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06.14.11Can the patent system be fixed?There has been a lot of discussion recently by several top startup investors about how the U.S. patent system is badly broken and calling for Congress to dismantle software patents altogether. In a nutshell, the main problem is the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has granted many patents for inventions that seem like they would be obvious to anyone working on the Internet--and therefore should be unpatentable. A recent example is the Lodsys case, which seems to grant a patent for the "invention" of enabling users to provide feedback via a website. Often, these patents, which seem silly to many in ...
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06.02.11Welcome to the desktop, FacebookAs I mentioned in my last post, building desktop software, which for the past few years has been considered maybe something less than cool, is now becoming fashionable again, maybe even hot. This past week it was reported Facebook is hiring a desktop software team in its Seattle office. Various experts have speculated on what Facebook is building. Some say it's a browser, others say it is something related to connecting users' consumption of media and the desktop experience in a social way. Or maybe it's all of the above. In any case, it is great to see Facebook recognizing the ...
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05.11.11The downloadable is dead. Long live the downloadable!Quick update since my last post: for the past few months I have continued working as a consultant with HauteLook, the fashion flash sale site that was recently acquired by Nordstrom, managing their "off-website" experiences such as the iPhone app, mobile site, Facebook store, and some cool new stuff coming soon. (This has been an excellent experience, seeing how quickly users are adapting mobile and social commerce in a fast-growing new model.) Meanwhile, at KlickFu we have been working on refining the app while waiting to start an integration with an exciting new partner--adding some new features, fixing bugs, and making ...
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01.03.11My take on the Samsung Nexus S and AndroidA few weeks ago, I made the switch from iPhone to Android. Initially I had been holding out for a second-gen 4G Android phone with excellent battery life, however, I am starting work on an Android app for a consulting project this week so I figured this was a good time to make the move. Initially I had ordered an HTC EVO 4G, then when I saw the super positive reviews of the Samsung Nexus S, I returned the EVO in favor of the Nexus. Since I have been using the Nexus for a few weeks now, I thought I would ...
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11.21.109 reasons why fantasy football is the most successful social gameThere has been a lot of talk recently about social games like Farmville and Mafia Wars and their potential value to investors or acquirers. However, there is another social game that may be even larger in terms of its overall impact and value to partners--fantasy football. For those who do not follow pro sports closely, in the past 10 years, the NFL has grown to become by far the most popular sport in the U.S. As a small example, earlier this year, an early regular season NFL game outdrew a World Series baseball game in TV ratings by a wide margin. ...
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10.27.10Zoom in and out for product innovationIt's been a while since I last posted. I did not intend to take a long break, although I have kept fairly busy in the meantime, working on KlickFu and doing some consulting for the L.A.-based flash sales fashion company, HauteLook--releasing an iPhone app and a mobile website and working on other projects. Also, I have built up a small backlog of topics I want to post on, of which this is the first. Recently, I was asked to speak at an upcoming offsite for the Google Consumer Operations (ConOps) team on the subject of innovation. I had been intending to write on ...
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06.02.10Ding! You are now free to keep your points to yourselfYesterday, after returning from my trip to the Bay Area this weekend, I qualified for a free Rapid Rewards trip on Southwest airlines and received a confirmation email with the award codes. Yet the email did not include a link to post an announcement to Facebook or any other element of social interaction or social gaming--for example, to see which of my Facebook friends had qualified for trips or who had earned the most credits in the past year. In many ways, frequent flyer programs are the original social games. Users receive points for activity, they can level up based on ...
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06.01.10BP did not plan to fail… and that was the problemIt has been over 40 days since the BP oil rig explosion and blow-out that has been spewing 15K-20K barrels per day into the Gulf and there is still no end in sight. Aside from the media coverage of the potential devastating impact on the environment and way of life of the people in the affected areas, there is now a lot of discussion about the events that led up to the explosion and how the government and the energy industry can prevent similar events in the future. All that is good and necessary. There are certainly steps the government should ...
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05.05.10Improving the Windows desktop is so… 2010For a lot of the time my co-founder Rod and I have been working on KlickFu, we have often had the feeling the area of the business we have been focusing on--enhancing the experience working with the Windows desktop--is maybe not the coolest part of the industry. Yes, Windows 7 is an excellent product and has been quite successful for Microsoft, however, for the past year, many of my fellow startup founders have been focused mainly on building new apps for Facebook or iPhone/iPad or Android. Of course, this makes total sense, since these areas are evolving rapidly and many ...
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03.19.10The need for speedErick Schonfeld wrote an article in TechCrunch today called Google's Need For Speed, in which he argues Google is obsessed with speed because it leads users to do more searches, which results in more ad clicks. He notes Google research that shows delays of a few hundred milliseconds returning results translated to 0.6% fewer searches by users, which could add up to tens of millions of dollars per quarter in lost revenue. It is true Google is obsessed with speed. Recent examples include TechCrunch's confirmation that Google's URL shortener is the fastest on the Internet as well as the statement by Gmail product ...
recent posts
- Can the patent system be fixed?
- Welcome to the desktop, Facebook
- The downloadable is dead. Long live the downloadable!
- My take on the Samsung Nexus S and Android
- 9 reasons why fantasy football is the most successful social game
- Zoom in and out for product innovation
- Ding! You are now free to keep your points to yourself
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