Back in August I predicted Facebook will take #1 rank away from Google in traffic before the end of the year. December results are not out yet but there is a high probability I am right. As I was looking for data on the subject – a new question arise.

Is traffic a sign of popularity?

So I went on writing down numbers on a scrapbook. My primary goal was to search brand names and the number of search associated with that brand. To do so I used the Top 100 brand by Millward Brown [PDF].
Surprisingly Facebook, Twitter, iPhone, My Space are not listed by the research institute. Even in a brick and mortar world, Facebook should be in top 5 most known brands.

Below are results found using Google.com [US English page as of December 30, 2009].

Few basic observations: Google and Facebook together are more popular than Web. US takes the lead with over 23 billions search results. USA and War all together are less popular than Yahoo!

Behind those figures I see two conclusions. First, top brands -as described in the study published by Millward Brown- are yet far behind in terms of web image. Their online presence is a failure for 95% of them. This should give hope to all online viral social media jungle marketing agencies out there. The second conclusion is sadder: traffic doesn’t mean revenue. Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, MySpace and Hotmail generating over 5.3 billion of search results have an estimated global revenue of $1.3 billion for 2009 representing 0,003% of Wal-Mart’s 2009 revenue.

It brings us back to valuation calculation- should we continue to use online popularity or traffic to rate online businesses?

What do you think?

tags: 200 days traveling, 95 flights, kids, family, work, hypertension, headaches, joy, tears, love, hypocrisy, memories.

2009 had many ups and many downs. Hoping 2010 will be more peaceful.

Last month I posted a quick comparison between Sony PRS-600 and Kindle 2 where was mentioned the upcoming new Sony.
New wireless Sony eReader PRS-900BC won’t be available for another couple of months but earlier today I got a call from a Sony rep who just received a demo unit.
I played with the device for half an hour. Enough to say I love it but not enough to give an in-depth review.
Size is probably the best asset of this ebook. Somewhere between a Nook and a Kindle DX. A nice 7′ display using E Ink Vizplex technology. A lot has been said on the Sony vs Kindle screen. Personally I like Sony screen better as it provides a natural, high-contrast picture without provoking any eyestrain.
Wireless capabilities add daily papers delivery right to the device, real time RSS feed reader and of course the ability to buy a book on the fly.
Epub open format, 2 weeks battery life, gigantic 1.6gb internal memory expendable to 33.6gb with an SD card and matte black finish makes the PRS-900BC most appealing reader for now. One major drawback is the $400 price tag. Sony must launch around $250/$280. Over $300 will keep sales marginal.
Below pics of PRS-900BC in action.

Jeremie Berrebi wanted me to read Getting Real by 37Signals. I highly recommend it to anyone planning to launch a startup. Their caveats, disclaimers, and other preemptive strikes says it all:

“… the ideas in this book won’t apply to every project under
the sun. If you are building a weapons system, a nuclear control
plant, a banking system for millions of customers, or some other
life/finance-critical system, you’re going to balk at some of our
laissez-faire attitude.
Don’t get huffy if you read some of our advice and it reminds
you of something you read about already on so and so’s weblog
or in some book published 20 years ago. It’s definitely possible.”

Some precious advice found in the book came back to me after reading Truphone’s blog earlier today. Truphone is a VOIP – Voice Over Internet- provider.  Their mission is to offer “free and low-cost international calls”. Every attempt to bring down price of telecommunication is a good one as long as you remember to Keep It Simple Stupid – KISS.

Here is basically what Truphone came up with: get a Truphone account online, buy an iPod Touch, get a contract with a carrier for an always-on portable device (MiFi type), add a 24 months contract, buy a headset with microphone built-in, add funds to your Truphone account and you are good to go for low cost telecommunication of the 21^st century.
This is the most ridiculous telecom offer I’ve ever seem.
Subscribers are ready to pay additional dollars for convenience i.e. they are not ready to sacrifice simplicity to save 2 cts on a telephone call.

“Conventional wisdom says that to beat your competitors you need to one-up them. If they have four features, you need five (or 15, or 25). If they’re spending x, you need to spend xx. If they have 20, you need 30.
This sort of one-upping Cold War mentality is a dead-end. It’s an expensive, defensive, and paranoid way of building products.
Defensive, paranoid companies can’t think ahead,
they can only think behind. They don’t lead, they follow.
So what to do then? The answer is less. Do less than your
competitors to beat them. Solve the simple problems
and leave the hairy, difficult, nasty problems to
everyone else. Instead of one-upping, try one-downing.
Instead of outdoing, try underdoing.”

There will be 3 kinds of comments after this post, some saying I don’t understand nothing about innovation, some saying I’m an ass for trashing a competitor and certainly a bunch of comments for Viagra and male enhancement. So here comes the natural disclaimer: I have a lot of respect for competition and doers. Truphone does great things and I have used their service several times. They are not a competitor of my core business Global Roaming. Never was. At Global Roaming we do one thing and one only: providing a hassle-free SIM card for travelers.

There is an ongoing temptation to start ‘innovating’ in a wrong way by adding a bunch of useless features just to prove we can do it. Think market adoption, simplicity, sales pitch and PR before you sign off on a R&D project.

“The secret to building half a product instead of a half-ass
product is saying no.
Each time you say yes to a feature, you’re adopting a child. You
have to take your baby through a whole chain of events (e.g.
design, implementation, testing, etc.). And once that feature’s
out there, you’re stuck with it. Just try to take a released feature
away from customers and see how pissed off they get.”

Bottom line Truphone has used heavy dollars to develop a feature that has zero need. What’s next – turn my watch into a Truphone capable device?

Seems everyone is falling for this but me. I had to look at the TechCrunch video presentation of Square few times and I still do not understand what Square is up to.

Is it a clearing house, a merchant provider, payment gateway, a mobile POS – read Point Of Sale , a technology platform or all the above? I don’t have the answer and my guess is Square is exploring all possibilities.

Whatever is shown on that short video presentation is not an easy form of payment process. It took a couple of minutes to pay for a coffee as it takes less than 10 seconds to do the same at any Starbucks. What happens during rush hour when 60 people need to pay for coffee? Expect a 120 minute wait to process payment!

What’s the point of a $200 iPhone PoS (Point of Sale – don’t want any confusion here) when you can process credit/debit payment on a virtual terminal at $0 additional cost?

I read somewhere it’s a huge opportunity for pop and mom kind of business, eBay sellers, Craigslists transactions, farmers and so on.

First I believe they could all accept credit cards today if they wanted to. There is a gazillion solution out there for them.

Second do you think those really want to be exposed to chargeback, fraud, IRS, sales tax and potential liability for identity theft?

Third – credit/debit card sales is not CASH in da pocket. Often I shop at Coconut Grove Organic Farmers Market and let me tell you – they don’t like/want your plastic.  Cash allow them to live. They already struggle, take it away from them and they die.

So what am I missing? Should I buy the concept because Jack Dorsey – Twitter co-founder- is behind it? Enlighten me.

It has been 2 weeks since Droid invaded my life. Let me be clear – it’s not a perfect device. Verizon and Motorola rushed to get this phone out and I think they did the right thing.

Verizon announced an update for December 11th. Google updated their official website for its mobile operating system. Going by history, Android.com has always been updated before an update is released for the Android operating system. This could mean that Android 2.1 is near, and might arrive on December 11th. To add fuel to the fire, Google recently updated their Android market terms of service which go into effect on Dec 11, 2009. According the rumors going around Dec 11 update should bring the following

• New Android Market with carrier billing support
• Android 2.1 update for select devices
• OTA updates for the Verizon Droid and Droid Eris
• Desktop client for Android Market

Nothing regarding much wanted features: pinch-to-zoom, Sense UI, Mobile Chrome Browser, screen capture and tethering.

Therefor I decided to put up a list of applications to make the Droid a much better device .

List of must have applications as of December 1st:

Better Keyboard – $2.99

Better Keyboard provides some options like three different keyboard layouts and slightly larger keys. You can type letters and numbers without having to swap keyboards. Improves overall typing experience.

Astro File Manager – FREE

Astro should be in all Android phones. It’s basically a file manager to browse SD card, system files but also a utility to kill running processes, optimize RAM and create/rename/edit folders.

DockRunner – FREE

Developed by Active Frequency this app will simulate Multimedia Dock mode. Very handy at night to keep your phone on a night table displaying time. Saves you $30 on an accessory you will barely use.

Dolphin Browser – FREE

Motorola Droid has some core features disabled such as Pinch To Zoom -certainly to avoid potential lawsuit with Apple. Dolphin Browser brings pinch-to-zoom to Droid. It’s fast and powerful. You can set Dolphin as a default browser and avoid the hassle of using built-in browser.

Beautiful Widgets – $1.50

Droid landing is kind of empty compared to HTC Sense UI. Beautiful Widgets adds weather and flip clock to your home page. Personally I love it and recommend it.

dXTop: Home Alternative – $2.99

I’m not a big fan of themes, backgrounds and ringtones but dXTop is more than just a cosmetic lift. It adds one more screen to the home, dual drawers and screen capture. Unfortunately screen capture feature is working for home page only but it proves its doable. I’m surprised we have no screenshot application for Droid so far. dXTop can run with Beautiful Widgets.

Imagine Multi-Touch – $0.99

Droid does not offer multi-touch but it does work! Imagine Multi-Touch is an Android Image Gallery application that supports multi-touch on all Android handsets for $1. Combining Dolphin Browser with IMT makes the Droid so much better.

Market offers much more applications to suit your need. The above applications are specific to Droid in order to improve user experience. I’m taking the opportunity to show some respect to those developers who spend hours, days and weeks to develop an application for a particular need knowing next OS update might make their efforts obsolete. Thank you!

One thing I noticed while purchasing a Droid at my local BestBuy -was the lack of basic knowledge from potential buyers.

Fortunately most will learn fast and adopt geeky habits but some will return their new phones very disappointed Droid did not meet their expectations.

So here is a little tutorial on how to make the best out of your new phone.

First steps to properly use the Droid:

-       Remove gently protection sticker on the battery cover BEFORE inserting the battery. Failure to do so will make the battery door irremovable. Been there, done that.

-       You need a Gmail or Google Mail App account to operate an Android phone. If you don’t have one you need to create one. Technically you can use an Android phone without a Gmail address but you’ll be missing 80% of core features. I suggest you sign up for a Gmail and add your other email accounts. Gmail account will just be used to sync your contacts, Latitude, Market, etc.

-       To configure your phone, you will need to access “settings”. Unlike the iPhone, “settings” icon is not showing on home page. To access the “settings” press the central lower tray to pop up all applications. They are sorted from A to Z. Get to “settings” and start configuring.

-       If – like me- you like to keep your phone protected you will need to set it up. By default Droid does not offer protection i.e. PIN code. Android 2.0 introduces a new form of screen lock called “pattern”. Press on central tray, scroll to “settings”, go to “location and security settings”, check mark “Require pattern”. The rest is very intuitive.

-       Once your phone is protected from curious, very likely they will try to input pattern. After 5 attempts, phone is locked 30 seconds. Every wrong attempt after 30 seconds will re-lock your phone for 30 seconds. If you forgot your pattern, you can still log on to your phone using your Gmail username and password.

-       Market is the application store for Android powered phones. To access Market you need to have a valid credit card on file via Google Check Out [Google Merchant account a la Paypal].

-       Downloaded applications are assigned to your Gmail account. Whenever you change phone you simply need to logon using your Gmail credentials and all your apps will be available for download again at no cost.

-       For now – Droid offers only 3 home screens. You can add shortcuts, widgets or folders by keeping your finger pressed on an empty spot. A menu will pop up offering several options.

-       Background image format covers all 3 panels. Screen definition is a bit odd 960X854 pixels. Check Droid Forum Gallery for cool wallpapers.

-       I strongly suggest you install “power control” widget on your central panel. You will be able to toggle Wifi on/off, Bluetooth on/off, GPS on/off, and brightness with a single touch. Very useful.

-       To use the camera you need to press on the gold button located on the lower right side of the phone. You cannot use the camera without unlocking your screen first. Keep finger pressed a couple of seconds to launch camera. For now, camera is slow and auto-focus needs an urgent firmware update.

-       On most applications you can use the search function. Easy access to search needs a single pressure on the magnifier icon located on the right inside of lower toolbar. Very handy to search applications in Market, contacts, emails, etc.

-       To optimize battery I suggest, you set “screen time out” (located under Settings/Sounds and Display) to 15 seconds. By default it’s 1 minute. Also under Sounds and Display, adjust brightness to low. Also in Sounds and Display, set Animations Off. Do not keep Wifi on all the time, mostly on Verizon where network is faster than most Wifi connection. Remember to turn Bluetooth off if you don’t use it. No need to keep GPS on in the house J

-       You cannot remove pre-installed applications. To uninstall applications you downloaded and no longer want to have go to “settings/applications/manage applications. A short way to remove an application is to keep your finger pressed on the application icon and use the pop up menu to uninstall it. Very smart.

Here I will stop as I believe further steps are not for beginners.

Let me know if you have additional tips or tricks and I will add it to the post.

Happy Droiding.

This is an incredible news to revive a saturating industry. ICANN has decided -after 40 years- to open domain names to non-English web addresses. Briefly, it means you will soon be able to register www.été.com or www.שלום.com. Registrars around the planet must be ecstatic about the news. Same for hosting companies. Brands, individuals are obviously less happy to have to spend few more dollars to increase domain name protection. Not sure how search engines will react but it sure adds a lot of work for them. Indexing, ranking international non english domain names is looking like a real challenge.

“We’re confident that it works because we’ve been testing it now for a couple of years,” he said. “And so we’re really ready to start rolling it out.”

Of the 1.6 billion Internet users worldwide, Beckstrom – a former chief of U.S. cybersecurity – said that more than half use languages that have scripts based on alphabets other than Latin.

“So this change is very much necessary for not only half the world’s Internet users today, but more than half of probably the future users as the use of the Internet continues to spread,” he said.

Read more here:

International Domain Names: Internet Set To Add Non-English Web Addresses

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Pictures taken last week while in London. Edited using Picnik, geotagged, tagged and titles. I have about 300 more shots. Maybe next week if I have the time.

Full set here

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Electronic books are not my cup of tea. I resisted as long as I could to move to digital content. Nothing can match the touch of a book, the smell of inked paper, the easy access to any page, sneaking preview of chapters and the legacy you leave to younger generations.

Anyway we have to live with our times and I decided to give ebook a try. My daughter has a Kindle and reads about 2 books per week. She takes it everywhere.

I personally find the Kindle ugly and lacking basic features making any attempt to try the device worthless. Choice was limited to Sony eReader or Kindle. Soon new devices will be released- obviously upcoming readers can only get better.

The #1 difference between Sony and Amazon is accessibility. Kindle is an online device with wireless capabilities (limited to US market and soon to be open to international) as the Sony eReader is an offline device where you need to connect to your desktop/laptop in order to download books.

I do not see the need to download a book wirelessly as a mandatory feature. It’s not a news or weather service. You can download hundreds of books on a Sony and be set for a long long time. The only thing you need to add a book to Sony eReader is a USB cable. You can even use memory cards. Sony supports all memory card formats adding more flexibility and more storage to the ebook.

Being wireless and connected to ONLY Amazon store is an extremely restrictive feature of the Kindle. Wireless doesn’t mean openness. You must buy your books from the 350,000 titles available. It’s a lot -I agree. But Sony eReader gives you access to Google’s library of 1million FREE books and tons of other libraries accessible online in all languages.

One of the top features Sony added is the touch-screen ability. I love flipping pages using my finger. Makes digital content user-friendlier for an old man like me.

At last my choice for the Sony eReader PRS-600 was final after someone showed me Calibre. Calibre is a magic piece of software that turns ANY digital content into a reading material on the Sony eReader. Magazines, word docs, books, tutorials…anything you can see on your computer can be readable on the Sony.

It gives also access to ebooks purchased by a friend who willingly lends you his book. One thing Kindle cannot handle. If you bought a book and your wife wants to read it on HER Kindle – she cannot transfer your purchase. Recently Amazon pulled OUT books that were purchased on the Kindle store directly from users device. This is inadmissible for me. When I buy a book – it’s mine and I can decide to lend it to my kids without violating any copyrights. There is no fear one will come to my place and take it off the shelf.

If books were not going from one hand to another – literature would have died long time ago. I do not encourage anyone to steal but I must admit it’s a killer feature.

Sony has learned from the ATRAC days that open file formats are more preferable than proprietary ones. By supporting the ePub format, Sony’s essentially guaranteeing that your digital library will always have a home. Stick with Kindle’s proprietary format, and you’re forever a slave to Amazon’s device.

Same feature that made iPod so popular. Take an mp3, drag it on iTunes and enjoy the music. No question asked.

Conclusion: my subjective review goes towards Sony eReader. Three good reasons: cheaper, better, richer. For a detailed review of Sony PRS-600 read Ilene Hoffman post on http://www.electronista.com/reviews/sony-prs-600-touch-ereader.html