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Why publishers can’t afford to ignore deliverability
Do you know why?
This is a block quote! Tony is CEO of PostUp. From Lena Dunham to TechCrunch, it seems like everyone is getting into…
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The not-so-distant future of mobile and video
Galia is COO and head of sales for Taptica. The mobile video advertising ecosystem is headed toward a major eruption. By the end…
If you want millennial TV viewers, it’s interact or bust
3 truths about millennials...
Zane is CEO and cofounder of Watchwith. It’s pretty much taken as gospel these days that millennials are cord-cutters, eager to abandon…
The BI conundrum: Delivering trust and transparency at speed
Brad is chairman and chief product officer at Birst. Historically, the pendulum of the business intelligence (BI) market has moved between centralized…
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Why monolithic apps are often better than microservices
Sinclair is CEO and cofounder of Apprenda, a leader in enterprise Platform as a Service. With all of the talk these days about…
The next information revolution will be 100 times bigger than the Internet
Ambarish is cofounder and CEO of Blippar. You can follow him on Twitter. Every day I see something I want to know…
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It’s time to shake up the enterprise software market
Kristoffer is chief executive at Starcounter. The enterprise software industry as we know it is changing significantly. Recently, it’s seen a rise in…
How hybrid will reshape the entire cloud market
Sinclair Schuller is the CEO and cofounder of Apprenda, a leader in enterprise Platform as a Service. When the phrase “hybrid cloud” is…
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Mobile video ads are poised to explode—So what’s holding it back?
Josh is chief executive officer at AerServ. Video has always been one of advertisers’ most powerful engagement tools. And as digital video…
Turning data scientists into action heroes: The rise of self-service Hadoop
Mike is chief operating officer at Altiscale. The unfortunate truth about data science professionals is that they spend a shockingly small amount…
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Why mass market VR won’t come soon
The reality of virtual reality
Gilles is the CEO and founder News Republic. A little more than a year ago, Facebook acquired Oculus VR (Virtual Reality helmet…
Why unikernels might kill containers in five years
Sinclair Schuller is the CEO and cofounder of Apprenda, a leader in enterprise Platform as a Service. Container technologies have received explosive…
Beauty or the geek: Why should women in tech choose?
Olga is head of legal at ClearSlide. I once heard a joke about a zookeeper arranging animals for a portrait. “Smart animals…
How Salesforce & Box are changing the landscape in regulated industries
Sarah is a tech blogger and researcher focused on cloud and enterprise. You can follow her here. With an aim to encourage…
How the internet of things will power the Intelligence Age
Information to intelligence
We’re currently shifting from the Information Age to the Intelligence Age. The Intelligence Age will be characterized by autonomous communication between intelligent…
One big way that book publishing startups can succeed now
it's about user experience
It’s been more than seven years since the introduction of the first Kindle. Ebooks market share seems to be stabilizing at around one…
Why 2015 is the year of encryption
At a turning point
During a visit to Silicon Valley earlier this month, President Obama described himself as “a strong believer in strong encryption.” Some have…
Cloud hosting services and the future of lock-in
Get around long-term lock-in
For a software product, identifying a product–market fit, getting to market, and then scaling to meet business demands needs to happen instantaneously.…
Conservatives shift in public broadband fight. Advantage: consumers
Broadband helps business
“I am absolutely Republican, and absolutely pro-business,” stated State Senator Janice Bowling of Tennessee’s 16th District. “Yet if we don’t get high-speed…
Three tips for young startup founders from a guy who’s been there
What I learned
A lot of startup founders today are launching companies fresh out of college (if not earlier). That’s what I did a little…
Why your things need the cloud
IoT, meet cloud
Every few years there is a new “next big thing” in the fast-changing computing industry. Sometimes these “next big things” have proven to…
3D printing: Who’s investing now and what’s coming next
3D M&A
Printing has come a long way since Gutenberg and the first printing press in 1439. The printing industry has evolved from the golden…
How I audited my daily media habits and improved the way I read
Getting to the good stuff
Creating web content is incredibly easy — but filtering content is really hard. In late 2014, I realized I was reading too…
Why 2015 will NOT be a game-changing year in cloud
A pragmatist's predictions
With the start of the year come loads of cloud predictions that taste of marshmallows, cotton candy and Skittles. Well, not this time. It’s…
Latest FCC auction shatters spectrum myths
Beyond low-band spectrum
The FCC’s Advanced Wireless Services-3 (AWS-3) auction, which is in its final rounds, has harvested close to $45 billion for the U.S. Treasury,…
The commodity battle is only one front in the cloud wars
Finding a differentiator
It’s nothing not new to say that there’s a battle raging amongst the cloud providers for the price of compute, storage and…
IoT has finally hit the mainstream. Now what?
not just the cool kids club
The internet of things (IoT) was officially anointed the next big thing at this year’s CES. No more ghost town in the South…
Avis and Hertz should launch their own Uber
Innovation in car rental
The sharing economy leads to more efficient utilization of assets and capital, thereby generating superior economic and environmental returns. Airbnb allows for the…
Where is enterprise infrastructure headed in 2015?
Soothsayer says...
The enterprise industry is another year older … and hopefully somewhat wiser. Here’s what enterprise watchers should expect to see in 2015.…
The first intergalactic war will be started by spoilers
Star Wars, meet DRM
While I was living in South Africa, I bought a limited edition DVD of Star Wars: A New Hope that featured the original…
Untangling the data center from complexity and human oversight
Humans have limitations
Our investment thesis at Khosla Ventures is that simplicity through abstraction and automation through autonomic behavior will rule in the enterprise’s “New…
What a letter from 1855 can teach us about startups today
New technology, old ideas
In 1855, Daniel McCallum wrote a letter to his bosses at the New York & Erie Railroad. McCallum had risen up through the…
2015 New Year’s resolution: Remove public broadband handcuffs
What can you do?
Encouraged by Google and inspired by Kansas City and Chattanooga, there’s an almost daily parade of communities announcing plans to explore or…
Sacramento’s Hacker Lab calls AT&T’s gigabit bluff
Hacker Lab, together with its partner Consolidated Communications, proved that communities needn’t fear the wrath of giant incumbents or grovel in hopes of receiving their broadband largess.
Why privacy is like the frog in the pot of boiling water
The growth of internet-funded businesses, software as a service, data as a service and other models have slowly and steadily changed the circumstances of our personal privacy online.
Top tips for new app developers: Here’s what you need to know
Without a rational mobile product lifecycle plan in place, you are wasting time and money.
Success in public-owned broadband: It’s about Main St., not Wall St.
Public network failures are greatly exaggerated by critics who misinterpret what exactly community broadband success is.
If state barriers to broadband drop, what happens next?
Laws that prevent cities from operating their own broadband networks have a long history — but things are changing.
How I learned to stop worrying and love commoditization
Technology entrepreneurs and investors alike have long regarded commoditization as a dark and dangerous force, a destroyer of high-margin businesses, to be avoided at all costs. An exciting new class of opportunity aims to eviscerate that dogma: the “commoditization accelerant.”
Where the data science jobs are, by sector and by state
Want a data science job? Then use the data to help you figure out where to live and what sectors are hiring.
Why it might be illegal to show Game of Thrones at your local bar
Is it legal to broadcast HBO in your bar? Or Netflix? Or the World Series? Surprisingly, it depends.
“Public by default” is the future of professional communication
Expecting privacy in every form of communication may create more problems than it solves.
How Google can unlock a trillion-dollar opportunity while improving search relevance
The next version of Google search could be a cost-per-action engine that would give companies like Amazon some serious competition.
Europe’s big challenge: Creating a digital single market
Estonia could serve as a model for the European Union’s goal of creating a unified, €500-billion digital market.
Cracking the performance code of the Great Firewall of China
China is a looming market for businesses worldwide. But if they want to make the most of it, they’d better put their web gear — all their web gear — inside, not nearby, China.
Take back your log-in: It’s time to move away from Facebook Connect and toward OpenID
It might seem easier to outsource your website’s log-in to Facebook. But do you really want to hand over all your user data to another company?
Why cloud security is something businesses must take into their own hands
Businesses that are dependent on the cloud need to understand the difference between front-door and back-door attacks and increase their own security measures.
13 Google Chrome extensions you should know about
Nothing beats Google Chrome in terms of extensions and add-ons. You probably know about Evernote Clipper, AdBlock and Pocket already. Here are 13 extensions you probably haven’t heard of before, and you’ll be glad to know about them now.
Seven signs your hair is on fire: The challenges of scaling Hadoop
Scaling Hadoop can be an enormously tricky process. Here are seven common problems and ways to solve them.
Where’s my cloud price cut?
Cloud service providers like to advertise huge price cuts, but buyer beware: You need to look closer to see what you’ll actually be paying.
I was horrified when several years ago I toured a high-end Las Vegas home that could be unlocked with Wi-Fi from the car. As a digital home consultant and well-versed in wireless security, I told the homeowner why that was not a good idea, and why his family and $10M…
I was horrified when several years ago I toured a high-end Las Vegas home that could be unlocked with Wi-Fi from the…
A better front door: What will it take for smart locks to succeed?
Consumers have been relatively slow to adopt smartphone and app-controlled door locks. Here are a few things that may convince homeowners to install them.
The eight must-have elements for resilient big data apps
If your company is building big data applications, here are eight things you need to consider.
Data privacy isn’t political — it’s personal
Average consumers now worry much more about data security than they once did. Service providers are encountering new questions and can fill a new role.
We’re updating our policies toward guest posts on Gigaom. Here’s why
We’re changing how we deal with guest posts at Gigaom, but we’re not closing the door. Read on for the details.
The goal of data scientists is to put themselves out of business
Part of a data scientist’s role is to automate his or her own work, leading to tools like prediction APIs. But these APIs are starting to replace data scientists in some areas, and that should be considered a good thing.
How can we trust the internet of things?
As we move closer to an always-connected world, we must remember that anything connected to the Internet is vulnerable to attack. The problem may be complex, but the solutions are simple. We just need to agree as an industry.
It’s 2014. Do you know where your data is?
As more and more businesses take advantage of the promise of big data, they’re also putting themselves at increased risk of a security breach. They can protect themselves and their data by centralizing it in one location.
It’s time for a rational perspective on Wi-Fi
A Wi-Fi-only world would result in massive coverage gaps, interference and congestion.
Forget fast lanes. The real threat for net-neutrality is zero-rated content
When telcos zero-rate data used by their apps and their partners’ apps, they are engaging in price discrimination and threatening net neutrality. The practice should be banned in U.S. and Europe.
User experience is the new differentiator. How will that affect the internet?
As businesses demand faster user experiences, the nature of the internet is going to change.
Moore’s law gives way to Bezos’s law
The future of cloud computing is the availability of more computing power at a much lower cost.
Why voice is the next big internet wave
We’re about to see a major shift in voice technology. Think wearables, encryption, Facebook-like streams and customized acoustic profiles.
The frightening truth about the security of our healthcare data
Medical records are moving online, wearables are logging information about their users and genetic testing startups are in possession of highly personal information. We need to take steps to protect our healthcare data.
The cloud-fueled disruption of business analytics is coming
Business analytics could be a $150 billion field by 2020 if it embraces the full benefits of the cloud.
RIP, the server. It’s time to breathe the air of cloud connection
Today, running your business on private servers is on the same level of odd behavior as carrying scuba tanks to provide a private air supply.
Amid trillions of metrics, your software is trying to tell you something
Now that every company is essentially a software company, it’s time to start asking our software new questions.
How Twitter confirmed the explosion in Harlem first
People often argue that Twitter is unreliable, but when tweets are looked at in the aggregate they can confirm important events before traditional news sources do.
Why is Apple hiring luxury fashion execs? It wants to be a lifestyle brand
Apple is hiring luxury fashion executives in part because it wants to become a high-end lifestyle brand.
How we skipped the VCs, crowdfunded our Series A — and raised nearly $2M online
Over 50 VCs turned down our startup. We turned to the crowd instead and ended up raising nearly $2 million online. Here’s how we did it.
Why email newsletters still work — and how you can make yours better
Email sometimes seems like an outdated technology, but email newsletters can still be a thriving business model. The former CEO of Daily Candy offers some guidelines.
Connected devices: Creating jobs and growth
Global revenue from the internet of things totaled $200 billion in 2012 and is expected to rise to $1.2 trillion by 2020. The U.S. is poised to lead in this area, and lawmakers can help.
The crisis for government data in a 21st century shutdown
U.S. society depends on open government data. When the government shuts down, that data is at risk, and so are the citizens who rely on it. The Obama administration needs to take action action to restore faith in government data as a civic resource and platform for business.
Why tablet magazines are a failure
Dedicated magazine apps for tablets may look good, but I fear they’re headed straight to oblivion.
Rise of the prosumer analyst: How mobile is driving a new brand of business analysis
Smartphones and tablets have changed the way business analysis works. Analysts like Horace Dediu, Benedict Evans and Ben Thompson are leading the revolution.
Book review: Cybersexism: Sex, Gender and Power on the Internet
In her new ebook, Cybersexism, Laurie Penny argues that the degradation of women online has become all too common — and condemns those who think it is innocuous.
Leaning towards a better way to gauge consumer media interaction
In a world of second screen and streaming, lean forward/back just doesn’t tell the story anymore. Here’s a better framework for gauging media consumption habits.
CIOs need to learn to become enablers rather than gatekeepers
CIO bashing has become popular sport, but in reality companies are now finding an edge by focusing less on cost-cutting and more on how IT can help enable better functionality and innovation.
Today’s complex global supply chains are poised to be dismantled
Thanks to the growth of 3D printing, intelligent robots, and open-source hardware, tomorrow’s supply chains will be faster, smaller, cheaper, and local.
Five companies Yahoo should buy to turbocharge its turnaround
Marissa Mayer has made some big moves in the past year, but that’s the low-hanging fruit. Grabbing these 5 companies (you won’t find any Pinterests or Foursquares on this list) is crucial to making Yahoo relevant and competitive.
Beyond “The Last Lecture”: Design lessons I learned from Randy Pausch
One of Randy Pausch’s many graduate students from his 20-year teaching career recalls the most important wisdom he learned about the process of designing great products and the art of collaboration.
Sites scrape heaps of our data, so why don’t we get a personalized experience?
With so many of our habits, likes and dislikes easily collected online, it’s astounding how little of our web experience is meaningfully, usefully personalized. The next era of the web will employ active design to revolutionize user experience.
Finally there’s evidence that we’re embracing energy innovation
Two recent energy policy moves are evidence that policymakers are finally starting to figure out the need to part with old paradigms – and the right way to encourage innovation.
Bitcoin will prosper — until governments or banks decide to crush it overnight
For all the talk of Bitcoin’s brilliance and disruptive potential, what will prevent it from ever being mainstream is that the disruptees – big banks and especially governments – will intervene.
A simple trick for companies to accurately predict their annual revenue
All companies should have a good sense of their GAAP revenue, but estimating for the future is always tricky. Subscriptions businesses are the lucky exception though, and can get an amazingly accurate estimate in seconds.
Forget social and mobile: Our economy needs more “white space” innovation
For all the glitz of tech brands like Google, Facebook and Twitter, they account for relatively few jobs and only a tiny fraction of GDP. Our economy needs more VC investment in big industries like healthcare and construction.
Waiting stinks: How to redesign your product’s dead time
Waiting in frustration for things to boot, install, load, download, pair and transfer are universal tech experiences. Real world solutions offer a glimpse into better alternatives.
BYOD security and the importance of covering your backend
So you’ve accepted BYOD and a host of new apps to support. Congrats! The next step is making sure that your crucial mobile data is adequately secured before all hell breaks loose.
Instead of a Watson in every home, we should start with a smarter coffee pot
Our dreams for a future of connected everything are a sure thing. But aiming for maximum capability and complexity misses the point. We need to focus on making our devices disappear, not get in the way.
What happens when the world turns into one giant brain
Currently much of the big data being churned out is merely exhaust. But imagine the possibilities once we figure out how to produce and process better data on the fly on a global scale. Call it Big Inference.
Alibaba is just the beginning: How B2B marketplaces will thrive (for real, this time)
During the heyday of Web 1.0, B2B marketplaces were, we were assured, the next trillion-dollar gold rush. In 2000, Gartner Group was…
Microsoft hearts Oracle, or why you can’t take on the whole world at once
The decision by the two gech giants to jump into bed together has created plenty of speculation. The question is who, if anyone, stands to benefit.
Why the startup Wibbitz could wipe out some publishers’ video businesses
A service that instantly stitches together online text with images, graphics and voiceover could be a gamechanger that brings rich media cheaply to small outlets. And another threat to broadcast TV’s domination of video.
Second Life turns 10: what it did wrong, and why it may have its own second life
As it celebrates a decade of enabling virtual experiences, Second Life provides startups with a few hard but valuable lessons on the realities of creating products and building audiences.
Facebook’s #hashtags will be great for marketers (users, not so much)
Facebook pitched hashtags as a wondrous upgrade for users. The real beneficiaries will be brands and advertisers as they get ever closer to their potential customers.
Finding the next AWS, VMWare or EMC: Five areas where cloud startups can make it big
There are third-party data centers, and there are private clouds — but there’s a third option that’s even better: hybrid clouds. Here are five areas of opportunity for startups in the hybrid-cloud space.
Broadcasters are missing out on a ton of data–it’s time to take TV online
Consumers aren’t the only ones who would benefit if broadcasters put everything online. This is what they’re missing out on by not doing that.
Apple has become a design follower instead of a leader — and it may be just fine with that
Apple’s preview of iOS 7 showed off plenty of welcome improvements, but many are already found on competing platforms. The company is becoming a fast follower rather than a leader and disruptor.
One lesson from the NSA scandal: Find out where your cloud provider’s data centers are located
As the recent NSA scandal has shown, the security of the cloud is not a given. As with real estate, location is critical — and where you data is hosted can determine how safe it is.
How to prevent the NSA from reading your email
The NSA (and who knows who else) has made a habit of perusing our collective emails, we now know. Which makes it a perfect time to brush up on electronic security.
With wearable tech like Google Glass, human behavior is now a design problem
Wearable devices will offer practical, novel and fun usefulness but will also be able to influence our behavior in ways good and bad, creating ethical dilemmas for designers.
Why America’s “underbanked” are key to the growth of mobile payments
America’s underbanked are large in number (68 million) and very familiar with mobile phones – which makes them good candidates for mobile payments. But cracking the market means dealing with scaling and regulatory hurdles.
Freeing your IT department from Stackholm Syndrome
Many IT departments are enslaved by the very systems they have constructed. The solution doesn’t require starting over, only giving business the freedom to operate outside the stack.
The gaming business can’t figure out which cloud approach it likes best
Like everything else, gaming’s destiny is in the cloud. But precisely how that will work has yet to be agreed upon.
Netflix and Hulu have nothing to fear from YouTube’s paid channel plans
YouTube’s rollout of premium pay channels may sound promising, but transitioning from the home of free online video to a pay site will be challenging – and may be of little value for existing brands.
The 7 commandments for making software-defined storage a success
Software designed storage is buzzy, but to get beyond the hype the industry needs to adopt a few crucial fundamentals that will help clarify what software-defined storage entails.
Going native: Why a veteran web developer finally turned to OS-native apps
Argue all you want about the relative merits of web vs native apps, but the market is the ultimate decider. And, according to one previously stalwart web proponent, for now that means going native.
How can we provide better customer service? Create software that lets customers serve each other
As consumers increasingly turn to social media to both praise and criticize brands, those brands can’t possibly respond to all the feedback. The solution is to empower customers to speak on their behalf.
Who needs investors! Why many startups should bootstrap instead
Many of today’s startups are obsessed with figuring out the best way to score investors. But for many companies bootstrapping it might result in a better product and a healthier business in the long run.
It’s a trap! Publishers crave an alternative to Google’s adtech “Death Star”
Adtech has made great strides but is in a period of transition. The most pressing concern for publishers? The need for a soup-to-nuts provider that isn’t also a competitor like Google.
For developers, the cloud means having to rethink everything they know about making software
It’s not often the software world goes through a revolutionary change. But the advent of the cloud will force software developers to reevaluate – and discard – many of their most basic assumptions.
How cloud, big data and mobile will make the CMO the BMOC
The rise of cloud and big data is altering business models, and in the process shifting corporate hierarchies, too. The chief marketing officer could be a big beneficiary of all this change.
How to make Twitter the ultimate news ticker
Recent events, tragic and triumphant, emphasize the social web’s role as a central source for disseminating breaking news. But getting the facts right continues to be a challenge, and a solution requires cooperation and technical innovation.
Google Glass will soon be invisible – and the new normal
Plenty of haters have taken Google Glass to the woodshed, but they’re missing the bigger picture: Google solved the big technical problems, and even made wearable tech look cool. Glass’s transition to the mainstream is a when not an if.
Welcome to the new (and fast-growing) ecosystem of mobile business apps
Just as SaaS has emerged as a dominant new force in enterprise software, mobile apps will offer innovative new capabilities and business models – and disrupt many old ones.
Powering Times Square via Shanghai: How a global smart grid can fuel our insatiable data appetite
At our current pace of consumption, the world’s demands for compute power will quickly outpace the energy provided by our data centers. The solution is a global smart grid, and Europe provides a model for what that might look like.
The myth of Inbox Zero and the path to peace of mind
There are endless systems for achieving a clean inbox but, like diets, most everyone ends up failing. The answer then is accepting that it’s impossible, and then finding peace of mind by focusing on what matter most.
Careful: Your big data analytics may be polluted by data scientist bias
True believers may be guilty of hype, but there’s no denying that big data presents opportunities for businesses of every stripe. That potential is vulnerable to pollution from data bias, and so calls for preventative processes.
With UDID gone, the mobile-ad floodgates will open – straight to Apple iOS
With the sunset of UDID this coming week, a major barrier to mobile ads will fall. The new system for iOS will benefit advertisers while still protecting consumers, and will become a revenue juggernaut for Apple.
Flat is the new up: Why are companies using organizational structures that are thousands of years old?
Businesses regularly evolve to meet modern new challenges, so why do they rely on the same old military-style organizational hierarchies? Here are a few companies that have adopted new structures to try to inspire workers and make the companies more agile.
It’s not just Tumblr — most social networks don’t understand original content
The trend among social networks to produce original content often ends badly, as Tumblr’s shuttering of Storyboard showed. Here’s where other big services, from Facebook to YouTube, are going wrong – or, in the case of LinkedIn, going right.
Why DISH should be negotiating with Clearwire rather than bidding for Sprint
DISH Network’s bid for Sprint could result in a revolutionary combination of video and mobile delivery and wireless broadband. But DISH needs Clearwire’s spectrum more than it needs Sprint’s network.
Forecast for the cloud: it will come in a million varieties
The cloud is dominated by massive, super-scale providers like Google and Amazon. But that is going to change, and eventually every business big or small will have a cloud suited specifically to their needs.
Information technology has revolutionalized financial services. So why is healthcare so far behind?
Americans spend more than any other country on healthcare, and yet experience the worst medical outcomes of any developed nation. Investment and innovation in healthcare is an incredible opportunity for entrepreneurs that will benefit everyone.
How you know when your company is being disrupted
Many businesses – even the giants – fail to notice when the winds shift. Here are seven game-changers that will capsize your business if you don’t get on board with them.
Why good storytelling helps you design great products
It’s not uncommon for designers to confuse a beautiful looking product with one that works beautifully. A great technique for creating smarter, better products is to approach them using story-centered design.
Enough about data caps: They’re a terrible idea
As ISPs continue to explore new ways to charge customers, many are embracing the idea of pricing based on data consumption. But the lack of pricing transparency and sheer number of variables make it too consumer unfriendly.
The fastest way to speedy networks: ignore Uncle Sam
Austin’s forthcoming Google Fiber gigabit network is a crucial first step to restoring economic opportunities that other cities must follow. The key is partnering with private enterprise on a local level, rather than waiting for federal intervention.
Flipboard is a giant iceberg lurking in the path of the media
Flipboard’s recent update lets users create custom “magazines” and share them. For a large swath of the publishing industry, this provides a glimpse of what (for them) could be a grim future.
Why Home won’t move the needle for Facebook
The announcement of Facebook Home this week has elicited applause, shock, horror, and disapproval. But it may not matter much anyway as the numbers suggest its reach will be modest at best.
5 lessons I learned at Apple about how to design and build hardware
No matter how brilliant or beautiful your new gadget may be, it’s doomed if you can’t figure out how to make it efficiently, consistently and economically. An ex-Apple supply guy offers insights on how to make that happen.
Technology is king, so why are so many IT departments playing backseat roles?
As employees feel increasingly entitled to take tech into their own hands via BYOD, the cloud and SaaS, IT is finding itself sidelined. The answer is for IT to redefine itself. Welcome to IT as a Service.
Intelligent Content: Soon your media will know you better than you know yourself
Though tablets and ebook readers are now mainstream, the revolution in the way they display content – and how that content will be generated dynamically – is yet to come.
The deal Goodreads should’ve struck (hint: it wasn’t with Amazon)
Goodreads, the popular social network and review site for book lovers, is now part of Amazon. Imagine if it had instead paired up with Readmill, which offers a superior user reading experience.
We can’t let the Internet of Things become the Tyranny of Things
The Internet of Things isn’t just some futuristic concept — it already exists. But often badly. For it to succeed, it will need an economy supported by developers who can rely on open standards and APIs.
Smartphones do too much: convergence is giving way to divergence
Now that we’ve finally landed the holy grail of do-it-all, convergent smartphones, it turns out many of us are far happier with dedicated devices that do one thing well.
Don’t blame security breaches on open source technology – the problem is lack of oversight
Open source software is an easy punching bag when security breaches arise. But getting rid of open source isn’t the answer — it is too valuable. Instead, we need to take some key steps to ensure the security of components throughout development.
Why Google killed off Google Reader: It was self-defense
Though Google Reader addicts are in mourning, they should have seen it coming. It’s not the kind of product that makes sense for Google in the longer run.
The technologies that will save us from the “mobile data crunch”
The mobile explosion has meant an exponential growth in data use – and punishing traffic to our cellular networks. In the eyes of VCs, that mobile misfortune spells opportunity.
Wi-Fi offers huge opportunities, but here’s how companies could blow it
Wi-Fi has moved from an at-home convenience to a public service as mobile devices continue to take over. Here’s a look at the new opportunities to connect with consumers, and how businesses can easily screw it all up.
Emerging technologies are creating new ethical challenges for UX designers
The digital age has made possible many of the human-technology interactions that once were the stuff of science fiction. But at what cost? UX designers must be aware of and accountable for the human impact of their work.
Hacking Sand Hill: How the cloud will help security startups lure VCs
Online security is big business, and is only increasing as private data moves to the public cloud. So while it’s a tough market to break into, there are also great opportunities for focused startups.
Our innovation economy won’t grow until we fix the broken IPO market
A host of factors — including electronic trading and the dominance of hedge funds — have skewed the system to incentivize short-term focus. Company CEOs need to take back control of the aftermarket.
Google has a problem with “long-tail” searches, and it needs Quora to help fix it
Google is the undisputed champ of search, but it’s much better with “head” searches than it is with “long-tail” searches — and that’s a problem. Narendra Reddy, of Wignite, says Google can address that by purchasing the expert network Quora.
Why are so many people SLAPPing each other? How to reduce frivolous defamation suits
Injure someone’s feelings online and you or your company can be sued for defamation, no matter how silly the slight. Josh King, of Avvo.com, says such nuisance suits — known by the acroynm SLAPP — stifle free speech.
What to do when Amazon decides to jump into your business
Nothing strikes fear in a business like having the world’s largest e-tailer and cloud provider decide to take you on. But, according to Chris Potter, of Screenlight, you can not only push back — you can succeed, if you follow a couple of rules.
Why is Facebook’s e-commerce offering so disappointing?
As commerce increasingly shifts online, why isn’t Facebook a more attractive option? Philip Rooke, of Spreadshirt, says Facebook’s ecommerce experience is unfriendly to consumers and companies.
The secret to tackling mobile, cloud and big data? Treat them as one.
It’s no secret that mobile, big data and cloud computing are transforming IT. Sanjay Poonen, president of SAP’s mobile division, says companies need a single unified strategy to tackle them, not three separate ones.
Cost per hour: A new metric for paid content
As we continue the transition to digital, media companies will have more precise and powerful tools to measure success. David Justus, of contentcurrents.com, says Cost Per Hour will be a pivotal metric, both for consumers and content producers.
Is Cisco stacking the deck with its mobile data numbers?
To hear Cisco tell it, the world is quickly running out of wireless spectrum. Tim Farrar, of TMF associates, says a look at the numbers shows that Cisco first overstated them, then revised them, and is now overstating them again.
Where Kim Dotcom and Mega have the edge on Dropbox and Box.net
Alleged pirate Kim Dotcom’s latest venture, Mega, tackles cloud storage. Whatever Dotcom’s motives, Andy Manoske, of GGV Capital, says his startup is bringing a much-needed upgrade to security standards for the cloud storage business.
The perfect murder: How Facebook will kill the phone as we know it
Facebook jumped into an already crowded VoIP market with the update of its Messenger app last week. Robert Gaal, of Karma, says the company’s scale ultimately will allow it to kill off the phone.
The delusions that companies have about the cloud
Despite the inexorable move to the cloud, some companies cling to the idea that the risks outweigh the benefits. Dave Girouard, former President of Enterprise for Google, argues that the logic these skeptics use is, well, “insane.”
Is it too easy for your cloud provider to snoop on your business?
Without needing to snoop, your cloud provider has access to crucial data about your business. Allan Leinwand, of ServiceNow, says that’s why you may need a Chinese Wall between you and your cloud provider.
9 trends to watch for in wearable tech
With advances in sensors and wireless, the age of wearable tech is swiftly approaching. Christian Lindholm, of design firm Koru, explains the trends his firm is tracking.
How to turn a $20,000 Ultra HDTV into a mass-market product
As consumers feast on even more video across multiple devices, the advent of Ultra HD – which has four times the picture quality of HD – will simply choke bandwidth. Sean McCarthy, of Motorola Mobility, says its future depends on a smarter, slimmer codec.
Mobile’s future is in finding solutions to the problems that are all around us
Until now, the mobile revolution has been about squeezing the desktop internet onto portable devices. Entrepreneur Edward Aten says the real revolution for smartphones is about fulfilling a whole new set of needs that people have in their daily lives.
The secret algorithm one VC firm uses to pick entrepreneurs
Every VC firm has its own way of evaluating potential investments. Remmy Oxley, an anonymous VC, says that Moneyball-style methods are the next step, and reveals his firm’s algorithm for screening candidates.
We don’t need more data scientists — just make big data easier to use
Sure, more data scientists would be great. But Scott Brave, of Baynote, says the better solution is to create analytics products that are so easy to use that you don’t even need a data scientist.
The future of streaming video – four predictions for 2013
The streaming video industry continues to undergo radical transformation. Kun Gao, of Crunchyroll, points to four things to look for in the coming year.
Five products that get the user experience right
What distinguishes an OK product from a great one? Typically it’s that intangible quality known as user experience. Henry Tsai, head of UX for Astrid, picks a few products he loves because they get it just right.
Online job boards don’t work — how big data can fix the problem
Despite high joblessness in the country, many companies have job openings but lack qualified applicants. Steve Goodman, of Bright, says big data and data science can help fix that problem.
One banker’s predictions for the future of digital media
The digital media sector is finally maturng. Dan Ramsden, founder of CoRise, predicts some of the forms that that maturation will take.
Have an idea for a great guest post? Here’s what you need to know
Readers often ask what kinds of guest posts we like to run on the site and how best to pitch those pieces. Read this for the answers to those and other commonly asked questions about our guest-post process.
How startups can hack the PR machine
With big data and a little bit of knowhow, it could be possible for any smart startup get a truckload of national press.
