Is Google Afraid of Microhoo (or Yahsoft)?

Microsoft + Yahoo! Here’s something that made me go Hmmm? Yesterday, David Drummond, the Chief Legal Officer of Google (GOOG), posted what appears to be their official reaction to Microsoft’s (MSFT) bid for Yahoo! (YHOO): “Yahoo! and the future of the Internet“.

The reaction from the blogosphere has largely been WTF?

Dave of PassingNotes.com even posted an amusing interpretation of Drummond’s piece, “Dr MicroHoo, or how I stopped worrying and learned to love the bomb“.

Drummond’s response struck me as surprisingly tinged with fear, hypocrisy, and spite. That probably wasn’t his intention, but it’s not hard to take it that way. To be fair, he does raise up valid points. And ironically, those very points have been raised against Google too. So what was Drummond trying to say with this post? I dunno, maybe he really was trying to play tit-for-tat with Microsoft?

Where in the World is Ray Ozzie?

Ray Ozzie Here’s food for thought. With all the hubbub of Microsoft’s (MSFT) bid for Yahoo! (YHOO), I can’t help but wonder: where in the world is Ray Ozzie?

Ray Ozzie is Microsoft’s Chief Software Architect, a role he assumed after Bill Gates stepped down to focus on philanthropy (though he remains as Chairman of Microsoft). Ozzie’s claim to fame is being the founder of Lotus Notes, a client/server collaboration application that was once one of Microsoft’s chief competitors.

Although Ozzie isn’t a highly-visible executive in the media (at least in the publications I read), a lot of eyes turned to him since he became Bill Gates 2.0. In a leaked email way back in 2005 entitled, “The Internet Services Disruption” (which followed on the heels of a leaked email from Gates), Ozzie stated that (emphasis his):

Businesses are increasingly considering what services-based economics of scale might do to help them reduce infrastructure costs or deploy solutions as-needed and on subscription basis.

Most challenging and promising to our business, though, is that a new business model has emerged in the form of advertising-supported services and software.

Following this was a greater emphasis on MSN, the launch of Windows Live, and an array of related products. Unfortunately, Microsoft’s forays into online advertising have been, well, as good as knocking down airplanes with a fly swatter. So much for trying to execute on this new business model, huh? Looks like the next best thing is to buy a company that can execute better. Hellooo Yahoo!

Since Ozzie is the chief executive driving Microsoft’s march into the Internet space, I wonder why he hasn’t been mentioned in any of the stories about Microsoft’s bid for Yahoo!. I’m guessing he played a big part in this, whether it be in making the decision, or forcing the decision because he didn’t deliver with Microsoft Live…?

I’m totally speculating here. For all I know, maybe Microsoft elected Steve Ballmer to make the announcement so the bid would carry more weight. It’s still odd to me that Ozzie isn’t mentioned anywhere at all though. Or perhaps he just prefers to stay out of the spotlight. Even his own blog is pretty quiet. Hmm.

Microsoft Wants to Buy Yahoo!

Microsoft + Yahoo! Wow! (Which apparently has been the reaction all over the blogosphere.) Microsoft (MSFT) just made a bid to purchase Yahoo! (YHOO) at $31/share, or about $44.6 billion in cash and stock.

This has been in the rumor mill for some time now, once even jumping the price of YHOO to around $33. Now that Microsoft has made a public bid, the price has been hovering between $27-29. Some analysts expect that this is only the first bid by Microsoft, and that they may raise their bid $3-4 to sweeten the deal.

“It’s unusual to put your best bid out the first time,” said Tom Burnett, the Director of Research for the merger research firm Wall Street Access. He also added that the possibility of a Democrat winning the US presidential election could make the acquisition tricky. “A lot of this is driven by the political impact of the Dems going into the White House, and being more vigorous. The Dems have a history of being more aggressive and anti-big business.” This means Microsoft may have to sweeten the deal soon.

Oh, and here’s an interesting take on Microsoft’s bid, by Peter Van Dijck (found via the comments of A VC). Danny Sullivan of Search Engine Land also has a good analysis of the bid, including a mention of Yahoo!’s response: “[The] Board of Directors will evaluate this proposal carefully and promptly in the context of Yahoo!’s strategic plans and pursue the best course of action to maximize long-term value for shareholders.”

This could be a real historical moment, at least in the Internet world. Wow indeed!

Mobile WiFi In Cars

Autonet Mobile wifi router I just came back from a long road trip in Arizona. Seriously long. The rental car started with 22,590 miles on its odometer. We returned it with 24,191 miles. That’s 1,601 miles! All over the state of Arizona! Whew!

Armed with free AAA maps, wifi-enabled laptops, and smartphones (yes, we are geeks), we were able to navigate hundreds of miles of city streets and lonely stretches of desert.

But occasionally, we needed to go online for information like weather, hotel reservations, tourist information, etc. In most cases, Google SMS (GOOG) gave us what we needed—especially for weather and specific directions. For other information, a web browser was needed. That’s where our smartphone’s microbrowsers came in handy.

Then I read Michael Lasky’s Wired Magazine article, “Autonet Mobile: Your Own Personal Hotspot, Everywhere You Go“:

Once behind the wheel of the Pontiac, I plug the Autonet into the cigarette lighter and within seconds (seconds, not minutes) my PC picks up a full Wi-Fi signal. In a blink I’m checking gmail, and not long after that I download directions to my hotel. Then I look at my watch. The entire process, from initial plug-in to receiving route info, is done in under a minute. I can’t match this performance — even with my iPhone.

Autonet Mobile is, according to their site, a “Wireless Internet Service Provider designed to maintain internet connectivity within the car.” Based in Marin County, CA, they offer several service plans, none of which are currently listed. Lasky reports that the plans are expected to range from $80-100/month for unlimited service. As of now, they only seem to be available from Avis for $10.95 per day—and then only from select Avis locations.

The technical details: their wifi router offers access speeds of 600-800Kbps and upload speeds of about 200Kbps within a 100ft radius. Autonet runs over both 3G and 2.5G (EVDO, 1xRTT) cellular data networks, which covers roughly 95% of the US. Also, integrated WEP encryption, MAC address restriction and WAN port restriction is provided. This means you get fairly comprehensive coverage and good security.

Ingeniously, the connection is maintained even as you drive past different cell towers and carriers. Autonet has a tower-to-tower hand-off feature that connects to the tower with the strongest EVDO broadband signal, regardless of carrier. How do they do this? With some cool technology and nondenominational network agreements with Sprint and Verizon.

It sounds like a pretty cool idea, though for my needs (getting information while traveling), a smartphone takes care of all that. Why would I pay extra to be able to use my laptop in a rental car?

Answer is, I probably wouldn’t. But what about a new car buyer getting a new car? That’s a bit different. Lasky mentioned this intriguing news: “Starting next month, [Autonet Mobile CEO Sterling] Pratz’s vision will take its next step when Autonet hardware and services is offered at Toyota dealerships in Northern California. Not long after that, other (unnamed) car brands and dealerships will begin to offer Autonet Mobile.”

In dealerships, huh? So you could conceivably buy a car and get an option for wifi? Interesting idea there. I could see road warriors, traveling salespeople, and perhaps even vacationers on road trips enjoying a feature like this—if the price is right. Right now, all of them have mobile phones that can get them the information they need, albeit in varying degrees of quality and speed.

A wifi-enabled car could also offer enhanced navigation services, aside from weather & traffic, which are already offered by many. Perhaps the navigation screen doubles as a web browser? Or, while it gives you directions to a restaurant, it helps you make a reservation too? Or tourist information like hours of service and historical tidbits?

This indeed seems to be what Autonet Mobile is envisioning. Says Pratz: “Autonet Mobile is focused on the personal hotspot as an in-car entertainment solution, replacing in-car DVD systems that lets five to six users simultaneously access the net from any Wi-Fi enabled device — including iPhones. … We expect a range of holding between five to ten movies or flash games, music, TV shows and so on [in the Autonet Mobile device].”

Interesting stuff! The idea of a wifi-enabled car seems like one of those ideas where, ten years from now, we’ll look back and go, “Well, duh! Of course cars have wifi!” It’s going to be cool to see where this technology goes.

(BTW, I’m not being paid for this or anything. It just sounded like a cool idea that I wanted to write about.)

Online Business Incorporation Services

Briefcase Need to set up your business entity? Fortunately there are a number of online services to help you with this now. Quite a number, in fact.

How can you chose the right online business incorporation service then?

Here’s what I did. First, I found a bunch of them through simple Google (GOOG) searches. Then I decided to sort them by their Alexa rankings. (I also did a quick comparison against their Compete rankings.)

Why? Because I wasn’t able to find any articles comparing these services to help me make an informed decision. Therefore, I figured a basic popularity rating is better than nothing. Maybe a service that’s popular would have slightly better offerings and customer service—or at least have enough customers to teach them how to run a quality business.

Is that really true? Hardly, but eh, it was better than nothing.

The search results and rankings produced this list:

  1. Incorporate.com
  2. MyCorporation
  3. BizFilings
  4. DirectIncorporation
  5. IncNow.com
  6. Active Filings
  7. DelawareInc.com
  8. IncorporateTime.com
  9. Form-A-Corp
  10. The Incorporation Company

The top four sites ranked high on both Alexa and Compete. Below that and the rankings were quite different. This list is sorted by Alexa rankings only.

Then I looked at the top six. I originally examined just the top four, but decided to go +2 for more variety. Scientific? Hardly.

Incorporate.com
For a Delaware LLC, prices range from $99 – $199 with what appears to be a limited-time discount, or $149 – $399 normally.
MyCorporation
Since this is owned by Intuit (INTU)—creator of Quicken, QuickBooks, and TurboTax—I assume they have a fair amount of business knowledge. For a Delaware LLC, prices range from $288 – $488.
BizFilings
Advertised heavily in entrepreneurial publications, they offer a lot of useful articles and tips on business incorporation. For a Delaware LLC, prices range from $99 – 329.
DirectIncorporation
Though their site isn’t much to look at, they seem to have quite a few free extras. For any state and entity type, prices range from $139 – 288.
IncNow.com
They also own the domain name corporation.com, so they could be ranking high simply because of effective SEO. These guys only offer business incorporation services for Delaware. For any entity type, prices range from $189 – $598.
Active Filings
Also not much to look at, they seem to be on the more expensive side. For a Delaware LLC, prices range from $289 – $589.

It would seem to me that MyCorporation, BizFilings, or DirectIncorporation seem to be as good a pick as any. Disclaimer: I am involved with businesses that have used BizFilings and DirectIncorporation. Since MyCorporation is from Intuit, I’d consider using them too, though they’re a bit pricey. Incorporate.com could be a fair budget choice as well.

Another disclaimer: There are obvious problems with this method of selecting an online business incorporation service. For one, this favors sites that have good SEO resources. There could be a great service that’s not listed on the Google search results. This also doesn’t compare actual quality factors—or define what those quality factors are. Unfortunately, business incorporation isn’t a common multiple-use service, so few people would be in a position to do an in-depth comparison. However, if anyone has any anecdotes or experiences about these services, I’d love to hear about them. Perhaps this could be the start of such a comparison.

UPDATE 3/14/2008: Corrected entries for Incorporate.com and IncNow.com. Removed my error in stating that corporation.com redirects to incorporate.com; it actually redirects to incnow.com. Thanks for the correction, Frank!

Biz Idea: Asian-Influenced Craft Beer

Mug of Beer A buddy of mine just started home-brewing his own beer. “It’s easy!” he said. “And tastes great!”

His love for this hobby got me thinking. And thirsty. So after a few beers myself, an article from Entrepreneur Magazine bubbled to my mind: “The 2008 Hot List“. It lists their picks for the hottest industries in 2008. One of the picks is craft beer.

Ask industry experts what’s brewing and you’ll get a stout response: craft beer. The volume of craft beer sold in the first half of 2007 rose 11 percent compared to the same period in 2006, and dollar growth increased 14 percent, according to the Brewers Association. “People like the taste of hand-crafted beers that deliver unexpected flavors,” says Keith Villa, a brewmaster at Coors.

Ah, unexpected flavors, eh? That got me thinking some more, and drinking some more. Both go hand-in-hand wonderfully. *burp* This also warmed up my appetite and led me to California cuisine, also known as pan-Asian or fusion cuisine. It’s the eclectic yet sublime art of fusing dishes, ingredients, and cooking styles from around the world. According to Wikipedia, such a restaurant may include items such as: sake cocktails, salads with crisp nori toppings & a miso-cilantro vinaigrette dressing, and rock shrimp dumplings. Yum!

To top off a meal like that, my mind then wandered to chocolates (naturally). And more specifically, to fusion gourmet chocolates. As another Entrepreneur Magazine article showed, chocolates can be just as expressive as food. Take Vosges-Haut Chocolat, for instance. Founder Katrina Markoff, a student of the Parisian culinary institute Le Cordon Bleu, studied street food in Southeast Asia and Australia for nine months and came up with decadent concoctions such as chocolate with coconut milk and curry. And just recently, a friend introduced me to the Oakland, CA-based Cosmic Chocolate, another gourmet chocolatier with an eclectic range of ingredients such as chai spices, green tea, ginger syrup, basil, and chili. While some of these may sound like you’d definitely need a beer afterwards, I’ve tried some and they were surprisingly delicious!

So why not do the same with craft beer? Why not start a microbrewery specializing in a fusion of Asian-influenced flavors? Like a spicy wasabi beer? Or one with hints of chai and lychee? There are already beers brewed with chocolate, cherries, oranges, and lemons flavors. Why not mango, kiwi, coconut, or even curry? There’s a whole palette to choose from. Miso, soy sauce, ginger, garlic, black bean, red bean… Heck, you could just raid the kitchen Chez Panisse for a long list of ideas!

Okay, maybe this idea will turn some of your stomachs. But hey, if Jones Soda can make a Turkey & Gravy Soda, why couldn’t some innovative new microbrewery create a Teriyaki Beer?

Don’t Post Naked Photos of Yourself on Facebook!

Facebook This just in from Caroline McCarthy of Webware: “Report: Facebook threatens to ban Gawker’s Denton“!

So here’s what went down. Just this past Tuesday, Nick Denton, founder of the blog network Gawker Media, published the article “Emily Brill: The Second Generation“, where he featured some very unflattering screenshots taken from a Facebook member’s profile page. This is after Denton “took over as managing editor of Gawker.com this month after several staff departures,” reports McCarthy.

The victim is 25-year-old Emily Brill, daughter of Steven Brill, the founder of CourtTV (I mean truTV), American Lawyer Magazine, and numerous other companies. The screenshots included a set of photos comparing Emily in a bikini against an older college photo where she was “significantly heavier,” adds McCarthy.

Sam Gustin of Portfolio.com writes in his article “Blogger Bullying Draws a Website Warning” that Denton “has violated Facebook’s terms of use… and the social network’s honchos are not amused.”

Facebook’s Terms of Use make it clear that, “Except for your own User Content, you may not upload or republish Site Content on any Internet, Intranet or Extranet site or incorporate the information in any other database or compilation, and any other use of the Site Content is strictly prohibited.”

This could result in Denton being banned from Facebook.

Not surprisingly, this isn’t the first time information from someone’s Facebook profile has been used against them. Back in August 2007, Lucy Morrow Caldwell of Slate Magazine published the article “Daddy Dearest: Rudy Giuliani’s daughter is supporting Barack Obama“. Since both Caldwell and the 17-year-old Caroline Giuliani are both part of the Harvard network, Caldwell was able to see that Giuliani listed her political view as “liberal” and joined the Facebook group “Barack Obama (One Million Strong for Barack).” She has since withdrawn from the group.

Also, back in October 2007, Owen Thomas of Valleywag published the article “Confirmed: Facebook and Microsoft flacks make friends before deal announcement” after noticing that Brandee Barker, head of PR at Facebook, added Adam Sohn, head of marketing PR at Microsoft (MSFT), as a friend. “Just buddies?” wrote Thomas. “I think not. But I’m sure writing up the press release announcing Microsoft’s investment and ad deal will make them fast friends, indeed.”

This almost led to Thomas being banned from Facebook too, his insiders told him.

What’s this mean for you and I? Well, for one, don’t post any naked photos of yourself on Facebook, or anywhere else online for that matter. “Well, duh Mike, that’s a no-brainer,” you say? Sorry kids, practicing safe Facebooking still means you could catch a case of public crabs. (Only abstinence is the true protection, but what’s the fun in that?) Let me explain.

  1. Someone else could upload photos of you

    And if that person tags you in the photos, the photo is now linked to you. Fortunately, you can remove your tag from photos (and videos too). Whew.

  2. Strangers may be able to see your profile

    McCarthy notes that it’s not clear whether Denton and Brill are friends on Facebook, but since both are members of the New York regional network, there’s a chance he could have seen her profile without being directly connected. For instance, if someone pokes you, you can see their profile. So if you poke back, they can see your profile. Fortunately, you can control what they see by altering your Poke, Message and Friend Request Settings.

  3. Strangers could see your photos if they have your album’s URL

    According to Thomas, Facebook privacy is an illusion. Someone gave him the exact URL to a photo album of Facebook’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg, despite not being directly connected to him. This allowed Thomas (and any of us) to view the entire album. Unfortunately, there’s no way to counter this at the moment, though I’m guessing Facebook’s engineers are working on this.

How does Denton feel about being banned from a potentially plump source of stories? As Peter Kafka of Silicon Alley Insider writes in “Nick Denton’s Gawker Takes On Scientologists, Facebook, Wins“:

Denton tells us he doesn’t care if Facebook boots him off the social network: “I was getting bored of Facebook, anyway.” (Note to Gawker Media employees: Yes, we know Denton forced you all to join Facebook last spring. We don’t know whether this means you’re off the hook, though.)

And for the curious stalkers out there, sorry to dash your hopes, but “perhaps due to the Gawker incident, Emily Brill’s Facebook profile is no longer publicly searchable,” says McCarthy. Which is for the best; this Paris-Hilton-esque spotlight must’ve been Hell for her.