MYBLOG by Ouriel

Got 5 million dollars? Go buy Israel.com

In the early days of domain registration Jean Noel Frydman acquired Israel.com to prevent mailicious usage of the domain. Today he decided to Sell it for a minimum price of 5.5 million dollars during the TRAFFIC conference that will take place in Orlando. He claims money won't do all and will eventually decided on the acquirer once he makes sure he's worth it.

I would doubt the Israeli government let this go. But after all why not? I met at the IVA conference a startup that has acquired Jerusalem.com (for a fair amount of money..) so will see.

FYI America.com will also be on sale at 5 million dollars price point

Via IsraelValley

Technorati Tags: domain israel.com conference TRAFFIC orlando israel

the 2 values of a consumer electronic device

I have learnt over time that the price of a consumer electronic device is not the most important aspect of its value. Most consumer electronic devices (take mp3 players, DVRs,...) come with a series of configurable parameters that helps this device become your device. You set the time of the clock, you change a couple of settings and menus, look and feel....this is obvious with anything that has a hard disk. Meaning nearly everything today.

Take your computer or your iPod. You buy it X dollars (and X * 1.5 if you buy it in Israel). But soon over time you load it with data, personnal settings, movies, pictures...And suddenly there is an emotional value that comes up which materializes in the fact that if you lost your computer or consumer device you would be more worried about the data and personal environment than the device itself.

I find myself in that situation and many companies have built a business out of the fact they enable you to "secure" what's valuable to you in a device (call it back up). A consumer electronic that has no back up capability is a big break in my view. Blackberry offers for example a full back up. But the iPhone is really poor in that sense. iTunes is supposed to help but it does not really back up everything and if you sync your iPhone with another computer you will loose a lot of data. I have a digital picture frame but there is no way i can back up the pictures i have uploaded there.

The price of a consumer electronic over time becomes insignificant. My personal environment becomes really what matters. If the manufacturer does not help me in keeping this safe, there is a big chance i will not come back to it later. The problem is that you only realize and understand  that once your machine crashes or when you switch to something new.

For me a great device is one which has backup and that enables me easily to port my settings to a new device. i don't know anything perfect in that sense. But anything getting close to that is a good driver to purchase for me.

update: i just had a brief exchange on Twitter with @tinythoughts and i think a good reference came to mind. The second value of a consumer device is the soul, meaning what matters to your heart. Like everything try to separate the body from the soul and you get nothing

Twitter Down? the ultimate way to be alerted when it is back

Unfortunately it happened again today. Twitter was down. Not just the API the whole site (seriously i can't understand that it really happens too often....).

Anyway here is a cool tip and tool in order to avoid wasting time going every 30 sec on twitter.com and check whether the site is back.

First before running that use DownJustForMe.com which will tell you if the site is really down

If this is the case use MrUptime a simple Firefox extension that will add the URL on a watch list. When the site is back you ll receive an alert (just like the one below) and you can go and surf again. Would be even cooler if i could get this over IM.

Tip: view all unread mail in your gmail inbox

i could not find a way to view in one page all my unread emails in my inbox spread over time and i have a few. I suddenly thought of using Gmail labels.

Here is the tip just add: "label: inbox, label: unread" in the search box.

press search

see what happens.

Message to Google team: this should be a feature, not a geeky problem....

gmail

My email is changing DNA

I have been experiencing an interesting switch lately in my email experience, a switch that more and more users i am sure are noticing and a switch that will accelerate including in the traditional features we already know.

What is happening is that my email is becoming naturally more than a message tool : a social dashboard. We all use emails to send and receive messages but with all those new social platforms we start to subscribe (sometimes without knowing) to all kinds of alerts related to the activity of our friends on those platforms: we receive request for new friends, alert when you are tagged in a photo, when a comment is posted in a blog, when someone wants to add you in Linkedin, when someone send you a message on Facebook and so on...There are even services like Twittermail that enable you to control twitter from your email

I would not count the number of messages i could put in that category and of course there is absolutely no way i could keep track of that activity by going each time to all those services and trying to spot the changes. So on one side this is invading but on the other this is time saving and improving usage efficiency. [Btw if you are overwhelmed with alerts all good services allow you to control the pace and in addition you can set rules to classify them efficiently in your email (Gmail is perfect for that)]

The WebMail as a central social platform

My point is the following: since my email is becoming the central place (and i think the best place) where i am receiving all those messages it is becoming and should become the best place for monitoring my social activity. Specially if you consider that email is being accessed more and more from mobile. The only problem is that emails systems are not built for embracing the social revolution

We already have there our contact list (which is supposed to be the most important one with our mobile phone) but it is not really leveraged, the alert rules need to be set in each service and manually configured in the email system in order to structure by service or folders. Extending that thought further i think the email which is becoming a central social nervous system, should have embedded news feed for friends (like FriendsFeed) which you can as an option receive by email). A news feed is nothing else than a message you are receiving in your inbox, just like an email. Email should be a lot more convenient to manage our invitations (both to send and accept/reject them). All social networks already offer an contact book import but why not go all the way and ask email providers to offer that to users to simplify their like where they need it most.

What i am saying in a word is that email should be re invented in the light of the new social landscape that stands before us. Is there an opportunity to beat Gmail in it own land? Can a startup do that? Will Gmail do it before others (a few hints are coming up, more about that here)?

A few new services are trying to bridge that need: i referred above to TwitterMail, Outwit is helping a lot for those who wish to twit from Outlook but in my mind the reference for now remains Xobni that brings social DNA within your email (in addition to be an amazing mail search far better than google desktop or even X1). It maps best contacts within your inbox and provides useful tools to better connect with them. This is only step1. But a good beginning (looking forward to their web based version for gmail)

An inevitable evolution to social mail

This will inevitably happen because this would improve dramatically the way we manage our digital life but also because Social platforms with their internal messaging system are used more and more instead of email being a threat to email providers. Email providers can't let that happen can't let that happen of course...

Email providers will have to become social or will die as a main communication tool becoming just one among other services.

Technorati Tags: email, socialnetworks

Startups: searching for more visibility? Think Plugg

It is now too late to apply to Lift Venture Night dedicated to showcase a selection of the finest European startups (no Israeli startups there, what a shame). But don't worry other events are coming up in Europe that can bring you quality visibility and networking if Europe is your plans.

Next up is Plugg that will be hold in Brussels March 19. They organize a Startup Rally whose jury i will be part of. If you are interested you can register here

Thanks to Robin Wauters for his invitation to participate

Technorati tags: internet, conference, plugg, belgium

Congrats to Conduit

Israeli Conduit just raised a series B with Benchmark reports TechCrunch. They have impressive metrics (with 12million + installs) although i would be curious to know how many of them are active. I am definitely not a target user since i hate toolbars and prefer adding FireFox plugins to my browser and leave as much space as possible for viewing and browsing.

But  web toolbars are a very popular tools. All big players have one (Google Yahoo and MSN fight to bring one on your computer) and most strong internet brands want one for themselves making Conduit a relevant service for them

I am not sure why they claim to be an alternative to start pages like NetVibes and PageFlakes. I must miss something.

But anyway congrats to this israeli startup that is on a good track and special congrats to my friend Galia that recently joined them from ICQ to manage their Biz dev.

Writing this note i am realizing this is not the firsrt time an israeli startup try to bring toolbars to the masses. Another one tried also, very differently: HotBar that was acquired

Technorati Tags: conduit, toolbars

Video: One of the most inspiring speech i have ever heard

A must see for all entrepreneurs. Actually for anyone. By Steve Jobs of course.

Technorati tags: stevejobs, apple, stanford

What email sound alert do you prefer?

I was tired of this sound.

Boring Alert that everyone has

So i found a new cool one

Cool Alert less stressful

i found it there and it is really cool

Technorati Tags: sound, email, alert, cool, free, outlook

The WOW effect of Imagini

Sometimes i get this WOW effect. Last time was for ENSO. Today is for the new imagini service called Christmas Gift Finder which suggests you gift ideas based on a short visual test. The user interface is just stunning (maybe a bit heavy on top right).

I also suggest you take their personality test which is really well done and will draw your visual DNA in a few seconds. You can also compare with millions of other users which is fun.

The user experience registration process and simplicity of the service deserves a full 10/10

 

Read my VisualDNA™     Get your own VisualDNA™

 

Technorati tags: imagini, friends, discovery, christmas