The Latest from TechCrunch |  |
- How Email Apps Will Help You Learn To Love Your Inbox Again
- Who Breaks A Twitterer Upon A Wheel?
- The Phone Call Is Dead
- How Durable Are Information Monopolies On The Internet?
- Three (Lousy) Photos Look To Be The First Taken With The Nexus S
- Photo Reveals That Google Is Still Baking Android Gingerbread — Literally
- Down Goes Arrington: WordPress.com Getting Top Author Stats Shortly
- You’ve Got FMail
- Hi, Mom. Welcome To 1995
| How Email Apps Will Help You Learn To Love Your Inbox Again Posted: 14 Nov 2010 07:36 AM PST
Email has taken over our lives, and most of us hate it. But a new generation of email apps are changing how we interact with the inbox, and on Monday Facebook might even join the party. The inbox of the future is going to look a lot more like Facebook than the one you’re using today—but it’s also going to do a lot more. Thanks to these apps, you’ll learn to love your email again. Here are four ways your inbox is changing, with some of the services that are making it better: 1. Rich Desktop of Apps New APIs are making it easier for companies to transform your inbox from an ordinary list of messages to a rich desktop of apps that act on the fertile information in your email. These apps make your life easier by letting your inbox do more. For the most part, these apps take advantage of the biggest trend in email innovation today: Gmail. Gmail is already eating into Outlook’s dominance as the number one mail client in the world. But Facebook might also join the fray, and we all know they can develop an app ecosystem. Either way, app developers win, and you win. Take a look at some of today’s email apps to see what the next generation inbox looks like:
2. Better Notifications Display Here’s where your inbox can learn from Facebook. One solution: a mail client that handles these transactional emails better. Don’t put them in my inbox, but instead throw them in a sidebar with an icon and display the number of new notifications. I couldn’t find any apps solving this problem today, but I’m sure they are around the corner. 3. A UNIX-like Shell Thanks to one group of apps, your email is becoming a UNIX-like shell to run commands and interact with services via the compose window. You don’t have to visit the apps’ websites to use their services. You can now get things automatically done just by sending an email. Will Facebook let us do this? Let’s wait and see. These startups are riding two major trends. First, thanks to email delivery services like SendGrid, these companies don’t have to manage their own mail servers to receive incoming commands. Also, the increasing proliferation of smartphones today gives us email wherever we go. Once a company launches an email-as-an-interface service, voilà! They already have a mobile app. A few apps to keep your eye on:
4. Convenient Publishing and Editing Your inbox is the world’s most underrated text editor. Format text, add colors, change fonts, attach photos and videos in your compose window. Thanks to smartphones, email is the text editor that’s always with you. (This article you’re reading was composed and formatted in Gmail.) Posterous, which makes blogging easier by letting you post from your inbox, was one of the first apps to recognize the power of email as a text editor. This is where your inbox will surpass Facebook for your professional life. Soon you’ll be able to edit spreadsheets, make presentations and access your other work documents from your inbox. In other words, you’ll get more things done with the interface you already use all day and are familiar with. Loving your Inbox Again Our inbox is over-worked and under-appreciated. It’s central to most of our communication with the world and where we keep track of contacts and tasks. Smartphones lessen our separation anxiety with our inbox, letting us take our email wherever we go (even when you gotta go to the bathroom). CEOs and grandmothers worldwide send emails. It’s about time we stopped fighting it and learned to love it. With email apps like these, our inbox is becoming our hub of personal productivity, much like Facebook is already the platform for social interaction. Whether or not Facebook can impress enough to replace your current mail client is the zillion-dollar question. Either way, our inbox is coming back and apps that help us filter and manage all the incoming messages are the only thing that will keep us sane. Editor’s note: Ajay Kulkarni (@acoustik) is the CEO and Co-Founder of Sensobi, a service that lets you manage your personal relationships from your inbox and smartphone (currently in private beta). Sign up for their beta invite waiting list at http://www.sensobi.com/.        
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| Who Breaks A Twitterer Upon A Wheel? Posted: 14 Nov 2010 04:11 AM PST
In 1968 William Rees-Mogg, as editor of The Times newspaper, quoted Poet Alexander Pope, for an editorial about the “Redlands” court case brought against the Rolling Stones. The Stones had been partying at a house, whereupon they’d been busted by the Police for possessing a small amount of drugs. The case resulted in prison sentences for Rolling Stones members Keith Richards and Mick Jagger. But Rees-Mogg’s Times editorial came to the Stones defence, concluding “If we are going to make any case a symbol of the conflict between the sound traditional values of Britain and the new hedonism, then we must be sure that the sound traditional values include those of tolerance and equity. It should be the particular quality of British justice to ensure that Mr. Jagger is treated exactly the same as anyone else, no better and no worse. There must remain a suspicion in this case that Mr. Jagger received a more severe sentence than would have been thought proper for any purely anonymous young man.” Swap out “new hedonism” for “the new social networking” and you find that the public nature of social networks is causing a disconnect in British society which has implications for our freedom of speech.        
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| Posted: 13 Nov 2010 11:45 PM PST
My original title for this post was “The Phone Call Will Be Dead In __ Years” but as consumer inertia is somehow still keeping our parent company Aol in the dialup business, I thought it might be prudent not to include an ETA on the death of the call. Less obsolete but more annoying than a handwritten letter, the phone call is fading as a mode of communication even if the nostalgic will be singing its praises for awhile. We reached a breaking point in 2008 when text messaging topped mobile phone calling in usage, and we’ve been living in a world dominated by text based communication ever since (Thanks Twitter). If old media has taught us anything, it’s that it takes most industries at least a generation to be completely disrupted, especially something as powerful as Big Telco. But we are definitely on our way there. According to Nielsen data, voice usage has been dropping in every age group except for those past the of age of 54. Text is just easier.
Interest in voice calling is now sharply differentiated by age, and few technological advancements have ever survived while failing to capture the interest of 22 year olds. Mike likes to rub it in MG’s face that the iPhone can’t actually make calls due to terrible AT&T reception, but the truth is that we iPhone users (and to greater extent smartphone users in general) are not primarily using our phones to make calls. We may carry around things we call “phones” but to us they’re just pocket-sized computers. MG’s response to Mike, “It doesn't need to. I use the phone mostly for apps and browsing, not calls.” On background: MG is in his 20s and Mike is around 40. As if we needed more proof, MobileCrunch editor Greg Kumparak’s AT&T usage data is indicative of the voice habits of an entire generation.
Sorry Telcom industry, we are increasingly provided with reasons to not use your voice services. While still not exactly mainstream, we now have access to a plethora of free, internet-based calling options like Google Voice. When I’m interviewing startups and ask to “get on a call” they usually direct me to their Skype usernames. When I do cold call someone for information (and am more often than not directed to an automated message) companies send back their responses via email. And I have countless times declared a fatwa on PR people who think it’s cool to cold call me, especially before 9 am. It’s not just job related calls that are annoying. The other day somebody from my bank called me to talk about my 401K. Fair enough. The problem is I wasn’t exactly expecting the call as I only get 3 or 4 a week now. And I picked up right as I was trying to write a post breaking news (One thing a phone call does signify is EMERGENCY). I ended up mumbling something rude and hanging up on the person. I still don’t even know what a 401K is even though I’m sure I’ll eventually get around to Googling it.
The saddest thing is that since I became a millionaire in the TC/Aol sale (not) it really is about time I started to do stuff with my money other then pray that I’ll still have a paycheck tomorrow. That phone call might have actually provided me with useful information had its unabashed interruption not been so abhorrent. Ideally, here’s how that interaction should have gone down: Chase Bank should have sent me an EMAIL about the fact that it noticed I had more money in my account, with a link directing me to my 401K option plan. There I could decide BY READING and not listening to some customer service rep’s scripted drivel on what plan was right for me. Now, as it stands, I’ve got a random phone number in my Stickies that I will never call back. I won’t give a second thought to my 401K until I’m up late at night surfing the Internet and find out it’s like important five years from now. What’s maybe sadder than the 401K episode is what this phone call generational schism means for people who are older than you. Much like Mike thinks his mom is silly for using chain emails to get in touch, I dread the inevitable Sunday phone calls from relatives I have to return lest they think I’m dead. I wish they would just @reply me on Twitter or something. Instead I’ve now got 18+ voicemails I have no desire to deal with. Maybe I should start making people write me handwritten letters?
Teaser image: Alexandre Dulaunoy        
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| How Durable Are Information Monopolies On The Internet? Posted: 13 Nov 2010 10:17 PM PST
Does the Internet tend towards natural monoplies? Columbia Law professor Tim Wu makes a strong argument that it does in an Op-Ed in this weekend’s Wall Street Journal. While there is plenty of diversity on the Internet and few barriers to setting up shop, he points out that category after category is dominated by a single firm: Google, Facebook, Amazon, Skype, Twitter, Apple, and eBay. Wu writes:
If you define a market narrowly enough, it is easy to make any company look like a monopoly. But let’s concede that the Internet creates a lot of winner-take-most, if not a winner-take-all, situations. (A company can effectively have monopoly power without technically owning 100 percent of the market). The bigger question is: How durable are information monopolies on the Internet? The same factor that gives rise to these monopolies so fast can prove to be their undoing: the lack of friction. Switching costs are almost nonexistent for most products on the Internet. Every single competing product or service is literally just a click away. If there is one thing that locks us in, it is ourselves. It is the network effects at play across the Internet which help build up these natural monopolies faster than they otherwise would. Wu makes a deliberate point of this:
The more people who use Google’s search, the better it becomes; the more people on Facebook, the more you need to be on it too; the more people who sell on eBay, the more buyers it attracts, and so on. Certainly information monopolies do exist and can persist. Look at Microsoft’s everlasting hold on desktop operating systems. But the half-life of market domination seems to be dwindling. AT&T ruled for 70 years, Microsoft ruled for maybe 25, so far Google has ruled for 10. Will Facebook rule next, and of so, for how long? Monopoly is a big, bad, evil word, but not all monopolies are bad. One of the main reasons monopolies were regulated in the first place was because of their pricing power, but today’s information monopolies provide many of their services for free. It’s hard to argue consumer harm when consumers either aren’t paying much or are paying very little. (Amazon, for instance, maintains its dominant position in ecommerce through low prices). Many information monopolies today are more interested in collecting our data than taking our money. The stronger argument is that information monopolies discourage competition, and that ultimately will limit choice and innovation. Look at search. You’d have to be crazy (or Blekko) to launch a search startup today and try to go up against Google. But that brings us back to the durability issue. If Google’s power is transitory because it missed the boat on social, then does it really matter whether it holds near-monopoly power in search? While it is a good idea to remain vigilant against the rise of any information monopolies, the Internet will keep moving faster than the law or regulations can keep up. Photo credit: Flickr/ Chris Smart        
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| Three (Lousy) Photos Look To Be The First Taken With The Nexus S Posted: 13 Nov 2010 05:47 PM PST
The other day, Engadget got the first photos of the Nexus S, Google’s sequel to their Nexus One phone. Now it looks like we may have happened upon the first photos taken with the device. If you look in this Google Picasa album, you’ll see three random photos that appear to be of nothing. But if you click on the photos themselves and hit the “more info” button, you’ll see one very interesting thing about these lousy photos: each list the camera as “google” and the model as “Nexus S”. Each of these photos was taken last Friday and Saturday, November 5 and 6, presumably from inside Google (they’re not geotagged). We know that the company is currently dogfood testing the device, but roll-out to the general public has been slightly delayed. It would seem that this album (and account) is just a for camera tests (the last one for color specifically). One thing that will disappoint some: the camera appears to only be 5 megapixels. But that’s in-line with Engadget’s report that the Nexus S is the Samsung GT-i9020, which has a 5 megapixel camera. Next time Google, might we suggest that you select the “private” photo option on your photo product?
       
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| Photo Reveals That Google Is Still Baking Android Gingerbread — Literally Posted: 13 Nov 2010 05:16 PM PST
I know, I know. The indications were that the next version of Android, 2.3, was supposed to be out already. It has been nearly a week since an OHA member tweeted that the Nexus One would be getting the Gingerbread OTA update in “the next few days“. So far, nothing. But Google is doing their best to keep whetting everyones’ appetite. Yesterday, the search giant sent out a tweet from their mobile account (yes, the one they paid to promote on Twitter two days ago). The tweet read, “Our cafes are baking something sweet”, and contained a link to a TwitPic of dozens of gingerbread Android cookies. Cute Google, cute. It’s been three weeks since Google put the giant Gingerbread Man on their lawn. By the way, the metadata on the picture shows that it was taken with a Nexus One (and not the mythical — and delayed — Nexus S). No word on if it was powered by Gingerbread. Perhaps Google is just timing the launch of Gingerbread to take some of the wind out of Facebook’s sails. After all, the social network is set to launch their email-killer on Monday.  @GoogleMobileGoogle Mobile Our cafes are baking something sweet http://twitpic.com/3682u2        
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| Down Goes Arrington: WordPress.com Getting Top Author Stats Shortly Posted: 13 Nov 2010 04:25 PM PST
WordPress.com’s Stats area gives you a solid overview for how your blog is doing overall. And unlike Google Analytics, the data is up-to-the-minute fresh. You can see your top posts, top referrers, top search engine terms, top clicked links, and a few other things. One thing it doesn’t have though is the ability to see how each author is doing in terms of traffic to their posts. In other words, it’s lacking in the vanity department. But that’s coming shortly. WordPress founder Matt Mullenweg shot us over a quick snapshot of the new feature that they’re cooking up. As you can see, it will be a new box that shows you the Top Authors alongside the others like Top Posts, etc. The top ten list also shows you corresponding traffic numbers (I’ve removed those in the screenshot) and apparently the total number of your posts getting traffic on any given day (at least I think that’s what the number is parentheses is). Obviously, I’m happy because I’m at the top. But that’s just for today (plus, I clearly have a huge back catalog, so it’s a little unfair). Sure, there are a range of other plug-ins for WordPress that offer similar functionality, but now the vanity element will be fully baked into WordPress’ real-time analytics system. This is a nice addition for larger multi-author blogs. Previously, it has been kind of a pain to get these numbers in an accurate way. Mullenweg notes that this feature should roll out in the next week or so.        
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| Posted: 13 Nov 2010 01:12 PM PST
I still use email all the time. Or rather, it uses me. I watch colleagues at work (Salesforce.com) bounce back and forth from Outlook and Gmail, selecting, reading, skimming, and oh yes, deleting, deleting, deleting. You have to do that in Outlook, to stay ahead of the Mailbox is Full message. Gmail, not really, but it's hard to break the old habit. And recently I had to start paying for that privilege, when Google stopped raising the limit and converted me to a cloud customer. But that's basically a methadone program, maintenance without getting high. I work for the Man — email. It doesn't work for me. Search has replaced email as the quickest path to information on demand, and increasingly the most valuable repository is the stream. Search plus stream is Track, and email notification is the delivery mechanism du jour. Email has been taken over by notifications of events from the stream. Facebook comments, FourSquare and PlanCast follows, YouTube subscriptions, Twitter direct messages, so much stuff it's turned spam into some odd historical horse and buggy data type. What happens now is that these stream objects are lit up with transactional properties. Code gets run based on incoming events, pulling it out of the teeming inbox before we see it and converted into actions predetermined by our inference engines and workflow rules. "If Retweet equals Member of Strategy Group, add to midmorning direct message queue." "If Silverlight press conference transcript feed contains question from Mary Jo Foley, route to broker queue with Unload flag." And so on. This is not AI or smart computing; it's harvesting social signals in the context of realtime economics. This is how the television networks have been making their money for years, pushed out to access by every business and business person. Watch how Conan harnesses the social wave to shoot to the top of the ratings, by redefining the ratings around the highly desirable data type of the transactional micromessage stream addict. (This happened on Monday.) On TBS, no less. Ted Turner's old flagship, built with CBS reruns and an over-80 demo, now sucking up the CoCo crowd. You kids, get off my lawn. If Facebook reinvents email by submerging it in the stream, they'll have something to announce. Meanwhile, Google continues to eat away at its notion of inevitability — panic bonuses and multi-million dollar retention offers mixed with data withholding gambits. It never occurred to anyone that the data we give Google was valuable until they started hoarding it. We've known all along that Facebook was locking it up until they had so much momentum it didn't matter, and now Google is blaring the news that it's too late to stop them. Google really gets in trouble when the widgets take over. I love my Gmail screen, with its GTalk/AIM IM presence lights going green and chat streams orange as Twitter tracks and FriendFeed conversations stream in. But the Chatter, Skype, and Facebook toaster popups and push notifications on my iPhone and iPad are slowly but surely relegating email further and further back in the pack. RockMelt is creeping in from the Edges, and Gmail is getting eaten alive by so many carpenter ants. Gmail is Google's Achilles Heel, it suddenly seems. It heralded the beginning of the Cloud Era, by dismantling Microsoft's aura of invincibility. You can't do that, cried the Sinofskyites, and then they did it. On demand email, you know, Office 365. But Google made the classic mistake of not checking their rear view mirror while blowing past the Borg. Wave, Buzz, Me, whatever. Forget Bing, forget the 10% raises, forget downloading the social graph and cloning it. If Google Classic is undermined, then it doesn't matter what else is coming. If Facebook blows past email, Gmail looks like Google Reader all of a sudden.        
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| Posted: 13 Nov 2010 10:49 AM PST
Hey Dad, will you please print this out for Mom? Thanks. I remember the first time I fired up Netscape on a computer in the library of the law firm I had just started working at in 1995. I think I went to Yahoo and clicked on some things, and called it a day. For the next year the Internet was mostly about receiving and forwarding email jokes. Some of my friends were really excited about being joke “hubs.” Thank God that’s all history. Jokes are rarely forwarded by email any more. It’s been replaced with spam. Anyway, back to my mom, who occasionally shows up here in a cameo appearance. Until this year the Internet was a theoretical thing for my mother. If she needed something from it she’d use a verbal query, something like “Jack (my dad), will you look up Oprah Winfrey’s tv schedule for me?” Or whatever. If I wanted to send her an email I’d send it to my dad and he’d print it out for her and then type back whatever she said after reading it. I honestly considered getting her one of those ridiculous Presto printers. Instead I bought her an iMac and my dad showed her how to do email. She’s now proudly in control of a very nice comcast.net email address. And since then, for months and months now, I receive an email a day from my mom with a 1995-era joke, usually of the sickeningly cute variety. Or an email admonishing me to “be nicer to people in your posts.” Like these (all actual emails from my mom):
and
and
Of course I’ve shared this with the TechCrunch team internally as a sort of cathartic exercise. Apparently I’m not the only one with relatives living in another era:
What to do? Never let her find out about Twitter and Facebook, that’s what. I love you, Mom, I really do. I’ve never once hit “report spam” on one of your emails, and I save them all. Just…please…stop.        
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In recent days Britain has started to resemble an earlier era of intolerance. People are using social networks like Twitter and Facebook to be themselves, but the Police, the judiciary and the Establishment are showing worrying signs of not understanding this shift in society. Two recent cases, the “Twitter Joke Trial” and the “
Well looky what we have here.
If 75 percent of my day is spent writing, the remaining 25 percent is probably going over TechCrunch stats. I’m obsessed with it. That’s why I do so many posts about things like Chrome getting ready to 
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