Malekzadgan

Strategic analysis on vertical search marketing industry

2009-11-04T13:05:00.000-08:00

The focus of my analysis will be on forecasting Vertical Search Marketing industry profitability. To predict the future profitability of Vertical Search Marketing industry my analysis is based on Robert M. Grant Contemporary Strategy Analysis

Trends that are changing the industry’s structure: We see from the Search Engine Watch study that horizontal search can't always do the job. Clearly this is what is driving the quietly exploding vertical search revolution.

But what really is the limitation? Search Engine Watch has recently had the chance to talk to Tim Mayer about Yahoo Search Builder and to Shashi Seth at Google about their Custom Search Engine product and a consistent theme emerged. Tim refers to it as "disambiguation", and Shashi refers to it as "not knowing the context". They are both referring to the same thing. The problem is that horizontal search engines often do not know what you want based on your search query. For example if your query is "surf" and you live in Santa Cruz, what is it that you really want? Or if you type in "diabetes", the horizontal search engine does not know if you are a doctor looking for research data, or a patient looking for treatment information or tips on managing the disease.

Horizontal search engines are trying a number of initiatives to address this problem, such as search query refinements that allow users to focus their searches more quickly, such as Yahoo Shortcuts or the Google Onebox. However, these refinements are not entirely scalable, as it requires human editorial input for each query to make them accurate.

Vertical search engines address this problem by allowing the custom design of search engines for a specific purpose. The human input is built in from the beginning, and is provided by motivated people who are not on the payroll of the vertical search engine platform provider. If you decide to use a search engine which says it's a "health information search engine for doctors", instead of one that is labeled a "health information search engine for patients", you have already helped to reduce the ambiguity of your search queries even before you type in your query.

In addition, traditional horizontal search engines cannot always determine the target audience of a page or site. Vertical search engines naturally address this issue, because the sites included in the results have been selected according to more specific criteria, and perhaps even by human input.

New players seeking to enter: While much of the search world keeps its eyes focused on every move made by Google, Yahoo and Microsoft, hundreds of small vertical search engines have sprung up, along with several technology providers that enable them. The world of search is such a dynamic place that you can find major developments taking place right under your nose that just aren't getting that much attention. Vertical search is one area where this is happening.

Outsell reports that the vertical search market will reach $1 billion in revenue by 2009. And enterprise search technology provider Convera's recent survey of more than 1,000 professionals found that only 43 percent of business professionals always find what they want from a horizontal search engine after several attempts, and half of those who don't find what they want will then turn to a vertical search engine to improve their results.

The major search providers have long recognized the importance and benefit of verticalization, with each offering some level of vertical options in its general search. In addition, Google, Microsoft and Yahoo have each developed a vertical search platform to allow developers to build a custom vertical search engine using their technology. Microsoft launched Live Search Macros in March, Yahoo's Yahoo Search Builder debuted in August, and Google unveiled its Custom Search Engines in October.

Industry products becoming more differentiated: On September 23rd of 2009 Kelsey group at DMS 09 did a case study to highlight vertical opportunities. Directional Media Strategies 2009 (DMS ’09) is The Kelsey Group’s 30th Yellow Pages and directories conference. In his keynote message, one message Dave Swanson, chairman and CEO of R.H. Donnelley, relayed was that RHD is going to be investigating geo-specific vertical opportunities, essentially meaning evaluating specific categories in specific cities (i.e., attorneys in Orlando).

Here’s a quick recap of what each vertical player discussed:
Darrell Campbell, Founder and CEO, Everycarlisted.com: Part of Superpages.com, the site has 2 million vehicles listed with 1 million videos on the site currently. About 40 percent of Everycarlisted.com’s traffic comes from the car tab on the Superpages.com site. Currently, the site participates in SuperBundles deals and car dealers specifically spend, on average, about $1,000 per month. Package deals range from $350 to $1,450 per month. To come from Everycarlisted.com is video and more video — with the goal of being an all video site.

Craig Smith, CEO, ServiceMagic.com: Over the past 10 years, ServiceMagic.com has grown to 950 employees who help push leads to 61,000 member businesses. The home improvement service vertical handles 40,000 inbound calls per week from homeowners looking for service professionals. The interesting piece of ServiceMagic is that it has tapped a group of businesses that are very small (typically fewer than five employees), spend less than $1,000 per month, and predominately (60 percent) do not have a Web site. Looking forward the vertical is evaluating community expansion, same-day service requests and a project cost guide.

Howard Yeh, VP - Corporate Development, Healthcare.com: Healthcare.com’s business model is pay per click — 100 percent performance-based. The company focuses on the 18 million people in the U.S. who purchase private health insurance. Due to state regulations, local agents remain a crucial piece in helping consumers through the complex process of acquiring insurance. Currently Healthcare.com has about 350 advertisers actively purchasing pay-per-click ads that average about $4. In the near future, Healthcare.com is evaluating diving deeper into the health-care vertical whether it be in new areas of medical procedures or monetization opportunities.

As Campbell said, ” I can’t think of a vertical that the Internet is not going to transform.”

So what are the true industrial economics of Vertical Search Marketing industry? What can Porter’s five forces analysis tell us about the likely profit potential of new Vertical Search Marketing business?

The Vertical Search Marketing industry has some similarity to the internet e-business industry. The first thing to note is that most new Vertical Search Marketing businesses are not fundamentally new business. For the most part they use a new and extended reach for targeted advertising. They offer a better rate of return on every ad spend by advertiser. As such, the main features of these markets are, strong substitute competition from traditional Horizontal Search Marketing, low entry barriers as it doesn’t cost much to develop and implement a vertical search website and high product differentiation. The principal structural features of these businesses are shown below:

The implication is that most Vertical Search Marketing businesses whether for doctors, patients, job seekers, house hunters, recruiters and travellers will tend to be highly competitive and, on average, will generate low margins and low rates of return on capital.

So will any Vertical Search Marketing business offer high profitability? The key is the potential to reduce rivalry and raise barriers to entry through innovation strategy that exploit network effects, economies of scale, or product differentiation.

Yellow Pages in 21st century, Private Equity approach – high leverage with exit strategy

2009-10-28T09:15:00.000-07:00

Looking in to the history of the Yellow Pages industry in general we will find private equity finance approach. In finance, private equity is an asset class consisting of equity securities in operating companies that are not publicly traded on a stock exchange. Investments in private equity most often involve either an investment of capital into an operating company or the acquisition of an operating company. Capital for private equity is raised primarily from institutional investors.

In Yellow Pages the investment strategies is a private equity approach which includes leveraged buyouts. Leveraged buyouts refers to a strategy of making equity investments as part of a transaction in which Yellow Pages assets was acquired from the old shareholders typically with the use of financial leverage. The companies involved in these transactions are typically mature and generate operating cash flows.

Financial leverage which takes the form of a loan or other borrowings (debt), the proceeds of which are invested with the intent to earn a greater rate of return than the cost of interest. If the firm's rate of return on assets (ROA) is higher than the rate of interest on the loan and cost of average dept (COD), then its return on equity (ROE) will be higher than if it did not borrow because of the leverage contribution in the DuPont model ROE = ROA + (ROA - COD) D/E. On the other hand, if the firm's ROA is lower than the cost of average dept (COD), then its ROE will be lower than if it did not borrow. Leverage allows greater potential returns to the investor that otherwise would have been unavailable but the potential for loss is also greater because if the investment becomes worthless, the loan principal and all accrued interest on the loan still need to be repaid.

At the time of acquisition of most Yellow Pages in the beginning of 21st century by the private equitys the earnings multiple has been used. The P/E ratio (price-to-earnings ratio) of a stock (also called its "P/E", "PER", "earnings multiple," or simply "multiple") is of curse a measure of the price paid by the private equity for a share relative to the annual net income or profit earned by the Yellow Pages share.

As the financial ratio that was used for valuation of Yellow Pages at the time has been before industry downturn and finical turmoil a high P/E ratio has been used. The high P/E ratio means that investors of Yellow Pages have paid more for each unit of net income, so the stock has been more expensive compared to today’s lower P/E ratio.

Mobile networks enabling future of Cloud Computing

2009-07-16T06:23:00.001-07:00

I don’t think any one has missed the big media attentions around cloud computing these days as Google has announced the planning launch of Google Chrome OS. As Google address this, its for people who live on the web — searching for information, checking email, catching up on the news, shopping or just staying in touch with friends.

As we are moving to a new area of PC and data computing known as cloud computing what dose this mean for mobile and Telecom computing?

Datacom and Telecom are much closer and more integrated as ever before and the true meaning of convergence is taking place. In a sense mobile operator networks has always been about cloud mobile computing where we can access voice and value added services like SMS from mobile devices directly connected to the mobile network.

Now however this is also entering a new area as companies like Ericsson implementing and managing the entire mobile network on behalf of the mobile network operators. So Ericsson soon will be doing for mobile operators what Amazon has been doing for cloud computing. Recently the company announced that Sprint Nextel will outsource its network to Ericsson in a seven-year deal valued at $4.5 billion to $5 billion.

But how will the mobile landscape change and reshape itself as Amazon is reported to be close to signing an MVNO contract in the UK as it prepares to launch its e-book reader, the Kindle into the European market.

Google Wave!

2009-06-10T07:05:00.000-07:00

They first founded Google Maps technology and now after 2 years they are back with Google Wave!

The Rasmussen brothers (Lars and Jens) who founded Where 2 Tech, which was acquired by Google in 2004 and became Google Maps. On 28 May 2009, Rasmussen brothers previewed Google Wave, a Web-based service that combines aspects of e-mail, instant messaging, real-time collaboration and document processing into a unified user experience

Analysis by Gartner:

With Wave, Google seeks to change fundamentally the way people communicate by turning the Web into an integrated, real-time, multiway medium. Thus, Google has undertaken a complex challenge, which earlier distributed collaboration systems, from Internet newsgroups to Lotus Notes and Groove, have addressed with varying degrees of success. Wave combines a broad suite of applications, a protocol that independent developers can use to build interoperable Wave servers, and a platform that allows developers to add new processing logic to Wave content and to embed Wave functions in external Web sites. Implementing the full Wave vision requires innovations in distributed-computing algorithms, in scalable keystroke-level "push" communications, in protocol design, and in server infrastructure and data repositories.

Google will release major portions of Wave, including the protocol and a reference implementation, under the "most liberal" open-source license to drive adoption of Wave by independent developers and make it part of the Internet infrastructure. Wave also includes innovations in technology, user experience and business model, which can drive adoption by individual consumers. However, several inhibitors will keep Wave from affecting the enterprise soon:

The large aggregation of features, which can daunt users
Dependence on the latest Web browser technologies
Likely overlap with multiple areas in an enterprise’s IT environment

Wave will not challenge Lotus Notes, Microsoft Exchange or Microsoft Office SharePoint Server for five to 10 years, if it ever does. Nevertheless, Wave will create both competition and opportunity for other players in the market. Wave shows that workplace offerings will eventually have to combine Internet standards and a decentralized, federated architecture. Whether or not Wave ultimately succeeds, the Web will win.

What is the root of our times biggest economical crises?

2009-06-09T07:09:00.000-07:00

Since the beginning of economical crises I have been wondering for a while where did it start? Why investment banks start bundling the mortgages and selling it as products and bonds?

Here is a unique interview of Michael Lewis by CNN's Fareed Zakaria, he talks to 'Liar's Poker' author Michael Lewis about the economic crisis and future of Wall Street.

"Liar's Poker" tells the tale of Lewis's days at the now defunct firm Salomon Brothers, where mortgage-backed securities -- the fuel for the fire of the current crisis -- came from. "Home Game" chronicles his life as a father. Don't forget Father's Day is coming up!

Reinventing process

2009-06-01T02:26:00.000-07:00

I think he did it again, Kjell A Nordström, he managed to inspire business leaders in the Polo Position Day 2009. After The books Funky business and Karaoke capitalism, which are described as a "manifesto of what our time requires from business firms and their leaders", became an international best-seller and has to date been translated into 33 languages.

http://www.polepositionday.nu/program/index.html

Leading age technology in 21st century is an absolute necessity for any company but it’s not the key success factor for companies. In general this applies to all companies from banks, to car manufactures to mobile device manufactures. The leading age technology is necessary for any companies’ survival but it doesn’t create the temporary monopole. What do the companies do next, they ask McKinsey for help. McKinsey will analyze the problem for months and the final conclusions is that your company need a major reorganization and you need outsourcing, in sourcing, downsizing, rightsizing and you know the rest, you have seen it so many times and you have all been there don that. Back in days this was a powerful way to do change but now these types of help are available everywhere and to everyone without help of McKinsey.

So what do we do now? We are now in an age where we don’t have competition in a way that we once knew; there is only a reinventing process and renewal change management that can create leading innovation. iPhone was amazing but now Apple needs to reinvent themselves, it has been more then 2 years and the competition is catching up with all the major device manufactures offering almost the same technology soon or later. This is a major challenge for companies like Apple but they have managed to find a way to create an organization where change is part of the day to day business.

In the age of facebook can we really judge people by their faces?

2009-03-09T08:52:00.000-07:00

Just saw an interesting article about how much a face can tell you about a person. Could we really judge people by the way they look? Could one persons face reflect its character?

In this article in economist there is an example about how women judge men by their faces. Testosterone levels are reflected in the face, and who is seen as a one-night stand and who as a potential husband depends in part on this physical feature. Similarly, a male face betrays the owner’s underlying aggressiveness and even his business acumen. Facial beauty in either sex is also associated with higher incomes. The latest research, though, cuts to the moral quick. For Jefferson Duarte of Rice University in Houston, Texas, and his colleagues are suggesting that one of a person’s most telling moral features, his creditworthiness, can also be seen in his face.

What do you think?

Sync and Synergy

2009-03-03T07:34:00.000-08:00

I have to say after seeing Palm Pre and its use of cloud services such as Synergy in action and also hearing Matt Crowley interview my view about Sync has changed. Initially back in 2002 when I first time came across SyncML with the Sony Ericson engineers problems around mobile phonebook backup and sync of calendar and notes was solved thanks to SyncML. But at the time social networking services such Facebook and cloud services such as Gmail was unheard of and that was why the idea of sync was revolutionary. Now as we all know things has changed.

As CrunchBase describe it, The Pre uses the Palm® Synergy™ feature to bring your Outlook®, Google, and Facebook® calendars together for one logical view of your day. And if you have the same contacts in different places, Pre can link them together, making it easy to find the information you need.

Things like text messages and calendar appointments appear as notifications at the bottom of the screen. You’ll know what’s going on without being completely interrupted or losing your train of thought. The Universal Search application: Simply start typing to begin searching your contacts, applications, Google, or even Wikipedia. Universal search narrows down the possible results as you type, so it’s easier to find what you need.

Thanks to Synergy, all your conversations with the same person are grouped together in one chat-style view. (Even if it started in IM, for example, and you want to reply with text.) You can also see who’s online right from contacts, and start a new conversation with just one touch. Slide out the keyboard for faster and easier texting. Close it up and rotate Pre for music, websites, photos, and videos in full widescreen.

How important is mobile sync to create customer loyalty?

2009-02-12T04:59:00.001-08:00

With Nokia’s OVI, Apple promoting MobileMe, Google offering Google Sync and Microsoft upcoming My Phone the race is on to lock-in mobile users with sync and backup services and create stickiness and customer loyalty.

How do you think mobile operators would position themselves in the landscape?

Neither Google nor Microsoft will charge for the services, unlike Apple with its similar service. Apple's MobileMe syncs calendars, contacts and e-mail between iPhones and PCs or Macintosh computers, and lets users share photos from their phones on an online site. MobileMe costs US$99 per year.

My Phone will also let users sync calendar and contacts lists between Windows Mobile phones and the Web, but it will also back up other phone data including photos, videos, text messages, music, documents and tasks. Users will be able to store data like photos and videos online and share it with friends. It is limited to Windows Mobile users.

Smartphones

2009-01-11T14:53:00.000-08:00

Apple with its iPhone has for sure changed the landscape of smartphones business and now a whole new era of new devices with focus on User Interface (UI) and User Experience (UX) are seeing the daylight. I just received the Palms Pre video presentation by the Palms management team from a friend and its very imprecise what they have archived with the new product.

It offers a 3.1-inch touch screen, a 3MP camera (better than iPhone) and a slide out QWERTY keyboard (some will cheer, but not really necessary any longer). The apps apparently can be easily navigated on a flowing carousel-like stream that glides across the screen. It also features an "Opera speed dial" or Chrome-like bookmarks interface.

So the race is on and the Apple, RIM and Palm they all wan to get in to the mobile market business and will make the life harder for Nokia, Motorola and SonyEricsson

Taarof

2008-12-25T05:41:00.000-08:00

In order to really understand what Taarof means one need to visit Persepolis in south of Iran, an ancient capital of Persian Empire that was burned down after being conquered by Alexander the Great. Among the carvings there are soldiers, but they are not fighting, there are weapons, but they’re not drawn. Mainly you see emblems suggesting that something humane went on here. People of different nations gathering peacefully, bringing gifts, draping their hands amiably on one another’s shoulders. In an era for its barbarity, Perspolis was a cosmopolitan place and today a reminder of who our Persian ancestors were and what they did.

One thing that has not changed since then is Taarof. Taarof is part of a complex system of ritual politeness. Hospitality, courting, family affairs, political negotiations, Taarf is the unwritten code for how people should treat each other. If you have ever been drinking and making cheers with Iranians, you may have notice that they are fighting for the lower hand, which is in an elegant way in a hierarchical society like Iran for people to paradoxically deal with each other as equals. Wherever you go in Iran, people fussed over you and make sure that all your needs were meet. There is a lot of mind reading and light-hearted dialogue while the two parties go back and forth until the truth reveals itself. Being smooth and seeming sincere while hiding your true feeling is considered the height of Taarof and an enormous social asset.

You never show your intention or your real identity, because you are making sure you are not exposing yourself to danger, as throughout Persian history there has been a lot of danger in the region

The dress is important

2008-12-24T06:51:00.000-08:00

So I have notice that many of my feminine blog readers are not really in to the business issues that I have highlighted, but are more interested of the topics around male and female relationships and marriages and for sure I have lot to share on this topic.

I recently spent some quality time with one of my best friends talking about weddings and rezones for getting married. He mentioned that what he thinks could be the case for many girls, especially for the ones that have not been married before it’s the dress. Girls want a wedding, they don’t want a marriage. If only you could have weddings without marriages would you do it? So the question to you is if wedding is a ceremony which can be colorful, exciting and flamboyant but marriage is life time commitment would you still like to get married?

Another female friend of min told me the other day that ofcurce girls are smart. They know life is no storybook. But she admits it: Somewhere deep in girls subconscious lurk romantic visions of Cinderella. The images may be sketchy and a little outdated, but they can still make out the silhouette of the bride and Prince Charming riding off into the sunset. In real life, sometimes girls Disney fairy tale ends up feeling more like Quinn Tarantino dusk to dawn movie. Lets face it, marriage is not for the faint of heart. You want to believe your pure love for each other will pull you through. And it does. But it ain't always pretty.

But here's a secret: Sometimes it's the least romantic parts of marriage that have the most to teach you about yourself, your partner, and the nature of love. So let me know if you agree or disagree with my friends?

New Kids On The Block

2008-12-18T10:33:00.001-08:00

You maybe remember the “New Kids on the Block” is an award-winning American pop group that enjoyed success in the late 1980s and early 1990s as a boy band. The boy bands in late1980s literally changed the music landscape as the new kids on the block in the cloud computing would. These new kids on the bloack are Google, Skype, YouTube, and Facebook.

Makers of telecom white-label carrier grade systems or software component that is extremely reliable, well tested and proven in its capabilities are also on the defensive. Traditionally they have made billions by selling their programs, often demanding hefty sums to install them and then charging an annual maintenance fee for upgrades and technical support. But this highly lucrative business model has come under increasing pressure, says Michael Cusumano, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). For one, he says, software vendors will have to find new ways to charge for their wares: in the cloud, tying licensing fees to the number of users, for instance, will be difficult, since services will mostly be consumed by other machines. More importantly, the corporate world has become less and less willing to buy software for large sums of money, so software firms listed on America’s stockmarkets now make most of their profits from maintenance and other services.

Unfortunately still some of telecom software companies with experience from the good old days are not up to date about what is happing in the new era of cloud computing and still emphasizing on managing their company product development and sales in the same old fashion. This will not work as the new kids on the block are offering branded services that can connect and work together and help customers move their computing and service offering to the consumers around. This is music to the ears of big operators and their CTOs.

“Modern Business Life”

2008-12-15T06:25:00.000-08:00

Globalization with mobility and connectivity as utilities has changed the legacy of the business life. In the Modern Business Life productivity can be reached by availabilities of efficient resources 24 hours a day and 7 days a week, thanks to outsourcing and offshore development opportunities. Also the way people can travel and be connected has influenced the Modern Business Life. Today more then ever mangers can be innovative in every day business life. They can define, share and explore new and innovative ideas over internet instantly.

Modern Business Life, it’s a lifestyle.
A lifestyle can be described once a community has a sub culture and way of thinking. For the last two years I have been working as a lead subject matter expert for one of the Europe’s biggest directory companies. The objective of the holding company was to put together team of subject matter experts to transfer the business from print to online. What I saw been remarkable was the share of interest and way of thinking with in the online group of subject matter experts. Despite the fact that these manager are from different countries with differ back grounds and ages. One could easily see the commitment and focus of the managers are beyond the normal business life. For them modern business life is like a lifestyle, like a musician or athlete you are enjoying what you do and it’s the best thing you know.
I think if we look at the most successful people in the world they all share the same principles. They love what they do and they do it in the best way possible. For them what they do every day is not another day at the office. They have a rezone to succeed and they mange to motivate people around them on every day basis. It’s not only about getting the right resources for the job but it’s also about how one manages to motivates its coworkers to reach the same goal.
Bill Gates has been one of the worlds most suceefulel CEOs for more then two decades and in my view clearly represents the successful modern business life leader. He has shown how resourcefulness and innovation demand can bee managed. He specifically created the Microsoft headquarter in way that it looks like a university campus to make sure that he can attract the best university talents to Microsoft. He showed interest and commitment in way Microsoft recruited resources. He was personally involved in every single job interview until Microsoft started to expand beyond headquarter in US.

Modern Business Life is a movement.
Globalization has influenced the modern business life today to become a movement. As it’s described in the book “World is flat” impact of outsourcing, offshore development and Internet has removed lots of boundaries in the business world and partly initiated globalization.
Today business managers can use technical and operational resources in India and China. These resources can be on the companies’ disposal almost in unlimited numbers and 24 hours a day 7 days a week. As a manager you are no longer limited in terms of resources but more in terms of scope and budget.
Today companies like Sony Ericsson has development centers and manufacturing facilities in countries like USA and China. The most advances telecommunication technologies can be innovated and designed by engineers in Lund and these blueprints can be emailed over internet to China for device manufacturing.
These engineers and managers are becoming part of a device manufacturing movement where they not only meet with their colleges in other countries like USA and China but they are also part of a bigger community of other handset manufactures and mobile operators. They meet in big events like World 3GSM congress to explore new ideas and share expertise and knowhow.
This movement has helped them to be innovative about their way of thinking and the way they shape the new product offering. To be part of this network of people has help them to come closer to their customers and bind close relationships which will result in successful sales and marketing which will benefit the company, add value to the lifestyle and shapes the movement.

South Beach

2008-03-01T16:17:00.000-08:00

Just coming back after ten days of vacation in Miami South Beach, I think South Beach had lot to offer every ting from good nightclubs such as Mansion, neat afternoon beach party at Nikki’s beach club, cool bars with live music such as Love & Hate and nice places to see and do scuba diving such as Key West and Key Largo. Yeah, it was pretty exciting to experience Miami and I’m sure some day I will go back. What I would also like to recommend if you are ever planning to stay at a hotel in south beach is Bluemoon hotel, perfect location with excellent staff and very competitive price.

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Mobile 2.0

2008-02-07T05:02:00.000-08:00

The race for the next generation of mobile devices is on. Ones again history is repeating it self, I'm sure you all remember when Apple had the most innovative personal computes MAC but Microsoft took that to main stream with Windows. Now ones aging Apple introduced the most innovative mobile phone, iPhone, but Microsoft will bring it to main stream with Windows Mobile 7.

Here's a very long and detailed (and somewhat technical) post about Microsoft's intriguing plans for Windows Mobile 7. From our point of view, and according to the post, many of the design and functionality upgrades are responses to the sensation caused by the iPhone and the fact that the latter has quickly overtaken Windows Mobile in terms of market share. The improved user experience reflected in the post is good for users, as desktop titans, carriers and OEMs such as Nokia engage in an intensifying battle for mobile consumers.

The cocktail question

2008-01-28T12:29:00.001-08:00

When I’m with family and friends I have a hard time answering the most fundamental question, when they ask, “So, what is it that you do again?”

As I work as Mobile Subject Matter Expert it may be easy to explain the mobile part of my work but what about Subject Matter Expert, how should I explain that? I did as most of people would do, I searched for the word “expert” in Wikipedia and found that “an expert, more generally, is a person with extensive knowledge or ability in a particular area of study. Experts are called in for advice on their respective subject, but they do not always agree on the particulars of a field of study. An expert can be, by virtue of training, education, profession, publication or experience, believed to have special knowledge of a subject beyond that of the average person, sufficient that others may officially (and legally) rely upon the individual's opinion.” Now I don’t think this would help.

Instead I will in future quote Niels Bother’s the Danish physicist and Noble Prize winner, “An expert is a person who has made all the mistakes that can be made in a very narrow field”.

Survivor mentality

2008-01-20T04:22:00.000-08:00

The power of positive thinking and the immigrant "survivor mentality" can change ones life. I think it can not be better described then Omid Kordestani speech addressed to San Jose State University graduated students of 2007.

Omid Kordestani was born in Iran and moved to San Jose, California at the age of 14 after the death of his father. Omid Kordestani is the senior vice president of global sales and business development at Google. He is directly responsible for Google's worldwide revenue generation efforts as well as the day-to-day operations of the company’s sales organization. As Google's "business founder," Omid led the development and implementation of the company's initial business model. Since joining in May of 1999, he has brought Google to profitability in record time, generating more than $10 billion in revenue in 2006.

"Work hard, Play hard"

2008-01-11T04:49:00.000-08:00

When I heard the motto first time I didn't know what it meant. Since then I've come to realize that it's much more than just a saying. It's a way of life; it's a mentality; it's an obsession. To truly understand the seemingly ideal balance, you must live and observe it and I think nobody is doing it better then Sir Richard Branson. I have just finished reading one of his books "SCREW IT, LETS DO IT" and he really inspires people to make a difference in their life.

Mobile killer application 2008

2008-01-09T06:42:00.000-08:00

I think we all agree that evolution of mobile killer applications started with SMS to mobile digital cameras such as SE CyberShot to music phones such as SE Walkman phones and this year it would be all about Location Based Services (LBS) and Navigation. Major acquisition in the SatNav landscape like TomTom intended to acquire TeleAtlas in what would be a $2.5 billion dollar transaction and Nokia intent to buy Navteq for $8.1 billion indicates how important its to control and manage the valuechine in Map/LBS/Navigation and offering the next mobile killer application .

Now Finally On the Air

2008-01-08T08:55:00.000-08:00

I think its about time for me to get this blog up and running. My own website http://www.malekzadgan.com/ has been online for more the two years now, but lacking an easy to use Content Management System like the one in Blogger have preventing me from publishing information to the website. So now there are no excuses any more I will make sure that information about me will be published and updated frequently.