Matt Blumberg posted about his switch to FeedBlitz the other day (from Bloglet). If you receive my blog via email, you’ll notice that you are now receiving it via FeedBlitz also (instead of Bloglet).
After my post on Blog Analytics describing the various technologies that I’m using on my blog, I received an email from Phil Hollows, the guy behind FeedBlitz, suggesting that I give it a try. I’ve been frustrated with Bloglet for a while (it’s up, it’s down, it’s up, it’s down), I’ve received several other “try my RSS to email” delivery services, and we’ve been talking about the best way to incorporate this capability into FeedBurner (partner, acquire, engineer ourselves) so my brain was open to trying a new service.
Phil brilliantly pointed out that he had built a seamless data migration from Bloglet which was my biggest barrier to trying something new (e.g. what a pain it would be to tell everyone “hey – please switch by resubscribing” and – while I could get at my data within Bloglet – it was a manual process that would probably take me an hour to deal with. However, FeedBlitz handled it automagically as part of my setup and within 5 minutes I was switched (as were you if you are reading this via email).
I turned Matt (and a few other Bloglet users who I expect will be switching soon) onto FeedBlitz and Phil and let it run for a few days. In addition to being super-responsive, Phil has integrated FeedBlitz into FeedBurner, so my FeedBlitz stats are now included in my FeedBurner stats and all the fun stuff I put in my FeedBurner feed (more coming soon) is including in FeedBlitz.
Nicely done Phil – you got me. Tom Bartel saw Matt’s post and switched also. We keep on sneezing.
Over the past two years, I’ve learned a lot about Agile development methodologies as a result of my investment in Rally Software. Today – Tim Wolters – CTO of Collective Intellect and previously co-founder / CTO of Dante Group (we were investors – webMethods acquired Dante Group for a nice price six months after we invested) has a great post on how he thinks about Agile software development. I know Tim’s been playing around with Ruby on Rails, so my fascination there also continues to grow.
As long as I can remember, a phrase that I have heard regularly is “what is the next killer app?” Entrepreneurs and VCs are always looking for the next killer app upon which to build a huge business. Last month, Richard Nolan and Robert Austin wrote a short article in Sloan Management Review that concluded that “even gifted visionaries [will not be able] to imagine the next killer app.” They asserted that – as a result of research they’ve been doing with their HBS Internet2 Business Group – there are two critical practices to overcoming impediments to identifying the next multi-billion markets for communication technologies. They are:
Nolan and Austin conclude by suggesting “Extrapolation of the present will follow lines less straight and more recombinant than can be deciphered. In that case, we will need processes and technologies that will allow us to intelligently stumble upon the future.” Adam Bosworth talked recently about “keeping it simple and sloppy” – this is a big part of intelligently stumbling forward. Who needs a “killer app” when you can play until something special emerges?
Dan Bricklin has a thoughtful post on software patents as a follow up to a bunch of stuff that’s gone around the web the past few weeks since the NY Times article on Microsoft’s quest for patents. Buried in Dan’s post is the ultimate wisdom:
“I’m not against patents in general (they are good for some industries, I guess), but I do have real problems with how they are affecting the software industry which has other means of protection and incentive that have proven successful to society. Of course, as I’ve written, they are the current law of the land and I still apply for them at times.”
In one of Fred Wilson’s VC Cliche of the Week posts, he stated that “patents are just like nuclear bombs, you just got to have some.” Mutually assured destruction is supposedly a deterrent, isn’t it? Some day, the elusive “someone” (whenever any of us said “someone” in my house growing up, we always really meant “mom”) might get around to fixing our patent system with regard to software patents. Until then, as Dan says, “… they are the current law of the land and I still apply for them at times.”
My long time friend Andy Sack’s company Judy’s Book has just released “Judy’s Books Maps” (they claim to have had countless focus groups and thousands of hours of brainstorming to come up with the name for this new feature.) It’s yet another great example of combining Google Maps with a “Web 2.0 service” (or whatever the hip phrase is this week). Take a look at some of the reviews that I’ve done on Judy’s Book in Homer or in Boulder. Andy and team are hard at work and ramping the features, functionality, and community around Judy’s Book quickly – join the party, do some reviews, and win some coffee or a free iPod Shuffle.
In an effort to experience VoIP at its fullest, I got rid of my landline in Alaska and have been using Vonage all summer. Today – it dawned on me that the experience was very similar to that of using a cell phone 10 years ago. While Vonage has a high novelty factor and provides additional functionality (in this case stuff like a “portable 303 phone number” and voice mail to my email), its performance is erratic. Sometime it works great, sometimes it sounds like I’m talking to space aliens from planet mumble, and a few times a day I simply get disconnected (remember the cell phone dropped call phenomenon – of course, if you live in the bay area, you still experience it every time you drive down 280.)
I’ve got Skype / Skypeout set up and have used it a little, but not nearly as much as Vonage. I’ll spend more time on Skype the balance of the summer and see if it’s any different.
Last night, after we’d exhausted some other scintillating topic, Dave Jilk – who’s been visiting us this week – and I pondered who the top online retailers were last year – specifically who was at the top of the brick and mortar list (ok – we called them “multi-channel retailers” now that the Internet bubble has burst.) I mentioned that I thought Wal-Mart was at the top – he laughed and said – no way, Sears is bigger online than Wal-Mart.
A little web searching later and we found the 2004 Top 400 List Of Online Retailers. The overall article and list is fascinating and there are plenty of unexpected stats on it, including the notion that more than a third of all households in the US made at least one online purchase last year and the total US Internet retail sales was $87.5 billion for 2004 (up 25% over 2003 and 62% over 2002).
The top online retailers are (all numbers are in $billions):
Dave was right about Sears thrashing Wal-Mart, which weighed in at #12 (and – more interestingly – only 1% of all Wal-Mart sales, vs. Sears 5% of sales via the web). However, on the brick and mortar front, Office Depot and Staples dominated.
Some fun nerd facts for you on this gloomy Wednesday morning in Homer, Alaska (where is the fucking sun?)
Which does Brad care most about: 1, 2, or 3? I wonder if Jack is going to use the cool bluetooth car hack in the upcoming season.