-
Links for 2009-01-22
Woman auctions her virginity for $3.8 million (and counting) (CNN.com) Zappos CEO on how to build a brand online without spending a fortune on ads (BrandWeek) 37 Signals has a creative way to reduce credit card chargebacks – via @superamit
-
Can Tipjoy Make Micropayments Into Megabucks?
I’ve been interested in the micropayment space for a long time now. I think it’s a promising market, and one that is just waiting to be addressed well. A while back I discovered a service called Tipjoy, which started as a Y Combinator funded project. I liked it the first time I saw it, and I like it even more now. The most recent development from them is a tight integration with Twitter which lets people use a syntax similar to Twitter’s direct message function to send payments to other Twitter users. For example: p @peter $0.25 because he finds cool new websites This would create a promise of paying…
-
Timing Is Everything – Umbrellas for Sale!
Have you ever noticed how, in many cities, when it starts to rain, people magically appear with a whole lot of umbrellas for sale? They don’t seem to come from any particular place, and as soon as the rain disappears, so do they. I’ve always wondered where these people come from, and how it is they always happen to have an inventory of umbrellas for sale stashed somewhere nearby, just in case it rains. I’ve experienced this phenomenon in San Francisco, New York, Chicago, and even Rome – where I was once caught in a surprise downpour and actually bought an umbrella… for a mere € 2! It continues to…
-
Live from BlogHer!
This dispatch is coming directly from a ballroom at the BlogHer conference, where I’ve been staffing Joby’s table in the sponsor showcase. We’re debuting our newest product, the Zivio Bluetooth headset. We’ve been giving away advance samples to some of the lady bloggers here at the conference, and the response has been overwhelming! Early in the day we were mobbed by people, sometimes standing four-deep, to hear about the Zivio and to experience it hands on. It wasn’t long before we ran out of our large stock of headsets, but all day long people kept coming by because they’d heard about our headset and wanted to see it for themselves.…
-
Twitter Transparency
I’ve been working on a post talking about the challenges that Twitter has faced lately and why I think they’re on shaky ground these days, but before I get a chance to finish it and post it here I figured I’d link to a post on the Twitter blog where they answer a number of technical questions that people (notably TechCrunch) have been asking them. I give them kudos for addressing these questions publicly and for permitting transparency into their operations and technical challenges. As I see it, however, they’re still not out of the woods yet, even if I (and most of the Twittersphere) am pulling for them in…
-
Getting Satisfaction
The awesome folks over at Get Satisfaction launched two sweet new features today. I’m extremely pleased to add that Joby was among the very first to implement beta versions of their new Help Center software. Over the past few days I’ve been working on getting our Joby version of the Help Center up and running, and I’m pleased to show off our installation to the world. I can’t say enough about the folks over at Get Satisfaction – especially Lane, Thor and Scott (their lead developer), who have been extremely helpful the entire time. Those guys really do know customer service. In case you’re interested, here’s the full press release,…
-
Bonjour de Genève
Greetings from Geneva! I’m working out of our European office this week after attending CeBIT in Hannover last week. The tradeshow was huge, with over 500,000 people attending. And although it was a lot of work, we got some great leads, maintained our existing business relationships, and had a lot of fun in the process. Now I’m sitting in our Geneva office, with a beautiful view of the Jura mountains and the top of the Jet d’Eau visible above the Geneva skyline. I’m looking forward to a week of working with my European colleagues. Will post more as the week progresses.
-
Going to CES
I’ll be at CES in Las Vegas next week, representing Joby and promoting our new product offerings. Come visit us at booth #71037 in the Sands! If anyone will be in Vegas, drop me a line at peter [at] pberg.com. I’ll try to post some updates from the field, so watch this space for more info!