We’ve discussed the evolution from banner ads to branded widgets to full blown branded web applications. Many marketers are starting to understand the value of delivering useful “content” to their audiences as a means of engaging them. However, it’s worth spending a moment to examine the word “content” and how it’s used. It’s critical that [...]

It didn’t take long after advent of the internet for marketers to look at it as a medium for advertising. And as most creators do when they see a new medium, they create for that new medium using the techniques and approaches that have served them well in more established mediums. In our specific example [...]

Back in November of 2006 when we founded Jackson Fish Market we felt like a lonely voice talking about creating experiences online that functioned both as useful destinations as well as opportunities for brand marketers to connect with audiences. Here we are almost a year-and-a-half later and we’ve happened upon two companies telling the same [...]

My first reaction to this situation is that most folks who make software for a living will have steady employment for a long long time.
Here’s the situation. I am looking for a website to use to share my photos with my family. I have the following preferences:

I want to background sync my files up [...]

Billboards and 30 second tv spots have been among the iconic advertising formats for decades. (The web has its own version in the form of banner ads, interstitials, and the torrent of video advertising inserting itself in our streams.) And yet NBC is moving towards having advertisers sponsor entire shows. From the Times:
“At a presentation [...]

I was at an event recently where someone talked about a book they were going to write with advice on how to make big companies work more effectively. Testament to the popularity of this topic are the almost unlimited number of books on the subject. And I believe that his book would add even more [...]

Mike Masnick at TechDirt responds to the original AdAge post with more enlightenment:
#3 Content is advertising. Might sound like a repeat of the point above, and in some way it is — but it’s highlighting the flip side. Any content is advertising. It’s advertising something. Techdirt content “advertises” our business even if you don’t realize [...]

Today the ad industry trade press finally wrote the story we’ve been telling for the last 15 months:
Think Different: Maybe the Web’s Not a Place to Stick Your Ads — Matthew Creamer Asks Whether We’re All Missing the Point When It Comes to the Internet
This is exciting for us as we’ve been trying to get [...]

There’s been a blip in the blogosphere (and the Seattle Tech Startup mailing list) lately about corporate culture and how hard people should work at startups. Posts of note include:

37 Signals announcing they are moving to 4 day workweeks (among other things).
Jason Calacanis saying you should fire people who aren’t workaholics (among other things).
37 [...]

…with Deb, Brian, and Tara. Our initial reactions below.

I think it’s hard to find folks who will argue with the premise that advertisers are funding (or soon will be funding) the bulk of consumer software development on the planet. And when it comes to brand advertising, those sponsors are finding that the higher they go up the software evolutionary chain, the better results [...]

This game is called Crayon Physics Deluxe. I can’t describe it better than Austin Grossman did on (excellent new Gawker site) i09. It’s essentially a “magic book”. Watch all the way through. Every new scenario continues to amaze.

With stuff like this still being invented we haven’t even scratched the surface of what kind of interesting [...]

I saw an article on AdAge (via Techmeme) this morning that surprised me. The headline is “Media Work Force Sinks to 15-Year Low“. I was surprised because the news felt immediately disconnected from what it feels like to me. To me it feels like there have never been more opportunities and outlets for the creation [...]

I attended the first Java One conference back in 1995. Anyone who was in the industry at the time will remember the excited throngs (at the conference and in the industry) getting all lathered up over all things Java. (They gave out super cool mini Leatherman knives with the Java logo. The TSA now owns [...]

“We can’t refuse Unilever the right to make an Axe campaign without giving someone the right to refuse Unilever the right to make the Dove campaign. If we can say “no” to a sexist campaign, someone can say “no” to a feminist one.”
The discussion above is excellent (as it always is on the “Intersection of [...]

“Building a world class Yahoo to be the best company it possibly can be using the management skills that Jerry and company have is a far different challenge than optimizing the stock price. Particularly when Google is your stock comp.”

By no stretch of the imagination do I claim credit for having made something that lots of folks consider great (other than my kids). But we’re not talking about kids and as my wife will point out, I had only a modest role in that anyway. I’d like to talk about creating things that people [...]

Awhile ago I wrote about the music service I would love (but doesn’t exist). It still doesn’t but I was reading about lala.com and realized it might just do the trick.
Lala claims to:

let you upload your whole catalog of mp3s
let you listen to your music anywhere there’s a web browser
sync the music you uploaded with [...]

This is not new information certainly. The music industry (specifically the labels) must be having a fun time lately.
Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails recently posted the following:

TechCrunch wrote this about Madonna’s latest deal:
“According to reports, Madonna has signed a $120million deal with L.A. based concert promotion firm Live Nation to distribute three studio albums, [...]

Signals vs. Noise recently tried answering the question of how they moved from consulting to product development:
“37signals made the move from clients to products one day at a time. Basecamp was developed alongside client work and was treated as essentially a third client. It had to compete for resources on equal footing with other clients, [...]

Check out the Spy Museum — a privately owned museum in DC. The museum is cool because, well, it’s filled with spy stuff. What’s interesting about it is that it’s privately owned.

“The Malrite Company, developer of the International Spy Museum, is the successor to Malrite Communications Group Inc. founded in 1956. For more than 40 [...]

As an avid Rhapsody user there’s little I hate more (other than Rhapsody being literally completely broken on the Mac - is anyone paying attention over there?) than wanting to listen to a track on Rhapsody and not finding it in their catalog. Someone with veto power, artist, composer, label, etc. said “no thanks”.
I [...]

I’m becoming more and more addicted to the Rhapsody subscription music service. It has it’s problems (missing tracks in the catalog, no roaming of playlists with local content, bugginess, crappy mac support, no cross-fades, etc.) but the roaming of my playlists, the ability to explore new music for more than 30 seconds at a time, [...]

Photo by Randy Stewart.
You may think this is a horrible reinforcement of gender-specific stereotypes. You may think this is a horrible waste of money. You may think it’s great. I’m not saying that we’re flying our four-year-old princess-crazed daughter across the country to do this stuff, but I am fascinated by the entire enterprise. [...]

Several months ago I was at a party where a friend mentioned that they were thinking of what to do next with their career. He did pretty well at their previous gigs and was under no major pressure to get a job soon. He told me that despite his experience making software he was looking [...]

Since I’ve been busy pontificating about how people should write, why stop with yesterday’s post? If there’s one thing that makes me crazy about tech journalism right now its the way many of the writers throw around “statistics”.
I’ll admit that things have evolved where most journalists are no longer talking about how many “hits” a [...]

We’re certainly no experts having only shipped two small pieces of software in our short history, but watching the Apple “Special Event” yesterday reminded me of the importance of execution. I was reminded again as I saw these posts on the balance between new features and scaling your application:

“The CTO goes to the CEO and [...]

Having worked with people who have been unhealthily obsessed with terminology (”Hey, I’m going to interrupt you to clarify the term you’re using even though I know exactly what you mean.”) I hesitate to bring this up. But luckily hypocrisy doesn’t get you blackballed from writing a blog.
Over the years there have been several attempts [...]

As people keep reminding me, I worked on Apple’s last wildly-hyped handheld communication device. It’s easy to draw parallels between the Newton MessagePad and the iPhone. You’ve got the great industrial design, powerful and innovative hardware and software, and “change the world” attitude. You’ve also got out-of-control expectation-building, a new input method the CEO says [...]

For many years I’ve quite enjoyed my t-shirt collection. My t-s have always been super comfortable as well as free. Unfortunately, most of their comfort came from the fact that I always got them two sizes too large and their “freeness” meant their content was restricted to the genre of high-tech schwag that has [...]