Posted by herve
on July 31, 2008
I watched on techcrunch a couple of weeks ago the future of search by Google. It impressives me, not only because they will team up human rating with pagerank but also because it will create new sources of traffic creation for all of us (your name is visible on each comment & rating made). Google was already taken something around 75% of our attention, it will become with this 99%.
It made me realize that Microsoft will never catchup on web search. They are too far behind, even buying Yahoo won’t solve the problem.
Having said that, Mr Balmer should look at emerging countries and learn from their “jump to the next generation” attitude.
When you start traveling there, you realize they’ve chosen not to catch up but to invest into the next generation infrastructure and it’s a winning strategy: Estonia (called E-stonia), Macedonia (wimax covered), Africa (mobile applications stronger than web ones), UAE (150% mobile penetration rate)…
That’s why should focus on the next big thing: Mobile.
Mobile is the big thread for Google (my previous post on this here).
Why? because with mobile will come new usage patterns. Today, everything start with google but tomorrow nobody knows what will be the entry point on mobile internet. Google already working on it with Android and their strong presence in the iphone.
Of course, it’s easy to say not easy to do, but with Microsoft cash-flow, it should be doable.
My humble opinion
Posted by herve
on July 15, 2008
I just spent a year travelling in the middle east (Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Jordan, Lebanon,…) and I even moved recently to lebanon. I’ve met a lot of people in the industry there.
And I was impressed by the market evolution in a year.
On the startup side, things start to be organized and new projects are released every week. here is some good sources of information:
On the funding side, things are still a bit messy but one good initiative need to be be named. It’s the ABAN (Arab Business Angels Network) and they organize a meeting every quarter with for 4-6 selected startups + some guests.
My opinion? VC’s should start considering this market with a population of 200 millions people, a strong growth, and a huge appetite for new technologies.
Without disclosing any secret, guess where my next project will take place.
Posted by herve
on July 07, 2008
I just noticed this morning a local (middle east) ad on my facebook. I started chasing for some more. And here is my findings: Telecom, Banks, Online Service
I heard too many time that blogs and social networking are for kids not for real business, it’s good to see that’s things start to change.
So it might seems nothing but having some middle east advertisers considering facebook in their media plan is a great “moving in the right direction” sign for this region.
Note: Facebook is social network #1 in the middle east, 2nd is myspace
Posted by herve
on July 06, 2008
Some people have asked me if they need a domain name strategy, the answer is yes for this 4 reasons:
• Word of mouth is a strong source of traffic for websites but it’s also a source of
misspelling
• Every business becomes international, with this come the need to protect your
products names and brands in yours and future local markets
• Misstyping is a source of lost traffic
• To prevent cybersquatting (people that registers yours potential domain
names)
Domain names should be consider as an asset in a company but it’s to often undervalued by the management
Now, you know that the answer is yes, Where to start?
It’s quite simple
First thing, keep in mind that registering a domain cost only a dozen of dollars; so
don’t hesitate to cover all your needs.
Then, start to answer to each of the first 3 bullets point above. Remember that
generally, cybersquatters are more creative than us.
- What king of misspelling can be done with my brands and products? Commons are with or without “-“ for composed words, with or without silent vowel (try amazone.com) or an H in your name, etc…
- Try to forecast your international expansion and start to register all local domains you will need in the coming years (don’t forget to apply the misspelling check for each local market)
- With out being paranoiac, try to anticipate possible mistyping around your brands and register them (try amzzon.com or hervecuvilliez.com / hervecuvilier.com /hervecuvillier.com)
Once the list is done, select you registar and get your credit card ready.
Don’t forget to manage DNS on each domain.
Review it every year.
and one last tip, turn on the autorenew function, it will ease your life next year.
Posted by herve
on July 04, 2008
Yesterday, It was my birthday. I don’t tell that for those who forgot but to thank Facebook. I never received so many happy birthday greetings.
Some were honests and recognized that they remembered because of facebook, others called proudly because this year, they remembered.
Special thanks to Remi, he left me a message to not wish me an happy birthday because it’s too easy now with facebook.
So thank you, facebook, for this little moment of social networking
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