Once in a while Doc Searls comes up with a classic statement, and this is one of those [emphasis mine].  The buyer’s envelope, please In the meantime, consider this thesis: Amazon and other excellent online retailers have improved the online shopping experience as far as a retailer can. Yes, there is always room for improvement, but there is only so much improvement you can carry out only on the sell side, even if you’re equipping buyers to do a better and better job. At a certain point the improvements need to happen on the buy side. You need better buyers, … Continue reading Retailers have improved the online shopping experience as far as they can

We have had all the ballyhoo about FB’s new ad network, and now MySpace is predictably moving ahead too.  I say predictably because clearly the economics of internet is destined to lever off advertising.  Online advertising spend is predicted to double by 2011.  However I continue to question whether Ad networks will be the right deployment for online advertising. I see very few ads.  Google Apps (gmail) turns of Ads, and gmail spam filter eliminates most spam (+95%)  The Ad blocker extension in Firefox eliminates the rest of the ads from web pages.  I might be a little unusual there, … Continue reading Are ad networks really the endgame?

Nice analysis, and context setting here from Joe.  I continue to watch the concept of VRM, and agree that the directions being set by platforms such as F8 and related tools will be useful in helping someone to narrow down tools that allow people to own and lever their preferences to get better service, and more simply locate what they want to buy. joeandrieu.com » Blog Archive » Marc Andreessen hits three nails on the head… … the most powerful platform of all: platforms that are completed distributed and designed to run on other peoples platforms. This “Level 4″ Platform … Continue reading Applications, platforms, and VRM

 I certainly don’t pretend to be any kind of expert in this area.  Seth makes a point here which, while I know it to be true, makes me shake my head. There are very few sites built on Amazon affiliate revenue alone, mostly because the affiliate deals don’t convert often enough to make them worth what’s paid. Source: Seth’s Blog: Inventory and Risk His argument is that marketers will not quickly shift from PPC (Pay per click) to PPA (Pay per Action) because the “A” in action happens too infrequently!  Hello …. this means that the “C” in click is … Continue reading The perversity of online advertising

 This fascinating experiment is indicative of the real networked future, when buildings and companies will talk to you as you walk by.  This is makes VRM the more essential, because I don’t want to be bothered by every building as I walk by. TOKYO – Downtown strollers looking for directions, store guides or historical tidbits will be able to get an earful without talking to anyone – thanks to 1,200 computer chips embedded around Tokyo’s Ginza shopping district. The information can be heard through earphones that pick up signals from chips stuck in cement, lampposts and subway-station ceilings. The 1 billion yen … Continue reading Chips talk to you as you walk around Ginza

 I found this new beta (hat tip to Chris) fascinating, and a clearer example of how microformats work to the layman.  Its the first effort that starts to play out the vision that I see for microformats and Banking.  Operator is a firefox extension that “watches” for information that it understands.  The simple example provided here is for areas where standards exist, such as dates, addresses, and photographs. Operator requires information on the Web to be encoded using microformats, and since this method for semantically encoding information is relatively new, not all sites are using microformats yet.  …. As more sites … Continue reading Introducing Operator; a Microformat Detection Extension for Firefox 2