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Truveo's elevator pitch

Fri Jul 3 21:41:03 CDT 2009

Search is the No. 2 activity on the Web behind e-mail. As every searcher knows, it's not perfect, especially when it comes to video search. Truveo is a new video search engine. Truveo founder Tim Tuttle gave me his elevator pitch recently while we were at the Dow Jones Consumer Venture Technology conference.

I also caught up with Ron Conway, an angel investor who was lucky enough to invest in Google when the company was just $70 million. Ron said that he's looking at companies that are creating services/software that enhances the services already provided by Google, Yahoo, MSN and InterActiveCorp's Ask Jeeves. He believes it's better to sell to those big established Net companies than burn millions creating a competitive offering.

Watch Tuttle give his elevator pitch to VC's

Watch Conway talk about why it feels a bit like 1999

Facebook phenomenon

Fri Jul 3 21:41:03 CDT 2009

How did Facebook manage to gain traction and get a $100 million valuation? Watch the interview with the 21-year-old founder who started the company in his college dorm last year.

Watch interview with founder Zuckerberg on starting his company

Yahoo maps takes the lead

Fri Jul 3 21:41:03 CDT 2009

If you haven't checked out Yahoo's new maps, you should. I had a preview on Wednesday, and it offers a utility that other maps don't. For instance, you can choose multiple locations and get directions to those places. Plus there is a search box clearly on the page where you can search for other places or services, say ATM machines, between those two locations. The ATM locations appear on the map, and then you can drag the most convenient ATM location between the search boxes with the two location points. Yahoo maps automatically gives you directions to the ATM and then to your final destination. There are also developer tools so you can easily incorporate or mix other content onto the maps.

Even a non-techie like me can do it. For instance, Yahoo maps and Flickr are combined on this site: Check out the site and Yahoo maps in beta

Watch interview with head of Yahoo Local, Paul Levine

Google Runaway

On another note, my recent column on Google is getting a lot of responses. First of all, I'm not calling for a top, like some readers might think I'm doing. From the initial e-mails I've received, it seems there are a number of Google fans. Apparently, my readers believe Google is going to $500. Read column on MarketWatch.com, and if you have any responses, please post them here. My bet - Google ends the year above $400.

See Net Sense column on MarketWatch

Apple's video iPod needs your content

Fri Jul 3 21:41:03 CDT 2009

First it was music, then pictures and now video. Apple's latest iPod with video capabilities received a lot of fanfare in the last month. But it may be for the wrong reasons. Current conventional wisdom is that this Apple video iPod - however cool it is -- will one day be a big hit with mainstream America as long as Apple expands its selection of shows and movies. And, that can take time because copyrighted material requires Apple to strike licensing deals with major movie studios. But there's another type of content being generated out there. It's very mainstream and it doesn't require any licensing deals at all.

Watch TV piece that aired on MarketWatch Weekend on CBS

Google's supply/demand view

Fri Jul 3 21:41:03 CDT 2009

Here are more snapshots of the classifieds/listings business that Google is testing, courtesy of Scot Wingo, of ChannelAdvisor. Based on the screenshots, Google appears to be testing out about 12 categories, such as recipes, housing, jobs, dates, etc., according to Wingo. This means that Google is going to compete with everyone with a listings business model, not just eBay. Google is going up against Monster, Bizrate, and even online dating sites, like Match. Google's potential advantage over other listing sites is that it has a huge buyer base that any seller would want to be in front of. Additionally, it will have knowledge of demand and supply. While the user-generated listings will give Google a picture of supply, its knowledge of what marketers are paying for keywords will Google a picture of demand. With that information, they'll know how to target a market and make it robust, Wingo suggested.

Google Base for recipes, includes payment link & maps

Recipes, shows 'post your item here'

Customer management screen

See Wingo's blog

Google's pursuit: knowledge

Fri Jul 3 21:41:03 CDT 2009

To answer a question recently posed to me by CNBC host Ron Insana, Google's ultimate goal is to have a wire into our brains in order to have complete knowledge of who we are. Of course, I don't believe that Google's growing stable of scientists -- however brilliant and talented they are -- will ever succeed in having complete, or perfect, knowledge and information about the world even if every piece of information is broken down into quantifiable and measurable bits (but that's a philosophical story). Nonetheless, knowledge is Google's goal or passion, if academic reports published on Google is any hint. Here's one I like, authored by Monika Henzinger, Google Research Director, and titled: "Extracting knowledge from the World Wide Web."

For now, Google derives a lot of its knowledge from the queries typed into its search engine. Today, typed in queries, tomorrow, spoken queries, and the day after tomorrow, our thoughts. Will machines know us better than we know ourselves?

Read Net Sense on MarketWatch

Additionally, there is speculation that Google is expected to unveil its own payment and classifieds business at Google Zeitgeist this week, according to Scot Wingo, chief executive of ChannelAdvisor. In a statement, Google said it is working on a service that allows users to post their own content onto Google, but the company has no plans to make any announcements. Regardless if Google announces a classified business or not, it's a business I've always thought made a lot of sense. I wrote about it back in June.

Read Net Sense (6/21/05): Google listings, now that hurts

Read Google testing 'Google Base' on MarketWatch

Finally, why is AOL suddenly relevant? AOL's advertising sales are growing faster than the industry and AOL accounts for 10% of online ads in the first six months of this year. Additionally, it has a declining dial-up subscriber base. These dial-up subs are ripe for picking if you're a broadband provider. AOL has 49 million IM subscribers - a good platform for emerging communications portals. I can't list all the reasons here, but read Net Sense on MarketWatch for the rest of the story.

Read Net Sense (10/17/05): Suddenly relevant

Google - $30 or $300?

Fri Jul 3 21:41:03 CDT 2009

Even though I think Google ends the year above $300, some people think Google should trade closer to what it's worth -- that is $30.

Is Google worth closer to $30? That's what Ray Conley, an analyst at Palo Alto Investors, thinks. In fact, he thinks Goog 's worth $30 today, especially based on the profit and cash flow he thinks Google can earn in the future. Of course, if I applied that analysis (by using future rent) to value the homes in Marin or San Francisco, I'd price myself out. It's already happened a number of times. Yes, I know. A stock is different from a home. OK, back to Conley. While he can make a case for Goog going up to $436. He can make a case for Goog being worth $137.

His interview received a lot of interest on MarketWatch. Watch the interview

Also Google wants to WiFi San Francisco, and it's already testing a service through a little company called Feeva.

Here's the WiFi story that aired on CBS a couple weekends ago.
Google WiFi plans in San Francisco

Calling all podcasters

Fri Jul 3 21:41:03 CDT 2009

Nearly 90% of Internet users don't know what a podcast is, suggesting there may be a lot of resources - talent and money - expended by the early pioneers of podcast-related companies devoted to an audience that's just not there. Yahoo just launched a new podcasting site, where would-be podcasters can make and search for podcasts. I asked Yahoo's head of products, Geoff Ralston, how Yahoo plans on not overspending time and resources on this project.

Watch interview with Geoff

Interviews on Net trends

Fri Jul 3 21:41:03 CDT 2009

Fox Interactive's Ross Levinsohn talks about Web strategy

Feeva CEO on funding free WiFi access with targeted ads

Meetup.com CEO on poker meetups, and other popular groups

Draper Fisher's Tim Draper on China startups and innovation

Yahoo chief data officer on tech talent wars in Silicon Valley

American Greetings Interactive CEO on SI's swimsuit edition on mobile phones

Are interviews with startup CEOs, venture capitalists and other movers and shakers in Silicon Valley of any interest to you? Who else would you like to hear from?

Gotta have growth

Fri Jul 3 21:41:03 CDT 2009

The immense appetite for Baidu shares underscores the scarcity of and the hunger for growth stories in the U.S. as much as it reflects the global economic significance of China. Baidu, the Chinese search-engine operator that most everyone is calling the Google of China, opened at $66, well over its IPO of $27. It traded as high as $151, giving it a market cap of $5.1 billion. At that level, it's trading at 170 times this year's expected sales of $30 million. The bidding frenzy for this stock makes the Bay Area housing market look sane. The opening price made my earlier call or guess in my Net Sense colum look conservative. The point of the column still stands, however, and is even more on target, given the trading of Baidu shares. Investors are starved for growth. Fear of missing the only growth opportunity in months or years is a powerful motivator. And investors fear that demand will only get stronger and that Friday's price will soon look like a bargain, much as Google's $300 price today makes its $85 IPO price tag back in August 2004 look cheap. Even before Baidu opened, it traded at multiples of expected sales that were higher than Google's when its shares were offered in August 2004. I'm 99% certain that Baidu, unlike Google, won't be valued at $90 billion in a year. But Baidu is a lot like Google in that it represents one of the very few hyper-growth opportunities in the most lucrative and fast-growing online business we've witnessed: paid search. Moreover, it's paid search in a country that's just turning the corner toward becoming a consumption machine -- of both goods and ads.

Read Net Sense column on MarketWatch

Plus: Where's Mary Meeker?

Read Net Stocks column on MarketWatch