As great as it is that Tumblr allows users to share a song and other audio, there is a 10 MB limit. I run into this barrier from time to time. Most recently trying to upload Backwards Down the Number Line, the new single from Phish’s forthcoming album Joy. I’m sure we can all agree that there are some great tunes and audio tracks that are greater than 10 MB.

This music sharing aspect of Tumblr is gaining some traction, and I understand that hosting music takes server space and therefore is an expense.

But in this day and age I don’t think that hardware or server space should limit the utility of any product. I understand removing the 10 MB limit would be risky and increase costs, but let’s at least up it to 25 MB. Or, let users pay more for a premium audio-sharing products. Let users share some longer, more improvisational music. Jazz, segues, classical, and maybe even the occasional hour long podcast.

4 – 6 minute radio-friendly tunes are great, but there’s a whole lot of music out there to be discovered. Artists won’t let a 10 MB limit stop them in the studio, or on stage

Just a friendly suggestion, and tyranny may be too strong a word.  Tumblr is an interesting product and I look forward to watching it evolve.

Twitter URL Service Bit.ly Says No to Ads, Yes to Data-Mining News | Epicenter | Wired.com

I’m intrigued by bit.ly. It may be easy technology to replicate (at least the URL shortening part), but they were the early entrant into a growing market.

Their analytics is clearly their core. Twitter may have a giant Network, but they need to make more connections out of that Network to truly add value. Bit.ly is an example of a service that puts connections together and creates value. But they’ll have to think of something beyond just a Digg clone.

But bit.ly is dependent upon the Twitter service. As Twitter goes, so goes bit.ly. Not the best position to be in, until the service truly gains mass appeal (Google). Services like SEO, SEM, and a whole lot of other products are built on the Google platform. Twitter’s not there yet, and it’s early in the Real-Time search/data game.

It’s all about the Network.

Google’s Schmidt Leaves Apple Board – WSJ.com

“Unfortunately, as Google enters more of Apple’s core businesses, with Android and now Chrome OS, Eric’s effectiveness as an Apple board member will be significantly diminished, since he will have to recuse himself from even larger portions of our meetings due to potential conflicts of interest,” Mr. Jobs said in a press statement. “Therefore, we have mutually decided that now is the right time for Eric to resign his position on Apple’s board,” Mr. Jobs said.

This doesn’t sound very amicable. When you start a press release with “unfortunately”, you’re stating flat out that the party did not cave in to what you wanted. In this case, Apple’s request to Google to not enter Apple’s core businesses.  Apple’s core business is software.

Is Google a search company, an advertising company, or a software company?  Does a software company aim to make the world’s information universally useful and accessible?

I think an Internet software company does – Google is a software company.  The right software will make the right platform ubiquitous.  Google search is the right software to make the Internet what it is today.  In the past Mac software contributed to bringing the computer market where it is today, then Microsoft launched Windows, AND opened it up to multiple OEM’s.  The market is changing, and this move hints at the place for software in a web-based world.

The Yahoo-Microsoft deal is finally sealed.  The first part that jumped out at me is the 10 year agreement.

10 years is a LIFETIME in search.  The market is going to change, and this partnership does not guarantee a long-term, formidable Google competitor.

If Yahoo and MSFT don’t enhance their core product to improve the customer experience they will continue to lag behind the market leader.

What could the next 10 years bring?

• Smarter inclusion of image and video in search results.  Video and image search are still in their nascent stages.
• Inclusion of audio in search
• Far more personalized results
• Social results, what your friends clicked on
• Move towards the CPA model

It’s a big partnership, but the game is still far from over!

Yesterday IBM acuired SPSS for $1.2 billion.  SPSS is in the business of analyzing large amount of data and building models that look at the data in ways useful to a business.  IBM is smart to start providing tools and services to power the web-based world.

Software like SPSS will become more valuable as we move into a networked, Internet-based software world. Data mining is a key competitive component of  operating a network, in particular Internet businesses.

SPSS hits the sweet spot in the Network universe.  Be it a social network, ad network, or news network – how you create value out of your data is key to your business.  Sometimes called the network effect, Metcalfe’s law states (in general terms) that the value of a network increases exponentially as more users join. Here’s a snippet from Wikipedia on one aspect of the law:

In addition to the difficulty of quantifying the “value” of a network, the mathematical justification measures only the potential number of contacts, i.e., the technological side of a network. However the social utility of a network depends upon the number of nodes in contact.

Software like SPSS creates greater social utility by putting potential connection in contact.

Here are a few examples of how Internet companies create value from their network:

LinkedIn – Their “People You May Know” tool analyzes your network and predicts who you may know based on the properties of your network

Facebook – Suggested friends is based on the makeup of your friend network and their friends, and their friends friends, and so on.  It’s data mining turned cool.

Amazon - Their recommendation engine is a key reason they have been so succesful.  That engine is based on their network and what they buy.

Ad Networks – Use data on ad performance on network sites to show ads that are most likely to make the publisher money and be effective for the advertiser, based on real-time data.

Affiliate Window Blog » Affiliate Multi-attribution Model Discussed:

This is a blog post from a UK affiliate network about attribution and the “last click wins” model of affiliate marketing.  This means that the site that the consumer last clicked through before completing an action (usually a purchase) gets 100% of the advertiser commission.  Attribution refers to the question of how to credit for the action.

The attribution question in CPA advertising/affiliate marketing is a big one – and an important question in online advertising as a whole.  How do advertisers spread their marketing dollars equitably across the different sites that generate customers?  And how do Publishers get compensated fairly for their marketing efforts?

The ideal ad system would pay based on the impressions, clicks, and actions that all let to a consumer purchase.  Impressions drive brand awareness, clicks drive research, and actions close the sale.  Each of these steps is a part of the same consumer story.

Let’s say I go to the NYTimes.com on 7/1 and see an ad for a summer sale at The Gap.  It registers in my mind.  On 7/3 I do a search for “gap coupon” on Google.  I see a few good offers, click through a few to research, but don’t buy anything.  But – each click takes me closer to the completed action.  The next day  I stop at a Gap store and try out a new suit.  It feels right, I like the style, but then remember the coupon that I saw online.  I write down the product details at the store.  When I get home, I repeat the “gap coupons” Google search and click on a site.  From this site, I click through a 10% coupon to Gap.com.  When I get to Gap.com I input the product details, find the suit, and apply the 10% discount at checkout.  The last click gets paid the full commission amount.

In this scenario the consumer path is spread across numerous sites, but these sites are all part of different, closed networks.  They don’t talk to each other and therefore cannot be tied back to the same consumer story.  It’s still early, we’ll see how the online ad industry innovates to compensate based on the consumer journey.