LNKD
In-depth analysis and expert insight into the world’s largest professional network.Automating the Herd Mentality
Investing social network Roboinvest now allows users to copy one another’s trades with a single click. They’ve prudently limited this to small dollar values, but it’s still a dangerous plan: market swings already tend to happen when investors overestimate the information content of others’ trades; letting them do this by default seems…
Google Updates Google is already using their new privacy policy to offer search across devices; a desktop search (for a restaurant, for example) will be connected to the mobile search experience (giving users a shortcut to the restaurant’s location and hours, for example). This shouldn’t have a measurable revenue impact in the short term, but…
Google Updates Google’s new privacy policy is now in effect. Expect the sky to fall, or for all of your ads to be slightly better-targeted. Danny Sullivan points out that although Google+’s numbers don’t look good, Google is forgoing lots of revenue to promote the service. That’s telling. This Google search screenshot is making the rounds. The…
Why Office for the iPad Makes Sense
The Daily claims—with screenshots to prove it!—that Microsoft Office is coming to the iPad. Dan Frommer reasonably points out that this would be a smart way for Apple to get into enterprise, and it would not exactly be a brilliant strategic move for Microsoft to be…
Bing Hates Santorum, Too
Danny Sullivan notes that Rick Santorum’s “Google Problem” is a “Bing problem,” too. The standard argument here is that the “Spreading Santorum” site is obviously and explicitly an attempt to manipulate search engines. The whole point of such campaigns is to create links and online activity that make the manipulated…
Facebook’s S-1 was a disappointment. Not that the company isn’t impressive—far from it—but the S-1 mostly reveals that Facebook has already been a de facto public company for at least a year or two.
The revenue and net profit numbers we’re seeing are in line with existing estimates, the engagement numbers are largely trending in the…
When Google announced Search, plus Your World, they made a dramatic decision: they’re embracing the paradigm of a web of people, rather than a web of verbs. And it’s a dangerous move.
There are two broad strategies for improving search engines: making them more aware of intents, or making them more aware of preferences. Most…
You Like SEO More Than you Think
Seth Godin is dubious about SEO. But only when you call it “SEO.” When it’s “linkbait” he’s a big fan. Godin is a very smart guy, so just imagine what typical marketers and companies think.
A prediction: the most successful SEO-driven companies are the ones that can…
It’s natural to separate a company’s activity into two parts: the stuff they do to grow their competitive advantage, and the stuff they do to monetize it. For example, a company like Amex might run TV ads to make the Amex name more recognizable and synonymous with prestige—so when they send someone a targeted piece…
People Are Easy to Uniquely Identify
This research indicates that people can be uniquely identified with a tiny set of data: “87% of the U.S. Population are uniquely identified by {date of birth, gender, ZIP}.” That’s what you get as a proof of concept—imagine how much more precise it is when there are ad dollars at…
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