Apple and Google competitors closing the gap

Apple Mac sales have been gaining ground. This is largely attributed to the "halo effect", ie increased interest in macs due to success of the ipod. I agree the halo effect is driving interest however macs have had a competitive advantage over windows xp. Mac OS X is more current, and looks better. Apple is likely to loose some of that competitive edge with release of Windows Vista.

Regarding Google and Yahoo, Yahoo is finally rolling out Panama, their new system for advertising that replaces the system put in place with the acquisition of Overture. It is more or less a copy of Google's Adwords system and is likely to dramatically increase their revenues.

I am still bullish on Apple and Google long term, but in the short term their competitors are likely to close the gap slightly.

cringley on craiglist

bob cringley writes about how craigslist owns the community for local advertising.

prosper.com

prosper.com is a really great idea... connecting lenders and borrowers, eliminating the banks. Here is an article, it was started by a guy at e-loan.

Windows Vista

I agree with the recent criticism I have read about Microsoft offering too many versions of Windows Vista.

Jeff Bezos and Amazon

Recent article in business week discusses how Jeff Bezos wants to make Amazon into an internet platform company. It mentions a9 which was a case of google envy and a waste of shareholders money. The main point is it's web services like S3 service, which appears to be basically pay as you go web hosting, and mechanical turk, a crowdsourcing application. I think they are on the right track about the future of the net, but I just don't see them being the ones that pull it off.

I think the main problem is that they charge really small amounts for their services. Charging small amounts prevents people from using them. Conversely google lets people use their services for free and monetizes them through advertising. For instance they charge $.15/thousand requests for access to the alexa web services

techcruch rocks

TechCrunch is fast becoming one of my favorite blogs. I saw two interesting articles about acquisitions. Reddit was bought by Conde Nast, and digg is in talks with news corp.

Google Test Site

searchmash is a site where google tests out new features.

Yahoo run by old school media execs

This yahoo talent show site exemplifies my problem with Yahoo's direction. The girl on this ad acts like she is on tv. I think fundamentally the problem is that Terry Semel is from Warner Brothers where he turned them around by producing a string of huge blockbusters. I don't think he or the people he has brought in understands the web. If this is their answer to google buying youtube they are in big trouble. (the original ad featured the robot break dancing clip of david elsewhere that was made famous on youtube). They don't seem to understand the interactive nature of the web versus a broadcast medium. Just today yahoo announced Yahoo food which will feature celebrity chefs.

zune and the high end market

One problem that Microsoft's zune player will face is that apple has already captured a large portion of the high end consumers. The ones who are willing to pay for the convenience of using itunes. These consumers are largely locked in because songs bought through itunes won't play on other players without some effort. (for instance burning and then ripping the songs as mp3s). However some people think Microsft may try to buy these users out by giving them free copies of songs they bought on itunes. While I think this is a good idea, it exemplifies how hard it is going to be for anyone to compete with the ipod. Even if they are free I hope they make it quick and easy to download all the songs.

Microsoft Office Live

Microsoft Office Live will offer free domain registration and hosting.