Meehive, a personalized online newspaper, just launched this week. Stories are shown based on your chosen categories, such as business or sports, and your nano interests, like dancing, skydiving, or baking. Meehive then culls information from millions of sources and serves up stories to you.
This isn't your father's newspaper. In fact no two papers are alike.
Other personalized news sites exist, like Google News, Google Reader, and Socialmedian. But Meehive has added benefits, like knowing what your friends are reading, or at some point, getting story recommendations based on your Twitter activity. Now the only downside is that people are lazy so who's going to have the time to fill out preferences? And, what about the serendipitous nature of today's newspapers? You know, discovering new stories or reading about things you sort of want to know about?
We know there's many who secretly want to know about Freddy Prince, even though they don't think they do.
See: Personalized news site Meehive launches
This week, Disney launched D23, a new community site for fans. So, what do fans get? Drum roll, please.
Members get a quarterly magazine, filled with historical Disney photos, tickets to one big fan-fest. And, a certificate featuring Disney characters, that Disney says is worth "framing." Worth framing? That's supposed to be compelling?
Fans can also stay connected through D23's Web site! OK. Not so novel. Facebook's already got a lock on Disney fans. You think D23 will be a hit with Mickey Mouse fans? Could be. But a glossy magazine and certificates aren't going to cut it.
See: Disney launches community site, D23
Google wants to keep its employees more than its shareholders happy. The search engine repriced its stock options! Those who've started working for Google in the past few years, have been sitting on a pile of seemingly worthless stock options, unless of course Google's share miraculously rally sharply. About 75% of Google employees agreed to the repricing at $308 a share, in return for delaying their vesting schedule. Was it worth it? For employees yes, for shareholders? Only if valuable employees stay on. The repricing is going to cost Google $400 million in charges over the next five years.
See: Google keeps itself attractive to employees
This program is easily the most efficient vehicle for real news out there Meliza. Well done.
However, the real "cost" to Google stockholders is not the “charge/expense” amount being thrown around by analysts (even the best of them...see Henry Blodget’s comments).
The accounting rules on this are completely and utterly out to lunch. As a result, the earnings impact is not at all aligned with the cash flow impact. Cash flow is much more important and what investors should be more concerned with.
I think this was a brilliant and honest move on Google’s part. I was disappointed when I saw the news (on Vator) regarding the holiday Android phones they gave to employees. But it's now my guess that this de facto option re-pricing was in the works back then. (Notice the timing – after year end)
There's no more valuable resource for an innovative company than the employees that drive customer relationships. Google has wisely chosen to focus on that (cash and employees) rather than a contrived ledger entry (the FAS123R expense) that even the savviest options expert can't easily explain in a single sentence.