Sometimes it takes a little while to realize how huge the Internet possibly is.

Just a short note away from my vacation. I’m going to be at the JAOO 2009 in Aarhus, Denmark so if anyone is going, could you just buzz me at summerrainx [at] gmail [dot] com I’m getting ready for some Java OO and .NET.

This one is funny. I wonder what do people think when they see Summerrainx….

I announce once again… this is my Warcraft nickname!!!

Previously I wrote about Mendeley, and the next best thing I see in there is… Yunoo!

Seriously I’ve been watching Mint.com for a while and it totally irritates me that it is only based in the USA.

And using all variations of keywords I could not find something which led to an online financial / budget savings site with a nice UI. I’m going to review Yunoo later if it rocks, or sux. (That is back to Excel sheets / Google docs)

Unfortunately for most of you, it is in Dutch. Because the company is based in the Netherlands and it supports only Dutch banks like ABN, Fortis, Rabobank so far. Fortunately for me Dutch is my third language. Well, at least reading is the easiest part.

So I woke up and today there have been talks about Google acquiring Twitter. I hope that it is not true.

Scobleizer says don’t do it, and I say please don’t do it.

Because it won’t be the first time Google acquired something “Social Networking” and screwed it up. A few examples:

(1) Google’s shot at the social network thing “Orkut“, didn’t take off. Of course Orkut was done in Orkut’s 20% time, and Orkut is an engineer from Google, so if you are devoting 20% of your time in Orkut, and 80% of your time making money for Google, its another thing. Orkut is of course popular with Brazilian teenagers, but who else remembers Orkut?

(2) Then Google tried its hand at acquiring Dodgeball, which actually feels a little like Twitter, then shut it down but that was before the founders left because Google “didn’t fit into what they wanted Dodgeball to go”

(3) Google acquired Blogspot, the wonderful invention of Evan Williams who incidentally is also heading the Twitter team. After he left Google. Then Google didn’t do anything about it. And then all over the world, came wordpress, typepad, livejournal, and the works.

Do you even know what is Google Friend Connect????

… I could name a couple more but thats not the point.

The point is. Twitter is now a hot topic because it has become a thing for business. Imagine I’m at the Pizzeria across the street, and it has this great new wonderful “Bacon topped pizza with special duck sauce”. It is fantastic. I twitter my friends, who are on on my Twitter follow list, along with some internet marketing spammers, some tech guy who blogs and you kind of get the idea. Some tens of thousands of people on my (imaginary) list reads it, and the next hour ten people who live near me, go visit the Pizzeria with the wonderful pizza. Of course similarly, the Pizzeria, is on Twitter. And “Jack Batwing #pizza” searches for “Jack Batwing pizza” to know that this pizza is so well-received that it should be a permanent fixture on their menu.

And because Twitter is accessible from EVERYWHERE – mobile phone, iPhone, Internet, IM, whatever. It makes it all the more easier for someone to microblog.

So scale the pizza example hundreds of thousands of times over. And there you have it. An easy way to know about reviews. Straightaway.

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Of course you need to get the user addicted first.

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So thats the point. And that’s not just the point. Twitter recently added search. And a gazillion people searching within Twitter has naturally made Google… afraid. So Twitter has the ability to be huge. Big. Insanely Great for businesses as a sideline to just being just a spammer sort of thingy.

And thats why I’m afraid. Because lets just look at the Business Model of Google. And social networks. Sure, social networks attract a ton of users. And social network is also a “fabulous” buzz word which marketers use. But users do not necessary translate to money. For now, if I want to buy an eBook, the first thing I’ll go-to is Google Search. There are a gazillion of Ads next to where I’m searching, sure. And I might click on one of those ads, and it might cost the advertiser one buck and Google of course gets a fraction of that. Do you go “into” your social network like FaceBook to check out the eBook? Most likely the majority of the people ain’t going to do that. Our social network is for friends. And friends are great because we are more likely to trust a friend before I buy something. But the point is: Where does it all tie in?

And thats also probably the reason why Google has so often neglected the social networks it has acquired. So we have Blogger. Where do you want to put the ads? Okay, so now we have a ton of people using Blogger, and there is this tiny search bar on the top to “search”. Where does the ads come in? And back to the same point: Where does it all tie in?

So yes. So there comes my point. Google is a great engineering company, they have brought the desktop to the web, and should continue to do so. I love their search, email, chrome and documents. But they ain’t doing so well in Social Networks, and it would sux if they entired the Twitter space, then realised that due to people not going in there “TO BUY”. In fact, most Twitter update systems ain’t for buying – do you see ads appearing in Twitter widgets on people’s blog? Twitter ads in Twitterific or Tweetdeck? Twitter ads to your mobile phone? I mean that would well, sux. And if you sux, you will lose the users which was the first point in the first place.

So, I think that Google should not acquire Twitter. Twitter should look for a different business model, because chances are, Google will screw this up if they realize that the money isn’t coming in from Twitter and then they direct their engineers to something else. And you’re realize that Twitter, the hottest thing in 2007/8/9, has become the has-been in 2010.

I have some idea of a business model, but hey, we can’t let the post run too long can we? (Of course it would be kind of funny to know what would happen to this design guy if he did end up working back at Google-Twitter)

How to get money from Twitter… Yes I know, its so annoying but I’ve gone back to Twitter for goodness knows what reason.

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I’m getting sick so just enjoy the comic!

Read here: Grappig.

In my absence from the Web over the last few years, I was actually attempting to graduate from university with an MSc. Plus I wanted a job in a real company which valued me, and I wasn’t entirely sure if any company wanted to hire someone who kept talking about the Web or technologies or pink gadgets. Or cam whoring occasionally. Nonetheless all that’s over now because I graduated end of last year and last week we just submitted a paper to the IEEE.

Anyway, recently I stumbled on Mendeley, which actually allows you to share your papers with the research community. It is somewhat like open-source IEEE or something along those lines. IEEE has long been the to-go source for Electrical Engineers but you always had to somewhat pay for what you got, or a membership or subscription to get the papers and to get references. So in tune of that, Mendeley is the social network for researchers. Social networks work only if there are a ton of people getting on it, but then again, we all know that viral marketing will prove its time and a researcher telling a researcher telling a researcher might work. Still, its worth a shot to take a look.

IMO, IEEE won’t disappear anytime soon. But it has to change the way it thinks and works because there would be more networks like Mendeley around.

Check it here: Mendeley

I could write a lot of things about Apple. I own an Apple MacBook, two iPod Touches, an Airport Express. Been to two Apple WWDCs and the Leopard Tech Talk. But today I’m just going to talk about why Apple succeeded.

The first Apple I owned was a Macintosh Classic, then it was the LC630, somewhere in between there was the first black-and-white PowerBook, and then there was the first two inch thick but revolutionary colored PowerBook. Those were the wonderful days. Of course then, the dark side of wonderful games interfered, and I moved to the Microsoft side.

So, during those dark days sans no-Steve-Jobs, Apple languished and could have died ten times in the last twenty years. In fact, in a day where big blundering corporations are “not-so-cool” and small little start-ups with a possible fantastic IPOs are the “new-cool”, so how did Apple do it? Apple IS a big corporation. And no, I don’t think its about great marketing. It’s a contributing factor, but do you think the “I’m a Mac and I’m a PC” ads actually stuck until recently?

Ten years ago, if you mentioned Apple to anyone. The thought in the mind would be “Overpriced. Nothing works. Incompatible.” Now when you mention Apple to the average layman, the thought is “Cool. Simple. In.” and so on so forth.

So why now? Here’s what I think:

1. Correct market introduction. Apple failed. They had technology way before their time. Remember the Newton? The bulky handheld with amazing handwriting recognition? Remember the PowerBooks? Which was so expensive but could survive in Everest? Would the App Store have succeeded if it was released ten years ago when Apple had only 2% of the market? They learnt from their mistakes and moved on.

2. Apple Evangelists. You just need a few people. Crazy people. Insane people possible. To infect the herd. People always talked about it. And its true. I went back to Apple with an iBook in 2005 because Linux was irritating me. It also so happened that three months later I got a scholarship to go to the WWDC2005. Then I remembered how much I used to love the Apple. Now, almost all my friends use the Apple. I’ve also sold a ton of Apple Computers to during roadshows in a short skirt.

3. Streamlining the crap. So, before Steve Jobs actually rejoined Apple. Apple was producing everything from Newtons, to educational software, to whatsoever you could ever possibly think about. During that time, he literally asked people to come to pitch their product, and then decided if it would be cut, or not. When your funds are low, don’t think of producing computers with flowers on them. You can do that when you are the greatest company in the world, then you can throw out a few flower computers. So focus on things which really matter. 

4. KISS -Keep it simple stupid. Almost every single company in the world right now is trying to keep it simple. They’ve taken a leaf out of Apple’s book in creating wonderfully simple to use and clean products. Consumer products have gone through a revamp, and they are trying to recreate the same kind of user experience which Apple has spoilt us with. I think its nice. But I also think that if it is done without thinking you become more like a white sheep following the black sheep. And if you live your life following somebody else’s rules, nobody is really going to remember you.

5. See the need, and fill it. If you are sitting in a helicopter, and looking down, there have been many things which was obvious from the very start. The music industry was crapped up because of Napster and what had you, and they were trying to sue your grandmother to the dog next door to dead people for stealing music.  There was a need. And everyone else was trying to fill that need with expensive subscriptions and what have you. Why should a consumer buy something when they could get it for free? Answer, if you offered it to them very cheap. And if you made it easy for the consumers to get it. When the iPod was introduced, it was introduced to a small community of Apple followers. Nobody expected it to be a crazy success. The songs were sold at 99cents a piece and Apple only got 10cents per song. But… as Steve was grinning and showing his iPod, “We are selling iPods!!!”

6. Make your disadvantage your advantage. Or just stick to your guns. People hate it I know. You are locked into this Apple-ecosystem when you buy an iPod or a MacBook or whatsoever. Because Apple manufactures both the hardware and the software. It could have been a disadvantage, of course, but Apple chose to be the black sheep and even withdrew all the Apple Clones. But, because of the same reason Apple controls everything, you know the person to find when your system fails. You also won’t have to handle a whole ton of compatibility issues and so on so forth.

7. Steve Jobs. Need I say more? His health is being constantly checked due to his bout with cancer. You know how scary pancreatic cancer is? It is like a death sentence, it is like if you were diagnosed with cancer that is the last thing you really want to get because at all stages from 1 to 4 it is almost fatal. Steve Jobs is a special person, and I admit, not everybody can be him. He is reality distorted, and he is the face of Apple. He is also a marketing guy, and Bill Gates thought he wasn’t much use because he couldn’t actually program. But what I think is, Steve Jobs is a marketing guy, but he is also a visionary and a technology driven guy. He has crazy great presentation skills, a sense of humor, and an aura which makes people respect him. And thats the problem with people or companies who never got into the mentality and think it is okay to inject a ton of marketing dollars into their company. Apple in essence is a very technology driven company with insanely great programmers, and thats the reason why geeks and technologists are going there, and not because it is a marketing company.

So now, suddenly everyone wants to be the black sheep. I could write more than 7, but I like 7, and I don’t think people can remember more than 7 things in a single post anyway.

One more link for you: Without Steve Jobs

So that was when I learnt about the term ‘marketing’ guru. There are big company marketing gurus, there are search marketing gurus and so on so forth. So I looked around for all the big marketers and evangelists who had coached the companies in the Forbes’ Lists and I found someone which I thought was interesting.

Seth Godin.

Well Seth is a very interesting personality, and he is a great speaker. He also owns the most popular marketing blog in the world, probably from all the coaching of all the search engines. His books are non-alike with each other and slightly off the tangent of Al’s Focus agenda.

Nonetheless, what I liked the most is that he likes to give out FREE things. Everybody likes FREE things, and everyone likes FREE things which just happen to be the best thing available, or at least what they want to believe. And he encourages them to pass it on.

Just take an example off his latest book “Tribes: We need you to lead us”. It retails at Amazon.com for $13.57USD after discounts, and he is offering the casebook for FREE and the audio book at Audible.com for FREE. So, you can listen to the book on the way to work, school, gym for FREE. I like that concept. Audible doesn’t even require you to take out your Credit Card and don’t worry we won’t charge you for the first one month sentiment.

And he leaves alot of free stuff on his site, or at least all over his site. It could be slightly more organized I think, but remember my last site was one big mess as well and that takes effort. Its just like legacy code you want to keep on adding and adding. Or to think about it and start all over again. So here’s the list of free stuff I found from him which he encourages distribution.

But these are the free stuff I found:

The Bootstrapper’s Bible: His only ‘stated’ eBook

Tribes: The case book

Unleashing the Ideavirus

Knock Knock

Who’s there

Flipping the Funnel

Everyone is an Expert

I like his concept. I like the idea of sharing ideas. I like the idea of being open. And well, in my opinion, everyone is a marketer, in one way or another. Even if you are a software designers, you need to convince someone else that you rock. So grab the free stuff.

Check him out here: Seth Godin