In
the name of hyperbole, November 9, 2004 could go down as a seminal
moment in the Web's history. On that "fateful" day (how's that for some
hype?), the Mozilla Foundation launched Firefox 1.0 and
life has never been the same for Microsoft's Internet
Explorer ever since. With more than 100 million downloads and
about 10%
of the browser market, Firefox has become popular and reinvigorated the
market by giving IE a real rival following the "demise" of Netscape.
Hopefully, this will mean a better IE when version 7.0 is
released. At the same time, there seems to be more activity in the
browser market with the recent launch of Flock (albeit a lame
out-of-gate beta release that did Flock more harm than good). The
future for Firefox is exciting not only because of additional market
share gains but how the Mozilla Foundation and third-party developers
can push forward the innovation envelope. What I'd like to see is
Firefox create different versions aimed at different market segments.
For tech-savvy users, there could be a lite or no-frills version that
would let them add the extensions and features to create a custom-made
browser. For people who can't be bothered with the DIY version
or don't have the interest and/or aptitude, there could be a
fully-loaded
Firefox or, at least, one with all kind of standard features. I wonder
whether more Firefoxes or Flocks wil emerge. If you look at
the search market, there's plenty of new players despite Google's
dominance. Perhaps the browser market will evolve in a similar way with
products aimed at specific niches - i.e. a browser with a
built-in media player for music lovers; or a browser with a
built-in audio publishing tool for podcasters.
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Monday, November 14
by
Mark Evans
on Mon 14 Nov 2005 03:15 PM EST
In
the name of hyperbole, November 9, 2004 could go down as a seminal
moment in the Web's history. On that "fateful" day (how's that for some
hype?), the Mozilla Foundation launched Firefox 1.0 and
life has never been the same for Microsoft's Internet
Explorer ever since. With more than 100 million downloads and
about 10%
of the browser market, Firefox has become popular and reinvigorated the
market by giving IE a real rival following the "demise" of Netscape.
Hopefully, this will mean a better IE when version 7.0 is
released. At the same time, there seems to be more activity in the
browser market with the recent launch of Flock (albeit a lame
out-of-gate beta release that did Flock more harm than good). The
future for Firefox is exciting not only because of additional market
share gains but how the Mozilla Foundation and third-party developers
can push forward the innovation envelope. What I'd like to see is
Firefox create different versions aimed at different market segments.
For tech-savvy users, there could be a lite or no-frills version that
would let them add the extensions and features to create a custom-made
browser. For people who can't be bothered with the DIY version
or don't have the interest and/or aptitude, there could be a
fully-loaded
Firefox or, at least, one with all kind of standard features. I wonder
whether more Firefoxes or Flocks wil emerge. If you look at
the search market, there's plenty of new players despite Google's
dominance. Perhaps the browser market will evolve in a similar way with
products aimed at specific niches - i.e. a browser with a
built-in media player for music lovers; or a browser with a
built-in audio publishing tool for podcasters.
by
Mark Evans
on Mon 14 Nov 2005 11:19 AM EST
The Web 2.0 venture capital market is still alive and well with Riya Inc. raising $4 million from Leapfrog Ventures and BlueRun Ventures.
I'm always intrigued by VC investments in companies trying to break
into an already-crowded market. For people unfamiliar with Riya, it
is developing an online photo search service - a market
where major players such as Flickr (Yahoo) and (Google) also play.
Riya aims to establish a foothold with artificial intelligence and
photo-recognition technology that can apparently distinguish between
twins. The service is still in alpha (invitation-only) but I'm hoping
to play with it soon. Michael Arrington (a.ka. TechCrunch) is hoping to
stoke interest in Riya by hosting another one of his increasingly
popular launch party this Friday.
by
Mark Evans
on Mon 14 Nov 2005 07:20 AM EST
No offsense to the "Rehabilitation of Henry Blodget" (sounds a lot like a Lowest of the Low song)
but every time I see him quoted or read a blog entry, it makes me a
cringe a little. There is little doubt he knows the Internet space but
there is this thing called credibility that goes hand in hand with
knowledge. You can be the smartest person in the world but it means
squat if you've got no credibility. So to see The Economist quote Blodget, who's now running his own research boutique,
on the portal wars doesn't seem right. There is something unsettling to
quote and promote someone who told his clients wonder things about
dot-com stocks only to bash these companies within the hallowed
confines of Merrill Lynch. When Blodget did that and then got caught,
he lost one of his valuable assets - his credibility. So now he's on
the comeback trail, which includes a blog
to re-establish the "brand". To be honest, it's the blog that bothers
me because it suggests the pursuit of a public persona. If Blodget was
truly interested in restoring his credibility, he would take more
subtle approach by quietly working behind the scenes - rather than
trying to quasi-act as if bygones are bygones. Sure, he's made mea culpa
claims on his blog but this is a guy who is banned from the securities
industries. With more money than he will likely ever need, Blodget
doesn't need to re-build a public profile (blog, media relations, etc.)
to make ends meet. If he wants to re-establish his career, he should do
it quietly and show clients that he can offer valuable insight. A few
years of good advice will go a long way in restoring his street cred.
Blodget has already had this 15-minutes of fame so it's time to let
someone else take over the spotlight from a guy who established his
reputation, credibility and jump-started his career with one lucky call in 1998 - Amazon hitting $400 within the next 12 months.
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