Gauravonomics Blog

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In response to Paul Kedrosky’s list of top ten VC lies -

I liked it, but I couldn’t get it past my asshole partners.

- Mashable’s Pete Cashmore made his own list of top ten lies about startups -

It’s The XYZ Killer!! - Wherein XYZ represents an amazingly popular one-of-a-kind service and the thing doing the killing launched today on a server in the 13 year old founder’s bedroom.

Have I ever mentioned that, in the early days of outsourcing, I was associated with one two outsourcing startups myself? We even went to Hawaii to get VC funding for one of them (thanks to the startup cell at IIM-B), only to realize that we were way out of our depth. Both of them are small profitable businesses today, by the way.

John Battelle, search guru and writer of Search, in conversation with Eric Schmidt, Google’s CEO, at Web 2.0 Expo (YouTube video).

They talk about why Google Apps is a threat to Microsoft and Apple, why Google’s DoubleClick deal is scary for advertisers, why YouTube is integral to Google’s plans, why net neutrality is essential for web entrepreneurship, how mobile and local search are the future of Google and how Google is committed to user data privacy and portability.

What stayed with me after watching the video, however, was the contrast between John’s in-your-face flamboyance and Eric’s cautious diplomacy.

Also See: John Battelle and Robert Scoble on why Doubleclick went with Google and not Microsoft.

According to Compete, Orkut, which is the default social networking site in India, is only ranked #8 in terms of attention and an even more lowly #22 in terms of number of visitors, amongst all social networking sites.

The question to ask here is: for a precocious teenager in Kolkata, what is more important -

- That MySpace is 300 times bigger than Orkut?
- That a million other social networking sites offer more advanced features than both Orkut and MySpace?
- That all her friends have profiles on Orkut?

The key to building a successful social networking site is to own a niche. MySpace owns the bigger niche (USA), but Orkut owns the niches that will grow faster (Brazil and India). These numbers will look very different in a few years from now.

Compete compares Technorati and Google Blogsearch traffic data to find what I knew anyway - Technorati kicks Google’s ass in blog search -

Technorati grew monthly unique visitors 91% and pageviews 138% in Q1. During the same time period, Google grew unique visitors by only 39% and pageviews by 47%. In both absolute and relative terms, Technorati is dominating Google.

Based on the work of social media expert Matthew Hurst from Neilson BuzzMetrics, Discover Magazine has an interesting 3-D map of the blogosphere, plotting its most active and interconnected parts.

Is your blog a continent in the centre, or an island on the fringe?

Alexa’s lawsuit on Alexaholic/ Statsaholic is generating a lot of negative buzz about both companies.

Tim O’Reilly - who was at the center of the blogger code of conduct controversy recently - puts the issue in perspective -

In short, I ended up with a lot more sympathy for Amazon’s position than I expected to. If someone decided that they could make a nice business by re-using the content from O’Reilly books in a new, more accessible form, I’d probably be miffed too.

Also See: TechCrunch. O’Reilly Radar.

Google announced the expansion of its Search History feature to Web History today -

Web History lets you look back in time, revisit the sites you’ve browsed, and search over the full text of pages you’ve seen. It’s your slice of the web, at your fingertips.

- marking a paradigm shift in personalized search and raising new privacy concerns.

Also See: Search Engine Land, Techmeme, Anil Dash, Geek and Poke.

Darren Rowse wonders: what’s next in blogging?

I see more focussed, maybe even city-based, blogging networks emerging and becoming mini portals/ communities in themselves.

I’m working on one such project, and, as of now, it looks really promising. Will keep you posted on this one.

Stormhoek, the South African wine company promoted by Gapingvoid’s Hugh MacLeod, has introduced a new wine called Couture Rose which has been specifically made to taste better with ice.

Stormhoek winemaker Graham Knox developed the wine especially for his wife Dianne, who loves drinking Rose, but complained about its watered down taste when she put ice in it.

According to Jason Korman, CEO of Stormhoek Vineyards -

You can serve it many different ways, on ice and even as a mixer - we see it as part of a trend where Rosé can be consumed like a cocktail, making it an even more sophisticated drink.

Hugh is inviting suggestions for tag lines for the front label of Couture Rose -

The main take-out is that we want to communicate in a fun, funky way that this rose tastes BEST with ice, expressed in as few words as possible.

- and seems to be gravitating towards the rather boring “Best Served Over Ice”.

It I were to decide on the tag line, I would go with a conversational tone and position it as a wine that can be consumed as a cocktail. This also fits in beautifully with the label design showing four different cocktail glasses with ice cubes.

As part of my 30-by-30 quest, I’m asking my friends to write guest posts on my blog offering tips on how I should go for one or more of the thirty goals in my list.

Ranjan Varma writes about business and finance at Weblog on Business and Finance where he has cross-posted his advice to me.

Gaurav’s post on the thirty things he wanted to do before he is thirty was a brave one. I wondered at his bravery and wished him all the best only to land up in trouble myself - he wants a way to build a net worth of one crore before he is thirty and now wants me to find it!