Business

The Next Step for Intelligent Virtual Assistants

When we talk about the future of artificial intelligence (AI), the discussion often focuses on the advancements and capabilities of the technology, or even the risks and opportunities inherent in the potential cultural implications. What we frequently overlook, however, is the future of AI as a business.… Read More “The Next Step for Intelligent Virtual Assistants”

Bottlenose Nerve Center 2.0 Released – Milestone for Real-Time Big Data Analytics

I’m happy to announce the release of Bottlenose Nerve Center 2.0 today. Analyzing 3 billion messages an hour (72 billion messages a day), and doing real-time predictive analytics on nearly 300 million data points an hour, it’s a big step in real-time big data analytics. … Read More “Bottlenose Nerve Center 2.0 Released – Milestone for Real-Time Big Data Analytics”

Bottlenose Announces Live Trend Intelligence for TV, Radio and Social

My venture, Bottlenose, has a big announcement today. We’re unveiling the first live trend intelligence system to provide analytics against real-time broadcast TV and radio (and social media).  You can read more in the TechCrunch article here.

How Bitcoins Could Restructure the World

Read my article in VentureBeat about how Bitcoins may restructure our civilization, and the need for advocacy to support this transition, if it is going to happen. Here’s an excerpt:

Bitcoin is a trend with all the ingredients necessary for changing the world.

Read More “How Bitcoins Could Restructure the World”

Why Cognition-as-a-Service (CaaS) is the Next Operating System Battlefield

Read my article in Gigaom on the coming cognition-as-a-service wars. The next thing after the Semantic Web.

Did Apple Buy Topsy for Contextual Awareness?

The stunning news that Apple bought social search engine, Topsy, for more than $200M has many scratching their heads. Why would Apple want social data, and why would they pay so much for it?

There has been a lot of speculation about the reasons for this acquisition — ranging from making Siri better, to making the App Store smarter, to acquiring big data expertise to develop insights on the Apple firehose.… Read More “Did Apple Buy Topsy for Contextual Awareness?”

Is Twitter’s Business Model Going to Work?

Twitter’s business model appears to have shifted from being a network to being a destination. The question I address here, is whether this shift in strategy is going to work, and what the implications are.

Twitter’s Declining User Engagement: Can it be Solved?

Read More “Is Twitter’s Business Model Going to Work?”

Consolidate This: Quantified Self Edition

Read my article in Gigaom on the Quantified Self market and how it is developing.

There are too many choices available for consumers when it comes to devices and apps that track your steps or daily activities. What needs to happen is consolidation across the industry and a focus on storytelling, not just activity.

The Future of Virtual Assistants

Check out my article in Forbes on the future of Virtual Assistants. What’s after SIRI and IVR?

All of the interesting stuff happens when data collides. A voice-based interface to a single data set is a thing of the past.

Read More “The Future of Virtual Assistants”

Bottlenose Series A to Bring “Trendfluence” to the Enterprise

Bottlenose Secures $3.6 Million Series A Round of Financing to Bring Trendfluence™ to the Enterprise

BusinessWire

Enterprise Offering Discovers Real-Time, Influential Trends to Drive Marketing Campaigns, Manage Brand Reputation and Spotlight Attention in Social Communities

LOS ANGELES, July 23, 2013 — Bottlenose, the first application for Trendfluence™ discovery in social streams, today announced that the company has completed a $3.6 million Series A round of venture capital financing.… Read More “Bottlenose Series A to Bring “Trendfluence” to the Enterprise”

The Present IS the Future: Real-Time Marketing In the Era of the Stream – Part Two

In Part I of this article series, we looked at how the real-time Web has precipitated Nowism as a fundamental shift in how we understand and engage with information. Nowism is a cultural shift to a focus on the present, instead of the past or future.… Read More “The Present IS the Future: Real-Time Marketing In the Era of the Stream – Part Two”

Twitter is No Longer a Village

I’ve noticed a distinct change in how people use Twitter in the last year:

1. People are increasingly not using Twitter for actual two-way conversations or interactions. Instead it’s being used more for one-way “fire and forget” posting. People just post into the aether, without knowing or even caring if anyone actually reads their posts.… Read More “Twitter is No Longer a Village”

Making Sense of Streams

This is a talk I’ve been giving on how we filter the Stream at Bottlenose.

You can view the slides below, or click here to replay the webinar with my talk.

Note: I recommend the webinar if you have time, as I go into a lot more detail than is in the slides – in particular some thoughts about the Global Brain, mapping collective consciousness, and what the future of social media is really all about.  … Read More “Making Sense of Streams”

Bottlenose Beat Bit.ly to the First Attention Engine – But It’s Going to Get Interesting

Bottlenose (disclosure: my startup) just launched the first attention engine this week.

But it appears that Bit.ly is launching one soon as well.

It’s going to get interesting to watch this category develop. Clearly there is new interest in building a good real-time picture of what’s happening, and what’s trending, and providing search, discovery, and insights around that.… Read More “Bottlenose Beat Bit.ly to the First Attention Engine – But It’s Going to Get Interesting”

How Bottlenose Could Improve the Media and Enable Smarter Collective Intelligence

How Bottlenose Could Improve the Media and Enable Smarter Collective Intelligence

This article is part of a series of articles about the Bottlenose Public Beta launch.

Bottlenose – The Now Engine – The Web’s Collective Consciousness Just Got Smarter

How Bottlenose Could Improve the Media and Enable Smarter Collective Intelligence (you are here)

A New Window Into the Collective Consciousness

Bottlenose offers a new window into what the world is paying attention to right now, globally and locally.… Read More “How Bottlenose Could Improve the Media and Enable Smarter Collective Intelligence”

Bottlenose – The Now Engine – The Web’s Collective Consciousness Just Got Smarter

Recently, one of Twitter’s top search engineers tweeted that Twitter was set to “change search forever.” This proclamation sparked a hearty round of speculation and excitement about what was coming down the pipe for Twitter search.

The actual announcement featured the introduction of autocomplete and the ability to search within the subset of people on Twitter that you follow — both long-anticipated features.… Read More “Bottlenose – The Now Engine – The Web’s Collective Consciousness Just Got Smarter”

I Get 13,000 Messages/Day via Different Streams – Here’s the Analysis

Continuing with the theme I’ve been writing about lately, focused on the growth of the next phase of the Web, what I call “The Stream,” I’ve started to analyze the messages I get on a typical day.

First of all, through all the different channels I use, I now receive approximately 13,000 messages a day.… Read More “I Get 13,000 Messages/Day via Different Streams – Here’s the Analysis”

Keeping Up With the Stream — New Problems and Solutions

This is Part III of a series of articles on the new era of the Stream, a new phase of the Web.

In Part I, The Message is the Medium, I explored the shift in focus on the Web from documents to messages.… Read More “Keeping Up With the Stream — New Problems and Solutions”

Drowning in the Stream — New Challenges for a New Web

This is Part II of a three-part series of articles on how the Stream is changing the Web.

In Part I of this series, The Message is the Medium, I wrote about some of the shifts that are taking place as the center of online attention shifts from documents to messages.… Read More “Drowning in the Stream — New Challenges for a New Web”

The Message is the Medium – Attention is Shifting from the Web to the Stream

Shift Happens

A major shift has taken place on the Web. Web pages and Web search are no longer the center of online activity and attention. Instead, the new center of attention is messaging and streams. We have moved from the era of the Web to the era of the Stream.… Read More “The Message is the Medium – Attention is Shifting from the Web to the Stream”

Live Matrix Acquired by OVGuide

I’m really pleased to announce that a startup I helped co-found, Live Matrix, has been acquired by OVGuide, a leading video portal.

TechCrunch covered the deal here.

The new combined company is a unique powerhouse in the online video space – covering the entire life cycle of online videos from when they are upcoming, to when they go live, to when they are on-demand.… Read More “Live Matrix Acquired by OVGuide”

Bottlenose has Launched!

Today, after almost two years of work in stealth, I am proud to announce the launch of Bottlenose.

While I have co-founded and serve on the boards of several other ventures (The Daily Dot, Live Matrix, StreamGlider, and others), Bottlenose is different from all my other projects in that I am also in a full-time day-to-day role as the CEO.… Read More “Bottlenose has Launched!”

Creator of Delicious Wants to Meet Your Needs With Jig

Joshua Schachter, the creator of Delicious, has launched his newest creation, Jig.

At first glance the site seems a bit like Twitter, but it has a different focus. Instead of posting about what you are doing, you post about what you need.… Read More “Creator of Delicious Wants to Meet Your Needs With Jig”

The Daily Dot – Our Newest Venture Production – Launches Today!

Today I’m pleased to announce that, The Daily Dot, our newest “venture production,” has launched into public beta.

The Daily Dot is the first of its kind – it’s the Web’s newspaper — the first community newspaper about the Web.… Read More “The Daily Dot – Our Newest Venture Production – Launches Today!”

The New Social Media Landscape: A Roadmap

It may look like Google+ is competing with Facebook and Twitter, but I don’t think that is what will happen in the end. I think Google+ is a very different kind of service and it’s not clear that it can or will, or should, replace these other services.… Read More “The New Social Media Landscape: A Roadmap”

Why Google+ Is Really For Sharing Knowledge, Not Social Networking

Everyone, including possibly even the Google+ team, is currently thinking that Google+ is a Twitter and Facebook competitor. But I think in fact, Google+ is for something entirely different.

Google+ is not really for socializing; it’s for sharing knowledge. That’s what makes it different from other social networks.… Read More “Why Google+ Is Really For Sharing Knowledge, Not Social Networking”

Should Facebook be Worried About Google+?

In previous articles, I’ve written about how Google+ can build a developer ecosystem on Chrome that is different from Twitter’s ecosystem, and how Twitter must change to survive against that. It’s clear that Google+ and Twitter are very different animals.

Now what about Facebook?… Read More “Should Facebook be Worried About Google+?”

[Excerpt From My TechCrunch post] Why Twitter Should Adopt a Freemium API Model Immediately

TechCrunch kindly ran my most recent article today — the full version is available here.

Here is an excerpt:

I’ve been puzzling over Twitter’s recent tactical moves around their API, Ubermedia and Tweetdeck, for a few months now, and it just doesn’t add up.… Read More “[Excerpt From My TechCrunch post] Why Twitter Should Adopt a Freemium API Model Immediately”

The e-G8 Summit, Unveiled

I was recently honored to be invited by President Sarkozy of France to participate in the e-G8 Summit — a new and potentially useful summit of global Internet leaders, right before this year’s G8 Summit in Paris.

This event will bring together Internet leaders and political leaders, for two days of discussions about the Internet.… Read More “The e-G8 Summit, Unveiled”

Bottlenose Begins to Unstealth

It’s been a busy week for the team at bottlenose one of my coolest venture productions.

Bottleno.se has developed a very powerful new personalization system that is optimized for making sense of Twitter and other real-time information streams. The product is in alpha and invite beta is planned for June.… Read More “Bottlenose Begins to Unstealth”