Ajax Girl

News from today’s Yahoo executive meeting confirms our earlier story that the company is getting a major reorganization in terms of structure and management. The company said in a press release that they will now align themselves around three key customer segments: “audiences, advertisers, and publishers.”

“The Internet is continuing to grow and evolve at a rapid pace, and we’re reshaping Yahoo! to be a leader in this transformation, just as we did successfully five years ago,” said Terry Semel, Yahoo chairman and CEO, in the release. “Our strategy capitalizes on big emerging trends and leverages our core strengths in search, media, communities and communications. We believe having a more customer-focused organization, supported by robust technology, will speed the development of leading-edge experiences for our most valuable audience segments.”

Yahoo said that their four key objectives will be expanding customer-centric culture, creating leading social media environments, leading in next-generation advertising platforms, and driving organizational effectiveness and scale.

Buried in the release is the announcement about Dan Rosensweig, Yahoo COO, who will depart from the company by the end of March.

These changes come as no surprise, particularly given Yahoo’s recent reputation for not having clear focus. The Brad Garlinghouse memo may have been the catalyst but it’s possible that this is only the ceremonious opening of the floodgates. If Yahoo is really serious about redirection, then no senior executive, particularly Semel, is safe from the chopping block.

Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0

Source: TechCrunch
Original Article: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/57622431/

Update: We are getting real-time updates from the meeting. At least some of the rumors below aren’t accurate. No word on Semel’s fate or any layoffs. Here’s a stunner, though: COO Dan Rosensweig will be leaving the company by the end of March.

Sources tell us that Yahoo has planned an internal executive-level company-wide Webcast for today at 4 p.m. PST. While we don’t know exactly what will be disclosed, we’ve heard rumors that Yahoo has planned to announce up to a 20 percent layoff and the resignation of chairman and CEO Terry Semel. Word is that Dan Rosensweig, COO, and Susan Decker, CFO and EVP, will act as co-CEO until a replacement for Semel is found.

We’ve also heard that there has been an internal organizational chart circulating within Yahoo showing this restructuring.

While we have a good indication that this meeting is happening, what we don’t know is that the rumors of layoffs and CEO change are accurate and/or will be announced at the meeting. Our usual contacts at Yahoo were not responsive prior to the meeting.

Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.

Source: TechCrunch
Original Article: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/57590966/

Traditionally, Hawkee has been a place for the developer community to share code, which is somewhat of a social network. As of today, however, the site is officially a bona fide social network.

Just in time for the holidays, Hawkee’s new focus is social networking for electronics shopping. Users can compare prices, opinions, and reviews on various electronics. Products are tagged and users can filter through a tag cloud to find what they want. They can also filter the tags to find the reviews written by people within their social network.

Scott Aikin, the founder of Hawkee, said he tried to make sure that he had all of the “basic social networking” features. So you can create a profile with a picture, leave comments for your friends, send private messages, etc. But you can also read your friend’s recommendations, snippets, and scripts, almost like their own personal blog. You can also search the electronics that they have tagged in their wishlists when it comes to gift giving time.

Hawkee also has a new Deals page where Aikin and his staff post coupons that they negotiate themselves with vendors such as Wal-Mart and Overstock.

Unfortunately, Hawkee only has user reviews on the products listed right now. Aikin says he is working to try to share content with other sites that have product reviews such as Amazon or perhaps CrunchGear.

“I wanted to get this out before the holidays are over so it’s not populated as well as I’d like just yet,” Aikin said.

Hawkee is hardly sexy or flashy but MySpace has never been either of those things on its own. Users and content are what make a social network popular and useful so I think that Hawkee has the potential to be as hot as the gadget-loving community wants it to be.

Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0

Source: TechCrunch
Original Article: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/57554943/

Now is the time for not-so-subtle hints about what you want for Christmas. If you’re debating over which Smartphones or MP3 player to get, we can help. Our editors at CrunchGear have searched the globe for the best electronics of 2006. Be sure to check it out when you’re making your list and checking it twice.

And for those of you in a festive and/or generous mood, I wanted to give a quick update on the Child’s Play Charity organized by Penny Arcade. Child’s Play is a charity for the benefit of sick kiddies. It helps to provide them with much needed entertainment and diversion during their hospital stays.

So far, it has raised nearly $300,000 and it is well on its way to this year’s mark of $500,000. In addition, it has amassed countless games and toys for the children. All proceeds and acquired resources go directly to participating hospitals and into the needing hands of the kids.

It’s a good cause and if you’ve got a few spare bucks lying around you should consider donating to it. There is still some time to contribute before the holidays. - Blake

You can submit via PayPal or you can send checks to:

Child’s Play
12317 15th Avenue #108
Seattle, Washington 98125

Child’s Play

Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.

Source: TechCrunch
Original Article: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/57549093/

A company called SimplyHeadlines launched today, calling itself a news service “for the extremely busy.” It is a customizable news summary delivered to your email with headlines and summary blurbs only.

SimplyHeadlines features news from thousands of online news sources such as The New York Times, iVillage, Men’s Health, Bloomberg, and BBC, but it also allows users to order up non-news related information such as weather, stock quotes, comics, etc.

Why do we need this? Do people have a hard time finding their news online? I think this is pretty backwards thinking in this day and age for many, many reasons.

For one, last time I checked, you could get all of this information on any customizable start page. And email doesn’t have the stronghold as the most preferred method of communication that it once did. Studies show that the younger generation is far less likely to communicate via email than any other method of communication.

Additionally, I don’t think people want to be spoon fed their news anymore. That’s why sites such as Digg and Slashdot are so popular. Users want to interact with their news, decide for themselves what is important, and let their opinions about the news be heard.

Also, there is no RSS feeder for your preferred news, and, as far as I can tell, there are no blogs serving up news to SimplyHeadlines. What year is this again!? I’d rather use Spokeo, the site I reviewed last week, than this antiquated email service. Maybe this would have been revolutionary five or ten years ago but in the year 2006 it just kind of puzzles me.

Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.

Source: TechCrunch
Original Article: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/57489300/

Zudeo is a service provided by the guys behind Azureus, to try to make a nice experience behind bittorrent.

Many people love bittorrent, but others curse the reality (no seeds, downloads that take 3 days, etc).

Zudeo.com is a companion website that launches Azureus via Java Web Start at the right moment to do the heavy lifting.

The UI on the web site is similar to what you get inside the Azureus client itself.

When you are used to a big PLAY button on a video, this still seems clunky.

Source: Ajaxian
Original Article: http://ajaxian.com/archives/zudeo-azureus-tries-to-make-money

Douglas Crockford is “Yoda of lambda programming and JavaScript” (according to Brendan Eich), and he shows it in his presentations on all things JavaScript.

The Yahoo! UI team video-taped his Advanced JavaScript talk (which he gave at The Ajax Experience):

In this presentation — the third of a three-part series he has been teaching at Yahoo! — Douglas looks closely at code patterns from which JavaScript programmers can choose in authoring their applications. He compares familiar constructs like the Pseudoclassical Pattern with more unique patterns like the Parasitic Pattern that (he argues) run more “with the grain” of JavaScript.

Downloads

• Part 1: 31 minutes
• Part 2: 25 minutes
• Part 3: 11 minutes
• Download slides (zipped PowerPoint file)

Source: Ajaxian
Original Article: http://ajaxian.com/archives/douglas-crockford-video-advanced-javascript

Today at 7 am PST at the SES conference in Chicago, Weblogs Inc. founder Jason Calacanis will announce that he has joined Sequoia Capital as an EIA (Entrepreneur in Action). This comes just two and a half weeks after Jason announced his departure from AOL.

The role will be similar to what’s normally called an “Entrepreneur in Residence” - Jason will take a salary, help review companies pitching for money, and work on his own projects. Entrepreneurs who take this kind of job generally roll out their own new startup within a few months. Look for more news from Calacanis in the near future. Chances are it will be a Sequoia-backed startup.

Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.

Source: TechCrunch
Original Article: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/57447721/

[“On Writing” is a new category of SvN post that offers examples of interesting online copy.]

Freshbooks responds to downtime
It’s easy to provide great service when things run smoothly. Handling problem situations is a much tougher — and often more important — test. Freshbooks’ Up and Running blog post is an example of how to do it right.

The company experienced a hardware failure which resulted in downtime and some loss of data. Bad news for sure. But the company’s response, including a detailed explanation and a free upgrade for all accounts, diffused the situation and turned a negative into a positive.

Especially nice: the clearly titled sections that explain the problem, what caused it, what they were doing about it, how to tell if you were affected, what to do if your account was affected, and an apology.

For anyone who was inconvenienced by the interruption of service and/or irretrievable data, myself and the entire FreshBooks teams are deeply sorry. I want to extend our thanks to those of you who called and emailed to enquire about the problem. To a person, everyone was polite and understanding, which under the circumstances, was greatly appreciated by myself and the other FreshBooks staff who were hard at work bringing the service back online.

The result? Impressed customers who left raves like these:

Thanks for the open communication and commitment to quick resolution during this ordeal.

I for one greatly appreciate your detailed information, acknowledgement of the problem, and your willingness to provide your clients with some perks to make up for the inconvenience. Outstanding customer service is very hard to come by nowadays. I am a new trial FB user who is now sold, if I wasn’t already!

I appreciate the honesty, dedication and commitment on the part of the FreshBook staff.

Dreamhost’s anatomy of a(n ongoing) disaster
Dreamhost handled a similar rough patch with a long explanation peppered with tongue in cheek images of disaster scenes. The level of detail is impressive though it’s probably a good idea to offer some sort of Cliff Notes version for people who don’t want to read through that much text.

Our number one priority right now is getting this nagging network problem understood and fixed. Once that’s the case, we should be able to put things back in Alchemy, who didn’t lose power on Friday at least. Once things are going good there, we’ll be able to add new servers and transition old ones slowly with little to no downtime.

We’re also going to be buying our own UPSes, since we have learned we can’t trust our data center OR our building to do it. We’ll start by putting the core routers on them, then our internal databases and servers, then our file servers, and finally the hundreds of customer mail, web, and database servers.

Tech support for technophobes
Phoenix Soleil provides tech support for people who are scared of computers. Tech vets may scoff at her frilly tone but it probably resonates strongly with her target market: technophobes who need help taming their PCs.

Do your computer problems leave you feeling overwhelmed, confused or isolated?

When I coach someone with computers, I make technology accessible by explaining it in language they can understand and by going at a comfortable pace. My teaching method is nurturing, with my personal commitment to respecting a person’s intelligence. My goal is to destroy shame and make using technology enjoyable…

My patient, caring one-on-one guidance and instruction helps technophobes overcome their fear.

Related: Six Apart does their customers right [SvN]

Source: Signal vs. Noise
Original Article: http://www.37signals.com/svn/posts/134-on-writing-managing-disaster-at-freshbooks-dreamhost-dancing-trees

The first CTP release of WPF/E is here.

“WPF/E” delivers a small client runtime that enables AJAX developers and designers to deliver richer, cross-platform, interactive web experiences. It will allow applications to go beyond what can be done with pure HTML today, and will enable sites to significantly improve the client user experience by blending HTML UI, Dynamic Vector Graphics, Animation and Media into a seamless cross-platform browser experience.

“WPF/E” accomplishes this by providing a rich graphics engine that can be used on any HTML page and which adds browser support for vector graphics, animation, and declarative XAML UI markup (the declarative XAML format enables search engine optimization of interactive content as well as better authoring via WYSIWYG tools). WPF/E also provides built-in video and audio codec support for WMV, WMA and MP3 content. This means you can now easily stream interactive video content to any browser without requiring any additional install or runtime (Windows Media Player is not required).

Some people are excited to see a mini WPF available cross browser. Others are scared of what it means.

The expression studio designer-tools are compelling, and can be used to developer WPF/E applications.

Adobe vs. Microsoft: Seconds out, round 2.

Source: Ajaxian
Original Article: http://ajaxian.com/archives/wpfe-first-release-available