Talking at Where 2.0 this week

While Bill & Steve debate at D, I will be talking at Where 2.0 on Wednesday. The topic... "Getting into the Car : Geo-located Information Breaks Free". It should be a fun session.

Facebook platform will be HUGE

I have spent the day thinking about and researching the new Facebook Platform. I am convinced that this is going to be HUGE, and that within 18 months Facebook will surpass MySpace as the #1 social networking site on the web. I also believe that dozens of start-ups will survive solely based on this platform. Big, Big, Big...

Free Start-up idea of the day

I have an idea or two a day for a start-up, and I am booked working on 3 companies (Dash, Shelfari, & MyTinyHands), so I am not looking to add a fourth anytime soon. Therefore, I am going to start blogging some of my ideas to see if they are interesting to anyone else.

Today's Idea - Using SMS to track business expenses. I would pay a few bucks a month for a service where I could SMS my business expenses as they happen, and then the service would automatically transform the messages into an expense report. I know I always forget $20 - $50 a month in business expenses like cabs, airport meals, etc... and this could save me lots of money.

Where is my killer Rhapsody Widget?

I use Rhapsody all day at work, and I am constantly jumping between applications to manage my music experience. What I need is a killer Rhapsody widget (built on Yahoo's or Google's engine) that will sit on top of other applications and make it simple for me to manage my music experience. Here is a simple set of features I would need:

- Skip a song
- Add a song to my library
- Switch channels or playlists
- Jump into my library to switch albums

So... come on Rhapsody, where are we at here. There was a widget created a long time ago for Yahoo! but it hasn't been updated in years... hook me up!

Gov't Bail Outs in Housing?

I am trying not to turn this into a "housing market blog", since my intent is to focus on technology, having said that, there is just too much here to keep my mouth shut. The State of California is considering getting involved an bailing out consumers who are in danger of entering foreclosure. The government should step aside and let the market deal with this issue.

Foreclosure data

This is the outcome of the dynamic I just posted about:

Housing Data

So I have long held the belief that the housing market is way over priced. My thinking is shaped by the rate at which home buyers were using "exotic" mortgages (read interest only / negative amortization, etc.) to buy the homes they wanted. I also believed that most people didn't fully understand what they were doing when they entered into these mortgages, which is why I think there will be a rash of foreclosures at all price points in the housing market.

Having said all that... why is that the data the press and government talks about is around median home prices and volume of houses sold? This is really meaningless data. What really matters, in my opinion, is the "income" (I am using income here as an approximation of the buyers ability to pay their monthly mortgage) of the buyer compared to the size of the mortgage taken. The housing bubble was fueled by "volume" and "median price" watchers, but if anyone analyzed the "income" of buyers compared to the mortgages they took out, it would have been CRYSTAL clear early on that is was a giant house of cards, the same way the stock market was a house of cards in the late 90's.

If anyone knows of a firm that analyzes data around buyer "income" and mortgage amount and structure, please let me know.

Microsoft

Paul Graham wrote a post called "Microsoft is Dead"... I was midway through reading the post when I had to go help my daughter with something, and I was thinking as I walked back to my computer... "This is *really* old news"... funny enough he ends the post saying that there will be two reactions... one where people say "don't underestimate Microsoft", and the other "this is old news"... great anticipation!

Housing again...

Silicon Valley seems to be in a housing bubble that just won't pop easily... but for all of you who think that SV housing is immune, please check out the following graph:


The above chart is for housing across the country, but I would love to see the same data for housing in Silicon Valley. I bet the index would be off the charts... literally.

How cool is this?!!!

A few hundred million later...

After flushing hundreds of millions down the drain in marketing & hardware subsidies, XM & Sirius finally did what anyone with half a brain would have done years ago, they announced their intent to merge. The combined company (if approved by regulators) should be able to significantly cut marketing, content, and hw costs. I am really looking forward to pouring over their financial statements after the deal closes to determine the synergies.

Dollar vs. Yuan

Since the Chinese government has allowed the Yuan to "float" (and I am using that term loosely) against the dollar the above is what has happened.

LinkedIn, worth its weight in Gold!

So I know there has a been a meme running around about the value of LinkedIn with respect to sourcing talent for job openings... and all I can say is that it is true. I posted a job opening for Shelfari, and I have gotten at least a dozen SOLID applicants. And all it cost Shelfari was $145 to post the opening!

Friday was a great day!

Yesterday was a BIG day... I will provide more info in the next few weeks.

Good Bye ESPN.com

I have had it with ESPN.com, and their continued use of ANNOYING pop-up ads. I will never visit their site again. CBS Sportsline... here I come. Don't let me down!

Short Rants

There are a few things bothering me these days, and I just need to get them off my chest:

1) Pop-ups - How does any self respecting website still run pop-ups? How are there ANY companies left who want to be associated with these incredibly annoying ads? I have stopped visiting websites that have pop-ups and I am considering dropping any relationship I have with companies that run pop-ups. If I see another Vonage or Netflix pop-up I will cancel my account with each of them.

2) Mid Season TV Show Breaks - It feels like 6 weeks since the last new episode of Heros aired. It feels even longer for Lost. These huge mid-season breaks KILL my interest in these shows. As if young male consumers like myself need another reason to ditch TV! One of the reasons I love 24 is that the season runs uninterrupted.

3) TV Shows Running 1 Minute Late - I HATE it when a TV show runs 1 minute long. It is a Bull Sh*t trick to F'up DVRs and other technologies... and it pisses me off. If this practice, which has been around for far to long, I am going to start boycotting these shows.

Pop goes the bubble

I have been talking about a housing bubble for some time now with friends and family... and today I got around to checking out Zillow for housing prices in California. All I have to say is "Pop"

Shelfari Blog Plug-in

Shelfari today has launched a simple blog plug-in that lets people embedded their book shelf into their blogs. Check out my "Top 10" books below:

Abbie "reading"

We started reading to Abbie A LOT when she was little, and at a really early age she could finish sentences in her favorite books. Then at around 2 years old she started to "Memorize" books, meaning she could recite them back page by page. Anyway, some family has expressed interest in seeing the video so here is a little video of her reading "The Little Mermaid" when she was around 26 months old... I realize that most people won't be able to understand every word she says, so at some point I will add subtitles ;-)

Shelfari is live

Tonight is the night! Shelfari has launched!

It is late, so I won't run on about the virtues of Shelfari, that is for tomorrow night. For now, I am just going to ask you to go to Shelfari.com and check out the rocking visual design of the site.

Also, you can keep tabs on what I am reading by checking out my personal shelf at:

http://www.shelfari.com/williamson