Web Analytics: A paper.li paper.

Following Google Analytics, Unbounce, Kissmetrics and more... http://paper.li/adityr/1346921358 

Kicksend pivots, sort of.

Before, Kicksend used to be like every other file transfer web application out there. "Share files easily with friends", they said.

<hypothesis>

That's not enough. How are they different? What makes them unique? Is file sharing really that big a problem??

They look at their logs and realize, "duh! everyone is using this service to send personal videos and pictures to friends". It's kind of an Instagram moment. Not many people sending across pdfs and docs.

Scratch file sharing. Let's be all about sharing pics and videos with friends since that's what they're sharing anyway. We also neatly skip the whole "sharing of pirated material problem" that generic filesharing services might face.

Added bonus, personal pics and videos are so important that people may be willing to pay to back them up in addition to transferring them.

</hypothesis>

Kicksend now is all about friends & family sharing pics. Tagline: "Send private batches of photos & videos to people you love". Awww.

Design Detail: Sanebox Pricing compares plans to real life expenses

Oh, and I just signed up http://www.sanebox.com/

Amazon launches AWS Marketplace: Think Google Apps for AWS...

AWS Marketplace Home (looks like a Google Apps + Amazon Mashup!)

 A Sample listing (MongoDB)

Attend a webinar on the new Marketplace here: https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/389831962

Too Many File Sharing Web Applications?

I couldn't quite figure it out till now. I'd see an announcement and I'd have a sense of deja vu like I've read this announcement before. I've seen this splash page some place else.

Now I get it. It's the attack of the online file sharing services. You might have seen these before: sometimes it's just a single page that says "Drag and Drop Files Here".

 It's simple, it's elegant, it works. But, I'm wondering: what opportunity are these apps chasing? Sharing large files is a pain point, Yes. Is there a lot of money here? Can you charge people for it? What's the game plan here? Is the intent to scratch a simple itch or build the first cog in the wheel that will change the world?

OpenCNAM Caller ID API: Born from Pain. Easy to Use.

The best products always come from solving pain and OpenCNAM is no exception. In the founder's post announcing the OpenCNAM project, the pain is very clearly stated.

"Since I started hacking telephony code (almost 4 years ago), one thing that has always bothered me is how hard it is to find (and use) telephony data. As anyone in the telephony industry will tell you: the industry is huge, old, and fragmented."

 The solution is stated clearly as well:

OpenCNAM is an API company designed from the ground-up to be as simple as possible. The main idea is to make getting caller ID information easy--really easy.

How easy?

If you're a programmer looking to use caller ID information in your software, and you can't get something working within 5 minutes of visiting our website, we've failed our mission.

There you have it: A clear pain point. A clear solution. A clear vision on how it should be. Did it work? Yes!

Now you'll know when the President calls you back... https://api.opencnam.com/v1/phone/2024561414?format=text !

Startup of Interest: Clipboard

Clipboard is a web clipping storage site much like Evernote.

I had heard good things about Clipboard and wanted to try it out. I have to say I was not disappointed. The UX of Clipboard is just so smooth. Very impressive.

First, you add the Chrome Bookmarklet which, upon clicking, shows up as a hovering widget like this:

You can expand that widget to get more functions but the most-used one (clipping) is right out in front:

Clipping cannot be easier. Click the Clip button, choose a rectangle of content (you can also choose a whole page). I suspect that it uses <div> hierarchies of the page to create the rectangles.

Clicking captures the content and allows you to annotate with notes and tags.

 That's it. The giant wasp has been saved for posterity on my clipboard.

Didn't I tell you it was smooth?

Startup of Interest: GrabInbox

With Ping.fm transitioning to a paid version courtesy of Seesmic, I was on the lookout for another service providing functionality similar to it. Then, at some point, I signed up for Buffer (though I haven't used it too much yet) to schedule my social submissions. Looks like now I found an app that does both: GrabInbox.

It has the big guys set up to go (Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter). I'm just testing it out with Twitter for now.

 Based on my timezone (India), it figures out the best time to tweet. Why is it that websites and apps think GMT+5:30 is Kolkota? We *have* other cities.

Here's my Twitter account as seen in GrabInbox:

Other Goodies:

• Baked-in Analytics
• Bookmarkets & Chrome Plugin