The internet is dead (as an investment), long live the internet
Less than a year ago, it would have been hard to imagine that Google would be trudging along, eking out bottom line growth primarily by cutting expenses. And it would have been hard for some to believe that the hottest startups would seemingly be no closer to solving their monetization questions.
The reality: the internet economy is a lot like the rest of the global economy.
Death to spec work and unpaid internships
I was chatting with a friend who lives in the United States recently. He's a freelance web developer and we were discussing the state of the market.
An interesting topic came up: the number of companies seeking services on a spec work and unpaid internship basis.
Revenue growth to halve for UK online publishers this year: report
Everybody knows that it's tough out there. There are glimmers of hope but the global recession marches onward.
One thing that hasn't been so clear: just how bad (or not-so-bad) the situation is.
Is California done for as the world's tech hub?
For those of us who don't live in California (or even the United States), it's understood that there are plenty of great technology companies outside of California.
But even so, California, and in particular Silicon Valley, has a reputation for being the world's tech hub. And to be honest that's probably fair given the number of great technology companies that have come out of California and Silicon Valley over the years.
LinkedIn's traffic grows rapidly but is its value dropping?
With the global economy still in a tailspin and waves of layoffs still hitting major industries, it's no surprise that websites catering to professionals and job-seekers are increasingly popular.
After all, business and jobs become far more important when business is harder to build and jobs are harder to come by.
Where's the money at? Veritude reveals 2009 IT hiring trends
With the global economy continuing to tumble and the layoff announcements continuing to flow day after day, it's a depressing time to be looking for a job.
But that doesn't mean that they're not out there and despite the layoffs at major technology companies, IT is still crucial to most businesses and there are opportunities out there. In its 2009 IT Hiring Trends report, staffing provider Veritude provides a good overview of where that opportunity is.
Google profit drops but strong revenue helps it beat estimates
The results are in: investments in AOL and a company called Clearwire contributed to a 68% drop in Q4 profit for Google but an 18% increase in sales helped the beat analyst expectations.
All told, Google achieved net income of $382m on total revenue of $5.7bn. Sales, excluding commissions paid to partners, was $4.22bn, beating the consensus estimate of $4.12bn.
Drama 2.0's predictions for 2009
With the New Year right around the corner and this being my last post for the year, I figured it was time to go on record with my predictions for 2009.
The last half of 2008 has been interesting and changed the dynamic in the internet economy as financial markets collapsed and the global economy faltered. This will set the tone for 2009.
Social media: the best and worst of 2009
Email marketing: six steps to improving customer engagement in 2010
Web 2.0
Graham Charlton
Strategy & Planning
