I’m writing this from my hotel room at the Seaport Hotel in Boston, and the Business of Software conference begins in a little over two hours.
Needless to say I woke up just before 5:00 in the morning – one of the many perks of jet lag. But it’s rare that my days begin with a little work, breakfast and an hour of Seth Godin…
Please be sure to say hello if you’re attending the conference.
I’m packing to go to the Business of Software in Boston.
This is the first software conference that I’ve ever attended without speaking; this time I’m just there for the ride.
If you happen to be attending, please be sure to say hi. I’ll be the jet-lagged English guy drinking tea – easy to identify because of my bowler hat…
Yes it is, according to Wired in The Web Is Dead. Long Live the Internet.
“Two decades after its birth, the World Wide Web is in decline, as simpler, sleeker services — think apps — are less about the searching and more about the getting… You’ve spent the day on the Internet — but not on the Web. And you are not alone. This is not a trivial distinction. Over the past few years, one of the most important shifts in the digital world has been the move from the wide-open Web to semiclosed platforms that use the Internet for transport but not the browser for display.”
Pay careful attention to the vertical axis in the above chart. Why are they using proportion of total US internet traffic instead of total traffic?
It’s safe to assume that use of the internet has grown fairly dramatically during this time, so the graph should actually look quite different. And of course there’s more video and it’s larger in size – we have faster internet connections and it’s easier than ever to create, upload and share our creations.
I don’t believe that the WWW is in decline. I’m more concerned about the trend in statistical and editorial accuracy in publications like Wired.
“Amazon Product Ads provides a new, highly targeted advertising channel. Amazon’s world class shopping experience and product pages ensures you only pay for qualified customers. You don’t pay for customers to read about and view your products on Amazon. You only pay when they click on your ad to go to your Web site.”
“Tired of your Social Network?
Liberate your newbie friends with a Web2.0 suicide! This machine lets you delete all your energy sucking social-networking profiles, kill your fake virtual friends, and completely do away with your Web2.0 alterego. The machine is just a metaphor for the website which moddr_ is hosting; the belly of the beast where the web2.0 suicide scripts are maintained. Our service currently runs with Facebook, Myspace, Twitter and LinkedIn! Commit NOW!“
The way that some people use social networking is apparently out of control.
There are (allegedly) people out there whose lives are being destroyed because of their addiction to the likes of Facebook.
The Web 2.0 Suicide Machine logs into your various accounts, changes your profile picture, changes your password then deletes all your friends.
It’s a little frightening really.
Are there really people out there with so little self control that they allow Facebook to infringe on their lives? If so, won’t they simply move on to their next addiction anyway?
The fact is that most (not all) people who use these networks periodically log into their accounts at the wrong time, for instance when they’re at work, but people also browse news & sports, shop online, check their stocks and more.
Does the web really need such a suicide system?
What do you think – passing & meaningless or potentially useful?
Ironically this has reminded me that I really need to work more on our SoftwarePromotions Facebook Page.
I’m still not convinced by Twitter, but I’m starting to see how it might work for some businesses.
But I don’t understand why Twitter can’t filter spam.
Direct messages sent only to me? Why do I doubt that?
The iPad is a remarkable device. My three year-old little girl learnt how to use it within minutes, I learnt how to use it within an hour or so, and it beautifully highlights almost all of the problems of working with PCs.
Buying software couldn’t be simpler. There are no minimum system requirements, no drivers, no runtimes or codecs needed, in fact no installation files. You simply pay for it (without having to reach for your credit card), click on the icon and it’s installed. That’s it.
By way of an example, we recently bought a handful of Squeezeboxes for our home and office, so that we could listen to music all round the house and while we worked. My single criticism of the Squeezebox is their remote controls are extremely basic. The base units themselves make good use of a touch screen, but that means having to go to the units every time we want to browse or change music, adjust the volume and so on.
Logitech do sell reasonable remotes, but they cost hundreds of pounds here in the UK. A quick search on the App Store, and three minutes later I have SqueezePad installed on my iPad, for a mere £5.99.
SqueezePad is a beautiful application. It lets me control every single aspect of any of my Squeezeboxes from anywhere in the house or office. I can synch all systems to play the same music throughout the house, search for music in my Napster account, adjust the settings, volume, switch on and off and much more.
For $5.99 I have a remote that is better than the Logitech model for a fraction of the price.
On top of that I encountered a couple of very minor issues with the software. I emailed the author, who then not only replied with detailed instructions as to how to resolve the issues, but also assured me that the next release would resolve them fully.
Try getting that level of support when you find a bug in one of Microsoft’s applications.
So why do I wonder whether the iPad may be killing the software industry?
Pricing. Take a look at the screenshot of the What’s Hot section of the Business category in iTunes:
The iPad is changing expectations, and redefining what we consider a reasonable price for software.
I gushed with enthusiasm for the SqueezePad application and level of support, but how can companies like that hope to make a good income when their products are so cheap?
As someone who works within the software industry, I am a highly atypical user. Yet I would have paid many times more than £5.99 for this application. In fact if I want the product to be developed further, and I want it to still be around in a few years, I need to pay more than this.
If you are a software developer, chances are high that you’ve at least considered going down the iTunes Store route. You’re probably put off by technical issues, by Apple’s hoops and I suspect by the low amount you can charge for your software.
Feedback appreciated through the comments below – is the iPad killing the software industry?
Google’s realtime search has been promoted from being an additional search option to a standalone service:
With some impressive features including the ability to filter by location and look at results from different times, it’s a great tool for anyone wishing to monitor anything.
I usually understand the motives of apparently baffling spam. Usually.
A recent report issued by Coupons.com indicates impressive growth in the popularity of digital coupons:
“Printed savings from Coupons.com and the Coupons.com digital network for the 12 months ending June 2010 exceeded $1 billion. This includes savings printed or loaded to a store loyalty card and represents a 100 percent increase compared to $529 million the year before.”
Easy to create, easy to publicise, nothing to lose.
Google AdWords