Popular Mechanics dropped a bomb on Techmeme this morning with an article titled How Social Networking Could Kill Web Search as We Know It. The thesis — we’ll trust our friends more than we trust the search engine. We’ll take a crack at whether or not this is a credible claim or not.
In other news, Ebay reported their results yesterday afternoon. Aside from their other businesses — finance and auctions — the Skype business seems to be roaring. We’ll discuss the interesting stuff that’s happening at skype, and why that business is growing the way it is. With luck, we’ll get Skype Journal’s Jim Courtney on the line to discuss his detailed observations of the situation.
Alec Saunders is the Vice President of Developer Relations for BlackBerry make Research in Motion. This is his personal blog, with his personal viewpoints. Prior to this Alec was the CEO and co-founder of Calliflower — the easiest way to hold a meeting, online, on a conference call, or on the go. A double-decade veteran of product management and marketing, he spent nine years at Microsoft where he helped launch Windows 95, the first two versions of Internet Explorer, the Universal Plug and Play initiative, the push into home markets, opt-in email marketing and what might well go down in history as the very first direct email list ever.
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I believe that Charlene Li of Forrester Research was discussing something similar earlier this year. Summarizing what I remember, I believe her premise is that people will start turning to other networks to find relevant recommendations that search would not be able to provide. So sites like Facebook or MySpace can start becoming a person’s default place for recommendations/search vs. Google/Yahoo. It was an interesting concept that I believe will continue to evolve. A summary of the keynote can be found on Shel Holtz’ site at http://blog.holtz.com/index.php/weblog/charlene_li_at_the_new_communications_forum/
Sorry, but I was downtown Toronto having breakfast with Dave DeWalt, CEO of McAfee – getting the lowdown on Internet and PC secuirity issues. Let’s find a time next week to talk about Skype.