David Jackson

Amazon/Overstock Gamble May Pay Off

Excellent article.

Amazon.com, Inc. F2Q08 (Qtr End 06/30/08) Earnings Call Transcript

FYI: "EGM" is Electronics & Other General Merchandise.

Google's Trends for Websites - Challenge to Comscore and Alexa?

Just to clarify the above: Even though Google isn't using site specific data from Google Analytics now, it could easily do that in future as people become more comfortable with sharing data.

Google's Trends for Websites - Challenge to Comscore and Alexa?

Fred, I think the most interesting part of Google Trends for websites is this comment from its FAQ ( www.google.com/intl/en... ):

16. How are you using Google Analytics data?
The Google Analytics data in Trends for Websites comes from the anonymous opt-in data sharing setting in Google Analytics. This setting enables website owners to share their data in an anonymous form. To find out more about this setting, please read the FAQs related to Google Analytics Data Sharing. Individual site level information from Google Analytics isn't currently used in Trends for Websites. Instead, the Google Analytics data is used in an anonymous and aggregate fashion and combined with other data sources to calibrate macro-level insights into website traffic patterns, site visitation across geographies, and related websites and searches.

This means that Google has the potential to use actual, hard data, not panels and statistical extrapolations like the other stats providers.

Under The Radar News - Thursday

The FT article on laptop vendors is uncannily similar to this:
Asus Eee: Threat to Apple, Microsoft, HP, Dell and the Hard Drive Vendors?
seekingalpha.com/artic...

which Seeking Alpha readers got 20 days earlier.
:-)

The Most Important Quote From Google's Conference Call

Vishesh, you're right that my point wasn't really focused on the business of building websites but about the underlying fact that Google wants to promote the growth of the web because it benefits from it. And building web sites may be higher-touch than its interactions with searchers and advertisers.

But it doesn't have to be high-touch -- think of Blogger, which is totally automated and has millions of users. Couldn't that be adapted for more commercially-oriented websites?

Wal-Mart Management's Amazon.com Bluff Proves They're Astute Game Theorists

Don, what evidence do you have for that?

Hollywood Media's Hollywood.com Relaunches with Podcasts, Blogs and Google Ads (HOLL, GOOG)

On the podcasts: you can't actually subscribe to podcasts of individual channels, such as just movie reviews. The POD button took me to a single subscription on iTunes that subscribed me to all the podcasts (including, eg. celebrity interviews) in one shot. That stinks.

Hollywood Media's Hollywood.com Relaunches with Podcasts, Blogs and Google Ads (HOLL, GOOG)

Initial reactions (I'm using Safari):
(1) IMDB uses the full width of my screen, whereas Hollywood.com uses only a fairly narrow center column;
(2) IMDB has larger type size than Hollywood.com (this may be different for other browsers), so it's easier to read.
(3) I really like the movie calendar on Hollywood.com (shows you when new movies are opening). I couldn't find that feature on IMDB.
(4) I really like the Podcast feature. You click on the POD button next to a podcast title, and it opens iTunes for you with the podcast ready to subscribe to.