I'm a huge fan of Google Analytics... it's the best product out there in my mind. At AOL we had to use Omniture and I found it HORRIBLE compared to GA. Anyway, the How To team at Mahalo has created this AMAZING page on "How to use Google Analytics for Beginners." Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments
Om is hosting a great conference next week in SF... he's got an all star lineup. Should be a great event. It's gonna sell out so buy your tickets now!Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments
Today on Mahalo Daily we learn a bunch of YoYo tricks... very cool stuff.Vote for it on digg! (and don't be bashful sending me your diggs!).Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments
I'm a huge fan of Call of Duty and the new version, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, comes out tomorrow... we've got a whole crew of video came folks here at Mahalo that will be doing some live coverage of the release which you can track at our Call of Duty 4: Live Coverage page.Other pages you can watch and contribute to in real time include:COD4 Review COD4 Cheats COD4 Walkthrough COD4 Weapons COD4 Videos COD4 ScreenshotsPermalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments
This is a very cool... someone made a graphical representation of the users on Twitter called twitterposter. I'm the Mahalo flower on the top right. Veronica is to the left and down of me, and scoble right in the middle.so cute...Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments
The Mahalo Daily show starts today with a test drive of the Tesla Roadster... Veronica was VERY excited about this one and she told me that she wants Mahalo to buy her one (they run about $100k). I'm trying to come up with some sort of challenge for Veronica... like if she hits some absurd traffic numbers (suggestions?) we get her one.Vote on digg!Make sure you subscribe to the Mahalo Daily in iTunes right now!Join the Mahalo Daily Facebook GroupSubscribe via RSSSubscribe via iTunesSubscribe via EmailPermalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments
1. Craig Newmark is one of the smartest business folks I've ever met. I was watching CNN recently and they were talking about a women who had been either killed or attacked--I was half listening--by a person who tried to hire her for a job listed on Craigslist. Now, for any other online service it would have become a "MySpace killed this women" type discussion, as if a website or domain name could reach out from behind the monitor you're reading this on and strangle you. However, for Craigslist it was a different story. The anchor said something to the effect of "are the authorities in touch with Craig from CraigsList?" Brilliant. Craig has put him out there so much and has been so helpful for so long that the anchor on CNN a) knew who he was and b) gave him the benefit of the doubt. Take note people: being responsible for your brand on and offline is VERY important.2. I'm really tired of meeting the same folks over and over again. Dim Sum 2.0 on Thursday night really sent it home for me, and to acertain extent the same reasons were why I didn't go to The Lobby conference. Now, I love Dave Hornick, and I was really flattered to be invited. HOWEVER, spending $2,500 for a ticket to a conference with no agenda to spend time with 100 folks I already know really well and can take a meeting with at any time is, well, not so important to me right now. What's important to me right now, on a business and creative level, is meeting people I don't know. 3. In a related note, my favorite part of the TechCrunch40 event, which we are in planning stages for 2008 on, was meeting all these new companies and entrepreneurs. Getting to hear people's visions, hopes, dreams, and fears is really special and I don't take it lightly. The TechCrunch40 event took 10 days of my life--and those days are important when you're running a startup. Those days were well spent given the amazing insights and inspirations they gave me. For me spending the week up to the event with the presenting companies was like going to a Yoga retreat. It was pure Zen. I can't wait until next year!4. People get odd as they get older. I've started noticing this more and more both in myself and other people I know. They get locked into certain ways of doing things without even knowing it. The way our dry yourself when you get out of the shower, the way you read the newspaper, and the way you interact with people can all of a sudden--over 20 years--become set. I think it's important to change that and break the synapses in your brain. I think that's what Twitter did to me with regard to five years of blogging and what blogging did to me after 10 years of writing. Blogging let me communicate in a conversation tone and now Twitter has allowed me to speak in fragments. The next step is obviously to speak in gestures. 5. Looks like we lost the tape of the Gillmor Gang we tapped on Friday. It's a damn shame because EVERY member of the old Gillmor Gang was on the show and it was probably the best show ever ALMOST taped. I seriously think the GG is cursed... every time we try to bring it back something, or some lawsuit, comes and smacks it back down.6. I noticed that a number of other folks have picked up on my "Random thoughts from..." style of blog post. That's kind of cool.7. Had drinks with the Weblogs, Inc. team last night and I have to say in some ways I was depressing for me. Most folks have left the brands they helped build and the ones who stayed are dealing with, how do I say this in a nice way,umm... "challenges." Of course, it was inspiring at the same time because so many of the folks had moved on to bigger and better things, or were plotting bigger and better things. One of the great joys of my life is seeing the talented folks who I've hired over the years go on to do things that are 1,000x better than the things they did with me. Certainly there is a certain amount of ego-centrism involved in a statement like that, but truth be told I think that one of the things that happens when folks work with me is that they say "well, if Jason could make it happen why can't I." That's a perfectly reasonable statement and it's true. As I said at USC on Friday night when talking about entrepreneurship it's all about how many times you try because even a blind man can hit the ball if he swings the bat enough times. 8. The Knicks played a strong game last night against LeBron James and four other guys in Cavaliers uniforms. They lost, but they kept LeBron under 50 points, so I guess that's success. 9. The Knicks play again tonight against the Kevin Garnett-less Timberwolves. It should be a blow out... I'm just hoping the Knicks put up a fight.10. The Knicks have a great chance of making the playoffs this year... if Boston and New Jersey wind up involved in a betting scandal and get suspended for the season. 11. Seriously, I kid, I kid.... I love my Knicks, I've just set my expectations so low at this point that if the Knicks break 40 wins I'd be happy... that is, 40 games over the next two seasons. ZING! POW! Thanks everyone I'll be here for three more nights... do try the veal and take care of your waiter--those guys are working real hard for you.12. I'm off to LA.Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments
We have some serious nerd power at Mahalo, including our Editorial Director CK Sample. CK posted a flicker photo about something called Eye of Judgement, which is apparently a way to combine card and video games to create a nerd implosion. It never ends.Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments
1. I'm loving the Google + Everyone vs. Facebook smackdown... it's amazing that in one month's time social media has hit such a tipping point that the entire industry is spinning into a frenzy that, ultimately, will benefit users. 2. If you look at the social media timeline MySpace created a free-for-all open platform to take down Friendster, Facebook made their platform open to advertising and app developers to take down MySpace, and now Google and everyone is going open across networks to neutralize Facebook. What a chess match! The best part is that the space continues to move toward more open.3. We're taping a not-the-Gillmor Gang right now... the whole gang is on the line. This is my favorite hour of the week on a business level. I hope Steve Gillmor can keep it going. It's just such an amazing festival of discourse, debate, and friendship. It's like us sitting around a table having steaks and cigars until late into the night--every week. These are the good days boys... let's cherish them. Speaking of boys, why are there not girls on the Gillmor Gang?!?!? 4. New York City is packed. There are people everywhere, the subway is packed at all hours of the day, and cabs can't move to the point at which I had to get out of cabs 2x and get on the subway this trip! I've given up on cabs and moved to 100% subway... it's the only way to get around. 5. Dim Sum 2.0 last night was AMAZING! I thought it would be 10 folks who I already knew, instead 50+ folks showed up and I only knew five or six of them. I met so many interesting folks who were doing interesting things. A lot of developers, bloggers, media folks, and just hustlers trying to make something happen. I'm enjoying these FLASH Dim Sum Mobs over uber-conferences like Web 2.0 where I know everyone and it's all "very high level." Out industry is not about being "high level" it's about breaking things down and making it happen on the *street* level. I gots mad love for the streets yo! Let's do it again soon!6. Twitter has become my most essential communications tools--ever more than email and IM. Certainly more than social networks. If I could invest in one company (our side of Mahalo) right now it would be Twitter. I communicate with thousands of people all day long over Twitter and I've developed many more relationships thanks to Twitter than any social networking software--ever. 7. That being said, Facebook was an AMAZING tool for putting together the Dim Sum Flashmob... those cats really know how to build a great product--if only they would put the data in the email alerts! http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=191927528328. I've had 10+ serious meetings in New York... it's been great to have some many important organizations show interest in Mahalo and what we're doing. We've made so much progress I can't believe it's only been five months. 9. I've done six speaking gigs in 10 days--three at universities (USC, UCLA, and NYU). I love speaking to students... great energy. Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments
I love it! PayPerPost changed their name to IZEA today... a desperate move by a smarmy company that is the direct result of Google smacking down folks who sell paid links (which is what PayPerPost is--paid linking). The PayPerPost name might as well be "get your blog removed from Google Index" or "How to commit search engine Sepuku."I called it back in April... http://www.calacanis.com/2007/04/15/google-checkmates-payperpost/That being said, the CEO of PayPerPostIZEA, Ted Murphy, is one of the most stubborn and most delusional entrepreneurs I've ever met... I mean, the guy let me write "CalacanisCast" on his forehead.. come on! I'm sure he will keep changing his ideas around until a) something works or b) he runs out of money. I wish him luck and hope he moves from scams like convert marketing to transparent marketing.... and now we pray to the Google Gods:Google is good...Google is great...All hail the Google Gods for removing this plague from our village!We thank you Google for you love and kindness.Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments
There are two features I really hate about Facebook:1. Email alerts that force you to come back to the website. When someone posts to a wall, sends you a note, or posts do a group Facebook will send you a notification. That's great, except the notification email is like ten lines long and contains everything BUT THE MESSAGE. Here's the standard message... it's just such a waste of time.... UGH!!!Cathleen wrote something on the Wall for the event "Blogger Dinner & Drinks.To see what Cathleen wrote, follow the link below:http://www.facebook.com/n/?event.php&eid=19192752832#wall_postsThanks,The Facebook Team___Want to control which emails you receive from Facebook? Go to:http://www.facebook.com/editaccount.php?notifications2. Having to autoconfirm each friend request with a two step process. UGH. Can't I just accept folks like on Pownce with one click without all this fancy popup nonsense!?!?!? It's such a waste of time. I think Facebook is moving away from their efficient design and starting to get caught up in the short-term page view trap. I'm sure someone doesn't want to send the notes saying "oh, 8% of our traffic comes from those notes!" What they don't realize is that folks might use Facebook 20x more for emailing notes if it wasn't so horribly designed. Also, folks might add more friends, more often if it wasn't so poorly designed. If you want to build the best social network out there make it the easiest to use with the least page view refreshes. Please God.Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments
A group of folks are getting together for some dim sum in NYC tomorrow night. Details at the Facebook group here:http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=19192752832We are looking at three different locations right now:1. Chinatown Brasserie 2. Jing Fong3. Golden UnicornChinatown Brasserie is more expensive highend, Jing Fong and Golden Unicorn are old school madness. Anyone have thoughts? If you're coming RSVP at the Facebook group ASAP.40 folks have RSVPed already... crazy.Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments
The Mahalo Daily video show starts Monday with the wonderful Veronica Belmont. You can find the show at http://daily.mahalo.com (MahaloDaily.com forwards you there). You can subscribe here. The video is also on Facebook, where you can join the Mahalo Daily Group. Oh yeah, you can vote for the trailer on digg too.I'm REALLY excited about it!For those of you who don't know V, she was the rising star at CNET over the past couple of years. She started as an engineer, but her on-talent and knowledge of all things digital quickly brought her out from behind the camera. She became the co-host of Buzz Out Loud with my friends Tom and Molly, and quickly developed a very loyal fan base. Over the summer Veronica and I were talking about her booming career and I asked her if she would be interested in doing a daily show for Mahalo. The concept was pretty simple: every day talk about something you find really interesting that is related (broadly) to technology, internet culture, or the media.Basically, just be Veronica! She was looking for a project to focus her talents on and... well... the rest is history. It took us a little while to get the show to the point at which we felt it did justice to VB's past work and what her fanbase would want.... be three months later we're there, and Monday it starts! (remember, remember the 5th day of November!). The topics would be researched by our team of Guides before and after we taped the show. So, if our researches at Mahalo were doing search pages ("SeRPs," for search engine result pages) on Halo 3, playing a guitar, or the Tesla electric car, Veronica could then go do a show about those topics. In some cases Veronica might find something interesting (as she is very apt to do) and send that topic down to Mahalo researchers for further investigation. So, imagine mashing up a daily video show like WallStrip or RocketBoom and combining it with the Wikipedia or digg... or something like that. The metaphor is not perfect, but it doesn't have to be... I think you get the idea: show + research = goodness.Yesterday we released a fun trailer that I make a cameo in (don't worry, it's my first and last time on the show!). Starting Monday we'll be (almost) daily at four days a week. After some feedback we'll go to five. Some folks asked me "what does a daily video show have to do with a search engine?" Well, what does having a blog have to do with running a company? That's the question I would get every day four years ago when I said that every CEO/executive should blog. Today saying executives should blog sounds, well, obviously.In the future every company will have a video show, not just a blog.There is nothing like video to communicate a brand's value proposition than video. Imagine if Jetblue had a show about working at the airline? Well, Southwest Airlines does on A&E and it's really amazing! Now, Mahalo Daily is not going to be about the inner workings of Mahalo (we're not so vain.. sorry!), but it is going to be about what Mahalo is about: helping people. Our core value proposition at Mahalo is that we can help you find interesting, high quality stuff on the web. Some folks call it discovery. Our tag line is "we're here to help," and the Mahalo Daily will convey that message to folks in an entertaining, fun, and informative way. Again, it's not a commercial for Mahalo. It's entertainment that will stand on it's own, but after you watch the show if you want to go deeper we're going to have a bunch of links for you researched by our super motivated and growing team of Guides (both full-time and freelance). Really looking forward to where Veronica and Tyler take the show... I've seen the first 10 or so episodes and they're great. I'm sure with some feedback from the audience Mahalo Daily will become a must watch.Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments
