Stand Up Economist

Unfortunately, he reminds me of some of our Finance Ministers in Israel. And has an Israeli name to boot. This is too good not to watch!

5 Reasons Full RSS Feeds Should Come to An End

One of the key tenets of web 2.0 technologies was to let people consume content in whatever way they want. Following that line, providing full articles via RSS has become almost a dogma in the "new media" set. However, I think that technophiles who are enamored with RSS and RSS readers are losing sight of some core business issues as well as some fundamental web 2.0 trends that will ultimately, in my opinion, lead to the demise of the full RSS feed. Heresy you say? Well, if you are reading this post in a full text RSS reader, you can't tell me what you think about my profaning full-text RSS feeds.

And, therein, lies reason #1:– As John Battelle has written, Web 2.0 (oh, how I hate that term) is conversational media. Full text RSS feeds are unidirectional or dictation. It limits the conversation that Web 2.0 was meant to encourage. You can engender greater conversation and more interaction by putting out headlines or headlines plus 30 words and thereby encourage people to come back to your site and comment. This encouraged interaction/conversation is good. Online sociability is important and, ultimately, it is more web 2.0 than full RSS feeds are. Moreover, RSS feeds do not include comments as they build on a post.

Reason #2: Web 2.0 is all about tinkering and measuring, tinkering and measuring. Website owners want and need to release new features and new content, get user feedback, measure it, and iterate the product or offering. While Feedburner's stats are a good start, a couple of my companies have found them very unreliable and difficult to set up if you have many feeds. If you can't rely on your RSS stats and you can't measure then you do not know if you are serving the users well. This is yet another reason to bring people back to your site so you can measure their interaction on a granular level and improve your product. Let's use one of my portfolio companies, Seeking Alpha, as an example. Seeking Alpha has over 6,500 RSS feeds (one for every stock ticker, sector, author and theme) and about 200,000 RSS subscribers. But it doesn't really know how many, because it hasn't had the resources to set up a huge number of feeds with Feedburner.

Reason #3: Measurement is also critical for the Web 2.0 business model - advertising. If you can't measure RSS properly then you can't set prices for advertisers. Consequently, ads in RSS feeds currently generate a fraction of the revenue of ads on a website (see Scott Karp's post today on online advertising economics as further indication). If we are already on the unholy topic of business models or ads, the anonymity of RSS feeds, both in terms of registration and usage patterns, makes those readers less monetizable. This may seem too Adam Smith for the creative commons generation but something needs to keep the free content flowing on the web. Let's again use Seeking Alpha as an example. I mentioned above that Seeking Alpha has 200,000 RSS subscribers. It also delivers over 300,000 emails a day. When a reader signs up on email, you have there subscription information and an email address. That information enables you to target an ad more accurately to that subscriber. As Daily Candy and other email businesses have proven, good old email is a monetizable channel. RSS is not.

Reason #4: Consuming content via RSS means readers miss changes to web sites. Web sites are dynamic organisms. They are changing all the time. If you read content via a full text RSS reader you miss the evolution of content. Again, let me use Seeking Alpha as an example. More than once I have heard from readers of Seeking Alpha a comment along the following lines. "“I subscribe to a site called internetstockblog (Seeking Alpha'’s original name) but I did not know that they now cover about 5000 stocks and 20+ sectors of stock market. All I get is the internet content. Good thing you told me."

Reason #5: The truth is that most readers via RSS want headlines only. Feedburner's recent study confirms that trend. It turns out that most people want headlines rather than entire articles via RSS. And it makes sense: The most innovative uses for RSS are in customizable home pages like Netvibes and Pageflakes (Benchmark company). There's not much unique formatting you can do for full articles, since they're going to take an entire page whatever. Additionally, I have a sense (no empirical evidence) that RSS readers are a Silicon Valley and blogger phenomenon (a self reinforcing crowd). Mainstream users are getting their RSS feeds (or just feeds since they likely don't know what RSS is) on MyYahoo.

I have seen the drawbacks of full text RSS at numerous companies at this point and the observations above are the accumulation of feedback from the companies and readers. You may suggest that the problem is the RSS readers and not full-text RSS per se. Maybe. But until the RSS readers evolve to more closely mimic the web experience, I think that full-text RSS feeds will whither. As the web evolves through its 2.0 stage to a 3.0 stage, increased engagement and conversation will far outweigh whatever personal consumption advantages there are to full text RSS feeds. Really Simple Syndication will revert to plumbing like any good acronym should and the grand internet symphony will play even louder.

Feel free to comment. That is: comment if you can and are not reading this on a full text RSS reader.

Amir Peretz Made it On Jay Leno

I posted last week on Israeli Defense Minister Amir Pertz blindly leading our country's military forward. Now I find out that Leno caught him too. It is always good to know that your security is in the hands of a man starring on Jay Leno.

Yahoo! - Great Customer Feedback Loop

A day after my not-so-flattering post on the new MyYahoo, I got an email (Posted below) from Tapan, manager of Yahoo's Front Doors Group. 24 hours later, I am impressed. We conducted an email exchange over the last 24 hours where he asked for specific feedback on features and bugs, gave me a brief update on functionality that they want to roll out. This is a great way to address the blogosphere as well as improve the product. Kudos! Glad I am long the stock :)!

Email from Tapan at Yahoo:

Hi Michael

I manage the Front Doors group at Yahoo including “My Yahoo.” I read your blog and wanted to get back to you on some of your comments regarding My Yahoo. I considered responding directly to your blog but thought that it might be better to hear your feedback directly. This is a very early beta of the product and we are only inviting a small portion of users to see the new version. There are several issues with this beta and we’ll be addressing these in future versions of the beta before we broaden exposure. The comments on the portfolio and sports module are among those that we will be addressing.

You said: “I could go on and moan about the missing features and the annoyances of the change..” I would love to find out what you would like to see and which features you are most concerned about losing. We want to make sure that our heavy users remain satisfied. If you have a few minutes to email me, I’d very much appreciate it.

To get back to the old My Yahoo, you can find a link in the footer “Switch back to the old My Yahoo.” You can also access this via the header if you have the big search box.

Thanks

Tapan

Blog Update - Don't Upset My Kids

Well, I am still waiting for the creative folk among you to suggest a new name for the blog. I have not changed the blog name yet but I have updated my profile above to accomodate our newest arrival.

Also, courtesy of the folks at Spotback, I now have a new rating system for my posts. It is not just any rating system but it is themed to fit this blog's title and child friendly focus. So keep it friendly and don't rate my posts with low scores or else the kids might get nasty.

Not MyYahoo

I have been a satisfied user of MyYahoo since as long as I can remember. I never thought once about switching or making anything else my home page. That has all changed in the last 72 hours. I am now thinking of checking out Netvibes or Pageflakes (Benchmark Company) for my home page. (See this Mashable post)

I clicked on a link to check out the "new" myyahoo. Now I can't seem to get rid of it and get my old MyYahoo back. This one has brought all sorts of problems:
1. To stock market pane has expanded to company names and takes more screen real estate but cuts off some key info like % change. On one of my portfolios I can't even see how much the stock went up that day when I load the screen. It is still missing key content like snow reports which keeps a smile on my face when I engage in wishful thinking about getting back on the slopes again this season.

My scoreboard has been expanded with big team logos but that has come at the expense of my RSS feed headlines which now pushes more of my RSS modules down the page. As many have pointed out, it now has this annoying ad in the upper right corner. While everyone has the right to make money (especially Yahoo since I own the stock), this is a downgrade of the user experience that we have all become used to.

I could go on and moan about the missing features and the annoyances of the change but I will leave you on these two notes:
1. I hope someone can send me a cookie cleaner or utility that can restore my old MyYahoo.
2. I hope that this is New Coke deja vu and that Yahoo will bring back Yahoo classic.

Israeli Dot Com Fest

Nice idea by Yaron over at thecoils.com, who is doing a start up competition for Israeli internet companies. They have put up a website to detail the event. To make this event a success they will need to do a delicate juggling act, finding enough quality companies that are looking for funding but who have made enough progress to be really interesting. I wish them luck on this worthy endeavor.

Disclosure: although this sounds like a promo (and it is), I am not involved in the expo, neither as a sponsor nor a judge. I just think it is a nice idea for our little internet industry in the Holy Land.

Looking to Finally Make the Switch

I have been bedeviled by problems with my Lenovo laptop since I bought it. My three previous rants (here, here and here) did little to alleviate the annoyances although my docking station now works well. It still freezes frequently on me. So I have spent the last month looking for alternatives (I am still looking). While this was going on Eran posted a comment to my earlier posts about his issues with the wireless on Lenovos T60. I thought I should share it since misery loves company.

"Michael I can tell you you're not alone in this. I have a 4 weeks old T60 with the Atheros 811.2/b/g/n wireless adapter, and the wireless network practically doesn't work.

It seems that the wireless network tends to get into a state that it is powered off or simply doesn't work, although it is indicated as powered on. When it gets to this state nothing will get it out of it except a reboot. When the wireless is in this state and you try to scan for wireless networks it doesn't find anything although there are wireless networks available, and if you try to connect to a pre-configured connection it will fail at the "Waiting for association" phase.
Now, if this was something rare I could live with it, but it happens in 3 out of 4 times the machine wakes up from Hibernation or standby, and some times, even plugging out the power supply without moving the computer will cause it to disconnect the network. The net result is that I have to boot my laptop at least 4 times a day, and if you factor it the time it takes to save and reopen things I was working on, it costs me 30-40 minutes a day.

You can bet that I've tried upgrading to the latest drivers and Access Connection software from Lenovo without any improvement. And you can forget about getting any support from them, two messages I sent them through their web site, one and two weeks ago were ignored. Now I'm in the US but when I get back I'll try calling them, maybe that will work better, but judjing [sic] from your experience I don't have a lot of expectations. "

Going back to my hunt for a new laptop: It is not simple. I have gotten used to the light weight of the ThinkPad and that red trackpoint that I like much better than the touchpads that seem to be ubiquitous on laptops these days. It turns out that after almost 10 years of ThinkPads, making the switch is hard. I would be interested in other's experiences in switching. Feel free to share.

Haman 5767/2007

Tonight is Purim in Jerusalem and today was Purim the world over. Purim of course is the holiday when Jews celebrate salvation from the wicked Haman who lived in Shushan, the capital of Persia around the 6th century BCE. Haman , a descendent of the Amalekites, a wicked nation of wanton oppressors, wrote letters to whip up a frenzy in all 127 nations in Ahaseurus' kingdom and align the ancient Near East against the Jewish people. Haman decided to attempt to "wipe the Jews off the map" because he was angry that one Jewish advisor to the king would not bow down to him. Today we celebrate the triumph of good over evil and freedom to worship as we wish, and we celebrate "being different."

In case you think history does not repeat itself, there is another wicked Haman alive and well today threatening to "wipe Jews off the map." Remarkably, he also lives in Persia. While our modern Haman has not yet gathered the support of 127 nations, he has about that equivalent in supporters or others who do not understand the danger he represents. So, on this day when we celebrate the "palace plea" of Queen Esther which led to the demise of Haman, let us refocus our attention on the modern threat to our freedom and our lives. This is not only a threat to Jews or Israel. It threatens anyone who cherishes their freedom to live in peace and security rather than under an atomic "veil" of fear.

In this context, I think you will find this interview with former Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu very interesting.

Thrown to the Dogs

Since my new daughter was born my wife has been snapping pictures of her in every baby pose and asking me to snap pictures of my wife holding the baby. We now have pictures of my wife's grandmother holding the baby, my mother in law holding the baby, my wife holding the baby and almost all of my children holding the baby. What is wrong with this picture?? You got it: No pictures of me. I was feeling sorry for myself until I came across a company called Sharedbook which shared with me the results of a survey they did on photo taking habits. One of the survey's conclusions is (I posted the entire release with other juicy tidbits below):

"A recent survey of 1,684 people conducted by SharedBook, Inc. investigated what photos – or the lack of them -- may say about the American family. And the results don’t always paint a pretty picture for dear old dad. For instance, when asked which person is most frequently in your pictures, mom tops the list (26%), followed by daughter (18%), son (17%), the pet (10%) and finally dad (8%). That’s right, dad loses to Fido! And when asked which person appears least in your vacation photos…far and away, the top answer was dad (48%)."

Since we do not have a dog or any other four legged creature in the house, it looks like Dad is left off the photo-op list entirely. To console myself, maybe I will take myself out for a walk :)

Entire Press Release with Survey Results courtesy of Sharedbook.

A recent survey of 1,684 people conducted by SharedBook, Inc. investigated what photos – or the lack of them -- may say about the American family. And the results don’t always paint a pretty picture for dear old dad. For instance, when asked which person is most frequently in your pictures, mom tops the list (26%), followed by daughter (18%), son (17%), the pet (10%) and finally dad (8%). That’s right, dad loses to Fido! And when asked which person appears least in your vacation photos…far and away, the top answer was dad (48%).

While digital cameras seem to be inducing Americans to take more and more photos, we seem to be looking at those photos less and less. 49% of Americans now say they take 100 photos or more a year, yet 52% say they look at the photos they’ve taken once a year or less. This could be because, in the survey, 31% of people store their photos in a box.

The digital era has made it even worse. For many, the computer has become a photo graveyard. For those of us who keep most of our photos on the computer, the frequency of viewing our old photo collections declines to once every two to four years. No wonder that 71% said that after five years, they couldn’t name any of the non-family members in a photo they took

“Technology has made it easy to take great pictures; however, up until now, it hasn’t helped us preserve them in a way that makes reliving them easy.,” explains Caroline Vanderlip, CEO of SharedBook. SharedBook Inc. has pioneered the online creation of personalized, professionally printed, full color, branded books that capture an individual’s experiences and memories. “We have become addicted to taking pictures. Ironically, it seems as though still photography has replaced video. But we don’t know what to do with all the photos we’re now taking. If we keep them on the computer, they are rarely viewed. If we put them in albums, we’ll eventually need second attics to store them, and a private investigator to identify all the people and places in them.” Vanderlip continues, “That is one of the reasons we have launched SharedBook, and why we conducted this survey in the first place. With SharedBook’s innovative technology, anyone can now easily create a personalized book of their photos with dates, anecdotes, and anything else one needs to keep their memories as fresh as if they just happened yesterday...”

93% of the people surveyed would pay for a photo that someone else had that they wanted and 81% wished they had photos of occasions that they didn’t get.

Vanderlip concludes, “There was never a question in my mind that people needed a new way of taking pictures and to share photos with others. SharedBook’s products help people do just that.”

When asked, “Where do you most frequently like to take pictures of your spouse?” one of men’s favorite places to photograph their wives was at holiday events and on vacation (79% each), while one of women’s favorite places to snap a shot of their husbands was “in an embarrassing situation” (82%). Perhaps it shouldn’t be surprising, then, that dad is so frequently not in the picture!

The SharedBook survey of people from across the country also showed some emotional traits common among those who take a lot of photographs versus those who take fewer pictures. For instance, 73% of families who say they take an above average amount of photos, show a tendency to dine together as a family more often than those who take a below average amount of photos. 68% of high picture takers say they eat dinner together as a family at least 5 nights a week, while only 51% of low photo takers dine together that frequently.

“Photos say and do a lot for families,” explains Ms. Vanderlip. “It is not only about taking the picture, but taking the time to look at them and honor the memories they conjure up. It is a way to relive magic moments, to bring special feelings and times of closeness from the past into the present. Memories are the commonalities that define families as well as any shared community!”

DID YOU KNOW…

Dad goes to the dogs

Dad is the least photographed family member, appearing on average in only 8% of family photos, 18% lower than mom, and 2% lower than the dog.

Get a hit or I’ll shove that guys camera right up your x#$*X&%.

Little league parents who take an above average amount of photos are less likely to force their children to play sports, less likely to argue with the umpire, or yell at their own child.

Where are we going to put them all?
49% of the country now takes over 100 pictures a year, 13% take over 500.
If he buys a camera, get mouthwash.
Above average picture takers like to click and kiss, or is it kiss and click. 69% of people who say they take an above average amount of family photos say they also kiss goodnight, 18% say they smooch between 3 to 5 times per week. Only 60% of those who say they take a below average amount of photos lip lock at night and only12% say they kiss 3 to 5 times a week
Sons and Daughters:

The top 5 scenarios for taking pictures of one’s daughter:

1) playing sports (87%)

2) vacations (72%)

3) with their friends (69%)

4) holiday event (68%)

5) at a religious ceremony (63%)

The top 5 scenarios for taking photos of ones son:

1) playing sports (81%)

2) vacation (79%)

3) at a party (79%)

4) holiday event (78%)

5) embarrassing situation (71%)

Oh, she never eats

We are over twice as likely to photograph our sons eating than our daughter 66% to 32%

My daughter has to date nice boys, my son just has to make sure he gets the car back…….

62% of us like photographing our daughter going on a date, but only 21% of us like to remember our son’s liaisons.

Well its priorities

51% say they know exactly where the photos are of their children’s religious ceremonies, but 89% know where the little league pictures are.

Name your price

93% of people surveyed would pay for a photo someone else had.

I’d rather remember the vacation

100% of people said they had photos of a vacation with only 53% having photos of their anniversaries.

Little League more important than graduation?

83% of people have no idea where their graduation pictures are but 89% know where their Little League pictures are.

Who can remember?

Five years after an event/vacation, 71% cannot remember the non-family members in their photos?