donloeb.com

ok, i can’t believe hasbro is doing this…seriously…the ONLY reason i go to facebook every day is to play scrabble with my wife and a couple of friends. i hope this is just a negotiating tactic…but, man, not smart…not smart…

as you know, we had our 2nd last monday - hugo mateo loeb. since then i’ve been spending a ton of time not sleeping, but not really being awake either :)

to pass the time (i.,e 10 minute chunks) i’ve been reading books (yes, actual books), posting to twitter, flickr, and my blog, and watching tv and dvds, etc…all without a computer. so, what exactly have i been consuming/posting and what’s different? here’s a quick rundown by media type:

newspapers: new york times exclusively, no change pre/post baby…

books: a ticket to the boneyard (simple page turner) and the ghost map (great analysis of cholera in 19th century england). i highly recommend the ghost map and what’s fascinating is that the author, steven johnson, is also ceo of outsidein. additionally, i’ve been reading these books on my phone. it’s the perfect way to kill 10 minutes and put yourself to sleep in the middle of the night :) and, these “books” can be read with one hand & without a light…critical to reading with an infant in your arms :)

tv: mind-numbing shows to pass the time -> the bachelor, dancing with the stars with mr. cuban, and survivor. and, the best of all, watching cal beat oregon with hugo sleeping on my chest. GO BEARS!

movies: blades of glory was absolutely perfect for my state of mind…no documentaries or award winning films right now :)

and finally, the net: very occasional twittering, lots of flickr posting (all pics of hugo of course), some work-related google reader snacking (on the phone only), scrabulous on facebook (the best facebook app, period!), and a very small amount of email. btw, letting everyone know about hugo via flickr was fantastic. our friends and family had immediate access to the photos without us having to do much. and, they could congratulate us in a very low touch way (via commenting) w/o any expectation of a response…perfect for new parents!

monday’s links:

- facebook email…should spur adoption…this is a big big deal,

- hp is building a pretty cool system to print docs anywhere in the world from your mobile phone,

- gmail adoption in schools,

- wsj piece on business blogging, and

- skrenta on mahalo and SEO. i need to get my hands on that ppt…

happy friday….

- why journalists should blog…and, scott karp’s new social network / news aggregation company targeted at journalists and consumers - very interesting…

- david berlind’s take on twitter…i agree…

- new local page from topix? looks like a real newspaper…and, nice article about charlie from google…sign me up…

- facebook monetization and metrics from seth goldstein, etc.

- CDN pricing…a nice detailed view into that world…

today’s links:

- cage-free egg shortage!

- newspapers are screwed…or no, they’re not? plus, media tribes from jeff jarvis…

- great facebook newsweek profile and new facebook ad network from videoegg

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today’s links:

- social to do lists from dabble. they’ve “outsourced” social networking to facebook. but, how many apps focused on to do lists do we need?

- union square ventures on hiring a vp of enginerring / CTO. great great advice.

- wine marketing via blogs. nice web2 strategy from stormhoek.

- how to read a chapter a day via email or rss…

i love facebook…i really do. and, i think their strategy (re openness) is spot on. however, i’m sick of the application notices and requests. my news feed (which used to be very useful) is filled with app additions and deletions. when i went to fb yesterday on my way to work (thanks gbus!), only 8 of the 21 news items were actual updates from friends (too bad i can’t control these like i can other news story types). and, then, check out the “requests” i’m getting to try out new apps…ughh…at least i can ignore these easily as they are in a separate section…

facebook is basically a simple, fast, & uncluttered communications tool…the folks at facebook know this and have gone to great lengths to make sure it doesn’t turn into a free-for-all like myspace. however, with the f8 platform, they’ve introduced some new problems. so, let me be very clear: (1) i want to know what my friends are doing (i.e, in their lives) and not which apps they are adding (perhaps a separate section for apps notifications?) and (2) apps are only really useful to me when a critical mass of MY friends have them - don’t forget that. that’s why facebook photos is great even though it lacks key features. or, status works better than twitter, etc…everyone has these apps…

hopefully, facebook will do something to rein this in…i’m sure they’ll figure it out as they have a great team and are laser-focused on the user experience…

ps - read the posts from susan and fred on facebook status updates and twitter…i completely agree - it’s just too bad i can’t easily find the updates…

given that it’s memorial day and we have a lot to think about, this is going to be a relatively short post. but…i wanted to point out a couple of massive changes re how yahoo and facebook think about openness and monetization.

both are significant…but different. and, that’s on purpose as i’m not trying to make an apple to apples comparison between facebook and yahoo’s social apps. in fact, i’m not even including info about delicious, flickr, yahoo 360, mybloglog, upcoming, or yahoo groups…etc. etc. etc…

first off, yahoo decided to test adding “external/non-commercial links” to the frontpage. i’ve known for a while that they were contemplating this, but it looks like they’re doing it now (see mike’s post). this is fantastic for publishers of all sizes across the web - bloggers and others can now take advantage of the firehose that is yahoo.com.

while i applaud this move, yahoo should have done this a while ago. back in the mid-90s, they were focused on organizing the web and helping people find things as quickly and efficiently as possible. somewhere along the way, they forgot about that (except for yahoo search and my yahoo’s groundbreaking rss integration), and instead fell in love with their wonderful on-network margins. yahoo now realizes that enabling discovery (outside of search) is critical - users want to be delighted and they trust yahoo to bring them the best of the web. additionally, yahoo is focused on building an off-network ad network, complete with a suite of publisher services (search, mybloglog, flickr, delicious, etc.). and, traffic (via frontpage programming, rss on my yahoo, and search, etc.) is a necessary building block…

now, contrast this with facebook’s recent announcement re their social operating system. facebook is not only opening up to widgets, etc, but also encouraging developers to leverage facebook’s social graph, i.e., all of the relationships and data…and, it gets even better -> they are allowing developers to put ads directly on facebook web pages…all without revenue sharing. they realize that their core asset is their social graph / people platform. as such, they’re creating an ecosystem that is good for both end-users and developers.

but, what about facebook revenue? all they know is that what’s good for users is good for facebook and monetization will work itself out. besides the obvious benefits of a huge number of incremental pageviews across the facebook service and more rich data about those users, i also think they have a chance to add another type of advertising to their arsenal. facebook has a history of experimenting with application specific advertising and they clearly don’t feel tied to IAB ads. again, they want to create the right experience so that ads actually enhance the product…i.e., like their self-serve campus flyers and sponsored news items. so, what can facebook do with these all of these developers and new apps? well, not everyone is going to be as successful as iLike (congrats hadi!) and therefore can’t just rely on viral distribution. facebook can turn these developers into advertisers and promote their apps as sponsored news items or trial apps, etc. -> perfect for folks in need of distribution and most importantly, useful for facebook users…hmmm… perhaps a “cost per add” fee for all apps…this is very similar to what we’re doing with feed-powered ads and the feedburner ad network -> giving publishers tools and the ability to reach an audience full of opt-in users…

while in many ways this is a leap of faith for facebook, it’s absolutely the right strategic move. i just wish fox, yahoo, and others could do this…maybe they can…

congrats to dave m, james, dave f and the rest of the facebook team…

i’ve been a facebook user for quite some time (2004 perhaps?), but i only recently uploaded my address book and started to really use the product. what’s interesting is that as i look at profiles, i’m noticing a ton of recent activity, especially among the older set…it’s as if everyone somehow related to me is really digging in. yes, i just added some friends and it’s also a horrible sample as most of my friends are in the industry, but still…it appears that a bunch of “out of college” folks are just now starting to add a significant number of friends and they are also doing much more than simply creating networks -> they are uploading photos, sharing links, joining groups, updating their status, etc…

btw, a lot of my friends are joining this group (37k members) -> “Unlike 99.99% of the Facebook population, I was born in the 70s.” luckily, there’s one for those of us born in the 60s - ughh, only 270 members… :)

while on a *boring* conference call on friday, i finally took the time to upload my address book to facebook. out of my 5800 contacts (some of these must be inactive - i don’t know that many people!), 374 were already using facebook. i proceeded to invite 150 or so and within minutes, yes minutes, half of them had accepted my friend request. over the course of the next few days, most had replied…that’s fast…

not only that, but most of these folks are active users…as a result, my facebook experience is a bit like linkedin…except it’s alive…:)

the service is simple, clean, and snappy…and, of course, it’s open…it’s a very effective way to communicate - via rss aggregation and twitter-like broadcasts. email will always be around, but it’s clear that myspace and facebook are going to control a bunch of digital communication…look out for falling pageviews and a reduction in time spent across the webmail providers (yes, i know this has been happening for a couple of years, but i think it’s going to accelerate)…

ps - when building web apps, never underestimate the need for speed (loading time that is!). yahoo did and it has hurt them time and time again…