I was reading a Techcrunch article today through Google RSS Reader when I noticed the following ads at the bottom of the post:

By the links it seems that the upper ad (Ironscale) is coming through Techcrunch direct sales efforts, while the bottom ad (Indochino) is coming through Google AdSense for RSS.
Now, the post I was reading talked about My Space problems. Can someone please explain to me what’s the connection between this and Men’s suits??
Is this the best AdSense algorithm could come up with?

This also highlites another big problem of using large and non targeted ad networks – the possibilty of hurting your brand. Don’t get me worng. It could be that Indochino is a great company and their suits are amazing, but when I read Techcrunch I expect to see advertisers such as Dell and Intel. Seeing such an ad doesn’t really reflect the brand I’m sure Techcrunch want to build.

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Anyone who have ever seen Start Trek knows the notion of the global translator.

It’s this instrument that allows the Star Trek crew to understand anything that any of the species they meet is saying.
So no. We are not really there yet for speech, but at least for text Google Translate service is getting very close.
I don’t use this service too much, but every time I do use it I’m quite amazed from the results.
For example, yesterday one of our users wrote a post about us in the TWS Italian blog. The post was of course in Italian, a language I like but don’t really know.
I used Google translate to translate the page, and the results were really good. I was able to read the full post as it was written in English. Even better. When you click on any of the links on the page, you keep browsing the site, while Google translate every page you go to.
If Google will implement an automatic translation into Chrome, this could really be a way to break all boundaries between communities and people. The only thing that is missing is to also integrate this into twitter/chat/IM so people from different locations will be able to talk with each other with no boundaries and limitations of language.

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NBC released a new beta version of their NBC Direct service.
While all network went for a more traditional (amazing how we already treat this as “traditional”) model of giving a streaming access to their TV shows, NBC direct takes a more experimental approach.

By downloading their software, you can directly download HD version of all their shows and watch it anytime you want, even when you are on a plane with no Internet access.
The service uses two interesting technologies in order to make this a true money making business for NBC.
First it uses P2P architecture to download the episodes. By using P2P, NBC eliminates one of the biggest hurdles of delivering HD content – it pushes the costs directly to ISP. We need to note that all this is fine today, but if more ISP, like comcast, will start to put cap limits on the user monthly use this model can break down.
Second, NBC Direct uses Extend Media OpenCase agent to download in the background new ads that will appear in the videos. This allows NBC to make sure that no matter when you watch the video, they can monetize them.

it will be very interesting to see how this new model plays out? Is this the new TV 2.0 model? Free HD TV any time and anywhere, supported by everchanging ads? We will have to wait and see…

Unfortunately the service really seems to be in beta state as I couldn’t get the player to install on my machine…

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I was always a fan of subscription music services. I never really understood why people insist on paying so much money for each individual song or album.
I mean, it’s enough for you buy only one album a month to already pay the monthly subscription fee, and with a subscription you can basically download and listen to any album you want (yes. Including the new ones).
So why people still prefer the pay per song model of Apple?
The most repeated answer I get is “Because I want to own my music. I want to make sure that if I want to listen to this album in 10 years, I’ll be able to do so”.
Now, to be honest, I think this is nonsense. We all know that in 10 years, the albums of today will probably be free on the web anyway. But I can understand the psychology behind it and respect that.

A few weeks ago, Microsoft changed their Zune Pass subscription service and added an innovative hybrid model.
For $14 a month, you get their full subscription service like before, but now you can also completely own forever 10 songs (the average length of an album) each month. Basically, it’s like buying an album and get the subscription almost for free.

I truly hope this move will finally get Apple to change their mind and offer a comparable subscription music service on iTunes…
If you really want to keep people pay for music, you need to adopt and offer them a cheap enough legal option. Pay per song is just not that option.

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Tomorrow all Americans have a huge day in which they can affect and choose the future for their country.
If you are a resident of California you need to cast another vote tomorrow that will also affect the lives of millions of people.

I can probably sit here and write pages on pages of why you need to vote no on 8, but instead I’ll say just one thing:
For the last hundred years we as a society been fighting for the freedom of people to choose how they live their life and on the simple fact that we all should be treated equally.

Prop 8 is the start of the end of this fight. It is based on the exact opposite values that we all fought for. With no relation to what you think or feel about same sex marriage, prop 8 is just wrong. We need to make sure that with the new government and a new hope, we also hold down to the basic values we all believe in.

Please vote No on 8.

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Image via CrunchBaseToday Jason Calacanis sent an open email to his email list about the process of laying people off we went through in Mahalo.
A few hours later Erick Schonfeld from Techcrunch posted the entire email, although Jason specifically asked not to do so.
This created a heated discussion in the comments section about whether Erick was right in posting this, or should he needed to respect Jason wish and not write about it.
Although I agree with most of the commenters about the fact that Erick was wrong, what really shocked me was the number of comments that were simply put it – full of hate.
People simply trashed Erick and Jason personally, calling them in all kinds of names.

These kind of people are the worst of the worst. They are taking the most valuable concept of the blogosphere which is free expression, and trash it into the ground.
You can definetely not agree with people and you should definetely say it out loud, but this kind of petty personal attack is just bad.
I felt really bad for Erick and Jason that they need to reach all these comments. I know they probably already used to it by now, but still…

It's our responsibility to try and keep the blogosphere a beautiful place. A place where we all want to contribute to and live in.

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