The great guys over at FlufforStuff (my new favorite blog) are asking an important question.
They want to know, what do you think was Fluff, and what was Stuff at this years CES? Personally, I really liked seeing the growth and expansion of multi-touch technology. By the news I read, it seems like a like of companies are trying to get these devices into the home – NEAT!
I can’t wait until my coffee table plays Warcraft…
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9 o’ clock on a 10 below Friday evening in Anchorage, Alaska, what do we decide to do? Go get ice cream of course. With a ColdStone nearby, thoughts of butterscotch and fudge filled our sugar hungry minds. While it may surprise you that in the midst of cold weather we decide to go for ice cream, studies have shown that ice cream sales are biggest on the coldest days of the year…
Anyway… As soon as friends and I step inside, we were greated by a line of 12 people in front of us, all waiting to pay $6 for an ice cream. Sound like recession behavior? Not to me either…
Won’t come to you as a surprise either then, that in the middle of a recession that the silicon valley elite with their bloated startups and inflated evaluations had time to gather for a massive award show called The Crunchies.
How bad do we really have it? It’s freezing cold, and people drive their cars miles to pay $6 for a cup of ice cream, or go to some ego-buff award show. Really? This is your idea of doomsday? Sure we’re going through a financial crisis. Some guys spent money they didn’t have, and the government is picking up the bill. Doesn’t exactly sound like a good time, unless you’re an AIG executive.
However, have the effects really trickled down to the average American? Are we feeling the effects of a recession? Even though retail expereienced reduced sales of the holiday season, it has yet to be seen whether or not it was fuled by fear from media hype, or people really not having enough money. We clearly are going through a cultural shift from spending to saving, but how bad are things?
For now, I’m labeling this “recession” as a “financial crisis,” because the majority of our country has yet to see the effects trickle down to the average American. When we’re seeing these forclosure and unemployment rates coupled with empty lines at your ice cream store, THEN is a time to worry.
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The brilliant folks over at Hack A Day have done it again. Now, the ultimate SNES fanboy can live out his past fantasies daily any time he reaches for a little extra cash. Complete with music, lighting, and more, this clever little “obsessive accessory” will have you dreaming of Mario all day.
Oh, and yes, it does have a belt clip…
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Tech Bubble
Yeah I know, crazy, right!? But look, there really won’t be another tech bubble, and here’s why:
Follow the money. Way back during the dot-com boom and bust, a bunch of companies went belly-up because they had no business plan and were getting millions for target markets as extravagant as “selling large bags of dog food to middle aged men and women.”
Fast forward to today, and a failing wallstreet and runaway foreclosures have everyone saying the valley and its culture is next to die. But, it isn’t. If you zoom deep into the Web 2.0 world, you’ll find Leo Laporte talking to Jason Calcanis, making Twitter jokes, discussing Robert Scoble’s FriendFeed obsession while broadcasting to thousands of live watchers on UStream. Doesn’t get more valley than that.
Aren’t those things the first to go? Wouldn’t this “worthless” type of content disappear? No, not at all. Leo’s main sponsor, Audible, would be stupid to spend their money elsewhere. If they did cancel their sponsorship, some other smart tech company would take their place. Leo has access to some of the biggest tech geeks in the world, and they’re all obsessively listening and watching his content. Audible would be much smarter to cut off their magazine ad purchases, or radio blurbs before cutting Leo’s show. Magazine and radio ads don’t always turn into profit either. Not to mention, in a recession people are less likely to read/purchase/subscribe to magazines, but are more likely to find ways to get their content for free (aka the web)!
See where I’m going here? I’m following the money… Laporte and his media empire won’t die, because the money will keep coming. Same with the other web companies too. Now, will we see layoffs? YES. Of course we will. Yet, that’s a good thing. There’s no reason for blogs to be getting $10,000,000+ venture capital before they’ve even bought a domain. That sort of behavior is years overdue for death, and a recession will only bring alive proper business principals.
In the end, you’ll find the small blogs and communities deeply rooted in the Web 2.0 alive and well, despite economic hardships. The only reason for that is because the money will keep flowing, because the results will keep showing. Could I be wrong? Certainly, there are many ways you could poke holes in my theory, but I think it’s pretty strong. All those companies that died in the dot-com boom aren’t missed. They had no business models, and certainly didn’t know how to run a business. Today however, we have big and small sites expected to “burst,” but showing advertisers great results and keep the circle going…
Sorry guys, but I really don’t think we’ll be seeing a bubble anytime soon. Feel free to comment your thoughts below…
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The naturally brilliant guys over at FreelanceFolder have exposed something pretty big. Using his own personal results, he’s found that:
You may be surprised to know that Facebook sends more traffic (& comments) than Twitter, but here is the big crunch… You only need 1/3 of the ‘friends’ on Facebook than you do on Twitter to get the same amount of traffic.
Pretty interesting. However, I don’t really use my Facebook profile (nor do I want to) for social media use. I use Facebook to keep in touch with family and friends, and I think using it to socialize with web aquaintences is something perhaps I’m not so comfortable with. But, I guess that’s just my personal opinion!
Shocking though, all these people Twittering, they could be doing 1/3 of the work on Facebook and still getting the same traffic benefit. How’s that for a social media implosion!?
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Getting on board with the whole Twitter bandwagon! Feel free to add me:
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A new Time article got me thinking.
With restaurants being one of the types of businesses effected in the downturn, will they be looking for solutions to boost sales? In the least, I hope that it leads to more restaurants turning to online ordering… I’m looking forward to the day when I can order all my food on the net!
Anyway, do you think that businesses look for solutions in a downturn?
Decreased sales and low profits DO cause businesses to think, “gee, what can I do better?” I wonder if any companies will be propping up to offer better services to companies specifically being hurt.
We’ll see!
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