The Progress Bar

According to Carolyn Johnson at the Boston Globe, the future of personalized content is hitting the Internets next week, thanks to a popular NFL franchise.

The Kraft Group, best known for its investments in projects like Gillette Stadium and the New England Patriots, is sinking $10 million into an Internet start-up that will map people’s tastes, making it easier to discover content they like online.

Matchmine, which goes live next week, tries to turn what can seem ineffable and arbitrary – people’s preferences – into a usable set of data.

People create a “MatchKey” by rating the movies, music, online videos, and blogs they like. The site tries to map the basic elements of each choice to make accurate recommendations, so that even people with eclectic tastes can easily find new content they like.

The key is portable, meaning users can automatically plug in their preferences to any site that partners with Matchmine, so that even if it’s their first visit, they aren’t inundated with a home page filled with hip-hop if they only enjoy baroque music, for example.

This is great news. I’ve been promoting this idea for several years to anyone who would listen. and it’s great to see a group of people smart enough to capitalize on the opportunity. Not having seen the service, we can’t judge how well it works, but what’s a week when we’ve been waiting several years for this? I foresee envious ad networks wanting to get into the game as soon as real money starts flowing as a result of the recommendation network.

Several partners are already on board to accept MatchKeys, but nothing substantial.

Here’s how MatchKeys work.

Reading this, I got the sudden urge to scream.

Once people have created their keys, they can launch a desktop widget called the gumball machine, which allows people to float their mouses over bouncing gumballs to sample new media that Matchmine thinks they will like. Their choices and opinions about the new media help “teach” the program.

Please don’t screw this up with a goofy desktop app! I’ve worked with several companies trying to do something similar and a desktop app is a seriously bad idea, stick with the web interface. Or perhaps it’s built on Silverlight or AIR?

I am happy to see a new entrant into the personalization space, yet I remain skeptical that they can execute the technology, partnerships and consumer buy-in.

They need all three, and a lot of luck, to succeed.

Then there is the non-trivial issue called privacy. I don’t believe the system is private or secure until after the hackers have been beating on it for a few months, and they’re not going to do that until it gets enough traction to warrant the attention. Right now it’s just marketing copy, but it is a good read, nonetheless.

I’ll be keeping an eye out for Matchmine and report back once I’ve had a chance to try out the system.

Marc Andreessen’s blog continues to impress. He has proved that being late to the party is not necessarily a bad thing.

I am constantly asking people if their startup is a web app, service or syndicated content. The days of saying “visit my website” are waning.

Marc goes deep into web platforms. Required reading as we all wrap our heads around Facebook apps, edge computing, Amazon’s S3 and SecondLife.

Marc “believes that in the long run, all credible large-scale Internet companies will provide Level 3 (Runtime Environments like Ning) platforms. Those that don’t won’t be competitive with those that do, because those that do will give their users the ability to so easily customize and program as to unleash supernovas of creativity.”

This post really got me thinking, a great way to end the week.

The home design web apps market is getting crowded. At Webinno and other local events  I’ve seen 3 or so competing products, including MyDesignIn DesignMyRoom and My Virtual Home and today I heard about yet another. Is there a review site for home design sites yet?

I am definitely going to Blogtoberfest next Month. Last year we had a great time until I was confronted by a crazy man brandishing a meat cleaver later on in the evening. Sometimes it’s best to go straight home after a party.

Thursday October 25, 2007
6:00 pm – 8:00 pm
(last time we stayed until 10, so this is merely a suggestion)
– at–
The Pour House (downstairs!)
907 Boylston Street | Boston,MA
617 – 236 – 1767You can learn more about the event and sign up at All Eyes On Jenny’s new site, Boston Blog Events.

My favorite social bookmarking tool turned four last week, happy birthday Delicious!

Facebook applications are currently able to retrieve profile data at the click of a button.  The ability to re-use information is an initial step towards open profiles. Logical progression: changes made to data in applications are propagated back into Facebook. This is called bi-directional propogation. Soon enough, a FOAF application will show up in the Facebook Application Directory. Progress and interest in open profiles has been brewing for several years. It didn’t begin to reach critical mass until recently, as people are realized the downside of maintaining multiple version of photos, personal data and private information across scores of websites. Social graphs (why can’t we just call them networks?) (1), (2) are closely related to open profiles.

Let us all hope that websites continue to slowly release their stranglehold on our personal data and clickstreams. A vote for openness is a vote for opportunity.

This month’s most overused meme is “social graphs.” We’ve been talking about this for years and suddenly it’s all the rage, probably because you can only get so excited about videosharing sites and all the smart people are back from Burning Man.

Johannes Ernst says that Six Apart, creators of Movable Type, are set to release code to enable open social graphs. Read the We Are Opening the Social Graph at Six Apart and prepare for Web 3.0 to get started. Now, where is Cardspace?

 I came across Xconomy this week.

Xconomy is dedicated to providing business and technology leaders with timely, insightful, close-to-the-scene information about the local personalities, companies, and technological trends that best exemplify today’s high-tech economy.

The first thing I read was about Conduit Labs. I will be following them very closely.

Xconomy brought back memories of when I blogged at the very first blog network, based in Cambridge, Corante.

Speaking of local connections, I met up with Mark of Mark’s Guide this week. Man, is that guy plugged in.

Facebook announced at TechCrunch40  that the company will be launching a new entity called fbFund with Accel and Founders Fund.The size of the fund will be $10 million (coming from Accel and Founders Fund) with anywhere between $25 to $250 thousand in grants available for each selected startup dedicated to developing Facebook applications. Founders Fund and Accel will get the right of first refusal for the first round of financing of any company in the fund.

TechCrunch’s Michael Arrington interviews Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

Facebook – Fruit Flies for Applications., from Soaring on Ridgelift

14 million people interacted with Facebook apps in August.

Rapleaf Updates reputation widgets (login required).

Technorati introduces Topics. The hunt for a revenue stream continues. There are at least three people pitching better blog categorization last night.

Another reason to buy an iPhone, Edit your Movable Type blog from your iPhone.