Patricio Robles

Dark clouds on the horizon for cloud computing?

'New Economy', 'Web 2.0', 'social media'. These are but a few of the prominent buzz phrases that the internet has produced over the years. Some have deserved the buzz, some haven't.

One of the rising stars in the buzz phrase-o-sphere over the past couple of years has been 'cloud computing'. The concept, at its core, is simple: 'stuff' - be it applications or data - sits on a server on the internet and the users of those applications and data access it over the network.

by Patricio Robles 17 April 2009 11:55am 1 comment

OpenX launches online ad market

OpenX, the London-based startup that offers the open-source ad server by the same name, is moving into the sales side of the advertising business with the launch of a new online ad market.

OpenX Market enables advertisers to bid for impressions on participating websites using an auction format.

by Patricio Robles 16 April 2009 17:07pm 1 comment

Content management: putting it all together

If you made a list of all the essential tools in an online business' toolkit, what would be on it?

Chances are you'd include content management, analytics and multivariate testing.

by Patricio Robles 16 April 2009 11:44am 4 comments

Twitter hasn't sold yet, but a popular Twitter account has

According to comScore, traffic to Twitter surged in March to nearly 10m uniques, up a whopping 131% in a single month, driven in large part by middle-aged users. Twitter's remarkable growth has everyone speculating about a possible acquisition.

Facebook made an offer, but it was turned down. And recently rumors have been circulating that Google might have an interest in the microblogging startup.

by Patricio Robles 16 April 2009 08:59am 2 comments

Digg tries to dig itself out of a hole

When Digg launched the DiggBar early this month, it wasn't immediately clear how people would respond.

It didn't take long, however, to find out what website owners thought about it as the DiggBar was met with immediate criticism, resistance and anger. From arguments that Digg was essentially stealing content to concerns about the impact of the DiggBar on SEO, many were voting to 'bury' the DiggBar.

by Patricio Robles 16 April 2009 10:13am 2 comments

Use a proxy, go to jail?

Web proxy servers are not new. These servers, which serve as 'middlemen' for accessing the web, are often used by corporations to accelerate web browsing through caching and to filter traffic. They're also used by individuals looking for a bit of anonymity online.

I often use one since I live in a country that is sometimes blocked from using popular services that are based in the US.

by Patricio Robles 15 April 2009 15:34pm 3 comments

eBay gets back to basics, will other companies do the same?

eBay, the online auction giant, is doing a bit of Spring cleaning.

On Monday, it announced that it had sold StumbleUpon, a content discovery service it purchased for $75m in May 2007, back to its founders and a group of venture capitalists.

by Patricio Robles 15 April 2009 09:14am 3 comments

Domain industry woes mean opportunity for you

If you still believe that all of the 'good' .com domain names are taken, I'll let you in on a little secret: think again.

Plenty of desirable .com domain names are now becoming available for registration when their owners decide not to renew them. Their loss can be your opportunity.

by Patricio Robles 15 April 2009 10:20am 2 comments

Is the future of journalism the future?

With many proclaiming the death of print media and even online media reeling from recession, the future of journalism has never been more in question.

A lot of the discussion around the future of journalism has to do with business models and money. But is there more to the discussion of business models than how to generate revenue? Is it possible that the product of journalism needs to be reevaluated entirely?

by Patricio Robles 14 April 2009 15:12pm 2 comments

Amazon sales ranking 'glitch' sparks furor

Twitter wasn't the only high-profile internet company that didn't have a peaceful Easter weekend.

Online retail giant Amazon found itself on the receiving end of a firestorm over the apparent removal of sales rankings from gay and lesbian-themed books.

by Patricio Robles 14 April 2009 10:30am 2 comments