If you are into web analytics, but haven’t visited Avinash’s website, I highly recommend it. Take a look at this post where he challenges analytic providers to tell him what makes them unique (turns out most of them say the same thing).
Work at Home Options Still Limited
I experienced my 3rd 2.5 hour one-way commute in the last week. Two of the commutes from hell can be attributed to the worst flooding in my area in the last 50 years. One thing is for sure, wasting time just trying to get to work is a not-so-gentle reminder that I should be working from home.
A few years ago I thought most people with web-related jobs would work from home. But when I was looking for a job a year-and-a-half ago, I turned down two job offers because they wanted me in office 5 days a week. I took the job that allowed me to skip one commute day each week. The funny thing is that all three companies said “we want you in the office so you can participate in hallway discussions and hear what is going on around you.” Fast-forward a year-and-a-half, most communication (even with the person in the cube next to me) is via email and most employees have headphones on.
I’m surprised more companies haven’t taken advantage of brilliant people who want to work from home making them use a virtual office sevice like this one in Bristol. People have different reasons for working from home (mine would save me 12 hours of commuting each week) and as long as they are productive, I don’t see any problems with it. My p/t job at About has a virtual workforce, but it is rare that I hear of a person who has a job (other than their own company) that lets them work out of their own home. Some companies are already collaborating using EATEL Business.
Privacy can also be a huge concern for companies that are ran from home and the best solution that we know of for that is to use something like a London virtual office as what way you get a great postal address and also brilliant privacy so all round it just works amazingly. Check out https://www.venyu.com/colocation/ to know how businesses can protect their data.
When will more companies start adopting a decentralized online workforce? When will more companies hire people they’ve never even met? I’m positive it will happen… I’m just surprised how long it is taking.
Google Acquires Jotspot
Google snaps up another Web 2.0 company. This time it is Jotspot. Jotspot is a wiki platform allowing for groups to colloborate, including via spreadsheets, calendars, email and more. In my opinion, wikis have a promising future. Wikipidedia has already proven the model, but once wikis become popular in smaller niches we’ll really see what their potential is. Though I don’t know the terms of the deal, this was a smart purchase by Google (can’t say the same about YouTube).
If you look at Google’s purchases, most of them would be deemed software purchases rather than content purchases, which is good. They are products that help people find things or enable them in some way. When Google starts purchasing content sites, I’ll be worried. Who wants their content finder to also be the content producer? Its like the many AOL users who don’t realize their is a whole “Web” to discover outside of the AOL blinders.
Of the major search engines, Yahoo seems to be most inclined to buy content sites. Google base was a project where Google came close to being a “publisher.” The project has changed over time and I must say I was unimpressed with it. Spending 5 minutes in base, you’ll easily see why most people choose to go to the existing leaders in job listings, real estate, autos, hotels, recipes, etc.
George Dubya Uses “The Google”
It is no surprise that George Bush uses Google, but what is funny in this Maria Bartiromo interview is how George refers to Google. He calls it “The Google.”
Click on the image to view the video on another site.
He mentions using Google to look at satellite images of “The Ranch.” I wouldn’t be surprised if Intelligence uses web maps as well. I remember when I was in the financial industry, brokerage companies were complaining that their employees were using Yahoo Finance instead of their own in-house tools. It serves as a reminder that users will often choose usability over the quality or quantity of data.
Danny Sullivan Announces His Plans
After a couple months of pondering, search industry leader Danny Sullivan announced his future plans. Judging from his post, Incisive media is paying Danny to help them transition SES to a new chair. Danny will chair SES New York in April ’07, co-chair SES San Jose in August and will be a speaker at SES Chicago in Dec. ’07. For Search Engine Watch, Danny’s last day will be November 30th.
By working together, Incisive will do a better job of keeping the SES business going and Danny bought himself some time to develop a new publication and events. According to his post, Danny will be creating a new search blog and will host events on his own.
As one of many people who begged Danny to continue doing what he is doing, but for himself, I’m glad to see Danny finally announce his plans this morning.