I sure the heck hope so! My colleague just sent me this link, which references Yahoo’s announcement post, and I’ll be watching adoption closely. What does Yahoo’s Browser Based Authentication (BBAuth) do?

BBAuth also makes it possible to use Yahoo! as a single sign-on for your site, thus removing a barrier to entry for a whole lot of people

I hope small & large developers everywhere adopt this so that I can browse around the internet without remembering 15 user names & passwords. Great work Yahoo!!!!

Update: BusinessWeek has picked up on the story and mentions that this could lead to a whole new wave of mash-ups.

There is a new “When blogs work” post on Businesspundit that I just came across. Rob mentioned that he is less enthusiastic about blogging than he was a few years ago because the quality of the conversations has decreased. However, there are still conversations occurring, such as the one that resulted from this post about PeerSight. The founder was able to respond to criticism in an open environment. Relating this to corporate blogging- blogs provide a great way to for businesses to find out what customers are saying about them, good OR bad. Further, being able to leave comments provides a means to address misconceptions that people have about your company. There ARE conversations occurring in the blogosphere about your company. To find them, go to Technorati and search on your company name. The question is, are you part of the conversation? (The concept of engaging in the conversation is nothing new- just read Naked Conversations).

I may be spilling some of the beans before Thursday’s event, but part of being part of Zillow’s blog team is to monitor the blogosphere and find the conversations of interest that are happening. Where we feel it is appropriate, we respond in the comments section.

That’s what Mark Cubans says. Check out the CNN article and his blog post. Why would you be a moron for buying youtube? Lots of legal trouble for copyright infringement most likely looms ahead.

I know I’m late on finding this video, but it is a great presentation by the Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff. After watching 45 minutes of it so far (still watching as I type), software really is changing and they are leading the charge. Pretty soon, companies will be able to run their entire company from salesforce at the rate things are changing. It’s all about the AppExchange and creating mash-ups (via the ever increasing range of API’s available from different companies).

I guess the news from Facebook just keeps on coming. The latest? They are going insert viral advertisements in those “newsfeeds” that caused such a riot. One thing that probably would have caused an uproar was that, “When one user clicks on an advertisement in their feeds, all of that user’s friends will be notified that the ad was clicked on and will be given an opportunity to join a group led by the advertiser”. However, Techcrunch just posted an update (below)-

Update: Melanie Deitch, Facebook’s Director of Marketing, emailed to tell us that the MediaWeek story we linked to below was incorrect and that in fact, no unsolicited notices will be sent. Only users who have elected to join a sponsored group will be notified when friends in that group click one of the group’s ads. That’s good.

Facebook has to make money somehow…and sponsored groups seem like a logical step in social networking. As long as the system is opt-in, I am all in favor. It is when companies start shoving unwanted features in the face of the user that leads to trouble.

This post on John Battelle’s blog is interesting and marks a change in the Google-Brazil issue. Since I have already blogged about the here and here, I thought it was worth noting. They’ve decided to not hand over user data afterall and risk the fines ($23,000 per day). To help ease some of the tension, Google did take down 8 communities due to requests by the Brazil government.

If you’re interested, check out this video that I found on Guy Kawasaki’s blog! I’m just starting to watch the hour long video, but I thought I’d share it regardless. Guy Kawasaki is moderating…so chances are it’ll be pretty good.

Update: WOW- two of the youths on the panel send 4,000 text messages per month? That is insane! I sometimes approach 200 and I think I text message too much.

Update: Quotes-

• Question- “What browser do you use?” Answer- “Google”
• “I notice billboards. They keep getting bigger and bigger.”

Who knows, this could turn out to be true…but I’m certainly not convinced. I doubt Myspace will be worth $15 billion to its shareholders within 3 years. In general, social networks don’t remain popular for that long, unless they are highly targeted. Myspace is actually on the opposite end of the spectrum (IMO)…highly UN-targeted. They better have one hell of a business team working for them to even come close to approaching the $15 billion figure mentioned….good luck!

I just saw this on Scoble’s blog- ZBiz.tv just launced. Somewhat interesting- take a look at the 1st video.

If you’re interested in business, technology, blogging, Web 2.0, or just want to drink and network, there’s a cool networking event scheduled for next week in Fremont. The topic is blogs and other new media. I’ve agreed to speak a little on the subject of personal blogging, though I don’t consider myself any sort of personal blogging expert (heck- I’ve only been at this a couple months!). The real rock stars of the event are Eric Landheer from NASDAQ, Novinium CEO Glen Bertini, Blog Business Summit founder Steve Broback, Andru Edwards, CEO of Gear Live, and Tim Reha of Venture All Stars and NewMedia Synergy. Want more details- check below-

DATE: Thursday, October 5th, 5-9pm.

LOCATION: Nectar Lounge, located in Fremont at 412 N. 36th St. Seattle , WA 98103 [venue]

EVENT TICKETS: $20 per person pre-registration (register below). 21+ID

FOOD DONATION: Food donation required for Food Life Line. Space is Limited to 250 Guests. DRESS CODE: Business Casual to Very Casual. Feel free to leave the tie in the car and relax.

LIBATIONS: Ice Cold – Happy Hour drink specials and food go until 7pm. We are talking about “startup prices” here baby with $4 & $6 pitchers, $3 apps & $5 pizzas. We guarantee no “high dollar gouging” for drinks & food that you are forced to pay for at the “hotel events”.

GEAR & PRIZES! The man the myth the legend Tom Bihn, of Tom Bihn Bags will be showing off the latest bags for business, laptops and sport. Th Grand prize winner of the event will enjoy a day in the Tom Bihn factory with Tom Bihn himself as you pick custom fabrics (maybe even cut them yourself with our industrial machines!) and colors and have the Tom Bihn bag of your choice sewn for you that day. Second and third place prizes are the Empire Builder briefcase package ($240.00) and Smart Alec Backpack package ($220.00). Vist http://www.tombihn.com/ and see Tom’s interview on the Bleeding Edge Video Blog Show

For more information and to sign up, please see http://www.ventureallstars.com/! Hope to see you there!

I’ve gotta run to work, but I just found this comment on the BusinessWeek article “Is the U.S. Losing Its Competitive Edge?” that details how the US went from #1 to #6 in the World Economic Forums global competitiveness rankings and I totally agree-

Nickname: SocietyisTheProblem

Review: People are always so quick to blame others for their own problems and in the U.S. we are the worst. Why is it that we spend so much money on education and healthcare and still rank low in these areas? Because we make bad choices! You cannot make laws that say “kids must study in school” or “parents must dicipine their children into studying” or “people must eat healthy.” These are choices that people make and they are the reason why things are slipping. So I dont want to hear anyone say we need bigger government involvement or more money poured into education or healthcare. All we need to do is return to the values of the WW2 generation and we will dominate these rankings once more.

Date reviewed: Sep 27, 2006 1:12 PM

This is not a business related post, but it sure caught my attention when I opened up ESPN this morning. T.O., probably the best receiver in the NFL, tried to commit suicide by overdosing on pain medication on Tuesday night. Its sad, but it just goes to show that being rich and famous does not necessarily lead to happiness. Hopefully, he can get through this in one piece and get back on the football field.

Update: Now said to be “Accidental Overdose“

BusinessWeek Came up with the 12 Top Bloggers! Who’s your favorite?

Wow- Facebook’s doors are open to the public now. No longer are they a totally exclusive college social networking site! Granted, this isn’t unexpected. This puts them in a position to take a run at Myspace. They announced it on their blog this morning and also explain how this expansion affects existing users here. Read more about the new launch at Techcrunch.

My thoughts? I’m getting more and more convinced that this is the right move for them. Much of the reason I have changed my stance from not being totally convinced is because they have put so many privacy controls in place for their users. Sure, users might rebel and create petition groups, but will they leave the site altogether? Probably not given that facebook is listening to its users and acting on their feedback. Another reason? The largest competitor, myspace, is trying to take out many of the companies that helped make them so successful, which is sure to hurt them in my opinion. This could get interesting…

My friend and I watched the Seahawks crush the Giants in the 1st half yesterday. Luckily, they had a large enough lead that their second half meltdown didn’t cost them the game. This picture was on the Seahawks blog- and I thought it was worth linking to because I have seen this fan and his flag at the bus stop the past two weeks after the game. Go Hawks- Bring on Chicago!

In short- No! I came across this comment on mark cuban’s ”Some predictions come true, some don’t“ post today-

1. You may have been too lazy to do anything about “communities of interest” at the time – but it certainly isn’t too late. I don’t think huge social networking sites are the end all answer – I think the most popular “social networking” sites will be relatively small, focused and be used fanatically.

Time will tell whether this is true, but I think it will be. Myspace won’t be the most thriving social network in a couple years in my opinion. It’s only a matter of time before niche sites really become popular…or blogging just takes over by combining the best of social networking and blogging into one!

This is a great move by the Facebook team- They’ve LISTENED! Following the uproar over the announcement that facebook is going to open up its registration, Facebook has implemented new privacy controls for their users based on feedback received. Facebook rebounded from the outcry about their newsfeed feature in a similar manner- by listening to users and giving them what they ask for. They are definitely winning the trust of users by taking action to address user concerns before adding the next site addition- an open registration.

Here’s the statement I found when I logged into facebook yesterday-

More Privacy Controls

Last week we asked you guys what privacy controls you thought were necessary for the upcoming expansion. We read all of your suggestions and we have built these controls:

• Hide yourself from all people in a type of network (e.g. people only in a region, high schoolers) in searches.
• Prevent people in those networks from messaging, poking and adding you as a friend.
• Control whether your picture shows up in your search listing.

These controls are all under the Search section of the My Privacy page. As always, please send us feedback here.

Once again, Facebook “gets it.” They have a bright future if they continue down this path of giving users what they want. I encourage all the other Web 2.0 companies out there to learn from what facebook has done recently. The lesson here? Listen to your users!

This concept just grabbed me when I stumbled on this post last night after work. I did some more research and found Techweb’s article “The Virtual World Goes on Sale Tuesday.” It sure seems a bit risky, but the potential for a large pay-off is there in my opinion. Basically, Weblo is SecondLife- but with real property. In the weblo world, you can buy states, internet domains names (all non-trademarked domains are up for grabs all over again), become the manager for a celebrity, buy properties for roughly $2, and become the mayor or governor. The thing Weblo has on secondlife is that the common person won’t have trouble grasping what they are buying because, since everything is based on real world items, they have heard of everything in the Weblo world.

Will some entrepreneuers jump head over heals into the fire early on waiting for the pay-off later? I would guess so. I’ll probably buy a couple things and see how it goes. The virtual land grab starts at 12 pm ET on the 25th (if you are pre-registered) when they wipe their databases clean. Are you going to get in on the action? Rumors are $25,000 has been sent in to buy Ottawa and there is a waiting list to buy New York.

BusinessWeek has a great article about click fraud that I just read. I’d say there is definitely some reason for concern by Google, Yahoo!, and Microsoft after reading this. Users (advertisers) need to be given more control over where there ads are being shown. One suggestion I have is to let individuals “flag” sites that seem to be scams- usually a site that has nothing but ads on it. Once a site gets 3 flags (or whatever number Google decides on), the site should be prohibited from running ads anymore. I know Google wants to automate everything, but not everything in business can be automated.

In addition, this is a super interesting podcast that takes you deeper into the story.

This post struck a quick nerve with me. Working is not about the money- it’s about something more. Jerry Pfeffer of Stanford says-

People do work for money, but even more for creativity, challenge, fun, autonomy or whatever personal factors give their working life meaning.

I agree! For those of you that disagree- find your passion or a leader/company (or both) that you truly believe in. Luckily, I’m found my passion (real estate/business/technology), a super executive team, and a company (zillow) I believe in – all in one place! Can’t ask for much more than that.