A Swedish/British entrepreneur in Berlin, trying to make it happen

So, the possibility of using Google services directly from the Firefox Google search bar is of course really nice. For example writing ” 100 USD to SEK” lands you on the Google results page with the result of the currency conversion (from us dollars to Swedish kronor” nicely displayed at the top of the page). This saves you a few clicks and is one of those things that makes me smile everytime I use it.

However, I recently discovered another nice feature that even saves you the single click necessary in the conversion case. Using Google suggestions in combo with their calculator you can actually get the results of your query straight in the search bar – without even performing the search (at least as it would appear).

For instance, try typing “how many weeks per month” into the search bar and, voilá, the suggested result of 4,34 is instantly displayed. It appears that this works with any operation that the Google Calculator can perform so in effect it turns your search bar into a little calculator that also understands literal questions (albeit a limited selection).

Pretty sweet. Reminds me that I should check this page more often.

Ipsos released their 3rd Annual TEMPO Digital Music Brandscape Study yesterday. Not that much is surprising, iTunes gains awareness, Napster drops a little. However what is interesting is of course the skyrocketing awareness of MySpace as a fee based digital download provider. From the study:

Perhaps the most significant development this year was the strong gain in awareness of MySpace, which jumped from 16% to 54% in just one year.

This suggests that the best strategy for competing in this increasingly crowded and commoditized market will be to court those market segments that may be currently underserved, possibly by focusing on service enhancements that are currently not offered on the well-known websites. These efforts will not only help to differentiate new striving brands from iTunes’ current brand strength and appeal, but may also attract potentially more loyal segments of digital music users who are interested in more specialized niche features than just core functionality.

Thanks to hypebot.

Flickr just released some updates. Looking even nicer than before!

Among the new stuff is the possibility to create “Collections” i.e. combinations of several sets. Nice mosaic overview included.

Next really interesting feature is the possibility to customise page layout. Looking forward to see how different groups of people start using different layouts as their “local standard”.

Mika has some slides about issues of TCP communication on mobile devices today and the problems we have to overcome in order to establish mobile presence according to how we believe users want to use it.

For me, many of the issues tend to be mentally solved by thinking, well, soon we´ll have flat-rate 3G phone plans moving us into always-on mode with our phones (much like broadband did to the desktop/laptop). However, even if this might be next-years reality, as Mika indirectly points out, it doesn’t solve everything. Apart from not necesarrily being true, there is the problem of power consumption and the fragmented 3G coverage among a multitude of potential issues. In Sweden, as in Finland, the 3G coverage is still patchy and the phone ping-pongs between 2 and 3G frequently and thus of course breaking the connection. Thus, TCP and reliability of message deliverance is greatly compromised by the constant threat of network break-down.

In a presence application this might not be a problem, from the use-case point of view, since the messaging is somewhat asynchronous and fragmented in involvement and response (unlike IM). In other words the delay of not receiving updates while being “offline” in a 2G spot doesn’t matter much. However, battery consumption still does. And, as Mika points out, there needs to be repositories of sent information that stores or caches the info before making damn sure it is not deleted before it has been fully received.

Anyway, on a similar note, Hutchison/3 started pushing teen-targeted advertising for MSN messenger for mobile recently (well, rather a few months ago). I’d be really interested in knowing what experiences the teens have had with this. I’m assuming that the potential break of connection while in the midst of an IM discussion is pretty annoying. However, who engages in an ongoing uninterrupted IM conversation on a mobile platform anyway?

As I see it today, the way Jaiku works is truly ideal. Updates via the cell phone is done when the user has the possibility. Conversations via comments are intrinsically asynchronous and furthermore stored in the online feed. The use of the cell phone as a tool for “checking in” to see what has happened when I have the opportunity appears as perfect with the way general mobile usage is conducted. Even if next year gives us flat-rate always on mobile presence the demanded granularity of update frequency can hardly be higher than the potential delay until entering 3G coverage. Or can it?

BTW - If you have any stories, stats etc about the teens experiences with mobile messenger, let me know!

Yes! Been awaiting this one. From the Jaiku blog:

We’re launching a new release of Jaiku today at O’Reilly Emerging Telephony 2007 in San Francisco.
The Web site at www.jaiku.com now shines with a new design, and the much-awaited Jaiku Mobile Beta for Nokia S60 3rd Edition phones is also available for free download as of today.

So, as of today Jaiku is up on my e61 and working pretty well! The site update is nice to! Looking forward to my new n95 and phone-plan in order really use Jaiku constantly - which I undoubtedly will.

Congratulations and great work Jyri!

Btw - some nice comments over at O’Reiley in case anyone missed it.

According to Techcrunch it appears that iLike is growing, and fast…

Later today music social network iLike will report that they’ve reached half a million registered users in the first four months since launching. What won’t be disclosed, but I’m hearing from insiders, is that around 20,000 new users are joining daily.

Admittedly, their iTunes integration is pretty damn slick but I still can not see myself engaging in a meaningful way with the service. The design of the site is clear and well-structured but also, well, boring. Music is about entertainment, passion and culture and for me the site simply gives no vibe.

I believe it is crucial for any social app out there to choose between two main paths when considering what the site should communicate to its users. Either step back or step forward. What I mean is simply that you have to either create a feel and identity of your site that is engaging in itself or either step back and let the users (in e.g. profile pimping) set the atmosphere. iLike desperately falls in between the two by not providing a compelling feel for itself or its users.

This is further reflected when actually browsing around the site. I simply can not feel the social factor at all. The other users do not give enough social cues (or rather are prohibited to) of their personality to interest me. With the people-surfing factor left out the algorithmic music recommendation is all that is left and this simply doesn’t come close to last.fm.

Anyhow, it’s very interesting to see that iLike has grown so fast and I am quite amazed by how many “non-techies” i know that have asked me if i know about the service. Obviously somebody is doing something right.

On a side note I´d love to see stats of how the “free song download” is doing. The few times I have previewed a recommended track that is free my old gut feeling of free-as-in-not-good-enough-to-pay-for gets boosted. Slightly sad. Wouldn’t it be nice if the free stuff was just as good as the not-free?

I completely missed this tragic tragic news. Alice Coltrane has been one of my favourite musicians for a long time and I seriously don´t know how many times I´ve been at a fantastic place of nature such as a glacier or volcano crater and pulled up my iPod so that I could enjoy the experience with Alice Coltrane as my soundtrack. I remember the pure bliss of standing on a mountain top in Petra, Jordan, looking out over the whole red-stone city listenting to Alice Coltrane’s “Om Supreme“. Amazing stuff, exceptionally tragic that she is gone.

So, the new “under construction” web-page is blog-post stating “I am really going to start blogging again” and not to be worse than anyone else, here we go. Let’s start blogging again. First of, the mandatory, personal update post.

Life is pretty much kick-ass at the mo. Got a brand new world class start-up in the pipeline, finishing of the final touches on Eric’s and my book on Trust on the web (out later this spring), my degree is just about complete, I´ve had the chance to do some really interesting consulting and as always the tech-scene looks like the coolest things ever are just around the corner. So many great people and great projects around me and on top of that I´m slowly realising once again that being single is actually not that bad!

Looks like Eric and I will be giving a presentation at Kiasma, in Helsinki during PixelAche later this spring. Should be a great experience since many friends will be there and we´ll get a change to see Hinke’s latest visually augmented DJ skills. If you’re going drop me a line…

On the web I´m really liking picnik.com and the integrated use of the iSight in my MacBook makes me think of all the nice sites and apps arriving soon that will really explore the potential of this. Photo-tagging objects someone?

Here it is, the first stupid mobile blog post written and sent from my new nokia e61!

Just got some new books over at Adobe secondhand bookshop

• Nicholas Negroponte: Being Digital
• Esther Dyson: Release 2.1

Have no idea if either one is any good yet… Time will tell.