The Catalyst Code

The NYTimes asked whether we are “living in a Google World, where everything is free thanks to the advertising that can be generated by people using the Google tools.” Is there a free ad-supported Porsche in your future? Or maybe even free tummy tucks in return for tattooing ads on your forehead. There […]

Blogging for marketing is the subject of Noah Berger’s article in the NYTimes. He mentions a number of small business folks that have started blogs to market their goods and services. He points to some successes but it is very hard to know from what he says whether spending time on blogging is a […]

As expected the European Commission found that MasterCard’s interchange fees violated the EU’s competition laws yesterday. Neelie Kroes, the czarina of competition policy in the EC, says this is a Christmas present for European consumers who will see lower prices at the stores. That statement is just about the best proof one could ask […]

Google Gets Ready to Rumble with Microsoft according to a long Sunday New York Times article by the usually insightful Steve Lohr and Miguel Helft. They describe an epic battle where Google is pushing its vision of everything happening on remote servers and Microsoft wanting to keep their desktop software in the center. […]

Verizon and other mobile carriers should make the leap into having open networks if they don’t want their clocks cleaned by Google according to a provocative op ed in Saturday’s New York Times. There’s lots to agree with here. O’Reilly is probably right that by opening their networks and encouraging the development of applications […]

Facebook’s fumbled effort at revving up an advertising engine is the subject of Randall Rothenberg’s op ed in the Wall St Journal today. While many people thought Facebook’s Beacon was yet another worrying sign that internet companies were threatening consumer privacy with their pursuit of revenue from targeted advertising, Rothenberg argues that Facebook’s about-face demonstrates […]

A Microsoft executive points out that lots of pieces in the mobile ecosystem need to fall into place before the promise of mobile payments takes off (full news story here). Like others he recognizes the need for an open ecosystem—the kind that has proved so important for the development of the personal computer ecosystem […]

“We take privacy concerns seriously. All these images are taken on public streets. It’s exactly what you could see walking down the street.” –Stephen Chau, product manager for Google Maps, on Google Street View
Yesterday, Google launched its Street View feature for Google Maps which allows users to view photos of city streets. The […]

The competition for privacy is beginning with Ask.Com promoting its AskEraser which lets users delete some of the information that Ask has collected on them. Consumers have only just started to focus on the fact that they’ve been divulging vasts amount of details of themselves to faceless Internet giants who maintain the stuff for years […]

The iPhone accounted for almost 1 out of 1000 web page views according to a report in today’s Wall St. Journal and Ben Worthen’s post in the WSJ blog. That seems small but is remarkable given the still small number of iPhones out there and how recently it was introduced. It is evidence […]