Software You’ll Need When Your PC Hits The Big Start Over Button In The Sky

October 9th, 2007 Davis

Recently, I suffered a computer meltdown and the good news is that I still have my data, but the bad news is that it’s cheaper to replace the PC, then it is to fix it. Since I was already in the market for a laptop, I decided to purchase one, while I took the time to figure out my home PC strategy.

It’s been a long time since I’ve had a new computer, so I was a little surprised at how long it took me to recreate my unique PC experience. Getting the right mix of bookmarks and software is key to taking full advantage of the horsepower that your computer has. At first, I thought that setting up my new laptop would be quick and painless, but I misjudged the sheer number of programs that I would need and forgot about the pesky bloatware to deal with.

Even after an aggressive campaign, I am still finding things that I need to uninstall. I did manage to get rid of the McAfee pop up that warned of my computer being comprised because I wasn’t paying them money but I’m still trying to remove the Vongo free trial offer that shows up in what seems like every menu.

Since I know that I’m not the only one to experience some frustration in setting up a new PC, I decided to keep a list of all the programs that are helpful, when you are doing a fresh install.

Web Browsing

Firefox - I’ve tried the new internet explorer browser, but it still can’t beat this open source underdog. Step #1 - fire up IE, so you can download Firefox, then delete all IE shortcuts, so you never accidentally launch the software again.

IE Firefox Plugin - As much as I try to avoid IE, sometimes there are services that are only supported by Microsoft’s browser. In order to avoid having to fire up IE, I install a firefox plugin, that allows me to use IE, in my preferred browser.

Email

Thunderbird - I normally use web based email, but still like having Thunderbird, in case I need to archive my emails. I actually prefer Microsoft’s Outlook, but am not willing to spend the money when there is such a great open source product available.

Communication

Skype - I don’t use Skype as much as I should, but think that it’s a great alternative to cable telephone or Vonage. I’m still looking for a good program that can record my Skype calls, but this is still a pretty robust service.

Trillian - Thomas Hawk turned me onto this one. Why run separate Yahoo!, MSN and AOL instant messaging software, when one program can handle all three? Instead of being forced to choose your friends, you can show up on all three major networks easily.

System Resources

AdAware - This one isn’t fun to play with, but it’s important to have on your system. It can’t stop a full blown virus from invading, but it can help you find programs that are trying to sneak their way on board.

Spy-bot Search & Destroy - Spy-bot is a lot like AdAware, but I like to keep both programs available. One time I came across a download that blocked AdAware from starting, but was no match for Spy-bot. These services can’t replace the paid ones, but they go a long way towards helping to improve the security on your computer.

Google Desktop - I’ve had mixed feelings about Google Desktop from the get go, but still continue to use it. On one hand, it’s really helpful to be able to search my hard drive easily, but on the other hand, I also feel a little weird about Google desktop tracking me. I figure that the functionality is worth it, as long as I make sure that I’ve got a strong password for my login.

Java - I’m not even sure that I can tell you what Java does, but I do know that it is at the heart of some pretty cool applications. I’ve used the technology to play games, watch videos and watch live streaming content online and I don’t think that I’ve even scratched the surface of what it’s capable of.

Greasemonkey - GreaseMonkey allows you to mash up different parts of the web inside of your browser. It’s a very powerful plugin and is worth downloading, even if you’re not sure how you’ll end up using it. My favorite GreaseMonkey script is a plugin that allows you to see which movies in your Netflix queue, will be airing on TiVo soon.

Social Web

Commentful - This software will change the way you interact online. It allows you to leave comments on web entries and then notifies you when someone has added something to the conversation. In the past, I would comment, but would never follow up to see if there is a response, now I use Commentful to help me continue dialogues that would have normally fizzled out.

Wordpress - There are lots of blogging packages out there, but I use Wordpress. I like it because it has great fan support and offers a lot of functionality, that I can’t find in other blog packages. My favorite part is having the ability to completely change the appearance of the site, with a simple click of a button. With plenty of Wordpress widgets, it’s easy to customize templates, to fit any personality.

Del.icio.us - There are many different bookmarking sites, but I primarily use Del.icio.us. By downloading their firefox plugin, all you have to do is right click and you can clip articles. This is a great resource for archiving things that you want to view later.

Google RSS - A good RSS reader can help you keep track of your favorite sites. Without it, I wouldn’t see a tenth of the content that I track. In the past I’ve used Bloglines, but when Google introduced RSS search capabilities, they won me over. This feature alone, allows me to track 1,000 times more content, then what I could handle in a more basic RSS program.

Photography

Picasa - Photoshop is great, but there are still free alternatives, if you don’t want to spend the cash. Picassa not only has a decent photo editing feature, but also allows you to post your photos online.

Zooomr - I visit Zooomr several times a day, in order to check my Zipline. I also use Zooomr to host my photos for this blog and play web games in their forums. There isn’t any software to download, but if you drag and click on the Zooomr link, you can add a bookmark to your toolbar.

Flickr - Flickr is another great photo sharing site. They are one of the largest photo sharing sites, so they have an even better selection of images. There isn’t anything to download, but they do have a bulk uploader, if you plan on hosting a lot of images.

Remote Computing

Orb - You need a TV tuner and media center software for this one, but if you have these components, then Orb is a no brainer to install. It allows you to placeshift your content, anywhere you can get a broadband connection.

UltraVNC - Even though, I upload a lot of things online, there are still times where I need access to my home computer. UltraVNC allows you to log into your system remotely, so that you can access your files, even if you happen to be on the go.

Digital Video

Adobe Flash - YouTube is one of my favorite sites and in order to see their videos, you’ll need the flash codec. Because of the sheer amount of content encoded in flash, this one of the most essential downloads on the list.

DivX - Flash is great because it has broad support, but I prefer DivX because it offers a high quality experience that you can take with you. You can download support for just the codec, but I prefer to download the DivX web player, so that I can watch Stage6 content as well.

Quicktime - I’ve never spent a lot of time using iTunes, but I do come across a lot of Quicktime movies on the net. If you already have iTunes, you won’t need this one, but if not, then this is a helpful plugin.

Real Player - I’ve had so many problems with Real Player, that I almost hate to download it, but there are too many interesting things in Real format, to completely ignore this format.

Music

Pandora - This is one of my favorite places to find new music. Over time, Pandora will start to figure out your interests and will suggest a lot of things that you don’t hear on commercial radio.

Foxy Tunes - This is a great program for finding and sharing music on the web. It not only allows you to search for cool music, but you can also insert FoxyTunes links into emails that you send to friends

Last FM - I prefer Pandora, but use Last FM because it is supported on my TiVo. I’m not sure how to describe a technology whose roots are based in scrobbling, but once you get the hang of it, you can start to find some really cool music.

Word Processing

OpenOffice - This open source software package contains all the features that you would expect to find in a high priced business software package. It works transparently with Microsoft files and is a great alternative for those on a budget.

Google Docs - I don’t think that it can replace Microsoft in the business world, but Google docs is a free alternative for home users. It allows you to create and share documents, spreadsheets and presentations.

Foxit Reader - Most people use the Adobe reader, but I only turn to it as a last resort. Adobe’s reader is an important program to have too, but it always takes too long to load and asks me if I want to update way too often. Instead I stick to Foxit and no longer have to wonder if my system will crash when I’m closing a .pdf file.

Calendar

Yahoo! Calendar - When choosing a calendar system it’s important to choose carefully, because the more time that goes by, the more you will be locked into that system. At this point, I have most of my important dates scheduled on Yahoo!, but still yearn for a better solution that offers me true data portability.

30 Boxes - If you love Ajax, you’ll be a fan of 30 boxes. The site allows you to open up your calendar to the social web. This is helpful for planning and sharing events. It’s an interesting concept, even if I’m still not ready to turn over my schedule to bill collectors and ex-girlfriends.

Games

TripleA - I highly recommend downloading this one, but don’t blame me if you drop out of society from playing it. TripleA is an Axis & Allies emulator that replicates the original game to perfection. It’s entirely fan built and is a great resource for playing out your own World War II fantasies.

FreeCiv - Sid Meier’s Civilization game had a huge impact on video gaming and this program validates it’s place in the pantheon of PC based programs. The program is a Civilization emulator where you can raise and develop your own society. I always try to be nice, but invariably, I end up attacking my neighbors.

ZSNES - This is a great open source emulator for replicating old arcade games. It won’t come in handy, if you want the modern day gaming experience, but it is useful if you ever wish that you could go back and play games from your childhood. Finding the games can be a little tough, but reuniting with an old friend, can make the journey worth it.

Peer 2 Peer

Limewire - If you don’t want to spring for the pro version, Limewire can be a little spammy, but it’s still a good resource, for those interesting in taking a bite of the forbidden fruit.

Emule - Another powerful P2P client. It doesn’t have access to the largest number of files, but it does offer a clean interface and is a good resource for when you can’t find things on the other P2P networks.

Bit Torrent - It’s one of the most popular programs on Download.com for a reason. This robust p2p system allows you to download and share tiny bits of content from multiple users at once. This helps to speed up the download times and helps to get around some of the uploading restrictions.

Fox Torrent - Fox Torrent isn’t as fast as the original Bit Torrent software, but it’s easy to use and makes downloading a breeze, when you don’t mind waiting for the content. The software integrates nicely into the Firefox browser and adds bit torrent capabilities to an already powerful internet browser.

Entertainment

Stumble Upon - I’m not a huge fan of the toolbar plugins, but I make an exception for this one. You can find some amazing stuff on StumbleUpon. It’s a great time killer, if you are ever bored and still have access to the internet.

Search

Wikipedia Firefox Plugin - I like to use the search bar that is built directly into the Firefox browser. The default supports Google, but there are a lot of other sites that will let you install plugins on your browser. It’s probably a good idea to double check the facts that you find on Wikipedia, but this plugin, makes easy to search the site, without having to go directly to their home page.

Stage6 Search - DivX Labs has built a plugin for Firefox and IE browsers, that allows you to search the Stage6 website, directly from your browser. I’ve found that this plugin comes is especially helpful, when I know that I’m looking for video content.

Del.icio.us - Most of the time, I prefer to use Google, but Del.icio.us can help you find articles that wouldn’t show up in simple keyword searches. I never know quite what to expect, but Del.icio.us search results tend to focus less on style and more on function.

Technorati - I love Technorati, even though the site only seems to work part of the time. I’d like to find another blog search plugin, but this is the only one that I know about.

MusicPortl - This search plugin allows you to enter the name of just about any artist and you can instantly find a wealth of information on your favorite band. MusicPortl aggregates their information so that you can see the latest YouTube clips, blog entries and Wikipedia information. This is a must, if you enjoy researching music.

Spout - If you love movies, you’ll love Spout. The site is a great resource for finding out information about your favorite films and for connecting with other film fans. This firefox plugin makes it remarkably easy to focus exclusively on movies, with your search results.

There are a lot of programs on this list, but I’m sure that I’m still missing some of the most important ones. f you know of any other services that should be included on this list, feel free to contact me or leave a comment and I’ll keep this post updated with other helpful programs that people suggest.

Posted in Video Games, TV, Media, Technology, DivX, VOD, Web 2.0, TiVo, Disclosure - I own stock in co. mentioned, Microsoft, Slingbox, Netflix | 5 Comments »

TiVo’s Pay Per Post Hook Up Turns Into One Night Stand

October 8th, 2007 Davis

TiVo latest hook up with Pay Per Post is beginning to look less like a relationship and more like a one night stand, after the company responded to criticism of the program, by asking “postees” to pull the TiVo ads off of YouTube.

In fairness to TiVo, there is evidence to suggest, that they had intended these ads to carry a sponsored by TiVo disclaimer, but due to quality control issues at Pay Per Post, the ads were leaked without the proper disclaimers.

Even though I think that TiVo made a mistake by partnering with Pay Per Post to begin with, killing the campaign was the right antidote for dealing with this poison in our community. There will always be times when companies make mistakes, but it’s how they react to those mistakes that define who they are and in this case, TiVo made the right move by deleting the campaign.

By moving quickly to kill the campaign, TiVo demonstrated that they are willing to listen to their community and take action, even when they’ve misjudged the rules that their community plays by.

In the long run, this won’t represent more than a five second skip back in the history of TiVo, but I do think that other companies can learn a valuable lesson from TiVo’s experience.

User generated content is sexy and it’s tempting to try and manufacture buzz, but sooner or later, your customers will find out that you are gaming the system and they will attack. Steve Rubel said it best, when he recomended that marketers be careful about trying to manipulate the social web.

“Digg, Reddit, del.icio.us and other collaborative news sites are like Bengal Tigers. They’re beautiful to look at and admire, but they’re very dangerous to touch. If your stories end up landing on these sites, then terrific. Be happy. Include the metrics in your coverage reports. But seeding PR links is trouble waiting to happen, especially as these communities become barraged with spam and the users’ sensitivity meter goes to code red.”

If your brand has no value, then there may be no place to go but up, but if you think that there is any equity in your brand, then smart marketers will think twice before supporting this tumor on the world wide web.

Even if there were an upside to astroturfing YouTube with fake ads, this controversy alone should make companies rethink their support for the Pay Per Post brand. If by partnering with the company, you end up damaging the reputation of your brand, then what have you really gained by paying people to create fake testimonials?

If I was an ad exec and my marketing consultant suggested Pay Per Post to me, I would fire them and find a marketing firm that has better ethics and an understanding of what it really takes to build grassroot support. Instead of uploading fake ads to YouTube, TiVo would have been better off, by having someone search YouTube, LiveJournal, Blogspot and MySpace for real TiVo testimonials and then leave comments thanking them for the support.

There are lots of times when I make suggestions for TiVo and while not everyone of them is a great idea, I can tell you that I would freak out if someone who worked for TiVo, left me a comment validating an idea and promising to consider it as a future development. Even if TiVo never implemented my idea, knowing that someone from the company took their time to consider it, would be exciting enough. This isn’t astroturfing, this is interacting and responding to your customers.

Fake ads, will always run the risk of blowing up on you, but by being open and transparent with your fan base, it’s not that hard to turn happy customers into viral customers. Instead of supporting companies like Pay Per Post, businesses should instead be thinking about how to engage their existing fans.

While you may or may not agree that the ethics behind Pay Per Post are deplorable, it’s clear that the company is a lightning rod for criticism. Whether or not that criticism is fair, should be irrelevant to marketers. There are some who believe that even bad publicity is good publicity, but I don’t think that anyone wants to see their brand dragged through the social mud. It’s exciting to see grassroots support for your products, but if you are going get into the same cage as the tigers, then you shouldn’t be surprised when they turn on you and attack. If some PR hack recommends Pay Per Post as a way to build buzz, do yourself a favor and go hire someone who knows what they are talking about.

Posted in Marketing, Technology, Spam, Web 2.0, Disclosure - I own stock in co. mentioned, TiVo | No Comments »

TiVo Has Hard Drive Failure - “Hooks Up” With Pay Per Post

October 3rd, 2007 Davis

Over the years, I’ve seen a lot of different TiVo marketing campaigns. Some of them have been great and some of them have been bombs, but TiVo has never been afraid of taking risks, especially when it comes to generating publicity. Whether it was their funeral for the VCR or their ad throwing a TV exec out a window, they’ve been able to get pretty good bang for their buck, from the social web.

Despite my normal enthusiasm for TiVo’s PR stunts, their latest campaign has been a little over the top, for even my tastes. It started in late August, when TiVo issued a press release that declared that their new TiVo HD box, had all the features that people expect from a perfect companion. When I first read the release it was so syrupy, I could barely finish it.

I even almost wrote a snarky blog post, where I was going to point out that despite their claims, I’m actually looking for something a little bit different from my “hook ups”, then the family friendly criteria that they included in the PR fluff. Things like someone who won’t freeze up on me after I had been out drinking with the boys or someone with a pair of really big hard drives or a companion that doesn’t get jealous when I play video games.

I ended up getting distracted and never wrote my post, but when I saw TiVo issue another lovefest press release, I just rolled my eyes and figured that I was in the wrong demographic to ever understand this one.

Normally, I wouldn’t have thought much more about this campaign, except while I was surfing YouTube, I came across several clips that appeared to be fan made videos expressing their excitement for the HD TiVo product. At first I actually thought that these were made by TiVo customers. There is definitely an indie feel to them. One of them actually does an amusing simulation of the world from TiVo’s perspective It wasn’t until I got to my my favorite video of the bunch that I finally figured out why there was such a sudden rush of TiVo videos on YouTube. Of all the clips out there, this is the only one that I could find, that was honest enough to at least identify that it’s part of the Pay Per Post program.

Pay Per Post has been a very controversial company from the start. Because they pay individuals to make fake user generated content, that are really covert advertisements for sponsors, the FTC has even expressed some concerns over the truth in advertising issues related to their service.

Now I don’t think that there is anything wrong with TiVo paying someone to make commercials for them, but there is something wrong with conning consumers into believing, that they are witnessing legitimate testimonials when in fact, it’s really just a shill that is being paid to tout the product. If TiVo were requiring these video bloggers to put Pay Per Post on every video, I wouldn’t even see this as controversial, but 5 of the 6 ads that I saw, carried no warnings.

In the past, I’ve appreciated TiVo’s edginess in how they advertise. It may not always be to my liking, but I don’t mind them taking risks. This time though, they’ve crossed the line. By not clearly identifying this content as an advertisement, they have insulted the grassroots community that already spends so much time and effort evangelizing TiVo’s brand. By polluting their community with this vaporous buzz, they damage the credibility of every piece of user generated content, even if it really is being made by a legitimate fan.

If TiVo already had a terrible reputation or couldn’t get buzz to begin with, I could understand why they would stoop to this level, but their customers already love their products and spend plenty of time gushing over each and every little development. With as PR savvy as TiVo has been, it puzzles me why they would risk this kind of damage to their reputation, just so that they could get a few more videos up on YouTube?

If they really are proud of supporting these artists, why not put a big TiVo logo on the front of every clip and let YouTubers know that they are watching paid programming? If this was on the up and up, TiVo wouldn’t be hiding this, but because they want it to appear authentic, they’ve choosen to support Pay Per Post and let them do the dirty work.

As a member of the TiVo community, I love it when I see cool fan creations. It’s neat to be able to connect with other people who feel just as passionate about the TiVo experience. Over the years, TiVo has gotten a tremendous amount of grassroot support from the social net and to betray that trust is a huge blunder. By choosing to “hook up” with Pay Per Post for their latest ad campaign, they have introduced a toxic poison into the TiVoSphere that can only make it sick. TiVo needs to end this questionable form of guerrilla marketing, before they damage the credibility of their fan base any further.

Posted in Marketing, Spam, Web 2.0, Disclosure - I own stock in co. mentioned, TiVo | 12 Comments »

Zooomr Zips Where Others Zag: Adds RSS To Ziiipline

August 24th, 2007 Davis

Hot Donkey! I logged into my Zooomr account this morning and saw that they’ve released an RSS feed for my zipline. They’ve also paginated zipline for Zooomr pro accounts. This allows me to see more than just the last 20 or so entries from my contacts.

If you haven’t tried out zipline yet, you really should check it out. It’s like Twitter, only for photos. When Twitter first started to take off on the web, I couldn’t figure out why people would want to post mundane details of their life, but after playing around with Zooomr’s zipline over the last month or two, I’ve started to really appreciate the benefits to being restricted to just 250 characters.

For those of you who read my blog regularly, you’ll know that I have a tendency to be a little long winded with some of my posts. I try to write shorter blog entries, but once my mind gets preoccupied on a topic, it’s hard for me to keep things short and sweet.

For the most part, I think that people prefer unique analysis over a couple of sentences and a quick link, but the downside to this is that because of the amount of time it takes to write my posts, there tend to be a lot of topics I want to write about, but never get around to (or at least I don’t get around to it until it’s too late.)

Right now readers can use my Profilatic mashup if they are really interested in what I’m bookmarking and digging, but there is no way for me to explain why something might be of interest or my thoughts on a web page that I’m clipping.

When I first started using Zipline, it was really hard for me to get used to the 250 character limitation, but the more I use the service, the more I appreciate that it forces me to be concise.

Because the RSS feeds are so new, I suspect that it will take a few weeks before Zooomr gets the bugs worked out, but the major benefit of having access to my Zipline feed is that it allows me to integrate Zipline content into other areas of the web.

As an experiment, I’ve installed the BDP RSS Aggregator on DFDC. This allows me to mashup my zipline directly into my website. Right now, Zooomr hasn’t released an RSS feed for all of my friend’s ziplines, but by combining my own feed with the BDP RSS aggregator, it at least allows me to broadcast my zipline on the net and on other sites that I use.

I’m still having some problems with how the feed is formating, so I’ll still be experimenting with other widgets, but keep an eye on this feature because I plan on using it more regularly in order to showcase the many great blog articles that I come across each day.

As more users begin to experiment with the feed, I’m sure that we’ll see the community figure out even better ways to mashup the content, but for now this small feature allows you to do some pretty creative things with the technology that is already out there. If you’d like to subscribe to my zipline feed directly, you can find it here.

Update - I’m having trouble getting the feed to display right. The photos look good, but my posts are showing up twice. I know that there is a way for me to use html and tell wordpress to strip out the titles, but I’m still trying to find the code for it. If any one has any suggestions on a plugin that will let me publish just the content of the posts and not the headlines, feel free to make suggestions. In the meantime, I’m going to take the zipline down while I figure out a way to improve the cosmetics.

Posted in Technology, Photos, Web 2.0 | No Comments »

DivX Goes Shopping: Buys Fine Art And Search Technology

August 21st, 2007 Davis

This amazing video was created by Mogcaiz. You can see more of his work at DeviantART.

Last week DivX released their 10-Q and while I was able to find the time to tune into their conference call, I didn’t get a chance to read through the actual document until this past weekend.

In the filing I didn’t find any bombshells or new lawsuits, but there were a few details on some of DivX’s recent acquisitions that did reward my curiosity. According to the filing, DivX made two purchases over the last quarter.

“In May 2007, the Company made an equity investment in a private corporation that aggregates and distributes art via its web community and facilitates an open forum where artists can exhibit their artwork and build community around that art in an effort to drive commerce. The Company’s investment consisted of $3.5 million cash for which it received certain shares of the private corporation’s Series A Preferred Stock and entered into an advertising and marketing agreement. The Company has preliminarily allocated approximately $650,000 of the investment to the advertising and marketing agreement, based on its estimated fair value, and the remaining $2.9 million will be carried as an investment.”

DivX doesn’t name the actual artwork site in their filing, but since I already knew that they had purchased a piece of DeviantArt, this one wasn’t hard to figure out. Originally, I had thought that they were only partially behind the $3.5 million investment, but according to the filing, it looks like they put in all of the cash. DivX doesn’t disclose how much of a stake they got for their money, but they do disclose that it is less than 20%.

Without knowing the details behind the acquisition, it’s hard to determine whether DivX received good value for their money, but from a strategy standpoint, I really liked the acquisition. There are a lot of websites that can build a lot of traffic, but the question is at what cost. Newspaper websites get a ton of hits, but take away their print business and the business model can’t support the cost of writers, editors, staff, etc.

The great part about user generated content is that because it’s built around community, the customers are the ones that provide the content. In the case of DeviantArt, they’ve built a very positive environment around people who love art and by connecting artists together in this way they’ve been able to develop a community where creativity thrives.

If DivX wanted to sell art they could have spent $3.5 million on Google Adwords and bought the traffic, but they weren’t interested in selling art, they wanted access to the artists themselves. Through their investment, they will not only get access to DeviantArt’s traffic, but they’ll get the right kind of traffic visiting Stage6, content creators who are looking for venues to showcase their digital creativity. The acquisition won’t do anything to bolster their bottom line, but it does further connect them to the larger web community.

The second acquisition in the 10-Q was a little bit harder to figure out. It’s related to improving the search functionality of Stage6, but DivX didn’t release a lot of details on whose technology they actually purchased.

“In July 2007, the Company acquired all of the assets of a limited liability corporation engaged in real-time digital video processing for the purposes of producing enhanced video search and discovery services. The total purchase price for the acquisition is up to $4.25 million comprised of an initial upfront cash payment of $2.0 million, which the Company made in July 2007, and subsequent cash payments up to $2.25 million upon the achievement of certain technology related milestones. The Company will account for the acquisition as an asset purchase and periodically review for impairment.”

Without knowing whose technology they bought, it’s hard to get a feel for how powerful their new search will be, but I’m glad that they are taking steps to improve their search functionality. Search on Stage6 is one of the many areas that is still in “beta” mode. Sometimes you’ll find what you want, but it’s usually more by luck than query. I’d describe the issues in greater detail, but Neillithan has made a video that addresses the deficiencies better than I ever could.

As Stage6’s media collection continues to grow, relevant video search will be crucial in helping to make sense of it all. Searching by tags and keywords works for now, but it’s far from perfect. I don’t think anyone has perfected video search, but EveryZing is the furthest along and even they still have high failure rates on their speech to text functionality.

One of the frustrating parts about finding details is that they rarely answer more questions than they raise. While I was pleased to find out more about DivX’s search solution, without knowing who they actually acquired, it’s hard to determine how important this could be.

I have a theory about who DivX may have picked up, but I have to qualify it as even more speculative than my normal unreliable gut feelings. It’s really nothing more than a wild guess based upon the criteria that they lay out. Still, I’ve never been one to be shy about speculating even when I’m probably wrong, so here is my wild guess on who DivX may have acquired.

Of all of the companies that fit this criteria, Veatros seems the most likely candidate to me. Their site went offline in July, but before it went down, I know that they were looking for strategic partnerships for their search technology. One of their former employees, has his resume up on LinkedIn and I thought it was interesting to see him leave around the same time that a DivX acquisition would be taking place. According to his LinkedIn profile, he describes Veatros as having the fastest video search ever developed.

“Startup technology company spinning out of the University of Kansas with the fastest video search technology ever developed. Veatros technology can identify a video clip of as little as 2-3 seconds in length from a database of tens of thousands of hours in real-time.”

Susan Gauch is the owner of Veatros and she would certainly have the expertise to implement video search on Stage6. Veatros is really a side project for her, during her day job,she is an accomplished professor at the University of Kansas. Her entire career has been dedicated to researching and improving search. Her research has already been referenced in several video search related patents.

There’s no way for me to be sure if my guess is right, but if it’s not Veatros, then I would suspect that it would a company with similar characteristics. Irregardless of who the mysterious LLC turns out to be, improving their search is something that I’m glad to see DivX focusing on. Better content filters, mean a better experience for anyone visiting their site. If they can personalize video search, then the content on Stage6 will keep getting better.

Neither one of these acquisitions is a major move on DivX’s part, but it does give us some insight into part of DivX’s growth strategy. The video search investment makes sense from a tactical standpoint, but the DeviantArt purchase is far more interesting.

The passive nature of the investment raises the possibility that DivX is developing a venture capital arm to their business. They’ve already incubated Stage6 and with steady cash flow coming in each quarter, Divx is in a great position to make private investments where they see opportunities. It’s too early to know how aggressively DivX will pursue this aspect of their business, but if they continue to invest in emerging technology, things could certainly start to get interesting.

Update - It looks like my wild guess turned out to be right, but I may have been wrong about how they plan on implementing it. DivX released a press release this afternoon confirming that Veatros was in fact the company that they had acquired. In the press release, DivX says that their plan is to integrate the technology into their connected platform. Interestingly enough, they don’t mention Stage6 once in the release . . .

Posted in Technology, DivX, Media, VOD, Search, Web 2.0 | No Comments »

Davis Freeberg’s Site Of The Week

August 21st, 2007 Davis

Normally, I’ve got a pretty anti-pet policy in life, but even I had to vote for this week’s winner of the site of the week contest. KittenWars is a website where pet owners upload photos of their kittens and where web surfers can then vote on which ones are the cutest.

I usually try to run and hide when people want me to look at photos of their fuzzy little furballs, but this is a cat fight I don’t mind taking part in. It’s like PickTheHottie, except for kittens.

I’m not sure why I’m so fascinated with games, but I’ve always been a big fan of any site that offers fun contests or challenges. KittenWars is no exception, there is something about the interactivity that really appeals to me. I keep telling myself that I’m going to click just one more time, yet I can’t stop voting on contest after contest. On the site, you can also find lists of the cutest (and not so cute) kittens on the site, but it was the voting that I found the most entertaining.

Congratulations to KittenWars for winning this week’s site of the week contest. The nominations for next week’s site are listed below, please vote in the sidebar. Feel free to contact me, if you’d like to nominate a site worth visiting.

Wordpress Theme Generator

iBlocked

Rejected iPod Engravings

Posted in Site Of The Week, Web 2.0 | No Comments »

Lycos Loses ‘Home Court’ Advantage: Patent Trial To Be Held In Their Own State

August 15th, 2007 Davis

It looks like TiVo, Netflix and Blockbuster will be packing their bags for Massachusetts, after they won the first of many legal scrimmages in their patent defense against Lycos. Lycos has asserted that all three companies have violated patents they own, on “information filtering technology.” The two patents that are at the heart of the case are related to the recommendation services that the companies provide.

After Lycos filed their lawsuit against the trio, ChoiceStream (the company that created Blockbuster’s suggestion service) filed a separate lawsuit, to have the patents thrown out.

In their lawsuit against Lycos, they argue that the patents are invalid because of obviousness and prior art. Because Choicestream filed their own lawsuit in the Massachusetts’ court system, TiVo, Netflix and Blockbuster sought to have their case transferred there as well. I’m not familiar enough with the legal subtleties to know why Lycos originally opposed the motion, but with Lycos’ headquarters in MA, the judge found the request reasonable enough and granted the motion.

While this development in the case, is only a minor footnote in the larger dispute, the legal filing did contain more background on the case, as well as a few interesting side details.

It turns out that Choicestream may actually end up playing a pretty important role in how this gets resolved. In the legal filing the judge writes,“ChoiceStream has employees in Massachusetts who possess information relevant to this action, and Lycos has indicated that it ‘may need to take some discovery from ChoiceStream.’”

I haven’t read ChoiceStreams lawsuit against Lycos yet, but it wouldn’t surprise me if they did end up owning some prior art. A year ago, they filed an application for their own recommendation patent, so it will be interesting to see what ends up coming out at trial.

It also appears MIT’s Media Lab could be called to give testimony. Part of their research was used to reject some of the original claims on one of Lycos’ patents. Believe it or not, they’ve actually been publishing research on “information filtering” since the late 80’s.

While it appears that this case is heading for trial, there is always the possibility of a settlement. Even though Lycos filed their lawsuit on Jan. 3, they didn’t actually serve TiVo, Netflix or Blockbuster until April 30th because they were engaged in “settlement discussions” with the companies. Since they now appear to be squabbling over who gets home court advantage, those talks have likely cooled off, but it wouldn’t surprise me to see either side at the bargaining table, especially if things start to look bad for them.

Posted in Search, Technology, Web 2.0, Disclosure - I own stock in co. mentioned, TiVo, Netflix | No Comments »

Stage6 Traffic Explodes: Every Dream Has A Price

August 10th, 2007 Davis

DivX reported their second quarter earnings yesterday and from a financial perspective, there really weren’t too many surprises. The core business remains strong, but Stage6’s growth is certainly starting to impact earnings. The company ended up beating Non-GAAP expectations by a penny, while revenue came in slightly above the $18 million, that the analysts had anticipated. The company guided toward higher revenue expectations for the 3rd quarter, but reined in analyst expectations for the fourth.

From a strategy perspective, things were much more interesting. Lots of exciting news to digest. On the call, DivX addressed their opportunity to gain market share in their core licensing business, the future of DivX connected and how other emerging technologies could fit into that, and perhaps most importantly, the reasoning behind their plans to separate Stage6 from the larger company.

Of all the strategies discussed, there was one that surprised me the most though, DivX has made the decision to try and bury their hatchet with Hollywood, in an attempt to get DivX DRM blessed by the studios. I’m less than optimistic on management’s chances, but if they could pull it off, it would make DivX Connected a pretty compelling solution.

Trapped Between DVD and VOD

The DVD player market continues to account for the majority of DivX’s core licensing revenue. At the end of March, DivX had 32% global penetration of the DVD player market. This was up from 21% from a year earlier. During this quarter, $14.2 million of their revenue represented royalties from their OEM partners. Sony actually accounted for over 10% of their licensing revenue and I still can’t find Sony DivX DVD players in the US.

At this point, DivX has achieved 90% penetration levels in France, Spain and Russia. In the US, the percentage of DVD players that included DivX doubled over a year ago and is now at 28%. In Japan, they still only have an 11% penetration level, but this is up from 5% a year ago. Over the last year, they’ve been able to successfully renew their contracts with their top OEMs and have been able to maintain pricing levels.

By growing their market share for the DVD player market, it has allowed DivX to continue to post impressive year over year growth, even though it’s clear that the DVD has peaked. Right now is an awkward time for DivX because there are so many uncertainties as to how the VOD market will end up shaking out. There are many pundits who are worried that DivX won’t be able to replace their DVD revenue as it tapers off.

To me, this seems a little foolish and is a bit like being afraid of the boogie man. The DVD market will not disappear overnight, it will live longer than the VCR survived. As people migrate to digital TV, DivX is in an excellent position to benefit from that. If their OEM partners see that there is no more demand for DVD players, it will make DivX certification an even greater necessity for them.

The transition to VOD will eventually happen on a mass scale, but it will still take years before the next generation of TV gadgets hits the mainstream.

When Greenhall was asked about how long he thought it would be, before the public started to move from DVD players to connected devices, he told analysts that because DivX’s ecosystem was so dependent on their OEM partners, that it was hard to forecast the transition, but that when it happens, the revenue will come quickly because their partners produce goods for the mass markets.

Emerging Technologies Will Open New Doors

Part of what makes DivX such a question mark, is the sheer size of their addressable market. They’ve established a nice business in the DVD market, but now want to expand DivX to a whole host of devices. During the earnings presentation, Hell listed the following technologies as a few of the markets that are on their hit list; Mobile devices, set top boxes, digital still cameras, game consoles, portable media players and digital televisions.

Of these potential markets, the cell phones have the most potential. Over this quarter, Samsung announced their second DivX enabled phone and will be selling the phone in the Chinese market. Since their first Samsung phone announcement, DivX has seen a lot of interest in working with other cell phone manufacturers.

Their OEM partners are excited about the technology and are coming to them for access. There will be more models announced in the future and while they didn’t give a time line, management seemed optimistic that the announcements would come soon.

On the set top front, during the quarter Divx announed that both St Microelectronics and NXP were both developing chips for a DivX set top box solution.

The box will allow you to plug in an external hard and play DivX files directly on your TV. This helps to solve the problem of getting DivX content to the living room, but still doesn’t help to add to the DivX content eco-sphere. You can’t take the TV off the box, but at least you can bring DivX to it. Hell also said that there was one more set top chip deal that hasn’t been announced.

Hell also included DivX HD as part of the emerging category. HDTV has been one of the hottest growth areas in consumer electronics. Users are starting to revolt. People love the DivX HD teasers on the stage6 website and from (cough) “others sources” on the innerwebs, but they can’t get it to the TV without some kind of a media center.

DivX wants to license their HD technology on top of HD-DVD and Blu-Ray players, but I think that they’d have a much better shot at convincing their OEM partners to sell a low priced DVD player with “DivX HD.” included. With as much as the studios are charging for the next gen players, a box with DivX HD certification and a dirt cheap price point, would appeal to consumers who know better than to try and pick a side in a Hollywood format war.

DivX Connected: Bringing Partners Into The DivX Community

DivX has talked quite a bit about their Connected initiative, but they’ve always left things a little sketchy on the details. Is it a box, is it not a box? Who could really tell, but after launching a prototype of their connected solution for beta testing, the company is now starting to open up on the details. DivX Connected can be a lot of things, but they see it being a similar experience to Apple TV, except minus the high cost and the restrictions on content.

The whole concept is really a lot larger than the prototype box. It’s about bringing a diverse set of partners together, in order to create a seamless experience for consumers. Hell describe their efforts on the program during the call. “We are engaged in a large cross section of partners to implement DivX connected on existing devices. From connected DVD players and digital televisions, essentially any devices that has connectivity and DivX playback ability.”

This philosophy of openness extends even beyond the hardware devices and includes the companies that are trying to sell internet video, as well as the content producers themselves.

“going forward we will focus on a broad range of content solutions through a powered by DivX model, working with a variety of partners to deliver content. In this model Stage6 becomes one of many partners using our technology. To make this happen we are doing two things, First we are increasing our focus on premium content and re-engaging in discussions with major content providers who want to take advantage of our significant footprint. Secondly, we’re building out our existing video on demand product platform so that we can offer out of the box scalable solutions to any distributor of digital content from online retailers to network operators.”

This is a big shift for DivX and one that could have important ramifications. From early on, DivX has bumped heads with the studio fat cats. In the past, DivX has relied on their users to distribute their codec through the P2P networks, but now that the studios are beginning to warm to internet delivery, DivX is seizing on this opportunity, in an attempt to beef up the content that they can offer their own consumers.

Right now, businesses don’t pick their codecs based on quality, they use the ones that the studios tell them they are allowed to use. People like to complain about internet video services not supporting Apple, but that is because Apple refuses to license their codec to anyone. DivX wants to go the other route to try and work with everyone, but until DivX DRM can get Hollywood’s blessing, they’ll be frozen out of the mainstream market.

I’m skeptical that the studios will be particularly eager to work with DivX, but if they could pull it off, it would open plenty of doors for them and would certainly be a game changer for the company. On the call, Hell said that they are trying to go after this opportunity in two ways.

“First we’re going to be focusing on the studios themselves and other providers of premium content to get adoption and format approval from them. In addition, we’ll also be working with other content distributors, folks like Amazon, Netflix, Movielink, etc. so that we can enable their platforms and again we’re moving into a role here where we don’t want to be a storefront, in terms of the DivX Corp business. We’re looking to power other people’s platform.”

It’d be easy for DivX to try and sell content themselves (in fact that’s part of what Stage6 is about), but this is a low margin business and DivX is better off letting others fight over the content. By charging for access, it leaves room for much healthier profit margins. It also gives them a greater exposure to consumers, than anything that they could accomplish independently.

Right now, Apple wants to lock everyone else out of the market, but this is why AppleTV is such a weak platform. Not only do you pay for it, but then you have to buy only their content. DivX wants to see a world where they can bring Blockbuster and Netflix together and let consumers decide which service they want to use. By maintaining their commitment to keeping their platform open, it improves their competitive position over Apple and Microsoft, but none of that matters, until Hollywood agrees to let companies distribute video content in DivX’s format.

A Start-Up Trapped Beneath The Microscope Of Public Scrutiny

Since the launch of Stage6, it’s been an unbelievable hit. The growth has shown no signs of slowing. Since it’s launch, it’s help to push 35 million DivX web player downloads, but hasn’t generated much in the way of direct revenues. For now Greenhall wants to build up the community, before trying to figure out how to make money off of it.

“Like many sites in a similar stage of their life cycle, we’re not actively trying to monetize this user base, yet. We believe that building a community first will enable us to explore a number of different revenue models in the future, but building the community absolutely comes first.”

Since the the site’s launch, the community has responded enthusiastically to the video sharing portal and what started out as a reasonable $1 million marketing expense during the 1st quarter, has now swelled to a $2.4 million bill for this quarter (of which 70% is bandwidth.) Next quarter DivX estimates that they’ll need to spend $4.5 million and another $5.4 million in the fourth quarter. Stage 6 has about 20 -30 DivX employees that work on the site.

With the traffic and the costs starting to add up, it’s no wonder that the company wants to raise outside funds and operate Stage6 as a separate entity. During the call, their CFO, Dan Halvorson gave the reasoning behind the plan,

“Most businesses, at the same point in their life cycle as Stage6, simply wouldn’t be public or part of a public entity. They need to make investments that don’t have immediate tangible ROI or have too strong an impact on a company’s balance sheet to justify. We believe strongly that Stage6 has built a foundation that not merely be sustained, but rather amplified. As such, our board and management, thought it would be best to value our alternatives and one viable option is that Stage6 would be separated out and run as a private company.”

DivX said tat they’d like to finish the break up as close to the end of the year as possible. I’m not sure if this is for tax reasons or strategic purposes, but in the meantime, they are estimating that they’ll need to put another $10 million into the site. Greenhall wasn’t sure, on how they’d end up valuing Stage6, but was open to possibilities and wanted to do what’s best for DivX shareholders.

They may look for a private equity deal or an institutional investment, but they want to keep their options open. After announcing their intent to separate the the two companies, they’ve already received inquiries from financial and “strategic partners” on making an investment.

Overall, DivX didn’t blow anyone’s socks off this quarter, but they did continue to show that their business is healthy and that their business model is valid. They also continued to demonstrate their commitment toward investing in their growth. The extra R&D may end up bothering some shareholders in the short run, but once they break the two companies apart, they’ll have two businesses exposed to the white hot internet video sector, instead of a house divided.

Disclosure: I own stock in Netflix

Posted in Media, TV, Movies, Technology, DivX, HDTV DVDs, VOD, Microsoft, Disclosure - I own stock in co. mentioned, DRM, Web 2.0, DVDs, Netflix | 2 Comments »

Davis Freeberg’s Site Of The Week

August 7th, 2007 Davis

This week’s winner of the site of the week contest was Walk2Web. Walk2Web is a site that allows you to analyze outgoing links on a particular website or blog. On the site, you enter a domain name and then you can trace how that site might be connected to others.

This functionality can come in handy in a couple of ways. On it’s most basic level, you can use the site to find new web pages, that may be relevant to sites that you already pay attention to.

On a deeper level, you could also use Walk2Web to help identify connections that wouldn’t seem obvious without being able to see the big picture. While, some of the connections don’t reveal anything, if I wanted to learn more about a blogger’s social network, I’d try running their site through Walk2Web, in order to see which websites are showing up on their radar.

In order to play around with the site, I decided that I’d play a game of Six Degrees of Davis Freeberg, in order to see who I might be connected to, in the vast maze that makes ups the innerweb.

When I put my domain into the site, it gave me several paths to go down, but I decided to pick, Just Talking Out Loud as my first step. From there, I discovered Andreas Viklund’s internet blog. Andreas is a 27 year old blogger and web developer from Sweden.

From there, I found Kelly’s World. The cats on Kelly’s World are a little bit freaky, but I did like the technology and video game coverage on the site. On Kelly’s World, there is a link to site named 54 North.

54 North is still in development, but there is an interesting link to Centro Flamenco on the web page. Centro Flamenco is an oasis for Salsa dancers. They dance company was founded in 1989 and performs throughout Canada each year. Salsa dancing isn’t my particular cup of tea, but that’s only because I was born with two left feet.

On Centro Flamenco, there was a link to web photographer, David Cooper. I’m not sure if David has set up a Zooomr account just yet, but on his website you can see some examples of his work.

Normally, David’s website isn’t something that I would stumble across on the net, but thanks to Walk2Web, I was able to see that I’m actually connected to his site in a convoluted way. Part of what makes the web such a unique experience is the ability to travel deeper and deeper into a story. By creating an easier way to understand the link relationships that exist between websites, Walk2Web has made a filter that is entertaining and useful.

Congratulations to Walk2Web for winning this week’s site of the week contest. If you’d like to nominate a web page for the site of the week, please contact me and I’ll be happy to look at it. The nominations for next week’s site are listed below, please vote in the sidebar.

Six Degrees Of Kevin Bacon

Pfigg

Cell For Cash

Posted in Site Of The Week, Technology, Web 2.0 | 6 Comments »

Ebaum Sells Out: Pockets $20 - $50 Million For 10 Million Visitors

August 6th, 2007 Davis

Last Thursday, we saw another major deal in the internet video space when Eric Bauman agreed to sell Ebaum’s World for anywhere between $17.5 - $50 million, depending on performance considerations.

The site was purchased by a small company named Handheld Entertainment (ZVUE). Handheld is a microcap company that makes a low end mp3 player. Over the last 9 months, they’ve had a pretty rough run in the market. After announcing the acquisition of Dorks.com for $1.5 million last November, the company saw their share price spike to $7 per share before settling to a little under $2, prior to the Ebaum purchase.

During that time, the company also purchased Putfile for $7.1 million, FunMansion.com for $1.1 million and Yourdailymedia for $1.06 million. By themselves, these sites seem trivial, but collectively, the traffic does start to add up.

Before the Ebaum purchase, I had never heard of Handheld, but over the weekend, I dugg into their conference call announcing the buyout and found a lot of good video stats buried in the presentation.

-Ebaum’s traffic is incredibly sticky. They average close to 22 page views per visit. Of all the video sites, they are ranked #2 in the amount of time that their users spend on the site. #8 in terms of traffic. With Nielsen changing the way they measure traffic, this could add an edge in attracting advertisers.

-Ebaum averages about 3.2 million unique visitors per week. A lot of these visits come from organic traffic. They estimate that 65% of their visits are repeat visitors. To help put this number into perspective, on Local.com’s (LOCM) most recent conference call, they said that they were getting a measly 10% of their traffic from organic sources. This is an important number to keep an eye on because when you have to buy your clicks, it eats into profitability.

-The number of 18 - 35 year olds that visit the site each week, is the same number that tunes into CSI or Law and Order each week. I found this stat to be the most fascinating. As media continues to develop, these micro communities will play an increasingly important role in media. I don’t have any data to back it up, but I would bet that the 18 - 35 year olds, who are visiting Ebaum’s World, are the ones who are less likely to be watching Law & Order to begin with.

-Handheld paid 6 times EBITDA for the site. If the site quits making money, then Bauman’s piece would be capped at the $17.5 million. If it does earn money, then he can earn another $27.5 million from a 60/40 split of the earnings. As part of the deal, Bauman will end up owning 2.5 million shares of the company. These will vest over the next 3 years.

-Prior to announcing the deal, Handheld not only secured financing that shareholders are allowed to vote on, but actually priced the warrants at a premium (albeit modest) to the current share prices. I still don’t have a good handle on the full impact the warrants will have on the company’s capitalization, but I can’t remember the last time I saw a microcap company actually price a private placement deal above market, let alone secure financing that didn’t have complicated contingencies attached. This shouldn’t be all that unusual, but sadly it is.

-Ebaum’s World earned $5.2 million in revenue last year and $1.6 million in net income. Personally, the ads are a little too aggressive for me, but it apparently hasn’t stopped others from spending time there. While the ads can be spammy, they also appear to be quite profitable. $1.6 million isn’t a huge number, but it does prove that online video can make cash.

With any microcap stock, there is always a high degree of risk and over the last 9 months, Handheld investors have had to learn that lesson the hard way. While I do think that there are some legitimate questions about the company’s hardware business, after the haircut they’ve taken, it’s hard to argue that this isn’t priced in.

Between the Ebaum purchase and their past acquisitions, the company has developed an impressive portfolio of web communities. The challenge now, is to find cost synergies and better ways to monetize these impressions. Because of the uncertainties surrounding their business model and the complexities of their previous financing, it’s hard to know how to value this one early on, but it’s one that might be worth keeping an eye on, even if it’s just for the juicy online video statistics.

Posted in Media, VOD, Web 2.0 | 3 Comments »