When a web application gets popular enough, features matter less and the underlying ecosystem matters more. There’s a tipping point at which network effects outstrip software features. When that happens, users get the benefits of additional functionality — and the risk of new kinds of lock-in.… Read More »
RSS Feed
Alistair Croll
Recent Posts
With every birthday reminder, bill confirmation, new friend, direct message, password recovery, and mailing list, the content of our inboxes becomes less and less a means of communication and more and more a record of all we do online. But if inboxes don’t fundamentally change in… Read More »
Back in the desktop software era, magazines ran software reviews in which the side-by-side comparisons of features took up an entire page. Buyers used these reviews to shortlist vendors, trying to anticipate which features they’d need over the next five years. Typically, the software with the… Read More »
Elastra today unveiled an updated cloud strategy that aims to tackle one of the biggest challenges of cloud computing: How to move applications smoothly between in-house infrastructure and clouds like Amazon’s EC2. If the strategy works, it could pave the way for so-called “hybrid clouds,”… Read More »
When Google first released App Engine as a “Preview Release” last April, developers had relatively little computing power. Only a few apps got Google’s permission to grow beyond the free computing quotas, including BuddyPoke, Lingospot, Mentalfloss and
Microsoft is hoping people will use Photosynth to document the inauguration. In partnership with CNN, they’re asking people to upload 1-3 pictures, no more than 10MB each, and email them. The result will be a three-dimensional record of the event. That’s a… Read More »
Customer relationship management giant Salesforce.com just gobsmacked the fledgling community management industry with its launch of a customer support service called Service Cloud. While initially positioned as a tool for customer service, it also tracks interactions with various online communities. This puts Salesforce on a… Read More »
More Must Reads
Identi.ca’s plans to build an open-source alternative to Twitter got a vote of confidence this week with an investment from the VCs at Montreal Start Up. While the amount of the financing wasn’t disclosed, Montreal Start Up Managing Partner John Stokes said… Read More »
Joyent today announced it has agreed to acquire Reasonably Smart, a fledgling cloud startup based on JavaScript and Git, for an undisclosed amount. While on the surface it might look like simple industry consolidation, Reasonably Smart’s technology will in fact… Read More »
Until now, Google’s App Engine has been a great playground for coders: Everyone gets a daily quota of computing resources to play with. But without understanding how pricing will work when you go beyond those quotas, it’s been harder to understand business models… Read More »
Are clouds fundamentally less secure? A story today in the Guardian lists cloud security as one of the things we’ll worry about in 2009, citing a recent survey commissioned by — big surprise — security companies. I don’t believe that clouds themselves will cause the… Read More »
Despite decades of effort, troubleshooting applications is still hard. ExtraHop, which comes out of stealth today with the launch of its Application Delivery Assurance Appliance, thinks it’s got the answer. Backed with $1.5 million from Madrona Venture Partners, the 10-person company… Read More »
Google recently announced an extension framework for Chrome, adding the ability to run extra software in the browser. It’s a feature many had long considered missing from Google’s browser — and one that has been key to Firefox’s popularity. But with the Chrome… Read More »
Citing changes to its billing and costs that are doubling every month, Twitter announced that it will no longer support outbound SMS to Canadians. Twitter’s searching for a business model (and a Business Product Manager to help out), and in the meantime it has… Read More »
With a flurry of announcements in recent weeks, Amazon has extended its cloud computing lead. The beta label’s gone. It can run Windows applications. By investing in firms like Elastra, it’s tackling enterprise deployment. And there’s a 99.95 percent uptime guarantee. Much of this… Read More »
Obama says technology will save health care, and it’s true that IT is quickly becoming a medical resource: Google, which recently launched an online medical records service, claims that online search is where consumers turn first for health information. Computerization… Read More »
There are a lot of bad things on the Internet: spam, child porn, malware, phishing and so on. Until recently, it’s been up to people to protect themselves, using security software or web site blocking. Lately, however, governments and legislators have been calling for service providers… Read More »
Most Commented
- 17 Today: 3 key differences between Tesla and Fisker
- 93 This Week: 7 signs that Android is faltering as iOS strengthens
- 68 This Month: Why we are buying paidContent
GigaOM TV
Now Loading…
Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7: Best small slate yet?
When I held the Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7 at last month’s Consumer…
Popular Now
Latest News
- Say what? Google is going to do hardware? LOL!
- Google and affliction of me-too-ism
- Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7: Video look at a speedy slate
- LinkedIn: Mobile growing fast in everything but revenue
- Think you’re unique? Let Yahoo’s data trove be the judge
- Early leader in NYC BigApps competition: Foursquare
- Since the FCC no longer listens, AT&T tries Congress
