Alec Saunders SquawkBox

VoIP Inc is taking a $24 million hit, and laying off staff as it regroups by closing down it's network and call termination business to focus on it's patented click-to-call advertising system.  It was inevitable, as small companies that built termination networks in the early heady days of VoIP failed to evolve fast enough to stay out of the way of larger businesses like Level3 and XO.  VoIP Inc is one of the smart ones that was able to developed a protectable value added business.

I'm trying a new product from NetAudioAds called Pay-Per-Play.  The premise is pretty simple.  Sometimes when you visit this site you'll hear a 5 second audio clip as part of the experience.  It seems as if it might be less obtrusive than the text ads.

Let me know what you think.  

Google Apps Team edition launched today.  Google Apps Team Edition is a free service that lets people within the same e-mail domain collaborate easily with Google Apps, a package that includes Docs, Calendar, Talk, and Start Page.    Does anyone believe Google's protests that they're not really competing with Microsoft anymore?  We discussed and concluded…

This morning iSkoot and Cisco announced that iSkoot had successfully integrated with the Cisco AS5000 series media gateways, and PGW 2200 softswitch. iSkoot's products let users make and receive VoIP calls, view buddy lists, and do instant messaging from mobile handsets. Does this mean that iSkoot is moving beyond Skype to traditional VoIP?

Information Week's Stephen Wellman offered the following intriguing thought: Nokia should bid for Yahoo.  His reasons are (paraphrased):

• Nokia wants to be a Web company and Yahoo already is
• Updating Yahoo! mobile offerings could make Nokia king of mobile location services
• Yahoo could help Nokia brand in the U.S.
• Yahoo would give it a desktop ad biz (it already has a mobile one).
• Nokia can't let Google or Microsoft gain any Internet marketshare if it wants to be a serious player

And that made for a lively debate!

 

 Feb 7 - Google Apps, iSkoot, Nokia [18:22m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Bad boy Michael Robertson is mixing it up again, this time with Dealipedia.  Dealipedia is a Wiki of deal terms, showing who made what, when the deals happened, and so on.  Formerly the province of expensive services like Dow Jones, Robertson wants to make this information free, using the same model as Wikipedia - user generated content.   For entrepreneurs needing to research competitors or comparable deal terms, it has the potential to grow from the relatively small 18,000 entries it has today into a potent resource.

Most of mig33's 10 million users are from outside North America.  With their roots in south-east Asia, and their focus on mobile devices, mig33's subscriber base has come from youth in countries where the primary way to access the internet has been via mobile phone. 

Today they rolled out their first products that are specifically designed to target American users.  Their new Blackberry client makes it easy to share photos, connect with friends, make inexpensive international phone calls, and bring all of your IM accounts together in one place. 

To get the mig33 Blackberry application, visit http://mig33.com/wim/blackberry.php.

It's no secret that mobile social networking usage is exploding.  Since May of last year, for example, mobile usage of Facebook has expanded dramatically.  In November, polls I conducted showed Facebook mobile usage at 27% of the install base, up from under 10% in May a year earlier.  Can mig33 grab a US foothold in this fast growing market?  Perhaps, but they'll need a solid constituency behind them.  As Facebook cultivated youth via college campuses, mig33 will have to find a core constituency that cares passionately about the services they deliver.  With their emphasis on inexpensive international calling, it doesn't seem as if they've hit the mark yet for US consumers.