Chip Griffin: Pardon the Disruption

Blog Measurement Merger

Steve Rubel reports that BuzzMetrics and Intelliseek have been acquired by Nielsen.  This represents an interesting marriage between the old school media measurement (Nielsen) and the new world of blog measurement.  Previously, Nielsen has gotten into the web site measurement game generally.

As companies begin to pay more attention to what is being said in the blogosphere, measurement and analysis take on greater importance, especially since most corporate PR types are not especially familiar with the consumer generated media arena.  But the Nielsen brand will bring instant credibility to the offerings of BuzzMetrics and Intelliseek that will give them a strong edge in this new marketplace.  That said, they will obviously need to perform at a high level to ensure that brand equity is not squandered.

It will be interested to see what other developments this may spur in the same space.

SearchFox to Fold

My preferred RSS reader, SearchFox, will cease to exist in 2 weeks.  Esteban Kozak writes in his blog:

Thanks for all your help in making SearchFox what it is. We have enjoyed providing this service, and hope that you have enjoyed using it. Please export all of your links and an OPML file with your RSS sources before the site shuts down. In accordance with our privacy policy, we will delete all personal information on January 25 after we shut down the services.

Mike Arrington over at TechCrunch notes the RSS reader space is very competitive, which could be an explanation.

Since I read so many feeds every day (or try to, at least) I love the fact that SearchFox learns what I like.  I found that function to be pretty effective at allowing me to stay on top of the things I cared about most.

Hopefully, other apps will build in similar functionality.  I'd also be interested to hear Esteban's explanation of the decision to give up.  Was it a business model issue?  Was it simply too much competition?  Was it a scalability issue? 

True Competition on the Horizon?

For a few years now, there has been talk about phone companies successfully competing with cable companies for your TV programming dollar. Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg’s speech at CES seems indicate that company is well down the path to competition by wiring 3 million homes so far with plans to double that by the end of this year.

At that pace, they will be one of the largest broadband companies in the nation in just a few years, competing with the likes of Time Warner and Comcast to be one of the largest national providers.

That means greater access to faster surfing and more TV choices for more households.  Verizon has an opportunity to be the most seamless broadband operator, coupling its EVDO wireless high-speed network with its wired fiber network to serve customers no matter how or where they choose to connect. 

We all know the promise of broadband, and Verizon has focused on its power with new offerings like VCAST, a wireless music service, and FiOS TV, which debuted in Texas last year.

I personally love EVDO since I travel a lot.  And, despite some mediocre reviews that focused mostly on the fact that it uses Windows Mobile, I plan to jump in and get the Treo 700w that was just released. 

It’s that kind of innovation I hope we can continue to expect from Verizon – something I didn’t imagine a few years ago that I might say about any local phone company.  The key, of course, is for the promise to become reality.  The numbers Verizon offered demonstrate progress that, if it continues, would be good news for consumers looking for new solutions and offerings. If Seidenberg succeeds at his mission, we may finally be able to realize true competition in the broadband provider space.

Looking Ahead

The two regular readers of this blog may wonder where I've been the past month since I managed only one post in December.  Long story short, I was buried with tasks both at work and at home.  For some nutty reason, I decided to move my house and my office the week between Christmas and New Year's.  The house move is done, and the office move should be complete today (I'll believe it when I see it.) 

So it's back to a regular routine of posting.  I plan to start with commentary on some of the goings on at CES in Las Vegas (I was supposed to be there but the moves didn't cooperate so I'm stuck in NH rather than cruising the Strip for new gadgets, great food, and who knows what else.)  Fortunately, so much is being written about CES online that there's lots to look at from afar!

Stay tuned...