Silicon Alley Insider has very quickly become one of my top 10 daily reads. Almost everybody on this planet has an opinion about Microsoft courting Yahoo! and Henry Blodget is no different. What’s the most interesting to me is -

The problem is the way Microsoft has always framed the “cloud computing” transition:

• paid desktop software licenses giving way to
• free web-based software supported by advertising

A better way of thinking about the “cloud computing” transition, in our opinion, is:

• paid desktop licenses giving way to
• paid web-based licenses

Corporate applications will never be supported by advertising, and if Google really wants to unseat Microsoft’s Office monopoly, it will have to build up the same sort of corporate sales and service organization that Microsoft already has. Microsoft should stop trying to go into a business it doesn’t have to be in–advertising-supported consumer media–and concentrate on protecting the core corporate business it already rules–by committing wholeheartedly to Office Live.

Head on over to the SAI blog for the complete post.

There is a tiny revolution coming about in the ‘i-still-love-print’ industry. There are a bunch of things happening at the same time and its very exciting. Finally, there’s a mainstream product that you can think about getting your loved ones without thinking about providing customer support for life (for free) - the Kindle Two startups are now trying to replicate the experience of reading a book, flipping those pages in your high brow manner - Issuu and by Amazon. It hit the ground running and Big man Bezos had to concede publicly that demand was outpacing supply. So that’s e-text in your e-ink stained not-so-e hands.Now two startups are trying to replicate the experience of reading a book and callously flipping those pages in that high brow manner we all love so much - Issuu and BookGlutton.Both are handling a different niche. Issuu is more artsy and focused on design and magazines. BookGlutton seems like it’s grown up brother where you can join groups who are reading things you like or books from the public domain. Both allow you to publish or upload your own works as well and create community level tagging, access and all that good stuff. What I am curious about is how would the individual creators benefit beyond creative and convenient distribution. Monetization and copyright control are key issues in my mind and somebody still has to solve that problem.Here’s a video on how BookGlutton works -

Here’s an embedded version of ‘The Global Indian Magazine’ from Issuu (which I found to be a bit cumbersome) - Update - I removed this cause it seemed to break my blog.

There’s a lot of buzz about a new beta release today from Israeli startup Oovoo - Free calls to landlines and mobiles in the USA and Canada till March 1, 2008.

Features -

• Six person video conferencing & chatting
• Record calls
• Call long distance (free for 3 more weeks)
• Find & add friends
• File transfers
• Sidebar view (Vista)

The most interesting of their experiments is My Oovoo Day With… which gets the top bloggers to interact with their audience beyond their blogs posts and comments. Beginning on Feb 10, this week long experiment will be something that I am looking out for.

Apparently, this is a Windows only release, but Mac users rejoice - I found this link for a beta alpha download for OS X (though I haven’t tested it on my 2.2ghz santa rosa). Also, check out the Mac Forums at Oovoo.

Update - Thanks to Scott, I now have the beta version for Mac as well. Check out MyOoVooDay.

Update - Turns out that even the beta version doesn’t have the free calling, that’s PC only. Sucks.

Wordpress.com just upped the bar for blog platforms. They did it once when SixApart dropped the ball with Movable Type years ago and I, for one, have never looked back. They rule as far as open source blogging platforms go and basically are a really solid CMS. But now that they have gone beyond the call of duty and given us a free 3gb hosted solution, its a very compelling argument to switch. It’s not just about the technology (a debate in which Wordpress is the clear winner for the majority of us), but about a real rich online experience. Post all sorts of media and host files for your community without paying up those hard-to-find benjamins. Unless Blogger and SixApart come back with enough ammo, they will be left behind, google’s support notwithstanding. Besides, their software simply rocks. Phenomenal support, great development and a dedicated community.

I wish I owned some equity shares in Automattic right about now.

I just read this blog post over at Weblog Tools Collection which quotes the Compete.com stats for 2006-2007 Winners and Losers in terms of traffic.

A few interesting trends are revealed:

• The web has yet to reach its “Social Peak”
• Online daters would much rather be subjected to ads than a checkout form
• New Social Networks still have a chance…as long as they find their niche
• People place a high value on peer opinion

[via Compete.com]

The overall trend is towards video and networking. Linked In is showing some significant growth, but is it too little too late? They are going the Facebook way as well with opening up their system, but will they be able to capture enough market share is to be seen. The blog sites have shown great positive growth as well - Wordpress.com and SixApart.com. Personally, I am glad to see my favorite blog Techcrunch.com in the greatest gainers’ list.