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MIX06: Amazon as Web 2.0 butt kicker

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Jeff Barr, Amazon’s Evangelist, is about to show how to use Alexa’s API and search services to build your own search engine.   I’ve written about this before and like John Battelle I think the implications of Amazon’s many clever, cheap, and hugely customizable routines has yet to sink in even among many in the development community.    In one sense Amazon is bringing the price point on advanced development way, way down.

Jeff just noted how his kids didn’t recognize a dial up modem sound and I’m thinking some of the people here at the conference probably don’t even remember such things now that all but the most backward university would have broadband almost everywhere.

Windows LIVE social networking anyone?

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Tim O’Reilly noted yesterday how powerful the MS “community” of messenger users could be and this session is suggesting that MS messenger activities, bots, and alerts can be used to power really interactive stuff and be mashed with other services.   This looks REALLY promising so I’m going to listen more carefully and post later….

IE7 plus Vista are looking good at MIX06

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Here at MIX06 we’re getting early views of how IE7 will interface with the web.  The security items look robust yet simple.  Anti phishing is strong and “trusted sites” will show in green in address bar.  More money for verisign but that’s OK if we can get rid of the junk.

I remain concerned MS may have been so worried about all the security problems with IE that these items may eclipse what I’m more interested in at this conference – API and Web 2.0 and mashup support from MS.

$253 Million per month in Online Ad spending for Jan 2006

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This from the ClickZ network. 

Vonage is forking over 1 million a DAY for online ads.  I’d still argue that this number is very, very low compared to what it will be in the near future as advertisers are still misunderstanding how favorably online ROI compares to offline.   I’m glad to be an online rather than offline publisher these days.

1 Vonage 31,707 Tech

$100 Laptops Rock. Bill’s wrong. But the Gates Foundation still rules.

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I was sorry to see Bill Gates bashing MIT’s $100 Laptop project

Gates’ credentials as an advocate for the developing world are unsurpassed, but I’d guess he’s reacting more to the fact this is a Google sponsored project than legitimate concerns about it’s viability.

I love the $100 Laptop Project not so much because it will bring tech to the poor, especially children (though it will do that), but because it will help to rapidly and aggressively break down what I see as the key barrier to development which is the lack of communication and exchange between “them” and “us”.

A dictator’s tyranny or a famine in Nigeria will take on a whole new relevance when THEIR kids are all playing video games and instant messaging with OUR kids.

Bill, you got this one wrong, dawg. But the Gates Foundation remains the world’s most heroic development effort.

Don’t overestimate the power of Pizzazz – but don’t UNDERestimate it either!

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We are working on a new project at Online Highways – a regional search engine for travel.   It could be great because our former excellent programmer Marvin has already developed Kinosearch and it’s well suited to this task. Vertical search is really hot as a Web 2.0 theme and we should be able to put out a great spam free travel search for the Oregon Coast and should be able to scale it up if it gains traction as a spam free alternative to the increasingly problematic big engine searches for local travel information.

But I’m worried about the name, which currently is “CRSE.com”.   “Cooperative Regional Search Engine”.  Yikes – that sucks.

My partner is right that that people usually have too MUCH enthusiasm for Pizzazz and too little for the substance of a project, but that’s a problem with the wrong emphasis, not a problem with Pizzazz which can be important to the success of a project. 

Concern as a function of distance

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Fascinating and very relevant to “problem solving” is how we prioritize our charitable acts.    Seems theat he closer you get to your own location – geographically or psychologically – the more likely you are to “chip in”.    Thus an American is more comfortable giving to the local school than to one in another state and to schools in the USA more than in India.

This is probably logical from a “survival” and evolutionary perspective, especially when you are helping a family member and therefore increasing the  chances of reciprocal behavior and passing along of your own genetics to future generation.

However I think I prefer the approach where you look at the return on investment.  For example I could give 1000 to a local university and help a student for … a month.   Or I could give that thousand to an India school and help 5+ students for a whole year (I guesstimate).

TED conference? Get out your wallet…..

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What a contrast between the hyper energized Mashup Camp with college students, internet legends, and free admission (hey, I did donate some cash!) and the fancy pants Technology Entertainment Design Conference which I … had to miss because I 1) had never heard of it and 2) didn’t care to pony up $4400, by INVITATION ONLY, to hear a bunch of very rich people talking about … something. With a barrier to admission like that you’ve got to wonder what these folks take away from the experience.

If your request is accepted you will be entitled to purchase a TED pass for $4,400. We welcome to TED a wide variety of leading thinkers and doers from all fields of endeavor.

… who are rich/gullible enough to pony up $100 per hour 24/7 for the duration of the conference. … thanks but….I’ll pass.

Top 100 blogs

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OK, for the benefit of the few who read THIS blog I thought I’d throw out a list of the “A list blogs” that are read by …. more people than you can shake a stick at.

Interestingly I’m thinking Blogs are quite DEficient as a conversational medium because you’ve got the blog OWNER in control and the commenters in a very weak position. Tim Berners Lee, who invented the internet even before Al Gore, wanted a “two way conversation”. We are NOT there yet and I think a sort of wikified blogging niche mashup forum environment, where people with similar interest sets will come together in unstructured but highly motivating and unstructured but facilitating and enabling ways, will eventually rule the internet.

I hope so and in fact will work towards this goal in the travel space.

From TECHNORATI: Top 100 blogs