DanLin.net

Digg.com has been using John Battelle’s Federated Media for their ad serving ever since the initial investment by Omidyar Network. Being funded by the same guy and all. But recently it looks like Digg has ditched FM in favor of their ex-ad server Google Adsense. Is it just me or has anyone else noticed this? Is there any story behind the switch? It seems that Federated Media would be able to fetch a higher CPM rate by selling ads using their sales people than the ‘we’ll make it up in volume’, notoriously under paid system Google offers. I suspect that Digg might be in talks with Google about an acquisition deal. That would explain why Digg is favoring adsense exclusively to show Google why they are worth the $150M price tag they are asking. It’s just my speculation and contribution to the Google rumor mill. Thank you very much.

Ning is a company that has been around for about 2 years now and this week they finally launched a product that is worth discussing. They are near the forefront of commoditizing social networks by allowing people to create vertical social networks based on their interests. Conceptually this is pretty cool and as it is free, it might have put fiveacross out of business had they not been acquired by Cisco earlier this month.

From a development and design perspective, the product is very beautifully made with gratuitous Web 2.0 UI features. Usability is very intuitive and setting up a social network is literally a few clicks away. I tested the service and created my own trendy Web 2.0 social network called ThunderAndLight.Ning.com.

Today’s social networks are like the message forums of the 90’s and the blogs of 2003. Ning to me is the PHPBB and Wordpress of social networks. The only difference is that it is free but not open source. I can see a lot of small organizations like schools and churches begin building social networks of their own using services like this. Ning’s business model currently looks like purely advertising driven and they are betting on the vertically integrated model to drive enough traffic to build revenue.

Founded by Mosaic co-creator Marc Andreessen and his protege and Stanford Business School grad Gina Bianchini (Link to Flickr profile), cash and industry connections are not likely gonna be problems. Let’s just hope this vertical market thing lives up to its hype.

You may have seen the video of Microsoft Photosynth app. Here is the Web app you can try for yourself. It is simply amazing. I never expected it to work so smoothly inside the browser (Even Firefox).

Photosynth Tech Preview

The guys at Top Gear, the British television show, have totally lost it. In a highly amusing way. They built a reusable space orbitor fashioned after our (the U.S.) very own, soon-to-be-retired Space Shuttle. It is an amazing piece of private enterprise ingenuity. Check it out…

In our latest podcast we talked about the Macworld SF 2007 announcements. Specifically the iPhone and AppleTV. Here is a little rundown of what my thoughts are of these products so far:

AppleTV:

Likes:
Small
Relatively Inexpensive
Has HDMI out
Intuitive interface
Syncs to 40 GB local drive
Portable

Dislikes:
Needs new Airport or needs hardwire
No DVD playback
No DVR
No native media acquisition (Ways to buy content directly on the device)
iTunes software is too bulky but required for use
Minor dislike, no 1080p support

Unknowns:
Can if be user upgraded to more disc space?
Will it support third party apps?
Does iTunes store sell 720p content?
Will it support other file formats?
Can the Mac Mini do the same thing?

Summary:
Great device for someone already deep in the iTunes ecosystem
Great device for novice user looking to move from their mac to their tv
Not great for people with collection of videos in other formats
Overall a very good device for a good price

Apple iPhone:

Likes:
Large screen for web browsing and video
Seemingly intuitive interface
Sleek design
Powerful architecture
IMAP and POP3 email support
Multitasking support
320×480 resolution

Dislikes:
No 3G means slow internet (given the price!?!?)
Cingular partnership - ulterior motifs, will want to charge for basic services like SMS rather than using iChat
On screen keyboard has no tactile feel and is an x-factor
More screen means more grease to clean off
Expensive even with 2-year contract
Battery life will probably suck when using multiple features like wifi and bluetooth
No existing ecosystem so current apps dont work
No IM (iChat), likely due to opposition from Cingular

Unknowns:
Do current widgets work?
Is it easy to develop for?
Does it need memory management like Pocket PC?
How many hours of video will it hold?
What is the battery life of video playback?
Coverflow, is it necessary or just eye candy? (Don’t answer, it’s rhetorical.)
Will the accelerometer work when you are laying down or sideways?
Whats the camera for besides stills and video capture? Can it work with iChat in the future somehow?
How powerful is it? CPU type, RAM/ROM capacity?

Summary:
great technological breakthrough
Very innovative industrial design as well as software design
Does not have the magical formula (Magical formula will entail 3G)
Needs to be field tested for real world usability.
Too expensive for the regular user. (And no, it’s not like the original iPod kinda pricey. Much more than that.)
Not enough storage especially for the price.
Powerful processor and features that will likely be enhanced in the future.
Very democratically designed by involving various tech giants (best of breed Web apps from Google and Yahoo)