Monday, November 19, 2007

Zend.com

The updated Zend.com site launched yesterday.







Zend = The PHP company, build their site using PHP, and it is 'powered' by Zend Core, Zend Framework, Zend Platform and Smarty.

Additional information is available in the "behind-the-site" section.

Congratulations and good luck!


E.T.

Technorati Tags: ,

Thursday, November 15, 2007

Finally : Graphic Personal Homepage & Directory

Until recently I was using a 'blank' page as my browsers homepage.
I kept testing all kind of 'personal homepage' and portals for a long time.
I always returned to my clean, empty page.
I think the main reason is that I am a person who need visual stimulation as well as information. Most of the 'personal homepage' offerings are 'text oriented' and try to present you with the most relevant information for you (or in other words - push you things you may/want).
It is hard enough to start the day with a list of unread eMails - do I really want it on my browser as well? (the answer is No).

There are some interaction design concepts which try to predict the user needs and to provide it with minimum effort / clicks / discovery steps / etc. Trying to minimize the 'clicks' needed to perform a task.

Well, you know what, sometime the 'extra' click is a good thing.
I can protect myself from the stream of information if I have an extra click as a buffer.

+ I need colors. These 'clean', 'white space' pages are just too clean for me.

Then I found Symbaloo.com.

This site is different. It is colorful and easy to customized.
There are two main interactions. One is the 'icon desk'


The other is a 'news/image desk'


Adding a desktop is easy.


As well as creating new 'blocks', select there color, position and content.
You can create work-oriented desks as well as personal.
You can share them with your friends as well.



General settings are


Finally, a Graphic Personal Homepage & Directory I like to use.

E.T.

Technorati Tags: ,

Monday, November 12, 2007

Congratulations to the Yedda team


I just spoke with Yaniv Golan, the CTO of Yedda to congratulate him and the team on the deal with AOL.

He seems very excited, as he should!

Well done!

As I wrote earlier today, Yedda took part of the last Israel Web Tour event - So one more reason for you to participate.

E.T.

Technorati Tags: , , , ,

Calendar Vs. Tetris

Recently I got a the feeling my calendar is playing with me...





Do you know what I mean?

E.T.

Announcing the 2008 Israel Web Tour



The California Israel Chamber of Commerce has just announced the return of their highly successful IsraelWebTour competition and roadshow. Current returning sponsors include Google, Yahoo and Adobe.

The Tour will kick off on February 4th, 2008 when fifteen chosen CEOs from Israel’s most exciting startups will arrive in Silicon Valley for a week of activities. The companies will meet with investors, strategic partners, customers, entrepreneurs and industry leaders in a mix of private one-on-one meetings, roundtable discussions and ad-hoc networking events .

The highlight of the week will be a public showcase on Wednesday, February 5th where each start-up will present their business to the industry and press . The Tour will end with a closing night party in San Francisco on Thursday February 7th.



The CICC is now soliciting applications for participating companies and sponsors. If you want to participate in this year’s IsraelWebTour, submit an application to CICC by Monday, December 3rd at 5:00 PM PST. Conference organizers & Steering Committee will select 15 companies to participate in the tour.

Highlights From Last Year’s Israel Web Tour:
- A series of private tours and meetings at Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, Adobe, Ebay
- A week of panels and roundtable sessions were held with the following industry leaders:

  • Mike Moritz, General Partner, Sequoia Capital
  • Alex Kazim, President, Skype
  • Michael Arrington, Editor, TechCrunch
  • Caterina Fake, Co-Founder, Flickr
  • Gokul Rajaram, Director, AdSense
  • Keith Rabois, VP Business Development, LinkedIn
  • Sundaresan Neel - Director, eBay Research Labs
  • Amir Ashkenazi, CTO and Founder, Shopping.com
  • David Tenenhause, VP of Platform Strategy, Amazon
  • Geoff Yang, Founding Partner, Redpoint Ventures
  • Jeff Crowe, General Partner, Norwest Venture Partners
  • Michael Sippey, Vice President Product, Six Apart

The Bottom line
- Five of the 15 companies who participated in 2006 IsraelWebTour raised venture funds from US and Israeli VCs.
- One company was acquired.
- Four companies launched their US operations within 9 months of the tour.




The 2008 IsraelWebTour Steering Committee
:
  • Dr. Yossi Vardi, Chairman, International Technologies
  • Gil Ben-Artzi, Corporate Development, Yahoo!
  • Jacques Benkoski, USVP
  • Daniel Cohen, Partner, Gemini Israel Funds
  • Etay Gafni, Sr. Director, User Experience and Web 2.0, SAP Labs
  • Jason Harinstein, Corporate Development, Google
  • Eyal Keren, VP, Business Development, The Pudding Inc.
  • Ido Sarig, Partner, Tomas Weisel Partners
  • Deborah Schultz, Social Software Strategist, P&G Global Advisor
  • Yaniv Vakrat, Director of Corporate Development, Adobe
  • Jeff Pulver, Technology anthropoligist, Pulver.com
Related Links:
Application Form
Facebook Group: IsraelWebTour

It is going to be a great event.
Please forward this information to your friends and hope you see you all soon!

E.T.

Technorati Tags: , , , ,

Friday, November 2, 2007

Meeting Fake Steve Jobs and Real friends

Last night I had the pleasure to be part of an after-party for the release of the new
Options: The Secret Life of Steve Jobs, a Parody book
Options: The Secret Life of Steve Jobs, a Parody
, by fake steve, at the British Bankers Club in Menlo Park.

The meeting was organized by Paul from Coghead, using Facebook event manager.

Many people showed up, a great mix of people, with interesting backgrounds and jobs.

But the best part of the party, from my perspective was meeting an old friend, which I did not see for 15 (!!) years... (we were roommates in Tel Aviv back in 92). Now he is working with his friend Gabe Rivera (http://www.techmeme.com/).
Lots of laughs and memories.

E.T.

Technorati Tags: , ,