We can save del.icio.us, but probably not in the way you think

I left Yahoo over two years ago, but prior to that I spent three years running product for del.icio.us. Since then I’ve remained a loyal user and supporter. To this day I keep in touch with former del.icio.us colleagues and consider many to be friends. And though I’ve felt that del.icio.us has been …

Google Instant is an example of how Yahoo could have won in search

Today Google launched Google Instant, and make no mistake: this is big. It’s far more than just a new fancy interface. It’s a fundamental change to a user interaction model that’s been largely unchallenged for years. It also represents a significant financial and technical commitment on Google’s …

Initiating Stage 2

So the news is out: we’ve raised our first round of funding for BlockChalk. It turns out that today is an especially appropriate day for the news to break. I’m currently in Washington D.C. for O’Reilly’s Gov 2.0 Expo, the leading conference on open government and citizen engagement. These …

My talk from Where 2.0

O’Reilly’s Where 2.0 conference has just wrapped up. I’ve been to my share of conferences lately but Brady Forrest and company really outdid themselves with this one. The entire experience was solid at every level of detail, from the big (interesting and relevant keynotes and sessions) to the …

SXSW: it's not a war, it's a scouting mission

As everyone knows, the focus at South By Southwest this year (at least from a tech perspective) is on location-based services (I’m there representing BlockChalk). Oh, and apparently we’re all at war! Foursquare and Gowalla are at each other’s throats, and the other startups are fighting over the …

Don't think you care about privacy? You will... eventually

In the tech industry it has almost become embarrassing to voice concerns about erosion of personal privacy. After all, it’s no longer a social norm, right? In this brave new world that Facebook, Twitter, and Foursquare hath wrought, privacy is often seen as an outdated concern. People who speak out …

Living in the bubble (or, why the future of location is even bigger than you think)

Last Friday I attended TechCrunch’s excellent Real Time CrunchUp in San Francisco. Real time web services are all the rage these days of course, and this conference brought together entrepreneurs, engineers, investors, and others to discuss the field and debate where it’s going.
Much of the focus …