Economic Power in the Age of Abundance

Publishers are trying to threaten Google again, apparently unaware that because of the Internet they have no power: that flows to the platforms that control discovery.

Nest Buys Dropcam, Amazon Coins for Fire Phone Developers, Yahoo’s Digital Magazines

Good morning, I am still trying to recover from that U.S. soccer game. What could have been! At least there is always plenty of tech news to draw us in. On to the update: Google Nest Buys Dropcam On Friday Nest announced they were buying Dropcam, a home monitoring service. From Recode: Dropcam, the popularSubscribe […]

Publishers’ Deal with the Devil

Ay, we must die an everlasting death. What doctrine call you this, Che sera, sera, What will be, shall be? Divinity, adieu! – The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus, Christopher Marlowe To evoke Faust as allegory for the ongoing dispute between Amazon and book publishers is appropriate on two levels, the first being the nature […]

Yahoo and Tumblr, Alibaba IPO incoming, #AmazonCart

Good morning, Thanks for being subscribers! No site news, just on to the updates: Apple Retails and the Innovator’s Dilemma As Angela Ahrendts takes over Apple Retail, I explore why Apple Stores matter from a theoretical perspective. Link Yahoo and Tumblr It’s been a year since Yahoo acquired Tumblr, and the New York Times hasSubscribe […]

Why the Web Still Matters

This post was originally posted on Matt Mullenweg’s blog This week Twitter was abuzz with the most recent report from Flurry that showed people spending most of their time on mobile using apps, not the browser: Many were quick to once again declare “The Web is Dead,” but I’m not sure that conclusion makes sense, […]

The Stages of Newspapers’ Decline

The second-most common objection to FiveThirtyEight and the End of Average was along these lines: Love 100% of @stratechery posts but this one off: forgets to segment market. Many don't care about "quality" news http://t.co/KnSmNgZbS2 — Rich Yudhishthu (@yudhishthu) March 17, 2014 That’s very true; those same people – and there are a lot of […]

FiveThirtyEight and the End of Average

Just a few minutes ago, Nate Silver’s new FiveThirtyEight site launched. While it’s not known how much ESPN is paying Silver, it’s certainly a substantial amount, especially when you consider 20% of visitors to the New York Times stopped by Silver’s blog. Silver’s FiveThirtyEight is one of a growing number of personality-driven sites and blogs, […]