Steven Savage

OK look no snappy lines.  We have a LOT of news!

Big News For Nerds Today: AOL acquired Tech Crunch (a site we use a lot here). Some thoughts here, posted before the announcement. I find that this purchase fits AOL's news-focus (and may enhance TechCrunch's ability to go local), and the event-organizing side would give AOL other things to do. I'm tentatively positive on this, and want to see what else AOL has up their sleeves – I can see them making a kind of media juggernaught out of spare parts, one that might provide a lot of opportunity in the future. Certainly their new add project, Project Devil seems innovative

Career:
Networking for young people. A great article for those of you whose networks are limited due to your lack of being old.

LinkedIn has improved company profiles. This is pretty sweet (and makes things harder on, say Crunchbase. It makes LinkedIn even more of a useful research tool for careers, reporting, etc.

Economics/Geekonomics:
That story on rating agency shennanegans is more complex than we thought – and there may be less guilt for some parties than thought. A bit econo-heavy but might be worth reading if you're . . . well, like me.

Green Dot, the successful tech company you never heard of. Here's a lesson in success, and why you can never quite be sure you're on top of all issues.

Anime and Manga:
Whats up with Del Ray's manga? There are no new titles for solicitation listed after November 2010. More a curiosity than anything else, so let's see what happens.

Mobile:
It's looking a lot like you'll see Google Voice for the iPhone. Looks like that kerfluffle was settled – and it may make people more willing to develop for the iPhone.

Publishing:
Resume-worthy alert. Verve Wireless raises $7 million. They work in wireless and ad distribution for newspaper and other media companies. Sounds promising.

More news on new Fan To Pro Crush Object Kno: a look at their plans. Some of the same stuff for yesterday, but what can I say – new Crush Object.

Social Media:
Twitter's Streaming API comes out of Beta which means that apps using Twitter are going to get a lot more real-time – and this changes Twitter's potential from microblogging to regular updates. They're also bigger than MySpace, and have the CEO of Google's confidence that they can monetize.

Facebook IPO in 2012? Possibly Might want to get in if you want those juicy stock options . . . and a Facebook IPO would become an event unto itself.

The top 5 brand trends on Facebook, to give those of you into advertising and social media something to think about.

Technology:
NetShelter raises $15 million. They sell ads on a variety of websites and tech-focused blogs. Nice bit of change there. Sounds like they're worthy our attention if media and tech is your bag.

Trends in Web Logos – good for you graphic designers and webmasters to see what's popular, and what's annoyingly overused. I have to say I can't argue with this list . . .

Open Office separates itself from Oracle – big news for the popular open platform. Where does it go from here?

Video:
Hulu Plus on both Roku AND Tivo? Apparently so. This might also help the troubled Tivo. Is it just me or is every video service wanting to be like Netflix and be everywhere? That makes sense, but I think it means video tools are going to have to keep piling on the services just to keep up with each other – it could get even crazier out there.

Video Games:
Zynga gets new offices as they move on up. Meanwhile PopCap CEO disses Zynga by calling them a marketing company and suggesting their time will end. I sense increasing tension here . . .

Minecraft is making $350,000 a day. I wonder how much of that is due to the mention in Penny Aracde 1, 2(though I hear it's a good game period). A heck of an indie success story – and maybe some techniques to emulate?

Frogster interactive doubles revenue. If you're in Berlin, they may be for you . . .

Virtual Goods:
Virtual Good Market expected to increase by 40% in 2011. The Inside Virtual Goods report focuses on 2011 being a maturing of the virtual good market – and note this covers almost every technology using them. I still think the market has to top at some point.

QUESTION OF THE DAY: What do you think AOL's strategy is after this purchase?

– Steven Savage

The Kno gets more details, even more economic bad news, and Twitter ads in recommendations. Let's get to geeky job news!

Economics/Geekonomics:
Oh look. What a surprise. Loan rating agencies ignored unsafe mortgage pools. This of course meant lots of lousy investments got rated wrong and the economy went bonkers.

A neat infographic (boy these are catching on) about the value of an hour of work per country. I think Luxeomburg can be considered a megaregion first, but beyond that quibble, interesting.

Anime and Manga:
Libre confirms it sent C&D notices to scanlation groups. Not surprising, and the author makes a good point that it appears we're in a phase of change where companies are suddenly awfully agressive about scanlations and similar issues.

Comics:
ComicBookMovie.com looks at comic titles that deserve another shot. Something to make you think (along with the comments), and something to speculate on as Marvel and DC ramp up their multimedia strategies . . .

Media:
AdAge's list of 100 leading media companies is out. Sadly it's limited access, but you can get some data here. Things actually seem to be improving . . . just wish we could see more of the report.

Social Media:
Twitter will allow advertisers to purchase placement in the 'who to follow' recommendations. This will be targeted to user interests, but sounds a bit "overcommercial." It also starts very expensive, so it seems to be limited to deep pockets. I'm not sure this is good for their reputation, it remains to see how it evolves.

WordPress partners with Windows Live to provide their blogging. Interesting considering the changes we've seen lately (such as the Say Media/SixApart thing).

Technology:
Qauntenna Communications raises $21 million. They make chipsets for home networking. They're located in sort-of-Silicon Valley city Fremont, and might be a good one to look at career-wise. You know that market is going to be big . . .

More to Know on the Kno. I want to know (and see) more, but they have money, are enthusiastic, and seem to have a vision for what they want to do. The fact they're talking ROI for the CONSUMER intrigues me as it means they're really thinking about customer value, and that's a good, smart way to do things.

Video:
Hulu may be on Roku. A rumor stage, but one worth noting as it sounds likely – plus there's a bit of analysis here. Of course Hulu's life isn't easy due to sharing/ad issues, enough to make a few question how it's future will go.

Video Games:
An interesting way to think of Zynga? It embodies four disruptions to the usual way of doing things. Meanwhile Zynga expands to Europe by buying Dextrose. Hmmm, now what will DeNA do . . .

Remember, it's easier to promote games when a cute dog is one of your actors.

Insights on building a Lego MMO. Some great stuff on just how this is being pulled off.

A one-dollar XBox retro RPG sells 30,000 copies. Makes me wonder if the really low price points that may work for some writing (where the point is low enough that you actually make more money than with a higher price) also apply to games.

QUESTION OF THE DAY: What is the ideal price point for a downloadable game – and between games?

– Steven Savage