Some news out of GigaOm, where it looks like Skype and Wal-Mart have struck a deal wherein Skype-branded products will now be carried by Wal-Mart.

All elitest snobbery aside, is anyone else wondering if the name “Skype” carries any cachet to the Wal-Mart crowd? I’m thinking, (as you might) probably not.

But, is Skype really so simple that it is now ready for prime time? (because getting distributed through Wal-Mart is nothing else but “prime time”)

I think the answer for this is “sort of“.

I use Skype — but I don’t use it instead of a normal phone service. Why? Well, I live in a condo. I would think about using some kind of VOIP service except that there’s no guarantee that it would mesh with the telephone network that allows me to buzz people into my building.

Which would be fine if you lived a life of solitude, without any hope of visitors — but like most people, I don’t live the life of a hermit.

What I *do* use Skype for is to make Skype-to-Skype calls, and take advantage of the cheap calls to land lines. $20 flat fee for unlimited calls to North American landlines for the rest of the year?

Hell yeah.

But in my opinion the thing that is the killer application for Skype is the very thing that makes it more like a phone, and less like some fancy schmancy VOIP device — and that’s a cordless USB phone.

The model that I have allows me to access the phone line OR Skype, which is great. I can use the handset like a phone whenever I want, and then with a flick of a button, make long distance calls through Skype without any problems.

Moreover, because its cordless, I don’t need to be tethered in front of a PC when I’m making my phone calls.

Just like an ordinary phone! :)

Om Malik makes some great points about the need for Skype to increase revenues to justify its purchase price. They make sense insofar that I don’t really understand the telephony industry at all, anyway. I still can’t figure out why eBay purchased Skype in the first place — or rather, how they justified its huge price, and their projections on ROI.

Nevertheless, is Skype ready for prime time? I’m thinking that the answer may really hinge on the hardware, more than anything else — in as much that its able to overcome the perception that its something that requires, or is tethered, to an actual PC.

But perhaps that’s just an elitest geek-centric way of thinking.

I’m an admitted Microsoft fan. I recently, for example, lept to their defense some folks claimed their premature death. But this, this news of Microsoft “phasing out” Windows XP by the end of the year?

Sheer inexcusable lunacy.

Angus Kidman, courtesy of APC (courtesy of, funnily enough, a Microsoft partnered site, ninemsn.com), brings us these idiotic tidings, wherein by early 2008, Microsoft’s contracts will require to sell only Vista-loaded machines. Whether this means they’re also phasing out retail versions of XP remains to be seen.

Vista has its raft of issues, and for many, demonstrates no clear benefits over XP, particularly with its beefy hardware requirements.

This is a clear example of what may seem like a “smart” business decision by some bone-headed managerial types, but a colossally bad marketing maneuver — particularly since it seems like the majority of its audience, from early-adopters, to mainstream users, don’t particularly care for Vista in spite of its huge marketing budget (in fact, I can’t seem to avoid its signage as I walk through Staple every day to get to the subway). In fact, you can pull up all kinds of link proof, but the real proof is in its anemic sales numbers.

I am struck speechless by this seemingly unilateral maneuver to (seemingly) screw over PC users by removing choice in their options for a Microsoft OS. Yes, those mac-heads can start crowing now, if you like. But I just have a hard time fathoming what kind of business sense this will make. If this blows up into a PR disaster (and my PR funny bone is tingling — I think it might), then all of the forced sales Vista will have with new PC purchases won’t make up for all the wasted marketing dollars, and net flattening in over all sales.

Ugh.

I think I need to lie down or something while I wait for Don Dodge, Scoble, or Dare Obosanjo to try and explain this.

Update: Looks like the folks at Feedburner have resolved the issue quickly and amicably — see the comments below — and its just the way things ought to be fixed.  Well done, Eric and the gents (and ladies) at Feedburner!

In the battle for news aggregator supremacy, Megite made a respectable name for itself alongside the current champion (in my mind), Techmeme, as an aggregator to contend with. I use it from time to time myself, as there are news tidbits that aren’t readily found in many other places. Kudos to Matt Chen and his crew for rolling out the service.

In spite of its growing popularity, however, it looks like Feedburner is no fan of Megite. I just got off the horn with Matthew, and it seems like Feedburner is blocking Megite’s feed crawlers. This is a problem, as feedburner serves thousands of blogger’s feeds, and its has a double-whammy effect.

First of all, Megite won’t be able to credit Bloggers with appropriate links to their site when a story comes up — because it can’t “find” their feed if its being served by Feedburner.

Secondly, because Megite can’t find them, it can’t list their story either underneath the appropriate story item. As it stands now, many of the news items are quite bare with no “discussion” item below them.

I wonder if it has anything to do with how often Megite’s crawlers “ping” the feedburner system, as I know when I’m getting picked up by Megite, this blog certainly does get contacted every few minutes on their behalf.

More to come as it develops.

So, once upon a time, I also used to think “why bother with social media press releases? — why not simply blog?“  In fact, with Edelman’s SMPR product “release” some weeks ago, the whole meme had been bounced around for a while — and with Stowe Boyd’s post yesterday, it has once again made the rounds [my original thoughts are over here].

I think that its probably natural for bloggers to wonder why there are still press releases, and wonder at the seemingly oxymoronic existence of “social media” press releases.

After all, if one of the ideas of press releases are to put a certain amount of spin on information being presented — and the existence of “social media” is to put an honest, de-spun look at things, the two concepts seem … well, mutually exclusive.

My own totally unprofessional opinion is this:

The social web evolves fast.  Really fast.  And I think marketing and PR agencies are terrified (and their clients doubly so) that they’re going to miss the gravy train — like, perhaps, some missed with the first bubble in 1999. 

The paradox, however, is that many seem to be paralyzed with that fear.  Or, if not fear, they seem to be stunned into paralysis by something.  Maybe its inertia.

In a study that I blogged about a month ago, it looks like while many PR firms RECOGNIZE how important blogging is (such as, how it can influence opinion and how people are reading them), very few are blogging for their clients, and fewer still have a blogging policy.

So, where am I going with this?

Only that if the AGENCIES can’t work up the gumption to even develop a POLICY on blogging, what makes their clients get the chutzpah to start blogging independently of their high priced agencies?

Some might.  Most won’t.

And in the absence of an existing blog, with existing content, and existing authors — who presumably aren’t pumping thrice signed off pap as ‘content’ — it would seem enormously clumsy and heavy handed to START a blog to merely announce the contents of a press release.

Can you imagine the blogger reaction from *that*?

So, that’s where the social media press release comes in. 

Now, I’m not saying that its the ideal situation.  In my opinion its a clumsy “solution” at best.  The best way to approach it would be to get companies blogging honestly and transparently in the first place.  Well before any press releases need to be made in the first place.

But because many don’t — they’re forced, when they look at how important blogs are, and the “Digg Effect” amongst other things — to suddenly say: “Hey, I want some of that!”

And that’s where social media press releases live. 

They are the ungainly misbegotten children of blogs, trying to live in both a spun and yet the same time un-spun world. 

I know some firms are trying to get it “right”, and I’m the kind of guy who believes that intentions are worth something — but hopefully not so naive to believe that things are going to happen over night.

Social media press releases are far, FAR from perfect.  But, as long as they’re used as a bridge to further conversations with clients about a blogging strategy that is honest and not filled with malarky … then you know what?

I’m willing to stomach it.

So, I don’t cover Netscape a whole lot, but as the Anti-Digg, I figure this piece of news needs to get its due. It looks like CK Sample, the Director of Netscape has, as of earlier this afternoon, handed in his publicly announced his resignation from Netscape.

Although he’ll be carrying on in a more limited role, it looks as though he’ll be heading for greener pastures.

My own contacts within Netscape tell me that the reasons are NOT because of any rivalry issues with Digg, NOR any of the recent hubaloo around the issue of “sinking” (the equivalent of burying on Digg, except it doesn’t actually remove an article from the main circulation), or the recent “gang” activity and TOS violations at Netscape either, or even money.

(Word is they offered him a private jet, a house in the hamptons, a mountain of gold buillon and a bag of iPhones to stay — but that’s a piece that I have yet to verify).

Rather, it may have had to do with CK’s own wishes for a different lifestyle, and perhaps his own disconnect from being a part of corporate culture. CK’s own blog mentions his attachment to the halls of academia:

And if he’s that entrenched in the culture of academia, being part of Big Business (as AOL clearly is), such as the dealings with different levels of bureaucracy, the need to “answer to the shareholders”, and the behind the scene politics … well, it probably didn’t jive with what made made the man who he was.

With the turnover at Netscape churning like a vortex, what with Jason Calacanis, and now his successor,CK, vacating their positions at the venerable domain, one wonders what’s in store for Netscape.com.

While they recently surpassed the 100k registered member and their community looks strong and vibrant, it looks like it needs a strong direction for the future, and a leadership that will steer it away from the shoals of uncertainty.

And hopefully that will mean that CK’s successor(s), whomever they might be, stays on for the duration of that transformation.

After all, if Alexa is any indication (and it might be a poor one at that), Netscape’s traffic hemorrhage seems to have been stemmed for now (its flattening out, rather than continuing to decline if you view it over the course of 1 year). But I’m sure AOL’s senior bosses (and shareholders) are looking for renewed growth and one-day leadership in the social bookmarking arena.

2007 looks to be an interesting year for Netscape.

Let’s hope CK’s successor keeps it “interesting” … but, in a good way.

PS CK, if you want to set the record straight, you’re always welcome here at DJI for an exit interview, or you can email me at anthony{dot}hung{at}gmail.com

So I didn’t think I would get into this kind of thing, but when Pete Cashmore of Mashable nominates you for a meme-ing game, who’s got the stones to say no? Without further ado, here are (some) of my predictions for 2007.

1. Pay Per Blogging Will Survive And Grow: As much as it churns some stomachs to think it, paying bloggers for their posts, opinions, or content will continue unabated throughout 2007. It took hold with deep grassroots in 2006, as marginalized d-list bloggers loved the idea of getting paid to blog. The entire category will, by the end of 2008, be a recognized and, amongst marketers, cheap and legitimate way of farming out grassroots buzz. As the category grows, we’ll see even more marketing companies try to grow a system like PayPerPost and ReviewMe; furthermore, A-list bloggers will continue to beat their chests over how wrong the idea is, not realizing that the reality is a foregone conclusion.

2. News aggregators will Thrive: With the idea that News-is-commodity as never more important, vertical algorithmic aggregators will continue to thrive, intermediating themselves between users and their news source. Although Google News heralded the way, sites like Techmeme, Tailrank, and Megite will all survive and thrive in their respective areas. Their growth will be covered by the mainstream media (ironically), and somewhere in the middle of the year, the entire category will explode. (more…)

So, it looks like Digg secured a little more funding in spite of accusations of gaming. In fact, Jay Adelson goes on record in the comments section of venture beat, saying that he trusts the systems and community in place, and gaming to his knowledge, hasn’t yet happened.

It got me thinking on a wider question, because in my opinion, there are plenty of things that are wrong with Digg, but Digg keeps on growing. Even if gaming was rampant, would Jay admit it? And even if it was (and I’m convinced it is to the extend that no one has yet picked up on it, or its gotten publicity) would it matter? In fact, in spite of all of its problems and recent negative publicity in the blogosphere, what could possibly dethrone Digg at all?

I think the majority of users do not care one whit about the drama that I’ve blogged about; its quite possible that out of its potential membership, only a tiny percentage of people actually register, comment, and even submit articles. Personally, I had used Digg for quite a while before I registered; for example, I’ve been reading stuff on Digg since Dec’04, in fact, but only registered this past summer.

Most, I think, are happy to use it to just find stuff that’s interesting to read.

And because of that reason, all of the internal corruption in the world probably won’t matter one bit with regards to “stopping” Digg; beyond having the “momentum” of over half a million registered users, dominating an expanding category of news / social sites (social bookmarking), and just continuing to grow, I’m not sure that even if clear evidence of “gaming” were to hit the mainstream news it would matter – to the point where it would be unsavory for potential suitors, or further funding.

So what would? At this point, I think only a couple of things could derail Digg:

(more…)