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: Web/Tech (Page 12 of 21)

Why Google Just Paid $1.65 Billion for YouTube

This chart says it all….

Youtubechart

In surfing, there’s a saying for one of the ultimate achievements in riding a wave: “getting tubed.” Well, today, I’d say YouTube kicked out of the ultimate tube ride of all time in the history of tech startups! A story that began just 19 months ago. Congratulations to Chad, Steve, and the 65 other lucky souls above the pizza shop out in San Bruno. Talk about winning the lottery…

And lest we not forget the VC behind it all, Sequoia Capital (behind Google as well) — just what they need: another $495 million in winnings! 🙂

Gugle, Kroogle – What’s the Diff?

I asked Steve Larsen, CEO of Krugle, Menlo Park, CA, for his reaction to the big news today….that Google was launching “Google Code Search.”

Tech~Surf~Blog: What’s your take on this bomb, Steve?

Larsen/Krugle Inc.: We’ve been saying for 18 months that Code Search is an important new category. Stevelarsen The massive benefits that can be realized by both developers and corporations when robust code and technical search is available is becoming increasingly obvious. Google’s entry, along with O’Reilly’s entry a few months back and the existence of koders.com — it all signals we’re on the right track.

Tech~Surf~Blog: What are some other reasons you believe that?

Larsen/Krugle Inc.: Well, for one, developers spend 20-25% of their time just looking for stuff. Krugle users report saving significant time due to us helping them find code and technical information fast. Second, code search is the key to making code-reuse a reality. Vast amounts have been spent to modularize and make code componentized, but little has been spent on how to find and connect the modules. Good code search fixes this. Thirdly, companies who care about developers — like IBM, Sun, Microsoft, and others — have spent the past several years attempting to provide better access to their code archives and high-value technical information. This is a big issue for them. We’re helping.

Tech~Surf~Blog: What do you have to say specifically about Google’s code-search product?

Larsen/Krugle Inc.: First, it could be characterized as a better version of koders.com. While it does simple code search, developers tend to be more exploratory in the search process. They first search and review potential answers, then research these answers to better understand the project and review the technical documentation. Our three channels — code, tech pages, and projects — are based on how developers really use search.

Second, searching and finding code alone is not all that compelling. To be truly useful to developers, you need to show code in the context of its project, the meta data around the project, as well as license information. Krugle does this with an easily browsable project directory and rich technical information that relates to the code and project.

Thirdly, search engines ultimately are judged on the accuracy and relevancy of their results. The same indexing and page-rank algorithms used to search text, images, video, and books come up short when faced with the demands of professional programmers. At Krugle, we’ve found the key to great search results is to parse the code, collect and analyze project information and statistics, and use all of this to more accurately order our code search results.

Fourthly — is that a word? — we think collaboration around code is very important. And we provide users with the ability to create, add, and save notes to code and sets of related results, providing a level of interaction with code that developers heretofore have just not had.

I even have a fifth point: While other code search engines offer the ability to search for a code file if you know its name or something about it, Krugle goes well beyond that by supporting common programmer use cases that revolve around: (a) exploring a new technical project or concept in an effort to quickly “come-up-to-speed”…(b) finding code or code snippets to use or to have as an example…or (c) helping find what’s wrong when your code doesn’t work and you need to know how to fix it.

There you have it, friends. Krugle should be liking all this attention. I think this code-search game is just now beginning to get interesting…

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Google Does Code Search – Busy Day at Krugle?

Google dropped a bomb today when it announced it was launching “Google Code Search,” which Yahoo News was kind enough to tell us about in the wee hours this morning via this Reuters story. Googlecodelogo Not much at the Google Code Blog yet — the latest entry there is October 3rd. But I’m sure it’s all over the Google watch blogs by now…

Of course, code search is not a new idea, as Krugle launched its service with much hoopla at Demo ’06 in February. Kruglelogo_1 See some of my coverage here, and this was Dylan Tweney’s take at Wired.com at the time.

Me thinks it will be a busy day at Krugle as the sun starts to rise in Menlo Park…. I’ve asked Steve Larsen, CEO, for some comment. Stand by.

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Give YouTube a Break!

Warner Music did. As this Newsweek story describes, personal relationships really do make a difference in this business. It’s just a bootstrapped startup trying to find its way — they deserve some slack! Youtubenewsweek The sleezy entertainment industry goons need to back off and let innovation bloom. And they will, because there aren’t any deep pockets there to sue yet. The question instead, though (as the article says), is the huge amount of capital it will take to keep YouTube going. The boys at Sequoia have already thrown in $11.5 million — but that’s just the beginning of what this thing will need. Try $2 million a month, some say, just to run the service. Wow, do they need ad revenues — fast! Meantime, how much more will the VCs bet? Well, don’t think they (and their friends) can’t pour it on — and will. Yet there are those already predicting YouTube’s demise….read Analyst Firm Predicts YouTube Is ‘Goin’ Down’ .

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