B2B/B2C online strategy and enterprise eBusiness blog

I was happy to read that Talend secured $12 Million in funding. We’ve long been a proponent of Talend, beginning in early 2008 completely gutting home-grown ETL and Middleware applications and processes by leveraging the open source tool. With quotes on ETL software from the big boys coming in north of $200K, the open source investment (we essentially pay for a “pro” version of the server along with enterprise support — substantially less than $200K).

There is a place for open source in the enterprise. As development shops seek to be more agile, budget-conscious, and innovative this year, the ability to move quickly and without the sometimes bureaucratic-funding-approval-process is important. “Do more with less” remains an important mantra in ‘09 in IT just as it did in ‘08.

As a user/subscriber of Plaxo services, one thing missing from their arsenal is 2-way syncing with Google (as of this writing, Plaxo only supports a 1-way download from Gmail — it won’t update Gmail contacts with my information on Plaxo). Today in my inbox I had an email from the Google App team announcing Google Sync for Blackberry:

As someone with a MacBook Pro (for business) running OS X and VMWare Fusion for Windows XP & Windows 2000, an iMac (for home), Blackberry (Business & Gmail access), and random access to the Internet anywhere else I go, it only takes one instance where you’re on a device without your latest and greatest contact information. My Gmail contact list was the last missing link in the plethora of address books spread across all of these devices.

Today we launched an updated look and feel to SuperMotors.net (a site which I’m one of three owners of and work on in my spare time as a hobby):

New ad size: 300×250

In addition to new features and functionality added to the site, we’ve also incorporated 300×250 banner ads. Since I run this site as a hobby-based business, it’s important that we generate revenue from as many different sources as possible in order to pay for operational costs.

How will the economy impact banner ad revenue?

With the economy going the way it is, we’ve seen a text link-based company (ZTMC Marketing) pull ads from our site due to client cut backs. Fortunately, we are diverse in our implementation of ad networks. We run ads from Tribal Fusion, ADSDAQ, Casale Media, Google AdSense, ShoppingAds, and Text-Link-Ads.

This is part of the reason we’ve expanded to offering the 300×250 banner ad size (in addition to 728×90 and 160×600). We now have additional inventory heading into the first of the year when our traffic typically peaks (due to enthusiasts staying indoors during the winter months).