[It sounds spiffy, but there is reason to be skeptical. Set-top boxes and other appliances designed to ease the use of the Web haven’t taken off, despite grand promises.] It’s an innovative idea, … These...

Then they show up at the door and the reality is that they are 5-foot-8, 240 pounds and have not run a mile in years. A background check is not going to help you with...

That’s not to be underplayed. At some point, you’ll want a personal experience, and you can’t get that online. … There’s still an opportunity online for small and midsize businesses to drive traffic to their...

That’s not to be underplayed, … At some point, you’ll want a personal experience, and you can’t get that online. … There’s still an opportunity online for small and midsize businesses to drive traffic to...

They are being fairly careful about it, but they are walking very rapidly toward becoming a portal. They have a lot of other services gunning for them, so they have become most keen about building...

[Others say the deal could also raise flags over the combined AOL Time Warner’s ability to limit access to Internet content.] From the consumer point of view, there may be questions about whether you’ll have...

I think there are going to be privacy issues, no doubt about it – somebody’s going to feel uncomfortable with it.

This was definitely a place for technophiles.

In theory, it makes a lot of sense to combine the two operations, especially on the back end. But merging the two actual portal consumer experiences into a unified site will be a nightmare.

It’s looking shaky for them. They’ve tried to diversify their [partner] base but haven’t done it fast enough.

Search engine users aren’t terribly loyal, so a better or more targeted technology could make headway.

Look for Yahoo and MSN to launch similar vertical searchs for blogs, which will tighten the noose even more for these small players.

Social search is not one of these things that will take off overnight. It will take a lot of time to build.

[Even offline, the large merchants are offering very real advantages to consumers, and are] far superior to most local retailers, … There are always exceptions, but by and large that’s the case. In a large...

I don’t think my mom will be able to use it.

need to let go of the need to be in control.

Ad-supported software for consumers and very small businesses is only the beginning. Microsoft’s real aim is to build and host a service platform that will attract the investment of developers looking for a way to...

The 800 pound gorilla just entered the blogosphere, with Google launching its blog search.

Microsoft’s real aim is to build and host a service platform that will be robust enough that other developers will want to use it to deliver their services through it.

Finding and indexing it and making sense of it — they do a very good job of it. You could argue that it?s a step ahead of what Google and Yahoo and Blinkx is doing.

It’s the same reason why someone has a Web page or why people feel comfortable going on reality TV.

FORGIVE FAILURE. The corollary to accountability is forgiveness. Things go wrong all the time in relationships, and the healthiest ones move on from them, leaving behind grudges and blame. This is not to say that...

Despite the struggles of its ISP arm, AOL.com is well positioned because of the number of users of AIM (AOL’s Instant Messaging) and the strength of its new online mail offering.

It’s a very hot area.

It’s going to take a long time for video search to develop.

If the ad is bad people get turned off. That’s 125 million potential viewers, so you just killed reach. But there’s also a big potential payoff. I think it does pay off because you get...

The 800-pound gorilla just entered the blogosphere, … the secret sauce to Google’s blog-search success.

But here’s a critical point—more open decision making processes also typically require open information sharing. If you are going to involve more people in the process, they have to have the right information on which...

They have to differentiate themselves. And entertainment is a big part of peoples’ lives.

Taking a close look at all technical options is the right thing for them (AOL and MSN) to be doing.

The big hurdle for video search to overcome has been the dearth of content that people really want to find online. That’s starting to change rapidly.

Their arrival will tighten the noose even more on smaller players.

This relevancy ranking is what I think will be the secret sauce to Googles blog search success.

this process isn’t suitable for complex decisions that have nuance, and those who use it in such situations run the risk of being perceived as rubberstamping when the decision had already been made.

It’s looking shaky for them,

It’s the social nature of Live.com that I find so fascinating, or the potential of that.

They were hoping to become what AOL was supposed to be when it made the Time Warner deal six years ago.

From the consumer point of view, there may be questions about whether you’ll have to be an AOL subscriber to get Time magazine. That combination of media with the access is one through which you...

Yahoo has a strong foothold in that entertainment space. They’ve made strong partnerships that will provide them an advantage that they’ll need to battle the likes of AOL.

The question will be if people will stay and switch their mapping and local preferences over to Microsoft. I suspect that this new offering is a definite step in that direction.

Having a balanced approach to content lets a Web company target a range of audiences. Different people are willing to pay for different things.

Google is taking a lot of hits to its image as a benevolent spreader of new and better technology. In some ways, its success has made people scrutinize what it does much more closely.

It’s only a small number of people who know what to do with it.

They’re not going to back off of something that they billed as being so critical to adding to the base of knowledge and information that’s available online,

[With Windows Live, Microsoft] is asking people to entrust a lot of their lives in the hands of Microsoft, … Trust is a loaded word for Microsoft.

The thing about search is that it’s all about performance, not about the brand name. As long as it performs, people are going to buy it.

At least they’re not going backwards. This is a turnaround. They’re growing. Just not as much as everyone else.

It was very entertaining, very cute, but it doesn’t tell me why I should go to Pets.com instead of buying food from my veterinarian,

They’re the first ones out there with an integrated approach to sharing content. But there will be fast followers.

Everyone has a different way of dealing with content. If a portal can produce better results with tagging or intelligence than its competitors, people will come to that site and use it instead of the...