set up the schedule, Current TV chooses between the top rated contents.

When the Yahoo! Current Network was launched it created a big buzz in the sector. Specially, because not long ago, Current TV was flirting with Google. Google and Current TV looked like the perfect non-mainstream couple. And then, the move towards Yahoo!

It seems that, as every divorced couple, they have spared parts and split their belongings and both follows its own path.

Then I read this message from Current TV:

"As of December 1, 2006, pursuant to the Contest Rules, Current TV, LLC ("Current") has TERMINATED the Yahoo! Current Launch Contests in connection with the Yahoo! Current Network ("Contest"). All Contest entrants will be notified of this termination by Current TV, LLC. All rights related to any Contest entry that Current has not optioned as of December 1, 2006 shall immediately revert to the original owner and Current shall have no rights in or to any such entry. Thank you for supporting the Yahoo! Current Network. We apologize for any inconvenience."

C-Net also echoes this split up: "Current is exploring better opportunities to distribute our content," (Current TV spokesman Alex Dolan).

I donno' if I get the full implication of the business model shift Dolan was refering to. What I see is that between Google and Current TV there is no content sharing, as it was with Yahoo, but a diffusion of Google's content.

Then, surprisingly we come accross Google Current: "Google Current airs every half hour on Current TV and provides a look at what the world is searching for on Google", updated every hour!.







I think it is a very interesting move for the iptv/audiovisual sector, and we would love to know any details you may be aware of. You are welcome to post your comments.