For Digital Marketing Startup Edo, Success Is in the Facecards

On September 23, 2009

For Digital Marketing Startup Edo, Success Is in the Facecards

If you ask Edo Interactive CEO Ed Braswell the classic Facebook status update question -- "What are you doing?" -- he's liable to answer that he's providing a new spending avenue for consumers, along with a mother lode of digital marketing information for retailers.
On September 23, 2009

The iPhone’s Five-Year Plan

Demand in companies of all sizes will see the iPhone taking 35 percent of the business market, according to a prediction from Forrester Research. This will be fueled by increased demand for smartphones worldwide. Meanwhile, Apple will continue to innovate and stay ahead of the market, Barclays Capital Research said.
On September 23, 2009

Strategic Insights for Creative Industries from HBS’ Elberse

Anita Elberse of the Harvard Business School is just as likely to be analyzing 30 Rock as she is a 10-K.  She specializes in studying the strategies of media and entertainment companies and passing the lessons along in her class "Strategic Marketing in Creative Industries." BNET: Compared to many business school professors, you have some very unusual areas of research.  How did you decide on your areas of focus? Elberse: Most professors focus on a certain topics, but I made a choice to focus on a set of verticals, and was fortunate that such a choice is possible at HBS.  All of my research revolves around entertainment, media, sports and related industries, which is obviously very exciting, and coming to...
On September 23, 2009

Government Money: Fisker Outshines Tesla, Europe Challenges America

The Department of Energy, in its new capacity as Santa Claus for cleantech, has just finished allocating another billion dollars in grants and loans to various companies. As usual, the breakdown of who got what is rather interesting. Coming in with the big win is Fisker Automotive, which scored a $528.7 million loan from the DOE to build a plug-in electric vehicle. Fisker is a high-end electric car startup that is very similar to Tesla Motors -- similar enough, in fact, that Tesla filed suit against Fisker when the latter started up, alleging intellectual property infringement. Both companies planned on making what boiled down to a pricey race-car for the people with big wallets, then moving on to a somewhat...
On September 23, 2009

Duke’s CEO Says Solar Power is More Important Than Wind

Utilities have a tough job in picking which expensive, relatively unproven renewable energy technology to place their chips on. Solar and wind power get about equal face-time in the news, trailed by smaller contenders like geothermal, but which gets the most press isn't necessarily a good indicator of which will be most successful. On the American west coast, PG&E and Southern California Edison have more or less settled their bets on solar power. Now it sounds like the east coast's biggest utility, Duke Energy, is equally bullish on solar. Clean Technology Investor reports on an interview with Duke's CEO, Jim Rogers: Rogers said that even though Duke has made large investments in wind energy, "wind will be a very small...
On September 23, 2009

Why Smart People Fall for Business Fads

Charlatans exist. That's no surprise. If people want to give good money for dodgy advice, there will be plenty of people who are happy to take it.. The mystery is why  o many smart people fall for quack doctors, snake oil salesmen and dodgy business gurus. Even as we part with our hard earned cash we know, in our hearts, that the quack doctor is quacking like a duck. But still we hand our money over. Some gurus are genuinely good and insightful, at least in one area. But many are charlatans. In the business world, gurus are attractive for three reasons: Business is getting harder and more complicated, so anyone who appears to offer a simple solution (or...
On September 23, 2009

Terrorism Alert at Airports, Hotels and Transit Systems

The U.S. government issued a terrorism warning Tuesday for stadiums, hotels, entertainment complexes and transit systems while federal agents look for alleged Al-Qaeda suspects entangled in a plot to use hydrogen-peroxide bombs. Two weeks ago, Najibullah Zazi, a Denver International Airport shuttle driver allegedly trained in explosives by Al-Qaeda, was found coming into New York with bomb-building instructions on his computer. His subsequent arrest for lying to the government seemed to strike terror into U.S. Homeland Security and other agencies, who suspect Zazi may be in league with others or part of a bigger plot. Other reports say up to 12 others are being questioned in the affair. According to the FBI, aside from airports and transit systems, hotels are also possible terrorist targets. The...
On September 22, 2009

The Google Book Case Settlement is Dead

The proposed settlement of the class-action lawsuit against Google Book Search is officially dead tonight. Just days after the antitrust division of the Department of Justice (DoJ) intervened in the case to urge U.S. Judge Denny Chin to reject the settlement, Google and the plaintiffs (the Author's Guild and the American Association of Publishers, et.al.) filed a motion for the hearing scheduled for October 7th to be adjourned. As reported last week, the parties are already in discussions about revisions to the settlement that would address some of the concerns raised by a broad coalition of librarians, academics, authors and activists, (as well as Google competitors Amazon, Microsoft, and Yahoo), plus the governments of Germany and France. These include worries...
On September 22, 2009

Take a Tour of Microsoft Web Apps

Did you know that Microsoft has rolled out an online version of the Office suite? Eventually, that means you'll be able to create, edit, collaborate on, and share Word, Excel, and PowerPoint documents on the Web without needing a local copy of Office installed. Right now, though, the apps are still in beta. Want to see what you can really do today? Try it out for yourself today or come along with me on a short tour. First stop: Launching Web Apps from SkyDrive The Front Door There's no Web site specifically for the Office Web Apps. Instead, you get there from SkyDrive -- as I explained the other day, you automatically get invited by uploading a Word, PowerPoint, or Excel document...
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