<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<rss version="2.0"
	xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/"
	xmlns:wfw="http://wellformedweb.org/CommentAPI/"
	xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/"
	xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom"
	xmlns:sy="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/syndication/"
	xmlns:slash="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/slash/"
	xmlns:georss="http://www.georss.org/georss" xmlns:geo="http://www.w3.org/2003/01/geo/wgs84_pos#" xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/"
	>

<channel>
	<title>GigaOM &#187; Liz Gannes Archives</title>
	<atom:link href="http://gigaom.com/author/lizg/feed/" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" />
	<link>http://gigaom.com</link>
	<description></description>
	<lastBuildDate>Thu, 20 Jun 2013 07:25:41 +0000</lastBuildDate>
	<language>en</language>
	<sy:updatePeriod>hourly</sy:updatePeriod>
	<sy:updateFrequency>1</sy:updateFrequency>
	<generator>http://wordpress.com/</generator>
<cloud domain='gigaom.com' port='80' path='/?rsscloud=notify' registerProcedure='' protocol='http-post' />
<image>
		<url>http://0.gravatar.com/blavatar/0db8f6557d022075dbbf010c54d46d93?s=96&#038;d=http%3A%2F%2Fs2.wp.com%2Fi%2Fbuttonw-com.png</url>
		<title>GigaOM &#187; Liz Gannes Archives</title>
		<link>http://gigaom.com</link>
	</image>
	<atom:link rel="search" type="application/opensearchdescription+xml" href="http://gigaom.com/osd.xml" title="GigaOM" />
	<atom:link rel='hub' href='http://gigaom.com/?pushpress=hub'/>
		<item>
		<title>KPCB: $250M for Social Startups (and Its Own Relevance)</title>
		<link>http://gigaom.com/2010/10/21/kleiner-perkins-250m-for-social-startups-and-its-own-relevance/</link>
		<comments>http://gigaom.com/2010/10/21/kleiner-perkins-250m-for-social-startups-and-its-own-relevance/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 21 Oct 2010 18:33:05 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Amazon]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Facebook]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Kleiner Perkins]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[sFund]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Zynga]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://gigaom.com/?p=168793</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Kleiner Perkins today reasserted itself as a powerhouse and relevant venture capital firm by rounding up Facebook, Zynga and Amazon to announce a $250 million fund for social web startups, called the sFund. Kleiner partner John Doerr today won on-stage testimonials from Facebook, Amazon and Zynga.<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=gigaom.com&#038;blog=14960843&#038;post=168793&#038;subd=gigaom2&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Kleiner Perkins Caufield &amp; Byers today tried to reassert itself as a powerhouse and relevant venture capital firm by rounding up Facebook, Zynga and Amazon to announce a $250-million fund for social web startups, called the <a href="http://www.kpcb.com/initiatives/sfund/">sFund</a>. This comes on the heels of the VC firm’s <a href="http://gigaom.com/2010/03/31/kleiner-perkins-commits-100m-more-to-its-ifund/">$200 million iFund</a> for iOS companies, which has had recent success like the <a href="http://gigaom.com/2010/10/12/the-future-of-social-games-is-mobile/">$400 million purchase</a> of portfolio company Ngmoco.</p>
<p><a href="http://gigaom2.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/sfund-e1287684926510.png"><img title="sFund" src="http://gigaom2.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/sfund-e1287684926510.png?w=300&#038;h=200" alt="" width="300" height="200" class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-168813"></a></p>
<p>At an announcement at Facebook’s Palo Alto, Calif.-based headquarters today, Kleiner partner John Doerr called the fund “a quarter of a billion dollar party.” He won on-stage testimonials from Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos and Zynga CEO Mark Pincus.</p>
<p>After backing Internet heavyweights like Amazon and Google, Kleiner missed opportunities like Facebook and YouTube and <a href="http://www.quora.com/Kleiner-Perkins-Caufield-Byers/How-is-Kleiner-Perkins-regarded-today">garnered skepticism</a> about its sheen as one of the top, and most relevant, VC firms. This is a move to counter that perception (and reality). The firm clearly counts Zynga as a big win, and trumpets the fact that it’s the fastest-growing company it has ever invested in. Kleiner partner Bing Gordon, who led the firm’s investment in Zynga, will head up the sFund.</p>
<p>Kleiner gave examples of promising social startups it has already backed in addition to Zynga: Jive Software (enterprise social web), Lockerz (online shopping incentives for young people), CafeBots (a “Friend Relationship Management” app builder) and Flipboard (the social magazine app for the iPad). CafeBots is the only disclosed investment that’s actually part of the sFund; the others were made previous to its existence.</p>
<p>Investors in the sFund include Amazon, Facebook, Zynga, Kleiner Perkins, Comcast Interactive Capital, Allen &amp; Company and Liberty Media.</p>
<p>Kleiner’s Gordon said the future of the social web is still ahead of us; he predicted social activity and engagement will continue to rise dramatically, and teased entrepreneurs with the opportunity to be a CEO within Kleiner’s fold, where it has access to Bezos, Zuckerberg, Pincus and others.</p>
<p>Bezos joked that he hoped most of the $250 million would be spent on Amazon Web Services, and <a href="http://www.marketwatch.com/story/amazon-web-services-to-launch-free-usage-tier-2010-10-21?reflink=MW_news_stmp">said</a> Amazon was today introducing a new tier for startups that would allow them to try AWS for free.</p>
<p><em>Please see the disclosure about Facebook in <a href="http://gigaom.com/author/lizg/">my bio</a>. </em></p>
<p><strong>Related content from GigaOM Pro (subscription req’d):</strong></p>
<ul><li><a href="http://pro.gigaom.com/2009/10/why-google-should-fear-the-social-web/?utm_source=tech&amp;utm_medium=editorial&amp;utm_content=lizg&amp;utm_campaign=intext&amp;utm_term=168793+kleiner-perkins-250m-for-social-startups-and-its-own-relevance">Why Google Should Fear the Social Web</a></li>
<li><a href="http://pro.gigaom.com/2010/08/will-games-help-google-figure-out-how-to-be-social/?utm_source=tech&amp;utm_medium=editorial&amp;utm_content=lizg&amp;utm_campaign=intext&amp;utm_term=168793+kleiner-perkins-250m-for-social-startups-and-its-own-relevance">Will Games Help Google Figure Out How to Be Social?</a></li>
<li><a href="http://pro.gigaom.com/2010/09/multiple-models-for-social-media-businesses/?utm_source=tech&amp;utm_medium=editorial&amp;utm_content=lizg&amp;utm_campaign=intext&amp;utm_term=168793+kleiner-perkins-250m-for-social-startups-and-its-own-relevance">Multiple Models for Social Media Businesses</a></li>
</ul>
<br />  <img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=gigaom.com&#038;blog=14960843&#038;post=168793&#038;subd=gigaom2&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" /><p><a href="http://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?iu=/1008864/GigaOM_RSS_300x250&#038;sz=300x250&#038;c=270345"><img src="http://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/ad?iu=/1008864/GigaOM_RSS_300x250&#038;sz=300x250&#038;c=270345" /></a></p>]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://gigaom.com/2010/10/21/kleiner-perkins-250m-for-social-startups-and-its-own-relevance/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>2</slash:comments>
	
		<media:thumbnail url="http://gigaom2.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/sfund-e1287684926510.png?w=150" />
		<media:content url="http://gigaom2.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/sfund-e1287684926510.png?w=150" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">sFund</media:title>
		</media:content>

		<media:content url="http://gigaom2.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/sfund-e1287684926510.png?w=300" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">sFund</media:title>
		</media:content>
	</item>
		<item>
		<title>What&#8217;s Next for Posterous: Geo, Groups, Premium</title>
		<link>http://gigaom.com/2010/10/20/whats-next-for-posterous-geo-groups-premium/</link>
		<comments>http://gigaom.com/2010/10/20/whats-next-for-posterous-geo-groups-premium/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 20 Oct 2010 23:45:44 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[@CNN]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[@TheStreet]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[NYT Company News]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[SYN Straight News]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[posterous]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[startup profile]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://gigaom.com/?p=168147</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Posterous, the email-based blogging platform, aims to keep things simple and easy to use, but it can't resist adding new more advanced features such as increased support for groups, premium accounts for businesses, proximity-based geoblogs, and a better bookmarklet to bring in outside content.<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=gigaom.com&#038;blog=14960843&#038;post=168147&#038;subd=gigaom2&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://posterous.com/">Posterous</a>, the email-based blogging platform, emphasizes simplicity and ease of use, yet it keeps adding new features. Unlike, say, Twitter, the company isn’t so dogmatic about simplicity that it forgoes functionality like media hosting and mobile clients. Of course, there are other differences between Posterous and Twitter: Posterous hasn’t experienced the same meteoric growth in usage and hasn’t fostered a developer community to fill in all its gaps.</p>
<p><a href="http://tedfellows.posterous.com/"><img title="GroupPosterous" src="http://gigaom2.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/groupposterous.png?w=300&#038;h=200" alt="" width="300" height="200" class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-168204"></a>In reality, said Posterous CEO Sachin Agarwal in an interview today, “We are on the WordPress* end of the spectrum, but people think we’re micro-blogging because we’re so simple.” As Posterous grows and becomes more full-featured, Agarwal and co-founder Garry Tan say they will never lose email posting as a core function, and will always try to build experiences that mimic and integrate with familiar interfaces. The company has some new features in the works: increased support for groups, premium accounts for businesses, proximity-based geoblogs, and a better bookmarklet to bring in outside content.</p>
<p><strong>Groups.</strong> Posterous is increasingly used as a group communication tool, where users send messages to Posterous like they would a group email list or a Yahoo Group. Other group members can sign up to receive all posts by email, so the blog itself is essentially a public or private archive. The difference is, the blog format is a good way to consume and search, and Posterous is much better than email at handling media. As compared to the new Facebook Groups, anyone can participate without even creating a Posterous account.</p>
<p>For example, the TED Conference’s Fellows program has 150-200 people communicating with each other through a Posterous group, Agarwal said. Today, 15 percent of Posterous sites are multi-contributor, but the company thinks that number will rise as it adds new tools like automatic group creation when you cc: Posterous on an email to multiple recipients.</p>
<p><strong>Premium Accounts.</strong> To date, Posterous hasn’t made any money, but it plans to start pulling its weight. In the next few weeks, it will be beta-testing Google AdSense revenue share with some of its celebrity users. (It won’t name names, but folks like Ashton Kutcher use Posterous to host their photos uploaded through Twitter clients.) Early next year, Posterous plans to roll out subscription accounts for small and medium business owners who want to use the service to manage their social media presences. Agarwal said many real estate agents already use the service today to syndicate content to their Twitter, Facebook and other online presences. This use case sounds kind of similar to tools like <a href="http://hootsuite.com/">HootSuite</a>.</p>
<p><strong>Geoblogs.</strong> At Blog World Expo this past week, Posterous set up a group blog. Anyone who loaded up the Posterous iPhone app in the vicinity of the Mandalay Bay Convention Center was invited to contribute to a Posterous blog dedicated to the show. The company expects to use these pop-up proximity blogs around additional events, and for other purposes.</p>
<p><strong>A Better Bookmarklet.</strong> This sounds a bit dangerous as far as plagiarism goes, but Posterous will be updating its bookmarklet tool so users can grab articles and videos by just selecting them and clicking. The idea is to make it even easier to add new content. Today, 50 percent of Posterous posts contain media other than text, and that portion is rising.</p>
<p>Posterous has just 4.4 million monthly visitors (7.1 including custom domains), according to Quantcast, compared to 30.9 million for rival Tumblr (44.2 including custom domains). It’s possible that’s an undercount of actual usage due to users who interact with the service over email, but unfortunately, Posterous doesn’t provide user or site numbers to make a more appropriate comparison. The company, which has 10 employees, has raised about $5 million in funding.</p>
<p><em>Automattic, maker of WordPress.com, is backed by True Ventures, a venture capital firm that is an investor in the parent company of this blog, Giga Omni Media. Om Malik, founder of Giga Omni Media, is also a venture partner at True.</em></p>
<p><strong>Related content from GigaOM Pro (subscription req’d):</strong></p>
<ul><li><a href="http://pro.gigaom.com/2010/10/facebook-remained-social-medias-chief-in-q3/?utm_source=tech&amp;utm_medium=editorial&amp;utm_content=lizg&amp;utm_campaign=intext&amp;utm_term=168147+whats-next-for-posterous-geo-groups-premium">Facebook Remained Social Media’s Chief in Q3</a></li>
<li><a href="http://pro.gigaom.com/2010/08/how-to-make-google-matter-in-social-media/?utm_source=tech&amp;utm_medium=editorial&amp;utm_content=lizg&amp;utm_campaign=intext&amp;utm_term=168147+whats-next-for-posterous-geo-groups-premium">How to Make Google Matter in Social Media</a></li>
<li><a href="http://pro.gigaom.com/2010/09/multiple-models-for-social-media-businesses/?utm_source=tech&amp;utm_medium=editorial&amp;utm_content=lizg&amp;utm_campaign=intext&amp;utm_term=168147+whats-next-for-posterous-geo-groups-premium">Multiple Models for Social Media Businesses</a></li>
</ul>
<br />  <img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=gigaom.com&#038;blog=14960843&#038;post=168147&#038;subd=gigaom2&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" /><p><a href="http://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?iu=/1008864/GigaOM_RSS_300x250&#038;sz=300x250&#038;c=421791"><img src="http://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/ad?iu=/1008864/GigaOM_RSS_300x250&#038;sz=300x250&#038;c=421791" /></a></p>]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://gigaom.com/2010/10/20/whats-next-for-posterous-geo-groups-premium/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>2</slash:comments>
	
		<media:thumbnail url="http://gigaom2.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/groupposterous.png?w=150" />
		<media:content url="http://gigaom2.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/groupposterous.png?w=150" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">GroupPosterous</media:title>
		</media:content>

		<media:content url="http://gigaom2.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/groupposterous.png?w=300" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">GroupPosterous</media:title>
		</media:content>
	</item>
		<item>
		<title>Esther Dyson: Privacy Is a Marketing Problem</title>
		<link>http://gigaom.com/2010/10/19/esther-dyson-privacy-is-a-marketing-problem/</link>
		<comments>http://gigaom.com/2010/10/19/esther-dyson-privacy-is-a-marketing-problem/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 19 Oct 2010 22:00:33 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[@CNN]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[@NYT]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[@SYN]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[@TheStreet]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Esther Dyson]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Facebook]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FTC]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[privacy]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://gigaom.com/?p=167268</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[In light of recent outcry about social networking privacy lapses and potential misuse of users' personal information, long-time web thought leader Esther Dyson had this to say at the marketing conference Pivot in New York City today: online privacy a marketing problem.<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=gigaom.com&#038;blog=14960843&#038;post=167268&#038;subd=gigaom2&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>In light of the <a href="http://gigaom.com/2010/10/18/facebook-apps-send-user-info-should-you-care/">recent outcry</a> about social networking privacy lapses and the potential misuse of users’ personal information, long-time web thought leader Esther Dyson had this to say at the <a href="http://testing.pivotcon.com/agenda/">Pivot marketing conference</a> in New York City Monday: Online privacy is a marketing problem.</p>
<div id="attachment_167274" class="wp-caption alignleft" style="width: 310px"><a href="http://gigaom2.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/estherdyson.png"><img title="EstherDyson" src="http://gigaom2.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/estherdyson.png?w=300&#038;h=206" alt="" width="300" height="206" class="size-medium wp-image-167274"></a><p class="wp-caption-text">Esther Dyson, Chairman of EDventure</p></div>
<p>The disclosure of personal information is a complicated subject, one that young people are starting to understand pretty well, but adults are catching onto a little more slowly, <a href="http://testing.pivotcon.com/Video/pivotvideopage.html">said Dyson</a>, who is chairman of <a href="http://www.edventure.com/">EDventure Holdings</a> and an investor in companies like Flickr and 23andMe. While Facebook is often targeted for obfuscating and breaching user privacy, Dyson contended that the company is actually doing a reasonably good job of pushing forward its users’ understanding of privacy, with a few exceptions.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>But the issue is more practical than all that, according to Dyson. “It’s not about privacy; it’s about transparency, disclosure and control,” she said. “I don’t know what privacy is, and you as marketers don’t know what privacy means to each of the individuals you market to. What you can do is you can disclose your own practices, you can make them intelligible and you can give your users control.”</p>
<p>The problem is, public concern about online privacy is escalating quickly. Within a day of the Wall Street Journal <a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304772804575558484075236968.html">posting</a> its report about Facebook user IDs being transmitted through RapLeaf to advertising and tracking companies, two U.S. congressmen had <a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304410504575560640816473962.html">already written</a> to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg to get him to describe the extent of the problem.</p>
<p>Web sites and advertisers need to get their act together, and the <a href="http://gigaom.com/2010/02/04/what-do-behavioral-targeters-know-about-you/">complicated messaging they are starting to offer</a> about what information behavioral targeters are tracking isn’t going to cut it, Dyson said. Very soon, “the FTC is finally going to take action, and finally will regulate with a very complicated and technology-retarding action,” Dyson warned. “We have maybe a year or so to try to fix this ourselves before it gets fixed to us.”</p>
<p>Dyson thinks marketers should use the same personalization and creativity they’re applying to target behavioral advertising in order to craft personal messaging that informs users about any personalization that’s occurring. Here’s Dyson’s suggested mandate, and I have to say I think it’s a compelling one:</p>
<blockquote><p>Know your customer, and talk to that person as an individual, not as someone in a bucket. Don’t talk to them as ‘Millennials,’ talk to them as ‘You, Joe, who checked in at Times Square last week.’ Take that same consumer intelligence, take that same creativity, take that same ability to personalize and apply it to these people’s data. Explain to them what you know about them in a personal way, in a way they can understand. And then they will trust you; they will make up their minds do we want the free content or not, but it will be a genuinely two-way transaction where there’s real disclosure and real consent. It’s shocking to me that with all the creativity in this industry we can’t figure out how to explain to our own customers what it is we’re doing to them and have them genuinely part of the conversation rather than watching them from behind the two-way mirror.</p></blockquote>
<p><strong>Related content from GigaOM Pro (subscription req’d):</strong></p>
<ul><li><a href="http://pro.gigaom.com/2010/05/big-data-marketplaces-put-a-price-on-finding-patterns/?utm_source=tech&amp;utm_medium=editorial&amp;utm_content=lizg&amp;utm_campaign=intext&amp;utm_term=167268+esther-dyson-privacy-is-a-marketing-problem">Big Data Marketplaces Put a Price on Finding Patterns</a></li>
<li><a href="http://pro.gigaom.com/2010/05/facebook-tries-to-navigate-the-privacy-storm/?utm_source=tech&amp;utm_medium=editorial&amp;utm_content=lizg&amp;utm_campaign=intext&amp;utm_term=167268+esther-dyson-privacy-is-a-marketing-problem">Facebook Tries to Navigate the Privacy Storm</a></li>
<li><a href="http://pro.gigaom.com/2010/07/google-fighting-on-two-fronts-china-and-privacy/?utm_source=tech&amp;utm_medium=editorial&amp;utm_content=lizg&amp;utm_campaign=intext&amp;utm_term=167268+esther-dyson-privacy-is-a-marketing-problem">Google Fighting on Two Fronts: China and Privacy</a></li>
</ul><p><em>Please see the disclosure about Facebook in <a href="http://gigaom.com/author/lizg/">my bio</a>. </em></p>
<br />  <img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=gigaom.com&#038;blog=14960843&#038;post=167268&#038;subd=gigaom2&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" /><p><a href="http://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?iu=/1008864/GigaOM_RSS_300x250&#038;sz=300x250&#038;c=855908"><img src="http://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/ad?iu=/1008864/GigaOM_RSS_300x250&#038;sz=300x250&#038;c=855908" /></a></p>]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://gigaom.com/2010/10/19/esther-dyson-privacy-is-a-marketing-problem/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>6</slash:comments>
	
		<media:thumbnail url="http://gigaom2.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/estherdyson.png?w=150" />
		<media:content url="http://gigaom2.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/estherdyson.png?w=150" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">EstherDyson</media:title>
		</media:content>

		<media:content url="http://gigaom2.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/estherdyson.png?w=300" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">EstherDyson</media:title>
		</media:content>
	</item>
		<item>
		<title>Cool Tools: Wanderfly Inspires Travel Getaways</title>
		<link>http://gigaom.com/2010/10/19/cool-tools-wanderfly-inspires-travel-getaways/</link>
		<comments>http://gigaom.com/2010/10/19/cool-tools-wanderfly-inspires-travel-getaways/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 19 Oct 2010 19:40:14 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[@TheStreet]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[CNN Startups]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[NYT Internet]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[NYT Startups]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[SYN Straight News]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Hipmunk]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[travel]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Wanderfly]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://gigaom.com/?p=167562</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Have a hankering to take a few days off and go somewhere? A new startup called Wanderfly, which launched today, wants to help inspire you. Type in your approximate travel dates, budget, duration and interests, and Wanderfly will serve up a set of glossy options.<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=gigaom.com&#038;blog=14960843&#038;post=167562&#038;subd=gigaom2&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Have a hankering to take a few days off and go somewhere? A new startup called <a href="http://www.wanderfly.com/">Wanderfly</a>, which just launched today, wants to help inspire you. Type in your approximate travel dates, budget, duration and interests, and Wanderfly will serve up a set of glossy options with sample itineraries laid out. You can customize an intinerary to your tastes and book directly through the site.</p>
<p><a href="http://gigaom2.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/wanderfly.png"><img title="Wanderfly" src="http://gigaom2.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/wanderfly.png?w=708" alt=""   class="alignleft size-full wp-image-167609"></a></p>
<p>For example, I said I wanted to take four days at the end of this month to go somewhere “eco” and “outdoors” with “romance” for under $1,000 from San Francisco, and Wanderfly mocked up trips for me to Bishop, Calif.; Ensenada, Mexico; and Edmonton, Alberta. I’m not sure I want to go to Canada at the end of October, but maybe I’m just a weenie.</p>
<p>New York-based Wanderfly is one of a few new startups attempting to create a more human approach to travel. Like <a href="http://www.hipmunk.com/">Hipmunk</a> — the flight search startup that provides some incredibly useful interface tweaks on top of an Orbitz affiliate agreement — Wanderfly uses flight and hotel data from Expedia. It also mashes up local activity recommendations from content partners like Yelp, Lonely Planet and Not for Tourists, and if you connect with Facebook, your recommendations include seeing local friends and sharing your trip plans with them.</p>
<p> Even if you think of sites like Wanderfly and Hipmunk as just skins for existing travel booking providers, they often give a preferable and innovative experience. Whether or not they can become a real business, and avoid getting ripped off by the big guys, remains to be seen. Wanderfly was founded a year ago, has about 10 employees, and has taken under $1 million in angel funding (it’s currently raising an additional round), and has been in private beta for the last three months with 7,000 users. Co-founder Christy Liu said the company sees itself as a sort of Pandora or Netflix for travel, and hopes to increasingly evolve and personalize its recommendations based on user behavior and additional travel and content partners.</p>
<p><strong>Related content from GigaOM Pro (subscription req’d):</strong></p>
<ul><li><a href="http://pro.gigaom.com/2009/08/what-twitter-airfare-sales-tell-us-about-real-time-e-commerce/?utm_source=tech&amp;utm_medium=editorial&amp;utm_content=lizg&amp;utm_campaign=intext&amp;utm_term=167562+cool-tools-wanderfly-inspires-travel-getaways">What Twitter Airfare Sales Tell Us About Real-Time E-Commerce</a></li>
<li><a href="http://pro.gigaom.com/2010/04/are-location-based-services-a-real-business-or-just-a-feature/?utm_source=tech&amp;utm_medium=editorial&amp;utm_content=lizg&amp;utm_campaign=intext&amp;utm_term=167562+cool-tools-wanderfly-inspires-travel-getaways">Is Geolocation a Real Business or Just a Feature?</a></li>
<li><a href="http://pro.gigaom.com/2010/09/multiple-models-for-social-media-businesses/?utm_source=tech&amp;utm_medium=editorial&amp;utm_content=lizg&amp;utm_campaign=intext&amp;utm_term=167562+cool-tools-wanderfly-inspires-travel-getaways">Multiple Models for Social Media Businesses</a></li>
</ul>
<br />  <img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=gigaom.com&#038;blog=14960843&#038;post=167562&#038;subd=gigaom2&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" /><p><a href="http://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?iu=/1008864/GigaOM_RSS_300x250&#038;sz=300x250&#038;c=208469"><img src="http://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/ad?iu=/1008864/GigaOM_RSS_300x250&#038;sz=300x250&#038;c=208469" /></a></p>]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://gigaom.com/2010/10/19/cool-tools-wanderfly-inspires-travel-getaways/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>3</slash:comments>
	
		<media:thumbnail url="http://gigaom2.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/wanderfly1-e1287512631376.png?w=150" />
		<media:content url="http://gigaom2.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/wanderfly1-e1287512631376.png?w=150" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">Wanderfly</media:title>
		</media:content>

		<media:content url="http://gigaom2.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/wanderfly.png" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">Wanderfly</media:title>
		</media:content>
	</item>
		<item>
		<title>Signs of Angel Investing Exuberance: A Tool and a Game</title>
		<link>http://gigaom.com/2010/10/18/signs-of-angel-investing-exuberance-a-tool-a-game/</link>
		<comments>http://gigaom.com/2010/10/18/signs-of-angel-investing-exuberance-a-tool-a-game/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 18 Oct 2010 19:52:21 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[@SYN]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[@TheStreet]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[CNN Startups]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[NYT Startups]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Angel's Choice]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[CapLinked]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://gigaom.com/?p=167083</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Now angel investing seems to be becoming an industry, complete with its own tools, services and even an iPhone game. Today comes the beta launch of CapLinked, a web-based tool for managing fundraising that helps startups and investors communicate with each other and share documents.<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=gigaom.com&#038;blog=14960843&#038;post=167083&#038;subd=gigaom2&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Angel funding is all the buzz these days, with the outsized personalities of leading early stage investors dominating the tech startup sector. (<em>See: <a href="http://gigaom.com/2010/04/27/frothy-times-for-web-angel-investing/">the rise of the super angels</a> jumping into the opportunity of cheaper companies and smaller exits, <a href="http://gigaom.com/2010/08/20/video-josh-felser-on-angels-vs-vcs-me-toos-what-startups-need-to-know/">very real competition with traditional VCs</a>, and <a href="http://gigaom.com/2010/07/29/how-y-combinator-is-remaking-silicon-valley-in-its-image/">training sessions for would-be angels</a> to learn the ropes.)</em></p>
<p><a href="http://gigaom2.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/angelschoice.png"><img title="Angel'sChoice" src="http://gigaom2.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/angelschoice.png?w=199&#038;h=300" alt="" width="199" height="300" class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-167155"></a>While it remains to be seen whether or not the angel boom is a success in terms of monetary results as well as hype, it’s not just the startups and angels themselves that are benefitting. There are certainly some happy lawyers and accountants out there. And there’s starting to be a business opportunity to serve the sector as a whole; for instance, the free service <a href="http://angel.co/">AngelList</a> matches companies and investors, and has arranged funding rounds for <a href="http://gigaom.com/2010/08/31/angellist-designates-scouts-to-refer-new-startup-deals/">at least 40 startups</a> since launching in February.</p>
<p>Now angel investing seems to be becoming an industry of its own, complete with tools, services and even an iPhone game. Today comes the beta launch of <a href="http://www.caplinked.com/">CapLinked</a>, a web-based tool for managing startup fundraising. Aimed at both startups and investors, Los Angeles-based CapLinked helps the two keep in communication with each other and share documents. The idea is that a dedicated platform brings all the material related to a deal into one place. For an entrepreneur, features include notifications to know when an investor logs in and views a document.</p>
<p>Though CapLinked (which itself is seed-funded by friends and family) is not the first tool of its kind, the pedigree of its creators made me take notice. CEO Eric Jackson previously ran the marketing department at PayPal and wrote the book “The PayPal Wars.” His co-founder Chris Grey is an investor and columnist for TheStreet.com and CTO Dave Schwartz co-founded SnapBridge and was CTO at National Payment Network.</p>
<p>Jackson says companies using the platform include iizuu (which lets users monetize their social network activity) and Film Solutions (which helps film studios manage publicity photos). Angel investor Paige Craig has also <a href="http://www.caplinked.com/company/team_endorsements">offered</a> a testimonial for the site.</p>
<p>However, angel investors I queried said they were unlikely to use CapLinked, saying existing tools like email, and to some extent, Dropbox and Basecamp, are a better fit for bringing the workflows of investors, startups, lawyers and accountants together.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, angel investing is turning into a game. No really; YD Online today launched <a href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/angels-choice/id384362612?mt=8">Angel’s Choice</a>, an iPhone app that has users “invest” in other iPhone apps and compete to have the best portfolio. It’s all virtual, though; the idea is to filter new apps and find the most interesting ones. I’m not sure exactly how in-game success will correlate to real-world success, but if the gameplay is good, it could turn into a nifty discovery engine. Creating an investment portfolio or fantasy sports-type game isn’t anything new; what’s notable that what seemed hippest was to call this an “angel” app.</p>
<p><strong>Related content from GigaOM Pro (subscription req’d):</strong></p>
<ul><li><a href="http://pro.gigaom.com/2009/10/what-the-vc-industry-upheaval-means-for-startups/?utm_source=tech&amp;utm_medium=editorial&amp;utm_content=lizg&amp;utm_campaign=intext&amp;utm_term=167083+signs-of-angel-investing-exuberance-a-tool-a-game">What the VC Industry Upheaval Means for Startups</a></li>
<li><a href="http://pro.gigaom.com/2010/09/how-to-market-your-iphone-app-a-developers-guide/?utm_source=tech&amp;utm_medium=editorial&amp;utm_content=lizg&amp;utm_campaign=intext&amp;utm_term=167083+signs-of-angel-investing-exuberance-a-tool-a-game">How to Market Your iPhone App: A Developer’s Guide</a></li>
<li><a href="http://pro.gigaom.com/2010/09/how-to-manage-consumer-grade-collaborative-tools-in-the-workplace/?utm_source=tech&amp;utm_medium=editorial&amp;utm_content=lizg&amp;utm_campaign=intext&amp;utm_term=167083+signs-of-angel-investing-exuberance-a-tool-a-game">How to Manage Consumer-Grade Collaborative Tools in the Workplace</a></li>
</ul>
<br />  <img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=gigaom.com&#038;blog=14960843&#038;post=167083&#038;subd=gigaom2&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" /><p><a href="http://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?iu=/1008864/GigaOM_RSS_300x250&#038;sz=300x250&#038;c=348466"><img src="http://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/ad?iu=/1008864/GigaOM_RSS_300x250&#038;sz=300x250&#038;c=348466" /></a></p>]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://gigaom.com/2010/10/18/signs-of-angel-investing-exuberance-a-tool-a-game/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>2</slash:comments>
	
		<media:thumbnail url="http://gigaom2.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/angelschoice1-e1287430489815.png?w=150" />
		<media:content url="http://gigaom2.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/angelschoice1-e1287430489815.png?w=150" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">Angel&#039;sChoice</media:title>
		</media:content>

		<media:content url="http://gigaom2.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/angelschoice.png?w=199" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">Angel&#039;sChoice</media:title>
		</media:content>
	</item>
		<item>
		<title>My 9 Favorite Startup Lessons From Startup School</title>
		<link>http://gigaom.com/2010/10/16/my-9-favorite-startup-lessons-from-startup-school/</link>
		<comments>http://gigaom.com/2010/10/16/my-9-favorite-startup-lessons-from-startup-school/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 17 Oct 2010 04:47:30 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[@TheStreet]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[CNN Startups]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[NYT Startups]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Startups]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[SYN Straight News]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Startup School]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Y-Combinator]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://gigaom.com/?p=166751</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Today I attended Y Combinator's annual Startup School at Stanford University. From the 11 talks from startup founders and funders full of first-person lessons, these were some of the most resonant tips for other entrepreneurs about what to do and what not to do. <img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=gigaom.com&#038;blog=14960843&#038;post=166751&#038;subd=gigaom2&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Today, I attended Y Combinator&#8217;s annual <a href="http://www.startupschool.org/schedule.html">Startup School</a> at Stanford University. From the 11 talks by startup founders and funders full of first-person lessons, here are what I thought were the most resonant tips for entrepreneurs.</p>
<div id="attachment_166759" class="wp-caption alignleft" style="width: 310px"><a href="http://gigaom2.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/5087756264_0d9b8f7961_o.jpg"><img  title="5087756264_0d9b8f7961_o" src="http://gigaom2.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/5087756264_0d9b8f7961_o.jpg?w=300&#038;h=300" alt="" width="300" height="300" class="size-medium wp-image-166759" /></a><p class="wp-caption-text">Quora co-founder Adam D&#39;Angelo speaks at Startup School</p></div>
<p><strong>Be a Cockroach.</strong> <a href="http://www.airbnb.com/">AirBnB</a> started a little over 1,000 days ago, and it failed and launched something like five times before taking off, said CEO Brian Chesky. After maxing out at least four credit cards, at one point the company basically turned into a collectible cereal box distribution company, and after that died down, the founders lived on the leftover cereal for two months. The company was on the brink of doom when Y Combinator accepted it for its three-month program in spring 2009, mostly because Paul Graham was &#8220;looking for people who wouldn&#8217;t die. He said &#8216;You guys won&#8217;t die, you&#8217;re like cockroaches.&#8217;&#8221; By the end of Y Combinator, AirBnB was profitable.  The company&#8217;s traffic and revenue have only really taken off in the last five months, said Chesky, meaning &#8220;our &#8216;overnight&#8217; success took 1,000 days.&#8221;</p>
<p><strong>Don&#8217;t Do a Music Startup.</strong> Former Imeem CEO Dalton Caldwell gave a crowd-pleasing talk about the failures of his music startup (which <a href="http://gigaom.com/2009/11/17/why-imeem-really-sold-out/">sold to MySpace</a> and effectively died about a year ago). Imeem raised over $50 million from investors including Sequoia Capital, acquired three companies,had a headcount of 95 and reached $24 million in yearly revenue runrate. But that was nowhere near good enough. Caldwell doubts any other startup can change the music industry either, picking apart ad-supported, subscription, download and other business models to prove his point.</p>
<p>&#8220;For the past few years, music startups have been money transfer funds,&#8221; Caldwell said, bringing money out of VCs&#8217; pockets, into startups, and directly to the music labels through &#8220;quarterly minimum&#8221; payments and other extractions like settlements and advances. But music startups are basically unacquirable due to the specifics of their deals with the labels. Caldwell said he thinks international governments need to standardize statutory licensing frameworks before there&#8217;s an interesting music tech startup opportunity. The next best thing would be a broadly available music API for startups to develop on, which Imeem had offered before it was taken out, Caldwell said.</p>
<p><strong>&#8220;If You Can&#8217;t Sell the Shirt, Don&#8217;t Give It Away.&#8221;</strong> That&#8217;s a direct quote from GitHub founder Tom Preston-Werner, who talked about making reasoned decisions to build and grow a company. (He was being both literal and metaphorical about buying and distributing schwag, the oh-so-common startup pursuit.) Preston-Werner thinks bootstrapping instead of raising outside capital has been critical to GitHub&#8217;s success as a collaborative software development platform. The company only spends money when it can see a direct impact. If you make decisions that are positive for both you and your users, by definition, you&#8217;ll both win, and that&#8217;s good, was Preston-Werner&#8217;s message.</p>
<p><strong>It&#8217;s Not Another Bubble. (Really!)</strong> Graham said in his own presentation that competition between super angels and VCs is good for startups. Now super angels are becoming more like VCs and VCs more like super angels,with quicker and smaller rounds invested from other people&#8217;s money and not necessarily requiring a board seat in return. Graham said that while valuations might be up, there&#8217;s not a larger bubble going on. Companies that can persuade angels that an acquisition is near and VCs that an IPO is in the future will get the best of both worlds. However, the question of whether super angels can have a sustainable business based on their smaller exits is still unanswered, said Graham.</p>
<p><strong>Some People Are Just Born for It.</strong> Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg says that he didn&#8217;t really know Facebook was going to turn into anything until it did. Even when the company raised its first outside funding from Peter Thiel, the founders made it clear they hadn&#8217;t decided whether or not to go back to school. However, it wasn&#8217;t really that random. Zuckerberg says his mother told him in retrospect that she realized he wasn&#8217;t going back after he started deferring school to work on Facebook. His sister was even more clairvoyant: &#8220;Before I started college, my youngest sister made a bet with me that she would finish college before I did,&#8221; said Zuckerberg. &#8220;So I guess I owe her $50.&#8221;</p>
<p><strong>Join Somebody Else&#8217;s Startup.</strong> Quora co-founder Adam D&#8217;Angelo focused much of his talk on the idea that if you want to be an entrepreneur, a great way to learn is to be an early employee at someone else&#8217;s promising startup where you can gather experience, recognition and connections. Obviously, that was D&#8217;Angelo&#8217;s experience, as an early employee and CTO of Facebook. But the decision to join Facebook wasn&#8217;t necessarily obvious at the time, he said:</p>
<blockquote><p>I was leaning towards Google and talked to [early Facebook president] Sean Parker on the phone, and he said, &#8220;Adam, if you don&#8217;t take this I guarantee you will regret it&#8230; He said the company might be worth $1 billion&#8230; He said it would be the best possible education I could have in how to start and grow a company. It&#8217;s turned out to be much more true than I realized.&#8221;</p></blockquote>
<p><strong>Conviction Isn&#8217;t Everything.</strong> &#8220;You&#8217;re not building a piece of art; it&#8217;s a tool,&#8221; said Groupon CEO Andrew Mason. He discussed how the previous iteration of his startup, a collective activism platform, was a lofty idea but ultimately the wrong one. It took just a month to make the first version of Groupon, and since then, Mason&#8217;s focus on making Groupon useful, practical, constrained and paranoid has spelled its success, he said. The company now has a 2,500-person staff that&#8217;s a &#8220;deal-creating machine,&#8221; Mason said.</p>
<p><strong>Scaling Also Isn&#8217;t Everything.</strong> Quora&#8217;s D&#8217;Angelo: &#8220;It&#8217;s OK to do something that&#8217;s not scalable if it gets you to a position where you&#8217;ll have other strengths that will make up for this in the future.&#8221; At Quora, he and other early employees spent days answering questions on the service so when they opened it up to users there would be an archive of good content. Facebook paid early interns to index college course catalogs so it could provide a feature where students shared which classes they were taking. AirBnB&#8217;s founders went door-to-door when they were trying to break through and recruit users. &#8220;Do things that won&#8217;t scale; it will teach you,&#8221; Chesky said.</p>
<p><strong>Mistakes Were Made.</strong> Facebook&#8217;s growth from a site to a platform may seem fated at this point, but it wasn&#8217;t. The initial architecture of the Facebook platform was the biggest technical mistake that the company made early on, said Zuckerberg in response to a question from Y Combinator&#8217;s Jessica Livingston. &#8220;I  think we just got it completely inverted, and we&#8217;re still paying the costs of this,&#8221; Zuckerberg said. More precisely, &#8220;FBML was all about developers putting some sort of visual markup on a person&#8217;s profile page. It was not about the social graph or the connections behind it.&#8221; The company has since re-architected its platform to be the inverse, where the Open Graph brings in content from all over the web as Facebook objects integrated into the site experience. Facebook has now finally made it to 1 million developers on its platform, said Zuckerberg, &#8220;but it&#8217;s taken years to get to that point.&#8221;</p>
<p><em>Photo <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en">courtesy</a> Flickr user <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/scobleizer/5087756264/">Robert Scoble</a>.</em></p>
<p><em> </em><em>Please see the disclosure in <a href="http://gigaom.com/author/lizg/">my bio</a> about Facebook.</em></p>
<br />  <img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=gigaom.com&#038;blog=14960843&#038;post=166751&#038;subd=gigaom2&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" /><p><a href="http://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?iu=/1008864/GigaOM_RSS_300x250&#038;sz=300x250&#038;c=491372"><img src="http://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/ad?iu=/1008864/GigaOM_RSS_300x250&#038;sz=300x250&#038;c=491372" /></a></p>]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://gigaom.com/2010/10/16/my-9-favorite-startup-lessons-from-startup-school/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>20</slash:comments>
	
		<media:thumbnail url="http://gigaom2.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/5087756264_0d9b8f7961_o1-e1287284781617.jpg?w=150" />
		<media:content url="http://gigaom2.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/5087756264_0d9b8f7961_o1-e1287284781617.jpg?w=150" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">5087756264_0d9b8f7961_o</media:title>
		</media:content>

		<media:content url="http://gigaom2.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/5087756264_0d9b8f7961_o.jpg?w=300" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">5087756264_0d9b8f7961_o</media:title>
		</media:content>
	</item>
		<item>
		<title>How Can We Make Mobile Apps Suck Less Offline?</title>
		<link>http://gigaom.com/2010/10/15/how-to-make-mobile-apps-suck-less-offline/</link>
		<comments>http://gigaom.com/2010/10/15/how-to-make-mobile-apps-suck-less-offline/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 15 Oct 2010 19:32:46 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[@NYT]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[@SYN]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[CNN Mobile]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[html5]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[mobile web]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[universal connectivity]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[web apps]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://gigaom.com/?p=166530</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[For the most part, as soon as I lose connectivity, my mobile apps are mostly broken. Musing over to my most-used apps -- Gmail, Facebook and Twitter -- only gets me error messages and frustration. And even Angry Birds and Word Warp are handicapped when they're offline.<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=gigaom.com&#038;blog=14960843&#038;post=166530&#038;subd=gigaom2&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><img title="photo" src="http://gigaom2.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/photo.png?w=200&#038;h=300" alt="" width="200" height="300" class="alignright size-medium wp-image-166576"></p>
<p>On my daily commute to the GigaOM office, I spend 10-30 minutes offline, depending on the whims of the San Francisco MUNI gods. I carry an iPhone 4 and an HTC Droid Incredible, and I grab one or the other from my purse to amuse myself. The best possible scenario is if I grab my iPhone before I go offline, sync up <a href="http://www.instapaper.com/">Instapaper</a>, and happen to have recently saved some interesting articles that I haven’t yet read. If I haven’t made those stars align, I play a game — usually Angry Birds or Word Warp.</p>
<p>But for the most part, as soon as I lose connectivity, my mobile apps are mostly broken. Tapping my most-used apps — Gmail, Facebook and Twitter — only gets me error messages and frustration. Even Angry Birds and Word Warp are handicapped when they’re offline; they lose their social features and word lookups, respectively. If I organized my apps into panels of those that were useful offline and ones that needed connectivity, it’d be incredibly lopsided.</p>
<p>For a better user experience, I’d like to suggest two things:</p>
<ol><li><strong>More offline content until we have more universal connectivity. </strong>This would probably in the Instapaper model where you refresh before you go out of range, and then access the content offline.</li>
<li><strong>Better transitions between offline and online experiences.</strong> Instead of giving you an error message, it would be great if an app cached what you’re doing and dealt with it next time it reconnects to the server.</li>
</ol><p>For instance, it would be cool if you could press a button in your Facebook and Twitter apps to grab and cache the 50 latest updates from your contacts as well as all the web pages they linked to, so you get a capsule of the experience offline. This would probably be pretty hard to execute, as it would require fetching a whole bunch of diverse and not pre-formatted content in a short amount of time that wouldn’t necessarily even be consumed by the user. And it would increase mobile data usage even when that content went unread. But it would be super useful.</p>
<p>Another experience that seems promising is the HTML5 version of Gmail on mobile. When you press send on a message, Google immediately gives you a yellow confirmation bar saying it’s been sent, so you can return to your other business in your inbox. In reality, the message hasn’t actually been sent, but is being sent in the background. This is a dangerous little trick, because it’s possible that the message could fail to send after the user has already been told it’s gone through successfully. But — perhaps with a tweak to make the wording more explicit, like “we’ve got this and we’re dealing with it” — it’s actually a really neat trick.</p>
<p>HTML5 promises to help solve the offline app problem (along with the climate crisis and world hunger). I was recently talking with Giles Goodwin, co-founder and CTO of <a href="http://www.widgetbox.com/">Widgetbox</a>, who has been working on some nifty mobile web app creation tools using HTML5. Goodwin and I spoke a bit about the tools that HTML5 provides to make offline work: The <em>manifest</em> holds rules for offline storage, <em>web storage</em> stores data on the device, and <em>SQLite in WebKit</em> gives access to stored complex data.</p>
<p>Goodwin says,</p>
<blockquote><p>One good way to go about using this group of technologies is to create a manifest file that supports offline [access] then store[s] all remote data in the Web SQL DB as it is accessed. This way when the app is loaded you can fetch the latest feed data, stick it in the db, then read out of the db when the app is used offline. There are a number of tricks to do this right including setting up all the assets correctly in the manifest and dealing with binary data like images correctly.</p></blockquote>
<p>That’s easier said than done. The first version of the new Widgetbox mobile product won’t be released with offline support. “[I]t’s one of the more difficult technical problems we had to solve in building our mobile app builder, and we’re not quite ready to release it due to some issues across devices and with some content,” Goodwin says.</p>
<p>We all want universal connectivity — and San Francisco MUNI should really just get Wi-Fi already — but in the meantime, apps should work to bridge the offline gap. Or maybe next time I commute I should bring a paper book.</p>
<p><strong>Related content from GigaOM Pro (subscription req’d):</strong></p>
<ul><li><a href="http://pro.gigaom.com/2010/02/the-app-developers-guide-to-choosing-a-mobile-platform/?utm_source=tech&amp;utm_medium=editorial&amp;utm_content=lizg&amp;utm_campaign=intext&amp;utm_term=166530+how-to-make-mobile-apps-suck-less-offline">The App Developer’s Guide to Choosing a Mobile Platform</a></li>
<li><a href="http://pro.gigaom.com/2010/07/html5s-a-game-changer-for-web-apps/?utm_source=tech&amp;utm_medium=editorial&amp;utm_content=lizg&amp;utm_campaign=intext&amp;utm_term=166530+how-to-make-mobile-apps-suck-less-offline">HTML5′s a Game-changer for Web Apps</a></li>
<li><a href="http://pro.gigaom.com/2010/10/app-developers-are-you-ready-for-html5-and-metered-data/?utm_source=tech&amp;utm_medium=editorial&amp;utm_content=lizg&amp;utm_campaign=intext&amp;utm_term=166530+how-to-make-mobile-apps-suck-less-offline">App Developers: Are You Ready for HTML5 and Metered Data?</a></li>
</ul>
<br />  <img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=gigaom.com&#038;blog=14960843&#038;post=166530&#038;subd=gigaom2&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" /><p><a href="http://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?iu=/1008864/GigaOM_RSS_300x250&#038;sz=300x250&#038;c=537692"><img src="http://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/ad?iu=/1008864/GigaOM_RSS_300x250&#038;sz=300x250&#038;c=537692" /></a></p>]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://gigaom.com/2010/10/15/how-to-make-mobile-apps-suck-less-offline/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>13</slash:comments>
	
		<media:thumbnail url="http://gigaom2.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/photo1-e1287168847443.png?w=150" />
		<media:content url="http://gigaom2.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/photo1-e1287168847443.png?w=150" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">photo</media:title>
		</media:content>

		<media:content url="http://gigaom2.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/photo.png?w=200" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">photo</media:title>
		</media:content>
	</item>
		<item>
		<title>Google Shows Thin Skin, Pushes Back on Criticism</title>
		<link>http://gigaom.com/2010/10/14/google-shows-thin-skin-pushes-back-on-criticism/</link>
		<comments>http://gigaom.com/2010/10/14/google-shows-thin-skin-pushes-back-on-criticism/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 14 Oct 2010 22:40:15 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[@TheStreet]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[CNN Media]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[CNN Search]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[NYT Company News]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[SYN Straight News]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[bing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[earnings]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Facebook]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Google]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[YouTube]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://gigaom.com/?p=166195</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Google today on its quarterly earnings call broke out some numbers that it doesn't historically give (and doesn't promise to give in the future): revenue and monetization rates for display, video and mobile advertising. The intent was to show that Google isn't just a search company. <img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=gigaom.com&#038;blog=14960843&#038;post=166195&#038;subd=gigaom2&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><img title="thinonionskin" src="http://gigaom2.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/thinonionskin.png?w=708" alt=""   class="alignleft size-full wp-image-166230"></p>
<p>Google today broke out some numbers on its quarterly earnings call that it doesn’t historically give (and doesn’t promise to give in the future): revenue and monetization rates for display, video and mobile advertising. Those are Google’s big non-search, growth businesses, and the intent was clearly to show that Google is not purely a search company.</p>
<p>Here are the specifics: display advertising is now worth $2.5 billion in revenue; YouTube is selling 2 billion views per week (50 percent more than last year); and mobile ads are now adding $1 billion in additional revenue.</p>
<p>Those three areas are still a sliver of the company’s business; Google brought in $7.29 billion in total revenue in the third quarter alone. But what I found interesting was the way Google disclosed them, with Jonathan Rosenberg, SVP product management saying that display is already Google’s next billion-dollar business, and that mobile is the future of search.</p>
<p>Google is explicitly responding to <a href="http://gigaom.com/2010/04/30/carol-bartz-is-right-google-does-need-to-diversify/">criticism that it needs to diversify</a>. It’s also responding to the fact that it’s no longer universally considered the most interesting and influential technology company (a banner which many people are now handing to Facebook — where <a href="http://www.linkedin.com/search/fpsearch?keywords=facebook&amp;searchLocationType=Y&amp;keepFacets=keepFacets&amp;page_num=1&amp;facet_CC=10667&amp;facet_PC=1441&amp;search=&amp;pplSearchOrigin=MDYS&amp;viewCriteria=1&amp;sortCriteria=R&amp;facetsOrder=G%2CN%2CI%2CCC%2CPC%2CED%2CL%2CFG%2CTE%2CFA%2CSE%2CP%2CCS%2CF%2CDR&amp;redir=redir">more than 200</a> former Google employees now work).</p>
<p>With regard to Facebook, and the data it’s giving Microsoft to power the <a href="http://gigaom.com/2010/10/13/bing-launches-facebook-instant-personalization/">new social search features</a> on Bing, Google basically said it aims to improve social search without those kind of deals. The company will soon add more social signals to its search rankings, said executives, and will ramp up efforts to try to persuade users to log into their Google accounts where they can be provided with personalized results.</p>
<p>Google CEO Eric Schmidt (who made a surprise appearance after not speaking on the last few earnings calls) dismissed the idea of getting exclusive or preferential access to data, which is what Facebook is giving Microsoft (<a href="http://searchengineland.com/facebook-on-social-search-we-want-to-work-with-everybody-52863">at least for now</a>). That’s a little hypocritical, since Google <a href="http://gigaom.com/2009/12/07/google-amps-up-real-time-and-mobile-search/"> has paid Twitter for real-time data</a>.</p>
<p>“The web continues to grow at such a blazing pace that anyone who would be private is completely swamped in this wave of the Internet,” said Nikesh Arora, Google president of global sales operations and business development. Added Schmidt, “We’ve taken a position from a religious and business perspective that the world is better off if you take the information you’re producing and make it searchable.”</p>
<p>Google executives flat-out admitted they’ve begun shaping the tidbits they release on earnings calls specifically to address criticism, saying that the only reason they’d <a href="http://gigaom.com/video/google-youtube-will-soon-be-very-profitable/">talked about YouTube profitability on past earnings calls</a> was “because there was so much distortion in the market we just thought it was an OK time to set the clocks properly,” and warning analysts not to count on any further specific numbers about YouTube.</p>
<p><em>Please see the disclosure about Facebook in <a href="http://gigaom.com/author/lizg/">my bio</a>. </em></p>
<p><em>Photo <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en">courtesy</a> Flickr user <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/elb_the_prof/2226153443/">ElbtheProf</a>.</em></p>
<p><strong>Related content from GigaOM Pro (subscription req’d):</strong></p>
<ul><li><a href="http://pro.gigaom.com/2009/10/why-google-should-fear-the-social-web/?utm_source=tech&amp;utm_medium=editorial&amp;utm_content=lizg&amp;utm_campaign=intext&amp;utm_term=166195+google-shows-thin-skin-pushes-back-on-criticism">Why Google Should Fear the Social Web</a></li>
<li><a href="http://pro.gigaom.com/2010/08/how-to-make-google-matter-in-social-media/?utm_source=tech&amp;utm_medium=editorial&amp;utm_content=lizg&amp;utm_campaign=intext&amp;utm_term=166195+google-shows-thin-skin-pushes-back-on-criticism">How to Make Google Matter in Social Media</a></li>
<li><a href="http://pro.gigaom.com/2010/09/multiple-models-for-social-media-businesses/?utm_source=tech&amp;utm_medium=editorial&amp;utm_content=lizg&amp;utm_campaign=intext&amp;utm_term=166195+google-shows-thin-skin-pushes-back-on-criticism">Multiple Models for Social Media Businesses</a></li>
</ul>
<br />  <img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=gigaom.com&#038;blog=14960843&#038;post=166195&#038;subd=gigaom2&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" /><p><a href="http://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?iu=/1008864/GigaOM_RSS_300x250&#038;sz=300x250&#038;c=49920"><img src="http://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/ad?iu=/1008864/GigaOM_RSS_300x250&#038;sz=300x250&#038;c=49920" /></a></p>]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://gigaom.com/2010/10/14/google-shows-thin-skin-pushes-back-on-criticism/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>11</slash:comments>
	
		<media:thumbnail url="http://gigaom2.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/thinonionskin.png?w=150" />
		<media:content url="http://gigaom2.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/thinonionskin.png?w=150" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">thinonionskin</media:title>
		</media:content>

		<media:content url="http://gigaom2.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/thinonionskin.png" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">thinonionskin</media:title>
		</media:content>
	</item>
		<item>
		<title>Mozilla Names Mobile Exec Gary Kovacs as New CEO</title>
		<link>http://gigaom.com/2010/10/14/mozilla-names-mobile-exec-gary-kovacs-as-new-ceo/</link>
		<comments>http://gigaom.com/2010/10/14/mozilla-names-mobile-exec-gary-kovacs-as-new-ceo/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 14 Oct 2010 18:27:49 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[@CNN]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[@TheStreet]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[NYT Company News]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[NYT Internet]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[SYN Straight News]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Firefox]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Google]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Mozilla]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://gigaom.com/?p=166061</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Mozilla Corporation, which makes the Firefox browser, has named its next CEO: Gary Kovacs. This was a planned transition -- current CEO John Lilly wants to become a VC at Greylock Partners -- but perhaps not an expected choice, given Kovacs comes from outside the Mozilla fold.<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=gigaom.com&#038;blog=14960843&#038;post=166061&#038;subd=gigaom2&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Mozilla Corporation, which makes the Firefox browser, has named its next CEO: Gary Kovacs. This was a <a href="http://gigaom.com/2010/05/11/mozilla-ceo-john-lilly-to-step-down/">planned transition</a> — current CEO John Lilly is leaving to become a VC at Greylock Partners — but perhaps not an expected choice, given Kovacs comes from outside the Mozilla fold.</p>
<p><a href="http://gigaom2.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/garylogo_lg1-249x300-e1287079928687.jpg"><img title="garylogo_lg1-249x300" src="http://gigaom2.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/garylogo_lg1-249x300-e1287079928687.jpg?w=708" alt=""   class="alignleft size-full wp-image-166070"></a>Kovacs was most recently at SAP through its acquisition of Sybase; and previously worked on mobile for Adobe, which he joined through its acquisition of Macromedia. He also founded a mobile software and services company called Zi Corporation and spent 10 years at IBM.</p>
<p>Mountain View, Calif.-based Mozilla Corp. is owned by Mozilla Foundation, a non-profit, and it has a bit of a hippie culture. In announcing the change, Mozilla Foundation chair Mitchell Baker (herself a former corporation CEO, before Lilly) <a href="http://blog.lizardwrangler.com/2010/10/14/welcome-gary-kovacs/">wrote</a>, “[W]e often speak of “poetry and pragmatics” as fundamental to the nature of Mozilla, and Gary understands both these are critical for Mozilla to thrive.”</p>
<p>Lilly, for his part, <a href="http://john.jubjubs.net/2010/10/14/introducing-gary/">wrote</a> of Kovacs, “[H]e’s got deep background in the battlefields that will define the future of the Open Web: mobile and rich media, and he’s been involved in building great organizations several times over.”</p>
<p>Mozilla has recently started moving away from its close relationship with Google, but only by baby steps. The company <a href="http://arstechnica.com/open-source/news/2010/10/citing-relevance-mozilla-to-include-bing-in-firefox-4-search-box.ars">will offer Bing</a> as a search toolbar option in Firefox 4, though Google will remain the default. Google provides Mozilla with millions of dollars in affiliate revenue for that privilege, even though its Google Chrome browser is a direct competitor.</p>
<p><strong>Related content from GigaOM Pro (subscription req’d):</strong></p>
<ul><li><a href="http://pro.gigaom.com/2010/07/html5s-a-game-changer-for-web-apps/?utm_source=tech&amp;utm_medium=editorial&amp;utm_content=lizg&amp;utm_campaign=intext&amp;utm_term=166061+mozilla-names-mobile-exec-gary-kovacs-as-new-ceo">HTML5′s a Game-changer for Web Apps</a></li>
<li><a href="http://pro.gigaom.com/2009/11/what-does-the-future-hold-for-browsers/?utm_source=tech&amp;utm_medium=editorial&amp;utm_content=lizg&amp;utm_campaign=intext&amp;utm_term=166061+mozilla-names-mobile-exec-gary-kovacs-as-new-ceo">What Does the Future Hold for Browsers?</a></li>
<li><a href="http://pro.gigaom.com/2009/09/googles-chrome-is-poised-to-come-on-strong/?utm_source=tech&amp;utm_medium=editorial&amp;utm_content=lizg&amp;utm_campaign=intext&amp;utm_term=166061+mozilla-names-mobile-exec-gary-kovacs-as-new-ceo">Google’s Chrome Is Poised to Come on Strong</a></li>
</ul>
<br />  <img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=gigaom.com&#038;blog=14960843&#038;post=166061&#038;subd=gigaom2&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" /><p><a href="http://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?iu=/1008864/GigaOM_RSS_300x250&#038;sz=300x250&#038;c=902544"><img src="http://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/ad?iu=/1008864/GigaOM_RSS_300x250&#038;sz=300x250&#038;c=902544" /></a></p>]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://gigaom.com/2010/10/14/mozilla-names-mobile-exec-gary-kovacs-as-new-ceo/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>1</slash:comments>
	
		<media:thumbnail url="http://gigaom2.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/garylogo_lg1-249x300-e1287079928687.jpg?w=150" />
		<media:content url="http://gigaom2.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/garylogo_lg1-249x300-e1287079928687.jpg?w=150" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">garylogo_lg1-249x300</media:title>
		</media:content>

		<media:content url="http://gigaom2.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/garylogo_lg1-249x300-e1287079928687.jpg" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">garylogo_lg1-249x300</media:title>
		</media:content>
	</item>
		<item>
		<title>Facebook Credits Nearly Ready for Primetime</title>
		<link>http://gigaom.com/2010/10/13/facebook-credits-now-widely-deployed-nearly-ready-for-primetime/</link>
		<comments>http://gigaom.com/2010/10/13/facebook-credits-now-widely-deployed-nearly-ready-for-primetime/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 14 Oct 2010 01:19:34 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[@CNN]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[@TheStreet]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[NYT Company News]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[SYN Straight News]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Facebook]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[games]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[mobile payments]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Social Games]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[virtual currency]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://gigaom.com/?p=165802</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Facebook has done a remarkable job of getting developers to adopt its Credits virtual currency before the program was fully fledged. Today, the company announced a partnership with PlaySpan to add 20 additional ways for users to pay for credits and plans to accelerate rollout.<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=gigaom.com&#038;blog=14960843&#038;post=165802&#038;subd=gigaom2&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Facebook has done a remarkable job of getting developers to adopt its Credits virtual currency before the program was fully fledged. Today, the company <a href="http://developers.facebook.com/blog/post/416">announced</a> a broad partnership with <a href="http://www.playspan.com/">PlaySpan</a> to add 20 additional ways for users to pay for credits, and the intention to triple or quadruple the number of new developers per week getting access to Credits. Credits are already used by 22 of the top 25 games, even though they can only be paid for with a few options that have a non-comprehensive international footprint: PayPal, select credit cards, and Zong for mobile payments.<br></p><div id="attachment_165808" class="wp-caption alignright" style="width: 310px"><a href="http://gigaom2.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/digitalchocolate.jpg"><img title="DigitalChocolate" src="http://gigaom2.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/digitalchocolate.jpg?w=300&#038;h=224" alt="" width="300" height="224" class="size-medium wp-image-165808"></a><p class="wp-caption-text">A (very fuzzy) chart shows Digital Chocolate's increasing ARPU with Facebook Credits</p></div><br>
Deb Liu, manager of product marketing for Facebook Credits and Games, announced the changes at the Virtual Goods Summit in San Francisco, where she invited two game developers — Arkadium and Digital Chocolate — on stage to give favorable testimonials of the increased revenue per user they’re experiencing by offering Credits as a way to pay for virtual goods. This is especially important, given Facebook takes a 30-percent cut of Credits revenue, and many game developers had already set up virtual currency alternatives before Credits were available to them.
<p><a href="http://gigaom2.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/facebook-gift-card.png"><img title="Facebook gift card" src="http://gigaom2.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/facebook-gift-card.png?w=300&#038;h=199" alt="" width="300" height="199" class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-152447"></a>Credits first launched in alpha in May of last year and have been rolling out with select developers since this February. The service is now up to 200 games and apps from 75 developers. The big selling point of the program is that users now have one consistent and unified place to buy virtual currency for almost all social games, which means many of them will have Credits on hand next time a game asks them to pay for something. Liu said developers across the board are seeing 5 to 10 times the number of conversion rates for players who have already bought and stored credits. She said more than half of today’s Facebook game experiences now include Facebook Credits as an option.</p>
<p>Jessica Rovello, president and co-founder of game maker <a href="http://www.arkadium.com/">Arkadium</a>, told other game developers her company had learned a few ways to maximize value from selling virtual goods:</p>
<ol><li>Price items in credits, rather than dollars (or another real currency), because users often choose to “grind it out” to earn an item rather than pay for it with an actual currency.</li>
<li>Familiarize users with price points before offering discounts or bundles.</li>
<li>Introduce new items often and retire older ones; don’t offer items that don’t expire.</li>
<li>Make sure premium items actually advance game play.</li>
</ol><p><strong>Related content from GigaOM Pro (subscription req’d):</strong></p>
<ul><li><a href="http://pro.gigaom.com/2010/06/a-mobile-payments-glossary/?utm_source=tech&amp;utm_medium=editorial&amp;utm_content=lizg&amp;utm_campaign=intext&amp;utm_term=165802+facebook-credits-now-widely-deployed-nearly-ready-for-primetime">A Mobile Payments Glossary</a></li>
<li><a href="http://pro.gigaom.com/2010/09/the-real-impact-of-facebooks-new-approach-to-gaming/?utm_source=tech&amp;utm_medium=editorial&amp;utm_content=lizg&amp;utm_campaign=intext&amp;utm_term=165802+facebook-credits-now-widely-deployed-nearly-ready-for-primetime">The Real Impact of Facebook’s New Approach to Gaming</a></li>
<li><a href="http://pro.gigaom.com/2009/10/report-virtual-worlds-for-the-enterprise-market/?utm_source=tech&amp;utm_medium=editorial&amp;utm_content=lizg&amp;utm_campaign=intext&amp;utm_term=165802+facebook-credits-now-widely-deployed-nearly-ready-for-primetime">Report: Virtual Goods for the Enterprise Market</a></li>
</ul><p><em>Please see the disclosure about Facebook in <a href="http://gigaom.com/author/lizg/">my bio</a>. </em></p>
<br />  <img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=gigaom.com&#038;blog=14960843&#038;post=165802&#038;subd=gigaom2&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" /><p><a href="http://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?iu=/1008864/GigaOM_RSS_300x250&#038;sz=300x250&#038;c=754943"><img src="http://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/ad?iu=/1008864/GigaOM_RSS_300x250&#038;sz=300x250&#038;c=754943" /></a></p>]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://gigaom.com/2010/10/13/facebook-credits-now-widely-deployed-nearly-ready-for-primetime/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>4</slash:comments>
	
		<media:thumbnail url="http://gigaom2.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/facebook-gift-card.png?w=150" />
		<media:content url="http://gigaom2.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/facebook-gift-card.png?w=150" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">Facebook gift card</media:title>
		</media:content>

		<media:content url="http://gigaom2.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/digitalchocolate.jpg?w=300" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">DigitalChocolate</media:title>
		</media:content>

		<media:content url="http://gigaom2.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/facebook-gift-card.png?w=300" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">Facebook gift card</media:title>
		</media:content>
	</item>
	</channel>
</rss>