2005 August

It seems no matter which travel site I start my search for the best deal on airfare and hotels, I always end up comparing the rates of numerous sites and wasting valuable time arriving at the best price. Travelocity and Expedia are both competitive in price. Priceline attempts to let me name my price. A multitude of little travel sites hope to win my business with tricky deals and blackout dates to make my head spin. Places like Jet Blue don’t even list in any of the travel sites. The one place cutting through the clutter and delivering a comprehensive set of travel search results is SideStep. You can use a toolbar to search or comparison shop directly from the SideStep Web site. The level of search customization is better than anything else I’ve ever used. Occasionally the results reported from a give travel site are slightly skewed, but in general, the best prices are found at SideStep. We talked briefly with them about travel search at SES.

Read more on SideStep Travel Deals…

Tune in Thursday, August 25 at 7pm Pacific (GMT-8) for three hours of live calls, email questions, a tour of this week’s Web and Technology Trash from across the Web. Hear Chris’s thoughts about the latest apps from Google.

Read more on Thursday 25 August 2005…

chris.pirillo@gmail.com

Network

• An Internet browser has been added.

Video

• 4:3 Screen Mode has been added (for video saved on Memory Stick Duo media).
• Go To feature has been added (for UMD VIDEO and UMD MUSIC).

Read more on PSP 2.0 Firmware!…

Remember how you couldn't send emails to your friends who used Eudora, because you were using Pine? That's because it never happened. That shortcoming would never fly, yet we put up with these exact bugaboos on a regular basis. I'm getting real close to dropping all IM activity altogether until the brands get their acts together. That's likely to never happen, because we have huge egos at stake. With a straight face, you can't tell me that THIS emoticon is any better than THAT emoticon. Next, you're going to tell me that I can't use THIS keyboard to type characters onto THAT screen?! Gimme a break – this is getting old, quick. I don't care if Google's Talk is using Jabber – when the rest of them aren't, it doesn't do *ME* or *US* any good. Feh. More over on Lockergnome.

Read more on Instant Messaging Hell…

Despite the wild success of his advertising network, AdBrite, Philip Kaplan remains firmly logged in my mind as Pud of F’d Company fame. At SES San Jose, we caught up with Philip and talked about everything from his rockstar dreams, to his take on the possibility of another Internet bubble, to the evolution of AdBrite from a service designed to sell ads on F’d Company into a service currently selling advertising on over 6,000 sites. Sites in the AdBrite network range from low traffic blogs to Answers.com, LinkedIn.com and Alexa. As always, PK is a candid voice of reason in the cacophony of Internet babble.

Read more on Philip Kaplan on AdBrite…

There's a Streets and Trips 2006 Construction Update that's been released… which is really weird, because there isn't even a Streets and Trips 2006 on the market!!! I flew to the Streets and Trips page, and found that 2005 is still being listed. Here I was, all excited for a new release, only to be disappointed. Well, you gotta hand it to Microsoft: they're being proactive in issuing updates before they actually release the program. ;)

Read more on Streets and Trips 2006 Construction Update…

Alex Williams just sent me this note: “You know, there has been a lot of confusion about the Podcast Hotel… We changed the dates. And now, people are asking what is happening. Is the event on or off? It is mostly definitely on. We've finally found a way to hold the event in a way that's true to the original spirit and vision of the idea; a celebration of the indie music world and podcasting as one of the most powerful do-it-yourself movements anyone has seen in the last 100 years.Podcast Hotel Presents Podcast Jams, is a celebration of Portland, Oregon's rich indie music scene. Portland is one of the leading lights of the indie music world. Our goal is to support a thriving center of indie music with an unconference that gives musicians the tools to make their own podcasts that they can then send to the world. Following the workshops, we will do a podcast jam session. Open to all musicians, we'll record live performances and broadcast them as podcasts to people all over the world.” This event is no longer associated with Corante, FWIW.

Read more on The Podcast Hotel Lives!…

For every legitimate Internet marketing whiz out there, there seem to be a hundred phonies ready to take your money and run. One of the best places to find consistently outstanding marketing information is the collective of experts at ClickZ. These are people who work in the trenches in advertising, search marketing, customer relationship management, email marketing and research to improve the bottom line for some of the most successful companies in the world. The weekly articles published at ClickZ represent some of the most valuable marketing information found anywhere online. Coordinating these Expert advisors and lending her own brand of genius to the conversation is Rebecca Lieb, Executive Editor at ClickZ. During the course of SES San Jose, Chris talked with Rebecca about the recent sale of ClickZ and Search Engine Strategies to Incisive Media, the role of ClickZ in online marketing, the launch of the new ClickZ blog and how to get spicy Thai food.

Read more on Rebecca Lieb on ClickZ…

They're testing mComic now, making sure it works on all Series 60 Devices, including: Nokia N91 & N90, Levorno P930, Nokia 6681 & 6682, Panasonic X700, Nokia 36xx, Sendo X & X2, and the Siemens SX1. There's currently a memory problem with the nGage series, but all the other devices have been tested and recommended. If you have one of these devices, consider downloading and testing mComic. They'll let you select a free comics binder to try, too! Email testing@fulltiltmobile.com and ask for a free code.

Read more on Comics for Series 60 Devices…

The other day, I received this email from a seemingly random Hotmail user:

Chris,
The Virtual Earth team has a new website for info on VE. Could you blog about it to get some more exposure for it?
http://www.virtualearthinfo.com/
Thanks,
ZG

I'm protecting his real name for a reason. My first thought was: “Why do these PR flacks even bother?” I immediately shot an email off to my MSN contacts, asking about this person. They searched the company directory and came up with no results. The name was passed around and, ultimately, it belonged to a stepson of a Virtual Earth team member! It wasn't marketing spam after all – merely an innocent request by a kid who is very proud of his father's work.
You took me by surprise, ZG. I'm not mad at your actions, and I hope you weren't admonished for sending that note to me. It was a very endearing effort, and any parent should be proud to have you in their family.

Read more on When is Marketing not Marketing?…

Spam is one of those universal problems faced by everyone on the Internet. Anne Mitchell is active on the front lines educating, advocating and implementing solutions meant to slow and eventually halt the spread of this digital plague. From pioneering work as part of MAPS, to CEO of sender verification program Habeas, to her current role as President and CEO of the Institute for Spam and Internet Public Policy where she established the ISIPP Sender Accreditation Program to help ISPs identify legitimate mail from junk, Anne is actively working to stop spam. You can read her expert take on Spam and other malicious afflictions at Aunty Spam’s Net Patrol where she recently published the comprehensive How To Stop Spam, For Windows Users. We caught up with Anne at SES San Jose to get her take on the current climate in war on spam.

Read more on Anne Mitchell on Stopping Spam…

Have you ever seen an ice cream truck in real life? I'm talking directly to younger ice cream fans, mind you. It wasn't a regular thing in my neighborhood. We had the Schwan's guy come around every once in a while to deliver frozen goodies, but not one of the classic “music box on wheels” kind of ice cream trucks. As I was driving down Lollipop Lane earlier today (actually, it was just a regular ol' avenue), I saw one driving towards me. I can't remember if or when I'd ever seen one of those things in real life. I almost wanted him to pull over just so I could say that I'd ordered something from a living / breathing ice cream truck. Oh, the novelty of novelty sweets. I'll have to wait and see if he comes around again tomorrow. I'll be ready with my nickel in hand. That oughta score me one good popsicle (or at least a lick of one). We need more fudgesicle, nurse – STAT!

Read more on Ice Cream, You Scream?…

Thank you. I love attention.

While the size queens trade links debating who has the biggest crawl, one search engine company is taking a different approach. Ask.com, famous for its P.G. Wodehouse inspired butler is stepping beyond the idea of answering the customer’s question and reaching for the role of best place to search for information. That’s a tall order considering Google’s overwhelming mindshare and Microsoft’s massive cash reserve. If history is any guide, that’s exactly the kind of challenge Ask’s new owner, Barry Diller’s InterActive Corp., is best at. At SES San Jose, Chris sat down with Steve Berkowitz to talk about Ask and how they plan to move from the place people go to get questions answered to the best place for people to search.

Read more on Interview with Ask CEO Steve Berkowitz…