News and Analysis

News of the Day 8/3/2009

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Career:
Dan Schwabel on colleges, value, and personal branding – He makes a good and rather disturbing point on how colleges don't prepare people to connect and promote themselves in the career world.

Blogging leads to job opportunities – A NO BS account of how a blogger used his blog and networking to land a job.

Economics/Freakonomics/Geekonomics:
Recent economic number in graphs – Pure graphrotica for econofans. Possibly not so useful for people not into heavy economics, but presented for interest.

Anime and Manga:
How to get your anime/manga proposal rejected – Ten ways to completely screw up.

Social Media:
Nintendo DSi's Facebook connect goes life – It really only posts photos, but it's a further example of social integration – and ahead of the PSP obviously. However this is also another boost for Facebook, further cementing them in the social media space. Between this and phone apps social media/portable/mobile integration is pretty much a given, its just how much companies will do. Jobwise of course, connecting portables to social media is obviously a good area to be-in . . .

Technology:
The Everything Wars continue as Google launches an ad campaign clearly targeted at Microsoft Office. Not a bad idea – and it covers up the embarassment of the Twitter leak issue (even if the person getting into the company's Google apps just used some social engineering). It continues – so what's Microsoft going to do in retaliation the next week or two?

Appropriate to the above, a look at why Microsoft Word should die – This is a must read for technicians, writers, and anyone using a lot of word processing. He makes the simple point that word stopped being ABOUT document delivery awhile ago, while retaining all the features of it and then some.

Who's fault is it Google Voice was rejected off of iPhone? AT&T points the finger at Apple. Thus it continues. Apple is further under the spotlight now, and they handed competitors a marketing opportunity. I want to see what other rejected apps may come out and what ic an mean for Apple.

Video Games:
Zynga is now number one in amount of online gamers using its services – I see nobody is surprised. For those of you in the job market, please note there are a LOT of open jobs there . .

170 Million Americans play games – Part of a larger report. Note that this covers almost all kinds of gamers.

Is it impossible to launch a new IP in the holiday game market? – Michael de Plater of Ubisoft thinks so. Gaming's success has altered it's own market dynamics, and gaming will need to adjust. I think this is a big enough issue that people in gaming need to pay more attention to release schedules than they did even a few years ago – both on development and support. It also suggests to me that new IP really needs to avoid Christmas and find a "killer" time to get put out.

– Steven Savage

We’re all entrepreneurs

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I know some people who've gone and started their own business.  They're entrepreneurs, and frankly, pretty impressive people.  They've got their own jobs, and though its work, its work they love.

People often look at such people with envy – they want to make the leap to owning their own business, freelancing, etc.  They want to be entrepreneurs.

They already are, the problem is they don't know it.

Read more

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Geek Alert: Yahoo and Microsoft sign search deal.

This one is all over the geekosphere, and there's a lot information. First, it appears it's a ten year deal – and secondly, Yahoo is getting 110% of ad revenue the first two years Yes, 110%. Yahoo also gets to work relations for Microsoft.

A little more detail is available here – the integration could take two years.

So, my take on this?

  • This isn't approved – it'll take into 2010 to get regulatory approval.
  • The deal takes up to 24 months to integrate AFTER appoval – so we can be talking 30 months or more until it's all done technically.
  • Yahoo is toast if this goes through – they'll be thorouhgly dependent on Microsoft. As a truly separate company it's over with, and I could see a total integration happening within that decade.
  • This is more of the Everything Wars, and I suspect Google will make some other stunning announcement – or accelerate projects like Chrome, in the near future. It's also possible the sense of Microsoft as a larger company than they are may make them leverage more alliances and OS projects for image reasons.
  • This is more of the Everything wars. More here.

    And for Irony? Remember for years Yahoo was powered by Google.

And now our regular news . . .

Career:
Good basic advice on researching companies you want to work for.

Publication:
Why music magazines are dying – Most interesting to me is that they had social media elements before there was social media. A good read on the industry that you can probably apply to many others.

LibreDigital raises $15 million – They do multiplatform digital distribution. Wonder if they allow companies to delete files . . . sarcasm aside, not a surprising investment. Let's see if it can pay off – I'm concerned VC is coming to electronic publishing a bit slower than it needs, which may further hamper development.

Mobile:
There is apparently a way to hijack iPhones via text message. Those of you working (or wanting to work) in IT security, you now have a brand new horror story to share. Let's see how Apple reacts and if this ends up quickly in the wild, that will affect future activities.

Android gets a Facebook app – It's a start, at least. Certainly Android is being taken very seriously.

Social Media:
Twitter's new front page emphasizes search – Pretty much a strategy people figured Twitter would count on. Interesting thought is if they include more ilinking, crossreferencing, etc. they may have something – and could they interlink other sources? Either way, Twitter moves forward.

Video:
EpixHD launches – Basically movie studios let you see their movies if your internet/TV provider has a deal anyway. Not exactly impressive (and more of the specialty distribution we've seen), but a player. I don't have high hopes for it due to its limitations. Still worth watching to see if it has any market impact.

Video Games:
A possible inFamous movie? – Sounds like a possibility. I see some potential here (thought I think a miniseries more fits the arc), as the game had very cinematic qualities. Between this and the WoW movie we could see functional game-movie synergy which is unfortunately rare – at best you get mediocre and some quick money.

The Downside to Direct Download in gaming – Lots to think of, including how a shift to DLC could be done easy by some companies – and bring unexpected side effects (like potentially forcing them to direct-sell hardware). Lots to think over. I myself am loosing some enchantment with DLC the more I analyze it, but it's still going to be something TRIED, even if it results in horrible failures – because companies want to make more money.

– Steven Savage