Yahoo-Microsoft Endgame?

I blogged about the Yahoo-Microsoft soap opera when it first began. I expected it to end pretty quickly, with Yahoo realizing they couldn’t go it alone anymore. Since then, rumors have swirled and now the plot is as thick as mud. News Corp has gone from savior to Microsoft conspirator, and Google is still lurking,… Read More

Facebook Launches Chat

Over the weekend, I noticed Facebook had enabled chat for my account. Apparently, they’re rolling it out slowly to specific networks, so finding someone online to chat with is a bit challenging. I did manage to have a quick coversation with my college buddy Paul who also works at Oracle in the WebCenter development team.… Read More

The Future is iPhone-tastic

Lately, I’ve been bummed that the SDK announcement underwhelmed, handcuffing would-be developers with restrictions that make apps significantly less functional than expected. As a user, I want more apps that do more. And then a couple nights ago, I got a reminder of how sweet the iPhone really is. I was at Nicholas Restaurant, a… Read More

FriendFeed is for Lurkers too

If you missed it, over the weekend, there was quite a testy blog war between Louis Gray and Duncan Riley, ostensibly started by FriendFeed or rather differing opinions of it. Short version: Duncan doesn’t find value, Louis disagrees, obscenities ensue. Makes for a good read. FriendFeed has been all the rage lately among the usual… Read More

Going around, Coming around

The ‘Lab is quickly approaching its one-year anniversary. I plan to blog something more formal closer to the date, but this post about Salesforce.com integrating with Google Apps reminded me of why I am on the team at all. Back in late 2006, I had just moved into Jesper’s strategy organization from development, and I… Read More

Thoughts on Microsoft-Yahoo

I’ve been thinking about the proposed Yahoo-Microsoft merger since the news broke on Friday. As a closeted economist and enterprise apologist, the offer’s value really jumped off the page. Microsoft is offering $44.5 billion in cash and stock for a business that generated just under $7 billion in revenue in its fiscal 2007. Microsoft’s Office… Read More

Review Recap

Will you be in the San Francisco Bay Area next week, namely Monday between 11 and 2? If so, stop by Lunch 2.0, which will be at Oracle for the first time, to mingle with AppsLab and other new web interested people. You can find details here. This should be a great chance to network,… Read More

Street View Makes Immortals

Google Maps rolled out the infamous Street View for six new cities this week: Chicago, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Portland and Tucson. In typical Google fashion, they are touting this as more cities to explore, ignoring the creepy factor. Having lived in and knowing people who currently live in several of these cities, I spent some… Read More

A River of Information Runs Through It

Recent coverage (NYT, Mashable) of FriendFeed reminded me of discussions we’ve had about Connect features. Basically, FriendFeed applies the Facebook News Feed feature to the entire Interwebs, or at the 23 services they integrate with today. You have a(nother) network of friends. Everyone posts stuff to the FriendFeed, which aggregates the posts into a river… Read More

On Social Apps, Trying Again

So, Billy and I had a whimsical dust–up over the differences (or lack thereof) between our approaches to the enterprise-ification of New Web. A few other voices chimed in too. Right, wrong, indifferent, it’s been a slow week. Mr. Long Tail, Chris Anderson, posted an entry yesterday that hits the core of the differences between… Read More

ASU Pilots ERP Implementation 2.0

The WSJ ran a story yesterday about Arizona State University’s Oracle ERP implementation and the unique approach they’ve taken. The university’s head technology dude, Dr. Adrian Sannier (his blog), decided to take a New Web approach to the implementation. From the WSJ: In order to avoid the cost overruns that are typical with projects like… Read More

Too Busy to Innovate

I had a conversation with a product manager over IM today that got thinking big thoughts about stuff, you know, like Paul does. I’ve known this PM dude for years and worked with him while I was in development. Great guy, with massive doses of cynicism and negativity, at least when it comes to work.… Read More

Time for Questions

So, I noticed tonight that Google Reader was displaying a more accurate number of unread items for each feed and folder. To be exact, it was a factor of ten more accurate, showing 1000+ and true counts for everything less than 1000. Then, while writing this entry, it went back to the old style, 100+… Read More