Prescription4Love Shows How The Web Is Getting More Social

First there were line command messages between physicists (early 90’s), then email (mid-late 90’s), then Instant Messaging (98-’02), then social networks (’03) that combined messaging + profiles, and now we have messaging and interacting between people with chronic conditions.

Prescription4Love.com is a dating site for people with diabetes, cancer, obesity, STDs and a variety of other chronic conditions. It’s intended to be a safe space for people who risk serious embarrassment talking about their medical conditions with people who cannot relate.

Types of Users

Apparently people with other chronic conditions have been most interested in Prescription4Love. It was started by a guy in Atlanta to see how difficult it was for his brother to get a date with Crohn’s disease. Other types of people they customize for are:

  • AIDS/HIV, Obesity, Deafness, Diabetes, IBS, Infertility/Impotence, Allergies, Herpes, Hepatitis, Recovering alcoholic

This is a lot of people too. The estimate is that there will be 300 million people around the world with diabetes in 2025. The functionality is fairly basic dating site stuff. For example, messages are be sent through a nickname, instead of their full real names (just like Match).

If the 90’s and early 2000’s broght major technological change (faster chips,computer.jpg broadband, etc.), I’ve always thought that this is the time where the web begins to address and change the way people interact. This is the “social age” of the web which is why today’s internet successes aren’t necessarily computer scientists but marketers, anthropoligists, and others who create ways for users to talk, message, and truly interact. Look at how teenager’s interact with each other over IM – completely different than the days of calling each other on (gasp!) a landline. Just imagine how people will interact once there’s a social networking for everyone.

If I Was Apple, What I Would Do To Protect iTunes

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Apple has a great monopoly on both the fulfillment and playback of digital music. ITunes is a great player, the iTunes Music Store is the most comprehensive music store available online, and the iPod is the best, most badass player on the market. However, competitors are coming on strong. Microsoft announced the Zune project, Sony is releasing new players (article), and smaller players like the Music Gremlin are doing some cool and innovative stuff.

So, what should apple do to protect this mighty lead? They should give aways as many iTunes tracks as possible! Seriously, like it is halloween or a homecoming parade they should throw tracks away like candy. And, like the clever company they afacebook.jpgre, that’s exactly what they are doing. Last week they announced that they are giving away tracks to college kids with a deal with thefacebook to give away 10 million tracks (btw: facebook is the 7th most trafficed site in the US). And yesterday Apple annouced a deal with Coke which said in the press release, “Coke will link its website to the iTunes site and give away millions of free music downloads and hundreds of iPod digital music players”

cokeapple.jpgWhy is this a good idea? Because every track that a user gets from iTunes keeps them attached to the Apple world. If you have hundreds of tracks that only work in iTunes and iPods, you’re not very likely to buy or use anything else but if you have only mp3’s from CD’s, eMusic, or “found” online it’s pretty easy to go somewhere else. So, to ensure that nobody switches in the future, Apple should lock everyone in with iTunes tracks. Personally, i’m keeping

Google Spreadsheet Coming

As i've stated before, i really believe that Google's looking to offer their own browser-based PC (past article here).  And, to strengthen their browser suite, they announced today that they'll be launching a browser-based spreadsheet application

I for one, couldn't be happier about this.  Quite often i've emailed around a spreadsheet for comments and discussion. To be able to share and solicit comments on it is a great thing.  Let's just hope it delivers.

Google PC, Continued

A few weeks ago i posted about the liklihood of a Google PC of of their browser-centric focus and the cost of PCs. Well, i have discovered a few more items since then.

  1. 1. Check out this $100 PC. This is just like what i described previously. All flash, all browser. The PC is sponsored by MIT Media Labs and developed by a non-profit who's using them for educational purposes. (link)Blue-front.jpg
    • The specs for the machine are: The machine will be a Linux-based, with a dual-mode display—both a full-color, transmissive DVD mode, and a second display option that is black and white reflective and sunlight-readable at 3× the resolution. The laptop will have a 500MHz processor and 128MB of DRAM, with 500MB of Flash memory; it will not have a hard disk, but it will have four USB ports.
    • The laptops will have wireless broadband that, among other things, allows them to work as a mesh network; each laptop will be able toLaptop-crank.jpg talk to its nearest neighbors, creating an ad hoc, local area network. The laptops will use innovative power (including wind-up) and will be able to do most everything except store huge amounts of data. (specs link here)
  2. I discovered many more Google apps. Let me list them:
    1. *NEW* – Google Notebook.  A notepad that stays in your browser that lets you keep notes and track other web stuff.  Pretty neat.
    2. Google Mail
    3. Google Calendar
    4. Writely
    5. Picassa – sophisticated photo editor
    6. Talk – phone
    7. WiMax

What am i missing? 

Subscription Music Breakdown

In the past few months, i've had quite a few questions about what "subscription" music is. This is my attempt to explain it.

Napster, Rhapsody, MusicNow, MTV, and Yahoo! all offer services where you can get unlimited music for about $10 a month. The one caveat is that the tracks you download with these services are all "rented" – meaning that as soon as you stop paying for them, you can no longer play them. The way this works is that each file requires a license to play. When you download a track you get both the file and the license. For a track to play in a player the license must be valid. Whichever service you use, they automatically renew all licenses every 30 days. If you're no longer a subscriber, the license doesn't get renewed and the files don't play. Another company, EMusic, is a little different – you get 40 downloads of mp3's for $10 bucks a month. While you don't get as many files, you get them in mp3 format and can keep them forever – you truly own them.

Why it hasn't worked? This model hasn't worked for two BIG reasons:

  • Can't find enough music to satisfy $10 a month. What do you want for your birthday? Tell me now. It's hard isn't it. Everybody knows they want something for their birthday, but when they have to think about it NOW, it's tough. It is the same with subscription music. Everybody knows they like a bunch of music and want to download it, but when you're at the front page of Napster, it is hard to remember what you want. Trust me, i've done countless focus groups – this is a big problem. If you can find what you want to download, you don't download and the value of an unlimited download service lessens.
  • iPods and iTunes. iPods are not only pretty to look at, with the iTunes player, they are insanely easy to use. As a device, they are so much easier to use than other subscription compatible devices. Using them, users don't have to ever worry about licenses and they don't have to worry about other media players or connections or anything. An ipod works with – and ONLY with – iTunes which means that it is designed to be simple. Microsoft is a platform company. They make platforms that any vendor can use to sell devices or services. Which is great, but it means that both the devices and the WindowsMedia format itself is going to be much, much more complex – and unfortunately for them, it shows. Until that extra functionality MS allows is really useful, it's only a hindrance.

Will subscription ever be a good way to get new tunes? I believe it will. It is very easy to create music now, and the amount of music being created is only going to keep growing. There is a need for people to find and explore the expanding universe of music. Once there are better searching techniques, I believe the utility of subscription music will rise.

Ian Rodgers, who works at Yahoo Music provided (in this podcast) a great way to think about the advantages of subscription music. It went something like this….

users care about 2 things regarding music: playing music and owning music. If you want to own music, you're best bet is to purchase the CD. You get the music in a lossless format which can be burned into any format at any bitrate indefinitely and also receive associated images, liner notes, etc. If you want to play music, your best option is a subscription platform which allows you to play as much as possible for pretty cheap.

I like that thought, but that doesn't account for iPods, nor the convenience of purchasing only a track vs. an entire album.

That's the theory – what do you think?

A funny sidenote that i like. WMA files (non iTunes) are protected by a technology called in the industry Janus, and by marketers "Plays for Sure." Check out a past blog post of mine which describes why this is a clever reference to a muppet.

LaLa is Great!

For the past few months i've been hearing about a music searvice site called Lala and how it's supposed to be a great service, but i could never get in. Well, i finally got in and starting using the service. And let me tell you – it is, in fact, great.

What is it? Lala is a CD sharing service that lets you receive (in the mail) other people CD's and makes it easy – by providing you with easy mailing envelopes – for you toLala Ships Discs send your CD's to other people.

Their site is very slick and very easy to use. You

  1. List CD's you have and claim the ones you want (by click on them in the site)
  2. Get CD's in the mail from any other member who decides to send you their CD. It notifies them on their lala site that their CD is wanted. Each CD costs you $1 (plus 50 cents shipping) and the number you get depends on how many you ship.
  3. Mail your CD's to people who have selected they want it. Lala provides you with prepaid envelopes so the shipping is really easy.

The claiming of CD's you have and selecting what CD's you want is very simple. I just received my first CD and it came in a plastic case. I never have to return it and just have to send a CD of my own once i get a notice from someone that they want it. It's just a P2P netflix for CD's. Pretty great. If you have time, sign up and start swapping

An interesting thing about the service is Lala claims to be setting aside 20% of their revenue to compensate the artists who get traded on the service. This is a nice little secondary market for these artists but it will remain to be seen how much revenue there actually is. Lala has raised $9 million in startup cash and is cleary burning through it on site development, labels, and even in client software (an iTunes plug-in). I see them needing more money in about a year with around 100k regular users. Nevertheless, i still think it's a slick site.

Ajax Project Management System Needed

As someone who works with a diverse staff and likes to keep a tight schedule, i online project management tools. I also love gantt charts. The current product i’ve been using is dot project – but this is a pretty cumbersome app. Seeiing that there are so many people who are taking web 1.0 tools and spicing them up for 2.0, can someone please do this for the Project Management tools?

It makes sense for click-intensive tools like mail, calendar, bug reporting, and maps – see: gmail, new Yahoo Mail, Google Calendar, CalendarHub, 16Bugs, and Google/Yahoo Maps – why can’t someone do this for PM tools?

Anyone know of some good stuff? Talk to me

Keep Track of Web Pages: Feedwhip

I stumbled upon a cool web site the other day called Feedwhip. How it works: you enter in the URL of a website and it will email you if anything on that site changes. Super simple. But the usefulness is pretty huge. You can set the level of changes you'd like to be notified about – every change, at least 1 line of text, big changes, etc. This is very useful for a guy such as myself who tracks many, many sites every day to see if the competition is changing or adding features. Some other useful applications for feedwhip:

  • Set it on an Amazon page for an item you like and get notified of either price changes or new user reviews
  • Set it on imdb memorable quote pages for films you like to receive an occasional quote of your favorite film emailed to you
  • Use it for pages that don't have rss feeds to get email updates to changes of sports pages, or college pages

 Can you think of other cool uses?

Online Tools For Teachers

I recently came across two sites: Chalksite & Engrade. Engrade is an online tool for teachers. All together, it's a free online gradebook, attendance checker, and calendar for teachers. Also, it automatically posts grades online in real-time for students and parents to see. Chalksite tried harder to be a toolset for teachers, allowing them to keep detailed schedules, field trips, grades, etc. Chalksite seems more powerful but also seems more complicated to use, whereas Engrade seems to have fewer features but seems easier.

Over the years i've thought of alot of cool web sites that could dramatically improve the teaching experience but, of course, done none of it. It's cool to the Web 2.0 world being served up to America's educators.

If anyone has used either of these sites – can you let me know (either through email or commenting here)?

More Netvibes & Browser Desktops

Following up on last week’s post about Netvibes, i just noticed that they have added a few very SWEET features:

1. They now have tabs so you can set up different views of feeds. I personally have a work related tab (internety blog feeds), a sports tab (deadspin, sports guy, others), and a personal tab (moose, mowery, barbero, flickr photos, best week ever blog)

2. They have a module you can put in there from box.net which allows you to put up to a gig of files. It just a hosted storage area as an rss feed. It’s totally sweet.

What does this all mean? Basically, we’re approaching a world where the desktop is replaced with a browser. Instead of applications like Word, Excel, Outlook, iTunes, and Windows it will be a world of Writely, NumSum, Gmail, mp3tunes, and things like Netvibes. All you need is a browser and you can get all your docs, music, email, etc. All signs point to this: Google’s acquisition of Writely, Windows browser replacements like Goowy and Netvibes, more and more bandwidth being available to users, the growth of server processors (AMD Dual-Core). It’s coming…i’m telling you.