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python_kisson News.YC first month traffic

I would've expected the traffic to be low around the 16th:

http://technorati.com/chart/Y+Combinator?chartdays=30&language=n&authority=n

python_kisson YouTube: From Concept to Hyper-growth, a presentation by YouTube cofounder

awesome! Thank you so much Zaid.

python_kisson Why Popular Sites Are "Ugly"

Social networks, such as MySpace and Friendster, outsource graphic designing to the users by letting them alter the source code. A user who spends two hours customizing their profile is likely to become more loyal than he or she would've been two hours earlier.

Of course, the side effect is that the site turns out to be chaotic; though, it does leave the user with a more personalized experience. Humans have a tendency to prefer choice when given the freedom to do so. And as it turns out, they are not very good at it.

python_kisson Who's In Toronto, Canada?

I live about 15 mins away from Pearson Airport, Toronto. Just curious, what do you think about the startup environment in Toronto? Where is all the action at?

python_kisson News.YC first month traffic

^ Oh you can blame me for that. I should probably logout once in a while :D

python_kisson Google: Fewer Ads, More Money

When I write articles, I try to minimize the number of ads in them in order to have better control over where the user clicks. If, for instance, a user clicks on an ad selling "knifes", he or she is unlikely to revisit the website and click on another ad or link on the website. With each successive ad, the control over where the user clicks becomes more chaotic.

The basic premise is the same as the one mentioned in Biz 2.0 magazine: If there are no ads on your site, you will not make money off of it. If there are too many ads on your site, nobody is going to click on them.

Daniel, thank you for posting this since before reading it, I did not have any factual data to back my claim :)

python_kisson If Viaweb was a YC-funded Startup Today, What Would it Look Like?

I am not sure what it would look like, but I am guessing it would be Google that buys it out this time :D

python_kisson Techcrunch empire to expand into seed-stage financing

From the link: "What's in store for TechCrunch? Perhaps a new branch - TechCrunch Ventures?"

This is just speculative news. Though, it isn't inconceivable for Mike to take this path. He has, in the past, funded several startups (often unsuccessfully). Moreover, he is a well connected and recognizable individual in this industry; so his background in technology as well as law will certaninly assist him in this respective.

Michael's strength in the online world, however, is also his weakness; TC might risk losing credibility as an unbiased startup blog. It will be like expecting Fox television to provide "fair and unbiased" news :D

python_kisson What's the lowest offer you'd take?

What a relief! Thank you for sharing that. After watching everyone talk in millions here, I was concerned my "absolute worst" deal that stretched below $100k might hurt our chances of being accepted to YC. I am going to go ahead and put in an honest estimate :) thanks,

python_kisson Anyone interested in joining a team of Stanford students to try to get a Lightspeed VP Summer Grant?

Isn't the LightspeedVP Summer Grant's application deadline on March 23rd? There's not a lot of time left to find a team mate.

python_kisson Startup founders, what books did you find most helpful?

Has anyone read "ANSI Common Lisp" by pg, yet? The painting on the front cover is actually by Paul :)

http://images.pearsoned-ema.com/jpeg/large/9780133708752.jpg

python_kisson Startup founders, what books did you find most helpful?

That is indeed an excellent book for personal development. Anyone who hasn't yet read it should certainly look into it.

python_kisson Startup founders, what books did you find most helpful?

Dan, thank you for sharing that awesome list. Joel's recommended books are great; in fact, back when I was developing a micro ISV, I used to turn to Joel's website for advice. That is where I discovered Paul Graham's "Hackers and Painters". Since then, I have shifted my allegiance to a new mentor :) I think the book brought three major changes in how I think:

1. Think big: Since I was developing a micro ISV, I had never really considered scaling the business to millions of customers (aka users). "Hackers and Painters" entered my life just a few weeks before I was about to launch my product; and I realized I had to develop something that can scale. I took a leap of faith and decided to instead pursue web startups; the opportunities for growth were many times in magnitude.

2. There are others like me: Toronto, Canada is not exactly a Silicon Valley. So uptil then, I didn't know there were so many other young entrepreneurs pursuing the same goals as me. Eventhough I wasn't acquainted with other hackers, I could at least gain a sense of security that I am not alone.

3. The Art of the Start: The single most valuable lesson I learned from Paul's book was the governing dynamics of web startups. Before reading it, there was not much inspiration or reason to think big because even if I did venture into online startups, I wouldn't know what to do.

While I have read some excellent books, I can credit Paul's work for watering the first seeds.

python_kisson Like puzzles? Puzpix.com - give us your feedback!!

Hey Jamie and Sumon, that's awesome. The interface is great since it took me about 2 seconds to figure it out. Though, you guys might need to increase the complexity of the game in order to make it more addictive. Nobody likes to solve puzzles they know they can solve :)

python_kisson Interview with Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google: "You don't learn very much when you yourself are talking"

If I were to tag this link, it would've been "Guy, Kavasaki, Eric, Schmidt, Google, CEO, Interview". There is a good chance Dan would have done the same. So tagging helps a lot.

Moreover, tagging leaves open the option to build recommender systems through collaborative filtering. I believe one of the reasons Reddit's recommendation tab was broken for so long (and still is) was because it was difficult to relate content without the use of tags.

python_kisson Startup founders, what books did you find most helpful?

About 14 months ago, I had little knowledge of how to execute a startup. In particular, I wasn't familiar with any online marketing tactics. The following books helped me a lot in that respective, and more:

1. Positioning, 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing/Branding, Focus, Marketing Warfare

2. Purple Cow, All Marketers are Liars, Permission Marketing (I didn't like "The Big Moo", "Free prize inside" or "Small is the new Big").

3. Founters At Work

4. Wikinomics, Wisdom of Crowds, The Tipping Point (Blink! was alright). I am looking forward to reading "The Long Tail" and "The starfish and the spider"...has anyone read them yet?

6. Why We Buy

7. Hackers and Painters

8. The E-Myth revisited

9. The Art of the Start

10. On War, The Art of War by Machiavelli and Sun Tzu (not exactly for startups, but definitely useful)

11. Crossing the Chasm

python_kisson Interview with Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google: "You don't learn very much when you yourself are talking"

news.yc already takes care of that. I was able to get by it because I posted a direct link, while Dan's link went through Guy Kavasaki's blog.

python_kisson Interview with Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google: "You don't learn very much when you yourself are talking"

Sorry, I just realized this is a dupe. Dan posted the same link a few hours ago:

http://news.ycombinator.com/comments?id=5471

python_kisson Interview with Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google: "You don't learn very much when you yourself are talking"

By Guy Kavasaki: The guys at iInnovate posted a lovely interview with Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google. Among the topics they covered were:

Anti-trust

Innovation

Competitive advantages

Motivation of entrepreneurs

Maintaining the entrepreneurial spirit

Traditional and non-traditional organization design

What Microsoft and Yahoo does that impresses him

Invention of disruptive technologies

python_kiss on Digesting Google's New PPA Advertising Product

PPA is certainly a great relief for advertisers. An interesting question, though, is whether such an offering is actually beneficial to the publishers? Domain-parking sites, in particular, might fail to generate profits through PPA and therefore stick with CPC instead. This advertising model might fail to scale if it is not mutually beneficial for both, advertisers and the publishers.

python_kiss on Digesting Google's New PPA Advertising Product

AdBrite coexists with Adwords despite having a similar CPC model. CJ and LinkShare can either choose to have a head-on fight with Google, and lose. Or they can innovate to provide the same product (PPA) with a better service.

python_kiss on Inside the Mind of Jeff Bezos

Thank you for posting this. Here is the aritcle from the beginning:
http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/85/bezos_1.html
Eventhough Bezos is obsessed with good UI's, Amazon has one of the worst user interface. I have observed many people have trouble even logging in to buy a book! The good thing, though, is that these issues are not impossible to solve; implying that Amazon has much more potential than is currently presented.

python_kiss on Google Now Offering Pay-Per-Action Ads

The human review would certainly cause scalability problems. Amazon.com already does PPA with their book referal program. For instance, they pay their ad publishers only when their users purchase a particular book through their site.

python_kiss on See A YCombinator Meal Live Today at 7pm PST (2am GMT)

Some interesting things that happened today at Y-Combinator dinner:
1. On their way to YC dinner, they got stopped by the police.
2. Using my phone, I got to pass hi to Paul and Jessica and congratulate her on the book's success :)
3. I noticed that about 30 founders attended the dinner. From that, I am guessing there are about 15 groups funded this winter.
4. Some prank caller ordered five pizzas (three they paid for) at Justin's name :s
5. We got to see Trevor's awesome robot, live.

python_kiss on Kiko guys back as reality tv stars

Yeah, I love the site. I got to say "hi to Jessica and Paul" and Justin mentioned my site, Shuzak.com, to them live! I am watching YC dinner atm (Paul's riding Trevor's invention) :D
This site definitely has potential to generate revenue. They could embed video advertisements or use sponsored food or cellphones, etc. Justin.tv might fail, but its model could be successfully extended to other reality tv shows. I believe that is the direction they plan on taking :)

python_kiss on Google Now Offering Pay-Per-Action Ads

Google recently revealed that their click fraud is less than 0.02 per cent so it is barely a problem anymore. This means that for every ten thousand CPC, less than two are possible click frauds. Moreover, Google has algorithms that automatically compensate adwords users based on the percentage click fraud.
Ads pay for Google's multibillion dollar business. They are introducing Pay-Per-Action in order to diversify their income channels, not because Adwords is failing.

python_kiss on John W. Backus - inventor of FORTRAN, BNF (12/03/24 - 03/17/07)

dupe: http://news.ycombinator.com/comments?id=5253

python_kiss on Creating Passionate Users: How to host a product/feature design party

dupe: http://news.ycombinator.com/comments?id=4913

python_kiss on Everything I Know, I Learned from Warren Buffett

If you had put $10,000 in Berkshire Hathaway when he took control in mid 60's, your shares would be worth more than $50 million today! Today, the company's shares are worth more than $100, 000 a piece `:0

python_kiss on What is the minimum business stuff like acceptable use policies etc. that I will need to launch a product?

Copy paste. Nobody is going to sue you unless you get big. When you get some money flowing in, hire a lawyer.