One Bruin's Game Day in Austin

Going into our Austin weekend, I bet my husband that UCLA would cover the 15pt spread. "Sucker's Bet", he thinks to himself.

On a warm, humid Saturday afternoon which looks to add "sweltering" to the adjective list, we walked up to the stadium trepidaciously through a sea of "burnt orange" tailgaters. What can we expect from these Texans where football and religion are one and the same?

We find our eBay-enabled seats and are thrilled that they are just 10 rows up from the end zone. We are also facing the ginormous Trinitron which provides instant replays when they favor the home team and fan pans when they don't. However, our seats are smack dab in the middle of the section -- orange to right of them, orange to left of them, orange in front of them!! Luckily, we were able to find our little pool of blue, like an oasis in the desert.

The game itself? Surreal. Longhorns turning over the ball again and again. The Bruins actually taking advantage of the situation. That large cloud that shielded us from the sun at what would've been the height of the heat turned out to be a dark cloud for the Texas fans. Though large turkey legs defined the stadium menu, legs were what seemed missing for the Austin offense. UCLA ended up pulling off a most unprobable victory winning 34 to 12. Eleanore covers her bet by 54 points and wishes she had dusted off her Vegas bookie list.

And how did the fans take such a disappointing loss? How did they treat the minority of Baby Blue in their stadium? On their streets? In their beer gardens doing the 8-clap? At their pecan festival? With utmost grace and class. The fan motto is, "Respectful, Friendly, Passionate" and we of the Laker state have a thing or two to learn from it.

After paying only $13 for 4 beers, 1 gin and tonic, and 1 large diet coke at a bar called Jacaklope and noting the 1 bar per person ratio, we all now want to move to Austin. "Keep Austin Weird" may not be their slogan forever but this city's got some legs and THAT you can bet on.

The ABC's of Google Instant

I had a fantastic opportunity to attend the press event for Google Instant yesterday. As I have been primarily focused on social gaming and the Facebook platform these days, it was nice to pivot my thoughts back to good, old-fashioned Search...that small little business that we average Joe's feed without even realizing it.

Google Instant updates the current search experience by putting the auto-fill box on steroids and extending the concept to auto-fill page. Google suggests what you're likely to need as soon as you type based on things like IP address and their massive amounts of query data. The consumer benefit of this being that it will speed up search times and let you get on with more important things in life...like getting a 2nd bagel in the morning...well, important to me that is.

Being the generous and self-serving...I mean selfless person that I am, I have provided my California Bay Area Google Instant results from A to Z below so that your over-paid SEM staffer can just copy and paste the text into his/her report. The results? Some expected, some not so expected and some that made me go...uhhh.

I've always wanted to IP protect the alphabet myself but it looks like Google has beat me to the punch. I wonder if Google is looking for a good Product Manager for their new Key Letters department? I might know just the person.

[Stay tuned for a post on Google Questions, my name for the formerly Google Answers. And you thought the Facebook Questions vs. Quora boxing match was interesting!]

A
amazon
aol
apple
att
a

B
bart
bank of merica
best buy
bing
b

C
craigslist
costco
cnn
chase
c

D
dmv
dictionary
droid x
disneyland
d

E
ebay
espn
expedia
evite
e

F
facebook
facebook login
fandango
fifa
f

G
gmail
google maps
google.com (suprise!)
great america
g

H
hotmail
hulu
home depot
hp
h

I
iphone
ikea
inception
imdb
i

J
jet blue
jeremy lin
jamba juice
java
j

K
kaiser
ktvu
kayak
kohls

L
lowes
lost
linkedin
limewire
l

M
mapquest
myspace
msn
maps
m

N
netflix
nordstrom
nba
news
n

O
outside lands
orbitz
osh
office depot
o

P
pandora
pg&e
paypal
petco
p

Q
quotes
qvc
quicktime
quinoa
q

R
rei
ross
redfin
rosh hashanah
r

S
skype
sfgate
sears
southwest airlines
s

T
target
twitter
thesaurus
travelocity
t

U
usps
ups
united airlines
utube
u

V
verizon
virgin america
vlc
verizon wireless
v

W
weather
walmart
wells fargo
wikipedia
w

X
xbox
xkcd
xm radio
xfinity
x

Y
yahoo
youtube
yahoo mail
yelp
y

Z
zillow
zappos
zip codes
zynga
z

Thoughts on Podcasting

Although I love new technologies, there are still some that are widely discussed and media darlings which never take off for me. Podcasting is one of them...and now that I've gone through the process of posting my first, I'm not sure it ever will.

Keep in mind that I've always associated "podcast" to spoken content. I just listened to a classmate's music via podcast and was reminded that podcasting can also cover music. When applied in the context of direct distribution, it's game changing. With it, music is so much easier to get the content portable until web-based streaming is more reliable.

In the context of professional micro broadcasting, it's opportunistic though still requires significant changes in consumer behavior to be large.

However, in the context of personal audio micro broadcasting, it's well...micro. Small. And the subscription process is just hard enough to be a barrier to the potential audience. So in that vein, is still a tinkerer's novelty. But maybe you've had your life transformed with podcasting and if so, I'd like to know how.

My First Podcast!

For my Advanced Web Technologies class, our latest assignment was to create a 30 second or shorter podcast. This was fun though I went about it in the most convoluted way only to eventually come around to the simplest solution. Funny how things work out that way, no?

Take a listen to my short clip promoting Dook It Out, the Facebook application that I've been working on.

NOTE: I have taken down the link to the podcast because the content was pulled down from the student server.

Check out a very early release of Dook It Out at http://apps.facebook.com/dookitout.
There's not much there yet but I would love to get your feedback!

Way Cool Technologies or Sources Used in the Creation of this Podcast:
Sound Editor: Audacity
Sound Clip: FreeSound.org
Podcast Icon: Feed For All

Lessons from Tonight's VC Event

Tonight I went to an event that was sponsored by a Silicon Valley VC. Some of my take-away lessons below.

Before the session, they offered all the attendees a free meal from a Korean Taco Truck. Lesson 1? Go with the Kalbi Beef Taco. Skip the Unagi Eel Taco -- some "fusion" just ain't meant to fuse.

Lesson 2 was that it's good to get know to venture capitalists even if you don't plan to go that route because they have connections! To talent in particular. This should be pretty obvious but after I determined that the VC route was unlikely for me, I went heads down on product development. (And, by the way, I'm still searching for a full-time technical co-founder so recommendations are much appreciated!!)

And my final add for this post is Lesson 3. Informal settings are a great way to get feedback on your concept without putting the VC on the spot. They don't have to give you an up or (more likely) a down and odds are high that you'll learn something - how the market looks, leads on the competition, etc. Share your idea as often as you can because it's another opportunity to get market validation.

Newb lessons but lessons all the same!

A Blog Post?!?

I'M BACK!!

Why I'm Back
I'm putting up a post for an Advanced Web Technologies class that I'm taking. After being waist deep in Facebook (and following Twitter though still not loving it), my initial thought was, "Blogs? Weren't these from last century?" Then I realized that they are still relatively a new technology for many but I that have taken blogs for granted! I feel like they've always been around so what's the big deal?

Why Blogs Became Important
The big deal was how "easy" the software as a service made content creation and how, this paired with powerful search and subscription tools made it "easy" for people to get niche, long-tail information.

Why Blogging (and Twitter) Never Took Off for Me
I opened my Blogger account in November 2006 and only made three posts. Why didn't I embrace this revolutionary new technology? It came down to Audience (who) and Content (when/how).

I have a lot of potential audiences that I'd like to communicate with and I found that with generic blogging, I was never really sure who to speak to and about what. On the content side of things, I was concerned about keeping the pipeline filled and the quality and "professionalism" of my posts high. These challenges still hold true for me with Blogs and Twitter. The newer, incredibly powerful publishing capabilities? Irrelevant.

Blogging: Too long form and I never felt comfortable hitting "publish".
Twitter: Way too short form (Hello? bit.ly? RT? @? Read code for fun?)
Both: Audience Tareting Issues

Why Facebook was Different and Oh So Much Better
On the otherhand, Updates on Facebook was instantly easy and ridiculously addicting...once my friends finally came on board. Though I signed up in 2004, it wasn't until 2008 that it took off for me. That came after a high school reunion where I brought a wave of people on-board.

On Facebook, the audience was already filtered and at less than 100 people*, I could be funny and entertaining. Even as I got over 400-plus friends, the experience was still okay -- less fun but still okay. And since 400M+ people agree it seemed like a good time to quit my job and start-up a company focused on building utilities on the social graph with Facebook the obvious first platform to start with. Maybe more on that if this blogging sticks the 2nd time around.

In Summary
So here I am, closing my first blog after a 3.5 year hiatus. How did I find the experience? The real question to me is how did YOU find the experience. :)


*Ugh! Did I really have to lose all my witty content because of a less than sign?

Welcome Back!

Do you remember this show? Mork and Mindy? What other shows did you watch during your formative years?