While somewhat unrelated, it is interesting to examine news today from Netscape and Six Apart. Netscape, the early darling of Web 1.0, is apparently trying to re-invent itself as a social-networking site like Digg. The new and improved (??) entity will be headed by the notorious Jason Calacanis, who is likely looking for a new gig after selling Weblogs Inc. to AOL last year. While I wish Jason lots of luck, this assignment strikes me as a huge challenge even with AOL's financial and marketing muscle. Without first or even second mover advantage, Netscape is wading into crowded, competitive waters with the baggage of being the browser that was swamped by Internet Explorer and overtaken by Firefox.
   A far more interesting story is Six Apart, a leading Web 2.0 company, that has raised another $12-million of private equity to drive development of a new, feature-rich service called Comet. Six Apart is a far more exciting story than Netscape because it's smack in the middle of the blogging revolution (evolution?) and, unlike too many Web 2.0 players, it actually has a business plan and revenue. From a strategic perspective, I'm intrigued by what Six Apart could do next aside from Comet. It could do an IPO but that doesn't seem to be the way the game is played these days. Another option may be making some acquisitions to expand its blogging tools portfolio. What about a deal with Technorati or the purchase of a blog analytics company such as Blogbeat, which seems to be leading takeover candidate now that MeasureMap and Urchin have been snapped up by Google.

Update: Mip's Scan has a post on Six Apart buying SplashBlog, which lets you publish photos from a smart phone to an online album.

Tags: Six Apart, Netscape, Technorati, Jason Calacanis

You ever wonder how different kinds of mobile applications are able to run on hundreds of devices using different kinds of networks? Part of the answer is Tira Wireless, which adopts, deploys and optimizes wireless services for a wide variety of devices. The Toronto-based company has raised $13-million to - among other things - expand into the music and video markets. Tira's newest investor is Lehman Ventures. Other investors include Brightspark Ventures, Flagship Ventures and the Export Development Bank of Canada.

The blog analytics market got a little more crowded this week with the launch of Performancing Metrics. Not surprisingly, I jumped on the beta right away to see how it matches up with Blogbeat (which is temporarily offline this morning), MeasureMap, Google Analytics and StatCounter. So far, my take is it's really solid. I particularly like the fact my visitor numbers are much higher than Blogbeat for whatever reason! Like Blogbeat and GA, Metrics is easy to install with one piece of Javascript placed on your blog. Although there have been a few complaints (Blogger users, Stowe Boyd), my experience was hassle-free and the stats started to appear almost right away. Metrics offers all the usual analytical bells and whistles such as unique visitors, page views, outbound links, etc. A feature I particularly like is the number of AdSense clicks are tracked. If Metrics needs to work on anything, it's better and more intuitive navigation. For whatever reason, there just doesn't seem to be as good a flow as Blogbeat, although it is much easier than GA. For anyone interested in blog analytics, give Metrics a whirl.
One more thought: Like MeasureMap, GA and StatCounter, Metrics is free - at least for now. Now sure about its business model but you have to wonder how Blogbeat can charge $4 a month ($2 as part of a special offer) when everyone else is free. Then again, this is the world of Web 2.0 where making money isn't as exciting as attracting an offer from GYM.
Update: For an extensive review on Metrics, check out Solution Watch.