
Yahoo and Tumblr – Avoiding Commoditization by Association
So, it’s official – while many of us (especially on Twitter) waited and watched over the weekend after All Things D broke the story, Yahoo has agreed to buy content sharing platform Tumblr for $1.1 billion in cash. The analysis has been varied and thoughtful: why Tumblr’s exit is about 30% of what it might […]

The Entropy of Social Networks: Google Plus vs Facebook?
Yes, we have a new social network and I am a proud profile carrying member of the new elite created by an artificial scarcity of invites. A technique now pretty much a requirement for launching anything new that’s social with 2 benefits, the obvious bu…

Dear Big Companies: Please Stop Wrecking My Stuff.
Big company buys small social company. Several unremarkable years pass. Big company suddenly announces that they are sunsetting/shuttering/selling small company, now much diminished from lack of care and feeding. Rinse and repeat. I get that this happens – I get that cultures clash (AOL/TimeWarner, anyone?) and I also get that the initial innovation stagnation problem […]

The Real-Time Brand
As I write this, it is kickoff time for the Super Bowl, an event that galvanizes people as much as Bill O’Reilly does on a day to day basis. The Super Bowl is a brand, and while millions watch it, millions refuse to watch it, and hundreds of thousands are forced to watch it because […]