Archive for July, 2008|Monthly archive page
The classified puzzle
Filed under: Facebook, KnowledgeBid, LinkedIn, ODesk, eBay, economics, markets, outsourcing |
Comments (4) It’s a funny coincidence that Microsoft will be pulling the plug on their little known Live Expo classified service just three days after MySpace announced that they will be ramping theirs up with Oodle. These changes are indicative of the larger trend: the classified game remains elusive for large major new entrants. Facebook‘s classified service has been less than stellar (I can’t even find a link to it right now) and Edgeio has been shuttered while Craigslist and eBay continue to dominate the all-in-one classified scene. Read more »
Glance
In my post a while back about my picks for the best service providers for startups, I included my favorite desktop sharing software, Glance, which I use religiously. Glance was recommended to me by a friend and I use it for all my demos also for some internal stuff when sharing a screen is needed.
Last night I ran into a friend I see every couple of years and talk turned to startups. I was amazed to discover that my friend’s cousin Taylor Kew is one of the founders of Glance. My friend was happy to learn that I use Glance ~5 times a week. I was then saddened to hear that Taylor passed away in August ’07 of lymphoma. If anyone at Glance sees this, thanks again for delivering a great service. I can’t imagine how tough it must be to work through losing a founding member of your team.
The power of defaults
The snack machine in my office building gets a steady flow of patronage throughout the day. Last week I used a dollar bill to buy a 50 cent pack of gum and noticed that the 50 cents I was owed wasn’t returned automagically. I then hit the coin return button and the machine coughed up my change. Somewhere out there, there’s a genius that revolutionized the vending machine industry by changing this default. I’ve left at least an extra dollar in the machine since I first noticed this change last week. Brilliant.
Edit: So it turns out I was totally wrong about this. My dreams of a revolutionized snack vending machine industry have been shattered. Thanks to bostonwolf’s comment I realized had assumed the machine retained change. I was wrong. If there is change owed after a transaction, the machine spits up the change in the coin slot ~2 minutes after the purchase. Too bad.
User Value = Demographics + Tolerance
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eBay v. Tiffany: 4 years later, eBay wins
Well it looks like eBay v. Tiffany & Co. is finally over and eBay has come out on top. This is a huge case for the web and internet commerce. The ruling means that eBay (and other web based marketplaces like Craigslist) can continue to rely on trademark holders to monitor their site for knock-off items. Back in 2004, Tiffany’s sued eBay for damages incurred from sales of knock-off Tiffany’s jewelry being sold on eBay and wanted to limit the number of Tiffany items any one seller can have for sale at one time. While a ruling in the favor of Tiffany’s would probably never registered on eBay’s radar screen, an avalanche of money hungry plaintiffs would have followed and the precedent would have been set that eBay could be liable for trademark infringement in regards to counterfeit goods. If any damages were awarded, hypothetically, any brand that has ever had a knock-off item sold on eBay would have stood to get some cash.
In 2001, the landmark case of ecommerce, Hendrickson v. eBay, the court found eBay to not be liable for stolen or counterfeit items sold on its site. The site was found to be in the safe harbor of the DMCA, and differentiated from the classic case of the flea market proprietor found liable for selling stolen goods. eBay was found to be in the safe harbor, including robust terms of service and links for users to flag inappropriate content. At the end of the day, Hendrickson required manufacturers to be on notice and proactively search and flag stolen goods on eBay. This was a big change from the flea market paradigm of the past, but there were a lot of strange things happening in 2001. Conversely, after Hendrickson, Napster & Grokster came through, which were about copyright but pondered a similar unchartered realms of e-commerce and trade. Napster couldn’t keep 100% pirated work off the site per court order, and were forced to shut down.
If eBay had lost the case and been put in a position where they needed to comply 100% a la the Napster Trajectory, they would have been put in an extremely difficult place, because while it is easy to recognize a NBC TV clip, it is not so easy to recognize a knock-off Tiffany & Co. ring by looking at a grainy photograph. This distinction may have been what in the end saved eBay. However, while Hendrickson and Napster both made trademark claims, they were overshadowed by the copyright issues in the cases which call to the DMCA. Tiffany’s claim was strictly within trademark.
Additional coverage: AP, Marketwatch, Reuters, NYT, CNET
Where’s SelfServe by MySpace?
Filed under: Facebook, Google, LinkedIn, advertising, social networking |
Leave a Comment Back in November of ’07, MySpace announced the future launch of “SelfServe by MySpace” which would “allow advertisers to directly purchase, create and analyze the performance of ads throughout the MySpace network.” It was supposed to be in beta for two months then launched in early ’08. It didn’t happen and ClickZ reported last month that SelfServe may launch in later summer or early fall. MySpace is being left in the dust by Facebook Social Ads and LinkedIn DirectAds. Now Orkut, Hi5, Bebo, Ning and the others need to step up to the targeted advertising plate as well.
