22 August 2006

Innovation?

When MapQuest came out with their mapping system on the web and I was able to type in my address and see a map of my area pop up, I said... WOW.

When Google released Google Maps and I could use the whole darn screen and I could drag the map around and put markers on it and see my house from a satellite photo... yep, that was another WOW moment.

After having a look at Microsoft's entry into the online mapping world I have to say... WHY?

No offence, but really, why would I use this. I don't get it. It's just a map. And, I can't even find my house with it. Even MapQuest did that.

I am realizing that thanks go companies like Google and Skype and thanks to the open source movement, I have become pretty picky. I need a WOW to even spend more than a few minutes at a site. It's like one of my heros, Seth Godin, says... where's the free prize inside?

Is this too harsh? Maybe I didn't spend enough time there to "get it".

18 August 2006

The Node Market

As information becomes more plentiful we are faced with the challenge of constantly searching for better ways of finding what we want. The ability to find and intepret information is more valuable that the ability to acutally store it. I think that as people become better and better at using search it becomes less of a differentiator so creative people will come up with new strategies to be sure to propogate their ideas.

Because of this, nodes will become more and more important. As they do, people who control nodes now will become more powerful and wealthy. Because, a node is the smallest unit of governance on the internet. If you own the node, you have full control over what you do with it. Interestingly, nodes are also free (practially) and the transaction fee for transferring ownership is virtually nothing, so, it's frictionless. It's a very fluid market. Concentrations of power that can freely move from owner to owner.

Knowing how people will behave slightly before others figure it out is sure to provide a competitive advantage in that market. I wonder who has the ability to tell what people are thinking about slightly before anyone else.... hmm...

01 August 2006

3d to the Masses

Google has released a new treasure. It's a 3d drawing / modelling program called SketchUp and it's amazing. It's got too many amazing features to list. Just go check it out here.