links for 2007-10-16
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I went there once and wasn’t too impressed with what they had. I was expecting more cool random stuff.
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Not surprisingly, billionaire’s don’t use Redfin.
New Virtual Earth released
Yesterday Microsoft released some new mapping stuff, Microsoft Releases New Search Services for Internet and Mobile Customers.
Immediately, Redfin customers will notice improvements on maps.live.com when they click through a Redfin listing details page for directions to a listing.
Though what we’re most excited about that is that the Virtual Earth team is now supporting Safari as we had to discontinue Safari support when we switched from our Flash map to Virtual Earth last January (Safari was about 5% of our traffic):
Updates in version 6.0 of Virtual Earth include multipoint trip routing; enhanced geocoding that combines results for multiple geocoders; rooftop geocoding, which provides more precise geocoding results; map control support for Safari 2.0; and the release of MapCruncher beta, making it easier to publish maps overlaid in an application using the Virtual Earth map control.
We hope to release a new version of our site later this year to pick up this change.
Heineken’s new keg
I don’t know why I subscribe to Forbes, the articles generally aren’t that good, but I found this article about Heineken’s new keg interesting both from a business perspective and as a Heineken drinker, The Keg That Scored:
The retail kegs represent perhaps $300 million in revenue after the impact of lost sales from bottles and cans, but they offer more than that. They are still scarce enough that grocers can pocket 35% to 40% gross margins on them–17 to 20 percentage points better than what they typically get on a six-pack. That buys Heineken the bargaining power it needs in the U.S. to get coveted end-of-the-aisle floor space–and a novel means to promote its new beer, Premium Light, which boosted sales 12% last year but has recently missed growth targets.
Heineken spent an estimated $15 million on a keg production line at its giant brewery in Zoeterwoude, South Holland. At full speed the new line can churn out 120,000 kegs per day, holding 6% of Heineken’s 19-million-barrel annual production worldwide. The minikeg is something Heineken’s big American rivals cannot easily copy. Each drum holds 5 liters, or 14 bottles. Bottles of Budweiser or Miller retail for $5 a six-pack, too low a price to support the cost of a disposable keg.
Comments(1)Lunch 2.0 at Widemile and Portent
Today we went to Lunch 2.0 hosted by Widemile and Portent. Having already heard the founder of AdReady talk I didn’t get that much out of the talks since they discussed the same concepts (use testing, analytics and data to drive marketing and landing page content.) The talk would have been more relevant to me had they had tips on how what they’re talking about could be relevant to early stage startups. Sure, if I’ve raised a round I’ll likely engage any of those companies to optimize my Google Adsense spend but what if I’m on a show string budget?
Update: While walking back to the office we discussed what a self service version of AdReady or Widemile would look like, and lo and behold AdReady today launched just that, AdReady targets small advertisers:
AdReady, the Seattle online advertising startup backed by Madrona Venture Group, is rolling out a new service today called Performance Ad Library that allows advertisers of all sizes to choose prefabricated online ads and have them run on Google, Yahoo’s Right Media and AOL’s Advertising.com.
Bug bashes goodness from Archie McPhee
I was at Archie McPhee the other day picking up more prizes (I recommend the Parasite Pals) for Redfin bug bashes (a bug bash is when more than just the Redfin development team tries out a test version of the website in order to find problems with it) when I found this great bug bash trophy at their other store next door; Cynthia is our first winner:
Morale event at the Ferrari dealership
I live beside a Ferrari and Maserati dealership; this is the view out my window:
So when Jeff mentioned that he had a voucher for free Omaha steaks if he test drove a Maserati we decided to have a small morale event. This week the two of us took an hour off work and took one of their new Quattroporte Automatic’s for a ride (this dealer gets 35 a year.) It was very Entourage with Jeff driving and me riding shotgun. Sadly the pre-defined route was through a school zone so I don’t think we ever got above second. However we did find out some trivia:
- The waiting list for a Ferrari here is 3-4 years
- You can’t test drive any of their Ferrari’s. But you can trade it in if you don’t like it
- There is an underground storage facility but it is very top secret. Apparently it houses A LOT of Ferraris for rich people whose garages are full
- Ferrari’s don’t really depreciate
- But you can get into an older one for $90k
- Jeff says all their prices are inflated but that makes sense in case they get a lotto winner walking in
- They’re considering opening a Bellevue location
- Most of their inventory is on Craigslist
How much longer until that IPO? Apparently with a 3-4 year waiting list we should reserve ours now. Turns out you don’t need to pay a deposit until four months before it ships.
The funny thing is that we took the bus back to the office. Ah, to dream.
links for 2007-10-11
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We need something better than a plain old polycom. I wonder when this is being released?