'Microsoft sucks' says former MSFT evangelist originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 19 Mar 2007 11:16:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Influential A-list (former) Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) blogger Robert Scoble last week wrote a comparison between the iPod and his former employer's much talked-about music player Zune, with is slated to launch November 14. In his blog, the Scobleizer uses his teenage son as a sounding board to see if this device will be culturally embraced as the iPod has been over the last five years. He and and his son both felt that although Zune may have some distinguishable characteristics, there is not a single killer feature that will blow the reigning king out of the water.

He reasons that nothing he showed his son Patrick about the Zune really interested him. If anything, it seems as if it deterred him, e.g., imagine being in grade school, with peer pressure and all, and showing up with Zune? As Robert put it, "Apple has set such a high bar (in marketing) that I doubt Microsoft can even get close."

As a college student, I see that the iPod has been so thoroughly integrated into our daily routines, e.,g., sports practice, parties and around the campus, it's a long shot that Zune will dethrone the iPod. Even Mr. Scoble, an ex-Microsofter admits that! Will it grab some market share? That's the hope in Redmond.

Zune vs. iPod: Scoble and son doubt Microsoft's copycat will win originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Sun, 29 Oct 2006 19:33:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Apple after the bell 08/08/06: downwards slide continues with disappointment in WWDC announcements originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 08 Aug 2006 18:11:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Insider Blogging looks at the employees blogs of our favorite companies, exposing the last legal way to get "inside information."

I love rumors. I love conspiracy theories, especially when they're about the inner workings of corporations. And I love blogging celebrities.

That's why I love this story: it has all three, with a special dash of Microsoft thrown in. Brent Strange of QAInsight.net is serving up six reasons why he thinks Robert Scoble of Scobleizer and formerly of Microsoft is Mini-Microsoft, the anonymous insider blogger. I wondered that several months ago, but discarded it due to what Scoble mentions himself: their very divergent writing styles.

I had fun observing Robert Scoble from not-very-afar at Blogher (he was chatting with folks in the lobby whilst I walked back and forth, trying to get my toddler to sleep), and after having stalked him up close and personal I highly doubt it: Scoble is eager, zany, a bit of a nut (in a nice way! really!), while Mini seems tortured, secretive, highly stressed. These personalities shine through their writing and it would be difficult to imagine Scoble -- whose talents definitely lie more in technology than the literary arts -- putting on that mantle.

Strange's reasons include a coincidence of timing (Mini-Microsoft started about a year after Scoble's blog began, about the right amount of time for burnout; and Mini didn't post while Scoble was distracted by the death of his mother), the lack of "insider" information on Mini's blog since Scoble left Microsoft, and the lack of duplication between the two blogs -- Strange deeply analyzes the news covered by both blogs and finds no overlap. I'm not convinced, but the blogosphere loves a rumor, a conspiracy theory, and a brush with blogerati all rolled into one ...

Sarah Gilbert has a Wharton MBA and worked in investment banking for several years, then at a series of increasingly edgy startups before finding her calling, producing blogs for AOL. She doesn't own stock in Microsoft.

Insider blogging: Robert Scoble, is he Mini-Microsoft? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 01 Aug 2006 19:22:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Apple after the bell 08/01/2006: iPod phone rumors growing originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 01 Aug 2006 16:33:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Yesterday, Bloggingstock's Brian White wrote about the impact Robert Scoble has had on corporate America. Once considered something of a fringe activity, blogging is increasingly becoming mainstream as major media organizations jump on board, as well as major corporations.

Although, Scoble's move from Microsoft to PodTech.net has another message: the importance of video blogging (or vlogging).   You see, Scoble will help develop video content - mostly interviews. 

As seen with the YouTube.com phenomenon, there is an incredible demand for video content.  What's more, it is very easy to create and distribute this type of content. 

I interviewed Mark Stevens, who is the author of the book Your Marketing Sucks.  He has this to say about the future of video:  "Not only is the future video, it is the now. The less people have to read, the more they will absorb. If I can quickly show you a picture, a schematic, a powerful visual of any kind, I have a greater opportunity to command your attention. The key is the word powerful. Whether a blog is in text or video, unless it strikes the heart or the brain with a dagger, it is quickly old fish." 

Blogs Don't Suck originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 13 Jun 2006 01:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Robert Scoble, the corporate blogger who agreed with Microsoft CEO Steve Blogger to "put a human face on the company", is leaving the world's largest software company for a Silicon Valley startup, PodTech.net. In a world where Scoble was given free reign to both laud Microsoft's apparent successes and harshly criticize Microsoft's failures and product gaffes, the Redmond giant will be losing the most vocal and visible employee they have. Well, besides Bill Gates, anyway.

Scoble's blog here was and will continue to be a beacon to many in the blogging, journalism and media world as a rate glimpse into the Microsoft culture as well as what goes on behind the doors of Microsoft the global software company. Scoble often chastised the Windows Vista team for delaying the new operating system so long, and he also pumped the xbox 360 for being first-to-market and for being a superior product. Investors in MSFT would have been wise to have paid attention to Scoble's musing at his blog, as it was open and telling unlike many corporate blogs today, which are PR windscreens more than anything.

Astute media knows this and generally disregards the windpipe blogs, but Scoble's was quite different. Alongside Sun Microsystems CEO Jonathan Schwartz -- who is the only CEO blogger in the Fortune 500 -- this new way of communicating with customers and the media with all guards down was an exceedingly pleasant breath of fresh air. Global corporations who seemingly fail to move at the speed of the internet could take a serious communications note from these two examples. This is a new day, and communicating with customers and the media in this fashion -- blogging, unplugged from marketing filters -- is a grand way to one-up your competitors.

[Disclosure: I own MSFT shares as of 6-12-06]

Microsoft blogger Robert Scoble leaving the company originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 12 Jun 2006 11:47:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

The Ultra-Mobile PC is so ... last week. Microsoft is heading even slimmer (and, more importantly: cheaper) with plans for a tiny computer code-named the Haiku -- about the size of a paperback book.

The Ultra-Mobile started out with the code name Origami (does Origami sound bigger than a Haiku to you? What a strange mix of Japanese metaphors) and, when it was finally released, many industry watchers thought the Haiku was history. Robert Scoble made a point of complaining about the $1000+ pricetag.

With a price of $500-$700, the Haiku eerily fits right in to Scoble's strategy (either he's just smart about these things, or someone in Microsoft is paying keen attention to his criticisms). Via Technologies will provide assistance on the project and it should be available in the next few years. The question is: where does the useful vs. cool tradeoff take place? Is it a pricepoint ($500 seemed to be Scoble's argument, where coolness could outweigh utility), or a functionality? Does it require billions of dollars of customer education, or will the market eventually catch up to the technology? Investors seem to be saying no, as Microsoft's stock goes ever-lower. I think the cool factor -- at MSFT's current bargain-basement price -- is worth betting on.

[Photo Francis]

Haiku PC: Microsoft's take on tiny originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 08 Jun 2006 14:08:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Insider Blogging looks at the employees blogs of our favorite companies, exposing the last legal way to get "inside information." And Jason Calacanis, my boss and one of the subjects of today's look inside, loves this feature!

We've quoted Mini-Microsoft, famous for his anonymous look behind the silicon curtain, but it seems that this time will be one of our last (until, Robert Scoble-like, he rises from anonymity and keeps his criticisms to the immaterial). He didn't say we were the reason he stopped blogging -- actually, it's his wife, who he never told about the secretive blog (so she would avoid the stress), or maybe his too-honest talk with Seattle Times reporter Danny Westneat (Mini was "weary," said Danny, and Mini realized: it's true!).

But wait! He's not totally stopped blogging. We're just going to see a mini-Mini-Microsoft from now on. I truly have no idea what that means.

Maybe it was encouragement from Jason Calacanis, the insider blogger who dares to (a) speak his name and (b) criticize his own company. Earlier this week he took AOL Search to task, offering some criticism for "too many ads and too much collateral" that fills the screen. AOL should love its users more than Google, Yahoo! and MSN, he says, but only including one ad before the search results. Jim Kukral gives him some "credit" for his analysis and finally tells him: "good advice."

So which is more valuable: employees who are too stressed to blog critically in secret, or those who boldly take their brethren to task in a web site that bears their own last name? I won't opine, but I will point out that Microsoft was down 50 cents today, to $22.65 (flirting again with a several-year low), whereas Time Warner was down just a penny to $17.21 (comfortably in the middle of its 52-week range).

Insider blogging: Microsoft blogger won't, but AOL blogger will originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 31 May 2006 20:14:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading Insider Blogging: Ted feels good about Time Warner results, Scoble talks Ultra Mobile

Insider Blogging: Ted feels good about Time Warner results, Scoble talks Ultra Mobile originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 05 May 2006 13:34:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Insider Blogging looks at the employees blogs of our favorite companies, exposing the last legal way to get "inside information."

Insider Blogging: Google and webmasters, Eye-Fi for Xbox originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 27 Apr 2006 07:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.