Travlin', Again

Posting is going to be spotty for the next week or so. I am traveling, then Web 2 starts....

• Posted by John Battelle at 9:23 AM
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Because We Can't Acquire Two Companies Started by Evan...

Google acquires Twitter-like company Jaiku...(paidcontent)

• Posted by John Battelle at 3:37 AM
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Quick Hits

TC: Google has 40% of online ad biz

IAB: Lotsa Online ads, that's for sure

SEL: How we navigate

• Posted by John Battelle at 10:07 AM
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What Should I Ask Steve Ballmer?

Steve Ballmer has been much in the news this year, taking potshots at Google (remember the one trick pony quote?), calling Facebook a fad (but considering another investment, reportedly), projecting massive growth in Microsoft's advertising business, you name it. It seems Steve knows one thing for sure - if you are going to win in these markets, you must to be in front of them. Literally.

That's good for us, because on the morning of Day Two of Web 2, we'll wake up to a conversation with Steve Ballmer. This will be his first appearance at the event, and I think it marks a new era at Microsoft, an era of engaging with the Web industry more directly. In the past few years of visiting and doing business with Microsoft, I've found folks at the company welcoming, willing to admit mistakes, and eager to learn.

And as I have done with Mark Zuckerberg and Chris DeWolfe/Rupert Murdoch, I'd love your help on what to ask him.

A few things come to mind:

- Microsoft and Facebook, happy partnership or headed for trouble? Do you plan to invest more, or is Facebook a fad? How is the ad deal you did with them working out?
- The question I will also ask Brian McAndrews: You declared recently that 25% of MSFT’s revenues would be advertising in the future. That’d make Microsoft a media giant, one of the largest in the world. But is being a media company, well, in your DNA? If you are serious about this, how do you do it? Is a major acquisition (AOL? Yahoo?) in the works?
- Office Live: How does it win against Google Apps, Yahoo Zimbra, Sun OpenOffice, etc?
- Google: Is it still a one trick pony? What do you make of the company?
- Silverlight vs Flash vs…

- Search: You talk it up and have come a long way, but...why keep tilting at it? Why not just work with Yahoo and call it a
- Who do you wish you owned that you don’t? Was aQuantive the last big acquisition for a while?
- What do you make of Apple's recent surge?
- The rap on Microsoft is often that the company is a bit sclerotic - slow to move, stuck in its ways. True?
- In the past five years, your stock has vacillated in a narrow range of 22 to 28 or so, but it's on the rise lately (to 30). How do you get your stock out of what seems to be a permanent flatline?
- What technology are you stoked about?

I'd also love to do the one word game with Steve. He strikes me as a guy who has a quick wit and a very good sense of humor, and he's not afraid to say whatever is on his mind. Words I'd toss out include:

o Google
o Facebook

o Privacy
o MySpace

o eBay

o Zimbra

o ATT
o Net Neutrality
o Halo
o Nintendo
o Department of justice
o Doubleclick
o AOL

o Steve Jobs

Microsoft is so vast, so important, I know I've missed a ton of stuff. So help me out here - what would you ask Steve Ballmer?

• Posted by John Battelle at 9:49 AM
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Google Phone Not A Google Phone

(Image from NYT.com)
As I expected, The Times reports that Google plans to build a software suite/platform for a new class of phones. I thought so. (My post called "Google Phone-y" is here.)

From the Times piece:

“The essential point is that Google’s strategy is to lead the creation of an open-source competitor to Windows Mobile,” said one industry executive, who did not want his name used because his company has had contacts with Google. “They will put it in the open-source world and take the economics out of the Windows Mobile business.”

Key to the success of this plan? Developers. And undercutting the economics by running Adsense, of course:

“The essential point is that Google’s strategy is to lead the creation of an open-source competitor to Windows Mobile,” said one industry executive, who did not want his name used because his company has had contacts with Google. “They will put it in the open-source world and take the economics out of the Windows Mobile business.”

• Posted by John Battelle at 8:12 AM
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Google as Video Distributor

Google's vast Adsense network has become, as expected, a video content distribution network. Comcast, knock knock, are you paying attention?

More here.

• Posted by John Battelle at 12:13 AM
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Ballmer's 25% Solution: A $16 Billion Advertising Business

Steve Ballmer recently got a lot of ink for declaring that Microsoft has the advertising business squarely in its sights. Microsoft would see at least 25% of its revenues from advertising within a few years, he declared.

Let's put that one in perspective. Microsoft is currently a $51 billion business. Twenty five percent of that is nearly $13 billion. Given that he's talking about a few years out, with current annual revenue growth rates, one can safely assume that'd be 25% of around $65 billion, or more like $16 billion. That's two and a half times Yahoo's current size, and north of where Google will probably end up this year.

The big question is: How? Ads on Office Live? Acquiring new inventory? Developing AdSense 2.0? These are the questions I plan to ask Brian McAndrews, the newly minted chief of Microsoft's advertising business, at Web 2 next week. Joining him on stage will be James Bilefiled, of OpenAds, Curt Viebranz, the Tacoda chief who was recently named head of AOL's advertising business, and David Karnstedt, SVP of sales at Yahoo. Each of these leaders see the same opportunity as Ballmer - the half trillion dollar advertising business is going digital - and each are charged with delivering on it.

It promises to be a robust discussion.

So what would you all ask the panel?

• Posted by John Battelle at 2:51 PM
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Google 600

(link)

• Posted by John Battelle at 2:35 PM
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Reid Gets Day In Court

I first spoke to Brian Reid when I was reporting the book, he was clearly not happy about his former employer, Google. He filed an age discrimination lawsuit a few years back, it was dismissed, but it's back, News.com reports.

• Posted by John Battelle at 9:58 AM
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While We're on the Topic...

...sort of, of Health (Adam was the man behind Google Health, which is now in the domain of the restless Marissa Mayer), Microsoft has let loose with more details on its play, HealthVault. More at ars...

• Posted by John Battelle at 9:20 PM
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Bosworth Re-Appears

Adam Bosworth has started blogging again, now that he's left Google. He's staring a new company, but won't say what. Watch this space!

• Posted by John Battelle at 9:17 PM
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Yeah!! BBtv Gets Love From the NYT

Call me hopelessly conflicted, but I love when the Grey Lady loves work that I love.

• Posted by John Battelle at 9:07 PM
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F'in Spam

The "sohbet" spam is back, somehow penetrating our defenses and wasting half my morning fighting brush fires. I may turn comments off for a while, sorry. Back at it soon. Does anyone know anything about this sohbet spam?

• Posted by John Battelle at 10:00 AM
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Care About Facebook as a Business?

Then hit this conference. Dave is great, and this is sure to be stimulating.

• Posted by John Battelle at 9:22 PM
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Still Travelin

Lots of interesting stuff today. Spent the afternoon with Chris DeWolfe of MySpace and others there, it was enlightening. Also, the morning with Terra Networks at a client event, where I preached conversational media. Back at posting as soon as I can.

• Posted by John Battelle at 5:29 PM
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Google Calls Out Verizon

BAM! The words ain't minced in this post about the 700Mhz spectrum, which as I have covered in the past, is turning into a major fight between Google and the telcos. Check this post on Google's public policy blog:

Just three weeks ago, Verizon filed a lawsuit against the FCC, seeking to overturn the FCC's attempt to bring Internet-style consumer choice via the 700 MHz auction. In a recent court filing, the company has also threatened to have next January's auction itself halted unless the consumer choice provisions are eliminated. Now come various news reports suggesting that Verizon is lobbying behind the scenes (and in apparent violation of FCC rules) to once again convince the FCC to water down key aspects of the pro-consumer rule provisions.

In the usually bloated legalese of lobbying and politics, this is a major calling out.

• Posted by John Battelle at 7:52 PM
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Travelin' Day

You know the drill....

• Posted by John Battelle at 3:21 PM
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4000 Posts

Three posts ago, this blog crossed 4000 entries. It makes sense it'd happen this week, four years after this site launched nearly to the date. It seems my average has been about 1000 posts a year. Wow.

It's been quite a trip so far. Four years ago, I had no idea what I was doing with my life. The Standard was two years dead, I was working on a book that terrified me, and I had some ideas - for a new conference, and for a business that might support full time independent media guys like myself.

Four years later, I hear rumbling the Standard is going to relaunch, The Search is in 26 languages (and still a bestseller, two years after, in a couple categories on Barnes and Noble!), Web 2 is in its fourth year with six conferences in three countries, and my dream of supporting independent authors has turned into FM, which turns profitable this month on a eight figure revenue run rate with 140 amazing authors and more than 41 million worldwide uniques.

I honestly can't comprehend how this all happened - save that I and several teams of amazing people have worked very, very hard these past four years. But I am sure it never would have without this site, and you as supporters, critics, and sounding boards. It's an honor to be here still, hacking away.

And if I have one goal for the next four years, it's that I can get back to writing out loud here, and feeding this site and the conversation it sparks more thoughtfully than I have been recently.

I hope you'll continue to come along for the journey.

Thank you.

• Posted by John Battelle at 8:56 PM
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BoingBoing: Now With tv!

Congrats to FM partners Boing Boing, who just launched their first ever video venture: Boing Boing tv!

• Posted by John Battelle at 8:27 PM
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Check Out NewTeeVee Live!

My buddy and business partner Om Malik is doing his first conference, on the future of television and the web. It's Nov. 14th in SF, it's called NewTeeVee Live, and it's got a killer speaker lineup, and I am sure the conference will be a hit. It's also a steal, $399 if you register now.

• Posted by John Battelle at 10:29 AM
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