AOL
In-depth analysis and expert insight into AOL’s network of premium and niche content sites.Baidu’s Cargo-Cult OS Strategy
Google’s move into operating systems makes sense: reducing Microsoft’s leverage over them, and increasing the aggregate number of Internet users are both great for their business, and they both directly benefit Google over competitors. None of those advantages really apply to Baidu’s decision to enter the OS market.
Fortunately, Baidu doesn’t…
The Patent Pledge
Ur-angel Paul Graham wants companies to promise not to offensively use patents against startups. So far, the participants in this patent pledge tend to by YCombinator companies. It could end up being something idiosyncratic to YC, which already seems to seek out the kind of companies that wouldn’t use patents offensively. But…
2012 will be the first Presidential campaign in which social media is a proven force. And, simply because the search market has expanded so much, search will be a bigger factor, too. That’s a trend that will produce a few surprising winners in 2012, including:
Facebook’s selling stockholders: Facebook is very likely to IPO in…
Who Facebook Thinks Your Friends Are
A programmer has created a simple bookmarklet that reveals which users Facebook expects you to be searching for. This is notable in two respects: first, it’s a look into your Facebook preferences—not just who you’re looking for, but who you’d decide to be looking for given an ambiguous query. It’s also…
Quinstreet’s Earnings Beat
A few days after Demand Media beat their earnings estimates and saw their stock price promptly collapse, Quinstreet barely beat estimates and saw their stock rise as much as 22%. The lesson, of course, is to report earnings on a day when the market’s doing great.
Carbonite’s Daring IPO
Carbonite actually priced their IPO,…
Demand Media’s Bizarre Price Fluctuations
After-hours on Tuesday, Demand Media’s stock spiked up 17% before settling slightly down for the day. On Wednesday morning the shares hit $10.75, but closed at $8.45, again down slightly for the day. This, after a very positive quarter. One reason is the combination of their lock-up expiring and the…
The Worst Business Story in the World
Yesterday, we argued that the worst business stories were of the “X nearly reaches Y” genre. We could have cited the example of the “Index reaches round number” stories, but we chose the ever popular “Apple’s earnings/market cap/etc. approach Microsoft’s.”
What Monday was to the S&P, yesterday…
Why Google Copies
At Digital DD, we’ve long argued that Google uses a two-stage process to expand into new businesses: first, they scoop up and aggregate lots of data, while distributing lots of traffic to the people they aggregate. Then, they use their aggregated data to bootstrap their own content creation. Once their content is…
Forget the debt ceiling. As far as Internet investors are concerned, Apple is the macro situation—it’s the central bank, the legislature, and the source of exogenous unpredictability in the web.
Apple owns a growing number of screens, eyeballs, and minutes. However you measure it, Apple products are a conduit for more and more attention. Apple…
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