Mark Andressen on Chance and Entrepreurship

A brilliant summary of what role chance plays in our successes and how we can leverage our behaviour to influence the outcome.

Henry Blodgett - Why Newspapers are Screwed

Very interesting analysis on the coming failure of large newspapers, independent of their online success. Henry uses my favorite print and online newspaper as a reference for analysis, the New York Times. This will be a fascinating trend to watch and see how these business innovate and adapt. Hopefully some smart people are at the helm at the NY Times and we'll see how Murdoch does with the WSJ.

A Great Film - Zodiac

If you can live ;> with a little gore. The film Zodiac is one of the best I've seen in a while. Great acting, suspense, directing and a compelling mystery combine to make a great story based on real events. Another aspect of the film I really enjoyed was the accurate re-creation of 1970's bay area.

'Baby Einstein' Videos Ineffective, Study Finds

Why does this come as no surprise?

"A popular series of videos targeted at babies and praised by President Bush has been found to be ineffective. A new study has found that Baby Einstein videos actually inhibit learning. "

The slick marketing of these videos always was a warning sign to me as a parent to stay away. Also, any parent who believes that placing a baby in front of a passive video could be helpful is not doing their homework.

NowPublic

Here is a poor implementation of a great idea and emerging trend. Citizen driven news and information is evident in many online niches (digg, wikipedia, mahalo), but community news is not currently offering much in the way of journalism. I'm sure we'll see this change over the next couple years if the right business model, technology and community is built.

The GigaOm Show

Another look at what will be displacing traditional broadcast television. This is not as good as 'Crank Geeks', but still a good example of where things are heading and the 'long tail' of media.

Unilaterilism in the era of Globalization

This essay by the prominent macro-economist Willem Buiter is insightful and disappointing in its outline of the failure of Bush/Cheney policy in the era of globalization. The opportunities missed by not acting unilaterally to defeat terrorism and other global issues has undermined the potential of America in a post cold-war world.

Marketing for Web 2.0

The New Rules for Marketing is the quintessential book on how to market for web 2.0. Targeting your message to personas, creating an online media room, effective blogging and online news releases to name a few.

Cranky Geeks

In case you haven't discovered 'Cranky Geek's have a peek at what I believe is a forebearer of the coming dis-intermediation of traditional broadcast television. This low-budget weekly net broadcast is fun, informative and worth every penny I pay to watch it ($.0). I'm sure we're going to see a 'long-tail' of these types of productions emerging over the next few years, filling every conceivable niche and replacing so much of what we watch today.

Customer Driven Business - DELL

This article details the new DELL service being rolled-out for allowing customers to determine what pre-installed software is included on the system they order. This functionality was provided based on IdeaStorm user generated recommendations. Companies which adopt these customer driven requirements capabilities should benefit as they have services and products more reflective of market driven needs.

Birth of an island - Image series

Very cool collection of images which depict the birth of a south pacific island...

CrankyGeeks

A vidcast hosted by John Dvorak is pretty entertaining and somewhat insightful. Definitely indicative of the dis-itermediation taking place for video content.

Betting on DELL?

Lately I've been following DELL and it's business decisions and valuation as a potential value investment. Here's what I find compelling.

1. DELL is listening to it's users through mindstorm.com, which is similar to DIGG in allowing customers to drive requirements. This seems like a great way to build community and get customers behind your business.

2. DELL is installing Linux on it's systems. Although they are only selling in the US, they will roll-out world-wide soon. They also will bundle Open Office, which should completely eliminate the need for Microsoft and hopefully lead to a reduction in the cost per unit.

3. Michael Dell is now in the drivers seat and cleaning up some bad management decisions and direction legacy.

At the same time, I believe that Microsoft has really blown it with Vista. I have Vista on my Dell laptop and it adds no value to my user experience. Although it may be more secure or offer great potenital for future development, as a customer I don't understand why I paid for this upgrade. I also still experience application failures regularly and general sluggishness. After five years of development Microsoft really blew it.

I believe that DELL is poised to provide systems internationally which are affordable and robust by providing open-source and Internet ready systems. In combination with Web 2.0 and Google apps DELL should be able to grow marketshare over next couple years.

Covestor - Let the world track your investment performance

I just signed up for Covestor.com and will be making my investment portfolio public. I will also have my performance tracked and publicly available. It seems like an interesting concept to me. Let the market decide who is the best manager and make it transparent.

Warren Buffet - Commencement Speech and Q&A

Priceless advice provided for free...

Very Cool - Comparison of US States to Foreign GDP's

Over at the very, very compelling Strange Maps site (warning: do not click unless you have an hour to kill) is a map of the U.S. with each state renamed for a country with a similar GDP.
(Courtesy Freakonomics Blog)

Good article by Marc Andresson on VC investments

It's not surprising that VC's pass on 95% of what they see, particularly in today's go-go market. I remember having the 'we'll pass' experience myself a number of times.

NY Times article on illegal seller kick-backs

Un-disclosed cash-back offered to the buyer is illegal to use as an incentive as this article on the economics of this type of transaction points out.

The 6 Percent Solution - Skip the Real Estate Agent

Another article in the New York Times on keeping the money that a realtor would receive. Also, this article re-iterates Steven Levitt's point about realtors having an incentive to lower the price for your house to get the transaction turn-around time increased.

Once city's home sellers do better on their own

Definitely a sign of things to come. When you pay a realtor 6% and can do just as well going it alone... Read the NY Times story.

Funny er.. Scary - Google Interiors

A science fiction short story on the future of Google...

Fun drill down graphic flash file

Something fun to show your kids...

http://www.games4work.com/games/swf/supercoolpic.swf

Too cool! Speed Racer the movie in 2008

The Wachowski brothers are creating a live-action/digital action re-make of the classic Speed Racer... looks like it will be a lot of fun.

The future of warfare

As the world becomes more dependent on data driven technologies the vulnerabilities and capabilities will emerge for nation states and independents (Al Queda or a lone hacker) to wreak havoc. NY Times reports....

Google Hot Trends

Google Hot Trends page is worth an occassional glance, just to see what keywords are buzzing. It does seem a little strange to me that 'Prince Valiants Wife' came in number 10, while 'Lost Finale' came in 11? I'd be curious to see trending over time to get insight into business opportunities... Another question is why is last nights American Idol winner, Jordin Sparks, #73? There is something about Hot Trends I don't understand yet.

ACLU.org - Keeping the truth alive

After watching Frontline last week on the surveilance being conducted on American citizens by the NSA I want to remind everyone how important having the ACLU alive and well is. The NSA and Justice Dept. have been conducting wholesale oversight of phone and data communications which employ highly sophisticated profiling technology in combination with information provided by private data collection agencies. Imagine what the likes of Karl Rove and his minions (justice appointments) are capable of with access to this information. It won't just be the terrorist that they will target. BTW, Frontline also pointed out that there was no congressional oversight of this operation which is all the more frightening.

Abnormal Returns

In my search for quality blogs on investment and finance I discovered this little jewel.

http://abnormalreturns.com/

Vista or Google Sidebar?

I keep going back and forth on whether to use the Vista or Google side bar. So far google seems to have better sidebar gadgets, but I don't like the google desktop running in the background slowing down my system. Also, Google gadgets feel a little clunky. I'm going to switch back to Windows for a while and will report what I discover...

Scoble and Winer talk about the valley glut

In the past 24 hours both Dave Winer and Robert Scoble have both written posts about the glut of startups and wannabe's in the valley now. Very reminiscent of 2000 when the bust was imminent. I would imagine the difference this time is that there are many very significant and viable Internet businesses as well as much better infrastructure. Another factor is the displacement and disruption of many traditional businesses (television, newspapers, advertising) whose eyeballs and $ will end up going some where else.

Schwab Online Banking

I signed up for schwab online banking today. Here are a few of the reasons why:

1. 4.25% interest on checking (
2. Complete banking services (checking, billpay, credit card, mortgage, ATM...)
3. Great rewards credit card
4. One stop for all of your financial needs (Investment Portfolio, Trading, Banking, Mortgage)
5. Access to a range of financial products

The most important reason though is the excellent and consistent quality of service. After WAMU and a brief trial with E-Trade, I am moving everything to Schwab.

Cyber Attacks from Russia Now, Who Next?

The International Herald Tribune reports on the Russian attacks on Estonia and how they have a fairly devestating impact on this sovereign nation. While this whole new type of emerging warfare has significant implications between states, think about the implications for terror by individuals or small groups. Imagine what a collection of fairly capable engineers could pull off with the right incentives? I also would imagine that the US government must be cooking up some interesting capabilities for cyber warfare when called for.

Yahoo Music Engine

I become a bigger fan of Yahoo Music Unlimited with every use. I've been a subscriber for over a year and continue to discover new features and value in this great online product. In the past week what I've really grown to love are playing other folks play lists. You can search by playlist and then play a collection of music based on someone else's suggestions. Yesterday it was jazz vocalists, road trips and old country play lists. Combine this with the ability to play any song that pops into your mind or that you read a review of and add any of it to your personal music collection or your mp3 device.

I don't understand why iTunes owns this market, except for the Apple marketing machine. Why would someone pay per use without having a personalize radio, playlists, suggestion engines and unlimited access for $69 a year?

The pending convergence

Mark Cuban posted recently (http://www.blogmaverick.com/2007/05/20/newspapers-tv-and-the-net-its-convergence-time/) on the need for television and newspapers to converge to survive. This does seem like a potential evolutionary path, however, I think that television is lost in terms of news, which is reflected in the audience demographics. I believe that the leader in re-inventing the news is the New York Times. The quality of the reporting in combination with multi-media is pushing the envelope for timeliness and quality.

Example: http://www.nytimes.com/packages/khtml/2007/05/22/world/20070523_SEARCH_FEATURE.html

I don't see this quality of reporting any where else. It would not surprise me if we continue to see NY Times testing out a range of new media experiments as they continue to provide excellent blogs, video segments and insight reporting.

Bill Maher eulogy for Jerry Falwell

This is a great send-off for another one of the 'big fat idiots' on the right..

Seeking good investment blog

My portfolio is in a 30% liquid state right now, so I'm looking for investment blogs which have insight into funds which are good to pick up now. I'll post what I find.

Kicking back the Real Estate Commission

The Wall Street Journal reports on a realtor who returns a part of the exorbitant commissions which he is entitled to. A sign of what is to come

Google Music Trends

This is a cool resource for music discovery...

Radar Networks - Primer on today's Semantic Web

These guys are baking real-world semantic web apps with RDF/OWL. It will be interesting to see their products launch in the near future. These types of technologies will unleash the 'Intelligent Web' where we can see applications and services which are far more usable, useful and which people are willing to pay for.

What's missing in Web 2.0?

From Early Stage VC Peter Rip "I am not alone in observing where the world is going. The hard problems in the vision of a true web-as-platform involve all the usual hard computer science issues. How can we normalize information from disparate sources to make it interoperable? How do we get to a lingua franca without waiting for moribund standards (think CORBA and SOA)? How can we then manage the transition of legacy information and services into this world of interoperability?". THIS IS RIGHT ON!

Scoble's rant is getting broad coverage

The rant last week by Scoble on the lack of success by Microsoft on the Search, Internet and Advertising space and responding to Ballmer's speech at Stanford biz school where he declared 'We're in this to win', is getting a fair amount of buzz. It seems like a good thing, because someone needs to point out he obvious. Microsoft cannot use the same tactics that they did against Netscape (I'm sure they know this) and they will need to have a very aggressive strategy to go up against the momentum, market cap and minds at GOOG.

Biden senate address on Iraq policy failure

Senator Biden should be running for president. His passion, intelligence and conviction exceed the current crew. He also has the best plan for solving the Iraq quagmire.

Google Drive

In case you aren't sure if Google wants to replace the traditional desktop... Google Drive is your hosted desktop.

Twitter Vision

This seems cool, but I'm not sure why....? I still don't get the Twitter attraction.

Roughtype - Thoughts on Saas and SAP

Software as a Service is penetrating the enterprise and with the focus of Google I would imagine a lot of enterprise application and service providers are quite nervous.

Bill Richardson - Legalize Marijuana Use

Bill Richardson could prove to be the most honest and refreshing presidential candidate to come along. This country needs to move beyond the legalization of marijuana and stop wasting money on eradication, incarceration and policing for this innocous plant.

Ms. Dewey - Very, ummmm... Interesting

Microsoft has created this stealth search interface, which is very cool in that if they combined it with some true intelligence (inference engine) that could actually advise you about finding what you're looking for instead of presenting a list of results, they would have transformed search.

I would imagine that Microsoft sees this as one potential approach toward a more sophisticated search interface. I would imagine that Google has a lot of things like this in house.

What would make Ms. Dewey really cool is if you could select your own persona and it would evolve based on the types of searches you performed.

Clayton Christenson - Finding the Right Job for your Product

Insightful article on ways to rethink market segmentation.

Valerie Plame testifies before congress

It's amazing to me that this is not taken a lot more seriously by the public and by congress. I would think that it borders on treason, to out a CIA operative in war-time. The fact that it was done for political reasons should only make it more contemptible and I would think that Republicans/Conservaties would see much more offense than Progressives. It does speak to how incredibly unethical and arrogant the Bush administration has been.

Scoble on Microsoft "In it to win?" w/ comments

This post by Scoble on the future of Microsoft is right on. They are at a cross-roads, despite record profits and sales. How they could have so under-delivered on Vista and have no clear advantages in the webspace (search, hosting, development) is a bad sign. The comments posted regarding Scoble's musings are worth reading as well.

Product of the Year has a problem

What a great problem to have. Nintendo is unable to meet the demand for it's Wi product line. I love the fact that Nintendo did an end-around on the whole game system market. The Wi is going to create a whole new market market for video games and re-invigorate Nintendo.

Soros Partner see's coming Real Estate crash

50% declines in bubble areas and a big impact on world markets says guru Jim Rogers. Of course without a crystal ball he is in conflict with a lot of prominent economist. Bob Brinker, who I have a lot of respect for does not see an emerging liquidity crisis, so I'm not selling my house or stock.

Ken Burns New Series - The War

David Viancoly, of Fresh Air interviews Ken Burns on his new upcoming series on WWII 'The War'. He says it's the best documentary Burns has created, which is an amazing statement considering he's referring to the producer/director of the Civil War series. It's going to be a long wait until September, when the new series will air.

An amazing example of federal over-reaching is that the FCC is going to pressure Burns to censor four obscenities spoken by veterans describing their service over fifteen hours of broadcasting. At the same time programs like '24' on Fox can broadcast excessive amounts of violence and torture during prime-time and it's not a problem.

NPR takes on RIAA

Apparently NPR is going to be required under new RIAA rules to pay 20* existing royalty rates on music which they stream as a part of their programming. Since NPR has a public service mandate and plays ecletic music by musicians who probably love any sort of public exposure, this seems to be an unfair application of the new RIAA rules. As a huge NPR fan I hope they win this one.

Web 2.0 Awards

Pretty decent list of 'Web 2.0' sites...

Comments on the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Top 200 Albums

These comments regarding the 'Rock and Roll Hall of Fame selections of Top 200 albums of all time' are fun to read.. Clearly the top 200 list is ridiculous with Kenny G and the Top Gun Soundtrack ahead of Fleetwood Mac 'Fleetwood Mac', not to mention many other strange ratings. The comments include a lot of suggestions for music to listen too, in case like me you need new sources.

Eisner's new venture - Vuguru

This seems like a very winning direction for Michael Eisner. The demand for original content intended for distribution on the web will be enormous and the ability to focus on the content development without the overhead of distribution is a great business. However, I don't see the idea of 90 second episodes as sustainable and more of a blip in the transition to content developed and delivered specifically for web. Is there a market for the ADD crowd of media consumers for serial programming? I imagine that the market will divide up between home web television and mobile device viewing. I suppose on your mobile device it might be stimulating to watch a short program, but 90 seconds?

Washburn WG587 7 string Electric Guitar

I just bought this $1000 guitar for $99 shipped. It has a very high rating and review on the guitar forums. Very exciting.

The New Yorker Upgrades Site - Finally!

My favorite thing to read is The New Yorker magazine and their website has been dismal until a few days ago. Finally a face lift worthy of the print edition. Also, they've thrown in some web specific features like animated versions of the cartoons and videos, RSS feeds and online specific features.

Bravo!

NY Times - Danny Hillis new venture

Danny Hillis always is up to something interesting, though not necessarily a highly marketable product. This might prove to be the exception. Metaweb Technologies, intends to provide a searchable repository of data with semantic tags which allow for intelligent search results, instead of a list of links. This is something that is definitely missing from search and will require some degree of 'intelligence' at the front-end to enable, both in terms of determining what a user is seeking and the best way to gather and present their result. I'm sure that developing something like this is part of research at Google, if not Yahoo and Microsoft.

One thing this points to is the precariousness of Google in its dependence on search for revenue. If Freebase, the name of the intended product from MT, were realized it would provide a totally disruptive new search which many people would migrate to overnight.

I'd be curious to know if Hillis plans to leverage any of the work done by Doug Lenat at Cycorp. He's spent the last twenty years organizing human knowledge in a highly structured way.

From the description in this article this seems to be a very ambitious undertaking and one worth following.

Jeff Hawkins Presentation - On Intelligence

'Prospects and Problems in Cortical Theory'. Hawkins intends to create a platform(software) to emulate how the neocortex works and ultimately package a development system to build products. He describes it as an inference engine currently focused on visual learning. The applications would range from problem solving for physics, meteorology, markets, geology and robotics. This is truly exciting stuff as we are beginning to see a re-emergence of AI theory.

Drink your own kool-aid?

NYTimes on Microsoft Tech Fest and Search

Microsofts investment in research has not yielded the kind of results which have allowed for differentiation in search at this point. Currently they are playing catch-up to Google and since it's core to Google's business they will be hard pressed to surpass them. This NYTimes article outlines some of the research which Microsoft is pursuing to try and make a difference. I would imagine that AI is going to prove critical to maintaining a strong position in years to come. Consumers will need more intelligent interfaces and user experiences to find the proverbial needle in the haystack. I might learn more when I have dinner tomorrow night with my friend Matt MacLaurin who is a research at MS.

Jet-Man - This is cool

It's a bird, it's a plane... it's, it's Jet Man!

Nextflix - Watch Now

Netflix new 'Watch Now' feature is in my opinion the future of television. Combine the wonderful online user experience that Netflix provides with on-demand downloads and you have what we've all been waiting for since the original interactive television trials were conducted in the early nineties. I can't figure out why Netflix founder and CEO Reed Hastings was quoted last year as saying that it would be many years before Netflix offered downloads. Maybe he was trying to mislead the competition or maybe he 'got it' sometime since that quote.

Frontline - News Wars

Frontline's series on the changes in news reporting, dissemination and consumption was some of the best television reporting I've seen in a while. The final installment focused on online news and the LA Times struggles to stay a player. The program emphasis on the problem of how news organization content quality is being compromised by focus on the bottom line and the stratification of the audience indicates a sea change in news creation and distribution. The next five years should be an incredible ride as the deck is shuffled.

No Shortcuts to the Top - Ed Viesturs

I just finished reading the wonderful 'No Shortcuts to the Top' by Ed Viesturs. This is his auto-biography covering his successful summitting of the worlds 14 8000 meter peaks without supplmental oxygen. I saw him interviewed on Charlie Rose a few weeks back and was excited about picking up the recently released book. Having done a fair amount of climbing in my past and considering taking up alpining, I was easily lured by the books focus. After reading the book I can say that it will be appreciated by anyone with an interest in adventure and exploration, as it is very well written and an exciting read.

NY Times on Social Networking and OpenID

It seems like a lot of this technology is truly in its infancy, particularly the OpenID aspect where providers will have more flexibility in their designs and users greater ease of use. OpenID has been a much needed technology for some time. and now it seems to be getting momentum.

Very Interesting New Online Service

Give or get unwanted usable items in your community.
Using Gigoit is free, easy, and good for the world.

AI, is it coming soon?

Jeff Hawkins, the founder of Palm wrote a book which I read two years ago entitled 'On Intelligence', http://www.amazon.com/Intelligence-Jeff-Hawkins/dp/0805078533/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/105-1358683-8424466?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1172895213&sr=1-1 which outlines his theories on how the human brain works. He is now running a startup which is focused on creating software which can mimic human intelligence. This is probably one of the most ambitious undertakings in science and business right and one that Eric Schmidt at Google indicated that they are pursuing as well. It's exciting to think of how solutions from the research done at both companies will effect society and roll-out as products which we can use. I would imagine that the most immediate practical application will be in making online search a lot more powerful and useful. I'm imagining the computer working with me in my search to help me find the best results. Longer term I'm sure we'll see machine intelligence which can perform problem solving which will displace current human endeavors.

Read more at wired http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/15.03/hawkins.html

The Pundits will Bash and Praise Gore

interesting reading by Media Matters on Maureen Dowd's treatment of Al Gore now and while running for president in 2000.

New Yorker's Remick on Al Gore for President

David Remick is on the money with this commentary regarding if Gore had been in office the last seven years and why he should be elected in 08'.

50 ways to help keep our earth green

This is a list of fairly common sense ways that each of us can make a difference.

The Big Year - A brief book review

I have never been interested in 'birding' or bird identification, but when my father recommended the book 'The Big Year' and sent me a copy I was curious. The book tells the story of 3 obsessed birders who spent 1998 pursuing a 'big year' of bird identification in North America. They spent 10's of thousands of dollars, countless air miles and the majority of their waking time in this pursuit. At the end they each had identified over 700 birds by flying to the remote Attu Island of Alaska during a peak year for birds, flying repeatedly to southwest texas for the migration from Mexico and South America, Florida and Minnesota are also prime bird locations for identifying exotics. The book provides a good historical outline of the creation of the Audobon society and scientific information regarding the factors which influence birding. I really enjoyed this book and would recommend it highly.

Very cute baby panda sneeze

This you have to watch more than twice...

Cause & Cure for Autism discovered

"Scientists in New Jersey are claiming that children with autism are unable to metabolize key fatty acids that fight brain-damaging inflammations. They have already developed urine/blood tests to identify at-risk children. A preventive cure to autism.

Full article at http://www.nj.com/printer/printer.ssf?/base/news-11/117177694297300.xml&coll=1

Signs that Hillary is going to make smart political decisions

“If the most important thing to any of you is choosing someone who did not cast that vote or has said his vote was a mistake, then there are others to choose from,”.

-Says it all

Real Estate Bubble Burst - The Evidence Is In

This NY Times article should stop the chatter about whether there is a correction underway. It appears that few regions are being spared. It's definitely a time for some disruptive technology businesses to help buyers and sellers retain value in their transactions... ala Redfin, Zillow and Trulia. Now that buyers see their homes sitting on the market a lot longer they should take advantage of these Web 2.0 applications which help sell homes without a realtor and can do a great job of marketing and selling your home. Sellers can benefit too buy getting a percentage of the savings returned to them at the time of purchase, often several thousand dollars. I think the traditional real estate agent is going to be gone in about ten years.

Mark Cuban on the future of computing

This is a very insightful essay about the future of computing and how Google could very well lead the way with thin client emphasis and the distributed computing model. As application become available online, we don't really need a traditional OS or embedded applications. He also suggests that game consoles (or probably media) could easily supplant the traditional desktop computer. The only exception to that would be those of us who use laptops and don't play video games, but I still think his article is probably right on.

OpenID is coming

Microsoft adopts OpenID and this is a sure sign that OpenID will start to get critical mass and the needed adoption to enable a much needed way to have a universal web ID.

Dell Vista Express - Delivered in March!

If you have ordered a Dell PC and purchased it with the intent of having a Vista ready system, as I recently had, you will be shocked to find out what the 'Express Upgrade' to Vista means. I discovered today that not only can I not download and install the upgrade, but Dell won't even ship me the discs until March.

This has to be on the top of my most pathetic business decisions by a technology company. Can you imagine the business team that came up with this decision? "Hey, let's call the upgrade Express and make customers wait two months to recieve it after the order". "Oh yeah, and despite the fact that it could be installed through a download and consumers would love that, let's send it to them in a plastic package with CD's".

Brilliant Dell, what can we expect next?

Rolling Stone on if Gore should run in 08

I have to admit this is a great question. Should Gore run in 08'? The guy was on the mark about a lot of issues (war, climate change, W.)... He's also a lot more experienced than Hillary, Barak or for that matter McCain. I hope he throws his hat into the ring. The debates would be a LOT more interesting.

Dick Cheney says "Hillary won't be president"

The guy whom Senators yesterday asked the question 'was Cheney right about one thing in the lead up and war in Iraq' offers an opinion on Hillary Clinton's prospects as a presidential contender. Given his track record I would have to believe that Hillary has a pretty good shot.

Independent Radio Podcasts

(((Hearing Voices))) is the largest collective of independent radio producers this side of the semi-planet Pluto. We are headquartered in Montana, and reside across the U.S.A. Since 2001 we've produced 250+ stories and specials. We are funded by CPB, NEA and others. There's no real staff here, so we can't accept submissions. But if you’ve something online you want us to hear, send the URL in the email form below.

Move.com vs. Redfin.com debate

Watch this if you would like to see an interesting debate about the direction of commission vs. service based real estate and some insight into how the real estate market is going to be shifting over the next couple of years.

Better than Zillow - Cyberhomes Online Appraisal

This looks better than Zillow and appears to provide better data and higher accuracy for an online comparitive appraisal.

Buying without a realtor and getting money back

For those who are currently shopping for a home, consider this alternative to the traditional approach. Use existing online real estate services and attend open houses to find a home that you feel confident meets your needs. Do your own title search, appraisal by looking at comps and have an inspection performed. Determine the minimum and maximum that you are willing to pay for the house. After these steps if you feel confident about buying the house approach the sellers realtor and tell them that you would like to use their services to buy the house, but you want a 2% commission deducted from your offer. The agent should then recognize that s/he will get a 4% total commission and that it's advantageous. At this point you need to stick to your guns and be happy to walk away if the agent begins to get squirrelly. If you can do this successfully you will be looking at $8000 saved on a $400k home, which is enough to do some significant improvements. It will require that you be pro-active and willing to question "convention".

Harvesting the Collective Intelligence of Social Networks

An interesting article on extending the Digg model of collective guidance to a broader social network. Imagine harnessing and applying the collective hive thinking of Digg to business, politics or entertainment. Hollywood produces a movie based on a collective recommendation or a politicians platform is determined by the collective buzz or a new product includes features which come from what the viral hive has pushed to the surface.

Redfin - A Vulcan Venture

It appears that Redfin.com is offering a very similar offering to the feesible development I've undertaken in the past year. Providing consumers with an alternative to traditional realtors and real-estate. By providing an online set of services which cover most of what traditional realtors provide, the 6% that a seller spends on selling their home with a realtor is eliminated. Paul Allen's Vulcan Ventures is funding this Seattle based startup, which will be interesting to track through 07'.