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What UCONN Engineering School Advances Mean to New Students

2012-05-21T16:15:50Z

I have been fortunate enough in my career to do something I love – cover technology and be involved in all the most innovative happenings from the early eighties until today. Tech is one of the markets which experiences constant change, moreover, the ability to learn something new presents itself virtually every day. Whether you are a system administrator, programmer, database designer or microprocessor designer you are not only in demand, you are able to constantly do new and innovative things in the course of your work.

Of course some jobs are better than others and if you do not keep up you may find your skills become obsolete. Furthermore, not every moment of a techie’s life is exciting but what has been constant for three decades is techies are in demand, treated well and given numerous opportunities for advancement.

In addition, as the US sees more international competition for jobs, it is imperative that high school and college students look towards math and science because this is where the future jobs are.

As a child I was always fascinated by tech and gadgets. I even discovered programming in my teens and found I loved it as well. But like most high school students I thought I knew everything and subsequently decided that I wouldn’t need math so I tried to avoid it whenever possible.

As it turns out I ended up in UCONN’s School of Engineering because I wanted to learn about computers and there was no non-engineering alternative at the time in this university (I didn’t want to switch to another). I originally thought I was going to be a biology major but I realized that programming and computers excited me more than categorizing animals, examining mitochondrial DNA and studying the makeup of cell walls.

Because I went through this engineering program – sometimes kicking and screaming, I prepared myself for a career where I am able to meet with and understand what virtually any company in the tech space does.

Did I mention there were over 10 math classes engineers had to take? If I could do it over again, I would pay really good attention in Advanced Math in high school – this was a foundational course I didn’t think I would ever need. Doing really well in this one class could have made my college math and physics courses much less challenging.

Fast forward to today - as the CEO of a media company focusing on tech and communications, I am the luckiest person around. This is primarily because I am at a competitive advantage as most of my peers don’t have such a degree. When you consider how much technology has changed media in the last few decades (we used to call it publishing in fact) you realize that because of what I learned at a great engineering school I've been able to grow a rapidly evolving company as it navigated the changing world of the internet, search engine optimization and the like.

The benefit of studying engineering is that it taught me to solve problems and this background has given me a foundation which has and will continue to help me for a lifetime.

I consider what I did infinitely repeatable – any student who likes technology – video games, tablets or other tech, should really delve into math and science and consider an engineering degree. Even if you aren’t a gadget person, you should consider this field as it is amazing, rewarding and exciting.

You may argue that you really don’t love math and science or even engineering but my response would be that it is better to like what you do and be able to use it to support a family than have a degree in something you love and graduate with little or no job offers and end up living in your parent’s basement for years.

Our economy has been uncertain for more than a decade and if I was a student I would seriously consider a career path where I am likely to be able to graduate and get a job quickly. I would argue this is even more the case if you are taking out a student loan. Yes, you hear people give advice like only do what you love – but I know too many people qualified for jobs which don’t exist and who are jobless with mountains of debt. This doesn’t seem to be a great way to start off your career or independence.

In my home state of Connecticut, the challenge is we are falling behind the rest of the country when it comes to science – in actual terms we are holding steady but others are achieving higher rates. Even though Connecticut is ahead of the 2011 average, seven states just pushed ahead of us on the national ranking.

This is sad news for my fellow residents of the Nutmeg State. You see, I firmly believe the answer to the nation’s economic problems is to increase employment and science and math proficiency will aid in achieving this goal. To that end, all states need to improve in both areas and fast.

I have complained before about having gone from a culture obsessed with NASA to one fixated on the Kardashians, Jersey Shore and other forms of entertainment which seem to be more focused on atrophying our brains than enriching them. It is time to reverse this trend.

Before I put the soap box away I want to remind readers that the world is the most competitive it has ever been and workers in any country could take your job tomorrow – usually with the click of a mouse. A site like Elance, for example, allows a user to hire a contractor anywhere in the world and to date, the site has almost 1.5 million registered contractors and is responsible for at least half a billion dollars’ worth of work being transacted. Elance, and in fact many employers, could care less where you live as long as you can get a job done – well and cost-effectively. So you can see, the more relevant education and experience you have, the more likely you are to find work.

Last week I was up at the University of Connecticut Storrs campus for an Engineering Advisory Board meeting with the faculty and other members of industry to give our input on ways to make the school better. The great thing about UCONN is they have been improving the school in general and the School of Engineering in particular. They are laser-focused on taking this institution to the next level.

The good news for qualified students is the more of them who are admitted, the more the university can reinvest in making the school better. It is worth pointing out that admission is not limited to Connecticut residents or even US citizens. The information we gathered at our meeting was fantastic. Last year saw about 50 new computer engineers enrolling and this year that number has gone to at least 80 – a 60% increase. The number could go higher still. Another professor in the room, from Yale, said they are noticing similar enrollment trends.

More good news courtesy of Reda Ammar, PhD Professor and Department Head, Computer Science and Engineering and Alexander Russell, Professor, Computer Science and Engineering & Mathematics:

10 of our faculty are winners of the prestigious NSF CAREER award; three hold named professorships.
Our faculty are internationally-recognized leaders in bioinformatics, networking, and security.
Our research expenditures have grown to $2.7M annually.
Our undergraduates are in intense demand: nearly 100% of our graduates immediately join industry or academia.
Our graduate students are commanding prestigious positions in academia.

In addition, in our meeting we were told the school is building a new 70,000 square foot engineering building, they have recently purchased a $600,000 HPC machine for student use and $825M will be spent on a biosciences research center.

In short, UCONN is investing in making the school better for students and graduates of the Computer Science and Engineering department seem to have wonderful opportunities ahead of them. Besides, this institution is involved in really fascinating research in areas from voting machines to security.

In high school, I didn’t know the wonders of engineering and I might never have have chosen this education path if it wasn’t the only way to learn about computers at the school I was in. But now, I would consider any other education and career path to have been the wrong one. I am sure my choices aren’t correct for everyone but I can say the following with a high degree of confidence: if you are looking for a stable career which has a high likelihood of being financially secure for years while being intellectually stimulating, your chances of making this goal a reality will increase if you focus on doing really well in school, your SATs and then, apply to an engineering school.

And maybe someday soon, your company will be responsible for inventing the next must own-gadget, app or life-saving vaccine. With all the global excitement surrounding the Facebook IPO, we should all be reminded that technology innovation not only allows individuals to change the world but it can be financially rewarding as well.

Gadgets to Have Integrated Welcome Ads Soon?

2012-05-18T13:50:24Z

If ads on the Kindle Fire Welcome Screen are successful, others will follow

There are a few things which are well known about Amazon’s Kindle Fire. First of all at $199 the company either loses money or at best breaks even depending on which analyst you speak with. We also know the version of Android the device runs is unusual as Amazon has its own proprietary shell around it.

And just like a company can pay to have a promotion on the Amazon PC home page it is being reported that Amazon is considering charging between $600,000 to $1 million for the rights to have ads displayed on the welcome screen.

Will this ad be shown on current Kindle Fires or perhaps a new ad supported model? Well the answer is not known at this point.

This approach is far different than that of Apple who has implemented ground breaking minimalist designs not only on its devices’ home pages but in its retail stores.

But consumers have shown a willingness to be flexible when it comes to saving money. Witness the success of the Kindle Fire as an example.

If Amazon is very successful selling home page advertising and such ads become popular and the consumer likes the model, there is a natural industry progression we can expect.

First off, a question… What company comes to mind when I say Internet ads. OK, I get it – today the answer is Facebook but in general, Google – right? And what company has the market-leading smartphone OS? You guessed it – at least till Facebook develops one, its Google again.

So doesn’t it make sense that Google will want in on the action and will start to integrate ads into the home pages of Android phones allowing consumers, carriers and equipment makers to subsidize the price of the phone with honest to goodness product pitches?

This potential trend is a real possibility and consumers have shown themselves to be very willing to take subsidized devices in exchange for long-term contracts. They also tolerate ads on TV, radio and even their streaming radio courtesy of services like Pandora. Ad supported gadgets may be the next frontier and if Amazon is successful, we may see the market scramble to emulate and/or improve upon its model.

Funny and Fake Facebook Pre-IPO Letter

2012-05-17T18:47:46Z

This email has been circulating and is funny enough to share:

A Letter from Mark Zuckerberg

About Facebook’s IPO

MENLO PARK, CA (The Borowitz Report) – On the eve of Facebook’s IPO, Founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg published the following letter to potential investors:

Dear Potential Investor:

For years, you've wasted your time on Facebook. Now here’s your chance to waste your money on it, too.

Tomorrow is Facebook’s IPO, and I know what some of you are thinking. How will Facebook be any different from the dot-com bubble of the early 2000’s?

For one thing, those bad dot-com stocks were all speculation and hype, and weren’t based on real businesses. Facebook, on the other hand, is based on a solid foundation of angry birds and imaginary sheep.

Second, Facebook is the most successful social network in the world, enabling millions to share information of no interest with people they barely know.

Third, every time someone clicks on a Facebook ad, Facebook makes money. And while no one has ever done this on purpose, millions have done it by mistake while drunk. We totally stole this idea from iTunes.

Finally, if you invest in Facebook, you’ll be far from alone. As a result of using Facebook for the past few years, over 900 million people in the world have suffered mild to moderate brain damage, impairing their ability to make reasoned judgments. These will be your fellow Facebook investors.

With your help, if all goes as planned tomorrow, Facebook’s IPO will net $100 billion. To put that number in context, it would take JP Morgan four or five trades to lose that much money.

One last thing: what will, I, Mark Zuckerberg, do with the $18 billion I’m expected to earn from Facebook’s IPO? Well, I’m considering buying Greece, but that would still leave me with $18 billion. LOL.

Friend me,

Mark

Pinterest Now Worth $1.5B

2012-05-17T10:48:37Z

Now that was fast – Pinterest just raised $100M at a valuation of $1.5B in a round of funding led by Japanese e-commerce site Rakuten Inc. Pinterest's existing venture-capital investors such as Andreessen Horowitz, FirstMark Capital and Bessemer Venture Partners also participated according to a press release.

Hiroshi Mikitani, CEO of Rakuten said: "While some may see e-commerce as a straightforward vending machine-like experience, we believe it is a living process where both retailers and consumers can communicate, discover, and curate to make the experience more entertaining. We see tremendous synergies between Pinterest's vision and Rakuten's model for e-commerce. Rakuten looks forward to introducing Pinterest to the Japanese market as well as other markets around the world."

And the Japan connection makes sense as I have recently detected a dearth of Hello Kitty pins.

Seriously though, this is a staggering valuation growth rate as the company was just valued at over $200M late last year.

The timing for this transaction couldn’t be better as Facebook is still in the hype phase – investors are scrambling to be part of it and the demand for new social offerings seems to be at an all-time high. Moreover the potential large-scale defection of Facebook advertisers that some are predicting as a result of the public news of GM getting poor ad results hasn’t happened – at least yet.

Of course the pin-board based social network is new, growing quickly at over 20M users and is looking for a business model. The good news is a number of companies have said the visual social network drives more traffic to their sites than even mighty Facebook.

The challenge of course is how to turn those eyeballs into cash.

That will be the challenge – but if the site is already connecting buyers and sellers, there should be a way to take a piece of the transactions being generated.

At least that is what the investors paying the ever-escalating price the company’s shares are going for are hoping.

More: Softpedia, Reuters

Justifying Amazon's 16x Greater than Apple P/E Ratio

2012-05-16T16:13:03Z

One of the biggest surprises to me is comparing P/E ratios of tech companies against Amazon. Actually to be more specific, I marvel at Amazon’s P/E against pretty much any company I have seen lately. Now I don’t go around memorizing the price to earnings ratios of companies but yesterday I happened to be talking to TMC webmaster Robert Hashemian who is also an accomplished financial author having written Financial Markets for the Rest of Us. Together we compared the trailing P/E of Amazon against virtually any company we could think of like Adobe, Apple and Microsoft which were far lower.

Interestingly today I came across an article from Paul Santos who delves into a similar issue except he focuses just on Amazon and Apple. You see Amazon trades at a forward P/E of a whopping 193 while Apple trades at a forward P/E of 12. Here however are the important points:

Apple [is] growing revenues faster than Amazon, growing earnings, and growing estimates. Amazon not only has revenues that grow slower, but its earnings have been falling for two years straight. Amazon's earnings are also predicted to fall in 2012 vs. 2011, and its next-quarter earnings are predicted to fall 95% from the year before. Finally, Amazon's EPS estimates for the next quarter were slashed 90% just days ago.

Santos surmises part of the reason for this discrepancy has to do with the fact that more managed mutual funds own shares in Amazon as a percentage compared to Apple. In fact the ratio is about 19.4% to 10.7% for Apple or about double.

In addition he believes investors are concerned about putting too much money in a single stock – specifically Apple.

Moreover he points out there is a lack of large-cap growth alternatives and companies like Microsoft, Cisco, Amgen and Dell are no longer in this category.

He believes that the advent of a Facebook IPO may change things – he also mentions a Zynga or LinkedIn growth spurt could result in money moving out of Amazon and into one of these other players.

I have to say I am torn on the issue because I see cloud computing as such a massively growing business and at the recent Interop 2012 show it seemed myriad cloud infrastructure and software companies were targeting the 800 pound cloud gorilla Amazon. Of course competition can reduce margins and even marketshare but Amazon is in such a position of strength it is tough to see them being significantly damaged in either area in the next few years. Moreover as a defacto ecommerce leader, the company seems so well positioned to clean up as brick and mortar retailers continue to go belly up.

But to have a P/E 16 times greater than Apple when Apple has shown itself virtually immune to pricing pressure is shocking. Moreover, it seems Cupertino can perform regardless of the macro-economy.

Having said all this – I am now wondering if Amazon – a company I wish I owned isn’t a better short in conjunction with a paired long-position in Apple.

Santos disclosed he was short Amazon as well and it does seem like this sky-high valuation will have to come back to reality at some point. Then again, people have lost fortunes betting against Bezos. I consider him to be a genius and perhaps one of the smartest businesspeople out there. But then again, no one is infallible and a person’s intelligence doesn’t make the market rational.

Update: TheStreet has an article which says you should sell Apple and buy Amazon because P/Es no longer matter - confidence in management is more important. Sounds awful dotcomish to me.

Disclosure: I do currently own Apple shares and haven’t decided if I will put on the pair trade discussed above.

Important Stories From This Week's Business Insider Startup 2012 Event

2012-05-04T10:20:25Z

Missed the Business Insider Startup 2012 event or just didn't take good notes? Well if either of these situations applies to you, TMC has you covered. Our network of sites has been populated with the must-know stories written by TMC's editorial team - Jamie Epstein and Juliana Kenny covered this event. Enjoy:

Is Skype Microsoft's Only Chance for Mobile Success?

2012-04-26T17:33:59Z

If you are looking for increased competition in the mobile space, Apple’s recent and seemingly constant record earnings are bad news. Worse yet for the competition, Apple has transcended its original position of a computer and electronics maker to become a major force in the publicly traded markets and even the US economy. Its phones are status symbols the world over and its tablet is so far ahead of the rest of the market the company can charge hundreds more and consumers will pay for these products with a smile.

So news of Microsoft losing share to in the mobile space should hardly be considered news. In fact even if the company purchased Nokia and RIM the challenge of integration would far outweigh the benefits. Sadly this would be true if both companies were given to Redmond at no charge. How bad is the situation? Well between December 2006 and December 2011 the Microsoft went from having 34% of the US market for smartphones to a paltry 5%! And all this while the smartphone market in the US has been exploding with growth.

Microsoft knows how bad things are. Sadly, they were way ahead in mobile – I used to rely on the HTC/UT Starcom Verizon XV6700 and called it the near-perfect device in March of 2006. It deserved this designation because it was truly a mobile office in your pocket.

I complained at the time that different carriers selling the same device were calling it something else and moreover there was really no branding for the device at all.

I think this phone may have been the last opportunity Microsoft needed to exploit to stay a mobile leader.

Sure, they have the relationship with Nokia but it will be a really tough sell to unseat Apple and Android at this point – unless something dramatic and unforeseen (by others) happens like Android or iOS exhibiting a massive security flaw driving users into the hands of the competition.

But Microsoft still has Skype as its last hope to attain some relevance in the smartphone space. If the software company is serious about the market and we all know they have to be, there will have to be serious handset subsidization. Even then, it is unclear it will be significant player in the market.

But a simple way to subsidize is by bundling Skype credits with phones – there is a huge arbitrage play here between what carriers charge for their voice minute bundles compared to what Skype charges.

To offset some of the cost, Microsoft will have to show ads which could be powered by Bing.

The challenge of course is voice calls are becoming less important each year as consumers use social and text as their preferred method of communications.

But the window is still open for Skype phone which is subsidized heavily – one which consumers would have to consider because the price is so low. Of course the challenge here is carriers like Verizon provide a number of phones for free with a contract such as the LG Enlighten and the Samsung Illusion. So Microsoft would have to potentially give you a free phone as well as unlimited calling or some number of minutes per month, etc. Also this strategy assumes carriers won’t mind Skype becoming the keeper of the carrier relationship. Sure, many wireless providers have partnered with Skype in the past but it is unclear if they are still happy to do so.

In short, Skype may be the last chance for Microsoft to become successful in mobile – and in the US, the subsidized approach to providing phones and service may make it very difficult to find success. Skype integration may be a better option in other countries where devices are generally purchased on their own.

I don’t want to come off as optimistic mind you – this strategy will be expensive and basically bribes consumers to take a product they don’t want. It’s worth pointing out a similar strategy in the past used by Bing to gain share from Google was a failure. But mobile is so important, the company may be forced to give the idea a shot – and if so they better start soon.

Skype may not be the only hope as Microsoft also owns a significant portion of Facebook - tight integration with this social network may be another option for Redmond to attack mobile. But it is unclear that Facebook would be willing to work exclusively or even semi-exclusively with a platform which has limited appeal - unless the price is really right.

Facebook Buys Mobile Photo Sharing Site Instagram

2012-04-09T17:51:48Z

Even before its IPO, Facebook has decided to make a major acquisition with millions of users for a billion dollars of cash and stock. Mark Zuckerberg mentioned on his Facebook timeline that this acquisition of Instagram is the largest they have ever done and may be the last of this size.
Moreover, that Facebook will leave Instagram as a standalone company insomuch that you will be able to use Instagram without sharing on Facebook if you so choose.
The move was a very smart one as Instagram could eventually be a threat to the company's core business. Furthermore it allows the social networking giant to gain even greater access to the mobile market - the fastest growing segment of just about every tech business. And even more importantly is the cover the company has in the form of Google+ allowing it to gobble up marketshare without regard for antitrust concerns.
Reminds me of Oracle putting together a major software company with major marketshare using the cover of Microsoft competition.
Will Pinterest be next? How about Twitter? At this rate the tech investment euphoria which we really haven't seen in over a decade seems to be coming back.

Twitter Buys Posterous: Point, Counterpoint with Peter Radizeski

2012-03-13T18:14:49Z

Twitter just announced it has picked up blogging service Posterous and as a past user of the service I must say, did find it useful at the time I used it. Before I continue however I'd like to set up a point counterpoint where TMC blogger Peter Radizeski will present the negatives of this deal while I present the positives.

Here are Peter's thoughts:

So Twitter, the micro-blogging platform, acquired a macro-blogging platform, Posterous.
According to the Twitter blog, the key to the acquisition was the staff?
They wanted the talent. How often does the talent stick around after the culture shifts?
Sachin Agarwal, founder and CEO of Posterous, goes from being a CEO to a Product Manager. In some cases, that is okay of Agarwal gets to pursue a passion or a goal he was seeking. If there is an ego, though, that new title will be a killer.
Posterous is a blogging platform. I'm still stretching to see the revenue from this acquisition or the synergy. What does twitter need with a blogging platform?

Here are my thoughts:

Posterous is a great service as it allows users to utilize email to share their thoughts.
Twitter seems to be slowly branching out gobbling up complimentary services and this move fits with this trend.
One big drawback to Posterous is when it is used, people complained to me they would have to click additional links to get to the content.
In other words Posterous was a useful service for me as it didn't force me to shorten my content to 140 characters and now Twitter could merge the services making the experience better for posters like me and users who consume the content.
It is no secret that Twitter needs to grow and becoming more like Facebook through this acquisition is the logical way to do this.
I suggested they purchase Myspace last year but perhaps the timing was bad - this move is incremental and allows Twitter to slowly take the plunge from microblogging to macroglogging and eventually social network

The Only Way Google can be Successful in Consumer Electronics

2012-02-10T14:25:30Z

Yesterday I detailed how Google IS the tech news of the day and folks, this search leader is ambitious – more so than Microsoft ever was. In addition to a Dropbox killer and massive Google+ growth I outlined in this recent post, the company is also getting into the home entertainment business through its Motorola Mobility acquisition. Specifically Google will release a self-branded line of consumer electronics allowing you to stream music throughout your home.

Google already has a cloud-based music service so obviously there is synergy there but the only way I see this strategy working is by Google doing things differently.

My loyal readers know I am a fan of Sonos – they sell an in-home audio streaming service which integrates with Slacker, Pandora, Sirius/XM, Spotify and even integrates with iOS devices and iTunes libraries stored on computers. In-short, you have access to all your music and favorite radio from any room. But Sonos products although they are great, are not cheap. The company’s Play:5 for example will set you back $399 and the company’s Bridge which you’ll also need adds another $49 to the total.

Sure this is cheaper than wired alternatives but at just over 1,000,000 rooms the company has a long way to go before it becomes the audio equivalent of Apple.

Moreover the palindromic Sonos taps into existing ecosystems – it doesn’t get involved with them. In other words you have the option to pay for the ad-free or premium versions of each radio service you are interested in.

Google execs woke up today and realized Apple’s market cap just surpassed the combined value of it and Microsoft together. It understands the ecosystem is the future. And Google’s strength is selling ads.

What this means is that Google needs to have its own streaming radio station and moreover needs to get into the radio advertising business again – the last time it tried it had disastrous results but I would liken this sort of radio ad model more similar to YouTube than traditional radio advertising. All of this is great news for Google because they excel at on-demand as opposed to real-time ad selling – for the moment.

So what I see Google having to do is integrate radio ads into its music streaming service but more importantly it needs to one-up Siri by speech-enabling all the devices in the house before Apple beats them to it. Remember that in December of 2009, Apple purchased streaming service Lala and at the time I surmised it was to Get Apple into the in-home streaming business.

The race is on.

Back to Google – it obviously would want to integrate Google+ into any of its new offerings allowing users to share the music they are listening to, the programs they are watching, and everything else.

Sonos for its part has nearly-perfected home audio. Google should think about picking them up rather than reinventing the wheel. Moreover, if Google is really serious about this market it should consider an acquisition of Bose – if the privately-held company would consider such a deal. That way it could have an established brand with retail stores which will allow it to go head-to-head with Apple in malls worldwide.

So I see the only viable future for Google in home entertainment being a subsidized model like the Amazon Kindle Fire. It is just unclear if advertising will generate enough revenue to offset the hundred dollars or more I believe the company will have to discount each product to gain the massive traction it needs in the market. As we know, Google hasn’t been successful in retail and Motorola Mobility has had some moments of brilliance in the past but got its teeth kicked in by Nokia, RIM and Apple.

The Kindle Fire model – “we will give you an awesome deal” is the only one I see working here. The question is can the company really monetize this hardware effectively? Time will tell.

Google+ Growth, Dropbox Killer: Google IS the Tech News

2012-02-09T16:04:09Z

Google has entrenched itself is so many areas of tech they have become the technology news of the day. First off, Google+ growth has been nothing short of fantastic, in part because the company has altered search results to put more emphasis on this social network. Every SEO/SEM professional has had no choice in the past few months to get up to speed on the latest social network from the search giant. And this in part is the reason why it has half the unique visitors of Twitter according to web traffic tracking site Compete.

In other unrelated news in the mobile market – hey wait, it isn’t unrelated at all – once again it features Google whose Motorola Mobility acquisition is about to get OKed – perhaps as early as next week.

The bad news now for those companies selling products with technology covered by Motorola/Google patents – you’re on the hook for 2.25% of every sale. This includes iPhones and even cars which utilize H.264 or UMTS. Think that one through – that is $2,250 for a $100,000 BMW or Mercedes. Of course if you don’t agree to these terms, you get thrown off Google’s search home page – just kidding – you actually just get sued by Google’s ever-expanding army of lawyers. It may be preferable to just get booted from the first SERP.

It is worth mentioning this is the same standard set by Motorola – many in the industry hoped Google would ease up on these requirements.

By now you have followed the trend – we will move on to yet another unrelated space – cloud storage where Google is set to release a Dropbox killer – its new Drive service. Really though this move was necessary as Google has to have an iCloud competitor as well if it plans of allowing Android to copy all the cool functions and features of iOS.

Google is into so many things and as a result you have two groups of people. First are the users who are happy to see the company expand because they rely on Google’s free services for everything from email to RSS reading. And then there is the second group – competitors and investors who worry Google is suffocating the rest of the tech space with its ever-expanding growth into new and perhaps unrelated spaces. This latter group includes privacy advocates who worry that these moves coupled with Google’s new “shared data” privacy policy allows Google unprecedented access to personal information.

But whatever your feelings, you’ll be happy to know that Google has even more news which will allow you to voice your thoughts in person to a Google employee. You see, the search leader is said to be opening a new retail store in Dublin. And I am sure your Android device will have no problems giving you step-by-step directions on how to get there once it’s built.

Rewards Network, the Social Restaurant Hub

2012-02-07T21:52:28Z

In the last few decades it has become apparent that all companies are for the most part limited by their imaginations. Apple was thought to be a computer company but is now a leader in music, movies and phones. Amazon went from selling books to everything – even its servers are for rent via its cloud-computing solutions. Google went from search to purchasing Motorola Mobility and is well known for being involved in many projects from solar to self-driving cars and the television space.

But an airline? Certainly they aren’t adapting to the new competitive landscape – after all, many of the airplanes we fly on in the US were built in the 1960s when the cloud was defined as an IBM System/360 mainframe.

American Airlines has been a pioneer in loyalty marketing since the AAdvantage frequent flyer program was launched in 1981 and as a result their successful marketing concept spread to many other industries from toys to greeting cards.

The airline took a page from its own book and runs an AAdvantage Dining program which allows members to earn points good for travel and other services. This isn’t unlike agreements AA and other airlines have with credit card companies where a percentage of the money spent is converted to airline points or miles.

The company just announced a new program called the Get Ahead Bonus promotion where participants are eligible to earn 2 American Airlines AAdvantage bonus miles on every dollar spent after $75. The offer is good until April 30, 2012 and typically participants would get only one mile per dollar spent. The promotion is actually a bit ambiguous as it also says you can get up to 7 miles per dollar between now and

31^st but let’s stipulate you will get more miles than usual to get us back to more interesting topics.

And the fine print does get interesting as the company encourages you to be social – you are to submit dining reviews between now and March 31st, 2012 to get your extra points.

So here we have an airline who has obviously embraced restaurant rewards and now has found a way to incentivize users to be more social by providing reviews.

The company behind this dining program from American Airlines is Chicago based Rewards Network an organization with over 3.4 million frequent diners according to their website. It was founded in 1984 as Transmedia Network by Mel Chasen and at that time had only 225 members. It has become a major force in Airline loyalty card/ restaurant programs and partners similar initiatives at America West, Continental, Delta, US Airways among others.

I spoke with Megan Flynn, the Senior VP of Marketing at Rewards Network and she told me the company has an open network philosophy – sharing data and reviews with not only their partners but with social networks. She says there will be some announcements soon regarding new content sharing partners.

She likens her company’s service to a “secret shopper” experience where you know the review is from a person who actually ate at the restaurant. You see, the way the program works is it matches credit card numbers to ensure customers get credit for eating at a particular establishment. So the company has not only credit card information but email addresses.

She contrasted this to other sites where reviews can be posted by anyone – there is really no quality control. And the review numbers are staggering – over 50,000 restaurant surveys are completed each week according to Flynn.

To me some natural partners are Google, Facebook and Microsoft/Bing – Yahoo would make sense as well. Google might be a likely acquirer– remember they have Zagat and they also launched Nosh which isn’t that far from the Rewards Network concept.

It’s interesting, Facebook quotes 483 million “active” users – but we know the numbers are fudged (or at least exaggerated). And even if the real number is so big, how do we know if any of them have spending power? I’ve said repeatedly that having a US real unemployment rate somewhere between 18-30M is part of the reason for Facebook’s success. Are these the buyers a restaurant wants or needs?

Then we have the Groupon business model – daily deals emailed to members and as a result the company has a valuation of about $15.5B!

What is the value of millions of members of a restaurant program who actually spend money? In 2010 the members spent almost $700M in fact. We aren’t talking chump change here. Imagine the potential to grow this business as an even more social company where it starts to get the buzz of a Yelp or LinkedIn.

Seems to me Rewards Network is really one of the most underreported stories out there and as long as it can continue to take an industry as stodgy as the airline space and make it social and interactive, imagine the potential it has to transform other markets and industries.

Google: Can it be Everything to Everyone?

2012-01-27T19:33:40Z

Google is the new Microsoft but boy are they faster than Redmond ever was. Part of the reason has to do with the search engine leader’s access to the eyeballs of almost every human on earth via its home page but another reason for the blistering speed of the company has to do with the speed of innovation – which I recently described as (Moore’s Law*Metcalfe’s Law)/Patent Lawsuit Activity.

What we saw happen to Microsoft is telling. As they expanded into market after market like IPTV products like Internet Explorer and their mobile strategy seemed ever changing as did the name of their mobile operating systems. As a result, Apple and Google were able to virtually decimate the company’s mobile efforts while Google has made massive inroads in the browser market with Chrome. They made it safer, faster and simpler and users responded by using it.

Then there is the tablet market which Microsoft invented but never got right. They gave up and Apple not only became the leader in the space, we are still waiting for a real Microsoft response.

But Google is for the first time ever beginning to get serious heat in the press for its recent business practices. The first had to do with the company promoting its own service Google+ at the expense of what many consider to be more relevant result - and more recently for taking their eyes off search.

Danny Sullivan at Search Engine Land had some scathing things to say about the company in an article which tries to determine haw a spam cartoon video made the first page of a Google search for the word Santorum.

It is worth noting that customers tend to be forgiving and after using Google for search for a decade and further using the company’s browser and possibly its operating system on your handset, you aren’t likely to switch to Bing over a few poor search results. But as Sullivan explains, this result which in reality has absolutely no business being in the results based on his analysis shows how something obvious slipped by Google. Coincidentally these search results come right after the company’s aggressive push to become your social networking hub through the Search Plus Your World (SPYW) initiative.

Microsoft has an interesting way of hanging back with its products, improving them incrementally and waiting for the market leader to stumble before they begin taking major share.

It is way too early to say this is happening but certainly the amount of negative publicity Google is getting along with new business practices which are making employees uncomfortable may be a sign of major challenges at the company.

But the reality is Google is doing a very good job of tying Google+ results into its SERPs and if as many believe, social is as important as search then they are being extremely shrewd and will be even more of a force to be reckoned with going forward.

The question we are left with of course is the same… Can Google or any company for that matter be everything to everyone?

While the answer seems like it should most likely be no, it is worth noting that the search giant seems to be paying attention. After all, interesting to note that my search on Santorum just now didn’t return the spam cartoon video but the 11^th result was a link to Sullivan’s article.

Alternion: Manage 220+ Social Connections From one Dashboard

2012-01-27T02:13:25Z

Let’s face it – social networking is time consuming. I believe part of the reason for the meteoric rise in social networking these past few years has to do with a miserable job market coupled with the fact that social is free and people are cutting the cable cord. But even with unlimited tim,e managing video sites like YouTube and Vimeo as well as Flickr, a blog, Twitter, Facebook, email and other networks is a herculean task requiring you to take your mental vitamins.

And if you use social for work the situation gets more challenging as your employer likely wants you to manage social while you do everything else like manage CPC and CPM ad budgets as well as perhaps PR, road shows, events, white papers and webinars.

So any tool which makes life easier is welcomed by virtually everyone and Alternion is such a service as it allows connectivity to 220+ social networks at once. I have been using it today and have found it a great way to interact with a number of the contacts I have on various networks.

What is best about the program is its simple timeline view.

Yes you can use Zite or FlipBoard on a mobile device such as an iPad but if you are sifting through hundreds or thousands of messages at a time – it is really not efficient to use these programs as they sacrifice speed for snazzy graphics. But using them on a tablet is a more immersive experience and more enjoyable.

But back to oddly named Alternion, there is integration with a dizzying amount of networks like Stack Overflow, Strands, Trulia and virtually all email systems you can think of which support POP3 or IMAP.

If I have to give the service room for improvement it is that I couldn’t get many of the services to work. I tried connecting to the Exchange server in my office with no luck. I used the same settings as my laptop even. Likewise for Gmail.

There needs to be an easier process and better explanations.

I imagined the daily real estate listing emails you get from Trulia could be integrated into the system but this is not the case. It turns out if you ask a question on the service you can subscribe to an RSS feed of the answers in Alternion. So I asked a question, spent 15 minutes finding out how to get an RSS feed, entered it into Alternion and it didn’t accept it. It gave me an error.

So in a nutshell, unless you are patient, this service may not be ready for primetime for all 220+ networks. Sure, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter connected as quickly as a couple of rabbits in springtime. But for anything else I had to struggle.

Still, it’s free and useful and will no doubt get better (Alternion developers please read the above carefully) I do recommend the service – as sometimes the fleas come with dog. And I am sure sooner or later the company will add the requisite chemical coated, flea-repelling collar.

Innovation Speed = (Moore's Law*Metcalfe's Law)/Patent Lawsuit Activity

2012-01-25T16:42:09Z

Yesterday I was engaged in a conversation with TMC senior editor Peter Bernstein and we were discussing the pace of innovation and whether there is some formula which can explain how much more quickly things are happening today. Interestingly I also had a conversation today with TMC webmaster and author Robert Hashemian where we were going over Apple’s earnings and how fast mobile leadership has changed – from Motorola to Nokia to Motorola to Microsoft to RIM to Apple to Google. And all these massive marketshare swings took place more or less in the last decade.

Back to the discussion with Peter – my takeaway from the conversation (I feel he has a slightly different opinion which hopefully he will expound upon in the future) is that Moore’s Law and Metcalfe’s Law working together are accelerating innovation and lubricating new business models. Obviously email is just one tool which has benefitted from these laws – think about how you can now create and respond to virtually all your email from a smartphone now. Think of the productivity gains from this advance alone.

Then there are services like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn which all leverage both laws and as they grow in users they become more powerful and useful.

Then there are ecosystem plays which allow a developer with a good idea to become rich overnight. Think Apple App Store or using Facebook as a gaming platform.

To me these laws need some sort of multiplier because they amplify one another. In other words a quad-core smartphone in your pocket has the approximate computing horsepower of a supercomputer just over a decade earlier. And when they are cloud-connected to a 4G network or WiFi it makes pint-sized gadgets very very powerful. So the formula would look roughly like this:

Innovation Speed = (Moore’s Law*Metcalfe’s Law).

This isn’t really a formula – so let’s say the equal sign is defined as “roughly proportional to.”

But there is more to it – there are unions, government regulations and taxes which could add drag to business and innovation. Then again tax credits could act as accelerant. For the sake of brevity I will leave these and other related factors out of my analysis.

Patents however is an area worth delving into – after all Google more or less purchased Motorola Mobility because of its large patent pool. I realize the company says this isn’t the case and the other products in the organization are very important but I must respond by borrowing a line from Tom Hanks in “Big” – “I don’t get it.”

So back to my formula – there are patent lawsuits all over the world – many being initiated by Apple, Microsoft and Oracle. It is really tough to keep track of them all.

So my formula could be modified as follows:

Innovation Speed = (Moore’s Law*Metcalfe’s Law)/Patent Lawsuit Activity

You can see that I assert that Patent Lawsuit Activity is the denominator of the equation which means that given enough legal fighting the entire effect of Moore’s Law and Metcalfe’s Law can be wiped out. I do believe this to be the case but this wouldn’t necessarily happen in reality. The reason is businesses typically would rather settle by paying a royalty instead of fighting lawsuits to the death.

It is worth noting that in the case of patent trolls – roughly explained as entities which charge patent licensing fees and don’t currently sell related products, is interesting because quite often companies settle with them as opposed to going through the lawsuit exercise. And smart trolls try to price their fees in a way that keeps them out of court.

As a disclosure my company TMC has partnered in a patent lawsuit conference to be collocated on February 1st at ITEXPO East 2012 in Miami. It is called SUITS which stands for Synopsis under IP/Patents Telecom Sourcing Conference. It is a first-time event and we recently started to promote it. The agenda looks impressive and if your company plans on being successful it more than likely will have to face the prospect of a patent lawsuit. It is generally better to be prepared for these things before they happen and that is the point of the SUITS event – to bring you up to speed on the legal issues you must know as part of operating a tech or communications firm.

And I would love your feedback on my formula - does this make sense to you? If not, how would you modify it?