Mobile Screen Capture and Mobile RSS Readers

Barry Schwartz made a real nice post about how take a mobile screen capture with Quicktake. In addition, he’s ventured into comparing mobile RSS readers, a place I have not yet gone frequently.

Microsoft Strategic Account Summit 2007

The main parts of the Microsoft Strategic Account Summit are today and Wednesday, here is the schedule. My initial thoughts:

1) I wish it were broadcast online, even the Chris Cornell concert, this is a lost opportunity for exposure to those who can’t be at the summit and build positive PR.

2) We’re going to hear another round of Yahoo! and Microsoft merger talk. Much like Charlene Li, I do not think this is the best path. They would be better off hiring teams of people with experience innovating products and services in different industries. This get past the limiting beliefs of continually hiring passive candidates who demonstrate no loyalty or passion for their present companies.

3) Why is John Battelle the only person at the summit blogging his thoughts? His post is the only one I could find about the opening night’s festivities.

4) I’m interested in information about the people shaping mobile search at the summit, please contact me.

Hugh Griffiths Joins Microsoft as Director of Mobile

Mobile Entertainment reports that “Griffiths will be responsible for the overall strategy and direction of the mobile division within the Online Services Group division.”

It’s interesting to see Microsoft bringing in outside talent for this type of role, we’ll see how this develops. Hugh sounds like someone I’d like to get to know.

Setting up Your Blog to Post to Twitter

Barry Schwartz has set up his blog to post the links directly to Twitter. Very neat. He also made a nice how to post on the subject. Barry is such a posting machine!

I’ll wait to understand his learnings and impact before trying it myself. I look forward to seeing his results on the impact after a few weeks.

Nokia N800 Convergence Product Manger Interview Victor Brilon

While at the recent CTIA conference, I met Victor Brilon and his immensely helpful Nokia publicist. We shared a dynamic conversation that was amazingly informative regarding Nokia and it’s unique ideas regarding the various types of emerging Internet convergence. The Nokia N800 is a device that is clearly “on the other side of the chasm” as Victor proudly describes it. In the time that has followed my visit to CTIA two themes have emerged regarding Nokia 1) They understand the blogosphere and see a significant event in convergence coming and are preparing for these possibilities and 2) The frame I saw when at their booth was one of company who views themselves as “more than just a device maker”. I like that point of view.

Please enjoy my attempt to recreate the magic of my first unplanned meeting with Victor via this podcast. I welcome your feedback on the discussion from yourself and others, especially in regards to your thoughts on the vision for convergence. Thanks!

Nokia N800 Victor Brilon Interview [9:11m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Google Disasterous with the Letter D

Apparently Google has considerable trouble in regards to the letter D.

First the Dmarc founders left Google.

Now Dodgeball founders, Dens Crowley and Alex Rainert (please drop me a note if you read this guys), not only have left Google but they posed for a thumbs down photo that they have posted on Flickr, a Yahoo! property. The photo already has over 26,000 views and appears to have a viral element based on the view count growth, the interesting comments on the Flickr photo and a lot of blogosphere reaction. I’m trying to imagine how frustrated someone must be to post of photo of this nature, announce new project associations and state that they are throwing a party “to celebrate our escape”.

Putting my investment management hat on, I’d like for independent analysts to be allowed on the earning call this Thursday. If allowed to do so, I’d like to ask the following question, “Why is Google having such a hard time with HR and staffing issues, whether it is regarding hiring new employees, retaining pre-IPO employees (see podcast) or integrating acquisitions? Has Laszlo Bock’s background proven not to be the right style of leadership and is it time for a change?” The “all big companies are always ineffective” is a major cop out as there are big companies that are admired and in fact some cases adored.

Ideas on what to do with Dodgeball are everywhere you look. The comments on the Flickr photo are fascinating to read. P.S. When searching for these entries on Google Blog Search I found considerable splog/spam (MFA Made for Adsense) sites - Google should work to solve that issue.

Dodgeball Founder Departure - April, 2007 post

Twitter

OK, I finally signed up for Twitter. Please feel free to add me if you’d like.

If you have any tips on how to best utilize Twitter - for networking, recruiting, driving traffic or otherwise - I welcome your contributions to the conversation.

If you are reading this and you either have no idea what Twitter is or you dismiss it, then this post from Rick Klau might be helpful to you in reframing your views.

Virgina Tech Shooting Tragedy - Potential Mobile Implications

Many times during yesterday’s unfortunate events at Virginia Tech, the problem of many of the people needing communication being in transit was discussed.

Mobile text messages(sms) and potential alerts were mentioned on numerous occasions as something that could have improved communication. While I firmly believe in the potential of mobile search and mobile communication combined with LBS to create increases in quality of life and lift ROI, yesterday also showed some limitations. Chief among these is the fact that there were numerous reports of “not being able to get through on mobile phones for hours”. Put simply, in most places, the mobile networks can’t handle everyone trying to use their phones all at once as they did during the Virginia Tech crisis yesterday and other crisis situations of the past. It appears that increased usage of Internet and mobile search services will tax existing infrastructure to it’s limits in many places and I’ve not seen heavy discussion of this issue or potential solutions.

Bleeding edge mobile technical solutions alone aren’t enough. Reliable networks are a must to make mobile search and mobile communication of the type that could have helped if utilized yesterday a reality. Let us ask the leaders of the mobile operators to make those networks a reality around the world using consistent standards that puts the customer experience first. Let’s start the process of addressing these bottlenecks now before the next crisis or surge in usage of services takes place.

CTIA Mobile Search Panel

I will not have a blog entry on this panel. With 6 participants of various backgrounds - it wasn’t focused. The sound was also terrible. There was little flow to the conversation. The session was obviously frustrating to the audience as half of them left before it was over.

There was a minimum of three panels merged into one here - white label mobile search, LBS in conjunction mobile search and voice with mobile search. My view is that CTIA doesn’t fully appreciate the importance of mobile search yet and that the mobile search discussions during the Billboard event on Monday were of superior quality.

The Great Debate: Content Versus Distribution - CTIA MEL 2007

Moderator: Tom Wheeler, Managing Director, Core Capital Partners (extremely well prepared moderator - great job Tom)

Speaker #1: Jim Ryan, VP, Consumer Data Products, ATT (Cingular)

Speaker #2: Larry Shapiro, EVP Business Development, Operations, Walt Disney Internet Group

This is an amazing panel - the session is way too fast paced to blog well enough to be worthy of it’s immense quality. I think I have good audio (thank you to the kind and fine people at Roland for providing me a review copy of the Edirol R-09 last week for usage at this conference) Speaking of audio has anyone found a Youtube type service for audio serving other than yousendit or putting it on a peer to peer network? I’ll try to contact you with it if you leave me comment with a valid email address. An audience poll of this session showed 70% of the people thought there was a role for an aggregator in the process (note - an earlier poll showed the audience to be about 30% carrier folks).

ctiawireless2007 Billboard Mobile Entertainment Live 2007

CTIA Wireless 2007 - Billboard Event

I’m sitting three tables from the front left, please stop by and say hello.

Leaving for CTIA Wireless 2007

I’m interested in meeting anyone and everyone in the mobile search industry to learn about what you are up to!!! Drop me a line if you are going.

I’m still seeking a pass +1 for the LG Foo Fighters party on Tuesday.

Lastly, I’m interested in speaking with anyone who can provide me a cell phone that will actually work reliably with my Tmobile cell phone service in my current residence. You are a very special person I’ve been seeking to meet for quite some time!

nonofficial tag (why isn’t there and official tag?): citawireless2007 Orlando

Mobile Advertising Network

Mobile Ad Network, it’s interesting to see the hyper competitiveness of this keyword term as it implies a push marketing channel instead of a pull channel such as mobile search. We’ve trained consumers to search for a decade now, why would they want to regress to push models instead of using true mobile search? They have been trained to pull and will eventually demand the same mobile search experience on mobile devices. Hence, while Mobile Ad Network may be a popular term today, it likely will be replaced in the future with keyword terms based on derivatives of mobile search.

Alvin Wang Graylin, CEO of mInfo Interviewed at 3GSM

Alvin Wang Graylin, CEO of mInfo, Inc., a Chinese mobile search firm, was interviewed at 3GSM 2007:

Bena Roberts podcast

Jan Kuczynski podcast

mInfo also released a 2006 mobile search results survey. The podcasts provide some insight into the China mobile search marketplace.

Online Publishers Association Releases Web Report

The Online Publishers Association released a report entitled “Going Mobile: An International Study of Content Use and Advertising on the Mobile Web“

Highlights Include:

Advertising works on the mobile Web — both in terms of receptivity and action.
Brands play a significant role in driving mobile Web activity.
People depend on the mobile Web for key content and are actively registering, personalizing and paying for content.
“While people often think of the mobile Web as the realm of ringtones and messaging, it is clearly a rich platform for quality content and marketing,” said OPA president Pam Horan. “Mobile content consumption is high and growing - in the year ahead, current users plan to spend more time with the mobile Web and new audiences will adopt the platform. Additionally, a large number of consumers are watching ads and acting on them. The OPA ‘Going Mobile’ study indicates that very real opportunities exist for marketers and publishers to take advantage of the mobile Internet.”

If you look through the report, please keep in mind the frame of online publishers as there are other sectors not discussed and to draw broader conclusions based on this subset could be a mistake!