At the NBER Summer Institute there was an interesting panel session on patent reform. One of the issues was the speed and cost of the patent examination process. The usual intuition is that we want this to be as speedy and thorough as possible but that is a goal that is unlikely given budget constraints. …
The Defenestration of Search
[This post was first published at HBR.org on 10th July 2015]. Why aren’t things better? This is something that I often feel these days when searching for information on the internet. And it is especially something I feel when I am searching for products where quality matters. This applies to restaurants, tradespeople, and books, for …
Twenty years of the Commercial Internet
In August 1995, Netscape held its initial public offering and caught the attention of every participant in computing and communications. It was a catalytic event for the commercial Internet, and it started the beginning of a long boom in investment by private firms, households, entrepreneurs, and venture capitalists. With the 20th anniversary approaching, it’s time …
Slate's new international paywall seems ill-conceived
Even though I am a regular reader of Slate, I missed this announcement last month that they are putting in a metered paywall for International (i.e., non-US) readers. Like many other news sites, you can have, in this case, 5 free articles a month and for more will have to pay $5 a month for …
Continue reading "Slate's new international paywall seems ill-conceived"
Sharing user search data
Last week I presented at the Lear Antitrust 2.0 conference in Rome. While there was no specific agenda beyond thinking about search and advertising, much of the discussion centred around Google's travails as EU Competition Authorities investigate its Google Shopping results (yes, really) and its dominance in Android. It was clear from the presentations by …
Killing yourself to survive is not the same as innovating
Sometimes a post appears that just annoys you so much that you need to comment on it. That happened to me yesterday with this post from Arjun Sethi on at all places, BackChannel (a blog I ordinarily like). Sethi is a product manager at Yahoo but was actually motivated by this passage from Facebook's Little …
Continue reading "Killing yourself to survive is not the same as innovating"
Uber, sharing and the compensation mechanism
We currently are in the Wild West of "sharing." Many people hate that term but I actually think it is useful. I would define the "Sharing Economy" as follows: 1. Individuals own key assets -- cars, dwellings, their time etc. 2. There exists a market platform to match those individuals with consumers that satisfies the …
Continue reading "Uber, sharing and the compensation mechanism"
Economic Analysis of the Digital Economy
Is digitization destroying the music industry? A recent study shows that it may improve it by enabling new acts to enter at low cost. (Ch. 14, "Digitization and the Quality of New Media Products") What aren’t you doing while you are spiraling down an Internet black hole? Mostly watching TV and offline socializing, according to …
Competition and streaming deals
Following on from yesterday's post I discovered several things: 1. Taylor Swift is powerful. Really powerful. Apple responded to her letter and agreed to change course and pay artists etc for the three month free trial period. Maybe she can do more than just move the dial in music compensation. 2. Readers of this blog …
Who should pay for a 3 month trial?
Taylor Swift took to her blog today to, very politely, explain her decision to keep her latest album out of Apple Music. I’m sure you are aware that Apple Music will be offering a free 3 month trial to anyone who signs up for the service. I’m not sure you know that Apple Music will …
