Shine goes live--Will women rush there or what- April 2, 2008 Yahoo's Shine, helmed by former print editor Brandon Holley, just launched this am, after weeks of beta testing. The goal here, if it isn't obvious, is to create the most compelling start page on the web for women, all ages;to that end it's a riotous tumult of soft lifestyle features with fashion, parenting, home, dating, relationships and just about any other female topic you'd see on a magazine news stand laid out prettily on the home page. In other words, there's no finance, instead it's...http://susanmernit.blogspot.com/2008/03/shine-goes-live-will-women-rush-there.html Twitter & Friend Feed: The Pleasure of Permissions- April 2, 2008 So, when I set up Twitter in earnest a few months ago, I originally wanted to use it only for good friends, people whom I cared "if they brushed their teeth" as I put it to myself. To that end, I made it permissions-based; you have to ask to follow me.I did the same thing a few weeks ago when I set up friendfeed.What's been interesting about that is that because I set up a permissions-based system, I have a much livelier and more engaged sense of who is following me than who is reading this...http://susanmernit.blogspot.com/2008/04/twitter-friend-feed-pleasure-of.html Questions:News, Local, Community and the future- April 2, 2008 A koan of questions:What makes local community sites successfulHow do news, activism, and information fit togetherWill as many people read as postWhat makes local community sites and services sustainable (Besides the passion of their founders)As news media fragments, fails and consolidates (think about how almost all the newspapers in the Bay area are currently owned by Dean Singleton), what will take its placeWhat is difference between information sharing and news on the local levelAre...http://susanmernit.blogspot.com/2008/03/questionsnews-local-community-and.html Measuring the Techmeme Lederboard and what the stats suggest- April 2, 2008 Louis Gray has a good post looking at the past six months of the Techmeme lederboard and which sites have grown in reach as others have faltered. His analysis of the big blogging sites and their increase in percentage of lead stories--TechCrunch in particular--is interesting, as is his noting how "big media" aka News.com and "bloggingindie media" aka GigaOm, intersect.One thing Louis doesn't examine that I'd like to see him add to this review is the growth--or shrinkage--in reach of some of...http://susanmernit.blogspot.com/2008/04/measuring-techmeme-lederboard-and-what.html Ian Rogers leaving Yahoo for start up and other changes- April 2, 2008 Just saw the news that Ian Rogers is leaving Yahoo! for a music start up and that Karin Gilford will be taking over his responsibilities.What's interesting to me here is the following:a) So many great people are leaving Yahoo! and heading to start ups; Yahoo's clearly an entrepenurial starting point at some level.b) There seems to be a movement toward promoting people who have been there for a long time; according to her LinkedIn resume, Karin G's been at Yahoo, in one role or another, since...http://susanmernit.blogspot.com/2008/04/ian-rogers-leaving-yahoo-for-start-up.html The April Fools Collection- April 2, 2008 TechCrunch: Mike Arrington going to sue Facebook over use of his imagejwz: 10th year anniversary--Mozilla first home now back online.Problogger--Get paid per tweetCNET: TechCrunch acquires TigerBeat, will rename it CrunchKids GMail: Be on Time, Custom TimeGoogle & Virgin airways: Human settlement on Mars (Susan sez: Google is so big it now gets more than one April 1st joke, eh)What else has caught your fancyhttp://susanmernit.blogspot.com/2008/03/april-fools-collection.html April 1: It ain't just laughing- April 1, 2008 Today was kind of a tough day; there was a death in the (extended) family, lots of work to get done post weekend, and some hard choices to work through. I'm also getting ready (or trying to get ready) for an out of the country trip next week.)In many ways, I feel like leaving Yahoo! has brought me to this new inflection point in terms of where I really want to put my time and what I want to focus on.One way to look at that is to ask "What do I want to work on in the next year and how can I...http://susanmernit.blogspot.com/2008/03/april-1-it-aint-just-laughing.html |