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Tag Archive for 'robert_scoble'

Is there even a short-term gain for Viacom here?

Published

on 16/3/2007

. 5 Comments

Much has been said about the fact that Viacom are suing Google for $1bn because YouTube (now owned by Google) hosted Viacom copyrighted shows.

Technically, Viacom are well within their rights to sue Google for this copyright infringement but what good does it do Viacom, apart from adding up to $1bn to their bottom line, if they win?

They will have lost massive goodwill and a ton of free PR! How much traffic was YouTube sending to Viacom and how much free publicity were Viacom shows receiving by being featured on YouTube?

Robert Scoble, speaking on this topic the other day said:

PodTech tried that strategy. To watch my videos you used to have to go to PodTech. Then in January we let go a little bit of our controlling attitude and made a player that you can embed on your own site. What happened?

Traffic tripled.

Traffic tripled.

PodTech, by allowing people to place in their blogs PodTech’s copyrighted videos, tripled their audience.

Viacom on the other hand have forced YouTube to take down Viacom’s copyrighted videos and are suing YouTube.

Is there even a short-term gain for Viacom here?

Another Scoble in the works!

Published

Tom Raftery

on 5/3/2007

in Technology

. 0 Comments

I see Maryam and Robert Scoble are announcing that they are expecting a baby sometime this September.

Great news guys - sincere congrats.

Salim launches Confabb

Published

Tom Raftery

on 13/11/2006

in IT@Cork

. 0 Comments

My good buddy Salim has taken the covers off his latest venture Confabb and it has received a glowing review from TechCrunch, amongst others.

Confabb is a conference aggregation and organisation site. It has a database of over 16,000 conferences and the ability to log in and add more or use the site to help plan a conference.

Robert Scoble has posted a great interview with Salim where Salim talks about how they brought the site to launch without spending any money!

I’m looking forward to seeing Salim when he comes back to Cork for the 2006 it@cork conference to speak about global domination on a limited budget - an apt talk for Salim, methinks!

Can Google Reader scale the Great Firewall of China?

Published

Tom Raftery

on 6/11/2006

in Blogging, RSS, Search Engines, Web 2.0 and WordPress

. 11 Comments

Jeremiah Owyang is on a trip to China at the moment. He put up a post on his blog the other day saying he couldn’t access Robert Scoble’s blog from inside China - it seems to be blocked by the Great Firewall of China for some reason. I don’t know if this applies to all WordPress.com accounts or just Robert’s.

In any case, it occurred to me this morning that if I Shared all of Robert’s posts from within my Google Reader account and sent Jeremiah the links to my Google Reader Shared items, he should be able to read Robert’s posts within China.

Of course if Google Reader had a way to allow you to select multiple posts to share (or even allowed you to share a full feed) then this would make it easier for me to keep Jeremiah up to date!

Until China starts blocking Google Reader!

Finally, an outstanding online RSS reader

Published

Tom Raftery

on 29/9/2006

in RSS, Search Engines and Web 2.0

. 7 Comments

I have had issues with Google Reader (Google’s online RSS/feed reader) in the past but in the latest update to Google Reader, released today most of those issues have been addressed.

Lots of people are posting opinions on this from Marshall Kirkpatrick on TechCrunch to Robert Scoble on Scobleizer to Richard McManus on the ReadWrite Web and all the reviews are effusive in their praise!

I’m not surprised. This time Google seem to have got it right. The old “Lens” look of the old Google Reader was, to my mind, sacrificing usability for looks. Now, you have a reader with a simple, fast interface not lacking in functionality. It even has a river of news option with an infinite scroll. And if you liked the old interface you can revert to that in the settings page too!

Added functionality includes the ability to create folders, bulk delete subscriptions, star, share, email and tag posts.

Several commentators have pointed to the continuing lack of integration with Google’s Blogsearch but personally with the dire state that is in, I think this is a good thing!

I have been slow to recommend online rss readers in the past but I think with the new Google Reader that has just changed.

Apple claims trademark infringement on ‘Podcast’

Published

Tom Raftery

on 25/9/2006

in Mac, Technology and iPod

. 3 Comments

Apple has yet again sent in the lawyers - this seems to be a favourite tactic of theirs which is increasingly giving them a bad name (and I am a Mac fan!).

This time, Apple have gone after a company called Podcast Ready for their use of the word Podcast and myPodder (their product name).

Robert Scoble has suggested using the terms Audiocast and Videocast from now on and dumping the term podcast - however this doesn’t solve the problem for Podcast Ready (nor any potential problems Robert’s company PodTech nor my podcast/audiocast site PodLeaders might yet have). Apple have already gone after several companies for their use of Pod in product names.

Russel Shaw has a very in-depth analysis of this spat where he speculates that:

we have Apple, maker of the iPod, trying to get right with the Trademark office about achieving formal Trademark and related mark protections for iPod AND its sought-after IPODCAST applications.

Russel is probably close to the mark here - however, Apple’s over-vigilence is doing nothing but tarnishing their image.