colintan

Quite possibly the most important paragraph in this essay for a product at the customer dev stage (and probably easy to underestimate... it's a very subtle point):

"There are two things you have to do to make people pause. The most important is to explain, as concisely as possible, what the hell your site is about. How often have you visited a site that seemed to assume you already knew what they did?"

It's hard to attain the perspective of a completely fresh user when you've been in the trenches hacking away for so long. And as I've discovered, if you can't explain it, you can't sell it, cos no one landing on your site's gonna pore over the genius invisibly possessing it like a ghost in the machine.

I agree. Facebook's strategy ought to be to lock down and defend their niche in social networking. The signs seem to indicate a greater emphasis on connecting person to person: I predict more location and mobile-based features, and more aggressive expansion in developing markets.

Only then would a search product make sense, though it would be tempting to rush it out as a partnership with Bing.

Scrolling down this article is like walking through a gallery of how the world of consumer tech evolved since 1997.

I think the Microsoft partnership was a masterstroke. It lowered the barrier for switchers like me to come onboard. Interesting to see here that the scrumptious iMac was introduced less than a year later.

That seems to be the consensus....

Fabulous, bold idea, and a win as much for her as well as Alsop Louie and the students of the bay area.

This was the most damning line in the article and points to a genuine breakdown in the ecosystem, or lack thereof:

"Actually a more common practice is that VCs would have take one of the pitches he really likes and just hire a bunch of engineers."

Did the smile change in appearance (e.g. look happier) as the slider went up the scale?

It seems you have another sweet spot at the $36 mark, despite the smile looking the same as $24.

Thanks for the insightful post.

Yes I agree, and moreoever a mobile device company with social/search/payment infrastructure built in.

The days of ad-subsidized, and democratized mobile devices are upon us!

There was some mention in a statement by Google of Motorola's success with consumer/home devices.

Any of you think there's a possibility of Motorola building on Google TV?

relevant article by Business Insider picking up on this point - http://www.businessinsider.com/motorola-doesnt-just-make-and...