Just like that the four day weekend is gone. The respite from writing, emails and phones is over. The upside is that I won’t have to see the gross commercialization of argyle. Downside, same triple digit torrent of emails and blog posts. Not complaining though, the NNW is still showing over 1500 unread posts. I wish I had a tree fort like Steve Jurvetson (has) to hide away from all the work….
The one which I did catch was about the Bell companies analog problems of acquiring content. Reminded me of my own post from earlier this year, but I hope this will continue to provide fodder for the months to come.
Now shifting gear to more positive news! Folks at Telegeography say that the Brazilian cable operator Net Servicos has launched a 8 Mbps broadband services in Brazil and will also sell the service to those who are not cable TV subscribers. (Anyone got more specifics on this?) (I recommend you listen to Mulatica Mia from the album “Fresh Goods” by The Tao of Groove when enjoying this item!) It is not a surprise. Pike & Fisher says that US cable companies internet revenues were up 23% in the Q3 2005.
Given that Brazil is already one of the faster growing markets, this is an encouraging development. I hope other countries including US pay attention to this, and help improve the abysmal Internet penetration around the planet. Ron Jeffries says that of the total 6.5 billion only 10% have Internet access. Among computer users, nearly 97.3 percent have the Macromedia Flash player installed on their machines, while only 82.8% have Microsoft Windows Media Player. Of course they are both bundled with Windows, so the stats don’t really mean anything except for companies who want to use Flash as a development platform. Like Goowy email and how cool it is.
More happy news! Technorati is 3 years old. Already…. how time flies. Talking of birthdays, big up to Jason Calacanis. Looks like he already has a gift in mind.
How old is Jason? No idea, but whose’ counting? Its like My Yahoo and Google RSS readers not telling Jeff Jarvis how many people are actually reading his feeds? I feel your pain but listen to Dare who is screaming out loud, that when it comes to the web stats, to paraphrase an old game – you and everyone else doesn’t know jack. Blame it on how the web works Dare says, and writes, “web site owners most often have an inaccurate view of how many people are actually reading their web site.”
Okay while talking numbers, I signed up with Feedburner to get a better sense of what’s happening with my feeds. In addition, I finally got Mint running and well, I take my previous comments back. Once working, it is pretty sweet! Between Feedburner, Mint, Measure Maps and Urchin, I would have a good idea of the readership base and how they are consuming GigaOm content.
I am planning to introduce a Mobile RSS reader soon, now that we all have a reasonably decent wireless connections. Even T-Mobile has expanded its EDGE service to markets across the country, and claims that over 95 % of its customers can get EDGE. You can try the speeds out on a the Samsung t809 which is launching this week.
And for desserts, try out Carlo’s take on why RIM should worry the carriers themselves when it comes to business email offerings.