Yes.

The whole location of the Garage Geek party is quirky but that is exactly what makes it so unique. So yes, look closly, Marissa Mayer - VP Search Products & User Experience @ Google is standing on a fork lift while giving a speech.
And if you look a little closer Yossi Vardi is on her left, standing in as stage master, looking concerned…making sure Marissa doesn’t take a tumble ( ’cause in the spirit of Israeli improvisation he is to blame she is up there in the first place )
You might think Marissa could be ticked off at the settings but I got the feeling she ‘connected’ with the garage groove.

      

I’d like to present a different take than proposed by Aner below. When I think of the effectiveness of this new marketing channel I look at the wider perspective of the platform and user habits. To pinpoint the discussion further I’d like to address the action that leads to the ad being served. Google’s definition of a mobile ad is as follows:

“Mobile ads are shorter text-based AdWords ads that appear on mobile websites or when users search Google from a mobile device. When users clicks on your mobile ad, you can send them to your mobile webpage or offer them the option to connect to your business phone.”

The issue that I would like to focus on is the fact that content discovery and search habits are COMPLETELY different when it comes to mobile browsing. As such, I believe ‘copying’ a successful ad model on the ‘pc web’ does not guarantee success in the mobile world.

Mobile web browsing is much more focused. You hardly ever start in one place and ‘wander’ to the next or discover new services and information based on advertising and hyperlinks. Its usually a much more focused action. You are ‘on the go’ you look up ’something’ - news, sports –> these are served via direct links in the Operator’s portal or your own bookmarks - done. There is no (or hardly any) plain search. If there is, its in the context of a use case such as maps, music or video search and that usually happens within a specific service (HooQs ).

In his MEM2007 insights post Aner mentioned (point #9) users tried Google mobile search and didn’t like it. I did too, and didn’t like it. Not because of Google but because content is scarce and the chance of random discovery which is part of the Internet’s main ‘wonders’ doesn’t [yet] exist in the mobile web.

I’m willing to agree Google’s drive is positive. If anyone can start some kind of drive that will motivate mobile content to be created thus leading to an eco-system that is able to sustain ads based on that content…it’s Google. Google’s mobile ads are basically an experiment that will hopefully lead to more mobile content and probably also lead to a change in the ad model.

One of the greatest killer apps for mobile search will be the integration of location based with search. Not on a country level, on the neighborhood level! If I want to buy flowers for my wife - Go to Google, search “Flowers” –> results = near by flower shops, with link to number and a map. That’s effective and thats the kind of “fused” service I am looking when it comes to using my mobile for search.

For now, the level of service is basic. The action is welcomed but execution not focused enough on leveraging mobile use cases.

      

Live from the Globes Internet and Communication Conference, I just had the honor of hearing Craig Newmark - the man who started and still runs Craig’s list. What an amazing man!

During his talk he didn’t make any revolutionary statements, yet his clear, modest, focused and pleasant manner cut through the fuss, buzz and trash we hear all over. A few golden nuggets:
1. Feel and follow through

2. We take no advertising…no advertisers to make happy.

3. I’m the George Costanza of the internet

4. Listen and try hard to so something about it

5. I refused banner ads - didn’t feel right…I was happy and making enough money…

6. Twelve years later…I do full time customer service

7. We trust our community and they respond in a trustworthy way

8. Treat people in the site in the same way you want to be treated….

9. we don’t take money….we owe no debt.

That’s it. I realize now that reading these statements doesn’t seem like a big deal but the “Craig Package” the way he speaks and delivers is admirable. If you think about it, this is a perfect analogy to the success of his site. It doesn’t seem like a big deal, its totally simple, totally honest…and hugely successful. Makes you think!

      

IT DOESN’T HAVE TO BE THIS WAY

Aner’s insights from MEM2007 zoom in on the transitional phase the mobile industry is going through. The company I co-founded (TriPlay) recently launched an internet-mobile service (SyncSpace) with an Israeli operator and if there was one highlight to this whole process is that “westbound” mobile operators are sailing in uncharted territory. Here are a few key points I learned that highlight some challenges I came across (far from the complete list which could fill a book):

1. Target audience - there is no doubt that the market leaders on the demand side for web-mobile service are young people (ages 15-25 and we know that even 15 might not be young enough). They breath mobile services, consume content and eat up data services like no other target group. How is this a problem? Because WE - the mobile/internet start-up’ists, the VC partner, executives at large corporates, ALL of us who define, create, build and fund related companies and services are at least twice that age.

How can we be sure we are creating the right service?

Solution - Talk , talk, talk to them, get feedback, have them involved in your development process. Don’t force your vision on them and expect them to comply. If you don’t expect to find out at launch that you are simply not cool enough, that you have given them far too little credit and that you don’t really cater to their need.

About a year ago I read through a fascinating 200 pages research paper focusing on mobile youth. The ONE sentence I still remember a year later is that “Messaging services that fail to reinforce peer groups offer little beyond their initial novelty value to youth“. This is true for any service - there is tendency to seek technological breakthrough with less thought invested in the real life scenarios it supposed to serve. Bottom line - focus on value first, technology second.

2. Mobile operator corporate culture - analyze the typical headcount at any mobile operator and you will find that most are experienced MOBILE professionals who know a lot about mobile but less about web services, content and entertainment. Yesterday’s mission for the mobile was to ‘connect people’ by voice. Today’s Mission is about connection, voice or data and content. Tomorrow - the mobile will be an ‘IP gateway’ through which the users ‘mobile life’ will be enabled. Where mobility is the focus and not the mobile device.

The mobile device will be the users’ setop-box, entertainment and multimedia device as well as the voice/data communicator. These offerings are not only technologically diversified across platforms but also combine different schools of thought on how to launch new services. The words BETA, rapid development, on the fly, viral and other funky web 2.0ish words contradict mobile operator’s mentality. I don’t believe they need to change their skin but some of the attributes that go hand in hand with creating successful businesses in the web and entertainment industries will have to meld into their corporate culture.

Since this is not an overnight revolution, I expect this to be solved over time. Some interesting times ahead for management, HR units in the mobile operator world as well as their supporting industries. Service providers too will have to go through this metamorphoses. One that will reflect the new role the mobile device has in the future world.

3. beta? Don’t be surprised if you get this reaction. Telco’s are not used to running beta, not to mention the famous Google’s “perpetual beta” mode. Beta mean you are tolerant to bugs, open to user feedback and ready to change requirements if the market says you should. Telco’s heritage is simply different. The good old ‘telco grade’ means that when you pick up the phone (old fixed line phone) you hear a dialing tone - no ifs and buts. Web 2.0 user services launch way before they are fully tested for mass market usage. By definition they are not built for scalability and reliability from day one. They launch in beta, make mistakes, learn, fix and invest in scalability when the market demand forces them do so. When the ‘worlds collide’ this will have to change.

Mobile operators launching web-mobile services will not be able to apply this ‘telco grade’ mentality from day one. If they do they will always lag with services and not be perceived by their users as providing them with ‘edgy’ services. If users find their telco is introducing web- mobile services months and even years after independent players do they will find that the leading target users are already engaged with a different ‘off-deck’ solution. Scalability will not be an issue then since no users will use them to begin with.

Nonetheless they don’t have to be complete 37signals’ type cavaliers and mange their projects on IM chats, no meetings and launch. Somewhere in the middle would do.

4. The handset factor - most of the PC’s in the world are about the same, same OS (windows), same browser (Firefox/Explorer), same keyboard, strong memory, big screen, sit on one network - the PC internet is WWW etc etc. In the mobile world the ball game is totally different. A highly diverse OS environment - J2ME, Symbian, Brew, Windows; Countless different browsers, different screen size, open garden / closed garden (E.G Verizon) etc etc. Therefore creating a smooth, unified, simple, reliable and more important PREDICTABLE mobile experience is a mammoth task. Solution - focus on your initial target audience - what OS are they on? what devices serve them, what are the future devices - don’t try to capture all at once. Define an acceptable experience, aim for the core and spread.

On a more macro level ‘the industry’ better get its act together and start to pin point preferred OS’s, browsers etc. and not let this jungle take over. There is no doubt that when the environment will be more standard, a plethora of new services will evolve.
5. AJAX (Web 2.0) meets WML / XHTML (Mobile 0.5 ) - not a problem! The mobile and PC web experiences are not meant to be the same. Stop raping the mobile phone with overly rich ‘web like experience’. On the mobile it is highly important to focus on simple and fast flows so not having the rich PC environment is not as big disadvantage as you think. A good and simple WAP page, can provide the required experience. In any case just like I mentioned above - focus on value (and now I am adding..) usability first and technology second. All in all exciting times are ahead. The paradigm shift I am seeing is that the mobile device will be my ‘handy’ extension to my mobile life…which can be used and enjoyed on the mobile device but has extensions on the PC and TV as well. As such, when designing such services one needs to think of the three dimensional ‘fused’ world we live in, serving real life / valuable scenarios and NOT focus on connecting two or three technological dots.

      

I spent the week in Monaco at MEM2007. From the personal perspective it was a very exciting show, after all, first time HOOQs was on display. From that perspective we had an excellent show - great feedback and lots of users and leads. We have work cut out for us, but the good news is that the market is HOT! The need for personalized, open, operator independent web to mobile services is all over the place and is welcomed by users, operators, content providers, analysts and bloggers.

MEM2007 is not really a classic exhibition, it’s more of a conference. Participation is nearly exclusive to industry insiders and the tracks, therefore, are very professional. To a start-up-ist, these represent rare opportunities to take a 30,000 feet view and collect some insights that extend beyond the daily challenges. My own personal climax was not a single industry lecture or panel, even though all were very interesting at their own merit. To me, the most insightful session was a focus group with 10 different teenagers. These young adults were gathered from different countries - Australia, England, France, Italy, Finland, Germany - and were all surveyed about their digital lives. Here is some of what they told us:

1. The key elements teenagers look for in their mobile phones is appearance. Then come ability to play music, quality of camera and feature richness. 

2. Nokia is the most popular handset brand. Out of the 10 participants, 5 had Nokias, 2 had Samsungs, 2 had LGs (Chocolate) and 1 had a Sony Ericsson. 7 out of 10 devices were 3G.

3. They don’t do mobile clients - only 1 participant ever downloaded a mobile application. A game. Used it a couple of times and ditched it.

4. Teenagers are smart shoppers. They don’t mind paying for Internet content, but hate buying stuff they can easily find for free. In other words, they will not buy songs for 3 Euros a pop. Contrary to popular belief, they buy a lot of CDs in addition to downloading free music. They know how to manage their music collection and how to get their favorite music on their mobile device.

5. On they other hand, all participants testified they would gladly buy new content if only they could find it easily. All participants agreed that the mobile operator portals are close to impossible to navigate through.

6. On top, the differences between operators and handsets make it impossible for users to share experiences. Not tracks or clips - pure information about where and how to find them!

7. They things they on their handsets are better Internet browsing and memory. They really don’t get why MP3 and Video enabled phones come with such little memory.

8. They don’t mind advertising if it makes content free. They are already used to online ant TV advertising, why object to mobile ads?

9. They all tried Google on their mobile and didn’t like it. The mobile experience does not provide anything close to the internet experience.

10. They don’t do MMS. All of them tried and all of them claim that “it doesn’t work”.

11. If they had to give up their TV, Mobile Phone or PC, 9 out of 10 would give up their TV (the only other answer was PC). None would let go of their mobile phone.

These young adults were not screaming in a vacuum. It was great to hear executives from operators presenting plans to further breakdown their walled gardens and push flat data rates. It seems like it’s only a question of price points now. This is music to the ears of user centric service providers. To me, however, getting the bartenders in front of our booth excited and HooQed was most rewarding than anything!

      

The video you are about to watch is very special:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TOXoplVTcfY

I didn’t plan on take this footage or write about it, but it turned out more than post worthy. What you are witnessing is the first time my son has ever used an iPod. As you can see, for him its bliss. A simple, innocent, unpretentious, pure moment where beat meets mind and mind moves body. That, in itself, is probably of no interest to anyone but myself, so why do I care to put it here and write about it? Well, encapsulated in this moment are a few notes that represent how far we have advanced and how backwards we still are:

1. Past sharing = take a vinyl to a friend and play it. No piracy issues. Today = filetype? zune? iPod? player? protected? criminal?

2. Past song=song. Today Song=song/rintone/truetone/mp3/wav/drm/vidclip/cover/bitrate

3. Past music capacity = house shelf space. Today = disk space = $ dad will pay for next iPod.

4. Past 1000 songs = truck. Today 10,000 songs = pocket.

5. Past music = moving parts. Today music = on the move.

6. Past sharing = serenade. Today sharing = P2P

7. Past selling point = city center. Today selling point = planet earth.

8. Past phone = speak. Today (mobile) phone = another music player.

9. Past download = garbage in the house. Today download = music from net.

10. Past (corporate) promotion = Top of the Pops. Today (self) promotion = myspace.

11. Past recommend = talk to friend. Today recommend = something.web20.com

There is no doubt we have come a long way. A very long way. The biggest open issues remain compatibility and legality. The fact that 30 years ago it was easier to go places and “just play a song” whereas today it turns into a techno_legal symposium is mind boggling.

Over time this absurd will be resolved. By the time my son will be my age he will be able to continue to do what everyone should when listing to music - simply, innocently, unpretentiously, purely… dance!

      

Always had the urge to spread the word on how to draw a perfect Superman? Or perhaps you’re looking to make your first steps as a DJ? If you love teaching or if you simply want to learn something new everyday without breaking a sweat then 5min.com is the place for you.

5Min.com is a new place for sharing short user generated video tutorials. The concept is stunningly simple and powerful; Video sharing networks have not captured that vital niche and expert networks are limited mostly to text. 5min.com jumps on that gap and covers it with style.

The destination itself is well categorized and designed. It is populated with pretty high quality content despite launching only a few days ago. The features demonstrate good depth as well. The tutorial creator lets “tutors” add textual storyboards and the Smart Player (really shique!) offers “students” the ability to view parts in slow motion, frame by frame and so forth. It’s very easy to envision quick spillover to YouTube and MetaCafe channels and to personal blogs and websites. It is also a great place for guerrilla marketers to pitch their goods. Clearly huge potential.  

The founding team is comprised of Ran Harnevo, Hanan Lashover and Tal Siman-Tov. Ran also serves as CEO.

Who said fun cannot be serious? Enough said, go check it out!

      

CTIA fueled some significant mobile news this week as Google, Nokia and Yahoo are about to crash helmets over the next mobile killer app.

Google has made a couple of significant steps this week. The more significant announcement came on Monday, as a strategic deal with LG was announced. Mike Evant reports that Google and LG will preinstall Google Maps, Gmail and Blogger on a wide variety of LG phones, making it a no brainer for carriers to ship and for users to try.

In addition, YouTube will be launching a mobile site as soon as the exclusivity period with Verizon Wireless expires. Unlike the Verizon version which is client based, the mobile YouTube will be WAP based. It will be interesting to see how YouTube deals with video streaming issues across different carriers, networks and devices. All in all a “two punch strategy”, Google for text and YouTube for video, could end up being very effective.

Nokia has not kept quiet. Unwired view is telling us about Nokia’s patent bound semantic visual search engine, screen shots and further explanation of the search process is provided. Katie Fehrenbacher speculates about the natural synergy with Nokia’s camera phones and if half the rumors are true, Google will soon have to go back to protecting home turf, at least when it comes to search innovation.

Yahoo has not kept silent and may very well be making the most concrete steps to date. The introduction of Mobile OneSearch is a promising mass market step, taking search to every internet enabled phone. Yahoo already offers Yahoo Go, the full blown Yahoo experience, to the high end, and together with OneSearch a comprehensive strategy seems to be forming. 

These seemingly little steps are very significant for a number of reasons. Such proactive steps by handset manufacturers and web titans take the carriers further out of the “next killer app” equation. In addition, these provide indication that search, rich content discovery and messaging are the areas where the leading players look for the next killer app. Search has never been carrier territory and carriers have struggled with putting together winning propositions around content. On the other hand carriers do make a lot of money from content and tons of money from messaging. The battle over who owns what asset is definitely not over, but this time, I believe, the space is mature enough to focus on the criteria for splitting the larger pie rather than fighting over who gets to burn it.

      

MacNN reports that “iPhone makes rare appearance at CTIA - Apple’s iPhone has surfaced in the public eye after a long absence”. Have we all gone insane? I mean, I wrote a poem about it but even that can be excused as a ‘momentary lapse of reason’ driven by the peer pressure that surrounds the digiworld we live in.

A few months passed and I thought we all kicked our hangovers by now. There are still open issues such as battery power, touch screen usability, price, quality of service (no one really knows) etc.

When you encounter a beautiful craft for the first time you tend to ignore the obvious impediments and focus on the romantic and the fantastic. That’s great. Then we should snap out. That is what separates the “men from the boys”. The responsible adult can get excited but also keep realistic.

I found this hilarious widget on apples website - the sasquatch news tracker. If you haven’t snapped out of it yet I this one is for you. Never miss a public appearance, a mysterious unveiling, a behind the scenes glimpse…ooooh

having said that…I still want one badly

      

GigaOM reports that Symbian is about to announce a significant upgrade to its operating system on Monday at CTIA. According to ABI Research, Symbian held a commanding 73% market share of the loosely defined Smart-phone market in 2006, resulting in about 50 Million shipments. 

Improvements include battery and memory management, camera and multimedia enhancements and the introduction of transparent and automatic roaming between WiFi and 3G. MobHappy brings the full details.

The upgrade is very significant for a number of reasons. Symbian is reaching out of the Smartphone niche. The multimedia boost, for example, is clearly a consumer focus. Push email and Voip are communication apps and not “business apps” anymore. Symbian is slowly but surely building an attractive and real consumer position, realizing that the higher end market would pay a little more for high quality feature phone.

The introduction of transparent WiFi - 3G roaming is even more significant. While full handset OEM support is needed, this has the potential of making operator independent mobile internet actually usable. Very few users actually bother with switching networks on an ongoing basis. Making the switch automatic would not only reduce costs for the end user, it would also break a wide open hole in the walled garden. And this does not only apply to browsing but to the very core - phone calls. Now, I don’t see Mobile VOIP going mainstream very soon, but I definitely see a gradual uptake, mostly by the cream of the crop from an operator point of view - the travelling professionals.  

How will Operators deal with this? Good question. So far everybody’s happy with the containment of Symbian devices as “Smartphones”. It makes it easy for everyone to avoid a clash. Some operators force vendors to take off the WiFi feature for now (Cingular and Nokia E62 for example). Some put a more constructive focus on upgrading their 3G networks. In any case, it’s all a prelude to the unavoidable reshuffle of the mobile universe.

      

I have Joost on my computer and it’s practically a new world wonder. Finally, a TV app that looks great and works even better. The user experience is absolutely flawless - sexy, simple, cool. It blends the benefits of TV and Computer interaction very well and the quality of the video itself is the best I have seen. Even the inserted ads don’t look intrusive, perhaps because we are all so used to ad-raping by network TV by now. These folks are doing something right. 

But will it succeed? I see one, huge, problem. It can’t be used at work! And what is the only place left without TV access? That’s right. Work!

Let’s take a look at the successful viral apps of the last decade - Instant Messaging, P2P File Sharing, Skype, Blogging. All have one great thing in common - we can safely use them at work. I am not referring to IT security because most of us couldn’t care less about IT security. I am referring to job security. The ability to play hookie without getting caught. IM and Kazaa could simply run in the background and consume very sporadic attention. You can download a file and write a post without drawing the attention of your roommates, or worse, of your boss. And you can minimize all in a split second if someone walks behind your back.

Can you do that with Joost? Nope. TV is TV. It takes up your attention and it’s intrusive to the environment. Wearing headphones is possible in some places, but then the detachment from the environment is so complete one cannot really sit back and enjoy without keeping an eye on the door. This practically means Joost will hardly be used at work but at home. Except that at home we have a great alternative already - a 30+ inch TV with gazillions of channels.

Which means the premier target audience, for now at least, are kids playing in their room behind closed doors, assuming they have attention span left to squeeze between MySpace, TV and PlayStation. While I don’t underestimate the huge potential of that target audience, I don’t think it’s up to par with the wide audience and virgin attention span IM, Kazaa or Skype enjoyed.

Then again, Joost has all the right ingredients. P2P technology is definitely mature enough for Video on Demand. You couldn’t ask for better founders - both in terms of technology and of marketing. We are all really, really tired of outdated TV content distribution models and Joost will have no trouble at all getting a first time look by any reasonable user.

They should be smart enough to have a plan for that problem too. I am just curious to see what that is.

      

After I got busy trashing Google Apps, I finally received a human support callback today (thanks Sonya!). We managed to fix the CNAME and MX issues, got it up and running and ladies and gents, it Rocks!

I still think this whole domain administration challenge is an absurd, but the result is rewarding:

1. Straight forward company Intranet.

2. We are all on the same calendar,  each one of us not compromising access to the personal one as well.

3. Our docs and spreadsheets are aggregated.

4. VERY easy administration.

5. We already know how to use it from our previous experience with Google.

While clearly not an enterprise solution (and not even a medium size business solution) Google Apps is an excellent solution for the Internet Savvy / SoHo.

      

The devils greatest trick was convincing man that he didn’t exist, Baudelaire

Our informal corporate motto is “Don’t be evil.” Google Code of Conduct

It’s been a week since I tried moving my company to Google Apps.

(1) My domain has yet to be verified.

(2) My Partner still has no access to his old calendar.

(3) My support call has yet to receive a human or a relevant response.

I did get an automated response though, a totally useless one that copied text from the website, text I was intelligent enough to read in the first place.

Hello Google Support!! Anybody Home??

      

Shnick-Shnack is not a word you’ll find in Webster or in Wikipedia but it should get there soon. In one of my recent trips to Europe, someone quoted a big shot CEO for one of the leading mobile operators as saying early in 2000 that “ringtones are shnick-shnacks” or in other words “irrelevant” OR “not significant” ….yada yada yada, 7 years later, they have generated a multi-billion dollar industry.

The context of the conversation was one of humbleness. One should not dismiss what seems like a shnick-shnack service at a wave of hand, with a dismissive ..“…this will never catch on…” attitude. Sometimes people want shnick-shnacks. Sometimes shnick-shnacks let you get personal, express yourself. Fontip is just that kind of thing.

Is this shnick-shnack of what

Incredimail is another perfect example for a shnick-shnack service. Do you really need it?No. Does it solve any technological barrier? No. Is it innovative in a way that can’t be duplicated? No. Yet these are ‘VC type’ questions. People have psychological motivations and drives and look for services that answers such needs regardless of passing the ‘investment benchmark’ checklist.

If Fontip is first to serve the need to personalize sms’s and does it well, there is no reason why it can’t be a huge success. Making communications personal (and cool) has landed Incredimail with a huge install base with around 50 million client downloads!

Will Fontip follow suite? I’m no prophet but there is no reason why they shouldn’t. There is no reason why out of the billions of SMS users there will not be enough ‘personalization’ freaks that will go ahead and down load it.

Competition may come from the handset providers, with them creating built tools or similar services, but with such a wide audience there should be a room for them all.

Is this another 7 billion dollars shnick-shnack market, probably not, but the power of shnick-shnack has surprised before.

Gil Rosen

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Google Apps? Na-ah!
by Aner Ravon

Monday March 05th 2007, 5:13 am
Filed under: web 2.0, social, Aner Bio, My Web Life Experiment, user experience

I was really excited when Google announced the rebirth of Apps. My expectations were high due to two main reasons. First of all, it takes a mega brand to do mass market education. I love Zoho, Clarizen and 37Signals, but they are not big enough to drive non-high tech SMEs to the web in masses. Perhaps more importantly, Google have so far managed to apply a “creative chef touch” to online office. GMail, Google Talk, Google Spreadsheets, Google Docs have all displayed freshness that kept the good essence of MS office but went beyond just mimicking; They managed to capture the value of the web over desktop - simplicity, easy col