When I fired off the previous post last night, I was essentially unimpressed with the launch of the new paid search (e.g. where advertisers pay for placement in the search returns). I mean Yahoo! bought Overture some time ago, and they were the very first paid search player of any magnitude. Basically, Y! has offered paid search in the US for a very long time (and in French in Canada) so while this new platform (codename: Panama) offers a much more Googly targeting and analytics platform, for the most part I was sorta "ho-hum, it's about bloody time."

But then, I started thinking more about what this means for search marketing in Canada, as a category. And in that context, this move, and the arrival of msn AdCenter, are tremendously significant.

When Orbitz launched in the US, we at Expedia were really nervous about it, as you can imagine. But what actually happened was that their arrival and subsequent spend in advertising and product development actually grew the category in total - so, a bigger pie, growing faster, and more customers for all.

I think that's what will happen here in search as well. To date, the only game in town, really, was Google. So that means that the entire category was being pushed by what that one player was doing to promote it. Now, we will have x-times more salespeople, attention and effort being put against it which should mean more money will move to this channel *in total* and that this may start to become a more core part of an overall media plan.

Now, the fact that Google still represents something north of 80% of Canadian search volume certainly gives Y! and msn a challenge. But their entry should be good overall.

Congrats to Y! on this launch and a great event.

(Posted by blackberry)

Yahoo! is going to start to offer paid search in English Canada.

It's 2006.

So there's your newsflash.

In the past two weeks (or so) I've done interviews with PROFIT Magazine, Canadian Business and VISA's Small Business Resource website. Topic? Broadly speaking, Web 2.0 or elements of it and what the heck it's all about. That's right. It's November 2006, and leading Canadian publications (or more specifically, their Editors) are just now starting to ask "Soooo, what's this Web 2.0 thing?" To which some might say "Where've you been the past 4 years?" But, if you believe this stat from Zoomerang reported by BusinessWeek that 79% of marketers have never even heard the term Web 2.0, you'd be getting closer to the truth.

All of the "is Web 2.0 over and done with?" chattering is simply completely right. If the Regular Folk are now tweaking to it, Web 2.0 as The Next Big Thing simply has to be close to having run it's course, and the bleeding edgers had better get on with figuring out the NEXT Next Big Thing. For the rest of us? Well, let's get ready for the party to...start.

What, you say? But Stuie, you just said it's over. Yup. As New Shiny Orb, it is close to done. But, as Real Thing it might be just starting. And zowie that could be big.

I mean, c'mon, remember when people used to talk about "e-commerce" as a special thing? I used to chuckle then - it's not like people ever called having a call centre "phone commerce" or a store "brick commerce" - it was just new and the leading edgers got there first. Eventually, most people understood that these were all just part of "commerce" and got over it. Bank machines, DVD players, mobile phones, digital cameras. Categories mature and eventually go mass. And maybe we are seeing the start of that happening here, too. If so, that means that the real innovation (and at scale, maybe, too) and real money are still ahead of us.

Web 2.0 won't be a New Shiny Orb indefinitely, just like nothing ever is. Elements of it will just become part of how stuff is done. Big companies and governments will start to use parts of it (like mashups, web services, blogs and wikis), folks who never joined the computer club will find themselves using elements of it without realizing (like adding a comment, reading a user generated review or sharing a photo), and yet another wave of technological change will have washed over us.

Future users will likely never know that there ever was something called Web 2.0, but their lives will be better for it anyway. And that's just fine, I think. It's not like it's anything new.

 

For any of you who may have been keeping track, it took us about 6 months to get our communal acts together and get the keynote podcasts from mesh06 up for public consumption (despite enormous effort by Rob, Mathew and Mike). So this time, just as bad? Not a chance, because we called in a hired gun by the name of Leesa Barnes, the podcasting Queen from Caprica Interactive Marketing who not only did a great job interviewing people at the event, but managed to get them to us barely a few days later. And now, you can listen to what some of the people at the Irish Embassy had to say over on the mesh blog.

Thanks to Mathew for actually doing the post.

 

Without them, we wouldn't have keen insights, deep understanding and clear-eyed, thoughtful commentary.

Oh, and hilarious quotes like this one in today's Globe and Mail story on Air Canada's whimpering IPO:

"Scotia Capital Inc. analyst James David added that the airline industry is known for being a risky investment."

Well. There's your value add right there.

Thanks for comin' out, Jimmy.

(Posted via blackberry)

The Economist has a quick, solid piece covering the increasing fortunes of the old-school US commercial airline business. In short, the US$35 *billion* they have lost over the past five years (yes, you read that right) seems to have finally, possibly, just maybe, driven them to gain a closer to competitive and cost-based footing with the upstart and low-cost carriers.It also mentions JetBlue's recent challenges, including a loss making Q3 and resulting equipment sales, which I had not been aware of.

Always fun in the airline business, isn't it? I can only imagine how challenging it must be for third-party guys like ExpediOrbiLocity and others to be earning any appreciable compensation from those carriers these days, given the carriers' improving fortunes, search and metasearch (more on that in a future post - lots of action in that world), fenced inventory and CRS changes moving more power and money into their camp.

It might still be the milk at the back of the store and responsible for driving a lot of cross-sellable traffic, but increasingly the third party guys have to be looking at the air category itself in terms of revenue from booking fees and very little else. Everybody knew it was coming - it now must be close to here.

 

Awesome night. The Embassy says there were more than 90 here and I'd believe it, easy.

A real pleasure. Thanks to all who came.

(Posted via blackberry)

In stark contrast to last week's IAB broadcast panel, I was at a session about online video put on by Akamai this morning, where the panel was super.

There were three people, one from CanWest, one from CHUM and one from the Sympatico side of the Sympatico-msn tie up (I will add their names when I'm online next) and they actually seemed to understand this stuff. Thoughtful, smart commentary, with real live experiences and a pretty dialled-in view on the subject matter.

Maybe this is the difference between having the people actually *doing* the stuff talking vs. their leadership? Hard to say, and it is hard for senior business leaders to go as deep on a specific topic as these people did.

But, it bodes well for future innovation and development once these types of people get more of a say.

The rest of the morning was good, too, with a Forrester guy sharing video numbers and trends. It would have been nice to have some (any) Canadian stats, but in any event the direction is clear.

Nice work and thanks Akamai for the invite.

PS: mesh meetup tonight at the Irish Embassy, 6pm. Hope to see you there.

(Posted via blackberry)

Oh my sweet goodness, this is the funniest - because it is so true - thing I have read about business in a long, long while.

Thank you Joel!

 

As Rob Hyndman and Austin Hill mentioned yesterday, they, together with David Crow and myself are spinning up StartUp Camp here in Toronto. The concept is to apply the unconference concept to the business side of the startup world, as the StartUp Camp folks in the US have done so successfully.

It's all TBD at this point, but the place to keep tabs on developments is the wiki. If you have startup aspirations, plan to be a part of it.

Also, a reminder that the mesh meetup goes off next Wednesday, November 15th, at the Irish Embassy pub in Toronto. Let's us know you are coming via the event page on Upcoming and plan to be there for a general mix and mingle starting at around 6pm.

The Embassy is located at the northeast corner of Yonge and Wellington, in downtown Toronto. Google map here.

Hope to see you there next week.

Tags: mesh07, startup camp

For the first time that I've noticed it anyway, I've had a video ad for Dove show up on my blog today. Depending on where you are, you may or may not see it (it's showing up in that AdSense box below the mesh ad, over in the C column on the right). Fascinating to see the growth of Google's move into display and video ads really start to ramp. A taste of things to come, I'd say.

(posted by blackberry)

 

I spoke last week at the IAB Conference, together with Steve Rubel on the topic of Web 2.0, Social Media etc. That was fun, and I was happy to help Jordan and the IAB out of a bind when Jordan had to pull out last minute.

But *man* was being there a blast back to 2002.

Our slot was immediately following a panel of broadcasters, who were represented at this event for the first time ever. Usual suspects, head Senior Execs of this and that network, da da da. Holy snappin' are those kids out of touch.

Listening to them sit there and say that nothing seemed likely to change etc. reminded me of being at travel industry conferences around 2000 when the great leaders of that world would sit there and tell each other pretty much the same thing, while I stared at my hands. You know, the whole "nothing is happening online" chestnut. In fact, I often think of the vice-chairman of a large travel industry supplier who all but laughed at me when I suggested that they might want to think about doing something serious online. He was happy with his offline channel partners, thank you very much.

I bet you can imagine how that turned out. Not exceptionally well. And he's not there anymore.

Go figure.

The fact is that in very short order the world of video is going to be turned upside down, the surrounding economic conventional wisdom is going to be seriously challenged and the "shotgun" ad model is going to be under enormous pressure.

Those broadcast kids seem violently ill prepared.

(Posted via blackberry)

I got a last-minute call last night to sub for my friend Jordan Banks who runs eBay Canada in the Web 2.0 slot at today's IAB Conference in Toronto. This is the Internet Advertising Bureau's big annual event, and I will be on stage with Steve Rubel, talking about social media and it's impact on Canadian business.

If you are at the event, please be sure to say hello.

 

It's not often that you can say "back by popular demand" and mean it, but in this case that's absolutely true. Your feedback (and our enjoyment, frankly) was so all positive that we are doing it again. mesh is coming back, next Spring, here in Toronto.

More details are to come, but in the meantime please save the dates and plan to join us. Registration (which we are working hard at keeping affordable) and keynotes will be announced soon.

In the mesh spirit, we are also hosting a meet-up after 6pm on November 15th at the Irish Embassy Pub in Toronto, for anyone involved in the online technology, media, financing or any other vaguely connected web-type. Or if you like Guinness :) It's just a chance to get together and share some web-by conversation.

Check out the mesh blog for more, including links to the podcasts of last year's keynotes (finally...I know, I know) and more from Rob, Mike, Mark and Mathew.

And see you at mesh07.

Tags: mesh, mesh07

Before I started Expedia.ca, I was with Signature Vacations which was Canada's largest packaged vacation company. Our Vancouver office was run by a long-time airline guy, one of these buttoned-down, big-talking, operations-focused veterans who, like many in the Canadian aviation landscape, had begun at Pacific Western, then moved on to what became Canadian Airlines, and with its passing found other things to do.

His name was Mel Crothers, and that same Mel Crothers today finds himself on the cover of the Globe and Mail in a quarter-page, above-the-fold, full colour picture and huge story under the heading "This WestJet staffer blew the whistle on his employer's corporate spying. He's still waiting for someone to say thanks."

Wow.

In reading the piece, I have to say that I am not at all surprised to learn of Mel's reaction. He always struck me as a very principled man, and I can only imagine how difficult it has been for him to walk away from the industry he loved. I was surprised to read the in the account that he called Steve Smith at Air Canada's Zip, rather than taking it up the food chain within WestJet. Sure, Clive was on holiday - but what about Don Bell or somebody else? In any event, I don't doubt that Mel was doing what he thought was right.

I was startled to see the name of Duncan Bureau in the piece, identified as the guy who showed Mel the Air Canada internal website his computer screen with Air Canada's logo and load factors between Calgary and Vancouver. When we were firing up Expedia in Canada, Duncan was our go-to sales guy at WestJet, who we saw as an aggressive, upcoming and sharp mover-and-shaker. From the piece:

"It all came down to four hours on the Friday afternoon of Dec. 19, 2003. At 1:30 p.m., Mr. Crothers was having a “casual conversation” at the desk of Duncan Bureau, WestJet director of sales, according to the informant's sworn affidavit.

Mr. Bureau couldn't be reached Tuesday for comment.

Mr. Bureau displayed his computer screen bearing Air Canada's logo, said the affidavit, and the screen also showed Air Canada's load factors, or the proportion of available seats filled, between Calgary and Vancouver."

I have no idea where Duncan fits into this picture - I don't even know if he is still at WestJet. And he certainly was a friend to Expedia.ca. But, I for one cannot help but get an awful niggle about the oh-too-often link between "agressive mover-and-shaker" and "pushing it too far". I mean, we have all seen that movie too many times.

UPDATE: Duncan called me this afternoon, and told me that he is now VP Sales for WestJet. This was the first time I had ever spoken with him, as in the past this relationship was held by other people who worked for me when I was running Expedia Canada. After speaking with him, I also made the change to the paragraph above, reflecting more accurately what was said in the Globe and Mail article. To be clear, the article does not state that it was Duncan who showed Mel the AC site on his computer, but refers to an affadvit which makes the claim quoted above.

In the story, Mel wonders if he will ever get a Thank You card from Uncle Miltie over at Air Canada. He clearly isn't expecting one from Clive.Well, given that I have my doubts over whether Miltie would even know what a Thank You card is, I'd say don't hold your breath.

But Mel, regardless, you did the right thing.

UPDATE: I have received a lot of email traffic on this post today, which is oddly not reflected in the comments. The biggest question most people are asking is why Mel went to Steve at Zip rather than taking it up the chain internally. Fair question, and as I said in my post, I continue to imagine that Mel must have had what he thought were good reasons and it is still best that this came out.

Tags: air canada, westjet, mel crothers, duncan bureau, expedia, signature vacations

News today that another Expedia person is off to do something new. Francois Daoud was my 7th (I think?) hire at Expedia Canada, and was brought on initially to work on marketing in French Canada as we rolled into that new market.

He is leaving to move to the US to run marketing for a San Francisco based start-up. Quick with a laugh and always game for anything, Francois will certainly enjoy himself back on the Left Coast.

Happy trails, Frankie :)

Well, not really, but my Wife and I did spend last week recording our radio listening habits for the latest round of Toronto BBM (Bureau of Broadcast Measurement) ratings. You know, those things that the stations use to figure out who's listening, and advertisers use to figure what stations to buy to reach what audience. We hadn't done it before, and given I have an, um, more-than-passing interest in media and advertising, we figured what-the-heck.

While filling out a little booklet was fine and dandy, what was most interesting to me in the process was realizing how little radio I listen to anymore. It was really surprising. Not that I am not listening to anything, but that it's not radio. For instance, we went away as a family so the music was kid's tunes on the iPod. Then, it was me in the car, listening to CDs, music and podcasts. On the subway? All iPod, all-the-time. Home? Same. Kid's music and iPod tunes and podcasts.

I also found it interesting that the BBM people don't seem to be interested in knowing that I am listening to my iPod, or CDs for that matter - although, you'd think that they'd want to know what is happening around substitution. Oh, wait, right, they *don't* want to know.

Tags: BBM, tags, radio, ratings

Aer Lingus being bought by Ryanair would be smart. If, and it's a big if, the vagaries of transatlantic aviation regulation can be managed. Long-haul equipment and routes utilizing a Dublin LCC hub might make for an interesting alternative, and goodness knows the European skies need those. It does seem like the sell-off IPO price that the Irish government set was likely too low, though, if Ryanair can turn around and do this deal so quickly. But these are smart guys, Aer Lingus has cut a whack of cost and it feels like it could work nicely.

Porter Airlines, the new Toronto Island, er, City Centre Airport-based outfit is set to fly shortly. Backed by Robert Deluce (of Air Ontario and Canada 3000 fame...I'd say that the only more jet-fuel-in-the-veins Canadian commercial aviation guy might have been the late Max Ward, although I would be hard pressed to put Deluce in that esteemed bucket for many, many reasons). They will be operating the new version of the Dash 8, the Bombardier Q400 and are coming to market with 20 flights daily between the Island and Montreal and Ottawa. The look-and-feel is all very boutique-hotel, with chocolate brown and sea blue, comments about "a Porter being someone who carries your bags" and a tagline of "Flying refined. (tm)."

Uh huh. Dudes, yer flying a Dash 8 from the Island, porter is thick beer and yer mascot is a racoon. For goodess sake, kids, get over yourselves.

Tags: aer lingus, ryanair, porter, goat rodeo

 

Kudos to my friend and mesh-mate Mark Evans who has decided to put his talent where his mouth is (or something like that). Yesterday, Mark resigned his post at The National Post, where he covered the technology scene, and announced that he is becoming VP Operations for the newly-formed b5 blog network. I think a lot of Mark, and know that he believes strongly in the potential of this type of new media. That, plus the fact that they just scored $2 million in VC funding from John Albright's JLA Ventures and Mark Skapinker's BrightSpark, seems to have been what it took to get him to make this big step.

I wish him, and the b5 crew, nothing but success.

Tags: mark evans, b5

News today that Airbus, the European aircraft enterprise and not-too-long-ago wunderkind of the global aviation world has dropped the ball *again* and will be pushing first deliveries of their huge A380 twin-deck behemoth for another entire year. The parent company, EADS, is projecting that this second, major slip will cost them $6.1 billion in operating profit.

Parking the whole "man, I get that it's a complicated thing to create a new thing like this, but how could they have messed this so badly?" line of thought for a moment, let's think about the downstream implications. Singapore Airlines and Emirates - two of the most successful global players, with well deserved reputations for service and strength via small-but-well-located hubs as their home bases - have committed to buying a whack of these machines. Which means, they did not commit to other alternatives, such as the latest Boeing 747 for instance. The result of these slips means that their entire business plan has been thrown for a loop, for years to come. Airports have done major upgrades, pilots have been trained, revenue has been projected. Just as traffic from China looks set to ramp - prime business for both these guys - they look to be short of capacity. And Virgin, who seems to have ongoing gifts of "oopsies" from British Airways landing in their lap, is also left holding the bag. And Lufthansa, FedEx...da da da.

I guess after all the changes in the Airbus executive suite, it's better to call it and take the hit, but I can't help but think that this could have all been avoided. The Boeing folks in Chicago/Seattle, Embraer in Brazil etc. must be doing all they can not to high five around the office.

Tags: airbus, a380, goat rodeo

Congratulations to all who were elected, and to those who did not - many thanks for your participation.

Tags: CIRA

We all have our little pleasures, I guess. Some people eat ice cream, some curl up with a good book. Me? I read The Economist. In many ways, it's like trying to get drunk on Guinness: it tastes great, but man is it heavy after awhile. I subscribed at one point, but mostly ended up feeling guilty about not reading it most weeks. So now, it's an occasional purchase before a trip or what have you. But I still love it.

So will you pardon me tooting my horn by mentioning how neat it feels (yes, geeky lame-o neat, I admit) that I am the lead in a story in this week's edition? Turns out that this blog post about watching the World Cup on the train via WiFi caught the eye of a writer working on a story on that very topic, and it went from there.

The story is here.

Tags: wifi, the economist

It's funny that the English language doesn't have a single word for what the Germans call schadenfreude, which wikipedia defines as: "pleasure taken from someone else's misfortune." The Dutch have a similar word ("leedvermaak") which they use in a proverb that goes Geen schoner vermaak dan leedvermaak: No better joy than joy about someone else's sorrow. I used to live in The Netherlands. Got to love those kids. Anyhoo...

In a completely unrelated vein, I note with interest that Steve McArthur is leaving as President of Expedia.com. I am sure that I join a massive chorus of countless others who wish him nothing but the best in his future endeavours.

Tags: Expedia

As some know, I haven't really been on the whole "podcast" bandwagon. I sort of listened to some while online, but the whole subscribe-via-itunes-and-listen-later thing wasn't really something I had bought into.

Until now.

I decided to try to get a few podcasts and listen to them during my commute. So here I sit on the subway listening to "Bill Maher" and laughing out loud. Yesterday, I listened to CBC Radio One's global perspective show "Dispatches" in the car.

I have to say I am really enjoying doing it. In both cases, they are either shows I can't get (Maher is on HBO in the US which I at least don't get on cable here in Toronto) or usually have to miss (the CBC show is on around kids' bedtime).

They are both great, and I have to say that this place-shifting plus fresh-content thing might be handy after all.

(Posted via blackberry)

Tags: podcast, Bill Maher, Dispatches

  As Chair of the Nominating Committee, I've been remiss in not mentioning that the CIRA Board Elections are happening now. If you own a .ca domain, this is your chance to influence the direction of the Internet in Canada, and I would encourage you to check out who is running, what they think, and to vote!

Tags: CIRA

 

Cool to see that RIM is going public with the much- blogged-about-already Pearl, their new multi-tasking (music, camera, expansion slot etc.) device. As a devoted 'berry-man (skip the Chris DeBurgh jokes please ;-)) and having FINALLY recently upgraded to the 8700 (more on that whole story later) I am really pleased to see them getting with the multipurpose program.

But why, oh why are they sticking with the awful phone-not-QWERTY keyboard? Unfortunately, that call means that I, for one, won't be buying. That dinky thing is a nasty way to write an email.

Shame.

Tags: blackberry, rim, pearl

I sampled the new service at a downtown location yesterday. It was easy to get online by getting a userid and password via SMS to my 'berry, though I couldn't figure out how to change either after the fact (e.g. am I stuck with the wacky randomly assigned thing in the future or can I change it?). The service was also a wee bit slow - not the connection, which was both broad and "excellent" for the time I was connected, but the speed whereby pages were being served up was very slow. Not sure what might be behind that.

All in all, it was handy and since it's free for the next 6 months, great value too :-).

Update: Sitting here at my Second Office (the *$ at the northeast corner of Yonge and King here in the Tdot :-)) back online with the Hydro service. Around me, people are having problems getting passwords and userids: upon entering their mobile numbers and hitting enter, the next page deosn't load, so they are getting nowhere. This also happened to a friend yesterday. For me, since I already have login info, I got in right away.

The signal is strong, and I am loaded and viewed a couple of YouTube videos just for the heck of it, and the Slingbox is streaming well to boot. Although, I did turn it off since there's only so much "Backyardigans" an adult should have to watch in one morning, and I had my fill at home ;-)

And as a final note, just as I went to publish this, my connection died.

So, my overall rating? Early days, so I am going to give them some slack and assume that they will work these niggles out. This is "beta" so it is not necessarily indicative of where this system will end up.

Tags: toronto, wifi

After five weeks away, I am back in Toronto and getting ready for the Back to School madness.

We had a great family trip to the Maritimes after our run to Europe, and now I am just starting to get back up to speed with things. Expect more blog posts again from now on (and thanks to those of you who emailed wondering if I had stopped posting ;-)).

In the meantime, if you happen to be near a radio or a computer, I am going to be on CBC Radio One this morning at 10am local time across Canada, as part of a panel discussing The Long Tail.

Hope you are all having a great summer.

Surrounded by a sea of red as the Schu-fosi revel in the local boy's win. There might be a few Ferrari fans in there, but make no mistake that here it is all about Michael. And the local kids are happy.

Not the most exciting race ever - Kimi lost it pretty much right off the bat with an early pit stop, and Jacques New Town did his (sigh) standard "I'm out" move about halfway through.

But watching the Schumi Army - thousands of them, with flags from dozens of countries in view - party hearty is surely a sight to see.

The boys are at it, aiming for position in tomorrow's race. Hot here in Hockenheim, but cooler than yesterday.

The session has already been red flagged with the American Scott Speed wiping out quite nicely. Second time in as many races - he lost it in France last time, and hurt his back.

Should have aimed for Nascar, maybe. Bud and ribs, all 'round!

;-)

That Wife of mine is one smooth operator. Not only did she pull one over on me with a surprise party that lasted an entire weekend with guests from across the Country, but she *also* managed to pull off arranging a trip to Europe without me knowing.

We are sitting in a breakfast spot in Prague (posting via 'berry on the T-Mobile CZ lightning fast Edge network), after visiting the gorgeous spa town of Karlovy Vary and before spending the weekend at the German F1 Grand Prix in Hockenheim. All a complete surprise to Yours Truly.

Maybe being 40 doesn't suck after all!

Oh, wait. It still does.

Sorry for the uber-lame post, but I turn 40 in a week and my wife and best friend managed to completely pull one over on me and I'm am sitting at a cottage on Georgian Bay with a bunch of guys from all over the continent who mean a lot to me, drinking beer and single malt and enjoying the best sunset of the year.

This is - without doubt - the best present I could imagine.

Okay, so I know that the to-do over Rocketboom is frankly silly and tiny, but I still find it remarkable that, with all the interest in this story and where Andrew is taking it next, they are a day late putting their next show up there.

As they say, "enquiring minds want to know" (extremely apt saying on this occasion, as that's about the level of importance this thing has) and from a business perspective, I'd say missing the hugely-anticipated re-launch is likely not a good call, no?

Update: Rocketboom 2.0 beta ;-) is up, and I have to say I found it quite entertaining. And the interim host, Joanne Colan, is pretty strong too. Congrats!

Tags: rocketboom, goatrodeo

Those wacky kids at travel meta-search site Kayak.com look to be all set to burn through a pile of VC money trying to build awareness and reach with what I think will be their first TV creative. Apparently set to run on cable in the US, these spots feel more like an attempt at a viral web thing than a serious TV campaign, yet apparently they are really set to air them.

I could spend a whack of time outlining why they are far off the mark, or why they are clearly more about the agency O.D.-ing on their own self-declared brilliance, or how they seem to have zero relationship to anything close to a meaningful consumer insight, but you know what? I won't. Heck, given that these spots make the frickin' Travel'O'City gnome look like a stroke of brilliance I'm not going to waste the keystrokes.

Next.

Tags: kayak

Why?

Why would he do that? Why would someone with such a stellar career have *that* as the final punctuation? I mean, the Italian guy said something offensive, but c'mon. "Your Coq ain't really all that Sportif" or "Ta mere wears army boots" or ANYTHING can't possibly justify a nasty head butt and a frankly appropriate red card.

But with all that was on the line, with the strong likelihood of penalty kicks and Zizou's freakish skill in that regard...well, it's unfathomable that he would have done that.

Tags: zidane, fifaworldcup

At a backyard bbq for the FIFA final. Mey the best team win, and my that team be France.

I can't help but have this really sinking feeling that we are entering the twilight of the current online boom(let). The froth feels like it is hitting a rolling boil, and I fear the end is nigh. Why? Well, there are a bunch of examples:

~ Lots of the glitterati of the current boom(let) are punching out to "do their own things".

~ The enormous row over the whole "Web 2.0 TM" thing.

~ The seeming gobs of new VC money looking for a home, any home, in the absence of any really compelling exit opportunities and atop crappy track records to boot.

~ Gawker laying off staff to get out ahead what they fear as a coming crash.

~ Conferences, conferences, conferences!!!

~ The current Rocketboom firestorm.

~ And, most definitely the growing hum that "it's different this time."

Well, you know what? It ain't different this time. Like it wasn't different last time. It's just smaller.

I fear it's time to roll up the tent and await Web 3.0. This party is smelling like it's winding down.

(photo credit: http://www.lightbox5.com/likeitmatters/50100138_76bd65c296-2.jpg)

Tags: web20, jumptheshark