Forbes list of billionaires for 2004 has three Utahns again. But Jim Sorenson\’s fortune has increase dramatically since 2003.
Author Archives: Paul Allen
iPod voice recorder
My brother showed me his Belkin voice recorder attachment for his iPod today. It is tiny. He used it to record a one hour meeting today. I bought one at CompUSA for $49.95. One of my companies, LDSaudio.com, was approved recently as�iPod reseller. We told Apple that one of our marketing approaches to sell iPods would be to encourage�people use it for recording oral histories, which is an important part of family history preservation. I\’m going to start trying it out with my wife and kids to see how useful it is in capturing stories.
MySQL Profits From Open Source
Linux is still the most famous open-source app, but database software using the same model is getting some play. MySQL is giving established software firms a run for their money. By Joanna Glasner. [Wired News]
MySQL (Seattle) raised $19 million in venture capital last year, has 4,000 customers (who pay to use the MySQL database and not contribute their code as open source) and made $10 million in revenue last year. Not bad for an open source company.
High tech agriculture
If I were a small farmer, what would I do?
Google Labs Search by Location
I just read on Doc Searl\’s weblog about Google Lab\’s new search by location engine. Wow!
Designing Web Usability by Jakob Nielsen
Last night one of my UVSC students (actually, a successful net entrepreneur already) told me she was reading Jakob Nielsen\’s Designing Web Usability, which I highly recommend. It reminded me that there are a core set of books, related to a core set of skills, that are absolutely essential to a successful internet business. Web design, of course, can make or break a web site. But so can several other things.
ComScore Statistics
I love how many free mind-blowing industry statistics you can find in one night of internet surfing. Here are some of the latest things I found interesting.
According to ComScore, the average searcher in the United States searched 28.4 times in December. Search engine market share was as follows:
Net Entrepreneurs Only
I\’m reading \”Net Entrepreneurs Only\” a book that profiles 10 internet entrepreneurs who were Ernst & Young Entrepreneurs of the Year. The chapter on Pierre Omidyar, founder of eBay, lists some of the things Meg Whitman (eBay CEO) learned in making the transition from a traditional business (she worked at Hasbro, Proctor & Gamble, Disney, Bain & Company) to an online business. She compares the \”old way\” to the \”web way.\”
Installing Radio UserLand on Godaddy
I\’m struggling to install Radio UserLand 8.08 on my GoDaddy server. I\’m determined to start actively blogging, but configuring this blogging software has been a bit problematic. I\’m pretty decent with some technical things like software, but not server/hosting related stuff. So the world renowned blogger Phil Windley has offered to help me. My blog works, but my page is missing a few Radio UserLand images so 3 links at the bottom of the page look broken. I tried to email Radio UserLand support my configuration so they could troubleshoot for me, but I got an STMP error while attempting to do so. It\’s one thing after another.
So I think I\’ll just blog and let the links look broken until Phil helps me out.
Will Google get Netscaped?
It\’s amazing to me that Google could launch in 1998 and become the totally dominant worldwide search engine within just a few years. Onestat.com announced this week that Google handles 56% of all queries worldwide.
The search engine wars will continue and intensify as Microsoft prepares to introduce Longhorn, its next operating system, in 2006.
The big question is \”Will Google get Netscaped?\”
Will Microsoft incorporate search into its operating system in a way that will virtually eliminate the need for Google?