The Successful Business Owner...

...is a great conversationalist. Part Two of my series over on the Amex site...

We humans are a very social lot. Without getting too academic, a pretty common tenet of psychology states that our greatest satisfaction comes from adding value to the lives of others. I know that in my business, my greatest satisfaction comes from the result of the work we do – providing a key source of revenue for scores of talented publishers. So think about that question again – what gives you the greatest satisfaction in your business?

I know the answer for my friend Mark, who runs a successful family restaurant near where I live. For him, it’s the countless exchanges he has each and every day with his customers. His place is always full of people, always buzzing, and Mark’s at the center of it all. He knows nearly everyone who comes in, and makes a point of getting to know the newcomers. He remembers your children’s names, your favorite wine, or the fact that you’ve been traveling too much lately. And when he comes by your table, nothing seems to please him more than to tell a story about his business – where he got the special cheese in the pizza, for example, or the day last week when a local winemaker came for dinner. In short, Mark’s greatest pleasure seems to be the conversations he has with his clientele.

And his restaurant is, in effect, a platform for those conversations. It’s a truism for nearly every successful local business I’ve seen: The owners are engaged with their clients, they know them well, and moreover, they are seen as leaders and storytellers – masters of their domain, and more than happy to talk about it.

• Posted by John Battelle at 8:37 PM
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The Cage Fighter

Just took this picture, a poster inside the window of a closed deli on Times Square. Just seemed, I dunno, worth posting...

• Posted by John Battelle at 8:11 PM
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No Connection

1. Tim Armstrong, who runs ads at Google, says display will be "very significant" in near future for Google.
2. Google closes its Doubleclick acquisition.

As I said today at Verge, the key here is to define "display." Is this "algorithmic juju masquerading as branding but really a front for more direct response" display, or this the "we are now in the publishing biz, AKA audience value-add, talent management, and human relationship" display?

There's a big, big difference.

• Posted by John Battelle at 7:39 PM
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SearchMe

Today I got a personal demo of the new searchme site from one of its backers, Mark Kvamme of Sequoia Capital. These are the guys who backed Yahoo and Google, so it was interesting to see how stoked Mark was about this new search player.

Mark and I were both speaking at the Ogilvy Verge conference, which is where this snapshot was taken, during a break, when Mark demo'd the new service to me live right before showing it to a few hundred marketers. The fellow next to him is Jean-Philippe Maheum, the Chief Digital Officer of Ogilvy North America.

As I've said many times before, I think there is a lot of innovation to be found in search interfaces, and searchme is clearly looking to lead in that field. To do so, however, they had to reinvent the crawl, as their UI innovation depends on categorization at the level of the crawl.

The interface is pretty much a direct imitation of the iPhone, an elegant Flex execution that's fast and compelling. But does it have staying power? I am not sure. I look forward to using it more and seeing how it lasts. More from TechCrunch, which broke the story this morning....

• Posted by John Battelle at 3:18 PM
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You Can't Judge Social Media by the Standards of Old School Media

Missing the point entirely.

• Posted by John Battelle at 8:28 AM
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We Got Our Own Ad Network

Good luck boys.

In an effort to slow Google’s siphoning of advertising dollars away from television, the nation’s six largest cable companies are making plans for a jointly owned company that would allow national advertisers to buy customized ads and interactive ads across the companies’ systems.

• Posted by John Battelle at 8:26 AM
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That Old Database of Intentions, It Be Growin'

The Web companies are, in effect, taking the trail of crumbs people leave behind as they move around the Internet, and then analyzing them to anticipate people’s next steps. So anybody who searches for information on such disparate topics as iron supplements, airlines, hotels and soft drinks may see ads for those products and services later on.

Consumers have not complained to any great extent about data collection online. But privacy experts say that is because the collection is invisible to them. Unlike Facebook’s Beacon program, which stirred controversy last year when it broadcast its members’ purchases to their online friends, most companies do not flash a notice on the screen when they collect data about visitors to their sites.

“When you start to get into the details, it’s scarier than you might suspect,” said Marc Rotenberg, executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, a privacy rights group. “We’re recording preferences, hopes, worries and fears.” (NYT link)

• Posted by John Battelle at 1:25 AM
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It Ain't Just Direct Navigation Where Google Wants The Second Click

Check out "ross california real estate"

• Posted by John Battelle at 11:06 PM
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Help Me With a Google-Backed Panel Friday: On CrowdSourcing

Tomorrow I'll be moderating a panel at Stanford on a fun topic: Crowdsourcing. In fact, the central question to the discussion will be addressing answers to this partial statement: "Crowdsourcing will never work to do...."

I've got three great panelists who are going to help get the conversation started. They are NYU's Jay Rosen (more on him here), Google's Hal Varian (here), and Current TV's Joel Hyatt (here).

Jay plans to argue that crowdsourcing will never work to create new things.

Hal plans to argue that crowdsourcing will never get you an excess return on the stock market.

And Joel plans to argue that crowdsourcing isn't an easier way to do business; it's a *different* way to do business, with different processes involved and different skills required.

What I want to do here is to do a bit of my own crowdsourcing.... what do you think crowdsourcing can NOT do, and what do you make of our panelists ideas?

• Posted by John Battelle at 12:58 PM
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Download: The True Story of the Internet

John Heilemann is one of my oldest and dearest pals and one of the most talented journalists in the business, so take this with a caveat, but only one that emphasizes how worth your time it will be to watch this series. Download: The True Story of the Internet is a documentary he's been working on for more than a year. And I am certain it will be masterful. More details here.

• Posted by John Battelle at 8:01 AM
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Google Goes For More Second Clicks

Have you seen the onboxed (integrated) site search feature Google rolled out? It looks like this:

The results you get look like this:

Notice how there are ads over there on the right? That's getting the second click.

• Posted by John Battelle at 7:57 AM
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Fire Eagle

A location service from Yahoo, cool implications.

• Posted by John Battelle at 6:48 PM
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A Rough Patch For Google

A-1 article in the LA Times....I am quoted.

• Posted by John Battelle at 10:57 AM
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Ask Not What Women Want

Or, Ask is asking. Let me give you my first take on this news: Whaaaaaaaaaa?

SAN FRANCISCO - In a dramatic about-face, Ask.com is abandoning its effort to outshine Internet search leader Google Inc. and will instead focus on a narrower market consisting of married women looking for help managing their lives.

As part of the new direction outlined Tuesday, Ask will lay off about 40 employees, or 8 percent of its work force.

• Posted by John Battelle at 8:08 AM
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WOW. Sandberg Bolts Google for Facebook

This feels like a defection driven by Google's lack of a media mentality plus a chance for Sheryl to be a senior exec at a startup. More when I grok more fully, I have been offline for a while.

• Posted by John Battelle at 2:40 PM
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Ah, the Good Old Days, CNet and Google, Fighting Again

Remember when Google put Cnet in the penalty box? Well, it looks like Cnet (and the same reporter, no less) is spoiling to get there again. I for one can't imagine it'll happen again, but one never knows.

• Posted by John Battelle at 9:29 AM
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Head In The Clouds

Microsoft and the answer to Google Apps from VentureBeat.

• Posted by John Battelle at 3:05 PM
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Outside Lands

Are. You. Kidding. Me.

I know the folks behind this. This is going to be amazing.

ANOTHER PLANET, SUPERFLY AND STARR HILL ANNOUNCE THE INAUGURAL OUTSIDE LANDS MUSIC & ARTS FESTIVAL
MAJOR THREE-DAY EVENT TO TAKE PLACE AUGUST 22 – 24 IN SAN FRANCISCO’S GOLDEN GATE PARK
RADIOHEAD, TOM PETTY AND JACK JOHNSON TO HEADLINE

Another Planet Entertainment, Superfly Productions and Starr Hill Presents, in a partnership with the San Francisco Recreation & Park Department, are proud to introduce the Outside Lands Music & Arts Festival. The inaugural multi-faceted, three-day festival will take place in San Francisco’s historic Golden Gate Park August 22 – 24, 2008. Radiohead, Tom Petty and Jack Johnson will headline the event. Full lineup, ticketing, on-sale and other information will be announced throughout the coming weeks.

• Posted by John Battelle at 10:40 AM
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If Facebook Is Going with iTunes...

Watch for what MySpace does. Trust me on this one. Link.

• Posted by John Battelle at 7:55 AM
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"Italy Map"

Google, you are all powerful. But why do you give me this as the result for "Italy Map"? Why not...er...Google Maps results?

• Posted by John Battelle at 12:03 AM
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