Nimble Code: Tag yahoo

Yahoo and Google's Recruitment Gambles

harrisj@nimblecode.com (Jacob Harris) — Wed, 21 Dec 2005 22:07:00 -0800

Jason Kottke had a really interesting point earlier this month about Yahoo’s del.icio.us purchase that I just read today (been catching up), when he says:

There’s an interesting story in here somewhere about how Yahoo! is hiring/buying the “alpha geeks” (hackers, tinkerers, accidental entrepreneurs) and Google seemingly isn’t (Ph.Ds, computer scientists) and what effect that could have on each company’s development.

Spot on. It seems like Google has been focusing its efforts lately mainly on acquiring key smart people (even if that means buying their whole company), content acquisition (ie, Keyhole for satellite data, the sitemap protocol for deep web access), and advertising/advertising/advertising! Meanwhile, Yahoo has been looking for new talent with proven success to snap up. Their strategy could really be defined as platforms. Amazon has also been doing this to some degree through their internal Robot Coop front company, but I expect they might start buying outside sites as well if they prove successful (good luck there LibraryThing!). It’s nice for the big guys; someone else takes the risk of building the product and they can scoop it up – users and all – if it sticks.

This has been described as competing strategies of brains vs. hackers. Which is certainly true, but there are some interesting other dimensions to consider. I read an interview with Eric Schmidt of Google where he named the not invented here attitude as one of Google’s biggest concerns moving forward. And looking at their strategy, it seems like Google might be struggling with that problem now, preferring to create their own copies of existing successful products (Googlemaps and Gmail have done well, but what about Google Base or Orkut?). Of course, Yahoo is taking its own risks here (their strategy is essentially treating geeks like value stocks vs. Google’s growth stocks), but I ultimately feel they might succeed. A lot of radical web stuff lately has been done by the new people, the unknows (think Ruby on Rails or Del.icio.us), and Yahoo has been more poised to recognize it. Will their riskier unknowns best Google’s smart people with big reputations? I think so, unless Google’s hiding something really big up its sleeves to spring in 2006.

On a related note, John Battelle has published his industry predictions for 2006 and it’s an interesting read. Although he sometimes stumbles, he generally does a good job of being on the mark, as his review of 2005’s predictions shows. Check it out.

Web2.0 Road to Riches

harrisj@nimblecode.com (Jacob Harris) — Wed, 05 Oct 2005 09:06:00 -0700

Back in the day of the first Web boom, it seems like a lot of companies were started on the simple premise of

Make a web site
IPO or maybe get bought out
Cash out with millions!

And so, a boom and bubble was born. The problem here was a lot of VCs and rational investors found themselves swept up in the frenzy back in the day, and placed their bets even though there was no real knowable way to accurately estimate the future profitability or net worth of their investments. Sure, there was a risk of failure, but that wasn’t viewed as negatively as the risk of not getting in early while it was still cheap. Add that to the later shared delusion of being able to cash out before the bubble burst, and the shortsightedness of those days is a lot more understandable. It seems though we’re on the verge of a new way of thinking:

Make a web site
Get bought out by Yahoo or Google
Cash out with millions!

Maybe I’m being a bit pessimistic (and I will freely admit I’m no business expert), but I am slightly concerned about there being a new web bubble that could lead to disillusionment over Web2.0 technology. I like Google, but I think their stock is too overvalued at over $300 a share; thankfully, the company seems interested in correcting this problem. And Web2.0 has become such a hype word among investors, it’s led to a wave of people trying to define what it is, offering alternative definitions, and mocking the business world for caring Investors looking for the next big thing are starting to latch onto the Web2.0 excitement and I think some people think Google and Yahoo can do no wrong; I only hope they do their homework first this time.

On the technical side of things, I have a fear of web developers starting companies with the sole goal of being bought by Google or Yahoo in a few years or less. There’s a big difference between planning a business for the long haul and hoping to get snatched up before you burn through all your cash in two years. So, I must admit it was with some dismay today that I read that Yahoo has acquired Upcoming.org, just like it had with Flickr. This is not to begrudge Upcoming their success (it’s a great web app), but I’m just afraid of where the combination of lazy web developers and over-eager investors will take us. We’ve been there before, and I don’t want to see it again.

And of course, the biggest problem with all this is the way in which this weaking leads to the end of the openness and choice out there now. How many options are there really if your choice for web applications is between Yahoo and Google? Will this lead to a segmentation of content and communication? And more importantly, if you think that the Web2.0 is all about the free flow and interchange of data, won’t the growth of Google and Yahoo into all areas of the Internet choke that off?

Best Web Mashup Yet

harrisj — Thu, 05 May 2005 12:11:00 -0700

Supergreg has created a great but possibly short-lived combination of competing web-services, combining Yahoo's Traffic Conditions RSS with Google Maps to make the best traffic conditions mapper I've seen yet. See if before it goes away (a cease and desist is probably on its way now) at Supergreg's Site.