Graeme Thickins on Tech

Reflections & analysis about innovation, technology, startups, investing, healthcare, and more .... with a focus on Minnesota, Land of 10,000 Lakes. Blogging continuously since 2005.

Category: DEMO 2006 (Page 1 of 7)

Yahoo! Kisses Krugle

February 14, 2007 / / 1 Comment

This just in…news on Valentine’s Day about a company I follow named Krugle, of code-search fame. Seems they’ve chosen this hallowed day to announce they’ve been tapped to supply search functionality for the Yahoo! Developer Network. This is a centralized resource that offers open APIs and Web Services to make it easy for developers to extend and build on Yahoo!’s products and services.

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The Yahoo! Developer Network hosts the publicly-available code and documentation for Yahoo!-owned properties, and provides tutorials, code samples, and other resources for developers. With this partnership, developers can now take advantage of Krugle’s code search engine and interface when they’re working with Yahoo! APIs and data — specifically, to find, save, and share code written in six languages: ActionScript, JavaScript, .NET, PHP, Python, and Ruby.

A kewl thing about Krugle is it also provides users with contextual information as they browse the code, such as associated documentation and dependencies, bug reports, commentary, and user-tagged code and search results, which they can then easily share with their colleagues.

“One of the reasons for Yahoo!’s success has been the company’s strong belief in opening up its products for third-party developers,” according to my old buddy Steve Larsen, who’s the CEO of Krugle, based in Menlo Park, CA. Stevelarsen_1 “By publishing open APIs and helpful documentation, they create an active and engaged community and encourage developers to create applications which utilize Yahoo!’s technology in new and innovative ways. With this partnership, Krugle will make it easier than ever to leverage the true potential of Yahoo!’s open APIs and Web Services.”

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To check out Krugle code search on the Yahoo! Developer Network, just go to http://developer.yahoo.com.

One other thing I like about Krugle: not only the management, but the investors and advisors behind this outfit are pretty darn awesome, too.

‘How to Make a Furby Stop Buzzing’

September 3, 2006 / / 2 Comments

This is the flat-out funniest search term I’ve seen to date that brings up my blog in Google’s search results — actually, I’m fourth on the list (out of 14,700), which was complete news to me. Goes to show you search algorithms still have a long way to go, I guess. How do I find such things, you ask? (I don’t even own a Furby, or know anyone who does.) Here’s how: in the traffic stats provided by my blog hoster, Typepad, I can see referring sites that bring people to my blog page — and that includes searches people do at Google, Yahoo, Ask.com, and other such sites. But the interesting thing is that I get to see the search term they used. These terms have been all over the map, but I think this is the first one that actually made me laugh out loud… So, how in the world does my blog come up on such a strange search request? I certainly don’t have a “Toys” category. Well, let me explain. First, here’s a screen-grab of part of the search-results page. Furbysearchpage

I attended a technology conference early this year called Demo, and I blogged a lot about that event. Some 70 new companies and products were debuted there, one of which was the “Pleo,” which was from the same guy who invented the “Furby.” In the particular post where I mentioned the Pleo and the Furby, I also had used the term “buzz” — meaning the media and blog coverage that Demo creates. All that must have really been confusing to this little kid (I assume) who was dutifully slogging through all these search results trying to get the damn toy to shut up! 🙂

Krugle’s Hiring — Free House!

April 23, 2006 / / 0 Comments

My friend Steve Larsen, formerly of the Twin Cities and now CEO of Krugle Inc. in Menlo Park (that’s the hot code-search startup I covered at Demo in February), just sent me a link to this cute post on his company’s blog. Hey, when you’re a startup competing for talent in the Valley, you have to be creative. (It also helps to have a crazy blogmeister like Chris Locke.)

Did I just say that tech hiring is getting competitive again? Yes, if you’re tuned in to today’s world of Web 2.0 technologies, you know what I’m talking about. And it has to be getting particularly intense in the Bay Area. The hiring page on Krugle’s web site is here. Okay, so there are other reasons to choose what company you want to work for besides a “free house.” This outfit has many. If you know someone who’s looking for a good gig, I really think they’ll thank you for this referral.

The Takeaways of Demo 2006

February 19, 2006 / / 0 Comments

Demoviewfromroom_1 Okay, here’s the 30th and last post in my “DEMO 2006” category (many also tagged in other categories, as listed on the right) since I began publishing pre-conference. So, who could have done more posts than this — maybe CNet? Then again, quantity isn’t everything… 🙂 But I was honored to be on a list with many of the great bloggers covering the event — especially since it was my first conference as a blogger (though not as a reporter, for which the number is probably 40 or more).

Just for the heck of it, I’m including a few photos of the surroundings at Demo, which I took with my cell phone cam — showing things I was too busy to do, like golf, pool, hot tub. But I didn’t care — didn’t have time to. [Besides, I had my beach time and a surf session in San Clemente the day before I got there.]

This post is essentially my recap on the themes or takeaways I got from this great happening….this blockbuster celebration of tech and entrepreneurship. Net-net: I wouldn’t have missed it for the world! Demohotelpool_1 It was non-stop buzz, business models, and blabbing about everything imaginable relating to today’s souped-up economy for technology startups (especially Internet-related ones)…a giant energy-drink slurpee lasting three days. And the people — wow! I know I met many who’ll be valuable contacts and friends for years to come. Plus I learned about some cool new services that’ll help me in my crazy, tech-challenged world…just as I know they’ll help you.

So here, as best as I can break down something this intensely information-packed, are the themes I got from DEMO 2006. (Note time didn’t allow me to post about every single one of the companies I mention here; but I’ve included links to all their sites if you wish to read more.)

• User-generated content and sharing is exploding. To say that consumer-generated content is a major trend in this age of “new media” and social networking I don’t think will surprise you. If you’ve read some of my previous posts, you know it was the major theme of the conference. [And there would be a sub-theme you got out of reading those, too: revenue-sharing with content creators.] Demopool_1 Companies in point who presented at Demo that are taking advantage of this trend in various ways include: Vizrea, TagWorld, SmileBox, Zingee, LocaModa, Sharpcast, Tiny Pictures, GarageBand.com, Yahoo! Photos (of course), Multiverse Network, and Gravee….and I posted about every one of ’em.

• Search goes wider, search goes deeper. Meaning more data types as relates the former, and, no surprise, going vertical for the latter. Presenting companies that fit into this theme included Krugle, Riya, AOL via its acquisition of Truveo (online sometime this spring), Nexidia, Gravee, BiggerBoat, Kaboodle, Raw Sugar, and Kosmix….several of which I posted about.

• E-commerce can still get better and easier. As big as it is (one example: BestBuy.com, a site on whose launch team I served, is now selling more than a billion bucks a year), we’re hardly done with e-commerce improvements. And that notion is sure to be welcomed by today’s increasingly savvy, instant-gratification online buyers. Companies worth a look here include Transparansee, Pay By Touch, and PayWi (which lets you buy from your cell phone). I was also impressed with CNet Channel’s intelligent cross-sell technology. This is a tool for e-tailers that with save a huge amount of hassle, automating what’s been a very time-intensive and hit-or-miss process for online store managers.

• Now that phone service is free or really cheap, what more can we do with it? Skype thundered into this space in a huge way — and thank God people now have a decent moniker they can attach to the concept instead of “VOIP”! And the category will only get huger, as we all know. Watch out for upstarts that are gonna ride this trend with more innovations — such as being able to make Skype calls from your cell phone: EQO Communications…and getting a whole rich set of features for your VOIP residential service: My People.

• Small business needs big help with information technology. It’s a huge market, but what will appeal to them and how do you reach them? Two companies that are giving it a try are Interprise, which has a free online ERP/CRM solution for the little guys….and Sprout Systems, which is developing online solutions for companies with 10 employees or fewer, coming out of the chute first (now seeking Series A) with an email management system. [I wish both luck. Raise the big bucks, or get a deep-pocketed gorilla to buy you.]

• P2P is not going away – and more apps are on the way. If you think peer-to-peer technology had its day, think again. Just because it got a bad name for a while doesn’t mean it won’t change the world. At least three of the presenting companies at Demo are using the technology to buiild their dream: Zingee, a flat-out content sharing play, as I posted about previously…Vsee, which is using the technology to improve desktop video conferencing…and Tiny Pictures, which says it has P2P technology to enable you to share your cell phone pix quickly and easily.

What DEMO 2006 was NOT about. The biggest thing was it wasn’t about gadgets, as the event was known to have been for so many years. Today, the technology world — whether it’s consumer or enterprise — is much more about services. Gadgets are only a means to enable a service, for the user to do something valuable he or she needs to get done. I sit here hard-pressed to name game-changing gadgets presented at the event…. Okay, there was MooBella, the customized, Linux-based ice cream vending machine, and Pleo, the new robotic toy from the inventor of Furby. Yeah, they were cool, but so what? I’m not in the food business or the toy business, and I don’t think most of you are either. The producers threw those in just for shock value and dramatic effect. [And, trust me, Demo’s producers know how to get publicity. They also know how to get buzz, which is why they had so had so many bloggers there. If you want to know what I mean, read this great new post from Guy Kawasaki on how to get buzz these days.] Two gadgets of note I just remembered were the iGuitar — very cool, but you gotta be a musician, which I’m not anymore (surfing took over)…though it’s a big market space ($3 billion) they’re playing in. And the Chili™ from ZinkKat was the other one. But don’t try to find a photo of the device on their web site — it hasn’t been updated since before DEMO! [Hello?] The Chili is the “first wearable cell phone/MP3 player/Podcast and web stream receiver, all on one,” says the company, which is aiming it (of course) at teenagers, for use in the home. [Too bad the voice interface, which is how you operate the thing, sounded so bad. Here’s a clue: no matter how cool your gadget looks, if the interface isn’t right, you have some…uh, work to do?]

And one more thing to take away from DEMO. We’re all learning a lot about blogging, folks. Me included. [And there’s nothing like throwing yourself into it headlong to learn from the inside.] Demosilhouette But I was fascinated by how blog-savvy so many of the companies are that launched at DEMO — and I learned a lot from them. They get the blogging model, the power of the blogging community. They spent just as much time talking up the bloggers as they did the traditional press. Blogging is even changing the model of how some tech companies launch — read: without traditional PR. My fellow blogger and conference reporter Shel Israel did a great post on this topic (just prior to Demo), and this is about the third time I’ve linked to it — it’s that major. Just another example of how the growing online community is changing the game. And Guy Kawasaki’s post, cited above, just adds to that message.

Hope you liked my DEMO coverage. Please drop me a line if you did — or better yet, post a comment.
Cheers…over and out.

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[Written at Bloomington, MN, on the coldest weekend
of the winter so far…ah, sweet memories of Phoenix.]

OK, Two More Content-Sharing Plays…That’s It!

February 18, 2006 / / 1 Comment

Then I’m done — I promise. After all, Demo ended nine days ago, and here I am still writing about it. There was just sooo much good stuff there, people — what can I say?. Thanks for working with me on this. Would you believe I’m up to almost 30 posts on it now? After this, I think I have just one more left in me: a recap of the themes of the event as I see them. But, first, the two final content-sharing companies I wanted to talk about: Zingee and LocaModa. [And please note the last are not necessarily the least.]

Zingee uses peer-to-peer (P2P) technology to make your hard drive a hosting device, letting you share content — files and folders — really easily, with your friends, with groups, or the whole world. “You just drag the files or folders to a name,” said D.K. Kim, CEO. “And everything shared gets a unique URL, which can be searched. It’s simple and free.” Essentially, Zingeelogo Zingee creates web links to all the files on your computer that you want it to. And you securely control exactly what is shared and who you share it with. There are no file size restrictionss, and viewers do not need to register or install anything. D.K. Kim has a background with Citibank and HP, and also was cofounder and CEO of financial services portal Quicken.com Austral-Asia, which had an IPO in 1999 on Australian Stock Exchange. Zingee is based in Singapore but also has people in Australia, including Sydney-based Zingeemicksurf_1 Mick Liubinskas, who is the company’s CMO. Mick, a surfer (that’s him in the photo), has sales and marketing experience with IBM, Virgin, and several IT startups. More recently, he headed global marketing and business development for Kazaa. I asked him about that experience: “I was hired as the first marketing person and grew the team to about ten and grew downloads to 300 million — the most downloads in history. Most of it was viral but we worked hard on media and partner marketing.”

I also asked Mick about his thoughts on the state of P2P technology: “I really see it as the next platform, one that builds on the Internet. We’ll only know how big it is in 2015 — ‘P2P 2.0’. The net guys are still getting used to working with it…Developers of applications for the Internet need to learn how to harness and use it. Web 2.0 is really a precursor to P2P 2.0, which will be web apps using P2P — not all of them but more than half…Most will be impacted by P2P, we just don’t know how yet. Once the apps start coming, then everything else follows — net admin, devices, etc. Look at headsets following Skype.”

How will you convince consumers about the quality of your security? “Trust is earned. You have to let people try it at a low level and grow. Plus you need to partner with trustworthy companies. Half hard tech work, half perception.”

What stuff does Zingee do that no one else does? “The secret sauce is we turn any web-enabled device into a web server that’s really simple to run. We open the content on devices to the web.”

I also asked Mick to comment on the presence of P2P technology at Demo, and what that may mean as far as its spread or adoption: “There was less P2P there than I expected. [Three companies as I counted.] Most are still doing straight web. P2P doesn’t always create value, but it can change the value equation…I lived and breathed P2P at Kazaa. There are only about 20 people in the world who really know what life was like there… Lots of work yet to do in P2P, but I’m excited about it.”

LocaModa extends the web to the street. Interconnecting mobile phone, web, and narrowcast technologies, LocaModa has two applications. The first is called StreetSurfer™ — which lets you find real-estate listings from your cell phone. Big brokerages such as GMAC are aleady starting to use it, said Stephen Randall, CEO and cofounder. “Any cell phone becomes a remote control.” Locamodalogo A newer offering is Wiffiti™, which the company calls the first in-location blogging network — “facilitating freedom of expression on the street.” Randall said it’s about “web and phones converging, to the ‘Web Outside’.” It combines social networking with blogging for venues like bars, clubs, and restaurants. Wiffiti™ encourages people to interact with content or entertainment on large-format, Internet-connected screens via their mobile phones. The company says there are “massive untapped markets beyond the couch and the desk.” Out-of-home media is going digital in locations ranging from retailers to street corners, they say. What’s really unique about LocaModa’s proprietary interactive networks is that it “helps consumers in the moment to opt-in and connect to brands.” Consumers can use their mobile phone like a remote control to surf or communicate with large screens in storefront windows, cafes, bars, or city streets. The company “converts passive out-of-home networks into interactive marketing networks.” This was definitely one of the most different, unique applications of technology and Web 2.0 social networking at Demo 2006.

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