The Internet Junkie

Longhorns on Top

My University of Texas Longhorns are, again, playing great football this year and are currently 1st in the BCS standings. Nice. Texas has a tough, challenging schedule. After topping #1 in the country Oklahoma two weekends ago, last weekend they put the beat-down on top 10-ranked Missouri, and next up (10/25 @ 3:30PM) is top-10 ranked Oklahoma State, which is also 7-0 (3-0) on the season. The following week TX goes up against yet another top-10 school -- Texas Tech, which is also unbeaten at 7-0. There's never been a tougher line-up of back-to-back games. They'll be better for it.

Basketball Season is Upon Us

Email Marketing

The link below is to an interview of Peter Horan, newly named CEO of Goodmail and formerly head of AllBusiness and About. I've followed the email space of several years and have worked with many companies in the space. Following GSI Commerce's recent acquisition of e-Dialog, I've been revisiting the space, and re-connecting w/ old contacts. While email is the oldest marketing channel online, it's still putting up impressive growth (many of the companies I've spoken with are growing >30%+). The high ROI of email, sometimes better than search, mean its even doing well in the current downturn. This growth, and the natural synergies, are why I believe aQuantive is in the market for an ESP (email service provider) and why Omniture should be too. The direct marketing companies scooped up several ESPs in the past, but good independents still exist (e.g., Responsys, ExactTarget, SilverPop, etc).

http://www.google.com/gwt/n?u=http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.feedburner.com%2F%7Er%2FImediaConnectionAll%2F%7E3%2F367688946%2F20178.asp

CNBC Video

I've done several segments on CNBC over the years, usually either about Google or Yahoo. [Click here for a link to three recent videos.] Last week I wanted to send the clips to a couple of friends and noticed that many of them are locked behind a rather expensive paid firewall called CNBC Plus. I think this is a bad business decision by CNBC. They should be able to monetize archived video decently using advertising, and they'd also benefit from enabling the blogoshere to reblog/sydicate the content across the Web. By adopting a more open approach like this, YouTube now dominates the video sector. CNBC, especially for their archive content, should recognize and embrace the fact that this is the future direction of online media, IMO...

Cool Covers Muxtape

Muxtape is a cool (and free) online music service. The site enables anyone to easily create & share mp3 "mixtapes". I checked it out briefly when it first launched (I believe in March or April of this year) but never revisited. Today, I came across this muxtape created by Joe Laz that is a mix ("tape") of covers of interesting songs by interesting bands. Worth checking out...joelaz.muxtape.com

Data Raise Questions On Role of Speculators - WSJ.com

This WSJ article (registration required) sheds new light on the role of speculators in the energy markets. I think U.S. regulators are bound to get involved here by year-end. I'd stay under-weight commodities in the short run, particularly oil - though the long-term bull argument is still compelling.

Link: Data Raise Questions On Role of Speculators - WSJ.com.

the number of futures and options contracts held by traders counted as speculators -- those who don't have a commercial need to mitigate the risks of energy prices in their business -- rose to 49% of all crude-oil bets outstanding on the New York Mercantile Exchange

Capital World Urged Yahoo to Hold Out for More-Report

Link below to a Dow Jones story that sheds new light on the YHOO/MSFT saga. Dow Jones claims that Mark Casey, the Internet guy at Capital World Investors, was the main shareholder that pressured YHOO's board to hold out for a higher bid from MSFT.

Link: Yahoo's Largest Shareholder Raises Stake In Second Quarter.

Austin City Limits Fest

I attended the Univ of Texas @ Austin as an undergrad business major and while I never attended the ACL fest, I attended several other music and "arts" fests/events in Austin in my day. The audience and atmosphere in Austin makes these some of the best around, and the line-up at this year's ACL fest looks excellent (Foo Fighters, Beck, Gnarls Barkley and 127 other acts). ACL Festival Website

Jim Cramer Interviews Eric Schmidt

Jim Cramer interviewed Google CEO Eric Schmidt on Mad Money at the Half today. A link to the two-part video and a story on the interview is below. There's nothing new covered in the interview for those that cover the company closely, but they do cover a decent amount of material. No one needs a reminder that Cramer is a mega-bull on GOOG. He has a $750 target.

Link: Mad Money: Googling Eric Schmidt - Mad Cap Recap - CNBC.com.

Apple Worth More Than Google

AllThingsD observed in a story earlier today that AAPL's market cap has now eclipsed GOOG's. I, like most others, have been extremely impressed w/ Apple's innovation over the past several years now. Innovation is the common tie between these two companies, and other CEOs should be watching (emulating) them closely. For instance, Facebook could learn a lot from the way Apple launched AppStore for the iPhone. Rather than making the app platform an unwieldy free-for-all, and free, app marketplace, Apple correctly adopted the iTunes model of a store front - emphasizing mostly paid but also free apps. As a result, developers appear very happy w/ AppStore and Apple has a hugely successful (as in revenue) new product.

Link: Boom: Apple Worth More Than Google | John Paczkowski | Digital Daily | AllThingsD.

As Steve Jobs would say: “BOOM.” Apple (AAPL) has eclipsed Google (GOOG) in market value. Apple’s current market cap: $159.37 billion. Google’s: $157.56 billion.