From The: “Um, What?!” Department

This is going to go over well.

The Beatles Launch Exclusive Ringtones Through iTunes Store

AKA: when you have an exclusive deal, milk it.

Microsoft Office For/Not For iPad

Microsoft making Office available in some capacity on the iPad is huge news, obviously. But even more interesting is the back-and-forth about this story.

Depending on the hour, Microsoft is either:

  • Readying a version of Office for the iPad in the coming weeks.
  • Not readying a version of Office for the iPad in the coming weeks.
  • Denying the screenshots are real.
  • Not denying the software is real. 
  • Showing off the software to journalists.
  • Denying the software shown to journalists is real. But not denying that software was shown to journalists.

I fully expect this to continue into the night.

CNNMoney Tech: MG Siegler vs. MG Siegler

I’m confused as to what exactly I’m accused of here. I posted a link to Microsoft’s side of the argument. And I followed up with Google’s response. As a result, CNN staff writer David Goldman seems to think he has me in some sort of GOTCHA!

Newsflash for Goldman: my personal blog is not The New York Times. I post links to things I find interesting throughout the day with a short blurb about them. Occasionally I write longer posts where I dive deeper, but that’s no longer my primary job. 

Yes, it sucks that I wrote the post burning down your industry after I left, but that was also the point. A (now) outsider’s perspective on the state of the industry. 

Feel free to not consider my personal blog the paper of record for the industry. Having said that, I’m still not sure why the two links from opposing viewpoints constitutes a GOTCHA!

The Race To Save Flickr

Betabeat’s Adrianne Jeffries is optimistic after sitting down with Flickr product head Markus Spiering and seeing a glimpse of what they’re working on. It sounds like it will be more of a gradual change over the year though, rather than one major revamp.

Three words not nearly mentioned enough: mobile, mobile, mobile. The only part of the story that mentions this says:

But Flickr is reorienting according to Yahoo’s “mobile first” strategy and the design is thoughtful and forward-looking.

That’s far too vague to be promising in any way. But Spiering was a mobile guy in his previous life within Yahoo, so maybe there’s some hope. 

The Enemy Of My Enemy Is My Friend
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The Enemy Of My Enemy Is My Friend

Netflix Competitor Launches New Netflix Competitor

Speaking of Netflix, Comcast is launching a Netflix competitor.

But wait — isn’t Comcast already a Netflix competitor with their On Demand service, their Xfinity service, and their stake in Hulu? Well yes, but this will have a new name and new fees! Joy!

Reports Andrew Wallenstein for Variety:

With a business model and catalog-oriented content mix similar to Netflix and other competing services like Amazon and a coming joint venture from Verizon and Redbox, Comcast is clearly attempting to supplement its existing digital presence, Xfinity, with a long-tail-oriented offering. But Streampix is not available to those who don’t already get Comcast cable.

Streampix will either be free to those who get Comcast’s triple-play package of video, broadband and phone or for an additional $4.99 fee on top of other varieties of Comcast offerings.

So, it will only be available to those people who already have Comcast cable. AND it will likely cost you an additional fee even if you’re already spending upwards of $100 a month on cable. What a fucking fantastic sounding service.

Netflix And The Weinstein Company Enter Into Their First Multi-Year Streaming Deal

Huge win for Netflix. The Weinstein Company is one of the few production houses where quality absolutely trumps quantity. If I wasn’t already a member, I’d consider signing up for Netflix just for this alone.

China Telecom Getting The iPhone 4S On March 9, Prices Start At Free

This will get overshadowed by the new iPad unveiled a couple days before, but this is big news. China Telecom has 130 million customers. And, get this, one model of the 4S will be given away for free with a contract.

Huge.

Google: Microsoft Is Full Of Shit

Earlier today, I posted a link to a Microsoft blog post calling out Google for bypassing IE security measures. Google saw the post and sent me the following on-the-record statement (below).

It’s a bit verbose, so I’ll summarize: “Microsoft is full of shit.”

Statement: Attributable to Rachel Whetstone, Senior Vice President of Communications and Policy, Google

Microsoft omitted important information from its blog post today.  

Microsoft uses a “self-declaration” protocol (known as “P3P”) dating from 2002 under which Microsoft asks websites to represent their privacy practices in machine-readable form.  It is well known - including by Microsoft - that it is impractical to comply with Microsoft’s request while providing modern web functionality.  We have been open about our approach, as have many other websites.  

Today the Microsoft policy is widely non-operational. A 2010 research report indicated that over 11,000 websites were not issuing valid P3P policies as requested by Microsoft.

Here is some more information.

Issue has been around since 2002

For many years, Microsoft’s browser has requested every website to “self-declare” its cookies and privacy policies in machine readable form, using particular “P3P” three-letter policies.  

Essentially, Microsoft’s Internet Explorer browser requests of websites, “Tell us what sort of functionality your cookies provide, and we’ll decide whether to allow them.”  This didn’t have a huge impact in 2002 when P3P was introduced (in fact the Wall Street Journal today states that our DoubleClick ad cookies comply with Microsoft’s request), but newer cookie-based features are broken by the Microsoft implementation in IE.  These include things like Facebook “Like” buttons, the ability to sign-in to websites using your Google account, and hundreds more modern web services.  It is well known that it is impractical to comply with Microsoft’s request while providing this web functionality.  

Today the Microsoft policy is widely non-operational.  

In 2010 it was reported:

Browsers like Chrome, Firefox and Safari have simpler security settings. Instead of checking a site’s compact policy, these browsers simply let people choose to block all cookies, block only third-party cookies or allow all cookies…..

Thousands of sites don’t use valid P3P policies….

A firm that helps companies implement privacy standards, TRUSTe, confirmed in 2010 that most of the websites it certifies were not using valid P3P policies as requested by Microsoft:

Despite having been around for over a decade, P3P adoption has not taken off. It’s worth noting again that less than 12 percent of the more than 3,000 websites TRUSTe certifies have a P3P compact policy. The reality is that consumers don’t, by and large, use the P3P framework to make decisions about personal information disclosure.

A 2010 research paper by Carnegie Mellon found that 11,176 of 33,139 websites were not issuing valid P3P policies as requested by Microsoft.

In the research paper, among the websites that were most frequently providing different code to that requested by Microsoft: Microsoft’s own live.com and msn.com websites.

Microsoft support website

The 2010 research paper “discovered that Microsoft’s support website recommends the use of invalid CPs (codes) as a work-around for a problem in IE.”  This recommendation was a major reason that many of the 11,176 websites provided different code to the one requested by Microsoft.

Google’s provided a link that explained our practice.

Microsoft could change this today

As others are noting today, this has been well known for years.

  • Privacy researcher Lauren Weinstein states: “In any case, Microsoft’s posting today, given what was already long known about IE and P3P deficiences in these regards, seems disingenuous at best, and certainly is not helping to move the ball usefully forward regarding these complex issues.”
  • Chris Soghoian, a privacy researcher, points out: “Instead of fixing P3P loophole in IE that FB & Amazon exploited ……MS did nothing. Now they complain after Google uses it.”
  • Even the Wall Street Journal says: “It involves a problem that has been known about for some time by Microsoft and privacy researchers….”

If you actually took the time to read half of that statement, you’d realize just how ridiculous this war of words is getting. And it’s going to get worse.

I’m not saying either side is right or wrong here. All I’m saying is that if Google has a problem with what Microsoft is saying, they should come out and say so in plain English. Instead, this is like ubernerd passive-agressiveness. 

“Microsoft omitted important information” — that’s such a cop-out. Just say: “Microsoft is trying to deceive the public.” Or: “they’re total dicks”. You know, things a human being can understand. 

My summary is crude, but in many ways much more accurate and insightful. 

It's Unnatural

Sarah Lacy talking about Google+ on PandoDaily:

We simply don’t need another social network, no matter how great your circles are or how badly Larry Page wants to have one. 

Agreed. The problem, which Google really, truly does not seem to understand is that at the end of the day, they’re solving a problem which has already been solved. They may think it hasn’t, but it has.

It’s the same problem Bing faces in search against Google. It’s a fine product, but in order to get people to use it, it has to be far better than the incumbent. Bing isn’t, so it will never beat Google (despite Google’s best efforts to back that thang up). Google+ isn’t, so it will never beat Facebook (or Twitter, for that matter).

But Google is trying to cheat this system. By shoving Google+ in our faces, they think that they can make their product catch on without the need to be above and beyond better than the incumbent.

I think we’ll see that this approach still won’t work. Social networks like Facebook and Twitter work because they evolved based on how users were naturally using them. Google+ is trying to make the users evolve to fit into the network they created. It’s unnatural.

I Tried To Watch Game Of Thrones...

Hollywood’s core piracy “problem” is perfectly captured in this one cartoon by The Oatmeal.

In fact, I’ve had this exact debate with myself. I really want to watch Game of Thrones. But I’m not an HBO subscriber because I’m not a cable subscriber and unfortunately, the two go hand-in-hand, no matter what I’m willing to pay.

Speaking of “willing to pay”, okay fine, I can’t get Game of Thrones on HBO, but I’m willing to pay a quite a bit of money to get it via iTunes. Wait. Nope. Can’t do that either. At least not for a few more months — well over a year after the first season wrapped.

Netflix? Nope. Not streaming or DVD/Blu-ray. Amazon? Nope. HBO.com? Not unless I’m a cable subscriber. 

So my options are…

…

…well, I only have one option. Thanks Hollywood!

[via Yun on Twitter]

Google Quietly Tries To Compete With Foursquare Of Three Years Ago

A few years ago, this would have been interesting. But now it just looks foolish. It looks like a company that’s so embarrassed about how late they are to the dance that they snuck in the backdoor and refuse to talk to anyone let alone dance with anyone. 

Google made a big bet on background location with Latitude, but they were far too early. By the time they realized this and pivoted towards the check-in, it was too late. Now things are finally starting to shift towards background location and Google is going the wrong way.

Microsoft: We're Also Pissed Off At Google Over Privacy

I’m honestly not sure which is more concerning:

1) That Google is doing things to bypass the privacy settings in Internet Explorer.

2) That Microsoft had absolutely no idea that Google was doing this until the (somewhat misleading) Wall Street Journal article last week.

Update: Google: Microsoft Is Full Of Shit

Chill's Ultimate Steve Jobs Collection

An awesome collection of pretty much every Steve Jobs video you can find on the web. This was put together by Chill (a CrunchFund portfolio company).