Inspirado por el artículo de Michael Arrington de TechCrunch he recopilado una lista de las aplicaciones que más imprescindibles me han resultado en el día a día y en el trabajo en 2008.

Será interesante comparar su evolución a lo largo de los años (en parentesis similares con menos uso o comentario):

1. Google Search
2. Gmail
3. Iphone (thanks Iphone Dev Team)
4. Google Reader
5. FireFox (Chrome+IE)
6. Powerpoint (usado también como Paperpoint o Photopoint)
7. Notepad++
8. Google Maps
9. WordPress
10. Skype (+webcam!)

 

Como lo veís? Cuales son las vuestras?

PD: Ganador de mi lista Google Corp (4+1) seguido por Microsoft (1+1)

I never really understood eBay’s move to buy skype…. it didn’t make sense from the beginning.

I hope Skype gets a new corporate parent that has real synergies and helps them to flourish even faster.

Those telecoms really need someone like Skype to make them dance….

It’s Finally Official: eBay’s Skype Has Bombed

Henry Blodget | October 1, 2007 10:58 AM

eBay has finally acknowledged what has been obvious to the rest of the world for at least three quarters: the Skype acquisition gamble has failed. Among the news today:

• Skype CEO Niklas Zennstrom officially gone (he’s been virtually gone for months)
• eBay will take $1.4 billion asset-impairment charge.
• Skype has missed the targets Zennstrom and his team set at the time of the sale. Thus, eBay will only pay $530 million of the potential $1.7 billion earnout (some small consolation)

Continue reading: http://www.alleyinsider.com/2007/10/its-finally-off.html

Mozilla just launched its 2.0 version of Firefox to counter Microsoft’s new Explorer. At first sight it seems more like a tactical release to leverage Microsoft’s PR machine, rather than a new breakthrough edition.

It seems they have killed the memory jam problem and have added a some new features (not too many killer ones really) . I would highlight:

- Session Restore: should be hand for those “rare” system crashes

- Integrated spell checking: always a good addition

So just check it out and decide for yourself whether its Firefox or Explorer!

After a long wait, Microsoft has finally launched its new explorer (download here to check it out).

They have basically copied what can be considered the 4 killer features of Firefox:

- Tabbed browsing and bookmarking

- Integrated RSS browsing

- Configurable search box

- Optional add-ons created by users/3rd parties
They added some minor innovations to it like a “printing optimizer” to shrink very wide pages or tab selection using thumbnails. They also promised increased security protection against phishing etc…

It’s worth taking a look, it certainly catches up with innovations and adds some new stuff, but I will not switch until I have compared it to Firefox 2.0, which is coming out as a final release before the end of this month, although a pre-release version is already available for the impatient.

Happy browsing!

Bingo, the rumour becomes truth!

Several blogs and newspapers (NYT/WSJ) are hinting at the possibility of a large acquisition of Youtube by Google for 1.6 USD billion.

This would be a huge change to the online video market, allowing Google to be number one in this fast growing category, getting an improved position to extend its text-ads/search domination to video-ads, which is the definitely the next big growth frontier.

While some analysts think of Googletube as the result of a perfect match, I definitely understand there would be benefits from structuring the deal as an extended alliance (MySpace style) – certainly a safer option for Google (see Mark Cuban’s opinion)

A Myspace style deal would have following advantages:

• EXTRACTING THE SAME ECONOMIC ADVERTISING VALUE (blocking its competitors from showing ads on the site and revenue sharing for less USD)
• AVOIDING DOWNSIDE RISK OF COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT (check this polemic previous post about how Youtube would face its end soon).

However my feel is, that there is a high chance of the acquisition going through in the end, despite Google never having made any such large-scale acquisition in its entire history. The last 6-12 months have been a collection of deals by Google attempting to pre-empt Yahoo and MSN to get distribution: From the Dell deal to have the Googlebar preloaded for 2 USD per PC, to the multi-year exclusivity deal with MySpace worth 900 USD million.
I believe Google will decide to aggressively bet on user-generated videos, believing it will have to face copyright issues and confront being sued by 3rd parties anyway with Google Videos, so why not bet on a positive outcome thanks to it excellent lawyers and go for full market leadership if everything goes right.

Aggressive? Yeah, but hey we are talking about the same company that:

- offered 2GB free mailspace for anyone (300-500 times more than competitors),

- is building a gigantic proprietary computer network with 10s of thousands PCs running its own OS

- is starting to offer free Wifi for the full city of SanFrancisco (and soon NY?)

This move would certainly not come as a surprise to me.

Good luck Google

The entrepreneurial team behind Kazaa and Skype, Janus Friis and Niklas Zennstrom, are testing a new system of TV streaming based on P2P.

Based on their success track record, this is definitely a project to put on our “watchlists”.

While the website doesn’t give a way a lot Businessweek has just published this insightful article.

Exec summary of the article:
The Venice Project is currently trying to convince a range of small, medium, and large media and TV companies to place their full-length, professionally produced content on the network, although anyone will be able to post video on the network. It’s also talking to advertisers and marketers that could place video ads on the network.

At the bottom of the screen, there are controls like those on a DVD player, including stop, pause, and fast-forward, as well as a search window to find new videos. An image on the left includes a menu of preset channels. And on the right, there’s a set of interactive tools that let you share video playlists with friends or family. An image at the top of the screen identifies the channel and the name of the clip you’re watching. All of the images can be expanded by clicking on them with a mouse.

The Venice Project is not a file-sharing system. It’s based on peer-to-peer technology, in which the infrastructure comprises user PCs, not central servers. But users don’t download video files. The videos are streamed to their computers instead.

The beta test will be expanded dramatically by the middle of November, he said.

A9 is Amazon’s attempt at search engine (if you haven’t, give it a try).  Since it launched 2 years ago it has been innovating with some cool features but has clearly failed to capture the audience. Since its CEO left for Google it seems Amazon is cutting down the experimentation and is limiting features to those that increase its e-commerce revenues.

Interesting article from Wall Street Journal on how MTV is not capturing the online buzz with their offering. 

“MTV’s stumble has lessons for major media companies watching the explosion of video on the web.

In the closed confines of cable TV, where competition is limited, MTV protected its niche by portraying itself as the iconoclastic outsider.

But the web is free-for-all, and the roster of competitors grows every day.

MTV, now part of the establishment and late to the game, wrongly assumed its famous brand name and product would have the same resonance online”

The law of evolution/business: survival of the fittest! As simple as that, and this time the revolution is really coming to video contents, not like in the über-hype 5 years ago.

MTV, wake up and re-invent yourself online or prepare to fall into oblivion!

:-b