Ampers & Dot

Ok, I’m back in town just in time for another long weekend! So, sorry for the lack of posts, but I’ll just stick to quality for the time being and hopefully we’ll end up calling it even. So let’s just jump right into it.

Today’s post is packed full of great links and it’s going to be a fun one: Online Social Shopping.

First off- what is online social shopping? These are places online where you can communicate with others to get shopping tips or advice; such as product reviews, suggestions, or complaints as well as tips on bargains, sales, or coupon codes. Ever gone on Amazon.com or Epinions and read user reviews? That’s online social shopping.

I can’t even remember a time when I bought something on amazon without reading a review first, or purchased electronics without going to CNet and looked up a video review. I don’t even book hotels without checking TripAdvisor first to see what other people thought about their stay… I mean, this information is out there- why not take advantage of it? This is the entire idea behind the social web: people have experiences, they share them for others to read. This is most applicable for consumer items or travel.

Second: why now? Because this is the single greatest week for online shopping. The deals are the best of the year right now and I want to help you find them.

So let’s begin.

Last week I showed you Woot.com, well it’s also worth checking out SteepandCheap.com, which is the exact same thing, but with different products (thanks Jammo).

How about Amazon.com - they have everything in one place… well, to find the best deals check out this page, which outlines current markdowns. You can also use Jungle Search to find deals through a search engine.

There’s also Bargainist.com (where you can find deals like the 60% off sale at Restoration Hardware, with an additional 10% off Coupon Code), slickdeals (where you can find a coupon for 20% off of any Linens and Things order, to go with the big year end sale), dealhack.com (where I found out about the post-xmas sale at The Gap), or DealNews (which highlights the ) which are all worth checking out daily for special online promotions. And to fully utilize the “social” aspect of this- most of these sites have their own forums, for discussing new deals and coupon codes.

There are a few great specialty sites for deals too, such as CheapAssGamer.com (or check out Gamefly’s gigantic sale) for video games, BlueFly for clothing, J&R or TigerDirect for electronics, or ChefsCatalog for 70% off of kitchen gear.

Other big online sales worth visiting: Buy.com, Half.com, or Overstock.com (with an additional 10% off anything).

Ok, last note: make sure to utilize google for coupon codes. This is an amazingly easy, yet often overlooked resource. Almost every online market has a section in their checkout stage asking for “Coupon Code” or something. Google the store name with its term for a coupon and you’ll be all set. For example: take a look at what comes up for Target (where I may have just visited for some post holiday shopping…).

Alright, that’s it for me today. This weekend I’m going to start working on my “Wild and Crazy Predictions for 2008″ - so that you can all laugh at me in a year for how incredibly wrong I can be. Trust me: that’ll be fun.

Mashable, the authority on social networking news, just announced the Open Web Awards winners, honoring the year’s best in social networking (which, as far as I can tell, were made up by Mashable). The cool thing about the Open Web Awards is its “open”ness: anyone can be nominated and anyone can win. In the end though, all the results are pretty much as expected…

The main thing I want to talk about here are all the various winners that I enjoy to pass along some fun sites for those who spend less time online than I do (which is about 17 hours?) (And for the record, my analysis is mainly covering the “Judge’s Choice” section, not reader’s choice- but I like the way they slipped in a little web 2.0 social networking of their own by letting readers comment and vote…)

Winners I Enjoy

“Social News and Social Bookmarking”: Digg
If you ever need to waste two or three hours, go to digg. Although I could never really get into the “social” side of digg, commenting and discussing links with people, Digg is everything I enjoyed about my old favorite link-aggregate site, Linkswarm, but about 100 times more extensive.
Word of warning: Digg is soon to be purchased (upwards of $300M?) so I’d suggest not getting too attached. Once it goes corporate its user base will flee (likely to Mixx), leaving it empty and worthless (insert Britney Spears joke here).

“Mainstream and Large Social Network”: Facebook
Have you heard of it? It goes without saying that 2007 was Facebook’s year. It owned the news and I’m really only listing it here to discuss its ridiculous scale (I’ll come back to this later). There are around 70M people on Facebook now… that’s just crazy.

“Places and Events”: Meetup
If you live in a city large enough to maintain an active Meetup directory then go check it out. This site does a fantastic job of branching the digital and physical worlds, without being creepy or awkward.

“Social Shopping“: Woot
You read that right, Social Shopping is a thing… Plus I think it’s great that the word of the year is also a cool website with amazing deals on random items. Seriously: random. The way it works is that they only sell one item at a time (at some crazy discount) and as soon as one item sells out, they list a new one. You should bookmark Woot and check back regularly

“Start Pages”: iGoogle
Now, I know this was a reader’s pick, but iGoogle just does a better job than Netvibes in my opinion. It’s a customizable widget station for your google search page… I’ve seen some pretty cool setups before- but I have: Weather, Email, Digg Updates, and my Google Reader feed. Everything I’d ever need in one place… just wonderful.

And on to other miscellaneous comments: I think the concept behind the Reader’s Choice winner for “Video Sharing” - Kaltura. During a discussion at lunch today I actually argued that YouTube has lost its focus, making it too hard to find relevant videos. I mean, sure it’s great once someone links to something, or you want to browse similar videos to something you’ve already found- but searching for keywords makes it almost impossible to find what you’re actually looking for. Ironic, seeing as how it’s owned by Google… What I’m saying here is that I think there’s a huge market for sites like Kaltura- which are YouTube, with a more finite purpose. I expect we’ll see a few more of these popping up in 2008.

Flickr won the best picture sharing for judge’s choice… How the heck did it not win reader’s choice? This makes no sense to me. It’s a community of hundreds of thousands of active bloggers and such… my only guess is that they did absolutely zero promotion, compared to vois, who likely promoted the hell out of this contest.

And Google Mobile won Reader’s Choice for Best Mobile Site… could someone explain this to me? I must not know what Google Mobile is.
Well that’s it for me today. I’m heading off to GA tomorrow morning so there’s a pretty good chance I won’t be posting until later next week, about which: I’m sorry. But hopefully you won’t be checking this over the next few days anyway… should you need me- text or email is the best bet.

So Happy Christmas to all the readers out there- hope everyone gets some good time off and enjoys a break.

Oh, and I’ve already decided to can the idea of the QOTP - if you want to post, you will. No need to force web 2.0iness.

Cheers!

Quick post- then I have to get to work.

Tech Crunch just leaked a few thousand Hulu Beta invites- and let me tell you: this is worth it. It takes three seconds to enter your email, then they send you a login and you’re all set.

Let’s consider this one a holiday gift from me to you… (or from Tech Crunch from me to you)

Click Here to Get Your Invite

**UPDATE** the Tech Crunch invites are running low. Try either the ReadWriteWeb or the Mashable invites

QOTP (Question of the Post):
What is important to you when watching video online? (Example: video quality, stream speed, no ads, etc.)
And don’t forget to read my post from last night- it was a good one.

First off- @J - great idea about the “Recent Comments”. I actually already set it up last week, but never activated it because it seemed to clutter my sidebar. But I finally fixed my sidebar code to keep all the fonts and bullets the same size (and now &. looking), so I thought it would be nice to through them in there. Looks good (Also, please notice the retooled comment bar between posts, which highlights the comments a little more too, encouraging you to add something), I think and it makes it seem like there’s a good community here.

Which brings me to my actual topic today: Building communication through blogs. Because as much as I like the idea of people just reading my ideas on things, I’m enjoying this blog because people are writing back. Jeff Jarvis from BuzzMachine (great blog!) recently had an amazing anecdote which explains his theory behind blogs

“When I was in London, I sat with folks from the BBC in an afternoon devoted to blogging, and the woman next to me was troubled, bearing weight on her shoulders from having to fill her blog and manage her blog. To her, the blog was a thing, a beast that needed to be fed, a never-ending sheet of blank paper. I turned to her and said she should see past the blog. It’s not a show with a rundown that, without feeding, turns into dead air. Indeed, if you look at it that way, you’ll probably write crappy blog posts. I’ve said before that if I think I need to write a post just because I haven’t written one, I inevitably come out with something forced and bad. Instead, I blog when I find something interesting that I’ve seen and I think, ‘I have to tell my friends about that.’ You’re the friends. So yes, I said, it’s just a conversation. And reading — hearing what others are saying — is every bit as important as writing. It was as if scales were lifted from her eyes and weight from her back: She’s just talking with people.”

I thought that was just awesome advice. I’ve always spoken out against “posting for the sake of posting”. If you are thinking about posting on your blog simply because you haven’t recently, then something has gone wrong. Furthermore, if you are sitting at your computer trying to think of something to write about then you’ve really gone down the wrong path. The way I see this blog is that throughout my day I’m learning some really cool things about social media, technology, gadgets (although that’s more on my own time…), and other general nerdery. I think these things are fun and I want to pass along what I’ve learned.

But the catch 22 in the BuzzMachine quote is that to really have an online conversation through your blog, you need a community. But the best way to build a community is through writing great posts on your blog… (this is, by the way, the problem I help solve for a living). The difficulty in starting a blog is there there is no real community behind it yet. Without a real community there will be no comments and a blog without comments is basically a newsletter.

So I definitely need to take this time to thank my valiant readers, but even more so- thanks to my commenters. You’ve brought up some good points and it’s made me want to keep writing. Like J said in a comment earlier “Wow. You are seriously pushing the boundaries of being a Web 1.99 site. If you start implementing user-suggested ideas . . . you may have to bump your version number.”

Well it’s time to start pushing the boundaries more. Which reminds me - Drew, expect an entire post dedicated to your Jason Kelly link and a post about the WinMo add-ons you finally set up- that’ll be fun too.

I’ll make this a little more web 1.999ish and address J’s other comments from today: I’ve already addressed the new “recent comments” section, but as for timestamps on posts- won’t happen. I worked way too hard to take them out of my template to put them back in. My original thought was that I don’t want people knowing that I post late at night, like a nerd or something, but I also just don’t like the way it looks (AND- you’re spot on: it takes away the pressure of posting more often…)

So keep those comments coming and if you’re just lurking- well that’s ok, but at least give me a shout out hello or something. To encourage more comments I’m going to try to remember to end each post with a question from now on- this way, if no one responds, then I’ll just have to ask more interesting questions, or write more interesting posts… starting off, I’ll try to keep the questions related to the day’s post.

Today’s question:

Are you now or have you ever been an active commenter (more than once or twice) on any other blogs? If so, which ones? If not, why? And why yes for this one? What about online forums?

PS- From now on I’ll also try to make the questions less Job-Interview sounding.

Ok, so yesterday I wrote about about the WGA strike and what sort of consequences will come from it. Then I linked to some fun video sites… well you know what- I know a lot about this space of the web and I think it’s my responsibility to pass along this knowledge.

File sharing is stupid these days. When working moms are being successfully sued for hundreds of thousands of dollars by the RIAA, it’s probably time to uninstall Kazaa… and yeah, there are workarounds for mp3s (google is a powerful tool) but for videos, outside of file sharing and torrents (which are being shutdown left and right) there are somewhat limited options. Most people only think of YouTube for online video, well I’m here to let you know there’s a bit more out there for everyone.

So let’s get on to it.

In response to yesterday: Andy Samberg and his comedy group “The Lonely Island” had their first big SNL video a couple years back, which was actually called “Lazy Sunday” - but thanks to NBC’s stranglehold over SNL content, good luck getting to it on their website (without 3+ minutes of ads). If only there were a place that hosted hilarious SNL videos like this… man, I love teh internets.

More viewing fun: in response to the strike the WGA has put together this site which hosts videos about what life would be like without writers (some are really funny). Oh, and if you actually want to watch them, go to YouTube’s Speechless Channel. Sorry Cambridge, MA based Brightcove, but your streaming really needs some work. (Thanks Selene!)

Along with the Hulu leak from yesterday, you should all also be aware of CBS’s innertube (which should only be used to watch How I Met Your Mother) click on “full epsidoes” on the top bar… then wait through annoying ads.

ABC has full shows online too, but use some proprietary player… which is just idiotic in this day and age. There’s not really anything to watch there anyway… but seriously, what is “Move Media Player”? And why does Fox video player also use it?! There’s a chance that Move Player might be more than I originally assumed, but still- if you’re a video hosting site these days and you aren’t using Flash or H.264 (apple’s MP4), then you’re going to be pretty harshly ridiculed.

And lastly, should you want to watch an irreverent 90 minutes of fart jokes and drunken bafoonary, then you’re in luck. Tomorrow kicks off the first ever “Direct to Download” feature length film: Jackass 2.5 (according to an exec: “There’s more vomiting, nudity, and defecation”). It’s pretty funny actually, but this is a historical moment and Jackass will always been known as an innovator in Internet Video. From the 19th through the 25th you can download watch the full movie available at http://blockbuster.jackassworld.com/

So that’s what I’ve got for you. Hopefully you’ll have some great time wasting with those. Anyone know of any good ones I missed, let me know in the comments below.

Oh- and speaking of comments- enjoy the new Comment Preview button - it uses Ajax and I’m pretty happy with it. I’ve also fixed the formatting (I think…). So please pass along more feedback on the site- as it’s a constant work in progress and I like the idea of new projects.

Ok, first off- To all my loyal readers (yes, all three of you) sorry for not posting since Friday. I’ll do my best not to let it happen again.

Secondly, today is officially the 10th anniversary of blogs. Happy birthday, Blogs.

Now, on to today’s post: let’s talk TV.

So what people have probably already realized about the writers’ strike is that it’s temporarily detrimental for everyone. No one is happy about this right now. In the long run, hopefully this will work out for the writers. Read the full synopsis here then wait a second, reflect back on what you just read, and where you read it…

Wikipedia, you are the answer to all my questions. Anyone find it ironic that you can read up on why writers aren’t writing through a UGC (user generated content) site? Well that irony is half of what I want to talk about today. The UGC phenomenon is still fresh, growing, and ragingly popular. Think YouTube- there are more than 65,000 videos uploaded everyday. Think about the internet celebrities: the “Leave Britney Alone” kid, the “Don’t Tase Me Bro” dude, or the Star Wars kid… the list goes on and on- and it’s all pretty funny. My favorite story is about Andy Samberg of SNL fame (Dick in a Box/Chronicles of Narnia Rap)- who was discovered for his online videos.

The argument here is that this is the first time in entertainment history that you can become famous, nearly overnight, with a little creativity (or annoyingness…) and a few clicks of the mouse. Andy Samberg and friends were able to write their own material and put it online and now the guy gets to make real movies (unfortunately they’re apparently horrid). For anyone who is trying to get into the business, there is no better time. The writers’ strike is going to revolutionize the way Hollywood works (what they spend money on, how media is distributed… and hey, rumor is that Jay Leno has been fired already, to cut production costs) and although it’s going to be tough out there until it does work out- it will be very cool to see how this works out.

Over the next few months we are going to start seeing some great UGC on YouTube and hopefully it’s going to be hilarious.

This reminds me that I should call Davey, my friend who just moved to LA to become a writer, to keep on his good side before he becomes famous…

The second thing that the WGA strike is going to do to the web is boost online ad sales. I recently read that NBC has started refunding its advertisers in the amount of $500k due to a “Low Ratings” clause in their ad contracts. With the writers’ strike, there are no new shows. With no new shows, no one is watching TV. With no one watching TV, ratings suffer… so what do advertisers do with this big refund check?

Online Ad Sales.

Compared to tv commercials, online ads cost peanuts. Half a million dollars for an online campaign gets you ridiculous bang for your buck. So what does this mean for us?

1) No more new TV for a while. Damnit.
2) More online ads swarming down sites more than ever. Damnit.

And you know what? I don’t really have a silver lining here. So I’ll leave you with two links to help enjoy online TV in the meantime.

NBC’s Hulu (beta exploit) - this is a collection of all NBC shows, free. It’s currently in private beta testing, but someone cracked it… PLUS- this is fully legal within the beta agreement- so you won’t get in trouble, just enjoy (Both of these sites take you to the same info- but I’ve posted both because I’m sure one will be shut down soon)

http://openhulu.com/
http://tvparadise.org/

Find Internet TV - a site that links to all the good streaming sites (some are pay, avoid any with a dollar sign on them).

http://www.findinternettv.com/
That’s all I’ve got today… I’m going to be pretty swamped with work this week- plus holiday parties after work. I’ll do my best to get at least a link or two up each day, but I’m not even going to pretend to talk about Facebook’s overvaluation…

Enjoy

Ok- the yesterday’s blizzard backed things up at work, which meant no breakfast or lunch time for me to write today… so briefly (during my afternoon “Mt. Dew” break), I thought I’d post some fun links to help you waste away Friday afternoon.
Things that Happened this Week

Friendster launched their own application platform for developers to create facebook-like widget-apps… all14 active Friendster members were overjoyed, no one else really noticed.
Meanwhile Facebook removed “is” from the status section of profile pages and 68,000,000 people wrote blogged about it.

The funniest spoof on Facebook’s advertising intrusiveness popped up: Facebook Business Solutions. Make sure to click through the pages- it’s hilarious and I should have dedicated an entire post to this site.

The top 10 Most Viewed Viral Videos of 2007 were announced. It should be known that #6 is my personal 2007 favorite by a long shot.

Also - Mashable has a great roundup of Social Media stories of the week. Man, this is a weird world…

In non-social media news

I got my xbox back from Microsoft’s hospital in TX; this was about twice as fast as the last time my xbox 360 died. Glad to see that two years and $1.15B has cut the repair time down to only a few weeks!

The new Microsoft backed, Mobile Browsing Experience, “Zumobi” finally entered its beta testing… I’ll have more on this next week.

The freakishly nerdy term “w00t” was named Word of the Year by Merriam-Webster. All 14 active Friendster members had a good “lol” over that one.

And lastly, Jason Chen of Gizmodo showed yet another example of his undying Apple fanboyishness, in his article on “What’s Wrong with Windows Mobile” - to be fair- it’s a great article. It’s pretty obviously written by an iPhone lover and not a WinMo enthusiast, but it’s well written, covers some key points and elaborates on arguments I’ve made before… I think it’s safe to say you’ll be reading more about this article at another time soon.
Ok- enjoy the weekend- I should have a fun post for everyone (that is, everyone who likes Windows Mobile posts (that means you, Drew)) soon. Get excited now, it’ll save you time this weekend.

Ok, thanks for sticking with me through an outdated post yesterday because, as you will soon see, it was necessary to set up today’s post. And today we’ve got a long one, be forewarned…

Well here we go. Today I want to counter yesterday’s argument, that Windows Mobile will suffer in the light of Google’s Android (open source development platform for cell phones), because a) the hardware manufacturers will focus more efforts on Android capable phones, ignoring Windows Mobile, and b) the development community will be further segmented.

So here’s the thing: I’m still genuinely worried about the latter issue because adding yet another mobile platform really will force developers to chose. In light of Android’s $10M contest for the best mobile app built by March ‘08, as well as the hype surrounding Android, I’d be surprised if developers didn’t begin working on applications for the new platform. But what I’ll outline towards the end of this post, is the longterm influence this will have on the mobile market, and how this could actually be highly beneficial down the road.

In my previous post I expressed a real concern about the former issue; that the hardware manufacturers will lose focus on Windows Mobile devices, as building phones that can run Android applications will be more appealing. Well since that was originally written, a few new stories have come up that have me thinking about all the cool gadgetry of the future.

Read Engadget’s Interview with HTC CEO, Peter Chou
Since Google announced Android (and I wrote that post, nearly a month ago), the hype has settled a little bit and we’ve had time to reflect on what the implications of the open source platform really are. HTC has been the leader (90% or so marketshare) of Windows Mobile, and I previously feared they would be dropping their focus. Ironically, this interview focuses primarily on HTC’s role with Android and the Open Handset Alliance, but it actually puts me at ease for the future of WinMo gadgetry…

And here’s why: HTC doesn’t see Android as a competitor of Windows Mobile.

This quote, from the interview, shows how HTC’s CEO sees the emergence of Android into a company that was previously narrowly focused.

Ryan Block: I find it interesting that you mention that this is more of a consumer focused product because I think the one thing that Windows Mobile has really done well, especially in partnership with HTC, is define these extremely enterprise-centric and very effective mobile business tools. Do you feel that Android is not really entering that space? And that they are going to limit to two different worlds — you’ve got the enterprise and then the consumer?

Peter Chou: Android is probably not entering into the enterprise. At least initially, I have to say. But do not assume Microsoft is only enterprise. Maybe in the past the devices were techy, bigger, and with an unattractive form factor, and of course we put a lot of effort to try and mature the experience. But this year you’re seeing us ship devices like the Touch, which is much more consumer oriented, with a fine-tuned, simplified experience. So we believe that Windows mobile is there for consumer opportunity, and will continue working on that. But even still, there are different kinds of consumers, so we believe that Windows Mobile will continue to have opportunities.

Time for a major digression- the different types of cell phones. Most people (and cell providers, for some reason) mistakenly look at the cell phone world as a dichotomy: Cell Phones and Smartphones. Well I’ve always argued that there are three categories (seen below) but now, there’s an emerging fourth.

Cell Phone: Makes calls, probably has an internal calendar (which you haven’t used), minimal web browsing capability through WAP, probably has a junky camera. “Multimedia Phones” also fall under this category- phones that play music, videos, and store pictures, but still just have the standard phone function.
SmartPhone: A phone with PDA features. Integrates your email, calendar, office details, usually synchronized on a schedule or through “Push” capabilities. The best example here is a Blackberry.
PDA Phone: Smartphone features, added touch screen, and full desktop integration. Does everything a laptop can do, just smaller (and likely slower). Basically a Personal Digital Assistant, with a phone built in.

Until this summer, that was all I needed to categorize phones… but with the release of the iPhone (heard of it?), a new category emerged. Advanced SmartPhones: This category falls between SmartPhones and PDA phones, as they have more features than a smartphone (and often touch screen ability), but not full PDA features, such as Outlook or Exchange support. They likely get email through POP3 (gmail, hotmail, etc) but not your work email. Under this header, fall the iPhone, Nokia’s N95, and even LG’s Voyager

So where’s this all going?

Let’s step back to Peter Chou’s quote: “Android is probably not entering into the enterprise… there are different kinds of consumers, so we believe that Windows Mobile will continue to have opportunities.” This is what I seemed to have missed before- Android is in competition with the iPhone, not the Kaiser!

As the new category of Advanced Smartphones develops, Android will be pushing the envelope for Apple to start building a cooler 2nd Gen iPhone (likely released in June 2008, for anyone holding out on a new toy). What this means for Windows Mobile is that they will have a full realm of possibilities for the enterprise user, but they’ll still take cues from what Advanced Smartphones do. The same way that HTC built the Windows Mobile Touch in response to the iPhone, or the or the S730 to counter the Voyager, HTC will continue to create cutting edge hardware that takes the Advanced Smartphone features a few steps further. Windows Mobile will remain the leader in enterprise class phones and simply gain the cool gadgetry form of the competition. And hopefully this will mean a release of the long anticipated Omni

To round out this already-to-long post: What this means for software.
For the short term- bad news bears. The development community will undoubtedly be swept up with Android and you know what- it’ll be fun to watch what they build. But here are three arguments as to why I’m not worried for the long term (and please note, this took me a month to come up with…)

1. There will always been an overwhelming need for enterprise application development- Businesses will have to pay for it, but there will be developers out there making awesome products once the hype of Android settles a bit
2. Real developers want more out of their devices. A hardcore coder probably has a few Windows Mobile devices around because they can do so much. Android has limited capabilities and this will drive some developers back to WinMo, to build bigger, more powerful applications.
3. Android is open source and if someone builds something cool enough for Android, it will only be a matter of time before it’s ported (or rebuilt) for Windows Mobile.

So maybe it won’t be soon- but in the long run, WinMo will only benefit from the new platform war. And hey, I haven’t even mentioned the 700MHZ auction yet… (that’ll be a big post, likely before Christmas… but I’ll need some time to work on it).

Needless to say: these are great times for the mobile industry- starting in 2008 we are going to see some sweeping changes to the way we use phones, the way phones look, and the overall functionality of phones. So get ready- it’s going to be a fun ride.

PREFACE: This post was written a month ago for a different blog I’m working on, but was never published. I’m posting it today because I want to do a follow up on it tomorrow. So jump back in time a few weeks like you don’t know where this is going… and enjoy!

****

After countless rumors and speculation, Google finally held their press conference to announce its future in the Mobile Phone Industry. And no, this was not an announcement of the fabled gPhone, but instead of the new mobile development platform: Android.

Fundamentally, Android as an open source development platform for mobile phones, which allows developers a simpler way to create software that can be easily ported from one phone to another. Giving developers an opportunity to build applications that can be downloaded easily and used by millions is a big draw for the talented pool, similar to Google’s Open Social initiative. This is a huge step towards a future of feature packed cell-phones that do far more than the devices of today, but unfortunately, it’s also a blow to the Windows Mobile community.

As smart-phones have been increasing in sales, variety, and popularity over the past year, the application platforms have already been fairly segmented: Windows Mobile and Palm have been fighting for developers to build applications for years, Symbian OS has always been around and somewhat viable, and Blackberry has recently emerged as a worthy competitor.

The problem with having so many platforms is that developers must choose one to create for. Similar to the Windows/Mac battle of the last few decades, there’s no simple way to create one program and have it work on multiple phones. The concept behind Android is that the development will be open source, allowing anyone to work on the platform, for any device that runs it, weeding down the development community even more.

The biggest blow to the Windows Mobile community came when HTC, makers of almost every great WinMo gadget out there, announced they would sign on to be part of Google’s OHA (Open Handset Alliance). This means that Android is guaranteed to have impressive hardware to back it up, so even more users will be jumping ship for the newer, cooler phones.

In a recent interview with the BoyGeniusReport, US VP of HTC, Jason Mackenzie, said that “Windows Mobile will always be a big part of HTC. We have a significant share of 75% worldwide and expect that to grow. Android will be complimentary to Windows Mobile and we’ll focus on a new market share with the Android platform.” Although it’s somewhat reassuring to hear they are remaining the leaders in Windows Mobile phones, there’s no denying that their work on Android will detract from their WM phone efforts.

Microsoft could be short sited enough to think that their OS comes with everything a user might need pre-bundled and that they don’t need the underground development community (seeing as how they still haven’t built a way to actually close programs, leave that up to countless independent developers). They may not see this assault coming over the horizon at all.

But that’s exactly what this will be to the Windows Mobile community: an assault. When the iPhone came around, there were numerous Windows Mobile refugees who jumped ship for a new device. Android will provide the next wave of hits to Windows Mobile users.

The only shred of positive potential is that (and I can only assume) Microsoft knows exactly what they’re doing and can counter Android with a whole new realm of appealing applications to compete. A little friendly competition could push MS into building a stronger, cooler WM7, or even open up their devices to more developers.

After all, when the iPhone was announced in January of this year, it gave MS developers six months to come up with a rival… less than two months later came the announcement of Touch FLO and the Touch Cube for WM6. Now it’s Android’s turn to scare developers into making something even cooler to put Windows Mobile back in the news.

I’m posting twice in a day to provide further justification as to why Boston needs a better tech blogging community…

Valleywag, the self proclaimed “Center of the IT World and the Website that Thinks it’s Better than You” (ok, I made that up), takes a nice and unnecessary stab at Boston with their announcement of Google’s Street View updates.

“Google Street View Rolls Out in Boston and Other Places that Don’t Matter”

Thanks, Valleywag. Well, at least you’ve taken a break from your US Magazine-like reporting of the Larry Page’s Wedding… stalkers…

Boston is in dire need of a stronger blogging community. I understand the vastness of Silicon Valley, but as Boston/Cambridge is on the rise, we need writers supporting the growth.

And seriously, no one out there has found anything funny caught by the google cars in Boston?