MILK - The Ultimate Desk

MILK - Even the website is beautiful.

Number 7,382 on Ziki…

Ziki seduced me.
They asked me all sorts of questions.
I answered them.
Now I am person number 7,382.
And they will advertise my name on Google.

In the future, if someone Googles me, Ziki will show an ad linking to my profile. I don’t quite understand how that will benefit Ziki, or me, but I gave it a try anyway. They just look good so I gave in.

I hope someone will test Ziki, get a fundamental understanding of the service, and blog about it. Maybe then I’ll understand.

Until then, here is my Ziki: Boris Veldhuijzen Van Zanten on ziki.com

Wakoopa

We have been working with the guys from Wakoopa for a few months now. I can’t tell you what it is they do because they are still in ‘hush hush’ mode.

But today they launched their blog and according to that I am an official ‘Advisor’ for Wakoopa.

Cool.

Check out the Wakoopa blog and don’t forget to sign-up for the beta at Wakoopa.com.

The Next Web Conference 2007

Today we launched The Next Web Conference 2007 website and opened up registration and ticket sales for a limited audience. We wanted to keep the conference cozy and intimate so we are inviting people who were there last year to buy a ticket first. Until April 1 the conference is invitation only. After that we will open up the registration pages to anyone.

Speakers
Scott Rafer is CEO of MyBlogLog (recently acquired by Yahoo), co-founder of Mashery.com and Moderator for The Next Web Conference 2007. The final agenda will be disclosed early June but the following speakers have been confirmed: Marc Canter - CEO of Broadbandmechanics and Founder of MacroMind, Deborah Schultz - Strategist in the world of social software, media and marketing and former Marketing Director for Six Apart, Tariq Krim - Founder and CEO of Netvibes, Rod Beckström - author of The Starfish and the Spider: The Unstoppable Power of Leaderless Organizations, Dick Hardt - founder and CEO of Sxip Identity.

Speakers Video Conference
The following speakers will present via Video Conference: Seth Godin - founder and original squid at Squidoo, Eric A. Meyer - noted CSS and HTML expert and David Weinberger - co-author of the The Cluetrain Manifesto.

Startup Arena
The Startup Arena, sponsored by Big Bang Ventures, will host up to 20 Startups from all over the world who will personally demo their products and services. A few of these hottest new Internet companies will be selected to share their story in 10 minute showcases on stage. Would you like to present in the Startup Arena then submit your company now.

Party
The end of the conference is celebrated with a ‘first time around’ style party for attendees, sponsors and speakers only.

Tickets & more information
Registration and more information about this event, including the agenda and biographies of the main speakers, are available on the website: http://2007.thenextweb.org

Frustrated with Search?

There something interesting going on in search.
What is happening?
Not much.

You could call it the silence before the storm. You can feel something is about to happen but you don’t know what it will be.

There is an article at Techcrunch titled “PowerHype At Powerset” and here is the most fascinating quote:

“People are frustrated with the current state of search and want something better.”

Isn’t that interesting?! I think that most people can’t even imagine that one day they might use something else than Google. But looking at the past you would think that it is only inevitable. But now that mainstream bloggers are assumong that all ‘people are frustrated with the current state of search’ I would think a huge window of opportunity is opening for whoever is working on The Next Search.

BlackBerry Pearl with QWERTY?

I can’t seem to get my Blackberry Pearl to work properly. It should be able to email photos instead of MMS them. The solution seems to be to upgrade the software but Vodafone doesn’t have any plans to do this. You could download an (semi)illegal OS from Bangkok and install that but I couldn’t even get that working.

So now I have been using the Blackberry Pearl just as a smaller replacement to my former Blackberry 8700. I have been tempted to switch back to my Blackberry 8700 because I miss the qwerty keyboard but every time I pick it up it seems enormous compared to the Pearl and I just can’t imagine carrying such a big tool in my pants again. (yeah, insert joke there)

Well, today Blackberry introduced the BlackBerry 8800. Its a Blackberry Pearl but with QWERTY, but without a camera. Sigh.

It does have GPS but how cool would it have been if they would have just added a camera too? I don’t know why it is so hard to get me the ultimate blogging tool. The features are simple: small, wireless, synchonised, easy to use, build in camera, qwerty keyboard, small.

They are almost there. Just add a damn camera!

Here is the pimped up BlackBerry 8800 site.

The ‘Good Idea’ Illusion

A good idea is worthless.

A lot of people think a good idea is all it takes. This is far from the truth. Succesful companies are seldom build on just a good idea. In reality it takes a great team, great excecution and implementation and the right timing.

Take a good look at this image. Two seemingly different areas are represented by ‘A’ and ‘B’. They represent one idea in two different situations and circumstances. But it is only the circumstances that make them seem different. If you take a good look at the image you will see that the background of A and B are the same shade of grey.

Really!

(Read more about this image at the Checkershadow Illusion page)

The same is true for ideas. If you and I come up with a great idea for a new car the chances that we will actually build it are slim. It takes more than an idea to build something succesful.

The iPod is not just a good idea. It is a nice product with perfect timing and implementation and circumstances.

Alexander Graham Bell had a great idea too. He invented and built the telephone in 1875. But the telephone wasn’t just a good idea! Several people had the same idea at the same time in different places all over the world. A working electrical voice-transmission system was first demonstrated by Johann Philipp Reis in 1863. What Bell had was a great sense of timing and the connections to get his ‘Good Idea’ implemented on a large scale.

A good idea is worthless. It takes Steve Jobs, Alexander Bell and You to turn it into a great company or product.

10 Tips On How To Come Up With A Good (Domain)Name…

A good name is very important if you are starting a new project. It helps if you have something cool to refer to and it gets things moving. So one of the first things I do if I start thinking about a new project is the name. And a good name is no good unless you also have a good domainname attached to it.

Often people complain that all the good names are gone online. This is not true. All good names are still available! You just have to know how to find them…

Here is how I come up with names for my projects:

1: Collect a lot of related words

Take a few minutes and just brainstorm and try to come up with a huge list (about 100) of related words. If you get stuck just go to Answers.com and look up some of the words you came up with and read the descriptions. This will immediately lead to more new words.

2: Get a dictionary and a needle

Take a dictionary, close your eyes and use the needle to go to a page and select a random word. Do this 10 times. Don’t forget to write down the words and read their descriptions. This leads to more words too.

3: Don’t use a browser to check for domainnames

Don’t check for availability by typing a name into your browser. Use InstantDomainSearch.com and Nameboy.com to easily check names for availability and more brainstorming. Nameboy will give you lots of suggestions and alternatives. InstantDomainSearch uses an AJAX interface to check for domainnames instantly.

4: Invent your own words

Combine words in original ways. Doing something with email and photography? Try ‘Emailography.com’ (Available!).

5: Get inspiration from others

Google and Feedster are good names. So if you want to do something with the name ‘John’ (see tip 6) try ‘Johnster.com’ or ‘johnle.com’ (not free). Just add ‘Le’ and ‘Ster’ to each keyword you came up with and see what that leads to.

6: Buy a second-hand name

All good names are gone? Well yeah, but they aren’t always in use. A lot of great names can be bought secondhand at Sedo or similar domainname collectors. In fact, John.com is for sale at Sedo.com! We bought Fleck.com second-hand for a few thousands dollars and always thought it was a great investment. In fact, searching for names at Sedo is a great of coming up with new names. Just enter one buzzword (like ‘RSS’) and Sedo will give you a list of domainnames which contain those characters.

There are more benefits to buying a name this way: If you have an older domain Google will trust you more than if you registered your domain one week ago. Fleck.com got visitors right from the day we went live. A lot of those came from google and other search engines. We now are the first result that pops up if you search for Fleck.

7: Browse a supermarket, library or fishing store

or any place with lots of strange words to get inspiration from. Just browse the aisles and write down all words that are cool, strange or interesting for your business.

8: Translate to Spanish, Greek and Latin

Get some of the related words and translate them into spanish, italian, danish, latin and greek. Answers.com will do it for any word you look up. Just scroll down on every page.

9: Rmove some or all vwls

Take your related words and remove all vowels (A, E, I, O, U, and sometimes Y) and see what you get. If that leaves you with a too short word only remove a few vowels and try again. Examples: ‘Exmpls’, ‘Etctra’ and ‘Cmputr’

10: Call your mother

Seriously! When you are thinking about your business you often are blinded by technology and company slang. Explain your business to an outsider and ask them what a good name would be. Try you mother and your crocery clerk and the homeless guy asking you for spare change.

My mother came up with several names for several business including the name for my personal holding Bomega and bomega.com. I asked here if she knew a good name and without thinking twice she said “‘B0′ for Boris and ‘Mega’ for the amount of money you will make makes ‘BoMega’”.

I rest my case…

UPDATE: Bustaname.com is a new service and great tool for finding names. You can enter several keywords and it will check for combinations of those words with ‘le’, ’ster’ and other options.