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If you want to place blame for tarmac delays, bad airline customer service, and nickel & diming fees -- look no further than how you yourself purchase plane tickets. As consumers, we choose to purchase services based on any number of criteria that are important to us. In return, suppliers of these services cater their strategies to try to meet our needs and win that business.

If we purchase things as a commodity, it will get sold as a commodity. Plain and simple.

So why is air travel, among the most differentiated experiences we have in the normal course of life, purchased by so many people as a commodity? I have a few ideas I'll share below, but some of you may even disagree with that premise to begin with, so let's start there.

If you go to an airline revenue management conference, you will see smart folks from industry and academia talk about complex consumer choice and yield management models. All of them have the same basic premise: Two things count when there is a customer "arrival" (e.g. someone checks a fare with intent to purchase): The first is price, the second is schedule. Everything else is a distant third.

Now the folks reading this are most likely frequent travelers like myself. We are counting our elite status qualification miles on a weekly basis and have flown so many airlines so many times, we know who we like. We also might optimize to catch a ride on a 777 transcontinental (hopefully not this one) or endure a layover in DFW instead of O'Hare because the view of the field is so great from that people mover. But even we are pulled by price. How much more am I willing to pay to fly one airline over another? $20? $50? $75?

But after a flight, even us frequent travelers are known to talk about the adventure. Was it bumpy? Did the captain tell a joke? Was the FA nice? Did the gate agent say something mean? Did you get a movie? And of course, how late was it? Your flight experience often outlives many other aspects of your trip, even when it wasn't particularly eventful.

Why, then, do we buy tickets based almost entirely on price? Here are some ideas:

1) Perishable experience: Flying is, when all is said and done, just getting from point A to point B. It is a small part (time-wise) of your travel experience. If you're going to a meeting, on vacation, or visiting family or friends -- those visits and meetings are what you're focused on. Getting there is just an enabler. So while you might rather a better experience (who wouldn't?), it's a relatively short-lived perishable experience. Once you land, you're there. Done and done. A hotel, on the other hand, lasts your entire visit. A shirt, a bike, a car, a smartphone -- all of those are non-perishable things you live with for months or years. A flight is a few hours, tops. So even though you know you want a good experience, it's hard to justify the spend.

2) Booking vs. Experiencing: You usually buy plane tickets weeks, sometimes months, before you travel. It's like making reservations for the theatre or a sporting event in advance. You are buying the service well before you are experiencing it, so it's hard to feel the value of different offerings in a tangible way. If you bought all your plane tickets walk-up to the ticket counter right before you fly, you might think differently about that purchase. Similarly, when you get off the plane, you aren't just then buying tickets for your next trip. When you are upgrading your smartphone, you are doing so while you're still using your old one. So if you're unhappy with it, you really want a better one and that's a tangible feeling. You may have had a rotten flying experience, but a month later when you go to buy your next ticket, it doesn't quite feel as raw.

3) Inconsistency of experience: People generally get a feel of the different experience between a Spirit and United trip (or do they?). But what about United vs. Delta? Or even Southwest vs. American? The reality is that the best flight in Spirit is far better than a bad flight on United. You may have a bad experience on one airline on the outbound trip, and then have magical experience on the return. Airlines, as large companies with tens of thousands of employees located all over the world (and many more contracted workers) do not provide a consistent experience. Even when it comes to planes, the same applies. Do I have inflight entertainment? Is my seat pitch 31" or 33"? Am I on a small regional jet or a wide-body? With the exception of some of the LCCs (namely Virgin America, JetBlue, airTran, Southwest, and Spirit in the US), your physical plane experience varies so much. And even then, the little policies (when can I pull out my iPod after taking off? when will the seat-belt sign come off? How are we boarding, by rows or by zone? Can I get an exit row seat for free?) seem to change even within the same carrier depending on station and staff. How can I be expected to pay more for an experience when I don't know what I'm going to get? The variability is WAY too high. Imagine if a Starbucks mocha tasted a little bit different in NYC as compared to SF? Would that impact your desire to pay $3.50 for a small drink when you're in a different city? You bet it would.

It turns out these together are very good reasons for purchasing based on price. Ironically, it was the airlines' own GDS technology that has fueled this since the 1980s. It used to be hard to get good price comparisons and travel agencies would affiliate with specific carriers. So part of your choice of carrier would depend on your travel agency -- and of course that was a differentiated experience and a local storefront. GDS fueled much easier price comparisons which made it simpler to choose based on price. Orbitz (owned by the airlines!) fueled the internet age in the same way. These tools made it easier for airlines to compete effectively against each other on price, but also made it MUCH easier for the consumer to choose based on price. Look at the difference between any flight search tool and hotel search tool? For flights, you get a listing of flights by price and time. For hotels, you get maps, photos, stats, etc. Can you imagine choosing just the cheapest hotel available, even if you had never heard of it? Yet everyday people buy tickets on Sun Country, Spirit, and USA 3000. I'm not saying these are bad airlines (they aren't at all! I've flown Sun Country and really enjoyed it), but people are choosing them even though they don't know them because they are the cheapest. That's as commodity as it gets!

The impact of this is near catastrophic for an industry with so many aspects of the "product." There is very little incentive for airlines to improve or invest in their product since people aren't choosing based on it. Yes, you don't want to get significantly behind others (because than people will see a difference despite variability), but aside from corporate contracts, it's hard to show a positive ROI.

Airlines still spend money also on marketing campaigns touting their new fleets, wi-fi on board, or on-time performance. Building that brand equity is a good thing for the long-term, but at the end of the day they are enticing people to fly with them over their competitors at the same price -- NOT enticing them to pay more to fly them. If you look at RASM (revenue per available seat mile) or RPM (revenue per passenger mile) -- the standard metrics for yield in the industry -- you'll see basically 3 tiers:

Tier 1: The discounted LCCs: e.g. Spirit, Allegiant. These guys are slimming down the product to save costs and traditionally only compete on price.

Tier 2: The product-oriented LCCs: JetBlue, Virgin America, Southwest. These guys have great products, but also low cost base, so they get a mid-level yield higher than that of the discounted LCCs, but not representative of their global reach or corporate contracts.

Tier 3: Network carriers: American, United, Delta, etc. They get a yield premium over the other tiers, but it's hard to establish a sustainable yield premium against each other.

(note a lot of this data is available for easy viewing at the MIT Airline Data Project). One thing to understand here is that despite there being three tiers, it doesn't necessarily represent a a differentiated environment. The network carriers have business class, allowing higher yields. Route mix is also a big factor in yields -- international routes vs. domestic, business vs. leisure, etc. So even these differences in yield can be explained by factors not related to airline brand choice.

So why is this bad for aviation and what do we do about it?

The commodity phenomenon has created a perverse incentive system for the airlines. It means the activities that drives their business the most is cost cutting and ancillary revenue generating. Neither of those are productive for the industry. Yes, keeping cost low is a critical discipline, but competing for how low you can go means a disgruntled workforce, an underinvestment in capital equipment, and an operation without the appropriate protective capacity. Generating revenue from ancillary sources creates hassle and inconvenience for the traveler, and an inability to understand the "total cost of the trip" until it's complete. This creates yet another incentive for the airline: Hide fees as much as possible. After all, when you purchase your next ticket, you are still likely to choose the cheapest option and forget the $25 you forked out on-board. By shifting revenue to the travel experience, you not only can earn more, you can lower your base fares to compete more effectively against others. This is a reinforcing cycle -- and is not likely to let up any time soon.

In summary, all the things we (and the DOT) complain about, are a result of these two phenomena: Increased delays (tarmac and otherwise), bumping passengers, accommodating passengers during disrupted operations are all the result of cost cutting. And of course the hidden fees, opaqueness of total cost of the trip, etc. are the result of finding ways to add ancillary revenue.

This is all a very rational response from an industry trying to make a buck off a commodity product.

Here are a few thoughts about what we can do about it:

1) Better shopping experiences: The consumer needs a better view of options so that they can, just maybe, have the ability to know what they are getting for their money. One guy is trying to do this -- Dave Pelter of Inside Trip. He understands this perfectly and senses the revolution coming where consumers may just make better choices about flights based on things other than just price and schedule. He has identified 12 other features and wants to provide this to GDS. Of course the big airlines and GDS are resistant to this because it's an unknown. But at some point (I hope), consumers will demand it. We also need better options for total cost of the trip, including potential fees. Several OTA's and meta-search sites are working on this (as is GDS). I haven't seen a good solution yet, but this space is new and my guess is we'll see some decent options in the coming months. These tools can help sway some of these commodity purchasing behaviors by at least allowing consumers the choice to think differently (turn air travel search results into more of the hotel view).

2) Fight DOT regulation: When the DOT micromanages the industry, it means all airlines sink to the bottom and stay there. It prevents differentiation, because it sets a standard (low OR high) for which all airlines meet. For example, without the 3 hour tarmac rule -- the DOT and others could have promoted massively who was keeping passengers on planes and who wasn't. That could have been a sustainable point of differentiation (e.g. JetBlue's Customer Bill of Rights predates DOT regulation and could have been a great point of differentiation -- arguable if they executed on it well). Instead, all airlines have to comply, destroying any point of comparison. Now the regulations around disclosure are better aimed, but still, it mandates airlines to have a certain level of customer service. Why not allow some airlines to do it and others not? The surface reason is because none will! That being said, DOT rules do not help establish point of differences between airlines, they only reinforce the concept that they're all the same -- doing just what they have to do and nothing more. If you take this logic to the extreme, you might argue even safety regulations shouldn't be required -- that would allow travelers to choose airlines based on safety. Would you pay $100 more knowing your plane had better maintenance? Or would you pay $100 less knowing your plane had less maintenance? There is good reason why the DOT shouldn't allow this, but at least hypothetically, one can see the value to allowing consumers to choose based on quality.

3) Embrace consolidation over code-sharing: This might be counter-intutive -- after all, fewer players means higher fares and fewer choices. But think of it this way: The 3 alliances now represent 3 choices of legacy carrier on any given route. Instead of 6, we now have 3 (okay, technically 4 with US Airways). It cuts down noise and confusion when purchasing tickets, especially since they were all selling tickets on each others planes anyways! Since LCCs have the best chance of differentiating themselves, it will be easier against a smaller crop of legacy carriers.

4) Promote LCC proliferation: Remember the tiers? Well the more LCC competition we have on routes, the more the legacy carriers (and LCCs) will try to differentiate themselves. That means better loyalty programs from the legacy carriers, and more perks from the LCCs. Yes, there will be price matching also, which is good. But what would be even better is if one of the legacy carriers figured out how to deliver a consistently good customer experience to try and win travelers vs. just price match.

I think there is room for one carrier (big or small) to make a real mark by creating a consistently better experience and thus gain a yield advantage. It's hard, for sure. But it has to do with more than surface things -- it has to do with protective capacity in the operation to reduce delays and cancellations, more staff at gates to create a better experience, and more consistent inflight experience. Taking the "hassle" out of flying has real value, and I'd love to see one airline spend money to make that happen in a consistent and sustainable way. Virgin America is probably doing this the best today and I look for their expansion as proof that this can work.

In the meantime -- it's up to us, consumers, to voice our issues with the industry. If we show that we're willing to pay according to product, we will see a drastically different environment open to us. But until we do, we're just promoting the cost cutting and ancillary revenue driving / hidden fee proliferation that airlines are engaging in. Don't place the blame on them, place it on us.

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experience airlines price based tickets experience airlines price tickets based revenue plane cost trip airline travel lccs point yield industry carriers commodity flight product hard consumers purchase spirit others customer different course legacy means fees search ancillary tiers easier carrier business hotel small think united travelers seat choice plane tickets legacy carriers virgin america ancillary revenue choose based total cost cost cutting better experience air travel yield premium discounted lccs network carriers pay 100 protective capacity allowing consumers dot regulation revenue per search tool perishable experience travel experience buy tickets frequent travelers customer service think differently price comparisons corporate contracts sun country buy plane effectively against spend money buy plane tickets ]]>FlightCaster
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If you want to place blame for tarmac delays, bad airline customer service, and nickel & diming fees -- look no further than how you yourself purchase plane tickets. As consumers, we choose to purchase services based on any number of criteria that are important to us. In return, suppliers of these services cater their strategies to try to meet our needs and win that business.

If we purchase things as a commodity, it will get sold as a commodity. Plain and simple.

So why is air travel, among the most differentiated experiences we have in the normal course of life, purchased by so many people as a commodity? I have a few ideas I'll share below, but some of you may even disagree with that premise to begin with, so let's start there.

If you go to an airline revenue management conference, you will see smart folks from industry and academia talk about complex consumer choice and yield management models. All of them have the same basic premise: Two things count when there is a customer "arrival" (e.g. someone checks a fare with intent to purchase): The first is price, the second is schedule. Everything else is a distant third.

Now the folks reading this are most likely frequent travelers like myself. We are counting our elite status qualification miles on a weekly basis and have flown so many airlines so many times, we know who we like. We also might optimize to catch a ride on a 777 transcontinental (hopefully not this one) or endure a layover in DFW instead of O'Hare because the view of the field is so great from that people mover. But even we are pulled by price. How much more am I willing to pay to fly one airline over another? $20? $50? $75?

But after a flight, even us frequent travelers are known to talk about the adventure. Was it bumpy? Did the captain tell a joke? Was the FA nice? Did the gate agent say something mean? Did you get a movie? And of course, how late was it? Your flight experience often outlives many other aspects of your trip, even when it wasn't particularly eventful.

Why, then, do we buy tickets based almost entirely on price? Here are some ideas:

1) Perishable experience: Flying is, when all is said and done, just getting from point A to point B. It is a small part (time-wise) of your travel experience. If you're going to a meeting, on vacation, or visiting family or friends -- those visits and meetings are what you're focused on. Getting there is just an enabler. So while you might rather a better experience (who wouldn't?), it's a relatively short-lived perishable experience. Once you land, you're there. Done and done. A hotel, on the other hand, lasts your entire visit. A shirt, a bike, a car, a smartphone -- all of those are non-perishable things you live with for months or years. A flight is a few hours, tops. So even though you know you want a good experience, it's hard to justify the spend.

2) Booking vs. Experiencing: You usually buy plane tickets weeks, sometimes months, before you travel. It's like making reservations for the theatre or a sporting event in advance. You are buying the service well before you are experiencing it, so it's hard to feel the value of different offerings in a tangible way. If you bought all your plane tickets walk-up to the ticket counter right before you fly, you might think differently about that purchase. Similarly, when you get off the plane, you aren't just then buying tickets for your next trip. When you are upgrading your smartphone, you are doing so while you're still using your old one. So if you're unhappy with it, you really want a better one and that's a tangible feeling. You may have had a rotten flying experience, but a month later when you go to buy your next ticket, it doesn't quite feel as raw.

3) Inconsistency of experience: People generally get a feel of the different experience between a Spirit and United trip (or do they?). But what about United vs. Delta? Or even Southwest vs. American? The reality is that the best flight in Spirit is far better than a bad flight on United. You may have a bad experience on one airline on the outbound trip, and then have magical experience on the return. Airlines, as large companies with tens of thousands of employees located all over the world (and many more contracted workers) do not provide a consistent experience. Even when it comes to planes, the same applies. Do I have inflight entertainment? Is my seat pitch 31" or 33"? Am I on a small regional jet or a wide-body? With the exception of some of the LCCs (namely Virgin America, JetBlue, airTran, Southwest, and Spirit in the US), your physical plane experience varies so much. And even then, the little policies (when can I pull out my iPod after taking off? when will the seat-belt sign come off? How are we boarding, by rows or by zone? Can I get an exit row seat for free?) seem to change even within the same carrier depending on station and staff. How can I be expected to pay more for an experience when I don't know what I'm going to get? The variability is WAY too high. Imagine if a Starbucks mocha tasted a little bit different in NYC as compared to SF? Would that impact your desire to pay $3.50 for a small drink when you're in a different city? You bet it would.

It turns out these together are very good reasons for purchasing based on price. Ironically, it was the airlines' own GDS technology that has fueled this since the 1980s. It used to be hard to get good price comparisons and travel agencies would affiliate with specific carriers. So part of your choice of carrier would depend on your travel agency -- and of course that was a differentiated experience and a local storefront. GDS fueled much easier price comparisons which made it simpler to choose based on price. Orbitz (owned by the airlines!) fueled the internet age in the same way. These tools made it easier for airlines to compete effectively against each other on price, but also made it MUCH easier for the consumer to choose based on price. Look at the difference between any flight search tool and hotel search tool? For flights, you get a listing of flights by price and time. For hotels, you get maps, photos, stats, etc. Can you imagine choosing just the cheapest hotel available, even if you had never heard of it? Yet everyday people buy tickets on Sun Country, Spirit, and USA 3000. I'm not saying these are bad airlines (they aren't at all! I've flown Sun Country and really enjoyed it), but people are choosing them even though they don't know them because they are the cheapest. That's as commodity as it gets!

The impact of this is near catastrophic for an industry with so many aspects of the "product." There is very little incentive for airlines to improve or invest in their product since people aren't choosing based on it. Yes, you don't want to get significantly behind others (because than people will see a difference despite variability), but aside from corporate contracts, it's hard to show a positive ROI.

Airlines still spend money also on marketing campaigns touting their new fleets, wi-fi on board, or on-time performance. Building that brand equity is a good thing for the long-term, but at the end of the day they are enticing people to fly with them over their competitors at the same price -- NOT enticing them to pay more to fly them. If you look at RASM (revenue per available seat mile) or RPM (revenue per passenger mile) -- the standard metrics for yield in the industry -- you'll see basically 3 tiers:

Tier 1: The discounted LCCs: e.g. Spirit, Allegiant. These guys are slimming down the product to save costs and traditionally only compete on price.

Tier 2: The product-oriented LCCs: JetBlue, Virgin America, Southwest. These guys have great products, but also low cost base, so they get a mid-level yield higher than that of the discounted LCCs, but not representative of their global reach or corporate contracts.

Tier 3: Network carriers: American, United, Delta, etc. They get a yield premium over the other tiers, but it's hard to establish a sustainable yield premium against each other.

(note a lot of this data is available for easy viewing at the MIT Airline Data Project). One thing to understand here is that despite there being three tiers, it doesn't necessarily represent a a differentiated environment. The network carriers have business class, allowing higher yields. Route mix is also a big factor in yields -- international routes vs. domestic, business vs. leisure, etc. So even these differences in yield can be explained by factors not related to airline brand choice.

So why is this bad for aviation and what do we do about it?

The commodity phenomenon has created a perverse incentive system for the airlines. It means the activities that drives their business the most is cost cutting and ancillary revenue generating. Neither of those are productive for the industry. Yes, keeping cost low is a critical discipline, but competing for how low you can go means a disgruntled workforce, an underinvestment in capital equipment, and an operation without the appropriate protective capacity. Generating revenue from ancillary sources creates hassle and inconvenience for the traveler, and an inability to understand the "total cost of the trip" until it's complete. This creates yet another incentive for the airline: Hide fees as much as possible. After all, when you purchase your next ticket, you are still likely to choose the cheapest option and forget the $25 you forked out on-board. By shifting revenue to the travel experience, you not only can earn more, you can lower your base fares to compete more effectively against others. This is a reinforcing cycle -- and is not likely to let up any time soon.

In summary, all the things we (and the DOT) complain about, are a result of these two phenomena: Increased delays (tarmac and otherwise), bumping passengers, accommodating passengers during disrupted operations are all the result of cost cutting. And of course the hidden fees, opaqueness of total cost of the trip, etc. are the result of finding ways to add ancillary revenue.

This is all a very rational response from an industry trying to make a buck off a commodity product.

Here are a few thoughts about what we can do about it:

1) Better shopping experiences: The consumer needs a better view of options so that they can, just maybe, have the ability to know what they are getting for their money. One guy is trying to do this -- Dave Pelter of Inside Trip. He understands this perfectly and senses the revolution coming where consumers may just make better choices about flights based on things other than just price and schedule. He has identified 12 other features and wants to provide this to GDS. Of course the big airlines and GDS are resistant to this because it's an unknown. But at some point (I hope), consumers will demand it. We also need better options for total cost of the trip, including potential fees. Several OTA's and meta-search sites are working on this (as is GDS). I haven't seen a good solution yet, but this space is new and my guess is we'll see some decent options in the coming months. These tools can help sway some of these commodity purchasing behaviors by at least allowing consumers the choice to think differently (turn air travel search results into more of the hotel view).

2) Fight DOT regulation: When the DOT micromanages the industry, it means all airlines sink to the bottom and stay there. It prevents differentiation, because it sets a standard (low OR high) for which all airlines meet. For example, without the 3 hour tarmac rule -- the DOT and others could have promoted massively who was keeping passengers on planes and who wasn't. That could have been a sustainable point of differentiation (e.g. JetBlue's Customer Bill of Rights predates DOT regulation and could have been a great point of differentiation -- arguable if they executed on it well). Instead, all airlines have to comply, destroying any point of comparison. Now the regulations around disclosure are better aimed, but still, it mandates airlines to have a certain level of customer service. Why not allow some airlines to do it and others not? The surface reason is because none will! That being said, DOT rules do not help establish point of differences between airlines, they only reinforce the concept that they're all the same -- doing just what they have to do and nothing more. If you take this logic to the extreme, you might argue even safety regulations shouldn't be required -- that would allow travelers to choose airlines based on safety. Would you pay $100 more knowing your plane had better maintenance? Or would you pay $100 less knowing your plane had less maintenance? There is good reason why the DOT shouldn't allow this, but at least hypothetically, one can see the value to allowing consumers to choose based on quality.

3) Embrace consolidation over code-sharing: This might be counter-intutive -- after all, fewer players means higher fares and fewer choices. But think of it this way: The 3 alliances now represent 3 choices of legacy carrier on any given route. Instead of 6, we now have 3 (okay, technically 4 with US Airways). It cuts down noise and confusion when purchasing tickets, especially since they were all selling tickets on each others planes anyways! Since LCCs have the best chance of differentiating themselves, it will be easier against a smaller crop of legacy carriers.

4) Promote LCC proliferation: Remember the tiers? Well the more LCC competition we have on routes, the more the legacy carriers (and LCCs) will try to differentiate themselves. That means better loyalty programs from the legacy carriers, and more perks from the LCCs. Yes, there will be price matching also, which is good. But what would be even better is if one of the legacy carriers figured out how to deliver a consistently good customer experience to try and win travelers vs. just price match.

I think there is room for one carrier (big or small) to make a real mark by creating a consistently better experience and thus gain a yield advantage. It's hard, for sure. But it has to do with more than surface things -- it has to do with protective capacity in the operation to reduce delays and cancellations, more staff at gates to create a better experience, and more consistent inflight experience. Taking the "hassle" out of flying has real value, and I'd love to see one airline spend money to make that happen in a consistent and sustainable way. Virgin America is probably doing this the best today and I look for their expansion as proof that this can work.

In the meantime -- it's up to us, consumers, to voice our issues with the industry. If we show that we're willing to pay according to product, we will see a drastically different environment open to us. But until we do, we're just promoting the cost cutting and ancillary revenue driving / hidden fee proliferation that airlines are engaging in. Don't place the blame on them, place it on us.

Permalink | Leave a comment



experience airlines price based tickets experience airlines price tickets based revenue plane cost trip airline travel lccs point yield industry carriers commodity flight product hard consumers purchase spirit others customer different course legacy means fees search ancillary tiers easier carrier business hotel small think united travelers seat choice plane tickets legacy carriers virgin america ancillary revenue choose based total cost cost cutting better experience air travel yield premium discounted lccs network carriers pay 100 protective capacity allowing consumers dot regulation revenue per search tool perishable experience travel experience buy tickets frequent travelers customer service think differently price comparisons corporate contracts sun country buy plane effectively against spend money buy plane tickets ]]> Tue, 27 Jul 2010 09:40:24 -0400 30:00 tag:filome.com,1 It's a Bootstrappa's Paradise! http://smoothspan.wordpress.com/2010/07/26/its-a-bootstrappas-paradise Shared item SmoothSpan Blog » It’s a Bootstrappa’s Paradise!
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I had lunch with an old friend recently who does Angel investing. As sometimes happens, I launched into our lunchtime discussion with a bit of controversy by suggesting that I wasn't too sure what the value of Angel was for many companies. After a bit of calibration on where I was coming from, we quickly converged to agreement. Any company that takes Angel is on the road to being a VC funded company. Companies that are never going to be good VC opportunities therefore shouldn't take Angel. Angel is not really a VC-Lite substitute, its more VC-Seed. This post isn't really about Angels, it's about the interplay of Capital, Startup Ideas, and Entrepreneurs. To succeed, you have to understand how to balance all three along one of the successful paths. Leaving the path will very likely make your venture unsuccessful for lack of capital.

The VC World has gone through a fascinating transition over time. I've done 5 startups now, and not one of them could've started up in the way they did today. The reason is that with few exceptions, it's no longer possible to get funded with a slideshow and a team. Ironically, as VC's were deciding that its much cheaper to start companies, they apparently decided that this makes it possible for companies to start themselves via bootstrapping. Yes, there are seeds and super-seeds, but even these typically require a product and some semblance of customers to get funded. Talking to entrepreneurs, it's also not clear that the equity dilution and the terms offered them are better than the old days. In many ways they are worse, because they're very tilted towards forcing a VC's preferred outcome: creation of at least $1 billion in value.

What are the ramifications of all this for entrepreneurs?

The VC Utility Curve: You'd Better Have a Billion Dollar Idea

First, I am not one of those who wants to argue that VC is bad and should be avoided at all cost. There are plenty of them out there, but so far as I can tell, no more now than there ever were. I've made a lot of money working with VC's, I understand how that world works, and I frankly don't have a problem with it.

Keep in mind the VC's are in business to deliver a return to their Investors. They're going to conduct that business in whatever way they need to in order to deliver that result, just as any entrepreneur will do what it takes to keep their startup alive and hopefully thriving. In their world, the VC's get a few very large returns and a lot of no return at all. The big ones furnish the overall return and offset the failures of the others. What this means is that entrepreneurs can often experience a difference in goals and utility curves. For those that slept through the economics classes in college (actually, I found it pretty boring myself), a utility curve shows your willingness to accept risk in exchange for potential rewards. For the entrepreneur, this means keeping in mind that their VC's are willing to accept a lot of risk for an extremely large reward. Sounds like the entrepreneur's ideal, right? Well let's assume that the reward is selling a company for over $40M just 10 months after its founding. Let's further suggest that there are VC's who will look at that and decide that well it is truly life changing money for the founders, it just isn't interesting to them. They would want to keep playing the hand. BTW, if your investors are ready to bail at an early stage, it likely means they think something is about to go badly for you, not that they think it is a great price.

Okay, so let's get beyond VC motivations (make sure you understand that Utility Curve thingey and pack it away in the back of your brain!), and talk about companies. Let's just assume that the practical ramification of the Utility Curve idea is that unless your idea can be a Billion Dollar idea (he says in best imitation of Dr Evil), you're not VC material. And if you're not VC material, you're also not Angel material. The latter have all the same issues that lead to their own Utility Curve problems, they just don't have as deep a pockets or a name brand firm, so they get involved earlier in order to have a place at the table. After all, Venture Returns are not great historically, but to this day they're not so terrible relative to the stock market.

Mind you, the Angel will be much more tempted by the early acquisition exit, but until that presents itself, you need to operate like they are helping you down the road to getting VC.

Okay, one more nuance for entrepreneurs. In the old days (geez, I hate saying that, but 5 startups later, I've got some war stories), VC's used to sort opportunities into features, products, and markets. Time was, they wanted to invest in markets much more than products, and never in features. Sounds funny to think of something a company builds as a feature, but there are many startups that have built features. The problem is that whatever they are a feature of may wake up one day and decide they want to own that market. VC's that ignored the rule learned, much to their chagrin, that despite great traction, when a company like Twitter starts to take the reins of its ecosystem, a few feature companies lose their value very suddenly.

Think of the feature-product-market hierarchy as another way of seeking the Billion Dollar Idea. Hard for a feature to be worth a Billion, perhaps even impossible. Easier for a Product, but still not a lay-up. Uncovering an entirely new Market, though, is usually worth a Billion. Part of the Entrepreneur's task is therefore to look at what they've got very objectively and figure out how to make it a Market. Never mind that you initially built a Feature. Can you apply that Feature to making a Market in some way? Why is your Big Idea not just an add-on to someone else's Big Market and Big Product Suite?

To some extent it is a game. All things can be bought. Larry Ellison doesn't worry that Oracle isn't far along on SaaS because he can buy every public SaaS company without too much trouble. So the other thing is not to be too dogmatic about the definitions. Markets turn into Products, and Products into Features if you don't move fast enough. That's called Consolidation. VC's view Consolidation as inevitable. Your job is not to talk them out of it, it is to convince them why you have the most valuable gem in the Consolidation Crown, and perhaps even why you'll be the one doing the Consolidation first. At the least, convince them why your idea is a Must Buy because there can be no alternatives.

Bootstrapping: When You Don't Have a Billion Dollar Idea

To a lot of entrepreneurs who have a Good Idea (notice I didn't say a Big Idea), and just want to get on with it, the description I've given of the VC funded world sounds pretty scary. There's a big agenda there and a lot of the bullet points weren't even things the entrepreneur wanted to deal with. That's okay. As one very successful VC told me, a lot of companies shouldn't go for VC. Sometimes we lose perspective in Silicon Valley. Everything is not Venture Capital funded. In fact, the vast majority of small business gets by without a dime of VC. So again, ask yourself whether you really have the next Google-sized Big Idea, or whether you're more comfortable with your very Good Idea.

A Boostrapped Good Idea goes something like this. You get together with 2 or 3 other people (the number usually seems to be about that many). You work for a year to build your product. During this time you starve, either for money, because you aren't getting paid, or for time, because you are doing it after hours while your Day Job feeds your family. You really can't afford to starve for more than that year, so that puts some boundaries around what you can tackle. At the end of the year, the idea has to be immediately monetizable. You'll spend the second year also starving, while you tune up your marketing, get the word out, and possible correct flaws in the product. By the end of the second year, if all goes well, you're ready to quit your Day Job and never look back. There is actually a long list of companies that have followed exactly this plan and wound up very happy about it.

Speaking of happy bootstrapping, Valley peeps often refer to these Good Ideas as Lifestyle Businesses. They say it like it's a Bad Thing. What's the worst that can happen with a Lifestyle Business. You work really hard for substandard pay and ultimately fail. Wait. That happens in VC deals too. Hmmm. What's a happy scenario? You work really hard and build up your business until it is doing $20M a year and doubling each year with 12 employees. You own 100% of it, you have no debt or equity out (except to partners and employees who are in the same boat as you), you're the master of your destiny, and you are loving life. $20M a year goes long way with 12 employees. So don't say, Lifestyle Business like it's a Bad Thing. It could be the best thing that ever happened to you. OTOH, that's still not Jet Money, so if you absolutely positively must have that Gulfstream, you better get back to looking for a Big Idea.

There Really is No Middle Ground

Here is the other strange thing about this brave new startup world: there really is no Middle Ground. Not only could none of the startups I've been in get funded the way they did back in the day, many of them were just not Big Ideas. There is a vast gulf between your $20M very-happy-thank-you-very-much bootstrap and the Billion Dollar Big Idea. I can point to all sorts of interesting software companies that made it to maybe $100 million in revenues, but that are in that vast middle ground. It turns out that those are untenable ideas in the current climate. That's not good enough, and if you get a chance to build such a company, it will be because the investors thought it was a much Bigger Idea. You will be surprised to find out they think you fell short, even though you may even have gone public. Don't ask me how I know.

So ignore the Middle Ground. Don't try to put lipstick on that pig and sell it as a Big Idea. Make sure you at least think you really do have a Big Idea. Otherwise, Bootstrap a Good Idea.

All Roads Lead to the Bootstrappa's Paradise

In the end, starting a company these days is a Bootstrappa's Paradise. If you are a Bootstrapper, you will have never seen a better alignment of forces in your favor:

- Software is cheaper to build.

- Subscription models are alive and well, and an annuity is a much happier thing to bet your Boostrappa's time on than a few big checks followed by crickets chirping.

- It isn't just software that is cheaper. If your audience is online, you can reach them with less cost and effort than ever before.

- People who are not Bootstrappers can't get capital to compete with you nearly as easily. They have to at least find a few token Bootstrappers to build a product and line up customers.

- People with VC have to avoid the niches. Those are not Billion Dollar Big Ideas. But niches are a happy place for a pure Bootstrapper. Niches exist all the way up to $1 Billion and are there for the taking, if you have what it takes.

- If you do have a Big Idea, you can get it to the stage where it is fundable much more easily than those who can't bootstrap. Time was a successful exec from a Big Company with a name and a slide show could land a big VC check and go after your market without ever having to starve. I won't say that no longer happens, but it is a whole lot less common.

Not everyone can be a Bootstrapper. Some days I wonder how long the Bootstrappa's Paradise will last, because its hard on the deal flow for VC's. I read with interest a RWWeb post suggesting that start-ups created by people out of work are at an all time low. The numbers are pretty startling. Out of curiosity, I took the liberty of superimposing VC returns against the dip:

It's interesting that the return spike follows almost exactly the right lag after company founding. Yes, Virginia, portfolios are a beautiful thing, and when you're betting on the Billion Dollar Plus end of the utility curve, they benefit from having a lot more bets available to choose from. Meanwhile, despite a lot more unemployed, a lot fewer of them are choosing to start businesses.

Bootstrappers: start now with little competition, and (hopefully) with a rising economy for some tailwind. I'll be doing a series of posts on Boostrapping because, it's a Bootstrappa's Paradise.



vc idea big billion company idea billion company companies market year feature dollar product utility angel curve entrepreneurs business think funded build entrepreneur start happy world ideas paradise ground doing work bootstrappa consolidation middle money days startups capital mind return products features hard big idea billion dollar utility curve middle ground dollar idea dollar big lifestyle business big ideas day job perhaps even old days second year billion dollar idea ]]>SmoothSpan Blog » It’s a Bootstrappa’s Paradise!
First shared by - robdiana
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I had lunch with an old friend recently who does Angel investing. As sometimes happens, I launched into our lunchtime discussion with a bit of controversy by suggesting that I wasn't too sure what the value of Angel was for many companies. After a bit of calibration on where I was coming from, we quickly converged to agreement. Any company that takes Angel is on the road to being a VC funded company. Companies that are never going to be good VC opportunities therefore shouldn't take Angel. Angel is not really a VC-Lite substitute, its more VC-Seed. This post isn't really about Angels, it's about the interplay of Capital, Startup Ideas, and Entrepreneurs. To succeed, you have to understand how to balance all three along one of the successful paths. Leaving the path will very likely make your venture unsuccessful for lack of capital.

The VC World has gone through a fascinating transition over time. I've done 5 startups now, and not one of them could've started up in the way they did today. The reason is that with few exceptions, it's no longer possible to get funded with a slideshow and a team. Ironically, as VC's were deciding that its much cheaper to start companies, they apparently decided that this makes it possible for companies to start themselves via bootstrapping. Yes, there are seeds and super-seeds, but even these typically require a product and some semblance of customers to get funded. Talking to entrepreneurs, it's also not clear that the equity dilution and the terms offered them are better than the old days. In many ways they are worse, because they're very tilted towards forcing a VC's preferred outcome: creation of at least $1 billion in value.

What are the ramifications of all this for entrepreneurs?

The VC Utility Curve: You'd Better Have a Billion Dollar Idea

First, I am not one of those who wants to argue that VC is bad and should be avoided at all cost. There are plenty of them out there, but so far as I can tell, no more now than there ever were. I've made a lot of money working with VC's, I understand how that world works, and I frankly don't have a problem with it.

Keep in mind the VC's are in business to deliver a return to their Investors. They're going to conduct that business in whatever way they need to in order to deliver that result, just as any entrepreneur will do what it takes to keep their startup alive and hopefully thriving. In their world, the VC's get a few very large returns and a lot of no return at all. The big ones furnish the overall return and offset the failures of the others. What this means is that entrepreneurs can often experience a difference in goals and utility curves. For those that slept through the economics classes in college (actually, I found it pretty boring myself), a utility curve shows your willingness to accept risk in exchange for potential rewards. For the entrepreneur, this means keeping in mind that their VC's are willing to accept a lot of risk for an extremely large reward. Sounds like the entrepreneur's ideal, right? Well let's assume that the reward is selling a company for over $40M just 10 months after its founding. Let's further suggest that there are VC's who will look at that and decide that well it is truly life changing money for the founders, it just isn't interesting to them. They would want to keep playing the hand. BTW, if your investors are ready to bail at an early stage, it likely means they think something is about to go badly for you, not that they think it is a great price.

Okay, so let's get beyond VC motivations (make sure you understand that Utility Curve thingey and pack it away in the back of your brain!), and talk about companies. Let's just assume that the practical ramification of the Utility Curve idea is that unless your idea can be a Billion Dollar idea (he says in best imitation of Dr Evil), you're not VC material. And if you're not VC material, you're also not Angel material. The latter have all the same issues that lead to their own Utility Curve problems, they just don't have as deep a pockets or a name brand firm, so they get involved earlier in order to have a place at the table. After all, Venture Returns are not great historically, but to this day they're not so terrible relative to the stock market.

Mind you, the Angel will be much more tempted by the early acquisition exit, but until that presents itself, you need to operate like they are helping you down the road to getting VC.

Okay, one more nuance for entrepreneurs. In the old days (geez, I hate saying that, but 5 startups later, I've got some war stories), VC's used to sort opportunities into features, products, and markets. Time was, they wanted to invest in markets much more than products, and never in features. Sounds funny to think of something a company builds as a feature, but there are many startups that have built features. The problem is that whatever they are a feature of may wake up one day and decide they want to own that market. VC's that ignored the rule learned, much to their chagrin, that despite great traction, when a company like Twitter starts to take the reins of its ecosystem, a few feature companies lose their value very suddenly.

Think of the feature-product-market hierarchy as another way of seeking the Billion Dollar Idea. Hard for a feature to be worth a Billion, perhaps even impossible. Easier for a Product, but still not a lay-up. Uncovering an entirely new Market, though, is usually worth a Billion. Part of the Entrepreneur's task is therefore to look at what they've got very objectively and figure out how to make it a Market. Never mind that you initially built a Feature. Can you apply that Feature to making a Market in some way? Why is your Big Idea not just an add-on to someone else's Big Market and Big Product Suite?

To some extent it is a game. All things can be bought. Larry Ellison doesn't worry that Oracle isn't far along on SaaS because he can buy every public SaaS company without too much trouble. So the other thing is not to be too dogmatic about the definitions. Markets turn into Products, and Products into Features if you don't move fast enough. That's called Consolidation. VC's view Consolidation as inevitable. Your job is not to talk them out of it, it is to convince them why you have the most valuable gem in the Consolidation Crown, and perhaps even why you'll be the one doing the Consolidation first. At the least, convince them why your idea is a Must Buy because there can be no alternatives.

Bootstrapping: When You Don't Have a Billion Dollar Idea

To a lot of entrepreneurs who have a Good Idea (notice I didn't say a Big Idea), and just want to get on with it, the description I've given of the VC funded world sounds pretty scary. There's a big agenda there and a lot of the bullet points weren't even things the entrepreneur wanted to deal with. That's okay. As one very successful VC told me, a lot of companies shouldn't go for VC. Sometimes we lose perspective in Silicon Valley. Everything is not Venture Capital funded. In fact, the vast majority of small business gets by without a dime of VC. So again, ask yourself whether you really have the next Google-sized Big Idea, or whether you're more comfortable with your very Good Idea.

A Boostrapped Good Idea goes something like this. You get together with 2 or 3 other people (the number usually seems to be about that many). You work for a year to build your product. During this time you starve, either for money, because you aren't getting paid, or for time, because you are doing it after hours while your Day Job feeds your family. You really can't afford to starve for more than that year, so that puts some boundaries around what you can tackle. At the end of the year, the idea has to be immediately monetizable. You'll spend the second year also starving, while you tune up your marketing, get the word out, and possible correct flaws in the product. By the end of the second year, if all goes well, you're ready to quit your Day Job and never look back. There is actually a long list of companies that have followed exactly this plan and wound up very happy about it.

Speaking of happy bootstrapping, Valley peeps often refer to these Good Ideas as Lifestyle Businesses. They say it like it's a Bad Thing. What's the worst that can happen with a Lifestyle Business. You work really hard for substandard pay and ultimately fail. Wait. That happens in VC deals too. Hmmm. What's a happy scenario? You work really hard and build up your business until it is doing $20M a year and doubling each year with 12 employees. You own 100% of it, you have no debt or equity out (except to partners and employees who are in the same boat as you), you're the master of your destiny, and you are loving life. $20M a year goes long way with 12 employees. So don't say, Lifestyle Business like it's a Bad Thing. It could be the best thing that ever happened to you. OTOH, that's still not Jet Money, so if you absolutely positively must have that Gulfstream, you better get back to looking for a Big Idea.

There Really is No Middle Ground

Here is the other strange thing about this brave new startup world: there really is no Middle Ground. Not only could none of the startups I've been in get funded the way they did back in the day, many of them were just not Big Ideas. There is a vast gulf between your $20M very-happy-thank-you-very-much bootstrap and the Billion Dollar Big Idea. I can point to all sorts of interesting software companies that made it to maybe $100 million in revenues, but that are in that vast middle ground. It turns out that those are untenable ideas in the current climate. That's not good enough, and if you get a chance to build such a company, it will be because the investors thought it was a much Bigger Idea. You will be surprised to find out they think you fell short, even though you may even have gone public. Don't ask me how I know.

So ignore the Middle Ground. Don't try to put lipstick on that pig and sell it as a Big Idea. Make sure you at least think you really do have a Big Idea. Otherwise, Bootstrap a Good Idea.

All Roads Lead to the Bootstrappa's Paradise

In the end, starting a company these days is a Bootstrappa's Paradise. If you are a Bootstrapper, you will have never seen a better alignment of forces in your favor:

- Software is cheaper to build.

- Subscription models are alive and well, and an annuity is a much happier thing to bet your Boostrappa's time on than a few big checks followed by crickets chirping.

- It isn't just software that is cheaper. If your audience is online, you can reach them with less cost and effort than ever before.

- People who are not Bootstrappers can't get capital to compete with you nearly as easily. They have to at least find a few token Bootstrappers to build a product and line up customers.

- People with VC have to avoid the niches. Those are not Billion Dollar Big Ideas. But niches are a happy place for a pure Bootstrapper. Niches exist all the way up to $1 Billion and are there for the taking, if you have what it takes.

- If you do have a Big Idea, you can get it to the stage where it is fundable much more easily than those who can't bootstrap. Time was a successful exec from a Big Company with a name and a slide show could land a big VC check and go after your market without ever having to starve. I won't say that no longer happens, but it is a whole lot less common.

Not everyone can be a Bootstrapper. Some days I wonder how long the Bootstrappa's Paradise will last, because its hard on the deal flow for VC's. I read with interest a RWWeb post suggesting that start-ups created by people out of work are at an all time low. The numbers are pretty startling. Out of curiosity, I took the liberty of superimposing VC returns against the dip:

It's interesting that the return spike follows almost exactly the right lag after company founding. Yes, Virginia, portfolios are a beautiful thing, and when you're betting on the Billion Dollar Plus end of the utility curve, they benefit from having a lot more bets available to choose from. Meanwhile, despite a lot more unemployed, a lot fewer of them are choosing to start businesses.

Bootstrappers: start now with little competition, and (hopefully) with a rising economy for some tailwind. I'll be doing a series of posts on Boostrapping because, it's a Bootstrappa's Paradise.



vc idea big billion company idea billion company companies market year feature dollar product utility angel curve entrepreneurs business think funded build entrepreneur start happy world ideas paradise ground doing work bootstrappa consolidation middle money days startups capital mind return products features hard big idea billion dollar utility curve middle ground dollar idea dollar big lifestyle business big ideas day job perhaps even old days second year billion dollar idea ]]> Mon, 26 Jul 2010 12:30:49 -0400 30:00 tag:filome.com,2 Tailgating this car carries a heavy penalty http://hackaday.com/2010/07/21/tailgating-this-car-carries-a-heavy-penalty/ Shared item Hack a Day
First shared by - phillip
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This hack seems simple enough:

  1. 1. Open hatchback
  2. 2. Insert jet engine
  3. 3. Profit

Actually, the guy who added a jet engine to a VW Beetle has a PhD in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford. He claims this is street legal, and even has a snapshot of the police trying to figure out what to charge him with after stopping him on the road. There's plenty of details and we're not questioning [Ron Patrick's] competence, but having the intake for the turbine inside the cab of the vehicle seems a bit insane. He remarks that it's a little windy but not unbearable yeah.

One the same page you'll find his dual-jet modified scooter. The starting cost there is considerably less, especially if you build your own ram jets.

[Thanks Goldscott]




jet seems engine cab inside jet engine ]]>Hack a Day
First shared by - phillip
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This hack seems simple enough:

  1. 1. Open hatchback
  2. 2. Insert jet engine
  3. 3. Profit

Actually, the guy who added a jet engine to a VW Beetle has a PhD in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford. He claims this is street legal, and even has a snapshot of the police trying to figure out what to charge him with after stopping him on the road. There's plenty of details and we're not questioning [Ron Patrick's] competence, but having the intake for the turbine inside the cab of the vehicle seems a bit insane. He remarks that it's a little windy but not unbearable yeah.

One the same page you'll find his dual-jet modified scooter. The starting cost there is considerably less, especially if you build your own ram jets.

[Thanks Goldscott]




jet seems engine cab inside jet engine ]]> Sat, 24 Jul 2010 10:55:14 -0400 30:00 tag:filome.com,3 Hot Wheels Wonder Woman Invisible Jet http://feeds.laughingsquid.com/~r/laughingsquid/~3/GNo6YsNAPIM/ Shared item Laughing Squid
First shared by - ScottS
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This week at Comic-Con 2010 Mattel debuted their new Hot Wheels Wonder Woman Invisible Jet. It was originally an April Fool's prank, but there was such a demand by fans that they are actually made it into a real product.

It reminds me of the awesome Star Wars action figure The Force.

via Tim Shey

This is a blog post from Laughing Squid, subscribe via RSS, Email, Twitter, Facebook & Google Buzz.

Here are a few other possibly related posts you might enjoy:

- Harrod Blank's Wild Wheels

- Hell On Wheels

- Photo of a Woman That Looks Like a Painting

- Galacticast: RoboJew vs. Giant Nazi Woman of the SS

- Invisible Ink



wheels invisible hot wonder jet wheels invisible jet wheels wonder hot wheels hot wheels wonder ]]>Laughing Squid
First shared by - ScottS
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This week at Comic-Con 2010 Mattel debuted their new Hot Wheels Wonder Woman Invisible Jet. It was originally an April Fool's prank, but there was such a demand by fans that they are actually made it into a real product.

It reminds me of the awesome Star Wars action figure The Force.

via Tim Shey

This is a blog post from Laughing Squid, subscribe via RSS, Email, Twitter, Facebook & Google Buzz.

Here are a few other possibly related posts you might enjoy:

- Harrod Blank's Wild Wheels

- Hell On Wheels

- Photo of a Woman That Looks Like a Painting

- Galacticast: RoboJew vs. Giant Nazi Woman of the SS

- Invisible Ink



wheels invisible hot wonder jet wheels invisible jet wheels wonder hot wheels hot wheels wonder ]]> Fri, 23 Jul 2010 13:45:56 -0400 30:00 tag:filome.com,4 Jeter experiences dj vu with second inside-the-park homer (Yahoo! Sports) http://us.rd.yahoo.com/sports/rss/mlb/SIG=13oqvguuv/*http%3A//sports.yahoo.com/mlb/blog/big_league_stew/post/Jeter-experiences-d-j-vu-with-second-inside-the?urn=mlb-257810 Shared item Yahoo! Sports - MLB - New York Yankees News
First shared by - BrandonMendelson
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Derek Jeter turned Yankee Stadium into his own hot tub time machine on Thursday. A day after our own Alex...

jeter hot stadium yankee tub ]]>Yahoo! Sports - MLB - New York Yankees News
First shared by - BrandonMendelson
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Derek Jeter turned Yankee Stadium into his own hot tub time machine on Thursday. A day after our own Alex...

jeter hot stadium yankee tub ]]> Fri, 23 Jul 2010 11:45:30 -0400 30:00 tag:filome.com,5 15 Best Addons To Manage Tabs in Firefox http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TeknoBites/~3/yiEgwE5NOCw/ Shared item Technology Bites
First shared by - christomer
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Tabbed browsing in Firefox is a really convenient way to browse the web as it enables you to easily load multiple web pages within the same browser window rather than cluttering the taskbar by loading several windows. But when there are too many open tabs, managing them too can be a pretty hard task.

There are numerous Firefox add-ons that enables you to easily manage your Firefox tabs. Below are 30 of the best Firefox add-ons that can help you do so.

1. Fancy Numbered Tabs Fancy Numbered Tabs replaces the close tab graphic with respective tab numbers. This helps users to quickly navigate to different tabs using Ctrl + (Tab Number) or Alt + (Tab Number) shortcuts.

2. Tab To Window Tab To Window is a simple add-on that lets you copy or move a tab to a new window or join a tab to an existing window. It is very simple and easy-to-use.

3. Tab Saver! Tab Saver! is an easy-to-use add-on that lets you save the tabs of your current session as well as restore tabs from your previous session. This add-on comes in handy if you want to restore the original set of tabs from a previous session or if you want to undo the closing of one or more tabs in the current session. It automatically saves tabs every time a page is loaded in any of the tabs.

4. NumExt Numbered Tabs Numext is a lightweight add-on that numbers your tabs using simple text. As it uses simple text, it does not cause any overload on the tabs. In addition to numbering tabs it also enables you to color your tabs, close specific tabs, hide tabs and much more.

5. Tab Preview Tab Preview is a nifty add-on that enables you to preview the content of background tabs on hovering the cursor over them. It displays a small thumbnail of the content when you hover the cursor on any background tab.

6. Tab Slideshow Tab Slideshow is a small add-on for Firefox that enables you to easily view all your open tabs as a slideshow. It automatically switches to and displays the next tab at particular intervals of time. It also provides you an option to auto-reload pages as it cycles.

7. Firefox Showcase Firefox Showcase provides a new way to easily find and manage your Firefox tabs. It displays your Firefox tabs as thumbnails in a single window, tab or sidebar. This add-on is easy-to-install and use.

8. FishEyeTabs When too many tabs are open, it becomes difficult to see the name of any tab. FishEyeTabs solves that problem by enabling you to zoom the tab label. To zoom any tab label all you got to do is hover the cursor over the tab. However, Fisheye zoom is activated only when the tabs occupy the entire width of the window.

9. Tab Popup Tab Popup is a simple and easy-to-use add-on similar to Tab Preview. It enables you to easily preview the contents of any tab by just hovering the cursor over them. It also provides you options to set the width of the popup as well as the delay in displaying the popup.

10. Tab Catalog Tab Catalog is an excellent, easy-to-use add-on that displays the contents of all your tabs in a thumbnail-style catalog. You can view it by pressing the F8 button, using the Ctrl-Tab shortcut, hovering on the tab bar, hovering on the toolbar, or by pressing both the mouse buttons. In addition to helping you easily switch between various tabs, this add-on also helps you close multiple tabs at a time.

11. Tab Sidebar This add-on displays the thumbnail preview of all your tabs in your sidebar. It enables you to easily navigate between various tabs by just clicking on the thumbnail preview. It is a complete replacement for the default tab bar in Firefox. On activating the sidebar the main tab bar automatically gets hidden.

12. FoxTab FoxTab is a really attractive and innovative tab management feature for Firefox. It enables you to quickly access your favorite web sites, switch between various tabs using keyboard or mouse gestures as well as re-open recently closed tabs. You can also customize the look and feel of FoxTab by choosing from a set of pre-defined themes or creating your own customized theme using Personas.

13. Send Tab URLs This simple add-on creates a list of URLs from all the tabs in the current window. You can send this list to anyone using your favorite e-mail client or also copy it to your clipboard. It works with most e-mail clients and enables you to send up to 30 browser tabs.

14. Morning Coffee Morning Coffee lets you organize websites by day and open them in tabs as part of your daily routine. It is really handy if you read sites that update on a regular basis such as e-newspapers, web blogs, web comics etc.

15. New Tab King New Tab King replaces the blank page that appears when you open a new tab with a personalized launchpad. The launchpad displays the most visited sites, recently closed tabs, suggested sites and much more. It completely enhances the look of your Firefox browser.

Know any other add-on that deserves a place in this list? Tell us about it in your comments.

---
Related Articles at Technology Bites:




tabs tab firefox add enables tabs firefox enables window preview easily displays simple open easy popup sites sidebar session hovering cursor thumbnail numbered tabs tab bar various tabs firefox tabs firefox add tab preview tab catalog tab label tab popup recently closed tab king morning coffee closed tabs firefox showcase thumbnail preview simple text tab number ctrl tab fancy numbered add ons window tab simple add open tabs previous session current session tab saver tab slideshow recently closed tabs fancy numbered tabs ]]>Technology Bites
First shared by - christomer
syndication+ 0 | Search 1 | Shares 1

Tabbed browsing in Firefox is a really convenient way to browse the web as it enables you to easily load multiple web pages within the same browser window rather than cluttering the taskbar by loading several windows. But when there are too many open tabs, managing them too can be a pretty hard task.

There are numerous Firefox add-ons that enables you to easily manage your Firefox tabs. Below are 30 of the best Firefox add-ons that can help you do so.

1. Fancy Numbered Tabs Fancy Numbered Tabs replaces the close tab graphic with respective tab numbers. This helps users to quickly navigate to different tabs using Ctrl + (Tab Number) or Alt + (Tab Number) shortcuts.

2. Tab To Window Tab To Window is a simple add-on that lets you copy or move a tab to a new window or join a tab to an existing window. It is very simple and easy-to-use.

3. Tab Saver! Tab Saver! is an easy-to-use add-on that lets you save the tabs of your current session as well as restore tabs from your previous session. This add-on comes in handy if you want to restore the original set of tabs from a previous session or if you want to undo the closing of one or more tabs in the current session. It automatically saves tabs every time a page is loaded in any of the tabs.

4. NumExt Numbered Tabs Numext is a lightweight add-on that numbers your tabs using simple text. As it uses simple text, it does not cause any overload on the tabs. In addition to numbering tabs it also enables you to color your tabs, close specific tabs, hide tabs and much more.

5. Tab Preview Tab Preview is a nifty add-on that enables you to preview the content of background tabs on hovering the cursor over them. It displays a small thumbnail of the content when you hover the cursor on any background tab.

6. Tab Slideshow Tab Slideshow is a small add-on for Firefox that enables you to easily view all your open tabs as a slideshow. It automatically switches to and displays the next tab at particular intervals of time. It also provides you an option to auto-reload pages as it cycles.

7. Firefox Showcase Firefox Showcase provides a new way to easily find and manage your Firefox tabs. It displays your Firefox tabs as thumbnails in a single window, tab or sidebar. This add-on is easy-to-install and use.

8. FishEyeTabs When too many tabs are open, it becomes difficult to see the name of any tab. FishEyeTabs solves that problem by enabling you to zoom the tab label. To zoom any tab label all you got to do is hover the cursor over the tab. However, Fisheye zoom is activated only when the tabs occupy the entire width of the window.

9. Tab Popup Tab Popup is a simple and easy-to-use add-on similar to Tab Preview. It enables you to easily preview the contents of any tab by just hovering the cursor over them. It also provides you options to set the width of the popup as well as the delay in displaying the popup.

10. Tab Catalog Tab Catalog is an excellent, easy-to-use add-on that displays the contents of all your tabs in a thumbnail-style catalog. You can view it by pressing the F8 button, using the Ctrl-Tab shortcut, hovering on the tab bar, hovering on the toolbar, or by pressing both the mouse buttons. In addition to helping you easily switch between various tabs, this add-on also helps you close multiple tabs at a time.

11. Tab Sidebar This add-on displays the thumbnail preview of all your tabs in your sidebar. It enables you to easily navigate between various tabs by just clicking on the thumbnail preview. It is a complete replacement for the default tab bar in Firefox. On activating the sidebar the main tab bar automatically gets hidden.

12. FoxTab FoxTab is a really attractive and innovative tab management feature for Firefox. It enables you to quickly access your favorite web sites, switch between various tabs using keyboard or mouse gestures as well as re-open recently closed tabs. You can also customize the look and feel of FoxTab by choosing from a set of pre-defined themes or creating your own customized theme using Personas.

13. Send Tab URLs This simple add-on creates a list of URLs from all the tabs in the current window. You can send this list to anyone using your favorite e-mail client or also copy it to your clipboard. It works with most e-mail clients and enables you to send up to 30 browser tabs.

14. Morning Coffee Morning Coffee lets you organize websites by day and open them in tabs as part of your daily routine. It is really handy if you read sites that update on a regular basis such as e-newspapers, web blogs, web comics etc.

15. New Tab King New Tab King replaces the blank page that appears when you open a new tab with a personalized launchpad. The launchpad displays the most visited sites, recently closed tabs, suggested sites and much more. It completely enhances the look of your Firefox browser.

Know any other add-on that deserves a place in this list? Tell us about it in your comments.

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tabs tab firefox add enables tabs firefox enables window preview easily displays simple open easy popup sites sidebar session hovering cursor thumbnail numbered tabs tab bar various tabs firefox tabs firefox add tab preview tab catalog tab label tab popup recently closed tab king morning coffee closed tabs firefox showcase thumbnail preview simple text tab number ctrl tab fancy numbered add ons window tab simple add open tabs previous session current session tab saver tab slideshow recently closed tabs fancy numbered tabs ]]> Thu, 22 Jul 2010 21:02:12 -0400 30:00 tag:filome.com,6 American Airlines Greening Fleet, Adding GoGo http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/e2BG3Af5tGM/ Shared item TechCrunch
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American Airlines announced today that it is buying 35 Next-Generation Boeing 737-800s to replace aging planes in its fleet. These aircraft are 35% more fuel efficient than the MD80 aircraft that they are replacing which saves about 800,000 gallons of fuel per aircraft per year, the airline reports.

The new planes will be equipped with bigger overhead storage bins, and more AC power ports among other new interior features.

Good news for Gogo Inflight Internet: American Airlines also intends to equip all of its new 737s with wifi service, so passengers can surf the web, check e-mail and send instant messages from the air (but hopefully not indulge in loudly using video- and VOIP-services).

American Airlines currently has 167 planes equipped with Gogo (but only two of them are 737s).

The airline prohibits the use of VOIP on its in flight internet service. A company spokesperson explained today, This restriction is a reaction to widespread passenger aversion to the idea of many people talking loudly on flights as we've all experienced before take-off or after landing. It is difficult to stop every instance of VoIP, she adds, but Aircell the airborne communications firm that owns and operates the consumer, wireless internet brand Gogo is monitoring and working constantly to enforce this request.

American Airlines adds the new 737s to 84 previous orders. It started bringing the 737s into its narrowbody fleet as of April 2009. The company expects to have a total of 195 of these planes by the end of 2012.

Gerard Arpey, chief executive and chairman of AMR Corp., the company that owns American Airlines, in a press statement noted that the new aircraft would help the company manage through future fuel price volatility, which continues to be a challenge for the entire industry.

The International Air Transport Association and Platts report that the cost of jet fuel is up 24% year-over-year, now. The global trade group for the air transport industry also estimates that the average expenditure on jet fuel this year will reach $88.2 billion, up $17 billion from last year, globally.




airlines american fuel year s american airlines fuel year company 737s aircraft gogo planes american airlines jet fuel air transport ]]>TechCrunch
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American Airlines announced today that it is buying 35 Next-Generation Boeing 737-800s to replace aging planes in its fleet. These aircraft are 35% more fuel efficient than the MD80 aircraft that they are replacing which saves about 800,000 gallons of fuel per aircraft per year, the airline reports.

The new planes will be equipped with bigger overhead storage bins, and more AC power ports among other new interior features.

Good news for Gogo Inflight Internet: American Airlines also intends to equip all of its new 737s with wifi service, so passengers can surf the web, check e-mail and send instant messages from the air (but hopefully not indulge in loudly using video- and VOIP-services).

American Airlines currently has 167 planes equipped with Gogo (but only two of them are 737s).

The airline prohibits the use of VOIP on its in flight internet service. A company spokesperson explained today, This restriction is a reaction to widespread passenger aversion to the idea of many people talking loudly on flights as we've all experienced before take-off or after landing. It is difficult to stop every instance of VoIP, she adds, but Aircell the airborne communications firm that owns and operates the consumer, wireless internet brand Gogo is monitoring and working constantly to enforce this request.

American Airlines adds the new 737s to 84 previous orders. It started bringing the 737s into its narrowbody fleet as of April 2009. The company expects to have a total of 195 of these planes by the end of 2012.

Gerard Arpey, chief executive and chairman of AMR Corp., the company that owns American Airlines, in a press statement noted that the new aircraft would help the company manage through future fuel price volatility, which continues to be a challenge for the entire industry.

The International Air Transport Association and Platts report that the cost of jet fuel is up 24% year-over-year, now. The global trade group for the air transport industry also estimates that the average expenditure on jet fuel this year will reach $88.2 billion, up $17 billion from last year, globally.




airlines american fuel year s american airlines fuel year company 737s aircraft gogo planes american airlines jet fuel air transport ]]> Wed, 21 Jul 2010 18:30:56 -0400 30:00 tag:filome.com,7 Rumor: Apple to launch 4k video format? http://www.tuaw.com/2010/07/19/rumor-apple-to-launch-4k-video-format/ Shared item The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)
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Filed under:

HardMac is reporting that they've been told by one of their sources that Apple is gearing up to launch a new video format. Apple's supposed new format would be based on the Dirac codec which was developed by BBC Research. The codec is open source and currently supports 1920x1080 resolutions, but Apple plans to up the format to support 4k video - that's a resolution of up to 4096x2160. HardMac points out that many people still do not have 1080p HDTVs at home, much less TVs capable of supporting 4k resolution, but they theorize that Apple would be planning to enter the HDTV market from the high end - at the same time introducing not only stunning hardware, but making Blu-ray discs look archaic with their "low" resolution.

Apple has always maintained the Apple TV is a "hobby" and indeed, they haven't done much to promote the device since its launch in 2007. Still many prominent analysts believe that it's not a matter of "if" but "when" Apple will enter the the home television market full-force. The logical step, it would seem, would be to merge the Apple TV digital receiver into a large LED display and offer an iPod touch-like remote control and Bluetooth keyboard support. Throw in a built-in camera with FaceTime and the world of The Jetsons is one step closer to reality.

TUAWRumor: Apple to launch 4k video format? originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 19 Jul 2010 16:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

apple format k video launch format video launch video format ]]>The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)
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Filed under:

HardMac is reporting that they've been told by one of their sources that Apple is gearing up to launch a new video format. Apple's supposed new format would be based on the Dirac codec which was developed by BBC Research. The codec is open source and currently supports 1920x1080 resolutions, but Apple plans to up the format to support 4k video - that's a resolution of up to 4096x2160. HardMac points out that many people still do not have 1080p HDTVs at home, much less TVs capable of supporting 4k resolution, but they theorize that Apple would be planning to enter the HDTV market from the high end - at the same time introducing not only stunning hardware, but making Blu-ray discs look archaic with their "low" resolution.

Apple has always maintained the Apple TV is a "hobby" and indeed, they haven't done much to promote the device since its launch in 2007. Still many prominent analysts believe that it's not a matter of "if" but "when" Apple will enter the the home television market full-force. The logical step, it would seem, would be to merge the Apple TV digital receiver into a large LED display and offer an iPod touch-like remote control and Bluetooth keyboard support. Throw in a built-in camera with FaceTime and the world of The Jetsons is one step closer to reality.

TUAWRumor: Apple to launch 4k video format? originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 19 Jul 2010 16:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

apple format k video launch format video launch video format ]]> Tue, 20 Jul 2010 05:55:32 -0400 30:00 tag:filome.com,8 Where are you going from here? http://germany.worldcupblog.org/germany/where-are-you-going-from-here.html Shared item Germany World Cup Blog Blog
First shared by - Proto
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Now that it is all over one might ask himself where to go from here. If you don't want to wait for Polkraine 2012 the European Championship where you most likely will be able to follow football of a higher quality on average than in South Africa 2010 why don't you switch to the offside and follow football on the club level.

If you've become a friend or even a fan of German football and who didn't? you should start or continue visiting the offside blogs on German club football.

Not convinced? Six reasons why you should do so anways:

1) Germany played the most exciting attacking football in this World Cup. All the German players play weekly in the Bundesliga. Fell in love with Schweinsteiger, zil or Mller? Watch them playing on their home turf, their latest haircuts, and their girlfriends wifes or grandmas.

2) The experts say that this young German team will be the one to beat in 2012 and 2014. Follow the further development of those WC youngsters or learn about other still largely unknown great talents around who eventually will replace the oldies like Klose or Friedrich.

3) The German Bundesliga is a 34-game-day spectacle with spectaluar sold-out arenas almost everywhere on every weekend, goals galore, and a fascinating grassroot fan cultute. Football afficionados from England are already booking cheap Easy Jet trips to German football cathedrals on a weekly basis in order to experience true football atmosphere. Never heard of the yellow wall in Dortmund? Gotta go there!

4) The German Bundesliga is as much a balanced league as a surprise bag. Although Bayern Mnchen has been the dominating force on German club level for quite a while and always is the big favourite for all possible titles, it is not for granted that they always win everything. Last year we watched a fascinating race between Bayern and Schalke (coached by Bayern's ex-manager Felix Magath), the year before we saw VfL Wolfsburg (coached by Bayern's ex-manager Felix Magath) winning the league title in fashion. There's is always a big underdog in the mix and there's always an underperforming favourite. You just can't tell who this will be.

5) Watch future superstars. With some very few exceptions you do not find overhyped and overpaid megastars playing for German clubs for the simple reason that even Bayern Mnchen wouldn't pay the insane salaries clubs in other European countries are paying. But you can see some highly talented potential superstars from everywhere in the world.

6) Some people might call it old-fashioned and restrictive, others call it solid and honest. The DFB tightly regulates German professional football. Tired of watching your club being taken over by foreign investors who give and take millions (if not billions) at their own descretion? Sick of dubious dictators deciding over the faith of your team and using it as their toy and status symbol? German regulators make those hostile take-overs unattractive if not impossible.

Some more reasons to add?



german football bayern club bundesliga german football bayern club bayern mnchen manager felix felix magath german bundesliga german club club level german football follow football manager felix magath ]]>Germany World Cup Blog Blog
First shared by - Proto
syndication+ 0 | Search 1 | Shares 1

Now that it is all over one might ask himself where to go from here. If you don't want to wait for Polkraine 2012 the European Championship where you most likely will be able to follow football of a higher quality on average than in South Africa 2010 why don't you switch to the offside and follow football on the club level.

If you've become a friend or even a fan of German football and who didn't? you should start or continue visiting the offside blogs on German club football.

Not convinced? Six reasons why you should do so anways:

1) Germany played the most exciting attacking football in this World Cup. All the German players play weekly in the Bundesliga. Fell in love with Schweinsteiger, zil or Mller? Watch them playing on their home turf, their latest haircuts, and their girlfriends wifes or grandmas.

2) The experts say that this young German team will be the one to beat in 2012 and 2014. Follow the further development of those WC youngsters or learn about other still largely unknown great talents around who eventually will replace the oldies like Klose or Friedrich.

3) The German Bundesliga is a 34-game-day spectacle with spectaluar sold-out arenas almost everywhere on every weekend, goals galore, and a fascinating grassroot fan cultute. Football afficionados from England are already booking cheap Easy Jet trips to German football cathedrals on a weekly basis in order to experience true football atmosphere. Never heard of the yellow wall in Dortmund? Gotta go there!

4) The German Bundesliga is as much a balanced league as a surprise bag. Although Bayern Mnchen has been the dominating force on German club level for quite a while and always is the big favourite for all possible titles, it is not for granted that they always win everything. Last year we watched a fascinating race between Bayern and Schalke (coached by Bayern's ex-manager Felix Magath), the year before we saw VfL Wolfsburg (coached by Bayern's ex-manager Felix Magath) winning the league title in fashion. There's is always a big underdog in the mix and there's always an underperforming favourite. You just can't tell who this will be.

5) Watch future superstars. With some very few exceptions you do not find overhyped and overpaid megastars playing for German clubs for the simple reason that even Bayern Mnchen wouldn't pay the insane salaries clubs in other European countries are paying. But you can see some highly talented potential superstars from everywhere in the world.

6) Some people might call it old-fashioned and restrictive, others call it solid and honest. The DFB tightly regulates German professional football. Tired of watching your club being taken over by foreign investors who give and take millions (if not billions) at their own descretion? Sick of dubious dictators deciding over the faith of your team and using it as their toy and status symbol? German regulators make those hostile take-overs unattractive if not impossible.

Some more reasons to add?



german football bayern club bundesliga german football bayern club bayern mnchen manager felix felix magath german bundesliga german club club level german football follow football manager felix magath ]]> Tue, 20 Jul 2010 01:30:22 -0400 30:00 tag:filome.com,9 Electrified Watercrafts - The Stealth Electric Jet Ski from DiMora is 100 Percent Green (GALLERY) http://www.trendhunter.com/trends/stealth-electric-jet-ski Shared item TREND HUNTER - The Latest Trends
First shared by - TimYonkers
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(TrendHunter.com) I love my jet skis to death, but I would trade any one of them in a heartbeat for the Stealth Electric Jet Ski from DiMora. These jet skis are 100 percent electric and are outfitted with the latest tech



jet electric percent skis ski jet skis 100 percent jet ski electric jet stealth electric ]]>TREND HUNTER - The Latest Trends
First shared by - TimYonkers
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(TrendHunter.com) I love my jet skis to death, but I would trade any one of them in a heartbeat for the Stealth Electric Jet Ski from DiMora. These jet skis are 100 percent electric and are outfitted with the latest tech



jet electric percent skis ski jet skis 100 percent jet ski electric jet stealth electric ]]> Mon, 19 Jul 2010 21:10:31 -0400 30:00 tag:filome.com,10 How Social Media Drives New Business: Six Case Studies http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/6cgkuYX01Ks/ Shared item TechCrunch
First shared by - Jorg
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Businesses both big and small are flocking to social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Foursquare. The fact is that a presence on these platforms not only allows companies to engage in conversations with consumers, but also serves as an outlet to drive sales through deals and coupons.

And while major brands like Starbucks, Virgin, and Levi's have been participating in the social web for some time now, the rate of adoption among small businesses is increasing too. According to a recent University of Maryland study, social media adoption by small businesses has doubled from 12% to 24% in the last year. But as these businesses look to Facebook and Twitter to connect with customers, many are finding that some strategies work and some do not produce results. We'll be exploring these questions at a panel on Social Media and Businesses at our Social Currency CrunchUp on July 30. We've found some local and national businesses using social media effectively, ranging from Levi's to a creme brulee cart, whose case studies are below. Some of these businesses will be sharing their experiences at the CrunchUp (You can buy tickets to the CrunchUp here).

The Creme Brulee Man: Food from street carts have become a foodie favorite for San Franciscans. Food carts travel from neighborhood to neighborhood, offering their delicacies to a range of local foodies. But without a set location, how do these carts let consumers know where they will be? Well, through Twitter of course. Curtis Kimball, the man behind the enormously popular Creme Brulee Cart in San Francisco, has quickly amassed over 12,000 followers in a little over a year. He knows that most of his business comes from people who follow him on Twitter because Twitter is the only way you can find the cart's location for the day, says Kimball, a former construction worker turned creme brulee expert. It gives people a valid reason to follow me, he says.

The other use of Twitter for Kimball is to tell people what flavor of creme brulee he is serving in a given day. And Kimball says that Twitter gives him the ability to develop a personal relationship with his followers and others. He says he tries to engage his followers by asking for suggestions of what type of custard to serve or where he should park his cart, and he always tries to keep things humorous.

Kimball says he has no marketing budget and Twitter has been a great way to amass fans. He doesn't have as much of a presence on Facebook, and he's not sure the model is as efficient as Twitter. Twitter can absorb more than Facebook with very little effort, Kimball adds. Yelp has also been a valuable source of referrals for the entrepreneur. The cart has 224 reviews and is rated with 4 and a half stars.

Joie De Vivre: Joie De Vivre, a company that operates 33 luxury hotels in California is using a variety of social media platforms to drive sales and marketing for its properties. Central to the hotel group's strategy is disseminating deals and coupons to followers and fans on Facebook and Twitter. Every Tuesday, Joie De Vivre's Twitter account will Tweet an exclusive deal to its nearly 10,000 followers. Followers have only hours to book the steeply discounted room rate. For example, this past Tuesday, it offered $79 rooms at the group's Galleria Park Hotel in San Francisco in November and December. The company also operates similar deals for its 5,000-plus Facebook fans on Fridays.

In less than a year, Joie De Vivre has booked over 1,000 room nights through these types of dealsrooms that otherwise would have stayed empty. The company has also started a partnership with coupons site Mobile Spinach to offer coupons for the group's restaurants. And the company has partnered with Foursquare to offer deals for check-ins at its various restaurants. In terms of flash sales, Joir De Vivre has done a number of deals with travel sites like Gilt's Jetsetter as well as RueLaLa, and Nadeau says these deals have done moderately well.

The company's marketing VP Ann Nadeau tells me that because of the economy the hotel industry's marketing budgets have shrunk, and social media efforts have proved to be a great way to both drive sales and build loyalty. The company's social media efforts are not solely deal based. This summer, Joie De Vivre encouraged consumers to enter its Road Trippin' California contest, which asked people to submit videos on YouTube that share why they love California. Three winners, out of 270 videos that were submitted, were selected to win all-expense California road trips with stays in the company's hotels.

In terms of using social media for customer service, Nadeau says that each property hotel manager is responsible for monitoring conversations and reviews on Twitter, Facebook, and Yelp.

Stone Korean Kitchen: Co-founded last November by chef Terry Lin, and LinkedIn employees Robby Kwok and Dan Yoo, Stone Korean Kitchen aims to bring modern Korean cuisine to the Financial District in San Francisco. Yoo tells me that as soon as the restaurant launched, he started a presence on social media sites, including Twitter, Yelp, and Facebook. But the challenge of many small businesses with social media is driving traffic to the right social media channel rather than splitting it between various sites. Yoo says that interconnecting content between the various profiles has helped gain Twitter followers and Facebook fans. Currently the restaurant's Twitter profile has 65 followers and its Facebook page has 107 fans. Many of these are repeat customers. For a small restaurant, it doesn't take that many loyal customers to keep the kitchen busy.

Yoo says that he consistently Tweets links to comments and reviews on the Facebook page. Of course, Yoo also stresses the importance of managing Yelp reviews and responding to customer complaints on social media platforms.

But what really tipped the scales for Yoo was Groupon (disclosure: my husband works for Groupon). Yoo says that restaurant saw significant traction in both sales and traffic to its Yelp sites and Facebook page when the restaurant signed up for a Groupon deal in April. Stone Korean Kitchen sold 2600 groupons in one day, and saw a packed house for two months for both lunch and dinner. Now Yoo says that they see around 5 to 10 Groupons per day instead of 30 or 40 but the restaurant is still seeing a good number of repeat customers from the Groupon deal, says Yoo.

One effect of the Groupon deal, besides increased sales, was that there were a flux of Yelp reviews. It took the company six months to accumulate 80 reviews on Yelp and after the deal, the restaurant accumulated 90 reviews within three months. Yoo also says that he's seen a steady increase in Foursquare check-ins following the Groupon deal.

Of course, since Yoo and Kwok are both LinkedIn employees (chef Lin manages the restaurant on a day-to-day basis), they put their heads together to figure out how they could use the professional social network to drive sales. With the ad targeting capabilities on LinkedIn, the restaurant started serving ads that target lawyers and bankers in the San Francisco area, as both industries are centralized in the financial district. They've noticed an increase in foot traffic and corporate catering requests as a result. In the future, Yoo says that the restaurant is working on a promotion with Foursquare. And he is in talks with Twitter on featuring a deal on the social network's new Earlybird venture.

Dr. Irena Vaksman, Dentist: Social media and dentistry don't necessarily go hand in hand, but one San Franciscan dentist has forged an impressive social media campaign to raise awareness of her fledgling practice. She has a Twitter profile, a Facebook page, a YouTube channel and an website. Dr. Vaksman's husband, lawyer Robert Vaksman, has been the strategist behind her social media efforts. Robert says that his wife is confronted with the challenge of practicing in a building that houses hundreds of other dentists that have more established practices. He says that it's a no brainer to be looking at as many social channels as possible for marketing efforts.

While the practice is still young, the Vaksmans say that they are starting to see patients and potential patients begin to communicate with them on the Facebook page, which has 70 fans. Vaksman will publish her Yelp reviews from patients on the site as well as YouTube videos containing educational content about dental procedures. Twitter is still a fairly new forum for the practice says Robert, and he's still trying to determine the best way to engage with potential customers on the network.

Last October, Dr. Vaksman signed up for a Groupon deal in San Francisco, and received 320 new patients because of the deal, which was for a patient exam and x-ray. The Vaksmans say that the deal propelled the five month old business in the right direction and boosted its patient base significantly. Robert is also looking into partnering with Facebook campaign startup Wildfire to set up a promotional sweepstakes for the practice's Facebook page.

Levi's: Now more than ever, retail brands are engaging consumers on social networks to offer deals, allow users to socialize around purchases, and more. Levi's Jeans was one of the brands that was first to use Facebook as a tool for sales and marketing initiatives and has launched a number of compelling campaigns using Facebook.

As one of Facebook's initial partners using the social network's new Like functionality, Levi's allows Facebook users to like products on Levi's online store and its Facebook page (which has nearly 500,000 likes) and share their favorite items with their friends. Within the first week, Levi's got more than 4,000 likes, says Inside Facebook.

The jeans giant also promoted a major campaign in conjunction with SXSW this year, partnering with music publication The Fader to promote a music event at the festival. The company worked with brand marketing platform Involver to incorporate music and video into their page, with the hopes of driving music fans to buy jeans from the Levi's brand. Most recently, Levi's has begun to promote retail offerings with geo-targeted event advertisements on Facebook.

In terms of Twitter, Levi's recently enlisted a Levi's Guy, 23-year-old USC graduate Gareth, to engage consumers on the microblogging platform. He has over 6,000 followers and is responsible for responding to and engaging in conversations about the Levi's brand on Twitter. The company is currently in the process of trying to find a Levi's Girl, which will serve as a female foil to Gareth.

Levi's director of digital marketing, Megan O'Connor, told us that the engagement with both Twitter and Facebook is about creating and informing brand ambassadors that will help drive sales through their own actions and word of mouth.

Starbucks: Most experts will agree that Starbucks has one of the best social media strategies out there. Now that it is giving away free WiFi, it is even more of a magnet for roving laptop warriors. And with 10 million Facebook fans, Starbucks is now close to surpassing the Facebook fan base of Lady Gaga. The company has held a number of promotions on its page to drive engagement. For example, Starbucks held a promotion for free pastries on its Facebook page, allowing customers to access a coupon that would give them a free pastry with a purchase of a coffee drink. Advertising on the social network has also helped to drive traffic to Starbucks' page.

In terms of Twitter, Starbucks has also been incredibly active on the microblogging network, amassing nearly one million followers. Not only does the company's Twitter stream serve as an engagement tool with customers who are talking about the brand on Twitter, but it is also used as a way to spread news from Starbucks. Starbucks has also participated in Twitter's promoted Tweets program, which allows advertisers to buy sponsored links on Twitter.

The combination of geolocation and social networks is also a huge avenue for Starbucks and the company was one of the first major brands to broker a deal with popular location-based social network Foursquare. In March, Starbucks started offering Foursquare mayors of retail stores special Barista' badges that would come with discounts on drinks and food. Starbucks also partnered recently with mobile social network Brightkite to give members special discounts on drinks.

Photo Credit/Flickr/Snickclunck




social twitter facebook media levi social twitter facebook media levi company starbucks page restaurant followers sales businesses network reviews marketing yelp fans customers groupon deals drive foursquare kimball vivre vaksman small brand consumers joie year creme brulee francisco cart engage brands robert coupons music patients traffic practice kitchen hotel california platforms started terms korean efforts sites youtube social media facebook page social network creme brulee san francisco groupon deal drive sales media platforms media efforts stone korean yelp reviews korean kitchen facebook fans small businesses 000 followers repeat customers 000 likes twitter profile social networks vaksmans say check ins sales through twitter facebook case studies major brands brulee cart linkedin employees offer deals financial district social media platforms stone korean kitchen social media efforts creme brulee cart drive sales through ]]>TechCrunch
First shared by - Jorg
syndication+ 0 | Search 1 | Shares 2

Businesses both big and small are flocking to social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Foursquare. The fact is that a presence on these platforms not only allows companies to engage in conversations with consumers, but also serves as an outlet to drive sales through deals and coupons.

And while major brands like Starbucks, Virgin, and Levi's have been participating in the social web for some time now, the rate of adoption among small businesses is increasing too. According to a recent University of Maryland study, social media adoption by small businesses has doubled from 12% to 24% in the last year. But as these businesses look to Facebook and Twitter to connect with customers, many are finding that some strategies work and some do not produce results. We'll be exploring these questions at a panel on Social Media and Businesses at our Social Currency CrunchUp on July 30. We've found some local and national businesses using social media effectively, ranging from Levi's to a creme brulee cart, whose case studies are below. Some of these businesses will be sharing their experiences at the CrunchUp (You can buy tickets to the CrunchUp here).

The Creme Brulee Man: Food from street carts have become a foodie favorite for San Franciscans. Food carts travel from neighborhood to neighborhood, offering their delicacies to a range of local foodies. But without a set location, how do these carts let consumers know where they will be? Well, through Twitter of course. Curtis Kimball, the man behind the enormously popular Creme Brulee Cart in San Francisco, has quickly amassed over 12,000 followers in a little over a year. He knows that most of his business comes from people who follow him on Twitter because Twitter is the only way you can find the cart's location for the day, says Kimball, a former construction worker turned creme brulee expert. It gives people a valid reason to follow me, he says.

The other use of Twitter for Kimball is to tell people what flavor of creme brulee he is serving in a given day. And Kimball says that Twitter gives him the ability to develop a personal relationship with his followers and others. He says he tries to engage his followers by asking for suggestions of what type of custard to serve or where he should park his cart, and he always tries to keep things humorous.

Kimball says he has no marketing budget and Twitter has been a great way to amass fans. He doesn't have as much of a presence on Facebook, and he's not sure the model is as efficient as Twitter. Twitter can absorb more than Facebook with very little effort, Kimball adds. Yelp has also been a valuable source of referrals for the entrepreneur. The cart has 224 reviews and is rated with 4 and a half stars.

Joie De Vivre: Joie De Vivre, a company that operates 33 luxury hotels in California is using a variety of social media platforms to drive sales and marketing for its properties. Central to the hotel group's strategy is disseminating deals and coupons to followers and fans on Facebook and Twitter. Every Tuesday, Joie De Vivre's Twitter account will Tweet an exclusive deal to its nearly 10,000 followers. Followers have only hours to book the steeply discounted room rate. For example, this past Tuesday, it offered $79 rooms at the group's Galleria Park Hotel in San Francisco in November and December. The company also operates similar deals for its 5,000-plus Facebook fans on Fridays.

In less than a year, Joie De Vivre has booked over 1,000 room nights through these types of dealsrooms that otherwise would have stayed empty. The company has also started a partnership with coupons site Mobile Spinach to offer coupons for the group's restaurants. And the company has partnered with Foursquare to offer deals for check-ins at its various restaurants. In terms of flash sales, Joir De Vivre has done a number of deals with travel sites like Gilt's Jetsetter as well as RueLaLa, and Nadeau says these deals have done moderately well.

The company's marketing VP Ann Nadeau tells me that because of the economy the hotel industry's marketing budgets have shrunk, and social media efforts have proved to be a great way to both drive sales and build loyalty. The company's social media efforts are not solely deal based. This summer, Joie De Vivre encouraged consumers to enter its Road Trippin' California contest, which asked people to submit videos on YouTube that share why they love California. Three winners, out of 270 videos that were submitted, were selected to win all-expense California road trips with stays in the company's hotels.

In terms of using social media for customer service, Nadeau says that each property hotel manager is responsible for monitoring conversations and reviews on Twitter, Facebook, and Yelp.

Stone Korean Kitchen: Co-founded last November by chef Terry Lin, and LinkedIn employees Robby Kwok and Dan Yoo, Stone Korean Kitchen aims to bring modern Korean cuisine to the Financial District in San Francisco. Yoo tells me that as soon as the restaurant launched, he started a presence on social media sites, including Twitter, Yelp, and Facebook. But the challenge of many small businesses with social media is driving traffic to the right social media channel rather than splitting it between various sites. Yoo says that interconnecting content between the various profiles has helped gain Twitter followers and Facebook fans. Currently the restaurant's Twitter profile has 65 followers and its Facebook page has 107 fans. Many of these are repeat customers. For a small restaurant, it doesn't take that many loyal customers to keep the kitchen busy.

Yoo says that he consistently Tweets links to comments and reviews on the Facebook page. Of course, Yoo also stresses the importance of managing Yelp reviews and responding to customer complaints on social media platforms.

But what really tipped the scales for Yoo was Groupon (disclosure: my husband works for Groupon). Yoo says that restaurant saw significant traction in both sales and traffic to its Yelp sites and Facebook page when the restaurant signed up for a Groupon deal in April. Stone Korean Kitchen sold 2600 groupons in one day, and saw a packed house for two months for both lunch and dinner. Now Yoo says that they see around 5 to 10 Groupons per day instead of 30 or 40 but the restaurant is still seeing a good number of repeat customers from the Groupon deal, says Yoo.

One effect of the Groupon deal, besides increased sales, was that there were a flux of Yelp reviews. It took the company six months to accumulate 80 reviews on Yelp and after the deal, the restaurant accumulated 90 reviews within three months. Yoo also says that he's seen a steady increase in Foursquare check-ins following the Groupon deal.

Of course, since Yoo and Kwok are both LinkedIn employees (chef Lin manages the restaurant on a day-to-day basis), they put their heads together to figure out how they could use the professional social network to drive sales. With the ad targeting capabilities on LinkedIn, the restaurant started serving ads that target lawyers and bankers in the San Francisco area, as both industries are centralized in the financial district. They've noticed an increase in foot traffic and corporate catering requests as a result. In the future, Yoo says that the restaurant is working on a promotion with Foursquare. And he is in talks with Twitter on featuring a deal on the social network's new Earlybird venture.

Dr. Irena Vaksman, Dentist: Social media and dentistry don't necessarily go hand in hand, but one San Franciscan dentist has forged an impressive social media campaign to raise awareness of her fledgling practice. She has a Twitter profile, a Facebook page, a YouTube channel and an website. Dr. Vaksman's husband, lawyer Robert Vaksman, has been the strategist behind her social media efforts. Robert says that his wife is confronted with the challenge of practicing in a building that houses hundreds of other dentists that have more established practices. He says that it's a no brainer to be looking at as many social channels as possible for marketing efforts.

While the practice is still young, the Vaksmans say that they are starting to see patients and potential patients begin to communicate with them on the Facebook page, which has 70 fans. Vaksman will publish her Yelp reviews from patients on the site as well as YouTube videos containing educational content about dental procedures. Twitter is still a fairly new forum for the practice says Robert, and he's still trying to determine the best way to engage with potential customers on the network.

Last October, Dr. Vaksman signed up for a Groupon deal in San Francisco, and received 320 new patients because of the deal, which was for a patient exam and x-ray. The Vaksmans say that the deal propelled the five month old business in the right direction and boosted its patient base significantly. Robert is also looking into partnering with Facebook campaign startup Wildfire to set up a promotional sweepstakes for the practice's Facebook page.

Levi's: Now more than ever, retail brands are engaging consumers on social networks to offer deals, allow users to socialize around purchases, and more. Levi's Jeans was one of the brands that was first to use Facebook as a tool for sales and marketing initiatives and has launched a number of compelling campaigns using Facebook.

As one of Facebook's initial partners using the social network's new Like functionality, Levi's allows Facebook users to like products on Levi's online store and its Facebook page (which has nearly 500,000 likes) and share their favorite items with their friends. Within the first week, Levi's got more than 4,000 likes, says Inside Facebook.

The jeans giant also promoted a major campaign in conjunction with SXSW this year, partnering with music publication The Fader to promote a music event at the festival. The company worked with brand marketing platform Involver to incorporate music and video into their page, with the hopes of driving music fans to buy jeans from the Levi's brand. Most recently, Levi's has begun to promote retail offerings with geo-targeted event advertisements on Facebook.

In terms of Twitter, Levi's recently enlisted a Levi's Guy, 23-year-old USC graduate Gareth, to engage consumers on the microblogging platform. He has over 6,000 followers and is responsible for responding to and engaging in conversations about the Levi's brand on Twitter. The company is currently in the process of trying to find a Levi's Girl, which will serve as a female foil to Gareth.

Levi's director of digital marketing, Megan O'Connor, told us that the engagement with both Twitter and Facebook is about creating and informing brand ambassadors that will help drive sales through their own actions and word of mouth.

Starbucks: Most experts will agree that Starbucks has one of the best social media strategies out there. Now that it is giving away free WiFi, it is even more of a magnet for roving laptop warriors. And with 10 million Facebook fans, Starbucks is now close to surpassing the Facebook fan base of Lady Gaga. The company has held a number of promotions on its page to drive engagement. For example, Starbucks held a promotion for free pastries on its Facebook page, allowing customers to access a coupon that would give them a free pastry with a purchase of a coffee drink. Advertising on the social network has also helped to drive traffic to Starbucks' page.

In terms of Twitter, Starbucks has also been incredibly active on the microblogging network, amassing nearly one million followers. Not only does the company's Twitter stream serve as an engagement tool with customers who are talking about the brand on Twitter, but it is also used as a way to spread news from Starbucks. Starbucks has also participated in Twitter's promoted Tweets program, which allows advertisers to buy sponsored links on Twitter.

The combination of geolocation and social networks is also a huge avenue for Starbucks and the company was one of the first major brands to broker a deal with popular location-based social network Foursquare. In March, Starbucks started offering Foursquare mayors of retail stores special Barista' badges that would come with discounts on drinks and food. Starbucks also partnered recently with mobile social network Brightkite to give members special discounts on drinks.

Photo Credit/Flickr/Snickclunck




social twitter facebook media levi social twitter facebook media levi company starbucks page restaurant followers sales businesses network reviews marketing yelp fans customers groupon deals drive foursquare kimball vivre vaksman small brand consumers joie year creme brulee francisco cart engage brands robert coupons music patients traffic practice kitchen hotel california platforms started terms korean efforts sites youtube social media facebook page social network creme brulee san francisco groupon deal drive sales media platforms media efforts stone korean yelp reviews korean kitchen facebook fans small businesses 000 followers repeat customers 000 likes twitter profile social networks vaksmans say check ins sales through twitter facebook case studies major brands brulee cart linkedin employees offer deals financial district social media platforms stone korean kitchen social media efforts creme brulee cart drive sales through ]]> Sat, 17 Jul 2010 15:45:27 -0400 30:00 tag:filome.com,11 Killzone 3 Introduces Cinematic Deaths http://exophase.com/ps3/killzone-3-introduces-cinematic-deaths-16821.htm Shared item eXophase.com, the Gamer's Phase
First shared by - RaynerApe
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The developers of Killzone 3 decided that the normal way enemies die aren't up to their design philosophy and have decided to add a bit more spectacular new ways for Helghast enemies to perish. With these new cinematic deaths a drop ship will no longer simply blow up but rather may spin out of control and slam to the ground in a massive explosion. The jetpack troopers, on the other hand, will propel skyward and then plummet to the ground engulfed in flames.

The whole concept sounds great in theory, but the two videos that went along with the announcement just remind me of a glorified ragdoll system. You may think differently, so go check out the two videos of the new cinematic deaths after the break.

Cinematic Deaths [Killzone]

Killzone 3 Dropship Cinematic Death
Killzone 3 Jetpack Trooper Cinematic Death

Killzone 3 Introduces Cinematic Deaths - [eXophase.com]



cinematic deaths killzone jetpack videos cinematic deaths killzone cinematic deaths cinematic deathkillzone introduces cinematic introduces cinematic deaths ]]>eXophase.com, the Gamer's Phase
First shared by - RaynerApe
syndication+ 0 | Search 1 | Shares 1

The developers of Killzone 3 decided that the normal way enemies die aren't up to their design philosophy and have decided to add a bit more spectacular new ways for Helghast enemies to perish. With these new cinematic deaths a drop ship will no longer simply blow up but rather may spin out of control and slam to the ground in a massive explosion. The jetpack troopers, on the other hand, will propel skyward and then plummet to the ground engulfed in flames.

The whole concept sounds great in theory, but the two videos that went along with the announcement just remind me of a glorified ragdoll system. You may think differently, so go check out the two videos of the new cinematic deaths after the break.

Cinematic Deaths [Killzone]

Killzone 3 Dropship Cinematic Death
Killzone 3 Jetpack Trooper Cinematic Death

Killzone 3 Introduces Cinematic Deaths - [eXophase.com]



cinematic deaths killzone jetpack videos cinematic deaths killzone cinematic deaths cinematic deathkillzone introduces cinematic introduces cinematic deaths ]]> Wed, 14 Jul 2010 03:41:28 -0400 30:00 tag:filome.com,12 Node.js is the New Black http://www.pheedcontent.com/click.phdo?i=57edecddf8b36a3252b52c3222cdae2b Shared item SitePoint
First shared by - robdiana
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If you've been paying attention to news about web technology in the last year, you've most likely heard the name node.js mentioned at least once or twice. What happened next probably went like this: you asked, What is it? and someone (or Google) told you that it was a way to write web servers using JavaScript. If that didn't scare you away, you might then have asked, Why would you want to use it?and the answer might have been along the lines of it taking advantage of non-blocking, event-driven IO to enable high concurrency in long polling or comet-based applications.

At which point you stopped asking questions. I don't blame you. To help break apart that wall of jargon, here's my attempt at explaining what node.js is and why you should be paying attention to it.

So here's how it is, how it's always been: a browser sends a request to a website. The site's server receives the request, tracks down the requested file, performs any database queries as needed, and sends a response to the browser. In traditional web servers, such as Apache, each request causes the server to create a new system thread or process to handle that request.

Then there was Ajax. Instead of requesting a whole new page each time, we'd only request the piece of information we actually wanted. Okay, that's an improvement.

But now think about how you'd go about building a service like FriendFeed, where each user's feed is updating in real time, all the time. The only way that's possible is if each user has an active connection to the server at all times. The simplest way to do that at present is through long polling.

Long polling essentially tricks HTTP into acting like a persistent connection: as soon as the page loads, it fires off an Ajax request to the server, even if the page doesn't want anything in particular. But, unlike a normal Ajax request, the server doesn't respond right away. It just waits, and fires back a response only when it has something new it wants the browser to display. For example, as soon as one of your friends adds a new post, the server returns the response telling the browser to update its display. As soon as the browser receives the response, it shoots back another request. This way the browser is always waiting for a new event to happen on the server side.

Now think about what that means for a traditional web server like Apache. For each and every user connected to the site, your server has to keep a connection open. Each connection requires a process, and each of those processes will spend most of its time either sitting idle (consuming memory) or waiting on a database query to complete. This means that it's hard to scale up to high numbers of connections without grinding to a near halt and using up all your resources.

So what's the solution? Here's where some of that jargon from before comes into play: specifically non-blocking and event-driven. What those terms mean in this context is less complicated than you might fear. Think of a non-blocking server as a loop: it just keeps going round and round. A request comes in, the loop grabs it, passes it along to some other process (like a database query), sets up a callback, and keeps going round, ready for the next request. It doesn't just sit there, waiting for the database to come back with the requested info.

If the database query comes back fine, we'll deal with that the same way: throw a response back to the client and keep looping around. There's theoretically no limit on how many database queries you can be waiting on, or how many clients have open requests, because you're not spending any time waiting for them. You deal with them all in their own time, and that's what event-driven means: the server only reacts when an event occurs. That could be a request, a file being loaded, or a query being executed it really doesn't matter.

FriendFeed uses a non-blocking framework written in Python, called Tornado, to do this. The nginx web server also behaves in this way. Node.js, however, has an ace up its sleeve: because it's using JavaScript running on Google's crazy-fast V8 engine it never needs to worry about whether a request it makes to another piece of code might cause the loop to block up. The reason is that JavaScript is intrinsically event-driven. Think about it: when you write JavaScript for the browser, you're just attaching event handlers and callbacks. That's the way the language was designed.

Node.js is still in its infancy, so if you want to write an application based on it you'll need to do some fairly low-level coding. But with the impending arrival of WebSockets in next-generation browsers (eliminating the need for long polling altogether), this type of technology will only become more important on the Web. I hope I've given you the incentive to start messing around and getting your head around these concepts.

Related Posts

  1. Jetty 6.0 to provide new architecture for AJAX apps
  2. Men in Black Security Guides
  3. Losing REST over Ajax Errors?





request server event browser database server request event browser database response ajax node waiting think query connection javascript driven polling blocking event driven non blocking long polling database query web server ajax request traditional web paying attention database queries web servers ]]>SitePoint
First shared by - robdiana
syndication+ 0 | Search 1 | Shares 1

If you've been paying attention to news about web technology in the last year, you've most likely heard the name node.js mentioned at least once or twice. What happened next probably went like this: you asked, What is it? and someone (or Google) told you that it was a way to write web servers using JavaScript. If that didn't scare you away, you might then have asked, Why would you want to use it?and the answer might have been along the lines of it taking advantage of non-blocking, event-driven IO to enable high concurrency in long polling or comet-based applications.

At which point you stopped asking questions. I don't blame you. To help break apart that wall of jargon, here's my attempt at explaining what node.js is and why you should be paying attention to it.

So here's how it is, how it's always been: a browser sends a request to a website. The site's server receives the request, tracks down the requested file, performs any database queries as needed, and sends a response to the browser. In traditional web servers, such as Apache, each request causes the server to create a new system thread or process to handle that request.

Then there was Ajax. Instead of requesting a whole new page each time, we'd only request the piece of information we actually wanted. Okay, that's an improvement.

But now think about how you'd go about building a service like FriendFeed, where each user's feed is updating in real time, all the time. The only way that's possible is if each user has an active connection to the server at all times. The simplest way to do that at present is through long polling.

Long polling essentially tricks HTTP into acting like a persistent connection: as soon as the page loads, it fires off an Ajax request to the server, even if the page doesn't want anything in particular. But, unlike a normal Ajax request, the server doesn't respond right away. It just waits, and fires back a response only when it has something new it wants the browser to display. For example, as soon as one of your friends adds a new post, the server returns the response telling the browser to update its display. As soon as the browser receives the response, it shoots back another request. This way the browser is always waiting for a new event to happen on the server side.

Now think about what that means for a traditional web server like Apache. For each and every user connected to the site, your server has to keep a connection open. Each connection requires a process, and each of those processes will spend most of its time either sitting idle (consuming memory) or waiting on a database query to complete. This means that it's hard to scale up to high numbers of connections without grinding to a near halt and using up all your resources.

So what's the solution? Here's where some of that jargon from before comes into play: specifically non-blocking and event-driven. What those terms mean in this context is less complicated than you might fear. Think of a non-blocking server as a loop: it just keeps going round and round. A request comes in, the loop grabs it, passes it along to some other process (like a database query), sets up a callback, and keeps going round, ready for the next request. It doesn't just sit there, waiting for the database to come back with the requested info.

If the database query comes back fine, we'll deal with that the same way: throw a response back to the client and keep looping around. There's theoretically no limit on how many database queries you can be waiting on, or how many clients have open requests, because you're not spending any time waiting for them. You deal with them all in their own time, and that's what event-driven means: the server only reacts when an event occurs. That could be a request, a file being loaded, or a query being executed it really doesn't matter.

FriendFeed uses a non-blocking framework written in Python, called Tornado, to do this. The nginx web server also behaves in this way. Node.js, however, has an ace up its sleeve: because it's using JavaScript running on Google's crazy-fast V8 engine it never needs to worry about whether a request it makes to another piece of code might cause the loop to block up. The reason is that JavaScript is intrinsically event-driven. Think about it: when you write JavaScript for the browser, you're just attaching event handlers and callbacks. That's the way the language was designed.

Node.js is still in its infancy, so if you want to write an application based on it you'll need to do some fairly low-level coding. But with the impending arrival of WebSockets in next-generation browsers (eliminating the need for long polling altogether), this type of technology will only become more important on the Web. I hope I've given you the incentive to start messing around and getting your head around these concepts.

Related Posts

  1. Jetty 6.0 to provide new architecture for AJAX apps
  2. Men in Black Security Guides
  3. Losing REST over Ajax Errors?





request server event browser database server request event browser database response ajax node waiting think query connection javascript driven polling blocking event driven non blocking long polling database query web server ajax request traditional web paying attention database queries web servers ]]> Tue, 13 Jul 2010 07:35:37 -0400 30:00 tag:filome.com,13 5 Comforts for Pampered Travelers http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/inc/headlines/~3/sMa8_XSgl8k/business-travel-2010-pampered Shared item Inc.com
First shared by - chrisbrogan
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A long flight doesn't have to come with a stiff neck. The ezysleep travel pillow has a 360-degree enclosure so your neck is cushioned no matter which way your head lolls. It also comes with a stamp of approval from Alan Hedge, director of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Laboratory at Cornell University, and costs $31. A strap can loosen or tighten the circle to ensure a perfect fit.Website: http://www.ezysleep.com

Staying on a hotel's club floor usually means free food and access to a private bar. The Ritz Carlton sets a higher standard. Most properties have lush club floors with dedicated concierges and workstations with computers, printers, and fax machines. The San Francisco club level has a business center with meeting rooms so you can play host on the road. At the Ritz on Central Park West in New York City, guests can have a butler unpack and pack their luggage. Such added amenities cost about $100 a night.Website: http://www.ritzcarlton.com

A must-have for long-haul flights, this PoshAir Premium Cashmere JetElite sleeping bag has a cashmere exterior and an interior lined with 300-thread count Egyptian cotton. It has an interior pocket for safely stowing valuables as you snooze and comes with a tote bag. Available in brown, beige, black, navy blue, camel, and pink. Such luxury will cost you $699 for an extra large sleeping bag that is 3-feet wide and can accommodate a person up to 6'4" tall.Website: http://poshair.com

Reminiscent of the days when "clubs" served as a home away from home for businessmen, Truefitt & Hill's original London location, which opened in 1805, boasts Charles Dickens and Winston Churchill as past clients. Today, customers have tea and biscuits along with their shoeshines ($6) and hot-lather shaves ($65) to rejuvenate after a long flight or a day of back-to-back meetings. You can find a Truefitt & Hill in Chicago, London, and Toronto.Website: http://www.truefittandhill.co.uk

When you really want to pamper yourself (and you've got some money to burn), check out ShareAJet Exchange, a website that helps connect travelers looking to fly in luxury at a discount. Travelers post flight requests on the site or browse listings to find a match. Each flight accommodates a maximum of two parties, and the price is split evenly regardless of the breakdown of the groups. A recent listing advertised a one-way trip from Washington, D.C., to Rome on a 12-seat Gulfstream with room for 10 extra passengers for $60,000 per party, half the cost of flying privately.Website: http://www.shareajetexchange.com




Winston Churchill - San Francisco - New York City - Charles Dickens - Ritz Carlton



website flight ritz cost club website flight charles dickens winston churchill sleeping bag york city ritz carlton san francisco long flight ]]>Inc.com
First shared by - chrisbrogan
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A long flight doesn't have to come with a stiff neck. The ezysleep travel pillow has a 360-degree enclosure so your neck is cushioned no matter which way your head lolls. It also comes with a stamp of approval from Alan Hedge, director of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Laboratory at Cornell University, and costs $31. A strap can loosen or tighten the circle to ensure a perfect fit.Website: http://www.ezysleep.com

Staying on a hotel's club floor usually means free food and access to a private bar. The Ritz Carlton sets a higher standard. Most properties have lush club floors with dedicated concierges and workstations with computers, printers, and fax machines. The San Francisco club level has a business center with meeting rooms so you can play host on the road. At the Ritz on Central Park West in New York City, guests can have a butler unpack and pack their luggage. Such added amenities cost about $100 a night.Website: http://www.ritzcarlton.com

A must-have for long-haul flights, this PoshAir Premium Cashmere JetElite sleeping bag has a cashmere exterior and an interior lined with 300-thread count Egyptian cotton. It has an interior pocket for safely stowing valuables as you snooze and comes with a tote bag. Available in brown, beige, black, navy blue, camel, and pink. Such luxury will cost you $699 for an extra large sleeping bag that is 3-feet wide and can accommodate a person up to 6'4" tall.Website: http://poshair.com

Reminiscent of the days when "clubs" served as a home away from home for businessmen, Truefitt & Hill's original London location, which opened in 1805, boasts Charles Dickens and Winston Churchill as past clients. Today, customers have tea and biscuits along with their shoeshines ($6) and hot-lather shaves ($65) to rejuvenate after a long flight or a day of back-to-back meetings. You can find a Truefitt & Hill in Chicago, London, and Toronto.Website: http://www.truefittandhill.co.uk

When you really want to pamper yourself (and you've got some money to burn), check out ShareAJet Exchange, a website that helps connect travelers looking to fly in luxury at a discount. Travelers post flight requests on the site or browse listings to find a match. Each flight accommodates a maximum of two parties, and the price is split evenly regardless of the breakdown of the groups. A recent listing advertised a one-way trip from Washington, D.C., to Rome on a 12-seat Gulfstream with room for 10 extra passengers for $60,000 per party, half the cost of flying privately.Website: http://www.shareajetexchange.com




Winston Churchill - San Francisco - New York City - Charles Dickens - Ritz Carlton



website flight ritz cost club website flight charles dickens winston churchill sleeping bag york city ritz carlton san francisco long flight ]]> Sun, 11 Jul 2010 14:00:46 -0400 30:00 tag:filome.com,14 Sony's latest Cyber-shots boast 3D sweep panorama, background defocusing http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/08/sonys-latest-cyber-shots-boast-3d-sweep-panorama-background-de/ Shared item Engadget
First shared by - Mariela
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It's getting to be that time of the year again -- time for Sony to expand / refresh its Cyber-shot lineup. Say hello to the 14.1 megapixel T99 and the 12.2 megapixel WX5 and TX9. All three feature BIONZ processors and 32MB internal memory (no word on external options). The T99's your underwater-capable option, capable of shooting sweep panorama shots submerged as well as 720p 30fps HD video -- or if you want something of an upgrade, the TX9 is also snorkeling-friendly, but itself can tout Full HD 1080i video recording, a Sweep Multi Angle for "3D-style" imagine, and the 3D sweep panorama with which the NEX series was just graced. Another neat trick of the Tx9 is its "background defocus" that gives you the DSLR-like effect of sharp foreground images with a blurry background (c.f. most of our headlining phone review images). If you're willing to sacrifice water resistance for a 5x optical zoom and Sony G lens (the previous two feature 4x and Carl Zeiss) while still retaining TX9's cool 3D tricks, you're gonna want the WX5. At this point, they carry no price tag, but you've got a bit to wait anyway: the trio will all debut in mid-September.

Update: Akihabara News is reporting these cameras also support TransferJet. Additionally, AV Watch has listed some expected prices for Japan, so without further ado: the WX5 for 35,000 yen (about $400), the TX9 for 45,000 yen ($512), and the T99 for a more budget-friendly 29,000 yen ($330).

Gallery: Sony Cyber-shot TX9, T99, and WX5

Sony's latest Cyber-shots boast 3D sweep panorama, background defocusing originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 08 Jul 2010 00:56:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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sony tx sweep d t sweep sony background panorama cyber sweep panorama 000 yen cyber shot background defocusing panorama background shots boast latest cyber cyber shots panorama background defocusing sweep panorama background cyber shots boast latest cyber shots ]]>Engadget
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It's getting to be that time of the year again -- time for Sony to expand / refresh its Cyber-shot lineup. Say hello to the 14.1 megapixel T99 and the 12.2 megapixel WX5 and TX9. All three feature BIONZ processors and 32MB internal memory (no word on external options). The T99's your underwater-capable option, capable of shooting sweep panorama shots submerged as well as 720p 30fps HD video -- or if you want something of an upgrade, the TX9 is also snorkeling-friendly, but itself can tout Full HD 1080i video recording, a Sweep Multi Angle for "3D-style" imagine, and the 3D sweep panorama with which the NEX series was just graced. Another neat trick of the Tx9 is its "background defocus" that gives you the DSLR-like effect of sharp foreground images with a blurry background (c.f. most of our headlining phone review images). If you're willing to sacrifice water resistance for a 5x optical zoom and Sony G lens (the previous two feature 4x and Carl Zeiss) while still retaining TX9's cool 3D tricks, you're gonna want the WX5. At this point, they carry no price tag, but you've got a bit to wait anyway: the trio will all debut in mid-September.

Update: Akihabara News is reporting these cameras also support TransferJet. Additionally, AV Watch has listed some expected prices for Japan, so without further ado: the WX5 for 35,000 yen (about $400), the TX9 for 45,000 yen ($512), and the T99 for a more budget-friendly 29,000 yen ($330).

Gallery: Sony Cyber-shot TX9, T99, and WX5

Sony's latest Cyber-shots boast 3D sweep panorama, background defocusing originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 08 Jul 2010 00:56:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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sony tx sweep d t sweep sony background panorama cyber sweep panorama 000 yen cyber shot background defocusing panorama background shots boast latest cyber cyber shots panorama background defocusing sweep panorama background cyber shots boast latest cyber shots ]]> Thu, 08 Jul 2010 03:50:33 -0400 30:00 tag:filome.com,15 Firefox 4 Beta 1 Released http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Mashable/~3/LKPjYPp21cE/ Shared item Mashable!
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It's finally here: Mozilla has released the first beta for Firefox 4.

The new iteration of the world's second most popular web browser, which can be downloaded here, has been hotly anticipated for almost a year. Today however, it transitions from concept to reality, with many more betas to come until its official release at the end of the year.

As we have reported in the past, Firefox 4 is a major upgrade from its predecessors. It not only includes a redesign of the user interface (tabs are now on top except for the Mac version), but a wave of additional features, including enhanced HTML5 support, hardware-accelerated HD video, WebSockets and enhanced add-on support via Jetpack.

There's a lot more to Firefox 4, most of which you can see in this feature spotlight the Mozilla team put together to highlight the many upgrades the new browser contains. However, we want to stress that this is an early beta of the browser it will crash and frustrate you, which is exactly what Mozilla is hoping to catch now before its final release.

Mozilla needs Firefox 4 to be a winner: in recent months, Google Chrome has been stealing browser marketshare at Firefox's expense. The new version could either reverse the downtrend or accelerate its fall.

Are you going to download the new Firefox 4 beta? What do you think of the new features? Let us know in the comments.

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firefox browser mozilla beta tech firefox browser beta mozilla ]]>Mashable!
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It's finally here: Mozilla has released the first beta for Firefox 4.

The new iteration of the world's second most popular web browser, which can be downloaded here, has been hotly anticipated for almost a year. Today however, it transitions from concept to reality, with many more betas to come until its official release at the end of the year.

As we have reported in the past, Firefox 4 is a major upgrade from its predecessors. It not only includes a redesign of the user interface (tabs are now on top except for the Mac version), but a wave of additional features, including enhanced HTML5 support, hardware-accelerated HD video, WebSockets and enhanced add-on support via Jetpack.

There's a lot more to Firefox 4, most of which you can see in this feature spotlight the Mozilla team put together to highlight the many upgrades the new browser contains. However, we want to stress that this is an early beta of the browser it will crash and frustrate you, which is exactly what Mozilla is hoping to catch now before its final release.

Mozilla needs Firefox 4 to be a winner: in recent months, Google Chrome has been stealing browser marketshare at Firefox's expense. The new version could either reverse the downtrend or accelerate its fall.

Are you going to download the new Firefox 4 beta? What do you think of the new features? Let us know in the comments.

Screenshots

More About: Firefox, Firefox 4, mozilla

For more Tech coverage:




firefox browser mozilla beta tech firefox browser beta mozilla ]]> Tue, 06 Jul 2010 18:15:26 -0400 30:00 tag:filome.com,16 YouPhonics Launches Music Collaboration Tool http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/readwriteweb/~3/8ti9D4IYeYw/youphonics-launches-music-coll.php Shared item ReadWriteWeb
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July 1 marks the soft launch of the music collaboration startup YouPhonics. The brainchild of Aidan Nulman, YouPhonics allows users to record, share, and compose tracks together via a web-based interface.

A musician himself, Nulman created the project to help address some of the obstacles that musicians sometimes face when they want to collaborate: distance between musicians, a shared interface, knowing the right musicians and being able to access one another's skills. "When I moved away from my band in 2006, everything fell apart," says Nulman. "I haven't really spoken with the guys since then, even though we practiced and performed together week-in, week-out for over two years."

Sponsor

Stems and Sounds

YouPhonics allows you to record or upload tracks. These become "stems" that you can share, download, listen and edit. Stems - yours and others' - can be mixed in order to create new tracks. No surprise for a collaborative site, the site places a lot of emphasis on the community aspect, with a social profile, comments and "like" features. And Nulman says YouPhones plans to add more social integration options soon.

Personalized Beta Invitations and The Scalability of Nice

YouPhonics is built with the help of Toronto-based Jet Cooper and BNOTIONS, but clearly the project rests on Nulman, who was once called the music industry's Zuckerberg.

As a solo entrepreneur, Nulman take a very personal and personalized approach to publicizing YouPhonics. (He wrote an apology to me last week, for example, when he didn't have a press kit ready when I signed up for the beta.)

Will being nice scale? Maybe not, but when I asked Nulman about all the personable and personalized emails and invitations, he said it makes for more "meaningful interactions." Since meaningful interaction and collaboration are what YouPhonics hopes to foster musically as well, it seems like a good philosophy (and hey, good manners).

YouPhonics' competitors include other companies offering online music collaboration services, notably Indaba Music and Kompoz. YouPhonics has raised Friends and Family funding and is considering angel funding at this time.

Discuss




youphonics nulman music collaboration tracks youphonics nulman music collaboration music collaboration youphonics allows ]]>ReadWriteWeb
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July 1 marks the soft launch of the music collaboration startup YouPhonics. The brainchild of Aidan Nulman, YouPhonics allows users to record, share, and compose tracks together via a web-based interface.

A musician himself, Nulman created the project to help address some of the obstacles that musicians sometimes face when they want to collaborate: distance between musicians, a shared interface, knowing the right musicians and being able to access one another's skills. "When I moved away from my band in 2006, everything fell apart," says Nulman. "I haven't really spoken with the guys since then, even though we practiced and performed together week-in, week-out for over two years."

Sponsor

Stems and Sounds

YouPhonics allows you to record or upload tracks. These become "stems" that you can share, download, listen and edit. Stems - yours and others' - can be mixed in order to create new tracks. No surprise for a collaborative site, the site places a lot of emphasis on the community aspect, with a social profile, comments and "like" features. And Nulman says YouPhones plans to add more social integration options soon.

Personalized Beta Invitations and The Scalability of Nice

YouPhonics is built with the help of Toronto-based Jet Cooper and BNOTIONS, but clearly the project rests on Nulman, who was once called the music industry's Zuckerberg.

As a solo entrepreneur, Nulman take a very personal and personalized approach to publicizing YouPhonics. (He wrote an apology to me last week, for example, when he didn't have a press kit ready when I signed up for the beta.)

Will being nice scale? Maybe not, but when I asked Nulman about all the personable and personalized emails and invitations, he said it makes for more "meaningful interactions." Since meaningful interaction and collaboration are what YouPhonics hopes to foster musically as well, it seems like a good philosophy (and hey, good manners).

YouPhonics' competitors include other companies offering online music collaboration services, notably Indaba Music and Kompoz. YouPhonics has raised Friends and Family funding and is considering angel funding at this time.

Discuss




youphonics nulman music collaboration tracks youphonics nulman music collaboration