Ajax Girl

Nick Carr has a lead on the story that we all knew was coming eventually: Key Microsoft applications, including Office, may be moving online, soon. Carr’s source says to look for enterprise applications to move online as web services with Salesforce-like usage fees, popular PC applications to move online with advertising support, and expansion of its data center network to provide storage for everything.

In short, they’re responding to Google Apps and Google Docs, which now account, according to analysts, for up to 2-3% of Google’s total revenue (call it $400m a year, up from $40m a year ago) (note: I can’t find a source for this, but it was quoted to me by a senior Google employee last week). That’s still pennies compared to Microsoft’s $16b or so in annual Office revenue, but the trend is pretty clear - users like free, and they like the ability to collaborate on documents. Today, Google offers what is in many ways a superior product to Office and they don’t charge users for it.

That’s created a textbook Innovator’s Dilemma for Microsoft. And the people up in Redmond are probably smart enough not to simply roll over and die.

The obvious time to do it is at the Mix conference later this week. Where, we hear, Microsoft may also be announcing an offline version of Silverlight to compete with Adobe Air. Would Microsoft release online versions of office via the Silverlight platform? Perhaps… Adobe has their own version, called Buzzword.

In the middle of this sits Salesforce, the king of software on demand. At some point Google or Microsoft will make a serious move to acquire them, and at that point the other will respond with a counter. That at least partially explains why Salesforce continues to be valued by the market at an absurd P/E ratio of over 600 (their continued revenue growth is another reason).

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/~3/244045564/

Edmodo says it’s going to be Twitter for teachers and students, with features like calendaring events that are tailored to the classroom. Personally, I think Twitter itself works just fine as the Twitter for teachers and students, but give edmodo a shot if you’re interested. They’re taking signups for the private beta now.

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Source: TechCrunch
Original Article: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/244011689/

Sarah Lacey, the now host of Yahoo Tech Ticker who is perhaps well known to TechCrunch readers as being the person who was suppose to have thrown a drink on Michael (she denies it), interviews Michael in the video above as well providing a brief tour of TechCrunch HQ.

As the rank outsider on the TechCrunch team (Americans can insert foreigner there, both in nationality and physical location) I’ve always found the way Michael runs TechCrunch fascinating, particularly as someone who has been involved in the blogging community for a long time (years before Michael discovered it). It wasn’t that long ago that running ads on a blog was frowned upon (hey Dave), then later blogging for a living was something very few people did, and even then, it wasn’t great money.

The tour through alone is worth watching, even if they did turn the lounge (couch) around for the interview. Laguna (Michael’s dog) greats Lacey at the door, and you get some feeling for how the Crunch empire exists.

You can also see Michael’s response to the question “Are You an Arrogant Ass?” here.

(thanks to Agentbleu for the tip)

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Source: TechCrunch
Original Article: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/243871973/

Survey results released by We Media/Zogby earlier this week show that more people turn to the internet for news than any other source.

The survey found that nearly half of all people in the United States (48%) cite the internet as their primary source of news and information, compared to 29% for television, 11% for radio, and a dismal 10% for newspapers. There was an age difference at the lower end, with only 7% of people aged 18-29 getting news from newspapers, vs 17% of those 65 and older.

67% of Americans believe traditional journalism is out of touch with what they want from their news.

It should be noted that the survey did not break down the types of news sites respondents were reading online, so by no means do the results equate with the death of the mainstream media (ie they could well be reading mainstream media sites online). The figures do suggest that some forms of offline news reporting may well be headed to the Deadpool over the next 5-10 years, at least in the United States. It will be a long and slow death, but as newspapers and radio slump into lower and lower single figures, it’s a given that the presence of both will shrink; we’re already seeing massive across the board downsizing now in print media.

(in part via Reuters, image credit: Brian Solis)

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

Source: TechCrunch
Original Article: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/243858713/

YouTube for dance videos DanceJam has launched into open beta today after several months of private testing.

DanceJam offers dance battles where users dance off against each other, with viewers voting on the best video. DanceJam also offers general dance videos, including locally uploaded content and videos from external sites such YouTube.

DanceJam was founded by M.C. Hammer, and Geoffrey Arone and Anthony Young from Flock. The company has taken $4.5 million in funding over two rounds, with investors including Ron Conway, Alex Algard, Michael Tanne, Geoff Ralston, Alex Welch, Ariel Poler, Rustic Canyon Partners, Softbank Capital and Michael Arrington.

You can see an example of a “Dance Jam” here.

Disclosure: Michael (as noted in the post) is an investor, I’m not.

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

Source: TechCrunch
Original Article: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/243824684/

Ok, it’s a bit ridiculous that social networks for every conceivable market demographic exist. But I’m guessing, based on the success of Maya’s Mom (acquired in August 2007 by BabyCenter) and other social sites around parenting, that New York based Totspot could find a profitable niche.

The service, which is built on Ruby on Rails, just entered private beta. They are targeting new mothers who will create profiles for themselves and their babies, and add other mothers/kids as friends. A key part of the service will be recording milestones like the first crawl, steps, solid food, word said, etc. with text, video and photos. Users will then be able to have books printed with all of this material, for an additional fee.

Profile pages for members will not be available to the public. Users can either open them up to all Totspot members, or just their friends.

The company says they have not yet raised any capital but are currently talking to venture capitalists in New York and Silicon Valley. Sign up on their home page to request a beta invitation.

And if you have a baby, let me know if you think you’d use this.

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/~3/243819557/